The Living Bible (67 page)

Deuteronomy
29

It was on the plains of Moab that Moses restated the covenant that the Lord had made with the people of Israel at Mount Horeb.
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 He summoned all Israel before him and told them, “You have seen with your own eyes the great plagues and mighty miracles that the Lord brought upon Pharaoh and his people in the land of Egypt.
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 But even yet the Lord hasn’t given you hearts that understand or eyes that see or ears that hear!
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 For forty years God has led you through the wilderness, yet your clothes haven’t become old, and your shoes haven’t worn out!
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 The reason he hasn’t let you settle down to grow grain for bread or grapes for wine and strong drink is so that you would realize that it is the Lord your God who has been caring for you.

    
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 “When we came here, King Sihon of Heshbon and King Og of Bashan came out against us in battle, but we destroyed them,
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 and took their land and gave it to the tribes of Reuben and Gad and to the half-tribe of Manasseh as their inheritance.
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 Therefore, obey the terms of this covenant so that you will prosper in everything you do.
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 All of you—your leaders, the people, your judges, and your administrative officers—are standing today before the Lord your God,
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 along with your little ones and your wives and the foreigners that are among you—those who chop your wood and carry your water.
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 You are standing here to enter into a contract with Jehovah your God, a contract he is making with you today.
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 He wants to confirm you today as his people, and to confirm that he is your God, just as he promised your ancestors, Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob.
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 This contract is not with you alone as you stand before him today, but with all future generations of Israel as well.

    
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 “Surely you remember how we lived in the land of Egypt, and how as we left, we came safely through the territory of enemy nations.
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 And you have seen their heathen idols made of wood, stone, silver, and gold.
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 The day that any of you—man or woman, family or tribe of Israel—begins to turn away from the Lord our God and desires to worship these gods of other nations, that day a root will be planted that will grow bitter and poisonous fruit.

    
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 “Let no one blithely think, when he hears the warnings of this curse, ‘I shall prosper even though I walk in my own stubborn way!’
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 For the Lord will not pardon! His anger and jealousy will be hot against that man. And all the curses written in this book shall lie heavily upon him, and the Lord will blot out his name from under heaven.
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 The Lord will separate that man from all the tribes of Israel, to pour out upon him all the curses (which are recorded in this book) that befall those who break this contract.
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 Then your children and the generations to come and the foreigners that pass by from distant lands shall see the devastation of the land and the diseases the Lord will have sent upon it.
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 They will see that the whole land is alkali and salt, a burned over wasteland, unsown, without crops, without a shred of vegetation—just like Sodom and Gomorrah and Admah and Zeboiim, destroyed by the Lord in his anger.

    
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 “‘Why has the Lord done this to his land?’ the nations will ask. ‘Why was he so angry?’

    
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 “And they will be told, ‘Because the people of the land broke the contract made with them by Jehovah, the God of their ancestors, when he brought them out of the land of Egypt.
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 For they worshiped other gods, violating his express command.
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 That is why the anger of the Lord was hot against this land, so that all his curses (which are recorded in this book) broke forth upon them.
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 In great anger the Lord rooted them out of their land and threw them away into another land, where they still live today!’

    
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 “There are secrets the Lord your God has not revealed to us, but these words that he has revealed are for us and our children to obey forever.

Deuteronomy
30

“When all these things have happened to you—the blessings and the curses I have listed—you will meditate upon them as you are living among the nations where the Lord your God will have driven you.
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 If at that time you want to return to the Lord your God, and you and your children have begun wholeheartedly to obey all of the commandments I have given you today,
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 then the Lord your God will rescue you from your captivity! He will have mercy upon you and come and gather you out of all the nations where he will have scattered you.
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 Though you are at the ends of the earth, he will go and find you and bring you back again
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 to the land of your ancestors. You shall possess the land again, and he will do you good and bless you even more than he did your ancestors!
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 He will cleanse your hearts and the hearts of your children and of your children’s children so that you will love the Lord your God with all your hearts and souls, and Israel shall come alive again!

    
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 “If you return to the Lord and obey all the commandments that I command you today, the Lord your God will take his curses and turn them against your enemies—against those who hate you and persecute you.
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 The Lord your God will prosper everything you do and give you many children and much cattle and wonderful crops; for the Lord will again rejoice over you as he did over your fathers.
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 He will rejoice if you but obey the commandments written in this book of the law, and if you turn to the Lord your God with all your hearts and souls.

    
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 “Obeying these commandments is not something beyond your strength and reach;
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 for these laws are not in the far heavens, so distant that you can’t hear and obey them, and with no one to bring them down to you;
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 nor are they beyond the ocean, so far that no one can bring you their message;
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 but they are very close at hand—in your hearts and on your lips—so obey them.

