Christians and Our "Hornets"

 

Christians and Our “Hornets”

 For whatsoever things were written aforetime were written for our learning, that we through patience and comfort of the scriptures might have hope. (Romans 15: 4)

 

Over the years of Bible study and reading about God’s miracles, there are some that readily come to mind. For example, remember Israel crossing the Red Sea…Our Lord Jesus healing the blind, lame, and lepers…and His feeding 5, 000 or more with five loaves and two small fish. 

On the other hand, there is an occasional report of an incident that many of us could relate to that might have happened to us personally…if Israel had listened to and believed what God had said. That incident has become a classic example of a critical consequence of man’s unbelief in what God has said. That example led me to choose the title of this post. It is the only time the Scripture records the literal use of the threat of the stinging “hornet” as a “weapon” in God’s arsenal. (Strong’s Concordance Hebrew Dictionary # 6880)

As background, I ask you to recall the Covenant that the LORD made with Abram / Abraham, in which He gave to Abram and his seed the Promised Land. (Genesis 12: 1-3, 7; 15: 18; 17: 8; 26: 3-4; 28: 13)  That promise was to be fulfilled through God’s favored nation, the Nation of Israel in perpetuity. (Deuteronomy 30: 1-8;  https://www.gotquestions.org/Israel-land.html )

As pat of His promise, the LORD would act to remove the existing inhabitants of the land, They  were unrighteous idolaters, who served other gods.  He would guide Israel to defeat some of those inhabitants through war. But in order to preserve much of the land from the ravages of war, the Scripture recorded the following two passages:  

“Moreover the Lord thy God will send the hornet among them, until they that are left, and hide themselves from thee, be destroyed”. (Deuteronomy 7: 20)   …and; ^“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 little I will drive them out from before thee, until thou be increased, and inherit the land.” (Exodus 23: 28-30)

Israel could have avoided significant loss of life through warfare if they had believed the LORD at Kadesh Barnea, (Deuteronomy 9: 23-24)…but they wanted to see for themselves whether the Land could be taken. The Book of Numbers, Chapters 13 and 14, describe Israel’s use of spies to “verify” what God had said.  Can you imagine questioning what was said by  the Creator God, who had so recently  performed numerous miracles on their behalf, both in Egypt and afterwards as He led them out of slavery?  But Israel chose to believe the reports of their timid spies, rather than their Supreme God. They wouldn’t enter the Land as God had advised them. Presumably they thought the use of hornets would not be sufficient, regardless of the LORD’s intent.

The consequence  / punishment of Israel’s  unbelief was the LORD’s forcing them to wander in the wilderness forty years, until the unbelieving generation had died there.

I now return to the title of this post, as an example of God’s offer to use hornets to save lives. As the God of Love, He will never force man to do what we do not choose to do. It started in the Garden of Eden when the LORD God commanded Adam to not eat of the tree of knowledge of good and evil. (Genesis 2: 15-17)  Even as Adam was making his really bad choice to disobey, the LORD God did not stop him. God’s willingness to give man the freedom of choice as to whether to return His Love and acknowledge Him as our Creator continues even to today.

 The LORD God did not make the literal use of hornets against man’s enemy Satan, nor against unbelieving man in the Garden of Eden. That was when the Serpent / Lucifer / Satan deceived Eve, leading to Adam’s disobedience against His Creator LORD God, leading to mankind’s unrighteous state. (Genesis Chapter Three)

But consider the primary means by which God has both literally and spiritually saved lives. The often-recited Bible verse that captures the essence of that “hornet” for believers is: “For God so loved the world that whosoever believeth in Him should not perish but have everlasting life.” (John 3: 16) That “life” is so much more than our “lives” in these “physical bodies”, as was projected for Israel as noted above as they approached the Promised Land.

