Saturday, September 21, 2019

Deuteronomy 31:23-30

²³The LORD gave this command to Joshua son of Nun: "Be strong and courageous, for you will bring the Israelites into the land I promised them on oath, and I myself will be with you."

²⁴After Moses finished writing in a book the words of this law from beginning to end, ²⁵he gave this command to the Levites who carried the ark of the covenant of the LORD: ²⁶"Take this Book of the Law and place it beside the ark of the covenant of the LORD your God. There it will remain as a witness against you. ²⁷For I know how rebellious and stiff-necked you are. If you have been rebellious against the LORD while I am still alive and with you, how much more will you rebel after I die! ²⁸Assemble before me all the elders of your tribes and all your officials, so that I can speak these words in their hearing and call heaven and earth to testify against them. ²⁹For I know that after my death you are sure to become utterly corrupt and to turn from the way I have commanded you. In days to come, disaster will fall upon you because you will do evil in the sight of the LORD and provoke him to anger by what your hands have made."

³⁰And Moses recited the words of this song from beginning to end in the hearing of the whole assembly of Israel:

Deuteronomy 32:1-14

¹Listen, O heavens, and I will speak; hear, O earth, the words of my mouth.

²Let my teaching fall like rain and my words descend like dew, like showers on new grass, like abundant rain on tender plants.

³I will proclaim the name of the LORD. Oh, praise the greatness of our God!

⁴He is the Rock, his works are perfect, and all his ways are just. A faithful God who does no wrong, upright and just is he.

⁵They have acted corruptly toward him; to their shame they are no longer his children, but a warped and crooked generation.

⁶Is this the way you repay the LORD, O foolish and unwise people? Is he not your Father, your Creator, who made you and formed you?

⁷Remember the days of old; consider the generations long past. Ask your father and he will tell you, your elders, and they will explain to you.

⁸When the Most High gave the nations their inheritance, when he divided all mankind, he set up boundaries for the peoples according to the number of the sons of Israel.

⁹For the LORD's portion is his people, Jacob his allotted inheritance.

¹⁰In a desert land he found him, in a barren and howling waste. He shielded him and cared for him; he guarded him as the apple of his eye, ¹¹like an eagle that stirs up its nest and hovers over its young, that spreads its wings to catch them and carries them on its pinions.

¹²The LORD alone led him; no foreign god was with him.

¹³He made him ride on the heights of the land and fed him with the fruit of the fields. He nourished him with honey from the rock, and with oil from the flinty crag, ¹⁴with curds and milk from herd and flock and with fattened lambs and goats, with choice rams of Bashan and the finest kernels of wheat. You drank the foaming blood of the grape.

Psalm 80

¹For the director of music. To [the tune of] "The Lilies of the Covenant." Of Asaph. A psalm. Hear us, O Shepherd of Israel, you who lead Joseph like a flock; you who sit enthroned between the cherubim, shine forth ²before Ephraim, Benjamin and Manasseh. Awaken your might; come and save us. ³Restore us, O God; make your face shine upon us, that we may be saved. ⁴O LORD God Almighty, how long will your anger smolder against the prayers of your people? ⁵You have fed them with the bread of tears; you have made them drink tears by the bowlful. ⁶You have made us a source of contention to our neighbors, and our enemies mock us. ⁷Restore us, O God Almighty; make your face shine upon us, that we may be saved. ⁸You brought a vine out of Egypt; you drove out the nations and planted it. ⁹You cleared the ground for it, and it took root and filled the land. ¹⁰The mountains were covered with its shade, the mighty cedars with its branches. ¹¹It sent out its boughs to the Sea, its shoots as far as the River. ¹²Why have you broken down its walls so that all who pass by pick its grapes? ¹³Boars from the forest ravage it and the creatures of the field feed on it. ¹⁴Return to us, O God Almighty! Look down from heaven and see! Watch over this vine, ¹⁵the root your right hand has planted, the son you have raised up for yourself. ¹⁶Your vine is cut down, it is burned with fire; at your rebuke your people perish. ¹⁷Let your hand rest on the man at your right hand, the son of man you have raised up for yourself. ¹⁸Then we will not turn away from you; revive us, and we will call on your name. ¹⁹Restore us, O LORD God Almighty; make your face shine upon us, that we may be saved.

Luke 6:1–11

¹One Sabbath Jesus was going through the grainfields, and his disciples began to pick some heads of grain, rub them in their hands and eat the kernels. ²Some of the Pharisees asked, "Why are you doing what is unlawful on the Sabbath?"

³Jesus answered them, "Have you never read what David did when he and his companions were hungry? ⁴He entered the house of God, and taking the consecrated bread, he ate what is lawful only for priests to eat. And he also gave some to his companions." ⁵Then Jesus said to them, "The Son of Man is Lord of the Sabbath."

⁶On another Sabbath he went into the synagogue and was teaching, and a man was there whose right hand was shriveled. ⁷The Pharisees and the teachers of the law were looking for a reason to accuse Jesus, so they watched him closely to see if he would heal on the Sabbath. ⁸But Jesus knew what they were thinking and said to the man with the shriveled hand, "Get up and stand in front of everyone." So he got up and stood there.

⁹Then Jesus said to them, "I ask you, which is lawful on the Sabbath: to do good or to do evil, to save life or to destroy it?"

¹⁰He looked around at them all, and then said to the man, "Stretch out your hand." He did so, and his hand was completely restored. ¹¹But they were furious and began to discuss with one another what they might do to Jesus.