Five Ways God Guides You

⁹ Within your temple, O God,
we meditate on your unfailing love.
   ¹⁰ Like your name, O God,
   your praise reaches to the ends of the earth;
   your right hand is filled with righteousness.
¹¹ Mount Zion rejoices,
   the villages of Judah are glad
   because of your judgments.

¹² Walk about Zion, go around her,
   count her towers,
¹³ consider well her ramparts,
   view her citadels,
that you may tell of them
   to the next generation.

¹⁴ For this God is our God for ever and ever;
   he will be our guide even to the end.

Jesus at the Temple

⁴⁵ When Jesus entered the temple courts, he began to drive out those who were selling. ⁴⁶ “It is written,” he said to them, “‘My house will be a house of prayer’; but you have made it ‘a den of robbers.’”

⁴⁷ Every day he was teaching at the temple. But the chief priests, the teachers of the law and the leaders among the people were trying to kill him. ⁴⁸ Yet they could not find any way to do it, because all the people hung on his words.

The Authority of Jesus Questioned

20 One day as Jesus was teaching the people in the temple courts and proclaiming the good news, the chief priests and the teachers of the law, together with the elders, came up to him. ² “Tell us by what authority you are doing these things,” they said. “Who gave you this authority?”

³ He replied, “I will also ask you a question. Tell me: ⁴ John’s baptism —was it from heaven, or of human origin?”

⁵ They discussed it among themselves and said, “If we say, ‘From heaven,’ he will ask, ‘Why didn’t you believe him?’ ⁶ But if we say, ‘Of human origin,’ all the people will stone us, because they are persuaded that John was a prophet.”

⁷ So they answered, “We don’t know where it was from.”

⁸ Jesus said, “Neither will I tell you by what authority I am doing these things.”

The Parable of the Tenants

⁹ He went on to tell the people this parable: “A man planted a vineyard, rented it to some farmers and went away for a long time. ¹⁰ At harvest time he sent a servant to the tenants so they would give him some of the fruit of the vineyard. But the tenants beat him and sent him away empty-handed. ¹¹ He sent another servant, but that one also they beat and treated shamefully and sent away empty-handed. ¹² He sent still a third, and they wounded him and threw him out.

¹³ “Then the owner of the vineyard said, ‘What shall I do? I will send my son, whom I love; perhaps they will respect him.’

¹⁴ “But when the tenants saw him, they talked the matter over. ‘This is the heir,’ they said. ‘Let’s kill him, and the inheritance will be ours.’ ¹⁵ So they threw him out of the vineyard and killed him.

“What then will the owner of the vineyard do to them? ¹⁶ He will come and kill those tenants and give the vineyard to others.”

When the people heard this, they said, “God forbid!”

¹⁷ Jesus looked directly at them and asked, “Then what is the meaning of that which is written:

“‘The stone the builders rejected
has become the cornerstone’?

¹⁸ Everyone who falls on that stone will be broken to pieces; anyone on whom it falls will be crushed.”

¹⁹ The teachers of the law and the chief priests looked for a way to arrest him immediately, because they knew he had spoken this parable against them. But they were afraid of the people.

Paying Taxes to Caesar

²⁰ Keeping a close watch on him, they sent spies, who pretended to be sincere. They hoped to catch Jesus in something he said, so that they might hand him over to the power and authority of the governor. ²¹ So the spies questioned him: “Teacher, we know that you speak and teach what is right, and that you do not show partiality but teach the way of God in accordance with the truth. ²² Is it right for us to pay taxes to Caesar or not?”

²³ He saw through their duplicity and said to them, ²⁴ “Show me a denarius. Whose image and inscription are on it?”

“Caesar’s,” they replied.

²⁵ He said to them, “Then give back to Caesar what is Caesar’s, and to God what is God’s.”

²⁶ They were unable to trap him in what he had said there in public. And astonished by his answer, they became silent.

The Song of Moses

³⁰ And Moses recited the words of this song from beginning to end in the hearing of the whole assembly of Israel:

32    Listen, you heavens, and I will speak;
     hear, you earth, the words of my mouth.
   ² Let my teaching fall like rain
     and my words descend like dew,
   like showers on new grass,
     like abundant rain on tender plants.

   ³ I will proclaim the name of the LORD.
     Oh, praise the greatness of our God!
   ⁴ He is the Rock, his works are perfect,
     and all his ways are just.
   A faithful God who does no wrong,
     upright and just is he.

   ⁵ They are corrupt and not his children;
     to their shame they are a warped and crooked generation.
   ⁶ Is this the way you repay the LORD,
     you foolish and unwise people?
   Is he not your Father, your Creator,
     who made you and formed you?

   ⁷ Remember the days of old;
     consider the generations long past.
   Ask your father and he will tell you,
     your elders, and they will explain to you.
   ⁸ When the Most High gave the nations their inheritance,
     when he divided all mankind,
   he set up boundaries for the peoples
     according to the number of the sons of Israel.
   ⁹ For the LORD’s portion is his people,
     Jacob his allotted inheritance.

   ¹⁰ In a desert land he found him,
     in a barren and howling waste.
   He shielded him and cared for him;
     he guarded him as the apple of his eye,
   ¹¹ like an eagle that stirs up its nest
     and hovers over its young,
   that spreads its wings to catch them
     and carries them on its pinions.
   ¹² The LORD alone led him;
     no foreign god was with him.

