HOW THE ENEMY SURVIVES BY FALSE BREAD AND WINE

September 2, 2012
MF Blume

  Scripture Text:



Joshua 9:1-15 And it came to pass, when all the kings which were on this side Jordan, in the hills, and in the valleys, and in all the coasts of the great sea over against Lebanon, the Hittite, and the Amorite, the Canaanite, the Perizzite, the Hivite, and the Jebusite, heard thereof;  (2)  That they gathered themselves together, to fight with Joshua and with Israel, with one accord.  (3)  And when the inhabitants of Gibeon heard what Joshua had done unto Jericho and to Ai,  (4)  They did work wilily, and went and made as if they had been ambassadors, and took old sacks upon their asses, and wine bottles, old, and rent, and bound up;  (5)  And old shoes and clouted upon their feet, and old garments upon them; and all the bread of their provision was dry and moldy.  (6)  And they went to Joshua unto the camp at Gilgal, and said unto him, and to the men of Israel, We be come from a far country: now therefore make ye a league with us.  (7)  And the men of Israel said unto the Hivites, Peradventure ye dwell among us; and how shall we make a league with you?  (8)  And they said unto Joshua, We are thy servants. And Joshua said unto them, Who are ye? and from whence come ye?  (9)  And they said unto him, From a very far country thy servants are come because of the name of the LORD thy God: for we have heard the fame of him, and all that he did in Egypt,  (10)  And all that he did to the two kings of the Amorites, that were beyond Jordan, to Sihon king of Heshbon, and to Og king of Bashan, which was at Ashtaroth.  (11)  Wherefore our elders and all the inhabitants of our country spake to us, saying, Take victuals with you for the journey, and go to meet them, and say unto them, We are your servants: therefore now make ye a league with us.  (12)  This our bread we took hot for our provision out of our houses on the day we came forth to go unto you; but now, behold, it is dry, and it is moldy:  (13)  And these bottles of wine, which we filled, were new; and, behold, they be rent: and these our garments and our shoes are become old by reason of the very long journey.  (14)  And the men took of their victuals, and asked not counsel at the mouth of the LORD.  (15)  And Joshua made peace with them, and made a league with them, to let them live: and the princes of the congregation sware unto them.
The HIVITE people were divided into lesser groups.

GIBEON was a major city with three lesser cities belonging to it:

Gibeon, and Chephirah, and Beeroth, and Kirjathjearim.

Later on, other kings heard of the Gibeonites surrendering to Israel, and noted GIBEON was a great city.

Joshua 10:2    That they feared greatly, because Gibeon was a great city, as one of the royal cities, and because it was greater than Ai, and all the men thereof were mighty.

Though many people are listed in verse 1 like  the Hittite, and the Amorite, the Canaanite, the Perizzite, the Hivite, and the Jebusite, the HIVITE people were the major of the peoples and Gibeonites were categorized as HIVITE people in verse 7 where Joshua is said to speak to the Hivites, though he did not know they were Hivites at the time.

HIVITE  is derived from Hhivia, (a serpent): the root of which is Eph or Ev--one of the variations of the original Aub. EPHITES or EVITES, being aspirated (pronounced by breathing the letter H at the start), would become HEVITES or HIVITES.
·    As Eve was beguiled by the serpent these Hivites fooled Israel.

The men of Gibeon knew Israel would defeat them as they did Jericho and Ai.
·    So they went to Joshua with moldy bread and old wine bottles that were torn and sort of taped together or bound up with cloths and pretended they journeyed from far away.
·    Those far away were outside the Canaan land and would not be destroyed by Israel.
·    But Israel was going into the Promised Land that Abraham was given and actually lived.

These men were actually from the VERY NEXT CITY that Israel was going to conquer and defeat.

Joshua 9:17    And the children of Israel journeyed, and came unto their cities on the third day. Now their cities were Gibeon, and Chephirah, and Beeroth, and Kirjathjearim.

Israel was fooled by these people and made a league of peace with them and swore they would live.
·    And when Israel came to their cities, they finally realized these people were from there, and had fooled Israel to survive, Israel could not break their vow and destroy them.
·    They obtained an alliance with Israel.

Enemies that were supposed to be destroyed were able to survive.

Look at what they did to fool the Israelites.

Josh 9: (4)  They did work wilily, and went and made as if they had been ambassadors, and took old sacks upon their asses, and wine bottles, old, and rent, and bound up;  (5)  And old shoes and clouted upon their feet, and old garments upon them; and all the bread of their provision was dry and moldy. 

