Crossing the Read Sea

Isaiah 51:9-16

Everlasting Joy of the Ransomed

9 Wake up, wake up, O Lord! Clothe yourself with strength!
    Flex your mighty right arm!
Rouse yourself as in the days of old
    when you slew Egypt, the dragon of the Nile.

10 

Are you not the same today,
    the one who dried up the sea,
making a path of escape through the depths
    so that your people could cross over?

11 

Those who have been ransomed by the Lord will return.
    They will enter Jerusalem singing,
    crowned with everlasting joy.
Sorrow and mourning will disappear,
    and they will be filled with joy and gladness.

12 

“I, yes I, am the one who comforts you.
    So why are you afraid of mere humans,
    who wither like the grass and disappear?

13 

Yet you have forgotten the Lord, your Creator,
    the one who stretched out the sky like a canopy
    and laid the foundations of the earth.
Will you remain in constant dread of human oppressors?
    Will you continue to fear the anger of your enemies?
Where is their fury and anger now?
    It is gone!

14 

Soon all you captives will be released!
    Imprisonment, starvation, and death will not be your fate!

15 

For I am the Lord your God,
    who stirs up the sea, causing its waves to roar.
    My name is the Lord of Heaven’s Armies.

16 

And I have put my words in your mouth
    and hidden you safely in my hand.
I stretched out the sky like a canopy
    and laid the foundations of the earth.
I am the one who says to Israel,
    ‘You are my people!’”

Devarim (Deuteronomy) Chapter 16

18“You must appoint judges and sheriffs for yourselves in all your cities that God, your God, is giving you, for each of your tribes. They must judge the people by rendering fair judgments.

19You must not pervert justice. You must not show partiality. You must not accept a bribe, for bribery blinds the eyes of the sages and perverts the just words of the Torah.’

20Justice, justice must you pursue, in order that you live and take possession of the land that God, your God, is giving you.

21You must not plant for yourself a deified tree, or any tree near the Altar of God, your God, that you will make for yourself.

22You must not erect for yourself a single-stoned altar-pedestal, which God, your God, hates.

Devarim (Deuteronomy) Chapter 17

1You must not slaughter to God, your God, a work-bull, sheep, or goat that acquires a defect through any improper pronouncement by its slaughterer, for God, your God, considers this an abomination.

2If there be found among you, within one of your cities that God, your God, is giving you, a man or woman performing the act that God, your God, deems evil, transgressing His covenant

3by going and worshiping other peoples’ deities and prostrating himself before them, or before the sun, the moon, or any heavenly body, all of which I have commanded you not to worship;

4and this is reported to you, and you hear it, and you investigate it thoroughly; and it is found to be true because the evidence agrees, establishing that this abomination has been committed in Israel;

5you must bring the man or woman who committed this evil thing to the gate of the city—this man or woman—and you must pelt them with stones, that they die thereby.

6The person liable to death must be condemned to death by the testimony of two witnesses or three witnesses. He may not be condemned to death by the testimony of one witness.

7The hand of the witnesses must be the first upon him to put him to death, and afterwards the collective hand of all the people. So must you eliminate the evil from your midst.

8If the solution to a matter in judgment eludes you—to distinguish between one type of blood and another, to distinguish between one type of legal case and another, or between one type of dermal lesion and another—rendering any such matters subjects of dispute in your cities, you must arise and go up to the place that God, your God, will have chosen.

9You must approach the Levitic priests and the judge who will be at that time, and inquire of them. They will tell you the solution to the matter in question.

10You must act in accordance with the verdict that they tell you from the place that God will have chosen. You must be careful to act in accordance with everything they instruct you.

11You must act in accordance with the law that they instruct you and the judgment they pronounce to you. You may not deviate right or left from what they tell you.

12Any person who acts maleficently—not obeying the priest who stands there to serve God, your God, or the judge—that person must be put to death, and you must eliminate this evil from Israel.

13The entire people must listen and be afraid, so they will no longer act maleficently.

