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 29 to 31.
Chapter 29 These are the words of the covenant which the
Lord commanded Moses to make with the children of Israel in the land of Moab, besides the
covenant which he made with them in Horeb.
Now Moses called all Israel and said to them, You have seen all that the Lord did before
your eyes in the land of Egypt, to Pharaoh and to all his servants and to all his land,
the great trials which your eyes have seen, the signs and those great wonders.
Yet the Lord has not given you a heart to perceive and eyes to see and ears to hear
to this very day.
And I have led you forty years in the wilderness, your clothes have not worn out on you and
your sandals have not worn out on your feet.
You have not eaten bread, nor have you drunk wine or similar drink, that you may know that
I am the Lord your God.
And when you came to this place, Sihon king of Hezbon and all king of Bashan came out
against us to battle and we conquered them.
We took their land and gave it as an inheritance to the Rubenites, to the Gahdites and to have
the tribe of Manasseh.
Therefore keep the words of this covenant and do them, that you may prosper in all that
you do.
All of you stand today before the Lord your God, your leaders and your tribes and your
elders and your officers, all the men of Israel, your little ones and your wives, also the
stranger who is in your camp, from the one who cuts your wood to the one who draws your
water.
That you may enter into covenant with the Lord your God and into His oath, which the
Lord your God makes with you today, that He may establish you today as a people for Himself
and that He may be God to you, just as He has spoken to you and just as He has sworn
to your fathers to Abraham, Isaac and Jacob.
I make this covenant and this oath not with you alone, but with Him who stands here with
us today before the Lord our God, as well as with Him who is not here with us today.
For you know that we dwelt in the land of Egypt and that we came through the nations
which you passed by and you saw their abominations and their idols which were among them, wood
and stone and silver and gold, so that there may not be among you man or woman or family
or tribe, whose heart turns away today from the Lord our God, to go and serve the gods
of these nations, and that there may not be among you a root bearing bitterness or warm
wood.
And so it may not happen when He hears the words of this curse that He blesses Himself
in His heart saying, I shall have peace even though I follow the dictates of my heart,
as though the drunkard could be included with the sober.
The Lord would not spare him, for then the anger of the Lord and His jealousy would burn
against that man, and every curse that is written in this book would settle on him,
and the Lord would blot out His name from under heaven, and the Lord would separate
him from all the tribes of Israel for adversity, according to all the curses of the covenant
that are written in this book of the law, so that the coming generation of your children
who rise up after you and the foreigner who comes from a far land would say when they
see the plagues of that land and the sicknesses which the Lord has laid on it, the whole land
is brimstone, salt and burning, it is not sown nor does it bear nor does any grass grow
there, like the overthrow of Sodom and Gomorrah, Adma and Zeboeim which the Lord overthrew
in His anger and His wrath.
All nations would say, why has the Lord done so to this land?
What does the heat of this great anger mean?
And people would say, because they have forsaken the covenant of the Lord God of their fathers,
which He made with them when He brought them out of the land of Egypt.
For they went and served other gods and worshipped them, gods that they did not know and that
He had not given to them.
Then the anger of the Lord was aroused against this land, to bring on it every curse that
is written in this book, and the Lord uprooted them from their land in anger, in wrath and
in great indignation, and cast them into another land as it is this day.
The secret things belong to the Lord our God, but those things which are revealed belong
to us and to our children forever, that we may do all the words of this law.
Chapter 30 Now it shall come to pass, when all these
things come upon you, the blessing and the curse which I said before you, and you call
them to mind among all the nations where the Lord your God drives you, and you return to
the Lord your God and obey His voice according to all that I command you today, you and your
children with all your heart and with all your soul, that the Lord your God will bring
you back from captivity and have compassion on you and gather you again from all the nations
where the Lord your God has scattered you.
If any of you are driven out to the farthest parts under heaven, from there the Lord your
God will gather you, and from there He will bring you.
Then the Lord your God will bring you to the land which your fathers possessed, and you
shall possess it.
He will prosper you and multiply you more than your fathers.
Then the Lord your God will circumcise your heart and the heart of your descendants, to
love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul that you may live.
Also the Lord your God will put all these curses on your enemies and on those who hate
you, who persecuted you, and you will again obey the voice of the Lord and do all His
commandments which I command you today.
The Lord your God will make you abound in all the work of your hand, in the fruit of
your body, in the increase of your livestock, and in the produce of your land for good.
For the Lord will again rejoice over you for good, as He rejoiced over your fathers.
If you obey the voice of the Lord your God to keep His commandments and His statutes
which are written in this book of the law, and if you turn to the Lord your God with
all your heart and with all your soul.
For this commandment which I command you today is not too mysterious for you, nor is it far
off.
It is not in heaven that you should say, Who will ascend into heaven for us and bring it
to us, that we may hear it and do it.
Nor is it beyond the sea that you should say, Who will go over the sea for us and bring
it to us, that we may hear it and do it.
But the word is very near you, in your mouth and in your heart that you may do it.
