Numbers 35, Psalm 79, Isaiah 27, 1 John 5

Numbers 35,

1 On the plains of Moab by the Jordan across from Jericho, the LORD said to Moses,
 
2 "Command the Israelites to give the Levites towns to live in from the inheritance the Israelites will possess. And give them pasturelands around the towns.
 
3 Then they will have towns to live in and pasturelands for their cattle, flocks and all their other livestock.
 
4 "The pasturelands around the towns that you give the Levites will extend out fifteen hundred feet from the town wall.
 
5 Outside the town, measure three thousand feet on the east side, three thousand on the south side, three thousand on the west and three thousand on the north, with the town in the center. They will have this area as pastureland for the towns.
 
6 "Six of the towns you give the Levites will be cities of refuge, to which a person who has killed someone may flee. In addition, give them forty-two other towns.
 
7 In all you must give the Levites forty-eight towns, together with their pasturelands.
 
8 The towns you give the Levites from the land the Israelites possess are to be given in proportion to the inheritance of each tribe: Take many towns from a tribe that has many, but few from one that has few."
 
9 Then the LORD said to Moses:
 
10 "Speak to the Israelites and say to them: 'When you cross the Jordan into Canaan,
 
11 select some towns to be your cities of refuge, to which a person who has killed someone accidentally may flee.
 
12 They will be places of refuge from the avenger, so that a person accused of murder may not die before he stands trial before the assembly.
 
13 These six towns you give will be your cities of refuge.
 
14 Give three on this side of the Jordan and three in Canaan as cities of refuge.
 
15 These six towns will be a place of refuge for Israelites, aliens and any other people living among them, so that anyone who has killed another accidentally can flee there.
 
16 " 'If a man strikes someone with an iron object so that he dies, he is a murderer; the murderer shall be put to death.
 
17 Or if anyone has a stone in his hand that could kill, and he strikes someone so that he dies, he is a murderer; the murderer shall be put to death.
 
18 Or if anyone has a wooden object in his hand that could kill, and he hits someone so that he dies, he is a murderer; the murderer shall be put to death.
 
19 The avenger of blood shall put the murderer to death; when he meets him, he shall put him to death.
 
20 If anyone with malice aforethought shoves another or throws something at him intentionally so that he dies
 
21 or if in hostility he hits him with his fist so that he dies, that person shall be put to death; he is a murderer. The avenger of blood shall put the murderer to death when he meets him.
 
22 " 'But if without hostility someone suddenly shoves another or throws something at him unintentionally
 
23 or, without seeing him, drops a stone on him that could kill him, and he dies, then since he was not his enemy and he did not intend to harm him,
 
24 the assembly must judge between him and the avenger of blood according to these regulations.
 
25 The assembly must protect the one accused of murder from the avenger of blood and send him back to the city of refuge to which he fled. He must stay there until the death of the high priest, who was anointed with the holy oil.
 
26 " 'But if the accused ever goes outside the limits of the city of refuge to which he has fled
 
27 and the avenger of blood finds him outside the city, the avenger of blood may kill the accused without being guilty of murder.
 
28 The accused must stay in his city of refuge until the death of the high priest; only after the death of the high priest may he return to his own property.
 
29 " 'These are to be legal requirements for you throughout the generations to come, wherever you live.
 
30 " 'Anyone who kills a person is to be put to death as a murderer only on the testimony of witnesses. But no one is to be put to death on the testimony of only one witness.
 
31 " 'Do not accept a ransom for the life of a murderer, who deserves to die. He must surely be put to death.
 
32 " 'Do not accept a ransom for anyone who has fled to a city of refuge and so allow him to go back and live on his own land before the death of the high priest.
 
33 " 'Do not pollute the land where you are. Bloodshed pollutes the land, and atonement cannot be made for the land on which blood has been shed, except by the blood of the one who shed it.
 
34 Do not defile the land where you live and where I dwell, for I, the LORD, dwell among the Israelites.' "

Psalm 79,

1 O God, the nations have invaded your inheritance; they have defiled your holy temple, they have reduced Jerusalem to rubble.
 
2 They have given the dead bodies of your servants as food to the birds of the air, the flesh of your saints to the beasts of the earth.
 
3 They have poured out blood like water all around Jerusalem, and there is no one to bury the dead.
 
4 We are objects of reproach to our neighbors, of scorn and derision to those around us.
 
5 How long, O LORD ? Will you be angry forever? How long will your jealousy burn like fire?
 
6 Pour out your wrath on the nations that do not acknowledge you, on the kingdoms that do not call on your name;
 
7 for they have devoured Jacob and destroyed his homeland.
 
