31 Kingdoms

I love extreme cold. yes, I know I'm one of the few crazies out there, but I do. there is something to be said about going out into the cold and still being warm all bundled up. Maybe that is why I like winter camping so much, even though both times the trip ended miserably.

I love the fact that I am fighting against nature. nature is telling me I should go inside, stay somewhere where it is nice and warm, but I'm out there, braving the elements...I like that. dunno why.

right now, I'm reading Joshua and got to the part where Joshua is taking over Canaan. What I didn't realize is that Moses did do some conquering to the east of the jordan, enough for 3 tribes, but joshua did a majority of the "work" by defeating not 3, not 5, not 10 kingdoms, but THIRTY ONE. Now that is a heck of a lot of armies to defeat in order to secure Israel. Now can you imagine if the nation of Israel heard from the Lord, "Go take this land for yourselves. There are 31 kingdoms already there, but I will give them over to your hands." I know I would have a hard time with that. 31!?!?!? that's a crazy lot of kingdoms and they were here first...shouldn't we show God's love to them? no, Israel ravages and destroys them all. (mostly God as we see in the chapters).

So when God calls me to something and there are what I see as insurmountable obstacles, do I continue? When Israel murmers after joshua and caleb came back from spying, I can't blame them for being scared. 31 kingdoms and the first one is Jericho. How intimidating! But learning to lean on His trust and character, Israel goes to battle. And what happens? Besides Ai, victory. And even Ai fell the 2nd time. This is God claiming this land for Israel as He promised. Awesome! what 31 kingdoms do you want me to go after Lord?