Free Daily Bible Study Podcast

Deuteronomy 25 | Psalm 116 | Isaiah 52 | Revelation 22

From Deuteronomy 25, we can make an observation that will help us overcome a major cultural barrier we have in reading and understanding the Bible. To put it simply, our own culture has an obsession with sex that the people we read about in the Bible did not necessarily share. This isn’t to say that lust was never a problem for the biblical figures. We can read many stories in the Bible where lust was the driving force behind sin that had devastating consequences for the people of God.

But on the other hand, we have a tendency to read far too much sex into the Bible. Much of what the Bible teaches about sexuality has more to do with begetting children than the act of sex itself, because child-bearing was far more important in ancient cultures than for us today. Today, people put off marriage to later in their lives than at any point in history (age 27 for women and age 29 for men),1 and we have fewer children than in the past (2013 marked the lowest U.S. birthrate ever recorded).2 Our culture is preoccupied with sex but relatively uninterested in marriage and child-bearing.

For ancient peoples, however, marriage and child-bearing were everything. Your children were crucial for helping you with all the work necessary for survival. Your children would carry on your name (Deut. 25:7), and your children would inherit your property. Even your social standing depended on your children.

This helps us understand why God would command a man to marry his dead brother’s wife (Deut. 25:5–10). If the dead man had no son, his brother would be able to help the woman conceive a son who could carry on the dead man’s name. This was an important provision for that social structure, and the widow could spit in the face of her brother-in-law (an act of shame) if he refused to do his duty (Deut. 25:8–10).

Also, this is why a woman who tried to stop someone from beating her husband by grabbing the other man’s testicles was to have her hand cut off (Deut. 25:11–12). Damaging a man’s reproductive capabilities was considered catastrophic.

This also helps us understand God’s covenant promises. The sign of circumcision was a mark on the male reproductive organ that served as a perpetual reminder that God had promised to be God not only to Abraham but also to Abraham’s children, throughout their generations (Gen. 17:1–14). And ultimately, Israel’s hope was that their child-bearing would eventually lead to the promised offspring of the woman who would crush the head of the serpent (Gen. 3:15), restoring the original goodness of creation that was lost at the fall.

Today, if you are Christ’s, then you are Abraham’s offspring, and you stand to inherit the whole world, according to promise (Gal. 3:29).

1 “Knot Yet: The Benefits and Costs of Delayed Marriage in America,” 2013 by the National Marriage Project at the University of Virginia, the National Campaign to Prevent Teen and Unplanned Pregnancy, and the Relate Institute. <http://twentysomethingmarriage.org/>

2 Joyce A. Martin, Brady E. Hamilton, and Michelle J.K. Osterman, “Births in the United States, 2013,” NCHS Data Brief (Number 175, December 2014), <http://www.cdc.gov/nchs/data/databriefs/db175.htm>

Scripture quotations are from The Holy Bible, English Standard Version copyright © 2001 by Crossway Bibles, a division of Good News Publishers. Used by permission. All rights reserved.

Deuteronomy 24 | Psalms 114–115 | Isaiah 51 | Revelation 21

Deuteronomy 24 contains several laws that the section headings in the ESV classify as “miscellaneous.” Quite a few of these laws (though not all in this section) regulate how Israel should treat the poor in their midst. We would classify these laws as civil laws (see the meditation on Deuteronomy 22), governing the day-to-day living of Israel. So, while Christians aren’t bound to the letter of these laws, we nevertheless see in them a picture of what kind of “general equity” we should seek in our own societies. Today, we’ll look at four of these laws.

In Deuteronomy 24:6, Moses forbids taking a mill or an upper millstone as collateral for a loan. The reason was simple: without the mill or the upper millstone, a person would have no way of earning income to pay his loan back. This is a prohibition against all kinds of predatory loans that the poor have no way of repaying. In Israel, loans were never given as a way for the lender to build up power but only to help fellow Israelites who needed it.

The laws in Deuteronomy 24:10–13 mandate that creditors must respect the dignity of those to whom they have loaned. They may not barge into the houses of people who owe them money, and if a person is so poor that he only had his cloak to pledge, the creditor may not keep the cloak overnight, forcing the poor person to sleep without a covering. Again, lending arrangements that would humiliate the poor were forbidden in Israel.

