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Joshua Becomes Israel’s Leader to Replace Moses
31 Moses continued to speak to all the Israelites:
2 “I’m 120 years old now, and I’m not able to lead you anymore. Besides, the Lord has told me that I cannot cross the Jordan River. 3 The Lord your God is the one who will cross the river ahead of you. He will destroy those nations as you arrive, and you will take possession of their land. Joshua will also cross the river ahead of you, as the Lord told you. 4 The Lord will do to those nations what he did to King Sihon and King Og of the Amorites and to their lands when he destroyed them. 5 The Lord will hand them over to you, and you must do to them everything that I commanded you. 6 Be strong and courageous. Don’t tremble! Don’t be afraid of them! The Lord your God is the one who is going with you. He won’t abandon you or leave you.”
7 Then Moses called for Joshua and said to him in the presence of all Israel, “Be strong and courageous. You will go with these people into the land that the Lord will give them, as he swore to their ancestors. You will help them take possession of the land.[a] 8 The Lord is the one who is going ahead of you. He will be with you. He won’t abandon you or leave you. So don’t be afraid or terrified.”
9 Moses wrote down these teachings and gave them to the Levitical priests who carried the ark of the Lord’s promise and to all the leaders of Israel. 10 Then Moses commanded them, “At the end of every seventh year you must cancel debts. At that time, during the Festival of Booths, 11 all the Israelites will come into the presence of the Lord your God at the place he will choose. Read these teachings so that they can hear them. 12 Assemble the men, women, and children, as well as the foreigners who live in your cities. Have them listen and learn to fear the Lord your God and faithfully obey every word of these teachings. 13 Their children, who don’t know these teachings, must hear them and learn to fear the Lord your God as long as you live in the land that you are going to take possession of when you cross the Jordan River.”
14 The Lord said to Moses, “The time of your death is coming soon. Call for Joshua. Both of you come to the tent of meeting, and I will give him his instructions.” Moses and Joshua came to the tent of meeting. 15 Then the Lord appeared in a column of smoke at the entrance to the tent.
16 The Lord said to Moses, “Soon you are going to lie down in death with your ancestors. When these people enter the land and are living among the foreigners there, they will chase after foreign gods as though they were prostitutes. They will abandon me and reject the promise [b] I made to them. 17 On that day I will become angry with them. I will abandon them and turn away from them. They will be destroyed, and many terrible disasters will happen to them. On that day they will ask, ‘Haven’t these disasters happened to us because our God isn’t with us?’ 18 On that day I will certainly turn away from them because of all the evil they’ve done in turning to other gods.
19 “Write down this song, teach it to the Israelites, and have them sing it. This song will be a witness for me against the Israelites. 20 I will bring them into the land that I swore to give to their ancestors, a land flowing with milk and honey. When they have eaten all they want and have become fat,[c] they will turn to other gods and worship them. They will despise me and reject my promise. 21 When many terrible disasters happen to them, this song will testify against them, because it will never be forgotten by their descendants. I know what their hearts are set on doing, even now before I bring them into the land that I swore to give them.” 22 That day Moses wrote down this song and taught it to the Israelites.
23 The Lord gave this command to Joshua, son of Nun: “Be strong and courageous, because you will bring the Israelites into the land that I swore to give them, and I will be with you.”
24 Finally, Moses finished writing all the words of these teachings in a book. 25 He gave this command to the Levites who carried the ark of the Lord’s promise: 26 “Take this Book of Teachings, and put it next to the ark of the promise of the Lord your God, where it will be a witness against you. 27 I know how rebellious you are. You are impossible to deal with. While I am alive and still with you, you are rebelling against the Lord. How much more rebellious will you be after I die? 28 Assemble all the leaders of your tribes and your officers in front of me. As they listen, I will speak these words and call on heaven and earth to testify against them. 29 I know that after I die you will become thoroughly corrupt and turn from the way I have commanded you to live. In the days to come disasters will happen to you because you will make the Lord furious by doing what he considers evil.”
The Song of Moses
30 Then, as the whole congregation of Israel listened, Moses recited all the words of this song:
32 Listen, heaven, and I will speak.
Earth, hear the words from my mouth.
