What the Hive Knew About Giants

In the mountains of rural Japan, the Asian giant hornet — nearly two inches long with mandibles that can decapitate a bee in a single snap — is the most feared predator a honeybee colony will ever face. A single scout hornet can mark a hive with pheromones, summoning dozens more to slaughter an entire colony in hours.

But Japanese honeybees have developed an astonishing defense. When a scout hornet enters the hive, hundreds of worker bees don't scatter. They swarm the intruder, forming a tight, vibrating ball around it. Together they beat their flight muscles furiously, raising the temperature inside that cluster to 117 degrees Fahrenheit — just above what the hornet can survive, but just below the bees' own lethal threshold. Within twenty minutes, the hornet is dead. The scout never sends its signal. The colony survives.

No single bee could defeat that hornet. Not one. But when they held their ground instead of fleeing, the predator that seemed invincible was overwhelmed.

James 4:7 tells us, "Submit yourselves, then, to God. Resist the devil, and he will flee from you." Notice the order — first submission, then resistance. When we ground ourselves in the Almighty, when we draw near rather than drift away, we discover that the enemy who loomed so large cannot withstand the heat of a soul surrendered to God. Stand firm. He will flee.