Choose You This Day Whom Ye Will Serve

The sun didn't really stand still. God actually made the earth stand still. The earth didn't rotate while the sun was not shining. I think it makes sense since the sun is central and the earth is rotating around the sun. God is all powerful and if he wants to he will cause the earth to stand still. The Book of Mormon says that it was the earth and not the sun that stood still.

Israel:

Successes:

Make the Gibeonites servants

Defeats Amorites and their allies

Lord fights for Israel

Conquer the whole land

Conquer kings

Failures:

Israel defeated by people of Ai

I think there are more successes and failures but I got kinda confused in the later chapters because they were split up.

I really enjoyed reading Joshua's final address to the people. It is always important to hear what a prophet has to say right before he dies. I think the main topic in his speech was to cleave unto God and serve only Him. He mentions how our God is a jealous God. I really like that even though at first it seems a negative thing to say about our God. He is jealous and wants our loyalty. He wants us to follow him and wants us so much that  He is jealous. In reality that isn't a bad thing at  all. I think when the people of Israel are good and doing what they are supposed to, God blesses them and they defeat their enemies. When they start worshiping other gods then that is when they get defeated and have hardships.

Israel Commanded to Destroy the Wicked

The nations that will be destroyed:

Hittites

Amorites

Canaanites

Perizzites

Hivites 

Jebusites

Israel was commanded to destroy these nations until they were consumed.They were not to make any covenants with them or show them any mercy. I thought that sounded harsh but the reason they were to destroy these nations was because they were worshiping other gods. They were putting graven images before God. They were just so wicked that there really was no choice but to kill them. There are certain instances when it is justified to kill just like Nephi was killed by Laban because he threatened the existence of an entire future nation. The Lord slays to bring about his righteous purposes. 

I think it would be very interesting today to see what would happen because there is a lot of wickedness that goes on. I think it is very hard to stay away from these sins because they are all around us. But I think God gives us many tools to stay on the righteous path. As we have heard many times, we need to live in the world and not be of the world. 

Why is This Book Called Numbers?

Why do you think this book carries the title of "Numbers"?

I think this book is called Numbers because it talks about the numbering of Israel a few times in the book and it is the name for the first five books of Moses or this section of the Torah. 

What time period of Israel's history does Numbers cover?

I really don't know what time period it covers. I am not good with dates and time periods in the scriptures. I am going to guess a long time because they number Israel twice and I would imagine that would cover quite a bit of time.

How many males 20 years of age and older were there at the beginning of the children of Israel's journey into the wilderness? How many were there after 40 years in the wilderness?

There were 603,550 at the beginning and 601,730 after 40 years in the wilderness. 

Why do you think after 40 years of bearing children in the wilderness, the population of the males 20 years and older was actually less? Consider this question as you move through the lesson. 

I think the number was less because they were cursed with 40 years of wandering. The had become wicked at one point and so maybe they just didn't have as many kids or they died because that is a long time to wander. Also they could have just had more girls because they are only counting males. 

It's my BIRTHDAY!!

Happy Birthday to me! I turned 20! I am finally officially not a teenager. My hubby is treating me like a queen today :)

Hiking!!

Thank goodness for the beautiful weekend we had! We were able to go hiking on Saturday and the weather was perfect! We got lucky :) It was so fun. Lots of snow but still warm and now I am getting a good start on my farmer's tan. {eww} I hope there is a lot more of this coming soon!

 Lots of snow

Gotta have ice cream :)

Holiness to the Lord

We are studying in Leviticus. If I could give the book of Leviticus a theme it would probably be to follow the Lord's statutes and you will be blessed. 

What does it mean to be holy and sanctified? To be holy and sanctified means to be pure from sin, pure and clean. We can become that way by using the atonement.It sort of refers to your character and being moral.

Why could Jehovah command His followers to be holy? He could command them because he was holy.

What could we do today to avoid that same downfall? We could not neglect the spirit. We could try and study it and understand what lessons we are really meant to learn.

How can the principles you have studied to this point in the book of Leviticus help you become holy? I think we just need to follow the commandments and do what we are supposed to. I also think we really need to make sure that we take advantage of the atonement because that is what it is meant for and  that can help us become clean and pure. 

Keeping the commandments helps us to walk with God and gain blessings. We will one day be able to live with him again. 

Some commandments:

respect mother and father

keep sabbath day holy

not worship false idols

not steal or deal falsely

not take Lord's name in vain

don't rob your neighbor

not curse the deaf

put a stumbling block before the blind

judge righteously

don't hate your brother

don't hold grudges

be pure

don't commit adultery

don't have tattoos

don't be a prostitute

don't lie with the same gender

I highlighted all of these commandments because I think that the world has a hard time with all of these commandments. The one I want to work on is probably to judge righteously. I don't have a problem with any other ones but I think this is one that everyone will need to work on for our whole lives. This is a hard thing to do and I don't think I'll ever be perfect at it but I can try my best.