Out and Up
Part 4 – The Test
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In the book of Exodus, God warned His children to not live in peace with their sworn enemies. God identified these enemies in Exodus 3:8. It took a long time, but Joshua and the Children of Israel faced and defeated each one, except one. This brings us to the next enemy on our list, The Hivite.
Joshua 11
18 Joshua made war a long time with all those kings.
Verse 15 says that Joshua left nothing undone of all the Lord commanded.
19 There was not a city that made peace with the children of Israel, except the Hivites, the inhabitants of Gibeon. All the others they took in battle.
Why the Hivites? Well, there is an interesting story which you can read in Joshua chapter 9. It seems the Hivites were more cunning than any other enemy in the land. By the word cunning I mean crafty, sneaky, artfully deceptive. Allow me to tell you the story. (The account of Joshua 9)
Joshua 9:4 says the Hivites worked craftily and pretended to be ambassadors from a far away country bringing support to Israel. They pretended like they wanted to help Israel accomplish their God given destiny. But they were liars, just like their father the devil. He too was a liar from the beginning.
Did you know that the root word in the Hebrewlanguage for craftily is the same root word God used to describe the cunningness of the serpent in the Garden of Eden.
Genesis 3:1 ¶ Now the serpent was more cunning than any beast of the field which the LORD God had made. And he said to the woman, “Has God indeed said, ‘You shall not eat of every tree of the garden’?”
Notice that the devil never asked Eve to eat of the forbidden fruit … he was crafty, artfully deceptive. As well, unless you have had the occasion to study the original Hebrew text, you may not know that before sin Adam and God referred to Eve as “the woman” while after sin she is called Eve.
Eve means the mother of all living and is also the same Hebrew root word for the word Hivite. The connection between Eve and the Hivites centers around deceiving or being deceived. To bring to birth lies and falsehoods … things that have life without the life of God.
The spirit of the Hivite is an enemy to the child of God- Believing things and sharing things that are not the truth. Believing it does not make it true.
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.
Specifically focusing on the rulers of the darkness of this age, we know for a certainty that the Apostle Paul was referring to the deceptive art the devil has perfected concerning the divine things of God.
James 1:14 teaches us that a person can only be tempted with something they want … drawn away by their own lust, and enticed as he puts it. We see this happening with Eve and the original sin.
Eve was a good woman. In fact, she was the most perfect daughter of God ever to live. Eve was not a bad person; however she was wrong. The only thing Eve wanted was the same thing God wanted. She wanted to be like God; she wanted a better life; she wanted to be wise; she only wanted what she wanted, and I believe it was what God wanted for her as well.
I believe that in time, God’s time, and in God’s way, as she grew and took the next steps God offered that God would have given her everything her heart desired. Her problem, and where deception and sin entered the picture, was when the devil offered her a quick fix. All she had to do was go a little outside of what the Word of God said. The devil is sneaky, crafty, cunning, and artfully deceptive when it comes to God’s will for your life.
The devil tried the same thing with so many people, especially God’s chosen throughout the Bible and God writes about it. From Abraham to David and from Rahab to the Apostle Peter, the devil only offered them what they always wanted. Ecclesiastes 1:9 says there is nothing new under the sun. People want what they want right now … the Hivite is selfish.
The devil even tried it with Jesus in Luke 4:5-7. He knew what Jesus wanted and what God was intending to give Him. So what did the devil do? Satan offered Jesus a quick and painless way to get what He always wanted. “You can be king of all the kingdoms of the earth right here and now!” All you have to do is step a little outside of the way and boom, they’re all yours. Satan offered Jesus a crown without the cross.
Ephesians 4:14 We should no longer be children, tossed to and fro and carried about with every wind of doctrine, by the trickery of men, in the cunning craftiness of their deceitful plotting.
Ok – for the conclusion. Seeing that so many men and women of faith have been tricked by the spirit of the Hivite, how can I be sure I am not being deceived into thinking I am hearing from God when I’m really not?
Glad you asked … Here is the only fool-proof way to know you are hearing from God and not being deceived by the devil.
3 Step God Test
Violate any one of these and it is not God.
The devil tried to deceive and control Jesus by using the Word of God and by using the Will of God … Jesus knew better. Knowing what God wants is but one part of the equation … how you achieve it is equally important. Test yourself often and remember: Believing it does not make it true and being truthful does not equal being right. The Word; The Will; The Way!
