Study Desk

But I am not just making this agreement and its promises with you

Then you and your children will return to the Lord your God, and you will obey him with your whole being in everything I am commanding you today.

Today I ask heaven and earth to be witnesses. I am offering you life or death, blessings or curses. Now, choose life! Then you and your children may live.

"I am now one hundred twenty years old, and I cannot lead you anymore. The Lord told me I would not cross the Jordan River;

I know how stubborn and disobedient you are. You have disobeyed the Lord while I am alive and with you, and you will disobey even more after I die!

"Now you will see that I am the one God! There is no god but me. I send life and death; I can hurt, and I can heal. No one can escape from me.

"Go up the Abarim Mountains, to Mount Nebo in the country of Moab, across from Jericho. Look at the land of Canaan that I am giving to the Israelites as their own.

So now you will only look at the land from far away. You will not enter the land I am giving the people of Israel."

The Lord said, "My servant Moses is dead. Now you and all these people go across the Jordan River into the land I am giving to the Israelites.

Then the Lord said to Joshua, "Today I will begin to make you great in the opinion of all the Israelites so the people will know I am with you just as I was with Moses.

The man answered, "I am neither. I have come as the commander of the Lord 's army." Then Joshua bowed facedown on the ground and asked, "Does my master have a command for me, his servant?"

"Now then, the Lord has kept his promise. He has kept me alive for forty-five years from the time he said this to Moses during the time we all wandered in the desert. Now here I am, eighty-five years old.

I am still as strong today as I was the day Moses sent me out, and I am just as ready to fight now as I was then.

He called a meeting of all the elders, heads of families, judges, and officers of Israel. He said, "I am now very old.

Sisera said to Jael, "I am thirsty. Please give me some water to drink." So she opened a leather bag of milk and gave him a drink. Then she covered him up.

Then I said to you, ‘I am the Lord your God. Live in the land of the Amorites, but do not worship their gods.' But you did not obey me."

The Lord turned to Gideon and said, "Go with your strength and save Israel from the Midianites. I am the one who is sending you."

But Gideon answered, "Lord, how can I save Israel? My family group is the weakest in Manasseh, and I am the least important member of my family."

Gideon said to the men of Succoth, "Please give my soldiers some bread because they are very tired. I am chasing Zebah and Zalmunna, the kings of Midian."

"Ask the leaders of Shechem, ‘Is it better for the seventy sons of Gideon to rule over you or for one man to rule?' Remember, I am your relative."