Living Part 6 Here we Go!

When the Lord your God brings you into the land you are entering to possess and drives out before you many nations—the Hittites, Girgashites, Amorites, Canaanites, Perizzites, Hivites and Jebusites, seven nations larger and stronger than you and when the Lord your God has delivered them over to you and you have defeated them, then you must destroy them totally. Make no treaty with them, and show them no mercy. Do not intermarry with them. Do not give your daughters to their sons or take their daughters for your sons, for they will turn your sons away from following me to serve other gods, and the Lord's anger will burn against you and will quickly destroy you. This is what you are to do to them: Break down their altars, smash their sacred stones, cut down their Asherah poles and burn their idols in the fire. Deuteronomy 7:1-5 NIV

Moses who now was 120 years old was giving final instructions on how to go posses the land of milk and honey;the land of promise from the Lord. Remember Moses was not just the deliver of Israel but also a prophet of Yahweh. So these were not just his thoughts of what to do but as spokesman for God he was giving God's strategy. The land was inhabited with different tribes of Canaan. There are seven of those tribes mentioned here but my research shows a total of 12 tribes. We know that the number 7 stands for perfection so the importance of the words here are pointed out with an explanation point to the early reader knowing that by only mentioning 7 they were to listen carefully. Why?

Remember a guy named Noah? Noah was found to be righteous before the Lord and was used as we know to save humankind. In other words he was the Lords anointed! The Bible is full of lessons of how we are to respect and treat the Lords appointed ones. Noah's son Ham sinned before the Lord by bringing shame upon Noah by pointing out his faults and bringing attention to others of his nakedness. That is another lesson for another day but as the Lord's appointed he was inspired of God to curse his son Ham for his actions. This sin was also a generational curse that was placed upon Ham's youngest son Canaan which has been better known as the Canaanite curse.

So now the land that Moses refers to above as the land of promise was inhabited by tribes of Canaan. And God was now going to deal finally with their generational sin as he commanded the nation of Israel to defeat them and drive them out. There is actually a spiritual meaning to each of these tribes and for us to learn them and to defeat them today is as important as it was then. Read the scripture above again as it will be the basis of the next several posts. We will learn what God wants us to defeat in our lives and in his church so we can live in the land of promise. Get ready for a great ride and to start defeating the foe that keeps you from living life to its fullest. Have a great day!