Day 16, Joshua 1-14

There is great comfort in progress. I might say I am feeling mighty comfortable right now. I should be totally caught up tomorrow.

But I want to talk about a couple of things I noticed in my reading.

1. God loved Aaron immensely or God loved Moses so much that he preserved Aaron when he should have been stricken down. I am assuming Moses may not have been able to bear seeing his brother utterly destroyed in God's wrath.
When Moses was on Mount Sinai, Aaron was the one who told the people to give him the gold and he fashioned the calf. When Moses confronted him about it he says, (paraphrase) I put gold in the fire in this calf just came out.  What! First you prepare an idol god then try to make it seem as if it really wasn't you who did it.  In all of the Lord's and Moses' anger the Bible never mentions Aaron receiving an individual punishment.  The Lord still made him high priest after this infraction. How merciful is the Lord!

Also, Aaron and Miriam spoke out against Moses because of who he married. They even tried to convince themselves they had the same calling as him.  When the Lord confronted them for this, he turned Miriam leprous but Aaron remained whole.

Before I read in Deuteronomy that God wanted to kill Aaron over the golden calf but Moses prayed for him I was utterly confused. I was not questioning the Lord. He is righteous and just, but I was finding it hard to understand why Aaron got two huge breaks.

2.  The Lord loved Moses and spoke with him face to face.  Besides his initial hesitation when he first saw the Lord in the burning bush, Moses followed all of the Lord's commandments.  But one sin that some may think was small or try to reason away kept Moses out of the promise land.  By striking the rock and not speaking to it as the Lord commanded, at the waters of Meribah. Moses severely angered the Lord.  The Lord said he didn't trust him enough. That amazes me. Moses didn't trust the Lord with all of his heart after being so close to him physically.That is crazy or it should be impossible. I almost don't want to believe it. I want to say, Moses was so upset with the children of Israel that he struck the rock out of anger not to intentionally disobey the Lord.  But the Bible does say that even if a man sins unintentionally he is still guilty. So, there isn't any justifying Moses in this case, I guess.

In closing, I was upset that I wasn't keeping up with the schedule as I thought I should.  But, I think I was able to minister to someone I love so much today through what I had just read this morning. If I would have been in Joshua today maybe I wouldn't have been able to relate the occurrences as well as God allowed me too.

To that special someone, stand tall, hold your head high, no one is faultless. No one is guilt free. Our ultimate purpose in life to live righteous giving all of the glory to the Lord. You must confess your sins to wash them away. Thank God he gave you the ability to do that. God blesses those who follow his commandments! YOU WILL BE BLESSED!

Day 17, Joshua 15- Judges 3