The Daily Audio Bible Reading for Friday April 6, 2018 (NIV)

The Covenant Renewed in Moab

29 ^[a] These are the words of the covenant that the Lord commanded Moses to make with the people of Israel ^(A)in the land of Moab, besides ^(B)the covenant that he had made with them at Horeb.

^2 [b] And Moses summoned all Israel and said to them: ^(C)“You have seen all that the Lord did before your eyes in the land of Egypt, to Pharaoh and to all his servants and to all his land, ³ the great ^(D)trials that your eyes saw, the signs, and those great wonders. ⁴ But to this day ^(E)the Lord has not given you a heart to understand or eyes to see or ears to hear. ^5 (F)I have led you forty years in the wilderness. Your clothes have not worn out on you, and your sandals have not worn off your feet. ^6 (G)You have not eaten bread, and you have not drunk wine or strong drink, that you may know that I am the Lord your God. ⁷ And when you came to this place, ^(H)Sihon the king of Heshbon and Og the king of Bashan came out against us to battle, but we defeated them. ⁸ We took their land and ^(I)gave it for an inheritance to the Reubenites, the Gadites, and the half-tribe of the Manassites. ^9 (J)Therefore keep the words of this covenant and do them, that you may prosper^[c] in all that you do.

¹⁰ “You are standing today, all of you, before the Lord your God: the heads of your tribes,^[d] your elders, and your officers, all the men of Israel, ¹¹ your little ones, your wives, and the ^(K)sojourner who is in your camp, from ^(L)the one who chops your wood to the one who draws your water, ¹² so that you may enter into the ^(M)sworn covenant of the Lord your God, which the Lord your God is making with you today, ¹³ that he may ^(N)establish you today as his people, and that ^(O)he may be your God, as he promised you, and ^(P)as he swore to your fathers, to Abraham, to Isaac, and to Jacob. ¹⁴ It is not with you alone ^(Q)that I am making this sworn covenant, ¹⁵ but with whoever is standing here with us today before the Lord our God, ^(R)and with whoever is not here with us today.

¹⁶ “You know how we lived in the land of Egypt, and how we came through the midst of the nations through which you passed. ¹⁷ And you have seen their detestable things, their idols of wood and stone, of silver and gold, which were among them. ¹⁸ Beware lest there be among you a man or woman or clan or tribe whose heart is turning away today from the Lord our God to go and serve the gods of those nations. Beware lest there be among you ^(S)a root bearing poisonous and bitter fruit, ¹⁹ one who, when he hears the words of this sworn covenant, blesses himself in his heart, saying, ‘I shall be safe, though I walk in the stubbornness of my heart.’ This will lead to the sweeping away of moist and dry alike. ²⁰ The Lord will not be willing to forgive him, but rather ^(T)the anger of the Lord and ^(U)his jealousy will smoke against that man, and the curses written in this book will settle upon him, and the Lord ^(V)will blot out his name from under heaven. ²¹ And the Lord will single him out from all the tribes of Israel for calamity, in accordance with all the curses of the covenant written in this Book of the Law. ²² And the next generation, your children who rise up after you, and the foreigner who comes from a far land, ^(W)will say, when they see the afflictions of that land and the sicknesses with which the Lord has made it sick— ²³ the whole land burned out with brimstone and ^(X)salt, nothing sown and nothing growing, where no plant can sprout, ^(Y)an overthrow like that of Sodom and Gomorrah, ^(Z)Admah, and Zeboiim, which the Lord overthrew in his anger and wrath— ²⁴ all the nations ^(AA)will say, ^(AB)‘Why has the Lord done thus to this land? What caused the heat of this great anger?’ ²⁵ Then people will say, ‘It is because they abandoned the covenant of the Lord, the God of their fathers, which he made with them when he brought them out of the land of Egypt, ²⁶ and went and served other gods and worshiped them, gods whom they had not known and whom he had not allotted to them. ²⁷ Therefore the anger of the Lord was kindled against this land, ^(AC)bringing upon it all the curses written in this book, ²⁸ and the Lord ^(AD)uprooted them from their land in anger and fury and great wrath, and ^(AE)cast them into another land, as they are this day.’

²⁹ “The secret things belong to the Lord our God, but the things that are revealed belong to us and to our children forever, that we may do all the words of this law.

Repentance and Forgiveness

30 ^(AF)“And ^(AG)when all these things come upon you, the blessing and the curse, which I have set before you, and ^(AH)you call them to mind among all the nations where the Lord your God has driven you, ² and ^(AI)return to the Lord your God, you and your children, and obey his voice in all that I command you today, with all your heart and with all your soul, ³ then the Lord your God ^(AJ)will restore your fortunes and have mercy on you, and he will ^(AK)gather you again from all the peoples where the Lord your God has scattered you. ^4 (AL)If your outcasts are in the uttermost parts of heaven, from there the Lord your God will gather you, and from there he will take you. ⁵ And the Lord your God will bring you into the land that your fathers possessed, that you may possess it. ^(AM)And he will make you more prosperous and numerous than your fathers. ⁶ And ^(AN)the Lord your God will circumcise your heart and the heart of your offspring, ^(AO)so that you will love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul, that you may live. ⁷ And the Lord your God will put all these curses on your foes and enemies who persecuted you. ⁸ And you shall again obey the voice of the Lord and keep all his commandments that I command you today. ^9 (AP)The Lord your God will make you abundantly prosperous in all the work of your hand, in the fruit of your womb and in the fruit of your cattle and in the fruit of your ground. ^(AQ)For the Lord will again take delight in prospering you, as he took delight in your fathers, ¹⁰ when you obey the voice of the Lord your God, to keep his commandments and his statutes that are written in this Book of the Law, when you turn to the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul.

