The Daily Audio Bible
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God's covenant with his people
29 The Lord commanded Moses to tell the Israelites the words of his covenant with them. He made this covenant with them in Moab's country, as well as the covenant that he had made with them at Sinai. 2 This is what Moses said to all the Israelites when they met together:
You have seen everything that the Lord did in Egypt. You saw how he punished Egypt's king, his officers and his whole country. 3 You saw the miracles which the Lord did to show his great power. 4 But until now the Lord has not let you understand why he did that. You saw and you heard those things, but you did not understand. 5 The Lord says, ‘I led you through this desert for 40 years. In all that time, your clothes and your shoes have not become spoiled. 6 You did not eat any bread. You did not drink any wine or beer. I helped you so that you would know that I am the Lord your God.’
7 When we arrived here, King Sihon of Heshbon and King Og of Bashan attacked us. But we won against them. 8 We took their land and we gave it to the tribes of Reuben, Gad and half the tribe of Manasseh. That would be their new home.[a]
9 So be careful to obey the words of this covenant. If you are faithful, everything that you do will go well.
10 The Lord your God sees all of you today as you stand here. He sees your leaders, your important men, your officers and all Israelite men. 11 He sees your children and your wives. He sees the foreign people who live among you and who cut wood and carry water for you. 12 You are standing here to agree to the covenant that the Lord your God is making with you today. You must promise to obey it. 13 By this covenant, the Lord says again today that you are his people and he is your God. He has already made that promise to you and to your ancestors, Abraham, Isaac and Jacob. 14-15 The Lord our God is making this strong covenant with you people who are standing here with him today. But it is not only with you. He also makes this covenant with those people who are not here today.[b]
16 You remember how we lived when we were in Egypt. You remember how we travelled through other countries as we came here. 17 You saw the useless gods that people of other nations worship. They worship idols that they make from wood, stone, silver and gold. 18 So be very careful that you do not turn away from the Lord our God to worship the gods of those nations. No man, woman, clan or tribe among you must ever want to do that. That would be like the root of a plant that gives fruits which are full of poison.
19 Nobody who hears the message of this covenant should think that they can go against it. Someone might say to himself, ‘I do not have to obey this covenant. I will be safe, whatever happens. God will still bless me.’ A person who thinks like that will bring trouble on everyone and on everything. 20 The Lord will never forgive that person. He will be very angry with him. The Lord will punish him in all the terrible ways that are written in this book. The Lord will destroy him completely so that his family name comes to an end. 21 The Lord will make that person separate from all the Israelite tribes and he will punish him very much. All the troubles that the Lord promises in this covenant will happen to that person, as this book of God's Law says.
22 Then, in future years, your descendants will see that many troubles have come to your land. They will see that the Lord has made people very ill. Foreign people who come from countries far away will also see what has happened. 23 The whole land will become spoiled with salt and sulphur. No one will plant seed in it, because nothing will grow there. Even grass will not grow on it. The land will be useless, like the cities that the Lord destroyed when he was very angry with them. Those cities were Sodom and Gomorrah, Admah and Zeboiim.
24 The people of all other nations who see this will ask, ‘Why has the Lord destroyed this land? Why was he so angry with the people who lived there?’ 25 People will answer, ‘Because these people turned away from the covenant that the Lord had made with them. He is the God that their ancestors worshipped. He made a covenant with them when he brought them out of Egypt. 26 But they turned away from him and they worshipped other gods. They served gods that they had not known before. They were gods that the Lord did not give them to worship. 27 So the Lord was angry with the people in this land. He punished them with all the terrible troubles that are written in this book. 28 That is why the Lord removed them from their land. He was very angry with them. So he threw them out to a foreign country. We see that they are still there today.’
29 Some secret things belong to the Lord our God. He does not let us understand everything. But he has shown us many things clearly. Those things belong to us and to our descendants for all time. They are the words of his Law that we need to obey.
God will bless his people again
30 I have told you about the ways that God may bless you and the ways that he may curse you. If you do not obey the Lord your God, he will send you away to live in many foreign countries. When that happens, you will think about what I have said. 2 Then you and your children may decide to turn back to the Lord. You may choose to obey him completely in everything that you think and in everything that you do. That is what I am commanding you to do today. 3 If you do that, the Lord your God will bring you back home and he will forgive you. He will turn to help you again. He will bring you back from the countries where he sent you to live. 4 He will bring back even those of you who live in countries that are very far away. You will all come back to live together again. 5 He will bring you back to the land that belonged to your ancestors. It will belong to you as your home. He will help you even more than he helped your ancestors. He will make you more in number than your ancestors were. 6 The Lord your God will change you so that you want to serve him. He will do that for your descendants too. Then you will love him completely in everything that you think and in everything that you do. You will continue to live in your land.
