Week 11, Day 4 in the LEB

Mar 14, 2024

Podcast: Play in new window (Duration: 26:06 — 14.94MB)
The reading for today is Deuteronomy 1-3; Psalm 36; Luke 5.

Scripture quotations are from the Lexham English Bible. Copyright 2012 Logos Bible Software. Lexham is a registered trademark of Logos Bible Software.

Deuteronomy 1

These are the words that Moses spoke to all of Israel on the other side of the Jordan in the desert, in the desert plateau opposite Suph, between Paran and between Tophel and Laban and Hazeroth and Dizahab. It is a journey of eleven days from Herob by the way of Mount Seir up to Kadesh Barnea.

And it was in the fortieth year, on the eleventh month, on the first day of the month, Moses spoke to the Israelites according to all that Yahweh had instructed him to speak to them. This happened after defeating Sihon king of the Amorites, who was reigning in Heshbon, and Og the king of Bashan, who was reigning in Ashtaroth in Edrei. On the other side of the Jordan in the land of Moab Moses began to explain this law, saying:

"Yahweh our God spoke to us at Horeb, saying, ‘You have stayed long enough at this mountain. Turn now and move on, and go into the hill of the Amorites and to all of the neighboring regions in the Jordan Valley in the hill country and in the Negev and in the coastal area along the sea, into the land of the Canaanites and into the Lebanon, as far as the great river Euphrates. Look, I have set the land before you; go and take possession of the land that Yahweh swore to your ancestors, to Abraham, to Isaac, and to Jacob, to give it to them and to their offspring after them.’

"And I spoke to them at that time, saying, ‘I am not able to bear you alone. Yahweh your God has multiplied you, and look; you are today as the stars of the heaven in number. Yahweh, the God of your ancestors, may he add to you as you are now a thousand times, and may he bless you just as he promised you. How can I bear you by myself, your burden and your load and your strife? Choose for yourselves wise and discerning and knowledgeable men for each of your tribes, and I will appoint them as your leaders.’

"And you answered me, and you said, ‘The thing you have said to do is good.’ And so I took the leaders of your tribes, wise and knowledgeable men, and then I appointed them as leaders over you as commanders of groups of thousands and commanders of groups of hundreds and commanders of groups of fifties and commanders of groups of tens as officials for your tribes. And at that time I instructed your judges, saying, ‘hear out your fellow men, and then judge fairly between a man and between his brother and between his opponent who is a resident alien. You must not be partial in your judgment; hear out the small person as also the great person; do not be intimidated by any person, because the judgment is God’s; and the case that is too difficult for you, bring it to me, and I will hear it out.’ And so I instructed you at that time concerning all of the things that you should do.

"Then we set out from Horeb, and we went through the whole of that great and terrible desert that you saw on the way to the hill country of the Amorites as Yahweh our God had commanded us, and so we came up to Kadesh Barnea. I said to you, ‘You have reached the hill country of the Amorites that Yahweh our God is giving to us. See, Yahweh your God has set before you the land; go up and possess it as Yahweh the God of your ancestors said to you; do not fear and do not be dismayed.’

"Then all of you approached me, and you said, ‘Let us send men before us, and let them explore the land for us, and let them bring back a report to us concerning the way that we should take and concerning the cities that we shall come to.’ The plan was good in my opinion, and so I took from among you twelve men, one from each tribe. And they set out and went up into the hill country, and they went up to the wadi of Eschol, and they spied out the land. They took in their hands some of the fruit of the land, and they brought it down to us, and they brought to us back a report, and they said, ‘The land that Yahweh our God is giving to us is good.’ But you were not willing to go up, and you rebelled against the command of Yahweh your God. And you grumbled in your tents, and you said, ‘Because of the hatred of Yahweh toward us he has brought us out from the land of Egypt to give us into the hand of the Amorites to destroy us. Where can we go up? Our brothers have made our hearts melt, saying, "The people are greater and taller than we are, and there are great fortified cities reaching up to heaven, and we saw the sons of the Anakites living there."’