The Choice of Life and Death

¹¹ “For this commandment that I command you today ^(AR)is not too hard for you, neither is it far off. ^12 (AS)It is not in heaven, that you should say, ‘Who will ascend to heaven for us and bring it to us, that we may hear it and do it?’ ¹³ Neither is it beyond the sea, that you should say, ‘Who will go over the sea for us and bring it to us, that we may hear it and do it?’ ¹⁴ But the word is very near you. It is in your mouth and in your heart, so that you can do it.

¹⁵ “See, ^(AT)I have set before you today life and good, death and evil. ¹⁶ If you obey the commandments of the Lord your God^[e] that I command you today, ^(AU)by loving the Lord your God, by walking in his ways, and by keeping his commandments and his statutes and his rules,^[f] then you shall live and multiply, and the Lord your God will bless you in the land that you are entering to take possession of it. ¹⁷ But if ^(AV)your heart turns away, and you will not hear, but are drawn away to worship other gods and serve them, ^18 (AW)I declare to you today, that you shall surely perish. You shall not live long in the land that you are going over the Jordan to enter and possess. ¹⁹ I call heaven and earth to witness against you today, that I have set before you life and death, ^(AX)blessing and curse. Therefore choose life, that you and your offspring may live, ²⁰ loving the Lord your God, obeying his voice ^(AY)and holding fast to him, for ^(AZ)he is your life and length of days, that you may dwell in ^(BA)the land that the Lord swore to your fathers, to Abraham, to Isaac, and to Jacob, to give them.”

Woes to the Pharisees and Lawyers

³⁷ While Jesus^[a] was speaking, ^(A)a Pharisee asked him to dine with him, so he went in and reclined at table. ³⁸ The Pharisee was astonished to see ^(B)that he did not first wash before dinner. ³⁹ And the Lord said to him, ^(C)“Now you Pharisees cleanse the outside of the cup and of the dish, but inside you are full of ^(D)greed and wickedness. ^40 (E)You fools! ^(F)Did not he who made the outside make the inside also? ⁴¹ But ^(G)give as alms those things that are within, and behold, ^(H)everything is clean for you.

^42 (I)“But woe to you Pharisees! For ^(J)you tithe mint and rue and every herb, and neglect ^(K)justice and ^(L)the love of God. ^(M)These you ought to have done, without neglecting the others. ⁴³ Woe to you Pharisees! For ^(N)you love the best seat in the synagogues and greetings in the marketplaces. ⁴⁴ Woe to you! ^(O)For you are like unmarked graves, and people walk over them without knowing it.”

⁴⁵ One of ^(P)the lawyers answered him, “Teacher, in saying these things you insult us also.” ⁴⁶ And he said, “Woe to you ^(Q)lawyers also! For ^(R)you load people with burdens hard to bear, and you yourselves do not touch the burdens with one of your fingers. ^47 (S)Woe to you! For you build the tombs of the prophets whom your fathers killed. ^48 (T)So you are witnesses and you ^(U)consent to the deeds of ^(V)your fathers, for they killed them, and you build their tombs. ⁴⁹ Therefore also ^(W)the Wisdom of God said, ^(X)‘I will send them ^(Y)prophets and apostles, ^(Z)some of whom they will ^(AA)kill and persecute,’ ⁵⁰ so that ^(AB)the blood of all the prophets, shed ^(AC)from the foundation of the world, may be ^(AD)charged against this generation, ⁵¹ from the blood of ^(AE)Abel to the blood of ^(AF)Zechariah, who perished between ^(AG)the altar and the sanctuary. Yes, I tell you, it will be ^(AH)required of this generation. ⁵² Woe to you ^(AI)lawyers! ^(AJ)For you have taken away the key of ^(AK)knowledge. You ^(AL)did not enter yourselves, and you hindered those who were entering.”

⁵³ As he went away from there, the scribes and the Pharisees began to press him hard and to provoke him to speak about many things, ^54 (AM)lying in wait for him, ^(AN)to catch him in something he might say.

Beware of the Leaven of the Pharisees

12 In the meantime, ^(AO)when so many thousands of the people had gathered together that they were trampling one another, he began to say to his disciples first, ^(AP)“Beware of ^(AQ)the leaven of the Pharisees, ^(AR)which is hypocrisy. ^2 (AS)Nothing is covered up that will not be revealed, or hidden that will not be known. ³ Therefore whatever you have said in the dark shall be heard in the light, and what you have whispered in ^(AT)private rooms shall be proclaimed on ^(AU)the housetops.

Have No Fear

⁴ “I tell you, my friends, ^(AV)do not fear those who kill the body, and after that have nothing more that they can do. ⁵ But I will warn you whom to fear: fear him ^(AW)who, after he has killed, has authority to cast into hell.^[b] Yes, I tell you, fear him! ⁶ Are not five sparrows sold for two pennies?^[c] And ^(AX)not one of them is forgotten before God. ⁷ Why, ^(AY)even the hairs of your head are all numbered. Fear not; ^(AZ)you are of more value than many sparrows.

Tell the Coming Generation

A Maskil^[a] of ^(A)Asaph.