Perezites Are in Your Neighborhood
By Pastor Jim May
“You are what you eat”, is a phrase that most of us have heard all of our lives. That’s a little unsettling when you think about the fact that we eat so much fast food and junk food. Medical science has spent many years researching the food we eat and the effects it has on our bodies, and after spending billion upon billions of dollars, they have come up with the same conclusion. If you eat junk food all the time, you’ll develop a “junk body”. If you eat a lot of fatty foods and salt, you’ll clog up your arteries and run the risk of high blood pressure and stroke. If you eat a lot of veggies, and exercise right, you will stand a better chance of living a longer life.
The fact is though that America faces a “Push Away Crisis” of grand proportions. The problem is that all of the foods that we aren’t supposed to eat are all around us. They seem to taste better and look better.
Our four basic food groups have become Fast, Frozen, Instant and Chocolate.
Getting a little overweight is something that just sort of snacks up on you.
One man ran across his friend who had become shall we say, “A man of greater substance.” He asked, “I thought you were trying to get into shape?” I am, said his friend, “I’ve chosen the shape of a triangle.”
Now the problem is that we allow the things that tempt us to lie around so that it’s just too easy to eat and gain weight.
That kind of brings me to the message that I have for this morning. It’s a story of how God proves his people when they get to the place in their relationship with God where God is limited by their disobedience and unbelief and therefore no longer performs miracles like he once did.
Israel, under Moses and Joshua, had seen some mighty miracles, such as the 10 plagues and deliverance from Egypt, the parting of the Red Sea, water from the rock in the desert, bread falling right out of Heaven, the parting of the Jordan River and the walls of Jericho coming down.
They had been brought from Egypt, not by their own might, but by the power of Almighty God alone. They had no military force or weapons of war. They were helpless, weak and destitute because of the sin of rebellion that had brought them down into Egypt as slaves to begin with. Israel had of the depend upon God
But now, all of those old Israelites that had known Moses and Joshua were long dead and new generations arose in Israel that forgot the power of God to perform miracles.
They had also forgotten the commandment that God had given them to rid the Land of Canaan of every idolatrous nation. Instead, they allowed a few people to remain behind through kindness and generosity. They thought that they knew better than God, so they chose not to obey him. That was a bad decision that not only haunted Israel all through the Old Testament, but still haunts them today. When God said to destroy all of the enemy, that’s what he meant. What part of “all” could they not have understood?
Now when we forget God, and lose our relationship with him, then God says, “If that’s what you want, fine; but you are own your own. But even though He allows us to continue to do our thing, make our mistakes; he never really gives up on us. God loves us so much that he ever tries to draw us back to the cross and to our love for Him.
That’s what’s happening to Israel as we begin to read in the Book of Judges.
Judges 3:1-4, "Now these are the nations which the LORD left, to prove Israel by them, even as many of Israel as had not known all the wars of Canaan; Only that the generations of the children of Israel might know, to teach them war, at the least such as before knew nothing thereof; Namely, five lords of the Philistines, and all the Canaanites, and the Sidonians, and the Hivites that dwelt in mount Lebanon, from mount Baalhermon unto the entering in of Hamath. And they were to prove Israel by them, to know whether they would hearken unto the commandments of the LORD, which he commanded their fathers by the hand of Moses."
Did you catch what the Word says? God had allowed a new generation to arise in Israel in spite of their rebellious ways. His promise to make them a great nation that was given to Abraham had not been negated by their evil deeds.
The problem was that this new generation didn’t remember the miracles that God had performed for their forefathers. They weren’t born yet when Jericho’s wall fell or when God drowned Pharaoh’s army in the Red Sea. This new generation didn’t learn from the past, and if you don’t learn from the past, then you are destined to repeat the same mistakes time and again.
Since they were disobedient, tolerant of idolatry in the camp, didn’t know or doubted the miracle working power of God, and were totally ignorance of God’s ways, Israel hadn’t seen the miracle deliverance power of God work on their behalf for a very long time.
Because Israel wouldn’t lean upon God alone to fight their battles, God had to find a way to make them able to survive. He loved Israel so much that he went out of his way to see to it that the Jews would not be cast out of their Promised Land. God proved them by allowing idolatrous nations to arise in Canaan, descendants of those few idol worshippers who had been allowed to live in the beginning.
Israel would have to fight her own battles now. If they refused to let God fight them for them, then God would have to make them stronger so they wouldn’t be annihilated. He left those enemies so Israel could learn the art of war, learn to make their own weapons, learn to lean upon the arm of the flesh, instead of upon the arm of faith in God. Israel needed correction; disciple and the knowledge of how to defend their new land. God chose to use enemy nations to teach these hard lessons to Israel.
Judges 3:5-6, "And the children of Israel dwelt among the Canaanites, Hittites, and Amorites, and Perizzites, and Hivites, and Jebusites: And they took their daughters to be their wives, and gave their daughters to their sons, and served their gods."
