The Sting Of Hornets

THE STING OF HORNETS

Deut: 7:20-23 Moreover the LORD thy God will send the hornet among them, until they that are left, and hide themselves from thee, be destroyed. Thou shalt not be affrighted at them: for the LORD thy God is among you, a mighty God and terrible. And the LORD thy God will put out those nations before thee by little and little: thou mayest not consume them at once, lest the beasts of the field increase upon thee. But the LORD thy God shall deliver them unto thee, and shall destroy them with a mighty destruction, until they be destroyed.

We Will break this message down into 5 questions:

1. What do we mean by hornets?

2. In What ways do hornets sting us?

3. What is the special relevance of hornets and this day and hour?

4. Where does God send His Hornets?

5. What is the sting of a hornet better than?

1. What do we mean by hornets?

I want to talk to you about a call from God for the hornets. Have you ever thought on how God might answer this prayer of yours, “Thy will be done on earth even as it is in heaven?” Do you do God’s will on earth as it is done in heaven? If not, how do you think God could help you and answer that prayer in your life? I’ll give you a hint, it has something to do with hornets.

In the text cited above God tells the Jews that He will remove those enemies that, “hide themselves from thee.” He is speaking specifically about pockets of resistance that remained in the Promised Land after the major wars had been fought. These pockets of resistance were hidden and entrenched, and extremely difficult to deal with and remove. God had a solution for them... He would send in His special storm troopers, the hornets. Can you say ouch!

In this day and age some of the most fearful bees on earth are the Africanized killer bees. They are domestic bees that had interbred with a species out of Africa that are known for their vicious and unrelenting attacks. People have died as a result of their aggressive style of attack. Apparently God had some bees that were supernaturally programmed by Him to attack Israel’s enemies that remained in the land hidden in the dens and caves of the earth. We know from the New Testament that everything that happened to them was to be an example to teach us.(1 Co. 10;11) So what can we learn from this story and what does it teach us?

First, Israel’s enemies were people, ours usually are not, though they can be. Our biggest enemies are usually the devil and our own fleshly self. The Apostle Paul said, nothing good dwelled in his flesh.(Ro. 7:18) So when we talk about God sending the hornets after our enemies, please understand that sometimes that means He is sending the hornets after us personally! Can you say, “ouch, ouch!” When we come to Christ there are many wars between the Spirit and the flesh, and after a season of battle most Christians settle into a lifestyle where they are free from controlling sins. For the most part they are Spirit led, Spirit controlled people, with occasional manifestations of fleshly carnal behavior. A relative calm exists, belying the fact that there are pockets of resistance in our nature to the control and dominion of the Holy Spirit. Some of these we know about, some are hidden from our eyes. David called them secret faults, in the text in Deuteronomy cited above they are hidden enemies.

We are not sure if the hornets actually killed these enemies, or forced them out of the dens and caves of the earth to be destroyed by the sword of Joshua. Perhaps, it was both. Even so, some hornets God sends change our behavior immediately, some reveal to us character flaws that may have been hidden from our eyes. “Howso?,” you might ask. To answer that I need to explain what the hornets of God are and how they work. Hornets are symbolic stinging rebukes, painful consequences, trouble and difficulty, financial reverses, in short things that are painful and get your full and immediate attention.

When house training a dog some people will stick the dogs nose in its feces if it messes inside the house. Usually this teaches a dog not to mess in the house. In similar manner, sometimes God sticks our nose in messes we make, we feel the consequences, we are embarrassed by public disclosure, or all of a sudden our “sleeping,” conscience is awakened and greatly troubled by our actions, taking away our sleep or sense of peace until the situation is remedied by repentance and change.