Saturday, April 7, 2007

April 7th - Day 97

Deuteronomy 31-32:27

Deuteronomy 31

Joshua to Succeed Moses

1 Then Moses went out and spoke these words to all Israel: 2 "I am now a hundred and twenty years old and I am no longer able to lead you. The LORD has said to me, 'You shall not cross the Jordan.' 3 The LORD your God himself will cross over ahead of you. He will destroy these nations before you, and you will take possession of their land. Joshua also will cross over ahead of you, as the LORD said. 4 And the LORD will do to them what he did to Sihon and Og, the kings of the Amorites, whom he destroyed along with their land. 5 The LORD will deliver them to you, and you must do to them all that I have commanded you. 6 Be strong and courageous. Do not be afraid or terrified because of them, for the LORD your God goes with you; he will never leave you nor forsake you."

7 Then Moses summoned Joshua and said to him in the presence of all Israel, "Be strong and courageous, for you must go with this people into the land that the LORD swore to their forefathers to give them, and you must divide it among them as their inheritance. 8 The LORD himself goes before you and will be with you; he will never leave you nor forsake you. Do not be afraid; do not be discouraged."

The Reading of the Law

9 So Moses wrote down this law and gave it to the priests, the sons of Levi, who carried the ark of the covenant of the LORD, and to all the elders of Israel. 10 Then Moses commanded them: "At the end of every seven years, in the year for canceling debts, during the Feast of Tabernacles, 11 when all Israel comes to appear before the LORD your God at the place he will choose, you shall read this law before them in their hearing. 12 Assemble the people—men, women and children, and the aliens living in your towns—so they can listen and learn to fear the LORD your God and follow carefully all the words of this law. 13 Their children, who do not know this law, must hear it and learn to fear the LORD your God as long as you live in the land you are crossing the Jordan to possess."
Israel's Rebellion Predicted

14 The LORD said to Moses, "Now the day of your death is near. Call Joshua and present yourselves at the Tent of Meeting, where I will commission him." So Moses and Joshua came and presented themselves at the Tent of Meeting.

15 Then the LORD appeared at the Tent in a pillar of cloud, and the cloud stood over the entrance to the Tent. 16 And the LORD said to Moses: "You are going to rest with your fathers, and these people will soon prostitute themselves to the foreign gods of the land they are entering. They will forsake me and break the covenant I made with them. 17 On that day I will become angry with them and forsake them; I will hide my face from them, and they will be destroyed. Many disasters and difficulties will come upon them, and on that day they will ask, 'Have not these disasters come upon us because our God is not with us?' 18 And I will certainly hide my face on that day because of all their wickedness in turning to other gods.

19 "Now write down for yourselves this song and teach it to the Israelites and have them sing it, so that it may be a witness for me against them. 20 When I have brought them into the land flowing with milk and honey, the land I promised on oath to their forefathers, and when they eat their fill and thrive, they will turn to other gods and worship them, rejecting me and breaking my covenant. 21 And when many disasters and difficulties come upon them, this song will testify against them, because it will not be forgotten by their descendants. I know what they are disposed to do, even before I bring them into the land I promised them on oath." 22 So Moses wrote down this song that day and taught it to the Israelites.

23 The LORD gave this command to Joshua son of Nun: "Be strong and courageous, for you will bring the Israelites into the land I promised them on oath, and I myself will be with you."

24 After Moses finished writing in a book the words of this law from beginning to end, 25 he gave this command to the Levites who carried the ark of the covenant of the LORD : 26 "Take this Book of the Law and place it beside the ark of the covenant of the LORD your God. There it will remain as a witness against you. 27 For I know how rebellious and stiff-necked you are. If you have been rebellious against the LORD while I am still alive and with you, how much more will you rebel after I die! 28 Assemble before me all the elders of your tribes and all your officials, so that I can speak these words in their hearing and call heaven and earth to testify against them. 29 For I know that after my death you are sure to become utterly corrupt and to turn from the way I have commanded you. In days to come, disaster will fall upon you because you will do evil in the sight of the LORD and provoke him to anger by what your hands have made."

The Song of Moses

30 And Moses recited the words of this song from beginning to end in the hearing of the whole assembly of Israel:

Deuteronomy 32


1 Listen, O heavens, and I will speak;

hear, O earth, the words of my mouth.