Deuteronomy 24:14–15 requires that wages must be given to hired servants on the same day as the work is performed, before the sun sets. This is a good example of where keeping the letter of the law in our modern context probably isn’t usually necessary. On the other hand, we learn here that it is an abomination in the sight of Yahweh to withhold payment from the poorest day workers in our midst who live from their day-to-day wages. Accordingly, in James 5:1–6, we read that all who defraud the poor of their wages are fattening themselves for the day of slaughter when Jesus returns to judge the wicked.

Finally, in Deuteronomy 24:19–22, Moses explains one of the major ways that Israel would feed the poor in their midst. Farmers would avoid harvesting every last sheaf, olive, or grape but would leave leftovers for the poor to come and glean for themselves, which is what Ruth does to support her mother-in-law, Naomi, when she meets Boaz (Ruth 2). This didn’t create a handout system because poor people had to harvest the leftover crops themselves, but it did mandate that the rich share their wealth with the poor.

Do the principles behind these laws challenge the way you treat the poor in your midst?

Scripture quotations are from The Holy Bible, English Standard Version copyright © 2001 by Crossway Bibles, a division of Good News Publishers. Used by permission. All rights reserved.

Deuteronomy 23 | Psalms 112–113 | Isaiah 50 | Revelation 20

Several of the prohibitions in Deuteronomy 23 almost make it seem as though Yahweh is squeamish about the human body. For example, we read that anyone with his testicles crushed or male organ cut off cannot enter into the assembly to worship in the tabernacle of Yahweh (Deut. 23:1). Then, we read that any man with a nocturnal emission must stay outside the camp until evening comes and he bathes with water (Deut. 23:10–11) and that the Israelites were required to bury their excrement outside the camp (Deut. 23:12–14).

We read the reason for this in Deuteronomy 23:14: “Because the LORD your God walks in the midst of your camp, to deliver you and to give up your enemies before you, therefore your camp must be holy, so that he may not see anything indecent among you and turn away from you.” Yahweh’s walking in the midst of the camp literally means, “walks back and forth.”

The first place we saw this specific form of the verb was back in Genesis 3:8: “And they heard the sound of the LORD God walking in the garden in the cool of the day, and the man and his wife hid themselves from the presence of the LORD God among the trees of the garden.” Not since Adam and Eve sinned had any humans encountered Yahweh walking back and forth, with the fullness of his free, unrestrained presence in their midst. Since bodily emissions and even normal human excrement would pollute the camp, Yahweh could not allow it to dwell in Israel’s camp as he recreated the Garden of Eden to dwell in the midst of his people again. It seems that sin has even tainted the biological functions of human beings, so that what had been clean for Adam and Eve now defiles Yahweh’s presence. Yahweh isn’t squeamish; rather, he is holy.

Inside the tabernacle, the requirements were even more strict. There, no kind of deformity was allowed at all, so that even if people whose reproductive organs were damaged could dwell inside the camp, they were not allowed to enter into the tabernacle (Deut. 23:1). Furthermore, some foreigners were not allowed to worship at the tabernacle with the assembly of Israel at all (Deut. 23:2–8).

But these provisions were always temporary in nature. In Isaiah 56:1–8, we find Yahweh announcing specifically that he would make foreigners and eunuchs (males with damaged/amputated reproductive organs) “joyful in my house of prayer,” and that “their burnt offerings and their sacrifices will be accepted on my altar” (Isa. 56:7). It isn’t that God came to tolerate uncleanness—nothing unclean will ever enter into the New Jerusalem (Rev. 21:27)—but something much better: God sent his Son into the world to cleanse defiled, broken people with his own blood and righteousness.

Scripture quotations are from The Holy Bible, English Standard Version copyright © 2001 by Crossway Bibles, a division of Good News Publishers. Used by permission. All rights reserved.

Deuteronomy 22 | Psalms 110–111 | Isaiah 49 | Revelation 19

As we read through the laws given to Israel that governed what to do with a lost ox (Deut. 22:1–4) or what specifications were required for building a roof on your house (Deut. 22:8), it would be helpful for us to talk about how Christians have traditionally approached Old Testament law. It’s clear that different laws had different purposes, and while some of those laws are still fully applicable today, others are not.

Christians have historically divided the Old Testament laws into three categories: moral, civil, and ceremonial. The moral laws would include the Ten Commandments; the ceremonial laws regulated the worship within Israel; and the civil laws governed day-to-day living in Israel. Today, moral laws are still binding, since Jesus did not come to abolish the moral law (Matt. 5:17–20).