1 Peter 2:1-12

Rejected by Mortals, 

1 So get rid of all evil behavior. Be done with all deceit, hypocrisy, jealousy, and all unkind speech. 2 Like newborn babies, you must crave pure spiritual milk so that you will grow into a full experience of salvation. Cry out for this nourishment, 3 now that you have had a taste of the Lord’s kindness.

Living Stones for God’s House

4 You are coming to Christ, who is the living cornerstone of God’s temple. He was rejected by people, but he was chosen by God for great honor.

5 And you are living stones that God is building into his spiritual temple. What’s more, you are his holy priests. Through the mediation of Jesus Christ, you offer spiritual sacrifices that please God. 6 As the Scriptures say,

“I am placing a cornerstone in Jerusalem,
    chosen for great honor,
and anyone who trusts in him
    will never be disgraced.”

7 Yes, you who trust him recognize the honor God has given him. But for those who reject him,

“The stone that the builders rejected
    has now become the cornerstone.”

8 And,

“He is the stone that makes people stumble,
    the rock that makes them fall.”

They stumble because they do not obey God’s word, and so they meet the fate that was planned for them.

9 But you are not like that, for you are a chosen people. You are royal priests, a holy nation, God’s very own possession. As a result, you can show others the goodness of God, for he called you out of the darkness into his wonderful light.

10 

“Once you had no identity as a people;
    now you are God’s people.
Once you received no mercy;
    now you have received God’s mercy.”

11 Dear friends, I warn you as “temporary residents and foreigners” to keep away from worldly desires that wage war against your very souls. 12 Be careful to live properly among your unbelieving neighbors. Then even if they accuse you of doing wrong, they will see your honorable behavior, and they will give honor to God when he judges the world.

Devarim (Deuteronomy) Chapter 17

14When you enter the land that God, your God, is giving you, take possession of it, and settle it, and you say, ‘I will appoint a king over myself, like all the nations around me,’

15you may indeed appoint a king over yourself, one whom God, your God, chooses. You must appoint a king over yourself from among your brothers; you may not appoint a foreigner—one who is not your brother—over yourself.

16But he must not acquire many horses for himself, so that he not bring the people back to Egypt in order to procure many horses, for God has said to you, ‘You must never return along that path.’

17He must not take many wives for himself, in order that his heart not be distracted. He must not acquire too much silver and gold for himself.

18When he sits upon his royal throne, he must write for himself a second copy of this Torah on a scroll from the Torah scroll in the care of the Levitic priests.

19It must remain with him, and he must read from it every day of his life, so that he may learn to revere God, his God; to safeguard all the words of this Torah and these rules by studying them so that he know how to properly perform them;

20so that his heart will not become haughty over his brothers; and so that he will not deviate either to the right or to the left from the commandment, in order that he prolong his time over his kingdom—he and his sons—among Israel.

Isaiah 29:13–16

13 
And so the Lord says,
    “These people say they are mine.
They honor me with their lips,
    but their hearts are far from me.
And their worship of me
    is nothing but man-made rules learned by rote.

14 

Because of this, I will once again astound these hypocrites
    with amazing wonders.
The wisdom of the wise will pass away,
    and the intelligence of the intelligent will disappear.”

15 

What sorrow awaits those who try to hide their plans from the Lord,
    who do their evil deeds in the dark!
“The Lord can’t see us,” they say.
    “He doesn’t know what’s going on!”

16 

How foolish can you be?
    He is the Potter, and he is certainly greater than you, the clay!
Should the created thing say of the one who made it,
    “He didn’t make me”?
Does a jar ever say,
    “The potter who made me is stupid”?

Devarim (Deuteronomy) Chapter 18

1The Levitic priests—the entire tribe of Levi—must have no portion in the spoils of war nor any land-inheritance with the rest of Israel. They must eat God’s fire-offerings and His inheritance.

2They must have no land-inheritance among their brothers. God is their inheritance, as He spoke concerning them.

3The following must be the priests’ entitlement from the people: From those who slaughter, be it a work-bull or a sheep, he must give the priest the foreleg, the cheeks, and the stomach.

