Revised Common Lectionary (Complementary)

God Reigns

Remember God’s Power

11 “Therefore love the Lord your God and be very careful to keep his injunctions, statutes, ordinances, and commands all the time.^{[a] 2} Keep in mind today that I am not speaking to your children, who neither were aware of nor did they witness the discipline of the Lord your God—that is, his great and far-reaching power, ³ including: the signs and works that he did within Egypt to Pharaoh, king of Egypt, and to all his land; ⁴ what he did to the Egyptian army, to its horses, and to its chariots, when he caused the water of the Reed^[b] Sea to engulf them as they pursued you; how the Lord destroyed them, even to this day; ⁵ what he did for you in the desert until you came to this place; ⁶ and what he did to Eliab’s sons Dathan and Abiram, descendants of Reuben, when the ground opened up and swallowed them, their households, their tents, and every living thing belonging to them in the full sight^[c] of Israel. ⁷ Your very own eyes saw all the great things that the Lord did.”

Possessing a Fertile Land

⁸ “Keep all the commands that I’m giving^[d] you today, so you can be strong enough to enter and possess the land that you are crossing over to inherit ⁹ and so you’ll live long in the land that the Lord your God promised by an oath to give your ancestors and their descendants—a land flowing with milk and honey, ¹⁰ since the land that you are about to enter to inherit isn’t like the land of Egypt that you just left, where you plant a seed and irrigate it with your feet like a vegetable garden. ¹¹ Instead, the land that you are crossing over to inherit is a land of hills and valleys that drinks water supplied by rain from heaven, ¹² a land about which the Lord your God is always concerned, because the eyes of the Lord are continuously on it throughout the entire year.”^[e]

Delights of a Bountiful Land

¹³ “If you carefully observe the commands that I’m giving you today—that is, to love the Lord your God and serve him with all your heart and soul— ¹⁴ then he^[f] will send rain on the land in its season (the early and latter rains)^[g] and you’ll gather grain, new wine, and oil. ¹⁵ He^[h] will provide grass in the fields for your livestock, and you’ll eat and be satisfied. ¹⁶ Be careful! Otherwise, your hearts will deceive you and you will turn away to serve other gods and worship them. ¹⁷ The wrath of God will burn against you so that he will restrain the heavens and it won’t rain. The ground won’t yield its produce and you’ll be swiftly destroyed from the good land that the Lord is about to give you.

¹³ Since you are^[a] in the presence of God, who gives life to everything, and in the presence of the Messiah^[b] Jesus, who gave a good testimony before Pontius Pilate, I solemnly charge you ¹⁴ to keep these commands stainlessly and blamelessly until the appearance of our Lord Jesus, the Messiah.^{[c] 15} At the right time, he will make him known.