Deuteronomy 1, Psalm 81, 82, Isaiah 29, 3 John 1

Deuteronomy 1,

1 These are the words Moses spoke to all Israel in the desert east of the Jordan-that is, in the Arabah-opposite Suph, between Paran and Tophel, Laban, Hazeroth and Dizahab.
 
2 (It takes eleven days to go from Horeb to Kadesh Barnea by the Mount Seir road.)
 
3 In the fortieth year, on the first day of the eleventh month, Moses proclaimed to the Israelites all that the LORD had commanded him concerning them.
 
4 This was after he had defeated Sihon king of the Amorites, who reigned in Heshbon, and at Edrei had defeated Og king of Bashan, who reigned in Ashtaroth.
 
5 East of the Jordan in the territory of Moab, Moses began to expound this law, saying:
 
6 The LORD our God said to us at Horeb, "You have stayed long enough at this mountain.
 
7 Break camp and advance into the hill country of the Amorites; go to all the neighboring peoples in the Arabah, in the mountains, in the western foothills, in the Negev and along the coast, to the land of the Canaanites and to Lebanon, as far as the great river, the Euphrates.
 
8 See, I have given you this land. Go in and take possession of the land that the LORD swore he would give to your fathers-to Abraham, Isaac and Jacob-and to their descendants after them."
 
9 At that time I said to you, "You are too heavy a burden for me to carry alone.
 
10 The LORD your God has increased your numbers so that today you are as many as the stars in the sky.
 
11 May the LORD, the God of your fathers, increase you a thousand times and bless you as he has promised!
 
12 But how can I bear your problems and your burdens and your disputes all by myself?
 
13 Choose some wise, understanding and respected men from each of your tribes, and I will set them over you."
 
14 You answered me, "What you propose to do is good."
 
15 So I took the leading men of your tribes, wise and respected men, and appointed them to have authority over you-as commanders of thousands, of hundreds, of fifties and of tens and as tribal officials.
 
16 And I charged your judges at that time: Hear the disputes between your brothers and judge fairly, whether the case is between brother Israelites or between one of them and an alien.
 
17 Do not show partiality in judging; hear both small and great alike. Do not be afraid of any man, for judgment belongs to God. Bring me any case too hard for you, and I will hear it.
 
18 And at that time I told you everything you were to do.
 
19 Then, as the LORD our God commanded us, we set out from Horeb and went toward the hill country of the Amorites through all that vast and dreadful desert that you have seen, and so we reached Kadesh Barnea.
 
20 Then I said to you, "You have reached the hill country of the Amorites, which the LORD our God is giving us.
 
21 See, the LORD your God has given you the land. Go up and take possession of it as the LORD, the God of your fathers, told you. Do not be afraid; do not be discouraged."
 
22 Then all of you came to me and said, "Let us send men ahead to spy out the land for us and bring back a report about the route we are to take and the towns we will come to."
 
23 The idea seemed good to me; so I selected twelve of you, one man from each tribe.
 
24 They left and went up into the hill country, and came to the Valley of Eshcol and explored it.
 
25 Taking with them some of the fruit of the land, they brought it down to us and reported, "It is a good land that the LORD our God is giving us."
 
26 But you were unwilling to go up; you rebelled against the command of the LORD your God.
 
27 You grumbled in your tents and said, "The LORD hates us; so he brought us out of Egypt to deliver us into the hands of the Amorites to destroy us.
 
28 Where can we go? Our brothers have made us lose heart. They say, 'The people are stronger and taller than we are; the cities are large, with walls up to the sky. We even saw the Anakites there.' "
 
29 Then I said to you, "Do not be terrified; do not be afraid of them.
 
30 The LORD your God, who is going before you, will fight for you, as he did for you in Egypt, before your very eyes,
 
31 and in the desert. There you saw how the LORD your God carried you, as a father carries his son, all the way you went until you reached this place."
 
32 In spite of this, you did not trust in the LORD your God,
 
33 who went ahead of you on your journey, in fire by night and in a cloud by day, to search out places for you to camp and to show you the way you should go.
 
