2 Chronicles

There was nothing in the ark except the two tablets that Moses had placed in it at Horeb, where the Lord made a covenant with the Israelites after they came out of Egypt.

Hmmm where was the manna?? I thought there were supposed to be manna that was stored in a jug?


⁴⁰ “Now, my God, may your eyes be open and your ears attentive to the prayers offered in this place.

⁴¹ “Now arise, Lord God, and come to your resting place,
    you and the ark of your might.
May your priests, Lord God, be clothed with salvation,
    may your faithful people rejoice in your goodness.
⁴² Lord God, do not reject your anointed one.
    Remember the great love promised to David your servant.”

God's promises are very powerful, because they will be upheld, like a contract, God will promise what He says He will do! God promised us a few things in the bible. Whenever we lose hope, we need to look to those promises for strength. We hold on to God promises.

 

9 When the queen of Sheba heard of Solomon’s fame, she came to Jerusalem to test him with hard questions. Arriving with a very great caravan—with camels carrying spices, large quantities of gold, and precious stones—she came to Solomon and talked with him about all she had on her mind. ² Solomon answered all her questions; nothing was too hard for him to explain to her. ³ When the queen of Sheba saw the wisdom of Solomon, as well as the palace he had built, ⁴ the food on his table, the seating of his officials, the attending servants in their robes, the cupbearers in their robes and the burnt offerings he made at^[a] the temple of the Lord, she was overwhelmed.

When was the last time you shared Christ and the other party felt overwhelmed? when was the last time that happened? If you feel you do not have the wisdom to do it, then go and pray about it. Solomon got the wisdom from God. It is Godly wisdom!

Then after Solomon's death we know that God split up Israel into 2 kingdoms and many other parts. This is due to Solomon's disobedience and he went to serve other Gods.

Chronicles

Chronicles! As the name suggest, it chronicles something and that is the recording of something. Seen in the bible, it is the recording of events that had happened in the bible. The list is long but had a purpose. It is to prove God's glory in the things that He did.

It is like reading Samuel again!

Jezebel was dead

“How can there be peace,” Jehu replied, “as long as all the idolatry and witchcraft of your mother Jezebel abound?”

Jezebel is causing kings many kings to sin. Because of her idolous ways. 


They went back and told Jehu, who said, “This is the word of the Lord that he spoke through his servant Elijah the Tishbite: On the plot of ground at Jezreel dogs will devour Jezebel’s flesh.^{[f] 37} Jezebel’s body will be like dung on the ground in the plot at Jezreel, so that no one will be able to say, ‘This is Jezebel.’”

 Then Jezebel was dead.


Now the royal princes, seventy of them, were with the leading men of the city, who were rearing them. ⁷ When the letter arrived, these men took the princes and slaughtered all seventy of them. They put their heads in baskets and sent them to Jehu in Jezreel. ⁸ When the messenger arrived, he told Jehu, “They have brought the heads of the princes.”
Then Jehu ordered, “Put them in two piles at the entrance of the city gate until morning.”
⁹ The next morning Jehu went out. He stood before all the people and said, “You are innocent. It was I who conspired against my master and killed him, but who killed all these? ¹⁰ Know, then, that not a word the Lord has spoken against the house of Ahab will fail. The Lord has done what he announced through his servant Elijah.” ¹¹ So Jehu killed everyone in Jezreel who remained of the house of Ahab, as well as all his chief men, his close friends and his priests, leaving him no survivor.

I can imagine there were huge chaos in Israel. There is internal conflict and civil war.  


¹⁸ Then Jehu brought all the people together and said to them, “Ahab served Baal a little; Jehu will serve him much. ¹⁹ Now summon all the prophets of Baal, all his servants and all his priests. See that no one is missing, because I am going to hold a great sacrifice for Baal. Anyone who fails to come will no longer live.” But Jehu was acting deceptively in order to destroy the servants of Baal.

This was one of the things that really he did really right in the eyes of God!

 
²⁰ Elisha died and was buried.
Now Moabite raiders used to enter the country every spring. ²¹ Once while some Israelites were burying a man, suddenly they saw a band of raiders; so they threw the man’s body into Elisha’s tomb. When the body touched Elisha’s bones, the man came to life and stood up on his feet.

There are one of the miraculous things that happen even when sin is so rampant here.

