The One Year Bible TLB (70 page)
Read The One Year Bible TLB Online
Authors: Tyndale
The fool who provokes his family to anger and resentment will finally have nothing worthwhile left. He shall be the servant of a wiser man.
30
Godly men are growing a tree that bears life-giving fruit, and all who win souls are wise.
*
31
Even the godly shall be rewarded here on earth; how much more the wicked!
March 27“When the Lord brings you into the Promised Land, as he soon will, he will destroy the following seven nations, all greater and mightier than you are: the Hittites, the Girgashites, the Amorites, the Canaanites, the Perizzites, the Hivites, the Jebusites.
2
“When the Lord your God delivers them over to you to be destroyed, do a complete job of it—don’t make any treaties or show them mercy; utterly wipe them out.
3
Do not intermarry with them, nor let your sons and daughters marry their sons and daughters.
4
That would surely result in your young people’s beginning to worship their gods. Then the anger of the Lord would be hot against you, and he would surely destroy you.
5
“You must break down the heathen altars and shatter the obelisks and cut up the shameful images and burn the idols.
6
“For you are a holy people, dedicated to the Lord your God. He has chosen you from all the people on the face of the whole earth to be his own chosen ones.
7
He didn’t choose you and pour out his love upon you because you were a larger nation than any other, for you were the smallest of all!
8
It was just because he loves you, and because he kept his promise to your ancestors. That is why he brought you out of slavery in Egypt with such amazing power and mighty miracles.
9
“Understand, therefore, that the Lord your God is the faithful God who for a thousand generations keeps his promises and constantly loves those who love him and who obey his commands.
10
But those who hate him shall be punished publicly and destroyed. He will deal with them personally.
11
Therefore, obey all these commandments I am giving you today.
12
Because of your obedience, the Lord your God will keep his part of the contract which, in his tender love, he made with your fathers.
13
And he will love you and bless you and make you into a great nation. He will make you fertile and give fertility to your ground and to your animals, so that you will have large crops of grain, grapes, and olives, and great flocks of cattle, sheep, and goats when you arrive in the land he promised your fathers to give you.
14
You will be blessed above all the nations of the earth; not one of you, whether male or female, shall be barren, not even your cattle.
15
And the Lord will take away all your sickness and will not let you suffer any of the diseases of Egypt you remember so well; he will give them all to your enemies!
16
“You must destroy all the nations the Lord your God delivers into your hands. Have no pity, and do not worship their gods; if you do, it will be a sad day for you.
17
Perhaps you will think to yourself, ‘How can we ever conquer these nations that are so much more powerful than we are?’
18
But don’t be afraid of them! Just remember what the Lord your God did to Pharaoh and to all the land of Egypt.
19
Do you remember the terrors the Lord sent upon them—your parents saw it with their own eyes—and the mighty miracles and wonders, and the power and strength of Almighty God that he used to bring you out of Egypt? Well, the Lord your God will use this same might against the people you fear.
20
Moreover, the Lord your God will send hornets to drive out those who hide from you!
21
“No, do not be afraid of those nations, for the Lord your God is among you, and he is a great and awesome God.
22
He will cast them out a little at a time; he will not do it all at once, for if he did, the wild animals would multiply too quickly and become dangerous.
23
He will do it gradually, and you will move in against those nations and destroy them.
24
He will deliver their kings into your hands, and you will erase their names from the face of the earth. No one will be able to stand against you.
25
“Burn their idols and do not touch the silver or gold they are made of. Do not take it or it will be a snare to you, for it is horrible to the Lord your God.
26
Do not bring an idol into your home and worship it, for then your doom is sealed. Utterly detest it, for it is a cursed thing.
8:
1
“You must obey all the commandments I give you today. If you do, you will not only live, you will multiply and will go in and take over the land promised to your fathers by the Lord.
2
Do you remember how the Lord led you through the wilderness for all those forty years, humbling you and testing you to find out how you would respond, and whether or not you would really obey him?
3
Yes, he humbled you by letting you go hungry and then feeding you with manna, a food previously unknown to both you and your ancestors. He did it to help you realize that food isn’t everything, and that real life comes by obeying every command of God.
4
For all these forty years your clothes haven’t grown old, and your feet haven’t been blistered or swollen.
5
So you should realize that, as a man punishes his son, the Lord punishes you to help you.
6
“Obey the laws of the Lord your God. Walk in his ways and fear him.
7
For the Lord your God is bringing you into a good land of brooks, pools, gushing springs, valleys, and hills;
8
it is a land of wheat and barley, of grapevines, fig trees, pomegranates, olives, and honey;
9
it is a land where food is plentiful, and nothing is lacking; it is a land where iron is as common as stone, and copper is abundant in the hills.
10
When you have eaten your fill, bless the Lord your God for the good land he has given you.
11
“But that is the time to be careful! Beware that in your plenty
*
you don’t forget the Lord your God and begin to disobey him.
