161 Take note of the month of Abib and keep the Passover to the Lord your God: for in the month of Abib the Lord your God took you out of Egypt by night. 2 The Passover offering, from your flock or your herd, is to be given to the Lord your God in the place marked out by him as the resting-place of his name. 3 Take no leavened bread with it; for seven days let your food be unleavened bread, that is, the bread of sorrow; for you came out of the land of Egypt quickly: so the memory of that day, when you came out of the land of Egypt, will be with you all your life. 4 For seven days let no leaven be used through all your land; and nothing of the flesh which is put to death in the evening of the first day is to be kept through the night till morning. 5 The Passover offering is not to be put to death in any of the towns which the Lord your God gives you: 6 But in the place marked out by the Lord your God as the resting-place of his name, there you are to put the Passover to death in the evening, at sundown, at that time of the year when you came out of Egypt. 7 It is to be cooked and taken as food in the place marked out by the Lord: and in the morning you are to go back to your tents. 8 For six days let your food be unleavened bread; and on the seventh day there is to be a holy meeting to the Lord your God; no work is to be done. 9 Let seven weeks be numbered from the first day when the grain is cut. 10 Then keep the feast of weeks to the Lord your God, with an offering freely given to him from the wealth he has given you: 11 Then you are to be glad before the Lord your God, you and your son and your daughter, your man-servant and your woman-servant, and the Levite who is with you, and the man from a strange country, and the child without a father, and the widow, who are living among you, in the place marked out by the Lord your God as a resting-place for his name. 12 And you will keep in mind that you were a servant in the land of Egypt: and you will take care to keep all these laws. 13 You are to keep the feast of tents for seven days after you have got in all your grain and made your wine: 14 You are to keep the feast with joy, you and your son and your daughter, your man-servant and your woman-servant, and the Levite, and the man from a strange country, and the child without a father, and the widow, who are living among you. 15 Keep the feast to the Lord your God for seven days, in the place marked out by the Lord: because the blessing of the Lord your God will be on all the produce of your land and all the work of your hands, and you will have nothing but joy. 16 Three times in the year let all your males come before the Lord your God in the place named by him; at the feast of unleavened bread, the feast of weeks, and the feast of tents: and they are not to come before the Lord with nothing in their hands; 17 Every man is to give as he is able, in the measure of the blessing which the Lord your God has given you.
18 You are to make judges and overseers in all your towns which the Lord your God gives you, for every tribe: and they are to be upright men, judging the people in righteousness. 19 You are not to be moved in your judging by a man's position, you are not to take rewards; for rewards make the eyes of the wise man blind, and the decisions of the upright false. 20 Let righteousness be your guide, so that you may have life, and take for your heritage the land which the Lord your God is giving you. 21 Let no holy tree of any sort be planted by the altar of the Lord your God which you will make. 22 You are not to put up stone pillars, for they are hated by the Lord your God.
171 No ox or sheep which has a mark on it or is damaged in any way may be offered to the Lord your God: for that is disgusting to the Lord your God. 2 If there is any man or woman among you, in any of the towns which the Lord your God gives you, who does evil in the eyes of the Lord your God, sinning against his agreement, 3 By becoming a servant of other gods and worshipping them or the sun or the moon or all the stars of heaven, against my orders; 4 If word of this comes to your ears, then let this thing be looked into with care, and if there is no doubt that it is true, and such evil has been done in Israel; 5 Then you are to take the man or woman who has done the evil to the public place of your town, and they are to be stoned with stones till they are dead. 6 On the word of two or three witnesses, a man may be given the punishment of death; but he is not to be put to death on the word of one witness. 7 The hands of the witnesses will be the first to put him to death, and after them the hands of all the people. So you are to put away the evil from among you.
8 If you are not able to give a decision as to who is responsible for a death, or who is right in a cause, or who gave the first blow in a fight, and there is a division of opinion about it in your town: then go to the place marked out by the Lord your God; 9 And come before the priests, the Levites, or before him who is judge at the time: and they will go into the question and give you a decision: 10 And you are to be guided by the decision they give in the place named by the Lord, and do whatever they say: 11 Acting in agreement with their teaching and the decision they give: not turning to one side or the other from the word they have given you. 12 And any man who, in his pride, will not give ear to the priest whose place is there before the Lord your God, or to the judge, is to be put to death: you are to put away the evil from Israel. 13 And all the people, hearing of it, will be full of fear and put away their pride.
14 When you have come into the land which the Lord your God is giving you, and have taken it for a heritage and are living in it, if it is your desire to have a king over you, like the other nations round about you; 15 Then see that you take as your king the man named by the Lord your God: let your king be one of your countrymen, not a man of another nation who is not one of yourselves. 16 And he is not to get together a great army of horses for himself, or make the people go back to Egypt to get horses for him: because the Lord has said, You will never again go back that way. 17 And he is not to have a great number of wives, for fear that his heart may be turned away; or great wealth of silver and gold. 18 And when he has taken his place on the seat of his kingdom, he is to make in a book a copy of this law, from that which the priests, the Levites, have in their care: 19 And it is to be with him for his reading all the days of his life, so that he may be trained in the fear of the Lord his God to keep and do all the words of this teaching and these laws: 20 So that his heart may not be lifted up over his countrymen, and he may not be turned away from the orders, to one side or the other: but that his life and the lives of his children may be long in his kingdom in Israel.