Sin, too much sin

At noon Elijah began to taunt them. “Shout louder!” he said. “Surely he is a god! Perhaps he is deep in thought, or busy, or traveling. Maybe he is sleeping and must be awakened.” So they shouted louder and slashed themselves with swords and spears, as was their custom, until their blood flowed. Midday passed, and they continued their frantic prophesying until the time for the evening sacrifice. But there was no response, no one answered, no one paid attention. (1 Kings 18:27-29 NIV)

This is so funny! Elijah was so sarcastic! Perhaps he is deep in thought or busy or traveling! Hahaha! Praise The Lord! Are we not like the Israelites? Who remember The Lord in a moment and forget Him in another moment? What nonsense right? Are we not like that when God show us His awesome power or when we need Him then we remember Him? And when He is silent or when we are in the valley then we forget about God?

The man of God came up and told the king of Israel, “This is what the Lord says: ‘Because the Arameans think the Lord is a god of the hills and not a god of the valleys, I will deliver this vast army into your hands, and you will know that I am the Lord.’ ” (1 Kings 20:28 NIV)

Because they thought that The Lord is a god of the hills and not a god of the valleys. This metaphor is interesting because they think Lord is the God of something but not God of the other. Can we be in the same situation too? Do we see God as the God of our school life but not God of all? Or is God only God of your Saturdays and Sundays but on weekdays you are serving other gods?

“Have you noticed how Ahab has humbled himself before me? Because he has humbled himself, I will not bring this disaster in his day, but I will bring it on his house in the days of his son.” (1 Kings 21:29 NIV)

God will punish the wicked, He Will. That is written in the bible and it is certain that He will punish the wicked. It is not a question of whether, it is a question of when. If you humble yourself before The Lord, maybe God will show kindness to you and punish you later or lighter. But God will punish. Then you ask, if Jesus died on the cross for all of us then god would not punish us? No. God will still punish us. No matter what, God will still punish us. Not in the same extent and magnitude that Jesus had died on the cross for All our sins, but God will judge us and we will still have to bear the consequences of our sin. Sin? Think about the next generation. If you in this generation sin, then next generation will suffer. But if you in this generation is obedient to God, your next generation prospers. See what David did and see what Solomon received. And then see what Solomon did and what his sons received.

Now it was the time in which Israel had no good kings. Kings after king led their people against God, not towards God. Now the only true prophet is Elijah and Elisha. They are the only 2 in whole of Israel to follow God's word and commandments.

But Naaman went away angry and said, “I thought that he would surely come out to me and stand and call on the name of the Lord his God, wave his hand over the spot and cure me of my leprosy. Are not Abana and Pharpar, the rivers of Damascus, better than all the waters of Israel? Couldn’t I wash in them and be cleansed?” So he turned and went off in a rage. (2 Kings 5:11, 12 NIV)

When God tells us to do something radical, will we do it?

Then he asked her, “What’s the matter?” She answered, “This woman said to me, ‘Give up your son so we may eat him today, and tomorrow we’ll eat my son.’ So we cooked my son and ate him. The next day I said to her, ‘Give up your son so we may eat him,’ but she had hidden him.” (2 Kings 6:28, 29 NIV)

What sin? Eating human flesh?

Sin, unlimited sin!

⁶² Then the king and all Israel with him offered sacrifices before the Lord. ⁶³ Solomon offered a sacrifice of fellowship offerings to the Lord: twenty-two thousand cattle and a hundred and twenty thousand sheep and goats. So the king and all the Israelites dedicated the temple of the Lord.

Wow, thats a lot of offerings.  And the amount of food can feed a lot of people! But these food were sacrificed to the Lord. Sometimes i think i am really tired to God saying such stuff over and over again.

⁶ “But if you^[a] or your descendants turn away from me and do not observe the commands and decrees I have given you^[b] and go off to serve other gods and worship them, ⁷ then I will cut off Israel from the land I have given them and will reject this temple I have consecrated for my Name. Israel will then become a byword and an object of ridicule among all peoples. ⁸ This temple will become a heap of rubble. All^[c] who pass by will be appalled and will scoff and say, ‘Why has the Lord done such a thing to this land and to this temple?’ ⁹ People will answer, ‘Because they have forsaken the Lord their God, who brought their ancestors out of Egypt, and have embraced other gods, worshiping and serving them—that is why the Lord brought all this disaster on them.’”

