Cutting Off the Flesh — Not Letting Humanism Breathe

Cutting Off the Flesh — Not Letting Humanism Breathe

Seven Nations of the Promised Land... are a sevenfold representation of the humanistic nature of natural man... seven pictures of the nature of the flesh that will help us understand why people think and do what they do in a fallen world.

I teach a series about the 7 nations of the promised land (6) mentioned in Deuteronomy 20:17. And when a word study is done with the names of each of these nations (in order), you'll find that they are an accurate picture of the natural man and how the flesh manifests itself.

For example, the name HITTITE means "terror/fear" and the flesh will always manifest itself with a fear of what it sees with the eyes. Adam, after his fall, responded out of the flesh in fear, when he hid himself from God. It's a natural response to the fallen nature of man. This is the emphasis of Deuteronomy 20:1-3 where some sort of fear, terror, and faint-heartedness is mentioned at least 5 times about their potential response to what they will see or hear when they enter the land. Fear will then manipulate the mind and heart and produce the works of the flesh as described in Galatians 5.

But faith sees what God sees and allows God to govern our steps, for which will overcome what the flesh is telling us to flee and propel us to trust and obey. It's such a neat picture... each nation represents our flesh and how it functions or copes in this world. This is why they are instructed to cut them off and not let anyone breathe. The same principle is taught in the Newer Testament when it teaches us to mortify the flesh. We can't let it breathe... if we do, it will corrupt us. And fear is one of its first natural