Revised Common Lectionary (Complementary)

The Eternal Reign of the Lord

Love and Obedience Rewarded

11 “Therefore you shall love the Lord your God, and keep His charge, His statutes, His judgments, and His commandments always. ² Know today that I do not speak with your children, who have not known and who have not seen the ^[a]chastening of the Lord your God, His greatness and His mighty hand and His outstretched arm— ³ His signs and His acts which He did in the midst of Egypt, to Pharaoh king of Egypt, and to all his land; ⁴ what He did to the army of Egypt, to their horses and their chariots: ^(A)how He made the waters of the Red Sea overflow them as they pursued you, and how the Lord has destroyed them to this day; ⁵ what He did for you in the wilderness until you came to this place; ⁶ and ^(B)what He did to Dathan and Abiram the sons of Eliab, the son of Reuben: how the earth opened its mouth and swallowed them up, their households, their tents, and all the substance that was ^[b]in their possession, in the midst of all Israel— ⁷ but your eyes have ^(C)seen every great ^[c]act of the Lord which He did.

⁸ “Therefore you shall keep every commandment which I command you today, that you may ^(D)be strong, and go in and possess the land which you cross over to possess, ⁹ and ^(E)that you may prolong your days in the land ^(F)which the Lord ^[d]swore to give your fathers, to them and their descendants, ^(G)‘a land flowing with milk and honey.’ ¹⁰ For the land which you go to possess is not like the land of Egypt from which you have come, where you sowed your seed and watered it by foot, as a vegetable garden; ^11 (H)but the land which you cross over to possess is a land of hills and valleys, which drinks water from the rain of heaven, ¹² a land for which the Lord your God cares; ^(I)the eyes of the Lord your God are always on it, from the beginning of the year to the very end of the year.

¹³ ‘And it shall be that if you earnestly ^[e]obey My commandments which I command you today, to love the Lord your God and serve Him with all your heart and with all your soul, ¹⁴ then ^(J)I^[f] will give you the rain for your land in its season, ^(K)the early rain and the latter rain, that you may gather in your grain, your new wine, and your oil. ^15 (L)And I will send grass in your fields for your livestock, that you may ^(M)eat and be ^[g]filled.’ ¹⁶ Take heed to yourselves, ^(N)lest your heart be deceived, and you turn aside and ^(O)serve other gods and worship them, ¹⁷ lest ^(P)the Lord’s anger be aroused against you, and He ^(Q)shut up the heavens so that there be no rain, and the land yield no produce, and ^(R)you perish quickly from the good land which the Lord is giving you.

¹³ I urge you in the sight of God who gives life to all things, and before Christ Jesus ^(A)who witnessed the good confession before Pontius Pilate, ¹⁴ that you keep this commandment without spot, blameless until our Lord Jesus Christ’s appearing, ¹⁵ which He will manifest in His own time, He who is the blessed and only ^[a]Potentate, the King of kings and Lord of lords, ¹⁶ who alone has immortality, dwelling in ^(B)unapproachable light, ^(C)whom no man has seen or can see, to whom be honor and everlasting power. Amen.