301 Now when all these things have come on you, the blessing and the curse which I have put before you, if the thought of them comes back to your minds, when you are living among the nations where the Lord your God has sent you, 2 And your hearts are turned again to the Lord your God, and you give ear to his word which I give you today, you and your children, with all your heart and with all your soul: 3 Then the Lord will have pity on you, changing your fate, and taking you back again from among all the nations where you have been forced to go. 4 Even if those who have been forced out are living in the farthest part of heaven, the Lord your God will go in search of you, and take you back; 5 Placing you again in the land of your fathers as your heritage; and he will do you good, increasing you till you are more in number than your fathers were. 6 And the Lord your God will give to you and to your seed a circumcision of the heart, so that, loving him with all your heart and all your soul, you may have life. 7 And the Lord your God will put all these curses on those who are against you, and on your haters who put a cruel yoke on you. 8 And you will again give ear to the voice of the Lord, and do all his orders which I have given you today. 9 And the Lord your God will make you fertile in all good things, blessing the work of your hands, and the fruit of your body, and the fruit of your cattle, and the fruit of your land: for the Lord will have joy in you, as he had in your fathers: 10 If you give ear to the voice of the Lord your God, keeping his orders and his laws which are recorded in this book of the law, and turning to the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul.
11 For these orders which I have given you today are not strange and secret, and are not far away. 12 They are not in heaven, for you to say, Who will go up to heaven for us and give us knowledge of them so that we may do them? 13 And they are not across the sea, for you to say, Who will go over the sea for us and give us news of them so that we may do them? 14 But the word is very near you, in your mouth and in your heart, so that you may do it.
15 See, I have put before you today, life and good, and death and evil; 16 In giving you orders today to have love for the Lord your God, to go in his ways and keep his laws and his orders and his decisions, so that you may have life and be increased, and that the blessing of the Lord your God may be with you in the land where you are going, the land of your heritage. 17 But if your heart is turned away and your ear is shut, and you go after those who would make you servants and worshippers of other gods: 18 I give witness against you this day that destruction will certainly be your fate, and your days will be cut short in the land where you are going, the land of your heritage on the other side of Jordan. 19 Let heaven and earth be my witnesses against you this day that I have put before you life and death, a blessing and a curse: so take life for yourselves and for your seed: 20 In loving the Lord your God, hearing his voice and being true to him: for he is your life and by him will your days be long: so that you may go on living in the land which the Lord gave by an oath to your fathers, Abraham, Isaac and Jacob.
311 So Moses said all these things to Israel. 2 Then he said to them, I am now a hundred and twenty years old; I am no longer able to go out and come in: and the Lord has said to me, You are not to go over Jordan. 3 The Lord your God, he will go over before you; he will send destruction on all those nations, and you will take their land as your heritage: and Joshua will go over at your head as the Lord has said. 4 The Lord will do to them as he did to Sihon and to Og, the kings of the Amorites, and to their land, whom he put to destruction. 5 The Lord will give them up into your hands, and you are to do to them as I have given you orders. 6 Be strong and take heart, and have no fear of them: for it is the Lord your God who is going with you; he will not take away his help from you. 7 Then Moses sent for Joshua, and before the eyes of all Israel said to him, Be strong and take heart: for you are to go with this people into the land which the Lord, by his oath to their fathers, has given them; by your help they will take it for their heritage. 8 It is the Lord who goes before you; he will be with you, he will not take away his help from you or give you up: so have no fear.
9 Then Moses put all this law in writing, and gave it to the priests, the sons of Levi, who take up the ark of the Lord's agreement, and to all the responsible men of Israel. 10 And Moses said to them, At the end of every seven years, at the time fixed for the ending of debts, at the feast of tents, 11 When all Israel has come before the Lord your God in the place named by him, let a reading be given of this law in the hearing of all Israel. 12 Make all the people come together, men and women and children, and anyone from another country who is with you, so that hearing they may become wise in the fear of the Lord your God, and take care to do all the words of this law; 13 And so that your children, to whom it is new, may give ear and be trained in the fear of the Lord your God, while you are living in the land which you are going over Jordan to take for your heritage.
