Old/New Testament
The Lord's special people
7 The Lord your God will now bring you into the land that will be your home. As you go in, he will chase out seven nations that now live there. Those nations are larger and more powerful than you are. They are the Hittites, the Girgashites, the Amorites, the Canaanites, the Perizzites, the Hivites and the Jebusites. 2 The Lord your God will put those people under your power so that you win against them. When that happens, you must destroy them completely as a gift to God. Do not make any agreement with them to keep them safe. Do not be kind to them. 3 You must not marry any of these people. Do not let your daughters marry their sons. Do not take their daughters to marry your sons. 4 If that happens, your children may turn away from the Lord. They will start to worship other gods. Then the Lord will be very angry with you. He will immediately destroy you.
5 This is what you must do to the people of those nations: Break their altars and their stone pillars into pieces. Cut down their Asherah poles. Burn their idols with fire.[a] 6 Remember that you are a special people who belong to the Lord your God. He has chosen you for himself out of all the other people who live on the earth. He loves you as his special people.
7 Why did the Lord choose you as the people who would give him pleasure? It was not because you were the largest nation on the earth. No, you were the smallest of all nations! 8 Instead, it was because of the Lord's love for you. Also, he had made a serious promise to your ancestors and he was faithful to that promise. So he used his great power to bring you out of Egypt, where you were slaves. He rescued you from the power of Pharaoh, Egypt's king.
9 Remember that the Lord your God is the only true God. So love him and obey his commands. Then you can trust him to be faithful to his covenant. He made that covenant with you, his people, and with your descendants for ever. 10 But if his people turn against him, he will punish them as they deserve. He will quickly destroy them.
11 So be careful to obey all the commands, rules and laws that I am teaching you today.
The Lord's blessings
12 Listen to these rules and be careful to obey them. If you do that, the Lord your God will be faithful to the covenant that he has made with you. He promised your ancestors that he would do this. 13 He will love you and he will bless you. He will give you many children so that you become a large nation. He will cause your fields to give you plenty of food: grain, wine and olive oil. He will cause your cows, sheep and goats to have many babies. That is how he will bless you in the land that he promised your ancestors to give you. 14 God will bless you more than any other people on the earth. All your people and all your animals will have children of their own. 15 The Lord will keep you safe from all kinds of disease. He will not give you any of the terrible diseases that you saw in Egypt. Instead, he will cause those diseases to hurt the people who hate you.
16 You must remove the people of every nation that the Lord your God will put under your power. Do not be kind to them. Do not worship their gods. If you do that, they will make you turn away from God.
17 Perhaps you will say to each other, ‘The people of these nations are stronger than we are. We cannot chase them away.’ 18 But do not be afraid of them. Remember what the Lord your God did to Pharaoh and all the Egyptian people. 19 You saw how he punished them. You saw how he used his strength and power to do great miracles. The Lord your God did all those things to rescue you from Egypt. He will use the same power against all the people that make you afraid. 20 Also, the Lord your God will send great fear among these people.[b] Even those people who hide from you will soon die. 21 When you fight against them, do not let them frighten you. The Lord your God is there to help you. He is a great and powerful God. 22 He will chase out the people of those nations, one at a time. He will not let you destroy them all immediately. If you did that, wild animals would become so many that they would be a danger to you.
23 But the Lord your God will put your enemies under your power. He will cause them to become completely confused, so that you can destroy them. 24 He will put their kings under your power. No one will remember their names any more. No one will be able to stop you. You will destroy them all. 25 You must burn the images of their gods with fire. Do not try to keep the silver or gold from those idols. The Lord your God hates those things. If you take it for yourselves, it will catch you like a trap. 26 Do not bring anything that God hates into your house. If you do that, God will be ready to destroy you as well as the thing itself. God has said that he hates things like that, so you must hate them too.
The Lord takes care of his people
8 Be careful to obey all the commands that I am giving to you today. If you do that, you will continue to live, and you will have many children. You will go into the land that the Lord your God promised to your ancestors. It will become your home. 2 Remember how the Lord your God led you all the way across the desert. He took care of you for 40 years. He caused many troubles to come and to test you. He did that to see if you would trust him. He wanted to know whether you would continue to obey his commands. 3 He caused you to become hungry and then he fed you with manna.[c] Neither you nor your ancestors had ever seen this food before. In this way, he taught you that food alone cannot cause people to live. They need to hear every word that the Lord speaks. That is what gives them true life.
