The One Year Bible TLB (75 page)

Deuteronomy 18:1–20:20

Luke 9:28-50

Psalm 73:1-28

Proverbs 12:10

Deuteronomy 18:1–20:20

“Remember that the priests and all the other members of the Levite tribe will not be given property like the other tribes. So the priests and Levites are to be supported by the sacrifices brought to the altar of the Lord and by the other offerings the people bring to him.
2
 They don’t need to own property, for the Lord is their property! That is what he promised them!
3
 The shoulder, the cheeks, and the stomach of every ox or sheep brought for sacrifice must be given to the priests.
4
 In addition, the priests shall receive the harvest samples brought in thanksgiving to the Lord—the first of the grain, the new wine, the olive oil, and of the fleece at shearing time.
5
 For the Lord your God has chosen the tribe of Levi, of all the tribes, to minister to the Lord from generation to generation.

6-7
 “Any Levite, no matter where he lives in the land of Israel, has the right to come to the sanctuary at any time and minister in the name of the Lord, just like his brother Levites who work there regularly.
8
 He shall be given his share of the sacrifices and offerings as his right, not just if he is in need.

9
 “When you arrive in the Promised Land you must be very careful lest you be corrupted by the horrible customs of the nations now living there.
10
 For example, any Israeli who presents his child to be burned to death as a sacrifice to heathen gods must be killed.
*
No Israeli may practice black magic, or call on the evil spirits for aid, or be a fortune-teller,
11
 or be a serpent charmer, medium, or wizard, or call forth the spirits of the dead.
12
 Anyone doing these things is an object of horror and disgust to the Lord, and it is because the nations do these things that the Lord your God will displace them.
13
 You must walk blamelessly before the Lord your God.
14
 The nations you replace all do these evil things, but the Lord your God will not permit you to do such things.

15
 “Instead, he will raise up for you a prophet like me, an Israeli, a man to whom you must listen and whom you must obey.
16
 For this is what you yourselves begged of God at Mount Horeb. There at the foot of the mountain you begged that you might not have to listen to the terrifying voice of God again, or see the awesome fire on the mountain, lest you die.

17
 “‘All right,’ the Lord said to me, ‘I will do as they have requested.
18
 I will raise up from among them a prophet, an Israeli like you. I will tell him what to say, and he shall be my spokesman to the people.
19
 I will personally deal with anyone who will not listen to him and heed his messages from me.
20
 But any prophet who falsely claims that his message is from me shall die. And any prophet who claims to give a message from other gods must die.’
21
 If you wonder, ‘How shall we know whether the prophecy is from the Lord or not?’
22
 this is the way to know: If the thing he prophesies doesn’t happen, it is not the Lord who has given him the message; he has made it up himself. You have nothing to fear from him.

19:
1
 “When the Lord your God has destroyed the nations you will displace, and when you are living in their cities and homes,
2-3
 you must set apart three Cities of Refuge so that anyone who accidentally kills someone may flee to safety. Divide the country into three districts, with one of these cities in each district; and keep the roads to these cities in good repair.

4
 “Here is an example of the purpose of these cities:
5
 If a man goes into the forest with his neighbor to chop wood, and the axhead flies off the handle and kills the man’s neighbor, he may flee to one of those cities and be safe.
6-7
 Anyone seeking to avenge the death will not be able to. These cities must be scattered so that one of them will be reasonably close to everyone; otherwise the angry avenger might catch and kill the innocent slayer, even though he should not have died since he had not killed deliberately.

8
 “If the Lord enlarges your boundaries as he promised your ancestors, and gives you all the land he promised
9
 (whether he does this depends on your obedience to all these commandments I am giving you today—loving the Lord your God and walking his paths), then you must designate three additional Cities of Refuge.
10
 In this way you will be able to avoid the death of innocent people, and you will not be held responsible for unjustified bloodshed.

