Locusts and Honey - Sweet truth is unpopular

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Sweet unchanging honey tells of the sacrifice of Jesus

John the Baptist introduced Jesus Christ.

He grew up in the wilderness and the Bible says he lived on locusts and wild honey:

Matthew 3:4  And the same John had his raiment of camel's hair, and a leathern girdle about his loins; and his meat was locusts and wild honey.

Locusts spread in swarms or gangs and devour all in their path. This represents demonology.

John ripped up locusts when eating them.

This represented John’s ministry, which was to condemn the religious leaders who opposed Jesus, the Word of God.

At the First Coming of Jesus, the demonology was in the religious leaders.

What does this tell us about the Second Coming of Jesus?

Demonology will always oppose Scripture.

The Priests, Scribes, Pharisees, and Sadducees made big money out of religion and got all the groups of people together into a big gang and taught them to condemn Christ, the Word.

John ripped them apart, calling them vipers. Snakes have poison under their tongues. The religious leaders spread lies, not God’s Word. These opinions and traditions of men that flow so plausibly off the preachers’ tongues are spiritual poison.

The three times that Jesus got very angry were with the money changers at the Temple.  They had turned religion into Big Business. The high priest lived in a palace. Today the pastors live in the best houses.

John’s simple clothes and diet contradicted their religious prosperity as they supposed that gain was godliness (1 Timothy 6:5). Times have not changed. It is the same today as we await the Second Coming of Christ.

Megachurches are the benchmark of supposed "success" where the written Word is sufficiently diluted and changed until it offends nobody.

John also introduced Jesus, whose sacrifice was a sweet-smelling savour or perfume that bought our salvation.

This is represented by the honey which symbolizes something sweet and unchanging.

It is the only food that never rots.

There is only one way to get saved. Repentance at the foot of the cross.

Getting saved does not take us to the Wedding Supper

But we must remember that we have to be saved from three things: hell, the condemnation of our conscience, and from the 3.5 years of great Tribulation.

We get saved from hell by repenting and accepting Jesus as our personal Saviour.

We have a clear conscience when we then get baptized properly in the Name of the Lord Jesus Christ. That means that we have not started our Christian walk on the wrong path. We have not been fooled soon after getting saved. As a member of His Bride we have taken on the name of our Husband.

Then we need to uncover the truth of God’s Word in order to know what the mistakes of today are (the creeds of denominational "Churchianity") and also to find out what God’s final plan is so that we can prepare to meet Him at His Second Coming.

One of the biggest deceptions of today is to believe that because we are saved from hell, thus we are automatically going to be caught up to meet the Lord.

We must worship God in Spirit and in truth. So we are required to know the truth. Ignorance of the Bible is not the way to prepare for the Second Coming.

We need to know the truth in order to avoid being caught up in the mass spirit of "Churchianity" which has evolved the thirty thousand different denominational groups (remember locusts swarm around in their bands) that are sweeping saved people towards the Tribulation.

Why would the Bible be so specific on John’s diet? Of all the things that one can eat in the wilderness why are only these two mentioned? The Bible is giving this last church age a subtle clue of what to expect before Jesus Christ comes to fetch his bride, and only those who are willing to dig deeper into the truth will discover it.

John was a man of the wilderness; he appeared on the scene with a message of repentance to prepare for the coming Messiah. This required him to do a lot of rebuking of false teachings, which was not popular with the religious leaders.

Matthew 3:1  In those days came John the Baptist, preaching in the wilderness of Judaea,

:2  And saying, Repent ye: for the kingdom of heaven is at hand.

:3  For this is he that was spoken of by the prophet Esaias, saying, The voice of one crying in the wilderness, Prepare ye the way of the Lord, make his paths straight.

John's message was clear and there was a clear purpose.  He was uncompromising when it came to the Bible teachings and this brought him into contention with the Priests, Scribes, Pharisees, and Sadducees who were the religious leaders.

Matthew 3:7  But when he saw many of the Pharisees and Sadducees come to his baptism, he said unto them,

O generation of vipers,

who hath warned you to flee from the wrath to come?

:8  Bring forth therefore fruits meet (suitable) for repentance:

So what can we learn from this and how does this tie in with John’s diet?

Honey speaks of a reward

Let us look at “honey” in the Bible.

HONEY:

The first part of John’s diet is honey, but not any honey, it makes sure to mention wild honey.

This means honey that is untouched by any man-made process. No human opinions. No man-made traditions.

Honey is mentioned throughout the Bible and we can find out what its meaning is as we follow it through the Scriptures.

