18 March 2012

Today's Readings and stuff -- 181 March 2012

We seem to have made it to another Sunday. Warm here, in the low 80's, with is on the warm side even for those of us in Lower Alabama. That's OK. I can recall as a child having SNOW in the first week of MAY! Warm is better by far. By far.
Dear Wife seems to be a bit better, recovering from yet another upper respiratory infection that seems to accompany the autoimmune diseases that are slowly sapping her vitality and joy of life. I doubt that she'll be in any shape to attend church this morning, but we shall see.

This morning's reading is chapters 31 and 32 of Deuteronomy. We will complete Deuteronomy tomorrow (Lord willing). So we are seeing here almost the last of Moses. He knew he was about to die, and was using his remaining time to carry the Lord's message once again. He'd been through quite a lot, from a baby left in a basket in the Nile, all the way through to here. He knew about the Lord's involvement in His world and His people.

1
And Moses went and spake these words unto all Israel.
2
And he said unto them, I am an hundred and twenty years old this day; I can no more go out and come in: also the LORD hath said unto me, Thou shalt not go over this Jordan.
3
The LORD thy God, he will go over before thee, and he will destroy these nations from before thee, and thou shalt possess them: and Joshua, he shall go over before thee, as the LORD hath said.
4
And the LORD shall do unto them as he did to Sihon and to Og, kings of the Amorites, and unto the land of them, whom he destroyed.
5
And the LORD shall give them up before your face, that ye may do unto them according unto all the commandments which I have commanded you.
6
Be strong and of a good courage, fear not, nor be afraid of them: for the LORD thy God, he it is that doth go with thee; he will not fail thee, nor forsake thee.
7
And Moses called unto Joshua, and said unto him in the sight of all Israel, Be strong and of a good courage: for thou must go with this people unto the land which the LORD hath sworn unto their fathers to give them; and thou shalt cause them to inherit it.
8
And the LORD, he it is that doth go before thee; he will be with thee, he will not fail thee, neither forsake thee: fear not, neither be dismayed.
9
And Moses wrote this law, and delivered it unto the priests the sons of Levi, which bare the ark of the covenant of the LORD, and unto all the elders of Israel.
10
And Moses commanded them, saying, At the end of every seven years, in the solemnity of the year of release, in the feast of tabernacles,
11
When all Israel is come to appear before the LORD thy God in the place which he shall choose, thou shalt read this law before all Israel in their hearing.
12
Gather the people together, men and women, and children, and thy stranger that is within thy gates, that they may hear, and that they may learn, and fear the LORD your God, and observe to do all the words of this law:
13
And that their children, which have not known any thing, may hear, and learn to fear the LORD your God, as long as ye live in the land whither ye go over Jordan to possess it.
14
And the LORD said unto Moses, Behold, thy days approach that thou must die: call Joshua, and present yourselves in the tabernacle of the congregation, that I may give him a charge. And Moses and Joshua went, and presented themselves in the tabernacle of the congregation.
15
And the LORD appeared in the tabernacle in a pillar of a cloud: and the pillar of the cloud stood over the door of the tabernacle.
16
And the LORD said unto Moses, Behold, thou shalt sleep with thy fathers; and this people will rise up, and go a whoring after the gods of the strangers of the land, whither they go to be among them, and will forsake me, and break my covenant which I have made with them.
17
Then my anger shall be kindled against them in that day, and I will forsake them, and I will hide my face from them, and they shall be devoured, and many evils and troubles shall befall them; so that they will say in that day, Are not these evils come upon us, because our God is not among us?
18
And I will surely hide my face in that day for all the evils which they shall have wrought, in that they are turned unto other gods.
19
Now therefore write ye this song for you, and teach it the children of Israel: put it in their mouths, that this song may be a witness for me against the children of Israel.
20
For when I shall have brought them into the land which I sware unto their fathers, that floweth with milk and honey; and they shall have eaten and filled themselves, and waxen fat; then will they turn unto other gods, and serve them, and provoke me, and break my covenant.
21
And it shall come to pass, when many evils and troubles are befallen them, that this song shall testify against them as a witness; for it shall not be forgotten out of the mouths of their seed: for I know their imagination which they go about, even now, before I have brought them into the land which I sware.
22
Moses therefore wrote this song the same day, and taught it the children of Israel.
23
And he gave Joshua the son of Nun a charge, and said, Be strong and of a good courage: for thou shalt bring the children of Israel into the land which I sware unto them: and I will be with thee.
24
And it came to pass, when Moses had made an end of writing the words of this law in a book, until they were finished,
25
That Moses commanded the Levites, which bare the ark of the covenant of the LORD, saying,
26
Take this book of the law, and put it in the side of the ark of the covenant of the LORD your God, that it may be there for a witness against thee.
27
For I know thy rebellion, and thy stiff neck: behold, while I am yet alive with you this day, ye have been rebellious against the LORD; and how much more after my death?
28
Gather unto me all the elders of your tribes, and your officers, that I may speak these words in their ears, and call heaven and earth to record against them.
29
For I know that after my death ye will utterly corrupt yourselves, and turn aside from the way which I have commanded you; and evil will befall you in the latter days; because ye will do evil in the sight of the LORD, to provoke him to anger through the work of your hands.
30
And Moses spake in the ears of all the congregation of Israel the words of this song, until they were ended.


