7 Then Pharaoh's servants said to him, ‘How long shall this man be a snare to us? Let the men go, that they may serve the LORD their God. Do you not yet know that Egypt is destroyed?’

8 So Moses and Aaron were brought again to Pharaoh, and he said to them, ‘Go, serve the LORD your God. Who are the ones that are going?’

9 And Moses said, ‘We will go with our young and our old; with our sons and our daughters, with our flocks and our herds we will go, for we must hold a feast to the LORD.’

10 Then he said to them, ‘The LORD had better be with you when I let you and your little ones go! Beware, for evil is ahead of you. 11 Not so! Go now, you who are men, and serve the LORD, for that is what you desired.’ And they were driven out from Pharaoh's presence.

12 Then the LORD said to Moses, ‘Stretch out your hand over the land of Egypt for the locusts, that they may come upon the land of Egypt, and eat every herb of the land — all that the hail has left.’ 13 So Moses stretched out his rod over the land of Egypt, and the LORD brought an east wind on the land all that day and all that night. When it was morning, the east wind brought the locusts. 14 And the locusts went up over all the land of Egypt and rested on all the territory of Egypt. They were very severe; previously there had been no such locusts as they, nor shall there be such after them. 15 For they covered the face of the whole earth, so that the land was darkened; and they ate every herb of the land and all the fruit of the trees which the hail had left. So there remained nothing green on the trees or on the plants of the field throughout all the land of Egypt.

16 Then Pharaoh called for Moses and Aaron in haste, and said, ‘I have sinned against the LORD your God and against you. 17 Now therefore, please forgive my sin only this once, and entreat the LORD your God, that He may take away from me this death only.’ 18 So he went out from Pharaoh and entreated the LORD. 19 And the LORD turned a very strong west wind, which took the locusts away and blew them into the Red Sea. There remained not one locust in all the territory of Egypt. 20 But the LORD hardened Pharaoh's heart, and he did not let the children of Israel go.”].

Why locusts? Locusts were a particular scourge in that part of the world in that day, and, in fact, remain such in that part of the world. Locusts invaded agricultural areas and consumed all of the vegetation. They bred in the desert, but traveled in hoards and looked like clouds on the horizon and consumed every bit of vegetation in their paths. For the mind of a person in the 1^st Century, this would have been an absolutely horrible thing to witness, to experience, to be a part of.

These locusts that are in John’s vision are unusual, for they do not hurt any grass or any green growth on any tree. They have a particular function, and that is, they only hurt men. In fact, the only men that they may hurt are those who are missing something. What are they missing? They are missing the seal of God upon their foreheads. [“They were commanded not to harm the grass of the earth, or any green thing, or any tree, but only those men who do not have the seal of God on their foreheads,” verse 4.]

You remember back in chapter 7, verses 4 through 8, we saw that the angel of God was detailed to seal God’s people [Revelation 7:4: “And I heard the number of those who were sealed. One hundred and forty-four thousand of all the tribes of the children of Israel were sealed….” And then 12,000 of each of the 12 tribes listed were sealed, 144,000.]. And so we see here a connection—a connection between the sealing that was done in chapter 7; and now those who had been sealed, those people of God, the symbolic number, 144,000, are not able to be harmed, not able to be tortured and hurt by this plague of locusts.

The power of the locusts to torment is found in their tails [Revelation 7:5b, 10a: “Their torment was like the torment of a scorpion when it strikes a man…They had tails like scorpions, and there were stings in their tails.”].

We know that although the sting of a scorpion is very painful, but, generally speaking, it is not fatal, unless someone has an allergic reaction to the venom. These demonic locusts graphically picture the torment to the human spirit and to the human person and personality that evil brings.

The smoke that rises to darken the sky brings with it the torments that make men cry out to die and to desire death, yet, find no death [“And they were not given authority to kill them, but to torment them for five months. Their torment was like the torment of a scorpion when it strikes a man. 6 In those days men will seek death and will not find it; they will desire to die, and death will flee from them,” verses 5-6]. This, in a graphic and very picturesque way, expresses the slavery that sin exerts over men. Repeatedly, men have followed their lusts, their greed, their desire for glory—they have abandoned God and His Way. As they do that, as they abandon God and His Way, they experience the same torments, like the torment of a scorpion.