Joshua 19-21

Day 76

I just might get to enjoy this beautiful sunny day it promises to be!!! I think I feel  better today!!!  I think Hannalee is better too.....minus the POOOOOOOP I found her in this morning. 

Chapter 19  have you found it interesting yet, or noticed, that God has promised and GIVEN the Israelites the land (given them!) BUT yet they are still having to fight for it!!  Don't you think that is interesting???  It's like saying "Okay.....here's your Christmas present but you'll have to fight your brother for it!"  And ....the people they are fighting aren't just there welcoming them...they aren't packed up ready to leave their own homeland.  The Israelites are having to fight established people in established towns!!!!   This isn't just open wilderness they are taking over.  They are and winning the land city by city by city by city.

Chapter 20  Well...these cities of refuge are ONLY if they kill someone by accident....not for those who have killed in the military campaign for the taking over the land.   If a murder occurs, by accident, then the killer can flee to one of these 6 cities, be provided protection, and wait there for a trial.  There are 3 cities on each side of the Jordan River.....this provides easy access for anyone in need and is just one more way that God provides protection for His people.

Chapter 21  the Levites.....well, we've learned and surely remember that they don't get their own land inheritance.   Their inheritance is the offerings from the sacrifices.  They are allotted these cities....happens to be the same cities as the ones of refuge.   Who better to live in the cities of refuge for murderers than the priests of the Israelites?!!  Sounds like a rather grand plan to me!!!    And all of these cities and their boundaries chapters end with the promise of God fulfilled!!!!  Verse 43-45 close the past couple of chapters that we have stumbled through reading. We end with the Lord giving Israel all of the land He promised (though they had to fight for it!) and the final words of the fighting remind of God's faithfulness:  "not one of all the Lord's good promises to the house of Israel failed; every one was fulfilled!"   

Lesson learned:  God does what God says He will do!!! No doubt about it!!!!    No matter how hard your "fight"...God will give you what He promised....grace, love, mercy, forgiveness and eternal life for belief in Him and Jesus through the power of the Holy Spirit!!!  Amen??? Amen!!!

Thank you God...........

tomorrow:  Joshua 22-24