34 When the LORD heard what you said, he was angry and solemnly swore:
 
35 "Not a man of this evil generation shall see the good land I swore to give your forefathers,
 
36 except Caleb son of Jephunneh. He will see it, and I will give him and his descendants the land he set his feet on, because he followed the LORD wholeheartedly."
 
37 Because of you the LORD became angry with me also and said, "You shall not enter it, either.
 
38 But your assistant, Joshua son of Nun, will enter it. Encourage him, because he will lead Israel to inherit it.
 
39 And the little ones that you said would be taken captive, your children who do not yet know good from bad-they will enter the land. I will give it to them and they will take possession of it.
 
40 But as for you, turn around and set out toward the desert along the route to the Red Sea."
 
41 Then you replied, "We have sinned against the LORD. We will go up and fight, as the LORD our God commanded us." So every one of you put on his weapons, thinking it easy to go up into the hill country.
 
42 But the LORD said to me, "Tell them, 'Do not go up and fight, because I will not be with you. You will be defeated by your enemies.' "
 
43 So I told you, but you would not listen. You rebelled against the LORD's command and in your arrogance you marched up into the hill country.
 
44 The Amorites who lived in those hills came out against you; they chased you like a swarm of bees and beat you down from Seir all the way to Hormah.
 
45 You came back and wept before the LORD, but he paid no attention to your weeping and turned a deaf ear to you.
 
46 And so you stayed in Kadesh many days-all the time you spent there.

Psalm 81, 82,

1 Sing for joy to God our strength; shout aloud to the God of Jacob!
 
2 Begin the music, strike the tambourine, play the melodious harp and lyre.
 
3 Sound the ram's horn at the New Moon, and when the moon is full, on the day of our Feast;
 
4 this is a decree for Israel, an ordinance of the God of Jacob.
 
5 He established it as a statute for Joseph when he went out against Egypt, where we heard a language we did not understand.
 
6 He says, "I removed the burden from their shoulders; their hands were set free from the basket.
 
7 In your distress you called and I rescued you, I answered you out of a thundercloud; I tested you at the waters of Meribah. Selah
 
8 "Hear, O my people, and I will warn you-if you would but listen to me, O Israel!
 
9 You shall have no foreign god among you; you shall not bow down to an alien god.
 
10 I am the LORD your God, who brought you up out of Egypt. Open wide your mouth and I will fill it.
 
11 "But my people would not listen to me; Israel would not submit to me.
 
12 So I gave them over to their stubborn hearts to follow their own devices.
 
13 "If my people would but listen to me, if Israel would follow my ways,
 
14 how quickly would I subdue their enemies and turn my hand against their foes!
 
15 Those who hate the LORD would cringe before him, and their punishment would last forever.
 
16 But you would be fed with the finest of wheat; with honey from the rock I would satisfy you."

1 God presides in the great assembly; he gives judgment among the "gods":
 
2 "How long will you defend the unjust and show partiality to the wicked? Selah
 
3 Defend the cause of the weak and fatherless; maintain the rights of the poor and oppressed.
 
4 Rescue the weak and needy; deliver them from the hand of the wicked.
 
5 "They know nothing, they understand nothing. They walk about in darkness; all the foundations of the earth are shaken.
 
6 "I said, 'You are "gods"; you are all sons of the Most High.'
 
7 But you will die like mere men; you will fall like every other ruler."
 
8 Rise up, O God, judge the earth, for all the nations are your inheritance.

Isaiah 29,

1 Woe to you, Ariel, Ariel, the city where David settled! Add year to year and let your cycle of festivals go on.
 
2 Yet I will besiege Ariel; she will mourn and lament, she will be to me like an altar hearth.
 
3 I will encamp against you all around; I will encircle you with towers and set up my siege works against you.
 
4 Brought low, you will speak from the ground; your speech will mumble out of the dust. Your voice will come ghostlike from the earth; out of the dust your speech will whisper.
 
