Deliver Us From Evil, Part 14
May 31, 2019
Last week, we started
off a bit differently than we have in the past, and this week’s Coffee Break is
no different. Last week, we dealt with
the effect of curses, and the non-effect of causeless curses. This week, let’s talk about deliverance from
the need to compromise.
In Psalm 122:6, David
writes, "Pray
for the peace of Jerusalem: they shall prosper that love thee. Peace be
within thy walls, and prosperity within thy palaces. For my brethren and
companions' sakes, I will now say, Peace be within thee. Because of the
house of the Lord our God I will seek thy good."
Then Ezekiel
prophesies, "Again
the word of the LORD came unto me, saying, Son of man, thy brethren, even thy
brethren, the men of thy kindred, and all the house of Israel wholly, are they
unto whom the inhabitants of Jerusalem have said, Get you far from the LORD:
unto us is this land given in possession. Therefore say, Thus saith the
Lord GOD; Although I have cast them far off among the heathen, and although I
have scattered them among the countries, yet will I be to them as a little
sanctuary in the countries where they shall come.
"Therefore say, Thus saith the Lord GOD; I will even gather
you from the people, and assemble you out of the countries where ye have been
scattered, and I will give you the land of Israel. And they shall come
thither, and they shall take away all the detestable things thereof and all the
abominations thereof from thence.
And I will give them one heart, and I will put a new spirit
within you; and I will take the stony heart out of their flesh, and will give
them an heart of flesh: That they may walk in my statutes, and keep mine
ordinances, and do them: and they shall be my people, and I will be their God.
But as for them whose heart walketh after the heart of their detestable things
and their abominations, I will recompense their way upon their own heads, saith
the Lord GOD." (Ezekiel 11:14-21)
Brother! What a
mouthful! Now, before we get too far along in this and you begin to
wonder where I'm headed in this discussion, let me lay a clear foundation.
In
Observe thou that which I command thee this day: behold, I drive
out before thee the Amorite, and the Canaanite, and the Hittite, and the
Perizzite, and the Hivite, and the Jebusite. Take heed to thyself, lest
thou make a covenant with the inhabitants of the land whither thou goest, lest
it be for a snare in the midst of thee: But ye shall destroy their altars,
break their images, and cut down their groves:
For thou shalt worship no other god: for the LORD, whose name is
Jealous, is a jealous God: Lest thou make a covenant with the inhabitants of
the land, and they go a whoring after their gods, and do sacrifice unto their
gods, and one call thee, and thou eat of his sacrifice; And thou take of their
daughters unto thy sons, and their daughters go a whoring after their gods, and
make thy sons go a whoring after their gods. Thou shalt make thee no molten
gods."
OK. That ought
to be a good start. You DO understand, do you not, what we're talking
about here?
God made
it absolutely, abundantly clear that the nation of Israel was NOT to compromise
with, make covenants with, nor co-habit the land of their inheritance with the
seven nations whom He had pronounced His judgment upon. Let's not forget
that the judgment against these seven nations actually goes back many hundreds
of years even before Israel was in captivity in Egypt. It began with a homosexual
act committed by Ham against his father, Noah, while he was in a drunken
stupor.
Lest you
think I'm off on some wild hair, let me take you back to
Let's be
clear about this. Noah didn't pronounce this most incredible of curses
because Ham had simply pulled his robe off to look at him while he was
drunk. Verse 22 of the same chapter tells us (
Gesenius,
in his Hebrew-Chaldee Lexicon,
tells us that the phrase "saw the nakedness of" is a
metaphor for engaging in an illicit sexual act -- regardless of whether
it refers to male or female.
The fact
that Ham committed this act was horrific enough as it was, but to commit it
upon his father was an unspeakable act of treachery and betrayal, never mind
the fact that he subsequently laughs and brags to his two brothers. I
know it seems like I'm going around a 40-acre field, but bear with me for a
moment.
