Mark Huey of Outreach Israel Ministries delivers the following message, “The ‘Ites’ Among Us,” as we learn vital spiritual lessons from the inhabitants of Canaan, that Ancient Israel was to see pushed out.
Recently at a congregational yeshiva lecture on some of the nuances of spiritual warfare and deliverance, my memory of events over the years encountering this arena was reinvigorated, to the point of recalling a number of times when I personally confronted the dark side of the spiritual world. While for the most part I do not dwell on those experiences, they are a part of my spiritual preparation for not only recognizing that the Devil and his minions exist, but that they are at constant war with the saints. The forces of darkness are incessantly desiring to devour, steal, kill, and destroy whomever allows them the opportunity, as noted by many Bible passages:
“Be of sober spirit, be on the alert. Your adversary, the devil, prowls around like a roaring lion, seeking someone to devour” (1 Peter 5:8, NASU).
“The thief comes only to steal and kill and destroy; I came that they may have life, and have it abundantly” (John 10:10, NASU).
Only the absolutely naïve—who do not take the admonition from Yeshua to His Disciples when He sent them out to minister to others—are unwise, if they do not take His sound advice to understand the schemes of the Devil (Ephesians 6:11):
“Behold, I send you out as sheep in the midst of wolves; so be shrewd as serpents and innocent as doves” (Matthew 10:16, NASU).
My personal experiences have profoundly influenced me to conclude that the Body of Messiah has been, and is currently infiltrated with what, for lack of a better term, I have surmised are the “Ites” among us. I majored in history and political science in undergraduate school, and one of my first jobs out of college (and unsaved!) was as a legislative assistant for the delegate from the Virgin Islands, who was considered a U.S. congressman who could propose legislation, without the privilege of voting on it. Early one morning, as I was walking through one of the many tunnels connecting the U.S. Capitol complex of buildings, I distinctly noticed what appeared to me as wicked spirits swooping down from the ceiling on the crowd walking through the confined space. It was kind of eerie and only happened once, but the vision into the unseen world made a profound impression on me that can never be erased! When, for whatever reasons, one gets a peek into the dark side, it is embedded in your memory.
Some four years later (1978), after I was born from above, I started a group at the Bible Church I was attending called the RCA Forum (Responsible Christian Action). The objective of the forum was to educate the Christians in that assembly about the political process, and stimulate them to become more actively involved in order to vote strategically. We also encouraged participation in precinct meetings and fighting the abortion lobby, in order to be the salt and light we have been called to be. Consequently by 1988, I was tangentially involved with Republican party politics and the presidential nomination process which took place following the eight years of Ronald Reagan’s term. By then, I had become a precinct chairman and delegate to the Texas Republican convention in Houston, where the selection of Vice President George Bush was challenged by the upstart Pat Robertson, who was propelled into politics primarily by the evangelical community. As a part of the Robertson campaign leadership team, I was intimately involved in many of the political skirmishes and machinations which were taking place between the delegates (40%) committed to Robertson, and the remaining delegates (60%) who were supporters of Bush, with the eventual nomination already locked up. It was during this experience that the relatively novice Christian delegates were learning basic things like Robert’s Rules of Order, and how to get certain items included on the Party Platform, if nothing else.
During some of the intensity of the convention, I contended with a number of the Bush supporters, who were what we euphemistically labeled, “country club Republicans.” These people had control of the party apparatus from years of guiding the party. As part of the leadership of the Robertson contingent of delegates, I interacted with a number of the Bush leadership team, who were trying to placate the “rabid born again” delegates with their insistence that they were also “Christian people.” They insisted that they had nothing but positive feelings for some of the concerns the Robertson delegates had about aggressively addressing the fight against abortion. But realistically, the Bush delegates simply wanted the Robertson delegates’ allegiance to Bush, our votes, volunteer work for the campaign, and of course, money to help fund the presidential election.