"And so I said to you, ‘Do not be terrified, and do not fear them. Yahweh your God, who is going before you, will himself fight for you, just as he did for you in Egypt before your eyes, and just as he did in the wilderness when you saw that Yahweh your God carried you, just as someone carries his son, all along the way that you traveled until you reached this place.’ But through all of this you did not trust in Yahweh your God, who goes before you on your way, seeking a place for your encampment, in fire at night and in a cloud by day, to show you the way that you should go.

"Then Yahweh heard the sound of your words, and he was angry, and he swore, saying, ‘No one of these men of this evil generation will see the good land that I swore to give to your ancestors, except Caleb, the son of Jephunneh; he himself shall see it, and to him I will give the land upon which he has trodden and to his sons because he followed Yahweh unreservedly.’ Even with me Yahweh was angry because of you, saying, ‘Not even you shall enter there. Joshua, the son of Nun, your assistant, will go there; encourage him because he will cause Israel to inherit it. And your little children, who you thought shall become plunder, and your sons, who do not today know good or bad, shall themselves go there, and I will give it to them, and they shall take possession of it. But you turn and set out in the direction of the wilderness by way of the Red Sea.’

"You replied and said to me, ‘We have sinned against Yahweh, and now we will go up and fight according to all that Yahweh our God commanded us’; and so each man fastened on his battle gear, and you regarded it as easy to go up into the hill country. So Yahweh said to me, ‘Say to them, "You shall not go up, and you shall not fight because I am not in your midst; you will be defeated before your enemies."’ So I spoke to you, but you did not listen; you rebelled against the command of Yahweh; you behaved presumptuously, and you went up into the hill country. The Amorites living in the hill country went out to oppose you and chased you as a swarm of wild honey bees do; and so they beat you down in Seir as far as Hormah. So you returned and wept before Yahweh; but Yahweh did not listen to your voice and did not pay any attention to you. You stayed in Kadesh many days; such were the days that you stayed there.

Deuteronomy 2

"Then we turned and set out toward the wilderness in the direction of the Red Sea, as Yahweh told me, and we went around Mount Seir for many days. Yahweh spoke to me, saying, Long enough you have been skirting this mountain; turn yourselves north, and instruct the people, saying, "You are about to cross through the territory of your brothers, the descendants of Esau, who are living in Seir; they will be afraid of you, and so be very careful. Do not get involved in battle with them, for I will not give you any of their land, not even a foot’s breadth of it; since I have given Mount Seir as a possession for Esau. You shall buy food from them so that you may eat; and also you shall purchase water from them with money so that you may drink. The fact of the matter is, Yahweh your God has blessed you in all the work you have done; he knows your travels with respect to this great wilderness; forty years Yahweh your God has been with you; you have not lacked a thing."’ And so we passed by our brothers, the descendants of Esau, who live in Seir, past the road of the Arabah, from Elath and Ezion Geber, and we turned and traveled along the route of the desert of Moab.

And Yahweh said to me, ‘You shall not attack Moab, and you shall not engage in war with them, for I will not give you any of his land as a possession; I have given Ar to the descendants of Lot as a possession.’ (The Emim previously lived in it, a people large, numerous, and tall, like the Anakites. They were reckoned also as Rephaim as the Anakites were; but the Moabites called them Emim. The Horites previously lived in Seir, but the descendants of Esau dispossessed them and destroyed them from among themselves, as Israel did with respect to the land of their possession that Yahweh gave to them.) So now arise and cross over the wadi of Zered yourselves; and so we crossed the wadi of Zered. Now the length of time that we had traveled from Kadesh Barnea until the time when we crossed the wadi of Zered was thirty-eight years, until the perishing of all of that generation; that is, the men of war from the midst of the camp as Yahweh had sworn to them. The hand of Yahweh was against them to root them out from the midst of the camp until they perished completely.

