This was a covenant punishment. It is not something like nature
or chance
that turns against the people, but it is God himself. God established a special covenant with this people.
He can make a covenant with the whole world (Genesis 9:8). This is an ordinance that he imposes: this is how we will do things from now on.
For the special covenant he gets the involvement of people and asks for their agreement to the covenant. He regards the people with whom he made the special covenant as an equivalent covenant party. The image he uses is that of marriage. A husband and wife are equal and freely agree to the (marriage
) covenant. This is how God wants to deal with Israel. The covenant emanates entirely from God (Genesis 15:17, God alone goes through the path of blood). He is the partner who is infinitely higher than the other (human) covenant party, who also institutes/initiates the covenant, but he wants to deal with this other party on an equal footing. After some time this privilege fell to the people of Israel alone in the Old Testament—as God’s chosen people. Nobility comes with obligations! When you do not conduct yourself as a good covenant party, you will receive harsher punishments. One such punishment is a plague of locusts. Moses had already announced this to the people (Deuteronomy 28:17, Deuteronomy 28:38–39, Deuteronomy 28:42; see also Deuteronomy 29:16 in comparison with Exodus 10:14). Through this plague God shakes his people to be awake: I come with covenant punishments, for the covenant is at stake. God is turning against his people.
4 What the cutting locust left, the swarming locust has eaten. What the swarming locust left, the hopping locust has eaten, and what the hopping locust left, the destroying locust has eaten.