Gtcotr/ss031818
Genesis 2 NKJV
21 And the LORD God caused a
deep sleep to fall on Adam, and he slept; and He took one of his ribs, and
closed up the flesh in its place.
22 Then the rib which the
LORD God had taken from man He made into a woman, and He brought her to the
man.
23 And Adam said: “This is
now bone of my bones And flesh of my flesh; She shall be called Woman, Because
she was taken out of Man.”
God
created the man and woman and set them in the Garden of Eden and gave them His
guidelines by which to live. Be fruitful, multiply, fill the earth, subdue your
enemies and have dominion over all creation. And God said to them, “do not eat
of the tree of the knowledge of good and evil.” However, the subtle serpent,
that master evil spirit behind all our enemies, tempted the woman with
something she wanted … a better life! She got too focused on what she wanted
and failed to consider the impact it might have on others. The serpent never
asked her to eat, he just showed her something she wanted. That same devil is
still on the loose today …
Genesis 3
6 So when the woman saw that
the tree was good for food, that it was pleasant to the eyes, and a tree desirable
to make one wise, she took of its fruit and ate. She also gave to her husband
with her, and he ate.
13 And the LORD God said to
the woman, “What is this you have done?” The woman said, “The serpent
deceived me, and I ate.”
20 And Adam called his wife’s
name Eve, because she was the mother of all living.
Before
we go further into the study of our next enemy, I feel it prudent to affirm
that we are not focusing on women either having a problem or being a problem.
We are reading about Eve this morning, not because she is a woman, but because
she was the first person in the Bible to fall prey to the next enemy on the
list in Exodus 3:8.
Satan
was on the earth when Adam and Eve lived in the Garden of Eden. He embodied
every evil trait and tempted Eve to sin. When she doubted God and they
disobeyed Him, Adam and Eve were born-again, from life to death, into sin, and
became natural and worldly. Through Jesus we have been restored to faith and
are now born-again by Christ into righteousness and have become spiritual
beings. Those nation enemies faced by the children of Israel in the Promise
Land were empowered and controlled by satan and each one represents a spiritual
enemy we still face in life today.
God’s
hope is that we will not allow the temptations of the devil to influence,
dominate, control or destroy our lives. Today however, like in the Garden of
Eden, we do not wrestle against flesh and blood but against the evil spiritual
forces of this world. (Ephesians 6:12)
We
are in a spiritual war. And, the weapons of our warfare are not carnal but are
mighty through God to the pulling down of strongholds; casting down
imaginations and every high thing that exalts itself against the knowledge of God
and bringing into captivity every thought to obedience to Christ. (2
Corinthians 10:4-5)
Once
again it is important to note that the Old Testament accounts of the Children
of God conquering the Promise Land were not written for their sakes but for
ours. The Bible was written to be used as a roadmap for the Born-Again child of
God. It shows us the way of life, the temptations along the way, how to defeat
every enemy and how to recover if we fall.
This
morning, enemy number 5: The Hivite
Joshua 9
1 ¶ And it came to pass when
all the kings who were on this side of the Jordan, in the hills and in the
lowland and in all the coasts of the Great Sea toward Lebanon — the
Hittite, the Amorite, the Canaanite, the Perizzite, the Hivite, and the
Jebusite — heard about it,
2 that they gathered together
to fight with Joshua and Israel with one accord.
3 ¶ But when the inhabitants
of Gibeon heard what Joshua had done to Jericho and Ai,
4 they worked craftily, and
went and pretended to be ambassadors. And they took old sacks on their donkeys,
old wineskins torn and mended,
5 old and patched sandals on
their feet, and old garments on themselves; and all the bread of their
provision was dry and moldy.
6 And they went to Joshua, to
the camp at Gilgal, and said to him and to the men of Israel, “We have come
from a far country; now therefore, make a covenant with us.”
7 Then the men of Israel said
to the Hivites, “Perhaps you dwell
among us; so how can we make a covenant with you?”
8 But they said to Joshua,
“We are your servants.” And Joshua said to them, “Who are you, and where do you
come from?”
9 So they said to him: “From
a very far country your servants have come, because of the name of the LORD
your God; for we have heard of His fame, and all that He did in Egypt,
10 “and all that He did to
the two kings of the Amorites who were beyond the Jordan — to Sihon
king of Heshbon, and Og king of Bashan, who was at Ashtaroth.
11 “Therefore our elders and
all the inhabitants of our country spoke to us, saying, ‘Take provisions with
you for the journey, and go to meet them, and say to them, “We are your
servants; now therefore, make a covenant with us.”’
12 “This bread of ours we
took hot for our provision from our houses on the day we departed to come to
you. But now look, it is dry and moldy.
13 “And these wineskins which
we filled were new, and see, they are torn; and these our garments and our
sandals have become old because of the very long journey.”
14 Then the men of Israel
took some of their provisions; but they did not ask counsel of the LORD.
15 ¶ So Joshua made peace
with them, and made a covenant with them to let them live; and the rulers of
the congregation swore to them.
16 And it happened at the end
of three days, after they had made a covenant with them, that they heard that
they were their neighbors who dwelt near them.