But on the other hand, the New Testament also teaches that Jesus did abolish the ceremonial aspects of the law, because while Old Testament worship was good, it was also incomplete. Its role was to point forward to Jesus, our true temple (John 2:18–22), our great high priest (Heb. 8:1–13), and our perfect sacrifice (Heb. 10:1–18). The ceremonial law is still relevant since it teaches us about Jesus and his sacrifice, but the ceremonial law is no longer binding in the way it was for ancient Israel now that Jesus has offered himself once and for all time (Heb. 10:12–14).

So, what about the civil laws? Are we bound by God’s law to build parapets—that is, barriers to keep people from falling off of our rooftops? The Westminster Confession of Faith has a helpful principle for understanding the civil laws of Israel, that they “expired together with the State of that people [Israel]; not obliging any other [people] now, further than the general equity thereof may require” (WCF 19.4).

What this means is that we are not necessarily required to build parapets on the roof of our houses, but the “general equity” of human society would suggest that we should keep the general spirit of the law’s goal, which was to keep people from harming themselves on our property. We don’t typically walk around on our roofs today, so parapets are probably unnecessary, but the “general equity” of this provision might mean that we make sure children can’t get into pools unsupervised or that we keep our sidewalks free from dangerous, slippery ice when it snows.

But recognizing these divisions in the law also help keep us from functionally abolishing all the law by writing it off as the Old Testament. Sexual immorality, for example (Deut. 22:13–30), is not suddenly permissible under the new covenant because the prohibitions against it are part of the moral law, which is still binding today.

What “general equity” principles from Deuteronomy 22 should change some aspect of your day-to-day living?

Scripture quotations are from The Holy Bible, English Standard Version copyright © 2001 by Crossway Bibles, a division of Good News Publishers. Used by permission. All rights reserved.

Deuteronomy 21 | Psalms 108–109 | Isaiah 48 | Revelation 18

Deuteronomy 21:22–23 contains critical background information for understanding Jesus’ crucifixion. Here, we see that the cross was not a last-minute mistake but that Yahweh had been preparing to execute his own Son on a tree from the beginning. Deuteronomy 21 helps us better understand the crucifixion of Christ in three ways.

First, hanging on a tree was only for the most heinous of crimes. It is clear from these verses that not all death penalties required hanging on a tree—only those who had committed an unusually horrific crime should be hanged out on display in the sight of the whole nation. There were crimes that required the death penalty, but the phrase “and you hang him on a tree” (Deut. 21:22) was an extra humiliation that could be added to the punishment for a capital crime.

Second, the reason that hanging on a tree was a punishment reserved for the worst crimes is that anyone hanged on a tree was considered to be cursed by God (Deut. 21:23). There was an extra level of shame heaped upon a criminal whose body was hoisted up on the tree, visible for all to see, signifying that God’s wrath had turned against him.

Third, this curse was so powerful that it would infect the whole land if the cursed man was not removed and buried before nightfall (Deut. 21:23). We are not talking about God’s mild displeasure—we are talking about a deep curse that would overturn creation itself if Israel did not take specific steps to avoid defiling the land that God was giving them as an inheritance.

For many Jews, this was a key point of evidence against the claims that Jesus was the Messiah—how could a man who had been crucified on a tree be the chosen servant of God? The Apostle Paul, however, points to this provision from the law as evidence for believing on Christ in Galatians 3:13, writing that Christ redeemed us from the curse of the law by becoming a curse for us—for it is written, ‘Cursed is everyone who is hanged on a tree.’”

Where we all were under the curse of the law—and where even creation had become infected by this curse (Rom. 8:18–25)—Jesus Christ became a curse for us by dying on a tree in our place. He did this, Paul explains, to redeem us from the curse of the law and to bring the blessing of Abraham to us Gentiles, so that we might receive the promised Spirit through faith (Gal 3:13–14). While all of this theology was established in Deuteronomy, its significance did not become clear until Jesus came.

Understand—you are the criminal who deserves to hang cursed on the tree. Praise God today for his mercy in handing his own Son over to your curse.

Scripture quotations are from The Holy Bible, English Standard Version copyright © 2001 by Crossway Bibles, a division of Good News Publishers. Used by permission. All rights reserved.

