Through the Bible – Day 58

_1-5This book contains the speeches that Moses made while Israel was in the land of Moab, camped near the town of Suph in the desert east of the River Jordan. The town of Paran was in one direction from their camp, and the towns of Tophel, Laban, Hazeroth, and Dizahab were in the opposite direction.

Earlier, Moses had defeated the Amorite King Sihon of Heshbon. Moses had also defeated King Og of Bashan, who used to live in Ashtaroth for part of the year and in Edrei for the rest of the year.

Although it takes only eleven days to walk from Mount Sinai to Kadesh-Barnea by way of the Mount Seir road, these speeches were not made until forty years after Israel left Egypt.

The LORD had given Moses his laws for the people of Israel. And on the first day of the eleventh month, Moses began explaining those laws by saying:

₆People of Israel, when we were in our camp at Mount Sinai, the LORD our God told us:

₉Straight after the LORD commanded us to leave Mount Sinai, I told you:

₁₄You answered, “That's a good idea!” ₁₅Then I took these men, who were already wise and respected leaders, and I appointed them as your official leaders. Some of them became military officers in charge of groups of a thousand, or a hundred, or fifty, or ten, ₁₆and others became judges. I gave these judges the following instructions:

₁₈After I gave these instructions to the judges, I taught you the LORD's commands.

₁₉The LORD had commanded us to leave Mount Sinai and go to the hill country that belonged to the Amorites, so we started out into the huge desert. You remember how frightening it was, but soon we were at Kadesh-Barnea, _20-21and I told you, “We have reached the hill country. It belongs to the Amorites now, but the LORD our God is giving it to us. He is the same God our ancestors worshipped, and he has told us to go in and take this land, so don't hesitate and be afraid.”

₂₂Then all of you came to me and said, “Before we go into the land, let's send some men to explore it. When they come back, they can tell us about the towns we will find and what roads we should take to get there.”

₂₃It seemed like a good idea, so I chose twelve men, one from each tribe. ₂₄They explored the hill country as far as Bunch Valley ₂₅and even brought back some of the fruit. They said, “The LORD our God is giving us good land.”

₂₆You did not want to go into the land, and you refused to obey the LORD your God. ₂₇You stayed in your tents and grumbled, “The LORD must hate us—he brought us out of Egypt, just so he could hand us over to the Amorites and get rid of us. ₂₈We are afraid, because the men who explored the land told us that the cities are large, with walls that reach to the sky. The people who live there are taller and stronger than we are, and some of them are Anakim. We have nowhere to go.”

₂₉Then I said, “Don't worry! ₃₀The LORD our God will lead the way. He will fight on our side, just as he did when we saw him do all those things to the Egyptians. ₃₁And you know that the LORD has taken care of us the whole time we've been in the desert, just as you might carry one of your children.”

₃₂But you still would not trust the LORD, ₃₃even though he had always been with us in the desert. During the daytime, the LORD was in the cloud, leading us in the right direction and showing us where to camp. And at night, he was there in the fire.

₃₄You had made the LORD angry, and he said:

₃₇The LORD was even angry with me because of you people, and he said, “Moses, I won't let you go into the land either. ₃₈Instead, I will let Joshua your assistant lead Israel to conquer the land. So encourage him.”

₃₉Then the LORD spoke to you again:

₄₁Then you told me, “We disobeyed the LORD our God, but now we want to obey him. We will go into the hill country and fight, just as he told us to do.” So you picked up your weapons, thinking it would be easy to take over the hill country.

₄₂But the LORD said, “Moses, warn them not to go into the hill country. I won't help them fight, and their enemies will defeat them.”

₄₃I told you what the LORD had said, but you paid no attention. You disobeyed him and went into the hill country anyway. You thought you were so great! ₄₄But when the Amorites in the hill country attacked from their towns, you ran from them as you would run from a swarm of bees. The Amorites chased your troops into Seir as far as Hormah, killing them as they went. ₄₅Then you came back to the place of worship at Kadesh-Barnea and wept, but the LORD would not listen to your prayers.

₄₆After we had been in Kadesh for a few months, we obeyed the LORD and headed back into the desert by way of Red Sea Road.

₁We spent many years wandering around outside the hill country of Seir, ₂until the LORD said:

₇The LORD has helped us and taken care of us during the past forty years that we have been in this huge desert. We've had everything we needed, and the LORD has blessed us and made us successful in whatever we have done.

