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 caterpiller eaten, Joel 1:4.
After 45 years of reading a King James Bible, I got off my lazy butt and decided to look up the difference between a cankerworm and a caterpiller since both of them are caterpillers. In the process I also looked up "palmerworm which turns out to be any sort of multi-legged insects such as a a centipede. What I found gave me understanding in a couple of things.
The caterpiller can be the larva of a butterfly, moth or a turnip sawfly. They (especially the turnip sawfly) are known for their appetites in eating leaves. Of old, an infestation of turnip sawfly larvae devastated fields by eating the leaves necessary to a plant to convert sunlight into food for the plant.
The symbolism or typology for that becomes evident. Whatever it is in our individual lives that stops the light of God's word from allowing us to grow and flourish in that light can be compared to the caterpiller. It is interesting to note that in medieval times men who hindered the word of God through religious practices were called caterpillers. An example from the 16th century in the Oxford English dictionary (OED):
The Augustine friers in London..those Caterpillers and blouddy beastes.
R. Barnes, Works (1573).
The cankerworm is different in that it is distinguished by its appetite not just for the leaves of a plant, but for the buds. It feeds particularly on new growth in a plant. This example from the Oxford English Dictionary (OED) illustrates that point. In a 1778 book on practical gardening this advice is given:
Clip off the extremities of the shoots of gooseberries, which will in a great measure prevent or kill the cankerworm.
By clipping off the tips or light green new growth of these plants, the gardener is cutting off the food source for the cankerworm. Obviously, the plant itself can never grow with its new growth being cut back, but the plant itself is preserved and the infestation of cankerworms is stymied.
I have seen that reaction in some churches wherein a pastor unsure of his doctrine and a novice in the word of God itself (though often very learned in the commentaries) shuts down speculation and discussion about scripture. It is in those discussions where young christians sharpen each other and wherein they learn to nourish themsleves from the word of God.
Won't there be heresies? For there must be also heresies among you, that they which are approved may be made manifest among you, 1st Corinthians 11:19. Why must there be heresies in the church?; because christians learn by batting ideas and doctrine back and forth. Slowly, as they mature in the word of God, and as a good pastor intervenes from time to time, and as he leads from the pulpit, it becomes plain just who it is that has grown in the grace of our Lord Jesus Christ and has begun to be but skillful in the word of God.
A pastor unskillful in the scripture just shuts down all such speculation. He cuts off all new growth, not growth in the sense of new members, he cuts off new growth in the individual saints. His only interest in their growth is their growth in his organization. He reckons them to be mature by their ability to function as members in his church. He substitutes commentaries and Sunday school literature for actual bible study.
A pastor skillful in scripture will watch for individual cankerworms that are attacking individual buds and new shoots of a plant. He won't just go through and cut off all new growth. Cutting off all new growth may preserve an orchard of gooseberries, but it will shunt all growth in the individual plants. Let the young christians sharpen each other as iron sharpeneth iron. Heresies will pop up, but those that are approved will become manifest.
Understanding that buds are being attacked along with the new growth in leaves brings understanding to a passage like Joel 1:8; Lament like a virgin girded with sackcloth for the husband of her youth. How can a virgin have a husband? Keep in mind that a betrothal is what made a woman to become a wife, and a man to become a husband. As the angel said to Joseph; fear not to take unto thee Mary thy wife, Matthew 1:20. Mary was still a virgin and had not yet taken up residence with Joseph and yet she is recognized as his wife.
The scripture reckons men and women to be man and wife before they consummate their marriage, and often years before. Often marriage pacts were made while the individuals were still youths. Joel speaks of the mourning experienced by a virgin who has just lost such an husband. Likewise, the cankerworm attacks the bud before it can flower and attacks the new growth. Israel looked out over their fields and saw that what had been new growth and the promise of a plentiful harvest, was now eaten by the cankerworm.
That brings us to the word "canker" by itself. And their word will eat as doth a canker: of whom is Hymenaeus and Philetus, 2nd Timothy 2:17. The OED says this of "canker":
A chronic, non-healing sore or ulcer, esp. one that extends into surrounding tissue.
This could be a cancer, but its use in the English Language leaves open other sores or ulcers. A cancer will eventually kill whereas a canker-sore just annoys and defaces. There are those within the structure of Christianity whose teaching will eventually kill churches, or just leave annoying and defacing wounds on individuals or churches. In 1611, sometimes the cankerworm itself was just called a canker.
My people are destroyed for lack of knowledge, Hosea 4:6. The State of New York, which unbeknownst to most people is mostly rural wilderness or farmland. (New York State has the largest unbroken wilderness east of the Mississippi river.) Throughout its small towns and rural hamlets are hundreds if not thousands of churches which are just holding on by a thread. They are not missing one generation, they are missing two.
Every Sunday, in town after town, and in church after church, a noble group of older Christians gathers to keep the doors open, to keep the flame which they inherited from previous generations alive, and to worship the God of Israel through the faith of Jesus Christ. The Bible Colleges quit training men to fill such pulpits long ago.
As my resignation from being the pastor of the Black Creek Baptist Church takes effect this next month, I can be satisfied that the Lord has not abandoned such a people. A small rural church can be revived. Our next Pastor, Evangelist Timothy McVey a sometimes contributor to this site, will take our 7 or 8 novice preachers and by the grace of God train them to be mighty in scripture, fervent in prayer, zealous of good works, and to have a heart for these struggling churches.
What will I be doing? By the grace of God, I hope to take just such a small struggling church and see if the Lord will reward the faithfulness of its small but committed congregation to revive it. God bless!