Deuteronomy 11-12
11 Love the Lord your God and always carry out his requirements, his statutes, his ordinances, and his commandments.
2 Know this today! I am not addressing your children, who have not known and seen all these things:
the discipline of the Lord your God;
his greatness, his strong hand, and his outstretched arm;
3 his signs and his deeds that he performed in Egypt
against Pharaoh king of Egypt and against all his land;
4 what he did to the army of Egypt and its horses and chariots;
how he caused the water of the Red Sea to flow over their heads
when they pursued you;
how the Lord has destroyed them to this day;
5 what he did for you in the wilderness until you came to this place;
6 what he did to Dathan and Abiram, the sons of Eliab son of Reuben;
how the earth opened its mouth and swallowed them
with their households, their tents,
and every living thing that was at their feet,
in the middle of all Israel.
7 Know today it is your own eyes that have seen every deed that the Lord your God performed.
8 Therefore, keep the whole set of commands that I am giving you today so that you may have the strength to enter and take possession of the land that you are about to cross into and possess, 9 and so that you may live for a long time on the land that the Lord your God swore to give to your fathers and to their descendants, a land flowing with milk and honey.
10 The land that you are about to enter and possess is not like that land of Egypt that you left, where you were accustomed to sow your seed and water it by hand[a] like a vegetable garden. 11 But the land you are entering to possess is a land of mountains and valleys. It drinks water provided by rain from the heavens. 12 It is a land that the Lord your God takes care of. The eyes of the Lord your God are continually on it, from the start to the end of the year.
13 If you faithfully listen to my commandments that I am giving you today, to love the Lord your God and to serve him with all your heart and with all your soul, 14 then I will provide rain for your land in season, early fall rain and late spring rain, and you will gather your grain and your new wine and your fresh oil. 15 I will provide grass in your field for your livestock, and you will eat and be satisfied.
16 Be careful, or your heart will be deceived and you will turn away and serve other gods and bow down to them. 17 Then the anger of the Lord will burn against you, and he will close up the heavens. There will be no rain, the ground will not produce crops, and you will perish quickly from the good land that the Lord is giving you.
18 Put these words of mine in your hearts and in your soul, and tie them on your wrists as signs and as symbols on your forehead. 19 Teach them to your children by talking about them when you sit in your house and when you travel on the road, when you lie down and when you get up. 20 Write them on the doorframes of your houses and on your gates, 21 so that your days and the days of your children may be many on the land that the Lord promised to your fathers with an oath, as many as the days that the heavens remain over the earth.
22 If you carefully keep the whole set of commandments that I am giving you, loving the Lord your God, walking in all his ways, and clinging to him, 23 then the Lord will drive out all these nations before you, and you will take possession of nations larger and stronger than you.
24 Every place where the sole of your foot walks will be yours. From the Wilderness to Lebanon, from the River—the River Euphrates—to the Mediterranean Sea,[b] all of it will be your territory.
25 No one will be able to stand up to you. The Lord your God will put the fear and dread of you over the whole land on which you walk, just as he promised you.
26 You see, I am placing before you today a blessing and a curse: 27 the blessing, if you listen to the commandments of the Lord your God that I am giving you today, 28 or the curse, if you do not listen to the commandments of the Lord your God and you turn away from the path that I am commanding you today by walking after other gods whom you did not know.
29 When the Lord your God brings you into the land you are about to enter and possess, you are to pronounce the blessing on Mount Gerizim and the curse on Mount Ebal. 30 As you know, they are on the other side of the Jordan, beyond the west road,[c] toward the setting sun, in the land of the Canaanites that live in the Arabah, opposite Gilgal, by the oaks of Moreh.
31 You are about to cross over the Jordan to go in and take the land that the Lord your God is giving you. You will take it and live in it. 32 But be careful to carry out all the statutes and the ordinances that I am giving you today.
12 These are the statutes and the ordinances that you are to be conscientious about keeping in the land that the Lord, the God of your fathers, has given to you to possess all the days that you live in the land:
2 Completely destroy all the places where the nations that you are driving out serve their gods, whether on the high mountains or on the hills or under every beautiful green tree. 3 Tear down their altars! Smash their sacred memorial stones! Burn their Asherah poles[d] with fire, and cut down the carved images of their gods! In this way you will destroy their names from those places.