Who were the Canaanites? The Canaanites were a sophisticated agricultural and urban people. The name Canaan means "Land of Purple" (a purple dye was extracted from a shellfish found near the shores of Palestine). The Canaanites had been around for at least 500 years before the Israelites entered their area and were probably the first people to invent a form of writing that became an alphabet, called Cuneiform.
The religion of the Canaanites was agricultural religion, with lots of fertility rites. Their main gods were called Baalim and Ashtoreth. Their religion proved to have a strong attraction to the Jews and many of them fell into idol worship because of the immorality connected with the fertility rites.
They became very promiscuous, intermarrying with idolaters and soon found themselves trapped in a web of deceit and immorality.
I believe we have a lot of “Canaanites” in our own community. There are fewer and fewer real marriages. And even if there is a marriage there’s often very little long tern commitment involved because divorce is rampant. Immorality is the rule of the day, so much so that many people who say they are Christians don’t even realize that they are far from God and living in immorality. And the sad fact is that most of the church world condones it or doesn’t say anything about it.
We’ve tolerated the Canaanites until it’s nearly impossible to weed them out now, and the church doesn’t see miracles; or see the delivering hand of God like it used to because of sin in the camp. God didn’t stop watching over his chosen nation, but he allowed them to fight their own battles. We will either pay the cost of staying close to God and let him be God in our lives, or we will pay the cost in blood, sweat and tears to do things our own way. Are you letting God fight for you, or are you trying to do it yourself?
Who were the Hittites? They were a warlike people. Their history is filled with wars, rebellions and fighting. When Israel came into contact with the Hittites they were sure to have a real fight on their hands. No peace could be established; constant squabbles were sure to arise; and basically, they made life in Israel miserable.
Do we have some Hittites around us? You can look at the news, or even get in your car and drive down the highway, minding your own business and run into a Hittite. Road Rage is getting worse all the time because of the Hittite attitude.
I was walking into the supermarket just a few days ago and I saw an older lady walking in front of me just trying to get in the store. Along came a little pickup with a few Hittites in it and they began to yell at her to, “Hurry up, Old Lady, so we can park where you are walking. You’re slowing us down.” We all could probably relate similar stories. Hittites are everywhere in spirit and attitude. The world is full of Hittites today, people who are always angry, don’t want peace and are willing to fight at the drop of a hat.
Lord help us, that Hittite spirit has even come into the church. Just let the preacher walk by without stopping and someone is sure to get their feelings hurt. “Why he didn’t even shake my hand.” It sounds funny but it’s true. There’s no one in the world more miserable to be around than a Christian with an old Hittite spirit. You can’t please them no matter what. Their feelings are on their sleeve and they love to let you know when you’ve hurt them. I look around and wonder if maybe there aren’t a few Hittites sitting in here right now.
Are there Hittites in your neighborhood; in your house; or in your church? God will let them stay there sometimes just to try your patience and see if you will still live for him and do the right thing. That old Hittite that just gets on your nerves constantly; is always butting into your business; always seems to just make life miserable for you, may be there because God allows it; and maybe its because your relationship with God isn’t where it should be. Just maybe, if you would get your own heart right with God, then the one who seems to be your enemy may just end up being your best friend. Give up and let God do it. You’re losing the battle anyway.
Next comes the Amorites. They were the forerunners of the Babylonians that would found the regions around Mesopotamia. The Amorites did not believe that life after death held any promise or threat, so Amorite religion focused only this world.
Many of the Jews lost their faith in God and began to believe that there was no life after death, and that there was no resurrection. This was a prevalent belief among the Sadducees even during the time of Jesus.
The “Amorite Spirit” is alive and well right here in our day too. I cannot tell you how many students in our high schools will say that they don’t believe in Heaven or hell. Many of them are convinced of reincarnation. Many have no beliefs at all because they weren’t trained to believe anything.
The Amorite Spirit won’t confess that there is an eternal God, but lives only for now, because they don’t believe in life after death. They won’t accept his Word, won’t hear the voice of the Holy Spirit and refuse to accept Jesus. They are reprobates concerning the things of the Spirit. You won’t have to look far to find some of these folks living in your own neighborhood.
Have you ever wondered if eternity is real? Is there really life after death? Are we just living this life and when it’s over, it’s over? Those kinds of thoughts are inspired by the devil and are the root of that Amorite Spirit alive in the church. When you begin to doubt God’s power and doubt his love, then you are getting dangerously close to being an Amorite in spirit.
The Perizzites were one of the largest enemy nations that dwelled in Canaan. They lived in smaller villages scattered over a large area and had no walled cities for protection. They lived like slaves and eventually even became slaves under King Solomon. What spirit can you see revealed in these Perizzites, and are there many of them around your neighborhood? Most importantly, are you a Perezzite in spirit this morning?
