Deuteronomy 25 - 26
“If there is a dispute between men and they go to court for judgment, and the judges judge their case, and they justify the righteous and condemn the wicked, 2 then it shall be if the wicked man deserves to be struck, the judge shall then make him lie down and be struck in his presence with the number of stripes according to his guilt. 3 He may strike him forty times but no more, lest he strike him with many more stripes than these and your brother be dishonored in your eyes. 4 “You shall not muzzle the ox while it is threshing. 5 “If brothers live together and one of them dies and has no son, then the wife of the one who died shall not be married outside the family to a strange man. Her husband’s brother shall go in to her and take her to himself as wife and perform the duty of a husband’s brother to her. 6 And it will be that the firstborn whom she bears shall assume the name of his dead brother, so that his name will not be blotted out from Israel. 7 But if the man does not desire to take his brother’s wife, then his brother’s wife shall go up to the gate to the elders and say, ‘My husband’s brother refuses to raise up a name for his brother in Israel; he is not willing to perform the duty of a husband’s brother to me.’ 8 Then the elders of his city shall summon him and speak to him. And if he stands and says, ‘I do not desire to take her,’ 9 then his brother’s wife shall come to him in the sight of the elders and pull his sandal off his foot and spit in his face; and she shall answer and say, ‘Thus it is done to the man who does not build up his brother’s house.’ 10 And in Israel his name shall be called, ‘The house of him whose sandal is removed.’ 11 “If two men, a man and his brother, are struggling together, and the wife of one comes near to deliver her husband from the hand of the one who is striking him, and she puts out her hand and seizes his genitals, 12 then you shall cut off her hand; you shall not show pity. 13 “You shall not have in your bag differing weights, a large and a small. 14 You shall not have in your house differing measures, a large and a small. 15 You shall have a full and just weight; you shall have a full and just measure, that your days may be prolonged in the land which Yahweh your God gives you. 16 For everyone who does these things, everyone who acts unjustly, is an abomination to Yahweh your God. 17 “Remember what Amalek did to you along the way when you came out from Egypt, 18 how he met you along the way and attacked among you all the stragglers at your rear, but you were faint and weary; and he did not fear God. 19 Therefore it will be, when Yahweh your God has given you rest from all your surrounding enemies, in the land which Yahweh your God gives you as an inheritance to possess, you shall blot out the memory of Amalek from under heaven; you must not forget. Bringing First Fruits and Tithes
“Then it will be, when you enter the land which Yahweh your God gives you as an inheritance and you possess it and live in it, 2 that you shall take some of the first of all the fruit of the ground which you bring in from your land that Yahweh your God gives you, and you shall put it in a basket and go to the place where Yahweh your God chooses for His name to dwell. 3 And you shall go to the priest who is in office in those days and say to him, ‘I declare this day to Yahweh my God that I have entered the land which Yahweh swore to our fathers to give us.’ 4 Then the priest shall take the basket from your hand and set it down before the altar of Yahweh your God. 5 And you shall answer and say before Yahweh your God, ‘My father was a wandering Aramean, and he went down to Egypt and sojourned there, few in number; but there he became a great, mighty, and populous nation. 6 And the Egyptians treated us harshly and afflicted us and imposed hard slave labor on us. 7 Then we cried out to Yahweh, the God of our fathers, and Yahweh heard our voice and saw our affliction and our toil and our oppression; 8 and Yahweh brought us out of Egypt with a strong hand and an outstretched arm and with great terror and with signs and wonders; 9 and He has brought us to this place and has given us this land, a land flowing with milk and honey. 10 So now behold, I have brought the first of the fruit of the ground which You, O Yahweh, have given me.’ And you shall set it down before Yahweh your God and worship before Yahweh your God; 11 and you and the Levite and the sojourner who is among you shall be glad in all the good which Yahweh your God has given you and your household. 12 “When you have finished paying all the tithe of your produce in the third year, the year of tithing, then you shall give it to the Levite, to the sojourner, to the orphan, and to the widow, that they may eat within your gates and be satisfied. 13 Then you shall say before Yahweh your God, ‘I have purged the sacred portion from my house, and I also have given it to the Levite and the sojourner, the orphan and the widow, according to all Your commandments which You have commanded me; I have not trespassed against or forgotten any of Your commandments. 14 I have not eaten of it while mourning, nor have I purged any of it while I was unclean, nor have I given any of it to the dead. I have listened to the voice of Yahweh my God; I have done according to all that You have commanded me. 15 Look down from Your holy habitation, from heaven, and bless Your people Israel and the ground which You have given to us, a land flowing with milk and honey, as You swore to our fathers.’ 16 “This day Yahweh your God commands you to do these statutes and judgments. You shall therefore be careful to do them with all your heart and with all your soul. 17 You have today declared Yahweh to be your God, and that you would walk in His ways and keep His statutes, His commandments, and His judgments, and listen to His voice. 18 And Yahweh has today declared you to be His people, a treasured possession, as He promised you, and that you should keep all His commandments; 19 and that He will set you high above all nations which He has made, for praise, a name, and beauty; and that you shall be a holy people to Yahweh your God, as He has spoken.”
