Deuteronomy
7:1 ¶ When the LORD thy God shall bring
thee into the land whither thou goest to possess it, and hath cast out many
nations before thee, 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 thou; 2
And when the LORD thy God shall deliver them before thee; thou shalt
smite them, and utterly destroy them; thou shalt make no covenant with
them, nor shew mercy unto them: 3
Neither shalt thou make marriages with them; thy daughter thou shalt not
give unto his son, nor his daughter shalt thou take unto thy son. 4 For they will turn away thy son from
following me, that they may serve other gods: so will the anger of the LORD be
kindled against you, and destroy thee suddenly. 5 But thus shall ye deal with them; ye shall
destroy their altars, and break down their images, and cut down their groves,
and burn their graven images with fire. 6
For thou art an holy people unto the LORD thy God: the LORD thy
God hath chosen thee to be a special people unto himself, above all people that
are upon the face of the earth. 7
The LORD did not set his love upon you, nor choose you, because ye were
more in number than any people; for ye were the fewest of all people:
8 But because the LORD loved you, and
because he would keep the oath which he had sworn unto your fathers, hath the
LORD brought you out with a mighty hand, and redeemed you out of the house of
bondmen, from the hand of Pharaoh king of Egypt. 9 Know therefore that the LORD thy God, he is
God, the faithful God, which keepeth covenant and mercy with them that love him
and keep his commandments to a thousand generations; 10 And repayeth them that hate him to their
face, to destroy them: he will not be slack to him that hateth him, he will
repay him to his face. 11 Thou shalt
therefore keep the commandments, and the statutes, and the judgments, which I
command thee this day, to do them.
The
Hitites were the sons of Heth.
Genesis 23:10 And Ephron dwelt
among the children of Heth: and Ephron the Hittite answered Abraham in the
audience of the children of Heth, even of all that went in at the gate of his
city, saying,
The Girgashites were descendants of Canaan,
spelled with a minor variation in Genesis, chapter 10, also part of the prophecy
against or curse on Canaan. As well, so were the Amorites.
Genesis
10:15 ¶ And Canaan begat Sidon his
firstborn, and Heth, 16 And the
Jebusite, and the Amorite, and the Girgasite,
The Jebusites inhabited
Jerusalem.
Joshua
15:63 As for the Jebusites the
inhabitants of Jerusalem, the children of Judah could not drive them out: but
the Jebusites dwell with the children of Judah at Jerusalem unto this day.
Judges
1:21 And the children of Benjamin did
not drive out the Jebusites that inhabited Jerusalem; but the Jebusites dwell
with the children of Benjamin in Jerusalem unto this day.
2Samuel
5:6 And the king and his men went to
Jerusalem unto the Jebusites, the inhabitants of the land: which spake unto
David, saying, Except thou take away the blind and the lame, thou shalt not
come in hither: thinking, David cannot come in hither.
1Chronicles
11:4 And David and all Israel went to
Jerusalem, which is Jebus; where the Jebusites were, the inhabitants of the
land.
As Jerusalem was known
as Jebus I can only disagree with Strong and others who say the Jerusalem
means, “teaching of peace,” when with salem meaning peace it must have
meant, “peace of the Jebusites.” Please explain to me why my conclusion is
incorrect?
Is this not the Salem
of Melchizedek according to most Jewish commentators?
Genesis
14:18 And Melchizedek king of Salem
brought forth bread and wine: and he was the priest of the most high God.
Perizzites were
also Canaanites as were Hivites, descendants of Canaan in Genesis 10 and
the tribe from whence Shechem came who raped Dinah in Genesis 34. A wife of
Esau in Genesis 36 came from this ethnic group. The Amorites were also
noted as descendants of Canaan in Genesis 10.
Verse 2 and onwards
show that the Israelites were to make no treaties, no agreements, no covenants,
no marriages, and show no mercy to the inhabitants of the land. We have no
comparison to this in our Christian walk now except in our need to hate sin in
ourselves and have no mercy, no agreement with it, making no compromises.
Deuteronomy 7:6 shows
that the Israelites were chosen, were a special people. Note also;
Exodus
19:6 And ye shall be unto me a kingdom
of priests, and an holy nation. These are the words which thou shalt speak unto
the children of Israel.
