On Rebellion, Sacrifice, and Grace

She imagined it as a person, a monster. It came for the sole purpose of sucking the life out of her. As she sat quietly enjoying the bright morning sunlight, it attacked. Before she could escape it grabbed her by the hair and began dragging her down to the pit of death. Her breath caught in her chest and her heart pounded wildly as she struggled to break free. Alas, though she flailed her arms wildly around her she could not seem to find it. It seemed the beast had slipped quietly inside of her without her notice. As a newborn trying to walk, she struggled once more but could not seem to move her arms or legs. Out of sheer panic and desperation she remembered her guardian. Her eyes searched frantically about her and landed on his shining face. He looked quietly into her eyes, his full of sadness and pain. Angrily she wondered why he did not come to her rescue, he knew she was in trouble. She waited. Part of her hoped he would save her before it was too late and part of her liked this f...

It is been a long while since I updated my reader on the activity and progress of the Israelites. I regret to admit this is because I have not actually read of it until today. As humbling as it is, this blog is a great way for me to keep myself accountable to reading and pondering God's incredible Word. And truly, it is so important to do so. The last week or so I have felt very dry once again and when I realized that I had not read God's very words I understood. Indeed, God's words are a refresher to the soul. So without further ado, let us discover how the Israelites are faring. After a complete victory over several thousand men, the Israelites were surely feeling confident in their God. Possibly to increase this confidence and to rid the earth of some very wicked cities, God decided to allow the Israelites to become victors once more. Once again the surrounding nations heard of the victory of the Israelites over their enemies and decided to wage war on them. This time no...

Last time we left the Israelites licking their wounds for being duped, yet again. Thankfully this would not last long. Though the Israelites knew that making a peace treaty with the Gibeonites was not in the will of the Lord, He still used it for the best. With that said, it is time to dive into this rich chapter. Yet again, the chapter starts by informing us that the opposing kings of multiple cities are scared out of their mind. In this chapter five kings decided to ban together to fight against Gibeon after learning that they were in a treaty with Israel, probably hoping that defeating one city would pose less of a threat to them than both cities combined. Of course the Gibeonites were terrified to see five armies marching toward them so cried out for help from the Israelites. Joshua wasted no time and quickly came to their aid. He set out with his mighty army and with personal assurance from God that they would be successful. Needless to say, all five armies were soon fleeing in te...

Well, today I seem to have no drive to post on this chapter. Basically the Israelites were tricked into making a treaty with an enemy nation because they did not talk to God before they made their decision. Oh, the silly mistakes we make. ~Elisabeth

After such a humiliating defeat and tragic end to many men of Israel we are right back were we started. One little city in the way and a whole host of Israelites unable to defeat it. If I were Joshua I would want to sit down and give up right there as he was probably thinking about doing. However, God said to Joshua, " Do not be afraid; do not be discouraged. Take the whole army with you, and go up and attack Ai. For I have delivered into your hands the king of Ai, his people, his city and his land. 2 You shall do to Ai and its king as you did to Jericho and its king, except that you may carry off their plunder and livestock for yourselves. Set an ambush behind the city." Notice that this time God is on their side whereas the last time they tried to defeat Ai there is no reference to God speaking to Joshua about the matter. With this assurance Joshua begins to create a brillant plan of attack. Joshua stations 5,000 men behind the city to form an ambush. Then he takes over ...

Last time we saw how the Israelites (with the help of God) fell an entire wall and conquered a city with little to no effort. Things were going really well, until some people became greedy. We all know people who simply cannot get enough and are never happy with what they do have. Well, these were some of those kinds of people. It was not enough for them that they were able to conquer an entire city, now they wanted some of the plunder. In the last chapter God specifically told to people not to take any of the plunder but to save only the gold and silver for the Lord. However, a few of these greedy people decided to take some for themselves anyway supposing God would not find out. (Ha, ha, ha) This caused them to suffer later was we will soon see. The Israelites set out to defeat a small tribe of people. They only sent a few thousand people because of their confidence and the small number of enemies. Unfortunately, they were absolutely walloped. It turned out that this was a result of ...

So this is the moment we have all been waiting for, the day Israel finally conquers their enemies and takes the Promised land by...walking around a wall? I am sure many of you have heard the classic story of the fall of the Jericho wall but I want to take another look at it because there are always juicy details that we seem to miss as we read through the story. The first thing I wanted to point out is the state of the inhabitants of Jericho. In the cartoons we always see the people (or veggies) mocking Israel from the top of the wall, this is not what happened! Remember yesterday how I stated that many of the kings were paralyzed with fear because of the Israelites and their God, well, they were not the only ones. Joshua 6 starts, "now Jericho was tightly shut because of the sons of Israel; no one went out and no one came in." Think about it, isn't a little odd that no one is going in or out of the city for food, water, or supplies? Usually cities are open all day and on...