While standing up front by the stage, during the general sessions, I was hand signaling our delegates on when to vote or not vote when the chairman of the convention was working through his agenda. (This was long before the era of smart phones. Instead, we were using walkie talkies!) Toward the end of the three-day convention, I was personally and physically attacked by an unseen demonic entity, because of my exposure by the stage signaling the Robertson delegates. During the last session, a man approached me, stopped and stood in front of me (in my comfort zone), and in a low guttural voice asked me what I was doing. As I stared back into his dull and blank eyes, out of no where, with his arms remaining at his side, I was doubled over with this excruciating pain in my lower abdomen. This tangible assault felt like a single-edged sword thrust into my side by a man I had not seen during the previous general sessions. This demonic attack, coupled with all of the duplicity emanating from the Bush leadership team, had me prophetically label the “country club Republicans” nothing more than a wicked cabal of deceiving “Moabites,” who would eventually have the “star of Jacob, come and crush their foreheads!”, per what is declared in Numbers 24:
“I see him, but not now; I behold him, but not near; a star shall come forth from Jacob, a scepter shall rise from Israel, and shall crush through the forehead of Moab, and tear down all the sons of Sheth” (Numbers 24:17, NASU).
At that time, I had not spent much time in Torah study, but somehow, and I believe inspirationally, the Spirit of the Most High simply put Numbers 24:17 on my mind. For the balance of the convention, the leadership of the Robertson effort, derisively referred to the Bushites as “Moabites”—which I now believe they truly were and currently remain.
The recollection of this unique encounter came back to mind when I was praying about some of the recent teaching at our congregation dealing with spiritual warfare and deliverance. It has been quite a while since I reflected upon these memories, involving significant encounters with the supernatural. But when I was led to read an article about curses in a Christian magazine, I began to meditate and do some research on all of the unique generational curses which originated in some ancient people groups that the Israelites were supposed to utterly destroy when they occupied the Promised Land. Consequently, the following passage of Scripture came to mind, because this is where the Holy One of Israel made a unilateral covenant with Abram, and told him that his descendants would be exiled from the Land of Canaan for four hundred years, until the “the iniquity of the Amorite is completed”:
“Now when the sun was going down, a deep sleep fell upon Abram; and behold, terror and great darkness fell upon him. God said to Abram, ‘Know for certain that your descendants will be strangers in a land that is not theirs, where they will be enslaved and oppressed four hundred years. But I will also judge the nation whom they will serve, and afterward they will come out with many possessions. As for you, you shall go to your fathers in peace; you will be buried at a good old age. Then in the fourth generation they will return here, for the iniquity of the Amorite is not yet complete.’ It came about when the sun had set, that it was very dark, and behold, there appeared a smoking oven and a flaming torch which passed between these pieces. On that day the LORD made a covenant with Abram, saying, ‘To your descendants I have given this land, From the river of Egypt as far as the great river, the river Euphrates: the Kenite and the Kenizzite and the Kadmonite and the Hittite and the Perizzite and the Rephaim and the Amorite and the Canaanite and the Girgashite and the Jebusite’” (Genesis 15:12-21, NASU).
Providentially, it is in this passage that the Lord reveals to Abram the extent of the territory that He was going to eventually give to the Israelites. This was the land from the Mediterranean Sea and the Nile River all the way over to the Euphrates River. But from God’s perspective, because He is an absolutely just and righteous Creator God, He had to hold off on giving this territory to Israel until two things happened. First, the iniquity of the Amorites needed to be completed. Secondly, during the exile of the Israelites in Egypt, with the separation from Canaan and their relative isolation in Goshen, the people of Israel were able to reproduce and grow in numbers—to actually become the unique nation that God wanted to eventually form into the light to all the nations (Isaiah 49:6). Here, the foundational principle of God working all things together for good for those who love Him and are called according to His purposes (Romans 8:28) is evident. In God’s equitable and sovereign manner to be perfectly fair and just with the Amorites—while maturing and propagating the descendants of Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob during their bondage in Egypt—God’s will for Israel prevailed.
As it turns out, the Amorite people were descendants of Canaan (Genesis 10:16), the son of Ham, who was cursed by God for what appears to be Ham’s disrespect of looking upon the nakedness of his father Noah. For whatever reasons, which are not clearly articulated in the Scriptures, Canaan, the youngest of Ham’s four sons, was cursed in lieu of Ham, because “Noah knew what his youngest son had done to him.” Without speculating on what the offense was, an absolutely righteous Creator God would not have cursed Canaan unless there had been just cause:
“Then Noah began farming and planted a vineyard. He drank of the wine and became drunk, and uncovered himself inside his tent. Ham, the father of Canaan, saw the nakedness of his father, and told his two brothers outside. But Shem and Japheth took a garment and laid it upon both their shoulders and walked backward and covered the nakedness of their father; and their faces were turned away, so that they did not see their father’s nakedness. When Noah awoke from his wine, he knew what his youngest son had done to him. So he said, ‘Cursed be Canaan; a servant of servants He shall be to his brothers.’ He also said, ‘Blessed be the LORD, the God of Shem; and let Canaan be his servant. May God enlarge Japheth, and let him dwell in the tents of Shem; and let Canaan be his servant’” (Genesis 9:20-27, NASU).
