Deuteronomy 4; Deuteronomy 5; Deuteronomy 6; Mark 11:1-18

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Deuteronomy 4

1 Now, Israel, listen to the laws and commands I will teach you. Obey them so that you will live and so that you will go over and take the land the Lord, the God of your ancestors, is giving to you.

2 Don't add to these commands, and don't leave anything out, but obey the commands of the Lord your God that I give you.

3 You have seen for yourselves what the Lord did at Baal Peor, how the Lord your God destroyed everyone among you who followed Baal in Peor.

4 But all of you who continued following the Lord your God are still alive today.

5 Look,. I have taught you the laws and rules the Lord my God commanded me. Now you can obey the laws in the land you are entering, in the land you will take.

6 Obey these laws carefully, in order to show the other nations that you have wisdom and understanding. When they hear about these laws, they will say, "This great nation of Israel is wise and understanding."

7 No other nation is as great as we are. Their gods do not come near them, but the Lord our God comes near when we pray to him.

8 And no other nation has such good teachings and commands as those I am giving to you today.

9 But be careful! Watch out and don't forget the things you have seen. Don't forget them as long as you live, but teach them to your children and grandchildren.

10 Remember the day you stood before the Lord your God at Mount Sinai. He said to me, "Bring the people together so I can tell them what I have to say. Then they will respect me as long as they live in the land, and they will teach these things to their children."

11 When you came and stood at the bottom of the mountain, it blazed with fire that reached to the sky, and black clouds made it very dark.

12 The Lord spoke to you from the fire. You heard the sound of words, but you did not see him; there was only a voice.

13 The Lord told you about his Agreement, the Ten Commandments. He told you to obey them, and he wrote them on two stone tablets.

14 Then the Lord commanded me to teach you the laws and rules that you must obey in the land you will take when you cross the Jordan River.

15 Since the Lord spoke to you from the fire at Mount Sinai, but you did not see him, watch yourselves carefully!

16 Don't sin by making idols of any kind, and don't make statues -- of men or women,

17 of animals on earth or birds that fly in the air,

18 of anything that crawls on the ground, or of fish in the water below.

19 When you look up at the sky, you see the sun, moon, and stars, and everything in the sky. But don't bow down and worship them, because the Lord your God has made these things for all people everywhere.

20 But the Lord brought you out of Egypt, which tested you like a furnace for melting iron, and he made you his very own people, as you are now.

21 The Lord was angry with me because of you, and he swore that I would not cross the Jordan River to go into the good land the Lord your God is giving you as your own.

22 I will die here in this land and not cross the Jordan, but you will soon go across and take that good land.

23 Be careful. Don't forget the Agreement of the Lord your God that he made with you, and don't make any idols for yourselves, as the Lord your God has commanded you not to do.

24 The Lord your God is a jealous God, like a fire that burns things up.

25 Even after you have lived in the land a long time and have had children and grandchildren, don't do evil things. Don't make any kind of idol, and don't do what the Lord your God says is evil, because that will make him angry.

26 If you do, I ask heaven and earth to speak against you this day that you will quickly be removed from this land that you are crossing the Jordan River to take. You will not live there long after that, but you will be completely destroyed.

27 The Lord will scatter you among the other nations. Only a few of you will be left alive, and those few will be in other nations where the Lord will send you.

28 There you will worship gods made by people, gods made of wood and stone, that cannot see, hear, eat, or smell.

29 But even there you can look for the Lord your God, and you will find him if you look for him with your whole being.

30 It will be hard when all these things happen to you. But after that you will come back to the Lord your God and obey him,

31 because the Lord your God is a merciful God. He will not leave you or destroy you. He will not forget the Agreement with your ancestors, which he swore to them.

32 Nothing like this has ever happened before! Look at the past, long before you were even born. Go all the way back to when God made humans on the earth, and look from one end of heaven to the other. Nothing like this has ever been heard of!

33 No other people have ever heard God speak from a fire and have still lived. But you have.

34 No other god has ever taken for himself one nation out of another. But the Lord your God did this for you in Egypt, right before your own eyes. He did it with tests, signs, miracles, war, and great sights, by his great power and strength.

35 He showed you things so you would know that the Lord is God, and there is no other God besides him.

36 He spoke to you from heaven to teach you. He showed you his great fire on earth, and you heard him speak from the fire.

37 Because the Lord loved your ancestors, he chose you, their descendants, and he brought you out of Egypt himself by his great strength.

38 He forced nations out of their land ahead of you, nations that were bigger and stronger than you were. The Lord did this so he could bring you into their land and give it to you as your own, and this land is yours today.