12-13
For when you have become full and prosperous and have built fine homes to live in, and when your flocks and herds have become very large, and your silver and gold have multiplied,
14
that is the time to watch out that you don’t become proud and forget the Lord your God who brought you out of your slavery in the land of Egypt.
15
Beware that you don’t forget the God who led you through the great and terrible wilderness with the dangerous snakes and scorpions, where it was so hot and dry. He gave you water from the rock!
16
He fed you with manna in the wilderness (it was a kind of bread unknown before) so that you would become humble and so that your trust in him would grow, and he could do you good.
17
He did it so that you would never feel that it was your own power and might that made you wealthy.
18
Always remember that it is the Lord your God who gives you power to become rich, and he does it to fulfill his promise to your ancestors.
19
“But if you forget about the Lord your God and worship other gods instead, and follow evil ways, you shall certainly perish,
20
just as the Lord has caused other nations in the past to perish. That will be your fate, too, if you don’t obey the Lord your God.”
One of the Pharisees asked Jesus to come to his home for lunch and Jesus accepted the invitation. As they sat down to eat,
37
a woman of the streets—a prostitute—heard he was there and brought an exquisite flask filled with expensive perfume.
38
Going in, she knelt behind him at his feet, weeping, with her tears falling down upon his feet; and she wiped them off with her hair and kissed them and poured the perfume on them.
39
When Jesus’ host, a Pharisee, saw what was happening and who the woman was, he said to himself, “This proves that Jesus is no prophet, for if God had really sent him, he would know what kind of woman this one is!”
40
Then Jesus spoke up and answered his thoughts.
“Simon,”
he said to the Pharisee,
“I have something to say to you.”
“All right, Teacher,” Simon replied, “go ahead.”
41
Then Jesus told him this story:
“A man loaned money to two people—$5,000 to one and $500 to the other.
42
But neither of them could pay him back, so he kindly forgave them both, letting them keep the money! Which do you suppose loved him most after that?”
43
“I suppose the one who had owed him the most,” Simon answered.
“Correct,”
Jesus agreed.
44
Then he turned to the woman and said to Simon,
“Look! See this woman kneeling here! When I entered your home, you didn’t bother to offer me water to wash the dust from my feet, but she has washed them with her tears and wiped them with her hair.
45
You refused me the customary kiss of greeting, but she has kissed my feet again and again from the time I first came in.
46
You neglected the usual courtesy of olive oil to anoint my head, but she has covered my feet with rare perfume.
47
Therefore her sins—and they are many—are forgiven, for she loved me much; but one who is forgiven little, shows little love.”
48
And he said to her,
“Your sins are forgiven.”
49
Then the men at the table said to themselves, “Who does this man think he is, going around forgiving sins?”
50
And Jesus said to the woman,
“Your faith has saved you; go in peace.”
8:
1
Not long afterwards he began a tour of the cities and villages of Galilee
*
to announce the coming of the Kingdom of God, and took his twelve disciples with him.
2
Some women went along, from whom he had cast out demons or whom he had healed; among them were Mary Magdalene (Jesus had cast out seven demons from her),
3
Joanna, Chuza’s wife (Chuza was King Herod’s business manager and was in charge of his palace and domestic affairs), Susanna, and many others who were contributing from their private means to the support of Jesus and his disciples.
Save me, O my God. The floods have risen. Deeper and deeper I sink in the mire; the waters rise around me.
3
I have wept until I am exhausted; my throat is dry and hoarse; my eyes are swollen with weeping, waiting for my God to act.
4
I cannot even count all those who hate me without cause. They are influential men, these who plot to kill me though I am innocent. They demand that I be punished for what I didn’t do.
5
O God, you know so well how stupid I am, and you know all my sins.
6
O Lord God of the armies of heaven, don’t let me be a stumbling block to those who trust in you. O God of Israel, don’t let me cause them to be confused,
7
though I am mocked and cursed and shamed for your sake.
8
Even my own brothers pretend they don’t know me!
9
My zeal for God and his work
*
burns hot within me. And because I advocate your cause, your enemies insult me even as they insult you.
10
How they scoff and mock me when I mourn and fast before the Lord!
11
How they talk about me when I wear sackcloth to show my humiliation and sorrow for my sins!
12
I am the talk of the town and the song of the drunkards.
13
But I keep right on praying to you, Lord. For now is the time—you are bending down to hear! You are ready with a plentiful supply of love and kindness. Now answer my prayer and rescue me as you promised.
*
14
Pull me out of this mire. Don’t let me sink in. Rescue me from those who hate me, and from these deep waters I am in.
15
Don’t let the floods overwhelm me or the ocean swallow me; save me from the pit that threatens me.
16
O Jehovah, answer my prayers, for your loving-kindness is wonderful; your mercy is so plentiful, so tender and so kind.
17
Don’t hide from me,
*
for I am in deep trouble. Quick! Come and save me.
18
Come, Lord, and rescue me. Ransom me from all my enemies.
To learn, you must want to be taught. To refuse reproof is stupid.