Through the Bible – Day 70

₄₅Israel, if you don't obey the laws and teachings that the LORD your God is giving you, he will send these curses to chase, attack, and destroy you. ₄₆Then everyone will look at you and your descendants and realize that the LORD has placed you under a curse.

₄₇If the LORD makes you wealthy, but you don't joyfully worship and honour him, ₄₈he will send enemies to attack you and make you their slaves. Then you will live in poverty with nothing to eat, drink, or wear, and your owners will work you to death.

₄₉Foreigners who speak a strange language will be sent to attack you without warning, just like an eagle swooping down. ₅₀They won't show any mercy, and they will have no respect for old people or pity for children. ₅₁They will take your cattle, sheep, goats, grain, wine, and olive oil, then leave you to starve.

₅₂All over the land that the LORD your God gave you, the enemy army will surround your towns. You may feel safe inside your town walls, but the enemy will tear them down, ₅₃while you wait in horror. Finally, you will get so hungry that you will eat the sons and daughters that the LORD gave you. _54-55Because of hunger, a man who had been gentle and kind will eat his own children and refuse to share the meal with his brother or wife or with his other children. _56-57A woman may have grown up in such luxury that she never had to put a foot on the ground. But times will be so bad that she will secretly eat both her newborn baby and the afterbirth, without sharing any with her husband or her other children.

₅₈You must obey everything in The Book of God's Law. Because if you don't respect the LORD, ₅₉he will punish you and your descendants with incurable diseases, ₆₀like those you were so afraid of in Egypt. ₆₁Remember! If the LORD decides to destroy your nation, he can use any disease or disaster, not just the ones written in The Book of God's Law.

₆₂There are as many of you now as the stars in the sky, but if you disobey the LORD your God, only a few of you will be left. ₆₃The LORD is happy to make you successful and to help your nation grow while you conquer the land. But if you disobey him, he will be just as happy to pull you up by your roots.

₆₄Those of you who survive will be scattered to every nation on earth, and you will have to worship stone and wood idols that never helped you or your ancestors. ₆₅You will be restless—always longing for home, but never able to return. ₆₆You will live in constant fear of death. ₆₇Each morning you will wake up to such terrible sights that you will say, “I wish it were night!” But at night you will be terrified and say, “I wish it were day!”

₆₈I told you never to go back to Egypt. But now the LORD himself will load you on ships and send you back. Then you will even try to sell yourselves as slaves, but no one will be interested.

₁So Moses finished telling the Israelites what they had to do in order to keep the agreement the LORD was making with them in Moab, which was in addition to the one the LORD had made with them at Mount Sinai.

_2-3Moses called the nation of Israel together and told them:

When you were in Egypt, you saw the LORD perform great miracles that caused trouble for the king, his officials, and everyone else in the country. _4-6He has even told you, “For forty years I, the LORD, led you through the desert, but your clothes and your sandals didn't wear out, and I gave you special food. I did these things so you would realize that I am your God.”

But the LORD must give you a change of heart before you truly understand what you have seen and heard.

₇When we first camped here, King Sihon of Heshbon and King Og of Bashan attacked, but we defeated them. ₈Then we captured their land and divided it among the tribes of Reuben, Gad, and East Manasseh.

₉Israel, the LORD has made an agreement with you, and if you keep your part, you will be successful in everything you do. _10-12Today everyone in our nation is standing here in the LORD's presence, including leaders and officials, parents and children, and even those foreigners who cut wood and carry water for us. We are at this place of worship to promise that we will keep our part of the agreement with the LORD our God.

_13-15In this agreement, the LORD promised that you would be his people and that he would be your God. He first made this promise to your ancestors Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob, and today the LORD is making this same promise to you. But it isn't just for you; it is also for your descendants.

_16-17When we lived in Egypt, you saw the Egyptians worship disgusting idols of wood, stone, silver, and gold. Then as we travelled through other nations, you saw those people worship other disgusting idols. ₁₈So make sure that everyone in your tribe remains faithful to the LORD and never starts worshipping gods of other nations.

If even one of you worships idols, you will be like the root of a plant that produces bitter, poisonous fruit. ₁₉You may be an Israelite and know-all about the LORD's agreement with us, but he won't bless you if you rebel against him. You may think you can get away with it, but you will cause the rest of Israel to be punished along with you. _20-21The LORD will be furious, and instead of forgiving you, he will separate you from the other tribes. Then he will destroy you, by piling on you all the curses in The Book of God's Law, and you will be forgotten for ever.

