Hornets

“And I will send hornets before you, which shall drive out the Hivite, the Canaanite, and the Hittite from before you.”Exodus 23v28.

What are hornets? Hornets are a type of wasp. There are hornets in the UK as well as various types of hornets in many countries. What this text tells us is that God sent out these insects ahead of the Israelites, to help drive out the other nations before them.

How do we apply this to us today? Our God, by His own chosen means, will fight for His people, often before they come into an actual battle. God can confuse and confound the enemies of truth by methods in which Christians themselves have no hand. God can use all manner of things to harass and sting the enemies of truth. We read in Revelation that ‘the earth helped the woman’ (Rev 12v16) during a period of intense persecution.

Our job is to go forward in faith. As we go forward, perhaps expecting a ‘culture war’ or backlash of some kind, we may find that there is in fact no battle because God has gone before us. Sometimes this is dealing with our enemies/opposition/ difficulty ‘little by little’ as in Exodus 23v30. Equally, sometimes God removes ‘mountains’ in one sudden strike. Imagine a lobby group which is pushing some anti-God legislation. Perhaps ‘little by little’ their funding dwindles, or suddenly they are out of political favour.

We can never dream of, or imagine, all the possible means at God’s disposal to win battles for us. Sometimes we may receive help from people who were previously opposed to us. When Gideon went forward, in fearful obedience, he received help from an unexpected source – his father (See Judges 6v31). At other times, it may be a combination of things that work in our favour. The poet, William Cowper, captured this thought in his hymn ‘God moves in a mysterious way, His wonders to perform’.

 So today let us take heart from this verse, and go forward, trusting in God.