The butterfly has long been recognized as a type I of resurrection, though there is no statement of it in the Word. It is intimated that "there are other parables in nature than those explained, and that we are expected to know them. Mark 4:13; i Cor 11:14; Psa. 19:i; i Cor. 14:10; Psa. 3:2; Job 12:7-9; Prov. 6:6; Matt. 13:; Prov. 25:2.
The family Lepidoptera (scale wings) is the most conspicuous of a number of insects which go through a complete transformation in three stages. Those which fly by day and have knobbed antennae are called butterflies. The body is small compared with the size of wing, allowing the motion of the wings to be slow, and the insect often floats without any motion, thus displaying the brilliant colors to advantage.
Moths generally fly at night, evening, or morning, and have heavier bodies in proportion to size of wing. Hence the wing motion must be more rapid, sometimes like a humming bird, and the beauty is not seen. They generally hide by day, so the colors are sober, or match their hiding places in order to protect them from enemies; the antennae are never knobbed but clubbed, feathery, or thread-like. Butterflies as a rule are handsomer, and the finest varieties are found in the tropics.
The parent, with remarkable intelligence, lays the eggs on or near the leaves which are to be their future food, and leaves them to take care of themselves. After a number of moultings the pupa stops feeding. Then some varieties burrow in the earth, where they pass the pupa stage; others remain above ground, spinning cocoons or hanging to trees or bushes. After a longer or shorter time comes the phenomenon which has attracted so much attention- it breaks the case and comes out a perfect butterfly. All traces of the slow, crawling, despised worm have disappeared, and instead it has a new body, mouth, eyes, and wings-a being fitted for and belonging to the free air of heaven and the sunshine, with a wide range of vision, new powers and tastes, a spiral tongue fitted to sip the nectar from flowers-in short a perfect picture of a life of pleasure in a higher sphere.
This seems plainly a type of resurrection-when the Lord comes. Those transforming below ground (the grave) might suggest the sleeping saints, and those above ground the saints which are alive and remain unto the coming of the Lord (i Cor. 15:51, etc; i Thess. 4:13).
But the analogy does not end with this. In connection with the marvelous change, see i Cor. 15:42, 43; first a caterpillar, afterwards a butterfly. Vers. 47-49, whatever the butterfly was that laid the egg just such will the worm be, every one after its kind. 2 Cor. 5:1-9; i John 3:2; Phil. 3:20, 21. It is the butterfly that gives name to the caterpillar, though the latter may not look like its parent. Just so we are now children of God. This is only our larval stage, we do not look like heavenly beings, or different from the rest of the world, and the world knows us not (i John 3:i).
Who that had never seen or heard of it would believe this phenomenon? If God is left out it is contrary to reason, just as resurrection is. It is strangely interesting to note that Prof. Drummond, a pioneer in the line of things we are looking at, quotes approvingly a passage which distinctly denies resurrection, ("Natural Law in the Spiritual World," p. 236.) What would he have to say as to this type?
As to the change in the nature, who that knows and mourns the evil of his own heart could believe that at "that day" we shall leave all the evil, the flesh, the carnal mind (Rom. 8:1-8) forever behind? Rom. 8:29 and i John 3:2 refer not only to the body but the whole being. See again i Cor. 15:47-49.
"No stain within, no foes or snares around,
No jarring notes shall there discordant sound;
All pure without, all pure within the breast;
No thorns to wound, no toil to mar our rest."
MOTHS.
Butterflies flying by day seem to represent the children of light, Eph. 5:8; i Thess. 5:4-8; John 12:36; Prov. 4:18; and moths flying by night, the children of darkness, Eph. 5:6, 7. There shall be a resurrection of both, John 5:28, 29. Most of them shun the light, John 1:5; 3:19-21; Prov. 4:19; Rom. 1:21; Eph. 4:18; i Pet. 2:9; Jude 13; Col. 1:13, etc.
How striking that we find among the moths most of the remarkable cases of imitation or deception. They imitate the bark of the trees or bushes where they hide, or various leaves in color or shape so closely that it is difficult to recognize them, though looking at them. In the economy of nature this is a marvelous adaptation of means to an end-protection from their enemies displaying God's wisdom, Psa. Cxiv. 10; 19:2; 104:24. Still the spiritual lesson remains:deception is very naturally and suitably associated with darkness, and there should be no association of light with darkness, Gen. 1:4; Eph. 5:ii; 2 Cor. 6:14-18. The above as to deception applies rather to the winged insect than the worm, and there are exceptions. I have no doubt with more knowledge each variety would yield a special lesson.
The worm and the butterfly seem to be living pictures of 2 Cor. 5:1-9. The worm, like this earthly house in which we groan; and the butterfly, our house which is from heaven. Wings in nature seem always to speak in some way of heaven; and if so, what a simple language! In an evil sense, the birds of the air, Matt. 13:4-19; in a good sense, Isa. 6:2; Ezra 1:6; Psa. Ixxxiv. 3; and in Matt. 24:28, indicate that judgment will come from heaven.
The worm has two kinds of legs fitted for slow crawling. The butterfly has six legs, uses them only to crawl out of the cocoon and resting on flowers while feeding, but seldom walks. This only emphasizes the fact that it lives on the wing.
THE EYES.
