Let heaven and earth praise Him, the seas,
and everything that moves in them! Psalm 69:34

Deuteronomy 9-10

Deuteronomy 9

Assurance of Victory

¹ Hear, Israel! You are to cross over the Jordan today, to go in to dispossess nations greater and mightier than yourself, cities great and fortified up to the sky, ² a people great and tall, the sons of the Anakim, whom you know and of whom you have heard say, “Who can stand before the sons of Anak?” ³ Know therefore today that the Lord your God is he who goes over before you as a devouring fire. He will destroy them, and he will bring them down before you. So you shall drive them out and make them perish quickly as the Lord has spoken to you.

⁴ Do not say in your heart, after the Lord your God has cast them out from before you, “Because of my righteousness God has brought me in to possess this land,” because the Lord is driving them out before you because of the wickedness of these nations.

⁵ It is not due to your righteousness or for the uprightness of your heart that you are going to possess their land, but because of the wickedness of these nations the Lord your God is driving them out from before you, so that he may accomplish the word which the Lord swore to your fathers, to Abraham, to Isaac, and to Jacob.

⁶ Know therefore that the Lord your God is not giving you this good land to possess because of your righteousness, for you are a stiff-necked people.

The Golden Calf

⁷ Remember, and do not forget, how you provoked the Lord your God to wrath in the wilderness. From the day that you left the land of Egypt until you came to this place, you have been rebellious against the Lord. ⁸ Also in Horeb you provoked the Lord to wrath, and the Lord was angry enough with you to destroy you. ⁹ When I had gone up onto the mountain to receive the stone tablets, the tablets of the covenant which the Lord made with you, then I stayed on the mountain 40 days and 40 nights. I neither ate bread nor drank water. ¹⁰ The Lord delivered to me the two stone tablets written with the Lord’s finger. On them were all the words which the Lord spoke with you on the mountain out of the midst of the fire in the day of the assembly.

¹¹ It came to pass at the end of 40 days and 40 nights that the Lord gave me the two stone tablets, the tablets of the covenant. ¹² The Lord said to me, “Arise, come down quickly from here, for your people whom you have brought out of Egypt have corrupted themselves. They have quickly turned away from the way which I commanded them. They have made a molten image for themselves!”

¹³ Furthermore the Lord spoke to me and said, “I have seen this people, and it is a stiff-necked people. ¹⁴ Leave me alone, that I may destroy them and blot out their name from under the heavens, and I will make of you a nation mightier and greater than they.”

¹⁵ So I turned and came down from the mountain, and the mountain was burning with fire. The two tablets of the covenant were in my two hands. ¹⁶ I looked, and you had sinned against the Lord your God. You had made yourselves a molded calf. You had quickly turned away from the way which the Lord had commanded you. ¹⁷ I took hold of the two tablets and threw them out of my two hands and broke them before your eyes. ¹⁸ I fell down before the Lord, as at the first, 40 days and 40 nights. I neither ate bread nor drank water, because of all the sins which you committed, in doing that which was evil in the Lord’s sight, provoking him to anger. ¹⁹ For I was afraid of the anger and hot displeasure, for the Lord was furious enough to destroy you. But the Lord listened to me that time also. ²⁰ The Lord was angry enough with Aaron to destroy him. I prayed for Aaron also at the same time. ²¹ I took your sin, the calf which you had made, and burned it with fire, and crushed it, grinding it very small, until it was as fine as dust. I threw its dust into the brook that descended out of the mountain.

²² At Taberah, at Massah, and at Kibroth Hattaavah you provoked the Lord to wrath. ²³ When the Lord sent you from Kadesh Barnea, saying, “Go up and possess the land which I have given you,” you rebelled against the commandment of the Lord your God, and you did not believe him or listen to his voice. ²⁴ You have been rebellious against the Lord from the day I met you.

²⁵ So I fell down before the Lord. The 40 days and 40 nights that I fell down was because the Lord had said he would destroy you. ²⁶ I prayed to the Lord and said, “Lord God, don’t destroy your people and your inheritance that you have redeemed through your greatness, that you have brought out of Egypt with a mighty hand. ²⁷ Remember your servants, Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob. Don’t look at the stubbornness of this people, nor at their wickedness, nor at their sin, ²⁸ lest the land you brought us out from say, ‘Because the Lord was not able to bring them into the land which he promised to them, and because he hated them, he has brought them out to kill them in the wilderness.’ ²⁹ Yet they are your people and your inheritance, which you brought out by your great power and by your outstretched arm.”

Deuteronomy 10

The New Tablets of Stone

¹ At that time the Lord said to me, “Cut two stone tablets like the first and come up to me onto the mountain and make an ark of wood. ² I will write on the tablets the words that were on the first tablets which you broke, and you shall put them in the ark.” ³ So I made an ark of acacia wood and cut two stone tablets like the first and went up onto the mountain, having the two tablets in my hand. ⁴ He wrote on the tablets, according to the first writing, the Ten Commandments, which the Lord spoke to you on the mountain out of the midst of the fire in the day of the assembly, and the Lord gave them to me. ⁵ I turned and came down from the mountain and put the tablets in the ark which I had made, and there they are as the Lord commanded me.

⁶ The Israelites traveled from Beeroth Bene Jaakan to Moserah. There Aaron died, and there he was buried, and Eleazar his son ministered in the priest’s office in his place. ⁷ From there they traveled to Gudgodah, and from Gudgodah to Jotbathah, a land of brooks of water. ⁸ At that time the Lord set apart the tribe of Levi to bear the ark of the Lord’s covenant, to stand before the Lord to minister to him, and to bless in his name, to this day. ⁹ Therefore Levi has no portion nor inheritance with his brothers. The Lord is his inheritance, according to what the Lord your God spoke to him.

