The “Deuteronomy 32 Worldview” is obviously covered this week. I spent a couple of years reading and listening to Dr. Michael Heiser. He was great at opening up the supernatural worldview of the Old Testament to me. We don’t realize that the heavenly realm is occupied by many different beings, beings who exercise influence in our world. We would do well to learn about these things from God’s holy scriptures. We aren’t meant to know everything about that realm, but we are told some things. It would be wrong to act as though we know nothing.

After today, we will have read the five books of Moses, the Torah, the Pentateuch, in their entirety. These are the backbone of the rest of the bible. We have already covered so much! Let’s keep going with it.

Tomorrow is a catch-up day. So catch up!

Deuteronomy 32

Give ear, O heavens, and I will speak; hear, O earth, the words of my mouth. Let my teaching fall like rain and my speech settle like dew, like gentle rain on new grass, like showers on tender plants. For I will proclaim the name of the LORD. Ascribe greatness to our God! He is the Rock, His work is perfect; all His ways are just. A God of faithfulness without injustice, righteous and upright is He. His people have acted corruptly toward Him; the spot on them is not that of His children, but of a perverse and crooked generation. Is this how you repay the LORD, O foolish and senseless people? Is He not your Father and Creator? Has He not made you and established you? Remember the days of old; consider the years long past. Ask your father, and he will tell you, your elders, and they will inform you. When the Most High gave the nations their inheritance, when He divided the sons of man, He set the boundaries of the peoples according to the number of the sons of God. But the LORD’s portion is His people, Jacob His allotted inheritance. He found him in a desert land, in a barren, howling wilderness; He surrounded him, He instructed him, He guarded him as the apple  of His eye. As an eagle stirs up its nest and hovers over its young, He spread His wings to catch them and carried them on His pinions. The LORD alone led him, and no foreign god was with him. He made him ride on the heights of the land and fed him the produce of the field. He nourished him with honey from the rock and oil from the flinty crag, with curds from the herd and milk from the flock, with the fat of lambs, with rams from Bashan, and goats, with the choicest grains of wheat. From the juice of the finest grapes you drank the wine. But Jeshurun  grew fat and kicked— becoming fat, bloated, and gorged. He abandoned the God who made him and scorned the Rock of his salvation. They provoked His jealousy with foreign gods; they enraged Him with abominations. They sacrificed to demons, not to God, to gods they had not known, to newly arrived gods, which your fathers did not fear. You ignored the Rock who brought you forth; you forgot the God who gave you birth. When the LORD saw this, He rejected them, provoked to anger by His sons and daughters. He said: “I will hide My face from them; I will see what will be their end. For they are a perverse generation— children of unfaithfulness. They have provoked My jealousy by that which is not God; they have enraged Me with their worthless idols. So I will make them jealous by those who are not a people; I will make them angry by a nation without understanding. For a fire has been kindled by My anger, and it burns to the depths of Sheol; it consumes the earth and its produce, and scorches the foundations of the mountains. I will heap disasters upon them; I will spend My arrows against them. They will be wasted from hunger and ravaged by pestilence and bitter plague; I will send the fangs of wild beasts against them, with the venom of vipers that slither in the dust. Outside, the sword will take their children, and inside, terror will strike the young man and the young woman, the infant and the gray-haired man. I would have said that I would cut them to pieces and blot out their memory from mankind, if I had not dreaded the taunt of the enemy, lest their adversaries misunderstand and say: ‘Our own hand has prevailed; it was not the LORD who did all this.’ ” Israel is a nation devoid of counsel, with no understanding among them. If only they were wise, they would understand it; they would comprehend their fate. How could one man pursue a thousand, or two put ten thousand to flight, unless their Rock had sold them, unless the LORD had given them up? For their rock is not like our Rock, even our enemies concede. But their vine is from the vine of Sodom and from the fields of Gomorrah. Their grapes are poisonous; their clusters are bitter. Their wine is the venom of serpents, the deadly poison of cobras. “Have I not stored up these things, sealed up within My vaults? Vengeance is Mine; I will repay. In due time their foot will slip; for their day of disaster is near, and their doom is coming quickly.” For the LORD will vindicate His people  and have compassion on His servants when He sees that their strength is gone and no one remains, slave or free. He will say: “Where are their gods, the rock in which they took refuge, which ate the fat of their sacrifices and drank the wine of their drink offerings? Let them rise up and help you; let them give you shelter! See now that I am He; there is no God besides Me. I bring death and I give life; I wound and I heal, and there is no one who can deliver from My hand. For I lift up My hand to heaven and declare: As surely as I live forever, when I sharpen My flashing sword, and My hand grasps it in judgment, I will take vengeance on My adversaries and repay those who hate Me. I will make My arrows drunk with blood, while My sword devours flesh— the blood of the slain and captives, the heads of the enemy leaders.” Rejoice, O heavens, with Him, and let all God’s angels worship Him.  Rejoice, O nations, with His people; for He will avenge the blood of His children. He will take vengeance on His adversaries and repay those who hate Him; He will cleanse His land and His people. 

Then Moses came with Joshua  son of Nun and recited all the words of this song in the hearing of the people. When Moses had finished reciting all these words to all Israel, 

he said to them, “Take to heart all these words I testify among you today, so that you may command your children to carefully follow all the words of this law. 

For they are not idle words to you, because they are your life, and by them you will live long in the land that you are crossing the Jordan to possess.” 

On that same day the LORD said to Moses, 

“Go up into the Abarim Range to Mount Nebo, in the land of Moab across from Jericho, and view the land of Canaan, which I am giving to the Israelites as their own possession. 

And there on the mountain that you climb, you will die and be gathered to your people, just as your brother Aaron died on Mount Hor and was gathered to his people. 

For at the waters of Meribah-kadesh in the Wilderness of Zin, both of you broke faith with Me among the Israelites by failing to treat Me as holy in their presence. 

Although you shall see from a distance the land that I am giving the Israelites, you shall not enter it.”

Deuteronomy 33

This is the blessing that Moses the man of God pronounced upon the Israelites before his death. He said: 

“The LORD came from Sinai 

and dawned upon us  from Seir; 

He shone forth from Mount Paran 

and came with myriads of holy ones, 

with flaming fire at His right hand. 

Surely You love the people; 

all the holy ones are in Your hand, 

and they sit down at Your feet; 

each receives Your words— 

the law that Moses gave us, 

the possession of the assembly of Jacob. 

So the LORD became King in Jeshurun  

when the leaders of the people gathered, 

when the tribes of Israel came together. 

Let Reuben live and not die, 

nor  his men be few.” 

And concerning Judah he said: 

“O LORD, hear the cry of Judah 

and bring him to his people. 

With his own hands he defends his cause, 

but may You be a help against his foes.” 

Concerning Levi he said: 

“Give Your Thummim to Levi 

and Your Urim to Your godly one, 

whom You tested at Massah  

and contested at the waters of Meribah. 

He said of his father and mother, 

‘I do not consider them.’ 

He disregarded his brothers 

and did not know his own sons, 

for he kept  Your word 

and maintained Your covenant. 

He will teach Your ordinances to Jacob 

and Your law to Israel; 

he will set incense before You 

and whole burnt offerings on Your altar. 

Bless his substance, O LORD, 

and accept the work of his hands. 

Smash the loins of those who rise against him, 

and of his foes so they can rise no more.” 

Concerning Benjamin he said: 

“May the beloved of the LORD 

rest secure in Him; 

God shields  him all day long, 

and upon His shoulders he rests.” 

Concerning Joseph he said: 

“May his land be blessed by the LORD 

with the precious dew from heaven above 

and the deep waters that lie beneath, 

with the bountiful harvest from the sun 

and the abundant yield of the seasons, 

with the best of the ancient mountains 

and the bounty of the everlasting hills, 

with the choice gifts of the land and everything in it, 

and with the favor of Him who dwelt in the burning bush. 

May these rest on the head of Joseph 

and crown the brow of the prince of his brothers. 

His majesty is like a firstborn bull, 

and his horns are like those of a wild ox. 

With them he will gore the nations, 

even to the ends of the earth. 

Such are the myriads of Ephraim, 

and such are the thousands of Manasseh.” 

Concerning Zebulun he said: 

“Rejoice, Zebulun, in your journeys, 

and Issachar, in your tents. 

They will call the peoples to a mountain; 

there they will offer sacrifices of righteousness. 

For they will feast on the abundance of the seas 

and the hidden treasures of the sand.” 

Concerning Gad he said: 

“Blessed is he who enlarges 

the domain of Gad! 

He lies down like a lion 

and tears off an arm or a head. 

He chose the best land for himself, 

because a ruler’s portion was reserved for him there. 

He came with the leaders of the people; 

he administered the LORD’s justice 

and His ordinances for Israel.” 

Concerning Dan he said: 

“Dan is a lion’s cub, 

leaping out of Bashan.” 

Concerning Naphtali he said: 

“Naphtali is abounding with favor, 

full of the blessing of the LORD; 

he shall take possession 

of the sea  and the south.” 

And concerning Asher he said: 

“May Asher be the most blessed of sons; 

may he be the most favored among his brothers 

and dip his foot in oil. 

May the bolts of your gate be iron and bronze, 

and may your strength match your days.” 

“There is none like the God of Jeshurun, 

who rides the heavens to your aid, 

and the clouds in His majesty. 

The eternal God is your dwelling place, 

and underneath are the everlasting arms. 

He drives out the enemy before you, 

giving the command, ‘Destroy him!’ 

So Israel dwells securely; 

the fountain of Jacob lives untroubled 

in a land of grain and new wine, 

where even the heavens drip with dew. 

Blessed are you, O Israel! 

Who is like you, a people saved by the LORD? 

He is the shield that protects you, 

the sword in which you boast. 

Your enemies will cower before you, 

and you shall trample their high places.”

Deuteronomy 34

Then Moses went up from the plains of Moab to Mount Nebo, to the top of Pisgah, which faces Jericho. And the LORD showed him the whole land—from Gilead as far as Dan, 

all of Naphtali, the land of Ephraim and Manasseh, all the land of Judah as far as the Western Sea, the Negev, and the region from the Valley of Jericho (the City of Palms) all the way to Zoar. 

And the LORD said to him, “This is the land that I swore to give Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob when I said, ‘I will give it to your descendants.’ I have let you see it with your own eyes, but you will not cross into it.” 

So Moses the servant of the LORD died there in the land of Moab, as the LORD had said. 

And He buried him  in a valley in the land of Moab facing Beth-peor, and no one to this day knows the location of his grave. 

Moses was a hundred and twenty years old when he died, yet his eyes were not weak, and his vitality had not diminished. 

The Israelites grieved for Moses in the plains of Moab thirty days, until the time of weeping and mourning for Moses came to an end. 

Now Joshua son of Nun was filled with the spirit of wisdom because Moses had laid his hands on him. So the Israelites obeyed him and did as the LORD had commanded Moses. 

Since that time, no prophet has risen in Israel like Moses, whom the LORD knew face to face— 

no prophet who did all the signs and wonders that the LORD sent Moses to do in the land of Egypt to Pharaoh and to all his officials and all his land, 

and no prophet who performed all the mighty acts of power and awesome deeds  that Moses did in the sight of all Israel.

Hebrews 3

Therefore, holy brothers, who share in the heavenly calling, set your focus on Jesus, the apostle and high priest whom we confess. He was faithful to the One who appointed Him, just as Moses was faithful in all God’s house. 

For Jesus has been counted worthy of greater glory than Moses, just as the builder of a house has greater honor than the house itself. 

And every house is built by someone, but God is the builder of everything. 

Now Moses was faithful as a servant in all God’s house, testifying to what would be spoken later. 

But Christ is faithful as the Son over God’s house. And we are His house, if we hold firmly  to our confidence and the hope of which we boast. 

Therefore, as the Holy Spirit says: 

“Today, if you hear His voice, do not harden your hearts, as you did in the rebellion, in the day of testing in the wilderness, where your fathers tested and tried Me, and for forty years saw My works. Therefore I was angry with that generation, and I said, ‘Their hearts are always going astray, and they have not known My ways.’ So I swore on oath in My anger, ‘They shall never enter My rest.’ ” 

See to it, brothers, that none of you has a wicked heart of unbelief that turns away from the living God. 

But exhort one another daily, as long as it is called today, so that none of you may be hardened by sin’s deceitfulness. 

We have come to share in Christ if we hold firmly to the end the assurance we had at first. As it has been said: 

“Today, if you hear His voice, do not harden your hearts, as you did in the rebellion.” 

For who were the ones who heard and rebelled? Were they not all those Moses led out of Egypt? 

And with whom was God angry for forty years? Was it not with those who sinned, whose bodies fell in the wilderness? 

And to whom did He swear that they would never enter His rest? Was it not to those who disobeyed? So we see that it was because of their unbelief that they were unable to enter.

Psalm 95

Come, let us sing for joy to the LORD; let us shout to the Rock of our salvation! Let us enter His presence with thanksgiving; let us make a joyful noise to Him in song. 

For the LORD is a great God, a great King above all gods. In His hand are the depths of the earth, and the mountain peaks belong to Him. The sea is His, for He made it, and His hands formed the dry land. 

O come, let us worship and bow down; let us kneel before the LORD our Maker. For He is our God, and we are the people of His pasture, the sheep under His care. 

Today, if you hear His voice, do not harden your hearts as you did at Meribah, in the day at Massah in the wilderness, where your fathers tested and tried Me, though they had seen My work. For forty years I was angry with that generation, and I said, “They are a people whose hearts go astray, and they have not known My ways.” So I swore on oath in My anger, “They shall never enter My rest.”

Despite the fact that this segment covers the crucifixion of Christ, it isn’t quite as dark as yesterday. Rather, light and dark seem pretty evenly balanced today. Deuteronomy reminds us that there are conditions to covenant faithfulness with God. Blessings and curses result from how we live in response to God’s good care of us. The gospel account today reminds us of what our God has done to save us from ourselves. Few know that the words he utters from the cross are from Psalm 22, which we read today. We also read from Hebrews 5, which explains how the sacrifice of Christ on the cross atones for our sins vicariously. It is a good set of readings.

We live in a culture of ease and convenience. Many are just not willing to do much reading. Even fewer are really willing to put the energy into understanding what they read. A recent report came out, showing that students at some of America’s most elite academic institutions are increasingly unable to read books. They are failing. Our culture is rotting from the inside. If we cannot find it in ourselves to read any book, well, that’s a great way for the evil one to block us off from the only book that truly matters. Read that book. Your soul depends on it.

Deuteronomy 29

These are the words of the covenant that the LORD commanded Moses to make with the Israelites in the land of Moab, in addition to the covenant He had made with them at Horeb. 

Moses summoned all Israel and proclaimed to them, “You have seen with your own eyes everything the LORD did in Egypt to Pharaoh, to all his officials, and to all his land. 

You saw with your own eyes the great trials, and those miraculous signs and wonders. Yet to this day the LORD has not given you a mind to understand, eyes to see, or ears to hear. 

For forty years I led you in the wilderness, yet your clothes and sandals did not wear out. You ate no bread and drank no wine or strong drink, so that you might know that I am the LORD your God. 

When you reached this place, Sihon king of Heshbon and Og king of Bashan came out against us in battle, but we defeated them. 

We took their land and gave it as an inheritance to the Reubenites, the Gadites, and the half-tribe of Manasseh. 

So keep and follow the words of this covenant, that you may prosper in all you do. 

All of you are standing today before the LORD your God—you leaders of tribes, elders, officials, and all the men of Israel, your children and wives, and the foreigners in your camps who cut your wood and draw your water— so that you may enter into the covenant of the LORD your God, which He is making with you today, and into His oath, and so that He may establish you today as His people, and He may be your God as He promised you and as He swore to your fathers, to Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob. 

I am making this covenant and this oath not only with you, but also with those who are standing here with us today in the presence of the LORD our God, as well as with those who are not here today. 

For you yourselves know how we lived in the land of Egypt and how we passed through the nations on the way here. 

You saw the abominations and idols among them made of wood and stone, of silver and gold. 

Make sure there is no man or woman, clan or tribe among you today whose heart turns away from the LORD our God to go and worship the gods of those nations. Make sure there is no root among you that bears such poisonous and bitter fruit, because when such a person hears the words of this oath, he invokes a blessing on himself, saying, ‘I will have peace, even though I walk in the stubbornness of my own heart.’ 

This will bring disaster on the watered land as well as the dry. 

The LORD will never be willing to forgive him. Instead, His anger and jealousy will burn against that man, and every curse written in this book will fall upon him. The LORD will blot out his name from under heaven 

and single him out from all the tribes of Israel for disaster, according to all the curses of the covenant written in this Book of the Law. 

Then the generation to come—your sons who follow you and the foreigner who comes from a distant land—will see the plagues of the land and the sicknesses the LORD has inflicted on it. 

All its soil will be a burning waste of sulfur and salt, unsown and unproductive, with no plant growing on it, just like the destruction of Sodom and Gomorrah, Admah and Zeboiim, which the LORD overthrew in His fierce anger. 

So all the nations will ask, ‘Why has the LORD done such a thing to this land? Why this great outburst of anger?’ 

And the people will answer, ‘It is because they abandoned the covenant of the LORD, the God of their fathers, which He made with them when He brought them out of the land of Egypt. 

They went and served other gods, and they worshiped gods they had not known—gods that the LORD had not given to them. 

Therefore the anger of the LORD burned against this land, and He brought upon it every curse written in this book. 

The LORD uprooted them from their land in His anger, rage, and great wrath, and He cast them into another land, where they are today.’ 

The secret things belong to the LORD our God, but the things revealed belong to us and to our children forever, so that we may follow all the words of this law.

Deuteronomy 30

“When all these things come upon you—the blessings and curses I have set before you—and you call them to mind in all the nations to which the LORD your God has banished you, and when you and your children return to the LORD your God and obey His voice with all your heart and all your soul according to everything I am giving you today, then He will restore you from captivity  and have compassion on you and gather you from all the nations to which the LORD your God has scattered you. 

Even if you have been banished to the farthest horizon, He will gather you and return you from there. 

And the LORD your God will bring you into the land your fathers possessed, and you will take possession of it. He will cause you to prosper and multiply more than your fathers. 

The LORD your God will circumcise your hearts and the hearts of your descendants, and you will love Him with all your heart and with all your soul, so that you may live. 

Then the LORD your God will put all these curses upon your enemies who hate you and persecute you. 

And you will again obey the voice of the LORD and follow all His commandments I am giving you today. 

So the LORD your God will make you abound in all the work of your hands and in the fruit of your womb, the offspring of your livestock, and the produce of your land. Indeed, the LORD will again delight in your goodness, as He delighted in that of your fathers, if you obey the LORD your God by keeping His commandments and statutes that are written in this Book of the Law, and if you turn to Him with all your heart and with all your soul. 

For this commandment I give you today is not too difficult for you or beyond your reach. 

It is not in heaven, that you should need to ask, ‘Who will ascend into heaven  to get it for us and proclaim it, that we may obey it?’ 

And it is not beyond the sea, that you should need to ask, ‘Who will cross the sea  to get it for us and proclaim it, that we may obey it?’ 

But the word is very near you; it is in your mouth and in your heart, so that you may obey it. 

See, I have set before you today life and goodness, as well as death and disaster. 

For I am commanding you today to love the LORD your God, to walk in His ways, and to keep His commandments, statutes, and ordinances, so that you may live and increase, and the LORD your God may bless you in the land that you are entering to possess. 

But if your heart turns away and you do not listen, but are drawn away to bow down to other gods and worship them, 

I declare to you today that you will surely perish; you shall not prolong your days in the land that you are crossing the Jordan to possess. 

I call heaven and earth as witnesses against you today that I have set before you life and death, blessing and cursing. Therefore choose life, so that you and your descendants may live, and that you may love the LORD your God, obey Him, and hold fast to Him. For He is your life, and He will prolong your life in the land that the LORD swore to give to your fathers, to Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob.”

