The Daily Audio Bible Reading for Tuesday April 21, 2020 (NIV)

²¹ Then the sons of Reuben and the sons of Gad and the half-tribe of Manasseh answered and said to the heads of the families of Israel, ²² “The Mighty One, God, the Lord, the Mighty One, God, the Lord! He knows, and may Israel itself know. If it was in rebellion, or if in an unfaithful act against the Lord, do not save us this day! ²³ If we have built an altar for ourselves to turn away from following the Lord, or if [we did so] to offer a burnt offering or grain offering on it, or if to offer sacrifices of peace offerings on it, may the Lord Himself require it [of us and hold us responsible]. ²⁴ But in truth we have done this out of concern, for a reason, saying, ‘In time to come your sons (descendants) may say to our sons, “What ^[a]claim do you have to the Lord, the God of Israel? ²⁵ For the Lord has made the Jordan a border between us and you, you sons of Reuben and sons of Gad; you have no part in the Lord.” So your sons (descendants) may cause our sons to stop fearing the Lord.’

²⁶ “So we said, ‘Let us prepare and build an altar, not for burnt offering or for sacrifice, ²⁷ but to be a witness between us and you and between the generations after us, that we are to perform the service of the Lord before Him with our burnt offerings, and with our sacrifices and with our peace offerings, so that your sons (descendants) will not say to our sons in time to come, “You have no part in the Lord.”’ ²⁸ So we said, ‘If your descendants should say this to us or to our descendants in time to come, then we can reply, “See the copy of the altar of the Lord which our fathers made, not for burnt offering or for sacrifice, but rather it is a witness between us and you.”’ ²⁹ Far be it from us that we should rebel against the Lord and turn away from following the Lord this day, by building an altar for burnt offering, for grain offering or for sacrifice, besides the altar of the Lord our God which is before His ^[b]tabernacle [in Shiloh].”

³⁰ So when Phinehas the priest and the leaders of the congregation and heads of the families of Israel who were with him, heard the words which the sons of Reuben and the sons of Gad and the sons of Manasseh spoke, it ^[c]pleased them. ³¹ Phinehas the son of Eleazar the priest said to the sons of Reuben and the sons of Gad and the sons of Manasseh, “Today we know that the Lord is among us, because you have not committed this unfaithful act against the Lord; indeed you have saved Israel from the hand of the Lord.”

³² Then Phinehas the son of Eleazar the priest and the leaders returned from the sons of Reuben and the sons of Gad, from the land of Gilead to the land of Canaan, to the sons of Israel, and brought back word to them. ³³ The report ^[d]pleased the sons of Israel, and the sons of Israel blessed God; and they said no more about going to battle against them to destroy the land in which the sons of Reuben and the sons of Gad were living. ³⁴ The sons of Reuben and the sons of Gad called the altar Witness; “For it is a witness between us that the Lord is God.”

Joshua’s Farewell Address

23 A long time after that, when the Lord had given Israel rest from all their enemies ^[e]on every side, and Joshua had grown old and ^[f]advanced in years, ² that Joshua called all Israel, their elders and their heads and their judges and their officers, and said to them, “I am old and advanced in years. ³ And you have seen all that the Lord your God has done to all these nations for your sake; for the Lord your God is He who has been fighting for you.^{(A) 4} See, I have allotted to you these nations that remain as an inheritance for your tribes, with all the nations which I have cut off, from the Jordan [on the east] to the Great [Mediterranean] Sea toward the setting sun. ⁵ The Lord your God will push them away from before you and drive them out of your sight and you will take possession of their land, just as the Lord your God ^[g]promised you. ⁶ Be steadfast and very determined to keep and to do everything that is written in the Book of the Law of Moses, so that you do not turn aside from it to the right or the left, ⁷ so that you do not associate with these nations which remain among you, or mention the name of their gods, or make anyone swear [an oath by them], or serve them, or bow down to them. ⁸ But you are to cling to the Lord your God, just as you have done to this day. ⁹ For the Lord has driven out great and mighty nations from before you; and as for you, no man has been able to stand [in opposition] before you to this day. ¹⁰ One of your men puts to flight a thousand, for the Lord your God is He who is fighting for you, just as He ^[h]promised you. ¹¹ So be very careful and watchful of yourselves to ^[i]love the Lord your God. ¹² For if you ever turn back and cling to the rest of these nations, these that are left among you, and intermarry with them, so that you associate with them and they with you, ¹³ know and understand with certainty that the Lord your God will not continue to drive these nations out from before you; but they will be a snare and trap to you, and a whip on your sides and thorns in your eyes, until you perish from this good land which the Lord your God has given you.

¹⁴ “Now behold, today I am going the way of all the earth, and you know in all your hearts and in all your souls that not one word of all the good words which the Lord your God has promised concerning you has failed; all have been fulfilled for you, not one of them has failed. ¹⁵ It shall come about that just as every good word which the Lord your God spoke and promised to you has ^[j]been fulfilled for you, so the Lord will bring upon you every bad thing [about which He warned you], until He has destroyed and eliminated you from this good land which the Lord your God has given you. ¹⁶ When you transgress (violate) the covenant of the Lord your God, which He commanded you [to follow], and you go and serve other gods and bow down to them, then the anger of the Lord will be kindled against you, and you shall perish quickly from the good land which He has given you.”

Is There a Resurrection?

²⁷ Now some of the Sadducees (who say that there is no resurrection) came to Him^{(A) 28} and they questioned Him, saying, “Teacher, Moses wrote for us [a law that] if a man’s brother dies, leaving a wife and no children, his brother should ^[a]marry the wife and raise children for his brother.^{(B) 29} Now there were seven brothers; and the first took a wife and died childless. ³⁰ And the second, ³¹ and the third married her, and in the same way all seven died, leaving no children. ³² Finally the woman also died. ³³ So in the [life after] resurrection, whose wife does she become? For all seven had married her.”

³⁴ Jesus said to them, “The sons of this [world and present] age marry and [the women] are given in marriage; ³⁵ but those who are considered worthy to gain that [other world and that future] age and the resurrection from the dead, neither marry nor are given in marriage; ³⁶ and they cannot die again, because they are [immortal] like the angels (equal to, angel-like). And they are ^[b]children of God, being ^[c]participants in the resurrection. ³⁷ But [as for the fact] that the dead are raised [from death], even Moses showed, in the passage about the burning bush, when he calls the Lord the God of Abraham, the God of Isaac, and the God of Jacob.^{(C) 38} Now He is not the God of the dead, but of the living [so these forefathers will be among the resurrected]; for all live [in a definite relationship] to Him.” ³⁹ Some of the scribes replied, “Teacher, you have spoken well [so that there is no room for blame].” ⁴⁰ And they did not dare to question Him further about anything [because of the wisdom He displayed in His answers].

⁴¹ Then He said to them, “How is it that people say that the Christ (the Messiah, the Anointed) is David’s son?^{(D) 42} For David himself says in the book of Psalms,

^44 [d]So David calls Him (the Son) ‘Lord,’ and how then is He David’s son?”

⁴⁵ And with all the people listening, He said to His disciples, ⁴⁶ “Beware of the scribes, who like to walk around in long robes [displaying their prominence], and love respectful greetings in the [crowded] market places, and ^[e]chief seats in the synagogues and places of honor at banquets. ⁴⁷ These [men] who confiscate and devour widows’ houses, and for a pretense [to appear devout] offer long prayers. These [men] will receive the greater [sentence of] condemnation.”