From this inauspicious beginning after the Flood, as humanity began to propagate and cover the Earth, the descendants of Canaan multiplied into many different tribes or people groups—who for the most part migrated from the plains of Shinar west and north to the lands which would ultimately be promised to Abram (Genesis 15:21):
“Canaan became the father of Sidon, his firstborn, and Heth and the Jebusite and the Amorite and the Girgashite and the Hivite and the Arkite and the Sinite and the Arvadite and the Zemarite and the Hamathite; and afterward the families of the Canaanite were spread abroad. The territory of the Canaanite extended from Sidon as you go toward Gerar, as far as Gaza; as you go toward Sodom and Gomorrah and Admah and Zeboiim, as far as Lasha” (Genesis 10:15-19, NASU).
Among those people groups were the aforementioned Amorites, who were essentially a nomadic tribe which lived primarily in the upper reaches of what became the Samarian and Judean highlands, and up into what is modern-day Syria. For the most part, the descendants of the Amorites were not horticulturists who grew their own foodstuffs. But instead, they seasonally preyed upon the indigenous people, by waiting for various crops to mature, when they swooped in to use brutal force and oppression to appropriate grain, produce, and/or livestock before moving on. But interestingly, from approximately 2000-1595 B.C.E., the Amorites dominated the land east into the Euphrates valley and made Babylon their cultural and social center. Their influence flowed south down the Euphrates to include Ur of the Chaldeans where Terah and his son Abram were living before they were called to depart to Canaan:
“Now these are the records of the generations of Terah. Terah became the father of Abram, Nahor and Haran; and Haran became the father of Lot. Haran died in the presence of his father Terah in the land of his birth, in Ur of the Chaldeans. Abram and Nahor took wives for themselves. The name of Abram’s wife was Sarai; and the name of Nahor’s wife was Milcah, the daughter of Haran, the father of Milcah and Iscah. Sarai was barren; she had no child. Terah took Abram his son, and Lot the son of Haran, his grandson, and Sarai his daughter-in-law, his son Abram’s wife; and they went out together from Ur of the Chaldeans in order to enter the land of Canaan; and they went as far as Haran, and settled there. The days of Terah were two hundred and five years; and Terah died in Haran” (Genesis 11:27-32, NASU).
At the height of the Amorites’ domination of the region, King Hammurabi reigned (1792-1750 B.C.E.) and instituted some laws which today is commonly known as the Code of Hammurabi, which was responsible for maintaining civil order in his kingdom. But after the Amorites were sacked by the Hittites around 1595 B.C.E., they primarily migrated west and continued to occupy and intimidate the people living in the region which became recognized as Canaan. Because of their ability to subjugate weaker tribes which were beginning to cultivate and tend livestock in the hills east and west of the Jordan, they oppressed others by ruthless warrior skills and military prowess. One finds the Amorites among the confederation of kings which Abram had to fight in order to rescue his nephew Lot (Genesis 14). Needless to say, the Amorites were a clever people who exploited weaker people in order to survive and thrive, without necessarily doing the labor required to bring crops to harvest.