Deuteronomy 31

When Moses had finished speaking  these words to all Israel, 

he said to them, “I am now a hundred and twenty years old; I am no longer able to come and go, and the LORD has said to me, ‘You shall not cross the Jordan.’ 

The LORD your God Himself will cross over ahead of you. He will destroy these nations before you, and you will dispossess them. Joshua will cross ahead of you, as the LORD has said. 

And the LORD will do to them as He did to Sihon and Og, the kings of the Amorites, when He destroyed them along with their land. 

The LORD will deliver them over to you, and you must do to them exactly as I have commanded you. 

Be strong and courageous; do not be afraid or terrified of them, for it is the LORD your God who goes with you; He will never leave you nor forsake you.” 

Then Moses called for Joshua and said to him in the presence of all Israel, “Be strong and courageous, for you will go with this people into the land that the LORD swore to their fathers to give them, and you shall give it to them as an inheritance. 

The LORD Himself goes before you; He will be with you. He will never leave you nor forsake you. Do not be afraid or discouraged.” 

So Moses wrote down this law and gave it to the priests, the sons of Levi, who carried the ark of the covenant of the LORD, and to all the elders of Israel. 

Then Moses commanded them, “At the end of every seven years, at the appointed time in the year of remission of debt, during the Feast of Tabernacles, when all Israel comes before the LORD your God at the place He will choose, you are to read this law in the hearing of all Israel. 

Assemble the people—men, women, children, and the foreigners within your gates—so that they may listen and learn to fear the LORD your God and to follow carefully all the words of this law. 

Then their children who do not know the law will listen and learn to fear the LORD your God, as long as you live in the land that you are crossing the Jordan to possess.” 

Then the LORD said to Moses, “Behold, the time of your death is near. Call Joshua and present yourselves at the Tent of Meeting, so that I may commission him.” 

So Moses and Joshua went and presented themselves at the Tent of Meeting. 

Then the LORD appeared at the tent in a pillar of cloud, and the cloud stood over the entrance to the tent. 

And the LORD said to Moses, “You will soon rest with your fathers, and these people will rise up and prostitute themselves with the foreign gods of the land they are entering. They will forsake Me and break the covenant I have made with them. 

On that day My anger will burn against them, and I will abandon them and hide My face from them, so that they will be consumed, and many troubles and afflictions will befall them. 

On that day they will say, ‘Have not these disasters come upon us because our God is no longer with us?’ 

And on that day I will surely hide My face because of all the evil they have done by turning to other gods. 

Now therefore, write down for yourselves this song and teach it to the Israelites; have them recite it, so that it may be a witness for Me against them. 

When I have brought them into the land that I swore to give their fathers, a land flowing with milk and honey, they will eat their fill and prosper. Then they will turn to other gods and worship them, and they will reject Me and break My covenant. 

And when many troubles and afflictions have come upon them, this song will testify against them, because it will not be forgotten from the lips of their descendants. For I know their inclination, even before I bring them into the land that I swore to give them.” 

So that very day Moses wrote down this song and taught it to the Israelites. 

Then the LORD commissioned Joshua son of Nun and said, “Be strong and courageous, for you will bring the Israelites into the land that I swore to give them, and I will be with you.” 

When Moses had finished writing in a book the words of this law from beginning to end, he gave this command to the Levites who carried the ark of the covenant of the LORD: 

“Take this Book of the Law and place it beside the ark of the covenant of the LORD your God, so that it may remain there as a witness against you. 

For I know how rebellious and stiff-necked you are. If you are already rebelling against the LORD while I am still alive, how much more will you rebel after my death! 

Assemble before me all the elders of your tribes and all your officers so 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 from the path I have commanded you. And in the days to come, disaster will befall you because you will do evil in the sight of the LORD to provoke Him to anger by the work of your hands.” 

Then Moses recited aloud to the whole assembly of Israel the words of this song from beginning to end:

Mark 15

Early in the morning, the chief priests, elders, scribes, and the whole Sanhedrin  devised a plan. They bound Jesus, led Him away, and handed Him over to Pilate. 

So Pilate questioned Him, “Are You the King of the Jews?” 

“You have said so,” Jesus replied. 

And the chief priests began to accuse Him of many things. 

Then Pilate questioned Him again, “Have You no answer? Look how many charges they are bringing against You!” 

But to Pilate’s amazement, Jesus made no further reply. 

Now it was Pilate’s custom at the feast to release to the people  a prisoner of their choosing. 

And a man named Barabbas was imprisoned with the rebels who had committed murder during the insurrection. 

So the crowd went up and began asking Pilate to keep his custom. 

“Do you want me to release to you the King of the Jews?” Pilate asked. For he knew it was out of envy that the chief priests had handed Jesus over. 

But the chief priests stirred up the crowd to have him release Barabbas to them instead. 

So Pilate asked them again, “What then do you want me to do with the One you call the King of the Jews?” 

And they shouted back, “Crucify Him!” 

“Why?” asked Pilate. “What evil has He done?” 

But they shouted all the louder, “Crucify Him!” 

And wishing to satisfy the crowd, Pilate released Barabbas to them. But he had Jesus flogged, and handed Him over to be crucified. 

Then the soldiers led Jesus away into the palace (that is, the Praetorium) and called the whole company together. 

They dressed Him in a purple robe, twisted together a crown of thorns, and set it on His head. And they began to salute Him: “Hail, King of the Jews!” 

They kept striking His head with a staff and spitting on Him. And they knelt down and bowed before Him. 

After they had mocked Him, they removed the purple robe and put His own clothes back on Him. Then they led Him out to crucify Him. 

Now Simon of Cyrene, the father of Alexander and Rufus, was passing by on his way in from the country, and the soldiers forced him to carry the cross of Jesus. 

They brought Jesus to a place called Golgotha, which means The Place of the Skull. There they offered Him wine mixed with myrrh, but He did not take it. 

And they crucified Him. 

They also divided His garments by casting lots to decide what each of them would take. 

It was the third hour  when they crucified Him. And the charge inscribed against Him read: 

THE KING OF THE JEWS. 

Along with Jesus, they crucified two robbers, one on His right and one on His left. 

And those who passed by heaped abuse on Him, shaking their heads and saying, “Aha! You who are going to destroy the temple and rebuild it in three days, come down from the cross and save Yourself!” 

In the same way, the chief priests and scribes mocked Him among themselves, saying, “He saved others, but He cannot save Himself! 

Let the Christ, the King of Israel, come down now from the cross, so that we may see and believe!” And even those who were crucified with Him berated Him. 

From the sixth hour until the ninth hour  darkness came over all the land. 

At the ninth hour, Jesus cried out in a loud voice, “Eloi, Eloi, lema sabachthani?” which means, “My God, My God, why have You forsaken Me?” 

When some of those standing nearby heard this, they said, “Behold, He is calling Elijah.” 

And someone ran and filled a sponge with sour wine. He put it on a reed and held it up for Jesus to drink, saying, “Leave Him alone. Let us see if Elijah comes to take Him down.” 

But Jesus let out a loud cry and breathed His last. And the veil of the temple was torn in two from top to bottom. 

When the centurion standing there in front of Jesus saw how He had breathed His last, he said, “Truly this man was the Son of God!” 

And there were also women watching from a distance. Among them were Mary Magdalene, Mary the mother of James the younger and of Joses, and Salome. 

These women had followed Jesus and ministered to Him while He was in Galilee, and there were many other women who had come up to Jerusalem with Him. 

Now it was already evening. Since it was Preparation Day (that is, the day before the Sabbath), 

Joseph of Arimathea, a prominent Council member who himself was waiting for the kingdom of God, boldly went to Pilate to ask for the body of Jesus. 

Pilate was surprised to hear that Jesus was already dead, so he summoned the centurion to ask if this was so. 

When Pilate had confirmed it with the centurion, he granted the body to Joseph. 

So Joseph bought a linen cloth, took down the body of Jesus, wrapped it in the cloth, and placed it in a tomb that had been cut out of the rock. Then he rolled a stone against the entrance to the tomb. 

Mary Magdalene and Mary the mother of Joseph  saw where His body was placed.

Mark 16

When the Sabbath was over, Mary Magdalene, Mary the mother of James, and Salome bought spices so they could go and anoint the body of Jesus. 

Very early on the first day of the week, just after sunrise, they went to the tomb. They were asking one another, “Who will roll away the stone from the entrance of the tomb?” 

But when they looked up, they saw that the stone had been rolled away, even though it was extremely large. 

When they entered the tomb, they saw a young man dressed in a white robe sitting on the right side, and they were alarmed. 

But he said to them, “Do not be alarmed. You are looking for Jesus the Nazarene, who was crucified. He has risen! He is not here! See the place where they put Him. 

But go, tell His disciples and Peter, ‘He is going ahead of you into Galilee. There you will see Him, just as He told you.’ ” 

So the women left the tomb and ran away, trembling and bewildered. And in their fear they did not say a word to anyone. 

Early on the first day of the week, after Jesus had risen, He appeared first to Mary Magdalene, from whom He had driven out seven demons. 

She went and told those who had been with Him, who were mourning and weeping. And when they heard that Jesus was alive and she had seen Him, they did not believe it. 

After this, Jesus appeared in a different form to two of them as they walked along in the country. 

And they went back and reported it to the rest, but they did not believe them either. 

Later, as they were eating, Jesus appeared to the Eleven and rebuked them for their unbelief and hardness of heart, because they did not believe those who had seen Him after He had risen. 

And He said to them, “Go into all the world and preach the gospel to every creature. Whoever believes and is baptized will be saved, but whoever does not believe will be condemned. 

And these signs will accompany those who believe: In My name they will drive out demons; they will speak in new tongues; 

they will pick up snakes with their hands, and if they drink any deadly poison, it will not harm them; they will lay their hands on the sick, and they will be made well.” 

After the Lord Jesus had spoken to them, He was taken up into heaven and sat down at the right hand of God. 

And they went out and preached everywhere, and the Lord worked through them, confirming His word by the signs that accompanied it.

Psalm 22

My God, my God, why have You forsaken me? Why are You so far from saving me, so far from my words of groaning? I cry out by day, O my God, but You do not answer, and by night, but I have no rest. Yet You are holy, enthroned on the praises of Israel. In You our fathers trusted; they trusted and You delivered them. They cried out to You and were set free; they trusted in You and were not disappointed. But I am a worm and not a man, scorned by men and despised by the people. All who see me mock me; they sneer and shake their heads: “He trusts in the LORD, let the LORD deliver him; let the LORD rescue him, since He delights in him.” Yet You brought me forth from the womb; You made me secure at my mother’s breast. From birth I was cast upon You; from my mother’s womb You have been my God. Be not far from me, for trouble is near and there is no one to help. Many bulls surround me; strong bulls of Bashan encircle me. They open their jaws against me like lions that roar and maul. I am poured out like water, and all my bones are disjointed. My heart is like wax; it melts away within me. My strength  is dried up like a potsherd, and my tongue sticks to the roof of my mouth. You lay me in the dust of death. For dogs surround me; a band of evil men encircles me; they have pierced my hands and feet. I can count all my bones; they stare and gloat over me. They divide my garments among them and cast lots for my clothing. But You, O LORD, be not far off; O my Strength, come quickly to help me. Deliver my soul from the sword, my precious life from the power of wild dogs. Save me from the mouth of the lion; at the horns of the wild oxen You have answered me! I will proclaim Your name to my brothers; I will praise You in the assembly. You who fear the LORD, praise Him! All descendants of Jacob, honor Him! All offspring of Israel, revere Him! For He has not despised or detested the torment of the afflicted. He has not hidden His face from him, but has attended to his cry for help. My praise for You resounds in the great assembly; I will fulfill my vows before those who fear You. The poor will eat and be satisfied; those who seek the LORD will praise Him. May your hearts live forever! All the ends of the earth will remember and turn to the LORD. All the families of the nations will bow down before Him. For dominion belongs to the LORD and He rules over the nations. All the rich of the earth will feast and worship; all who go down to the dust will kneel before Him— even those unable to preserve their lives. Posterity will serve Him; they will declare the Lord to a new generation. They will come and proclaim His righteousness to a people yet unborn— all that He has done.

Hebrews 5

Every high priest is appointed from among men to represent them in matters relating to God, to offer gifts and sacrifices for sins. 

He is able to deal gently with those who are ignorant and misguided, since he himself is beset by weakness. That is why he is obligated to offer sacrifices for his own sins, as well as for the sins of the people. 

No one takes this honor upon himself; he must be called by God, just as Aaron was. 

So also Christ did not take upon Himself the glory of becoming a high priest, but He was called by the One who said to Him: 

“You are My Son; today I have become Your Father.” 

And in another passage God says: 

“You are a priest forever in the order of Melchizedek.” 

During the days of Jesus’ earthly life, He offered up prayers and petitions with loud cries and tears to the One who could save Him from death, and He was heard because of His reverence. 

Although He was a Son, He learned obedience from what He suffered. And having been made perfect, He became the source of eternal salvation to all who obey Him and was designated by God as high priest in the order of Melchizedek. 

We have much to say about this, but it is hard to explain, because you are dull of hearing. 

Although by this time you ought to be teachers, you need someone to reteach you the basic principles of God’s word. You need milk, not solid food! 

For everyone who lives on milk is still an infant, inexperienced in the message of righteousness. 

But solid food is for the mature, who by constant use have trained their senses to distinguish good from evil.

"A farmer went out to sow his seed. As he was scattering the seed, some fell along the path, and the birds came and ate it up. Some fell on rocky places, where it did not have much soil. It sprang up quickly, because the soil was shallow. But when the sun came up, the plants were scorched, and they withered because they had no root. Other seed fell among thorns, which grew up and choked the plants. Still other seed fell on good soil, where it produced a crop—a hundred, sixty or thirty times what was sown. Whoever has ears, let them hear.” - Matthew 13: 1-9

This week we make it through the first half of chapter 13 of the Gospel of Matthew.

The bible is a book for adults. While it does have supernatural stuff in it, these aren’t fairy tales. There are some happy endings, but also a lot of sad ones. There are blessings, but also many curses. If one were to say that the bible spent more of its time concerned with the bad than the good, I would have a hard time disagreeing. Our scriptures know the darkness. We are warned in very explicit terms about the wages of sin and disobedience. Today’s reading is super graphic and dark in that sense.

Jesus is also exceptionally stern. He doesn’t really brook any dissent or questioning. And even when he affirms a man, even the affirmation is enigmatic and somewhat troubling. How do we make sense of him saying that the Kingdom would come while that generation was alive? How do we interpret his warnings about the last days prior to the coming of the great and terrible Day of the Lord?

It is okay if a lot of this is strange or mysterious to us. It is a holy book for people born in sin. Of course it will seem strange, or perhaps even dark and disturbing, to people who have been conditioned by the world. We must allow ourselves to be reconditioned. Better, to be born again. Indeed, this is the only true path that leads to life.

Deuteronomy 26

When you enter the land that the LORD your God is giving you as an inheritance, and you take possession of it and settle in it, you are to take some of the firstfruits of all your produce from the soil of the land that the LORD your God is giving you and put them in a basket. Then go to the place the LORD your God will choose as a dwelling for His Name, to the priest who is serving at that time, and say to him, “I declare today to the LORD your God that I have entered the land that the LORD swore to our fathers to give us.” 

Then the priest shall take the basket from your hands and place it before the altar of the LORD your God, and you are to declare before the LORD your God, “My father was a wandering Aramean, and he went down to Egypt few in number and lived there and became a great nation, mighty and numerous. 

But the Egyptians mistreated us and afflicted us, putting us to hard labor. 

So we called out to the LORD, the God of our fathers; and the LORD heard our voice and saw our affliction, toil, and oppression. 

Then the LORD brought us out of Egypt with a mighty hand and an outstretched arm, with great terror, signs, and wonders. 

And He brought us to this place and gave us this land, a land flowing with milk and honey. And now, behold, I have brought the firstfruits of the land that You, O LORD, have given me.” 

Then you are to place the basket before the LORD your God and bow down before Him. 

So you shall rejoice—you, the Levite, and the foreigner dwelling among you—in all the good things the LORD your God has given to you and your household. 

When you have finished laying aside a tenth of all your produce in the third year, the year of the tithe, you are to give it to the Levite, the foreigner, the fatherless, and the widow, that they may eat and be filled within your gates. 

Then you shall declare in the presence of the LORD your God, “I have removed from my house the sacred portion and have given it to the Levite, the foreigner, the fatherless, and the widow, according to all the commandments You have given me. I have not transgressed or forgotten Your commandments. 

I have not eaten any of the sacred portion while in mourning, or removed any of it while unclean, or offered any of it for the dead. I have obeyed the LORD my God; I have done everything You commanded me. 

Look down from Your holy habitation, from heaven, and bless Your people Israel and the land You have given us as You swore to our fathers—a land flowing with milk and honey.” 

The LORD your God commands you this day to follow these statutes and ordinances. You must be careful to follow them with all your heart and with all your soul. 

Today you have proclaimed that the LORD is your God and that you will walk in His ways, keep His statutes and commandments and ordinances, and listen to His voice. 

And today the LORD has proclaimed that you are His people and treasured possession as He promised, that you are to keep all His commandments, that He will set you high in praise and name and honor above all the nations He has made, and that you will be a holy people to the LORD your God, as He has promised.

Deuteronomy 27

Then Moses and the elders of Israel commanded the people: “Keep all the commandments I am giving you today. 

And on the day you cross the Jordan into the land that the LORD your God is giving you, set up large stones and coat them with plaster. 

Write on them all the words of this law when you have crossed over to enter the land that the LORD your God is giving you, a land flowing with milk and honey, just as the LORD, the God of your fathers, has promised you. 

And when you have crossed the Jordan, you are to set up these stones on Mount Ebal, as I am commanding you today, and you are to coat them with plaster. 

Moreover, you are to build there an altar to the LORD your God, an altar of stones. You must not use any iron tool on them. 

You shall build the altar of the LORD your God with uncut stones and offer upon it burnt offerings to the LORD your God. 

There you are to sacrifice your peace offerings, eating them and rejoicing in the presence of the LORD your God. And you shall write distinctly upon these stones all the words of this law.” 

Then Moses and the Levitical priests spoke to all Israel: “Be silent, O Israel, and listen! This day you have become the people of the LORD your God. 

You shall therefore obey the voice of the LORD your God and follow His commandments and statutes I am giving you today.” 

On that day Moses commanded the people: 

“When you have crossed the Jordan, these tribes shall stand on Mount Gerizim to bless the people: Simeon, Levi, Judah, Issachar, Joseph, and Benjamin. 

And these tribes shall stand on Mount Ebal to deliver the curse: Reuben, Gad, Asher, Zebulun, Dan, and Naphtali. 

Then the Levites shall proclaim in a loud voice to every Israelite: 

‘Cursed is the man who makes a carved idol or molten image—an abomination to the LORD, the work of the hands of a craftsman—and sets it up in secret.’ 

And let all the people say, ‘Amen!’ 

‘Cursed is he who dishonors his father or mother.’ 

And let all the people say, ‘Amen!’ 

‘Cursed is he who moves his neighbor’s boundary stone.’ 

And let all the people say, ‘Amen!’ 

‘Cursed is he who lets a blind man wander in the road.’ 

And let all the people say, ‘Amen!’ 

‘Cursed is he who withholds justice from the foreigner, the fatherless, or the widow.’ 

And let all the people say, ‘Amen!’ 

‘Cursed is he who sleeps with his father’s wife, for he has violated his father’s marriage bed.’ 

And let all the people say, ‘Amen!’ 

‘Cursed is he who lies with any animal.’ 

And let all the people say, ‘Amen!’ 