But He is right, we need the reminder again and again, for we keep forgetting his promises. We keep forgetting that God is real and exist and rules over our lives. 

10 When the queen of Sheba heard about the fame of Solomon and his relationship to the Lord, she came to test Solomon with hard questions. ² Arriving at Jerusalem with a very great caravan—with camels carrying spices, large quantities of gold, and precious stones—she came to Solomon and talked with him about all that she had on her mind. ³ Solomon answered all her questions; nothing was too hard for the king to explain to her. ⁴ When the queen of Sheba saw all the wisdom of Solomon and the palace he had built, ⁵ the food on his table, the seating of his officials, the attending servants in their robes, his cupbearers, and the burnt offerings he made at^[a] the temple of the Lord, she was overwhelmed.

Solomon ruled the country with God and with the good foundation set by David. This country was wealthy and great!  Any country which is headed by God wil become great, undoubtedly.

11 King Solomon, however, loved many foreign women besides Pharaoh’s daughter—Moabites, Ammonites, Edomites, Sidonians and Hittites. ² They were from nations about which the Lord had told the Israelites, “You must not intermarry with them, because they will surely turn your hearts after their gods.” Nevertheless, Solomon held fast to them in love. ³ He had seven hundred wives of royal birth and three hundred concubines, and his wives led him astray. ⁴ As Solomon grew old, his wives turned his heart after other gods, and his heart was not fully devoted to the Lord his God, as the heart of David his father had been. ⁵ He followed Ashtoreth the goddess of the Sidonians, and Molek the detestable god of the Ammonites. ⁶ So Solomon did evil in the eyes of the Lord; he did not follow the Lord completely, as David his father had done.

 Choosing the right wife, a wife that God will approve is so important! Solomon did not follow that and take God's command and He made his own downfall. Because of this he served other Gods and that angered God greatly. Because of that God is going to break up Israel, not from Solomon but from his sons.

²⁵ Nadab son of Jeroboam became king of Israel in the second year of Asa king of Judah, and he reigned over Israel two years. ²⁶ He did evil in the eyes of the Lord, following the ways of his father and committing the same sin his father had caused Israel to commit.

It is true of because what Solomon did, the sin was passed down generations.  After 1 Kings 16, God's anger was probably at the peak already! King after king sinned aginst the Lord.

Samuel!

Did not have time to post lately because of the numerous tests that exist.

The last days of David was filled with much tension and drama. Two of David's sons wanted to claim kingship that was given to Solomon. Kind David was Old but he still have enough sanity to annoit His son Solomon to be King. This altar was built before the Lord because David wrongly ordered the census of the people against God's will.

David Builds an Altar

¹⁸ On that day Gad went to David and said to him, “Go up and build an altar to the Lord on the threshing floor of Araunah the Jebusite.” ¹⁹ So David went up, as the Lord had commanded through Gad. ²⁰ When Araunah looked and saw the king and his officials coming toward him, he went out and bowed down before the king with his face to the ground.
²¹ Araunah said, “Why has my lord the king come to his servant?”
“To buy your threshing floor,” David answered, “so I can build an altar to the Lord, that the plague on the people may be stopped.”
²² Araunah said to David, “Let my lord the king take whatever he wishes and offer it up. Here are oxen for the burnt offering, and here are threshing sledges and ox yokes for the wood. ²³ Your Majesty, Araunah^[d] gives all this to the king.” Araunah also said to him, “May the Lord your God accept you.”
²⁴ But the king replied to Araunah, “No, I insist on paying you for it. I will not sacrifice to the Lord my God burnt offerings that cost me nothing.”
So David bought the threshing floor and the oxen and paid fifty shekels^[e] of silver for them. ²⁵ David built an altar to the Lord there and sacrificed burnt offerings and fellowship offerings. Then the Lord answered his prayer in behalf of the land, and the plague on Israel was stopped.

David's last words to his son was "Be strong and act like a man and obey the LORD". The command was simple yet deep. Easy yet hard to do. How many of us obey the Lord all the time? ALL the time?

² “I am about to go the way of all the earth,” he said. “So be strong, act like a man, ³ and observe what the Lord your God requires: Walk in obedience to him, and keep his decrees and commands, his laws and regulations, as written in the Law of Moses. Do this so that you may prosper in all you do and wherever you go ⁴ and that the Lord may keep his promise to me: ‘If your descendants watch how they live, and if they walk faithfully before me with all their heart and soul, you will never fail to have a successor on the throne of Israel.’

