You shall not be afraid of them, for the Lord your God is among you,
a great and awesome God. Deuteronomy 7:21
Deuteronomy 7-8
Deuteronomy 7
Casting out the Nations
1 When the Lord your God brings you into the land where you are going, to possess it, and casts out many nations before you—the Hittite, the Girgashite, the Amorite, the Canaanite, the Perizzite, the Hivite, and the Jebusite—seven nations greater and mightier than you; 2 and when the Lord your God delivers them up before you, and you strike them down, then you shall utterly destroy them. You shall make no covenant with them, nor show mercy to them.
3 You shall not intermarry with them. You shall not give your daughters to their sons, nor shall you take their daughters for your sons, 4 for that would turn your sons away from following me, that they may serve other gods. So the Lord’s anger would be kindled against you, and he would quickly destroy you. 5 But you shall deal with them like this: you shall break down their altars, dash their pillars in pieces, cut down their Asherah poles, and burn their engraved images with fire. 6 For you are a holy people to the Lord your God. The Lord your God has chosen you to be a people for his own possession, above all other people on the face of the earth.
7 The Lord did not set his love on you nor choose you because you were greater in number than any other people, for you were the least of all peoples, 8 but because the Lord loves you, and because he desires to keep the oath which he swore to your fathers, the Lord has brought you out with a mighty hand and redeemed you from the house of bondage, from the hand of Pharaoh king of Egypt.
9 Know therefore that the Lord your God himself is the Lord, the faithful God, who keeps covenant and loving kindness with those who love him and keep his commandments to a thousand generations, 10 and for those who hate him he repays to their face, to destroy them. He will not be slack to him who hates him. He will repay him to his face. 11 You shall therefore keep the commandments, the statutes, and the ordinances which I am giving you today, and do them.
The Lord’s Promises
12 It shall happen, because you listen to these ordinances, obeying and doing them, that the Lord your God will keep his covenant with you and his loving kindness for you which he swore to your fathers. 13 He will love you, bless you, and multiply you. He will also bless the fruit of your body and the fruit of your ground, your grain and your new wine and your oil, the increase of your livestock and the young of your flock, in the land which he swore to your fathers to give you. 14 You will be blessed above all peoples. There will not be a male or female barren among you, or among your livestock. 15 The Lord will take away from you all sickness, and he will put none of the terrible diseases of Egypt, which you know, on you, but will lay them on all those who hate you.
16 You shall consume all the peoples whom the Lord your God shall deliver to you. Your eye shall not pity them. You shall not serve their gods, for that would be a snare to you. 17 Even if you say in your heart, “These nations are more numerous than I. How can I dispossess them?” 18 you shall not be afraid of them. You shall remember well what the Lord your God did to Pharaoh and to all Egypt: 19 the great trials which your eyes saw, the signs, the wonders, the mighty hand, and the outstretched arm, by which the Lord your God brought you out. So shall the Lord your God do to all the peoples of whom you are afraid.
20 Moreover the Lord your God will send the hornet among them, until those who are left hide themselves and perish from before you. 21 You shall not be afraid of them, for the Lord your God is among you, a great and awesome God. 22 The Lord your God will cast out those nations before you little by little. You may not consume them at once, lest the animals of the field increase on you. 23 But the Lord your God will deliver them up before you and will confuse them with a great confusion, until they are destroyed.
24 He will deliver their kings into your hand, and you shall make their name perish from under the heavens. No one will be able to stand before you until you have destroyed them. 25 You shall burn the engraved images of their gods with fire. You shall not covet the silver or the gold that is on them, nor take it for yourself, lest you be snared in it, for it is an abomination to the Lord your God. 26 You shall not bring an abomination into your house and become a devoted thing like it. You shall utterly detest it. You shall utterly abhor it, for it is a devoted thing.
Deuteronomy 8
Remember the Lord Your God
1 All the commandments which I am giving you this day, you shall take care to observe, that you may live and multiply and go in and possess the land which the Lord swore to your fathers. 2 You shall remember all the ways in which the Lord your God has led you these 40 years in the wilderness, that he might humble you, to test you, to know what was in your heart, whether you would keep his commandments or not. 3 He humbled you, allowed you to be hungry, and fed you with manna, which you had not known of, nor did your fathers know, that he might teach you that man does not live by bread alone, but by every word that proceeds from the mouth of the Lord. 4 Your clothing did not grow old on you, nor did your foot swell, these 40 years.
5 You shall consider in your heart that as a man disciplines his son, so the Lord your God disciplines you. 6 You shall keep the commandments of the Lord your God, to walk in his ways and to fear him. 7 For the Lord your God is bringing you into a good land, a land of brooks of water, of springs, and underground water flowing into valleys and hills; 8 a land of wheat, barley, vines, fig trees, and pomegranates; a land of olive trees and honey; 9 a land in which you shall eat bread without scarcity. You shall not lack anything in it, a land whose stones are iron, and out of whose hills you may dig copper. 10 You shall eat and be full, and you shall bless the Lord your God for the good land which he has given you.
