11 Love Yahweh your Elohim, and do what he wants you to do. Always obey his laws, rules, and commands. ² Remember today the discipline you learned from Yahweh your Elohim. (I’m not talking to your children. They didn’t see or experience any of this.) You saw and experienced his great power—his mighty hand and powerful arm. ³ You saw the miraculous signs and deeds he did in Egypt to Pharaoh (the king of Egypt) and to his whole country. ⁴ You saw what he did to the Egyptian army, its horses and chariots. He drowned them in the Red Sea when they pursued you. So Yahweh destroyed them forever. ⁵ You saw what he did for you in the desert until you came here. ⁶ You also saw what he did to Dathan and Abiram, the sons of Eliab, from the tribe of Reuben. In the middle of all the Israelites the ground opened up and swallowed them, their families, their tents, and every living creature with them. ⁷ You saw with your own eyes all these spectacular things that Yahweh did.

⁸ Obey all the commands I’m giving you today. Then you will have the strength to enter and take possession of the land once you’ve crossed the Jordan River. ⁹ Then you will also live for a long time in the land the Lord swore to give your ancestors and their descendants—a land flowing with milk and honey.

¹⁰ The land you’re about to enter and take possession of isn’t like the land you left in Egypt. There you used to plant your seed, and you had to water it like a vegetable garden. ¹¹ The land you’re about to enter is a land with hills and valleys, watered by rain from the sky. ¹² It is a land Yahweh your Elohim cares about. Yahweh your Elohim watches over it all year long.

¹³ If you faithfully obey the commands that I’m giving you today, love Yahweh your Elohim, and serve him with all your heart and with all your soul, ¹⁴ I will send rain on your land at the right time, both in the fall and in the spring. Then you will gather your own grain, new wine, and olive oil. ¹⁵ I will provide grass in the fields for your animals, and you will be able to eat all you want.

¹⁶ Be careful, or you’ll be tempted to turn away and worship other gods and bow down to them. ¹⁷ Yahweh will become angry with you. He’ll shut the sky so that there’ll be no rain. Then the ground won’t grow any crops, and you’ll quickly disappear from this good land Yahweh is giving you.

¹⁸ Take these words of mine to heart and keep them in mind. Write them down, tie them around your wrist, and wear them as headbands as a reminder. ¹⁹ Teach them to your children, and talk about them when you’re at home or away, when you lie down or get up. ²⁰ Write them on the doorframes of your houses and on your gates. ²¹ Then you and your children will live for a long time in this land that Yahweh swore to give to your ancestors—as long as there’s a sky above the earth.

²² Faithfully obey all these commands I’m giving you. Love Yahweh your Elohim, follow all his directions, and be loyal to him. ²³ Then Yahweh will force all these people out of your way. Then you will take possession of the land belonging to people taller and stronger than you. ²⁴ I will give you every place on which you set foot. Your borders will be from the desert to Lebanon, from the Euphrates River to the Mediterranean Sea. ²⁵ No one will be able to stop you. As Yahweh your Elohim promised, he will make people terrified of you wherever you go in this land.

Choose the Blessing or the Curse

²⁶ Today I’m giving you the choice of a blessing or a curse. ²⁷ You’ll be blessed if you obey the commands of Yahweh your Elohim that I’m giving you today. ²⁸ You’ll be cursed if you disobey the commands of Yahweh your Elohim, if you turn from the way I’m commanding you to live today, and if you worship other gods you never knew. ²⁹ When Yahweh your Elohim brings you into the land you’re about to enter, recite the blessing from Mount Gerizim and the curse from Mount Ebal. ³⁰ (These mountains are on the west side of the Jordan, beyond the road that goes west, in the region of the Canaanites who live on the plains facing Gilgal, next to the oak trees of Moreh.) ³¹ You’re about to cross the Jordan River to enter and take possession of the land Yahweh your Elohim is giving you. When you take possession of it and live there, ³² be careful to obey all the laws and rules I’m giving you today.

The Lord Rescues Judah from the Assyrians^(A)

36 In Hezekiah’s fourteenth year as king, King Sennacherib of Assyria attacked all the fortified cities of Judah and captured them. ² Then the king of Assyria sent his field commander with a large army from Lachish to King Hezekiah at Jerusalem. He stood at the channel for the Upper Pool on the road to Laundryman’s Field.

³ Eliakim, who was in charge of the palace and was the son of Hilkiah, Shebna the scribe, and Joah, who was the royal historian and the son of Asaph, went out to the field commander. ⁴ The field commander said to them, “Tell Hezekiah, ‘This is what the great king, the king of Assyria, says: What makes you so confident? ⁵ You give useless advice about getting ready for war. Whom, then, do you trust for support in your rebellion against me? ⁶ Look! When you trust Egypt, you’re trusting a broken stick for a staff. If you lean on it, it stabs your hand and goes through it. This is what Pharaoh (the king of Egypt) is like for everyone who trusts him. ⁷ Suppose you tell me, “We’re trusting Yahweh our Elohim.” He’s the god whose places of worship and altars Hezekiah got rid of. Hezekiah told Judah and Jerusalem, “Worship at this altar.”’