The Amorites’ oppressive nature was obviously abrogating many of God’s eternal laws for how people are to conduct themselves with others. The statement from Genesis 15:16, where the Lord told Abram that for a period of time, the iniquity of the Amorites had to fill up the proverbial “cup of iniquity” before judgment would be executed, had a significant basis to it. This statement, explaining God’s perfect justice to a people which wickedly disobeyed universal laws, is reminiscent of what Yeshua would state millennia later to the Pharisaical leaders who exploited others from their religious positions and the power derived from influencing the worship to the Most High God. Notice in this list of woes, the veiled reference to the cup of iniquity and the “filling up to the measure of the guilt of their wicked fathers,” which would eventually result in severe consequences:
“Woe to you, scribes and Pharisees, hypocrites! For you clean the outside of the cup and of the dish, but inside they are full of robbery and self-indulgence. You blind Pharisee, first clean the inside of the cup and of the dish, so that the outside of it may become clean also. Woe to you, scribes and Pharisees, hypocrites! For you are like whitewashed tombs which on the outside appear beautiful, but inside they are full of dead men’s bones and all uncleanness. So you, too, outwardly appear righteous to men, but inwardly you are full of hypocrisy and lawlessness. Woe to you, scribes and Pharisees, hypocrites! For you build the tombs of the prophets and adorn the monuments of the righteous, and say, ‘If we had been living in the days of our fathers, we would not have been partners with them in shedding the blood of the prophets.’ So you testify against yourselves, that you are sons of those who murdered the prophets. Fill up, then, the measure of the guilt of your fathers. You serpents, you brood of vipers, how will you escape the sentence of hell? Therefore, behold, I am sending you prophets and wise men and scribes; some of them you will kill and crucify, and some of them you will scourge in your synagogues, and persecute from city to city, so that upon you may fall the guilt of all the righteous blood shed on earth, from the blood of righteous Abel to the blood of Zechariah, the son of Berechiah, whom you murdered between the temple and the altar” (Matthew 23:25-35, NASU).
A merciful God has a certain amount of time allotted to either the Amorites or the hypocritical Pharisaical leadership, before the iniquity reaches a point of overflowing the lip of the cup, and His just punishment arrives. In the case of the Amorites, God used the Israelites’ return from Egypt after some four centuries to execute His righteous judgment. In the case of the Pharisaical leaders, God not only utilized the Romans to execute judgment by killing an unknown number of God’s people and destroy the Jerusalem Temple in 70 C.E., but He also scattered the Jewish population into the world, just as He said He would do through various Prophets, due to Israel’s collective disobedience to His Word.
To observe this pattern of blatant disobedience resulting in judgment, allows one to conclude that there are some serious generational curses which have been passed down from the Amorites to the Israelites, along with some other curses from the other “-ites” which resided in the vicinity of Canaan. Much of this is a direct result of comingling with the indigenous peoples, despite God’s specific command to utterly destroy the people groups which occupied Canaan (Deuteronomy 7:1-2), after the Israelites were delivered from Egypt.
“Be sure to observe what I am commanding you this day: behold, I am going to drive out the Amorite before you, and the Canaanite, the Hittite, the Perizzite, the Hivite and the Jebusite. Watch yourself that you make no covenant with the inhabitants of the land into which you are going, or it will become a snare in your midst. But rather, you are to tear down their altars and smash their sacred pillars and cut down their Asherim—for you shall not worship any other god, for the LORD, whose name is Jealous, is a jealous God—otherwise you might make a covenant with the inhabitants of the land and they would play the harlot with their gods and sacrifice to their gods, and someone might invite you to eat of his sacrifice, and you might take some of his daughters for your sons, and his daughters might play the harlot with their gods and cause your sons also to play the harlot with their gods. You shall make for yourself no molten gods” (Exodus 34:11-17, NASU).
This desired destruction of the inhabitants was never accomplished, despite God’s promise to help drive these people out of the Promised Land. As a result, the Israelites did intermarry with many of the population they were supposed to eliminate (Deuteronomy 20:15-18). Familial curses of the Amorites and others, were passed down to the third and fourth generation of the resultant mixed background offspring, just as noted in the Decalogue found in Exodus 20:5:
“You shall have no other gods before Me. You shall not make for yourself an idol, or any likeness of what is in heaven above or on the earth beneath or in the water under the earth. You shall not worship them or serve them; for I, the LORD your God, am a jealous God, visiting the iniquity of the fathers on the children, on the third and the fourth generations of those who hate Me” (Exodus 20:3-5, NASU).
