To The Word – Day 53

₁“Earth and sky, hear my words,

listen closely to what I say.

₂My teaching will fall like drops of rain

and form on the earth like dew.

My words will fall like showers on young plants,

like gentle rain on tender grass.

₃I will praise the name of the LORD,

and his people will tell of his greatness.

₄“The LORD is your mighty defender,

perfect and just in all his ways;

Your God is faithful and true;

he does what is right and fair.

₅But you are unfaithful, unworthy to be his people,

a sinful and deceitful nation.

₆Is this the way you should treat the LORD,

you foolish, senseless people?

He is your father, your Creator,

he made you into a nation.

₇“Think of the past, of the time long ago;

ask your parents to tell you what happened,

ask the old people to tell of the past.

₈The Most High assigned nations their lands;

he determined where peoples should live.

He assigned to each nation a heavenly being,

₉but Jacob's descendants he chose for himself.

₁₀“He found them wandering through the desert,

a desolate, windswept wilderness.

He protected them and cared for them,

as he would protect himself.

₁₁Like an eagle teaching its young to fly,

catching them safely on its spreading wings,

the LORD kept Israel from falling.

₁₂The LORD alone led his people

without the help of a foreign god.

₁₃“He let them rule the highlands,

and they ate what grew in the fields.

They found wild honey among the rocks;

their olive trees flourished in stony ground.

₁₄Their cows and goats gave plenty of milk;

they had the best sheep, goats, and cattle,

the finest wheat, and the choicest wine.

₁₅“The LORD's people grew rich, but rebellious;

they were fat and stuffed with food.

They abandoned God their Creator

and rejected their mighty saviour.

₁₆Their idolatry made the LORD jealous;

the evil they did made him angry.

₁₇They sacrificed to gods that are not real,

new gods their ancestors had never known,

gods that Israel had never obeyed,

₁₈They forgot their God, their mighty saviour,

the one who had given them life.

₁₉“When the LORD saw this, he was angry

and rejected his sons and daughters.

₂₀‘I will no longer help them,’ he said;

‘then I will see what happens to them,

those stubborn, unfaithful people.

₂₁With their idols they have made me angry,

jealous with their so-called gods,

gods that are really not gods.

So I will use a so-called nation to make them angry;

I will make them jealous with a nation of fools.

₂₂My anger will flame up like fire

and burn everything on earth.

It will reach to the world below

and consume the roots of the mountains.

₂₃“ ‘I will bring on them endless disasters

and use all my arrows against them.

₂₄They will die from hunger and fever;

they will die from terrible diseases.

I will send wild animals to attack them,

and poisonous snakes to bite them.

₂₅War will bring death in the streets;

terrors will strike in the homes.

Young men and young women will die;

neither babies nor old people will be spared.

₂₆I would have destroyed them completely,

so that no one would remember them.

₂₇But I could not let their enemies boast

that they had defeated my people,

when it was I myself who had crushed them.’

₂₈“Israel is a nation without sense;

they have no wisdom at all.

₂₉They fail to see why they were defeated;

they cannot understand what happened.

₃₀Why were a thousand defeated by one,

and 10,000 by only two?

The LORD, their God, had abandoned them;

their mighty God had given them up.

₃₁Their enemies know that their own gods are weak,

not mighty like Israel's God.

₃₂Their enemies, corrupt as Sodom and Gomorrah,

are like vines that bear bitter and poisonous grapes,

₃₃like wine made from the venom of snakes.

₃₄“The LORD remembers what their enemies have done;

he waits for the right time to punish them.

₃₅The LORD will take revenge and punish them;

the time will come when they will fall;

the day of their doom is near.

₃₆The LORD will rescue his people

when he sees that their strength is gone.

He will have mercy on those who serve him,

when he sees how helpless they are.

₃₇Then the LORD will ask his people,

‘Where are those mighty gods you trusted?

₃₈You fed them with the fat of your sacrifices

and offered them wine to drink.

Let them come and help you now;

let them run to your rescue.

₃₉“ ‘I, and I alone, am God;

no other god is real.

I kill and I give life, I wound and I heal,

and no one can oppose what I do.

₄₀As surely as I am the living God,

I raise my hand and I vow

₄₁that I will sharpen my flashing sword

and see that justice is done.

I will take revenge on my enemies

and punish those who hate me.

₄₂My arrows will drip with their blood,

and my sword will kill all who oppose me.

I will spare no one who fights against me;

even the wounded and prisoners will die.’

