ELIMINATING THE ENEMY
Joshua 24:8-12 ‘And I brought you into the land of the Amorites, who dwelt on the other side of the Jordan, and they fought with you. But I gave them into your hand, that you might possess their land, and I destroyed them from before you. ‘Then Balak the son of Zippor, king of Moab, arose to make war against Israel, and sent and called Balaam the son of Beor to curse you. ‘But I would not listen to Balaam; therefore he continued to bless you. So I delivered you out of his hand. ‘Then you went over the Jordan and came to Jericho. And the men of Jericho fought against you—also the Amorites, the Perizzites, the Canaanites, the Hittites, the Girgashites, the Hivites, and the Jebusites. But I delivered them into your hand. ‘I sent the hornet before you which drove them out from before you, also the two kings of the Amorites, but not with your sword or with your bow.
Deuteronomy 9:1-6 “Hear, O Israel: You are to cross over the Jordan today, and go in to dispossess nations greater and mightier than yourself, cities great and fortified up to heaven, “a people great and tall, He who goes over before you as a consuming fire. He will destroy them and bring them down before you; so you shall drive them out and destroy them quickly, as the LORD has the descendants of the Anakim, whom you know, and of whom you heard it said, ‘Who can stand before the descendants of Anak?’ “Therefore understand today that the LORD your God is said to you.
Numbers 33:55 ‘But if you do not drive out the inhabitants of the land from before you, then it shall be that those whom you let remain shall be irritants in your eyes and thorns in your sides, and they shall harass you in the land where you dwell.
Joshua 3:10 And Joshua said, “By this you shall know that the living God is among you, and that He will without fail drive out from before you the Canaanites and the Hittites and the Hivites and the Perizzites and the Girgashites and the Amorites and the Jebusites:
Ephesians 6:12 For we do not wrestle against flesh and blood, but against principalities, against powers, against the rulers of the darkness of this age, against spiritual hosts of wickedness in the heavenly places.
Arxos = ruler, authority – as in archangel
Exousias = power or authority
Kosmo = the realm of the heaven - cosmic
Kratoras = ruler as in bureaucrat of darkness
Pneumatika = spiritual forces
These are our true enemy
The people or nations that dwelt in the land of promise were not just people but spiritual powers that controlled and ruled over people. Refer to Deut 9 where it says “up to heaven.”
The Biblical view of our enemy is that it is a supernatural spiritual domain that influences the natural either for the good as the “Kingdom of God” or for the bad as the “Kingdom of Satan”.
THE METHODS
2 Corinthians 2:11 lest Satan should take advantage of us; for we are not ignorant of his devices.
Rev 12 – “the accuser”
2 Cor 10:3-5, 11:3
1. Thoughts
2. Arguments
3. Pretensions
SEVEN ENEMIES THAT NEED TO BE ELIMINATED
1. CANAANITES = trafficker, to be brought low by traffic or trade. A spirit of greed or lust, materialism and poverty. Lot, Achan, Judas, Annanias and Sapphira. Two ways lack and overabundance.
2. HITTITES = dread or fear, to make afraid, scared, terrified, broken. A spirit of fear entered into the world through sin Adam and Eve were afraid. Jesus “Fear not” Pro 29:25 “The fear of man brings a snare” 2 Tim 1:7.
3. HIVITES = dweller in a village, root is life giver. This spirit is a deluding, deceptive spirit offering what some mistake as life but is really death. John 12:25 “He who loves his life will lose it, and he who hates his life in this world will keep it for eternal life. 2 Tim 4:9,10 Demas.
4. PERIZZITES = unwalled town or city, the second meaning squatter, one who occupies property to which he has no legal right. This speaks of being unguarded, a place where the enemy could enter at will because of a false sense of security, an inability to discern, a lack of control. This word also means to separate not in a good sense but in the sense of seperation from the flock. A lack of covering. 1 Peter 5:8 Be sober, be vigilant; because your adversary the devil walks about like a roaring lion, seeking whom he may devour. Ezekiel 38:10,11 ‘Thus says the Lord GOD: “On that day it shall come to pass that thoughts will arise in your mind, and you will make an evil plan: “You will say, ‘I will go up against a land of unwalled villages; I will go to a peaceful people, who dwell safely, all of them dwelling without walls, and having neither bars nor gates’
5. GIRGASHITES = dwellers in clay soil or black mud, on who returns from a pilgrimage, to turn back, to mingle. Apostasy – Demas. Backsliding Lot’s wife looked back. Looked = expectantly, with desire.
6. AMORITES = to say or to speak, to speak against, to boast. The serpent spoke to Eve! The Holy Spirit speaks to us. What do we confess? There is no more deadly foe of faith than doubt!
Proverbs 18:21 Death and life are in the power of the tongue, And those who love it will eat its fruit.
Slang, swearing, criticism, gossip, negativity, murmuring. Numbers 12:2 So they said, “Has the LORD indeed spoken only through Moses? Has He not spoken through us also?” And the LORD heard it.
7. JEBUSITES = treading down, trodden, trampled by feet, to pollute, to defile. This is a spirit of condemnation, accusation and intimidation that leaves us downtrodden and defeated. Jerusalem renamed Jebusi (Joshua 18:28) Mount Moriah Ornan a Jebusite, the place of the Presence instead became a threshing floor of the Devil.
Eliminating the Enemy
Joshua 5:1-12
Revelation 12:11 “And they overcame him by the blood of the Lamb and by the word of their testimony, and they did not love their lives to the death.
1. Covenant = circumcision = shedding of blood representing the renewal of covenant. Flesh is cut away. This whole picture speaks of faith in God, helpless to battle in own strength.
2. Consecration = seperation to God through the act of circumcision revealing their commitment to God.
3. Celebration = of the Passover for the reproach of Egypt, the condemnation of the past had been rolled away.
Discover ourselves. Sever yesterday. Slice away unworthy values.
1. From flesh to Spirit.
2. From manna (Wilderness supply) to fruit.
3. From us to Him.
It is to be noted that it was God Who delivered the Amorites into the hand of Israel. The victory was His, and so is it with regard to the deliverance of the Church. Man can claim no glory. It all belongs to God.
Colossians 2:8-15 Beware lest anyone cheat you through philosophy and empty deceit, according to the tradition of men, according to the basic principles of the world, and not according to Christ. For in Him dwells all the fullness of the Godhead bodily; and you are complete in Him, who is the head of all principality and power. In Him you were also circumcised with the circumcision made without hands, by putting off the body of the sins of the flesh, by the circumcision of Christ, buried with Him in baptism, in which you also were raised with Him through faith in the working of God, who raised Him from the dead. And you, being dead in your trespasses and the uncircumcision of your flesh, He has made alive together with Him, having forgiven you all trespasses, having wiped out the handwriting of requirements that was against us, which was contrary to us. And He has taken it out of the way, having nailed it to the cross. Having disarmed principalities and powers, He made a public spectacle of them, triumphing over them in it.
