God’s Gracious Dealings

8 “All the commandments that I am commanding you today you shall be careful to do, so that you ^(A)may live and increase, and go in and take possession of the land which the Lord swore to give to your forefathers. ^2 (B)And you shall remember all the way which the Lord your God has ^(C)led you in the wilderness these forty years, in order to humble you, ^(D)putting you to the test, to know what was in your heart, whether you would keep His commandments or not. ³ And He humbled you and let you go hungry, and fed you with the manna which you did not know, nor did your fathers know, in order to make you ^[a]understand that ^(E)man shall not live on bread alone, but man shall live on everything that comes out of the mouth of the Lord. ^4 (F)Your clothing did not wear out on you, nor did your foot swell these forty years. ^5 (G)So you are to know in your heart that the Lord your God was disciplining you just as a man disciplines his son. ⁶ Therefore, you shall keep the commandments of the Lord your God, to walk in His ways and to ^[b]fear Him. ⁷ For ^(H)the Lord your God is bringing you into a good land, a land of streams of water, of fountains and springs, flowing out in valleys and hills; ⁸ a land of wheat and barley, of vines, fig trees, and pomegranates, a land of olive oil and honey; ⁹ a land where you will eat food without shortage, in which you will not lack anything; a land whose stones are iron, and out of whose hills you can dig copper. ¹⁰ When ^(I)you have eaten and are satisfied, you shall bless the Lord your God for the good land which He has given you.

¹¹ “Be careful that you do not ^(J)forget the Lord your God by failing to keep His commandments, His ordinances, and His statutes which I am commanding you today; ¹² otherwise, ^(K)when you eat and are satisfied, and you build good houses and live in them, ¹³ and when your herds and your flocks increase, and your silver and gold increase, and everything that you have increases, ¹⁴ then your heart will ^[c]become proud and you will ^(L)forget the Lord your God who brought you out of the land of Egypt, out of the house of ^[d]slavery; ¹⁵ He who led you through ^(M)the great and terrible wilderness, with its ^(N)fiery serpents and scorpions, and its thirsty ground where there was no water; He who ^(O)brought water for you out of the rock of flint. ¹⁶ In the wilderness it was He who fed you manna ^(P)which your fathers did not know, in order to humble you and in order to ^(Q)put you to the test, to do good for you ^[e]in the end. ¹⁷ Otherwise, ^(R)you may say in your heart, ‘My power and the strength of my hand made me this wealth.’ ¹⁸ But you are to remember the Lord your God, for ^(S)it is He who is giving you power to make wealth, in order to confirm His covenant which He swore to your fathers, as it is this day. ¹⁹ And it shall come about, if you ever forget the Lord your God and follow other gods and serve and worship them, ^(T)I testify against you today that you will certainly perish. ²⁰ Like the nations that the Lord eliminates from you, so ^(U)you shall perish, because you would not listen to the voice of the Lord your God.

²⁶ But ^(A)an angel of the Lord spoke to ^(B)Philip, saying, “Get ready and go ^[a]south to the road that descends from Jerusalem to ^(C)Gaza.” (^[b]This is a desert road.) ²⁷ So he got ready and went; and ^[c](D)there was an Ethiopian eunuch, a court official of ^[d]Candace, queen of the Ethiopians, who was in charge of all her treasure; and he ^(E)had come to Jerusalem to worship, ²⁸ and he was returning and sitting in his ^[e]chariot, and was reading Isaiah the prophet. ²⁹ Then ^(F)the Spirit said to Philip, “Go up and join this ^[f]chariot.” ³⁰ Philip ran up and heard him reading Isaiah the prophet, and said, “Do you understand what you are reading?” ³¹ And he said, “Well, how could I, unless someone guides me?” And he invited Philip to come up and sit with him. ³² Now the passage of Scripture which he was reading was this:

³⁴ The eunuch answered Philip and said, “Please tell me, of whom does the prophet say this? Of himself, or of someone else?” ³⁵ Then Philip ^(I)opened his mouth, and ^(J)beginning from this Scripture he ^(K)preached Jesus to him. ³⁶ As they went along the road they came to some water; and the eunuch *said, “Look! Water! ^(L)What prevents me from being baptized?”^{[i] 38} And he ordered that the ^[j]chariot stop; and they both went down into the water, Philip as well as the eunuch, and he baptized him. ³⁹ When they came up out of the water, ^(M)the Spirit of the Lord snatched Philip away; and the eunuch no longer saw him, ^[k]but went on his way rejoicing. ⁴⁰ But Philip ^[l]found himself at ^[m](N)Azotus, and as he passed through he ^(O)kept preaching the gospel to all the cities, until he came to ^(P)Caesarea.

Israel Provoked God

9 “Hear, Israel! You are crossing the Jordan today, to go in to dispossess ^(A)nations greater and mightier than you, cities that are great and ^(B)fortified to heaven, ² a people who are great and tall, the sons of the Anakim, whom you know and of whom you have heard it said, ‘^(C)Who can stand against the sons of Anak?’ ³ So be aware today that ^(D)it is the Lord your God who is crossing over ahead of you as ^(E)a consuming fire. He will destroy them and He will subdue them before you, so that ^(F)you may drive them out and eliminate them quickly, just as the Lord has spoken to you.

⁴ “^(G)Do not say in your heart when the Lord your God has driven them away from ^[a]you, ‘Because of my righteousness the Lord has brought me in to take possession of this land.’ Rather, it is ^(H)because of the ^[b]wickedness of these nations that the Lord is dispossessing them before you. ⁵ It is ^(I)not because of your righteousness or the uprightness of your heart that you are going in to take possession of their land, ^[c]but it is because of the ^[d]wickedness of these nations that the Lord your God is driving them out from before you, and in order to confirm ^(J)the ^[e]oath which the Lord swore to your fathers, to Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob.