2 Let my teaching fall like rain

and my words descend like dew,

like showers on new grass,

like abundant rain on tender plants.

3 I will proclaim the name of the LORD.

Oh, praise the greatness of our God!

4 He is the Rock, his works are perfect,

and all his ways are just.

A faithful God who does no wrong,

upright and just is he.

5 They have acted corruptly toward him;

to their shame they are no longer his children,

but a warped and crooked generation. [
a]

6 Is this the way you repay the LORD,

O foolish and unwise people?

Is he not your Father, your Creator, [
b]

who made you and formed you?

7 Remember the days of old;

consider the generations long past.

Ask your father and he will tell you,

your elders, and they will explain to you.

8 When the Most High gave the nations their inheritance,

when he divided all mankind,

he set up boundaries for the peoples

according to the number of the sons of Israel. [
c]

9 For the LORD's portion is his people,

Jacob his allotted inheritance.

10 In a desert land he found him,

in a barren and howling waste.

He shielded him and cared for him;

he guarded him as the apple of his eye,

11 like an eagle that stirs up its nest

and hovers over its young,

that spreads its wings to catch them

and carries them on its pinions.

12 The LORD alone led him;

no foreign god was with him.

13 He made him ride on the heights of the land

and fed him with the fruit of the fields.

He nourished him with honey from the rock,

and with oil from the flinty crag,

14 with curds and milk from herd and flock

and with fattened lambs and goats,

with choice rams of Bashan

and the finest kernels of wheat.

You drank the foaming blood of the grape.

15 Jeshurun [d] grew fat and kicked;

filled with food, he became heavy and sleek.

He abandoned the God who made him

and rejected the Rock his Savior.

16 They made him jealous with their foreign gods

and angered him with their detestable idols.

17 They sacrificed to demons, which are not God—

gods they had not known,

gods that recently appeared,

gods your fathers did not fear.

18 You deserted the Rock, who fathered you;

you forgot the God who gave you birth.

19 The LORD saw this and rejected them

because he was angered by his sons and daughters.

20 "I will hide my face from them," he said,

"and see what their end will be;

for they are a perverse generation,

children who are unfaithful.

21 They made me jealous by what is no god

and angered me with their worthless idols.

I will make them envious by those who are not a people;

I will make them angry by a nation that has no understanding.

22 For a fire has been kindled by my wrath,

one that burns to the realm of death [
e] below.

It will devour the earth and its harvests

and set afire the foundations of the mountains.

23 "I will heap calamities upon them

and spend my arrows against them.

24 I will send wasting famine against them,

consuming pestilence and deadly plague;

I will send against them the fangs of wild beasts,

the venom of vipers that glide in the dust.

25 In the street the sword will make them childless;

in their homes terror will reign.

Young men and young women will perish,

infants and gray-haired men.

26 I said I would scatter them

and blot out their memory from mankind,

27 but I dreaded the taunt of the enemy,

lest the adversary misunderstand

and say, 'Our hand has triumphed;

the LORD has not done all this.' "


Footnotes:


  1. Deuteronomy 32:5 Or Corrupt are they and not his children, / a generation warped and twisted to their shame
  2. Deuteronomy 32:6 Or Father, who bought you
  3. Deuteronomy 32:8 Masoretic Text; Dead Sea Scrolls (see also Septuagint) sons of God
  4. Deuteronomy 32:15 Jeshurun means the upright one , that is, Israel.
  5. Deuteronomy 32:22 Hebrew to Sheol


Luke 12:8-34



8"I tell you, whoever acknowledges me before men, the Son of Man will also acknowledge him before the angels of God. 9But he who disowns me before men will be disowned before the angels of God. 10And everyone who speaks a word against the Son of Man will be forgiven, but anyone who blasphemes against the Holy Spirit will not be forgiven.


11"When you are brought before synagogues, rulers and authorities, do not worry about how you will defend yourselves or what you will say, 12for the Holy Spirit will teach you at that time what you should say."

The Parable of the Rich Fool

13Someone in the crowd said to him, "Teacher, tell my brother to divide the inheritance with me."

