Have you ever heard of an insect called an ichneumon? Me either. But George Will wrote about it in his syndicated newspaper column this week in analyzing why Detroit declared bankruptcy a few days ago.

The ichneumon insect inserts an egg in a caterpillar, then the larva which hatches from the egg proceeds to gnaw the insides of the caterpillar. Eventually, it has devoured almost every part of the worm with the exception of the skin and intestines, while it carefully avoids injuring the vital organs.  The ichneumon seems to know that its own existence depends on the life of the insect on which it feeds.

George Will writes that government employees’ unions have been living parasitically on the city of Detroit. They were not as smart as the ichneumon insect, he says,  because they ended up devouring their host.

One way the Holy Spirit calls my attention to lessons He has placed in front of me is I find the story (the article, the fact, whatever) fascinating. If I cannot get it out of my mind, if it will not go away, if it keeps returning to bug me, then  all the signs are present.

So, what is the spiritual application of the ichneumon’s planting its larva inside the caterpillar which then lives off the host, being careful not to destroy it?

What kind of God would make such a world?

“In 1860, an uneasy Charles Darwin confided in a letter to a friend: ‘I had no intention to write atheistically’ but ‘I cannot persuade myself that a beneficent and omnipotent God would have designedly created the Ichneumonidae with the express intention of their feeding within the living bodies of caterpillars.'”

Interesting having Darwin’s take on the matter. (George Will referred to it.)

I’m not a student of Darwin and have no idea all that he wrote, what he believed, and what else he might have said on these matters. But, going solely by his statement here on the little host-devouring insect, I would conclude that he would have benefited from studying biblical theology a little more, specifically the part about the creation being affected by “the fall.”

When Adam and Eve fell, creation itself was turned upside down in certain ways. When the full redemption is completed, we are made to understand, then nature herself will be set right also.  As Paul said, “The anxious longing of the creation waits eagerly for the revealing of the sons of God” (Romans 8:19). He added, “The whole creation groans and suffers the pains of childbirth together until now.”

How, we ask, could nature have been influenced by what Adam and Eve did in Eden?  I have no idea.  Furthermore, anyone with an answer to this is probably engaging in a lot of speculation.  Suffice it to say there are many things that take place in this lovely best-world-in-the-universe that defy understanding and may even offend our sensibilities.

Some would say the fact that you and I eat sirloin steaks or chicken strips fall under that same heading of “sinful results of the fall.”

But suppose we use the ichneumon as a metaphor. Are there such parasites at work in the Kingdom of God?

1) I think of liberal preachers.

They attach themselves to strong churches which were built in many cases by Godly men and women with biblical convictions. However, the liberal preacher determines to “enlighten” them. In so doing, he diminishes them, destroying their confidence in the Scriptures and convincing them of the impossibility of hell and the unlikelihood of heaven. He scoffs at soulwinning and evangelism and missions, and dismisses as old-fashioned and radical moral standards such as traditional marriage for a man and a woman, fidelity within marriage, abstinence from alcoholic drinks, and such.   In such a church, killing the unborn is acceptable and executing mass murderers by lethal injection the ultimate sin.

They are parasites, devouring the host in order to sustain themselves.

2) I think of liberal colleges founded by conservative leaders of the past.

In one state where we lived, the annual denominational meeting concerned a major university that was cutting its ties to Baptists in order to go its own way, set its own standards, and choose its own trustees.  Speaker after speaker told how his/her parents sacrificed to send money to that beloved school which was training preachers, and how they grieved to see the ungodly positions the school was taking today.

No matter.

Those schools took the buildings and endowments raised by solid, conservative, Bible-loving Christians just as surely as though they stole them at gunpoint.

3) Then, there are the trouble-makers who flit from church to church to wreak their havoc.

Pastors should never automatically accept new people into their membership without learning something of their past. Some ministers have learned too late that their newest members are parasites, feeding off the healthy church in order to create dissension and destroy preachers.

Pastor Rick told me of one such man who joined his church on a Sunday when he (Rick) was away.  Too late, he discovered the man had torn up the fellowship of the last two churches he had joined. Rick informed a few leaders who all agreed they would keep an eye on him. Sure enough, one year later, that guy asked a deacon to meet him for coffee. No sooner had they sat down when the man said, “What are we going to do about Pastor Rick?”  The deacon smiled and said, “We’re going to love him and support him! Isn’t he great?!”  The coffee time ended quickly, and the man was soon gone.

But don’t the parasites do some good?

Often they do. And this is what convinces some unthinking Christians that sending their children to that liberal school is safe.

It’s what calms church members who should be up in arms over the antics of the troublemaker and assures them that “he couldn’t be doing all that; he’s such a nice guy.”

Farmers love the ichneumon flies because they eat insects which threaten crops. The caterpillar which serves as the smorgasbord for the larvae eats the leaves of the farmers’ crops, too, so anything that diminishes caterpillars gets the full support of the agriculture people.

Likewise, the parasites among us often do some good.

It’s just that the bad they do is so deadly.

“Now, I urge you, brethren, keep your eye on those who cause dissensions and hindrances contrary to the teaching which you have learned, and turn away from them.  For such men are slaves, not of our Lord Christ but of their own appetites, and by their smooth and flattering speech they deceive the hearts of the unsuspecting” (Romans 16:17-18).