Deuteronomy 8–10

Remember What the Lord Has Done

8Make sure you follow every command I’m giving you today. Then you will live. You will increase your numbers. You will enter the land and take it as your own. It’s the land the Lord promised with an oath to your people long ago.

²Remember how the Lord your God led you all the way. He guided you in the desert for these 40 years. He wanted to take your pride away. He wanted to put you to the test and know what was in your hearts. He wanted to see whether you would obey his commands.

³He took your pride away. He let you go hungry. Then he gave you manna to eat. You and your parents had never even known anything about manna before. He tested you to teach you that man doesn’t live only on bread. He also lives on every word that comes from the mouth of the Lord. ⁴Your clothes didn’t wear out during these 40 years. Your feet didn’t swell.

⁵Here is what I want you to know in your hearts. The Lord your God trains you, just as parents train their children.

⁶Obey the commands of the Lord your God. Live as he wants you to live. Have respect for him.

⁷The Lord your God is bringing you into a good land. It has streams and pools of water. Springs flow in its valleys and hills. ⁸It has wheat, barley, vines, fig trees, pomegranates, olive oil and honey. ⁹There is plenty of food in that land. You will have everything you need. Its rocks have iron in them. And you can dig copper out of its hills.

¹⁰When you have eaten and are satisfied, praise the Lord your God. Praise him for the good land he has given you. ¹¹Make sure you don’t forget the Lord your God. Don’t fail to obey his commands, laws and rules. I’m giving them to you today.

¹²But suppose you don’t obey his commands. And suppose you have plenty to eat. You build fine houses and settle down in them. ¹³Your herds and flocks increase their numbers. You also get more and more silver and gold. And everything you have multiplies. ¹⁴Then your hearts will become proud. And you will forget the Lord your God.

The Lord brought you out of Egypt. That’s the land where you were slaves. ¹⁵He led you through that huge and terrible desert. It was a dry land. It didn’t have any water. It had poisonous snakes and scorpions. The Lord gave you water out of solid rock. ¹⁶He gave you manna to eat in the desert. Your parents had never even known anything about manna before.

The Lord took your pride away. He put you to the test. He did it so that things would go well with you in the end. ¹⁷You might say to yourselves, “Our power and our strong hands have made us rich.”

¹⁸But remember the Lord your God. He gives you the ability to produce wealth. That shows he stands by the terms of his covenant. He promised it with an oath to your people long ago. And he’s still faithful to his covenant today.

¹⁹Don’t forget the Lord your God. Don’t follow other gods. Don’t worship them and bow down to them. I give witness against you today that if you do, you will certainly be destroyed. ²⁰You will be destroyed just like the nations the Lord your God is destroying to make room for you. That’s what will happen if you don’t obey him.

Why the Lord Gave Canaan to Israel

9Israel, listen to me. You are now about to go across the Jordan. You will take over the land of the nations that live there.

Those nations are greater and stronger than you are. Their large cities have walls that reach up to the sky. ²The people who live there are Anakites. They are strong and tall. You know all about them. You have heard people say, “Who can stand up against the Anakites?”

³But today you can be sure the Lord your God will go over there ahead of you. He is like a fire that will burn them up. He’ll destroy them. He’ll bring them under your control. You will drive them out. You will put an end to them quickly, just as the Lord has promised you.

⁴The Lord your God will drive them out to make room for you. When he does, don’t say to yourselves, “The Lord has done it because we are godly. That’s why he brought us here to take over this land.” That isn’t true. The Lord is going to drive out those nations to make room for you because they are very evil.

⁵You are not going in to take over their land because you have done what is right or honest. It’s because those nations are so evil. That’s why the Lord your God will drive them out ahead of you. He will do what he said he would do. He took an oath and made a promise to your fathers. He made it to Abraham, Isaac and Jacob.

⁶The Lord your God is giving you this good land to take as your own. But you must understand that it isn’t because you are a godly nation. In fact, you are stubborn.

Israel Worshiped the Golden Calf

⁷Here is something you must remember. Never forget it. You made the Lord your God angry in the desert. You refused to obey him from the day you left Egypt until you arrived here.

⁸At Mount Horeb you made the Lord angry enough to destroy you. ⁹I went up the mountain. I went there to receive the tablets of the covenant. They were made out of stone. It was the covenant the Lord had made with you. I stayed on the mountain for 40 days and 40 nights. I didn’t eat any food or drink any water.