39 Know and believe today that the Lord is God. He is God in heaven above and on the earth below. There is no other god!

40 Obey his laws and commands that I am giving you today so that things will go well for you and your children. Then you will live a long time in the land that the Lord your God is giving to you forever.

41 Moses chose three cities east of the Jordan River,

42 where a person who accidentally killed someone could go. If the person was not killed because of hatred, the murderer's life could be saved by running to one of these cities.

43 These were the cities: Bezer in the desert high plain was for the Reubenites; Ramoth in Gilead was for the Gadites; and Golan in Bashan was for the Manassites.

44 These are the teachings Moses gave to the people of Israel.

45 They are the rules, commands, and laws he gave them when they came out of Egypt.

46 They were in the valley near Beth Peor, east of the Jordan River, in the land of Sihon. Sihon king of the Amorites ruled in Heshbon and was defeated by Moses and the Israelites as they came out of Egypt.

47 The Israelites took his land and the land of Og king of Bashan, the two Amorite kings east of the Jordan River.

48 This land went from Aroer, on the edge of the Arnon Ravine, to Mount Hermon.

49 It included all the Jordan Valley east of the Jordan River, and it went as far as the Dead Sea below Mount Pisgah.

Deuteronomy 5

1 Moses called all the people of Israel together and said: Listen, Israel, to the commands and laws I am giving you today. Learn them and obey them carefully.

2 The Lord our God made an Agreement with us at Mount Sinai.

3 He did not make this Agreement with our ancestors, but he made it with us, with all of us who are alive here today.

4 The Lord spoke to you face to face from the fire on the mountain.

5 (At that time I stood between you and the Lord in order to tell you what the Lord said; you were afraid of the fire, so you would not go up on the mountain.) The Lord said:

6 "I am the Lord your God; I brought you out of the land of Egypt where you were slaves.

7 "You must not have any other gods except me.

8 "You must not make for yourselves any idols or anything to worship that looks like something in the sky above or on the earth below or in the water below the land.

9 You must not worship or serve any idol, because I, the Lord your God, am a jealous God. If people sin against me and hate me, I will punish their children, even their grandchildren and great-grandchildren.

10 But I will be very kind for a thousand lifetimes to those who love me and obey my commands.

11 "You must not use the name of the Lord your God thoughtlessly, because the Lord will punish anyone who uses his name in this way.

12 "Keep the Sabbath as a holy day, as the Lord your God has commanded you.

13 You may work and get everything done during six days each week,

14 but the seventh day is a day of rest to honor the Lord your God. On that day no one may do any work: not you, your son or daughter, your male or female slaves, your ox, your donkey, or any of your animals, or the foreigners living in your cities. That way your servants may rest as you do.

15 Remember that you were slaves in Egypt and that the Lord your God brought you out of there by his great power and strength. So the Lord your God has commanded you to rest on the Sabbath day.

16 "Honor your father and your mother as the Lord your God has commanded you. Then you will live a long time, and things will go well for you in the land that the Lord your God is going to give you.

17 "You must not murder anyone.

18 "You must not be guilty of adultery.

19 "You must not steal.

20 "You must not tell lies about your neighbor.

21 "You must not want to take your neighbor's wife. You must not want to take your neighbor's house or land, his male or female slaves, his ox or his donkey, or anything that belongs to your neighbor."

22 The Lord spoke these commands to all of you on the mountain in a loud voice out of the fire, the cloud, and the deep darkness; he did not say anything else. Then he wrote them on two stone tablets, and he gave them to me.

23 When you heard the voice from the darkness, as the mountain was blazing with fire, all your older leaders and leaders of your tribes came to me.

24 And you said, "The Lord our God has shown us his glory and majesty, and we have heard his voice from the fire. Today we have seen that a person can live even if God speaks to him.

25 But now, we will die! This great fire will burn us up, and we will die if we hear the Lord our God speak anymore.

26 No human being has ever heard the living God speaking from a fire and still lived, but we have.

27 Moses, you go near and listen to everything the Lord our God says. Then you tell us what the Lord our God tells you, and we will listen and obey."

28 The Lord heard what you said to me, and he said to me, "I have heard what the people said to you. Everything they said was good.

29 I wish their hearts would always respect me and that they would always obey my commands so that things would go well for them and their children forever!

30 "Go and tell the people to return to their tents,

31 but you stay here with me so that I may give you all the commands, rules, and laws that you must teach the people to obey in the land I am giving them as their own."