"And then when all the men of war had died from among the people, Yahweh spoke to me, saying, ‘You are about to cross over the boundary of Moab today at Ar. When you approach the border of the Ammonites, you shall not harass them, and you shall not get involved in battle with them, for I have not given the land of the Ammonites to you as a possession; because I have given it to the descendants of Lot as a possession. (It is also considered the land of Rephaim; Rephaim lived in it previously, and the Ammonites called them Zamzummim, a people great and numerous and as tall as the Anakites; Yahweh destroyed them from before them, and they dispossessed them and settled in place of them, just as he did for the descendants of Esau, who live in Seir, when he destroyed the Horites from before them and dispossessed them, and then they settled in their place up to this day. And also the Avvites, who lived in villages as far as Gaza, and the Caphtorim, who came out from Caphtor, destroyed them and then settled in their place. Arise, set out and cross over the wadi of Arnon. Look! I have given Sihon the Amorite, the king of Heshbon, and his land into your hand; begin to take possession of it, and engage with him in battle. This day I will begin to place the dread of you and the fear of you before the peoples under all the heavens. They will hear the report about you, and so they will shake and tremble because of you.’

"So I sent messengers from the wilderness of Kedemoth to Sihon king of Heshbon; I sent terms of peace, saying, ‘Let me cross through your land and only along the road I will go; I will not turn aside to the right or to the left. Food for money you shall sell me, so that I may eat, and water for money you will give to me, so that I may drink; just let me cross on foot. Just as the descendants of Esau did for me, who live in Seir, and the Moabites, who live in Ar, until I cross the Jordan into the land that Yahweh our God is giving to us.’ But Sihon king of Heshbon was not willing to let us cross through his territory because Yahweh your God hardened his spirit and made him obstinate in order to give him into your hand, just as he has now done. Yahweh said to me, ‘Look! I have begun to give over to you Sihon and his land; begin to take possession of his land.’ Then Sihon and all his people came out to meet us for battle at Jahaz. And so Yahweh our God gave him over to us, and we struck him down, and his sons and all of his people. So we captured all of his cities at that time, and we destroyed each town of males and the women and the children; we did not leave behind a survivor. We took only the livestock as spoil for ourselves, and also the booty of the cities that we had captured. From Aroer, which is on the edge of the wadi of Arnon and the city that was in the wadi on up to Gilead, there was not a city that was inaccessible to us; Yahweh our God gave everything to us. Only the land of the Ammonites you did not approach, all along the whole upper region of the Jabbok River and the towns of the hill country, according to all that Yahweh our God had instructed.

Deuteronomy 3

"Then we turned, and we went up the road to Bashan, and Og the king of Bashan came out to meet us, he and all of his army for the battle at Edrei. And Yahweh said to me, ‘You should not fear him, for I have given him and all of his army and his land into your hand. And so you will do to him as you did to Sihon the king of the Amorites, who was reigning in Heshbon.’ And so Yahweh our God also gave Og the king of Bashan, and all of his army into our hand, and we struck him down until not a survivor remained to him. And we captured all of his towns at that time; there was not a city that we did not take from them. All of these were fortified towns with high walls, gates, and bars, apart from very many of the villages of the open country. And so we destroyed them just as we had done to Sihon the king of Heshbon; we destroyed utterly each town of males, the women, and the little children. But all of the livestock and the booty of the towns we kept as spoil for ourselves.

"And so we took at that time the land from the control of the two kings of the Amorites who were on the other side of the Jordan, from the wadi of Arnon up to Mount Hermon. (The Sidonians called Hermon ‘Sirion,’ and the Amorites called it ‘Senir.’) All of the towns of the plateau and the whole of Gilead and all of Bashan up to Salecah and Edrei, the towns of the kingdom of Og in Bashan. (For only Og, king of Bashan, was left from the remnant of the Rephaim. Indeed, his bedstead—it was a bedstead of iron. It is in Rabbah of the Ammonites. Nine cubits is its length, and four cubits is its width according to the cubit of a man.)

