Moses instructed Jews in Deuteronomy to do three things, destroy all inhabitants of Canaan, and do not intermarry with them, and shun their God's.

Did they?

God's people lost their spiritual strength by doing what was right in their eyes, not God's.

We often do the same thing don't we?

Not so different form them are we?

They could have had it all but instead they lived about 400 years in a pitiful existence.

There was a woman that lived in Mobile when I was a kid.  We called her Gravel Gurty, she was a bag lady, before her time.  she lived in a rundown mansion full of garbage, newspapers, cups, just plan trash and a lot of cats all the while having a major fortune in the bank.

She could have lived as a wealthy women, like the Jews and even us of today.

We should live like a Kings kid but do we have power and might over the forces of evil that attack us?

If you want to know more, read on.

Understanding the Bible, Part Three

Robbie L. Rogers

                3    PYRAMID   (Exodus)                                  

              2    ABRAHAM  (Patriarch)                                    

           1   WORLD (Creation)    

Remember you are building your threshold to better knowledge of the Bible and we have lain three blocks in place. Obviously we aren't block layers because we are starting from one end without a corresponding end at the same time, placing the keystone at the top. However our is honorable attempt indeed.

Why do we study God's word?

We want to know more of God through a better grasp of His Word and His peoples history. What does this primarily do for us?

If we know who God is through his word then we can have more easily justify our faith thus making Him more personal. In doing so it is easy for us to take Jesus as our personal Savior, allowing us to have a better release of the Holy Spirit in our lives.  Such things give us confidence in living the life we and all of God's people were supposed to live thousands of years ago.

Okay, always remember where these things were happening, visualizing the surroundings and landscape, using our grasp of the local area like Choctawhatchee Bay, etc. This week we are on the fourth block, Conquest Era, or the time of who?

Look on your sheet, Joshua. By doing so we know most of it happened where? Canaan, and where is that? What we now know as Jerusalem.

Remember the Jews being led for forty years because of their rebellion to his leadership at where?  Kadesh, his time they are at Jericho with Joshua leading them. Once again God brought them to a crossroad.

Have you ever felt like God brought you to such a crossroad in your life, did you enter or were you lead around the desert again?

Anders breaks the Conquest Era into four parts again, Jordan, Jericho, Conquest, and Dominion.

Often we forget God parted the water for his people the second time here.

First the priests were to enter the water.

What if others had done it?

It is said when the priests feet touched the water they parted for them to cross, at flood stage, making it about two miles wide! After they crossed the water began flowing again, can you imagine that, God holding back the flood waters, imagine the flood we had recently of the Yellow river, it got pretty high and turbulent, right? But how much more terrible would it have been if it were at the flood stage making it twenty miles wide when normally it was less than one mile wide? And God stopped it.

How would you feel if you were told to march into such a flood?

Sometimes we think they had it made, don't we? God was there to guide them, but they had to obey, it was not so easy was it?

If you want to read about the Jordan River crossing read Joshua 1-5.

But, cross they did, traveling on to Jericho, a small city about five miles from the west bank of the Jordan River, the eastern gateway to the Promise Land. They knew they must meet their second challenge, that of conquering what?  Jericho, a heavily fortified city.

God sent a angel to tell Joshua how and they march around the walls totally contrary to what they had believed they would do and God gave them their victory.

Isn't that what God wants use to do today? Act contrary to the worlds wisdom, following His leading? If we do the walls fall before us just like Jericho don't they.

Sometimes we should point out our walls to God and ask for the help of his angels to help us fight, shouldn't we? We can receive miracles just like they did because we have the Holy Spirit at our side!  You can read about this in Joshua 6.

Next they marched against the Canaanites, who bitterly hated them, just as the Arabs do now. But we must remember the Jews of today, those who occupy Israel, do not necessarily represent God's people as they did then. They conquered the many Kings, much as it is today, by battling from the South to North in only seven years, after traveling forty years in the desert. Obviously they were lean and well prepare to follow God by this time, like we should be ourselves, in order to follow God's leading! To read of this read Joshua 7-12.

Finally they had dominion of the Promised land! 

All twelve tribes had a home!

Can you imagine that, we don't really know how many of them there were but we can assume there were more than 3.5 million or so total, Men, women and children.  Read Joshua 13-20. Remember this area is about the size of New Jersey, but not so fertile. Okay our forth block is in place.

                  4      SWORDS  (Conquest)                      

                3    PYRAMID   (Exodus)                                

              2    ABRAHAM  (Patriarch)                                    

           1   WORLD (Creation)            

Now we have the Era of Judges, the fifth block, or era, the darkest time for Israel, following one of the brightest era, the Conquest.  Anders breaks up this period into four groups, Judges, Rebellion, Cycles, and Ruth. The Judges time frame is broken into another four segments, Deborah, Gideon, Samson, and Samuel. These Judges were not people who sat in judgment, but rather they were political leaders with absolute say so and power over the people of their time. Deborah lead in the early stages. Gideon defeated an army of thousands with only three hundred men. Samson was the mighty warrior and Samuel began their change by bring scripture back into its place, thereby becoming the first prophet.

The breaking of God's Laws, or rebellion.

The Cycle time frame involves a repetition of Israel's misfortunes or a series of seven year cycles. Each Cycle has five parts, (1) Israel sins, (2) God Disciplines them by allowing neighboring kingdoms to conquer them, (3) Israel repents crying out to God for deliverance, (4) God raises up a judge or leader to bring them out of bondage, and (5) God gives them their freedom again.  When the leader dies the same thing happens again, showing us how easy it is to become lost without the leadership of the Holy Spirit. We need to cherish His leadings!

Finally Ruth, a model of moral and spiritual strength, a living illustration of God's blessings for faithful obedience to His leadings. Remember she is a non-Hebrew but the true lineage to Abraham and Jesus and us!