2 Let my teachings come down like raindrops.
Let my words drip like dew,
like gentle rain on grass,
like showers on green plants.
3 I will proclaim the name of the Lord.
Give our God the greatness he deserves!
4 He is a rock.
What he does is perfect.
All his ways are fair.
He is a faithful God, who does no wrong.
He is honorable and reliable.
5 He recognizes that his people are corrupt.
To their shame they are no longer his children.
They are devious and scheming.
6 Is this how you repay the Lord,
you foolish and silly people?
Isn’t he your Father and Owner,
who made you and formed you?
7 Remember a time long ago.
Think about all the past generations.
Ask your fathers to remind you,
and your leaders to tell you.
8 When the Most High gave nations their land,
when he divided the descendants of Adam,
he set up borders for the tribes
corresponding to the number of the sons of Israel.
9 But the Lord’s people were his property.
Jacob was his own possession.
10 He found his people in a desert land,
in a barren place where animals howl.
He guarded them, took care of them,
and protected them because they were helpless.
11 Like an eagle that stirs up its nest,
hovers over its young,
spreads its wings to catch them,
and carries them on its feathers,
12 so the Lord alone led his people.
No foreign god was with him.
13 He made them ride on the heights of the earth
and fed them with the produce of the fields.
He gave them honey from rocks
and olive oil from solid rock.
14 They ate cheese from cows
and drank milk from sheep and goats.
He gave them fat from lambs,
rams from the stock of Bashan,
male goats, and the best wheat.
They drank the blood-red wine of grapes.
15 Jeshurun [d] got fat and disrespectful.
(You got fat! You were stuffed! You were gorged!)
They abandoned the God who made them
and treated the rock of their salvation like a fool.
16 They made him furious because they worshiped foreign gods
and angered him because they worshiped worthless idols.
17 They sacrificed to demons that are not God,
to gods they never heard of.
These were new gods, who came from nearby,
gods your ancestors never worshiped.
18 (You ignored the rock who fathered you
and forgot the God who gave you life.)
19 The Lord saw this and rejected them,
because his own sons and daughters had made him angry.
20 He said, “I will turn away from them
and find out what will happen to them.
They are devious people,
children who can’t be trusted.
21 They made him furious because they worshiped foreign gods
and angered him because they worshiped worthless idols.
So I will use those who are not my people to make them jealous
and a nation of godless fools to make them angry.
22 My anger has started a fire
that will burn to the depths of hell.
It will consume the earth and its crops
and set the foundations of the mountains on fire.
23 I will bring one disaster after another on them.
I will use up all my arrows on them.
24 They will be starved by famines
and ravaged by pestilence and deadly epidemics.
I will send vicious animals against them
along with poisonous animals that crawl on the ground.
25 Foreign wars will kill off their children,
and even at home there will be horrors.
Young men and young women alike will die
as well as nursing babies and gray-haired men.
26 I said that I would cut them in pieces
and erase everyone’s memory of them.
27 But I didn’t want their enemies to make me angry.
I didn’t want their opponents to misunderstand and say,
‘We won this victory!
It wasn’t the Lord who did all this!’ ”
8 I can guarantee that the Son of Man will acknowledge in front of God’s angels every person who acknowledges him in front of others. 9 But God’s angels will be told that I don’t know those people who tell others that they don’t know me. 10 Everyone who says something against the Son of Man will be forgiven. But the person who dishonors the Holy Spirit will not be forgiven.
11 “When you are put on trial in synagogues or in front of rulers and authorities, don’t worry about how you will defend yourselves or what you will say. 12 At that time the Holy Spirit will teach you what you must say.”
A Story about Material Possessions
13 Someone in the crowd said to him, “Teacher, tell my brother to give me my share of the inheritance that our father left us.”
14 Jesus said to him, “Who appointed me to be your judge or to divide ⌞your inheritance⌟?”
15 He told the people, “Be careful to guard yourselves from every kind of greed. Life is not about having a lot of material possessions.”