Deuteronomy 20 | Psalm 107 | Isaiah 47 | Revelation 17

In Luke 14:15–24, Jesus tells the Parable of the Great Banquet. In the story, a man prepares a great feast and invites many to come. Strangely, when the man’s servant personally delivers the invitations, each person has a different excuse about why he can’t come. One bought a new field (Luke 14:18), another bought five yoke of oxen (Luke 14:19), and a third recently married a new wife (Luke 14:20). Each of them declines the invitation, one after another, and naturally, the host is furious: “For I tell you, none of those men who were invited shall taste my banquet” (Luke 14:24).

But when we read Deuteronomy 20, we learn that Jesus wasn’t making those excuses up on the spot as he told the story. In fact, he was listing specific, legitimate excuses that would exempt a man from going to war. If you had a new house (i.e., property, the equivalent of oxen), you were excused (Deut. 19:20). If you had planted a new vineyard (i.e., field), you were excused (Deut. 20:6). And, if you had betrothed a wife but not taken her, you were also excused (Deut. 20:7).

So, what’s the connection between Jesus’ banquet and ancient Israelite warfare? It’s critical to understand that Israel went to war only for one purpose: claiming/defending their inheritance, the Promised Land. They marched into the Promise Land to lay hold to what God had promised them, and they fought off other peoples who tried to take the Promised Land away from them or to subjugate them within the land.

In the New Testament, though, the inheritance of God’s people is no longer a small sliver of land in the Middle East. Instead, the New Testament people of God get a much better inheritance: Christ himself, along with all of creation. Paul writes in Ephesians 1:11, “In him we have obtained an inheritance”; Christ himself is our inheritance. Then, in Romans 8:15–17, Paul explains that by the Spirit of adoption (through whom we cry, “Abba! Father!”) we have been made children of God, “and if children, then heirs—heirs of God and fellow heirs with Christ.” Our inheritance is that we gain Christ himself, and that we inherit the whole world as a fellow heir with Christ.

Now that Jesus has come, the stakes are raised and there are no more excuses. Even the legitimate escape clauses of the law no longer apply here. No one who turns down an offer of Christ will taste God’s banquet. Either we repent from our sins and believe upon Jesus for entering into the eternal banquet or, for whatever underlying reason, we choose something else—even, perhaps, an otherwise good and proper thing to choose—and we miss the feast entirely.

So, the question is this: Do you want to taste God’s banquet or not?

Scripture quotations are from The Holy Bible, English Standard Version copyright © 2001 by Crossway Bibles, a division of Good News Publishers. Used by permission. All rights reserved.

Deuteronomy 19 | Psalm 106 | Isaiah 46 | Revelation 16

In Deuteronomy 19, Moses turns his attention to the civil laws that were written to govern daily life in Israel. The three laws in Deuteronomy 19 underscore three important principles for understanding God’s idea of civil justice.

The first law, regarding the cities of refuge, demonstrates the need for fair treatment of the accused. The people who could flee to the cities of refuge were those who had actually done something that caused the death of someone else. The specific example given in Deuteronomy 19:5—an axe head slipping from the handle and killing someone accidentally—does not suggest any kind of malice or even negligence. Instead, the cities of refuge were meant to protect those who kill someone else purely by accident.

But on the other hand, no murderer was allowed to use the cities of refuge to flee from justice (Deut. 19:11–13). If any tried, the elders of the murderer’s home city would forcibly return the murderer to be killed by the one in charge of avenging the blood of the person who had been murdered (Deut. 19:11–12). Justice means both that the innocent should be protected and that the guilty should be punished. To err on either side means to do away with real justice.

Second, Moses warns the people not to move any property boundary landmarks for the purpose of stealing someone else’s land (Deut. 19:14). Beyond the obvious prohibition against stealing, the theological significance of the Promised Land made moving property boundaries a severe crime of infringing upon someone else’s God-given inheritance. The Promised Land was bound up in the covenant promises that Yahweh made to Abram (cf. Gen. 12:7, 15:7–21, 17:8). This was not merely theft but a violation of Yahweh’s covenant itself.

Third, the laws concerning witnesses in Deuteronomy 19:15–21 establish a minimum threshold of witnesses necessary for convicting someone of a crime (Deut. 19:15). More than that, this section of the law prescribes that false witnesses should be punished at the same level as what the punishment would have been if their lies had successfully convicted the innocent person they had accused (Deut. 19:16–21). Moses insists that Israel should punish such false witnesses without pity.