₈We went past the territory that belonged to our relatives, the descendants of Esau. We followed Arabah Road that starts in the south at Elath and Ezion-Geber, then we turned on to the desert road that leads to Moab.

₉The LORD told me, “Don't try to start a war with Moab. Leave them alone, because I gave the land of Ar to them, and I will not let you have any of it.”

₁₀Before the LORD gave the Moabites their land, a large and powerful tribe lived there. They were the Emim, and they were as tall as the Anakim. ₁₁The Moabites called them Emim, though others sometimes used the name Rephaim for both the Anakim and the Emim.

₁₂The Horites used to live in Seir, but the Edomites took over that region. They killed many of the Horites and forced the rest of them to leave, just as Israel did to the people in the land that the LORD gave them.

₁₃When we came to the Zered Gorge along the southern border of Moab, the LORD told us to cross the gorge into Moab, and we did. ₁₄This was thirty-eight years after we left Kadesh-Barnea, and by that time all the men who had been in the army at Kadesh-Barnea had died, just as the LORD had said they would. _15-16The LORD kept getting rid of them until finally none of them were left.

₁₇Then the LORD told me, ₁₈“Moses, now go past the town of Ar and cross Moab's northern border ₁₉into Ammon. But don't start a war with the Ammonites. I gave them their land, and I won't give any of it to Israel.”

₂₀Before the Ammonites conquered the land that the LORD had given them, some of the Rephaim used to live there, although the Ammonites called them Zamzummim. ₂₁The Zamzummim were a large and powerful tribe and were as tall as the Anakim. But the LORD helped the Ammonites, and they killed many of the Zamzummim and forced the rest to leave. Then the Ammonites settled there. ₂₂The LORD helped them as he had helped the Edomites, who killed many of the Horites in Seir and forced the rest to leave before settling there themselves.

₂₃A group called the Avvim used to live in villages as far south as Gaza, but the Philistines killed them and settled on their land.

₂₄After we went through Ammon, the LORD told us:

₂₁Once again Jesus got into the boat and crossed Lake Galilee. Then as he stood on the shore, a large crowd gathered around him. ₂₂The person in charge of the Jewish meeting place was also there. His name was Jairus, and when he saw Jesus, he went over to him. He knelt at Jesus' feet ₂₃and started begging him for help. He said, “My daughter is about to die! Please come and touch her, so she will get well and live.” ₂₄Jesus went with Jairus. Many people followed along and kept crowding around.

₂₅In the crowd was a woman who had been bleeding for twelve years. ₂₆She had gone to many doctors, and they had not done anything except cause her a lot of pain. She had paid them all the money she had. But instead of getting better, she only got worse.

₂₇The woman had heard about Jesus, so she came up behind him in the crowd and barely touched his clothes. ₂₈She had said to herself, “If I can just touch his clothes, I will get well.” ₂₉As soon as she touched them, her bleeding stopped, and she knew she was well.

₃₀At that moment Jesus felt power go out from him. He turned to the crowd and asked, “Who touched my clothes?”

₃₁His disciples said to him, “Look at all these people crowding around you! How can you ask who touched you?” ₃₂But Jesus turned to see who had touched him.

₃₃The woman knew what had happened to her. She came shaking with fear and knelt down in front of Jesus. Then she told him the whole story.

₃₄Jesus said to the woman, “You are now well because of your faith. May God give you peace! You are healed, and you will no longer be in pain.”

₃₅While Jesus was still speaking, some men came from Jairus' home and said, “Your daughter has died! Why bother the teacher any more?”

₃₆Jesus heard what they said, and he said to Jairus, “Don't worry. Just have faith!”

₃₇Jesus did not let anyone go with him except Peter and the two brothers, James and John. ₃₈They went home with Jairus and saw the people crying and making a lot of noise. ₃₉Then Jesus went inside and said to them, “Why are you crying and carrying on like this? The child isn't dead. She is just asleep.” ₄₀But the people laughed at him.

After Jesus had sent them all out of the house, he took the girl's father and mother and his three disciples and went to where she was. _41-42He took the twelve-year-old girl by the hand and said, “Talitha, koum!” which means, “Little girl, get up!” The girl got straight up and started walking around.

Everyone was greatly surprised. ₄₃But Jesus ordered them not to tell anyone what had happened. Then he said, “Give her something to eat.”