Hello, this is Father Paul and I'm glad we're taking this journey together to read the Bible
in a year.
Today's reading is from Deuteronomy chapters 3 and 4.
Chapter 3
Then we turned and went up the road to Bashan, and all king of Bashan came out against us,
he and all his people, to battle at Edri.
And the LORD said to me, Do not fear him, for I have delivered him and all his people,
and his land into your hand.
We shall do to him as you did to Sihon king of the Amorites who dwelt at Heshbon.
So the LORD our God also delivered into our hands Og king of Bashan with all his people,
and we attacked him until he had no survivors remaining.
And we took all his cities at that time.
There was not a city which we did not take from them, sixty cities, all the region of
Argob, the kingdom of Og in Bashan.
All these cities were fortified with high walls, gates and bars, besides a great many
rural towns, and we utterly destroyed them as we did to Sihon king of Heshbon, utterly
destroying the men, women and children of every city, but all the livestock and the
spoil of the cities we took as booty for ourselves.
And at that time we took the land from the hand of the two kings of the Amorites who
were on this side of the Jordan, from the river Arnon to Mount Hermon.
The Sidonians called Hermon Sirion, and the Amorites called it Senir.
All the cities of the plain, all Gilead and all Bashan, as far as Salka and Edri, cities
of the kingdom of Og in Bashan.
For only king of Bashan remained of the remnant of the giants, indeed his bedstead was an
iron bedstead.
Is it not an Raba of the people of Amon?
None cubits is its length, and four cubits its width, according to the standard cubit.
And this land which we possessed at that time from Arawar, which is by the river Arnon,
and half the mountains of Gilead and its cities, I gave to the Rubanites and the Gadites.
The rest of Gilead and all Bashan, the kingdom of Og, I gave to half the tribe of Manasseh.
All the region of Argob with all Bashan was called the land of the giants.
Jair the son of Manasseh took all the region of Argob as far as the border of the Geshurites
and the Makkotites, and called Bashan after his own name Havoth Jair to this day.
Also I gave Gilead to Makkir, and to the Rubanites and the Gadites I gave from Gilead as far
as the river Arnon.
The middle of the river as the border, as far as the river Jabak, the border of the
people of Amon.
The plain also with the Jordan as the border, from Shinareth as far as the east side of
the sea of Araba, the salt sea, below the slopes of Pisgah.
Then I commanded you at that time saying, The Lord your God has given you this land
to possess, all you men of valor shall cross over armed before your brethren the children
of Israel.
By your wives, your little ones, and your livestock, I know that you have much livestock,
shall stay in your cities which I have given you, until the Lord has given rest to your
brethren as to you, and they also possess the land which the Lord your God is giving
them beyond the Jordan.
Then each of you may return to his possession which I have given you.
And I commanded Joshua at that time saying, Your eyes have seen all that the Lord your
God has done to these two kings, so will the Lord do to all the kingdoms through which
you pass.
You must not fear them, for the Lord your God himself fights for you.
Then I pleaded with the Lord at that time saying, O Lord God, you have begun to show
your servant your greatness and your mighty hand, for what God is there in heaven or on
earth who can do anything like your works and your mighty deeds?
I pray let me cross over and see the good land beyond the Jordan, those pleasant mountains
and Lebanon.
But the Lord was angry with me on your account and would not listen to me.
So the Lord said to me, Enough of that, speak no more to me of this matter.
Go up to the top of Pisgah and lift your eyes toward the west, the north, the south, and
the east.
Behold it with your eyes, for you shall not cross over this Jordan.
But command Joshua and encourage him and strengthen him, for he shall go over before this people,
and he shall cause them to inherit the land which you will see.
So we stayed in the valley opposite Beth Pior.
Chapter 4 Now O Israel, listen to the statutes and the
judgments which I teach you to observe, that you may live and go in and possess the land
which the Lord God of your fathers is giving you.
You shall not add to the word which I command you, nor take from it, that you may keep the
commandments of the Lord your God which I command you.
Your eyes have seen what the Lord did at Baal Pior, for the Lord your God has destroyed
from among you all the men who followed Baal of Pior.
But you who held fast to the Lord your God are alive today, every one of you.
Surely I have taught you statutes and judgments just as the Lord my God commanded me, that
you should act according to them in the land which you go to possess.
Therefore be careful to observe them, for this is your wisdom and your understanding
in the sight of the peoples who will bear all these statutes, and say surely this great
nation is a wise and understanding people.
For what great nation is there that has God so near to it, as the Lord our God is to us,
for whatever reason we may call upon him?
And what great nation is there that has such statutes and righteous judgments as are in
all this law which I said before you this day?
Only take heed to yourself and diligently keep yourself, lest you forget the things
your eyes have seen, unless they depart from your heart all the days of your life.
And teach them to your children and your grandchildren, especially concerning the day you stood before
the Lord your God in Horeb.
When the Lord said to me, gather the people to me, and I will let them hear my words,
that they may learn to fear me all the days they live on earth, and that they may teach
their children.