14Jesus replied, "Man, who appointed me a judge or an arbiter between you?" 15Then he said to them, "Watch out! Be on your guard against all kinds of greed; a man's life does not consist in the abundance of his possessions."

16And he told them this parable: "The ground of a certain rich man produced a good crop. 17He thought to himself, 'What shall I do? I have no place to store my crops.'

18"Then he said, 'This is what I'll do. I will tear down my barns and build bigger ones, and there I will store all my grain and my goods. 19And I'll say to myself, "You have plenty of good things laid up for many years. Take life easy; eat, drink and be merry." '

20"But God said to him, 'You fool! This very night your life will be demanded from you. Then who will get what you have prepared for yourself?'

21"This is how it will be with anyone who stores up things for himself but is not rich toward God."

Do Not Worry

22Then Jesus said to his disciples: "Therefore I tell you, do not worry about your life, what you will eat; or about your body, what you will wear. 23Life is more than food, and the body more than clothes. 24Consider the ravens: They do not sow or reap, they have no storeroom or barn; yet God feeds them. And how much more valuable you are than birds! 25Who of you by worrying can add a single hour to his life[a]? 26Since you cannot do this very little thing, why do you worry about the rest?

27"Consider how the lilies grow. They do not labor or spin. Yet I tell you, not even Solomon in all his splendor was dressed like one of these. 28If that is how God clothes the grass of the field, which is here today, and tomorrow is thrown into the fire, how much more will he clothe you, O you of little faith! 29And do not set your heart on what you will eat or drink; do not worry about it. 30For the pagan world runs after all such things, and your Father knows that you need them. 31But seek his kingdom, and these things will be given to you as well.

32"Do not be afraid, little flock, for your Father has been pleased to give you the kingdom. 33Sell your possessions and give to the poor. Provide purses for yourselves that will not wear out, a treasure in heaven that will not be exhausted, where no thief comes near and no moth destroys. 34For where your treasure is, there your heart will be also.


Footnotes:


  1. Luke 12:25 Or single cubit to his height


Psalm 78:32-55



32 In spite of all this, they kept on sinning;

in spite of his wonders, they did not believe.


33 So he ended their days in futility

and their years in terror.

34 Whenever God slew them, they would seek him;

they eagerly turned to him again.

35 They remembered that God was their Rock,

that God Most High was their Redeemer.

36 But then they would flatter him with their mouths,

lying to him with their tongues;

37 their hearts were not loyal to him,

they were not faithful to his covenant.

38 Yet he was merciful;

he forgave their iniquities

and did not destroy them.

Time after time he restrained his anger

and did not stir up his full wrath.

39 He remembered that they were but flesh,

a passing breeze that does not return.

40 How often they rebelled against him in the desert

and grieved him in the wasteland!

41 Again and again they put God to the test;

they vexed the Holy One of Israel.

42 They did not remember his power—

the day he redeemed them from the oppressor,

43 the day he displayed his miraculous signs in Egypt,

his wonders in the region of Zoan.

44 He turned their rivers to blood;

they could not drink from their streams.

45 He sent swarms of flies that devoured them,

and frogs that devastated them.

46 He gave their crops to the grasshopper,

their produce to the locust.

47 He destroyed their vines with hail

and their sycamore-figs with sleet.

48 He gave over their cattle to the hail,

their livestock to bolts of lightning.

49 He unleashed against them his hot anger,

his wrath, indignation and hostility—

a band of destroying angels.

50 He prepared a path for his anger;

he did not spare them from death

but gave them over to the plague.

51 He struck down all the firstborn of Egypt,

the firstfruits of manhood in the tents of Ham.

52 But he brought his people out like a flock;

he led them like sheep through the desert.

53 He guided them safely, so they were unafraid;

but the sea engulfed their enemies.

54 Thus he brought them to the border of his holy land,

to the hill country his right hand had taken.

55 He drove out nations before them

and allotted their lands to them as an inheritance;

he settled the tribes of Israel in their homes.


Proverbs 12:21-23



21 No harm befalls the righteous,

but the wicked have their fill of trouble.


22 The LORD detests lying lips,

but he delights in men who are truthful.

23 A prudent man keeps his knowledge to himself,

but the heart of fools blurts out folly.

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