    
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 “Look, today I have set before you life and death, depending on whether you obey or disobey.
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 I have commanded you today to love the Lord your God and to follow his paths and to keep his laws, so that you will live and become a great nation, and so that the Lord your God will bless you and the land you are about to possess.
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 But if your hearts turn away and you won’t listen—if you are drawn away to worship other gods—
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 then I declare to you this day that you shall surely perish; you will not have a long, good life in the land you are going in to possess.

    
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 “I call heaven and earth to witness against you that today I have set before you life or death, blessing or curse. Oh, that you would choose life; that you and your children might live!
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 Choose to love the Lord your God and to obey him and to cling to him, for he is your life and the length of your days. You will then be able to live safely in the land the Lord promised your ancestors, Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob.”

Deuteronomy
31

After Moses had said all these things to the people of Israel,
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 he told them, “I am now 120 years old! I am no longer able to lead you,
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for the Lord has told me that I shall not cross the Jordan River.
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 But the Lord himself will lead you and will destroy the nations living there, and you shall overcome them. Joshua is your new commander, as the Lord has instructed.
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 The Lord will destroy the nations living in the land, just as he destroyed Sihon and Og, the kings of the Amorites.
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 The Lord will deliver over to you the people living there, and you shall destroy them as I have commanded you.
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 Be strong! Be courageous! Do not be afraid of them! For the Lord your God will be with you. He will neither fail you nor forsake you.”

    
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 Then Moses called for Joshua and said to him, as all Israel watched, “Be strong! Be courageous! For you shall lead these people into the land promised by the Lord to their ancestors; see to it that they conquer it.
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 Don’t be afraid, for the Lord will go before you and will be with you; he will not fail nor forsake you.”

    
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 Then Moses wrote out the laws he had already delivered to the people and gave them to the priests, the sons of Levi, who carried the Ark containing the Ten Commandments of the Lord. Moses also gave copies of the laws to the elders of Israel.
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 The Lord commanded that these laws be read to all the people at the end of every seventh year—the Year of Release—at the Festival of Tabernacles, when all Israel would assemble before the Lord at the sanctuary.

    
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 “Call them all together,” the Lord instructed, “—men, women, children, and foreigners living among you—to hear the laws of God and to learn his will, so that you will reverence the Lord your God and obey his laws.
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 Do this so that your little children who have not known these laws will hear them and learn how to revere the Lord your God as long as you live in the Promised Land.”

    
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 Then the Lord said to Moses, “The time has come when you must die. Summon Joshua and come into the Tabernacle where I can give him his instructions.” So Moses and Joshua came and stood before the Lord.

    
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 He appeared to them in a great cloud at the Tabernacle entrance,
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 and said to Moses, “You shall die and join your ancestors. After you are gone, these people will begin worshiping foreign gods in the Promised Land. They will forget about me and break the contract I have made with them.
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 Then my anger will flame out against them and I will abandon them, hiding my face from them, and they shall be destroyed. Terrible trouble will come upon them, so that they will say, ‘God is no longer among us!’
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 I will turn away from them because of their sins in worshiping other gods.

    
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 “Now write down the words of this song, and teach it to the people of Israel as my warning to them.
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 When I have brought them into the land I promised their ancestors—a land ‘flowing with milk and honey’—and when they have become fat and prosperous, and worship other gods and despise me and break my contract,
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 and great disasters come upon them, then this song will remind them of the reason for their woes. (For this song will live from generation to generation.) I know now, even before they enter the land, what these people are like.”

    
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 So, on that very day, Moses wrote down the words of the song and taught it to the Israelites.
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 Then he charged Joshua (son of Nun) to be strong and courageous and said to him, “You must bring the people of Israel into the land the Lord promised them; for the Lord says, ‘I will be with you.’”

    
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 When Moses had finished writing down all the laws that are recorded in this book,
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 he instructed the Levites who carried the Ark containing the Ten Commandments
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 to put this book of the law beside the Ark, as a solemn warning to the people of Israel.

    
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 “For I know how rebellious and stubborn you are,” Moses told them. “If even today, while I am still here with you, you are defiant rebels against the Lord, how much more rebellious will you be after my death!
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 Now summon all the elders and officers of your tribes so that I can speak to them, and call heaven and earth to witness against them.
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 I know that after my death you will utterly defile yourselves and turn away from God and his commands; and in the days to come evil will crush you for you will do what the Lord says is evil, making him very angry.”

    
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 So Moses recited this entire song to the whole assembly of Israel: