The Daily Audio Bible
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Joshua Will Follow Moses
31 Moses came and spoke the following words to all Israel. 2 He said to them:
“I am now one hundred twenty years old. I can no longer go out and come back.[a] The Lord has said to me, ‘You will not cross over this Jordan.’
3 “The Lord your God himself will cross over before you. He will destroy those nations before you, and you will take possession of their land. Joshua is the one who will cross over before you, as the Lord promised. 4 The Lord will do to them as he did to Sihon and Og, kings of the Amorites, and as he did to their lands when he destroyed them. 5 The Lord will hand them over to you, and you are to deal with them according to the whole set of commands that I gave you.
6 “Be strong and courageous. Do not be afraid and do not be terrified before them, because the Lord your God is going with you. He will not abandon you and he will not forsake you.”
7 Moses called Joshua and said to him in the view of all Israel:
“Be strong and courageous, because you will go with this people into the land that the Lord promised to your fathers with an oath, and you will divide it among them as their possession. 8 The Lord himself will go ahead of you. He will be with you. He will not abandon you, and he will not forsake you. Do not be afraid and do not be overwhelmed.”
Reading the Law
9 Then Moses wrote down this law, and he gave it to the priests, the sons of Levi who carry the Ark of the Covenant of the Lord, and to all the elders of Israel. 10 Moses commanded them:
“At the end of seven years, at the appointed time of the year of the release, at the Festival of Shelters, 11 when all Israel comes to appear in the presence of the Lord your God at the place that he will choose, you are to read this law before all Israel in their hearing. 12 Gather the people—the men, the women, the children, and the alien who resides within your gates—so that they may hear it and learn to fear the Lord your God and to be careful to carry out all the words of this law. 13 Their children also, who do not know the law, are to hear it and learn to fear the Lord your God all the time that you live on the land that you are crossing the Jordan to possess.”
The Transition to Joshua
14 Then the Lord said to Moses, “The time is approaching for you to die. Summon Joshua and stand at the Tent of Meeting, and I will commission him.”
So Moses and Joshua went and stood at the Tent of Meeting. 15 Then the Lord appeared at the tent in a pillar of cloud, and the pillar of cloud stood over the entrance to the tent. 16 The Lord said to Moses:
“You are about to lie down with your fathers, but this people will rise up and prostitute themselves to the foreign gods among them in the land they are about to enter. They will forsake me and break my covenant that I made with them. 17 My anger will burn against them on that day, and I will forsake them and hide my face from them. They will be on the verge of being devoured, and many evils and distresses will find them. They will say on that day, ‘Haven’t these evil things found us because our God is not among us?’ 18 Yet I will hide my face on that day because of all the evil they have done by turning to other gods.
19 “So now, write down this song and teach it to the people of Israel. Put it in their mouths so this song will be my witness against the people of Israel. 20 When I bring them into the land flowing with milk and honey that I promised by oath to their fathers, and they eat and are satisfied and grow fat, and they then turn to other gods and serve them, when they despise me and break my covenant, 21 and many evils and distresses find them, then this song will testify against them as a witness, because it will not be forgotten or gone from the mouths of their descendants. I certainly know the inclination that they are developing today before I bring them to the land that I have promised on oath.”
22 So Moses wrote down this song on that day and taught it to the people of Israel.
23 Then the Lord commissioned Joshua son of Nun and said to him:
“Be strong and courageous, because you will bring the people of Israel into the land that I have promised to them with an oath, and I will be with you.”
24 When Moses had finished writing the words of this law in a book, 25 he gave this command to the Levites, who carry the Ark of the Covenant of the Lord:
26 “Take this Book of the Law, and place it beside the Ark of the Covenant of the Lord your God, and let it remain there as a witness against you. 27 I certainly know how rebellious and stubborn you are. Even while I am still alive and among you today, you are rebels against the Lord. So how much more after my death! 28 Assemble all the elders of your tribes and your officials before me, and I will speak all these words in their hearing, and I will call the heavens and the earth to witness against them. 29 I know that after my death you will act corruptly and turn from the way that I have commanded you, and that evil will come on you in future days when you do evil in the sight of the Lord by provoking him to anger by the work of your hands.”
Moses’ Song
30 Then Moses spoke the words of this song in the hearing of the whole assembly of Israel, from beginning to end:
32 Give ear, O heavens, and I will speak.
Let the earth hear the sayings from my mouth.
