Revised Common Lectionary (Complementary)

The Majesty of the Lord.

Rewards of Obedience

11 “Therefore you shall love the Lord your God, and always keep His charge, His statutes, His precepts, and His commandments [it is your obligation to Him]. ² Know this day that I am not speaking to your children who have not known [by personal experience] and who have not seen [firsthand] the instruction and discipline of the Lord your God—His greatness, His mighty hand and His outstretched arm; ³ and His signs and His works which He did in the midst of Egypt to Pharaoh the king of Egypt and to all his land; ⁴ and what He did to the army of Egypt, to its horses and its chariots, when He made the water of the ^[a]Red Sea engulf them as they pursued you, and how the Lord ^[b]completely destroyed them; ⁵ and what He did to you in the wilderness until you came to this place; ⁶ and what He did to Dathan and Abiram, the sons of Eliab, the son of Reuben, when the earth opened its mouth and swallowed them, their households, their tents, and every living thing that ^[c]followed them, in the midst of all Israel.^{(A) 7} For your eyes have seen all the great work of the Lord which He did.

⁸ “Therefore, you shall keep all the commandments which I am commanding you today, so that you may be strong and go in and take possession of the land which you are crossing over [the Jordan] to possess; ⁹ so that you may live long on the land which the Lord swore (solemnly promised) to your fathers to give to them and to their descendants, a land [of great abundance,] ^[d]flowing with milk and honey. ¹⁰ For the land which you are entering to possess is not like the land of Egypt from which you have come, where you sowed your seed and watered ^[e]it with your foot like a garden of vegetables. ¹¹ But the land into which you are about to cross to possess, a land of hills and valleys, drinks water from the rain of heaven, ¹² a land for which the Lord your God cares; the eyes of the Lord your God are always on it, from the beginning of the year to the end of the year.

¹³ “It shall come about, if you listen obediently and pay attention to My commandments which I command you today—to love the Lord your God and to serve Him with all your heart and with all your soul [your choices, your thoughts, your whole being]— ¹⁴ that ^[f]He will give the rain for your land in its season, the early [fall] rain and the late [spring] rain, so that you may gather in your grain and your new wine and your [olive] oil. ¹⁵ And ^[g]He will give grass in your fields for your cattle, and you will eat and be satisfied. ¹⁶ Beware that your hearts are not deceived, and that you do not turn away [from the Lord] and serve other gods and worship them, ¹⁷ or [else] the Lord’s anger will be kindled and burn against you, and He will shut up the heavens so that there will be no rain and the land will not yield its fruit; and you will perish quickly from the good land which the Lord is giving you.

¹³ I solemnly charge you in the presence of God, who gives life to all things, and [in the presence] of Christ Jesus, who made the good confession [in His testimony] before Pontius Pilate, ¹⁴ to keep all His precepts without stain or reproach until the appearing of our Lord Jesus Christ, ¹⁵ which He will bring about in His own time—He who is the blessed and only Sovereign [the absolute Ruler], the King of those who reign as kings and Lord of those who rule as lords, ¹⁶ He alone possesses immortality [absolute exemption from death] and lives in unapproachable light, whom no man has ever seen or can see. To Him be honor and eternal power and dominion! Amen.