Deuteronomy 7:1-2 NKJV
“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, [2] 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.
The promised land of Canaan is an Old Testament foreshadowing of the abundant life that’s ours in Christ. It was a land that God had promised He had already given to Israel before they ever stepped foot into it, yet they were required to possess what He had provided. It was their inheritance, just as Christ and all that he is is our inheritance, and even though every believer is in Christ, only those who by faith possess their possessions actually enter into the good of it. The different nations that were living in Canaan had to be dispossessed because they were a threat to the Israelites experiencing the fullness of life in the land flowing with milk and honey. Even though from God’s perspective, they were already defeated, Israel had to cross the Jordan (which represents our crucifixion with Christ and our embracing that reality) and, by faith, one step at a time, take the ground that was already theirs. Names like Amorites, Canaanites, Hittites, and Jebusites can be exchanged for words like Fearites, Lustites, Angerites, Worryites, etc., for New Testament believers. Jesus came to set us free from the reign of sin because sin robs us of experiencing God’s dream of our enjoying all that He is and all that He has in union with Him through Christ. Just like the Lord told the Israelites that these enemy nations were mightier and stronger than them, it is also true that sin is mightier than our independent self-effort to overcome it. As Israel, one step at a time, believed God for the victory in the land of Canaan, resulting in God enforcing His victory on their behalf, so we too one step at a time, reckoning ourselves dead to sin, trust the indwelling Christ to enforce and manifest His victory through us, because He alone is bigger, and He alone is the Overcomer. Here is a key to not only the victorious life in the land of Canaan but also to our victorious life consistently experienced in our life in Christ. God said to them concerning the “ites” to utterly destroy them. He told them to make no covenant with them and to show them no mercy. When sin threatens us, we must show that sin no mercy not even for one moment. In other words, we can’t entertain the second thought. The first thought that comes to us is what temptation is, but at that point, we must remember that God in Christ has utterly destroyed that sin’s power over us, and at that moment, thank Jesus for being our victory. 1 Corinthians 15:57 says, “but thanks be to God who continually gives us the victory through our Lord Jesus Christ,” one step at a time. The degree to which you and I are committed to catching the little foxes the moment we see them will determine the level of consistent Christ-likeness that you what I enjoy and manifest. You see, all the “ites,” just like sin, were already defeated before the Israelites entered into the land of Canaan, but that victory had to be actualized one step at a time in their lives, just like in ours.