Deuteronomy 29 - 30, 2 Corinthians 7 - 8, Psalms 126 - 128

The Covenant in Moab

29¹^,^aThese are the words of the covenant which Yahweh commanded Moses to cut with the sons of Israel in the land of Moab, besides the ^bcovenant which He had cut with them at Horeb.

²¹And Moses summoned all Israel and said to them, “You have seen all that Yahweh did before your eyes in the land of Egypt to Pharaoh and all his servants and all his land; ³^athe great trials which your eyes have seen, those great signs and wonders. ⁴“Yet to this day ^aYahweh has not given you a heart to know, nor eyes to see, nor ears to hear. ⁵“And I have led you forty years in the wilderness; ^ayour clothes have not worn out on you, and your sandal has not worn out on your foot. ⁶“^aYou have not eaten bread, nor have you drunk wine or strong drink, in order that you might know that I am Yahweh your God. ⁷“^aThen you came to this place, and Sihon the king of Heshbon and Og the king of Bashan came out to meet us for battle, but we struck them down; ⁸and we took their land and ^agave it as an inheritance to the Reubenites, the Gadites, and the half-tribe of the Manassites. ⁹“^aSo you shall keep the words of this covenant to do them, ^bthat you may prosper in all that you do.

¹⁰“You stand today, all of you, before Yahweh your God: your heads, your tribes, your elders, and your officers, even all the men of Israel, ¹¹your little ones, your wives, and the sojourner who is within your camps, from ^athe one who chops your wood to the one who draws your water, ¹²that you may enter into the covenant with Yahweh your God and into His oath, which Yahweh your God is cutting with you today, ¹³in order that He may establish you today as His people and that ^aHe may be your God, just as He spoke to you and as He swore to your fathers, to Abraham, to Isaac, and to Jacob.

¹⁴“Now not with you alone am I ^acutting this covenant and this oath, ¹⁵^abut both with those who stand here with us today in the presence of Yahweh our God and with those who are not with us here today— ¹⁶for you know how we lived in the land of Egypt, and how we came through the midst of the nations through which you passed; ¹⁷moreover, you have seen their detestable things and their idols of ^awood, stone, silver, and gold, which they had with them— ¹⁸^alest there be among you a man or woman, or family or tribe, whose heart turns away today from Yahweh our God, to go to serve the gods of those nations; lest there be among you ^ba root bearing poisonous fruit and wormwood. ¹⁹“And it will be when he hears the words of this curse, that he will ¹bless himself in his heart, saying, ‘I have peace though I walk in the stubbornness of my heart in order ²to sweep away the watered land with the dry.’ ²⁰“Yahweh shall not be willing to pardon him, but rather the anger of Yahweh and ^aHis jealousy will ¹^,^bburn against that man, and every curse which is written in this book will ²rest on him, and Yahweh will ^cblot out his name from under heaven. ²¹“Then Yahweh will separate him out for ¹adversity from all the tribes of Israel, according to all the curses of the covenant ^awhich are written in this book of the law.

²²“And the generation to come, your sons who rise up after you and ^athe foreigner who comes from a distant land, shall see the plagues of the land and the diseases with which Yahweh has ¹afflicted it, and they will say, ²³‘All its land is ^abrimstone and salt, ^ba burning waste, ¹unsown and nothing sprouting, and no grass grows in it, like the overthrow of ^cSodom and Gomorrah, Admah and Zeboiim, which Yahweh overthrew in His anger and in His wrath.’ ²⁴“And all the nations will say, ‘^aWhy has Yahweh done thus to this land? Why this great burning anger?’ ²⁵“Then men will say, ‘^aBecause they forsook the covenant of Yahweh, the God of their fathers, which He cut with them when He brought them out of the land of Egypt. ²⁶‘And they went and served other gods and worshiped them, gods whom they have not known and whom He had not apportioned to them. ²⁷‘Therefore, the anger of Yahweh was kindled against that land, ^ato bring upon it every curse which is written in this book; ²⁸and ^aYahweh uprooted them from their land in anger and in fury and in great wrath, and He cast them into another land, as it is this day.’

²⁹“^aThe secret things belong to Yahweh our God, but ^bthe things revealed belong to us and to our sons forever, that we may do all the words of this law.

Yahweh Will Take You Back

30“So it will be, when all of these things have come upon you, ^athe blessing and the curse which I have set before you, and you cause these things to return to your heart ^bin all the nations where Yahweh your God has banished you, ²and you ^areturn to Yahweh your God and listen to His voice ^bwith all your heart and soul according to all that I am commanding you today, you and your sons, ³then Yahweh your God will ¹^,^areturn ²you from captivity and return His compassion on you, and He ^bwill gather you again from all the peoples where Yahweh your God has ^cscattered you. ⁴“If those of you who are banished are at the ends of the sky, ^afrom there Yahweh your God will gather you, and from there He will take you back. ⁵“^aAnd Yahweh your God will bring you into the land which your fathers possessed, and you shall possess it; and He will prosper you and ^bmultiply you more than your fathers.