2 Let my teaching drop down like rain,
and let my sayings distill like dew,
like raindrops on grass,
like showers on green plants.
3 Yes, I will proclaim the name of the Lord.
Ascribe greatness to our God.
4 He is the Rock! Perfect is his work.
Indeed all of his ways are justice.
He is a faithful God. He does no wrong.
Righteous and upright is he.
5 Israel acted corruptly against him.
They are not his children.
That is their fault.[b]
They are a twisted and crooked generation.
6 Is this how you repay the Lord,
you foolish people, who are not wise?
Is he not your father, who created you,
who made you and established you?
7 Remember the days of the distant past.
Consider the years of many generations.
Ask your father and he will tell you about it.
Ask your elders and they will describe it to you.
8 When the Most High gave the nations their inheritance,
when he separated the children of Adam,
he established the boundaries for peoples
according to the number of the sons of Israel.[c]
9 But the allotment for the Lord is his people.
Jacob is the territory that is his possession.
10 The Lord found Jacob in a wild land,
in a desolate land, in a howling wasteland.
He encircled him. He cared for him.
He guarded him like the pupil of his eye.
11 As an eagle rises from its nest
and hovers over its young,
then spreads its wings to catch them
and carries them on the edge of its wings,
12 so the Lord alone led Israel.
There was no foreign god with him.
13 He caused them to ride over the high places of the land,
and they ate the produce from the fields.
He caused them to suck honey from the rocks
and olive oil from the hardest flint.
14 He fed them with curds from the cattle and milk from the flocks,
with fat lambs, rams, and goats from Bashan,
with the very best wheat,
and they drank foaming wine, the blood of the grape.
15 Jeshurun[d] grew fat and kicked.
You grew fat, you were stout, you were stuffed.
Then he abandoned the God who made him,
and he mocked the Rock who saved him.
16 They made him jealous with strange gods.
They provoked him with abominations.
17 They sacrificed to demons that are not gods,
to gods they had not known,
to newcomers from their neighbors,
gods whom your fathers did not fear.
18 You failed to remember the Rock who conceived you.
You forgot the God who gave you birth.
19 The Lord saw this and rejected them,
because his sons and daughters had provoked him.
20 So the Lord said:[e]
I will hide my face from them,
until I see what their final condition will be,
because they are a twisted generation,
children who cannot be trusted.
21 They have made me jealous with their non-gods.
They have provoked me with their useless things.
So I will make them jealous by a non-people.
By a foolish nation I will provoke them.
22 For a fire has been ignited by my anger,
and it burns to the depths of hell.[f]
It devours the earth and its produce.
It sets the foundations of the mountains on fire.
23 I will pile up disasters for them.
I will use up all my arrows on them.
24 They will be sucked dry by hunger and burned up by fever.
I will send them bitter destruction.
Wild animals will sink their teeth into them
with the burning venom of snakes that crawl in the dust.
25 In the street the sword will take away their children.
Inside the houses terror will fill young man and
young woman alike,
the nursing child, together with the gray-haired old man.
26 I would have said, “I will cut them to pieces.
I will erase their memory from mankind,”
27 if I had not dreaded the taunting of the enemy.
I did not want their adversaries to misunderstand.
I did not want them to say,
“Our hand is high-and-mighty,
and the Lord has not done any of this.”
Confess Christ
8 “I tell you, whoever confesses me before other people, the Son of Man will also confess him before the angels of God. 9 But whoever denies me in the presence of other people will be denied in the presence of the angels of God. 10 Everyone who speaks a word against the Son of Man will be forgiven. But anyone who blasphemes against the Holy Spirit will not be forgiven. 11 When they bring you before synagogues, rulers, and authorities, do not worry about how you will defend yourself, or what you will say, 12 for the Holy Spirit will teach you in that very hour what you should say.”
The Rich Fool
13 Someone from the crowd said to him, “Teacher, tell my brother to divide the inheritance with me.” 14 But Jesus said to him, “Man, who appointed me to be a judge or an arbitrator over you?”
15 Then he said to them, “Watch out and be on guard against all greed, because a man’s life is not measured by how many possessions he has.”