Too much of the maturing Israelite population was subjected to the curses resulting from the iniquities of the people groups in the Land with whom they intermarried. In one particular case, there was a very clever group of Amorites who lived in and around the city of Gibeon, who heard of the exploits of Israel, and devised a plan to circumvent God’s edict to utterly destroy the occupants of Canaan. The details of their deception to avoid annihilation are described in Joshua 9:
“Now it came about when all the kings who were beyond the Jordan, in the hill country and in the lowland and on all the coast of the Great Sea toward Lebanon, the Hittite and the Amorite, the Canaanite, the Perizzite, the Hivite and the Jebusite, heard of it, that they gathered themselves together with one accord to fight with Joshua and with Israel. When the inhabitants of Gibeon heard what Joshua had done to Jericho and to Ai, they also acted craftily and set out as envoys, and took worn-out sacks on their donkeys, and wineskins worn-out and torn and mended, and worn-out and patched sandals on their feet, and worn-out clothes on themselves; and all the bread of their provision was dry and had become crumbled. They went to Joshua to the camp at Gilgal and said to him and to the men of Israel, ‘We have come from a far country; now therefore, make a covenant with us.’ The men of Israel said to the Hivites, ‘Perhaps you are living within our land; how then shall we make a covenant with you?’ But they said to Joshua, ‘We are your servants.’ Then Joshua said to them, ‘Who are you and where do you come from?’ They said to him, ‘Your servants have come from a very far country because of the fame of the LORD your God; for we have heard the report of Him and all that He did in Egypt, and all that He did to the two kings of the Amorites who were beyond the Jordan, to Sihon king of Heshbon and to Og king of Bashan who was at Ashtaroth. So our elders and all the inhabitants of our country spoke to us, saying, “Take provisions in your hand for the journey, and go to meet them and say to them, “We are your servants; now then, make a covenant with us.”’ ‘This our bread was warm when we took it for our provisions out of our houses on the day that we left to come to you; but now behold, it is dry and has become crumbled. These wineskins which we filled were new, and behold, they are torn; and these our clothes and our sandals are worn out because of the very long journey.’ So the men of Israel took some of their provisions, and did not ask for the counsel of the LORD. Joshua made peace with them and made a covenant with them, to let them live; and the leaders of the congregation swore an oath to them. It came about at the end of three days after they had made a covenant with them, that they heard that they were neighbors and that they were living within their land. Then the sons of Israel set out and came to their cities on the third day. Now their cities were Gibeon and Chephirah and Beeroth and Kiriath-jearim. The sons of Israel did not strike them because the leaders of the congregation had sworn to them by the LORD the God of Israel. And the whole congregation grumbled against the leaders. But all the leaders said to the whole congregation, ‘We have sworn to them by the LORD, the God of Israel, and now we cannot touch them. This we will do to them, even let them live, so that wrath will not be upon us for the oath which we swore to them.’ The leaders said to them, ‘Let them live.’ So they became hewers of wood and drawers of water for the whole congregation, just as the leaders had spoken to them. Then Joshua called for them and spoke to them, saying, ‘Why have you deceived us, saying, “We are very far from you,” when you are living within our land? Now therefore, you are cursed, and you shall never cease being slaves, both hewers of wood and drawers of water for the house of my God.’ So they answered Joshua and said, ‘Because it was certainly told your servants that the LORD your God had commanded His servant Moses to give you all the land, and to destroy all the inhabitants of the land before you; therefore we feared greatly for our lives because of you, and have done this thing. Now behold, we are in your hands; do as it seems good and right in your sight to do to us.’ Thus he did to them, and delivered them from the hands of the sons of Israel, and they did not kill them. But Joshua made them that day hewers of wood and drawers of water for the congregation and for the altar of the LORD, to this day, in the place which He would choose” (Joshua 9:1-27, NASU).
In this rather lengthy passage, one finds the classic case of Israel not seeking the Lord for His direction and blessing, with debilitating ramifications resulting from the clever ruse of the Gibeonites’ deception. Consequently, various descendants of Israel since have probably been plagued with Amorite and Gibeonite curses. By making a covenant with the people of Gibeon, despite the outcome that the Gibeonites would be hewers of wood and drawers of water, it opened a door for an introduction of their spiritual problems into the bloodline of Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob.