Three very significant things here were the MOULDY DRY BREAD, BROKEN BOTTLES OF WINE and OLD SHOES.


Bread and wine are very significant things that the NT places as emblems of the WORK OF THE CROSS.

Matthew 26:26-28    And as they were eating, Jesus took bread, and blessed it, and brake it, and gave it to the disciples, and said, Take, eat; this is my body.  (27)  And he took the cup, and gave thanks, and gave it to them, saying, Drink ye all of it;  (28)  For this is my blood of the new testament, which is shed for many for the remission of sins.

John 6:53-56    Then Jesus said unto them, Verily, verily, I say unto you, Except ye eat the flesh of the Son of man, and drink his blood, ye have no life in you.  (54)  Whoso eateth my flesh, and drinketh my blood, hath eternal life; and I will raise him up at the last day.  (55)  For my flesh is meat indeed, and my blood is drink indeed.  (56)  He that eateth my flesh, and drinketh my blood, dwelleth in me, and I in him.

True BREAD AND WINE is the BODY AND BLOOD of Jesus.

SHOES are used in the armour of God as FEET SHOD WITH PREPARATION OF THE GOSPEL.
·    The bible says our feet should be SHOD WITH THE PREPARATION OF THE GOSPEL.
·    Good understanding of the Gospel makes YOUR WALK a SURE WALK!
·    You need good footing in war to be able to fight.


When we are told to eat the bread and drink the wine, this is indicative of RECEIVING and BELIEVING the TRUTH OF THE CROSS.
·    So MOLDY DRY BREAD and BROKEN WINE BOTTLES speak of a FALSE MESSAGE OF THE CROSS.
·    Imagine eating moldy bread.

The bible speaks of broken wineskins.

Putting new wine in old wine bottles represents taking the OLD TRADITIONS OF PHARISEES and trying to PUT NEW WINE OF GOD'S LIFE into it cannot work and is actually destructive.

So these men had OLD WINE BOTTLES that could not work with THE WINE OF CHRIST'S BLOOD.

False bread, false wine old shoes.

A false message of the cross.

·    This is so significant when we think of CANAAN as KINGDOM LIVING and how God originally created Adam and Eve to rule the world in His KINGDOM from the Garden.
·    The devil was in the earth and God desired Adam and Eve to get filled with FRUIT OF LIFE and be empowered by LIFE to overcome and drive the devil out of the earth.
·    BUT INSTEAD OF BEING DESTROYED, THE DEVIL SOUGHT TO SURVIVE.
·    JUST LIKE THE HIVITES in Joshua's day.

Just as much as TRUE bread and wine would give eternal life, THE FRUIT OF LIFE ON THE TREE OF LIFE would give eternal life to Adam and Eve.
·    And this was THE LIFE OF GOD, HIMSELF.
·    THIS WAS GOD'S LIFE INSIDE THEM by way of the fruit of life.
·    So the devil offered FALSE FRUIT of the knowledge of good and evil.

Genesis 2:16-17    And the LORD God commanded the man, saying, Of every tree of the garden thou mayest freely eat:  (17)  But of the tree of the knowledge of good and evil, thou shalt not eat of it: for in the day that thou eatest thereof thou shalt surely die.

The tree of life was associated with living forever.

Genesis 3:22    And the LORD God said, Behold, the man is become as one of us, to know good and evil: and now, lest he put forth his hand, and take also of the tree of life, and eat, and live for ever:

So we see LIFE AND DEATH in two opposite BUT VERY SIMILAR SORTS OF FOOD.
·    Both were FRUIT.
·    Both were on a tree.
·    Both had seeds in them.

Just like old wine bottles and moldy bread is so similar to Bread and wine.

Bread and wine stand as the body and blood of Jesus, which refer to His Cross.
·    So you could say TRUE BREAD AND WINE stands for CORRECT TRUTHS OF THE CROSS that give eternal life of God.
·    This means not JUST ANY OLD IDEA of the cross is correct truth.
·    If there is any message that the devil wants to CORRUPT is the truth of the cross.
·    The truth of the cross is the most powerful truth we can know.
·    When we truly eat the bread and wine of the truths of the cross, we die to sin with Christ and are freed from it and are buried into His death and risen to walk in newness of life and ascend and are seated with Him in heavenly places.
·    And this seating is far above all principles and powers in this world and the world to come.
·    THE DEVIL DOES NOT LIKE US IN THAT SORT OF POWER OVER HIM!

Jesus was raised after three days SO HE WOULD NOT SEE CORRUPTION.
·    The moldy bread and broken wine bottles meant the BREAD AND WINE CORRUPTED.