⁶ “Know, 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 ^(K)a ^[f]stubborn people. ⁷ Remember, do not forget how you provoked the Lord your God to anger in the wilderness; ^(L)from the day that you left the land of Egypt until you arrived at this place, you have been rebellious against the Lord. ⁸ Even ^(M)at Horeb you provoked the Lord to anger, and the Lord was so angry with you that He would have destroyed you. ⁹ When I went up to the mountain to receive the tablets of stone, the tablets of the covenant which the Lord made with you, then I remained on the mountain for forty days and nights; ^(N)I neither ate bread nor drank water. ¹⁰ The Lord gave me the two tablets of stone ^(O)written by the finger of God; and on them were all the words which the Lord had spoken with you at the mountain from the midst of the fire on the day of the assembly.

The Conversion of Saul

9 ^(A)Now ^[a]Saul, still ^(B)breathing ^[b]threats and murder against the disciples of the Lord, went to the high priest, ² and asked for ^(C)letters from him to ^(D)the synagogues in ^(E)Damascus, so that if he found any belonging to ^[c](F)the Way, whether men or women, he might bring them in shackles to Jerusalem. ³ Now as he was traveling, it happened that he was approaching Damascus, and ^(G)suddenly a light from heaven flashed around him; ⁴ and ^(H)he fell to the ground and heard a voice saying to him, “Saul, Saul, why are you persecuting Me?” ⁵ And he said, “Who are You, Lord?” And He said, “I am Jesus whom you are persecuting, ⁶ but get up and enter the city, and ^(I)it will be told to you what you must do.” ⁷ The men who traveled with him ^(J)stood speechless, ^(K)hearing the ^[d]voice but seeing no one. ⁸ Saul got up from the ground, and ^(L)though his eyes were open, he ^[e]could see nothing; and leading him by the hand, they brought him into ^(M)Damascus. ⁹ And for three days he was without sight, and neither ate nor drank.

¹⁰ Now there was a disciple in ^(N)Damascus named ^(O)Ananias; and the Lord said to him in ^(P)a vision, “Ananias.” And he said, “Here I am, Lord.” ¹¹ And the Lord said to him, “Get up and go to the street called Straight, and inquire at the house of Judas for a man from ^(Q)Tarsus named Saul, for he is praying, ¹² and he has seen ^[f]in a vision a man named Ananias come in and ^(R)lay his hands on him, so that he might regain his sight.” ¹³ But Ananias answered, “Lord, I have heard from many people about this man, ^(S)how much harm he did to ^(T)Your ^[g]saints in Jerusalem; ¹⁴ and here he ^(U)has authority from the chief priests to ^[h]arrest all who ^(V)call on Your name.” ¹⁵ But the Lord said to him, “Go, for ^(W)he is a chosen ^[i]instrument of Mine, to bear My name before ^(X)the Gentiles and ^(Y)kings and the sons of Israel; ¹⁶ for ^(Z)I will show him how much he must suffer in behalf of My name.” ¹⁷ So Ananias departed and entered the house, and after ^(AA)laying his hands on him said, “^(AB)Brother Saul, the Lord Jesus, who appeared to you on the road by which you were coming, has sent me so that you may regain your sight and be ^(AC)filled with the Holy Spirit.” ¹⁸ And immediately something like fish scales fell from his eyes, and he regained his sight, and he got up and was baptized; ¹⁹ and he took food and was strengthened.

Saul Begins to Preach Christ

Now ^(AD)for several days he was with ^(AE)the disciples who were in Damascus, ²⁰ and immediately he began to proclaim Jesus ^(AF)in the synagogues, ^[j]saying, “He is ^(AG)the Son of God.” ²¹ All those hearing him continued to be amazed, and were saying, “Is this not the one who in Jerusalem ^(AH)destroyed those who ^(AI)called on this name, and had come here for the purpose of bringing them bound before the chief priests?” ²² But Saul kept increasing in strength and confounding Jews who lived in Damascus by proving that this Jesus is the ^[k]Christ.

²³ When ^(AJ)many days had elapsed, ^(AK)the Jews plotted together to do away with him, ²⁴ but ^(AL)their plot became known to Saul. ^(AM)They were also closely watching the gates day and night so that they might put him to death; ²⁵ but his disciples took him at night and let him down through an opening in the wall, lowering him in a large basket.

^26 (AN)When he came to Jerusalem, he tried repeatedly to associate with the disciples; and yet they were all afraid of him, as they did not believe that he was a disciple. ²⁷ But ^(AO)Barnabas took hold of him and brought him to the apostles and described to them how he had ^(AP)seen the Lord on the road, and that He had talked to him, and how ^(AQ)he had ^(AR)spoken out boldly in the name of Jesus at Damascus. ²⁸ And he was with them, ^[l]moving about freely in Jerusalem, ^(AS)speaking out boldly in the name of the Lord. ²⁹ And he was talking and arguing with the ^[m](AT)Hellenistic Jews; but they were attempting to put him to death. ³⁰ Now when ^(AU)the ^[n]brothers learned of it, they brought him down to ^(AV)Caesarea and ^(AW)sent him away to ^(AX)Tarsus.

³¹ So ^(AY)the church throughout Judea, Galilee, and Samaria ^[o]enjoyed peace, as it was being built up; and as it ^[p]continued in the fear of the Lord and in the comfort of the Holy Spirit, it kept increasing.