Hivite

"When the Lord your God brings you in-to the land...and has cleared away...the Hivites...you shall not make a covenant with them..." (Deuteronomy 7:1-2).

This week we're looking at the Hivite, which means, serpent. Although the serpent represents satan, it also repre-sents the three areas he attacks us in:  the lust of the flesh, lust of the eye, and the pride of life.   

"Now the serpent was more crafty (subt-le, skilled in deceit) than any living crea-ture of the field which the Lord God had made.  And the serpent (satan) said to the woman, 'Can it really be that God has said, 'You shall not eat fruit from any tree of the garden'?"  And the woman said to the serpent, "We may eat fruit from the trees of the garden, except the fruit from the tree which is in the middle of the garden.  God said, 'You shall not eat from it nor touch it, otherwise you will die.'" (Genesis 3:1-3)

vs 6(a), "And when the woman saw that the tree was good for food, and that it was delightful to look at, and a tree to be desired in order to make one wise and insightful, she took some of its fruit and ate it..."

We're all very familiar with this account of the fall of man, and too often blame Adam and Eve for our [sinful] world and spiritual condition. Jokes are made about it, too; 'the devil made me do it'.  But I submit, it's no joking matter. We're all attacked (at one time or another) by the serpent's temptations; even Jesus was.

"And the tempter came and said to Him, 'If you are the Son of God, command that these stones become bread.'" (Matthew 3:10).  This is the lust of the flesh.  But unlike Adam and Eve, Jesus didn't give-in to the temptation, but overcame it by the Word:  "But Jesus replied, 'It is written and forever remains written, 'Man shall not live by bread alone, but by every word that comes out of the mouth of God.'" (Matthew 3:4). 

Then there was the lust of the eye. "Then the devil took Him into the holy city and placed Him on the pinnacle of the temple.  And he said [mockingly] to Him, 'If You are the Son of God, throw Yourself down; for it is written,
     'He will command His angels concern-
     ing You [to serve, care for, protect and
     watch over You]'; and they will lift
     You up on their hands, so that You
     will not strike Your foot against a
     stone.'
Jesus said to him, 'On the other hand, it is written and forever remains written, 'You shall not test the Lord your God.'" (Matthew 4:5-7).

Then there was the temptation of the pride of life.  "Again, the devil took Him up on a very high mountain and showed Him all the kingdoms of the world and the glory of them; and he said to Him, 'All these things I will give You, if You fall down and worship me.' Then Jesus said to him, 'Go away, Satan! For it is written and forever written, 'You shall worship the Lord God and serve Him only." (Matthew 4:8-10).

There's only one way to defeat the serpent and the temptation(s) he uses against us, and that's with the Word of God; if it worked for Jesus, it will work for us.  This is the Sword of the Spirit we talked about when we [previously] discussed doing warfare against the Girgashites.  But like Jesus, we must know the Word before the serpent comes to tempt us.  You'll notice, satan even tried using the Word to entice Jesus to sin; you'll have to be able to spot the Word being twisted by a Hivite.  

The Bible tells us in James 1:14, "But each one is tempted when he is dragged away, enticed and baited [to commit sin] by his own [worldly] desire (lust, passion)."  We have to know what our weaknesses are; the enemy does.  He knows where the breaches are in our wall; remember the Perizzites we studied last week?  

To defeat the Hivite, we must return to our warfare strategy used against the Girgashites, and put on the whole armor of God; especially taking up the Sword of the Spirit, which is the Word of God.




Join me next Friday for another Devotional In His Word