Deuteronomy 16; Deuteronomy 17; Deuteronomy 18; Mark 13:1-20

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Deuteronomy 16

1 Celebrate the Passover of the Lord your God during the month of Abib, because it was during Abib that he brought you out of Egypt at night.
2 As the sacrifice for the Passover to the Lord your God, offer an animal from your flock or herd at the place the Lord will choose to be worshiped.
3 Do not eat it with bread made with yeast. But for seven days eat bread made without yeast, the bread of suffering, because you left Egypt in a hurry. So all your life you will remember the time you left Egypt.
4 There must be no yeast anywhere in your land for seven days. Offer the sacrifice on the evening of the first day, and eat all the meat before morning; do not leave it overnight.
5 Do not offer the Passover sacrifice in just any town the Lord your God gives you,
6 but offer it in the place he will choose to be worshiped. Offer it in the evening as the sun goes down, which is when you left Egypt.
7 Roast the meat and eat it at the place the Lord your God will choose. The next morning go back to your tents.
8 Eat bread made without yeast for six days. On the seventh day have a special meeting for the Lord your God, and do not work that day.
9 Count seven weeks from the time you begin to harvest the grain,
10 and then celebrate the Feast of Weeks for the Lord your God. Bring an offering as a special gift to him, giving to him just as he has blessed you.
11 Rejoice before the Lord your God at the place he will choose to be worshiped. Everybody should rejoice: you, your sons and daughters, your male and female servants, the Levites in your town, the strangers, orphans, and widows living among you.
12 Remember that you were slaves in Egypt, and carefully obey all these laws.
13 Celebrate the Feast of Shelters for seven days, after you have gathered your harvest from the threshing floor and winepress.
14 Everybody should rejoice at your Feast: you, your sons and daughters, your male and female servants, the Levites, strangers, orphans, and widows who live in your towns.
15 Celebrate the Feast to the Lord your God for seven days at the place he will choose, because the Lord your God will bless all your harvest and all the work you do, and you will be completely happy.
16 All your men must come before the Lord three times a year to the place he will choose. They must come at these times: the Feast of Unleavened Bread, the Feast of Weeks, and the Feast of Shelters. No man should come before the Lord without a gift.
17 Each of you must bring a gift that will show how much the Lord your God has blessed you.
18 Appoint judges and officers for your tribes in every town the Lord your God is giving you; they must judge the people fairly.
19 Do not judge unfairly or take sides. Do not let people pay you to make wrong decisions, because that kind of payment makes wise people seem blind, and it changes the words of good people.
20 Always do what is right so that you will live and always have the land the Lord your God is giving you.
21 Do not set up a wooden Asherah idol next to the altar you build for the Lord your God,
22 and do not set up holy stone pillars. The Lord your God hates them.
Scripture taken from the New Century Version. Copyright © 1987, 1988, 1991 by Thomas Nelson, Inc. Used by permission. All rights reserved.

Deuteronomy 17

1 If an ox or sheep has something wrong with it, do not offer it as a sacrifice to the Lord your God. He would hate that.
2 A man or woman in one of the towns the Lord gave you might be found doing something evil and breaking the Agreement.
3 That person may have served other gods and bowed down to them or to the sun or moon or stars of the sky, which I have commanded should not be done.
4 If someone has told you about it, you must look into the matter carefully. If it is true that such a hateful thing has happened in Israel,
5 take the man or woman who has done the evil thing to the city gates and throw stones at that person until he dies.
6 There must be two or three witnesses that it is true before the person is put to death; if there is only one witness, the person should not be put to death.
7 The witnesses must be the first to throw stones at the person, and then everyone else will follow. You must get rid of the evil among you.
8 Some cases that come before you, such as murder, quarreling, or attack, may be too difficult to judge. Take these cases to the place the Lord your God will choose.
9 Go to the priests who are Levites and to the judge who is on duty at that time. Ask them about the case, and they will decide.
10 You must follow the decision they give you at the place the Lord your God will choose. Be careful to do everything they tell you.
11 Follow the teachings they give you, and do whatever they decide, exactly as they tell you.
12 The person who does not show respect for the judge or priest who is there serving the Lord your God must be put to death. You must get rid of that evil from Israel.
13 Then everyone will hear about this and will be afraid, and they will not show disrespect anymore.
14 When you enter the land the Lord your God is giving you, taking it as your own and living in it, you will say, "Let's appoint a king over us like the nations all around us."
15 Be sure to appoint over you the king the Lord your God chooses. He must be one of your own people. Do not appoint as your king a foreigner who is not a fellow Israelite.
16 The king must not have too many horses for himself, and he must not send people to Egypt to get more horses, because the Lord has told you, "Don't return that way again."
17 The king must not have many wives, or his heart will be led away from God. He must not have too much silver and gold.
18 When he becomes king, he should write a copy of the teachings on a scroll for himself, a copy taken from the priests and Levites.
19 He should keep it with him all the time and read from it every day of his life. Then he will learn to respect the Lord his God, and he will obey all the teach- ings and commands.
20 He should not think he is better than his fellow Israelites, and he must not stop obeying the law in any way so that he and his descendants may rule the kingdom for a long time.
Scripture taken from the New Century Version. Copyright © 1987, 1988, 1991 by Thomas Nelson, Inc. Used by permission. All rights reserved.

