Mar11:
I wonder what they inhabitants of Jericho thought watching this army circle around their town and then return home ... strange. They did respect the power of Israel's God - they had heard about his miraculous acts - Rahab told us that. Still, they had to think this was a stupid strategy.

Even in victory, a small group of Israelites take for themselves and God's anger burns ... The Lord is watching every detail! You can't HIDE from God! Period. The dude hid the plunder in the ground inside his tent ... you can't hide your junk in the trunk! Interesting timing in my reading of this "hidden sin" becoming public as I watched the Gov. of NY resign today from his sex scandal.

If you are trying to hide something from God - stop! You are only fooling yourself! Sins need to be confessed and dealt with severely for the Lord to bless and give great victory!


Mar12:
Israel just secured a wonderful victory at Ai by outsmarting the enemy. No sooner did that happen that they get outsmarted themselves! How did this happen? "... but they did no inquire of the Lord." That's how! They took what they could at face value - the old clothes, the old bread, the old wine skins, everything they could see with they eyes ... and made a LOGICAL decision - without inquiring of the Lord. It leads to frustration and trouble every time! And yet we do it over and over and over again, don't we?? When will we learn?

Learned something new today: The Lord used HAILSTONES to wup up on an enemy army! Too cool God!

I like this verse: "As the Lord commanded his servant Moses, so Moses commanded Joshua, and Joshua did it." That's a really cool progression of discipleship in many ways. Too cool.

I'm wondering ... after all this war ... what do you do with all those bodies. I mean this is genocide taking place. It would never fly in today's world by the way ... When Israel was divided into it's inheritence, did people have to remove dead bodies from homes? Did they re-settle directly into those built homes and towns? What an amazing time to have been able to witness.