11 Beware lest you forget the Lord your God, in not keeping his commandments, his ordinances, and his statutes, which I am giving you today, 12 lest, when you have eaten and are full, and have built fine houses and lived in them, 13 and when your herds and your flocks multiply, and your silver and your gold is multiplied, and all that you have is multiplied, 14 then your heart might be lifted up, and you forget the Lord your God who brought you out of the land of Egypt, out of the house of bondage; 15 who led you through the great and terrifying wilderness, with venomous snakes and scorpions and thirsty ground where there was no water; who poured water for you out of the rock of flint; 16 who fed you in the wilderness with manna, which your fathers did not know, that he might humble you and that he might prove you, to do good for you in the end; 17 and lest you say in your heart, “My power and the might of my hand has gotten me this wealth.” 18 But you shall remember the Lord your God, for it is he who gives you power to get wealth, that he may establish his covenant which he swore to your fathers, as it is today.
19 It shall be, if you shall forget the Lord your God and walk after other gods, and serve them and worship them, I testify against you today that you shall surely perish. 20 As the nations that the Lord causes to perish before you, so you shall perish, because you would not listen to the voice of the Lord your God.
Luke 7:36-50
A Sinful Woman Anoints Jesus
36 One of the Pharisees invited Jesus to eat with him. He entered into the Pharisee’s house and sat at the table. 37 A woman in the city who was a sinner, when she knew that he was reclining in the Pharisee’s house, brought an alabaster jar of oil. 38 Standing behind at his feet weeping, she began to wet his feet with her tears, and she wiped them with the hair of her head, kissed his feet, and anointed them with the oil. 39 Now when the Pharisee who had invited him saw it, he said to himself, “This man, if he were a prophet, would have perceived who and what kind of woman this is who touches him, that she is a sinner.”
The Parable of the Two Debtors
40 Jesus answered him, “Simon, I have something to tell you.”
He said, “Teacher, say it.”
41 “A certain lender had two debtors. The one owed 500 denarii and the other 50. 42 When they couldn’t pay, he forgave them both. Which of them therefore will love him most?”
43 Simon answered, “He, I suppose, to whom he forgave the most.”
He said to him, “You have judged correctly.” 44 Turning to the woman, he said to Simon, “Do you see this woman? I entered into your house, and you gave me no water for my feet, but she has wet my feet with her tears and wiped them with the hair of her head. 45 You gave me no kiss, but she, since the time I came in, has not stopped kissing my feet. 46 You didn’t anoint my head with oil, but she has anointed my feet with oil. 47 Therefore I tell you, her sins, which are many, are forgiven, for she loved much. But the one to whom little is forgiven, loves little.” 48 He said to her, “Your sins are forgiven.”
49 Those who sat at the table with him began to say to themselves, “Who is this who even forgives sins?”
50 He said to the woman, “Your faith has saved you. Go in peace.”
Psalm 69:1-18
The Waters Have Come Up to My Neck
For the Chief Musician. To the tune of “Lilies.” By David.
1 Save me, O God,
for the waters have risen to my neck!
2 I am sinking in deep mire, where there is no foothold.
I have come into deep waters, where the floods overflow me.
3 I am weary from my crying.
My throat is dry.
My eyes fail looking for my God.
4 Those who hate me without a cause are more than the hairs of my head.
Those who want to destroy me–my enemies for no reason–are powerful.
They make me repay what I did not take.
5 God, you know my foolishness.
My sins are not hidden from you.
6 Do not let those who wait for you be shamed because of me, Lord God of Hosts.
Do not let those who seek you be brought to dishonor through me, God of Israel.
7 Because for your sake, I have borne reproach.
Shame has covered my face.
8 I have become a stranger to my brothers,
an alien to my mother’s children.
9 For the zeal of your house consumes me.
The insults of those who reproach you have fallen on me.
10 When I wept and I fasted,
that was to my reproach.
11 When I made sackcloth my clothing,
I became a joke to them.
12 Those who sit in the gate talk about me,
and I am the song of the drunkards.
13 But as for me, my prayer is to you, Lord, for the time of your favor.
God, in the abundance of your loving kindness,
answer me in the truth of your salvation.
14 Deliver me from the mire, and do not let me sink.
Let me be delivered from those who hate me, and from the deep waters.
15 Do not let the flood waters overwhelm me,
nor let the deep swallow me up.
Do not let the pit shut its mouth on me.
16 Answer me, Lord, for your loving kindness is good.
According to the multitude of your tender mercies, turn to me.
17 Do not hide your face from your servant,
for I am in distress.
Answer me speedily!
18 Draw near to me and redeem me.
Ransom me because of my enemies.
Proverbs 12:1
1 Whoever loves instruction loves knowledge,
but he who hates reproof is stupid.