₂₂The LORD will strike your country with diseases and disasters. Your descendants and foreigners from distant countries will see that your land ₂₃has become a scorching desert of salt and sulphur, where nothing is planted, nothing sprouts, and nothing grows. It will be as lifeless as the land around the cities of Sodom, Gomorrah, Admah, and Zeboiim, after the LORD became angry and destroyed them.

₂₄People from other nations will ask, “Why did the LORD destroy this country? Why was he so furious?”

₂₅And they will be given this answer:

₂₉The LORD our God hasn't explained the present or the future, but he has commanded us to obey the laws he gave to us and our descendants.

₁I have told you everything the LORD your God will do for you, and I've also told you the curses he will put on you if you reject him. He will scatter you in faraway countries, but when you realize that he is punishing you, ₂return to him with all your heart and soul and start obeying the commands I have given to you today. _3-4Then he will stop punishing you and treat you with kindness. He may have scattered you to the furthest countries on earth, but he will bring you back ₅to the land that had belonged to your ancestors and make you even more successful and powerful than they ever were.

₆You and your descendants are stubborn, but the LORD will make you willing to obey him and love him with all your heart and soul, and you will enjoy a long life.

₇Then the LORD your God will remove the curses from you and put them on those enemies who hate and attack you.

₈You will again obey the laws and teachings of the LORD, ₉and he will bless you with many children, large herds and flocks, and abundant crops. The LORD will be happy to do good things for you, just as he did for your ancestors. ₁₀But you must decide once and for all to worship him with all your heart and soul and to obey everything in The Book of God's Law.

₁₁You know God's laws, and it isn't impossible to obey them. ₁₂His commands aren't in heaven, so you can't excuse yourselves by saying, “How can we obey the LORD's commands? They are in heaven, and no one can go up to get them, then bring them down and explain them to us.” ₁₃And you can't say, “How can we obey the LORD's commands? They are across the sea, and someone must go across, then bring them back and explain them to us.” ₁₄No, these commands are nearby and you know them by heart. All you have to do is obey!

₁₅Today I am giving you a choice. You can choose life and success or death and disaster. _16-18I am commanding you to be loyal to the LORD, to live the way he has told you, and to obey his laws and teachings. You are about to cross the River Jordan and take the land that he is giving you. If you obey him, you will live and become successful and powerful.

On the other hand, you might choose to disobey the LORD and reject him. So I'm warning you that if you bow down and worship other gods, you won't have long to live.

₁₉Now I call the sky and the earth to be witnesses that I am offering you this choice. Will you choose for the LORD to make you prosperous and give you a long life? Or will he put you under a curse and kill you? Choose life! ₂₀Be completely faithful to the LORD your God, love him, and do whatever he tells you. The LORD is the only one who can give life, and he will let you live a long time in the land that he promised to your ancestors Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob.

₂₀As the disciples walked past the fig tree the next morning, they noticed that it was completely dried up, roots and all. ₂₁Peter remembered what Jesus had said to the tree. Then Peter said, “Teacher, look! The tree you put a curse on has dried up.”

₂₂Jesus told his disciples:

₂₇Jesus and his disciples returned to Jerusalem. And as he was walking through the temple, the chief priests, the nation's leaders, and the teachers of the Law of Moses came over to him. ₂₈They asked, “What right do you have to do these things? Who gave you this authority?”

₂₉Jesus answered, “I have just one question to ask you. If you answer it, I will tell you where I got the right to do these things. ₃₀Who gave John the right to baptize? Was it God in heaven or merely some human being?”

₃₁They thought it over and said to each other, “We can't say that God gave John this right. Jesus will ask us why we didn't believe John. ₃₂On the other hand, these people think that John was a prophet. So we can't say that it was merely some human who gave John the right to baptize.”

They were afraid of the crowd ₃₃and told Jesus, “We don't know.”

Jesus replied, “Then I won't tell you who gave me the right to do what I do.”

₁Jesus then told them this story:

₉Jesus asked, “What do you think the owner of the vineyard will do? He will come and kill those tenants and let someone else have his vineyard. ₁₀Surely you know that the Scriptures say,

₁₂The leaders knew that Jesus was really talking about them, and they wanted to arrest him. But because they were afraid of the crowd, they let him alone and left.