14 At that time the Lord said to Moses, The day of your death is near: send for Joshua, and come to the Tent of meeting so that I may give him his orders. So Moses and Joshua went to the Tent of meeting. 15 And the Lord was seen in the Tent in a pillar of cloud resting by the door of the Tent. 16 And the Lord said to Moses, Now you are going to rest with your fathers; and this people will be false to me, uniting themselves to the strange gods of the land where they are going; they will be turned away from me and will not keep the agreement I have made with them. 17 In that day my wrath will be moved against them, and I will be turned away from them, veiling my face from them, and destruction will overtake them, and unnumbered evils and troubles will come on them; so that in that day they will say, Have not these evils come on us because our God is not with us? 18 Truly, my face will be turned away from them in that day, because of all the evil they have done in going after other gods. 19 Make then this song for yourselves, teaching it to the children of Israel: put it in their mouths, so that this song may be a witness for me against the children of Israel. 20 For when I have taken them into the land named in my oath to their fathers, a land flowing with milk and honey, and they have made themselves full of food and are fat, then they will be turned to other gods and will give them worship, no longer honouring me or keeping my agreement. 21 Then when evils and troubles without number have overtaken them, this song will be a witness to them, for the words of it will be clear in the memories of their children: for I see the thoughts which are moving in their hearts even now, before I have taken them into the land of my oath.
22 So that same day Moses made this song, teaching it to the children of Israel. 23 Then he gave orders to Joshua, the son of Nun, saying to him, Be strong and take heart: for you are to go at the head of the children of Israel into the land which I made an oath to give them; and I will be with you.
24 Now after writing all the words of this law in a book till the record of them was complete, 25 Moses said to the Levites who were responsible for taking up the ark of the Lord's agreement, 26 Take this book of the law and put it by the ark of the Lord's agreement, so that it may be a witness against you. 27 For I have knowledge of your hard and uncontrolled hearts: even now, while I am still living, you will not be ruled by the Lord; how much less after my death? 28 Get together before me all those who are in authority in your tribes, and your overseers, so that I may say these things in their hearing, and make heaven and earth my witnesses against them. 29 For I am certain that after my death you will give yourselves up to sin, wandering from the way which I have given you; and evil will overtake you in the end, because you will do evil in the eyes of the Lord, moving him to wrath by the work of your hands.
30 Then in the hearing of all the meeting of Israel, Moses said the words of this song, to the end.
151 And the first thing in the morning the chief priests, with those in authority and the scribes and all the Sanhedrin, had a meeting, and put cords round Jesus, and took him away, and gave him up to Pilate. 2 And Pilate put a question to him, Are you the King of the Jews? And he, answering, said to him, You say so. 3 And the chief priests said a number of things against him. 4 And Pilate again put a question, Do you say nothing in answer? see how much evil they say you have done. 5 But Jesus gave no more answers, so that Pilate was full of wonder.
6 Now at the feast every year he let one prisoner go free at their request. 7 And there was one named Barabbas, in prison with those who had gone against the government and in the fight had taken life. 8 And the people went up, requesting him to do as he had done for them in other years. 9 And Pilate said in answer to them, Is it your desire that I let the King of the Jews go free? 10 For he saw that the chief priests had given him up through envy. 11 But the people were moved by the chief priests to make him let Barabbas go free. 12 And Pilate again said in answer to them, What then am I to do to him to whom you give the name of the King of the Jews? 13 And they said again loudly, To the cross with him! 14 And Pilate said to them, Why, what evil has he done? But their cry was the louder, To the cross!