In Exodus, honey is a reward in the Promised Land:

Exodus 3:17  And I have said, I will bring you up out of the affliction of Egypt unto the land of the Canaanites, and the Hittites, and the Amorites, and the Perizzites, and the Hivites, and the Jebusites, unto a land flowing with milk and honey.

Honey speaks of enlightenment or revelation

In the book of Samuel honey speaks of enlightenment or revelation:

1Samuel 14:25  And all they of the land came to a wood; and there was

honey upon the ground.

:26  And when the people were come into the wood, behold, the honey dropped; but no man put his hand to his mouth: for the people feared the oath.

:27  But Jonathan heard not when his father charged the people with the oath: wherefore he put forth the end of the rod that was in his hand, and dipped it in an honeycomb, and put his hand to his mouth;

and his eyes were enlightened.

Because Jonathan was enlightened by the honey he was able to know how to defeat the Philistines and bring salvation to Israel. Note how honey is linked to the salvation of both Israel and Jonathan.  Jonathan had to go against what everyone else believed. This saved his own life in the end, and that of Israel, since Saul wanted to kill him for disobeying a false revelation.

Are you prepared to stand up against your church or denomination?

1Samuel 14:44  And Saul answered, God do so and more also: for thou shalt surely die, Jonathan.

:45  And the people said unto Saul, Shall Jonathan die, who hath wrought this great salvation in Israel? God forbid: as the LORD liveth, there shall not one hair of his head fall to the ground; for he hath wrought with God this day. So the people rescued Jonathan, that he died not.

Saul represents the oppressive religious system or denominations of our time keeping the enlightenment and revelation of the truth from the people and preventing a greater victory over evil.

Error will rob us of our ultimate reward which is being prepared for the Second Coming of Jesus Christ.

Honey is the sweet understanding of Scripture

Again in Psalms, honey is identified with a reward for understanding the Word of God which is more precious than gold.

Psalm 19:9  The fear of the LORD is clean, enduring for ever: the judgments of the LORD are true and righteous altogether.

:10  More to be desired are they than gold, yea, than much fine gold: sweeter also than honey

and the honeycomb.

:11  Moreover by them is thy servant warned: and in keeping of them there is great reward.

Further on in Psalms, it says that honey is the food of reward after God’s people listen to His Word and obey rather than following the counsels of man. It is the food that satisfies God’s people of their hunger.

Psalm 81:10  I am the LORD thy God, which brought thee out of the land of Egypt:

open thy mouth wide, and I will fill it.

:11  But my people would not hearken to my voice; and Israel would none of me.

:12  So I gave them up unto their own hearts' lust: and they walked in their own counsels.

:13  Oh that my people had hearkened unto me, and Israel had walked in my ways!

:14  I should soon have subdued their enemies, and turned my hand against their adversaries.

:15  The haters of the LORD should have submitted themselves unto him: but their time should have endured for ever.

:16  He should have fed them also with the finest of the wheat:

and with honey out of the rock should I have satisfied thee.

In the New Testament God promised to satisfy our hunger.

Luke 6:21  Blessed are ye that hunger now: for ye shall be filled. Blessed are ye that weep now: for ye shall laugh.

When we hunger for the truth and we seek for it in God's word,  He promises to reward us with the revelation, wisdom and understanding of His Word. This gives us strength and power to overcome the enemy.

Pro 24:13  My son, eat thou honey, because it is good; and the honeycomb, which is sweet to thy taste:

:14  So shall the knowledge of wisdom be unto thy soul: when thou hast found it, then there shall be a reward, and thy expectation shall not be cut off.

Again in Isaiah the result from eating honey indicates the wisdom to choose the right way.

Isa 7:15  Butter and honey shall he eat, that he may know to refuse the evil, and choose the good.

It is important to understand the symbol of honey so we can, later on, identify it correctly when we come to the prophetic book of Revelation where honey is mentioned.

The truth is bitter in the belly but sweet in the mouth

The Lord expects us to know the Bible and the meaning of its symbols in order to correctly interpret His prophesies:

Revelation 10:9  And I went unto the angel, and said unto him, Give me the little book. And he said unto me, Take it, and eat it up; and it shall make thy belly bitter, but it shall be in thy mouth sweet as honey.

:10  And I took the little book out of the angel's hand, and ate it up; and it was in my mouth sweet as honey: and as soon as I had eaten it, my belly was bitter.