2 Corinthians 3 - 4
Ministers of a New Covenant
Are we beginning to commend ourselves again? Or do we need, as some, letters of commendation to you or from you? 2 You are our letter, having been written in our hearts, known and read by all men, 3 being manifested that you are a letter of Christ, ministered to by us, having been written not with ink but with the Spirit of the living God, not on tablets of stone but on tablets of hearts of flesh. 4 And such confidence we have through Christ toward God. 5 Not that we are sufficient in ourselves to consider anything as coming from ourselves, but our sufficiency is from God, 6 who also made us sufficient as ministers of a new covenant, not of the letter but of the Spirit; for the letter kills, but the Spirit gives life. 7 But if the ministry of death, in letters having been engraved on stones, came with glory, so that the sons of Israel could not look intently at the face of Moses because of the glory of his face, which was being brought to an end, 8 how will the ministry of the Spirit not be even more in glory? 9 For if the ministry of condemnation has glory, much more does the ministry of righteousness abound in glory. 10 For indeed what had been glorious, in this case has no glory because of the glory that surpasses it. 11 For if that which was being brought to an end was with glory, much more that which remains is in glory. 12 Therefore having such a hope, we use great boldness, 13 and are not like Moses, who used to put a veil over his face so that the sons of Israel would not look intently at the consequence of what was being brought to an end. 14 But their minds were hardened; for until this very day at the reading of the old covenant the same veil remains unlifted, because it is brought to an end in Christ. 15 But to this day whenever Moses is read, a veil lies over their heart, 16 but whenever a person turns to the Lord, the veil is taken away. 17 Now the Lord is the Spirit, and where the Spirit of the Lord is, there is freedom. 18 But we all, with unveiled face, beholding as in a mirror the glory of the Lord, are being transformed into the same image from glory to glory, just as from the Lord, the Spirit. The Gospel of the Glory of Christ
Therefore, since we have this ministry, as we received mercy, we do not lose heart, 2 but we have renounced the hidden things of shame, not walking in craftiness or adulterating the word of God, but by the manifestation of truth commending ourselves to every man’s conscience in the sight of God. 3 And even if our gospel is veiled, it is veiled to those who are perishing, 4 in whose case the god of this age has blinded the minds of the unbelieving so that they might not see the light of the gospel of the glory of Christ, who is the image of God. 5 For we do not preach ourselves but Jesus Christ as Lord, and ourselves as your slaves for the sake of Jesus. 6 For God, who said, “Light shall shine out of darkness,” is the One who has shone in our hearts to give the Light of the knowledge of the glory of God in the face of Christ. 7 But we have this treasure in earthen vessels, so that the surpassing greatness of the power will be of God and not from ourselves; 8 in every way afflicted, but not crushed; perplexed, but not despairing; 9 persecuted, but not forsaken; struck down, but not destroyed; 10 always carrying about in the body the dying of Jesus, so that the life of Jesus also may be manifested in our body. 11 For we who live are constantly being delivered over to death for Jesus’ sake, so that the life of Jesus also may be manifested in our mortal flesh. 12 So death works in us, but life in you. 13 But having the same spirit of faith, according to what is written, “I believed, therefore I spoke,” we also believe, therefore we also speak, 14 knowing that He who raised the Lord Jesus will raise us also with Jesus and will present us with you. 15 For all things are for your sakes, so that the grace which is spreading to more and more people may cause the giving of thanks to abound to the glory of God. 16 Therefore we do not lose heart, but though our outer man is decaying, yet our inner man is being renewed day by day. 17 For our momentary, light affliction is working out for us an eternal weight of glory far beyond all comparison, 18 while we look not at the things which are seen, but at the things which are not seen; for the things which are seen are temporal, but the things which are not seen are eternal.
Psalm 120 - 122
O Yahweh, Deliver My Soul
A Song of Ascents.
In my distress I called to Yahweh,
And He answered me.
2 O Yahweh, deliver my soul from a lying lip,
From a deceitful tongue.
3 What shall He give to you, and what shall He add to you,
O deceitful tongue?
4 Sharp arrows of the warrior,
With the burning coals of the broom tree.
5 Woe is me, for I sojourn in Meshech,
For I dwell among the tents of Kedar!
6 Too long has my soul had its dwelling
With those who hate peace.
7 I am for peace, but when I speak,
They are for war.
My Help Comes from Yahweh
A Song of Ascents.
I will lift up my eyes to the mountains;
From where shall my help come?
2 My help comes from Yahweh,
Who made heaven and earth.
3 He will not allow your foot to stumble;
He who keeps you will not slumber.
4 Behold, He who keeps Israel
Will not slumber and will not sleep.
5 Yahweh is your keeper;
Yahweh is your shade on your right hand.
6 The sun will not strike you by day,
Nor the moon by night.
7 Yahweh will keep you from all evil;
He will keep your soul.
8 Yahweh will keep your going out and your coming in
From now until forever.
Go to the House of Yahweh
A Song of Ascents. Of David.
I was glad when they said to me,
“Let us go to the house of Yahweh.”
2 Our feet are standing
Within your gates, O Jerusalem,
3 Jerusalem, which is built
As a city joined altogether;
4 To which the tribes, the tribes of Yah, go up—
A testimony for Israel—
To give thanks to the name of Yahweh.
5 For there, thrones sit for judgment,
The thrones of the house of David.
6 Pray for the peace of Jerusalem:
“May they prosper who love you.
7 May peace be within your walls,
And tranquility within your palaces.”
8 For the sake of my brothers and my friends,
I will now say, “May peace be within you.”
9 For the sake of the house of Yahweh our God,
I will seek your good.