And so we took possession of this land at that time, from Aroer, which is on the edge of the wadi of Arnon, and also half of the hill country of Gilead and its towns I gave to the Reubenites and to the Gadites. And the remainder of Gilead and all of Bashan, the kingdom of Og, I gave to the half-tribe of Manasseh, the whole region of Argo. All of that area of Bashan was called the land of the Rephaim. Jair the descendant of Manasseh acquired the whole region of Argob, up to the boundary of the Geshurites and the Maacathites, and he called it, that is Bashan, after his own name, Havvoth Jair, as it still is today. And also I gave Gilead to Makir. And to the Reubenites and to the Gadites I gave, from Gilead up to the wadi of Arnon, the middle of the wadi as a boundary and up to the Jabbok River, the boundary of the Ammonites. And the Jordan Valley with the Jordan River as its boundary, from Kinnereth up to the Sea of the Arabah, the Salt Sea, with the slopes of Pisgah toward the east.

"And I charged you all at that time when I said, "Yahweh has given you—to all of you—this land to possess. All the warriors shall cross over, ready to fight, before your brothers, the Israelites. Only your wives and your little children and your livestock (I know that you have much livestock) must stay in your towns that I have given you, until Yahweh shall give rest to your brothers as he did to you, and also they take possession of the land that Yahweh your God is giving to them beyond the Jordan; then they may return, each one to his possession that I have given to them. And I commanded Joshua at that time, saying, ‘Your eyes see all that Yahweh your God has done to these two kings; so Yahweh will do to all of the kingdoms where you are about to cross over to. You shall not fear them, for Yahweh your God is the one fighting for you.

"And I pleaded with Yahweh at that time, saying, ‘Lord Yahweh, you have begun to show your servant your greatness and your strong hand, for what god is there in the heaven or on the earth who can do according to your works and according to your mighty deeds? Let me cross over, please, and let me see the good land that is beyond the Jordan, this good hill country and Lebanon.’ But Yahweh was very angry with me because of you, and he would not listen to me, and Yahweh said, ‘Enough of that from you! You shall not speak to me any longer about this matter! Go up to the top of Pisgah and look around you toward the west, toward the north, and toward the east, and view the land with your eyes, for you will not cross this Jordan. Now instruct Joshua and support him and encourage him because he himself will cross over before this people and enable them to inherit the land that you will see.’ So we remained in the valley opposite Beth Peor.

Psalm 36

For the music director. Of David, the servant of Yahweh.

An oracle: the wicked has rebellion
in the midst of his heart.
There is no fear of God before his eyes.
For he flatters himself in his eyes,
hating to detect his iniquity.
The words of his mouth are wickedness and deceit.
He has ceased to have insight and to do good.
He plans sin on his bed.
He puts himself on a way that is not good.
He does not reject evil.
O Yahweh, your loyal love extends into the heavens,
your faithfulness unto the clouds.
Your righteousness is like the mighty mountains,
your judgments like the great deep.
You save man and beast, O Yahweh.
How precious is your loyal love, O God,
and the children of humankind
take refuge in the shadow of your wings.
They are refreshed with the fullness of your house,
and you give them drink from the river of your delights.
For with you is the fountain of life;
in your light we see light.
Prolong your loyal love to those who know you,
and your righteousness to the upright of heart.
Do not let a foot of pride come against me,
nor let a wicked hand make me to wander homeless.
There doers of evil have fallen;
they are thrust down and not able to rise.

