29 Crush His Head

We have a purple martin bird.

Quite by accident, really…

Here’s the story: The baby bird took a nose dive out of his nest early in life. The human that owned the property put baby bird back in the nest but found him on the ground the next day again. Clearly, he wanted to move out early.

The emergency call went out. The transcript went something like this:

“wanna bird?”

“um.. okay”

SO, my friend took on this baby bird as the mama. She is nearly 50 years old, is one of the best dog trainers in Canada and currently, I find her in the field beside my house catching grasshoppers.

Everyday.

Multiple times in a day.

Honestly,

All day.

Her kids (and mine) do the same. The new rule of the house is, “if you want a snack, you have to give bird a snack”.

Maybe it was the shock of leaving the nest, or the flight (without feathers) down to the ground or change of diet, location.. or… everything combined. He wasn’t thriving at the beginning, so she thought the name would be an encouragement so she named him “Toulithu” (a.k.a. “Lu”). In Hebrew it means “You will eat”.

Once he got his name, and understood the joy of grasshoppers, he’s been doing wonderfully. He opens his mouth when he hears my friend speak. If he sees someone’s finger, it means supper time. He’s eating up to 20 grasshoppers in a sitting!

I was there when she first started feeding him grasshoppers. He was excited about them, but something was wrong. She soon realized that the larger ones had sharp teeth/mouths and hurt the inside of the Lu’s tummy. She took off the head and then things went smoothly. But this is the fascinating thing that she found:

30 minutes AFTER the head was REMOVED from the body, the mouth and jaw of the stand-alone head was still moving and snapping! (I saw it myself, it was really freaky)

For Real.

It was only when she crushed the head was it truly incapacitated.

The Back Story

Jesus’ cousin, John, commonly known as John the Baptizer, ate locusts with honey as his regular diet. My minimal-knowledge speculation makes me wonder if John needed the honey to.

1. make the locusts more palatable
2. incapacitate the snapping jaws (if he ate it head and all)
3. just made due with what he had

It could be all – or none. It doesn’t really matter…

But either way, it was something that a man who was a Nazarite from birth could eat. He was set aside for God (just like Samuel and Samson) for his whole life. The angel Gabriel said to Zacharias (John’s father), “For he [John] will be great in the sight of the Lord, and shall drink neither wine nor strong drink. He will also be filled with the Holy Spirit even from his mother’s womb” (Luke 1:15). John had to follow certain rules: (Numbers 6, Judges 13:5)

1. Abstaining from all products of the grape, including the wine or the fruit, fresh or dried (Num. 6:3, 4)

2. Allowing the hair of the head to grow, not cut (Num. 6:5);

3. Abstaining from coming near of a dead body (Num. 6:6).

FYI, Jesus was a Nazarene (someone who came from the town of Nazareth) but did not take the Nazarite vow. We know this because he drank wine (he turned water to wine in John 2:1-11 as his first miracle, he may have drank some, but it is recorded that he drank wine at his last supper Luke 22:17-18), and he certainly went near dead bodies (Widow’s son, Lazarus), but in those cases, they didn’t stay dead.

Thoughts

John was set apart for greater purposes. As are you, my Darling. It’s true. You are. But you need to know that being set apart puts a target on your back, where the enemy wants to mess you and crush you.

When you “eat” and believe what the accuser has to say about you, it creates turmoil in the inside, much like a full-headed grasshopper in the tummy of Lu. It scratches and gnaws you from the inside out.

To avoid that, we have to see the enemy as they really are and crush the head of the enemy.

If you don’t have any idea how to crush the enemy’s head, don’t worry it’s been done for you!!! Jesus crushed the head when He bested him on the cross. He won that one! Without question. And the great thing is, if you believe in Jesus and all that He offers you, knowing that you just can’t reach perfection yourself, you have access to the same power that raised Jesus from the dead, the power that crushed the enemy.

We can crush the head of the enemy by:

1. Speaking scripture out loud. This is what Jesus did when the enemy tempted him to break his fast and eat, throw himself off the temple to prove how amazing he is and bow down to worship the enemy and he was going to give Jesus the prestige that He deserved (remember, the enemy is a liar). In each instance, Jesus refuted him with scripture. You can check out the full story here Matthew 4:1-11. After that was done the enemy left.

Maybe you’re not being tempted to throw yourself off a temple, however, maybe you’re fearful of being alone (I will never leave you or forsake you Hebrew 13:5-6;Deuteronomy 31:6) or you’re angry at someone (vengeance is Mine, says the Lord Romans 12:19). Perhaps you’re just exhausted with your circumstances (He will renew your strength like eagles Isaiah 40:31). Find out your greatest emotion in your situation (ie. worry, anger, fear, sadness) and search out a Bible verse that answers it. Then believe it with all your might. Knowing that what God says is true, and He is honest. Anything that comes against the knowledge of that Bible verse and the peace that God provides, is from the enemy and is laced with lies. Pay it no mind. This a battle that you need to use the sword of the spirit for. Eph. 6:10-20

2. “The locust is the same creature as the grasshopper, which – left to its own devices – enjoys a quiet, solitary life, slowly and inconspicuously munching on grass.

But when they come into contact with a crowd of fellow locusts, they completely change both their character and appearance.

They develop strong wings and an insatiable hunger, and become “gregarious”, hoarding together in giant swarms as big as 10km x 10km (6 miles), and as dense as 50 locusts per cubic metre.

If they end up out at sea, with no source of food, they eat each other.” Kosher Locusts

The point I want to make here is a pitch for self-control and putting all thoughts under God’s evaluation (Paul in the Bible calls it “taking your thoughts captive”). When bad ideas come to your mind in single doses we can take care of them quickly and quietly. But like grasshoppers ganging up, when many bombard us at once, (either through the enemy giving us ideas or us walking towards them by the use of devices, listening to bad advice, imagining stuff we shouldn’t etc.), the thoughts compound and get nasty. Together, they seem to have a greater power than just two individual thoughts. It is important to take every thought captive. That is the greatest key to spiritual success, and life success.

3. After a rain, grasshoppers are easy to catch. They are slow and lethargic. Rain, in scripture means the blessings of God. Not only that, but grasshoppers thrive when it’s dry/drought conditions. A plump plant full of moisture is a deterrent for grasshopper. It’s easy to spot the enemy for who he is when we fill up with the good stuff ahead of time. All good things come from our Heavenly Father (James 1: 17) and He is ALWAYS working for our good (Rom 8:28). When we have a steady diet of good from God, we are more alert about the schemes of the enemy. This requires diligence, even when we don’t feel like reading the Bible or taking our thoughts captive. But when we do this consistently, it pays out when we need it later on!!!

Just like Lu eats the nemesis grasshoppers day in and day out, God eats the chaos of your life, for breakfast! You don’t have to feed on the diet of confusion, anger, chaos or despair. You can set yourself before God and trust Him for all things good. Let Him be in charge. Let Him take care of you, just stand, be still and watch Him do His best work on your behalf.