While only a select few
were to engage in the services offered by the priests they were all priests in
a manner of speaking as the New Testament notes that all Christians are
priests, in a manner of speaking.
1
Peter 2:4 ¶ To whom coming, as unto a
living stone, disallowed indeed of men, but chosen of God, and precious, 5 Ye also, as lively stones, are built up a
spiritual house, an holy priesthood, to offer up spiritual sacrifices,
acceptable to God by Jesus Christ. 6
Wherefore also it is contained in the scripture, Behold, I lay in Sion a
chief corner stone, elect, precious: and he that believeth on him shall not be
confounded. 7 Unto you therefore which
believe he is precious: but unto them which be disobedient, the stone which the
builders disallowed, the same is made the head of the corner, 8 And a stone of stumbling, and a rock of
offence, even to them which stumble at the word, being disobedient: whereunto also
they were appointed. 9 But ye are a
chosen generation, a royal priesthood, an holy nation, a peculiar people; that
ye should shew forth the praises of him who hath called you out of darkness
into his marvellous light: 10 Which in
time past were not a people, but are now the people of God: which had not
obtained mercy, but now have obtained mercy. 11
Dearly beloved, I beseech you as strangers and pilgrims, abstain from
fleshly lusts, which war against the soul; 12
Having your conversation honest among the Gentiles: that, whereas they
speak against you as evildoers, they may by your good works, which they shall
behold, glorify God in the day of visitation.
The followers of
Christ are called an holy priesthood who deliver up spiritual sacrifices.
Romans
12:1 ¶ I beseech you therefore, brethren,
by the mercies of God, that ye present your bodies a living sacrifice, holy,
acceptable unto God, which is your reasonable service. 2 And be not conformed to this world: but be ye
transformed by the renewing of your mind, that ye may prove what is that good,
and acceptable, and perfect, will of God.
The
children of Israel were called out to be something special for God. The
Christian is called to a purpose, as well.
Deuteronomy
33:2 And he said, The LORD came from
Sinai, and rose up from Seir unto them; he shined forth from mount Paran, and
he came with ten thousands of saints: from his right hand went a fiery law for
them.
Isaiah
61:6 But ye shall be named the Priests
of the LORD: men shall call you the Ministers of our God: ye shall eat the
riches of the Gentiles, and in their glory shall ye boast yourselves.
Revelation
1:6 And hath made us kings and priests
unto God and his Father; to him be glory and dominion for ever and ever. Amen.
Revelation
5:10 And hast made us unto our God kings
and priests: and we shall reign on the earth.
Revelation
20:6 Blessed and holy is he that hath
part in the first resurrection: on such the second death hath no power, but
they shall be priests of God and of Christ, and shall reign with him a thousand
years.
Verses 9 through 11 in
Deuteronomy, chapter 7 reinforce the warning to the Israelites to obey God or
face the consequences.
Exodus
20:5 Thou shalt not bow down thyself to
them, nor serve them: for I the LORD thy God am a jealous God, visiting the
iniquity of the fathers upon the children unto the third and fourth generation
of them that hate me;
The full extent of the
blessing available to the Israelites is revealed in the next passage.
Verse 5 reveals a bit
of the types of worship in the ancient world. We’ve already seen the sexual
content of ancient worship and I explained what I had found.
Exodus 34:13
But ye shall destroy their altars, break their images, and cut down
their groves:
In verse 5 here in Deuteronomy 7 and in Exodus 34:13 the
Israelites are told to break down the altars, images, and groves of the people
of the land they’ve been given. Images includes the renditions of birds and
animals the Canaanites worshipped.
Numbers 33:52 Then ye shall
drive out all the inhabitants of the land from before you, and destroy all
their pictures, and destroy all their molten images, and quite pluck down all
their high places:
This
is in keeping with the commandment.
Exodus 20:4 Thou shalt not
make unto thee any graven image, or any likeness of any thing that is
in heaven above, or that is in
the earth beneath, or that is
in the water under the earth:
Sacred groves of trees and even particular types of trees were
common in the ancient world’s religions as has been noted by several authors in
history.
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