4You must give him the first of your grain, wine, and oil; and the first of the fleece of your flock.

5For God, your God, has selected him out of all your tribes to stand and serve in the name of God—he and his sons—for all time.

Ezekiel 18:30–32

19 “‘What?’ you ask. ‘Doesn’t the child pay for the parent’s sins?’ No! For if the child does what is just and right and keeps my decrees, that child will surely live. 20 The person who sins is the one who will die. The child will not be punished for the parent’s sins, and the parent will not be punished for the child’s sins. Righteous people will be rewarded for their own righteous behavior, and wicked people will be punished for their own wickedness. 21 But if wicked people turn away from all their sins and begin to obey my decrees and do what is just and right, they will surely live and not die. 22 All their past sins will be forgotten, and they will live because of the righteous things they have done.

23 “Do you think that I like to see wicked people die? says the Sovereign Lord. Of course not! I want them to turn from their wicked ways and live. 24 However, if righteous people turn from their righteous behavior and start doing sinful things and act like other sinners, should they be allowed to live? No, of course not! All their righteous acts will be forgotten, and they will die for their sins.

25 “Yet you say, ‘The Lord isn’t doing what’s right!’ Listen to me, O people of Israel. Am I the one not doing what’s right, or is it you? 26 When righteous people turn from their righteous behavior and start doing sinful things, they will die for it. Yes, they will die because of their sinful deeds. 27 And if wicked people turn from their wickedness, obey the law, and do what is just and right, they will save their lives. 28 They will live because they thought it over and decided to turn from their sins. Such people will not die. 29 And yet the people of Israel keep saying, ‘The Lord isn’t doing what’s right!’ O people of Israel, it is you who are not doing what’s right, not I.

30 “Therefore, I will judge each of you, O people of Israel, according to your actions, says the Sovereign Lord. Repent, and turn from your sins. Don’t let them destroy you! 31 Put all your rebellion behind you, and find yourselves a new heart and a new spirit. For why should you die, O people of Israel? 32 I don’t want you to die, says the Sovereign Lord. Turn back and live!

Devarim (Deuteronomy) Chapter 18

6If a Levite priest comes from one of your cities out of all Israel, where he sojourns, he may come whene name of God, his God, just like all his Levite priest-brothers who stand there before God.

8They must eat equal portions, except those portions that were ‘sold’ by the heads of each division to each other.

9When you enter the land that God, your God, is giving you, you must not study the abominations of those nations in order to act likewise.

10There must not be among you anyone who passes his son or daughter through fire, a stick-diviner, a diviner of times, an illusionist, a diviner who interprets omens, a divining sorcerer,

11a snake- or scorpion-diviner, a spirit-diviner, a yadu’a-diviner, or a diviner who communicates with the dead,

12for whoever does these things becomes an abomination to God, and because of these abominations, God, your God, is driving them out from before you.

13Be wholehearted with God, your God.

Romans 9:19–26

19 Well then, you might say, “Why does God blame people for not responding? Haven’t they simply done what he makes them do?”

20 No, don’t say that. Who are you, a mere human being, to argue with God? Should the thing that was created say to the one who created it, “Why have you made me like this?” 21 When a potter makes jars out of clay, doesn’t he have a right to use the same lump of clay to make one jar for decoration and another to throw garbage into? 22 In the same way, even though God has the right to show his anger and his power, he is very patient with those on whom his anger falls, who are destined for destruction. 23 He does this to make the riches of his glory shine even brighter on those to whom he shows mercy, who were prepared in advance for glory. 24 And we are among those whom he selected, both from the Jews and from the Gentiles.

25 Concerning the Gentiles, God says in the prophecy of Hosea,

“Those who were not my people,
    I will now call my people.
And I will love those
    whom I did not love before.”

26 And,

“Then, at the place where they were told,
    ‘You are not my people,’
there they will be called
    ‘children of the living God.’”

Devarim (Deuteronomy) Chapter 18

14Whereas these nations whom you are dispossessing hearken to diviners of times, illusionists, and stick-diviners, as for you, God, your God, has not abandoned you to these.