   ¹³ He made him ride on the heights of the land
     and fed him with the fruit of the fields.
   He nourished him with honey from the rock,
     and with oil from the flinty crag,
   ¹⁴ with curds and milk from herd and flock
     and with fattened lambs and goats,
   with choice rams of Bashan
     and the finest grains of wheat.
   You drank the foaming blood of the grape.

   ¹⁵ Jeshurun grew fat and kicked;
     filled with food, they became heavy and sleek.
   They abandoned the God who made them
     and rejected the Rock their Saviour.
   ¹⁶ They made him jealous with their foreign gods
     and angered him with their detestable idols.
   ¹⁷ They sacrificed to false gods, which are not God—
     gods they had not known,
     gods that recently appeared,
     gods your ancestors did not fear.
   ¹⁸ You deserted the Rock, who fathered you;
     you forgot the God who gave you birth.

   ¹⁹ The LORD saw this and rejected them
     because he was angered by his sons and daughters.
   ²⁰ “I will hide my face from them,” he said,
     “and see what their end will be;
   for they are a perverse generation,
     children who are unfaithful.
   ²¹ They made me jealous by what is no god
     and angered me with their worthless idols.
   I will make them envious by those who are not a people;
     I will make them angry by a nation that has no understanding.
   ²² For a fire will be kindled by my wrath,
     one that burns down to the realm of the dead below.
   It will devour the earth and its harvests
     and set afire the foundations of the mountains.

   ²³ “I will heap calamities on them
     and spend my arrows against them.
   ²⁴ I will send wasting famine against them,
     consuming pestilence and deadly plague;
   I will send against them the fangs of wild beasts,
     the venom of vipers that glide in the dust.
   ²⁵ In the street the sword will make them childless;
     in their homes terror will reign.
   The young men and young women will perish,
     the infants and those with gray hair.
   ²⁶ I said I would scatter them
     and erase their name from human memory,
   ²⁷ but I dreaded the taunt of the enemy,
     lest the adversary misunderstand
   and say, ‘Our hand has triumphed;
     the LORD has not done all this.’”

   ²⁸ They are a nation without sense,
     there is no discernment in them.
   ²⁹ If only they were wise and would understand this
     and discern what their end will be!
   ³⁰ How could one man chase a thousand,
     or two put ten thousand to flight,
   unless their Rock had sold them,
     unless the LORD had given them up?
   ³¹ For their rock is not like our Rock,
     as even our enemies concede.
   ³² Their vine comes from the vine of Sodom
     and from the fields of Gomorrah.
   Their grapes are filled with poison,
     and their clusters with bitterness.
   ³³ Their wine is the venom of serpents,
     the deadly poison of cobras.

   ³⁴ “Have I not kept this in reserve
     and sealed it in my vaults?
   ³⁵ It is mine to avenge; I will repay.
     In due time their foot will slip;
   their day of disaster is near
     and their doom rushes upon them. ”

   ³⁶ The LORD will vindicate his people
     and relent concerning his servants
   when he sees their strength is gone
     and no one is left, slave or free.
   ³⁷ He will say: “Now where are their gods,
     the rock they took refuge in,
   ³⁸ the gods who ate the fat of their sacrifices
     and drank the wine of their drink offerings?
   Let them rise up to help you!
     Let them give you shelter!

   ³⁹ “See now that I myself am he!
     There is no god besides me.
   I put to death and I bring to life,
     I have wounded and I will heal,
   and no one can deliver out of my hand.
   ⁴⁰ I lift my hand to heaven and solemnly swear:
     As surely as I live forever,
   ⁴¹ when I sharpen my flashing sword
     and my hand grasps it in judgment,
   I will take vengeance on my adversaries
     and repay those who hate me.
   ⁴² I will make my arrows drunk with blood,
     while my sword devours flesh:
   the blood of the slain and the captives,
     the heads of the enemy leaders.”

   ⁴³ Rejoice, you nations, with his people,
     for he will avenge the blood of his servants;
   he will take vengeance on his enemies
     and make atonement for his land and people.

⁴⁴ Moses came with Joshua son of Nun and spoke all the words of this song in the hearing of the people. ⁴⁵ When Moses finished reciting all these words to all Israel, ⁴⁶ he said to them, “Take to heart all the words I have solemnly declared to you this day, so that you may command your children to obey carefully all the words of this law. ⁴⁷ They are not just idle words for you—they are your life. By them you will live long in the land you are crossing the Jordan to possess.”

Moses to Die on Mount Nebo

⁴⁸ On that same day the LORD told Moses, ⁴⁹ “Go up into the Abarim Range to Mount Nebo in Moab, across from Jericho, and view Canaan, the land I am giving the Israelites as their own possession. ⁵⁰ There on the mountain that you have climbed you will die and be gathered to your people, just as your brother Aaron died on Mount Hor and was gathered to his people. ⁵¹ This is because both of you broke faith with me in the presence of the Israelites at the waters of Meribah Kadesh in the Desert of Zin and because you did not uphold my holiness among the Israelites. ⁵² Therefore, you will see the land only from a distance; you will not enter the land I am giving to the people of Israel.”