‘Cursed is he who sleeps with his sister, the daughter of his father or the daughter of his mother.’ 

And let all the people say, ‘Amen!’ 

‘Cursed is he who sleeps with his mother-in-law.’ 

And let all the people say, ‘Amen!’ 

‘Cursed is he who strikes down his neighbor in secret.’ 

And let all the people say, ‘Amen!’ 

‘Cursed is he who accepts a bribe to kill an innocent person.’ 

And let all the people say, ‘Amen!’ 

‘Cursed is he who does not put the words of this law into practice.’ 

And let all the people say, ‘Amen!’

Deuteronomy 28

“Now if you faithfully obey the voice of the LORD your God and are careful to follow all His commandments I am giving you today, the LORD your God will set you high above all the nations of the earth. 

And all these blessings will come upon you and overtake you, if you will obey the voice of the LORD your God: 

You will be blessed in the city and blessed in the country. The fruit of your womb will be blessed, as well as the produce of your land and the offspring of your livestock— the calves of your herds and the lambs of your flocks. Your basket and kneading bowl will be blessed. You will be blessed when you come in and blessed when you go out. 

The LORD will cause the enemies who rise up against you to be defeated before you. They will march out against you in one direction but flee from you in seven. 

The LORD will decree a blessing on your barns and on everything to which you put your hand; the LORD your God will bless you in the land He is giving you. 

The LORD will establish you as His holy people, just as He has sworn to you, if you keep the commandments of the LORD your God and walk in His ways. 

Then all the peoples of the earth will see that you are called by the name of the LORD, and they will stand in awe of you. 

The LORD will make you prosper abundantly—in the fruit of your womb, the offspring of your livestock, and the produce of your land—in the land that the LORD swore to your fathers to give you. 

The LORD will open the heavens, His abundant storehouse, to send rain on your land in season and to bless all the work of your hands. You will lend to many nations, but borrow from none. 

The LORD will make you the head and not the tail; you will only move upward and never downward, if you hear and carefully follow the commandments of the LORD your God, which I am giving you today. 

Do not turn aside to the right or to the left from any of the words I command you today, and do not go after other gods to serve them. 

If, however, you do not obey the LORD your God by carefully following all His commandments and statutes I am giving you today, all these curses will come upon you and overtake you: 

You will be cursed in the city and cursed in the country. Your basket and kneading bowl will be cursed. The fruit of your womb will be cursed, as well as the produce of your land, the calves of your herds, and the lambs of your flocks. You will be cursed when you come in and cursed when you go out. 

The LORD will send curses upon you, confusion and reproof in all to which you put your hand, until you are destroyed and quickly perish because of the wickedness you have committed in forsaking Him. 

The LORD will make the plague cling to you until He has exterminated you from the land that you are entering to possess. 

The LORD will strike you with wasting disease, with fever and inflammation, with scorching heat and drought, and with blight and mildew; these will pursue you until you perish. 

The sky over your head will be bronze, and the earth beneath you iron. 

The LORD will turn the rain of your land into dust and powder; it will descend on you from the sky until you are destroyed. 

The LORD will cause you to be defeated before your enemies. You will march out against them in one direction but flee from them in seven. You will be an object of horror to all the kingdoms of the earth. 

Your corpses will be food for all the birds of the air and beasts of the earth, with no one to scare them away. 

The LORD will afflict you with the boils of Egypt, with tumors and scabs and itch from which you cannot be cured. 

The LORD will afflict you with madness, blindness, and confusion of mind, and at noon you will grope about like a blind man in the darkness. You will not prosper in your ways. Day after day you will be oppressed and plundered, with no one to save you. 

You will be pledged in marriage to a woman, but another man will violate her. You will build a house but will not live in it. You will plant a vineyard but will not enjoy its fruit. 

Your ox will be slaughtered before your eyes, but you will not eat any of it. Your donkey will be taken away and not returned to you. Your flock will be given to your enemies, and no one will save you. 

Your sons and daughters will be given to another nation, while your eyes grow weary looking for them day after day, with no power in your hand. 

A people you do not know will eat the produce of your land and of all your toil. All your days you will be oppressed and crushed. You will be driven mad by the sights you see. 

The LORD will afflict you with painful, incurable boils on your knees and thighs, from the soles of your feet to the top of your head. 

The LORD will bring you and the king you appoint to a nation neither you nor your fathers have known, and there you will worship other gods—gods of wood and stone. 

You will become an object of horror, scorn, and ridicule among all the nations to which the LORD will drive you. 

You will sow much seed in the field but harvest little, because the locusts will consume it. 

You will plant and cultivate vineyards, but will neither drink the wine nor gather the grapes, because worms will eat them. 

You will have olive trees throughout your territory but will never anoint yourself with oil, because the olives will drop off. 

You will father sons and daughters, but they will not remain yours, because they will go into captivity. 

Swarms of locusts will consume all your trees and the produce of your land. 

The foreigner living among you will rise higher and higher above you, while you sink down lower and lower. 

He will lend to you, but you will not lend to him. He will be the head, and you will be the tail. 

All these curses will come upon you. They will pursue you and overtake you until you are destroyed, since you did not obey the LORD your God and keep the commandments and statutes He gave you. 

These curses will be a sign and a wonder upon you and your descendants forever. 

Because you did not serve the LORD your God with joy and gladness of heart in all your abundance, you will serve your enemies the LORD will send against you in famine, thirst, nakedness, and destitution. He will place an iron yoke on your neck until He has destroyed you. 

The LORD will bring a nation from afar, from the ends of the earth, to swoop down upon you like an eagle—a nation whose language you will not understand, a ruthless nation with no respect for the old and no pity for the young. 

They will eat the offspring of your livestock and the produce of your land until you are destroyed. They will leave you no grain or new wine or oil, no calves of your herds or lambs of your flocks, until they have caused you to perish. 

They will besiege all the cities throughout your land, until the high and fortified walls in which you trust have fallen. They will besiege all your cities throughout the land that the LORD your God has given you. 

Then you will eat the fruit of your womb, the flesh of the sons and daughters whom the LORD your God has given you, in the siege and distress that your enemy will inflict on you. 

The most gentle and refined man among you will begrudge his brother, the wife he embraces, and the rest of his children who have survived, refusing to share with any of them the flesh of his children he will eat because he has nothing left in the siege and distress that your enemy will inflict on you within all your gates. 

The most gentle and refined woman among you, so gentle and refined she would not venture to set the sole of her foot on the ground, will begrudge the husband she embraces  and her son and daughter the afterbirth that comes from between her legs and the children she bears, because she will secretly eat them for lack of anything else in the siege and distress that your enemy will inflict on you within your gates. 

If you are not careful to observe all the words of this law which are written in this book, that you may fear this glorious and awesome name—the LORD your God— 

He will bring upon you and your descendants extraordinary disasters, severe and lasting plagues, and terrible and chronic sicknesses. 

He will afflict you again with all the diseases you dreaded in Egypt, and they will cling to you. 

The LORD will also bring upon you every sickness and plague not recorded in this Book of the Law, until you are destroyed. 

You who were as numerous as the stars in the sky will be left few in number, because you would not obey the voice of the LORD your God. 

Just as it pleased the LORD to make you prosper and multiply, so also it will please Him to annihilate you and destroy you. And you will be uprooted from the land you are entering to possess. 

Then the LORD will scatter you among all the nations, from one end of the earth to the other, and there you will worship other gods, gods of wood and stone, which neither you nor your fathers have known. 

Among those nations you will find no repose, not even a resting place for the sole of your foot. There the LORD will give you a trembling heart, failing eyes, and a despairing soul. 

So your life will hang in doubt before you, and you will be afraid night and day, never certain of survival. 

In the morning you will say, ‘If only it were evening!’ and in the evening you will say, ‘If only it were morning!’—because of the dread in your hearts of the terrifying sights you will see. 

The LORD will return you to Egypt in ships by a route that I said you should never see again. There you will sell yourselves to your enemies as male and female slaves, but no one will buy you.”

Mark 12

Then Jesus began to speak to them in parables: “A man planted a vineyard. He put a wall around it, dug a wine vat, and built a watchtower. Then he rented it out to some tenants and went away on a journey. 

At harvest time, he sent a servant to the tenants to collect his share of the fruit of the vineyard. But they seized the servant, beat him, and sent him away empty-handed. 

Then he sent them another servant, and they struck him over the head and treated him shamefully. 

He sent still another, and this one they killed. 

He sent many others; some they beat and others they killed. 

Finally, having one beloved son, he sent him to them. ‘They will respect my son,’ he said. 

But the tenants said to one another, ‘This is the heir. Come, let us kill him, and the inheritance will be ours.’ So they seized the son, killed him, and threw him out of the vineyard. 

What then will the owner of the vineyard do? He will come and kill those tenants, and will give the vineyard to others. Have you never read this Scripture: 

‘The stone the builders rejected has become the cornerstone. This is from the Lord, and it is marvelous in our eyes’?” 

At this, the leaders sought  to arrest Jesus, for they knew that He had spoken this parable against them. But fearing the crowd, they left Him and went away. 

Later, they sent some of the Pharisees and Herodians to catch Jesus in His words. 

“Teacher,” they said, “we know that You are honest and seek favor from no one. Indeed, You are impartial and teach the way of God in accordance with the truth. Is it lawful to pay taxes to Caesar or not? Should we pay them or not?” 

But Jesus saw through their hypocrisy and said, “Why are you testing Me? Bring Me a denarius  to inspect.” 

So they brought it, and He asked them, “Whose image is this? And whose inscription?” 

“Caesar’s,” they answered. 

Then Jesus told them, “Give to Caesar what is Caesar’s, and to God what is God’s.” 

And they marveled at Him. 

Then the Sadducees, who say there is no resurrection, came to Jesus and questioned Him: 

“Teacher, Moses wrote for us that if a man’s brother dies and leaves a wife but no children, the man is to marry his brother’s widow and raise up offspring for him. 

Now there were seven brothers. The first one married and died, leaving no children. 

Then the second one married the widow, but he also died and left no children. And the third did likewise. 

In this way, none of the seven left any children. And last of all, the woman died. In the resurrection, then, whose wife will she be? For all seven were married to her.” 

Jesus said to them, “Aren’t you mistaken, because you do not know the Scriptures or the power of God? 

When the dead rise, they will neither marry nor be given in marriage. Instead, they will be like the angels in heaven. 

But concerning the dead rising, have you not read about the burning bush in the Book of Moses, how God told him, ‘I am the God of Abraham, the God of Isaac, and the God of Jacob’? 

He is not the God of the dead, but of the living. You are badly mistaken!” 

Now one of the scribes had come up and heard their debate. Noticing how well Jesus had answered them, he asked Him, “Which commandment is the most important of all?” 

Jesus replied, “This is the most important: ‘Hear O Israel, the Lord our God, the Lord is One. 

Love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your mind and with all your strength.’ 

The second is this: ‘Love your neighbor as yourself.’ No other commandment is greater than these.” 

“Right, Teacher,” the scribe replied. “You have stated correctly that God is One and there is no other but Him, and to love Him with all your heart and with all your understanding and with all your strength, and to love your neighbor as yourself, which is more important than all burnt offerings and sacrifices.” 

When Jesus saw that the man had answered wisely, He said, “You are not far from the kingdom of God.” 

And no one dared to question Him any further. 

While Jesus was teaching in the temple courts, He asked, “How can the scribes say that the Christ is the Son of David? Speaking by the Holy Spirit, David himself declared: 

‘The Lord said to my Lord, “Sit at My right hand until I put Your enemies under Your feet.” ’ 

David himself calls Him ‘Lord.’ So how can He be David’s son?” 

And the large crowd listened to Him with delight. 

In His teaching Jesus also said, “Watch out for the scribes. They like to walk around in long robes, to receive greetings in the marketplaces, and to have the chief seats in the synagogues and the places of honor at banquets. 

They defraud widows of their houses, and for a show make lengthy prayers. These men will receive greater condemnation.” 

As Jesus was sitting opposite the treasury, He watched the crowd putting money into it. And many rich people put in large amounts. 

Then one poor widow came and put in two small copper coins, which amounted to a small fraction of a denarius. 

Jesus called His disciples to Him and said, “Truly I tell you, this poor widow has put more than all the others into the treasury. 

For they all contributed out of their surplus, but she out of her poverty has put in all she had to live on.”

Mark 13

As Jesus was leaving the temple, one of His disciples said to Him, “Teacher, look at the magnificent stones and buildings!” 

“Do you see all these great buildings?” Jesus replied. “Not one stone here will be left on another; every one will be thrown down.” 

While Jesus was sitting on the Mount of Olives opposite the temple, Peter, James, John, and Andrew asked Him privately, 

“Tell us, when will these things happen? And what will be the sign that they are about to be fulfilled?” 

Jesus began by telling them, “See to it that no one deceives you. Many will come in My name, claiming, ‘I am He,’ and will deceive many. 

When you hear of wars and rumors of wars, do not be alarmed. These things must happen, but the end is still to come. 

Nation will rise against nation, and kingdom against kingdom. There will be earthquakes in various places, as well as famines. These are the beginning of birth pains. 

So be on your guard. You will be delivered over to the councils and beaten in the synagogues. On My account you will stand before governors and kings as witnesses to them. 

And the gospel must first be proclaimed to all the nations. 

But when they arrest you and hand you over, do not worry beforehand what to say. Instead, speak whatever you are given at that time, for it will not be you speaking, but the Holy Spirit. 

Brother will betray brother to death, and a father his child. Children will rise against their parents and have them put to death. 

You will be hated by everyone because of My name, but the one who perseveres to the end will be saved. 

So when you see the abomination of desolation  standing where it should not be  (let the reader understand), then let those who are in Judea flee to the mountains. 

Let no one on the housetop go back inside to retrieve anything from his house. And let no one in the field return for his cloak. 

How miserable those days will be for pregnant and nursing mothers! Pray that this will not occur in the winter. 

For those will be days of tribulation unmatched from the beginning of God’s creation until now, and never to be seen again. 

If the Lord had not cut short those days, nobody would be saved. But for the sake of the elect, whom He has chosen, He has cut them short. 

At that time if anyone says to you, ‘Look, here is the Christ!’ or ‘There He is!’ do not believe it. 

For false Christs and false prophets will appear and perform signs and wonders that would deceive even the elect, if that were possible. 

So be on your guard; I have told you everything in advance. 

But in those days, after that tribulation: 

‘The sun will be darkened, and the moon will not give its light; the stars will fall from the sky, and the powers of the heavens will be shaken.’ 

At that time they will see the Son of Man coming in the clouds with great power and glory. 

And He will send out the angels to gather His elect from the four winds, from the ends of the earth to the ends of heaven. 

Now learn this lesson  from the fig tree: As soon as its branches become tender and sprout leaves, you know that summer is near. 

So also, when you see these things happening, know that He is near, right at the door. Truly I tell you, this generation will not pass away until all these things have happened. 

Heaven and earth will pass away, but My words will never pass away. 

No one knows about that day or hour, not even the angels in heaven, nor the Son, but only the Father. 

Be on your guard and stay alert! For you do not know when the appointed time will come. 

It is like a man going on a journey who left his house, put each servant in charge of his own task, and instructed the doorkeeper to keep watch. 

Therefore keep watch, because you do not know when the master of the house will return—whether in the evening, at midnight, when the rooster crows, or in the morning. 

Otherwise, he may arrive without notice and find you sleeping. And what I say to you, I say to everyone: Keep watch!”

Mark 14

Now the Passover and the Feast of Unleavened Bread  were two days away, and the chief priests and scribes were looking for a covert way to arrest Jesus and kill Him. 

“But not during the feast,” they said, “or there may be a riot among the people.” 

While Jesus was in Bethany reclining at the table in the home of Simon the Leper, a woman came with an alabaster jar of expensive perfume, made of pure nard. She broke open the jar and poured it on Jesus’ head. 

Some of those present, however, expressed their indignation to one another: “Why this waste of perfume? 

It could have been sold for over three hundred denarii  and the money given to the poor.” And they scolded her. 

But Jesus said, “Leave her alone; why are you bothering her? She has done a beautiful deed to Me. 

The poor you will always have with you, and you can help them whenever you want. But you will not always have Me. 

She has done what she could to anoint My body in advance of My burial. 

And truly I tell you, wherever the gospel is preached in all the world, what she has done will also be told in memory of her.” 

Then Judas Iscariot, one of the Twelve, went to the chief priests to betray Jesus to them. They were delighted to hear this, and they promised to give him money. 

So Judas began to look for an opportunity to betray Jesus. 

On the first day of the Feast of Unleavened Bread, when the Passover lamb was to be sacrificed, Jesus’ disciples asked Him, “Where do You want us to prepare for You to eat the Passover?” 

So He sent two of His disciples and told them, “Go into the city, and a man carrying a jug of water will meet you. Follow him, and whichever house he enters, say to the owner, ‘The Teacher asks: Where is My guest room, where I may eat the Passover with My disciples?’ 

And he will show you a large upper room, furnished and ready. Make preparations for us there.” 

So the disciples left and went into the city, where they found everything as Jesus had described. And they prepared the Passover. 

When evening came, Jesus arrived with the Twelve. And while they were reclining and eating, Jesus said, “Truly I tell you, one of you who is eating with Me will betray Me.” 

They began to be grieved and to ask Him one after another, “Surely not I?” 

He answered, “It is one of the Twelve—the one who is dipping his hand  into the bowl with Me. 

The Son of Man will go just as it is written about Him, but woe to that man by whom He is betrayed! It would be better for him if he had not been born.” 

While they were eating, Jesus took bread, spoke a blessing and broke it, and gave it to the disciples, saying, “Take it; this is My body.” 

Then He took the cup, gave thanks, and gave it to them, and they all drank from it. He said to them, “This is My blood of the covenant, which is poured out for many. 

Truly I tell you, I will no longer drink of the fruit of the vine until that day when I drink it anew in the kingdom of God.” 

And when they had sung a hymn, they went out to the Mount of Olives. 

Then Jesus said to them, “You will all fall away, for it is written: 

‘I will strike the Shepherd, and the sheep will be scattered.’ 

But after I have risen, I will go ahead of you into Galilee.” 

Peter declared, “Even if all fall away, I never will.” 

“Truly I tell you,” Jesus replied, “this very night, before the rooster crows twice, you will deny Me three times.” 

But Peter kept insisting, “Even if I have to die with You, I will never deny You.” And all the others said the same thing. 

Then they came to a place called Gethsemane, and Jesus told His disciples, “Sit here while I pray.” 

He took with Him Peter, James, and John, and began to be deeply troubled and distressed. 

Then He said to them, “My soul is consumed with sorrow to the point of death. Stay here and keep watch.” 

Going a little farther, He fell to the ground and prayed that, if it were possible, the hour would pass from Him. 

“Abba, Father,” He said, “all things are possible for You. Take this cup from Me. Yet not what I will, but what You will.” 

Then Jesus returned and found them sleeping. “Simon, are you asleep?” He asked. “Were you not able to keep watch for one hour? 

Watch and pray so that you will not enter into temptation. For the spirit is willing, but the body is weak.” 

Again He went away and prayed, saying the same thing. 

And again Jesus returned and found them sleeping—for their eyes were heavy. And they did not know what to answer Him. 

When Jesus returned the third time, He said, “Are you still sleeping and resting? That is enough! The hour has come. Look, the Son of Man is betrayed into the hands of sinners. 

Rise, let us go. See, My betrayer is approaching!” 

While Jesus was still speaking, Judas, one of the Twelve, arrived, accompanied by a crowd armed with swords and clubs, sent from the chief priests, scribes, and elders. 

Now the betrayer had arranged a signal with them: “The One I kiss is the man; arrest Him and lead Him away securely.” Going directly to Jesus, he said, “Rabbi!” and kissed Him. 

