God’s Creative Battle Plan – Spread Terror and Confusion
God’s Creative Battle Plan – Spread Terror and Confusion.
“Yahweh is a warrior! Yahweh is His Name!” (Exodus 15:3).
Moses and Miriam in their famous ‘Song at the Red Sea,’ were the first ones to describe the Lord as a warrior. And throughout Scripture, God was identified as a warrior ever since. The Hebrew word for warrior in this passage is “ish milhamah,” which means man of war, warrior, champion, hero, fighter, mighty man.
The Fierce Warrior with a Vivid Imagination. Lord Yahweh, as we would expect, was not just any common fighter. He was a warrior with the divine imagination that created completely unpredictable battle plans for every conflict between an enemy of God and His Chosen People. In Scripture, the Warrior-King was the master of unconventional warfare, unexpected schemes that would leave people scratching their heads in surprise or shaking their heads in amazement. God’s strategies were so diverse that they might appear to be random, but of course they were not. His battle strategies to victory were well outside the human imagination, in such a way that the faith of His fighters on the ground were tested. It became obvious to His fighting men, though, that His ways are not our ways, and if they were wise they trusted in Him.
“God said to Jacob, ‘Get up, go up to Bethel and live there, and make there an altar to God, who appeared before you when you fled your brother Esau.’ So while the family of Jacob were traveling to Bethel, a terror from God fell upon the cities around them so that none of them pursued the family of Jacob.” (Genesis 35:1, 5).
Terror and Dread. This was probably the first time this particular battle tactic was used to protect His people. God sent terror, fear, and confusion on the enemies often enough that it becomes a familiar battle plan as we keep reading the Hebrew Bible. We don’t know what that looked like, or how God did that, but it appears God is able to directly or indirectly inflict a group panic attack to achieve His purposes whenever He wants. In the ‘Song of the Sea,’ Moses and Miriam celebrated their Warrior-God by pointing out this strategy in particular: “The peoples have heard, and they tremble; anguish takes hold of those living in Philistia; the chiefs of Edom are dismayed; trepidation seizes the heads of Moab; all those living in Canaan are melted away. Terror and dread fall on them, and by the might of your arm they are still as stone…” (Ex. 15:13-16). This terror tactic was confirmed in the case of Jericho and other Canaanite cities, and certainly was used in the case of Jehoshaphat, when, “A panic from the Lord seized all the kingdoms in the lands surrounding Judah, so that they did not make war against King Jehoshaphat.” (2 Chronicles 17:10). Time and again, Lord Yahweh sent panic and terror to the enemies of His people, and it remains a bit of a mystery on how that actually happened. But happen it did. One way of describing it was that the Lord sent ‘hornets’ onto the enemy:
Swarms of Hornets! “I will send my terror ahead of you, and throw into confusion all the people among whom you come, and I will make all your enemies turn their backs to you and run away. And I will send hornets ahead of you, that they may drive out the Canaanites before you. For I will deliver the inhabitants of the land into your hand, and you will drive them out before you.” (Exodus 23:27-28, 31; also refer to Deuteronomy 7:20).
When Yahweh promised the Israelites at Mt. Sinai that He would be an enemy to their enemies, and would oppose those who opposed them (Ex. 23:22), it wasn’t long before He made good on His word. A rather unexpected battle plan of the Lord’s was to send a swarm of vicious hornets into Canaan to drive out some of the pagan peoples in the area. The Hebrew word used for hornets (has sirah) is the literal vocabulary word for hornet or stinging wasp. Hornets were abundant in Palestine, were very large and menacing, and when they swarmed in attack-mode they were very dangerous to man and beast. Many biblical scholars claim that we should take that idea figuratively, since the hornet during that time was a symbol of overwhelming fear, and the hornet in this case might be a symbol for another “terror of God,” or a plague, or perhaps even a symbol for pharaoh and the forces of Egypt. Many other scholars claim that it would be perfectly reasonable to take this idea of these fierce hornets literally. In that hot climate, huge swarms of stinging hornets are known to drive whole villages away when they get organized, agitated and aggressive. And we do know from Joshua 24:12 that, apparently, hornets were literally used by God to drive out the two kings of the Amorites. So it would make sense to think of the horrifying hornets as one of those creative battle plans of Yahweh in support of His Chosen People. After all, if God could see fit to send a plague of insects that covered the land of Egypt, whether they were gnats or lice, why is it so difficult to accept God sending a plague of hornets to Canaan? Taken figuratively, could there be a better way to describe the overwhelming terror and quick-hitting danger of God’s aggressive battle strategy to remove His enemies?
As Moses encouraged the Israelites before entering Canaan, “If you think to yourselves, ‘These nations outnumber us; how can we dispossess them?’ Nevertheless, you are not to be afraid of them; you are to remember well what Yahweh your God did to Pharoah and all of Egypt – the great ordeals which you yourself saw, and the signs, wonders, strong hand and outstretched arm by which Yahweh your God brought you out. Lord Yahweh will do the same to all the peoples of whom you are afraid. Moreover, the Lord your God will send hornets among them until those who are left and those who hide themselves perish ahead of you. You are not to be frightened of them, because Yahweh is there with you, a God great and fearsome.” (Deuteronomy 7:17-21).