4 Do not serve the Lord your God in the way that they worship, 5 but seek out and go to the site that the Lord your God will choose from within all your tribes to place his name and his dwelling place. 6 There you are to bring your burnt offerings and your sacrifices, your tithes and the elevated offerings from your hands, your offerings to fulfill a vow, your voluntary offerings, and the firstborn of your herd and your flock. 7 Eat there in the presence of the Lord your God, and rejoice in everything you do, you and your household, because the Lord your God has blessed you.
8 Do not in any way do what we are doing here today, that is, each person doing whatever is right in his own eyes, 9 because you have not yet come to your place of rest, the inheritance that the Lord your God is giving to you.
10 But you will cross over the Jordan and settle in the land that the Lord your God is giving you as an inheritance, and he will give you rest from all your enemies all around you, so that you will live in safety. 11 Then go to the place that the Lord your God chooses as the place to establish his name. There you are to bring everything that I am commanding you: your burnt offerings and your sacrifices, your tithes, the offerings from your hands, and all the best voluntary offerings that you vow to the Lord.
12 You will rejoice before the Lord your God, you and your sons and your daughters, and your male servants and your female servants, and the Levites who live within the gates of your cities, because they do not have an allotted inheritance among you.
13 Be careful that you do not offer up your burnt offering in just any place that you see fit, 14 but only in the place that the Lord will choose in one of your tribes. That is where you are to offer up your burnt offerings and where you are to do everything that I am commanding you.
15 But in any town you may butcher and eat meat to your heart’s content, as the Lord your God has blessed you. The unclean and the clean person alike may eat it as they would a gazelle or a deer, 16 but you must never eat the blood. Pour it on the ground like water.
17 You are not to eat the tithe from your grain, your new wine, or your fresh oil in your towns. The same applies to the firstborn of your herd and your flock, or anything you vow, or your voluntary offerings, or your special elevated offerings. 18 Eat those things before the Lord your God in the place that the Lord your God will choose—you and your sons and your daughters, your male servants and your female servants, and the Levites within your cities. Rejoice before the Lord your God in everything that you are doing.
19 Be careful that you do not neglect the Levites as long as you live on your land.
20 When the Lord your God expands your territory as he promised you, and you say, “I would like to eat meat,” because you are hungry for meat, then you may eat it to your heart’s content. 21 If the place that the Lord your God will choose to establish his name is too far away for you, then you may slaughter[e] animals from your herd and flock which the Lord has given you, just as I commanded you, and you may eat within your cities as you desire. 22 Yes, just as gazelle and deer are eaten, you may eat it. The unclean and the clean person alike may eat it. 23 Only be very sure not to eat the blood, because the blood is the life, and you must not eat the life together with the flesh. 24 Do not eat it. Pour it out on the ground like water. 25 Do not eat it, so that it may go well for you and for your children after you when you do what is right in the eyes of the Lord.
26 But as for the holy things that you have and your voluntary offerings, gather them up and take them to the place that the Lord will choose. 27 Offer your burnt offerings, both the flesh and the blood, on the altar of the Lord your God. The blood of the sacrifice is to be poured out on the altar of the Lord your God, but the meat you may eat.
28 Be careful that you obey all these words that I am commanding you so that it may go well for you and for your children after you in the distant future when you do what is good and right in the eyes of the Lord your God.
29 When the Lord your God cuts off the nations where you are going and drives them out before you, and when you take possession of their land and settle in it, 30 be careful that you are not snared after they have been destroyed before you. Do not inquire about their gods and ask, “How did these people serve their gods? I also want to do the same thing.”
31 Do not serve the Lord your God in the way that they worship, because they do for their gods every detestable thing that the Lord hates. They even burn their sons and daughters in fire for their gods.
32 Be careful to do everything that I am commanding you. Do not add to it, and do not subtract from it.
Footnotes:
- Deuteronomy 11:10 Literally by foot, referring to using one’s foot to dig a furrow through which the water could run
- Deuteronomy 11:24 Hebrew the Western Sea
- Deuteronomy 11:30 The meaning of this phrase is uncertain.