Luke 5

Now it happened that while the crowd was pressing around him and hearing the word of God, he was standing beside the lake of Gennesaret, and he saw two boats there beside the lake, but the fishermen had gotten out of them and were washing their nets. And he got into one of the boats, which was Simon’s, and asked him to put out from the land a little. And he sat down and began to teach the crowds from the boat. And when he stopped speaking, he said to Simon, "Put out into the deep water and let down your nets for a catch." And Simon answered and said, "Master, although we worked hard through the whole night, we caught nothing. But at your word I will let down the nets." And when they did this, they caught a very large number of fish, and their nets began to tear. And they signaled to their partners in the other boat to come and help them, and they came and filled both the boats so that they began to sink. And when he saw it, Simon Peter fell down at Jesus’ knees, saying, "Depart from me, Lord, because I am a sinful man!" For amazement had seized him and all those who were with him at the catch of fish that they had caught, and so also were James and John, the sons of Zebedee, who were business partners with Simon. And Jesus said to Simon, "Do not be afraid! From now on you will be catching people!" And after they brought their boats to the land, they left everything and followed him.

And it happened that while he was in one of the towns, there was a man covered with leprosy. And when he saw Jesus, he fell down on his face and begged him, saying, "Lord, if you are willing, you are able to make me clean." And extending his hand he touched him, saying, "I am willing; be clean." And immediately the leprosy went away from him. And he ordered him, "Tell no one, but go and show yourself to the priest and bring the offering for your cleansing just as Moses commanded, for a testimony to them. But the report about him spread even more, and large crowds were gathering to hear him and to be healed of their illnesses. But he himself was withdrawing in the wilderness and praying.

And it happened that on one of the days as he was teaching, Pharisees and teachers of the law were sitting there who had come from every village of Galilee and Judea and from Jerusalem, and the power of the Lord was there in order for him to heal. And behold, men came carrying on a stretcher a man who was paralyzed, and they were seeking to bring him in and place him before him. And when they did not find a way to bring him in because of the crowd, they went up on the roof and let him down through the roof tiles with the stretcher into the midst of them, in front of Jesus. And when he saw their faith, he said, "Friend, your sins are forgiven you." And the scribes and the Pharisees began to reason, saying, "Who is this man who speaks blasphemies? Who is able to forgive sins except God alone?" But Jesus, perceiving their thoughts, answered and said to them, "Why are you reasoning in your hearts? Which is easier to say, ‘Your sins are forgiven you,’ or to say, ‘Get up and walk?’ But in order that you may know that the Son of Man has authority on earth to forgive sins," he said to the one who was paralyzed, "I say to you, ‘Get up and pick up your stretcher and go to your home.’" And immediately he stood up before them, picked up what he had been lying on, and went away to his home, glorifying God. And amazement seized them all, and they began to glorify God. And they were filled with fear, saying, "We have seen wonderful things today!"

And after these things, he went out and saw a tax collector named Levi sitting at the tax booth, and he said to him, "Follow me!" And leaving everything behind, he got up and began to follow him.

And Levi gave a great banquet for him in his house, and there was a large crowd of tax collectors and others who were reclining for the meal with them. And the Pharisees and their scribes began to complain to his disciples, saying, "Why do you eat and drink with the tax collectors and sinners?" And Jesus answered and said to them, "Those who are healthy do not have need of a physician, but those who are sick. I have not come to call the righteous but sinners to repentance."

And they said to him, "The disciples of John fast often and make prayers—likewise also the disciples of the Pharisees—but yours are eating and drinking!" So he said to them, "You are not able to make the bridegroom’s attendants fast as long as the bridegroom is with them, are you? But days will come, and when the bridegroom is taken away from them, then they will fast in those days." And he also told a parable to them: "No one tears a patch from a new garment and puts it on an old garment. Otherwise, he will have torn the new also, and the old will not match the patch that is from the new. And no one pours new wine into old wineskins. Otherwise, the new wine will burst the wineskins, and it will be spilled and the wineskins will be destroyed. But new wine must be put into new wineskins. And no one after drinking old wine wants new, because he says, ‘The old is just fine!’"