Solomon asked for heavenly wisdom. I want that too! Heavenly wisdom covers all wisdom. It is the best form of wisdom anyone can have.
 
¹⁰ The Lord was pleased that Solomon had asked for this. ¹¹ So God said to him, “Since you have asked for this and not for long life or wealth for yourself, nor have asked for the death of your enemies but for discernment in administering justice, ¹² I will do what you have asked. I will give you a wise and discerning heart, so that there will never have been anyone like you, nor will there ever be. 

Samuel

I have been waiting to read Samuel! The story of Samuel, Saul and David is one that i like very much. The story is so awesome! I really like it a lot. The story really encapsulates all the elements of humanity into 1. We have rebellion against God(Saul) and we have David(Valour and Courage). Then we also have the story of Samuel where He follows God faithfully. 

Here we see the 3 persons paths are crossed by the one God. He turned away from Saul and towards David, who will become His successor. To me Saul was like the smarty pants. He had a attitude like "yay, God anointed me king. Now i make the calls. I decide everything." It was shown as during one of his battles, he was supposed to wait for Samuel to come to sacrifice offering to the Lord. But he was impatient and made the offering himself. Then was the part where he fought a battle and Samuel commanded Him (as God commanded him) to kill everything. Not a single living thing to be standing. Yet he did not listen, He kept the best of the flock to be sacrificed to the Lord. Then Samuel was exceedingly angry with Saul.

16 The Lord said to Samuel, “How long will you mourn for Saul, since I have rejected him as king over Israel? Fill your horn with oil and be on your way; I am sending you to Jesse of Bethlehem. I have chosen one of his sons to be king.”

² But Samuel said, “How can I go? If Saul hears about it, he will kill me.”
The Lord said, “Take a heifer with you and say, ‘I have come to sacrifice to the Lord.’ ³ Invite Jesse to the sacrifice, and I will show you what to do. You are to anoint for me the one I indicate.”

Now this is the beginning of the new King David who will be anointed by Samuel by God. David was a no body and God made him somebody in an instant! that is so amazing! God can bring down and exhalt anyone in a passing moment. Just in a passing moment. How glorious is the LORD!

³² David said to Saul, “Let no one lose heart on account of this Philistine; your servant will go and fight him.”

David had such courage!
But...

³³ Saul replied, “You are not able to go out against this Philistine and fight him; you are only a young man, and he has been a warrior from his youth.”

Dont ever let people belittle you! For you have God with you. The victory is already won.
 
³⁴ But David said to Saul, “Your servant has been keeping his father’s sheep. When a lion or a bear came and carried off a sheep from the flock, ³⁵ I went after it, struck it and rescued the sheep from its mouth. When it turned on me, I seized it by its hair, struck it and killed it. ³⁶ Your servant has killed both the lion and the bear; this uncircumcised Philistine will be like one of them, because he has defied the armies of the living God. ³⁷ The Lord who rescued me from the paw of the lion and the paw of the bear will rescue me from the hand of this Philistine.”
Saul said to David, “Go, and the Lord be with you.”

So Awesome reading this story again! 

Killed. 


⁵⁷ As soon as David returned from killing the Philistine, Abner took him and brought him before Saul, with David still holding the Philistine’s head.
⁵⁸ “Whose son are you, young man?” Saul asked him.
David said, “I am the son of your servant Jesse of Bethlehem.”

An awesome story of courage! Praise the Lord! :D

There is no law

What the people did was screwed up! Even by today's standards. They wanted to have sex with the guys who came into the house of the old man. I mean guys having sex with guys? Thats bad. I dont know what they are thinking. Today we see many repeats of this story but it is not so"obvious" The reason being people today do that, but its not to the point that they demand someone else. Yea, basically guy rape a guy. Like what?!

The owner of the house went outside and said to them, “No, my friends, don’t be so vile. Since this man is my guest, don’t do this outrageous thing. Look, here is my virgin daughter, and his concubine. I will bring them out to you now, and you can use them and do to them whatever you wish. But as for this man, don’t do such an outrageous thing.” (Judges 19:23, 24 NIV)

The second stunner is that the owner of the house told them to take his virgin daughter(who he did not give ) and the man's concubine. What nonsense?

