“Another expert on biblical punishment”: A clergyman of the Orthodox Church of Ukraine stated that the locust invasion in Ukraine is not God's punishment

The OCU continues to insist that the massive locust invasion, which is uncharacteristic for Ukraine, is not God’s punishment. Andriy Marchuk, a cleric of the Dnipro Diocese of the OCU, called on people not to draw parallels with the biblical punishments that God inflicted on the Egyptians in the Old Testament, and recommended that priests be called to the fields as soon as possible to perform prayers in order to save the crops. This was reported by Suspilne.Dnipro.

«People interpret locusts as divine punishment. But this is a spiritual lesson. Because God never punishes anyone. According to the Bible, God is love. He only gives people the opportunity to change. Even ecologists say that nature itself will balance this moment. Unfortunately, we live with a flood of mass media, much of which is untrue. There is more hype than real locust disasters and the like,» — said Andriy Marchuk.

Marchuk added that to solve the problem, people need to call priests to the fields to perform prayers for the preservation of crops.

“In August, there are special rituals for consecration. The priest prays before the Lord God, asking on behalf of the entire community that he bless the harvest, water, and other things that we need for life,” — he said.

Earlier, the head of the Zaporizhzhia Diocese of the OCU, Fotiy Davydenko, commented on the locust invasion in the Zaporizhzhia region, which has been observed since July 11 and is seriously disturbing local residents. Although Davydenko acknowledges that external signs often indicate a decline in the moral state of society, in this case, it is not worth thinking in an apocalyptic paradigm. In his opinion, the Russian-Ukrainian war is to blame for the natural anomaly described.