He knows that if he can corrupt the message and get us receiving and believing a false concept of the cross, then we are not going to be seated with Christ over him.
·    AND HE IS NOT GOING TO BE DESTROYED, BUT WILL SURVIVE.

The devil caused Adam and Eve to EAT FALSE FRUIT.
·    And this caused them to fall from the Garden Kingdom and lose their power in the world and the devil was able to survive.

Since the promised land represents the KINGDOM realm of God, we can say that Israel's return to ABRAHAM'S promised land is like mankind returning to the GARDEN KINGDOM.
·    Get the picture.
·    SATAN GOT MAN OUT OF THE KINGDOM and infested the place with his demon spirits, and when he saw that God was bringing man BACK into the KINGDOM again with salvation of the cross, for man to once again LIVE ON FRUIT OF ETERNAL LIFE, SATAN'S IMPS ARE POSING AS AMBASSADORS AND SEEKING TO SURVIVE STILL BY LYING WITH FALSE FOOD AGAIN!
·    FALSE BREAD AND FALSE WINE.
·    The bread and wine give LIFE like the fruit of life.
·    And just as the devil offered false fruit, he now offers false bread and wine.
·    FALSE MESSAGES OF THE CROSS.

AND THE FALSE MESSAGES do not give life, which is GOD'S POWER IN US, but rather DEATH!
·    Just as the false fruit of the knowledge of good and evil caused death.

It is the LIFE OF GOD IN US THAT CONQUERS THE DEVIL!

It is actually JESUS IN US.

And the whole trick of the devil is to get something that LOOKS SO RELIGIOUS and get man to think it is the truth, and actually cause man to remain impotent and powerless to destroy the devil to see the devil survive.
·    Satan is out to survive.
·    To hang around and torment us.
·    He knows he cannot hang around if WE HAVE IMMORTAL LIFE IN US.

KNOWLEDGE OF GOOD AND EVIL SOUND SO RELIGIOUS.
·    But IT KILLS and is based upon mortal life.

The key to the success of satan's lies is that his deceiving lies concern MAKING OURSELVES HOLY WITHOUT GOD'S LIFE.
·    It is legalism.
·    SELF IMPROVING SELF.
·    A false and EMPTY CROSS.

The moldy bread and wine can only be recognized as false by considering the TRUTH OF THE CROSS.

Here is the failure of Joshua.

JOSHUA 9  (14)  And the men took of their victuals, and asked not counsel at the mouth of the LORD. 

They did NOT GO TO THE WORD OF GOD ABOUT THIS.
·    The MOUTH of God is the WORD OF GOD.
·    Just as GOD WOULD SPEAK to them about the truth if they had only asked, THE WORD OF GOD TODAY IS INFORMATION ABOUT TRUTH.
·    Compare everything with the WORD, and it it's not in the WORD then reject it NO MATTER HOW RIGHT IT SOUNDS.
·    STUDY THE WORD!

Analyze the NAME HIVITE a little more.

It actually is associated with the Hebrew NAME EVE.
·    Literally, it is like saying EVE-ITE.
·    Eve means mother of all living.
·    Hebrew:  KIVVY (HIVITE) versus KIVVAH (EVE).
·    “living-place” versus “life-giving.”
·    HIVITE means VILLAGER
·    And a village is a LIVING PLACE.
·    So there is the sense of LIFE GIVING.
·    Eve GAVE LIFE and MOTHERED all living.

So this woman who was intended to mother all living and GIVE LIFE, was used by the devil to GIVE ADAM DEATH in the false fruit.

·    Genesis 3:6    And when the woman saw that the tree was good for food, and that it was pleasant to the eyes, and a tree to be desired to make one wise, she took of the fruit thereof, and did eat, and gave also unto her husband with her; and he did eat.

These HIVITES were counterfeiting possession of LIFE, but it was DEATH.

They were false ambassadors.

Look what Paul said about ambassadors.

2 Corinthians 5:20    Now then we are ambassadors for Christ, as though God did beseech you by us: we pray you in Christ's stead, be ye reconciled to God.

And earlier in this same chapter, look what Paul was speaking about.

2 Corinthians 5:14-17    (14)  For the love of Christ constraineth us; because we thus judge, that if one died for all, then were all dead:  (15)  And that he died for all, that they which live should not henceforth live unto themselves, but unto him which died for them, and rose again.  (16)  Wherefore henceforth know we no man after the flesh: yea, though we have known Christ after the flesh, yet now henceforth know we him no more.  (17)  Therefore if any man be in Christ, he is a new creature: old things are passed away; behold, all things are become new.