1
Give ear, O ye heavens, and I will speak; and hear, O earth, the words of my mouth.
2
My doctrine shall drop as the rain, my speech shall distil as the dew, as the small rain upon the tender herb, and as the showers upon the grass:
3
Because I will publish the name of the LORD: ascribe ye greatness unto our God.
4
He is the Rock, his work is perfect: for all his ways are judgment: a God of truth and without iniquity, just and right is he.
5
They have corrupted themselves, their spot is not the spot of his children: they are a perverse and crooked generation.
6
Do ye thus requite the LORD, O foolish people and unwise? is not he thy father that hath bought thee? hath he not made thee, and established thee?
7
Remember the days of old, consider the years of many generations: ask thy father, and he will show thee; thy elders, and they will tell thee.
8
When the Most High divided to the nations their inheritance, when he separated the sons of Adam, he set the bounds of the people according to the number of the children of Israel.
9
For the LORD's portion is his people; Jacob is the lot of his inheritance.
10
He found him in a desert land, and in the waste howling wilderness; he led him about, he instructed him, he kept him as the apple of his eye.
11
As an eagle stirreth up her nest, fluttereth over her young, spreadeth abroad her wings, taketh them, beareth them on her wings:
12
So the LORD alone did lead him, and there was no strange god with him.
13
He made him ride on the high places of the earth, that he might eat the increase of the fields; and he made him to suck honey out of the rock, and oil out of the flinty rock;
14
Butter of kine, and milk of sheep, with fat of lambs, and rams of the breed of Bashan, and goats, with the fat of kidneys of wheat; and thou didst drink the pure blood of the grape.
15
But Jeshurun waxed fat, and kicked: thou art waxen fat, thou art grown thick, thou art covered with fatness; then he forsook God which made him, and lightly esteemed the Rock of his salvation.
16
They provoked him to jealousy with strange gods, with abominations provoked they him to anger.
17
They sacrificed unto devils, not to God; to gods whom they knew not, to new gods that came newly up, whom your fathers feared not.
18
Of the Rock that begat thee thou art unmindful, and hast forgotten God that formed thee.
19
And when the LORD saw it, he abhorred them, because of the provoking of his sons, and of his daughters.
20
And he said, I will hide my face from them, I will see what their end shall be: for they are a very froward generation, children in whom is no faith.
21
They have moved me to jealousy with that which is not God; they have provoked me to anger with their vanities: and I will move them to jealousy with those which are not a people; I will provoke them to anger with a foolish nation.
22
For a fire is kindled in mine anger, and shall burn unto the lowest hell, and shall consume the earth with her increase, and set on fire the foundations of the mountains.
23
I will heap mischiefs upon them; I will spend mine arrows upon them.
24
They shall be burnt with hunger, and devoured with burning heat, and with bitter destruction: I will also send the teeth of beasts upon them, with the poison of serpents of the dust.
25
The sword without, and terror within, shall destroy both the young man and the virgin, the suckling also with the man of gray hairs.
26
I said, I would scatter them into corners, I would make the remembrance of them to cease from among men:
27
Were it not that I feared the wrath of the enemy, lest their adversaries should behave themselves strangely, and lest they should say, Our hand is high, and the LORD hath not done all this.
28
For they are a nation void of counsel, neither is there any understanding in them.
29
O that they were wise, that they understood this, that they would consider their latter end!
30
How should one chase a thousand, and two put ten thousand to flight, except their Rock had sold them, and the LORD had shut them up?
31
For their rock is not as our Rock, even our enemies themselves being judges.
32
For their vine is of the vine of Sodom, and of the fields of Gomorrah: their grapes are grapes of gall, their clusters are bitter:
33
Their wine is the poison of dragons, and the cruel venom of asps.
34
Is not this laid up in store with me, and sealed up among my treasures?
35
To me belongeth vengeance and recompence; their foot shall slide in due time: for the day of their calamity is at hand, and the things that shall come upon them make haste.
36
For the LORD shall judge his people, and repent himself for his servants, when he seeth that their power is gone, and there is none shut up, or left.
37
And he shall say, Where are their gods, their rock in whom they trusted,
38
Which did eat the fat of their sacrifices, and drank the wine of their drink offerings? let them rise up and help you, and be your protection.
39
See now that I, even I, am he, and there is no god with me: I kill, and I make alive; I wound, and I heal: neither is there any that can deliver out of my hand.
40
For I lift up my hand to heaven, and say, I live for ever.
41
If I whet my glittering sword, and mine hand take hold on judgment; I will render vengeance to mine enemies, and will reward them that hate me.
42
I will make mine arrows drunk with blood, and my sword shall devour flesh; and that with the blood of the slain and of the captives, from the beginning of revenges upon the enemy.
43
Rejoice, O ye nations, with his people: for he will avenge the blood of his servants, and will render vengeance to his adversaries, and will be merciful unto his land, and to his people.
44
And Moses came and spake all the words of this song in the ears of the people, he, and Hoshea the son of Nun.
45
And Moses made an end of speaking all these words to all Israel:
46
And he said unto them, Set your hearts unto all the words which I testify among you this day, which ye shall command your children to observe to do, all the words of this law.
47
For it is not a vain thing for you; because it is your life: and through this thing ye shall prolong your days in the land, whither ye go over Jordan to possess it.
48
And the LORD spake unto Moses that selfsame day, saying,
49
Get thee up into this mountain Abarim, unto mount Nebo, which is in the land of Moab, that is over against Jericho; and behold the land of Canaan, which I give unto the children of Israel for a possession:
50
And die in the mount whither thou goest up, and be gathered unto thy people; as Aaron thy brother died in mount Hor, and was gathered unto his people:
51
Because ye trespassed against me among the children of Israel at the waters of MeribahKadesh, in the wilderness of Zin; because ye sanctified me not in the midst of the children of Israel.
52
Yet thou shalt see the land before thee; but thou shalt not go thither unto the land which I give the children of Israel.