See, I have said before you today, Life and good, death and evil, in that I command you
today to love the Lord your God, to walk in His ways and to keep His commandments, His
statutes and His judgments, that you may live and multiply.
And the Lord your God will bless you in the land which you go to possess.
But if your heart turns away so that you do not hear, and are drawn away and worship other
gods and serve them, I will announce to you today that you shall surely perish.
You shall not prolong your days in the land which you cross over the Jordan to go in and
possess.
I call heaven and earth as witnesses today against you, that I have said before you life
and death, blessing and cursing.
Your true life, that both you and your descendants may live, that you may love the Lord your
God, that you may obey His voice and that you may cling to Him, for He is your life
and the length of your days, and that you may dwell in the land which the Lord swore
to your fathers, to Abraham, Isaac and Jacob, to give them.
Chapter 31 Then Moses went and spoke these words to
all Israel, and he said to them, I am one hundred and twenty years old today, I can
no longer go out and come in, and the Lord has said to me, you shall not cross over this
Jordan.
The Lord your God Himself crosses over before you, He will destroy these nations from before
you and you shall dispossess them.
Joshua himself crosses over before you, just as the Lord has said.
And the Lord will do to them as He did to Sihon and Og, the kings of the Amorites and
their land, when He destroyed them.
The Lord will give them over to you, that you may do to them according to every commandment
which I have commanded you.
Be strong and of good courage, do not fear nor be afraid of them, for the Lord your God
He is the one who goes with you, He will not leave you nor forsake you.
Then Moses called Joshua and said to him in the sight of all Israel, be strong and of
good courage, for you must go with these people to the land which the Lord has sworn to their
fathers to give them, and you shall cause them to inherit it.
And the Lord He is the one who goes before you, He will be with you, He will not leave
you nor forsake you, do not fear nor be dismayed.
So Moses wrote this law and delivered it to the priests, the sons of Levi who bore the
ark of the covenant of the Lord and to all the elders of Israel.
And Moses commanded them saying, at the end of every seven years, at the appointed time
in the year of release, at the feast of tabernacles, when all Israel comes to appear before the
Lord your God in the place which He chooses, you shall read this law before all Israel
in their hearing.
Gather the people together, men and women and little ones, and a stranger who is within
your gates, that they may hear and that they may learn to fear the Lord your God and carefully
observe all the words of this law, and that their children who have not known it may hear
and learn to fear the Lord your God as long as you live in the land which you cross the
Jordan to possess.
Then the Lord said to Moses, behold the day's approach when you must die.
Call Joshua and present yourselves in the tabernacle of meeting that I may inaugurate
him.
So Moses and Joshua went and presented themselves in the tabernacle of meeting.
Now the Lord appeared at the tabernacle in a pillar of cloud, and the pillar of cloud
stood above the door of the tabernacle.
And the Lord said to Moses, behold you will rest with your fathers, and these people will
rise and play the harlot with the gods of the foreigners of the land, where they go
to be among them, and they will forsake me and break my covenant which I have made with
them.
Then my anger shall be aroused against them in that day, and I will forsake them, and
I will hide my face from them, and they shall be devoured, and many evils and troubles shall
befall them, so that they will say in that day, have not these evils come upon us because
our God is not among us?
And I will surely hide my face in that day because of all the evil which they have done,
in that they have turned to other gods.
Now therefore write down this song for yourselves, and teach it to the children of Israel.
Put it in their mouth, that this song may be a witness for me against the children of
Israel.
When I have brought them to the land flowing with milk and honey, of which I swore to their
fathers, and they have eaten and filled themselves and grown fat, then they will turn to other
gods and serve them, and they will provoke me and break my covenant.
Then it shall be, when many evils and troubles have come upon them, that this song will testify
against them as a witness, for it will not be forgotten in the mouth of their descendants.
For I know the inclination of their behavior today, even before I have brought them to
the land of which I swore to give them.
Therefore Moses wrote this song the same day and taught it to the children of Israel.
Then he inaugurated Joshua the son of Nun, and said, Be strong and of good courage, for
you shall bring the children of Israel into the land of which I swore to them, and I will
be with you.
So it was, when Moses had completed writing the words of this law in a book, when they
were finished, that Moses commanded the Levites, who bore the ark of the covenant of the Lord,
saying, Take this book of the law and put it beside the ark of the covenant of the Lord
your God, that it may be there as a witness against you.
For I know your rebellion and your stiff neck.
If today, while I am yet alive with you, you have been rebellious against the Lord, then
how much more after my death?
Gather to me all the elders of your tribes and your officers, that I may speak these
words in their hearing and call heaven and earth to witness against them.
For I know that after my death you will become utterly corrupt and turn aside from the way
which I have commanded you, and evil will befall you in the latter days, because you
will do evil in the sight of the Lord, to provoke him to anger through the work of your
hands.
Then Moses spoke in the hearing of all the assembly of Israel the words of this song
until they were ended.
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.