In modern-day circumstances it can be like this. The genuine children of God, who have been born from above and are a faithful community of Believers, can inevitably be weakened by the inherited curses of those with whom they intermarry and/or comingle. The curse of the Amorite has probably repeated itself, in various ways down through the millennia, to negatively impact various assemblies—which for the most part, do not even know inherited curses exist, primarily because most Christians have been taught that once they believe in Jesus or Yeshua that not only have they been saved from eternal punishment, but that all of the consequences of their predecessors’ actions have been swept away. While it is true that being saved from eternal punishment is something freely offered, there can still be some confession, repentance, and ultimate deliverance from inherited familial and generational curses, and the need to close doors from prior transgressions. During the sanctification process, the Holy Spirit should indeed reveal potential, residual curses and open doors to the soul for the enemy to exploit. This can include previous flesh patterns which can give the forces of darkness some legal authority to harass even saved people, because of actions which are in significant violation of God’s Torah.
When I discovered during my study of Torah that it is against God’s Law to spend anytime considering the predictions found in astrology and reading horoscopes (Deuteronomy 4:19), I confessed my sin and repented of ever spending time contemplating the prognostications found in those ubiquitous postings available in many daily newspapers. A further study of Torah revealed additional areas of disobedience, which when discovered, were then taken to the Father in prayer for confession, repentance, and forgiveness (1 John 1:8). This process of self-examination may be a life long discipline of discovering areas of darkness and sin which need to be eradicated from the soul, as the sanctifying work of the Holy Spirit is continually conforming us to the image of the Messiah Yeshua. We decrease, while He increases in our hearts, minds, and souls (John 3:30)!
An Amorite curse and influencing spirits which have legal rights to harass unsuspecting souls, can be likened to a can of “mixed worms” with confusion reigning. Many of the people who coexist in a community of faith, and are born from above and children of the Most High, can, because of a blinding, be broadly deceived by failing to take into account historical patterns and curses seen in the Scriptures such as those of the Amorites or Gibeonites. Many repeat the problems of those whose examples are recorded in Biblical history. Perhaps not unlike how the Amorites did none of the hard work needed to bring a crop to harvest, there are various people who simply show up and expect to be fed, clothed, and sheltered by God’s people, without expelling any effort after their basic needs are met. Their subtle usurpation and clandestine oppression, while robbing, stealing, and destroying the fruit of others, will weaken and erode the sincere efforts of others who are more fully committed to the Holy One of Israel.
The ultimate usurpers are those who have the cleverness once demonstrated by the ancient Gibeonites. These are naturally gifted people, who I have often referred to as the “theotainers,” with a demonically empowered supernatural ability to use the subject of “God” to entertain their respective audiences. Lamentably, an argument can be made that many modern-day assemblies are led by people who have a “Gibeonite curse,” with the ability to entertain various people who are under an “Amorite curse.” If this at all holds true, one can see why many communities of faith have been neutralized and are seemingly powerless to fight against the hordes of evil spirits that infiltrate ostensibly well meaning churches, congregations, and synagogues.
If this principle being described has merit in terms of the spiritual warfare perpetually ongoing, then it might also be seen in the historical patterns which have been repeated down through the millennia, originating from the curses placed upon the Moabites and Ammonites. In the context of the following passage from Deuteronomy 23, notice the reference to some of the sexual conditions and sins—which almost more than any other transgressions—plagued not only Ancient Israel, but those following the God of Israel today:
“No one who is emasculated or has his male organ cut off shall enter the assembly of the LORD. No one of illegitimate birth shall enter the assembly of the LORD; none of his descendants, even to the tenth generation, shall enter the assembly of the LORD. No Ammonite or Moabite shall enter the assembly of the LORD; none of their descendants, even to the tenth generation, shall ever enter the assembly of the LORD, because they did not meet you with food and water on the way when you came out of Egypt, and because they hired against you Balaam the son of Beor from Pethor of Mesopotamia, to curse you. Nevertheless, the LORD your God was not willing to listen to Balaam, but the LORD your God turned the curse into a blessing for you because the LORD your God loves you. You shall never seek their peace or their prosperity all your days” (Deuteronomy 23:1-6, NASU).
In this passage, we are told that not only are the Ammonites and Moabites not allowed to even enter the assembly of the Lord until after the tenth generation, but this same prohibition also applies to those subject to an illegitimate birth (Deuteronomy 23:2a) and who have mutilated their sexual organs (Deuteronomy 23:1a). The difficult thing about a passage like this, is that when anyone living today goes back ten generations to examine if any of their forbearers participated in sexual misconduct prior to marriage—that it actually requires knowing the sexual proclivities, and perhaps promiscuity, of 1,024 of your predecessors. Suffice it to say, it would be beneficial for all people to simply seek forgiveness for the iniquities of their fathers and mothers, and receive such forgiveness with the heartfelt promise to repent of those sins, if applicable, and seek the holiness which the Almighty requires.