5 But your many enemies will become like fine dust, the ruthless hordes like blown chaff. Suddenly, in an instant,
 
6 the LORD Almighty will come with thunder and earthquake and great noise, with windstorm and tempest and flames of a devouring fire.
 
7 Then the hordes of all the nations that fight against Ariel, that attack her and her fortress and besiege her, will be as it is with a dream, with a vision in the night-
 
8 as when a hungry man dreams that he is eating, but he awakens, and his hunger remains; as when a thirsty man dreams that he is drinking, but he awakens faint, with his thirst unquenched. So will it be with the hordes of all the nations that fight against Mount Zion.
 
9 Be stunned and amazed, blind yourselves and be sightless; be drunk, but not from wine, stagger, but not from beer.
 
10 The LORD has brought over you a deep sleep: He has sealed your eyes (the prophets); he has covered your heads (the seers).
 
11 For you this whole vision is nothing but words sealed in a scroll. And if you give the scroll to someone who can read, and say to him, "Read this, please," he will answer, "I can't; it is sealed."
 
12 Or if you give the scroll to someone who cannot read, and say, "Read this, please," he will answer, "I don't know how to read."
 
13 The Lord says: "These people come near to me with their mouth and honor me with their lips, but their hearts are far from me. Their worship of me is made up only of rules taught by men.
 
14 Therefore once more I will astound these people with wonder upon wonder; the wisdom of the wise will perish, the intelligence of the intelligent will vanish."
 
15 Woe to those who go to great depths to hide their plans from the LORD, who do their work in darkness and think, "Who sees us? Who will know?"
 
16 You turn things upside down, as if the potter were thought to be like the clay! Shall what is formed say to him who formed it, "He did not make me"? Can the pot say of the potter, "He knows nothing"?
 
17 In a very short time, will not Lebanon be turned into a fertile field and the fertile field seem like a forest?
 
18 In that day the deaf will hear the words of the scroll, and out of gloom and darkness the eyes of the blind will see.
 
19 Once more the humble will rejoice in the LORD; the needy will rejoice in the Holy One of Israel.
 
20 The ruthless will vanish, the mockers will disappear, and all who have an eye for evil will be cut down-
 
21 those who with a word make a man out to be guilty, who ensnare the defender in court and with false testimony deprive the innocent of justice.
 
22 Therefore this is what the LORD, who redeemed Abraham, says to the house of Jacob: "No longer will Jacob be ashamed; no longer will their faces grow pale.
 
23 When they see among them their children, the work of my hands, they will keep my name holy; they will acknowledge the holiness of the Holy One of Jacob, and will stand in awe of the God of Israel.
 
24 Those who are wayward in spirit will gain understanding; those who complain will accept instruction."

3 John 1

1 The elder, To my dear friend Gaius, whom I love in the truth.
 
2 Dear friend, I pray that you may enjoy good health and that all may go well with you, even as your soul is getting along well.
 
3 It gave me great joy to have some brothers come and tell about your faithfulness to the truth and how you continue to walk in the truth.
 
4 I have no greater joy than to hear that my children are walking in the truth.
 
5 Dear friend, you are faithful in what you are doing for the brothers, even though they are strangers to you.
 
6 They have told the church about your love. You will do well to send them on their way in a manner worthy of God.
 
7 It was for the sake of the Name that they went out, receiving no help from the pagans.
 
8 We ought therefore to show hospitality to such men so that we may work together for the truth.
 
9 I wrote to the church, but Diotrephes, who loves to be first, will have nothing to do with us.
 
10 So if I come, I will call attention to what he is doing, gossiping maliciously about us. Not satisfied with that, he refuses to welcome the brothers. He also stops those who want to do so and puts them out of the church.
 
11 Dear friend, do not imitate what is evil but what is good. Anyone who does what is good is from God. Anyone who does what is evil has not seen God.
 
12 Demetrius is well spoken of by everyone-and even by the truth itself. We also speak well of him, and you know that our testimony is true.
 
13 I have much to write you, but I do not want to do so with pen and ink.
 
14 I hope to see you soon, and we will talk face to face. Peace to you. The friends here send their greetings. Greet the friends there by name.

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