De 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… Nu 33:55 But if ye will not drive out the inhabitants of the land from
before you; then it shall come to pass, that those which ye let remain of them shall be pricks in your eyes, and thorns in your sides, and shall vex you in the land wherein ye dwell.
God promised the Israelites a land called Canaan to be their place of habitation. However, they were told of squatters already possessing the territory. God said they were seven nations mightier than the children of Israel. Old Testament scripture speaks of these seven nations that would impact the people of God and God’s command to destroy them. These were the giants that occupied their promised land – the Hittites, Girgashites, Amorites, Canaanites, Perizzites, Hivites, and Jebusites. Although this is a historical event, there is a spiritual application for the New Testament church hidden within the names of the giants that reflect the soul’s issues that will hinder your obtaining and maintaining your promised land. For example, in looking at the meaning in Hebrew for each:
Hitties — paralyzing fear and terror from which springs forth in anger, worry, gluttony, frozen emotions, self-destruction, and violence.
Amorite— pride, which is the source of arrogance and selfishness sarcasm, stealing, conceit, show off, envy, extravagance
Perrizite— apartness and separateness causing one to be aloft, faultfinding, competitive, critical, gossipy, and barren.
Canaanite— humiliation, low opinion of oneself causing shame, stupidity, rejection, and infantile behavior never maturing.
Hivite— deception antichrist, jezebel spirit, sly, cunning, witchcraft, religious, disbelief, unbelief
Girgashites— decedents of Canaan full of lust, self-abuse, covetousness, and promiscuity
Jebusite— polluted, impure, profanity, wickedness, laziness, trodden down, discouragement, and poverty
God said that they would cause the children of Israel blindness and pain by being thorns is their side and pricks in their eye: If you do not drive out these inhabitants in your land, they will be
thorns in your side which can cause pain and pricks in your eye which speaks of blinding your vision. The other result is that they will become thorns in your side suggests that they will be the cause of nagging pain or sharp stabbing pains. Imagine an acute nagging pain like you may have experienced from time to time when you have a pain in your side that never goes away. It is hard to accomplish God’s vision for our lives when we cannot see, and we are in pain.
God has promised you blessings. We are unique in the gifts God has given us through his creative process. The process of conception and birth guarantees that no two people will ever be alike. We have the power and the opportunity to shape our destinies as agents with free will. We are heaven’s diplomats representing the world to the Kingdom of God to a world that does not know the Great God (2 Corinthians 5:20). God intended us to use our gifts and talents to demonstrate his glory and open doors of opportunity to share the good news of Jesus Christ. It is these gifts that when the Lord returns, we must give an account for what we have done with them (Matthew 25:14-30), despite giants sitting in opposition to our obtaining the promises.
Consider the butterfly. Just like the butterfly, we must go through a process like their metamorphosis. If you were to find a butterfly struggling to escape its cocoon, you would find a swollen creature with underdeveloped wings. You must not help it, or it will not be able to survive. God designed the butterfly so that the struggle to get out of the cocoon makes it sturdy and ready to fly. We must drive out the inhabitants in our promised land; these struggles define us for eternity and give us the strength to occupy until he comes (Luke 19:13). God has equipped us to defeat giants utterly. Greater is He who is in us (I John 4:4) then the squatters on our
promised land. For in Christ and through the power Holy Spirit, we have the means to victory!!!