Based on what we have learned we now know that the little book that John ate must be the Word of God (The Bible) because only from that will we get the sweet understanding and revelation of who Jesus Christ is, and how He will defeat Satan and all his evil forces. The reward is eternal life as well as escaping from great Tribulation, but it comes at a bitter price of being unpopular with the majority - even with the so-called religious community. Whatever bitter experiences we may have to go through for the sake of Truth, yet God will deliver us somehow and the testimony of how He delivered us will be sweet words in our mouths. We need to digest these bitter experiences and learn from them as character is only shaped by being hammered on the anvil of defeat and difficulty. We have to be surrounded by darkness before we can see the stars.

As John the Baptist introduced Jesus with an Elijah-ministry, the Bible again prophesies that there will be an Elijah-like ministry before the catching away of the church.

Mat 17:10  And his disciples asked him, saying, Why then say the scribes that Elias must first come?

:11  And Jesus answered and said unto them, Elias truly shall first come, and restore all things.

:12  But I say unto you, That Elias is come already, and they knew him not, but have done unto him whatsoever they listed. Likewise shall also the Son of man suffer of them.

:13  Then the disciples understood that he spake unto them of John the Baptist.

Jesus says that Elijah must first come (before His Second Coming for the catching way) but he had already come in the form of John the Baptist. We can therefore expect a similar message at the end time. A ministry that will bring understanding and enlightenment of God's Word, but also a message that is not popular with the religious systems of the day.

Please notice. The disciples had completely missed the significance of the ministry of John the Baptist. They had been so wrapped up in the self-will of their daily lives and religious routines that they were unable to grasp a most significant move in God’s Big Picture. They regarded themselves as good religious Jews but had no clue as to what God had done in their day. Today Christians have the same problem. We regard ourselves as good Christians because of our church-going activities and yet have no clue as to what God is doing in terms of His Big Picture.

Perfect eyesight can be called 2020.

So, in 2020 God closed down all our churches with the COVID-19 coronavirus pandemic. That was to show us what God thinks of our churches. Only fit to be closed down.

Matthew Chapter 25 has a parable of the saved churchgoers represented by wise and foolish virgins, clean women.

The significant point is that they are all fast asleep. Totally unaware of what God is doing today.
MATTHEW 25:5   While the bridegroom tarried, they all slumbered and slept.

MATTHEW 25:6   And at midnight there was a cry made, Behold, the bridegroom cometh; go ye out to meet him.

When some major disaster wakes them up, they will be told to go out of their churches if they wish to meet the Bridegroom.

The church that used to be a place of refuge is now a trap of religious deception.

Forty-five thousand different kinds of denominations and churches exist today. Each denomination can have hundreds if not thousands of churches. All claiming to be right, yet all different. This Babel of confusion ties us up with so many plausible opinions and traditions that, like the disciples, we are most likely to miss the final move of God.

All these different denominations and church groups have one thing in common: they are all supremely self-satisfied, smugly complacent that they have the truth, and have need of nothing. They certainly feel that they need no correction nor advice from anyone outside their group. Looking at their growing numbers and wealth convinces them that they have to be right.

Honey is the one food that never rots. So God’s Word never changes nor passes its sell-by date.

It is just as valid today as it was two thousand years ago. Saint Paul and the apostles were not rich.

There was no megachurch in the New Testament.

The word “pastor” is only mentioned once in the New Testament.

Nowhere in the New Testament is a shepherd called a pastor.

We need to get back to the simple basics of the New Testament where local churches were run by local elders.

Locusts represent preaching unpopular doctrines

LOCUSTS:

 All through scripture Locusts are identified with a plague. The Lord sent a plague of locusts over Egypt:

Exodus 10:12  And the LORD said unto Moses, Stretch out thine hand over the land of Egypt for the locusts, that they may come up upon the land of Egypt, and eat every herb of the land, even all that the hail hath left.

Locusts represent the majority opinion, doctrine, or idea. These influences are spread like a plague.

They don’t need a one-man leader. It propagates since it appeals to the lust of the majority.

Locusts represent demons and are like terrorists. You can kill a leader like Saddam Hussein, but the terror movement does not depend on leaders. It thrives on hatred and the lust to kill in order to achieve power. Others will continue the killing without him.

Proverbs 30:27  The locusts have no king,

yet go they forth all of them by bands;

Nahum 3:15  There shall the fire devour thee; the sword shall cut thee off, it shall eat thee up like the cankerworm: make thyself many as the cankerworm,

make thyself many as the locusts.

:16  Thou hast multiplied thy merchants above the stars of heaven: the cankerworm spoileth, and flieth away.