⁸ “Now, make a deal with my master, the king of Assyria. I’ll give you 2,000 horses if you can put riders on them. ⁹ How can you defeat my master’s lowest-ranking officers when you trust Egypt for chariots and horses?

¹⁰ “Have I come to destroy this country without Yahweh on my side? Yahweh said to me, ‘Attack this country, and destroy it.’”

¹¹ Then Eliakim, Shebna, and Joah said to the field commander, “Speak to us in Aramaic, since we understand it. Don’t speak to us in the Judean language as long as there are people on the wall listening.”

¹² But the field commander asked, “Did my master send me to tell these things only to you and your master? Didn’t he send me to the men sitting on the wall who will have to eat their own excrement and drink their own urine with you?”

¹³ Then the field commander stood and shouted loudly in the Judean language, “Listen to the great king, the king of Assyria. ¹⁴ This is what the king says: Don’t let Hezekiah deceive you. He can’t rescue you. ¹⁵ Don’t let Hezekiah get you to trust Yahweh by saying, ‘Yahweh will certainly rescue us, and this city will not be put under the control of the king of Assyria.’ ¹⁶ Don’t listen to Hezekiah, because this is what the king of Assyria says: Make peace with me! Come out, and give yourselves up to me! Everyone will eat from his own grapevine and fig tree and drink from his own cistern. ¹⁷ Then I will come and take you away to a country like your own. It’s a country with grain and new wine, a country with bread and vineyards. ¹⁸ Don’t let Hezekiah mislead you by saying to you, ‘Yahweh will rescue us.’ Did any of the gods of the nations rescue their countries from the king of Assyria? ¹⁹ Where are the gods of Hamath and Arpad? Where are the gods of Sepharvaim? Did they rescue Samaria from my control? ²⁰ Did the gods of these countries rescue them from my control? Could Yahweh then rescue Jerusalem from my control?”

²¹ They were silent and didn’t say anything to him because the king commanded them not to answer him.

²² Then Eliakim, who was in charge of the palace and was son of Hilkiah, Shebna the scribe, and Joah, who was the royal historian and the son of Asaph, went to Hezekiah with their clothes torn in grief. They told him the message from the field commander.

Jesus, the True Vine

15 Then Yeshua said, “I am the true vine, and my Father takes care of the vineyard. ² He removes every one of my branches that doesn’t produce fruit. He also prunes every branch that does produce fruit to make it produce more fruit.

³ “You are already clean^[a] because of what I have told you. ⁴ Live in me, and I will live in you. A branch cannot produce any fruit by itself. It has to stay attached to the vine. In the same way, you cannot produce fruit unless you live in me.

⁵ “I am the vine. You are the branches. Those who live in me while I live in them will produce a lot of fruit. But you can’t produce anything without me. ⁶ Whoever doesn’t live in me is thrown away like a branch and dries up. Branches like this are gathered, thrown into a fire, and burned. ⁷ If you live in me and what I say lives in you, then ask for anything you want, and it will be yours. ⁸ You give glory to my Father when you produce a lot of fruit and therefore show that you are my disciples.

⁹ “I have loved you the same way the Father has loved me. So live in my love. ¹⁰ If you obey my commandments, you will live in my love. I have obeyed my Father’s commandments, and in that way I live in his love. ¹¹ I have told you this so that you will be as joyful as I am, and your joy will be complete. ¹² Love each other as I have loved you. This is what I’m commanding you to do. ¹³ The greatest love you can show is to give your life for your friends. ¹⁴ You are my friends if you obey my commandments. ¹⁵ I don’t call you servants anymore, because a servant doesn’t know what his master is doing. But I’ve called you friends because I’ve made known to you everything that I’ve heard from my Father. ¹⁶ You didn’t choose me, but I chose you. I have appointed you to go, to produce fruit that will last, and to ask the Father in my name to give you whatever you ask for. ¹⁷ Love each other. This is what I’m commanding you to do.

¹⁸ “If the world hates you, realize that it hated me before it hated you. ¹⁹ If you had anything in common with the world, the world would love you as one of its own. But you don’t have anything in common with the world. I chose you from the world, and that’s why the world hates you. ²⁰ Remember what I told you: ‘A servant isn’t greater than his master.’ If they persecuted me, they will also persecute you. If they did what I said, they will also do what you say. ²¹ Indeed, they will do all this to you because you are committed to me, since they don’t know the one who sent me. ²² If I hadn’t come and spoken to them, they wouldn’t have any sin. But now they have no excuse for their sin. ²³ The person who hates me also hates my Father. ²⁴ If I hadn’t done among them what no one else has done, they wouldn’t have any sin. But now they have seen and hated both me and my Father. ²⁵ In this way what is written in their Scriptures has come true: ‘They hate me for no reason.’

²⁶ “The helper whom I will send to you from the Father will come. This helper, the Spirit of Truth who comes from the Father, will declare the truth about me. ²⁷ You will declare the truth, too, because you have been with me from the beginning.”

Psalm 133

A song by David for going up to worship.