16 He told them a parable: “The land of a certain rich man produced very well. 17 He was thinking to himself, ‘What will I do, because I do not have anywhere to store my crops?’ 18 He said, ‘This is what I will do. I will pull down my barns and build bigger ones, and there I will store all my grain and goods. 19 And I will tell my soul, “Soul, you have many goods stored up for many years. Take it easy. Eat, drink, and be merry.”’
20 “But God said to him, ‘You fool, this night your soul will be demanded from you. Now who will get what you have prepared?’
21 “That is how it will be for anyone who stores up treasure for himself and is not rich toward God.”
Do Not Worry
22 Jesus said to his disciples, “For that reason I tell you, stop worrying about your life, about what you will eat, or about your body, what you will wear. 23 Certainly life is more than food, and the body is more than clothing. 24 Consider the ravens: They do not sow or reap; they have no warehouse or barn; and yet God feeds them. How much more valuable are you than birds! 25 And who of you by worrying can add a single moment to his lifespan? 26 Since you are not able to do this little thing, why do you worry about the rest? 27 Consider how the wild flowers grow. They do not labor or spin. But I tell you, not even Solomon in all his glory was dressed like one of these. 28 If this is how God clothes the grass in the field, which is alive today and tomorrow is thrown into the furnace, how much more will he clothe you, you of little faith? 29 Do not constantly chase after what you will eat or what you will drink. Do not be worried about it. 30 To be sure, the nations of the world chase after all of these things, but your Father knows that you need them. 31 Instead, continue to seek the kingdom of God, and all these things will be added to you. 32 Do not be afraid, little flock, because your Father is pleased to give you the kingdom. 33 Sell your possessions and give to the needy. Provide money bags for yourselves that do not become old, a treasure in the heavens that will not fail, where no thief comes near and no moth destroys. 34 For where your treasure is, there your heart will be also.
32 In spite of all this, they kept sinning,
and they did not believe in his wonders.
33 So he ended their days in frustration[a]
and their years in terror.
34 Whenever he struck them down, they would seek him.
Then they turned and sought God.
35 Then they remembered that God was their Rock,
that God Most High was their Redeemer.
36 But then they would deceive him with their mouths,
and with their tongues they would lie to him.
37 Their hearts were not committed to him,
and they were not faithful to his covenant.
38 Yet he was compassionate.
He atoned for their guilt and did not destroy them.
Many times he restrained his anger,
and he did not stir up his full wrath.
39 He still remembered that they were only flesh,
like a wind that goes by and does not return.
40 How often they rebelled against him in the wilderness!
How often they grieved him in the wasteland!
41 They repeatedly put God to the test.
They provoked[b] the Holy One of Israel.
God’s Power Displayed in Egypt (Exodus 5–14)
42 They did not remember the power of his hand—
the day when he redeemed them from the foe,
43 when he displayed his signs in Egypt
and his wonders in the region of Zoan,
44 when he turned their rivers to blood,
so they could not drink from their streams.
45 He sent against them a swarm of flies that bit them.
Then he sent frogs that destroyed them.
46 Then he gave their crops to the grasshopper.
He gave what they worked for to the locust.
47 He killed their grapevines with hail,
and their sycamore fig trees with sleet.
48 Then he turned over their cattle to hail,
and their livestock to lightning bolts.
49 He sent against them his burning anger,
his wrath and indignation and distress
by sending destroying angels.[c]
50 He prepared a path for his anger.
He did not spare their lives from death,
but he delivered their lives to the plague.
51 Then he struck down all the firstborn in Egypt,
the firstfruit of their virility in the tents of Ham.
52 But he led his people out like sheep.
He led them like a flock through the wilderness.
53 Then he guided them safely, so they were not afraid,
but the sea covered their enemies.
God’s Power Displayed in Canaan (Joshua)
54 Then he brought them to the border of his holy land,
to this mountain which his right hand had taken.
55 He drove out nations before them.
He marked the boundaries of their inheritance,
and he settled the tribes of Israel in their tents.
21 No disaster will strike a righteous person,
but wicked people are filled with trouble.
22 Lying lips are disgusting to the Lord,
but those who act truthfully gain his favor.
23 A man who is shrewd conceals his knowledge,
but the hearts of fools broadcast stupidity.
The Holy Bible, Evangelical Heritage Version®, EHV®, © 2019 Wartburg Project, Inc. All rights reserved.