Then the men seized Jesus and arrested Him. And one of the bystanders drew his sword and struck the servant of the high priest, cutting off his ear. 

Jesus asked the crowd, “Have you come out with swords and clubs to arrest Me as you would an outlaw? 

Every day I was with you, teaching in the temple courts, and you did not arrest Me. But this has happened that the Scriptures would be fulfilled.” 

Then everyone deserted Him and fled. One young man who had been following Jesus was wearing a linen cloth around his body. They caught hold of him, but he pulled free of the linen cloth and ran away naked. 

They led Jesus away to the high priest, and all the chief priests, elders, and scribes assembled. 

Peter followed Him at a distance, right into the courtyard of the high priest. And he sat with the officers and warmed himself by the fire. 

Now the chief priests and the whole Sanhedrin  were seeking testimony against Jesus to put Him to death, but they did not find any. 

For many bore false witness against Jesus, but their testimony was inconsistent. 

Then some men stood up and testified falsely against Him: “We heard Him say, ‘I will destroy this man-made temple, and in three days I will build another that is made without hands.’ ” 

But even their testimony was inconsistent. 

So the high priest stood up before them and questioned Jesus, “Have You no answer? What are these men testifying against You?” 

But Jesus remained silent and made no reply. 

Again the high priest questioned Him, “Are You the Christ, the Son of the Blessed One?” 

“I am,” said Jesus, “and you will see the Son of Man sitting at the right hand of Power  and coming with the clouds of heaven.” 

At this, the high priest tore his clothes and declared, “Why do we need any more witnesses? You have heard the blasphemy. What is your verdict?” 

And they all condemned Him as deserving of death. 

Then some of them began to spit on Him. They blindfolded Him, struck Him with their fists, and said to Him, “Prophesy!” And the officers received Him with slaps in His face. 

While Peter was in the courtyard below, one of the servant girls of the high priest came down and saw him warming himself there. She looked at Peter and said, “You also were with Jesus the Nazarene.” 

But he denied it. “I do not know or even understand what you are talking about,” he said. Then he went out to the gateway, and the rooster crowed. 

There the servant girl saw him and again said to those standing nearby, “This man is one of them.” 

But he denied it again. 

After a little while, those standing nearby said once more to Peter, “Surely you are one of them, for you too are a Galilean.” 

But he began to curse and swear, “I do not know this man of whom you speak!” And immediately the rooster crowed a second time. 

Then Peter remembered the word that Jesus had spoken to him: “Before the rooster crows twice, you will deny Me three times.” And he broke down and wept.

The great thing about reading from more than one place in the bible at the same time is how easily connections get drawn. Just yesterday, Jesus was asked about divorce, using the exact same language that Moses uses today with respect to the topic. Much of the law we read in the Old Testament so far can seem somewhat—draconian. In this section, we find instructions for what a man is to do if he finds a young woman he wants to have sex with while he’s slaying her countrymen. The instructions can seem like license to commit murder and rape. The intent is rather to give the young woman dignity in the midst of an awful situation. That can be lost on a modern audience that is too traumatized at the very thought of it to ask questions about how other cultures dealt with such things. Short answer: All other cultures were pretty unconcerned with the dignity of widows, orphans, and women. You’ll notice these demographics, as well as the foreigner, are regular concerns in the law.

It is easy to run with this stuff in the other direction and infer a sort of Marxist undertone to a lot of this stuff. That is an abuse of the text. The fundamental principle here is the imago dei, which is the conviction that all humans are made in God’s image. When people really believe this, they believe that this infers something approximating the western notion of rights, which are spelled out and protected by divine mandate in these passages. Another part of this is free will. We aren’t really free if we are compelled to do things. That is one of a few reasons why Marxism is foreign to the bible. If we want to sin, then God lets us. He gives us over to ourselves. And there is eternal punishment. That undergirds all of what we are reading here. These truths result in a transformed way of life for those who earnestly reflect upon these things.

Deuteronomy 21

If one is found slain, lying in a field in the land that the LORD your God is giving you to possess, and it is not known who killed him, your elders and judges must come out and measure the distance from the victim to the neighboring cities. 

Then the elders of the city nearest the victim shall take a heifer that has never been yoked or used for work, bring the heifer to a valley with running water that has not been plowed or sown, and break its neck there by the stream. 

And the priests, the sons of Levi, shall come forward, for the LORD your God has chosen them to serve Him and pronounce blessings in His name and to give a ruling in every dispute and case of assault. 

Then all the elders of the city nearest the victim shall wash their hands by the stream over the heifer whose neck has been broken, and they shall declare, “Our hands did not shed this blood, nor did our eyes see it. 

Accept this atonement, O LORD, for Your people Israel whom You have redeemed, and do not hold the shedding of innocent blood against them.” 

And the bloodshed will be atoned for. So you shall purge from among you the guilt of shedding innocent blood, since you have done what is right in the eyes of the LORD. 

When you go to war against your enemies and the LORD your God delivers them into your hand and you take them captive, if you see a beautiful woman among them, and you desire her and want to take her as your wife, then you shall bring her into your house. She must shave her head, trim her nails, and put aside the clothing of her captivity. 

After she has lived in your house a full month and mourned her father and mother, you may have relations with her and be her husband, and she shall be your wife. 

And if you are not pleased with her, you are to let her go wherever she wishes. But you must not sell her for money or treat her as a slave, since you have dishonored her. 

If a man has two wives, one beloved and the other unloved, and both bear him sons, but the unloved wife has the firstborn son, when that man assigns his inheritance to his sons he must not appoint the son of the beloved wife as the firstborn over the son of the unloved wife. 

Instead, he must acknowledge the firstborn, the son of his unloved wife, by giving him a double portion of all that he has. For that son is the firstfruits of his father’s strength; the right of the firstborn belongs to him. 

If a man has a stubborn and rebellious son who does not obey his father and mother and does not listen to them when disciplined, his father and mother are to lay hold of him and bring him to the elders of his city, to the gate of his hometown, and say to the elders, “This son of ours is stubborn and rebellious; he does not obey us. He is a glutton and a drunkard.” 

Then all the men of his city will stone him to death. So you must purge the evil from among you, and all Israel will hear and be afraid. 

If a man has committed a sin worthy of death, and he is executed, and you hang his body on a tree, you must not leave the body on the tree overnight, but you must be sure to bury him that day, because anyone who is hung on a tree is under God’s curse. You must not defile the land that the LORD your God is giving you as an inheritance.

Deuteronomy 22

If you see your brother’s ox or sheep straying, you must not ignore it; be sure to return it to your brother. 

If your brother does not live near you, or if you do not know who he is, you are to take the animal home to remain with you until your brother comes seeking it; then you can return it to him. 

And you shall do the same for his donkey, his cloak, or anything your brother has lost and you have found. You must not ignore it. 

If you see your brother’s donkey or ox fallen on the road, you must not ignore it; you must help him lift it up. 

A woman must not wear men’s clothing, and a man must not wear women’s clothing, for whoever does these things is detestable to the LORD your God. 

If you come across a bird’s nest with chicks or eggs, either in a tree or on the ground along the road, and the mother is sitting on the chicks or eggs, you must not take the mother along with the young. 

You may take the young, but be sure to let the mother go, so that it may be well with you and that you may prolong your days. 

If you build a new house, you are to construct a railing around your roof, so that you do not bring bloodguilt on your house if someone falls from it. 

Do not plant your vineyard with two types of seed; if you do, the entire harvest will be defiled —both the crop you plant and the fruit of your vineyard. 

Do not plow with an ox and a donkey yoked together. 

Do not wear clothes of wool and linen woven together. 

You are to make tassels on the four corners of the cloak you wear. 

Suppose a man marries a woman, has relations with her, and comes to hate her, and he then accuses her of shameful conduct and gives her a bad name, saying, “I married this woman and had relations with her, but I discovered she was not a virgin.” 

Then the young woman’s father and mother shall bring the proof of her virginity to the city elders at the gate and say to the elders, “I gave my daughter in marriage to this man, but he has come to hate her. 

And now he has accused her of shameful conduct, saying, ‘I discovered that your daughter was not a virgin.’ But here is the proof of her virginity.” And they shall spread out the cloth before the city elders. 

Then the elders of that city shall take the man and punish him. 

They are also to fine him a hundred shekels of silver  and give them to the young woman’s father, because this man has given a virgin of Israel a bad name. And she shall remain his wife; he must not divorce her as long as he lives. 

If, however, this accusation is true, and no proof of the young woman’s virginity can be found, she shall be brought to the door of her father’s house, and there the men of her city will stone her to death. For she has committed an outrage in Israel by being promiscuous in her father’s house. So you must purge the evil from among you. 

If a man is found lying with another man’s wife, both the man who slept with her and the woman must die. You must purge the evil from Israel. 

If there is a virgin pledged in marriage to a man, and another man encounters her in the city and sleeps with her, you must take both of them out to the gate of that city and stone them to death—the young woman because she did not cry out in the city, and the man because he has violated his neighbor’s wife. So you must purge the evil from among you. 

But if the man encounters a betrothed woman in the open country, and he overpowers her and lies with her, only the man who has done this must die. 

Do nothing to the young woman, because she has committed no sin worthy of death. This case is just like one in which a man attacks his neighbor and murders him. 

When he found her in the field, the betrothed woman cried out, but there was no one to save her. 

If a man encounters a virgin who is not pledged in marriage, and he seizes her and lies with her, and they are discovered, then the man who lay with her must pay the young woman’s father fifty shekels of silver, and she must become his wife because he has violated her. He must not divorce her as long as he lives. 

A man is not to marry his father’s wife, so that he will not dishonor his father’s marriage bed.

Deuteronomy 23

No man with crushed or severed genitals may enter the assembly of the LORD. 

No one of illegitimate birth may enter the assembly of the LORD, nor may any of his descendants, even to the tenth generation. 

No Ammonite or Moabite or any of their descendants may enter the assembly of the LORD, even to the tenth generation. 

For they did not meet you with food and water on your way out of Egypt, and they hired Balaam son of Beor from Pethor in Aram-naharaim  to curse you. 

Yet the LORD your God would not listen to Balaam, and the LORD your God turned the curse into a blessing for you, because the LORD your God loves you. 

You are not to seek peace or prosperity from them as long as you live. 

Do not despise an Edomite, for he is your brother. Do not despise an Egyptian, because you lived as a foreigner in his land. 

The third generation of children born to them may enter the assembly of the LORD. 

When you are encamped against your enemies, then you shall keep yourself from every wicked thing. 

If any man among you becomes unclean because of a nocturnal emission, he must leave the camp and stay outside. 

When evening approaches, he must wash with water, and when the sun sets he may return to the camp. 

You must have a place outside the camp to go and relieve yourself. 

And you must have a digging tool in your equipment so that when you relieve yourself you can dig a hole and cover up your excrement. 

For the LORD your God walks throughout your camp to protect you and deliver your enemies to you. Your camp must be holy, lest He see anything unclean among you and turn away from you. 

Do not return a slave to his master if he has taken refuge with you. Let him live among you wherever he chooses, in the town of his pleasing. Do not oppress him. 

No daughter or son of Israel is to be a shrine prostitute. 

You must not bring the wages of a prostitute, whether female or male, into the house of the LORD your God to fulfill any vow, because both are detestable to the LORD your God. 

Do not charge your brother interest on money, food, or any other type of loan. 

You may charge a foreigner interest, but not your brother, so that the LORD your God may bless you in everything to which you put your hand in the land that you are entering to possess. 

If you make a vow to the LORD your God, do not be slow to keep it, because He will surely require it of you, and you will be guilty of sin. 

But if you refrain from making a vow, you will not be guilty of sin. 

Be careful to follow through on what comes from your lips, because you have freely vowed to the LORD your God with your own mouth. 

When you enter your neighbor’s vineyard, you may eat your fill of grapes, but you must not put any in your basket. 

When you enter your neighbor’s grainfield, you may pluck the heads of grain with your hand, but you must not put a sickle to your neighbor’s grain.

Deuteronomy 24

If a man marries a woman, but she becomes displeasing to him because he finds some indecency in her, he may write her a certificate of divorce, hand it to her, and send her away from his house. 

If, after leaving his house, she goes and becomes another man’s wife, and the second man hates her, writes her a certificate of divorce, hands it to her, and sends her away from his house, or if he dies, then the husband who divorced her first may not remarry her after she has been defiled, for that is an abomination to the LORD. You must not bring sin upon the land that the LORD your God is giving you as an inheritance. 

If a man is newly married, he must not be sent to war or be pressed into any duty. For one year he is free to stay at home and bring joy to the wife he has married. 

Do not take a pair of millstones or even an upper millstone as security for a debt, because that would be taking one’s livelihood as security. 

If a man is caught kidnapping one of his Israelite brothers, whether he treats him as a slave or sells him, the kidnapper must die. So you must purge the evil from among you. 

In cases of infectious skin diseases, be careful to diligently follow everything the Levitical priests instruct you. Be careful to do as I have commanded them. 

Remember what the LORD your God did to Miriam on the journey after you came out of Egypt. 

When you lend anything to your neighbor, do not enter his house to collect security. 

You are to stand outside while the man to whom you are lending brings the security out to you. If he is a poor man, you must not go to sleep with the security in your possession; be sure to return it to him by sunset, so that he may sleep in his own cloak and bless you, and this will be credited to you as righteousness before the LORD your God. 

Do not oppress a hired hand who is poor and needy, whether he is a brother or a foreigner residing in one of your towns. 

You are to pay his wages each day before sunset, because he is poor and depends on them. Otherwise he may cry out to the LORD against you, and you will be guilty of sin. 

Fathers shall not be put to death for their children, nor children for their fathers; each is to die for his own sin. 

Do not deny justice to the foreigner or the fatherless, and do not take a widow’s cloak as security. 

Remember that you were slaves in Egypt, and the LORD your God redeemed you from that place. Therefore I am commanding you to do this. 

If you are harvesting in your field and forget a sheaf there, do not go back to get it. It is to be left for the foreigner, the fatherless, and the widow, so that the LORD your God may bless you in all the work of your hands. 

When you beat the olives from your trees, you must not go over the branches again. What remains will be for the foreigner, the fatherless, and the widow. 

When you gather the grapes of your vineyard, you must not go over the vines again. What remains will be for the foreigner, the fatherless, and the widow. 

Remember that you were slaves in the land of Egypt. Therefore I am commanding you to do this.

Deuteronomy 25

If there is a dispute between men, they are to go to court to be judged, so that the innocent may be acquitted and the guilty condemned. 

If the guilty man deserves to be beaten, the judge shall have him lie down and be flogged in his presence with the number of lashes his crime warrants. 

He may receive no more than forty lashes, lest your brother be beaten any more than that and be degraded in your sight. 

Do not muzzle an ox while it is treading out the grain. 

When brothers dwell together and one of them dies without a son, the widow must not marry outside the family. Her husband’s brother is to take her as his wife and fulfill the duty of a brother-in-law for her. 

The first son she bears will carry on the name of the dead brother, so that his name will not be blotted out from Israel. 

But if the man does not want to marry his brother’s widow, she is to go to the elders at the city gate and say, “My husband’s brother refuses to preserve his brother’s name in Israel. He is not willing to perform the duty of a brother-in-law for me.” 

Then the elders of his city shall summon him and speak with him. If he persists and says, “I do not want to marry her,” his brother’s widow shall go up to him in the presence of the elders, remove his sandal, spit in his face, and declare, “This is what is done to the man who will not maintain his brother’s line.” 

And his family name in Israel will be called “The House of the Unsandaled.” 

If two men are fighting, and the wife of one steps in to rescue her husband from the one striking him, and she reaches out her hand and grabs his genitals, you are to cut off her hand. You must show her no pity. 

You shall not have two differing weights in your bag, one heavy and one light. You shall not have two differing measures in your house, one large and one small. 

You must maintain accurate and honest weights and measures, so that you may live long in the land that the LORD your God is giving you. 

For everyone who behaves dishonestly in regard to these things is detestable to the LORD your God. 

Remember what the Amalekites did to you along your way from Egypt, how they met you on your journey when you were tired and weary, and they attacked all your stragglers; they had no fear of God. 

When the LORD your God gives you rest from the enemies around you in the land that He is giving you to possess as an inheritance, you are to blot out the memory of Amalek from under heaven. Do not forget!

Mark 11

As they approached Jerusalem and came to Bethphage and Bethany at the Mount of Olives, Jesus sent out two of His disciples and said to them, “Go into the village ahead of you, and as soon as you enter it, you will find a colt tied there, on which no one has ever sat. Untie it and bring it here. 

If anyone asks, ‘Why are you doing this?’ tell him, ‘The Lord needs it and will return it shortly.’ ” 

So they went and found the colt outside in the street, tied at a doorway. They untied it, and some who were standing there asked, “Why are you untying the colt?” 

The disciples answered as Jesus had instructed them, and the people gave them permission. Then they led the colt to Jesus and threw their cloaks over it, and He sat on it. 

Many in the crowd spread their cloaks on the road, while others spread branches they had cut from the fields. The ones who went ahead and those who followed were shouting: 

“Hosanna!” 

“Blessed is He who comes in the name of the Lord!” 

“Blessed is the coming kingdom of our father David!” 

“Hosanna in the highest!” 

Then Jesus entered Jerusalem and went into the temple courts. He looked around at everything, but since it was already late, He went out to Bethany with the Twelve. 

The next day, when they had left Bethany, Jesus was hungry. 

Seeing in the distance a fig tree in leaf, He went to see if there was any fruit on it. But when He reached it, He found nothing on it except leaves, since it was not the season for figs. 

Then He said to the tree, “May no one ever eat of your fruit again.” And His disciples heard this statement. 

When they arrived in Jerusalem, Jesus entered the temple courts and began to drive out those who were buying and selling there. He overturned the tables of the money changers and the seats of those selling doves. 

And He would not allow anyone to carry merchandise through the temple courts. 

Then Jesus began to teach them, and He declared, “Is it not written: ‘My house will be called a house of prayer for all the nations’? But you have made it ‘a den of robbers.’” 

When the chief priests and scribes heard this, they looked for a way to kill Him. For they were afraid of Him, because the whole crowd was astonished at His teaching. 

And when evening came, Jesus and His disciples went  out of the city. 

As they were walking back in the morning, they saw the fig tree withered from its roots. Peter remembered it and said, “Look, Rabbi! The fig tree You cursed has withered.” 

“Have faith in God,” Jesus said to them. 

“Truly I tell you that if anyone says to this mountain, ‘Be lifted up and thrown into the sea,’ and has no doubt in his heart but believes that it will happen, it will be done for him. 

Therefore I tell you, whatever you ask for in prayer, believe that you have received it, and it will be yours. 

And when you stand to pray, if you hold anything against another, forgive it, so that your Father in heaven will forgive your trespasses as well.” 

After their return to Jerusalem, Jesus was walking in the temple courts, and the chief priests, scribes, and elders came up to Him. 

“By what authority are You doing these things?” they asked. “And who gave You the authority to do them?” 

“I will ask you one question,” Jesus replied, “and if you answer Me, I will tell you by what authority I am doing these things. 

John’s baptism—was it from heaven or from men? Answer Me!” 

They deliberated among themselves what they should answer: “If we say, ‘From heaven,’ He will ask, ‘Why then did you not believe him?’ 

But if we say, ‘From men’...” they were afraid of the people, for they all held that John truly was a prophet. So they answered, “We do not know.” 

And Jesus replied, “Neither will I tell you by what authority I am doing these things.”

God bless you.

One of the gentlemen in my church has apparently been along for the ride with us. Before worship, he asked me what happened with all the meat generated by all of these sacrifices. Can you imagine how much there was? We had a decent abbreviated conversation about the Levites, the dedications to destruction, and the other ways in which people could sacrifice animals to eat for themselves. The scriptures speak to these things, but it is often briefly and in the middle of larger topics. We deal with part of this topic in today’s reading.

