Every few years (or in turbulent years, every few months), an unusual natural disaster will result in people asking if the top times are coming. When a rare natural event occurs, like cicadas appearing as if out of nowhere, some Christians really get frightened. Could the looks of cicadas be an indication of the top times? Do cicadas appearing every decade or so have some biblical significance?
Let’s take a deeper have a look at what the Bible says concerning the end times, and whether it has anything to say about cicadas.
Are Cicadas a Sign of the End Times in Revelation?
The book of Revelation discusses quite a lot of signs that the top times have arrived, including something that appears like a swarm of locusts (Revelation 9). However, swarms of cicadas aren’t mentioned anywhere in Revelation.
Even when Revelation talks about swarms of locusts, it doesn’t describe them as an isolated event. The locusts are part of a bigger story starting a number of chapters earlier. In Revelation 4, the creator (John) describes a vision of entering God’s throne room in Heaven. John then sees a lamb open a scroll with seven seals, each seal resulting in cataclysmic events. There are earthquakes and the sky turning blood red (Revelation 6). Vegetation dies and a falling star turns water bitter (Revelation 8). It is just not until these and other surprises occur that locusts appear, coming from a bottomless pit and receiving instructions to torment individuals who “wouldn’t have the seal of God on their heads” (Revelation 9).
There are many interpretations of what the locusts in Revelation 9 may represent. Given that they’re described as wearing crowns and looking out “like horses prepared for battle… and their faces were just like the faces of men” (Revelation 9:9), they’re probably unbelievable creatures meant to symbolize another threat. Different scholars have offered different views, often heavily influenced by their time period. For example, the eighteenth-century theologian John Gill, writing when many English Protestants were concerned about Roman Catholics and Muslims influencing Western culture, interprets the locusts as being rogue priests and “Saracens” (an older word for Muslims or, more generally, Middle Eastern people).
Even theologians who interpret the locust swarm literally will highlight how the swarm only appears at a specific time (when the Lamb opens the second seal). Theologians who imagine Revelation offers an in depth timeline of what’s going to occur before Jesus’s second coming normally maintain that other events will occur before any natural disasters involving locusts or other animals, corresponding to:
- The appearance of a worldwide ruler who claims godlike status (the Antichrist)
- A period of persecution against Christians
- A rapture during which Christians will probably be taken as much as heaven (possibly before the tribulation, perhaps after).
In short, there isn’t any reason to imagine cicadas swarming is connected to the top times. Even if insect swarms are an indication of the top times, their appearance would mean that the last days are well underway, not starting. By the purpose locusts show up, other events must have tipped us off that things are going downhill.
While Revelation may not discuss cicadas, a related query stays: does the Bible tell us anything about them?
Does the Bible Talk about Cicadas?
Some writers who argue that cicadas appearing is an indication of the top times try to connect them with locusts. For example, people may claim that the Hebrew word for cicadas is connected to the word for locusts.
While popular culture articles (like Seth Rogovoy’s article in Forward) will use cicada swarming periods as a jumping-off point to discuss locusts within the Bible, these are fun news pieces, not serious attempts to attach cicadas to locusts or the Bible.
In fact, the Bible never mentions cicadas in any respect. There are some species of cicadas within the regions where biblical events occurred (the Middle East, Africa), so cicadas presumably existed in biblical times. But the Bible never mentions them.
There are biblical passages describing animals that might be one in all several different species of animals. For example, some Bible translations list the Leviathan mentioned in Job 41 as possibly an alligator. However, there are not any passages within the Bible that mention locusts, and the text suggests it might be talking about cicadas as a substitute. As a helpful article by Purdue University’s Department of Entomology explains, cicadas wouldn’t have much in common with locusts. They come from different insect families and have different eating habits (cicadas generally eat tree sap, while locusts eat farm crops).
The difference between what cicadas and locusts eat is crucial since it explains why locusts are mentioned so prominently within the Bible. Most societies mentioned within the Bible used agriculture as a significant a part of their economies, so insects that ate farm crops could cause huge devastation. Locusts swarming spelled disaster, so when ancient people read Revelation 8, they knew the book used locust imagery to symbolize the worst form of disaster coming. Cicadas swarming wouldn’t have any of those connotations.
This discussion still leaves one last concern that folks raise about cicadas: does the actual fact they breed every 13 or 17 years have some apocalyptic significance?
Does the Cicada Breeding Period Fit Biblical Numerology?
At least in North America, cicadas appear either every 13 years or every 17 years. Some writers who try to connect cicadas to the top times argue that this number is critical because biblical numerology uses 13 and 17 to represent destruction.
While the Bible does use certain numbers in outstanding ways to symbolize something, 13 and 17 wouldn’t have any special significance within the Bible. Numbers like three (divine, especially when talking concerning the trinity), six (imperfection), and 7 (divine perfection or holiness) have special significance.
Thirteen developed a repute for representing sick fortune sometime within the eighteenth century, but is just not a cursed number within the Bible. Modern discussions about 13 often associate it with the 13 guests on the Last Supper (Jesus and the 12 disciples), but there isn’t any evidence that the Bible uses 13 to represent bad luck. Given that Jesus and his disciples had been traveling together for 3 years before Good Friday, if 13 was by some means unlucky, they might have noticed it long before that night in Jerusalem.
Seventeen is typically a vital number in modern societies (for instance, some age between 15 and 17 could also be seen because the age when a juvenile girl is taken into account a young woman), but ancient societies didn’t treat it as an especially essential number.
In short, any sense that cicadas swarming every 13 to 17 years is very important comes from us perceiving it as a rare event, not from it having a special biblical meaning. Nor is there any clear evidence that cicadas have a special significance within the Bible, either in apocalyptic texts concerning the end times or elsewhere.
However, that doesn’t mean this discussion about cicadas and the top times doesn’t have essential lessons for us today.
What Can the Cicadas and End Times Signs Discussion Teach Us Today?
While cicadas don’t have anything to do with the top times, considering why individuals are susceptible to read end times ideas into cicadas swarming reminds us of some crucial things to recollect.
First, any time something occurs in nature that seems strange, we should always be cautious before assuming it has a special biblical meaning. God may use nature to speak things to us, but treating every natural event we discover strange as an indication is just not an indication that we’re spiritually minded. Essentially, it’s pagan pondering: treating all of nature as full of odd threats we want to interpret quickly so we will appease whatever we imagine caused the harmful event.
Second, any time people bring up end times topics, we want to do our homework. We return to the Bible to see if the supposed claim is something Revelation or other apocalyptic books mention. We consider whether the text is using an idea (locusts swarming, armies rising, etc.) as an emblem for something else. For example, if there’s unbelievable imagery involved, like giant crown-wearing locusts, there’s something greater than a literal description occurring.
Third, we reach out to a community of experienced Christians who will help us discern the Bible’s teachings higher. We only know as much as we now have studied ourselves. Within the body of Christ, we discover believers who’ve studied books of the Bible we haven’t gotten to yet, who’ve lived longer than we now have, and might tell us if certain fears are only fads (just like the proven fact that cicadas come every 13 or 17 years). The church could be a complicated community, full of people determining the Bible. At its best, though, Christian community strengthens us where we’re weak and protects us from the swarms of conspiracy theories and unhealthy trends that seek our attention.
Further Reading:
How Does God Reveal Himself to Us Through Nature?
Do Locusts Have a Supernatural Meaning within the Bible?
5 Things to Ask When You Think Something Is a Sign of the End Times
Photo credit: ©Getty Images/Jeff Herge
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