:17  Thy crowned are as the locusts,

and thy captains as the great grasshoppers, which camp in the hedges in the cold day,

but when the sun ariseth they flee away,

and their place is not known where they are.

The heroes of the people propagate a popular opinion, be it the pastors or leaders in their churches, political leaders, Hollywood superstars, or famous musicians. All these are the “captains” of the masses who spread unscriptural ideas like the approval of homosexuality, abortion, euthanasia, evolution, and the like. These ideas together with other false beliefs will drive the masses to the 3.5 years of great Tribulation, which will lead to their deaths.

Jesus Christ shines like the sun and the light of His truth through the Bible. This light reveals the truth that we need to know to escape the 3.5 years of great Tribulation and brings eternal life. It also reveals that the ideas of the majority are false, and will prevent you from being ready for the catching away of the church. With this light shining the locusts have no option but to fly away. They cannot follow their beliefs through the Scripture.

Locusts destroy the truth;

Joel 1:4  That which the palmerworm hath left hath the locust eaten; and that which the locust hath left hath the cankerworm eaten; and that which the cankerworm hath left hath the caterpillar eaten.

As the people slowly begin to accept the ideas from the world and the many denominational opinions, they neglect the Bible. They read less and less, and their understanding dwindles away until, after less than one generation’s lifetime, the truth is totally obscured and the original understanding and meaning is lost or substituted by worldly views.

But there is a promise that the truth will again be restored during the last days.

Joel 2:25  And I will restore to you the years that the locust hath eaten,

the cankerworm, and the caterpiller, and the palmerworm, my great army which I sent among you.

John the Baptist’s ministry was likened to Elijah. But John didn’t restore anything. The fulfillment of his ministry was only the preparation part of the prophecy.

John 1:22  Then said they unto him,

Who art thou?

that we may give an answer to them that sent us. What sayest thou of thyself?

:23  He said, I am the voice of one crying in the wilderness,

Make straight the way of the Lord, as said the prophet Esaias.

:24  And they which were sent were of the Pharisees.

We read earlier in Matthew 17 that Elijah must restore:

Matthew 17:11  And Jesus answered and said unto them,

Elias truly shall first come, and restore all things.

This prophecy must therefore be fulfilled by another Elijah than John the Baptist.  The prophecy in Malachi mentions that Elijah must come before the dreadful day of the Lord:

Malachi 4:5  Behold, I will send you Elijah the prophet before the coming of the great and dreadful day of the LORD:

Therefore, Elijah must come at the end time and his ministry must be to restore all the truths that the locusts have eaten. The Elijah of the Old Testament typed the ministry of the John the Baptist. They had many similarities, they both were men of the wilderness and they both preached against the establishment of their day. Both Elijah of the Old Testament and John the Baptist had ministries that type the ministry of the Elijah at the end time before the catching away.

As with John the Baptist, the Elijah at the end time will have a diet of locusts (preaching something that is not popular)

and wild honey (God will use him to reveal Scriptural truths that were hidden through the ages to prepare us for the Second Coming).

Locusts are religious demons that hate the Jews

Again when we come to the book of Revelation we can understand the symbolism of the locusts:

Revelation 9:3  And there came out of the smoke

locusts

[religious demonology with its hatred of Israel in the natural, and its dislike of using written Scripture to prove its beliefs and ideas and doctrines that influence the masses]

upon the earth: and unto them was given power,

as the scorpions

[who sting and torture]

of the earth have power.

Smoke hides the sunlight. Denominations change Bible words and teach unscriptural words like Trinity. Thus the Light of the Word of God gets obscured.

Their beliefs come out of a bottomless pit that has no Bible foundation.

The sting of the scorpion that really hurts is their ability to fool people into believing that they are Scriptural while they are actually using unscriptural ideas like Trinity, one-in-three, three-in-one, second Person of the Godhead, and pretending that the three titles of Father, Son, and Holy Ghost are a name.

Modern-day Christians will get a wake-up call in the savagery of the 3.5 years of great Tribulation and then sadly realize that their religious leaders have misled them, just as it happened before in the judgement hall of Pontius Pilate.

Revelation 9:4  And it was commanded them that they should not hurt the grass of the earth, neither any green thing, neither any tree

(These locusts do not eat food like real locusts because they are spiritual demons. Their ability to destroy the people by leading them into error is what makes John compare these demons to destructive swarms of locusts.

The people who believe the truth are not influenced by them nor should they be afraid of the masses. They are influenced by the Holy Spirit);

but only those men which have not the seal of God in their foreheads

(In your forehead is your brain, where your mind is.

