Through the Bible – Day 63

₁The LORD is your God, so you must always love him and obey his laws and teachings. ₂Remember, he corrected you and not your children. You are the ones who saw the LORD use his great power ₃when he worked miracles in Egypt, making terrible things happen to the king and all his people. ₄And when the Egyptian army chased you in their chariots, you saw the LORD drown them and their horses in the Red Sea. Egypt still suffers from that defeat!

₅You saw what the LORD did for you while you were in the desert, right up to the time you arrived here. ₆And you saw how the LORD made the ground open up in the middle of our camp underneath the tents of Dathan and Abiram, who were swallowed up along with their families, their animals, and their tents.

₇With your own eyes, you saw the LORD's mighty power do all these things.

₈Soon you will cross the River Jordan, and if you obey the laws and teachings I'm giving you today, you will be strong enough to conquer the land ₉that the LORD promised your ancestors and their descendants. It's rich with milk and honey, and you will live there and enjoy it for a long time. ₁₀It's better land than you had in Egypt, where you had to struggle just to water your crops. ₁₁But the hills and valleys in the promised land are watered by rain from heaven, ₁₂because the LORD your God keeps his eye on this land and takes care of it all year long.

₁₃The LORD your God commands you to love him and to serve him with all your heart and soul. If you obey him, _14-15he will send rain at the right seasons, so you will have more than enough food, wine, and olive oil, and there will be plenty of grass for your cattle.

₁₆But watch out! You will be tempted to turn your backs on the LORD. And if you worship other gods, ₁₇the LORD will become angry and keep the rain from falling. Nothing will grow in your fields, and you will die and disappear from the good land that the LORD is giving you.

₁₈Memorize these laws and think about them. Write down copies and tie them to your wrists and your foreheads to help you obey them. ₁₉Teach them to your children. Talk about them all the time—whether you're at home or walking along the road or going to bed at night, or getting up in the morning. ₂₀Write them on the door frames of your homes and on your town gates. ₂₁Then you and your descendants will live a long time in the land that the LORD promised your ancestors. Your families will live there as long as the sky is above the earth.

₂₂Love the LORD your God and obey all the laws and teachings that I'm giving you today. If you live the way the LORD wants, ₂₃he will help you take the land. And even though the nations there are more powerful than you, the LORD will force them to leave when you attack. ₂₄You will capture the land everywhere you go, from the Southern Desert to the Lebanon Mountains, and from the River Euphrates west to the Mediterranean Sea. ₂₅No one will be able to stand up to you. The LORD will make everyone terrified of you, just as he promised.

₂₆You have a choice—do you want the LORD to bless you, or do you want him to put a curse on you? ₂₇Today I am giving you his laws, and if you obey him, he will bless you. ₂₈But if you disobey him and worship those gods that have never done anything for you, the LORD will put a curse on you.

₂₉After the LORD your God helps you take the land, you must have a ceremony where you announce his blessings from Mount Gerizim and his curses from Mount Ebal. ₃₀You know that these two mountains are west of the River Jordan in land now controlled by the Canaanites living in the Jordan valley. The mountains are west of the road near the sacred trees of Moreh on the other side of Gilgal.

₃₁Soon you will cross the River Jordan to conquer the land that the LORD your God is giving you. And when you have settled there, ₃₂be careful to obey his laws and teachings that I am giving you today.

₁Now I'll tell you the laws and teachings that you have to obey as long as you live. Your ancestors worshipped the LORD, and he is giving you this land. ₂But the nations that live there worship other gods. So after you capture the land, you must completely destroy their places of worship—on mountains and hills or in the shade of large trees. ₃Wherever these nations worship their gods, you must tear down their altars, break their sacred stones, burn the sacred poles used in worshipping the goddess Asherah, and smash their idols to pieces. Destroy these places of worship so completely that no one will remember they were ever there. ₄Don't worship the LORD your God in the way those nations worship their gods.

_5-19Soon you will cross the Jordan, and the LORD will help you conquer your enemies and let you live in peace, there in the land he has given you. But after you are settled, life will be different. You must not offer sacrifices anywhere you want to. Instead, the LORD will choose a place somewhere in Israel where you must go to worship him. All your sacrifices and offerings must be taken there, including sacrifices to please the LORD and any gift you promise or voluntarily give him. That's where you must also take one tenth of your grain, wine, and olive oil, as well as the firstborn of your cattle, sheep, and goats. You and your family and servants will eat your gifts and sacrifices and celebrate there at the place of worship, because the LORD your God has made you successful in everything you have done. And since Levites will not have any land of their own, you must ask some of them to come along and celebrate with you.

