Deuteronomy 4 - Prayer Tents



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Deuteronomy 4
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Deuteronomy 4

4Now listen, Israel, listen carefully to the rules and regulations that I am teaching you to follow so that you may live and enter and take possession of the land that GOD, the God-of-Your-Fathers, is giving to you.H8085H3478H2706H4941H3925H6213H2421H935H3423H776H3068H430H1H54142Don't add a word to what I command you, and don't remove a word from it. Keep the commands of GOD, your God, that I am commanding you.H3254H1697H6680H1639H8104H4687H3068H430H66803You saw with your own eyes what GOD did at Baal Peor, how GOD destroyed from among you every man who joined in the Baal Peor orgies.H5869H7200H3068H6213H1187H376H310H1980H1187H3068H430H8045H71304But you, the ones who held tight to GOD, your God, are alive and well, every one of you, today.H1695H3068H430H2416H31175Pay attention: I'm teaching you the rules and regulations that GOD commanded me, so that you may live by them in the land you are entering to take up ownership.H7200H3925H2706H4941H834H3068H430H6680H6213H7130H776H935H34236Keep them. Practice them. You'll become wise and understanding. When people hear and see what's going on, they'll say, "What a great nation! So wise, so understanding! We've never seen anything like it."H8104H6213H2451H998H5869H5971H8085H2706H559H1419H1471H2450H995H59717Yes. What other great nation has gods that are intimate with them the way GOD, our God, is with us, always ready to listen to us?H1471H1419H430H7138H3068H430H71218And what other great nation has rules and regulations as good and fair as this Revelation that I'm setting before you today?H1471H1419H2706H4941H6662H8451H5414H6440H31179Just make sure you stay alert. Keep close watch over yourselves. Don't forget anything of what you've seen. Don't let your heart wander off. Stay vigilant as long as you live. Teach what you've seen and heard to your children and grandchildren.H8104H8104H5315H3966H7911H1697H5869H7200H5493H3824H3117H2416H3045H1121H1121H112110That day when you stood before GOD, your God, at Horeb, GOD said to me, "Assemble the people in my presence to listen to my words so that they will learn to fear me in holy fear for as long as they live on the land, and then they will teach these same words to their children."H3117H5975H6440H3068H430H2722H3068H559H6950H5971H6950H8085H1697H3925H3372H3117H2416H127H3925H112111You gathered. You stood in the shadow of the mountain. The mountain was ablaze with fire, blazing high into the very heart of Heaven. You stood in deep darkness and thick clouds.H7126H5975H2022H2022H1197H784H3820H8064H6205H6051H282212GOD spoke to you out of the fire. You heard the sound of words but you saw nothing—no form, only a voice.H3068H1696H8432H784H8085H6963H1697H7200H8544H2108H696313He announced his covenant, the Ten Words, by which he commanded you to live. Then he wrote them down on two slabs of stone.H5046H1285H6680H6213H6235H1697H3789H8147H3871H6814And GOD commanded me at that time to teach you the rules and regulations that you are to live by in the land which you are crossing over the Jordan to possess.H3068H6680H6256H3925H2706H4941H6213H776H5674H342315You saw no form on the day GOD spoke to you at Horeb from out of the fire. Remember that. Carefully guard yourselvesH3966H8104H5315H7200H8544H3117H3068H1696H2722H8432H78416so that you don't turn corrupt and make a form, carving a figureH7843H6213H6459H8544H5566H8403H2145H534717that looks male or female, or looks like a prowling animal or a flying birdH8403H929H776H8403H3671H6833H5774H806418or a slithering snake or a fish in a stream.H8403H7430H127H8403H1710H4325H8478H77619And also carefully guard yourselves so that you don't look up into the skies and see the sun and moon and stars, all the constellations of the skies, and be seduced into worshiping and serving them. GOD set them out for everybody's benefit, everywhere.H5375H5869H8064H7200H8121H3394H3556H6635H8064H5080H7812H5647H3068H430H2505H5971H806420But you—GOD took you right out of the iron furnace, out of Egypt, to become the people of his inheritance—and that's what you are this very day.H3068H3947H3318H1270H3564H4714H5971H5159H311721But GOD was angry with me because of you and the things you said. He swore that I'd never cross the Jordan, never get to enter the good land that GOD, your God, is giving you as an inheritance.H3068H599H1697H7650H5674H3383H935H2896H776H3068H430H5414H515922This means that I am going to die here. I'm not crossing the Jordan. But you will cross; you'll possess the good land.H4191H776H5674H3383H5674H3423H2896H77623So stay alert. Don't for a minute forget the covenant which GOD, your God, made with you. And don't take up with any carved images, no forms of any kind—GOD, your God, issued clear commands on that.H8104H7911H1285H3068H430H3772H6213H6459H8544H3605H3068H430H668024GOD, your God, is not to be trifled with—he's a consuming fire, a jealous God.H3068H430H398H784H7067H41025When the time comes that you have children and grandchildren, put on years, and start taking things for granted, if you then become corrupt and make any carved images, no matter what their form, by doing what is sheer evil in GOD's eyes and provoking his anger—H3205H1121H1121H1121H3462H776H7843H6213H6459H8544H6213H7451H5869H3068H430H370726I can tell you right now, with Heaven and