4 During those 40 years in the desert, your clothes did not spoil. Your feet did not become big with pain. 5 You should realize that the Lord your God wants you to learn what is right. When he punishes you, he is warning you. That is what a parent does to teach his child. 6 So obey the Lord's commands. Live in a way that pleases him. Respect him with fear.
7 Remember that the Lord your God is bringing you into a good land. It is a land that has many streams, pools and springs of water. There is water that runs in the valleys and in the hills. 8-9 It is a land where you will have plenty of food to eat. There is wheat, barley, grapes, figs, pomegranates, olives and honey. You will have everything that you need. The rocks have iron in them. You can dig copper out of the hills. 10 You can eat all the food that you want. Then remember to thank the Lord your God for the good land that he has given to you.
Remember that God has blessed you
11 Be careful that you do not forget the Lord your God. Always remember to obey his commands, rules and laws that I am telling you today. 12 When you are living in the land, you will have plenty of food to eat. You will build beautiful houses to live in. 13 You will have many cows, sheep and goats. You will have plenty of gold and silver. You will have many more things than you have now. 14 Then be careful! Do not become proud. Never forget the Lord your God who brought you out of Egypt. He rescued you from the place where you were slaves. 15 He led you through the large and terrible desert where there were dangerous snakes and scorpions. It was very hot and dry. There was no water there for you to drink. But the Lord made water pour out of a hard rock for you. 16 In the desert, he gave you manna to eat. That was food that your ancestors had never seen. He tested you, to see if you would trust him. He did that to help you enjoy good things in the end.
17 You must never say to yourself, ‘I have got all these valuable things because I am strong and clever!’ 18 Instead, you must always remember the Lord your God. He is the one who gives you the strength to get good things. He does that to show that his covenant still has authority today. That is the covenant that he promised to your ancestors. 19 But if you forget the Lord your God, he will destroy you. If you turn to other gods and you worship them, I warn you now: God will certainly destroy you! 20 The Lord will do the same thing to you as he does to your enemies. Like those nations, he will completely destroy you if you do not obey him.
Why God helps his people
9 Moses said:
Listen, Israelites! You will soon go across the Jordan River. You will chase away the people who live there in large cities with very high walls around them. Those nations of people are greater and stronger than you are. 2 You know about the Anakites who live there. They are strong and tall. You have heard people say, ‘No one can fight against the Anakites and win.’
3 But you must understand this: The Lord your God is leading you across the river. He is like a fire that destroys everything! He will win against your enemies. He will give you power over them. Then you will chase them away and remove them quickly. The Lord has promised you that this will happen.
4 The Lord your God will chase them away. After he has done that, be careful! Do not say to yourselves, ‘The Lord has brought us into this land because we do right things.’
No! It is because these nations are doing wicked things. That is why the Lord is chasing them out of the land so that you can live there. 5 It is not because you are doing right things. It is not because you are good, honest people. That is not the reason that you will take their land for yourselves. Instead, it is because these nations are wicked people. That is why the Lord your God will chase them away as you move in there. He will do what he promised to your ancestors, Abraham, Isaac and Jacob. 6 You must understand this. The Lord your God is not giving you this good land to live in because you are doing right things. No! You are proud people who do not want to obey me.
The gold calf
7 Remember how you made the Lord your God angry when you were in the desert. Never forget that! Since you left Egypt, you have always turned against the Lord your God. You have continued to make him angry all the time until you arrived here. 8 When you were at Sinai you made him angry enough to destroy you. 9 I climbed the mountain to meet with the Lord. I received the two flat stones with the covenant that he had made with you. I stayed there for 40 days and nights. During that time, I did not eat or drink anything. 10 Then the Lord gave the two flat stones to me. He had written all his commands on the stones with his own finger. The Lord spoke those commands to you from middle of the fire. That was on the day when you all came together at the mountain.
11 After those 40 days and nights, the Lord gave me the two flat stones. They had his covenant on them. 12 Then the Lord said to me, ‘Now go down the mountain! The people that you led out of Egypt have done something very bad. They have already refused to obey my commands. They have used gold to make an idol for themselves.’
