Uh-oh.
There it is. Staring at you from the corner of the bathtub. And after one look at those black beady eyes and eight creepy legs, maybe you don’t want a bath tonight.
Maybe you find a weird little guy who makes a funny hump in the middle as he scootches across a leaf stem.
Or one day you come in from playing outside and find red, itchy spots where SOMETHING decided you tasted good.
Who are these little creatures? You guessed it: bugs!
Some people love bugs, and some people hate them. Yet bugs are a huge part of God’s creation! In fact, bugs are so important to God that the Bible names at least fourteen different kinds of bugs.
But wait a minute! Aren’t bugs just pests? What good can they do if they’re just biting and scaring us? Why did God make bugs anyway?
You probably know some reasons already. Bugs help the planet by eating old, gross, dead stuff and turning it back into soil. Some bugs, like bees, moths, and butterflies, carry pollen from plant to plant, helping the plants grow and make fruit. And bugs are food for lots of other creatures—even people!
But did you know that God has a special job for bugs? In Joel 2:25, God names different kinds of bugs and calls them “my great army.” You can see that army at work in Exodus chapters 7-11. Three of the 10 plagues God used to free the children of Israel from Egypt are bugs: lice, flies, and locusts.
God also uses His army of bugs to help the Israelites after they leave Egypt. He promises in Exodus 23:28 that if Israel will obey, “I will send hornets before thee, which shall drive out the Hivite, the Canaanite, and the Hittite (the bad people), from before thee.” God was using bugs to do some of the Israelites’ work for them!
God also used a worm to teach a lesson to a runaway prophet. When Jonah sat down to rest outside of Ninevah, God grew a plant there to give him shade. But then Jonah 4:7 says, “God prepared a worm” to eat the plant the next morning. He wanted Jonah to understand that everything and everyone is important to Him.
And that’s what God wants us to see too. When we study bugs and the God who made them, we learn that He pays attention to every last detail. When Pharaoh asked Moses to take away the locusts, Exodus 10:19 says, “the Lord . . . took away the locusts . . . there remained not one locust in all the coasts of Egypt.” Not even one locust was left in that huge country!
And you know something else? It doesn’t matter what size you are, God wants you to be part of His plan. Flies, moths, ants, and caterpillars don’t seem like powerful creatures, but they don’t have to be. God is so strong and mighty, that when He is the Captain, even little things like bugs become His “great army.”