Principles of Engagement

What happens around you doesn't have to happen in you.

- Ron Horner

Principles of Engagement

by Ron Horner

One of the most vital sets of instruction, particularly for small groups of believers with the responsibility for intercession for an area is in the following verse.

Deut 8:1

All the commandments which I command thee this day shall ye observe to do, that ye may live, and multiply, and go in and possess the land which the LORD swore unto your fathers.

1. live – stay until you have grown and multiplied (don't war alone)

2. multiply – strength & safety in numbers – some warfare is unsuccessful because of the lack of strength in numbers. The Lord would not allow the children of Israel to possess all the land he was giving them because there weren't enough of them to maintain the possession successfully (Deut 7:22)

3. go in – Once your numbers are sufficient to insure obtaining and maintaining possession, then go in. Not until. It is one thing to obtain a victory, it is another to maintain that victory.

4. possess the land – the ability to drive out and/or destroy all vestiges of the prior culture and establish a new culture in a place.

When the children of Israel would take possession of a place they had specific instructions on maintaining that possession:

Deut 7:1 – 5

1 When the LORD thy God shall bring thee into the land whither thou goest to possess it, and hath cast out many nations before thee, 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 thou;

2 And when the LORD thy God shall deliver them before thee; thou shalt smite them, and utterly destroy them; thou shalt make no covenant with them, nor show mercy unto them:

3 Neither shalt thou make marriages with them; thy daughter thou shalt not give unto his son, nor his daughter shalt thou take unto thy son.

4 For they will turn away thy son from following me, that they may serve other gods: so will the anger of the LORD be kindled against you, and destroy thee suddenly.

5 But thus shall ye deal with them; ye shall destroy their altars, and break down their images, and cut down their groves, and burn their graven images with fire.

Hittites – Chittite or desendant of Cheth. Root word = terror

Girgashites – a native tribe of Canaan – possessed the country beyond Jordan

Amorite - publicity, that is, prominence; thus a mountaineer; an Emorite, one of the Canaanitish tribes:

Sihon-king of Hesbon – the Amorite – means "tempestuous"

Heshbon - From H2803; properly contrivance; by implication intelligence: - account, device, reason.

The Destruction of the Amorites:

Deu 2:24-37
24 Rise ye up, take your journey, and pass over the river Arnon: behold, I have given into thine hand Sihon the Amorite, king of Heshbon, and his land: begin to possess it, and contend with him in battle.

25 This day will I begin to put the dread of thee and the fear of thee upon the nations that are under the whole heaven, who shall hear report of thee, and shall tremble, and be in anguish because of thee.

26 And I sent messengers out of the wilderness of Kedemoth unto Sihon king of Heshbon with words of peace, saying,

27 Let me pass through thy land: I will go along by the highway, I will neither turn unto the right hand nor to the left.

28 Thou shalt sell me meat for money, that I may eat; and give me water for money, that I may drink: only I will pass through on my feet;

29 (As the children of Esau which dwell in Seir, and the Moabites which dwell in Ar, did unto me;) until I shall pass over Jordan into the land which the LORD our God giveth us.

30 But Sihon king of Heshbon would not let us pass by him: for the LORD thy God hardened his spirit, and made his heart obstinate, that he might deliver him into thy hand, as appeareth this day.

31 And the LORD said unto me, Behold, I have begun to give Sihon and his land before thee: begin to possess, that thou mayest inherit his land.

32 Then Sihon came out against us, he and all his people, to fight at Jahaz.

33 And the LORD our God delivered him before us; and we smote him, and his sons, and all his people.

34 And we took all his cities at that time, and utterly destroyed the men, and the women, and the little ones, of every city, we left none to remain:

35 Only the cattle we took for a prey unto ourselves, and the spoil of the cities which we took.

36 From Aroer, which is by the brink of the river of Arnon, and from the city that is by the river, even unto Gilead, there was not one city too strong for us: the LORD our God delivered all unto us:

37 Only unto the land of the children of Ammon thou camest not, nor unto any place of the river Jabbok, nor unto the cities in the mountains, nor unto whatsoever the LORD our God forbade us.