However, for Christians, the “Ultimate Hornet” that God has offered to protect man through eternity is through His Son, our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ. The Bible affirms this through the Gospel of His Grace, as revealed to the Apostle Paul, and stated:

“Moreover, brethren, I declare unto you the gospel which I preached unto you, which also ye have received, and wherein ye stand; By which also ye are saved, if ye keep in memory what I preached unto you, unless ye have believed in vain. For I delivered unto you first of all that which I also received, how that Christ died for our sins according to the scriptures; And that he was buried, and that he rose again the third day according to the scriptures:” (1 Corinthians 15: 1-4) …and

“That if thou shalt confess with thy mouth the Lord Jesus, and shalt believe in thine heart that God hath raised him from the dead, thou shalt be saved. For with the heart man believeth unto righteousness; and with the mouth confession is made unto salvation.  For the scripture saith, Whosoever believeth on him shall not be ashamed.  For there is no difference between the Jew and the Greek: for the same Lord over all is rich unto all that call upon him. For whosoever shall call upon the name of the Lord shall be saved.” (Romans 10: 9-13)

Both those passages demonstrate that there was only one requirement for man to receive eternal life, and that was and is for us to believe what God has accomplished for us through the suffering, death, burial and resurrection of our Lord Jesus Christ. Then, once we have believed this Gospel, God has sent us yet another hornet, the indwelling Holy Spirit. It is that Spirit that:

1.      has revived / given re-birth to our dormant internal spirit (John 3: 1-7); and,

2.       gives us guidance daily to survive the warfare waged against us by our inherited sin-nature, and the Enemy who caused these ills from the Garden of Eden as noted above.  (Romans 3: 23-26; 5: 1-12; Romans Chapter Eight; Ephesians 6: 10-17)

Let’s encourage others to take advantage of these amazing “hornets” that our loving God has given us.

Dr. W. A. (Bill) Robinson

https://christianityandbiblestudy.blogspot.com

What Must "We" Do vs What Must "I" Do

 

What Must "We" Do vs What Must "I" Do

 

As members of the Body of Christ, Jewish believers and Gentile believers under the Gospel of Grace have been joined in service to the Lord Jesus. That term “Body of Christ” was first used in the Scripture by the Apostle Paul. (1 Corinthians 10: 16-17; Chapter 12)  He used it to show that regardless of our “religious background”, the Holy Spirit has united those who have received their salvation to eternal life through their belief in the Gospel of God’s Grace. That Gospel shows that our righteousness is based on what was accomplished by our Lord Jesus Christ to pay for our sins through His  death, burial and resurrection. (1 Corinthians Chapter 12; 15: 1-4, Romans 10: 9-13; https://www.gotquestions.org/body-of-Christ.html ) The Body of Christ is the spiritual network that is available to those who have been, and those who are currently eligible to become believers in the Gospel of Grace.

As we study the Bible, I chose the title of this post to help readers distinguish between two groups. One is the virtually all Jewish believers who received their eternal salvation by believing in the name of Jesus, and the Gospel of the Kingdom. That group is those represented under the pronoun “We”, that covered their collective role in benefiting from and implementing the Kingdom Gospel. The second group is the mixed believers / members of the Body of Christ.  The pronoun “I” was used to stress that salvation under the Gospel of Grace had to , and still has to be sought and accomplished on an “Individual basis”.

 When our Lord Jesus preached during His Earthly Ministry, the Gospel of the Kingdom was the “good news” He brought to the Nation of Israel as fulfillment of God’s promises to them through Old Testament prophecy. (Genesis 12: 1-3; Exodus 19: 1-6; Romans 15: 8; Matthew 4: 17, 23; https://doctrine.org/the-gospel-of-the-kingdom )  As He brought this message to the Nation of Israel, He commanded His Disciples to exclude the Gentiles from their ministry. (Matthew 10: 5-7)  It was not yet time for implementation of God’s Plan of “salvation through Grace” to be taught to all mankind. As noted above, that Plan could only be implemented after the Lord’s death, burial and resurrection.

“What Must We Do”:

I chose this part of the title from the Book of Acts, Chapter Two, Verse 37.  (Acts 2: 36-47)  The Apostle Peter had been making an extraordinary speech to a group of Jews who had assembled in Jerusalem on Pentecost. They had witnessed how the Holy Spirit had come upon the Ascended Lord Jesus’ followers, enabling them to speak in tongues. Peter had eloquently cited Israel’s historical and prophetic background leading up to the Lord’s crucifixion, burial and resurrection. He sought to convince the audience that they also could receive the gift of the Holy Spirit. Further, the Lord Jesus could still return as their Messiah to fulfill the Gospel of the Kingdom as their Messiah and King.  

The Scripture then recorded: “Now when they heard this, they were pricked in their heart, and said unto Peter and to the rest of the apostles, Men and brethren, what shall we do? “ [Take special note of the pronoun “we”.]  “Then Peter said unto them, Repent, and be baptized every one of you in the name of Jesus Christ for the remission of sins, and ye shall receive the gift of the Holy Ghost.” 