The spirit of a Perizzite is one of low self-esteem, a feeling of worthlessness, believing that you are not capable of doing anything right, or not up to the task that has been laid before you.
There are Perizzites in this church who have allowed the devil to beat them down and convince them that they are never going to be good enough to do a work for the Lord. Their walls of defense that can only be founded on faith in God are torn down. They feel all alone and just can’t seem to touch God for an answer.
A Perizzite spirit reads where the Bible says that, “we have sinned and come short of the glory of God” and they really misinterpret it to mean that they could never measure up to God’s standard so why even try. They read where the Word says that. “without me you can do nothing”, and they do absolutely nothing to change so that they can prove what the Word says.
A Perizzite needs to take up his cross, pick up his shield of faith, put his trust in the grace of God and have faith to move mountains. No, we will never measure up perfectly, we will never be good enough, but through the blood of Jesus and his power within us, we can do all things because Jesus strengthens us.
Perezzites are everywhere. They are constantly trying to bring you down to their level, telling you that it can’t be done. There were Perezzites hanging around when we started building a church saying that no one would come. There were Perezzites hanging around when we were trying to purchase this building saying that it would never happen. There were Perezzites who said that there were already too many churches in the area. I guess they don’t see that a huge percentage of the people in the area don’t even have a church.
If you listen to the Perizzites, you won’t build a nation; you won’t build a successful marriage or a happy home; you won’t get a better job; you won’t get to go on that long awaited vacation; you won’t serve the Lord; and you won’t make Heaven your home. They are lost and without hope and they want you to be the same way.
Are you a Perizzite this morning? Are you the one who always sees the black cloud and never the silver lining? Are you the one who always sees the negative side of everything and everybody around you? Are you the one who thrives on bad news, loves to tell others the bad news, and if there isn’t any, then you try to create it? Some people love to have drama going on around them all the time. They can’t rest, and they won’t let anyone else rest either. That’s the Spirit of the Perizzite and its alive and well!
The Hivites were another nation of enemies that God allowed to stay around to teach his people how to fight and survive. These Hivites were a different kind of people than the rest. They were the only nation in Canaan that didn’t practice circumcision of their male children, and they dwelled in the high country, up in the mountains.
You can spot the spirit of the Hivite in our community, and sometimes even in our church. The Hivite says, “I don’t care how much you preach about living a sanctified life preacher, I’m going to do what I want to do.” These are people who refuse to give up their hold on the worldly way of life. They want to be a part of the church and ride the fence to be acceptable by friends. They won’t make up their mind.
Are you a Hivite? Do you still love the things of the world more than the things of God? Are you so afraid of having to change your way of living that you are willing to miss Heaven just so you can enjoy the passions of the world? The Hivite spirit will never enter Heaven’s gates. We must circumcise our hearts, confess our sin, allow Jesus to clean it out and then come down off of our high horse and submit ourselves to Jesus.
Finally there were the Jebusites. The word "Jebusite" means "thresher", and refers to the beating grain out of the husk. This was usually done through animals walking on the grain that was laid out over a "threshing-floor".
Jebusite people have a spirit that treads or "stomps" on other people. If your heart is "infected" by a Jebusite spirit you will tend to constantly put down and humiliate others. By stomping on people, Jebusites make an effort to prevent them from growing taller. They like to make people feel small, and deliberately put them down any time they see these "small" people trying to establish their authority.
Jebusites believe that certain people are inherently inferior, without a right to have any kind of authority. According to Jebusites, "small" people should just shut up and concede, because they are nobodies who will never amount to much.
The spirit of racism is a Jebusite spirit. Jebusites are enforcers of social order. When one man looks upon another, and both are created in the image of God regardless of the color of their skin or their ethnic heritage, and automatically assumes that they are less of a man, then he has that Jebusite spirit.
Do you judge your fellowman by the color of his skin? Do you judge him by the clothes he wears, the food he eats, the job he holds, the house he lives in, or the car he drives? Do you judge by the outward appearance? If you do then you have the spirit of a Jebusite.
If you look around you will find that all of the enemies of Israel, that God allowed to stay around just to try Israel, are still here today. The church has fallen further from God, and many Christians are still holding on to the world. We think that we can fight our battles on our own. We must think that, because we don’t give them to God to fight for us.
It’s time we turned back to God in repentance and drove out the Canaanites, Hittites, Amorites, Perizzites, Hivites, and Jebusite once and for all. If Israel had obeyed God in the beginning, they wouldn’t have had to fight so many hard battles to get where God wanted them to go. God would have given them victory much quicker.
You can go on fighting your battles too, but you are going to have a much harder life than you would if you just surrendered your heart and life to Jesus fully and completely. Let God fight your battles. Put it all in his hands. You can’t do it alone anyway, and you’ll just be miserable trying. Let God be God in your life today.