8 Do not hold against us the sins of the fathers; may your mercy come quickly to meet us, for we are in desperate need.
 
9 Help us, O God our Savior, for the glory of your name; deliver us and forgive our sins for your name's sake.
 
10 Why should the nations say, "Where is their God?" Before our eyes, make known among the nations that you avenge the outpoured blood of your servants.
 
11 May the groans of the prisoners come before you; by the strength of your arm preserve those condemned to die.
 
12 Pay back into the laps of our neighbors seven times the reproach they have hurled at you, O Lord.
 
13 Then we your people, the sheep of your pasture, will praise you forever; from generation to generation we will recount your praise.

Isaiah 27,

1 In that day, the LORD will punish with his sword, his fierce, great and powerful sword, Leviathan the gliding serpent, Leviathan the coiling serpent; he will slay the monster of the sea.
 
2 In that day-"Sing about a fruitful vineyard:
 
3 I, the LORD, watch over it; I water it continually. I guard it day and night so that no one may harm it.
 
4 I am not angry. If only there were briers and thorns confronting me! I would march against them in battle; I would set them all on fire.
 
5 Or else let them come to me for refuge; let them make peace with me, yes, let them make peace with me."
 
6 In days to come Jacob will take root, Israel will bud and blossom and fill all the world with fruit.
 
7 Has the LORD struck her as he struck down those who struck her? Has she been killed as those were killed who killed her?
 
8 By warfare and exile you contend with her-with his fierce blast he drives her out, as on a day the east wind blows.
 
9 By this, then, will Jacob's guilt be atoned for, and this will be the full fruitage of the removal of his sin: When he makes all the altar stones to be like chalk stones crushed to pieces, no Asherah poles or incense altars will be left standing.
 
10 The fortified city stands desolate, an abandoned settlement, forsaken like the desert; there the calves graze, there they lie down; they strip its branches bare.
 
11 When its twigs are dry, they are broken off and women come and make fires with them. For this is a people without understanding; so their Maker has no compassion on them, and their Creator shows them no favor.
 
12 In that day the LORD will thresh from the flowing Euphrates to the Wadi of Egypt, and you, O Israelites, will be gathered up one by one.
 
13 And in that day a great trumpet will sound. Those who were perishing in Assyria and those who were exiled in Egypt will come and worship the LORD on the holy mountain in Jerusalem.

1 John 5

1 Everyone who believes that Jesus is the Christ is born of God, and everyone who loves the father loves his child as well.
 
2 This is how we know that we love the children of God: by loving God and carrying out his commands.
 
3 This is love for God: to obey his commands. And his commands are not burdensome,
 
4 for everyone born of God overcomes the world. This is the victory that has overcome the world, even our faith.
 
5 Who is it that overcomes the world? Only he who believes that Jesus is the Son of God.
 
6 This is the one who came by water and blood-Jesus Christ. He did not come by water only, but by water and blood. And it is the Spirit who testifies, because the Spirit is the truth.
 
7 For there are three that testify:
 
8 the Spirit, the water and the blood; and the three are in agreement.
 
9 We accept man's testimony, but God's testimony is greater because it is the testimony of God, which he has given about his Son.
 
10 Anyone who believes in the Son of God has this testimony in his heart. Anyone who does not believe God has made him out to be a liar, because he has not believed the testimony God has given about his Son.
 
11 And this is the testimony: God has given us eternal life, and this life is in his Son.
 
12 He who has the Son has life; he who does not have the Son of God does not have life.
 
13 I write these things to you who believe in the name of the Son of God so that you may know that you have eternal life.
 
14 This is the confidence we have in approaching God: that if we ask anything according to his will, he hears us.
 
15 And if we know that he hears us-whatever we ask-we know that we have what we asked of him.
 
16 If anyone sees his brother commit a sin that does not lead to death, he should pray and God will give him life. I refer to those whose sin does not lead to death. There is a sin that leads to death. I am not saying that he should pray about that.
 
17 All wrongdoing is sin, and there is sin that does not lead to death.
 
18 We know that anyone born of God does not continue to sin; the one who was born of God keeps him safe, and the evil one cannot harm him.
 
19 We know that we are children of God, and that the whole world is under the control of the evil one.
 
20 We know also that the Son of God has come and has given us understanding, so that we may know him who is true. And we are in him who is true-even in his Son Jesus Christ. He is the true God and eternal life.
 
21 Dear children, keep yourselves from idols.