This evening, we begin in the Gospel of Luke. This is a bit of a change from Mark, and these early chapters are among the most familiar to Christians. Yet I urge readers to consider each phrase anew. you may see something you have overlooked before. I often do.

1
Forasmuch as many have taken in hand to set forth in order a declaration of those things which are most surely believed among us,
2
Even as they delivered them unto us, which from the beginning were eyewitnesses, and ministers of the word;
3
It seemed good to me also, having had perfect understanding of all things from the very first, to write unto thee in order, most excellent Theophilus,
4
That thou mightest know the certainty of those things, wherein thou hast been instructed.
5
THERE was in the days of Herod, the king of Judaea, a certain priest named Zacharias, of the course of Abia: and his wife was of the daughters of Aaron, and her name was Elisabeth.
6
And they were both righteous before God, walking in all the commandments and ordinances of the Lord blameless.
7
And they had no child, because that Elisabeth was barren, and they both were now well stricken in years.
8
And it came to pass, that while he executed the priest's office before God in the order of his course,
9
According to the custom of the priest's office, his lot was to burn incense when he went into the temple of the Lord.
10
And the whole multitude of the people were praying without at the time of incense.
11
And there appeared unto him an angel of the Lord standing on the right side of the altar of incense.
12
And when Zacharias saw him, he was troubled, and fear fell upon him.
13
But the angel said unto him, Fear not, Zacharias: for thy prayer is heard; and thy wife Elisabeth shall bear thee a son, and thou shalt call his name John.
14
And thou shalt have joy and gladness; and many shall rejoice at his birth.
15
For he shall be great in the sight of the Lord, and shall drink neither wine nor strong drink; and he shall be filled with the Holy Ghost, even from his mother's womb.
16
And many of the children of Israel shall he turn to the Lord their God.
17
And he shall go before him in the spirit and power of Elias, to turn the hearts of the fathers to the children, and the disobedient to the wisdom of the just; to make ready a people prepared for the Lord.
18
And Zacharias said unto the angel, Whereby shall I know this? for I am an old man, and my wife well stricken in years.
19
And the angel answering said unto him, I am Gabriel, that stand in the presence of God; and am sent to speak unto thee, and to shew thee these glad tidings.
20
And, behold, thou shalt be dumb, and not able to speak, until the day that these things shall be performed, because thou believest not my words, which shall be fulfilled in their season.
21
And the people waited for Zacharias, and marvelled that he tarried so long in the temple.
22
And when he came out, he could not speak unto them: and they perceived that he had seen a vision in the temple: for he beckoned unto them, and remained speechless.
23
And it came to pass, that, as soon as the days of his ministration were accomplished, he departed to his own house.