18 And he went out from Pharaoh, and entreated the Lord.

19 And the Lord turned a mighty strong west wind, which took away the locusts, and cast them into the Red sea; there remained not one locust in all the coasts of Egypt.

Just as an east wind had brought the locusts into the land, a west wind took them out. This wind would have come from the Africa mainland, and evidently it blew across Egypt and into the Red Sea.

Once again, the effect of this healing is as absolute as the plague had been. In the time of affliction we were told that the locusts consumed “all the fruit of the trees…and there remained not any green thing.” So, too, here we are told there “remained not one locust.” God is able to take and give in absolute measure.

I can’t help but wonder what it was like for the Egyptians to see all the locusts blown away and witness the nakedness and barrenness of their land revealed underneath. This image of exposed desolation reminds me of Adam and Eve with their fig-leaf aprons, covering their shame from God, only to have Him see right through them. When we sin, our good fruit is withered and we are left with a shameful desolation that we typically go to great lengths to hide, but when a west wind blows our humiliation is uncovered, much to our embarrassment, but this can also be the first step to true repentance if we will allow it.