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SPIRITUAL CONFRONTATION IN THE LAND OF CANAAN BETWEEN GOD'S PEOPLE AND THE DEVIL'S
THE ORIGIN OF THE LAND OF CANAAN :
Canaan was a grandchild of Noah [Gen. 10:6]
Canaan begot Sidon his firstborn, and Heth; the Jebusite, the Amorite, and the Girgashite; the Hivite, the Arkite, and the Sinite; the Arvadite, the Zemarite, and the Hamathite.
Afterward the families of the Canaanites were dispersed. And the border of the Canaanites was from Sidon as you go toward Gerar, as far as Gaza; then as you go toward Sodom, Gomorrah, Admah, and Zeboiim, as far as Lasha. Gen. 10:15-19 NKJV
These people had come from the area where Nimrod had tried to start the Tower of Babel and they had brought with them the occultist satanic religions started in that area of the world with the Baal and the Ashtoreth. These are all nations and tribes that came to the land from the descendants of Canaan just before Abraham and Sarah came to this area following God’s calling. [Gen. 12:1-5]
“
Abram passed through the land to the place of Shechem, as far as the terebinth tree of Moreh.
And the Canaanites were then in the land.
” Gen. 12:6
But God promised Abraham the land of Canaan and that it would belong to him and his descendants forever: “Also I give to you and your descendants after you the land in which you are a stranger, all the land of Canaan, as an everlasting possession; and I will be their God.” Genesis 17:8 NKJV
But the land would not be given to Abraham’s descendants until four hundred years had passed: “Then He said to Abram: “Know certainly that your descendants will be strangers in a land that is not theirs, and will serve them, and they will afflict them four hundred years…But in the fourth generation they shall return here, for the iniquity of the Amorites is not yet complete.” Genesis 15:13, 16 NKJV.
The evil of the inhabitants of the land of Canaan would continue to increase until finally, God would judge them for all their evil and then the descendants of Abraham would come to inherit the land.
TAKING POSSESSION OF THE LAND OF CANAAN — GREAT BATTLES AND SPIRITUAL ATTACKS :
As the children of Israel got ready to enter the Promise Land, God made specific instructions to the people to have nothing to do with the people of the land because of the many demonic gods they worshiped and the satanic rituals they performed.
God commanded Moses and later Joshua to utterly destroy everything and everyone of these tribes, as they came to possess the land: “
When the LORD your God brings you into the land which you go to possess, and has cast out many nations before you, the Hittites and the Girgashites and the Amorites and the Canaanites and the Perizzites and the Hivites and the Jebusites, seven nations greater and mightier than you, and when the LORD your God delivers them over to you, you shall conquer them and utterly destroy them. You shall make no covenant with them nor show mercy to them.
” Deut. 7:1-2 NKJV
In the book of Judges [Judges 1:21-36], it is written how each of the tribes did not drive out nor destroyed the inhabitant of the land of Canaan completely. Some were left and the LORD God spoke to the children of Israel about their disobedience: “
And you shall make no covenant with the inhabitants of this land; you shall tear down their altars.’ But you have not obeyed My voice. Why have you done this? Therefore I also said, ‘I will not drive them out before you; but they shall be thorns in your side, and their gods shall be a snare to you.
’” Judges 2:2-3 NKJV
Soon the demonic power of their gods came to overtake Israel: “Thus the children of Israel dwelt among the Canaanites, the Hittites, the Amorites, the Perizzites, the Hivites, and the Jebusites. And they took their daughters to be their wives, and gave their daughters to their sons; and they served their gods. So the children of Israel did evil in the sight of the LORD. They forgot the LORD their God, and served the Baals and Asherahs.” Judges 2:10-14 NKJV
GOD’S PUNISHMENT FOR ISRAEL’S REBELLIONS :
The story of the nation of Israel to the time of the destruction by the Babylonians is one of disobedience to God’s commandments going after other gods; then repentance and crying out to God when they were defeated by their enemies; and finally God would send deliverance.
But the contamination from these false gods and demonic religion became so bad that God had to finally give them to their enemies for destruction at the time of the attack from Babylon. This is what they answered Jeremiah after the fall of Jerusalem: “But we will certainly do whatever has gone out of our own mouth, to burn incense to the queen of heaven and pour out drink offerings to her, as we have done, we and our fathers, our kings and our princes, in the cities of Judah and in the streets of Jerusalem. For then we had plenty of food, were well-off, and saw no trouble. But since we stopped burning incense to the queen of heaven and pouring out drink offerings to her, we have lacked everything and have been consumed by the sword and by famine.” Jeremiah 44:17-18 NKJV
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