Sometimes you may want to kill an animal for food and not as a sacrifice. If the LORD has blessed you and given you enough cows or sheep or goats, then you can butcher one of them where you live. You can eat it just like the meat from a deer or gazelle that you kill when you go hunting. And even those people who are unclean and unfit for worship can have some of the meat. But you must not eat the blood of any animal—let the blood drain out on the ground.

_20-21The LORD has promised that later on he will give Israel more land, and some of you may not be able to travel all the way from your homes to the place of worship each time you are hungry for meat. But the LORD will give you cattle, sheep, and goats, and you can butcher any of those animals at home and eat as much as you want. ₂₂It is the same as eating the meat from a deer or a gazelle that you kill when you go hunting. And in this way, anyone who is unclean and unfit for worship can have some of the meat.

_23-24But don't eat the blood. It is the life of the animal, so let it drain out on the ground before you eat the meat. ₂₅Do you want the LORD to make you successful? Do you want your children to be successful even after you are gone? Then do what pleases the LORD and don't eat blood.

_26-27All sacrifices and offerings to the LORD must be taken to the place where he chooses to be worshipped. If you offer a sacrifice to please the LORD, all of its meat must be burnt on the altar. You can eat the meat from certain kinds of sacrifices, but you must always pour out the animal's blood on the altar.

₂₈If you obey these laws, you will be doing what the LORD your God says is right and good. Then he will help you and your descendants be successful.

₂₉Israel, as you go into the land and attack the nations that are there, the LORD will get rid of them, and you can have their land.

₃₀But that's when you must be especially careful not to ask, “How did those nations worship their gods? Shouldn't we worship the LORD in the same way?” ₃₁No, you should not! The LORD hates the disgusting way those nations worship their gods, because they even burn their sons and daughters as sacrifices.

₃₂Obey all the laws and teachings I am giving you. Don't add any, and don't take any away.

₁One day another large crowd gathered around Jesus. They had not brought along anything to eat. So Jesus called his disciples together and said, ₂“I feel sorry for these people. They have been with me for three days, and they don't have anything to eat. ₃Some of them live a long way from here. If I send them away hungry, they might faint on their way home.”

₄The disciples said, “This place is like a desert. Where can we find enough food to feed such a crowd?”

₅Jesus asked them how much food they had. They replied, “Seven small loaves of bread.”

₆After Jesus told the crowd to sit down, he took the seven loaves and blessed them. He then broke the loaves and handed them to his disciples, who passed them out to the crowd. ₇They also had a few little fish, and after Jesus had blessed these, he told the disciples to pass them around.

_8-9The crowd of about four thousand people ate all they wanted, and the leftovers filled seven large baskets.

As soon as Jesus had sent the people away, ₁₀he got into the boat with the disciples and crossed to the territory near Dalmanutha.

₁₁The Pharisees came out and started an argument with Jesus. They wanted to test him by asking for a sign from heaven. ₁₂Jesus groaned and said, “Why are you always looking for a sign? I can promise you that you will not be given one!” ₁₃Then he left them. He again got into a boat and crossed over to the other side of the lake.

₁₄The disciples had forgotten to bring any bread, and they had only one loaf with them in the boat. ₁₅Jesus warned them, “Watch out! Guard against the yeast of the Pharisees and of Herod.”

₁₆The disciples talked this over and said to each other, “He must be saying this because we don't have any bread.”

₁₇Jesus knew what they were thinking and asked, “Why are you talking about not having any bread? Don't you understand? Are your minds still closed? ₁₈Are your eyes blind and your ears deaf? Don't you remember ₁₉how many baskets of leftovers you picked up when I fed those five thousand people with only five small loaves of bread?”

“Yes,” the disciples answered. “There were twelve baskets.”

₂₀Jesus then asked, “And how many baskets of leftovers did you pick up when I broke seven small loaves of bread for those four thousand people?”

“Seven,” they answered.

₂₁“Don't you know what I am talking about by now?” Jesus asked.

₂₂As Jesus and his disciples were going into Bethsaida, some people brought a blind man to him and begged him to touch the man. ₂₃Jesus took him by the hand and led him out of the village, where he spat into the man's eyes. He placed his hands on the blind man and asked him if he could see anything. ₂₄The man looked up and said, “I see people, but they look like trees walking around.”

₂₅Once again Jesus placed his hands on the man's eyes, and this time the man stared. His eyes were healed, and he saw everything clearly. ₂₆Jesus said to him, “You may return home now, but don't go into the village.”