+ DAILY PRAYER +
Reading Deut 4:22-49 – Basic Stipulations – For I am going to die in this land; I am not going to cross the Jordan, but you are going to cross, and you are going to take possession of this good land. 23 Watch out for yourselves so that you do not forget the covenant of Yahweh your God that he had ?made? with you and make for yourselves a divine image of the form of anything that Yahweh your God ?has forbidden?, 24 for Yahweh your God is a devouring fire, a jealous God….
This Daily Devotion covers the first five books of the Bible, Genesis through Deuteronomy also called the Books of Moses or the Pentateuch, in a period of one year in a Monday through Friday format, the Psalms and order of devotion follow those presented in The Treasury of Daily Prayer from Concordia Publishing House.
In the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit.
Amen.
Hear my prayer, O Lord; give ear to my pleas for mercy!
In your faithfulness answer me, in your righteousness!
Evening and morning and at noon I utter my complaint and moan,
and he hears my voice.
Cast your burden on the Lord, and he will sustain you;
He will never permit the righteous to be moved.
Psalm 139:14-18, 23-24
Psa 139:14 I praise you, for I am fearfully and wonderfully made.
Wonderful are your works; my soul knows it very well.
Psa 139:15 My frame was not hidden from you,
when I was being made in secret,
intricately woven in the depths of the earth.
Psa 139:16 Your eyes saw my unformed substance;
in your book were written, every one of them,
the days that were formed for me,
when as yet there was none of them.
Psa 139:17 How precious to me are your thoughts,
O God! How vast is the sum of them!
Psa 139:18 If I would count them, they are more than the sand.
I awake, and I am still with you.
Psa 139:23 Search me, O God, and know my heart!
Try me and know my thoughts!
Psa 139:24 And see if there be any grievous way in me,
and lead me in the way everlasting!
Reading Deut 4:22-49
Basic Stipulations
22 For I am going to die in this land; I am not going to cross the Jordan, but you are going to cross, and you are going to take possession of this good land. 23 Watch out for yourselves so that you do not forget the covenant of Yahweh your God that he had ?made? with you and make for yourselves a divine image of the form of anything that Yahweh your God ?has forbidden?, 24 for Yahweh your God is a devouring fire, a jealous God.
25 “When you have had children and ?grandchildren? and you have grown old in the land and you act corruptly and you make a divine image of the form of anything and you do evil in the eyes of Yahweh your God, thus provoking him to anger, 26 I call to witness against you today the heaven and the earth, that you will perish soon and completely from the land that you are crossing the Jordan into it to take possession of it; ?you will not live long on it?, but you will be completely destroyed. 27 And Yahweh will scatter you among the peoples, and you will be left ?few in number? among the nations ?to where Yahweh will lead you?. 28 And you will there serve gods ?made by human hands?, of wood and stone, gods that cannot see and cannot hear and cannot eat and cannot smell. 29 But from there you shall seek Yahweh your God and will find him, if you seek him with all your heart and with all your soul. 30 ?In your distress? when all these things have found you in the ?latter days?, then you will return to Yahweh your God, and you will listen to his voice. 31 For Yahweh your God is a compassionate God; he ?will not abandon you?, and he will not destroy you, and he will not forget the covenant of your ancestors that he swore to them.
32 “Yes, ask, please, about former days that ?preceded you? from the day that God created humankind on the earth; ask even from one end of the heaven up to the other end of heaven ?whether anything ever happened? like this great thing or ?whether anything like it was ever heard?. 33 Has a people ever heard the voice of God speaking from the midst of the fire, just as you heard it, and lived? 34 Or has a god ever attempted to go to take for himself a nation from the midst of a nation, using trials and signs and wonders and war, with an outstretched arm and with great and awesome deeds, like all that Yahweh your God did for you in Egypt before your eyes? 35 You yourselves were shown this wonder in order for you to acknowledge that Yahweh is the God; there is no other God ?besides him?. 36 From heaven he made you hear his voice to teach you, and on the earth he showed you his great fire, and you heard his words from the midst of the fire. 37 And because he loved your ancestors he chose their ?descendants? after them. And he brought you forth from Egypt ?with his own presence?, by his great strength, 38 to drive out nations greater and more numerous than you ?from before you?, to bring you and to give to you their land as an inheritance, as it is this day. 39 So you shall acknowledge ?today?, and ?you must call to mind? that Yahweh is God in heaven above and on the earth beneath. There is no other God. 40 And you shall keep his rules and his commandments that I am commanding you ?today?, so that ?it may go well? for you and for your children after you, and so that ?you may remain a long time? on the land that Yahweh your God is giving to you during all of those days.”
41 Then Moses set apart three cities ?on the other side of the Jordan?, ?toward the east?, 42 in order for ?a manslayer? to flee there who has killed his neighbor ?without intent? and was not hating him ?previously?, and so he could flee to one of these cities ?and be safe?. 43 He set apart Bezer in the wilderness in the land of the plateau of the Reubenites; Ramoth in Gilead of the Gadites, and Golan in Bashan of the Manassites.
44 Now this is the law that Moses set ?before? the ?Israelites?; 45 these are the legal provisions and the rules and the regulations that Moses spoke to the ?Israelites? ?when they left Egypt?, 46 beyond the Jordan in the valley opposite Beth Peor in the land of Sihon the king of the Amorites, who was reigning in Heshbon and whom Moses and the ?Israelites? defeated ?when they came out of Egypt?. 47 And so they took possession of his land and the land of Og king of Bashan, the two kings of the Amorites who were beyond the Jordan, ?eastward?, 48 from Aroer, which is on the bank of the wadi of Arnon and as far as Mount Sirion; that is, Hermon, 49 and all of the Arabah beyond the Jordan, eastward, and as far as the Sea of the Arabah under the slopes of Pisgah.
Lord’s Prayer
Daily Prayer
Almighty God, through Your only begotten Son, Jesus Christ, You overcame death and opened to us the gate of everlasting life. We humbly pray that we may live before You in righteousness and purity forever; through the same Jesus Christ, our Lord, who lives and reigns with You and the Holy Spirit, one God, now and forever.
Concluding Prayer
Heavenly Father, send Your Holy Spirit into our hearts to direct and rule us according to Your will, to comfort us in all our afflictions, to defend us from all error, and to lead us into all truth; through Jesus Christ, our Lord. Amen.