Earth as witnesses, that it will be all over for you. You'll be kicked off the land that you're about to cross over the Jordan to possess. Believe me, you'll have a very short stay there. You'll be ruined, completely ruined.H5749H8064H776H5749H3117H4118H6H6H776H5674H3383H3423H748H3117H8045H804527GOD will scatter you far and wide; a few of you will survive here and there in the nations where GOD will drive you.H3068H6327H5971H7604H4962H4557H1471H3068H509028There you can worship your homemade gods to your hearts' content, your wonderful gods of wood and stone that can't see or hear or eat or smell.H5647H430H4639H120H3027H6086H68H7200H8085H398H730629But even there, if you seek GOD, your God, you'll be able to find him if you're serious, looking for him with your whole heart and soul.H1245H3068H430H4672H1875H3824H531530When troubles come and all these awful things happen to you, in future days you will come back to GOD, your God, and listen obediently to what he says.H6862H1697H4672H319H3117H7725H3068H430H8085H696331GOD, your God, is above all a compassionate God. In the end he will not abandon you, he won't bring you to ruin, he won't forget the covenant with your ancestors which he swore to them.H3068H430H7349H410H7503H7843H7911H1285H1H765032Ask questions. Find out what has been going on all these years before you were born. From the day God created man and woman on this Earth, and from the horizon in the east to the horizon in the west—as far back as you can imagine and as far away as you can imagine—has as great a thing as this ever happened? Has anyone ever heard of such a thing?H7592H3117H7223H1961H6440H3117H430H1254H120H776H7097H8064H1419H1697H808533Has a people ever heard, as you did, a god speaking out of the middle of the fire and lived to tell the story?H5971H8085H6963H430H1696H8432H784H8085H242134Or has a god ever tried to select for himself a nation from within a nation using trials, miracles, and war, putting his strong hand in, reaching his long arm out, a spectacle awesome and staggering, the way GOD, your God, did it for you in Egypt while you stood right there and watched?H430H5254H935H3947H1471H7130H1471H4531H226H4159H4421H2389H3027H5186H2220H1419H4172H3068H430H6213H4714H586935You were shown all this so that you would know that GOD is, well, God. He's the only God there is. He's it.H7200H3045H3068H430H5750H90536He made it possible for you to hear his voice out of Heaven to discipline you. Down on Earth, he showed you the big fire and again you heard his words, this time out of the fire.H8064H8085H6963H3256H776H7200H1419H784H8085H1697H8432H78437He loved your ancestors and chose to work with their children. He personally and powerfully brought you out of EgyptH157H1H977H2233H310H3318H6440H1419H3581H471438in order to displace bigger and stronger and older nations with you, bringing you out and turning their land over to you as an inheritance. And now it's happening. This very day.H3423H1471H6440H1419H6099H935H5414H776H5159H311739Know this well, then. Take it to heart right now: GOD is in Heaven above; GOD is on Earth below. He's the only God there is.H3045H3117H7725H3824H3068H430H8064H4605H77640Obediently live by his rules and commands which I'm giving you today so that you'll live well and your children after you—oh, you'll live a long time in the land that GOD, your God, is giving you.H8104H2706H4687H6680H3117H3190H1121H310H748H3117H127H3068H430H541441Then Moses set aside three towns in the country on the east side of the JordanH4872H914H7969H5892H5676H3383H8121H421742to which someone who had unintentionally killed a person could flee and find refuge. If the murder was unintentional and there was no history of bad blood, the murderer could flee to one of these cities and save his life:H7523H5127H7523H7453H1097H1847H8130H8543H8032H5127H259H411H5892H242543Bezer in the wilderness on the tableland for the Reubenites, Ramoth in Gilead for the Gadites, and Golan in Bashan for the Manassites.H1221H4057H4334H776H7206H7216H1568H1425H1474H1316H452044This is the Revelation that Moses presented to the People of Israel.H8451H4872H7760H6440H1121H347845These are the testimonies, the rules and regulations Moses spoke to the People of Israel after their exodus from EgyptH5713H2706H4941H4872H1696H1121H3478H3318H471446and arrival on the east side of the Jordan in the valley near Beth Peor. It was the country of Sihon king of the Amorites who ruled from Heshbon. Moses and the People of Israel fought and beat him after they left EgyptH5676H3383H1516H4136H1047H776H5511H4428H567H3427H2809H4872H1121H3478H5221H3318H471447and took his land. They also took the land of Og king of Bashan. The two Amorite kings held the country on the east of the JordanH3423H776H776H5747H4428H1316H8147H4428H567H5676H3383H4217H812148from Aroer on the bank of the Brook Arnon as far north as Mount Siyon, that is, Mount Hermon,H6177H8193H5158H769H2022H7865H276849all the Arabah plain east of the Jordan, and as far south as the Sea of the Arabah (the Dead Sea) beneath the slopes of Mount Pisgah.H6160H5676H3383H4217H3220H6160H794H6449


The Message (MSG). All Scripture quotations are taken from THE MESSAGE, copyright © 1993, 2002, 2018 by Eugene H. Peterson. Used by permission of NavPress. All rights reserved. Represented by Tyndale House Publishers, a Division of Tyndale House Ministries. More details.
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