Together, these three laws demonstrate that Yahweh is deeply concerned with the conduct of his people in their day-to-day lives. Many gods of various pagan religions could be appeased with the right blend of sacrifices, prayers, and offerings, allowing the worshipers to continue living the rest of their lives however they chose. Obedience to Yahweh, on the other hand, affects the way we live our entire lives, and not just what we do on Sunday.

In what areas of your day-to-day life might Yahweh’s desire for justice change the way you conduct yourself?

Scripture quotations are from The Holy Bible, English Standard Version copyright © 2001 by Crossway Bibles, a division of Good News Publishers. Used by permission. All rights reserved.

Deuteronomy 18 | Psalm 105 | Isaiah 45 | Revelation 15

Exodus, Leviticus, Numbers, and Deuteronomy are filled with regulations for the Levitical priests in Israel, and in yesterday’s reading from Deuteronomy 17, Moses laid out the requirements for the kings of Israel. In Deuteronomy 18, Moses gives instruction for the last of the three major Old Testament offices: the prophets. There are two important provisions in this passage that we will look at today.

First, Yahweh gave objective criteria by which Israel could evaluate their prophets: under no circumstances should a prophet ever speak in the name of another god (Deut. 18:20), and prophets who claimed to speak in the name of Yahweh would be judged on the basis of whether or not what they said actually came to pass (Deut. 18:21–22). The punishment for failure at either of these two points was death (Deut. 18:20).

It’s fascinating to see how these requirements are tweaked in the New Testament. There, all prophecy is judged by what the preacher says about Jesus. In order to be accepted, the teaching must confess Jesus Christ’s full deity (1 John 2:18–27), his full humanity (1 John 4:1–6), his absolute lordship (1 Cor. 12:3), and his gospel of free grace (Gal. 1:6–9). Notice that the two criteria for Old Testament prophets have merged into a single criterion in the New Testament: all teaching must proclaim the truth of the person and work of the Lord Jesus Christ.

Second, we read twice in Deuteronomy 18 that a new prophet will be like Moses (Deut. 18:15, 18). We know that this prophet will be an Israelite, since he will be “raised up from among [Israel’s] brothers” (Deut. 18:18), and we know that this prophet will have (at least) the same level of authority and influence as Moses, speaking directly the words of Yahweh with the authority of Yahweh behind him.

And when we get to the gospels, we find that Jesus made no secret of the fact that he was that prophet. When Jesus gave the Sermon on the Mount, he went up on a mountain and taught the law to God’s people, just like Moses had done at Mount Sinai, except that Jesus taught “as one who had authority” (Matt. 7:29)—that is, not as someone who merely passed along the law that he had received from Yahweh, but as the lawgiver himself.

This is what the author of Hebrews meant in the opening lines of his letter: “Long ago, at many times and in many ways, God spoke to our fathers by the prophets, but in these last days he has spoken to us by his Son…” (Heb. 1:1–2). No longer does God reveal himself a little bit at a time, prophet by prophet—in Jesus, God revealed himself fully.

Yahweh has raised up his prophet like Moses—therefore, it is to Jesus we must listen.

Scripture quotations are from The Holy Bible, English Standard Version copyright © 2001 by Crossway Bibles, a division of Good News Publishers. Used by permission. All rights reserved.

Deuteronomy 17 | Psalm 104 | Isaiah 44 | Revelation 14

Deuteronomy 17 serves as the standard against which we should judge the kings of Israel and Judah as we read about them in the books of Samuel, Kings, and Chronicles. In this passage, we find three details that set up the storylines of what the kings of Israel and Judah will eventually become.

First, it seems it had always been Yahweh’s plan to give Israel a king. When Israel eventually demands a king, they do so by virtually quoting Deuteronomy 17:14, saying to the prophet Samuel, “Now appoint for us a king to judge us like all the nations” (1 Sam. 8:5). But when that happens, Yahweh recognizes their request as a rejection of his kingship over them (1 Sam. 8:7). So, does Yahweh want for Israel to have a king or not?