The contrast between the eyes of the caterpillar and the butterfly is very marked:what is commonly supposed to be a large eye on each side of the head of the worm, is only the rudiment of what will be eyes in the butterfly. The real eyes are very small, twelve in number, and are set six on each side on the under side of the head. Apparently they are of not much use except to see what is close to the mouth. When they travel they raise the whole front of the body and move the head about, apparently indicating poor vision, 2 Cor. 5:7. As we constantly use sight as synonymous with knowledge this illustrates our scanty knowledge in the body of our humiliation in contrast with the future condition, Phil. 3:20, 21; i Cor. 13:9-12. (The butterfly has, in some of the varieties, as many as 30,000 eyes.) As twelve is the number of government, it shows we are now learning God's ways in government. The butterflies' eyes are arranged nearly like a ball to see perfectly in every direction-backward, forward, up, and down. Backward, to the present time; forward, into the future; upward, things in heaven; downward, things in hell; i Cor. 4:4, 5; Luke 12:2, 3.
Each of these 30,000 eyes is six-sided like a honeycomb, and six is the number of victory. This may perhaps indicate the manifestation then of our character now as overcomers, i John 5:4, 5; 4:4; 2:13, 14; Rev. 2:7, etc; 21:7; possibly that the whole scene in heaven is a scene of victory, and the Victor the one who fills the vision-the Center of the worshiping throng.
THE WINGS.
Butterflies are among the most beautiful things in nature. As we have seen, the beauty is mainly in the wings, due to the tiny scales which cover the colorless membrane. If you brush off the scales it can fly as well, so the beauty put upon the wing is not a necessary part of it. These scales are deeply corrugated to get more color in the same space; and moreover the color of each scale is due to the refraction of the light by its thin skin for the same reason that a soap bubble and mother of pearl are bright red, blue, etc.-no coloring matter in it, only the light refracted. If you look at a chromotype picture with a magnifying glass you will find all the delicate shades of color are made up by only three-red, blue, and yellow-arranged in such proportions and in such small spots that the general effect is of delicate shades and neutral tones. Just so the minute parts of each scale are of such thickness that the different pure colors are sent back to the eye in such proportions as result in the beautiful tints we see in the wings. When we consider the wonderful range of color, such an elaborate system to accomplish it becomes marvelous, especially when a simple pigment-like paint, would have answered just as well but for the spiritual truth involved which is this-that all the glory of the saint in heaven will not be due to what we have accumulated here, but that which comes directly and continually from the Sun of Righteousness, the glory of Christ reflected-not that which belongs to us naturally, even as saints.
"The bride eyes not her garments,
But her dear bridegroom's face;
I will not gaze at glory,
But on my King of Grace;
Not on the crown He giveth,
But on His pierced hand:-
The Lamb is all the glory
Of Immanuel's Land."
How suitable that the beauty should be on the wings which indicate the heavenly condition, and that the insect should fly by day in the sunshine!
God in all this has not omitted the question of our responsibility. One of the most prominent characteristics of the caterpillar is that it is an enormous feeder. In the economy of nature this fits it for a scourge as suggested in the Scriptures where the word is found. The spiritual lesson is that, if we are really God's caterpillars, we should be large spiritual feeders. The provision is the word of God, John 6:27, etc; Jer. 15:16; the only thing by which we can grow, i Pet. 2:2.
It is the worm that increases in size, not the butterfly. So our capacity for the enjoyment of heaven must be made here and now:there will be no increase of capacity up there. Each one will enjoy it to the full extent of his capacity, but a cup differs from a barrel though both may be full. Thousands of Christians who neglect their Bible here, expecting to make it up in heaven, will be woefully disappointed when it is too late. A neglected Bible and a lean soul go hand in hand.
There are those who hold that at death the soul sleeps in unconsciousness till the resurrection. The pupa answers to this period, and whenever it is handled it shows unmistakable signs of life and consciousness by its squirming. Does not this indicate that God has carefully guarded against the doctrine in question in type, as He surely has in the Word?
Caterpillars are often handsome, but not as compared with butterflies; and often the plainest worms become the handsomest butterflies, Luke 13:30.
One summer evening I stood in a crowd listening to the preaching of the gospel on the street. After a while I noticed an old woman who had gradually found her way to the front and stood, quite unconscious of those around, drinking in the glad tidings of God's grace. She was old, not handsome, and poorly dressed. I watched her with a good deal of interest, and after the speaker stopped I offered her a leaflet and said, " You know the Lord Jesus don't you?" "Oh yes," she said, "He's all I've got. Isn't it good! oh isn't it good!" Her hearty answer left no doubt that she was a child of God. I had a short conversation with her, then we noticed some well-dressed rude young men standing around ridiculing her. As she turned away she said, "You may make fun of a poor old woman, but I've got what you haven't-the Lord Jesus Christ." And I thought as she disappeared through the crowd, "Here is one of God's caterpillars, poor, unknown, and despised now; but wait till the resurrection, then the shriveled, homely old woman will be changed in a moment, with a body like His glorious body; and the old grey shawl and dilapidated straw hat will be exchanged for shining garments beautiful beyond anything on earth."
"We wait, blessed Lord, in Thy beauties to shine,
To see Thee in glory-the glory divine;
With all Thy redeemed, from the earth, from the tomb,
To be to-Thy praise, blessed Saviour at home."
T. M.