15 And Pilate, desiring to do what was pleasing to the people, let Barabbas go free, and gave up Jesus, when he had been whipped, to be put to death on the cross. 16 And the men of the army took him away into the square in front of the building which is the Praetorium, and they got together all the band. 17 And they put a purple robe on him, and twisting a crown of thorns, they put it on him; 18 And, as if honouring him, they said, Long life to the King of the Jews! 19 And they gave him blows on the head with a stick and put shame on him and, going down on their knees, gave him worship. 20 And when they had made sport of him, they took the purple robe off him and put his clothing on him. And they took him out to put him to death on the cross.
21 And they made one, Simon of Cyrene, the father of Alexander and Rufus, who was going by, coming from the country, go with them, so that he might take his cross.
22 And they took him to the place named Golgotha, which is, Dead Man's Head. 23 And they gave him wine mixed with myrrh; but he did not take it. 24 And he was nailed to the cross; and they made a division of his clothing among them, putting to the decision of chance what everyone was to take. 25 And it was the third hour when they put him on the cross.
(Read Mark 15:1-14)
They bound Christ. It is good for us often to remember the bonds of the Lord Jesus, as bound with him who was bound for us. By delivering up the King, they, in effect, delivered up the kingdom of God, which was, therefore, as by their own consent, taken from them, and given to another nation. Christ gave Pilate a direct answer, but would not answer the witnesses, because the things they alleged were known to be false, even Pilate himself was convinced they were so. Pilate thought that he might appeal from the priests to the people, and that they would deliver Jesus out of the priests' hands. But they were more and more urged by the priests, and cried, Crucify him! Crucify him! Let us judge of persons and things by their merits, and the standard of God's word, and not by common report. The thought that no one ever was so shamefully treated, as the only perfectly wise, holy, and excellent Person that ever appeared on earth, leads the serious mind to strong views of man's wickedness and enmity to God. Let us more and more abhor the evil dispositions which marked the conduct of these persecutors.
(Read Mark 15:15-21)
Christ met death in its greatest terror. It was the death of the vilest malefactors. Thus the cross and the shame are put together. God having been dishonoured by the sin of man, Christ made satisfaction by submitting to the greatest disgrace human nature could be loaded with. It was a cursed death; thus it was branded by the Jewish law, Deuteronomy 21:23. The Roman soldiers mocked our Lord Jesus as a King; thus in the high priest's hall the servants had mocked him as a Prophet and Saviour. Shall a purple or scarlet robe be matter of pride to a Christian, which was matter of reproach and shame to Christ? He wore the crown of thorns which we deserved, that we might wear the crown of glory which he merited. We were by sin liable to everlasting shame and contempt; to deliver us, our Lord Jesus submitted to shame and contempt. He was led forth with the workers of iniquity, though he did no sin. The sufferings of the meek and holy Redeemer, are ever a source of instruction to the believer, of which, in his best hours, he cannot be weary. Did Jesus thus suffer, and shall I, a vile sinner, fret or repine? Shall I indulge anger, or utter reproaches and threats because of troubles and injuries?
(Read Mark 15:22-32)
The place where our Lord Jesus was crucified, was called the place of a scull; it was the common place of execution; for he was in all respects numbered with the transgressors. Whenever we look unto Christ crucified, we must remember what was written over his head; he is a King, and we must give up ourselves to be his subjects, as Israelites indeed. They crucified two thieves with him, and him in the midst; they thereby intended him great dishonour. But it was foretold that he should be numbered with the transgressors, because he was made sin for us. Even those who passed by railed at him. They told him to come down from the cross, and they would believe; but they did not believe, though he gave them a more convincing sign when he came up from the grave. With what earnestness will the man who firmly believes the truth, as made known by the sufferings of Christ, seek for salvation! With what gratitude will he receive the dawning hope of forgiveness and eternal life, as purchased for him by the sufferings and death of the Son of God! and with what godly sorrow will he mourn over the sins which crucified the Lord of glory!
