Articles

Mosquitoes: Thorns in the Flesh!

by Anonymous

Have you ever thought Noah really blew it when he neglected to swat the mosquitoes that got on the ark? It sure seems that would have saved untold grief for mankind. Of course, mosquitoes could have survived anyway. . . but I doubt if Noah could have kept them off even if he had tried!

We might wonder "Why did God create mosquitoes in the first place? What good are they?" In the present ecosystem, mosquitoes serve as an important source of food for fish, birds, and other insects, but nobody can say for sure what their original function was. We don't know for sure whether or not they ate blood meals before the Fall, but it seems doubtful. Perhaps they all fed on the juices of plants like male mosquitoes do today. Currently only the females suck blood; they need it for producing eggs that will hatch. Unfortunately, this also makes mosquitoes the carriers of some extremely serious diseases like malaria, yellow-fever, sleeping sickness and others.

Though it's hard to remember when we're slapping mosquitoes or swatting flies, by tar the majority of insects are not harmful to man. In fact, according to World Book Encyclopedia, a study done by the U.S. Department of Agriculture some time ago found fewer than 250 species (about 1/25th of 1 percent) of the insects were detrimental to man or his crops. That's not very many! This fits with the idea that the world was originally created good, and is now deteriorating.

Have you ever considered what a different place this world would be without insects? Of course, we'd have no honey or beeswax without bees, silk without silkworms, or delicacies (?) like fried grasshoppers and chocolate-covered ants. We'd lose a good share of our crops, fruits and flowering plants, since many depend on insects for pollination. Other burrowing insects help to aerate the soil, keeping it suitable for plant growth. Then, too, wouldn't you miss the beauty and delicacy of a monarch butterfly? But mosquitoes. .. who'd miss them?

Whatever their original function, biting mosquitoes, like thorns and thistles, should serve as a reminder to us that we live in a fallen world, tainted by sin and in need of a Savior. Praise God He has provided this Savior and promised a "new heaven and a new earth" where righteousness will rule and the effects of sin will no longer reign. . . and we won't ever have to swat mosquitoes!

Source: Alpha Omega Institute