Then the elders and all the people at the gate said, “We are witnesses. May the Lord make the woman who is coming into your home like Rachel and Leah, who together built up the family of Israel. May you have standing in Ephrathah and be famous in Bethlehem. (Ruth 4:11 NIV)

Yea, later we see that Baoz marries Ruth. A passing comment by one of the elders say that may she be on the same standing as Rachel and Leah. Rachel and Leah was contesting for the most children. Remember the previous chapter where it was read.

Samson

¹⁷ “Watch me,” he told them. “Follow my lead. When I get to the edge of the camp, do exactly as I do. ¹⁸ When I and all who are with me blow our trumpets, then from all around the camp blow yours and shout, ‘For the Lord and for Gideon.’”

This scene was like one out of some Hollywood. For the Lord and for Gideon. Hahaha I can totally imagine this! However beyond this, the story behind it is a testimony to the Lord!

²³ But Gideon told them, “I will not rule over you, nor will my son rule over you. The Lord will rule over you.” ²⁴ And he said, “I do have one request, that each of you give me an earring from your share of the plunder.” (It was the custom of the Ishmaelites to wear gold earrings.)

Gideon knew who God was as what He is to him is king. That is why when people ask him to be king, he replied the Lord will rule over you. This is a very difficult thing for anyone to do. Imagine people wanting to crown you king. Why would you refuse? You will get all kinds of good stuff and you will become the most powerful person in the Lord.

⁵⁴ Hurriedly he called to his armor-bearer, “Draw your sword and kill me, so that they can’t say, ‘A woman killed him.’” So his servant ran him through, and he died. ⁵⁵ When the Israelites saw that Abimelek was dead, they went home.

Too much pride. Whats wrong with being killed by a woman?

⁵ Samson went down to Timnah together with his father and mother. As they approached the vineyards of Timnah, suddenly a young lion came roaring toward him. ⁶ The Spirit of the Lord came powerfully upon him so that he tore the lion apart with his bare hands as he might have torn a young goat. But he told neither his father nor his mother what he had done. ⁷ Then he went down and talked with the woman, and he liked her.
⁸ Some time later, when he went back to marry her, he turned aside to look at the lion’s carcass, and in it he saw a swarm of bees and some honey. ⁹ He scooped out the honey with his hands and ate as he went along. When he rejoined his parents, he gave them some, and they too ate it. But he did not tell them that he had taken the honey from the lion’s carcass.

I think the story of the Samson is one that is very suitable to be written as a good movie. It has the elements of epicness. Samson walked with the God and was dedicated to God, but he made a fatal error. 

¹⁵ Then she said to him, “How can you say, ‘I love you,’ when you won’t confide in me? This is the third time you have made a fool of me and haven’t told me the secret of your great strength.” ¹⁶ With such nagging she prodded him day after day until he was sick to death of it.
¹⁷ So he told her everything. “No razor has ever been used on my head,” he said, “because I have been a Nazirite dedicated to God from my mother’s womb. If my head were shaved, my strength would leave me, and I would become as weak as any other man.”
¹⁸ When Delilah saw that he had told her everything, she sent word to the rulers of the Philistines, “Come back once more; he has told me everything.” So the rulers of the Philistines returned with the silver in their hands. ¹⁹ After putting him to sleep on her lap, she called for someone to shave off the seven braids of his hair, and so began to subdue him.^[c] And his strength left him.
²⁰ Then she called, “Samson, the Philistines are upon you!”
He awoke from his sleep and thought, “I’ll go out as before and shake myself free.” But he did not know that the Lord had left him.
²¹ Then the Philistines seized him, gouged out his eyes and took him down to Gaza. Binding him with bronze shackles, they set him to grinding grain in the prison. ²² But the hair on his head began to grow again after it had been shaved.

The error was him confiding to a woman. love blinds people. It is true! Confide to the Lord, not to woman.

Wealth is our god.

<sup>An after thought from Deut:

35</sup> You were shown these things so that you might know that the Lord is God; besides him there is no other.

We were shown things that we know that the Lord is God. God shown us so many things. He rescued us from circumstances and was with us. These things we are to store them as treasure and remember these treasures in tough times so that we may testify the glory of God. 