181 The priests, the Levites, that is, all the tribe of Levi, will have no part or heritage with Israel: their food and their heritage will be the offerings of the Lord made by fire. 2 And they will have no heritage among their countrymen: the Lord is their heritage, as he has said to them. 3 And this is to be the priests' right: those who make an offering of a sheep or an ox are to give to the priest the top part of the leg and the two sides of the head and the stomach. 4 And in addition you are to give him the first of your grain and wine and oil, and the first wool cut from your sheep. 5 For he, and his sons after him for ever, have been marked out by the Lord your God from all your tribes, to do the work of priests in the name of the Lord. 6 And if a Levite, moved by a strong desire, comes from any town in all Israel where he is living to the place marked out by the Lord; 7 Then he will do the work of a priest in the name of the Lord his God, with all his brothers the Levites who are there before the Lord. 8 His food will be the same as theirs, in addition to what has come to him as the price of his property.
9 When you have come into the land which the Lord your God is giving you, do not take as your example the disgusting ways of those nations. 10 Let there not be seen among you anyone who makes his son or his daughter go through the fire, or anyone using secret arts, or a maker of strange sounds, or a reader of signs, or any wonder-worker, 11 Or anyone using secret force on people, or putting questions to a spirit, or having secret knowledge, or going to the dead for directions. 12 For all who do such things are disgusting to the Lord; and because of these disgusting things the Lord your God is driving them out before you. 13 You are to be upright in heart before the Lord your God. 14 For these nations, whose land you are taking, give attention to readers of signs and to those using secret arts: but the Lord your God will not let you do so.
15 The Lord your God will give you a prophet from among your people, like me; you will give ear to him; 16 In answer to the request you made to the Lord your God in Horeb on the day of the great meeting, when you said, Let not the voice of the Lord my God come to my ears again, and let me not see this great fire any more, or death will overtake me. 17 Then the Lord said to me, What they have said is well said. 18 I will give them a prophet from among themselves, like you, and I will put my words in his mouth, and he will say to them whatever I give him orders to say. 19 And whoever does not give ear to my words which he will say in my name, will be responsible to me. 20 But the prophet who takes it on himself to say words in my name which I have not given him orders to say, or who says anything in the name of other gods, will come to his death. 21 And if you say in your hearts, How are we to be certain that the word does not come from the Lord? 22 When a prophet makes a statement in the name of the Lord, if what he says does not take place and his words do not come true, then his word is not the word of the Lord: the words of the prophet were said in the pride of his heart, and you are to have no fear of him.
131 And when he was going out of the Temple, one of his disciples said to him, Master, see, what stones and what buildings! 2 And Jesus said to him, Do you see these great buildings? there is not one stone here resting on another which will not be overturned. 3 And while he was seated on the Mountain of Olives opposite the Temple, Peter and James and John and Andrew said to him privately, 4 Say when these things will be, and what will be the sign when these things are all about to be done.
5 And Jesus said to them, Take care that you are not tricked by anyone. 6 People will come in my name, saying, I am he; and a number will be turned from the true way. 7 And when you have news of wars and talk of wars, do not be troubled; these things have to be, but it is still not the end. 8 Nation will go to war with nation, and kingdom with kingdom: there will be earth-shocks in different places; there will be times when there is no food; these things are the first of the troubles. 9 But take care: for they will give you up to the Sanhedrins; and in Synagogues you will be whipped; and you will be taken before rulers and kings because of me, for a sign to them. 10 And the good news has first to be given to all the nations. 11 And when you are taken and given up to be judged, do not be troubled about what to say: but whatever is given to you in that hour, say: because it is not you who say it, but the Holy Spirit. 12 And brother will give up brother to death, and the father his child; and children will go against their fathers and mothers, and put them to death. 13 And you will be hated by all men, because of my name; but he who goes through to the end will have salvation.
14 But when you see the unclean thing which makes destruction, in the place where it has no right to be (let this be clear to the reader), then let those who are in Judaea go quickly to the mountains: 15 And let him who is on the house-top not go down, or go in, to take anything out of his house: 16 And let not him who is in the field go back to take his coat. 17 And it will be hard for women who are with child and for her who has a baby at the breast in those days. 18 And say a prayer that it may not be in the winter. 19 For in those days there will be sorrow, such as there has not been from the time when God made the world till now, and will not ever be again. 20 And if the Lord had not made the time short, no flesh would have been kept from destruction; but because of the saints he has made the time short.
(Read Mark 13:1-4)
See how little Christ values outward pomp, where there is not real purity of heart. He looks with pity upon the ruin of precious souls, and weeps over them, but we do not find him look with pity upon the ruin of a fine house. Let us then be reminded how needful it is for us to have a more lasting abode in heaven, and to be prepared for it by the influences of the Holy Spirit, sought in the earnest use of all the means of grace.
(Read Mark 13:5-13)
Our Lord Jesus, in reply to the disciples' question, does not so much satisfy their curiosity as direct their consciences. When many are deceived, we should thereby be awakened to look to ourselves. And the disciples of Christ, if it be not their own fault, may enjoy holy security and peace of mind, when all around is in disorder. But they must take heed that they are not drawn away from Christ and their duty to him, by the sufferings they will meet with for his sake. They shall be hated of all men: trouble enough! Yet the work they were called to should be carried on and prosper. Though they may be crushed and borne down, the gospel cannot be. The salvation promised is more than deliverance from evil, it is everlasting blessedness.
(Read Mark 13:14-23)
The Jews in rebelling against the Romans, and in persecuting the Christians, hastened their own ruin apace. Here we have a prediction of that ruin which came upon them within less than forty years after this. Such destruction and desolation, that the like cannot be found in any history. Promises of power to persevere, and cautions against falling away, well agree with each other. But the more we consider these things, the more we shall see abundant cause to flee without delay for refuge to Christ, and to renounce every earthly object, for the salvation of our souls.