Only those who do not follow the leading of the Holy Spirit as He guides people through the revelation of Scripture, are caught into the trap and end up in great Tribulation).

Revelation 9:5  And to them it was given that they should not kill them

(A demon is a spirit. It cannot kill you. Great Tribulation starts),

but that they should be tormented five months: and their torment was as the torment of a scorpion, when he striketh a man.

(Imagine the torment of saved Christians who are suddenly struck by the realization that their church leaders have fooled them and that they and their families are doomed to die in the awful horror of  great Tribulation)

Revelation 9:6  And in those days shall men seek death, and shall not find it; and shall desire to die, and death shall flee from them.

The masses of saved Christians in the Tribulation have to first learn truth from Moses and Elijah, the two prophets to the Jews. They will sing the song of the Lamb who is Lord God Almighty and He alone is holy. There is no place there for two other Persons of the godhead.

Revelation 9:7  And the shapes of the locusts were like unto horses

(Horses represent the power of the man-made systems that propagate the ideas and doctrines) prepared unto battle; and on their heads were as it were crowns like gold,

(these locusts or demons are thus the crowned kings of the people. The people wake up to the fact that their leaders - religious and political - were actually led by the dark forces of demonology)

and their faces were as the faces of men

(man-made systems enforced by men, the preachers in the churches).

Revelation 9:8  And they had hair as the hair of women

(women represent the churches, the man-made systems are in the churches),

and their teeth were as the teeth of lions

(to devour and destroy).

Revelation 9:9  And they had breastplates, as it were breastplates of iron

(Iron means oppressive, the brutality of the ancient Roman empire will rise again to enforce obedience to the church systems);

and the sound of their wings was as the sound of chariots

(It’s a strong world-wide system)

of many horses running to battle.

Revelation 9:10  And they had tails like unto scorpions, and there were stings in their tails: and their power was to hurt men five months.

The “tail” in the vision represents the “tale” or story that they tell.

The sting in their story is that they get you to believe error.

You will answer for this when you die. “Death, where is your sting?”.

The sting of death is sin. Sin is unbelief. Believing something that is different to the written Word.

Revelation 9:11  And they had a king

(Finally, it is revealed that the ideas and doctrine did in fact have one source which is Satan, but by then it is too late.

A king wears a crown. Pope Nicholas 1 was the first Pope to wear a crown around AD 860. For the first time a western church leader wore a crown. This evolved into the triple crown that the Popes wore from the early 1300s.)

over them, which is the angel

(or messenger)

of the bottomless pit

(this has no Bible foundation),

whose name in the Hebrew tongue is Abaddon, but in the Greek tongue hath his name Apollyon.

(These words mean destroyer, they destroy truth).

Saved foolish virgins head for great Tribulation

When we believe the truth of the Bible and follow it, we will escape the terrible plague of demonic locusts and we will be caught up in a catching away before this great Tribulation period.

The Lord Jesus has sent a prophetic ministry as promised in the person of William Branham to reveal many Scriptural truths and to restore truths that were lost in the Dark Ages.

These doctrines of the Godhead, the original sin, water baptism, the Seven Seals, and other doctrines like no marriage after divorce  (because the marriage vow is until death) that will not be popular with the majority. But they are sound and can be proven by Scripture and with careful study and prayer are sweet as wild honey when revealed to us by the Holy Spirit.

Revelation Chapter 9 reveals the corrupters who have spread out and taken over the Christian church.

A fallen star from Heaven will be symbolic of a spiritual demon or devil that was once in Heaven as an angel, until it rebelled against God and got cursed and turned into a demon.

Its job is now to unleash all the demonic forces that are in the pit of hell and lets loose the powers of hell against the Bride of Christ by first taking over the leadership of the denominational and other churches.

The eyes of men are blinded by the smoke of opinion and tradition, and in this absence of Scriptural Light the church leaders are able to promote ignorance and error. In this confusion of fact and fiction, demonology thrives as hordes of demonic “locusts” pour out of the pit to keep our unaware Christians fast asleep in their complacent comfort.

Saved, but saturated with clever ideas that cannot be proven from the written Word, modern Christians await the time of great Tribulation.

Ten virgins (clean churches) fell asleep. Five have oil for their lamps.

But the light of the lamps is to see something. To see the written Word of God and know what it means.

LUKE 18:8

…. Nevertheless when the Son of man cometh, shall he find faith on the earth?

ROMANS 10:17

So then faith cometh by hearing, and hearing by the word of God.

This does not sound like many people are listening to and understanding the written Word of God.