A Life Lesson of a Soldier
1Cor 10:1-13 says that Old Testament is both a history and a prophecy of events. We will look at the journey from Egypt to Canaan as a foretelling of a spiritual battle that all Christians will face continually in their lifetime (Gal 5:17). In the OT narrative, Joshua selected 12 leaders from every tribe to spy out the land that the Israeli army was to conquer. Ten of the spies were discouraged by fear of what they saw with their eyes. Two of the spies operated by faith, and not by sight (2Cor 5:7).
The Seven Nations in Deut. 7:1 are an allegory (or word picture) in the Old Testament of actions that are forbidden by God, as described in the Ten Commandments. Israel’s interaction with these nations foretells of the spiritual battle that one must face to become a mature Christian. The New Testament terminology for these nations is “the works of the flesh” (Gal 5:16-17) or “works of darkness” (1Thess 5:4-8).
When the Ten Commandments are separated into opposites, seven vices and seven virtues result. The seven vices are pride, rebellion, hatred/bitterness, defilement, theft/slothfulness, deceit, and greed/covetousness. The opposite seven virtues are humility, obedience, forgiveness/compassion, purity, diligence, honesty, and gratefulness.
The seven vices are personified in the seven nations that are sequentially listed in Deuteronomy 7:1-3.
The seven virtues are related to the Beatitudes of Matthew 5:3-12 and to the “light of the world” in Matthew 5:14-16.
Three poems summarize how the seven nations depict a believer’s journey to maturity.
This link describes how the seven nations are related to the seven vices of Decalogue. For a complete overview of moral opposites or “double-sided morals” of the Decalogue see “Light” category of this blog.
This link shares the writings of Thomas Bromley (1629-1691) on the same Seven Nations of Canaan as part of the Philadelphia Society.
Riding on Eagle wings (Isa 40:26-31) is the OT word picture of the liberty (Gal 5:1) we have in Christ when we we walk in the Spirit and not in the Flesh (Gal 5:16-17). Contrast the image above (Prov 5:22) with image below.
