The Lord Meets with Moses on the Mountain

34 The Lord said to Moses, “Cut two ⌞more⌟ stone tablets like the first ones, and I will write on them the words that were on the first tablets which you smashed. ² Be ready in the morning. Then come up on Mount Sinai, and stand in my presence on the top of the mountain. ³ No one may come with you or even be seen anywhere on the mountain. Even the flocks and herds may not graze in front of this mountain.”

⁴ So Moses cut two ⌞more⌟ stone tablets like the first ones. Early the next morning he went up on Mount Sinai, as the Lord had commanded him, carrying the two stone tablets.

⁵ The Lord came down in a cloud and stood there with him and called out his name “the Lord.”

⁶ Then he passed in front of Moses, calling out, “The Lord, the Lord, a compassionate and merciful God, patient, always faithful and ready to forgive. ⁷ He continues to show his love to thousands of generations, forgiving wrongdoing, disobedience, and sin. He never lets the guilty go unpunished, punishing children and grandchildren for their parents’ sins to the third and fourth generation.”

⁸ Immediately, Moses knelt, bowing with his face touching the ground. ⁹ Then he said, “Lord, please go with us! Even though we are impossible to deal with, forgive our sin and the wrong we have done, and accept us as your own people.”

The Lord Makes His Promise with Israel Again

¹⁰ The Lord said, “I’m making my promise ^[a] again. In front of all your people I will perform miracles that have never been done in any other nation in all the world. All the people around you will see how awesome these miracles are that I will perform for you. ¹¹ Do everything that I command today. Then I will force the Amorites, Canaanites, Hittites, Perizzites, Hivites, and Jebusites out of your way. ¹² Be careful not to make a treaty with those who live in the land where you’re going. This will prove to be a trap to you. ¹³ But tear down their altars, crush their sacred stones, and cut down their poles dedicated to the goddess Asherah. ¹⁴ (Never worship any other god, because the Lord is a God who does not tolerate rivals. In fact, he is known for not tolerating rivals.) ¹⁵ Be careful not to make a treaty with those who live in that land. When they chase after their gods as though they were prostitutes and sacrifice to them, they may invite you to eat the meat from their sacrifices with them. ¹⁶ Then your sons will end up marrying their daughters. When their daughters chase after their gods as though they were prostitutes, they’ll lead your sons to do the same thing.

¹⁷ “Never make an idol.

¹⁸ “You must celebrate the Festival of Unleavened Bread. As I commanded you, you must eat unleavened bread for seven days at the appointed time in the month of Abib, because in that month you came out of Egypt.

¹⁹ “Every first male offspring is mine, even the firstborn males of all your livestock, whether cattle, sheep, or goats. ²⁰ It will cost you a sheep or a goat to buy back the firstborn donkey. If you don’t buy it back, then you must break the donkey’s neck. You must buy back every firstborn of your sons.

“No one may come into my presence without an offering.

²¹ “You may work six days, but on the seventh day you must not work. Even during the time of plowing or harvesting you must not work ⌞on this day⌟.

²² “You must celebrate the Festival of Weeks with the first grain from your wheat harvest, and the Festival of the Final Harvest at the end of the season.

²³ “Three times a year all your men must come into the presence of the Master, the Lord God of Israel. ²⁴ I will force nations out of your way and will expand ⌞your country’s⌟ borders. No one will want to take away your land while you’re gone three times a year to the Lord’s festivals.

²⁵ “Never offer the blood of a sacrifice to me at the same time you offer anything containing yeast. No part of the sacrifice at the Passover Festival should be left over in the morning.

²⁶ “You must bring the first and best of the produce harvested from your soil to the house of the Lord your God.

“Never cook a young goat in its mother’s milk.”

²⁷ Then the Lord said to Moses, “Write down these words, because on the basis of these words I’m making a promise to Israel and to you.”

²⁸ Moses was there with the Lord 40 days and 40 nights without food or water. He wrote on the tablets the words of the promise, the ten commandments.

John Sends Two Disciples^(A)

¹⁸ John’s disciples told him about all these things. Then John called two of his disciples ¹⁹ and sent them to ask the Lord, “Are you the one who is coming, or should we look for someone else?”

²⁰ The men came to Jesus and said, “John the Baptizer sent us to ask you, ‘Are you the one who is coming, or should we look for someone else?’ ”

²¹ At that time Jesus was curing many people who had diseases, sicknesses, and evil spirits. Also, he was giving back sight to many who were blind.

²² Jesus answered John’s disciples, “Go back, and tell John what you have seen and heard: Blind people see again, lame people are walking, those with skin diseases are made clean,^[a] deaf people hear again, dead people are brought back to life, and poor people hear the Good News. ²³ Whoever doesn’t lose his faith in me is indeed blessed.”

Jesus Speaks about John^(B)

²⁴ When John’s messengers had left, Jesus spoke to the crowds about John. “What did you go into the desert to see? Tall grass swaying in the wind? ²⁵ Really, what did you go to see? A man dressed in fine clothes? Those who wear splendid clothes and live in luxury are in royal palaces. ²⁶ Really, what did you go to see? A prophet? Let me tell you that he is far more than a prophet. ²⁷ John is the one about whom Scripture says,

²⁸ I can guarantee that of all the people ever born, no one is greater than John. Yet, the least important person in God’s kingdom is greater than John.

²⁹ “All the people, including tax collectors, heard John. They admitted that God was right by letting John baptize them. ³⁰ But the Pharisees and the experts in Moses’ Teachings rejected God’s plan for them. They refused to be baptized.

³¹ “How can I describe the people who are living now? What are they like? ³² They are like children who sit in the marketplace and shout to each other,

³³ John the Baptizer has come neither eating bread nor drinking wine, and you say, ‘There’s a demon in him!’ ³⁴ The Son of Man has come eating and drinking, and you say, ‘Look at him! He’s a glutton and a drunk, a friend of tax collectors and sinners!’

³⁵ “Yet, wisdom is proved right by all its results.”