Now we are in Judges. Judges is a very interesting chapter. This was the time in which Israel was on a roller coaster ride. They walk with God and walk away from God. Walk with God and walk away from God. God sent "Judges" to help the people with their walk with Chirst. But throughout Judges that is a very prominent feature of the book.
 I truely believe that this situation is excatly what we are facing right now. Especially in Singapore, where life is good. Where to fit God in the picture? We just want to do what we want?

Does it sound like us? Then you say:

¹⁰ After that whole generation had been gathered to their ancestors, another generation grew up who knew neither the Lord nor what he had done for Israel. ¹¹ Then the Israelites did evil in the eyes of the Lord and served the Baals. ¹² They forsook the Lord, the God of their ancestors, who had brought them out of Egypt. They followed and worshiped various gods of the peoples around them. They aroused the Lord’s anger ¹³ because they forsook him and served Baal and the Ashtoreths. ¹⁴ In his anger against Israel the Lord gave them into the hands of raiders who plundered them. He sold them into the hands of their enemies all around, whom they were no longer able to resist. ¹⁵ Whenever Israel went out to fight, the hand of the Lord was against them to defeat them, just as he had sworn to them. They were in great distress.

See they worship other gods what. So we do not?

We worship the god money, wealth. What good is Singapore if we are all worshipping money? I think there is no other place on earth that people worship wealth to this extent. Yes, money is important to live but remember our end state. This earth is temporary and will fade away. What is true and erternal is our God, Lord Jesus Christ. Jesus is eternal. We are all so obsessed with it. Partly because we are brought up like that, being told that to work and earn as much money as possible. This culture of worshipping wealth is so bad. 

I think if i replaced gods/Baal with weath it would really start to sound like Singapore.

If you are tired of in the cycle of being for and against Christ, do you want to surrender it? Surrender the god of wealth right now and recieve the freedom that the Lord Jesus Christ had won.

Oaths

^{Sometimes we think we can do everything and know everything and as a result we do not get the correct result. We do not get Godly results. Like what the Israelites did, they signed treaty with these people that they did not know. Most importantly they did not inquire of the Lord. inquiring of the Lord is the most important thing to do to ensure that all is God's will.
 
14} The Israelites sampled their provisions but did not inquire of the Lord. ¹⁵ Then Joshua made a treaty of peace with them to let them live, and the leaders of the assembly ratified it by oath.

Now, how often does this happen to us? We just go our own ways and  in the end get results that are not Christ Like.


The sun stopped in the middle of the sky and delayed going down about a full day. ¹⁴ There has never been a day like it before or since, a day when the Lord listened to a human being. Surely the Lord was fighting for Israel!

This is the story of the sun standing still. That story was so powerful. God answered the prayers of Joshua about the solar system?! Like what? Yea, audacious prayers get answered!

German verse of the day.

As part of me learning German. Heres my verse of the day:

Also hat Gott die Welt geliebt, daß er seinen eingeborenen Sohn gab, auf daß alle, die an ihn glauben nicht verloren werden sondern das ewige Leben haben.

So break down of the words:
Also = so

hat = has

Gott = God

die = the
geliebt = beloved/loved

daß = that

er = he 

seinen = his

eingeborenen = only begotten

Sohn = son
gab = gave
auf = to
daß = that
alle = all
die = the
an = to
ihn = him
glauben = believe
nicht = not

verloren = lost
werden = will
sondern = but
das = the
ewige = eternal
Leven = Life
haben = have

So translated will be:
For God so loved the world that He gave his begotten Son, so that whoever who believes in Him shall not perish, but receive eternal life.

Fun note: If you just copy pasted the German one you will get a perfect translation of the verse to english. Google translate uses the Bible as a source eh. Haha

Joshua!

God mentioned in Deuteronomy that there will be blessings and curses.

Blessings for following God, for doing his work and following His will.
 
Blessings for Obedience

28 If you fully obey the Lord your God and carefully follow all his commands I give you today, the Lord your God will set you high above all the nations on earth. ² All these blessings will come on you and accompany you if you obey the Lord your God:

I like How God just puts all these before Israel. He went these are your options, now select the path that you want to go.

I cant imagine that Israel still want to go against God. Like how is that even logical. But are we not like that? We are like that after all. What difference is there?

Curses for Disobedience
15 However, if you do not obey the Lord your God and do not carefully follow all his commands and decrees I am giving you today, all these curses will come on you and overtake you:

Then God laid out all the curses that will be upon Israel if Israel walk away from God. There is no third way. It is either for or against. There is no "neutral" or "on the fence".