¹⁰The Lord gave me two stone tablets. The words on them were written by the finger of God. All of the commandments the Lord gave you were written on the tablets. He announced them to you out of the fire on the mountain. He wrote them on the day you gathered together there.

¹¹The 40 days and 40 nights came to an end. Then the Lord gave me the two stone tablets. They were the tablets of the covenant. ¹²The Lord told me, “Go down from here right away. The people you brought out of Egypt have become very sinful. They have quickly turned away from what I commanded them. They have made a metal statue of a god for themselves.”

¹³The Lord said to me, “I have seen these people. They are so stubborn! ¹⁴Do not try to stop me. I am going to destroy them. I will wipe them out from the earth. Then I will make you into a great nation. Your people will be stronger than they were. There will be more of you than there were of them.”

¹⁵So I turned and went down the mountain. It was blazing with fire. I was carrying the two tablets of the covenant.

¹⁶When I looked, I saw that you had sinned against the Lord your God. You had made for yourselves a metal statue of a god. It looked like a calf. You had quickly turned away from the path the Lord had commanded you to follow.

¹⁷So I threw the two tablets out of my hands. You watched them break into pieces.

¹⁸Then once again I fell down flat in front of the Lord with my face toward the ground. I lay there for 40 days and 40 nights. I didn’t eat any food or drink any water. You had committed a terrible sin. You had done an evil thing in the Lord’s sight. You had made him angry.

¹⁹I was afraid of the Lord’s burning anger. He was so angry with you he wanted to destroy you. But the Lord listened to me again. ²⁰And he was so angry with Aaron he wanted to destroy him too. But at that time I prayed for Aaron.

²¹I also got that sinful calf you had made. I burned it in the fire. I crushed it and ground it into fine powder. Then I threw the powder into a stream that was flowing down the mountain.

²²You also made the Lord angry at Taberah, Massah and Kibroth Hattaavah.

²³The Lord sent you out from Kadesh Barnea. He said, “Go up and take over the land I have given you.” But you refused to do what the Lord your God had commanded you to do. You didn’t trust him or obey him. ²⁴You have been refusing to obey the Lord as long as I’ve known you.

²⁵I lay down in front of the Lord with my face toward the ground for 40 days and 40 nights. I did it because the Lord had said he would destroy you.

²⁶I prayed to him. “Lord and King,” I said, “don’t destroy your people. They belong to you. You set them free by your great power. You used your mighty hand to bring them out of Egypt. ²⁷Remember your servants Abraham, Isaac and Jacob. Forgive the people of Israel for being so stubborn. Don’t judge them for the evil and sinful things they’ve done.

²⁸“If you do, the Egyptians will say, ‘The Lord wasn’t able to take them into the land he had promised to give them. He hated them. So he brought them out of Egypt to put them to death in the desert.’ ²⁹But they are your people. They belong to you. You used your great power to bring them out of Egypt. You reached out your mighty arm and saved them.”

The New Stone Tablets

10At that time the Lord spoke to me. He said, “Carve out two stone tablets, just like the first ones. Then come up to me on the mountain. Also make a wooden chest. ²I will write on the tablets the words that were on the first tablets, which you broke. Then you must put the tablets in the chest.”

³So I made the ark out of acacia wood. I carved out two stone tablets that were just like the first ones. I went up the mountain. I carried the two tablets in my hands.

⁴The Lord wrote on the tablets what he had written before. It was the Ten Commandments. He had announced them to you out of the fire on the mountain. It was on the day you had gathered together there. So the Lord gave the tablets to me.

⁵Then I came back down the mountain. I put the tablets in the ark I had made, just as the Lord had commanded me. And that’s where they are now.

⁶Remember how the people of Israel traveled from the wells of Bene Jaakan to Moserah. That’s where Aaron died. And his body was buried there. His son Eleazar became the next priest after him. ⁷From Moserah the people traveled to Gudgodah. Then they went on to Jotbathah. That land has streams of water.

⁸At that time the Lord set the tribe of Levi apart. He appointed them to carry the ark of the covenant of the Lord. He wanted them to serve him. He told them to bless the people in his name. And they still do it today. ⁹That’s why the Levites don’t have any part of the land the Lord gave the other tribes in Israel. They don’t have any share among them. The Lord himself is their share. That’s what the Lord your God told them.

¹⁰I had…