Deuteronomy 18

1 The priests are from the tribe of Levi, and that tribe will not receive a share of the land with the Israelites. They will eat the offerings made to the Lord by fire, which is their share.
2 They will not inherit any of the land like their brothers, but they will inherit the Lord himself, as he has promised them.
3 When you offer a bull or sheep as a sacrifice, you must share with the priests, giving them the shoulder, the cheeks, and the inner organs.
4 Give them the first of your grain, new wine, and oil, as well as the first wool you cut from your sheep.
5 The Lord your God has chosen the priests and their descendants out of all your tribes to stand and serve the Lord always.
6 If a Levite moves from one of your towns anywhere in Israel where he lives and comes to the place the Lord will choose, because he wants to serve the Lord there,
7 he may serve the Lord his God. He will be like his fellow Levites who serve there before the Lord.
8 They all will have an equal share of the food. That is separate from what he has received from the sale of family possessions.
9 When you enter the land the Lord your God is giving you, don't learn to do the hateful things the other nations do.
10 Don't let anyone among you offer a son or daughter as a sacrifice in the fire. Don't let anyone use magic or witchcraft, or try to explain the meaning of signs.
11 Don't let anyone try to control others with magic, and don't let them be mediums or try to talk with the spirits of dead people.
12 The Lord hates anyone who does these things. Because the other nations do these things, the Lord your God will force them out of the land ahead of you.
13 But you must be innocent in the presence of the Lord your God.
14 The nations you will force out listen to people who use magic and witchcraft, but the Lord your God will not let you do those things.
15 The Lord your God will give you a prophet like me, who is one of your own people. Listen to him.
16 This is what you asked the Lord your God to do when you were gathered at Mount Sinai. You said, "Don't make us listen to the voice of the Lord our God again, and don't make us look at this terrible fire anymore, or we will die."
17 So the Lord said to me, "What they have said is good.
18 So I will give them a prophet like you, who is one of their own people. I will tell him what to say, and he will tell them everything I command.
19 This prophet will speak for me; anyone who does not listen when he speaks will answer to me.
20 But if a prophet says something I did not tell him to say as though he were speaking for me, or if a prophet speaks in the name of other gods, that prophet must be killed."
21 You might be thinking, "How can we know if a message is not from the Lord?"
22 If what a prophet says in the name of the Lord does not happen, it is not the Lord's message. That prophet was speaking his own ideas. Don't be afraid of him.
Scripture taken from the New Century Version. Copyright © 1987, 1988, 1991 by Thomas Nelson, Inc. Used by permission. All rights reserved.

Mark 13:1-20

1 As Jesus was leaving the Temple, one of his followers said to him, "Look, Teacher! How beautiful the buildings are! How big the stones are!"
2 Jesus said, "Do you see all these great buildings? Not one stone will be left on another. Every stone will be thrown down to the ground."
3 Later, as Jesus was sitting on the Mount of Olives, opposite the Temple, he was alone with Peter, James, John, and Andrew. They asked Jesus,
4 "Tell us, when will these things happen? And what will be the sign that they are going to happen?"
5 Jesus began to answer them, "Be careful that no one fools you.
6 Many people will come in my name, saying, 'I am the One,' and they will fool many people.
7 When you hear about wars and stories of wars that are coming, don't be afraid. These things must happen before the end comes.
8 Nations will fight against other nations, and kingdoms against other kingdoms. There will be earthquakes in different places, and there will be times when there is no food for people to eat. These things are like the first pains when something new is about to be born.
9 "You must be careful. People will arrest you and take you to court and beat you in their synagogues. You will be forced to stand before kings and governors, to tell them about me. This will happen to you because you follow me.
10 But before these things happen, the Good News must be told to all people.
11 When you are arrested and judged, don't worry ahead of time about what you should say. Say whatever is given you to say at that time, because it will not really be you speaking; it will be the Holy Spirit.
12 "Brothers will give their own brothers to be killed, and fathers will give their own children to be killed. Children will fight against their own parents and cause them to be put to death.
13 All people will hate you because you follow me, but those people who keep their faith until the end will be saved.
14 "You will see 'the destroying terror' standing where it should not be." (You who read this should understand what it means.) "At that time, the people in Judea should run away to the mountains.
15 If people are on the roof of their houses, they must not go down or go inside to get anything out of their houses.
16 If people are in the fields, they must not go back to get their coats.
17 At that time, how terrible it will be for women who are pregnant or have nursing babies!
18 Pray that these things will not happen in winter,
19 because those days will be full of trouble. There will be more trouble than there has ever been since the beginning, when God made the world, until now, and nothing as bad will ever happen again.
20 God has decided to make that terrible time short. Otherwise, no one would go on living. But God will make that time short to help the people he has chosen.
Scripture taken from the New Century Version. Copyright © 1987, 1988, 1991 by Thomas Nelson, Inc. Used by permission. All rights reserved.