7 When that happens, the Lord your God will punish your enemies with all these terrible troubles, instead of you. He will punish the people who hate you and do cruel things to you. 8 You will turn back to the Lord. You will obey all his commands that I am giving you today. 9 The Lord your God will cause all your work to go very well. He will give you many children. Your animals will give birth to many babies. Lots of crops will grow in your fields. The Lord will be happy to help you again, as he was happy to help your ancestors. 10 But you must obey his commands and his rules that are written in this book of his Law. You must turn back to him. You must serve him in everything that you think and in everything that you do.
God offers life or death
11 The command that I am giving you today is not too difficult for you. It is not too far away from you. 12 God does not keep it in heaven. So you do not have to ask, ‘Who will go up to heaven to find it and bring it down to us? Who will explain it to us so that we can obey it?’
13 It is not far away across the sea. So you do not have to ask, ‘Who will go across the sea to fetch it for us? Who will explain it to us so that we can obey it?’
14 No! God's message is very near to you. It is in your mouth and in your mind. So you must do what it teaches you to do.
15 Look! You must choose between the things that I am offering you today. You may choose to have life and many good things. Or you may choose to have death and many troubles. 16 I am commanding you today to love the Lord your God. Live in a way that pleases him. Obey his commands, his rules and his laws. If you do that, you will live. You will become a nation of many people. The Lord your God will bless you in the land that you are going into as your new home.
17 But you will have trouble if you turn away from God and you do not obey him. If you decide to serve other gods and to worship them, 18 you will certainly come to an end. After you go across the Jordan River, you will not live very long in that land. That is what I am telling you today.
19 Today, I want the sky and the earth to hear what I have said to you. I have told you what you may choose. You may choose life or death. You may choose the Lord to bless you or to curse you. Choose life today, so that you and your descendants will live! 20 Yes, love the Lord your God. Obey him and serve him faithfully. He is the one who gives you life. He will let you live for a long time in the land that he is giving to you. That is the land that he promised to your ancestors, Abraham, Isaac and Jacob.
Jesus warns some Pharisees
37 While Jesus was speaking, a Pharisee asked him to eat a meal with him. So Jesus went to the Pharisee's house and he sat down at the table. 38 Jesus did not wash his hands before he ate the meal. This surprised the Pharisee. 39 So the Lord Jesus said to him, ‘You Pharisees are like someone who only cleans the outside of his cup and his plate. You only clean the part that people can see. But inside, your mind is full of bad thoughts.[a] You like to take things from other people. 40 What fools you are! God made the inside of you as well as the outside. He knows all about you. 41 So be ready to give things to poor people. Then you will be really clean, on the inside as well as the outside.
42 It will be very bad for you Pharisees! When you grow spices to cook with food, you give a tenth part of these small things to God. You are right to obey this rule. But you do not do the most important things. You do not help people in a good way. You do not really love God. You should have done the important things as well as the other little things.
43 Yes, it will be very bad for you Pharisees! You like to sit in the best seats in the meeting place. And you like people to praise you in the market place.
44 It will be very bad for you. You want to seem good to other people, but you are bad on the inside. You are like a grave that has nothing to show that it is there. People walk on that place because they do not know that there is a dead person there.’[b]
45 Then a teacher of God's Law spoke out. ‘Teacher,’ he said, ‘when you say these things, you are also saying bad things about us.’
46 Jesus replied, ‘It will be very bad for you as well, teachers of God's Law. You give rules to people to obey. Those rules are like things that are too heavy for people to carry.[c] You do not even help people to carry them. Not even with one finger do you help them!
47 Yes, it will be very bad for you! A long time ago, your ancestors killed God's prophets. Now, you build up beautiful stones to show the place where they buried them. 48 You know that your ancestors killed the prophets. Now you build up the places where they buried them. So you show that you agree with your ancestors. You agree with what they did. 49 God is wise. Because you do not obey what is true, he said, “I will send my prophets and apostles to go to them. But they will kill some of my servants. They will hurt others of them.” 50 Since the beginning of the world, people have killed God's prophets. But God will punish the people who are alive today for all those murders. 51 Abel was the first to die like this and Zechariah was the last. They even killed Zechariah in the yard of the temple, near the altar.[d] Yes, God will punish the people who are alive today for all those murders.
