Nancy: Welcome To Immerse: The Daily Bible Reading Experience.
Day 100 and 53
these are the decrees and regulations you must be careful to obey when you
live in the land that the Lord, the God of your ancestors is giving you.
You must obey them as long as you live.
When you drive out the nations that live there, you must destroy all the
places where they worship their gods.
High on the mountains, up on the hills, and under every green tree.
Break down their altars and smash their sacred pillars, burn their asherah
poles and cut down their carved idols.
Completely erase the names of their gods.
Do not worship the Lord your God, in the way these pagan
peoples worship their gods.
Rather, you must seek the Lord your God at the place of worship.
He himself will choose from among all the tribes, the place
where his name will be honored.
There you will bring your burnt offerings, your sacrifices, your tithes, your
sacred offerings, your offerings to fulfill a vow, your voluntary offerings,
and your offerings of the firstborn animals of your herds and flocks.
There, you and your families will feast in the presence of the Lord your God, and you
will rejoice in all you have accomplished because the Lord your God has blessed you.
Your pattern of worship will change.
Today all of you are doing as you please because you have not yet
arrived at the place of rest the land.
The Lord your God is giving you as your special possession, but he will soon
cross the Jordan River and live in the land the Lord your God is giving you.
When he gives you rest from all your enemies and you're living
safely in the land, you must bring everything I command you, your burnt
offerings, your sacrifices, your tithes, your sacred offerings, and
your offerings to fulfill a vow.
To the designated place of worship, the place the Lord your God chooses
for his name to be honored, you must celebrate there in the presence of
the Lord your God, with your sons and daughters and all your servants.
And remember to include the Levites who live in your towns, for they will
receive no allotment of land among you.
Be careful not to sacrifice your burnt offerings just anywhere you like.
You may do so only at the place the Lord will choose within
one of your tribal territories.
There.
You must offer your burnt offerings and do everything I command you, but you
may butcher your animals and eat their meat in any town whenever you want,
you may freely eat the animals with which the Lord your God blesses you.
All of you, whether ceremonially, clean or unclean, may eat that meat
just as you now eat gazelle and deer.
But you must not consume the blood.
You must pour it out on the ground like water.
But you may not eat your offerings in your hometown, neither the tithe
of your grain and new wine and olive oil, nor the firstborn of your
flocks and herds, nor any offering to fulfill a vow nor your voluntary
offerings, nor your sacred offerings.
You must eat these in the presence of the Lord your God,
at the place he will choose.
Eat them there with your children, your servants, and the
Levites who live in your towns.
Celebrating in the presence of the Lord your God, and all you do.
And be very careful never to neglect the Levites as long as you live in your land.
When the Lord, your God expands your territory as he has promised, and you
have the urge to eat meat, you may freely eat meat whenever you want.
It might happen that the designated place of worship, the place the Lord
your God, chooses for His name to be honored is a long way from your home.
If so, you may butcher any of the cattle, sheep, or goats the Lord has given
you, and you may freely eat the meat in your hometown, as I have commanded you.
Anyone, whether ceremonially, clean or unclean, may eat that meat just
as you do now with gazelle and deer, but never consume the blood.
For the blood is the life, and you must not consume the lifeblood with the meat.
Instead, pour out the blood on the ground like water.
Do not consume the blood so that all may go well with you and your
children after you because you will be doing what pleases the Lord.
Take your sacred gifts and your offerings given to fulfill a vow
to the place the Lord chooses.
You must offer the meat and blood of your burnt offerings and
the altar of the Lord your God.
The blood of your other sacrifices must be poured out on the altar of the Lord
your God, but you may eat the meat.
Be careful to obey all my commands so that all will go well with you
and your children after you, because you will be doing what is good
and pleasing to the Lord your God.
When the Lord, your God goes ahead of you and destroys the nations, and you
drive them out and live in their land, do not fall into the trap of following
their customs and worshiping their gods.
Do not inquire about their gods saying, how do these nations worship their gods?
I want to follow their example.
You must not worship the Lord your God, the way the other nations worship their
gods, for they perform for their god's.
Every detestable act that the Lord hates, they even burn their sons and
daughters as sacrifices to their gods.