Thus Noah
pronounced a curse upon Canaan, the firstborn son of Ham, along with all of the
seed to follow in that lineage. The Amorites, the Canaanites, the
Hittites, the Hivites, the Perizzites, the Jebusites and the Girgashites were
all descendants of Canaan. God specifically promised the lands of these
nations to Abraham, to Isaac, and to Jacob/Israel; and He subsequently told
Moses that HE would drive them out of the land before Israel. Israel,
however, was NOT to covenant with them, not to compromise with them in any way,
not to intermarry with their sons and daughters.
In fact,
they did just that. Only one of the seven nations actually disappeared --
the Girgashites. Both Scripture and history tell us that they fled from
the land before the oncoming Israelites. Joshua began the compromise with
the nations when he failed to check with the Lord concerning the
Gibeonites. Had he done so, he would quickly have learned that they were
Hivites who were using their deceptive and manipulative skills in order to
survive and avoid their destruction at that moment in time.
Let's not
forget that this tactic of the Hivites was already well established when the
sons of Hamor -- and particularly Shechem -- sought a covenant with Jacob in
the matter of Jacob's daughter, Dinah. The story unfolds in
We see
Shechem and Hamor talking with their fellow-Hivite elders
and saying, "These men are peaceable with us; therefore let them dwell
in the land, and trade therein; for the land, behold, it is large enough for
them; let us take their daughters to us for wives, and let us give them our
daughters.
Only herein will the men consent unto us for to dwell with us,
to be one people, if every male among us be circumcised, as they are
circumcised. Shall not their cattle and their substance and every beast
of theirs be ours? only let us consent unto them, and they will dwell with
us."
The
picture is quite obvious. Once they've intermarried with the descendants
of Jacob, their intention is to gobble up everything they've got. It was
a spirit that ruled the entire nation of Hivites. Deception, trickery,
lies, false promises, manipulation, using sexual seduction -- you name it --
all were characteristics of these people.
And the
Hivites were not alone in these characteristics. Those these traits were
the dominant traits of the Hivites -- and each of the other seven nations had
their own specific traits, cultural identities and characteristics -- the use
of deception and trickery in order to gain control of their enemies was common
to all seven nations.
Hence, the
Lord gave Moses a direct order to kill, to destroy every last man, woman,
child, cattle and beast of the field belonging to these nations: not to save
alive any portion of their existence, but to blot them out.
Got the
picture?
Good.
Let's take
this the next step. Most of those people who call themselves
"Palestinians" are, in fact, descendants of one or more of these
accursed nations. The present-day Gaza Strip is the old stomping grounds
of the Philistines, who were an Amorite tribe. Palestinians occupying the
so-called "West Bank" historically are descendants of the Amorites
and Hittites, along with a mix of Ammonites (present day Amman, Jordan [and one
of the oldest cities in continuous existence for thousands of years] gets its
name from its Ammonite forbears). The name, Palestine, actually derives
from its origin in Philistia (the Philistines).
Here's a
problem. Israel's old – and now imprisoned -- Prime Minister, Ehud
Olmert, announced his intention to divide the city of Jerusalem and give away
-- unilaterally, if necessary -- half the city to the Palestinians. That ultimately cost Olmert
his Prime Ministership, and eventually saw him tried
for fraud and corruption.
If memory
serves me correctly, it was Winston Churchill who once said, "Peace at any
price is no peace at all."
Olmert's
efforts to gain peaceful coexistence with the Palestinians were doomed before they
ever got off the ground. He sought, once again, to compromise with a
people who have made it abundantly clear (and have never renounced this) that
their ultimate purpose is the control of and eradication -- if necessary -- of
all Jews in Israel, along with the expunging of the name of Israel from the
lands and territories they want to call Palestine. Olmert, in fact, was simply
repeating the mistakes made by the leaders in Israel more than 3300 years
ago. His labors and efforts -- in ignorance, I am sure – could have
brought a curse upon the nation and the people.