15God, your God, will appoint a prophet for you from among you, from your brothers, like I am. You must hearken to him,

16in accordance with everything you asked of God, your God, at Mount Horeb on the day of the assemblage, saying, ‘I prefer not to continue to hear the voice of God, my God, and not to see this great fire anymore, that I not die.’

17And God said to me, ‘They have done well in what they have spoken.

18I will authorize a prophet for them from among their brothers, like you. I will place My words into his mouth, and he will speak to them all that I command him to tell them.

19Whoever does not hearken to My words, which he speaks in My name, I will exact punishment from him.

20As for the prophet who intentionally says something in My name that I did not command him to say, or who speaks in the name of other peoples’ deities, such a prophet must be put to death.’

21If you say to yourself, ‘How can we recognize the word that God did not speak?’

22If the prophet speaks in the name of God and the thing does not transpire and does not come to pass, that is what God did not say. The prophet has spoken it maleficently. You must not be afraid of him.

Devarim (Deuteronomy) Chapter 19

1When God, your God, cuts off the nations whose land God, your God, is giving you, and you dispossess them and dwell in their cities and in their houses,

2you must designate for yourself three cities of refuge in the midst of your land, which God, your God, is giving you to possess.

3Prepare for yourself the way to these cities. Divide the area within the border of your land, which God, your God, is giving you as an inheritance, into three, so it will be convenient for any murderer to flee there.

4The following is the case in which the inadvertent murderer may flee there, so that he may live: Whoever strikes his fellow inadvertently, whom he did not hate previously—

5as when a person goes with his fellow into the forest to chop wood, and his hand swings the ax to fell the tree, and the iron flies off the handle, and it reaches his fellow and he dies—he must flee to one of these cities and live,

6lest the blood-avenger pursue the killer while his heart is hot, and overtake him because the way to the city is too long, and he strikes him to death—although he was not deserving of death, for he did not hate him previously.

7Therefore, I command you, saying, ‘You must designate for yourself three cities.’

8When God, your God, will expand your boundary as He swore to your forefathers, and He gives you all the land that He said He would give to your forefathers

9(provided that you safeguard this commandment completely by studying how to perform it—the commandment that I am commanding you today: to love God, your God, and to walk in His ways for all time), you must add three more cities for yourself there, in addition to these three in Canaan,

10so that innocent blood not be shed in the midst of your land that God, your God, is giving you for an inheritance, which would make you guilty of having shed this blood.

11But if a man hates his fellow, and lies in wait for him, rises up against him, and strikes him mortally, and he dies, and he flees to one of these cities,

12the elders of his city must send emissaries and take him from there and deliver him into the hand of the blood-avenger, that he may die.

13You must not pity him. You must eliminate the injustice of shedding the blood of the innocent victim from Israel, and it will go well for you.

2 Corinthians 4:7–12

7 We now have this light shining in our hearts, but we ourselves are like fragile clay jars containing this great treasure. This makes it clear that our great power is from God, not from ourselves.

8 We are pressed on every side by troubles, but we are not crushed. We are perplexed, but not driven to despair. 9 We are hunted down, but never abandoned by God. We get knocked down, but we are not destroyed. 10 Through suffering, our bodies continue to share in the death of Jesus so that the life of Jesus may also be seen in our bodies.

11 Yes, we live under constant danger of death because we serve Jesus, so that the life of Jesus will be evident in our dying bodies. 12 So we live in the face of death, but this has resulted in eternal life for you.

Devarim (Deuteronomy) Chapter 19

14You must not push back your neighbor’s landmark, which your predecessors have erected as border markers, in your land-inheritance that you will inherit in the land that God, your God, is giving you to possess.

15One witness must not rise up against any accused person and implicate him for any iniquity or for any sin, regarding any sin that he may commit. The matter must be confirmed by the testimony of two witnesses or by the testimony of three witnesses.

16If corrupt witnesses rise up against a person to bear untenable testimony against him,

17the two men testifying about the people between whom the controversy exists must stand trial themselves before God, before the priests and the judges who will be at that time.

