Joshua 24:12
And I sent the hornet before you, which drave them out from before you, even the two kings of the Amorites; but not with thy sword, nor with thy bow. And I sent the hornet before you, which drave them out from before you, even the two kings of the Amorites; but not with thy sword, nor with thy bow.
This verse belongs to the closing rehearsal of the history of Israel since they became a people, given at the final gathering to recount divine guidance, care, conquest and rest. It was spoken when age and infirmity were upon Joshua and required him to lay his responsibilities upon the representative men of the nation, and in obedience to his summons the tribes assembled. They assembled at Shechem, a place of sacred associations carrying their minds back to God's covenant with Abraham and Jacob and to their own solemn vows upon entrance into Canaan. The mountains Ebal and Gerizim stood as silent witnesses of those vows, which they had now assembled in the presence of their dying leader to renew. In that setting God himself is declared to have driven out the two kings of the Amorites from before Israel by means of hornets, not by Israelite sword or bow or weapons or military strength, so that victory and preservation came through divine power and working.
The land all around them for which they did not labor, and the towns they did not build, and the vineyards and olive groves they did not plant, stood as everywhere-visible evidence that the inheritance was entirely a divine gift. The review was intended to strengthen faith by recalling past blessings and mercies and manifested power. It was meant to produce gratitude for providence and humility over past failures and disobedience and neglect of revealed will. It warned against idolatry and its corrupting influence, against close association and intermarriage with idolaters and even approaching the edge of wrongdoing.
Turning away would bring desolation and ruin, and the same faithfulness shown in keeping promises would be shown in carrying out warnings. The example is to be followed by those experienced in divine dealings in the rise and progress of the work by repeatedly recounting the sacrifices of the first leaders, the simplicity of the early workers, and the divine power that kept the work free from error and delusion and extravagance. This recounting blesses those who recount and molds newer workers who know comparatively little of that self-denial and self-sacrifice to carry the work forward in the same humble and self-sacrificing spirit. When sight of what the Lord has done in the past is lost, sight of His present working in behalf of His people is lost, a lesson applying to each person.