I'M GLAD IT STUNG ME!

I had forgotten the pain of a yellow-jacket sting. We lived in the backyard of the “Yellow Jackets" (Georgia Tech) for nearly 12 years and I'd never been stung. There were close calls. At age three my son was hit hard by a swarm after jumping on an inground nest. But I made it through our years in Georgia unstung!

That's why it felt so ironic a few days ago when a yellow-jacket attacked. It got me on a tender part of my right-hand thumb...and just 7-months in to our move back to Kentucky! One thing I can promise you is that the wrath of God fell on that nest. And few things have I ever enjoyed more.

The sting on my thumb was still obvious as I read Joshua 24:12 this week. God said to the Israelites, "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."

An elder at First Church is a Bible scholar who wrote a commentary on Joshua. So, I asked for Mark's view on "the hornet" in this passage. He said archeological evidence shows that during this period the Egyptian army made a few forays into Palestine and attacked the Israeli enemies. Amazingly one of the Egyptian symbols at that time was a bee! Quite literally God could have sent these "Egyptian hornets" into the land to soften up the enemies of Israel. Or, Mark said, it could have been a metaphor for the decay of a culture over time which caused them to be vulnerable and ripe for defeat by the Hebrews.

I love this new metaphor for how God works "upstream" in our lives! He sends the hornet ahead of you! It's how God works. He sent John the Baptist ahead of Jesus to prepare the way of the Lord." To the Jews He gave the concept of animal sacrifice for the cleansing of sin thousands of years in advance, why? To get us ready to for the shedding of Christ's blood, as the Lamb of God, once and for all. He "goes ahead" of us in battle and prepares the way. Isn't that a comforting thought? It's a confidence-building truth for those who follow Jesus.

As we face a huge transition in 2010 at the church I'm privileged to serve, my prayer is that God will send the hornet ahead of us! That He will drive out the enemies of fear, doubt, mistrust, cynical attitudes, selfishness, and disunity. The good news is that the battle belongs to the Lord! It is His church, not ours. So He will get it done in a glorious way, and we will give Him all the glory for it!

I have to say, I'm really glad that bee stung me! What a great reminder that God is the God who "sends the hornet ahead of you!"