18The judges must investigate the matter thoroughly, and if the witnesses are false witnesses because they testified falsely against their brother,

19you must do to them what they plotted to do to their brother; you must eliminate the evil from your midst.

20Those who remain must listen and fear, so they no longer continue to commit any such evil thing among you.

21You must not have pity: Compensation must be paid, life for life, eye for eye, tooth for tooth, hand for hand, leg for leg.

Devarim (Deuteronomy) Chapter 20

1When you go out to war against your enemies, and you see horse and chariot, a people more numerous than you, you must not be afraid of them, for God, your God, who brought you up out of Egypt, is with you.

2When you approach the battlefield, the priest must approach and speak to the people.

3He must say to them: ‘Hear, Israel! Today you are approaching the battle against your enemies. You must not let your hearts become faint! You must not be afraid! You must not be alarmed! And you must not be terrified of them!

4For God, your God, is the one who accompanies you to fight for you against your enemies and to save you.’

5The sheriffs must speak to the people, saying: ‘Has anyone built a new house but has not inaugurated it? He must go and return to his house, lest he die in the war and another man inaugurate it.

6And has anyone planted a vineyard but not redeemed it? He must go and return to his house, lest he die in the war and another man redeem it.

7And has anyone betrothed a woman but not taken her as a wife? He must go and return to his house, lest he die in the war and another man take her in his stead.’

8The sheriffs must then speak additionally to the people and say, ‘Is there anyone who is fearful and fainthearted? He must go and return to his house, so as not to cause the heart of his brothers to melt as his heart has.’

9When the sheriffs finish addressing the people, they must appoint officers over the legions to stand at the head and at the rear of the people.

2 Corinthians 12:7–10

7 even though I have received such wonderful revelations from God. So to keep me from becoming proud, I was given a thorn in my flesh, a messenger from Satan to torment me and keep me from becoming proud.

8 Three different times I begged the Lord to take it away. 9 Each time he said, “My grace is all you need. My power works best in weakness.” So now I am glad to boast about my weaknesses, so that the power of Christ can work through me. 10 That’s why I take pleasure in my weaknesses, and in the insults, hardships, persecutions, and troubles that I suffer for Christ. For when I am weak, then I am strong.

Devarim (Deuteronomy) Chapter 20

10If you approach a city to wage war against it, you must propose peace to it.

11If it responds to you with peace and opens up its gates to you, all the people found therein must become tributary to you and serve you.

12If it does not make peace with you, and wages war against you, you must besiege it.

13God, your God, will deliver it into your hands, and you must kill all its males by the sword.

14However, the women, the children, the animals, and everything that is in the city—all its spoils—you may take for yourself, and you will consume the spoils of your enemies that God, your God, will have given you.

15You must do likewise to all the cities that are very distant from you, which are not one of the cities of these nations.

16It is only with regard to any of the cities of these peoples, which God, your God, is giving you as an inheritance, that you must not allow any soul to live.

17Rather, you must utterly destroy them—the Hittites, the Amorites, the Canaanites, the Perizites, the Hivites, and the Jebusites, as God, your God, has commanded you—

18in order that they not teach you to act in accordance with all their abominations that they have performed for their deities, whereby you would be sinning against God, your God.

19If you besiege a city for many days, to wage war against it in order to capture it, you must not destroy its fruit trees by wielding an ax against them, for since you may eat from them, you must not cut them down. Is the tree of the field a man, who is able to come into the besieged city, fleeing from you?

20However, you may destroy and cut down any tree that you know is not a food tree and use its wood to build a blockade against the city that wages war against you, keeping the city besieged until its submission.

Devarim (Deuteronomy) Chapter 21

1If a slain person be found lying in the field in the land that God, your God, is giving you to possess, and it is not known who slew him,

2your elders and judges must go out and measure the distance to the cities surrounding the corpse.

