7Now these are the kings of the land whom Joshua and the sons of Israel defeated beyond the Jordan toward the west, from Baal-gad in the valley of Lebanon even as far as Mount Halak, which rises toward Seir; and Joshua gave it to the tribes of Israel as a possession according to their divisions,
8in the hill country, in the lowland, in the Arabah, on the slopes, and in the wilderness, and in the Negev; the Hittite, the Amorite and the Canaanite, the Perizzite, the Hivite and the Jebusite:
After these verses, the 31 defeated kings were named one by one. As I prayed and read and reread and prayed again, I couldn't figure out what God wanted me to see in these verses about the kings. Meanwhile, I rode in an airplane to Chicago, ran through the O'Hare airport and was the last to board the airplane bound for Norfolk. As a result, I had no opportunity to finish my blog until now (2:45pm Kansas time and 3:35pm here in Norfolk). I guess God knew I needed more time to figure out what He wanted me to write for today's blog.
I realized at some point in my journey today that the 31 kings represented the things in my life that need to be eradicated for me to enjoy the life He has given to me. For years, I have been asking God to show me the stuff that is blocking me from intimacy with Him and from letting Him shine through me. It has been a long process of being willing to identify one king (something that my flesh likes) at a time and deciding to ask God to destroy that king that has ruled in place of Him. I still don't like seeing the kings (my flesh issues!) and turning them over to God, but I have seen the peace and joy God supplies when I am willing to do that. It is more than worth all of the pain!