A random thought: see http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ishmael
Remember Ishmael the son of Abraham? The son that Abraham and Hagaar bore? Yes. Muslims are from Him! Yes. You can check out the Quran and know that it is true. Muhammad was from his linage. So Jews and Muslims share the same origin but diverged in believes, why?

This was the part that Abraham had to die and Israel was preparing to go into the promise land. Now they renewed their covenant and after which Abraham died and that was it. They are in the promise land and the new leader Joshua was chosen. Joshua was chosen and His first major task was to take down Jericho using God's strength and because of that he became exceedingly famous and gained the recognition from His people and the enemies. It was because God used Him so mightily.

Speak with God and live!

Festival of Tabernacles is a Jewish festival called Sukkot.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sukkot

Some times i wish that i am a Jew or at least live in somewhere that follows Jewish customs. Their life is balanced. God set it that way. They have time to work and have mandated time to rest. Singapore is getting more imbalanced. As i am in University, really time to rest does not exist. 

¹⁵ “Have you allowed all the women to live?” he asked them. ¹⁶ “They were the ones who followed Balaam’s advice and enticed the Israelites to be unfaithful to the Lord in the Peor incident, so that a plague struck the Lord’s people. ¹⁷ Now kill all the boys. And kill every woman who has slept with a man, ¹⁸ but save for yourselves every girl who has never slept with a man.

Women who led people away from God. Woman have this power over man. This power, though not physical, but tangible. This power is still very evident today, portrayed in many drama serials. woman can "control" men. Just like it was recorded.

³³ “‘Do not pollute the land where you are. Bloodshed pollutes the land, and atonement cannot be made for the land on which blood has been shed, except by the blood of the one who shed it. ³⁴ Do not defile the land where you live and where I dwell, for I, the Lord, dwell among the Israelites.’”

Now that is a warning from the Lord that people shall not ever pollute the land as God lives in it and bloodshed will pollute the land. 



⁷ No inheritance in Israel is to pass from one tribe to another, for every Israelite shall keep the tribal inheritance of their ancestors.

The Lord is very clear about inheritance, He said it many times to the Israelites.  Inhertiance cannot  be passed on from one tribe to another. It must stay within the tribe!

²¹ The Lord was angry with me because of you, and he solemnly swore that I would not cross the Jordan and enter the good land the Lord your God is giving you as your inheritance. ²² I will die in this land; I will not cross the Jordan; but you are about to cross over and take possession of that good land. ²³ Be careful not to forget the covenant of the Lord your God that he made with you; do not make for yourselves an idol in the form of anything the Lord your God has forbidden. ²⁴ For the Lord your God is a consuming fire, a jealous God.

Moses could not enter into the promise land bacause of his negiligence of not speaking to the rock, instead he struck it with his staff twice. That angered God and He was decreed by God to die not entering the promise land. Interesting is that he cited Israelites's lack of faith in God as the probelm and the resean why he sould not enter the promise land.

³⁵ You were shown these things so that you might know that the Lord is God; besides him there is no other. ³⁶ From heaven he made you hear his voice to discipline you. On earth he showed you his great fire, and you heard his words from out of the fire. ³⁷ Because he loved your ancestors and chose their descendants after them, he brought you out of Egypt by his Presence and his great strength, ³⁸ to drive out before you nations greater and stronger than you and to bring you into their land to give it to you for your inheritance, as it is today.

Today we have seen that a person can live even if God speaks with them. 

Moses is one of them. Can  you speak with God and live?  

As it is spoken

The posts here are random posts that i saved but not yet posted.

In todays world we see many cross dressers. For it is written.

⁵ A woman must not wear men’s clothing, nor a man wear women’s clothing, for the Lord your God detests anyone who does this.

As clear cut as that, woman shall not wear man's clothing. Straight forward. God detests that!

Wow, i remember reading old testament but i dont remember reading this! :X If a woman reaches out  and size a man by his groins then she needs to cut off her hand, show no pity.

¹¹ If two men are fighting and the wife of one of them comes to rescue her husband from his assailant, and she reaches out and seizes him by his private parts, ¹² you shall cut off her hand. Show her no pity. 

I think this is a funny note about the bible. That God can give rules for the weirdest of all rules.