⁶“Moreover ^aYahweh your God will circumcise your heart and the heart of your seed, ^bto love Yahweh your God with all your heart and with all your soul, so that you may live. ⁷“^aAnd Yahweh your God will ¹inflict all these curses on your enemies and on those who hate you, who persecuted you. ⁸“And you shall return and listen to the voice of Yahweh, and you shall do all His commandments which I am commanding you today. ⁹“^aThen Yahweh your God will ¹prosper you abundantly in all the work of your hand, in the ²offspring of your ³body and in the ⁴offspring of your cattle and in the ⁵produce of your ground, for ^bYahweh will return to rejoice over you for good, just as He rejoiced over your fathers, ¹⁰¹when you listen to the voice of Yahweh your God to keep His commandments and His statutes which ^aare written in this book of the law, ²when you return to Yahweh your God ^bwith all your heart and soul.

¹¹“For this commandment which I am commanding you today is not too difficult for you, nor is it far from you. ¹²“It is not in heaven, ¹that you should say, ‘^aWho will go up to heaven for us and get it for us and make us hear it, that we may do it?’ ¹³“Nor is it beyond the sea, ¹that you should say, ‘Who will cross the sea for us and get it for us and make us hear it, that we may do it?’ ¹⁴“But the word is very near you, in your mouth and in your heart, that you may do it.

Choose Life

¹⁵“See, ^aI have set before you today life and ¹prosperity, and death and ²calamity; ¹⁶in that I am commanding you today ^ato love Yahweh your God, to walk in His ways, and to keep His commandments and His statutes and His judgments, that you ^bmay live and multiply, and that Yahweh your God may bless you in the land where you are entering to possess it. ¹⁷“But if your heart turns away and you will not listen, but are drawn away and worship other gods and serve them, ¹⁸I declare to you today that ^ayou shall surely perish. You will not prolong your days in the land where you are crossing the Jordan to enter ¹and possess it. ¹⁹“^aI call heaven and earth to witness against you today, that I have set before you life and death, ^bthe blessing and the curse. So choose life in order that you may live, you and your seed, ²⁰^aby loving Yahweh your God, by listening to His voice, and ^bby holding fast to Him; ^cfor ¹this is your life and the length of your days, ²that you may live in ^dthe land which Yahweh swore to your fathers, to Abraham, to Isaac, and to Jacob, to give them.”

7Therefore, having these promises, ^abeloved, ^blet us cleanse ourselves from all defilement of flesh and spirit, perfecting holiness in the fear of God.

Godly Sorrow Produces Repentance

²^aMake room for us in your hearts. We wronged no one, we corrupted no one, we took advantage of no one. ³I do not speak to condemn you, for I have said ^abefore that you are ^bin our hearts to die together and to live together. ⁴Great is my ^aboldness toward you; great is my ^bboasting on your behalf. I have been filled with ^ccomfort; I am overflowing with ^djoy in all our affliction.

⁵For even when we came into ^aMacedonia our flesh had no rest, but we were ^bafflicted on every side—^cconflicts without, fears within. ⁶But ^aGod, who comforts the humbled, ^bcomforted us by the coming of ^cTitus; ⁷and not only by his coming, but also by the comfort with which he was comforted in you, as he reported to us your longing, your mourning, your zeal for me, so that I rejoiced even more. ⁸For though I ^acaused you sorrow by my letter, I do not regret it, though I did regret it—for I see that that letter caused you sorrow, though only for a while— ⁹I now rejoice, not that you were made sorrowful, but that you were made sorrowful to repentance. For you were made to have ¹godly sorrow, so that you might not suffer loss in anything ²through us. ¹⁰For ¹godly sorrow produces a ^arepentance ²without regret, leading to salvation, but the sorrow of the world brings about death. ¹¹For behold what earnestness this very thing—this ¹godly sorrow—has brought about in you: what vindication of yourselves, what indignation, what fear, what ^alonging, what zeal, what ^bavenging of wrong! In everything you ^cdemonstrated yourselves to be innocent in the matter. ¹²So although ^aI wrote to you, it was not for the sake of ^bthe offender nor for the sake of the one offended, but that your earnestness on our behalf might be manifested to you in the sight of God. ¹³For this reason we have been ^acomforted. And besides our comfort, we rejoiced even much more for the joy of ^bTitus, because his ^cspirit has been refreshed by you all. ¹⁴For if in anything I have ^aboasted to him about you, I was not put to shame, but as we spoke all things to you in truth, so also our boasting before ^bTitus proved to be the truth. ¹⁵And his ¹affection abounds all the more toward you, as he remembers the ^aobedience of you all, how you received him with ^bfear and trembling. ¹⁶I rejoice that in everything ^aI am encouraged about you.