11
 “But if anyone hates his neighbor and springs out of hiding and kills him, and then flees into one of the Cities of Refuge,
12
 the elders of his hometown shall send for him and shall bring him home and deliver him over to the dead man’s avenger, to kill him.
13
 Don’t pity him! Purge all murderers from Israel! Only then will all go well with you.

14
 “When you arrive in the land the Lord your God is giving you, remember that you must never steal a man’s land by moving the boundary marker.

15
 “Never convict anyone on the testimony of one witness. There must be at least two, and three is even better.
16
 If anyone gives false witness, claiming he has seen someone do wrong when he hasn’t,
17
 both men shall be brought before the priests and judges on duty before the Lord at the time.
18
 They must be closely questioned, and if the witness is lying,
19
 his penalty shall be the punishment he thought the other man would get. In this way you will purge out evil from among you.
20
 Then those who hear about it will be afraid to tell lies on the witness stand.
21
 You shall not show pity to a false witness. Life for life, eye for eye, tooth for tooth, hand for hand, foot for foot; this is your rule in such cases.

20:
1
 “When you go to war and see before you vast numbers of horses and chariots, an army far greater than yours, don’t be frightened! The Lord your God is with you—the same God who brought you safely out of Egypt!
2
 Before you begin the battle, a priest shall stand before the Israeli army and say,

3
 “‘Listen to me, all you men of Israel! Don’t be afraid as you go out to fight today!
4
 For the Lord your God is going with you! He will fight for you against your enemies, and he will give you the victory!’

5
 “Then the officers of the army shall address the men in this manner: ‘Has anyone just built a new house but not yet dedicated it? If so, go home! For you might be killed in the battle, and someone else would dedicate it!
6
 Has anyone just planted a vineyard but not yet eaten any of its fruit? If so, go home! You might die in battle and someone else would eat it!
7
 Has anyone just become engaged? Well, go home and get married! For you might die in the battle, and someone else would marry your fiancée.
8
 And now, is anyone afraid? If you are, go home before you frighten the rest of us!’
9
 When the officers have finished saying this to their men, they will announce the names of the battalion leaders.

10
 “As you approach a city to fight against it, first offer it a truce.
11
 If it accepts the truce and opens its gates to you, then all its people shall become your servants.
12
 But if it refuses and won’t make peace with you, you must besiege it.
13
 When the Lord your God has given it to you, kill every male in the city;
14
 but you may keep for yourselves all the women, children, cattle, and booty.
15
 These instructions apply only to distant cities, not to those in the Promised Land itself.
*

16
 “For in the cities within the boundaries of the Promised Land you are to save no one; destroy every living thing.
17
 Utterly destroy the Hittites, the Amorites, the Canaanites, the Perizzites, the Hivites, and the Jebusites. This is the commandment of the Lord your God.
18
 The purpose of this command is to prevent the people of the land from luring you into idol worship and into participation in their loathsome customs, thus sinning deeply against the Lord your God.

19
 “When you besiege a city, don’t destroy the fruit trees. Eat all the fruit you wish; just don’t cut down the trees. They aren’t enemies who need to be slaughtered!
20
 But you may cut down trees that aren’t valuable for food. Use them for the siege to make ladders, portable towers, and battering rams.”
*

Luke 9:28-50

Eight days later he [Jesus] took Peter, James, and John with him into the hills to pray.
29
 And as he was praying, his face began to shine,
*
and his clothes became dazzling white and blazed with light.
30
 Then two men appeared and began talking with him—Moses and Elijah!
31
 They were splendid in appearance, glorious to see; and they were speaking of his death at Jerusalem, to be carried out in accordance with God’s plan.

32
 Peter and the others had been very drowsy and had fallen asleep. Now they woke up and saw Jesus covered with brightness and glory, and the two men standing with him.
33
 As Moses and Elijah were starting to leave, Peter, all confused and not even knowing what he was saying, blurted out, “Master, this is wonderful! We’ll put up three shelters—one for you and one for Moses and one for Elijah!”

34
 But even as he was saying this, a bright cloud formed above them; and terror gripped them as it covered them.
35
 And a voice from the cloud said,
“This
is my Son, my Chosen One; listen to
him.”