Manslaughter is another topic covered. We don’t realize that our legal distinction in today’s jurisprudence goes back millennia. The “eye for eye, tooth for tooth” portion is found here. Not taking bribes or practicing partiality…concern for equality among brethren.

Jesus deals with money in the Mark portion. It’s something we should deal with, especially as the Deuteronomy reading warns kings against accumulating horses, silver, gold, and wives. Even the “greatest” among us are to consider ourselves least. Jesus says it is only in this regard that children are more worthy of the Kingdom than those of us stained by status and wealth. Let those with ears to hear listen to the Word!

Deuteronomy 16

Observe the month of Abib  and celebrate the Passover to the LORD your God, because in the month of Abib the LORD your God brought you out of Egypt by night. 

You are to offer to the LORD your God the Passover sacrifice from the herd or flock in the place the LORD will choose as a dwelling for His Name. 

You must not eat leavened bread with it; for seven days you are to eat with it unleavened bread, the bread of affliction, because you left the land of Egypt in haste—so that you may remember for the rest of your life the day you left the land of Egypt. 

No leaven is to be found in all your land for seven days, and none of the meat you sacrifice in the evening of the first day shall remain until morning. 

You are not to sacrifice the Passover animal in any of the towns that the LORD your God is giving you. 

You must only offer the Passover sacrifice at the place the LORD your God will choose as a dwelling for His Name. Do this in the evening as the sun sets, at the same time you departed from Egypt. 

And you shall roast it and eat it in the place the LORD your God will choose, and in the morning you shall return to your tents. 

For six days you must eat unleavened bread, and on the seventh day you shall hold a solemn assembly to the LORD your God, and you must not do any work. 

You are to count off seven weeks from the time you first put the sickle to the standing grain. 

And you shall celebrate the Feast of Weeks  to the LORD your God with a freewill offering that you give in proportion to how the LORD your God has blessed you, and you shall rejoice before the LORD your God in the place He will choose as a dwelling for His Name—you, your sons and daughters, your menservants and maidservants, and the Levite within your gates, as well as the foreigner, the fatherless, and the widows among you. 

Remember that you were slaves in Egypt, and carefully follow these statutes. 

You are to celebrate the Feast of Tabernacles  for seven days after you have gathered the produce of your threshing floor and your winepress. 

And you shall rejoice in your feast—you, your sons and daughters, your menservants and maidservants, and the Levite, as well as the foreigner, the fatherless, and the widows among you. 

For seven days you shall celebrate a feast to the LORD your God in the place He will choose, because the LORD your God will bless you in all your produce and in all the work of your hands, so that your joy will be complete. 

Three times a year all your men are to appear before the LORD your God in the place He will choose: at the Feast of Unleavened Bread, the Feast of Weeks, and the Feast of Tabernacles. No one should appear before the LORD empty-handed. 

Everyone must appear with a gift as he is able, according to the blessing the LORD your God has given you. 

You are to appoint judges and officials for your tribes in every town that the LORD your God is giving you. They are to judge the people with righteous judgment. 

Do not deny justice or show partiality. Do not accept a bribe, for a bribe blinds the eyes of the wise and twists the words of the righteous. 

Pursue justice, and justice alone, so that you may live, and you may possess the land that the LORD your God is giving you. 

Do not set up any wooden Asherah pole next to the altar you will build for the LORD your God, and do not set up for yourselves a sacred pillar, which the LORD your God hates.

Deuteronomy 17

You shall not sacrifice to the LORD your God an ox or a sheep with any defect or serious flaw, for that is detestable to the LORD your God. 

If a man or woman among you in one of the towns that the LORD your God gives you is found doing evil in the sight of the LORD your God by transgressing His covenant and going to worship other gods, bowing down to them or to the sun or moon or any of the host of heaven—which I have forbidden— and if it is reported and you hear about it, you must investigate it thoroughly. 

If the report is true and such an abomination has happened in Israel, you must bring out to your gates the man or woman who has done this evil thing, and you must stone that person to death. 

On the testimony of two or three witnesses a man shall be put to death, but he shall not be executed on the testimony of a lone witness. 

The hands of the witnesses shall be the first in putting him to death, and after that, the hands of all the people. So you must purge the evil from among you. 

If a case is too difficult for you to judge, whether the controversy within your gates is regarding bloodshed, lawsuits, or assaults, you must go up to the place the LORD your God will choose. 

You are to go to the Levitical priests and to the judge who presides at that time. Inquire of them, and they will give you a verdict in the case. 

You must abide by the verdict they give you at the place the LORD will choose. Be careful to do everything they instruct you, according to the terms of law they give and the verdict they proclaim. Do not turn aside to the right or to the left from the decision they declare to you. 

But the man who acts presumptuously, refusing to listen either to the priest who stands there to serve the LORD your God, or to the judge, must be put to death. You must purge the evil from Israel. 

Then all the people will hear and be afraid, and will no longer behave arrogantly. 

When you enter the land that the LORD your God is giving you and have taken possession of it and settled in it, and you say, “Let us set a king over us like all the nations around us,” you are to appoint over yourselves the king whom the LORD your God shall choose. Appoint a king from among your brothers; you are not to set over yourselves a foreigner who is not one of your brothers. 

But the king must not acquire many horses for himself or send the people back to Egypt to acquire more horses, for the LORD has said, ‘You are never to go back that way again.’ 

He must not take many wives for himself, lest his heart go astray. He must not accumulate for himself large amounts of silver and gold. 

When he is seated on his royal throne, he must write for himself a copy of this instruction on a scroll in the presence of the Levitical priests. 

It is to remain with him, and he is to read from it all the days of his life, so that he may learn to fear the LORD his God by carefully observing all the words of this instruction and these statutes. 

Then his heart will not be exalted above his countrymen, and he will not turn aside from the commandment, to the right or to the left, in order that he and his sons may reign many years over his kingdom in Israel.

Deuteronomy 18

The Levitical priests—indeed the whole tribe of Levi—shall have no portion or inheritance with Israel. They are to eat the offerings made by fire to the LORD; that is their inheritance. 

Although they have no inheritance among their brothers, the LORD is their inheritance, as He promised them. 

This shall be the priests’ share from the people who offer a sacrifice, whether a bull or a sheep: the priests are to be given the shoulder, the jowls, and the stomach. 

You are to give them the firstfruits of your grain, new wine, and oil, and the first wool sheared from your flock. 

For the LORD your God has chosen Levi and his sons out of all your tribes to stand and minister in His name for all time. 

Now if a Levite moves from any town of residence throughout Israel and comes in all earnestness to the place the LORD will choose, then he shall serve in the name of the LORD his God like all his fellow Levites who stand there before the LORD. 

They shall eat equal portions, even though he has received money from the sale of his father’s estate. 

When you enter the land that the LORD your God is giving you, do not imitate the detestable ways of the nations there. 

Let no one be found among you who sacrifices his son or daughter in the fire, practices divination or conjury, interprets omens, practices sorcery, casts spells, consults a medium or spiritist, or inquires of the dead. 

For whoever does these things is detestable to the LORD. And because of these detestable things, the LORD your God is driving out the nations before you. 

You must be blameless before the LORD your God. 

Though these nations, which you will dispossess, listen to conjurers and diviners, the LORD your God has not permitted you to do so. 

The LORD your God will raise up for you a prophet like me from among your brothers. You must listen to him. 

This is what you asked of the LORD your God at Horeb  on the day of the assembly, when you said, “Let us not hear the voice of the LORD our God or see this great fire anymore, so that we will not die!” 

Then the LORD said to me, “They have spoken well. 

I will raise up for them a prophet like you from among their brothers. I will put My words in his mouth, and he will tell them everything I command him. 

And I will hold accountable anyone who does not listen to My words that the prophet speaks in My name. 

But if any prophet dares to speak a message in My name that I have not commanded him to speak, or to speak in the name of other gods, that prophet must be put to death.” 

You may ask in your heart, “How can we recognize a message that the LORD has not spoken?” 

When a prophet speaks in the name of the LORD and the message does not come to pass or come true, that is a message the LORD has not spoken. The prophet has spoken presumptuously. Do not be afraid of him.

Deuteronomy 19

When the LORD your God has cut off the nations whose land He is giving you, and when you have driven them out and settled in their cities and houses, then you are to set apart for yourselves three cities within the land that the LORD your God is giving you to possess. 

You are to build roads for yourselves  and divide into three regions the land that the LORD your God is giving you as an inheritance, so that any manslayer can flee to these cities. 

Now this is the situation regarding the manslayer who flees to one of these cities to save his life, having killed his neighbor accidentally, without intending to harm him: 

If he goes into the forest with his neighbor to cut timber and swings his axe to chop down a tree, but the blade flies off the handle and strikes and kills his neighbor, he may flee to one of these cities to save his life. 

Otherwise, the avenger of blood might pursue the manslayer in a rage, overtake him if the distance is great, and strike him dead though he did not deserve to die, since he did not intend any harm. 

This is why I am commanding you to set apart for yourselves three cities. 

And if the LORD your God enlarges your territory, as He swore to your fathers, and gives you all the land He promised them, and if you carefully keep all these commandments I am giving you today, loving the LORD your God and walking in His ways at all times, then you are to add three more cities to these three. 

Thus innocent blood will not be shed in the land that the LORD your God is giving you as an inheritance, so that you will not be guilty of bloodshed. 

If, however, a man hates his neighbor and lies in wait, attacks him and kills him, and then flees to one of these cities, the elders of his city must send for him, bring him back, and hand him over to the avenger of blood to die. 

You must show him no pity. You are to purge from Israel the guilt of shedding innocent blood, that it may go well with you. 

You must not move your neighbor’s boundary marker, which was set up by your ancestors to mark the inheritance you shall receive in the land that the LORD your God is giving you to possess. 

A lone witness is not sufficient to establish any wrongdoing or sin against a man, regardless of what offense he may have committed. A matter must be established by the testimony of two or three witnesses. 

If a false witness testifies against someone, accusing him of a crime, both parties to the dispute must stand in the presence of the LORD, before the priests and judges who are in office at that time. 

The judges shall investigate thoroughly, and if the witness is proven to be a liar who has falsely accused his brother, you must do to him as he intended to do to his brother. So you must purge the evil from among you. 

Then the rest of the people will hear and be afraid, and they will never again do anything so evil among you. 

You must show no pity: life for life, eye for eye, tooth for tooth, hand for hand, and foot for foot.

Deuteronomy 20

When you go out to war against your enemies and see horses, chariots, and an army larger than yours, do not be afraid of them; for the LORD your God, who brought you out of the land of Egypt, is with you. 

When you are about to go into battle, the priest is to come forward and address the army, saying to them, “Hear, O Israel, today you are going into battle with your enemies. Do not be fainthearted or afraid; do not be alarmed or terrified because of them. 

For the LORD your God goes with you to fight for you against your enemies, to give you the victory.” 

Furthermore, the officers are to address the army, saying, “Has any man built a new house and not dedicated it? Let him return home, or he may die in battle and another man dedicate it. 

Has any man planted a vineyard and not begun to enjoy its fruit? Let him return home, or he may die in battle and another man enjoy its fruit. 

Has any man become pledged to a woman and not married her? Let him return home, or he may die in battle and another man marry her.” 

Then the officers shall speak further to the army, saying, “Is any man afraid or fainthearted? Let him return home, so that the hearts of his brothers will not melt like his own.” 

When the officers have finished addressing the army, they are to appoint commanders to lead it. 

When you approach a city to fight against it, you are to make an offer of peace. 

If they accept your offer of peace and open their gates, all the people there will become forced laborers to serve you. 

But if they refuse to make peace with you and wage war against you, lay siege to that city. 

When the LORD your God has delivered it into your hand, you must put every male to the sword. 

But the women, children, livestock, and whatever else is in the city—all its spoil—you may take as plunder, and you shall use the spoil of your enemies that the LORD your God gives you. 

This is how you are to treat all the cities that are far away from you and do not belong to the nations nearby. 

However, in the cities of the nations that the LORD your God is giving you as an inheritance, you must not leave alive anything that breathes. 

For you must devote them to complete destruction —the Hittites, Amorites, Canaanites, Perizzites, Hivites, and Jebusites—as the LORD your God has commanded you, so that they cannot teach you to do all the detestable things they do for their gods, and so cause you to sin against the LORD your God. 

When you lay siege to a city for an extended time while fighting against it to capture it, you must not destroy its trees by putting an axe to them, because you can eat their fruit. You must not cut them down. Are the trees of the field human, that you should besiege them? 

But you may destroy the trees that you know do not produce fruit. Use them to build siege works against the city that is waging war against you, until it falls.

Mark 10

Then Jesus left that place and went into the region of Judea, beyond the Jordan. Again the crowds came to Him and He taught them, as was His custom. 

Some Pharisees came to test Him. “Is it lawful for a man to divorce his wife?” they inquired. 

“What did Moses command you?” He replied. 

They answered, “Moses permitted a man to write his wife a certificate of divorce and send her away.” 

But Jesus told them, “Moses wrote this commandment for you because of your hardness of heart. However, from the beginning of creation, ‘God made them male and female.’ 

‘For this reason a man will leave his father and mother and be united to his wife, and the two will become one flesh.’ So they are no longer two, but one flesh. 

Therefore what God has joined together, let man not separate.” 

When they were back inside the house, the disciples asked Jesus about this matter. 

So He told them, “Whoever divorces his wife and marries another woman commits adultery against her. 

And if a woman divorces her husband and marries another man, she commits adultery.” 

Now people were bringing the little children to Jesus for Him to place His hands on them, and the disciples rebuked those who brought them. 

But when Jesus saw this, He was indignant and told them, “Let the little children come to Me, and do not hinder them! For the kingdom of God belongs to such as these. 

Truly I tell you, anyone who does not receive the kingdom of God like a little child will never enter it.” And He took the children in His arms, placed His hands on them, and blessed them. 

As Jesus started on His way, a man ran up and knelt before Him. “Good Teacher,” he asked, “what must I do to inherit eternal life?” 

“Why do you call Me good?” Jesus replied. “No one is good except God alone. 

You know the commandments: ‘Do not murder, do not commit adultery, do not steal, do not bear false witness, do not cheat others, honor your father and mother.’” 

“Teacher,” he replied, “all these I have kept from my youth.” 

Jesus looked at him, loved him, and said to him, “There is one thing you lack: Go, sell everything you own and give to the poor, and you will have treasure in heaven. Then come, follow Me.” 

But the man was saddened by these words and went away in sorrow, because he had great wealth. 

Then Jesus looked around and said to His disciples, “How hard it is for the rich to enter the kingdom of God!” 

And the disciples were amazed at His words. 

But Jesus said to them again, “Children, how hard it is to enter  the kingdom of God! 

It is easier for a camel to pass through the eye of a needle than for a rich man to enter the kingdom of God.” 

They were even more astonished and said to one another, “Who then can be saved?” 

Jesus looked at them and said, “With man this is impossible, but not with God. For all things are possible with God.” 

Peter began to say to Him, “Look, we have left everything and followed You.” 

“Truly I tell you,” Jesus replied, “no one who has left home or brothers or sisters or mother or father or children or fields for My sake and for the gospel will fail to receive a hundredfold in the present age—houses and brothers and sisters and mothers and children and fields, along with persecutions—and in the age to come, eternal life. 

But many who are first will be last, and the last will be first.” 

As they were going up the road to Jerusalem, Jesus was walking ahead of them. The disciples were amazed, but those who followed were afraid. Again Jesus took the Twelve aside and began to tell them what was going to happen to Him: 

“Look, we are going up to Jerusalem, and the Son of Man will be delivered over to the chief priests and scribes. They will condemn Him to death and will deliver Him over to the Gentiles, who will mock Him and spit on Him and flog Him and kill Him. And after three days He will rise again.” 

Then James and John, the sons of Zebedee, came to Jesus and declared, “Teacher, we want You to do for us whatever we ask.” 

“What do you want Me to do for you?” He inquired. 

They answered, “Grant that one of us may sit at Your right hand and the other at Your left in Your glory.” 

“You do not know what you are asking,” Jesus replied. “Can you drink the cup I will drink, or be baptized with the baptism I will undergo?” 

“We can,” the brothers answered. 

“You will drink the cup that I drink,” Jesus said, “and you will be baptized with the baptism that I undergo. 

But to sit at My right or left is not Mine to grant. These seats belong to those for whom  they have been prepared.” 

When the ten heard about this, they became indignant with James and John. 

So Jesus called them together and said, “You know that those regarded as rulers of the Gentiles lord it over them, and their superiors exercise authority over them. 

But it shall not be this way among you. Instead, whoever wants to become great among you must be your servant, and whoever wants to be first must be the slave of all. 

For even the Son of Man did not come to be served, but to serve, and to give His life as a ransom for many.” 

Next, they came to Jericho. And as Jesus and His disciples were leaving Jericho with a large crowd, a blind beggar named Bartimaeus, the son of Timaeus, was sitting beside the road. 

When he heard that it was Jesus of Nazareth, he began to cry out, “Jesus, Son of David, have mercy on me!” 

Many people admonished him to be silent, but he cried out all the louder, “Son of David, have mercy on me!” 

Jesus stopped and said, “Call him.” 

So they called the blind man. “Take courage!” they said. “Get up! He is calling for you.” 

Throwing off his cloak, Bartimaeus jumped up and came to Jesus. 

“What do you want Me to do for you?” Jesus asked. 

“Rabboni,” said the blind man, “let me see again.” 

“Go,” said Jesus, “your faith has healed you.” And immediately he received his sight and followed Jesus along the road.

It occurred to me today that, as the New Testament is the fulfillment of the patterns of the Old Testament, so the blessing/curse setup at the mountains of Ebal and Gerazim probably mirror the reality that the good news for the elect is bad news for the reprobate.

Many today cannot seem to comprehend that the good news of Jesus Christ has concomitant bad news. The good news is that God sent his Son to accomplish on the cross what was necessary to cover over the blight of our sin. The bad news for the reprobate is that there is no way to be saved outside of Christ. That those who live and die outside of Christ will not inherit the Kingdom of God.

Moses was clear that God’s good promises were for all those who would obey the Lord. But if the people rebelled, then the blessings would turn to curses, and those curses would rightly sit upon the people. If anything, this pattern continues in Christ. To spurn his good gift is the worst thing we can do.

So in the New Testament, Jesus warns us today that if our hand causes us to sin, then we should cut it off. It is worth it because of the prize awarded to the faithful. So may we be people of the promise, people of the good news, people willing to part with precious things for the sake of the Kingdom!

Deuteronomy 11

You shall therefore love the LORD your God and always keep His charge, His statutes, His ordinances, and His commandments. 

Know this day that it is not your children who have known and seen the discipline of the LORD your God: His greatness, His mighty hand, and His outstretched arm; the signs and works He did in Egypt to Pharaoh king of Egypt and all his land; what He did to the Egyptian army and horses and chariots when He made the waters of the Red Sea  engulf them as they pursued you, and how He destroyed them completely, even to this day; what He did for you in the wilderness until you reached this place; and what He did in the midst of all the Israelites to Dathan and Abiram, the sons of Eliab the Reubenite, when the earth opened its mouth and swallowed them, their households, their tents, and every living thing that belonged to them. 

For it is your own eyes that have seen every great work that the LORD has done. 

You shall therefore keep every commandment I am giving you today, so that you may have the strength to go in and possess the land that you are crossing the Jordan to possess, and so that you may live long in the land that the LORD swore to your fathers to give them and their descendants, a land flowing with milk and honey. 

For the land that you are entering to possess is not like the land of Egypt, from which you have come, where you sowed your seed and irrigated on foot, like a vegetable garden. 

But the land that you are crossing the Jordan to possess is a land of mountains and valleys that drinks in the rain from heaven. 