Generosity and Grace

8Now brothers, we make known to you the grace of God which has been ^agiven in the churches of ^bMacedonia, ²that in a great testing by affliction their abundance of joy and their deep poverty abounded unto the ^arichness of their ¹generosity. ³For I testify that ^aaccording to their ability, and beyond their ability, they gave of their own accord, ⁴begging us with much urging for the ^agrace ¹of sharing in the ^bministry to the saints, ⁵and this, not as we had ¹expected, but they first ^agave themselves to the Lord and to us by ^bthe will of God. ⁶So we ^aencouraged ^bTitus that as he had previously ^cmade a beginning, so he would also complete in you ^dthis gracious work as well.

⁷But just as you ^aabound ^bin everything, in faith and word and knowledge and in all earnestness and in ¹the love we inspired in you, see that you ^cabound in this gracious work also. ⁸I ^aam not speaking this as a command, but as proving through the earnestness of others the sincerity of your love also. ⁹For you know ^athe grace of our Lord Jesus Christ, that ^bthough being rich, yet for your sake He became poor, so that you through His poverty might become rich. ¹⁰And I ^agive my opinion in this matter, for this is profitable for you, who were the first to begin ^ba year ago not only to do this, but also to desire to do it. ¹¹But now complete ¹doing it also, so that just as there was the ^areadiness to desire it, so there may be also the completion of it from what you have. ¹²For if the readiness is present, it is acceptable ^aaccording to what a person has, not according to what he does not have. ¹³For this is not for the relief of others and for your affliction, but by way of equality— ¹⁴at this present time your abundance being a supply for ^atheir need, so that their abundance also may become a supply for ^byour need, that there may be equality. ¹⁵As it is written, “^aHe who gathered much did not have too much, and he who gathered little had no lack.”

¹⁶But ¹^,^athanks be to God who ^bputs the same earnestness on your behalf in the heart of ^cTitus. ¹⁷For he not only accepted our ^aplea, but being himself very earnest, he has gone out to you of his own accord. ¹⁸And we have sent along with him ^athe brother whose praise in the things of the ^bgospel is throughout ^call the churches. ¹⁹^aAnd not only this, but he has also been ^bappointed by the churches to travel with us in ^cthis gracious work that is being ministered by us for the glory of the Lord Himself, and to show our ^dreadiness, ²⁰¹taking precaution lest anyone discredits us in our ministering of this generous gift, ²¹for we ^arespect what is good, not only in ^bthe sight of the Lord, but also in the sight of men. ²²And we have sent with them our brother, whom we have often tested and found earnest in many things, but now even more earnest because of his great confidence in you. ²³As for ^aTitus, he is my ^bpartner and fellow worker ¹among you; as for our ^cbrothers, they are ²^,^dmessengers of the churches, ^ea glory to Christ. ²⁴Therefore ¹openly before the churches, ²show them the proof of your love and of our ^areason for boasting about you.

Those Who Sow in Tears Shall Reap with Joy

126

A Song of Ascents.

When Yahweh ¹^,^areturned ²the captive ones of Zion,We were ^blike those who dream.²Then our ^amouth was filled with laughterAnd our ^btongue with shouts of joy;Then they said among the nations,“Yahweh has ^cdone great things for them.”³Yahweh has done great things for us;We are ^aglad.⁴Restore our captivity, O Yahweh,As the ¹^,^astreams in the Negev.⁵Those who sow in ^atears shall reap with ^bshouts of joy.⁶He who goes to and fro weeping, carrying his bag of seed,Shall indeed come again with a shout of joy, carrying his sheaves with him.

Unless Yahweh Builds the House

127

A Song of Ascents. Of Solomon.

Unless Yahweh ^abuilds the house,They labor in vain who build it;Unless Yahweh ^bwatches the city,The watchman keeps awake in vain.²It is in vain that you rise up early,That you sit out late,O you who ^aeat the bread of ¹painful labors;For in this manner, He gives ^bsleep to His ^cbeloved.³Behold, ^achildren are ¹an inheritance of Yahweh,The ^bfruit of the womb is a reward.⁴Like arrows in the hand of a ^awarrior,So are the children of one’s youth.⁵How ^ablessed is the man who fills his quiver with them;^bThey will not be ashamedWhen they ^cspeak with enemies ^din the gate.

Blessed Is Everyone Who Fears Yahweh

128

A Song of Ascents.

^aHow blessed is everyone who fears Yahweh,Who ^bwalks in His ways.²When you shall ^aeat of the ¹^,^bfruit of the labor of your hands,How blessed will you be and ^chow well will it be for you.³Your wife shall be like a ^afruitful vineIn the innermost parts of your house,Your children like ^bolive plantsAll around your table.⁴Behold, for thus shall the man be blessedWho fears Yahweh.⁵^aMay Yahweh bless you ^bfrom Zion,That you may see the prosperity of Jerusalem all the days of your life.⁶Indeed, may you see your ^achildren’s children.^bPeace be upon Israel!