32 So be careful to do what the Lord your God has commanded you, and follow the commands exactly.

33 Live the way the Lord your God has commanded you so that you may live and have what is good and have a long life in the land you will take.

Deuteronomy 6

1 These are the commands, rules, and laws that the Lord your God told me to teach you to obey in the land you are crossing the Jordan River to take.

2 You, your children, and your grandchildren must respect the Lord your God as long as you live. Obey all his rules and commands I give you so that you will live a long time.

3 Listen, Israel, and carefully obey these laws. Then all will go well for you, and you will become a great nation in a fertile land, just as the Lord, the God of your ancestors, has promised you.

4 Listen, people of Israel! The Lord our God is the only Lord.

5 Love the Lord your God with all your heart, all your soul, and all your strength.

6 Always remember these commands I give you today.

7 Teach them to your children, and talk about them when you sit at home and walk along the road, when you lie down and when you get up.

8 Write them down and tie them to your hands as a sign. Tie them on your forehead to remind you,

9 and write them on your doors and gates.

10 The Lord your God will bring you into the land he promised to your ancestors, to Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob, and he will give it to you. The land has large, growing cities you did not build,

11 houses full of good things you did not buy, wells you did not dig, and vineyards and olive trees you did not plant. You will eat as much as you want.

12 But be careful! Do not forget the Lord, who brought you out of the land of Egypt where you were slaves.

13 Respect the Lord your God. You must worship him and make your promises only in his name.

14 Do not worship other gods as the people around you do,

15 because the Lord your God is a jealous God. He is present with you, and if you worship other gods, he will become angry with you and destroy you from the earth.

16 Do not test the Lord your God as you did at Massah.

17 Be sure to obey the commands of the Lord your God and the rules and laws he has given you.

18 Do what the Lord says is good and right so that things will go well for you. Then you may go in and take the good land the Lord promised to your ancestors.

19 He will force all your enemies out as you go in, as the Lord has said.

20 In the future when your children ask you, "What is the meaning of the laws, commands, and rules the Lord our God gave us?"

21 tell them, "We were slaves to the king of Egypt, but the Lord brought us out of Egypt by his great power.

22 The Lord showed us great and terrible signs and miracles, which he did to Egypt, the king, and his whole family.

23 The Lord brought us out of Egypt to lead us here and to give us the land he promised our ancestors.

24 The Lord ordered us to obey all these commands and to respect the Lord our God so that we will always do well and stay alive, as we are today.

25 The right thing for us to do is this: Obey all these rules in the presence of the Lord our God, as he has commanded."

Mark 11:1-18

1 As Jesus and his followers were coming closer to Jerusalem, they came to the towns of Bethphage and Bethany near the Mount of Olives. From there Jesus sent two of his followers

2 and said to them, "Go to the town you can see there. When you enter it, you will quickly find a colt tied, which no one has ever ridden. Untie it and bring it here to me.

3 If anyone asks you why you are doing this, tell him its Master needs the colt, and he will send it at once. "

4 The followers went into the town, found a colt tied in the street near the door of a house, and untied it.

5 Some people were standing there and asked, "What are you doing? Why are you untying that colt?"

6 The followers answered the way Jesus told them to answer, and the people let them take the colt.

7 They brought the colt to Jesus and put their coats on it, and Jesus sat on it.

8 Many people spread their coats on the road. Others cut branches in the fields and spread them on the road.

9 The people were walking ahead of Jesus and behind him, shouting, "Praise God! God bless the One who comes in the name of the Lord!

10 God bless the kingdom of our father David! That kingdom is coming!

11 Jesus entered Jerusalem and went into the Temple. After he had looked at everything, since it was already late, he went out to Bethany with the twelve apostles.

12 The next day as Jesus was leaving Bethany, he became hungry.

13 Seeing a fig tree in leaf from far away, he went to see if it had any figs on it. But he found no figs, only leaves, because it was not the right season for figs.

14 So Jesus said to the tree, "May no one ever eat fruit from you again." And Jesus' followers heard him say this.

15 When Jesus returned to Jerusalem, he went into the Temple and began to throw out those who were buying and selling there. He turned over the tables of those who were exchanging different kinds of money, and he upset the benches of those who were selling doves.

16 Jesus refused to allow anyone to carry goods through the Temple courts.

17 Then he taught the people, saying, "It is written in the Scriptures, 'My Temple will be called a house for prayer for people from all nations.' But you are changing God's house into a 'hideout for robbers.'"

18 The leading priests and the teachers of the law heard all this and began trying to find a way to kill Jesus. They were afraid of him, because all the people were amazed at his teaching.