It is a land for which the LORD your God cares; the eyes of the LORD your God are always on it, from the beginning to the end of the year. 

So if you carefully obey the commandments I am giving you today, to love the LORD your God and to serve Him with all your heart and with all your soul, then I will provide  rain for your land in season, the autumn and spring rains, that you may gather your grain, new wine, and oil. 

And I will provide grass in the fields for your livestock, and you will eat and be satisfied. 

But be careful that you are not enticed to turn aside to worship and bow down to other gods, or the anger of the LORD will be kindled against you. He will shut the heavens so that there will be no rain, nor will the land yield its produce, and you will soon perish from the good land that the LORD is giving you. 

Fix these words of mine in your hearts and minds; tie them as reminders on your hands and bind them on your foreheads. 

Teach them to your children, speaking about them when you sit at home and when you walk along the road, when you lie down and when you get up. 

Write them on the doorposts of your houses and on your gates, so that as long as the heavens are above the earth, your days and those of your children may be multiplied in the land that the LORD swore to give your fathers. 

For if you carefully keep all these commandments I am giving you to follow—to love the LORD your God, to walk in all His ways, and to hold fast to Him— then the LORD will drive out all these nations before you, and you will dispossess nations greater and stronger than you. 

Every place where the sole of your foot treads will be yours. Your territory will extend from the wilderness to Lebanon, and from the Euphrates River to the Western Sea. 

No man will be able to stand against you; the LORD your God will put the fear and dread of you upon all the land, wherever you set foot, as He has promised you. 

See, today I am setting before you a blessing and a curse— a blessing if you obey the commandments of the LORD your God that I am giving you today, but a curse if you disobey the commandments of the LORD your God and turn aside from the path I command you today by following other gods, which you have not known. 

When the LORD your God brings you into the land you are entering to possess, you are to proclaim the blessing on Mount Gerizim and the curse on Mount Ebal. 

Are not these mountains across the Jordan, west of the road toward the sunset, in the land of the Canaanites who live in the Arabah opposite Gilgal near the Oak  of Moreh? 

For you are about to cross the Jordan to enter and possess the land that the LORD your God is giving you. When you take possession of it and settle in it, be careful to follow all the statutes and ordinances that I am setting before you today.

Deuteronomy 12

These are the statutes and ordinances you must be careful to follow all the days you live in the land that the LORD, the God of your fathers, has given you to possess. 

Destroy completely all the places where the nations you are dispossessing have served their gods—atop the high mountains, on the hills, and under every green tree. 

Tear down their altars, smash their sacred pillars, burn up their Asherah poles, cut down the idols of their gods, and wipe out their names from every place. 

You shall not worship the LORD your God in this way. 

Instead, you must seek the place the LORD your God will choose from among all your tribes to establish as a dwelling for His Name, and there you must go. 

To that place you are to bring your burnt offerings and sacrifices, your tithes and heave offerings, your vow offerings and freewill offerings, as well as the firstborn of your herds and flocks. 

There, in the presence of the LORD your God, you and your households shall eat and rejoice in all you do, because the LORD your God has blessed you. 

You are not to do as we are doing here today, where everyone does what seems right in his own eyes. 

For you have not yet come to the resting place and the inheritance that the LORD your God is giving you. 

When you cross the Jordan and live in the land that the LORD your God is giving you as an inheritance, and He gives you rest from all the enemies around you and you dwell securely, then the LORD your God will choose a dwelling for His Name. And there you are to bring everything I command you: your burnt offerings and sacrifices, your tithes and special gifts, and all the choice offerings you vow to the LORD. 

And you shall rejoice before the LORD your God—you, your sons and daughters, your menservants and maidservants, and the Levite within your gates, since he has no portion or inheritance among you. 

Be careful not to offer your burnt offerings in just any place you see; you must offer them only in the place the LORD will choose in one of your tribal territories, and there you shall do all that I command you. 

But whenever you want, you may slaughter and eat meat within any of your gates, according to the blessing the LORD your God has given you. Both the ceremonially clean and unclean may eat it as they would a gazelle or deer, but you must not eat the blood; pour it on the ground like water. 

Within your gates you must not eat the tithe of your grain or new wine or oil, the firstborn of your herds or flocks, any of the offerings that you have vowed to give, or your freewill offerings or special gifts. 

Instead, you must eat them in the presence of the LORD your God at the place the LORD your God will choose—you, your sons and daughters, your menservants and maidservants, and the Levite within your gates. Rejoice before the LORD your God in all you do, and be careful not to neglect the Levites as long as you live in your land. 

When the LORD your God expands your territory as He has promised, and you crave meat and say, “I want to eat meat,” you may eat it whenever you want. 

If the place where the LORD your God chooses to put His Name is too far from you, then you may slaughter any of the herd or flock He has given you, as I have commanded you, and you may eat it within your gates whenever you want. 

Indeed, you may eat it as you would eat a gazelle or deer; both the ceremonially unclean and the clean may eat it. 

Only be sure not to eat the blood, because the blood is the life, and you must not eat the life with the meat. You must not eat the blood; pour it on the ground like water. 

Do not eat it, so that it may go well with you and your children after you, because you will be doing what is right in the eyes of the LORD. 

But you are to take your holy things and your vow offerings and go to the place the LORD will choose. 

Present the meat and blood of your burnt offerings on the altar of the LORD your God. The blood of your other sacrifices must be poured out beside the altar of the LORD your God, but you may eat the meat. 

Be careful to obey all these things I command you, so that it may always go well with you and your children after you, because you will be doing what is good and right in the eyes of the LORD your God. 

When the LORD your God cuts off before you the nations you are entering to dispossess, and you drive them out and live in their land, be careful not to be ensnared by their ways after they have been destroyed before you. Do not inquire about their gods, asking, “How do these nations serve their gods? I will do likewise.” 

You must not worship the LORD your God in this way, because they practice for their gods every abomination which the LORD hates. They even burn their sons and daughters in the fire as sacrifices to their gods. 

See that you do everything I command you; do not add to it or subtract from it.

Deuteronomy 13

If a prophet or dreamer of dreams arises among you and proclaims a sign or wonder to you, and if the sign or wonder he has spoken to you comes about, but he says, “Let us follow other gods (which you have not known) and let us worship them,” you must not listen to the words of that prophet or dreamer. For the LORD your God is testing you to find out whether you love Him with all your heart and with all your soul. 

You are to follow the LORD your God and fear Him. Keep His commandments and listen to His voice; serve Him and hold fast to Him. 

Such a prophet or dreamer must be put to death, because he has advocated rebellion against the LORD your God, who brought you out of the land of Egypt and redeemed you from the house of slavery; he has tried to turn you from the way in which the LORD your God has commanded you to walk. So you must purge the evil from among you. 

If your very own brother, or your son or daughter, or the wife you embrace, or your closest friend secretly entices you, saying, “Let us go and worship other gods” (which neither you nor your fathers have known, the gods of the peoples around you, whether near or far, whether from one end of the earth or the other), you must not yield to him or listen to him. Show him no pity, and do not spare him or shield him. 

Instead, you must surely kill him. Your hand must be the first against him to put him to death, and then the hands of all the people. 

Stone him to death for trying to turn you away from the LORD your God, who brought you out of the land of Egypt, out of the house of slavery. 

Then all Israel will hear and be afraid, and will never again do such a wicked thing among you. 

If, regarding one of the cities the LORD your God is giving you to inhabit, you hear it said that wicked men have arisen from among you and have led the people of their city astray, saying, “Let us go and serve other gods” (which you have not known), then you must inquire, investigate, and interrogate thoroughly. And if it is established with certainty that this abomination has been committed among you, you must surely put the inhabitants of that city to the sword. Devote to destruction  all its people and livestock. 

And you are to gather all its plunder in the middle of the public square, and completely burn the city and all its plunder as a whole burnt offering to the LORD your God. The city must remain a mound of ruins forever, never to be rebuilt. 

Nothing devoted to destruction shall cling to your hands, so that the LORD will turn from His fierce anger, grant you mercy, show you compassion, and multiply you as He swore to your fathers, because you obey the LORD your God, keeping all His commandments I am giving you today and doing what is right in the eyes of the LORD your God.

Deuteronomy 14

You are sons of the LORD your God; do not cut yourselves or shave your foreheads on behalf of the dead, for you are a people holy to the LORD your God. The LORD has chosen you to be a people for His prized possession out of all the peoples on the face of the earth. 

You must not eat any detestable thing. These are the animals that you may eat: 

The ox, the sheep, the goat, the deer, the gazelle, the roe deer, the wild goat, the ibex, the antelope, and the mountain sheep. 

You may eat any animal that has a split hoof divided in two and that chews the cud. 

But of those that chew the cud or have a completely divided hoof, you are not to eat the following: 

the camel, the rabbit, or the rock badger. 

Although they chew the cud, they do not have a divided hoof. They are unclean for you, as well as the pig; though it has a divided hoof, it does not chew the cud. It is unclean for you. You must not eat its meat or touch its carcass. 

Of all the creatures that live in the water, you may eat anything with fins and scales, but you may not eat anything that does not have fins and scales; it is unclean for you. 

You may eat any clean bird, but these you may not eat: 

the eagle, the bearded vulture, the black vulture, the red kite, the falcon, any kind of kite, any kind of raven, the ostrich, the screech owl, the gull, any kind of hawk, the little owl, the great owl, the white owl, the desert owl, the osprey, the cormorant, the stork, any kind of heron, the hoopoe, or the bat. 

All flying insects are unclean for you; they may not be eaten. But you may eat any clean bird. 

You are not to eat any carcass; you may give it to the foreigner residing within your gates, and he may eat it, or you may sell it to a foreigner. For you are a holy people belonging to the LORD your God. 

You must not cook a young goat in its mother’s milk. 

You must be sure to set aside a tenth of all the produce brought forth each year from your fields. 

And you are to eat a tenth of your grain, new wine, and oil, and the firstborn of your herds and flocks, in the presence of the LORD your God at the place He will choose as a dwelling for His Name, so that you may learn to fear the LORD your God always. 

But if the distance is too great for you to carry that with which the LORD your God has blessed you, because the place where the LORD your God will choose to put His Name is too far away, then exchange it for money, take the money in your hand, and go to the place the LORD your God will choose. 

Then you may spend the money on anything you desire: cattle, sheep, wine, strong drink, or anything you wish. You are to feast there in the presence of the LORD your God and rejoice with your household. 

And do not neglect the Levite within your gates, since he has no portion or inheritance among you. 

At the end of every three years, bring a tenth of all your produce for that year and lay it up within your gates. 

Then the Levite (because he has no portion or inheritance among you), the foreigner, the fatherless, and the widow within your gates may come and eat and be satisfied. And the LORD your God will bless you in all the work of your hands.

Deuteronomy 15

At the end of every seven years you must cancel debts. 

This is the manner of remission: Every creditor shall cancel what he has loaned to his neighbor. He is not to collect anything from his neighbor or brother, because the LORD’s time of release has been proclaimed. 

You may collect something from a foreigner, but you must forgive whatever your brother owes you. 

There will be no poor among you, however, because the LORD will surely bless you in the land that the LORD your God is giving you to possess as an inheritance, if only you obey the LORD your God and are careful to follow all these commandments I am giving you today. 

When the LORD your God blesses you as He has promised, you will lend to many nations but borrow from none; you will rule over many nations but be ruled by none. 

If there is a poor man among your brothers within any of the gates in the land that the LORD your God is giving you, then you are not to harden  your heart or shut your hand from your poor brother. 

Instead, you are to open your hand to him and freely loan him whatever he needs. 

Be careful not to harbor this wicked thought in your heart: “The seventh year, the year of release, is near,” so that you look upon your poor brother begrudgingly and give him nothing. He will cry out to the LORD against you, and you will be guilty of sin. 

Give generously to him, and do not let your heart be grieved when you do so. And because of this the LORD your God will bless you in all your work and in everything to which you put your hand. 

For there will never cease to be poor in the land; that is why I am commanding you to open wide your hand to your brother and to the poor and needy in your land. 

If a fellow Hebrew, a man or a woman, is sold  to you and serves you six years, then in the seventh year you must set him free. 

And when you release him, do not send him away empty-handed. 

You are to furnish him liberally from your flock, your threshing floor, and your winepress. You shall give to him as the LORD your God has blessed you. 

Remember that you were slaves in the land of Egypt, and the LORD your God redeemed you; that is why I am giving you this command today. 

But if your servant says to you, ‘I do not want to leave you,’ because he loves you and your household and is well off with you, then take an awl and pierce it through his ear into the door, and he will become your servant for life. And treat your maidservant the same way. 

Do not regard it as a hardship to set your servant free, because his six years of service were worth twice the wages of a hired hand. And the LORD your God will bless you in all you do. 

You must set apart to the LORD your God every firstborn male produced by your herds and flocks. You are not to put the firstborn of your oxen to work, nor are you to shear the firstborn of your flock. 

Each year you and your household are to eat it before the LORD your God in the place the LORD will choose. 

But if an animal has a defect, is lame or blind, or has any serious flaw, you must not sacrifice it to the LORD your God. 

Eat it within your gates; both the ceremonially unclean and clean may eat it as they would a gazelle or a deer. But you must not eat the blood; pour it on the ground like water.

Mark 9

Then Jesus said to them, “Truly I tell you, there are some standing here who will not taste death before they see the kingdom of God arrive with power.” 

After six days Jesus took with Him Peter, James, and John, and led them up a high mountain by themselves. There He was transfigured before them. 

His clothes became radiantly white, brighter than any launderer on earth could bleach them. And Elijah and Moses appeared before them, talking with Jesus. 

Peter said to Jesus, “Rabbi, it is good for us to be here. Let us put up three shelters —one for You, one for Moses, and one for Elijah.” 

For they were all so terrified that Peter did not know what else to say. 

Then a cloud appeared and enveloped them, and a voice came from the cloud: “This is My beloved Son. Listen to Him!” 

Suddenly, when they looked around, they saw no one with them except Jesus. 

As they were coming down the mountain, Jesus admonished them not to tell anyone what they had seen until the Son of Man had risen from the dead. 

So they kept this matter to themselves, discussing what it meant to rise from the dead. And they asked Jesus, “Why do the scribes say that Elijah must come first?” 

He replied, “Elijah does indeed come first, and he restores all things. Why then is it written that the Son of Man must suffer many things and be rejected? 

But I tell you that Elijah has indeed come, and they have done to him whatever they wished, just as it is written about him.” 

When they returned to the other disciples, they saw a large crowd around them, and scribes arguing with them. 

As soon as all the people saw Jesus, they were filled with awe and ran to greet Him. 

“What are you disputing with them?” He asked. 

Someone in the crowd replied, “Teacher, I brought You my son, who has a spirit that makes him mute. Whenever it seizes him, it throws him to the ground. He foams at the mouth, gnashes his teeth, and becomes rigid. I asked Your disciples to drive it out, but they were unable.” 

“O unbelieving generation!” Jesus replied. “How long must I remain with you? How long must I put up with you? Bring the boy to Me.” 

So they brought him, and seeing Jesus, the spirit immediately threw the boy into a convulsion. He fell to the ground and rolled around, foaming at the mouth. 

Jesus asked the boy’s father, “How long has this been with him?” 

“From childhood,” he said. 

“It often throws him into the fire or into the water, trying to kill him. But if You can do anything, have compassion on us and help us.” 

“If You can?” echoed Jesus. “All things are possible to him who believes!” 

Immediately the boy’s father cried out, “I do believe; help my unbelief!” 

When Jesus saw that a crowd had come running, He rebuked the unclean spirit. “You deaf and mute spirit,” He said, “I command you to come out and never enter him again.” 

After shrieking and convulsing him violently, the spirit came out. The boy became like a corpse, so that many said, “He is dead.” 

But Jesus took him by the hand and helped him to his feet, and he stood up. 

After Jesus had gone into the house, His disciples asked Him privately, “Why couldn’t we drive it out?” 

Jesus answered, “This kind cannot come out, except by prayer.” 

Going on from there, they passed through Galilee. But Jesus did not want anyone to know, because He was teaching His disciples. He told them, “The Son of Man will be delivered into the hands of men. They will kill Him, and after three days He will rise.” 

But they did not understand this statement, and they were afraid to ask Him about it. 

Then they came to Capernaum. While Jesus was in the house, He asked them, “What were you discussing on the way?” 

But they were silent, for on the way they had been arguing about which of them was the greatest. 

Sitting down, Jesus called the Twelve and said, “If anyone wants to be first, he must be the last of all and the servant of all.” 

Then He had a little child stand among them. Taking the child in His arms, He said to them, 

“Whoever welcomes one of these little children in My name welcomes Me, and whoever welcomes Me welcomes not only Me, but the One who sent Me.” 

John said to Him, “Teacher, we saw someone else driving out demons in Your name, and we tried to stop him, because he does not accompany us.” 

“Do not stop him,” Jesus replied. “For no one who performs a miracle in My name can turn around and speak evil of Me. For whoever is not against us is for us. 

Indeed, if anyone gives you even a cup of water because you bear the name of Christ, truly I tell you, he will never lose his reward. 

But if anyone causes one of these little ones who believe in Me to stumble, it would be better for him to have a large millstone hung around his neck and to be thrown into the sea. 

If your hand causes you to sin, cut it off. It is better for you to enter life crippled than to have two hands and go into hell, into the unquenchable fire. 

If your foot causes you to sin, cut it off. It is better for you to enter life lame than to have two feet and be thrown into hell. 

And if your eye causes you to sin, pluck it out. It is better for you to enter the kingdom of God with one eye than to have two eyes and be thrown into hell, where ‘their worm never dies, and the fire is never quenched.’ For everyone will be salted with fire. 

Salt is good, but if the salt loses its saltiness, with what will you season it? Have salt among yourselves, and be at peace with one another.”

Notice that giants come up again in this. The “sons of Anak” are the Anakim, descendants of the Nephilim. God explains why it is that the Israelites are to annihilate them out out of the land. It isn’t because the Israelites were righteous, but because the six major people groups of the area were so wicked. This is too distasteful a notion for many moderns. But it is what it is. God is righteous in all his ways.

I should apologize for all the cuts in the recordings lately. I had a sinus infection a month ago that has held onto me in the form of a deep cough. It causes problems from time to time. Thanks for bearing with me!

Deuteronomy 6

These are the commandments and statutes and ordinances that the LORD your God has instructed me to teach you to follow in the land that you are about to enter and possess, so that you and your children and grandchildren may fear the LORD your God all the days of your lives by keeping all His statutes and commandments that I give you, and so that your days may be prolonged. 

Hear, O Israel, and be careful to observe them, so that you may prosper and multiply greatly in a land flowing with milk and honey, just as the LORD, the God of your fathers, has promised you. 

Hear, O Israel: The LORD our God, the LORD is One. And you shall love the LORD your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your strength. 

These words I am commanding you today are to be upon your hearts. 

And you shall teach them diligently to your children and speak of them when you sit at home and when you walk along the road, when you lie down and when you get up. 

Tie them as reminders on your hands and bind them on your foreheads. Write them on the doorposts of your houses and on your gates. 

And when the LORD your God brings you into the land He swore to your fathers, to Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob, that He would give you—a land with great and splendid cities that you did not build, with houses full of every good thing with which you did not fill them, with wells that you did not dig, and with vineyards and olive groves that you did not plant—and when you eat and are satisfied, be careful not to forget the LORD who brought you out of the land of Egypt, out of the house of slavery. 

Fear the LORD your God, serve Him only, and take your oaths in His name. Do not follow other gods, the gods of the peoples around you. 

For the LORD your God, who is among you, is a jealous God. Otherwise the anger of the LORD your God will be kindled against you, and He will wipe you off the face of the earth. 

Do not test the LORD your God as you tested Him at Massah. 

