That's kind of amazing. I have pressed the "Publish Post" button three hundred times (by the time you read this. It's only two hundred and ninety nine right now. haha)
My sister alerted me that a common theme on my blog over the past week has been being cold.
I am not cold right now. The heat was turned on in our house today. And I am a much happier camper. :)
My nails still look sweet. I'm officially excited for Saturday! Lots of pictures to be taken. (I'm taking Kayt and Jason's pictures. I'm pumped. Because y'all know how much I like to take pictures! Hopefully there will be some good ones :)
I have about 30 minutes before I have to leave for 7 1/2 hours... so NIPTO.
Joshua 23:1-16
1 After a long time had passed and the LORD had given Israel rest from all their enemies around them, Joshua, by then old and well advanced in years, 2 summoned all Israel—their elders, leaders, judges and officials—and said to them: "I am old and well advanced in years.
Sooo a lot of time went by, and Joshua is... old and well advanced in years. (aka he's going to die soon.) Since he's old, he gets all of Israel together. And he tells him that he's old. Woo big deal, right? Keep reading.
3 You yourselves have seen everything the LORD your God has done to all these nations for your sake; it was the LORD your God who fought for you. 4 Remember how I have allotted as an inheritance for your tribes all the land of the nations that remain—the nations I conquered—between the Jordan and the Great Sea in the west. 5 The LORD your God himself will drive them out of your way. He will push them out before you, and you will take possession of their land, as the LORD your God promised you.
He reminds them of all the nations that God destroyed. How Joshua divided all of the inheritance. How God told him how he would drive the nations out of their way so they could take possession of the land that God had promised them.
6 "Be very strong; be careful to obey all that is written in the Book of the Law of Moses, without turning aside to the right or to the left. 7 Do not associate with these nations that remain among you; do not invoke the names of their gods or swear by them. You must not serve them or bow down to them. 8 But you are to hold fast to the LORD your God, as you have until now.
Joshua told them to follow what was written in the Book of the Law of Moses. To stay straight. He told them to not get all "buddy-buddy" with the nations that were still around. They served false gods. They were to hold fast to the LORD... God. They had done it up until that point, how hard could it be to keep doing what they had been doing?
9 "The LORD has driven out before you great and powerful nations; to this day no one has been able to withstand you. 10One of you routs a thousand, because the LORD your God fights for you, just as he promised. 11 So be very careful to love the LORD your God.
God drove powerful nations out before the Israelites. No one had been able to defeat them. One person could round up a thousand people because GOD was fighting for them. Like he promised he would. It's followed with a command: be very careful to love the LORD your God. If you love God, he'll fight for you. When you are in a "fight," he'll be on your side.
We're constantly in a battle. A spiritual struggle. A war that we can't see. But we feel it strongly at times. Sometimes we don't feel it. But whether we feel it or not, God is fighting for us, not against us. How awesome is that???
12 "But if you turn away and ally yourselves with the survivors of these nations that remain among you and if you intermarry with them and associate with them, 13 then you may be sure that the LORD your God will no longer drive out these nations before you. Instead, they will become snares and traps for you, whips on your backs and thorns in your eyes, until you perish from this good land, which the LORD your God has given you.
BUT. The dreaded but. If you don't love God, if you turn away and ally yourself with the other nations, you can be sure that God won't be fighting for you any more. He'll start working against you. Or he just won't help you and the other nations are that terrifying.
If you turn away, you'll die in the land that God promised you. Sad.
14 "Now I am about to go the way of all the earth. You know with all your heart and soul that not one of all the good promises the LORD your God gave you has failed. Every promise has been fulfilled; not one has failed. 15 But just as every good promise of the LORD your God has come true, so the LORD will bring on you all the evil he has threatened, until he has destroyed you from this good land he has given you.
Joshua tells them that he's about to die. But he also tells them what they already know: that not one of the (good) promises God has made them has ever failed. God fulfilled every promise he made. And just like he made all the (good) promises come true he can still make the (bad) promises come true as well. He won't hold back.
16 If you violate the covenant of the LORD your God, which he commanded you, and go and serve other gods and bow down to them, the LORD's anger will burn against you, and you will quickly perish from the good land he has given you."
If they broke the covenant that God had made with them, he would be angry. And they would die quickly from the (good) land that he had given them.
Not the best note to end on, but I'm ending on it anyways.
Annnnnnnd yeah. So that's that.
Adios!
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