36
 Then, as the voice died away, Jesus was there alone with his disciples. They didn’t tell anyone what they had seen until long afterwards.

37
 The next day as they descended from the hill, a huge crowd met him,
38
 and a man in the crowd called out to him, “Teacher, this boy here is my only son,
39
 and a demon keeps seizing him, making him scream; and it throws him into convulsions so that he foams at the mouth; it is always hitting him and hardly ever leaves him alone.
40
 I begged your disciples to cast the demon out, but they couldn’t.”

41
 
“O you stubborn faithless people,”
Jesus said to his disciples,
*
“how long should I put up with you? Bring him here.”

42
 As the boy was coming the demon knocked him to the ground and threw him into a violent convulsion. But Jesus ordered the demon to come out, and healed the boy and handed him over to his father.

43
 Awe gripped the people as they saw this display of the power of God.

Meanwhile, as they were exclaiming over all the wonderful things he was doing, Jesus said to his disciples,
44
 
“Listen to me and remember what I say. I, the Messiah,
*
am going to be betrayed.”
45
 But the disciples didn’t know what he meant, for their minds had been sealed and they were afraid to ask him.

46
 Now came an argument among them as to which of them would be greatest in the coming Kingdom!
*
47
 But Jesus knew their thoughts, so he stood a little child beside him
48
 and said to them,
“Anyone who takes care of a little child like this is caring for me! And whoever cares for me is caring for God who sent me. Your care for others is the measure of your greatness.”
49
 His disciple John came to him and said, “Master, we saw someone using your name to cast out demons. And we told him not to. After all, he isn’t in our group.”

50
 But Jesus said,
“You shouldn’t have done that! For anyone who is not against you is for you.”

Psalm 73:1-28

How good God is to Israel—to those whose hearts are pure.
2
 But as for me, I came
so
close to the edge of the cliff! My feet were slipping and I was almost gone.
3
 For I was envious of the prosperity of the proud and wicked.
4
 Yes, all through life their road is smooth!
*
They grow sleek and fat.
5
 They aren’t always in trouble and plagued with problems like everyone else,
6
 so their pride sparkles like a jeweled necklace, and their clothing is woven of cruelty!
7
 These fat cats have everything their hearts could ever wish for!
8
 They scoff at God and threaten his people. How proudly they speak!
9
 They boast against the very heavens, and their words strut through the earth.

10
 And so God’s people are dismayed and confused and drink it all in.
11
 “Does God realize what is going on?” they ask.
12
 “Look at these men of arrogance; they never have to lift a finger—theirs is a life of ease; and all the time their riches multiply.”

13
 Have I been wasting my time? Why take the trouble to be pure?
14
 All I get out of it is trouble and woe—every day and all day long!
15
 If I had really said that, I would have been a traitor to your people.
16
 Yet it is so hard to explain it—this prosperity of those who hate the Lord.
17
 Then one day I went into God’s sanctuary to meditate and thought about the future of these evil men.
18
 What a slippery path they are on—suddenly God will send them sliding over the edge of the cliff and down to their destruction:
19
 an instant end to all their happiness, an eternity of terror.
20
 Their present life is only a dream! They will awaken to the truth as one awakens from a dream of things that never really were!

21
 When I saw this, what turmoil filled my heart!
22
 I saw myself so stupid and so ignorant; I must seem like an animal to you, O God.
23
 But even so, you love me! You are holding my right hand!
24
 You will keep on guiding me all my life with your wisdom and counsel, and afterwards receive me into the glories of heaven!
*
25
 Whom have I in heaven but you? And I desire no one on earth as much as you!
26
 My health fails; my spirits droop, yet God remains! He is the strength of my heart; he is mine forever!

27
 But those refusing to worship God will perish, for he destroys those serving other gods.

28
 But as for me, I get as close to him as I can! I have chosen him, and I will tell everyone about the wonderful ways he rescues me.