You are to diligently keep the commandments of the LORD your God and the testimonies and statutes He has given you. 

Do what is right and good in the sight of the LORD, so that it may be well with you and that you may enter and possess the good land that the LORD your God swore to give your fathers, driving out all your enemies before you, as the LORD has said. 

In the future, when your son asks, “What is the meaning of the decrees and statutes and ordinances that the LORD our God has commanded you?” then you are to tell him, “We were slaves of Pharaoh in Egypt, but the LORD brought us out of Egypt with a mighty hand. 

Before our eyes the LORD inflicted great and devastating signs and wonders on Egypt, on Pharaoh, and on all his household. 

But He brought us out from there to lead us in and give us the land that He had sworn to our fathers. 

And the LORD commanded us to observe all these statutes and to fear the LORD our God, that we may always be prosperous and preserved, as we are to this day. 

And if we are careful to observe every one of these commandments before the LORD our God, as He has commanded us, then that will be our righteousness.”

Deuteronomy 7

When the LORD your God brings you into the land that you are entering to possess, and He drives out before you many nations—the Hittites, Girgashites, Amorites, Canaanites, Perizzites, Hivites, and Jebusites, seven nations larger and stronger than you—and when the LORD your God has delivered them over to you to defeat them, then you must devote them to complete destruction. Make no treaty  with them and show them no mercy. 

Do not intermarry with them. Do not give your daughters to their sons or take their daughters for your sons, because they will turn your sons away from following Me to serve other gods. Then the anger of the LORD will burn against you, and He will swiftly destroy you. 

Instead, this is what you are to do to them: tear down their altars, smash their sacred pillars, cut down their Asherah poles, and burn their idols in the fire. 

For you are a people holy to the LORD your God. The LORD your God has chosen you to be a people for His prized possession out of all peoples on the face of the earth. 

The LORD did not set His affection on you and choose you because you were more numerous than the other peoples, for you were the fewest of all peoples. 

But because the LORD loved you and kept the oath He swore to your fathers, He brought you out with a mighty hand and redeemed you from the house of slavery, from the hand of Pharaoh king of Egypt. 

Know therefore that the LORD your God is God, the faithful God who keeps His covenant of loving devotion for a thousand generations of those who love Him and keep His commandments. 

But those who hate Him He repays to their faces with destruction; He will not hesitate to repay to his face the one who hates Him. 

So keep the commandments and statutes and ordinances that I am giving you to follow this day. 

If you listen to these ordinances and keep them carefully, then the LORD your God will keep His covenant and the loving devotion that He swore to your fathers. 

He will love you and bless you and multiply you. He will bless the fruit of your womb and the produce of your land—your grain, new wine, and oil, the young of your herds and the lambs of your flocks—in the land that He swore to your fathers to give you. 

You will be blessed above all peoples; among you there will be no barren man or woman or livestock. 

And the LORD will remove from you all sickness. He will not lay upon you any of the terrible diseases you knew in Egypt, but He will inflict them on all who hate you. 

You must destroy all the peoples the LORD your God will deliver to you. Do not look on them with pity. Do not worship their gods, for that will be a snare to you. 

You may say in your heart, “These nations are greater than we are; how can we drive them out?” 

But do not be afraid of them. Be sure to remember what the LORD your God did to Pharaoh and all Egypt: the great trials that you saw, the signs and wonders, and the mighty hand and outstretched arm by which the LORD your God brought you out. The LORD your God will do the same to all the peoples you now fear. 

Moreover, the LORD your God will send the hornet against them until even the survivors hiding from you have perished. 

Do not be terrified by them, for the LORD your God, who is among you, is a great and awesome God. 

The LORD your God will drive out these nations before you little by little. You will not be enabled to eliminate them all at once, or the wild animals would multiply around you. 

But the LORD your God will give them over to you and throw them into great confusion, until they are destroyed. 

He will hand their kings over to you, and you will wipe out their names from under heaven. No one will be able to stand against you; you will annihilate them. 

You must burn up the images of their gods; do not covet the silver and gold that is on them or take it for yourselves, or you will be ensnared by it; for it is detestable to the LORD your God. 

And you must not bring any detestable thing into your house, or you, like it, will be set apart for destruction. You are to utterly detest and abhor it, because it is set apart for destruction.

Deuteronomy 8

You must carefully follow every commandment I am giving you today, so that you may live and multiply, and enter and possess the land that the LORD swore to give your fathers. 

Remember that these forty years the LORD your God led you all the way in the wilderness, so that He might humble you and test you in order to know what was in your heart, whether or not you would keep His commandments. 

He humbled you, and in your hunger He gave you manna to eat, which neither you nor your fathers had known, so that you might understand that man does not live on bread alone, but on every word that comes from the mouth of the LORD. 

Your clothing did not wear out and your feet did not swell during these forty years. 

So know in your heart that just as a man disciplines his son, so the LORD your God disciplines you. 

Therefore you shall keep the commandments of the LORD your God, walking in His ways and fearing Him. 

For the LORD your God is bringing you into a good land, a land of brooks and fountains and springs that flow through the valleys and hills; a land of wheat, barley, vines, fig trees, and pomegranates; a land of olive oil and honey; a land where you will eat food without scarcity, where you will lack nothing; a land whose rocks are iron and whose hills are ready to be mined for copper. 

When you eat and are satisfied, you are to bless the LORD your God for the good land that He has given you. 

Be careful not to forget the LORD your God by failing to keep His commandments and ordinances and statutes, which I am giving you this day. 

Otherwise, when you eat and are satisfied, when you build fine houses in which to dwell, and when your herds and flocks grow large and your silver and gold increase and all that you have is multiplied, then your heart will become proud, and you will forget the LORD your God who brought you out of the land of Egypt, out of the house of slavery. 

He led you through the vast and terrifying wilderness with its venomous snakes and scorpions, a thirsty and waterless land. He brought you water from the rock of flint. 

He fed you in the wilderness with manna that your fathers had not known, in order to humble you and test you, so that in the end He might cause you to prosper. 

You might say in your heart, “The power and strength of my hands have made this wealth for me.” 

But remember that it is the LORD your God who gives you the power to gain wealth, in order to confirm His covenant that He swore to your fathers even to this day. 

If you ever forget the LORD your God and go after other gods to worship and bow down to them, I testify against you today that you will surely perish. 

Like the nations that the LORD has destroyed before you, so you will perish if you do not obey the LORD your God.

Deuteronomy 9

Hear, O Israel: Today you are about to cross the Jordan to go in and dispossess nations greater and stronger than you, with large cities fortified to the heavens. 

The people are strong and tall, the descendants of the Anakim. You know about them, and you have heard it said, “Who can stand up to the sons of Anak?” 

But understand that today the LORD your God goes across ahead of you as a consuming fire; He will destroy them and subdue them before you. And you will drive them out and annihilate them swiftly, as the LORD has promised you. 

When the LORD your God has driven them out before you, do not say in your heart, “Because of my righteousness the LORD has brought me in to possess this land.” Rather, the LORD is driving out these nations before you because of their wickedness. 

It is not because of your righteousness or uprightness of heart that you are going in to possess their land, but it is because of their wickedness that the LORD your God is driving out these nations before you, to keep the promise He swore to your fathers, to Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob. 

Understand, then, that it is not because of your righteousness that the LORD your God is giving you this good land to possess, for you are a stiff-necked people. 

Remember this, and never forget how you provoked the LORD your God in the wilderness. From the day you left the land of Egypt until you reached this place, you have been rebelling against the LORD. 

At Horeb  you provoked the LORD, and He was angry enough to destroy you. 

When I went up on the mountain to receive the tablets of stone, the tablets of the covenant that the LORD made with you, I stayed on the mountain forty days and forty nights. I ate no bread and drank no water. 

Then the LORD gave me the two stone tablets, inscribed by the finger of God with the exact words that the LORD spoke to you out of the fire on the mountain on the day of the assembly. 

And at the end of forty days and forty nights, the LORD gave me the two stone tablets, the tablets of the covenant. 

And the LORD said to me, “Get up and go down from here at once, for your people, whom you brought out of Egypt, have corrupted themselves. How quickly they have turned aside from the way that I commanded them! They have made for themselves a molten image.” 

The LORD also said to me, “I have seen this people, and they are indeed a stiff-necked people. 

Leave Me alone, so that I may destroy them and blot out their name from under heaven. Then I will make you into a nation mightier and greater than they are.” 

So I went back down the mountain while it was blazing with fire, with the two tablets of the covenant in my hands. 

And I saw how you had sinned against the LORD your God; you had made for yourselves a molten calf. You had turned aside quickly from the way that the LORD had commanded you. 

So I took the two tablets and threw them out of my hands, shattering them before your eyes. 

Then I fell down before the LORD for forty days and forty nights, as I had done the first time. I did not eat bread or drink water because of all the sin you had committed in doing what was evil in the sight of the LORD and provoking Him to anger. 

For I was afraid  of the anger and wrath that the LORD had directed against you, enough to destroy you. But the LORD listened to me this time as well. 

The LORD was angry enough with Aaron to destroy him, but at that time I also prayed for Aaron. 

And I took that sinful thing, the calf you had made, and burned it in the fire. Then I crushed it and ground it to powder as fine as dust, and I cast it into the stream that came down from the mountain. 

You continued to provoke the LORD at Taberah, at Massah, and at Kibroth-hattaavah. 

And when the LORD sent you out from Kadesh-barnea, He said, “Go up and possess the land that I have given you.” 

But you rebelled against the command of the LORD your God. You neither believed Him nor obeyed Him. 

You have been rebelling against the LORD since the day I came to know you. 

So I fell down before the LORD for forty days and forty nights, because the LORD had said He would destroy you. 

And I prayed to the LORD and said, “O Lord GOD, do not destroy Your people, Your inheritance, whom You redeemed through Your greatness and brought out of Egypt with a mighty hand. 

Remember Your servants Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob. Overlook the stubbornness of this people and the wickedness of their sin. 

Otherwise, those in the land from which You brought us out will say, ‘Because the LORD was not able to bring them into the land He had promised them, and because He hated them, He has brought them out to kill them in the wilderness.’ 

But they are Your people, Your inheritance, whom You brought out by Your great power and outstretched arm.”

Deuteronomy 10

At that time the LORD said to me, “Chisel out two stone tablets like the originals, come up to Me on the mountain, and make an ark of wood. 

And I will write on the tablets the words that were on the first tablets, which you broke; and you are to place them in the ark.” 

So I made an ark of acacia wood, chiseled out two stone tablets like the originals, and went up the mountain with the two tablets in my hands. 

And the LORD wrote on the tablets what had been written previously, the Ten Commandments  that He had spoken to you on the mountain out of the fire on the day of the assembly. The LORD gave them to me, and I went back down the mountain and placed the tablets in the ark I had made, as the LORD had commanded me; and there they have remained. 

The Israelites traveled from Beeroth Bene-jaakan  to Moserah, where Aaron died and was buried, and Eleazar his son succeeded him as priest. 

From there they traveled to Gudgodah, and from Gudgodah to Jotbathah, a land with streams of water. 

At that time the LORD set apart the tribe of Levi to carry the ark of the covenant of the LORD, to stand before the LORD to serve Him, and to pronounce blessings in His name, as they do to this day. 

That is why Levi has no portion or inheritance among his brothers; the LORD is his inheritance, as the LORD your God promised him. 

I stayed on the mountain forty days and forty nights, like the first time, and that time the LORD again listened to me and agreed not to destroy you. 

Then the LORD said to me, “Get up. Continue your journey ahead of the people, that they may enter and possess the land that I swore to their fathers to give them.” 

And now, O Israel, what does the LORD your God ask of you but to fear the LORD your God by walking in all His ways, to love Him, to serve the LORD your God with all your heart and with all your soul, and to keep the commandments and statutes of the LORD that I am giving you this day for your own good? 

Behold, to the LORD your God belong the heavens, even the highest heavens, and the earth and everything in it. 

Yet the LORD has set His affection on your fathers and loved them. And He has chosen you, their descendants after them, above all the peoples, even to this day. 

Circumcise your hearts, therefore, and stiffen your necks no more. 

For the LORD your God is God of gods and Lord of lords, the great, mighty, and awesome God, showing no partiality and accepting no bribe. 

He executes justice for the fatherless and widow, and He loves the foreigner, giving him food and clothing. 

So you also must love the foreigner, since you yourselves were foreigners in the land of Egypt. 

You are to fear the LORD your God and serve Him. Hold fast to Him and take your oaths in His name. 

He is your praise and He is your God, who has done for you these great and awesome wonders that your eyes have seen. 

Your fathers went down to Egypt, seventy in all, and now the LORD your God has made you as numerous as the stars in the sky.

Mark 8

In those days the crowd once again became very large, and they had nothing to eat. Jesus called the disciples to Him and said, 

“I have compassion for this crowd, because they have already been with Me three days and have nothing to eat. If I send them home hungry, they will faint along the way. For some of them have come a great distance.” 

His disciples replied, “Where in this desolate place could anyone find enough bread to feed all these people?” 

“How many loaves do you have?” Jesus asked. 

“Seven,” they replied. 

And He instructed the crowd to sit down on the ground. Then He took the seven loaves, gave thanks and broke them, and gave them to His disciples to set before the people. And they distributed them to the crowd. 

They also had a few small fish, and Jesus blessed them and ordered that these be set before them as well. 

The people ate and were satisfied, and the disciples picked up seven basketfuls of broken pieces that were left over. And about four thousand men  were present. 

As soon as Jesus had dismissed the crowd, He got into the boat with His disciples and went to the district of Dalmanutha. 

Then the Pharisees came and began to argue with Jesus, testing Him by demanding from Him a sign from heaven. 

Jesus sighed deeply in His spirit and said, “Why does this generation demand a sign? Truly I tell you, no sign will be given to this generation.” And He left them, got back into the boat, and crossed to the other side. 

Now the disciples had forgotten to take bread, except for one loaf they had with them in the boat. 

“Watch out!” He cautioned them. “Beware of the leaven of the Pharisees and of Herod.” 

So they began to discuss with one another the fact that they had no bread. 

Aware of their conversation, Jesus asked them, “Why are you debating about having no bread? Do you still not see or understand? Do you have such hard hearts? 

‘Having eyes, do you not see? And having ears, do you not hear?’ And do you not remember? 

When I broke the five loaves for the five thousand, how many basketfuls of broken pieces did you collect?” 

“Twelve,” they answered. 

“And when I broke the seven loaves for the four thousand, how many basketfuls of broken pieces did you collect?” 

“Seven,” they said. 

Then He asked them, “Do you still not understand?” 

When they arrived at Bethsaida, some people brought a blind man and begged Jesus to touch him. 

So He took the blind man by the hand and led him out of the village. Then He spit on the man’s eyes and placed His hands on him. “Can you see anything?” He asked. 

The man looked up and said, “I can see the people, but they look like trees walking around.” 

Once again Jesus placed His hands on the man’s eyes, and when he opened them his sight was restored, and he could see everything clearly. 

Jesus sent him home and said, “Do not go back into the village.” 

Then Jesus and His disciples went on to the villages around Caesarea Philippi. On the way, He questioned His disciples: “Who do people say I am?” 

They replied, “Some say John the Baptist; others say Elijah; and still others, one of the prophets.” 

“But what about you?” Jesus asked. “Who do you say I am?” 

Peter answered, “You are the Christ.” 

And Jesus warned them not to tell anyone about Him. 

Then He began to teach them that the Son of Man must suffer many things and be rejected by the elders, chief priests, and scribes, and that He must be killed and after three days rise again. 

He spoke this message quite frankly, and Peter took Him aside and began to rebuke Him. 

But Jesus, turning and looking at His disciples, rebuked Peter and said, “Get behind Me, Satan! For you do not have in mind the things of God, but the things of men.” 

Then Jesus called the crowd to Him along with His disciples, and He told them, “If anyone wants to come after Me, he must deny himself and take up his cross and follow Me. 

For whoever wants to save his life will lose it, but whoever loses his life for My sake and for the gospel will save it. 

What does it profit a man to gain the whole world, yet forfeit his soul? Or what can a man give in exchange for his soul? 

If anyone is ashamed of Me and My words in this adulterous and sinful generation, the Son of Man will also be ashamed of him when He comes in His Father’s glory with the holy angels.”

The more times I read Deuteronomy, the more otherworldly it seems. I remember the first time I read Lord of the Rings, I complained to my father than the mythology of Middle Earth was so much richer than anything else I had read. "You should read the bible!" he said. He wasn't wrong. Unfortunately, it took a lot of listening to Dr. Michael Heiser on the Naked Bible Podcast for me to wake up and see how many layers there are here. For instance, in today's reading, Moses is describing the literal historical manifestation of God's presence on Mt. Horeb, where the Israelites quite literally heard the voice of the LORD. Something about this encounter convinced them that just the sound alone was on the verge of killing them all. Can you imagine?

Covering this much of Mark in one stroke is rich, too. Mark hops quickly from story to story. A lot of ground is covered in these few chapters, giving us a bit of whiplash as we try to piece it all together. Do your best to keep up!

Deuteronomy 5

Then Moses summoned all Israel and said to them: 

Hear, O Israel, the statutes and ordinances that I declare in your hearing this day. Learn them and observe them carefully. 

The LORD our God made a covenant with us at Horeb. 

He did not make this covenant with our fathers, but with all of us who are alive here today. The LORD spoke with you face to face out of the fire on the mountain. 

At that time I was standing between the LORD and you to declare to you the word of the LORD, because you were afraid of the fire and would not go up the mountain. And He said: 

“I am the LORD your God, who brought you out of the land of Egypt, out of the house of slavery. You shall have no other gods before Me. You shall not make for yourself an idol in the form of anything in the heavens above, on the earth below, or in the waters beneath. 

You shall not bow down to them or worship them; for I, the LORD your God, am a jealous God, visiting the iniquity of the fathers on their children to the third and fourth generations of those who hate Me, but showing loving devotion to a thousand generations  of 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 leave anyone unpunished who takes His name in vain. 

Observe the Sabbath day by keeping it holy, as the LORD your God has commanded you. Six days you shall labor and do all your work, but the seventh day is a Sabbath to the LORD your God, on which you must not do any work—neither you, nor your son or daughter, nor your manservant or maidservant, nor your ox or donkey or any of your livestock, nor the foreigner within your gates, so that your manservant and maidservant may rest as you do. 

Remember that you were a slave in the land of Egypt, and that the LORD your God brought you out of there with a mighty hand and an outstretched arm. That is why the LORD your God has commanded you to keep the Sabbath day. 

Honor your father and your mother, as the LORD your God has commanded you, so that your days may be long and that it may go well with you in the land that 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. You shall not covet your neighbor’s house or field, or his manservant or maidservant, or his ox or donkey, or anything that belongs to your neighbor.” 

The LORD spoke these commandments in a loud voice to your whole assembly out of the fire, the cloud, and the deep darkness on the mountain; He added nothing more. And He wrote them on two tablets of stone and gave them to me. 

And when you heard the voice out of the darkness while the mountain was blazing with fire, all the heads of your tribes and your elders approached me, and you said, “Behold, the LORD our God has shown us His glory and greatness, and we have heard His voice out of the fire. Today we have seen that a man can live even if God speaks with him. 

But now, why should we die? For this great fire will consume us, and we will die, if we hear the voice of the LORD our God any longer. 

For who of all flesh has heard the voice of the living God speaking out of the fire, as we have, and survived? 

Go near and listen to all that the LORD our God says. Then you can tell us everything the LORD our God tells you; we will listen and obey.” 

And the LORD heard the words you spoke to me, and He said to me, “I have heard the words that these people have spoken to you. They have done well in all that they have spoken. 

If only they had such a heart to fear Me and keep all My commandments always, so that it might be well with them and with their children forever. 