3From the city closest to the corpse, the elders of that city must take a calf with which labor has never been performed and that has never drawn any load with a yoke,

4and the elders of that city must bring the calf down to a virgin valley that has never been tilled or sown, and there in the valley, they must decapitate the calf.

5The Levitic priests must approach, for God, your God, has chosen them to serve Him and to bless the people in the Name of God, and by their mouth must every controversy and every dermal lesion be judged.

6All the elders of that city, who were nearest to the corpse, must wash their hands over the calf that was decapitated in the valley,

7and must declare their innocence and say, ‘Our hands did not shed this blood, for our eyes did not see him leave our city.

8Grant atonement for Your people Israel, whom You have redeemed, God, and do not lay the guilt of this innocent blood upon Your people Israel.’ Thus the bloodguilt will be atoned for them.

9If the murderer is later found, you must eradicate the guilt of innocent blood from among you by executing him, for you must do what is proper in the eyes of God.”

Yeshayahu (Isaiah) Chapter 51

12I, yea I am He Who consoles you; who are you that you fear man who will die and the son of man, who shall be made [as] grass?

13And you forgot the Lord your Maker, Who spread out the heavens and founded the earth, and you fear constantly the whole day because of the wrath of the oppressor when he prepared to destroy. Now where is the wrath of the oppressor?

14What must be poured out hastened to be opened, and he shall not die of destruction, and his bread shall not be wanting.

15I am the Lord your God, Who wrinkles the sea and its waves stir; the Lord of Hosts is His name.

16And I placed My words into your mouth, and with the shadow of My hand I covered you, to plant the heavens and to found the earth and to say to Zion [that] you are My people.

17Awaken, awaken, arise, Jerusalem, for you have drunk from the hand of the Lord the cup of His wrath; the dregs of the cup of weakness you have drained.

18She has no guide out of all the sons she bore, and she has no one who takes her by the hand out of all the sons she raised.

19These two things have befallen you; who will lament for you? Plunder and destruction, and famine and sword. [With] whom will I console you?

20Your sons have fainted, they lie at the entrance of all streets like a wild ox in a net, full of the wrath of the Lord, the rebuke of your God.

21Therefore, hearken now to this, you poor one, and who is drunk but not from wine.

22So said your Master, the Lord, and your God Who shall judge His people, "Behold, I took from you the cup of weakness; the dregs of the cup of My wrath-you shall no longer continue to drink it.

23And I will place it into the hand of those who cause you to wander, who said to your soul, 'Bend down and let us cross,' and you made your body like the earth and like the street for those who cross."

Yeshayahu (Isaiah) Chapter 52

1Awaken, awaken, put on your strength, O Zion; put on the garments of your beauty, Jerusalem the Holy City, for no longer shall the uncircumcised or the unclean continue to enter you.

2Shake yourselves from the dust, arise, sit down, O Jerusalem; free yourself of the bands of your neck, O captive daughter of Zion.

3For so said the Lord, "You were sold for nought, and you shall not be redeemed for money."

4For so said the Lord God, "My people first went down to Egypt to sojourn there, but Assyria oppressed them for nothing."

5"And now, what have I here," says the Lord, "that My people has been taken for nothing. His rulers boast," says the Lord, "and constantly all day My name is blasphemed.

6Therefore, My people shall know My name; therefore, on that day, for I am He Who speaks, here I am."

7How beautiful are the feet of the herald on the mountains, announcing peace, heralding good tidings, announcing salvation, saying to Zion, "Your God has manifested His kingdom."

8The voice of your watchmen- they raised a voice, together they shall sing, for eye to eye they shall see when the Lord returns to Zion.

9Burst out in song, sing together, O ruins of Jerusalem, for the Lord has consoled His people; He has redeemed Jerusalem.

10The Lord has revealed His holy arm before the eyes of all the nations, and all the ends of the earth shall see the salvation of our God.

11Turn away, turn away, get out of there, touch no unclean one; get out of its midst, purify yourselves, you who bear the Lord's vessels.

12For not with haste shall you go forth and not in a flurry of flight shall you go, for the Lord goes before you, and your rear guard is the God of Israel.