Giants and grasshoppers: Numbers 13:32-33
In his 1982 book Overcoming Reginald Klimionok takes a close look at the root meaning behind the names given to the seven tribal peoples God told the Israelites to expunge from the Promised Land. The Israelites were banished to the wilderness for 40 years when they refused to invade the land and fight these people, amongst whom were the men of Anak – giants like Goliath. They refused to trust God to give them the victory over either ordinary mortals or the Giants; exhibiting a consummate lack of trust in God even after he had openly demonstrated his power in extracting them from Egypt. Many preferred to return to their servitude rather than face the challenge God had put before them. In Numbers 13 they even go so far as to compare themselves to grasshoppers against the seven tribes God was demanding they confront.
Klimionok definitions for these seven tribal names are found at the end of this piece. I’m going to reflect briefly on their applicability today. After reading Klimionok’s book, back in the 80s, it struck me that the western Church had all but adopted a grasshopper view of itself when confronted with fast changing socio-political conditions that mirror the definitions. Take a look at them. The Amorites, Hivites, et al are alive and well today in the twin giants of liberalism and corporatism. When confronted with them the western Church has, with some very limited exceptions, clung to the same avoidance culture found amongst the Israelites and recorded in Numbers 13:33.
If you think that is unfair look to all but the Amorites and it’s not hard to see distinct parallels. It has been completely taken aback and cringes before the liberal-corporate onslaught engulfing the West. The Church has in large measure succumbed to the Caananite cum Hivite love of materialism and worldly lifestyles. Christians live lives hardly discernible from these consumerist spirits. Then there is the Perrizite defencelessness rampant in churches. Their ability to defend themselves and their neighbour against all the harm caused by the false creeds and policies dismembering western culture and western churches is all but non-existent. Having become the hapless victim of the foregoing the western church is easy prey for the Girgashite and Jebusites. The Church is so mired by weakness it cannot make any real advances against the two giants. At the same time it is constantly being trodden down by intimidation, caricatures and condemnation.
The NGC evangelism strategy rests on the conviction that the ‘seven tribes’ can and must be confronted by the western Church for the same reason God demanded the Israelites take them on. Collectively these tribes were doing everything God hated. They were marked for judgement and the Israelites were to be God’s instrument. The characteristics of all seven are to be found in the two giants of liberalism and corporatism. Under the new covenant the Church is God’s instrument for the righteous condemnation of sin, only it is not sword and spear that wins the day but truth, repentance and forgiveness. The NGC strategy is metaphorically the ‘weapon’ through which local churches can take the sword of the spirit to the root of evil found in all that the liberal-corporate elites are doing to deny individuals made in his image the right to know the truth and be set free to realise the full potential to live fulfilled lives. Economic volatility and global warming are used to create fear; minds and tongues are inflamed against truth; people are mired in a feudal style consumerism that demands their lives must only revolve around work and pleasurable distractions, while real power over their lives is vested in the political and corporate classes. The Church is deliberately marginalised and infiltrated to prevent it from doing anything to stop the rot. Anyone, objecting to this imposed regime are marginalised as deniers, divisive, intolerant, misogynist, xenophobic, homophobic, Islamophobic or fascist. There are no end to the hate-speech ad-hominens used by the left to kill character, reputation and opposition. This is the world we Christians, like the Israelites, must be prepared to face, or we will continue to wander the wilderness of spiritual and practical irrelevance. The NGC evangelism strategy is the perfect vehicle for doing just that. Take a look at this four step strategy on www.lastpost.net’s home page. Look for my book NGC, it should be coming out on Amazon soon.
Here are Klimionok’s definitions for the tribes often collectively referred to as the Canaanites. Take some time to reflect on today’s parallels. There is nothing new under to sun.
The Hittites: Dread or fear from the root words affright, terrified, broken, amazed. Man’s deadliest enemy.
The Amorites: From the root words to say or to speak. Purpose to inflame the tongue of man.
The Canaanites: ‘Trafficker’. To be bought low by traffic or trade. Greed and lust for material goods.
The Hivites: Meaning dweller in life-giving village or town. Worldly pleasures sought to satisfy body and soul.
The Perrizites: Meaning un-walled village or town. Aim to break down a Christian’s defences and keep him/her from knowing God fully.
The Girgashites: To turn back from a pilgrimage, or alternatively, a dweller in clay soil or black mud. Giving up the Christian walk or struggling to move forward as a Christian.
The Jebusites: Meaning treading, or trodden down. To be downtrodden or suffering from condemnation, accusation, intimidation.