In our endeavors to gain more understanding of the Bible, we can no doubt obtain considerable aid from outside sources. Providing such are reliable, we very often find them enlightening on matters which at times have been a source of difficulty. Sometimes the difficulty is removed by the most unlikely sources. Those who have read “Blunts Christian Coincidences” will be aware how useful such a work has been to unravel many Scriptural passages. There is no doubt that some statements in the Bible are hard to understand, and the record seems so strange to us that at times we may ask — was it really so? Of course many doubts are due to our limited knowledge. It has been well said that “a little knowledge is a dangerous thing.” The more knowledge we acquire the more we realize how little we know. Had some of the events we witness today been recorded in the Bible, they would have been the subject of decision. Yet such derision would have been due, not to the fact that the Bible is untrue, but because of our limited knowledge. The writings of our late brother, Islip Collyer, were most helpful in such matters.
In my early years in the Truth, I used to wonder why God would send hornets to drive out the enemies of His chosen people. Nearly forty years ago the father of the present “Science Editor” of the “Testimony” loaned me a book that was most enlightening on the subject of the flight of the enemies of Israel who hid in caves until they were forced to come out and surrender. The use of caves as places of retreat may seem strange to us in these modern times; but that caves and dens were used in the past is beyond dispute. We read in Gen. 19:30 that “Lot went up out of Zoar, and dwelt in the mountain, and his two daughters with him; for he feared to dwell in Zoar: and he dwelt in a cave.” In Joshua 10:16-18 we read of the flight of the five kings, who hid in a cave at Makkedah. Again Israel used dens, caves and strongholds in the mountains, and it is recorded in Heb. 11:38 that the early believers “wandered in deserts, and in mountains, and dens and caves of the earth.”
In Israel’s day, if the enemy retreated into a cave the only thing to do was to drive them out and force a surrender because to go in after them would only lead to their own destruction. This was often a matter of time if they had to wait until the enemy was starved.
Hornets in Scripture
There are three references in the Bible concerning hornets: Exodus 23:27-30; Deut. 7:20; and Joshua 24:12. The reference in Exodus states: “I will send my fear before thee, and will destroy all the people to whom thou shalt come, and will make all thine enemies turn their backs unto thee. And I will send hornets before thee, which shall drive out the Hivite, the Canaanite, and the Hittite, from before thee. I will not drive them out from before thee in one year; lest the land become desolate, and the beast of the field multiply against thee. By little and by little I will drive them out from before thee, until thou be increased, and inherit the land.” The plaguing of the hornets was to gradually discomfort their enemies over more than a year, thus reducing their numbers, and preventing the land from being over-run by wild beasts until God’s people were sufficient in numbers to inherit the land.
Deuteronomy’s reference to the hornets in chapter 7:17-19 is a reminder of what God had done to Pharaoh on behalf of His people, the plagues of flies and lice and other wonders His might had wrought. The account continues in verse 20: “Moreover the Lord thy God will send the hornets among them, until they that are left, and hide themselves from thee, be destroyed.” Their enemies seeking escape in their hiding places (dens and caves) were to be plagued by hornets, forced to surrender, and be destroyed. Again, as in the Exodus reference, verse 22 recites that it was to be “little by little”, gradually keeping their enemies in check, so that they in turn could keep the beasts of the field in check, until Israel was sufficiently strong and numerous enough to possess the land.
Now the third reference to the hornets is in Joshua 24:12: “And I sent the hornet before you, which drive them out from before you, even the two kings of the Amorites; but not with thy sword, nor with thy bow.” Now if the two kings of the Amorites were not driven out with sword or bow, how were they driven out? The only answer is by means of hornets as the beginning of the verse states.
Although it is over forty years since, in our daily readings, the question of God’s use of hornets seemed strange to my mind. I have been willing to wait for further knowledge, buoyed up by the words, “Lord, I believe, help thou mine unbelief.”
After many years, imagine my interest upon opening my morning paper to see the following announcement:
Daily Mail, London. Friday, March 11, 1927. Sir Samuel Hoare, Air Minister, said in the House of Commons, England:
“We were able to complete a campaign in the northwest frontier of India in seven weeks. Our men drove out the tribesmen into the caves, which were full of fleas. The fleas drove them out, and they surrendered to us.” Substitute the hornets for the fleas and we have an account comparable to the Bible narrative.
How true are the words of Paul in 1 Cor. 13:12: “For now we see through a glass darkly; but then face to face: now I know in part; but then shall I know even as I am known.”
The Origin of the Organic World – Part One