Canaanites - merchant, trafficker. (bought Joseph and sold him in Egypt) – money is their motivator over doing right

Deuteronomy 7: 2-4

v. 2-4 And when the LORD thy God shall deliver them before thee:

you shall smite them, and
utterly destroy them;
thou shalt make no covenant with them,
nor show mercy unto them:
Neither shalt thou make marriages with them;

o thy daughter thou shalt not give unto his son,

o nor his daughter shalt thou take unto thy son.

§ For they will turn away thy son from following me, that they may serve other gods: (so will the anger of the LORD be kindled against you, and destroy thee suddenly.)

v. 5 But thus shall ye deal with them:

you shall destroy their altars, and
break down their images, and
cut down their groves, and
burn their graven images with fire.

Why?
(v.6)

For thou art a holy people unto the LORD thy God:

the LORD thy God hath chosen thee to be a special people unto himself,

o above all people that are upon the face of the earth.

The LORD did not set his love upon you, nor choose you, because ye were more in number than any people; for ye were the fewest of all people:

But…

because the LORD loved you, and
because he would keep the oath which he had sworn unto your fathers, hath the LORD brought you out with a mighty hand, and redeemed you out of the house of bondmen, from the hand of Pharaoh king of Egypt.

Instruction:

Know therefore that the LORD thy God, (v.9)

o he is God,

o the faithful God,

o which keepeth covenant and mercy with them that love him and keep his commandments to a thousand generations;

o And repayeth them that hate him to their face, to destroy them: (v.10)

§ he will not be slack to him that hateth him,

he will repay him to his face.

Thou shalt therefore keep

the commandments, and
the statutes, and
the judgments, which I command thee this day, to do them.

Promise:
(v.12)

Wherefore it shall come to pass, if you:

o hearken to these judgments, and

o keep, and

o do them,

o that the LORD thy God shall keep unto thee

§ the covenant and

§ the mercy which he swore unto thy fathers:

o he will love thee, and (v.13)

o bless thee, and

o multiply thee:

He will also

bless the fruit of thy womb, and
the fruit of thy land,
thy corn, and
thy wine, and
thine oil,
the increase of thy kine, and
the flocks of thy sheep, in the land which he swore unto thy fathers to give thee.
Thou shalt be blessed above all people: (v.14)
there shall not be male or female barren among you, (or among your cattle).

And the LORD will

take away from thee all sickness, and (v.15)
will put none of the evil diseases of Egypt, which thou knowest, upon thee; but

o will lay them upon all them that hate thee.

thou shalt consume all the people which the LORD thy God shall deliver thee; (v.16)
thine eye shall have no pity upon them:
neither shalt thou serve their gods;

o for that will be a snare unto thee.

If thou shalt say in thine heart, These nations are more than I; how can I dispossess them? (v.17)

Deu 7:18

Thou shalt not be afraid of them: but

shalt well remember what the LORD thy God did unto Pharaoh, and unto all Egypt;

Deu 7:19

The great temptations which thine eyes saw, and

the signs, and
the wonders, and
the mighty hand, and
the stretched out arm, whereby the LORD thy God brought thee out:

so shall the LORD thy God do unto all the people of whom thou art afraid.

Deu 7:20

Moreover the LORD thy God

will send the hornet among them, until they that are left, and hide themselves from thee, be destroyed.

Deu 7:21

Thou shalt not be frightened at them: (for the LORD thy God is among you),

a mighty God and
terrible. (to be feared & respected)

Victory will come in stages, not more than you can maintain

Deu 7:22

And the LORD thy God will put out those nations before thee by little and little:

thou mayest not consume them at once,

lest the beasts of the field increase upon thee.

Deu 7:23

But the LORD thy God shall

deliver them unto thee, and
shall destroy them with a mighty destruction, until they be destroyed.

Deu 7:24

he shall

deliver their kings into thine hand, and
thou shalt destroy their name from under heaven:

§ there shall no man be able to stand before thee, until thou have destroyed them.

Deu 7:25

The graven images of their gods shall ye burn with fire:
thou shalt not

o desire the silver or gold that is on them,

o nor take it unto thee, lest thou be snared therein: for it is an abomination to the LORD thy God.

Deu 7:26

Neither shalt thou bring an abomination into thine house, lest thou be a cursed thing like it: but
thou shalt utterly detest it, and
thou shalt utterly abhor it; for it is a cursed thing.

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