lectio-divina:: the hornet

I was reading the last part of Joshua today and a mysterious phrase came up. it appears three times in the old testament, its “the hornet.”


in exodus 23, God talks about sending an angel ahead of the Israelites- but then He talks about sending His “terror”- are they the same thing? in verse 27 it says, “I will send my terror ahead of you and throw into confusion every nation you encounter. I will make all your enemies turn their backs and run.”


then in the next verse God says “I will send the hornet ahead of you to drive the Hivites, Canaanites and Hittites out of your way.”


so in one chapter, God is driving out israel’s enemies with an angel, His terror, and the hornet. are they all the same thing? what is it? what was it like to encounter God’s terror? His hornet? whatever it was, it was, it made israel’s enemies run.


in deuteronomy 7:20 it says, “the LORD your God will send the hornet among them until even the survivors who hide from you have perished.”


and in joshua 24, God is talking about how He fought for Israel saying, “I sent the hornet ahead of you, which drove them out before you—also the two Amorite kings. You did not do it with your own sword and bow.”


what is the hornet? who is it? could you see it?

a lot of sources will be honest and say that they don’t know what it is. here are two ideas that I have:


maybe its a feeling, that God filled people with, as they heard Him and His people coming.


in the beginning of joshua, the spies enter the city of jericho and meet rahab. she tells them, “I know that the LORD has given this land to you and that a great fear of you has fallen on us, so that all who live in this country are melting in fear because of you. we have heard how the LORD dried up the water of the red sea for you when you came out of egypt… when we heard of it, our hearts melted and everyone's courage failed because of you, for the LORD your God is God in heaven above and on the earth below.”


next they cross the jordan on dry land. and while the water is stopped, they decide to set up memorial stones in the dry riverbed! they defy nature- what chance does anyone stand against them?


next they go up to jericho and instead of attacking it, they walked around it. they aren’t afraid- they are completely confident. they aren’t in any hurry. and when they did attack it, they just walked some more, and then played instruments- and the walls fell. what kind of terror zoomed through the land after that?


after that, one nation just surrendered.


and then other nations gathered together to make alliances. on one occasion, joshua didn’t even sneak up on these alliances- he just attacked them head on- and defeated them.


so maybe the hornet was israel’s reputation of being indestructible.


on another occasion, Joshua meets a man “in front of him with a sword drawn in his hand.”
“Joshua went up to him and demanded, “Are you friend or foe?”
“neither one,” he replied.
“I am the commander of the Lord’s army.”
at this, Joshua fell with his face to the ground in reverence. “I am at your command,” Joshua said.
“what do you want your servant to do?”
the commander of the Lord’s army replied,
“take off your sandals,
for the place where you are standing is holy.”


maybe this guy was the hornet! and the Lord’s army was his swarm.


whatever the hornet was, it was God’s agent to fight for and protect God’s people. when God fights for you, nothing stands in His way, not even nature. nature becomes His tool, not His obstacle. as the scripture says, “what, then, shall we say in response to this? if God is for us, who can be against us?”