- Deuteronomy 12:3 Asherah poles were representations of the goddess Asherah. They may have been living trees or poles carved from tree trunks.
- Deuteronomy 12:21 The word translated slaughter often refers to sacrifices, but sacrifices were to be offered only at the Dwelling, which was the only legitimate sanctuary.
The Holy Bible, Evangelical Heritage Version®, EHV®, © 2019 Wartburg Project, Inc. All rights reserved.
Luke 8:22-39
Jesus Calms the Storm
22 One day Jesus got into a boat with his disciples and told them, “Let’s go over to the other side of the lake.” So they set out. 23 As they were sailing, he fell asleep. A powerful windstorm came down on the lake, the boat was filling up with water, and they were in danger.
24 They went to him and woke him, saying, “Master, master, we’re going to die!”
He woke up, rebuked the wind and the raging waves, and they stopped. Then it was calm.
25 He said to them, “Where is your faith?”
They were afraid and amazed and said to one another, “Who, then, is this, that he commands even the winds and the water, and they obey him?”
A Demon-Possessed Man and a Herd of Pigs
26 They sailed down to the region of the Gerasenes,[a] which is across from Galilee. 27 When Jesus stepped ashore, a man from the town met him. He was possessed by demons and for a long time had not worn any clothes. He did not live in a house but in the tombs. 28 When he saw Jesus, he cried out, fell down before him, and said with a loud voice, “What do I have to do with you, Jesus, Son of the Most High God? I beg you, don’t torment me!” 29 For Jesus had commanded the unclean spirit to come out of the man. In fact, the unclean spirit had seized him many times. He was kept under guard, and although he was bound with chains and shackles, he would break the restraints and was driven by the demon into deserted places.
30 Jesus asked him, “What is your name?”
He said, “Legion,” because many demons had gone into him. 31 They were begging Jesus that he would not order them to go into the abyss. 32 A herd of many pigs was feeding there on the mountain. The demons begged Jesus to let them go into the pigs, and he gave them permission. 33 The demons went out of the man and entered the pigs, and the herd rushed down the steep bank into the lake and drowned.
34 When those who were feeding the pigs saw what happened, they ran away and reported it in the town and in the countryside. 35 People went out to see what had happened. They came to Jesus and found the man from whom the demons had gone out, sitting at Jesus’ feet. He was clothed and in his right mind, and the people were afraid. 36 Those who saw it told them how the demon-possessed man was saved. 37 The whole crowd of people from the surrounding country of the Gerasenes[b] asked Jesus to leave them, because they were gripped with great fear.
As Jesus got into the boat and started back, 38 the man from whom the demons had gone out begged to be with him. But Jesus sent him away, saying, 39 “Return to your home and tell how much God has done for you.” Then he went through the whole town proclaiming what Jesus had done for him.
The Holy Bible, Evangelical Heritage Version®, EHV®, © 2019 Wartburg Project, Inc. All rights reserved.
Psalm 70
Psalm 70
Hurry to Save Me
(Psalm 40:13-17)
Heading
For the choir director. By David. To bring to remembrance.
Hurry to Help Me
1 Hurry, God! Rescue me!
Lord, hurry to help me!
2 May those who seek my life be put to shame and disgrace.
May all who desire to harm me be turned back and disgraced.
3 May those who say, “Aha! We got you!” be dismayed,
because they have been put to shame.
4 But may all who seek you rejoice and be glad in you.
May those who love your salvation always say, “Let God be exalted!”
5 Yet I am oppressed and poor.
God, hurry to me. You are my help and my deliverer.
O Lord, do not delay.
The Holy Bible, Evangelical Heritage Version®, EHV®, © 2019 Wartburg Project, Inc. All rights reserved.
Proverbs 12:4
4 A wife with strong character is a crown to her husband,
but one who brings shame is like rot in his bones.
The Holy Bible, Evangelical Heritage Version®, EHV®, © 2019 Wartburg Project, Inc. All rights reserved.