NIPTO, Day 239

I'm COLD. But I'm getting warmer. (No, I'm not playing "hotter, colder," I'm just cold.)

Today..... I..... woke up. And had a difficult time getting out of bed. Because our house was cold.
Went to school, didn't get a whole lot done in study hall, got more done sitting in Mom's class room while she was grading stuff, ate lunch with awesome people and blocked the hall up. It was awesome.
Then we had Lit and ACT. Lit was fun.... I am the only person in that class (besides the teacher) who is super excited about essay week. I'm pumped to write this essay on The Scarlet Letter. It's going to be good.
Came home. Babysat. Came home. Ate dinner. Filled out the guest form for homecoming. Ran it down to Meghan. And now I'm watching Chuck. And am going to paint my nails.

Nails: Painted. And they look awesome. I think this is how I'm going to do them for homecoming.
Annnnd... I'm still cold. (Or at least my fingers are still cold. They are out in the open on the keyboard =P)

Chuck's over... sooooo NIPTO.

Joshua 22:21-34

 ²¹ Then Reuben, Gad and the half-tribe of Manasseh replied to the heads of the clans of Israel: ²² "The Mighty One, God, the LORD! The Mighty One, God, the LORD! He knows! And let Israel know! If this has been in rebellion or disobedience to the LORD, do not spare us this day. ²³ If we have built our own altar to turn away from the LORD and to offer burnt offerings and grain offerings, or to sacrifice fellowship offerings on it, may the LORD himself call us to account.

The Reubenites (or whatever their "proper" name is) built an alter. That wasn't to God (or so the rest of the Israelites thought). Soooo the rest of Israel got on them, and this is the Reubenite's reply.
They admitted that God knew. They asked him, if they had rebelled against God, to not be spared. 


 ²⁴ "No! We did it for fear that some day your descendants might say to ours, 'What do you have to do with the LORD, the God of Israel? ²⁵ The LORD has made the Jordan a boundary between us and you—you Reubenites and Gadites! You have no share in the LORD.' So your descendants might cause ours to stop fearing the LORD.
 ²⁶ "That is why we said, 'Let us get ready and build an altar—but not for burnt offerings or sacrifices.' ²⁷ On the contrary, it is to be a witness between us and you and the generations that follow, that we will worship the LORD at his sanctuary with our burnt offerings, sacrifices and fellowship offerings. Then in the future your descendants will not be able to say to ours, 'You have no share in the LORD.'
 ²⁸ "And we said, 'If they ever say this to us, or to our descendants, we will answer: Look at the replica of the LORD's altar, which our fathers built, not for burnt offerings and sacrifices, but as a witness between us and you.'

They said that they built the alter out of fear that in the future someone would ask what they had to do with God. And they wanted to build that to remember. It was built as a witness.

Smart, eh? =P

 ²⁹ "Far be it from us to rebel against the LORD and turn away from him today by building an altar for burnt offerings, grain offerings and sacrifices, other than the altar of the LORD our God that stands before his tabernacle."


They were not planning on rebelling. They were just building a regular ol' alter for God.




 ³⁰ When Phinehas the priest and the leaders of the community—the heads of the clans of the Israelites—heard what Reuben, Gad and Manasseh had to say, they were pleased. ³¹ And Phinehas son of Eleazar, the priest, said to Reuben, Gad and Manasseh, "Today we know that the LORD is with us, because you have not acted unfaithfully toward the LORD in this matter. Now you have rescued the Israelites from the LORD's hand."


When the priests and leaders heard, they were happy. They knew that God was with them because they didn't rebel. In fact, the Reubenites rescued the Israelites from God's hand. Interesting....




 ³² Then Phinehas son of Eleazar, the priest, and the leaders returned to Canaan from their meeting with the Reubenites and Gadites in Gilead and reported to the Israelites. ³³ They were glad to hear the report and praised God. And they talked no more about going to war against them to devastate the country where the Reubenites and the Gadites lived.


The leaders went back to Canaan and gave their report. It was a happy report. They praised God. They didn't talk about war any more. It was good.




 ³⁴ And the Reubenites and the Gadites gave the altar this name: A Witness Between Us that the LORD is God.

The Reubenites gave the alter a name. "A Witness Between Us that the LORD is God." 

A witness. Hmm... I'm going to be thinking about that. But I'm not sure what I'm going to be thinking about it. I'll have to think about what I'm thinking about it. Hah.

Alrighty. I'm going to go to bed. And possibly sleep in a little bit. That would be nice... :)

Goodnight blog world!