NIPTO, Day 238

Today... was... busy.

We did music at church. It went well. Had a potluck after church. It was good... Annnd I went down to Kayt's for a bit, did some homework, annnd not sure what else! haha. Oh! Got my homecoming dress situated! I'm excited. I officially have a dress! So that's exciting.

Annnnnd printed off homework... annnnd ate some food.... annnnnd went to youth group!
Youth group was good! We played Ninja and ate food and talked about faith vs works.
And we talked about Grace Park.
Annnnd we dropped Ricardo off and came home... called Pops because it's his birthday today!
And now we just finished watching Undercover Boss annd I'm blogging. And should get my school stuff together...
Or finish blogging and just go to bed so I can get my stuff together in the morning! (MY HANDS ARE COLD. Why haven't we turned the heat on yet??? =P)

Fine. NIPTO.

Joshua 22:1-20
¹ Then Joshua summoned the Reubenites, the Gadites and the half-tribe of Manasseh ² and said to them, "You have done all that Moses the servant of the LORD commanded, and you have obeyed me in everything I commanded. ³ For a long time now—to this very day—you have not deserted your brothers but have carried out the mission the LORD your God gave you. ⁴Now that the LORD your God has given your brothers rest as he promised, return to your homes in the land that Moses the servant of the LORD gave you on the other side of the Jordan. ⁵ But be very careful to keep the commandment and the law that Moses the servant of the LORD gave you: to love the LORD your God, to walk in all his ways, to obey his commands, to hold fast to him and to serve him with all your heart and all your soul."


Sooo they get all the land parceled out and Joshua talks to each of the tribes. Joshua kinda congratulates them that they have been faithful to carry out the mission that God gave them. Then he tells them that God promised them rest and that they were about to get that. Then he warns them to stay faithful and to stay true to the commandments that Moses gave them originally.


 ⁶ Then Joshua blessed them and sent them away, and they went to their homes. ⁷ (To the half-tribe of Manasseh Moses had given land in Bashan, and to the other half of the tribe Joshua gave land on the west side of the Jordan with their brothers.) When Joshua sent them home, he blessed them, ⁸ saying, "Return to your homes with your great wealth—with large herds of livestock, with silver, gold, bronze and iron, and a great quantity of clothing—and divide with your brothers the plunder from your enemies."

Joshua blessed them and told them go to to their homes. When Joshua blessed them, telling them to go home with their money, livestock, ... money, and clothing. He told them to divide with their families what they had gained from fighting all those cities!


 ⁹ So the Reubenites, the Gadites and the half-tribe of Manasseh left the Israelites at Shiloh in Canaan to return to Gilead, their own land, which they had acquired in accordance with the command of the LORD through Moses.
 ¹⁰ When they came to Geliloth near the Jordan in the land of Canaan, the Reubenites, the Gadites and the half-tribe of Manasseh built an imposing altar there by the Jordan. ¹¹ And when the Israelites heard that they had built the altar on the border of Canaan at Geliloth near the Jordan on the Israelite side, ¹² the whole assembly of Israel gathered at Shiloh to go to war against them.
 ¹³ So the Israelites sent Phinehas son of Eleazar, the priest, to the land of Gilead—to Reuben, Gad and the half-tribe of Manasseh. ¹⁴ With him they sent ten of the chief men, one for each of the tribes of Israel, each the head of a family division among the Israelite clans.
Alrighty. So they go back to their homes and the Reubenites built this alter near the Jordan river. Annnd they really weren't supposed to do that. And as a result, they had to go to war. 
The Israelites sent the son of a priest (who was probably a priest himself) to figure out what was going on.


 ¹⁵ When they went to Gilead—to Reuben, Gad and the half-tribe of Manasseh—they said to them: ¹⁶ "The whole assembly of the LORD says: 'How could you break faith with the God of Israel like this? How could you turn away from the LORD and build yourselves an altar in rebellion against him now? ¹⁷ Was not the sin of Peor enough for us? Up to this very day we have not cleansed ourselves from that sin, even though a plague fell on the community of the LORD! ¹⁸ And are you now turning away from the LORD ?
They went and asked them some questions. They asked how they could turn away from God after everything he had done for them. They asked them WHY?


      " 'If you rebel against the LORD today, tomorrow he will be angry with the whole community of Israel. ¹⁹ If the land you possess is defiled, come over to the LORD's land, where the LORD's tabernacle stands, and share the land with us. But do not rebel against the LORD or against us by building an altar for yourselves, other than the altar of the LORD our God. ²⁰ When Achan son of Zerah acted unfaithfully regarding the devoted things, did not wrath come upon the whole community of Israel? He was not the only one who died for his sin.' "
He warned them and told them that if they rebelled, God would be angry with the entireee community of Israel. And that if they had defiled their land, they should come to the LORD's land. (When LORD is capitalized like that in the Old Testament, it means YAHWEH. Technically. LORD is a close approximation to the letters YHWH in... Hebrew or Greek. I don't remember. And it's too late for me to look it up! Maybe some other time!)
He asked them to not rebel against God and the rest of Israel by building an alter for themselves, not an alter to worship God. Then he reminds them of a pleasant time in life when that guy took some stuff that he wasn't supposed to. Remember that? Yeah. That time. God killed a whole bunch of people. He wasn't the only one who died.




And on that lovely note, I'm going to go to bed. (Yeah, I know. I didn't plan that too well! hahah. More tomorrow!)
Abby =)