₄₃“Nations, you must praise the LORD's people —

he punishes all who kill them.

He takes revenge on his enemies

and forgives the sins of his people.”

₂The LORD came from Mount Sinai;

he rose like the sun over Edom

and shone on his people from Mount Paran.

10,000 angels were with him,

a flaming fire at his right hand.

₃The LORD loves his people

and protects those who belong to him.

So we bow at his feet

and obey his commands.

₄We obey the Law that Moses gave us,

our nation's most treasured possession.

₅The LORD became king of his people Israel

when their tribes and leaders were gathered together.

“May Reuben never die out,

Although their people are few.”

“LORD, listen to their cry for help;

Unite them again with the other tribes.

Fight for them, LORD,

And help them against their enemies.”

“You, LORD, reveal your will by the Urim and Thummim

Through your faithful servants, the Levites;

You put them to the test at Massah

And proved them true at the waters of Meribah.

₉They showed greater loyalty to you

Than to parents, brothers, or children.

They obeyed your commands

And were faithful to your covenant.

₁₀They will teach your people to obey your Law;

They will offer sacrifices on your altar.

₁₁Lord, help their tribe to grow strong;

Be pleased with what they do.

Crush all their enemies;

Let them never rise again.”

“This is the tribe the LORD loves and protects;

He guards them all the day long,

And he dwells in their midst.”

“May the LORD bless their land with rain

And with water from under the earth.

₁₄May their land be blessed with sun-ripened fruit,

Rich with the best fruits of each season.

₁₅May their ancient hills be covered with choice fruit.

₁₆May their land be filled with all that is good,

Blessed by the goodness of the LORD,

Who spoke from the burning bush.

May these blessings come to the tribe of Joseph,

Because he was the leader among his brothers.

₁₇Joseph has the strength of a bull,

The horns of a wild ox.

His horns are Manasseh's thousands

And Ephraim's 10,000s.

With them he gores the nations

And pushes them to the ends of the earth.”

“May Zebulun be prosperous in their trade on the sea,

And may Issachar's wealth increase at home.

₁₉They invite foreigners to their mountain

And offer the right sacrifices there.

They get their wealth from the sea

And from the sand along the shore.”

“Praise God, who made their territory large.

Gad waits like a lion

To tear off an arm or a scalp.

₂₁They took the best of the land for themselves;

A leader's share was assigned to them.

They obeyed the LORD's commands and laws

When the leaders of Israel were gathered together.”

“Dan is a young lion;

He leaps out from Bashan.”

“Naphtali is richly blessed by the LORD's good favour;

Their land reaches to the south from Lake Galilee.”

“Asher is blessed more than the other tribes.

May he be the favourite of his brothers,

And may his land be rich with olive trees.

₂₅May his towns be protected with iron gates,

And may he always live secure.”

₂₆People of Israel, no god is like your God,

riding in splendour across the sky,

riding through the clouds to come to your aid.

₂₇God has always been your defence;

his eternal arms are your support.

He drove out your enemies as you advanced,

and told you to destroy them all.

₂₈So Jacob's descendants live in peace,

secure in a land full of corn and wine,

where dew from the sky waters the ground.

₂₉Israel, how happy you are!

There is no one like you,

a nation saved by the LORD.

The LORD himself is your shield and your sword,

to defend you and give you victory.

Your enemies will come begging for mercy,

and you will trample them down.

“If you hear God's voice today,

₈do not be stubborn, as your ancestors were when they rebelled against God,

as they were that day in the desert

when they put him to the test.

₉There they put me to the test and tried me, says God,

although they had seen what I did for forty years.

₁₀And so I was angry with those people and said,

‘They are always disloyal

and refuse to obey my commands.’

₁₁I was angry and made a solemn promise:

‘They will never enter the land where I would have given them rest!’ ”

“If you hear God's voice today,

do not be stubborn, as your ancestors were

when they rebelled against God.”

₁Happy are those

who reject the advice of evil people,

who do not follow the example of sinners

or join those who have no use for God.

₂Instead, they find joy in obeying the Law of the LORD,

and they study it day and night.

₃They are like trees that grow beside a stream,

that bear fruit at the right time,

and whose leaves do not dry up.

They succeed in everything they do.

₄But evil people are not like this at all;

they are like straw that the wind blows away.

₅Sinners will be condemned by God

and kept apart from God's own people.

₆The righteous are guided and protected by the LORD,

but the evil are on the way to their doom.