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Deuteronomy 7

Force the Other Nations Out of the Land

(Exodus 34.11-16)

    ⁵So when you conquer these nations, tear down the altars where they worship their gods. Break up their sacred stones, cut down the poles that they use in worshiping the goddess Asherah, and throw their idols in the fire.

The LORD's Chosen People

Moses said:

    ⁹You know that the LORD your God is the only true God. So love him and obey his commands, and he will faithfully keep his agreement with you and your descendants for a thousand generations. ¹⁰But if you turn against the LORD, he will quickly destroy you. ¹¹So be sure to obey his laws and teachings I am giving you today.

   Moses said to Israel:

The LORD Will Bless You if You Obey

(Deuteronomy 28.1-14; Leviticus 26.3-13)

Destroy the Nations and Their Gods

Moses said to Israel:

    ¹⁷You may be thinking, " How can we destroy these nations? They are more powerful than we are." ¹⁸But stop worrying! Just remember what the LORD your God did to Egypt and its king. ¹⁹You saw how the LORD used his tremendous power to work great miracles and bring you out of Egypt. And he will again work miracles for you when you face these enemies you fear so much. ²⁰Some of them may try to survive by hiding from you, but the LORD will make them panic, and soon they will be dead. ^{[a] 21}So don't be frightened when you meet them in battle. The LORD your God is great and fearsome, and he will fight at your side. ²²As you attack these nations, the LORD will force them out little by little. He won't let you get rid of them all at once--if he did, there wouldn't be enough people living in the land to keep down the number of wild animals. ^23-24But when you attack your enemies, the LORD will make them panic, and you will easily destroy them. You will defeat them one after another until they are gone, and no one will remember they ever lived.

    ²⁵After you conquer a nation, burn their idols. Don't get trapped into wanting the silver or gold on an idol. Even the metal on an idol is disgusting to the LORD, ²⁶so destroy it. If you bring it home with you, both you and your house will be destroyed. Stay away from those disgusting idols!

Deuteronomy 8

The LORD Takes Care of You

Moses said:

    ²Don't forget how the LORD your God has led you through the desert for the past forty years. He wanted to find out if you were truly willing to obey him and depend on him, ³so he made you go hungry. Then he gave you manna, ^[b] a kind of food that you and your ancestors had never even heard about. The LORD was teaching you that people need more than food to live--they need every word that the LORD has spoken. ⁴Over the past forty years, your clothing hasn't worn out, and your feet haven't swollen. ⁵So keep in mind that the LORD has been correcting you, just as parents correct their children. ⁶Obey the commands the LORD your God has given you and worship him with fear and trembling.

    ⁷The LORD your God is bringing you into a good land with streams that flow from springs in the valleys and hills. ^8-9You can dig for copper in those hills, and the stones are made of iron ore. And you won't go hungry. Wheat and barley fields are everywhere, and so are vineyards and orchards full of fig, pomegranate, ^[c] and olive trees, and there is plenty of honey.

Don't Forget the LORD

Moses said to Israel:

    ¹⁴But when all this happens, don't be proud! Don't forget that you were once slaves in Egypt and that it was the LORD who set you free. ¹⁵Remember how he led you in that huge and frightening desert where poisonous snakes and scorpions live. There was no water, but the LORD split open a rock, and water poured out so you could drink. ¹⁶He also gave you manna, ^[d] a kind of food your ancestors had never even heard about. The LORD was testing you to make you trust him, so that later on he could be good to you. ¹⁷When you become successful, don't say, " I'm rich, and I've earned it all myself." ¹⁸Instead, remember that the LORD your God gives you the strength to make a living. That's how he keeps the promise he made to your ancestors.

    ^19-20But I'm warning you--if you forget the LORD your God and worship other gods, the LORD will destroy you, just as he destroyed the nations you fought.

Deuteronomy 9

Why the LORD Will Help Israel

Moses said:

   Moses said to Israel:

When Israel Made an Idol

(Exodus 32)

    ⁸At Mount Sinai ^[f] you made the LORD so angry that he was going to destroy you. ^9-11It happened during those forty days and nights that I was on the mountain, without anything to eat or drink. He had told me to come up there so he could give me the agreement he made with us. And this agreement was actually the same Ten Commandments ^[g] he had announced to you when he spoke from the fire on the mountain. The LORD had written them on two flat stones with his own hand. But after giving me the two stones, ¹²he said: Moses, hurry down the mountain to those people you led out of Egypt. They have already disobeyed me and committed the terrible sin of making an idol.

    ¹³I've been watching the Israelites, and I've seen how stubborn and rebellious they are. ¹⁴So don't try to stop me! I am going to wipe them out, and no one on earth will remember they ever lived. Then I will let your descendants become an even bigger and more powerful nation than Israel.

Moses said:

    ^18-20I bowed down at the place of worship and prayed to the LORD, without eating or drinking for forty days and nights. You had committed a terrible sin by making that idol, and the LORD hated what you had done. He was angry enough to destroy all of you and Aaron as well. So I prayed for you and Aaron as I had done before, and this time the LORD answered my prayers. ^{[h] 21}It was a sin for you to make that idol, so I threw it into the fire to melt it down. Then I took the lump of gold, ground it into powder, and threw the powder into the stream flowing down the mountain.

    ²²You also made the LORD angry when you were staying at Taberah, ^[i] at Massah, ^[j] and at Kibroth-Hattaavah. ^{[k] 23}Then at Kadesh-Barnea the LORD said, " I am giving you the land, so go ahead and take it!" But since you didn't trust the LORD, you rebelled and disobeyed his command. ^{[l] 24}In fact, you've rebelled against the LORD for as long as he has ^[m] known you. ²⁵After you had made the idol in the shape of a calf, the LORD said he was going to destroy you. So I bowed down in front of the sacred tent for forty days and nights, ²⁶and I prayed:

   Our LORD, please don't wipe out your people. You used your great power to rescue them from Egypt and to make them your very own. ²⁷Israel's ancestors Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob obeyed you faithfully. Think about them, and not about Israel's stubbornness, evil, and sin. ²⁸If you destroy your people, the Egyptians will say, " The LORD promised to give Israel land, but he wasn't powerful enough to keep his promise. In fact, he hated them so much that he took them into the desert and killed them." ²⁹But you, our LORD, chose the people of Israel to be your own, and with your mighty power you rescued them from Egypt.

   Moses said to the people:

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¹⁹That evening, Jesus and the disciples went outside the city.

A Lesson from the Fig Tree

(Matthew 21.20-22)

    ²²Jesus told his disciples:

   Have faith in God! ²³If you have faith in God and don't doubt, you can tell this mountain to get up and jump into the sea, and it will. ²⁴Everything you ask for in prayer will be yours, if you only have faith.

    ^25-26Whenever you stand up to pray, you must forgive what others have done to you. Then your Father in heaven will forgive your sins. ^[a]

A Question about Jesus' Authority

(Matthew 21.23-27; Luke 20.1-8)

    ²⁹Jesus answered, "I have just one question to ask you. If you answer it, I will tell you where I got the right to do these things. ³⁰Who gave John the right to baptize? Was it God in heaven or merely some human being?"

    ³¹They thought it over and said to each other, "We can't say that God gave John this right. Jesus will ask us why we didn't believe John. ³²On the other hand, these people think that John was a prophet. So we can't say that it was merely some human who gave John the right to baptize."

   They were afraid of the crowd ³³and told Jesus, "We don't know."

   Jesus replied, "Then I won't tell you who gave me the right to do what I do."