seekeroftruth
Well-Known Member
Deuteronomy 7:17 You may say to yourselves, “These nations are stronger than we are. How can we drive them out?” 18 But do not be afraid of them; remember well what the Lord your God did to Pharaoh and to all Egypt. 19 You saw with your own eyes the great trials, the signs and wonders, the mighty hand and outstretched arm, with which the Lord your God brought you out. The Lord your God will do the same to all the peoples you now fear. 20 Moreover, the Lord your God will send the hornet among them until even the survivors who hide from you have perished. 21 Do not be terrified by them, for the Lord your God, who is among you, is a great and awesome God. 22 The Lord your God will drive out those nations before you, little by little. You will not be allowed to eliminate them all at once, or the wild animals will multiply around you. 23 But the Lord your God will deliver them over to you, throwing them into great confusion until they are destroyed. 24 He will give their kings into your hand, and you will wipe out their names from under heaven. No one will be able to stand up against you; you will destroy them. 25 The images of their gods you are to burn in the fire. Do not covet the silver and gold on them, and do not take it for yourselves, or you will be ensnared by it, for it is detestable to the Lord your God. 26 Do not bring a detestable thing into your house or you, like it, will be set apart for destruction. Regard it as vile and utterly detest it, for it is set apart for destruction.
I got the title for today from the easy English site.
There is a remedy for fear. You should remember what God did in the past. Again, Moses reminded the Israelites how God brought them out from Egypt. Moses told them how God defeated the Egyptians. God will do the same to their enemies now. We are not sure what the word ‘hornet’ means. A hornet is an insect with a powerful sting. It could mean this. Those insects will attack and sting the enemies of the Israelites. But the word ‘hornet’ could be a way to describe an army from another nation. This army might attack the enemies of the Israelites when the Israelites enter the country. God will confuse their enemies. Those enemies might destroy themselves. That happened when ice from the sky struck the Amorite army. (See Joshua 10:11.) It also happened to Sisera’s army. They could not get out of the mud after it rained heavily. (See Judges chapter 4.) God forced out only a few of the Israelites’ enemies at a time. So the number of the wild animals would not become too large. God was testing them. He would see whether the Israelites would obey him. They must avoid everything that would persuade them to leave God. That included the kings and the idols from the other nations. The Israelites did not always do what God told them. The story of Achan in Joshua 7 shows what happened on that occasion.
Studylight.org sheds some light on verse 20.
It seems as if the insectile world were determined to extirpate the human race. It is bombarding the grain fields, and the orchards, and the vineyards. The Colorado beetle, the Nebraska grasshopper, the New Jersey locust, the universal potato bug seem to carry on the work which was begun ages ago, when the insects buzzed and droned out of Noah’s Ark as the door was opened. In my text the hornet flies out on its mission. It is a species of wasp, swift in its motion and violent in its sting. Its touch is torture to man or beast. The hornet goes in swarms. It has captains over hundreds, and twenty of them alighting on one man will produce certain death. The Persians attempted to conquer a Christian city, but the elephants and the beasts on which the Persians rode were assaulted by the hornet, so that the whole army was broken up, and the besieged city was rescued. This burning and noxious insect stung out the Hittites and the Canaanites from their country. What gleaming sword and chariot of war could not accomplish was done by the puncture of an insect. The Lord sent the hornet. When we are assaulted by great Behemoths of trouble, we become chivalric, and we assault them; we get on the high-mettled steed of our courage, and we make a cavalry charge at them; and, if God be with us, we come out stronger and better than when we went in. But, alas! for these insectile annoyances of life--these foes, too small to shoot--these things without any avoirdupois weight--the gnats and the midges, and the flies, and the wasps, and the hornets. In other words, it is the small stinging annoyances of our life which drive us out and use us up. In the best conditioned life, for some grand and glorious purpose, God has sent the hornet.
I can handle a bumble bee or a honey bee.... I am a little afraid of a wasp.... but I am afraid of hornets.... an now, it turns out, I should be.
One more little quote.... from biblehub.com
The hornet.—To be understood literally. (See on Deuteronomy 1:44, and Joshua 24:12.) The “land flowing with (milk and) honey” may well have swarmed with bees and hornets.