I need to emphasize that the role of the Nation of Israel was to serve collectively as a “holy Nation of Priests” (Exodus 19: 5-6)…not just a collection of believers. They were to act as a “royal priesthood” under the leadership of their King and Messiah. (1 Peter 2:9) Thus the essential pronoun “we”. Their righteousness was and would be linked to His Righteousness. (https://www.gotquestions.org/royal-priesthood.html )

The Lord Jesus addressed this very point when He was approached by a young ruler in Israel, seeking to establish “his own righteousness.” The young man asked the Lord: “What must I do, that I may have eternal life?” (Matthew 19: 16-22; Mark 10: 17-22; Luke 18: 18-25) To keep him in line with Israel’s history and mission, the Lord told him:  “If thou will enter into life, keep the commandments.”  (At your convenience, please read the rest of their conversation at the scriptures noted.)

“What Must I Do”:

On the other hand, Gentiles being outside of the Covenant relationship that Israel had with God, were and are to establish their righteousness on an individual basis. (Romans 2: 14-16) The Scripture later addressed that circumstance related to Gentiles when the Apostle Paul and his colleague Silas were unjustly beaten and imprisoned in Philippi. Even so, they loudly prayed and sang praises to the Lord. When the Lord intervened and freed them and the other prisoners from their shackles, the distraught Gentile jailer feared for his own life, assuming they had escaped. He would have had to forfeit his own life for failing to prevent their escape. When Paul interrupted his attempt at suicide, the jailer brought them out from the darkness of the lower dungeon and said: “Sirs, what must I do to be saved?”  Then Paul and Silas led him and his family to salvation.  (Acts 16: 16-34)

Now please note, this was not the first time that Gentiles had been saved by a Jew. Remember from earlier study the encounter that the Apostle Peter had with the Italian Centurion Cornelius and his household, as arranged by the Lord. (Acts Chapter Ten) The important difference is that during that encounter, those who were influenced by Peter’s speaking did not ask to be saved. They received the Holy Spirit, and began to speak in tongues and magnify God, as they had been moved by simply hearing the same gospel of Jesus Christ that Peter had taught to other Jews…that “through His name whosoever believeth in Him shall receive remission of sins.”  (Acts 10: 34-48) 

There will remain questions by some, as to the instances noted in Acts Chapter Eight, in which the Ascended Lord’s Disciples (Philip, Peter and John) brought salvation to people from Samaria, and the Ethiopian eunuch. They were not to be regarded as “Gentiles”. The Scripture notes that the Eunuch had come to Jerusalem to worship during the Feast of Pentecost. (Verse 27) That would describe him as a member of the Nation of Israel. That is also how he came to be reading the Torah / Old Testament Scripture when Philip preached Jesus to him, and then baptized him.

The people of Samaria had their roots in their heritage as descendants from Israel’s Tribes of Ephraim and Manasseh. However, they had become estranged and even ostracized by the other members of the Nation of Israel after they embraced idolatry.  Their king of the divided Northern Kingdom had erected a temple to worship Baal, and the people followed him. (See: https://www.gotquestions.org/Samaria-in-the-Bible.html )

[As an aside, note that when the Lord Jesus commanded His Disciples to restrict their ministry of the Gospel of the Kingdom to “the lost sheep of the house of Israel”, He specifically excluded Gentiles, and “any city of the Samaritans”. (Matthew 10: 5-7)] The Disciples’ mission was not to be compromised by their potentially dealing with those who were outside of God’s Covenant.

As noted above, today God has given man a choice. We are to ask ourselves, “What must I do?”  We are without the influence of the Nation of Israel who were to be a royal priesthood to guide us to the Lord. But God has freely given man His Word, through the Scripture of the Holy Bible. He has given man the roadmap to salvation and eternal life through His Son, Jesus Christ. I believe He expects man as an individual to acknowledge what He has given us and then choose to answer the  question “What must I do?”, by saying: “I know what I must do…I must believe.”

For any who should ask: “What must I believe to receive eternal life?  The Bible clearly answers that question in two parts of the Scripture. Please read: 1 Corinthians 15: 1-4; and Romans 10: 9-13.   

Dr. W. A. (Bill) Robinson

https://christianityandbiblestudy.blogspot.com