17 Then the children of
Israel journeyed and came to their cities on the third day. Now their cities
were Gibeon, Chephirah, Beeroth, and Kirjath Jearim.
18 But the children of Israel
did not attack them, because the rulers of the congregation had sworn to them
by the LORD God of Israel. And all the congregation complained against the
rulers.
19 Then all the rulers said
to all the congregation, “We have sworn to them by the LORD God of Israel; now
therefore, we may not touch them.
20 “This we will do to them:
We will let them live, lest wrath be upon us because of the oath which we swore
to them.”
21 And the rulers said to
them, “Let them live, but let them be woodcutters and water carriers for all
the congregation, as the rulers had promised them.”
22 ¶ Then Joshua called for
them, and he spoke to them, saying, “Why have you deceived us, saying, ‘We are
very far from you,’ when you dwell near us?
23 “Now therefore, you are
cursed, and none of you shall be freed from being
slaves — woodcutters and water carriers for the house of my God.”
24 So they answered Joshua
and said, “Because your servants were clearly told that the LORD your God
commanded His servant Moses to give you all the land, and to destroy all the
inhabitants of the land from before you; therefore we were very much afraid for
our lives because of you, and have done this thing.
25 “And now, here we are, in
your hands; do with us as it seems good and right to do to us.”
26 So he did to them, and
delivered them out of the hand of the children of Israel, so that they did not
kill them.
27 And that day Joshua made
them woodcutters and water carriers for the congregation and for the altar of
the LORD, in the place which He would choose, even to this day.
Joshua
and the Children of Israel may have fooled themselves into thinking that the
Hivites would become their slaves but the rest of the Bible tells a different
story. Israel became the slaves of the Hivites. Every time the Hivites got into
trouble or had a need all they had to do was to call Joshua or any of the
future Judges or Kings and say, “Remember, you promised to take care of us …
someone is bothering us or we need something … would you come and take care of
it … after all, you gave us your word …”
It’s
amazing what that spirit of the Hivite can get others to do for them. The Hivite is a selfish, deceptive liar whose major concern
is what they can get to make their life better. No wonder God wants us to make no covenant with
a selfish person. Selfish people will consume your life and imagine what’s best
for them is best for everyone. After all, they imagine, “if it wasn’t for you I
wouldn’t be in this situation.”
That’s
exactly what Adam said when questioned about his sin in Genesis 3: “It was the woman You gave me God!” The Hivite spirit
sees everything from their single selfish perspective.
There
is a spiritual force in this world that wants to make you selfish or bring you
into bondage and under the thumb of someone who is
selfish.
The
nature of the Hivite is to tempt us to make life all about me. It’s either a
blindness or a self-deceiving spirit that keeps a person from seeing the impact
and affect of their actions on others. They are very in tune with what they
want and feel they need. The nature of the Hivite is to mother and nurture the
self-centered life and to blame others for the problems they cause. It doesn’t have to be a bad heart to be a bad habit.
Seeing
we are talking about the Hivite, why did we read from Genesis 3? You may have
noted that when God introduced the female to the man, Adam called her woman.
But, after she was tempted to doubt and fell into the sin of disregarding and
disobeying God’s Word and decided she was going to do what she felt was best
for herself, in other words, after she made life all about what she wanted and
made Adam eat of the forbidden fruit as well, then Adam called her name Eve.
Interesting
to note: In the Hebrew language, the word “Hivite”
comes from the word Eve. Eve was
tempted and deceived, and she embraced that spirit of doing what she wanted and
trying to get something for herself and then she blamed it all on the devil.
That’s the spirit of the Hivite and we have all been tempted to be selfish and to
have our reasons why.
How can I identify
the Hivite when he speaks to me?
Here
are some of the voices of the Hivite …
·
It’s
not really my fault. (When it really is …)
·
It
would be better for me. (Without considering the other person)
·
The
Hivite spirit can lie or deceive if it benefits them but they expect others to
tell the truth and to keep their word.
·
They
are masters at turning the tables and shifting the blame even when they caused
the problem.
·
They
feel, “As long as I’m ok, it’s ok.”
·
They
tell others, “How can you charge me or be mad at me? I was just doing what I
thought was best.” (Best for who?)
·
The
Hivite spirit wants you to focus on what others are doing to you instead of
what you did to them.
·
“Can’t
you see … this is about me!”
·
“Yes
I did do that, but I had a reason.”
·
“Surely
you’re not going to use that against me.”
·
“I
can’t believe you would do this to me.”
What can I
do to defeat this enemy?
·
Don’t make covenant with a selfish person. (Joshua 9:14; 2
Cor 6:14)
o Since some people
can be deceptive, how do you know?
o Give it a year …
you’ll know! (Joshua 9:16 – Not just 3 days …)
·
Defeat every temptation with the Word of God. (Luk 4:4; Eph
6:11ff)
o God puts people
together in relationship first for what they can give and not for what they can
get. Don’t make it all about you.
o Listen to yourself …
§ Check yourself
§ Challenge yourself
§ Change yourself
through prayer and God’s help
o If the loving,
caring, giving people who have made a long-term investment in your life tell
you that you are self-centered … you may be self-centered. (Joshua 9:22)
·
Accept responsibility for the problems you cause. (Psalms 51:4)
he Will of God for Man