In fact, we often spoil God’s good gifts in how we pursue them. God intends to give us something for our good, but we demand it for the wrong reasons, or to the wrong degree, or in the wrong way. Yahweh wanted Israel to have a king, but in their hearts they took that good gift and twisted it in a way they hoped would give them a measure of independence from God, while making themselves respectable in the eyes of the other nations. This was the wrong motivation for seeking a good gift.

Second, the restrictions against acquiring too many horses, wives, and silver and gold almost seem to have been written with Solomon in mind. In fact, Solomon’s great riches and many foreign wives accomplished exactly what Moses warns against here: his heart ended up turning away from Yahweh (1 Kings 11:4), and Solomon even went so far as to build high places and altars for his wives to worship their gods (1 Kings 11:7–8).

Third, there is some question about how well the kings of Israel and Judah kept the requirement that they should make for themselves a copy of the law to read all the days of their lives (Deut. 17:18–20). There were kings who didn’t care at all about God’s law, but we don’t read much about whether even the good kings explicitly obeyed this mandate. The only story we have along these lines is when King Josiah tears his clothes and immediately institutes national reforms after the priests discovered the Book of the Law and read from it to Josiah for the first time in many years (2 Chron. 34:8–33).

As we read the stories of Israel’s kings, it will become clear that not even the greatest kings satisfied these standards. Ultimately, Yahweh would need to send his own king—a king humble enough to divest himself freely of all his wealth to make his people rich, and a king who loved God’s law enough to fulfill every word of it, even to the point of death.

Scripture quotations are from The Holy Bible, English Standard Version copyright © 2001 by Crossway Bibles, a division of Good News Publishers. Used by permission. All rights reserved.

Deuteronomy 16 | Psalm 103 | Isaiah 43 | Revelation 13

In Deuteronomy 16, Moses names the three festivals that all Israelite males were expected to attend: Passover, the Feast of Weeks (Pentecost), and the Feast of Booths. As we saw in our meditation on Deuteronomy 14, the people who lived too far away to travel to the place where Yahweh chose were granted an exception, but for the most part traveling to the three festivals was a regular part of what it meant to be a part of Yahweh’s covenant people.

Technically, these aren’t the only feasts Israel observed. Back in Leviticus 23, Yahweh commands that Israel also observe the Feast of Unleavened Bread (Lev. 23:6), the Feast of Firstfruits (Lev. 23:9–14), the Feast of Trumpets (Lev. 23:23–25), and the Day of Atonement (Lev. 23:26–32). These other festivals, however, were all connected to one of the three main festivals.

Through this calendar, Yahweh was structuring both the time and the space of his people. These festivals shaped the passage of time for Israel in a deeper way than even the academic calendar or sports seasons or “the holidays” shape our own lives. They were highly anticipated events filled with worship and sacrifice and singing—the high points of the whole year.

But notice also the insistence that the people should come to “the place that the LORD will choose, to make his name dwell there” (Deut. 16:2; cf. Deut. 16:6, 11, 15, 16)—that is, to establish a permanent tabernacle for his presence there. This isn’t the first chapter in which we have seen a growing emphasis on the place of Yahweh’s choosing. Beginning in Deuteronomy 12, Moses has begun to repeat regularly that Yahweh would eventually make for himself a permanent dwelling place for his name (Deut. 12:11, 14, 18, 21, 26; 14:23, 24, 25; 15:20). The roaming tabernacle was an important first step in establishing God’s presence with his people, but it wasn’t sufficient.

Eventually, Yahweh would set a more permanent temple in Jerusalem and fill the temple with his glory (1 Kings 8:10–11). Still, even Solomon’s temple wasn’t entirely permanent. After Judah fell into greater and greater sin, the prophet Ezekiel saw a vision of Yahweh’s glory departing from the temple (Ezek. 10; 11:14–25), and we never read anything suggesting that Yahweh’s glory ever returned.

Instead, we read in the New Testament about the man who dwelt (lit. “tabernacled”; John 1:14) among us, who claimed that his body was the temple (John 2:19–22). Then, we read that we are God’s temple (1 Cor. 3:16–17), built up as a dwelling place for God’s Spirit (Eph. 2:19–22). Week by week, as we gather together in the name of Jesus on the Lord’s Day, we are the collective dwelling place of God. “Therefore let us celebrate the festival!” (1 Cor. 5:8).

Scripture quotations are from The Holy Bible, English Standard Version copyright © 2001 by Crossway Bibles, a division of Good News Publishers. Used by permission. All rights reserved.