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 5 through 7.
Chapter 5
And Moses called all Israel and said to them, Hear, O Israel, the statutes and judgments
which I speak in your hearing today, that you may learn them and be careful to observe
them.
The LORD our God made a covenant with us in Horeb.
The LORD did not make this covenant with our fathers but with us, those who are here today,
all of us who are alive.
The LORD talked with you face to face on the mountain from the midst of the fire.
I stood between the LORD and you at that time to declare to you the word of the LORD, for
you were afraid because of the fire and you did not go up the mountain.
He said, I am the LORD your God who brought you out of the land of Egypt, out of the house
of bondage.
You shall have no other gods before me.
You shall not make for yourself a carved image, any likeness of anything that is in heaven
above or that is in the earth beneath or that is in the water under the earth.
You shall not bow down to them nor serve them.
For I the LORD your God am a jealous God, visiting the iniquity of the fathers upon
the children to the third and fourth generations of those who hate me, but showing mercy to
thousands and to those who love me and keep my commandments.
You shall not take the name of the LORD your God in vain.
For the LORD will not hold him guiltless who takes his name in vain.
Observe the Sabbath day to keep it holy, as the LORD your God commanded you.
Six days you shall labor and do all your work, but the seventh day is the Sabbath of the
LORD your God.
In it you shall do no work, you nor your son nor your daughter nor your male servant nor
your female servant, nor your ox nor your donkey nor any of your cattle nor your stranger
who is within your gates, that your male servant and your female servant may rest as well as
you.
And remember that you were a slave in the land of Egypt, and the LORD your God brought
you out from there by a mighty hand and by an outstretched arm.
Therefore the LORD your God commanded you to keep the Sabbath day.
Honor your father and your mother, as the LORD your God has commanded you, that your
days may be long and that it may be well with you in the land which the LORD your God is
giving you.
You shall not murder.
You shall not commit adultery.
You shall not steal.
You shall not bear false witness against your neighbor.
You shall not covet your neighbor's wife, and you shall not desire your neighbor's
house, his field, his male servant, his female servant, his ox, his donkey, or anything that
is your neighbor's.
These words the LORD spoke to all your assembly in the mountain from the midst of the fire,
the cloud, and the thick darkness with a loud voice, and he added no more.
And he wrote them on two tablets of stone and gave them to me.
So it was when you heard the voice from the midst of the darkness while the mountain was
burning with fire that you came near to me, all the heads of your tribes and your elders.
And you said, Surely the LORD our God has shown us his glory and his greatness, and
we have heard his voice from the midst of the fire.
We have seen this day that God speaks with man, yet he still lives.
Now therefore why should we die?
For this great fire will consume us.
If we hear the voice of the LORD our God any more, then we will die.
For who is there of all flesh who has heard the voice of the living God speaking from
the midst of the fire as we have and lived?
You go near and hear all that the LORD our God may say, and tell us all that the LORD
our God says to you, and we will hear and do it.
Then the LORD heard the voice of your words when you spoke to me, and the LORD said to
me, I have heard the voice of the words of this people which they have spoken to you.
They are right in all that they have spoken.
O that they had such a heart in them that they would fear me and always keep all my
commandments, that it might be well with them and with their children forever.
Go and say to them, return to your tents, but as for you, stand here by me, and I will
speak to you all the commandments, the statutes and the judgments which you shall teach them,
that they may observe them in the land which I am giving them to possess.
Therefore you shall be careful to do as the LORD your God has commanded you.
You shall not turn aside to the right hand or to the left.
You shall walk in all the ways which the LORD your God has commanded you, that you may live
and that it may be well with you, and that you may prolong your days in the land which
you shall possess.
Chapter 6 Now this is the commandment, and these are
the statutes and judgments which the LORD your God has commanded to teach you, that
you may observe them in the land which you are crossing over to possess, that you may
fear the LORD your God to keep all His statutes and His commandments which I command you,
you and your son and your grandson, all the days of your life, and that your days may
be prolonged.
Therefore hear O Israel, and be careful to observe it, that it may be well with you,
and that you may multiply greatly as the LORD God of your fathers has promised you, a land
flowing with milk and honey.
Hear O Israel, the LORD our God, the LORD is one.
You shall love the LORD your God with all your heart, with all your soul, and with all
your strength.
And these words which I command you today shall be in your heart.
You shall teach them diligently to your children, and shall talk of them when you sit in your
house, when you walk by the way, when you lie down, and when you rise up.
You shall bind them as a sign on your hand, and they shall be as frontlets between your
eyes.
You shall write them on the doorposts of your house and on your gates.
So it shall be, when the LORD your God brings you into the land of which he swore to your
fathers, to Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob, to give you large and beautiful cities which you did
not build, houses full of all good things which you did not fill, hewn out wells which
you did not dig, vineyards and olive trees which you did not plant, when you have eaten
and are full, then beware, lest you forget the LORD who brought you out of the land of
Egypt from the house of bondage.