The true AMBASSADOR message of the cross says that WE ACTUALLY ARE DEAD TO SIN through Christ DYING AS US.
·    HIS DEATH we experience BY ACCEPTING THE TRUTH AND BELIEVING IT makes us part of a new creation.
·    Old things literally PASS AWAY since WE DIED.
·    That means HUMAN LIFE must DIE, it’s that ineffective.


But CORRUPT MESSAGES OF THE CROSS say WE can IMPROVE OURSELVES UNTIL WE BECOME what God wants us to be.
·    Just gain a bunch of KNOWLEDGE and MAKE YOURSELF DO GOOD AND AVOID DOING EVIL, and you will become HOLY.
·    IT LETS THE DEVIL SURVIVE!

Looking at the moldy bread and broken wineskins would not be a concern to someone with a shallow awareness of the truth of the cross.
·    It‘s bread and wine to them!
·    But coming to a true understanding of the cross brings us through three days of His death to the third day when He resurrected.
·    THAT IS WHEN IMMORTAL LIFE is focused upon.
·    Yes there is the cross, but there is the IMMORTAL, RESURRECTION LIFE that it leads us to!
·    Once you see the focal point of resurrection, when JESUS WAS NOT ALLOWED TO SEE CORRUPTION and so was raised the THIRD DAY,  you realize the importance of IMMORTAL, ABOVE-HUMAN LIFE.
·    It is GOD’S POWER that is emphasized.

1 Corinthians 1:30    But of him are ye in Christ Jesus, who of God is made unto us wisdom, and righteousness, and sanctification, and redemption:

SANCTIFICATION in the Greek is the same word for HOLINESS.

·    One man told me that righteousness is given as a gift from God but holiness is something WE MAKE OURSELVES COME INTO BY DOING AND NOT DOING.
·    That is as false as the knowledge of good and evil.
·    CHRIST IS ALSO OUR HOLINESS for us.
·    And it is NOT OF OURSELVES, but OF GOD.
·    Only HIS IMMORTAL LIFE can accomplish that.

2 Corinthians 5:18    And all things are of God, who hath reconciled us to himself by Jesus Christ, and hath given to us the ministry of reconciliation;

2 Corinthians 5:21    For he hath made him to be sin for us, who knew no sin; that we might be made the righteousness of God in him.

So the devil not only used a FALSE MESSAGE that looked SO SPIRITUAL to survive and get man out of the Kingdom, but now that mankind is coming back into the KINGDOM, the devil is still using FALSE FOOD that stands for FALSE MESSAGE that he might continue to survive.

When IT IS TOTALLY OF GOD that we are saved and given LIFE, then that LIFE is lacking when bring SELF EFFORT from human life into the picture.
·    Any life of God WE DO HAVE is HINDERED from working in us due to the FALSE SELF EFFORT teaching.
·    Every bit of SELF GLORY from SELF EFFORT will BLOCK any life of God in us.


Joshua 9:16    And it came to pass at the end of three days after they had made a league with them, that they heard that they were their neighbours, and that they dwelt among them.


AND AFTER THREE DAYS JOSHUA LEARNS THE TRUTH.
·    Three days were taken for Christ to die, be buried and rise in resurrection power.
·    So seeing three days pass before Joshua realizes the truth represents GOING OVER THE ACTUAL TRUTH OF THE WORD OF THE CROSS UNTIL YOU FULLY GET IT.
·    Once you GET IT, you can easily recognize error.
·    You appreciate the difference between corruptible mortal life and eternal immortal life.
·    Those with a false sense of truth do not appreciate the difference between SELF MAKING SELF HOLY and good and all of it being OF GOD INSTEAD!
Let us not allow satan to survive by being fooled by him with a FALSE MESSAGE OF THE CROSS that puts US and OUR EFFORT as the key to spirituality.
·    If you think something YOU DO makes God move, then get that idea out.
·    WHAT HE DID actually put the POWER IN US, not what we can do.


The cities they were to conquer were THREE DAYS AWAY FROM THEM.

Joshua 9:17    And the children of Israel journeyed, and came unto their cities on the third day. Now their cities were Gibeon, and Chephirah, and Beeroth, and Kirjathjearim.


If the three days stands for simply learning and coming to grips with the TRUTH OF THE CROSS, then you are as far away from conquering your enemy as it takes to get a revelation of the TRUTH OF THE CROSS.
·    So do not let the devil sell you a false version or else you will conquer NOTHING AND HE WILL SURVIVE!