13 The Lord also said to me, ‘I know what these people are like! They are proud people who do not want to obey me. 14 Keep away from me! I will now destroy them! Then no one on the earth will remember them at all. Instead, Moses, I will make your descendants into a nation that is stronger and larger than they are.’
15 So I turned and I went down the mountain. It was still burning with fire. I held the two stones with the covenant on them in my hands. 16 When I looked, I saw that you had made an image of a calf as your idol. You really had done a very bad thing. You had quickly stopped doing the things that the Lord your God had commanded you to do. 17 When I saw that, I threw the two flat stones down onto the ground. I broke them into pieces while you watched.
18 Then I again fell down with my face on the ground, to pray to the Lord. I did that for 40 days and nights. I did not eat or drink anything. You had done an evil thing which caused the Lord to be very angry. 19 I prayed, because the Lord had said that he would destroy you. He was so angry with you that I was very afraid. But the Lord listened to me this time too.
20 The Lord was also angry with my brother Aaron. He wanted to kill Aaron. But at that time, I prayed for Aaron too.
21 When you made that idol, it was a sin that you did. So I took that gold calf and I burned it in the fire. Then I beat it into powder, like dust. I threw the powder into a stream that ran down from the mountain.
22 After that, you also caused the Lord to be angry with you at Taberah, at Massah and at Kibroth-Hattaavah. 23 When the Lord sent you out from Kadesh-Barnea, he said, ‘Go into the land that I have given to you and live there.’ But you turned against the Lord your God. You refused to trust him or obey him. 24 You have refused to obey the Lord ever since I have known you.
25 So I lay down on the ground for those 40 days and nights. I prayed to the Lord because he had said that he would destroy you.
26 I prayed this prayer: ‘Almighty Lord, do not destroy your people! They belong to you as your special people. You used your great power and strength to rescue them from Egypt. 27 Remember your servants, Abraham, Isaac and Jacob. Do not think about these proud people who are so wicked. Please forgive their sins. 28 If you destroy your people, the Egyptians will say, “The Lord could not take them into the land that he promised to give to them. Instead, he took them into the desert so that he could kill them there. He did this because he hated them!”
29 Please remember that they belong to you as your own special people. You used your strength and your power to rescue them.’
19 When it was evening, Jesus and his disciples went out of the city again.
The fig tree is dead
20 The next morning, Jesus and his disciples passed the fig tree. They saw that it was completely dead. 21 Peter remembered what Jesus had said. So he said to Jesus, ‘Teacher, look at that fig tree. You said that it should die, and it has died.’
22 So Jesus said to them, ‘You must believe in God. 23 I tell you this: A person could say to this mountain, “Move and throw yourself into the sea.” Then it will happen like he says. But he must not let other ideas come into his mind. He must really believe that those things will happen. If he does believe it, God will do those things for him. 24 So I tell you this. When you pray to ask God for anything, believe in him. Believe that you have received that thing. Then you will have whatever you have asked for. 25 But when you stand up to pray, first you must forgive other people. If anyone has done something bad against you, forgive that person. If you do forgive them, your Father in heaven will forgive you. God will forgive you for the bad things that you have done.’ 26 [a]
Jesus talks about his authority
27 Jesus and his disciples arrived again in Jerusalem. Jesus was walking about in the yard at the temple. The leaders of the priests, the teachers of God's Law and the important Jews came to him. 28 They asked him, ‘What authority do you have to do these things? Who gave you the authority to do them?’
29 Jesus replied, ‘I will ask you one question and you should answer me. If you do that, then I will answer your question. I will tell you what authority I have to do these things. 30 John baptized people. Did God give him authority to do this? Or did men tell him to do it? Now, tell me your answer.’
31 Then the Jewish leaders talked to each other. They said, ‘We could say that God gave John his authority. But, if we say that, Jesus will say to us, “Then you should have believed John.” 32 But we do not want to say that only men gave John his authority.’ The Jewish leaders were afraid of the crowd. All the people thought that John really was a prophet from God.
33 So the Jewish leaders answered Jesus: ‘We do not know who gave John his authority.’
So Jesus said to them, ‘You will not answer my question. So I will not tell you what authority I have to do these things.’
EasyEnglish Bible Copyright © MissionAssist 2019 - Charitable Incorporated Organisation 1162807. Used by permission. All rights reserved.