You shall fear the LORD your God and serve him, and shall take oath in his name.
You shall not go after other gods, the gods of the peoples who are all around you, for
the LORD your God is a jealous God among you.
Lest the anger of the LORD your God be aroused against you and destroy you from the face
of the earth.
You shall not tempt the LORD your God as you tempted him in Massa.
You shall diligently keep the commandments of the LORD your God, his testimonies and
his statutes which he has commanded you, and you shall do what is right and good in the
sight of the LORD, that it may be well with you, and that you may go in and possess the
good land of which the LORD swore to your fathers, to cast out all your enemies from
before you as the LORD has spoken.
When your son asks you in time to come saying, what is the meaning of the testimonies, the
statutes, and the judgments which the LORD our God has commanded you, then you shall
say to your son, we were slaves of Pharaoh in Egypt, and the LORD brought us out of Egypt
with a mighty hand, and the LORD showed signs and wonders before our eyes, great and severe,
against Egypt, Pharaoh and all his household.
Then he brought us out from there, that he might bring us in to give us the land of which
he swore to our fathers.
And the LORD commanded us to observe all these statutes, to fear the LORD our God for our
good always, that he might preserve us alive, as it is this day.
Then it will be righteousness for us if we are careful to observe all these commandments
before the LORD our God as he has commanded us.
Chapter 7 When the LORD your God brings you into the
land which you go to possess, and has cast out many nations before you, the Hittites and
the Girgashites, and the Amorites and the Canaanites and the Perizzites, and the Hevites
and the Jebusites, seven nations greater and mightier than you.
And when the LORD your God delivers them over to you, you shall conquer them and utterly
destroy them.
You shall make no covenant with them, nor show mercy to them, nor shall you make marriages
with them.
You shall not give your daughter to their son, nor take their daughter for your son,
for they will turn your sons away from following me, to serve other gods, so the anger of
the LORD will be aroused against you and destroy you suddenly.
But thus you shall deal with them, you shall destroy their altars, and break down their
sacred pillars, and cut down their wooden images, and burn their carved images with
fire.
For you are a holy people to the LORD your God.
The LORD your God has chosen you to be a people for himself, a special treasure above all the
peoples on the face of the earth.
The LORD did not set his love on you nor choose you because you were more in number than any
other people, for you were the least of all peoples.
But because the LORD loves you, and because he would keep the oath which he swore to your
fathers, the LORD has brought you out with a mighty hand and redeemed you from the house
of bondage, from the hand of Pharaoh, King of Egypt.
Therefore know that the LORD your God, he is God, the faithful God who keeps covenant
and mercy for a thousand generations, with those who love him and keep his commandments.
And he repays those who hate him to their face, to destroy them.
He will not be slack with him who hates him, he will repay him to his face.
Therefore you shall keep the commandment, the statutes, and the judgments which I command
you today to observe them.
Then it shall come to pass, because you listen to these judgments and keep and do them, that
the LORD your God will keep with you the covenant and the mercy which he swore to your fathers.
And he will love you and bless you and multiply you.
He will also bless the fruit of your womb, and the fruit of your land, your grain and
your new wine and your oil, the increase of your cattle and the offspring of your flock,
in the land of which he swore to your fathers to give you.
You shall be blessed above all peoples.
There shall not be a male or female barren among you or among your livestock.
And the LORD will take away from you all sickness and will afflict you with none of the terrible
diseases of Egypt which you have known, but will lay them on all those who hate you.
Also you shall destroy all the peoples whom the LORD your God delivers over to you.
Your eye shall have no pity on them, nor shall you serve their gods, for that will be as
near to you.
If you should say in your heart, these nations are greater than I, how can I dispossess them?
You shall not be afraid of them, but shall remember well what the LORD your God did to
Pharaoh and to all Egypt, the great trials which your eyes saw, the signs and the wonders,
the mighty hand and the outstretched arm by which the LORD your God brought you out.
So shall the LORD your God do to all the peoples of whom you are afraid.
Moreover the LORD your God will send a hornet among them until those who are left, who hide
themselves from you, are destroyed.
You shall not be terrified of them, for the LORD your God, the great and awesome God,
is among you.
And the LORD your God will drive out those nations before you little by little.
You will be unable to destroy them at once, lest the beasts of the field become too numerous
for you.
But the LORD your God will deliver them over to you, and will inflict defeat upon them
until they are destroyed.
And he will deliver their kings into your hand, and you will destroy their name from
under heaven.
No one shall be able to stand against you until you have destroyed them.
You shall burn the carved images of their gods with fire.
You shall not covet the silver or gold that is on them, nor take it for yourselves, lest
you be snared by it.
For it is an abomination to the LORD your God.
Nor shall you bring an abomination into your house, lest you be doomed to destruction like
it.
You shall utterly detest it and utterly abhor it, for it is an accursed thing.
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.