Go and tell them: ‘Return to your tents.’ But you stand here with Me, that I may speak to you all the commandments and statutes and ordinances you are to teach them to follow in the land that I am giving them to possess.” 

So be careful to do as the LORD your God has commanded you; you are not to turn aside to the right or to the left. 

You must walk in all the ways that the LORD your God has commanded you, so that you may live and prosper and prolong your days in the land that you will possess.

Mark 3

Once again Jesus entered the synagogue, and a man with a withered hand was there. In order to accuse Jesus, they were watching to see if He would heal on the Sabbath. 

Then Jesus said to the man with the withered hand, “Stand up among us.” And He asked them, “Which is lawful on the Sabbath: to do good or to do evil, to save life or to destroy it?” 

But they were silent. 

Jesus looked around at them with anger and sorrow at their hardness of heart. Then He said to the man, “Stretch out your hand.” So he stretched it out, and it was restored. 

At this, the Pharisees went out and began plotting with the Herodians how they might kill Jesus. 

So Jesus withdrew with His disciples to the sea, accompanied by a large crowd from Galilee, Judea, 

Jerusalem, Idumea, the region beyond the Jordan, and the vicinity of Tyre and Sidon. The large crowd came to Him when they heard what great things He was doing. 

Jesus asked His disciples to have a boat ready for Him so that the crowd would not crush Him. 

For He had healed so many that all who had diseases were pressing forward to touch Him. 

And when the unclean spirits saw Him, they fell down before Him and cried out, “You are the Son of God!” But He warned them sternly not to make Him known. 

Then Jesus went up on the mountain and called for those He wanted, and they came to Him. 

He appointed twelve of them, whom He designated as apostles, to accompany Him, to be sent out to preach, and to have authority to drive out demons. 

These are the twelve He appointed: Simon (whom He named Peter), James son of Zebedee and his brother John (whom He named Boanerges, meaning “Sons of Thunder”), 

Andrew, Philip, Bartholomew, Matthew, Thomas, James son of Alphaeus, Thaddaeus, Simon the Zealot, and Judas Iscariot, who betrayed Jesus. 

Then Jesus went home, and once again a crowd gathered, so that He and His disciples could not even eat. 

When His family heard about this, they went out to take custody of Him, saying, “He is out of His mind.” 

And the scribes who had come down from Jerusalem were saying, “He is possessed by Beelzebul,” and, “By the prince of the demons He drives out demons.” 

So Jesus called them together and began to speak to them in parables: “How can Satan drive out Satan? If a kingdom is divided against itself, it cannot stand. 

If a house is divided against itself, it cannot stand. And if Satan is divided and rises against himself, he cannot stand; his end has come. 

Indeed, no one can enter a strong man’s house to steal his possessions unless he first ties up the strong man. Then he can plunder his house. 

Truly I tell you, the sons of men will be forgiven all sins and blasphemies, as many as they utter. 

But whoever blasphemes against the Holy Spirit will never be forgiven; he is guilty of eternal sin.” 

Jesus made this statement because they were saying, “He has an unclean spirit.” 

Then Jesus’ mother and brothers came and stood outside. They sent someone in to summon Him, and a crowd was sitting around Him. “Look,” He was told, “Your mother and brothers  are outside, asking for You.” 

But Jesus replied, “Who are My mother and My brothers?” Looking at those seated in a circle around Him, He said, “Here are My mother and My brothers! For whoever does the will of God is My brother and sister and mother.”

Mark 4

Once again Jesus began to teach beside the sea, and such a large crowd gathered around Him that He got into a boat and sat in it, while all the people crowded along the shore. 

And He taught them many things in parables, and in His teaching He said, “Listen! A farmer went out to sow his seed. 

And as he was sowing, some seed fell along the path, and the birds came and devoured it. 

Some fell on rocky ground, where it did not have much soil. It sprang up quickly because the soil was shallow. 

But when the sun rose, the seedlings were scorched, and they withered because they had no root. 

Other seed fell among thorns, which grew up and choked the seedlings, and they yielded no crop. 

Still other seed fell on good soil, where it sprouted, grew up, and produced a crop—one bearing thirtyfold, another sixtyfold, and another a hundredfold.” 

Then Jesus said, “He who has ears to hear, let him hear.” 

As soon as Jesus was alone with the Twelve and those around Him, they asked Him about the parable. 

He replied, “The mystery of the kingdom of God has been given to you, but to those on the outside everything is expressed in parables, so that, 

‘they may be ever seeing but never perceiving, and ever hearing but never understanding; otherwise they might turn and be forgiven.’” 

Then Jesus said to them, “Do you not understand this parable? Then how will you understand any of the parables? 

The farmer sows the word. Some are like the seeds  along the path, where the word is sown. As soon as they hear it, Satan comes and takes away the word that was sown in them. 

Some are like the seeds sown on rocky ground. They hear the word and at once receive it with joy. 

But they themselves have no root, and they remain for only a season. When trouble or persecution comes because of the word, they quickly fall away. 

Others are like the seeds sown among the thorns. They hear the word, but the worries of this life, the deceitfulness of wealth, and the desire for other things come in and choke the word, and it becomes unfruitful. 

Still others are like the seeds sown on good soil. They hear the word, receive it, and produce a crop—thirtyfold, sixtyfold, or a hundredfold.” 

Jesus also said to them, “Does anyone bring in a lamp to put it under a basket or under a bed? Doesn’t he set it on a stand? 

For there is nothing hidden that will not be disclosed, and nothing concealed that will not be brought to light. 

If anyone has ears to hear, let him hear.” 

He went on to say, “Pay attention to what you hear. With the measure you use, it will be measured to you, and even more will be added to you. 

For whoever has will be given more. But whoever does not have, even what he has will be taken away from him.” 

Jesus also said, “The kingdom of God is like a man who scatters seed on the ground. Night and day he sleeps and wakes, and the seed sprouts and grows, though he knows not how. 

All by itself the earth produces a crop—first the stalk, then the head, then grain that ripens within. And as soon as the grain is ripe, he swings the sickle, because the harvest has come.” 

Then He asked, “To what can we compare the kingdom of God? With what parable shall we present it? 

It is like a mustard seed, which is the smallest of all seeds sown upon the earth. 

But after it is planted, it grows to be the largest of all garden plants and puts forth great branches, so that the birds of the air nest in its shade.” 

With many such parables Jesus spoke the word to them, to the extent that they could understand. 

He did not tell them anything without using a parable. But privately He explained everything to His own disciples. 

When that evening came, He said to His disciples, “Let us cross to the other side.” 

After they had dismissed the crowd, they took Jesus with them, since He was already in the boat. And there were other boats with Him. 

Soon a violent windstorm came up, and the waves were breaking over the boat, so that it was being swamped. 

But Jesus was in the stern, sleeping on the cushion. So they woke Him and said, “Teacher, don’t You care that we are perishing?” 

Then Jesus got up and rebuked the wind and the sea. “Silence!” He commanded. “Be still!” And the wind died down, and it was perfectly calm. 

“Why are you so afraid?” He asked. “Do you still have no faith?” 

Overwhelmed with fear, they asked one another, “Who is this, that even the wind and the sea obey Him?”

Mark 5

On the other side of the sea, they arrived in the region of the Gerasenes. As soon as Jesus got out of the boat, He was met by a man with an unclean spirit, who was coming from the tombs. 

This man had been living in the tombs and could no longer be restrained, even with chains. 

Though he was often bound with chains and shackles, he had broken the chains and shattered the shackles. Now there was no one with the strength to subdue him. 

Night and day in the tombs and in the mountains he kept crying out and cutting himself with stones. 

When the man saw Jesus from a distance, he ran and fell on his knees before Him. 

And he shouted in a loud voice, “What do You want with me, Jesus, Son of the Most High God? I beg You before God not to torture me!” 

For Jesus had already declared, “Come out of this man, you unclean spirit!” 

“What is your name?” Jesus asked. 

“My name is Legion,” he replied, “for we are many.” And he begged Jesus repeatedly not to send them out of that region. 

There on the nearby hillside a large herd of pigs was feeding. So the demons begged Jesus, “Send us to the pigs, so that we may enter them.” 

He gave them permission, and the unclean spirits came out and went into the pigs, and the herd of about two thousand rushed down the steep bank into the sea and drowned in the water. 

Those tending the pigs ran off and reported this in the town and countryside, and the people went out to see what had happened. 

When they came to Jesus, they saw the man who had been possessed by the legion of demons sitting there, clothed and in his right mind; and they were afraid. 

Those who had seen it described what had happened to the demon-possessed man and also to the pigs. And the people began to beg Jesus to leave their region. 

As He was getting into the boat, the man who had been possessed by the demons begged to go with Him. 

But Jesus would not allow him. “Go home to your own people,” He said, “and tell them how much the Lord has done for you, and what mercy He has shown you.” 

So the man went away and began to proclaim throughout the Decapolis  how much Jesus had done for him. And everyone was amazed. 

When Jesus had again crossed by boat to the other side, a large crowd gathered around Him beside the sea. 

A synagogue leader named Jairus arrived, and seeing Jesus, he fell at His feet and pleaded with Him urgently, “My little daughter is near death. Please come and place Your hands on her, so that she will be healed and live.” 

So Jesus went with him, and a large crowd followed and pressed around Him. And a woman was there who had suffered from bleeding for twelve years. 

She had borne much agony under the care of many physicians and had spent all she had, but to no avail. Instead, her condition had only grown worse. 

When the woman heard about Jesus, she came up through the crowd behind Him and touched His cloak. For she kept saying, “If only I touch His garments, I will be healed.” 

Immediately her bleeding stopped, and she sensed in her body that she was healed of her affliction. 

At once Jesus was aware that power had gone out from Him. Turning to the crowd, He asked, “Who touched My garments?” 

His disciples answered, “You can see the crowd pressing in on You, and yet You ask, ‘Who touched Me?’ ” 

But He kept looking around to see who had done this. Then the woman, knowing what had happened to her, came and fell down before Him trembling in fear, and she told Him the whole truth. 

“Daughter,” said Jesus, “your faith has healed you. Go in peace and be free of your affliction.” 

While He was still speaking, messengers from the house of Jairus arrived and said, “Your daughter is dead; why bother the Teacher anymore?” 

But Jesus overheard  their conversation and said to Jairus, “Do not be afraid; just believe.” 

And He did not allow anyone to accompany Him except Peter, James, and John the brother of James. 

When they arrived at the house of the synagogue leader, Jesus saw the commotion and the people weeping and wailing loudly. 

He went inside and asked, “Why all this commotion and weeping? The child is not dead, but asleep.” And they laughed at Him. 

After He had put them all outside, He took the child’s father and mother and His own companions, and went in to see the child. 

Taking her by the hand, Jesus said, “Talitha koum!” which means, “Little girl, I say to you, get up!” 

Immediately the girl got up and began to walk around. She was twelve years old, and at once they were utterly astounded. 

Then Jesus gave strict orders that no one should know about this, and He told them to give her something to eat.

Mark 6

Jesus went on from there and came to His hometown, accompanied by His disciples. 

When the Sabbath came, He began to teach in the synagogue, and many who heard Him were astonished. “Where did this man get these ideas?” they asked. “What is this wisdom He has been given? And how can He perform such miracles? 

Isn’t this the carpenter, the son of Mary and the brother of James, Joses, Judas, and Simon? Aren’t His sisters here with us as well?” And they took offense at Him. 

Then Jesus said to them, “Only in his hometown, among his relatives, and in his own household is a prophet without honor.” 

So He could not perform any miracles there, except to lay His hands on a few of the sick and heal them. And He was amazed at their unbelief. 

And He went around from village to village, teaching the people. 

Then Jesus called the Twelve to Him and began to send them out two by two, giving them authority over unclean spirits. 

He instructed them to take nothing but a staff for the journey—no bread, no bag, no money  in their belts— and to wear sandals, but not a second tunic. 

And He told them, “When you enter a house, stay there until you leave that area. 

If anyone will not welcome you or listen to you, shake the dust off your feet when you leave that place, as a testimony against them.” 

So they set out and preached that the people should repent. They also drove out many demons and healed many of the sick, anointing them with oil. 

Now King Herod heard about this, for Jesus’ name had become well known, and people were saying, “John the Baptist has risen from the dead! That is why miraculous powers are at work in him.” 

Others were saying, “He is Elijah,” and still others, “He is a prophet, like one of the prophets of old.” 

But when Herod heard this, he said, “John, whom I beheaded, has risen from the dead!” 

For Herod himself had ordered that John be arrested and bound and imprisoned, on account of his brother Philip’s wife Herodias, whom Herod had married. 

For John had been telling Herod, “It is not lawful for you to have your brother’s wife!” 

So Herodias held a grudge against John and wanted to kill him. But she had been unable, because Herod feared John and protected him, knowing that he was a righteous and holy man. When he heard John’s words, he was greatly perplexed; yet he listened to him gladly. 

On Herod’s birthday, her opportunity arose. Herod held a banquet for his nobles and military commanders and the leading men of Galilee. 

When the daughter of Herodias  came and danced, she pleased Herod and his guests, and the king said to the girl, “Ask me for whatever you wish, and I will give it to you.” 

And he swore to her, “Whatever you ask of me, I will give you, up to half my kingdom!” 

Then she went out and asked her mother, “What should I request?” 

And her mother answered, “The head of John the Baptist.” 

At once the girl hurried back to the king with her request: “I want you to give me the head of John the Baptist on a platter immediately.” 

The king was consumed with sorrow, but because of his oaths and his guests, he did not want to refuse her. 

So without delay, the king commanded that John’s head be brought in. He sent an executioner, who went and beheaded him in the prison. 

The man brought John’s head on a platter and presented it to the girl, who gave it to her mother. 

When John’s disciples heard about this, they came and took his body and placed it in a tomb. 

Meanwhile, the apostles gathered around Jesus and brought Him news of all they had done and taught. 

And He said to them, “Come with Me privately to a solitary place, and let us rest for a while.” For many people were coming and going, and they did not even have time to eat. 

So they went away in a boat by themselves to a solitary place. 

But many people saw them leaving and recognized them. They ran together on foot from all the towns and arrived before them. 

When Jesus stepped ashore and saw a large crowd, He had compassion on them, because they were like sheep without a shepherd. And He began to teach them many things. 

By now the hour was already late. So the disciples came to Jesus and said, “This is a desolate place, and the hour is already late. 

Dismiss the crowd so they can go to the surrounding countryside and villages and buy themselves something to eat.” 

But Jesus told them, “You give them something to eat.” 

They asked Him, “Should we go out and spend two hundred denarii  to give all of them bread to eat?” 

“Go and see how many loaves you have,” He told them. 

And after checking, they said, “Five—and two fish.” 

Then Jesus directed them to have the people sit in groups on the green grass. So they sat down in groups of hundreds and fifties. 

Taking the five loaves and the two fish and looking up to heaven, Jesus spoke a blessing and broke the loaves. Then He gave them to His disciples to set before the people. And He divided the two fish among them all. 

They all ate and were satisfied, and the disciples picked up twelve basketfuls of broken pieces of bread and fish. And there were five thousand men who had eaten the loaves. 

Immediately Jesus made His disciples get into the boat and go on ahead of Him to Bethsaida, while He dismissed the crowd. After bidding them farewell, He went up on the mountain to pray. 

When evening came, the boat was in the middle of the sea, and Jesus was alone on land. 

He could see that the disciples were straining to row, because the wind was against them. About the fourth watch of the night, Jesus went out to them, walking on the sea. He intended to pass by them, but when they saw Him walking on the sea, they cried out, thinking He was a ghost— for they all saw Him and were terrified. 

But Jesus spoke up at once: “Take courage! It is I. Do not be afraid.” Then He climbed into the boat with them, and the wind died down. And the disciples were utterly astounded, for they had not understood about the loaves, but their hearts had been hardened. 

When they had crossed over, they landed at Gennesaret and moored the boat. As soon as they got out of the boat, the people recognized Jesus and ran through that whole region, carrying the sick on mats to wherever they heard He was. 

And wherever He went—villages and towns and countrysides—they laid the sick in the marketplaces and begged Him just to let them touch the fringe of His cloak. And all who touched Him were healed.

Mark 7

Then the Pharisees and some of the scribes who had come from Jerusalem gathered around Jesus, and they saw some of His disciples eating with hands that were defiled—that is, unwashed. 

Now in holding to the tradition of the elders, the Pharisees and all the Jews do not eat until they wash their hands ceremonially. 

And on returning from the market, they do not eat unless they wash. And there are many other traditions for them to observe, including the washing of cups, pitchers, kettles, and couches for dining. 

So the Pharisees and scribes questioned Jesus: “Why do Your disciples not walk according to the tradition of the elders? Instead, they eat with defiled hands.” 

Jesus answered them, “Isaiah prophesied correctly about you hypocrites, as it is written: 

‘These people honor Me with their lips, but their hearts are far from Me. They worship Me in vain; they teach as doctrine the precepts of men.’ 

You have disregarded the commandment of God to keep the tradition of men.” 

He went on to say, “You neatly set aside the command of God to maintain  your own tradition. 

For Moses said, ‘Honor your father and your mother’ and ‘Anyone who curses his father or mother must be put to death.’ 

But you say that if a man says to his father or mother, ‘Whatever you would have received from me is Corban’ (that is, a gift devoted to God), he is no longer permitted to do anything for his father or mother. Thus you nullify the word of God by the tradition you have handed down. And you do so in many such matters.” 

Once again Jesus called the crowd to Him and said, “All of you, listen to Me and understand: 

Nothing that enters a man from the outside can defile him; but the things that come out of a man, these are what defile him.” 

After Jesus had left the crowd and gone into the house, His disciples inquired about the parable. 

“Are you still so dull?” He asked. “Do you not understand? Nothing that enters a man from the outside can defile him, because it does not enter his heart, but it goes into the stomach and then is eliminated.” (Thus all foods are clean.) 

He continued: “What comes out of a man, that is what defiles him. For from within the hearts of men come evil thoughts, sexual immorality, theft, murder, adultery, greed, wickedness, deceit, debauchery, envy, slander, arrogance, and foolishness. All these evils come from within, and these are what defile a man.” 

Jesus left that place and went to the region of Tyre. Not wanting anyone to know He was there, He entered a house, but was unable to escape their notice. 

Instead, a woman whose little daughter had an unclean spirit soon heard about Jesus, and she came and fell at His feet. 

Now she was a Greek woman of Syrophoenician origin, and she kept asking Jesus to drive the demon out of her daughter. 

“First let the children have their fill,” He said. “For it is not right to take the children’s bread and toss it to the dogs.” 

“Yes, Lord,” she replied, “even the dogs  under the table eat the children’s crumbs.” 

Then Jesus told her, “Because of this answer, you may go. The demon has left your daughter.” And she went home and found her child lying on the bed, and the demon was gone. 

Then Jesus left the region of Tyre and went through Sidon to the Sea of Galilee and into the region of the Decapolis. 

Some people brought to Him a man who was deaf and hardly able to speak, and they begged Jesus to place His hand on him. 

So Jesus took him aside privately, away from the crowd, and put His fingers into the man’s ears. Then He spit and touched the man’s tongue. 

And looking up to heaven, He sighed deeply and said to him, “Ephphatha!” (which means, “Be opened!”). 

Immediately the man’s ears were opened and his tongue was released, and he began to speak plainly. 

Jesus ordered them not to tell anyone. But the more He ordered them, the more widely they proclaimed it. 

The people were utterly astonished and said, “He has done all things well! He makes even the deaf hear and the mute speak!”

"He answered, “A wicked and adulterous generation asks for a sign! But none will be given it except the sign of the prophet Jonah. 40 For as Jonah was three days and three nights in the belly of a huge fish, so the Son of Man will be three days and three nights in the heart of the earth." - Matthew 12:39-40

This week we finished chapter 12 of the Gospel of Matthew.