Study Desk

"See, I have taught you statutes and judgments just as the LORD my God commanded me, that you are to do these things in the land where you are entering to take possession of it.

"For what great nation is there that has a god so near to it as is the LORD our God whenever we call on Him?

"Remember the day you stood before the LORD your God at Horeb, when the LORD said to me, 'Assemble the people to Me, that I may have them hear My words so that they may learn to fear Me all the days that they live on the earth, and that they may teach their children.'

"And be careful not to raise your eyes to heaven and look at the sun, the moon, and the stars, all the heavenly lights, and allow yourself to be drawn away and worship them and serve them, things which the LORD your God has allotted to all the peoples under the whole heaven.

"Now the LORD was angry with me on your account, and He swore that I would not cross the Jordan, and that I would not enter the good land which the LORD your God is giving you as an inheritance.

"So be careful yourselves, that you do not forget the covenant of the LORD your God which He made with you, and make for yourselves a carved image in the form of anything against which the LORD your God has commanded you.

"For the LORD your God is a consuming fire, a jealous God.

"When you father children and have grandchildren, and you grow old in the land, and you act corruptly, and make an idol in the form of anything, and do what is evil in the sight of the LORD your God to provoke Him to anger,

"But from there you will seek the LORD your God, and you will find Him if you search for Him with all your heart and all your soul.

"When you are in distress and all these things happen to you, in the latter days you will return to the LORD your God and listen to His voice.

"For the LORD your God is a compassionate God; He will not abandon you nor destroy you, nor forget the covenant with your fathers which He swore to them.

"Indeed, ask now about the earlier days that were before your time, since the day that God created mankind on the earth, and inquire from one end of the heavens to the other. Has anything been done like this great thing, or has anything been heard like it?

"Has any people heard the voice of God speaking from the midst of the fire, as you have heard it, and survived?

"Or has a god ventured to go to take for himself a nation from within another nation by trials, by signs and wonders, by war, by a mighty hand, by an outstretched arm, and by great terrors, just as the LORD your God did for you in Egypt before your eyes?

"You were shown these things so that you might know that the LORD, He is God; there is no other besides Him.

"Therefore know today, and take it to your heart, that the LORD, He is God in heaven above and on the earth below; there is no other.

"So you shall keep His statutes and His commandments which I am giving you today, so that it may go well for you and for your children after you, and that you may live long on the land which the LORD your God is giving you for all time."

"The LORD our God made a covenant with us at Horeb.

'I am the LORD your God who brought you out of the land of Egypt, out of the house of slavery.

'You shall not worship them nor serve them; for I, the LORD your God, am a jealous God, inflicting the punishment of the fathers on the children, even on the third and fourth generations of those who hate Me,