Then you came near and stood at the foot of the mountain, and the mountain burned with
fire in the midst of heaven, with darkness, cloud, and thick darkness.
And the Lord spoke to you out of the midst of the fire.
You heard the sound of the words, but saw no form, you only heard a voice.
So he declared to you his covenant which he commanded you to perform, the Ten Commandments,
and he wrote them on two tablets of stone.
And the Lord commanded me at that time to teach you statutes and judgments, that you
might observe them in the land which you cross over to possess.
Take careful heed to yourselves, for you saw no form when the Lord spoke to you at Horeb
out of the midst of the fire, lest you act corruptly, and make for yourselves a carved
image in the form of any figure, the likeness of male or female, the likeness of any animal
that is on the earth, or the likeness of any winged bird that flies in the air, the likeness
of anything that creeps on the ground, or the likeness of any fish that is in the water
beneath the earth.
And take heed lest you lift your eyes to heaven, and when you see the sun, the moon, and the
stars, all the hosts of heaven, you feel driven to worship them and serve them, which the
Lord your God has given to all the peoples under the whole heaven as a heritage.
But the Lord has taken you and brought you out of the iron furnace, out of Egypt, to
be His people and inheritance as you are this day.
Furthermore the Lord was angry with me for your sakes, and swore that I would not cross
over the Jordan, and that I would not enter the good land which the Lord your God is giving
you as an inheritance.
But I must die in this land, I must not cross over the Jordan, but you shall cross over
and possess that good land.
Take heed to yourselves lest you forget the covenant of the Lord your God which He made
with you, and make for yourselves a carved image in the form of anything which the Lord
your God has forbidden you.
For the Lord your God is a consuming fire, a jealous God.
When you beget children and grandchildren and have grown old in the land, and act corruptly,
and make a carved image in the form of anything, and do evil in the sight of the Lord your
God to provoke Him to anger, I call heaven and earth to witness against you this day,
that you will soon utterly perish from the land which you cross over the Jordan to possess.
You will not prolong your days in it, but will be utterly destroyed, and the Lord will
scatter you among the peoples, and you will be left few in number among the nations where
the Lord will drive you.
And there you will serve Gods, the work of men's hands, wood and stone, which neither
see nor hear nor eat nor smell.
But from there you will seek the Lord your God, and you will find Him if you seek Him
with all your heart and with all your soul.
When you are in distress and all these things come upon you in the latter days, when you
turn to the Lord your God and obey His voice, for the Lord your God is a merciful God,
He will not forsake you nor destroy you, nor forget the covenant of your fathers which
He swore to them.
For ask now concerning the days that are past, which were before you since the day that God
created man on earth, and ask from one end of heaven to the other, whether any great
thing like this has happened or anything like it has been heard.
Did any people ever hear the voice of God speaking out of the midst of the fire as you
have heard and live?
Or did God ever try to go and take for Himself a nation from the midst of another nation,
by trials, by signs, by wonders, by war, by a mighty hand and an outstretched arm, and
by great terrors according to all that the Lord your God did for you in Egypt before
your eyes?
To you it was shown that you might know that the Lord Himself is God, there is none other
besides Him.
Out of heaven He let you hear His voice, that He might instruct you.
On earth He showed you His great fire, and you heard His words out of the midst of the
fire.
And because He loved your fathers, therefore He chose their descendants after them.
And He brought you out of Egypt with His presence, with His mighty power, driving out from before
you nations greater and mightier than you, to bring you in, to give you their land as
an inheritance as it is this day.
Therefore know this day, and consider it in your heart, that the Lord Himself is God in
heaven above and on earth beneath, there is no other.
You shall therefore keep His statutes and His commandments which I command you today,
that it may go well with you and with your children after you, and that you may prolong
your days in the land which the Lord your God is giving you for all time.
Then Moses set apart three cities on this side of the Jordan toward the rising of the
sun, that the manslayer might flee there, who kills his neighbor unintentionally, without
having hated him in time past, and that by fleeing to one of these cities he might live,
Bessar in the wilderness on the plateau of the Rubenites, Ramoth in Gilead for the Gadites,
and Golan in Bashan for the Manassites.
Now this is the law which Moses said before the children of Israel.
These are the testimonies, the statutes, and the judgments which Moses spoke to the children
of Israel after they came out of Egypt, on this side of the Jordan in the valley opposite
Pior, in the land of Sihon king of the Amorites who dwelt at Heshbon, whom Moses and the children
of Israel defeated after they came out of Egypt, and they took possession of his land
and the land of Og king of Bashan, two kings of the Amorites who were on this side of the
Jordan toward the rising of the sun.
From Erewar which is on the bank of the river Arnon, even to Mount Sion, that is Hermon,
and all the plain on the east side of the Jordan as far as the sea of the Araba, below
the slopes of Pisgah.
I hope you enjoyed today's reading as much as I did, and I look forward to seeing you
again tomorrow to continue on our journey.
God bless you and have a great day.