52 It will be very bad for you teachers of God's Law! You have studied God's message. But you do not then accept it. You have also stopped people who really wanted to know God's message. Then they could not go on to accept it and go into God's kingdom.’
53 Then Jesus left that place. The Pharisees and the teachers of God's Law were angry against Jesus. They were asking him many difficult questions. 54 They wanted to make him say something wrong. Then they could take hold of him.
Jesus tells the people to be careful how they live
12 While all this was happening, many thousands of people had come together near that place. The crowd was so big that people were almost walking over each other. Jesus began to talk first to his disciples. He said, ‘Be careful! Do not accept the yeast of the Pharisees.[e] Do not be hypocrites like they are.
2 Some people hide the things that they do. But there will be a time when other people will see those things clearly. Everyone will know all their secrets. 3 You may have said things secretly, in the dark of the night. But one day, people will hear those things in the light of day. You may have said things quietly into someone's ear, behind a door that you have shut. But one day, people will shout out those secrets loudly from the tops of the houses.
4 You are my friends, so I tell you this: do not be afraid of those people who can kill only your body. After that, they can do nothing worse to you. 5 But I tell you, it is God that you should be afraid of. He has the power to kill people and then to throw them into hell. Yes, I am telling you, be very afraid of him.
6 Think about this. People sell five birds for two small coins. But each little bird is valuable to God. He knows about them all and takes care of them. 7 God even knows how many hairs there are on your head. So do not be afraid of those people who are against you. You are more valuable to God than many little birds.
Asaph wrote this special song.
God has been good to his people[a]
78 My people, listen to what I am teaching you.
Listen to the words that I speak.
2 I will tell you something to make you wise.
Then you will understand
things that happened long ago.
3 We have heard about these things
and we know them.
Our ancestors have told them to us,
4 and we will not hide them from our children.
We will tell our children and our grandchildren
why they should praise the Lord.
We will tell them about his strength,
and about the great things that he has done.
5 He gave his laws to Jacob's descendants,
the Israelite people.
He commanded our ancestors
to teach them to their children.
6 Then the children would know about them,
even the children still to be born.
When the time came,
they too would tell their children.
7 Then their family would trust in God.
They would not forget what God had done.
They would obey his commands.
8 So they would not be like their ancestors,
who turned against God.
Those people refused to obey God,
and they did not trust him to be their guide.
9 The soldiers of Ephraim had bows and arrows,
but they ran away when the battle started![b]
10 They did not obey the covenant
that God had made with them.
They refused to obey his laws.
11 They forgot about what he had done for them.
They forgot the miracles that he had shown them.
12 He did miracles for their ancestors to see,
in the region of Egypt that is called Zoan.
13 He cut the sea into two separate parts,
and he led them through it.
He made a path between two walls of water.[c]
14 He showed them the way with a cloud in the day
and with light from a fire all night.[d]
15 He broke rocks into pieces in the wilderness
so that his people had plenty of water.
Springs of water came from deep in the earth.
16 He caused streams to pour from the rocks
so that the waters ran like rivers.[e]
17 But his people continued to do bad things against him.
In the wilderness,
they turned against the Most High God.
18 They decided to test God,
to see what he would do.
They demanded to have the food that they liked best.
19 They spoke against God, and they said,
‘Can God give us food to eat here in the wilderness?
20 Yes, water did come out when he hit the rock.
There were streams of water that poured out like a river.
But can he also give us food to eat?
Can he supply meat for his people?’
21 When the Lord heard this,
he was very angry.
So he sent fire to punish his people.
He became very angry against the Israelites.
22 They did not trust God,
that he had the power to save them.
23 So God commanded the clouds high above
to give food to his people.
He caused the skies to open like a door.
24 He poured down manna like rain,
so that they could eat grain that came from heaven.[f]
25 In that way, people ate the special bread of angels!
God gave them all the food that they could eat.
26 Then God caused a wind to blow from the east.
He used his power to send a south wind too.
27 He caused meat to pour down on them,
like dust from the sky.
The birds covered all the ground
like sand on the shore of the sea.[g]
28 God made the birds fall near the tents
where his people were living.
29 They ate as much as they could eat.
Yes, God gave them what they had demanded!
30-31 But God became very angry with them,
even before they had finished eating.
While the food was still in their mouths,
he killed the strongest men among them.
Many of the best young Israelite men died.
19 True words continue to be true for ever.
But people quickly see that lies are lies.
20 Someone who wants to cause trouble has a mind that is full of lies.
But someone who wants to bring peace has a mind that is full of joy.
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