On the other hand, one knows from studying the attempts of Balaam to curse the Israelites for Balak, king of Moab, that he could not curse, but instead bless them, according to the Word of the Lord found in Numbers chs. 22-24. However, one does find that the men of Israel willfully cursed themselves by participating in the sexual sins of Baal-Peor and engaging in elicit sexual misconduct with the women of Moab:
“Behold, these caused the sons of Israel, through the counsel of Balaam, to trespass against the LORD in the matter of Peor, so the plague was among the congregation of the LORD” (Numbers 31:16, NASU).
Let us consider how the sin of sexual misconduct was introduced to the men of Ancient Israel by the women of Moab, who were perversely worshipping Baal with temple prostitution and all means of lascivious and licentious behaviors. If one fasts forward to the modern era, how much sexual misconduct has come not only into the culture in general, but also into and among those assemblies that seek to worship the Most High? Since the sexual revolution of the 1960s and beyond, I might suggest that the proliferation of sexual sin continues to grow exponentially, especially with the availability of prostitution, the homosexual agenda, and access to pornography via the Internet and mass media. The challenge is that most of these secret sins are done in the dark, behind closed doors, with most people believing they are not known by anyone. However, the omniscient Holy One of Israel knows every sin, whether done in hiding or even done in the thought life of people. He does keep an account on each person’s personal files which need to be confessed and repented—regardless of how diverse, or how little or much, some form of sexual sin has a stronghold in a man or woman’s life.
Nevertheless, my contention is that the “Moabite curse,” for lack of a better term, is prevailing in far too many assemblies which are seriously attempting to serve and worship the Holy One of Israel. Consequently, the effectiveness of too many of these groups of sincere Believers—who may have not taken the opportunity to confess the iniquities of their ancestors, and especially their own—is being impacted by the multitude of evil spirits which maintain access to the souls of those who do not even realize that they must come clean before the Almighty Holy One of Israel.
With just this brief explanation of the sins of the Amorites and Moabites, does it start to make sense about why the institutional Christian Church has substantially lost the Western culture collectively based upon Judeo-Christian principles, as a spiritual basis for developing legal, ethical, and societal standards? For most assuredly, if people do not believe or even know that the dark side of the spiritual world does have a long-lasting impact on circumstances until they are identified, confessed, and repented—then the collective naiveté and lack of knowledge will destroy individuals, families, communities of faith, and ultimately society as a whole. If the inherited curses received from the iniquity of one’s predecessors could impede access to the holy place and worship for ten years (Deuteronomy 23:1-6) and/or made one unclean or unfit for service—what about the transgressions that required capital punishment when committed? This would include transgressions like murder, forbidden sexual conduct, and a bevy of other commands from the Torah which too many unsuspecting Christians do not even know exist.
How many people in our modern-day assemblies are guilty of participating in murder, as a result of the relative convenience of abortion? Is that any different than the curses associated with child sacrifice, as some of the ancient “-ites” in Canaan were seriously involved in the worship of Molech and Chemosh—something which even infected King Solomon (1 Kings 11:7) and the Israelites in Jerusalem (Jeremiah 32:35)? What about all of the people attending churches, congregations, or synagogues who have had elicit sexual encounters and not yet confessed, repented, and received forgiveness? Or worse, what about all of the men and women who are in the midst of assemblies who continue to indulge in various sexual perversions—especially those which tolerate pre-marital sex, because it is not considered to be as “bad” as homosexuality? Is it possible that resultant curses of murder and sexual sins which are not identified and confessed, continue to have an impact on not only the individual guilty of the sin, but the health of the Body of Messiah in general?
It is my contention that these things have had a negative influence on us for far too long. The enemy of our souls understands God’s commands, laws, and the ramifications of disobedience far better than mere mortals. HaSatan knows all about God’s justice, and how all are accountable before Him. This is why Satan and his minions disguise themselves as messengers of light, and they continually wander the Earth in order to harass those in disobedience:
“For such men are false apostles, deceitful workers, disguising themselves as apostles of Messiah. No wonder, for even Satan disguises himself as an angel of light. Therefore it is not surprising if his servants also disguise themselves as servants of righteousness, whose end will be according to their deeds” (2 Corinthians 11:13-15, NASU).