So be careful to obey all the commands I give you.
You must not add anything to them or subtract anything from them.
Suppose there are prophets among you or those who dream dreams about the future
and they promise you signs or miracles and the predicted signs or miracles occur.
If they then say, come let us worship other Gods Gods you have not known before.
Do not listen to them.
The Lord your God is testing you to see if you truly love him.
With all your heart and soul, serve only the Lord your God and fear him alone.
Obey his commands.
Listen to his voice and clinging to him.
The false prophets or visionaries who try to lead you astray must
be put to death for they encourage rebellion against the Lord your God,
who redeemed you from slavery and brought you out of the land of Egypt.
Since they try to lead you astray from the way the Lord your God commanded you
to live, you must put them to death.
In this way, you will purge the evil from among you.
Suppose someone secretly entices you, even your brother, your son or
daughter, your beloved wife or your closest friend, and says, let us go
worship other Gods gods that neither you nor your ancestors have known.
They might suggest that you worship the gods of peoples who live nearby
or who come from the ends of the earth, but do not give in or listen.
Have no pity and do not spare or protect them.
You must put them to death.
Strike the first blow yourself, and then all the people must join
in stone, the guilty ones to death because they have tried to draw
you away from the Lord your God.
Who rescued you from the land of Egypt, the place of slavery.
Then all Israel will hear about it and be afraid, and no one
will act so wickedly again.
When you begin living in the towns the Lord your God is giving you, you
may hear that scoundrels among you are leading their fellow citizens astray
by saying, let us go worship other Gods Gods you have not known before.
In such cases, you must examine the facts carefully.
If you find that the report is true and such a detestable act has been
committed among you, you must attack that town and completely destroy all its
inhabitants, as well as all the livestock.
Then you must pile all the plunder in the middle of the open square and
burn it, burn the entire town as a burnt offering to the Lord Your God,
that town must remain a ruin forever.
It may never be rebuilt.
Keep none of the plunder that has been set apart for destruction,
then the Lord will turn from his fierce anger and be merciful to you.
He will have compassion on you and make you a large nation just
as he swore to your ancestors.
The Lord your God will be merciful only if you listen to his voice and keep all
his commands that I'm giving you today.
Doing what pleases him.
Since you are the people of the Lord your God, never cut yourselves
or shave the hair above your foreheads in mourning for the dead.
You have been set apart as holy to the Lord your God, and he has chosen
you from all the nations of the earth to be his own special treasure.
You must not eat any detestable animals that are ceremonially, unclean.
These are the animals you may eat, the ox the sheep.
The goat, the deer, the gazelle, the row deer, the wild goat, the attics,
the antelope, and the mountain sheep.
You may eat any animal that has completely split hooves and choose the cudd, but
if the animal doesn't have both, it may not be eaten, so you may not eat
the camel, the hair, or the high racks.
They chew the cud but do not have split hooves, so they are
ceremonially unclean for you.
And you may not eat the pig.
It has split hooves but does not chew the cudd, so it is
ceremonially unclean for you.
You may not eat the meat of these animals or even touch their
carcasses of all the marine animals.
You may eat whatever has both fins and scales.
You may not, however, eat marine animals that do not have both fins and scales.
They're ceremonially unclean for you.
You may eat any bird that is ceremonially clean.
These are the birds you may not eat.
The Griffin vulture, the bearded vulture, the black vulture, the
kite, the falcon buzzards of all kinds, ravens of all kinds.
The eagle owl, the short eared owl, the seagull hawks of all kinds.
The little owl, the great owl, the barn owl, the desert owl, the Egyptian vulture.
The Coran, the stork herons of all kinds, the whooo and the bat.
All winged insects that walk along the ground are ceremonially unclean
for you and may not be eaten, but you may eat any winged bird or
insect that a ceremonially clean.
You must not eat anything that has died a natural death.
You may give it to a foreigner living in your town, or you may sell it to a
stranger, but do not eat it yourselves.
For you are set apart as holy to the Lord your God, you must not cook
a young goat in its mother's milk.
This concludes today's immerse reading experience.
Thank you for joining us.