¹⁰ I stayed on the mountain, as the first time, 40 days and 40 nights, and the Lord listened to me that time also. The Lord would not destroy you. ¹¹ The Lord said to me, “Arise, take your journey before the people, and they shall go in and possess the land which I swore to their fathers to give to them.”

A Call to Obedience

¹² Now, Israel, what does the Lord your God require of you, but to fear the Lord your God, to walk in all his ways, to love him, and to serve the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul, ¹³ to keep the Lord’s commandments and statutes, which I am giving you today for your good? ¹⁴ To the Lord your God belongs heaven, the heaven of heavens, and the earth, with all that is therein. ¹⁵ Yet the Lord took delight only in your fathers, to love them, and he chose their offspring after them, you above all peoples, as it is today.

¹⁶ Circumcise therefore the foreskin of your heart, and be no longer stiff-necked. ¹⁷ For the Lord your God, he is God of gods and Lord of lords, the great God, the mighty, and the awesome, who does not regard the person or take bribes. ¹⁸ He executes justice for the fatherless and widow and loves the foreigner in giving him food and clothing. ¹⁹ Therefore love the foreigner, for you were foreigners in the land of Egypt.

²⁰ You shall fear the Lord your God. You shall serve him. You shall cling to him, and you shall swear by his name. ²¹ He is your praise, and he is your God, who has done for you these great and awesome things which your eyes have seen. ²² Your fathers went down into Egypt with 70 people, and now the Lord your God has made you a multitude, as the stars of the sky.

Luke 8:1-21

Women Minister to Jesus

¹ Soon afterwards, Jesus went around through cities and villages, preaching and bringing the good news of the Kingdom of God. With him were the twelve disciples ² and certain women who had been healed of evil spirits and infirmities: Mary who was called Magdalene, from whom seven demons had gone out; ³ and Joanna, the wife of Chuzas, Herod’s steward; Susanna; and many others whom he had delivered from them, demon possessions.

The Parable of the Sower

⁴ When a great crowd had gathered and people from every city were coming to him, he spoke using a parable. ⁵ “The farmer went out to sow his seed. As he sowed, some fell along the road, and it was trampled under foot, and the birds of the sky devoured it. ⁶ Other seed fell on the rock, and as soon as it grew, it withered away, because it had no moisture. ⁷ Other fell amid the thorns, and the thorns grew with it, and choked it. ⁸ Other fell into the good ground, and grew, and produced 100 times as much fruit.” As he said these things, he called out, “He who has ears to hear, let him hear!”

⁹ Then his disciples asked him, “What does this parable mean?”

¹⁰ He said, “To you it is given to know the mysteries of the Kingdom of God, but to the rest in parables, so that ‘seeing they may not see, and hearing they may not understand.’ ¹¹ Now the parable is this: The seed is the word of God. ¹² Those along the road are those who hear, then the devil comes and takes away the word from their heart, that they may not believe and be saved. ¹³ Those on the rock are they who, when they hear, receive the word with joy, but these have no root, who believe for a while, then fall away in time of temptation. ¹⁴ That which fell among the thorns, these are the ones who have heard, and as they go on their way they are choked with cares, riches, and pleasures of life, and bring no fruit to maturity. ¹⁵ Those in the good ground, these are the ones who, with an honest and good heart, having heard the word, hold it tightly, and produce fruit with perseverance.

The Lesson of the Lamp

¹⁶ No one, when he has lit a lamp, covers it with a container, or puts it under a bed, but puts it on a stand, so that those who enter in may see the light. ¹⁷ For nothing is hidden that will not be revealed, nor anything secret that will not be known and come to light. ¹⁸ Be careful therefore how you hear. For whoever has, to him will be given, and whoever does not have, from him will be taken away even that which he thinks he has.”

Jesus’ Mother and Brothers

¹⁹ His mother and brothers came to him, but they could not come near him because of the crowd. ²⁰ Some people told him, “Your mother and your brothers are standing outside, desiring to see you.”

²¹ But he answered them, “My mother and my brothers are these who hear the word of God, and do it.”

Psalm 69:19-36

¹⁹ You know my reproach, my shame, and my dishonor.
My adversaries are all before you.
²⁰ Reproach has broken my heart, and I am full of heaviness.
I looked for some to take pity, but there was none;
for comforters, but I found none.
²¹ They also gave me poison for my food.
In my thirst, they gave me vinegar to drink.

²² Let their table before them become a snare.
May it become a retribution and a trap.
²³ Let their eyes be darkened, so that they cannot see.
Let their backs be continually bent.
²⁴ Pour out your indignation on them.
Let the fierceness of your anger overtake them.
²⁵ Let their habitation be desolate.
Let no one dwell in their tents.

²⁶ For they persecute him whom you have wounded.
They tell of the sorrow of those whom you have hurt.
²⁷ Charge them with crime upon crime.
Do not let them come into your righteousness.
²⁸ Let them be blotted out of the book of life,
and not be written with the righteous.
²⁹ But I am in pain and distress.
Let your salvation, O God, protect me.
³⁰ I will praise the name of God with a song,
and will magnify him with thanksgiving.
³¹ It will please God better than an ox,
or a bull that has horns and hoofs.

³² The humble have seen it, and are glad.
You who seek after God, let your heart live.
³³ For the Lord hears the needy,
and does not despise his captive people.
³⁴ Let heaven and earth praise him;
the seas, and everything that moves in them!
³⁵ For God will save Zion, and build the cities of Judah.
They shall settle there, and own it.
³⁶ The children also of his servants shall inherit it.
Those who love his name shall dwell therein.

Proverbs 12:2-3

² A good man shall obtain favor from the Lord,
but he will condemn a man of wicked plans.
³ A man shall not be established by wickedness,
but the root of the righteous shall not be moved.

« »