“Then I heard a loud voice in heaven, saying, ‘Now the salvation, and the power, and the kingdom of our God and the authority of His Messiah have come, for the accuser of our brethren has been thrown down, he who accuses them before our God day and night’” (Revelation 12:10, NASU).
Just do some reading through the Book of Job, and you will find that the trials and tribulations Job experienced, can be things that even the most pious man or woman of God can endure. Ultimately, God can use Satan and the fallen angels to actually work on those chosen to be a part of His family, and as the Scriptures indicate, work all things together for good (Romans 8:28)—by even using what people mean for evil, for good (Genesis 50:20).
Without going into all of the other “-ites” (because a rather lengthy summary could be compiled) and the many issues that need to be evaluated in order to become further sanctified before the Almighty, let me just conclude with the exhortation to take the reality of the unseen spiritual world to heart, and to not be ignorant about the schemes of the Devil and his minions. The Apostle Paul reminded the Corinthians to follow this prescription at all times, in order to walk by the Spirit of the Most High:
“For though we walk in the flesh, we do not war according to the flesh, for the weapons of our warfare are not of the flesh, but divinely powerful for the destruction of fortresses. We are destroying speculations and every lofty thing raised up against the knowledge of God, and we are taking every thought captive to the obedience of Messiah, and we are ready to punish all disobedience, whenever your obedience is complete. You are looking at things as they are outwardly. If anyone is confident in himself that he is Messiah’s, let him consider this again within himself, that just as he is Messiah’s, so also are we” (2 Corinthians 10:3-7, NASU).
Ask the Holy One if you might be plagued by any of the curses which might have resulted from not only your predecessors, but also from ignorant actions taken before you knew the forgiveness of sin available in the completed work of Yeshua the Messiah (Jesus Christ). Search your heart and confess any sins which might have a residual impact on you moving forward in your walk with the Lord. If there have been sexual infidelities or perversions, confess them. If you have murderd a child via abortion, directly as the one having an abortion or indirectly as an associated party, confess your sin. The list of confessions which might come to mind could go on and on…
The Body of Messiah is to be a bride without a blemish (Revelation 19:7), totally committed to Him. We know that when the Lord returns, there will be a group of saints who will be ready to receive Him, who have a testimony of knowing Yeshua and obeying His commands (Revelation 12:17; 14:12). Do you want to be a part of that assembly which is waiting for Him with open arms? If so, then I would encourage you to seek the face of the Messiah and ask the Holy Spirit (Ruach HaKodesh) if there are any residual sins originating from the “-ites” which might have impacted your ancestors. On the other hand, if there are additional curses which came from propensities to indulge in sexual misconduct or the transgressions of convenience that the world told you were prudent and certainly “legal,” then confess and pray. Our Heavenly Father is an awesome God who does forgive us of our sin, because of the blood of the Lamb. Trust in Him and His accomplished work at Golgotha (Calvary), and be all that you can be in service unto Him. As the Psalmist declares,
“He has not dealt with us according to our sins, nor rewarded us according to our iniquities. For as high as the heavens are above the earth, so great is His lovingkindness toward those who fear Him. As far as the east is from the west, so far has He removed our transgressions from us. Just as a father has compassion on his children, so the LORD has compassion on those who fear Him. For He Himself knows our frame; He is mindful that we are but dust. As for man, his days are like grass; as a flower of the field, so he flourishes. When the wind has passed over it, it is no more, and its place acknowledges it no longer. But the lovingkindness of the LORD is from everlasting to everlasting on those who fear Him, and His righteousness to children’s children, to those who keep His covenant, and remember His precepts to do them. The LORD has established His throne in the heavens, and His sovereignty rules over all. Bless the LORD, you His angels, mighty in strength, who perform His word, obeying the voice of His word! Bless the LORD, all you His hosts, you who serve Him, doing His will. Bless the LORD, all you works of His, in all places of His dominion; bless the LORD, O my soul!” (Psalm 103:10-22, NASU).
Remember the “-ites” remain among us, and instead seek His face. He has and will forgive. Hallelujah! Bless His Holy Name as we continue to advance His Kingdom here on Earth, until the Messianic restoration of all things…