With Hamas
now in control of the Palestinian people, their intentions have become very
overt, whereas before they were more covert. Before I go on with this,
let me make something very clear. We are not talking about a people, even
though we make reference to the Palestinians. There are many Palestinian
people who would just as soon live in peace and prosperity with the Jews.
There are many of them who don't care anything whatever for a so-called nation
of Palestine. There are many of them who actually are committed
Christians.
What I am
referring to is a spirit in control of the leadership of these people. It
is the same spirit that Israel needed to overcome that was in control of the
nations that occupied that region prior to its being given to the descendants
of Israel by the Lord God. This is a "principality," a
"ruler of the darkness" of the region. Once again, we see this
spirit seeking the elimination and annihilation of God's people, Israel, just
as it did when the Lord gave the lands to Abraham, Isaac and Jacob by divine
covenant.
And once
again, we saw the leaders in Israel seeking a compromise in order to bring an
end to the perpetual conflict that has plagued the region. While it isn't
hard to understand the desire for peace, peace at any price -- including the
giving away of one's inheritance, and especially half of a city that has the
most incredible history of any city in the world: a history of God's purposes
and His covenant with a people who have chosen a relationship with Him --
results in no peace, and ultimately the destruction of those who capitulate to
compromise.
David well
knew the history of Jerusalem before he wrote, "Pray for
the peace of Jerusalem," and then prophesied, "they
shall prosper that love thee."
That said,
one of the purposes of today's Coffee Break is to alert Christians to a
conspiracy of Satan -- actually a conspiracy that has existed for millennia --
and call the body of Christ to prayer and intercession for Jerusalem, and for
the nation of Israel. I believe it is incumbent upon us as believers to
pray the fulfillment of Ezekiel's prophecy, to wit:
"Thus saith the Lord GOD; I will even gather you from the
people, and assemble you out of the countries where ye have been scattered, and
I will give you the land of Israel. And they shall come thither, and they
shall take away all the detestable things thereof and all the abominations
thereof from thence.
And I will give them one heart, and I will put a new spirit
within you; and I will take the stony heart out of their flesh, and will give
them an heart of flesh: That they may walk in my statutes, and keep mine
ordinances, and do them: and they shall be my people, and I will be their God.
"
Let's make
it clear. The Palestinian inhabitants (under the control of this evil
spirit), "The inhabitants of Jerusalem have said, Get you far from
the LORD: unto us is this land given in possession." The gathering of
the people, as prophesied by Ezekiel, began many years ago. The
assembling out of the countries where Jews have been scattered for centuries
has been taking place since the 1940's. What has not yet manifested is
"a new spirit" and God's promise that "I will
take the stony heart out of their flesh."
In the
coming days and weeks, I call upon all of you who read this to join us in
concerted prayer and intercession for Jerusalem, and for Israel. God has
a purpose here, and I will not stand idly by knowing that purpose, and fail in
my responsibility to cry out on behalf of the city, and the nation.
There's a
whole lot more I could say on this, but hopefully, this will adequately spur
you to prayer, to intercession, to praise, to High Praise, to worship, to
"battle worship."
This is a
warning to those who would compromise with the Enemy. Beware, my brothers and sisters! Compromise leads to destruction!
In case you are
missing out on real fellowship in an environment of Ekklesia, our Sunday
worship gatherings are available by conference call – usually at about 10:30AM
Pacific. That conference number is (712) 770-4160, and the access code is 308640#. We are now making these gatherings
available on video using ZOOM. If you wish
to participate by video on ZOOM, our login ID is 835-926-513. If you miss the live voice-only call, you can
dial (712) 770-4169, enter the same access code and listen in
later. The video call, of course, is not
recorded – not yet, anyway.
Blessings
on you!
Regner A. Capener
CAPENER MINISTRIES
RIVER WORSHIP CENTER
Temple, Texas 76504
Email Contact: CapenerMinistries@protonmail.com
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