16 Then he used this illustration. He said, “A rich man had land that produced good crops. 17 He thought, ‘What should I do? I don’t have enough room to store my crops.’ 18 He said, ‘I know what I’ll do. I’ll tear down my barns and build bigger ones so that I can store all my grain and goods in them. 19 Then I’ll say to myself, “You’ve stored up a lot of good things for years to come. Take life easy, eat, drink, and enjoy yourself.” ’
20 “But God said to him, ‘You fool! I will demand your life from you tonight! Now who will get what you’ve accumulated?’ 21 That’s how it is when a person has material riches but is not rich in his relationship with God.”
Stop Worrying(A)
22 Then Jesus said to his disciples, “So I tell you to stop worrying about what you will eat or wear. 23 Life is more than food, and the body is more than clothes. 24 Consider the crows. They don’t plant or harvest. They don’t even have a storeroom or a barn. Yet, God feeds them. You are worth much more than birds.
25 “Can any of you add an hour to your life by worrying? 26 If you can’t do a small thing like that, why worry about other things? 27 Consider how the flowers grow. They never work or spin yarn for clothes. But I say that not even Solomon in all his majesty was dressed like one of these flowers. 28 That’s the way God clothes the grass in the field. Today it’s alive, and tomorrow it’s thrown into an incinerator. So how much more will he clothe you people who have so little faith?
29 “Don’t concern yourself about what you will eat or drink, and quit worrying about these things. 30 Everyone in the world is concerned about these things, but your Father knows you need them. 31 Rather, be concerned about his kingdom. Then these things will be provided for you. 32 Don’t be afraid, little flock. Your Father is pleased to give you the kingdom.
33 “Sell your material possessions, and give the money to the poor. Make yourselves wallets that don’t wear out! Make a treasure for yourselves in heaven that never loses its value! In heaven thieves and moths can’t get close enough to destroy your treasure. 34 Your heart will be where your treasure is.
32 In spite of all this, they continued to sin,
and they no longer believed in his miracles.
33 He brought their days to an end like a whisper in the wind.
He brought their years to an end in terror.
34 When he killed ⌞some of⌟ them, ⌞the rest⌟ searched for him.
They turned from their sins and eagerly looked for God.
35 They remembered that God was their rock,
that the Most High was their defender.
36 They flattered him with their mouths
and lied to him with their tongues.
37 Their hearts were not loyal to him.
They were not faithful to his promise.
38 But he is compassionate.
He forgave their sin.
He did not destroy them.
He restrained his anger many times.
He did not display all of his fury.
39 He remembered that they were only flesh and blood,
a breeze that blows and does not return.
40 How often they rebelled against him in the wilderness!
How often they caused him grief in the desert!
41 Again and again they tested God,
and they pushed the Holy One of Israel to the limit.
42 They did not remember his power—
the day he freed them from their oppressor,
43 when he performed his miraculous signs in Egypt,
his wonders in the fields of Zoan.
44 He turned their rivers into blood
so that they could not drink from their streams.
45 He sent a swarm of flies that bit them
and frogs that ruined them.
46 He gave their crops to grasshoppers
and their produce to locusts.
47 He killed their vines with hail
and their fig trees with frost.
48 He let the hail strike their cattle
and bolts of lightning strike their livestock.
49 He sent his burning anger, rage, fury, and hostility against them.
He sent an army of destroying angels.
50 He cleared a path for his anger.
He did not spare them.
He let the plague take their lives.
51 He slaughtered every firstborn in Egypt,
the ones born in the tents of Ham when their fathers were young.
52 But he led his own people out like sheep
and guided them like a flock through the wilderness.
53 He led them safely.
They had no fear while the sea covered their enemies.
54 He brought them into his holy land,
to this mountain that his power had won.
55 He forced nations out of their way
and gave them the land of the nations as their inheritance.
He settled the tribes of Israel in their own tents.
21 No ⌞lasting⌟ harm comes to a righteous person,
but wicked people have lots of trouble.
22 Lips that lie are disgusting to the Lord,
but honest people are his delight.
23 A sensible person ⌞discreetly⌟ hides knowledge,
but foolish minds preach stupidity.
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