Moses and the Burning Bush
1.Now Moses was tending the flock of Jethro his father-in-law, the priest of Midian, and he led the flock to the far side of the wilderness and came to Horeb, the mountain of God. 2.There the angel of the Lord appeared to him in flames of fire from within a bush. Moses saw that though the bush was on fire it did not burn up. 3.So Moses thought, “I will go over and see this strange sight—why the bush does not burn up.”
4.When the Lord saw that he had gone over to look, God called to him from within the bush, “Moses! Moses!”
And Moses said, “Here I am.”
5.“Do not come any closer,” God said. “Take off your sandals, for the place where you are standing is holy ground.” 6.Then he said, “I am the God of your father,3:6 Masoretic Text; Samaritan Pentateuch (see Acts 7:32) fathers the God of Abraham, the God of Isaac and the God of Jacob.” At this, Moses hid his face, because he was afraid to look at God.
7.The Lord said, “I have indeed seen the misery of my people in Egypt. I have heard them crying out because of their slave drivers, and I am concerned about their suffering. 8.So I have come down to rescue them from the hand of the Egyptians and to bring them up out of that land into a good and spacious land, a land flowing with milk and honey—the home of the Canaanites, Hittites, Amorites, Perizzites, Hivites and Jebusites. 9.And now the cry of the Israelites has reached me, and I have seen the way the Egyptians are oppressing them. 10.So now, go. I am sending you to Pharaoh to bring my people the Israelites out of Egypt.”
11.But Moses said to God, “Who am I that I should go to Pharaoh and bring the Israelites out of Egypt?”
12.And God said, “I will be with you. And this will be the sign to you that it is I who have sent you: When you have brought the people out of Egypt, you3:12 The Hebrew is plural. will worship God on this mountain.”
13.Moses said to God, “Suppose I go to the Israelites and say to them, ‘The God of your fathers has sent me to you,’ and they ask me, ‘What is his name?’ Then what shall I tell them?”
14.God said to Moses, “I am who I am.3:14 Or I will be what I will be This is what you are to say to the Israelites: ‘I am has sent me to you.’ ”
15.God also said to Moses, “Say to the Israelites, ‘The Lord,3:15 The Hebrew for Lord sounds like and may be related to the Hebrew for I am in verse 14. the God of your fathers—the God of Abraham, the God of Isaac and the God of Jacob—has sent me to you.’
“This is my name forever,
the name you shall call me
from generation to generation.
16.“Go, assemble the elders of Israel and say to them, ‘The Lord, the God of your fathers—the God of Abraham, Isaac and Jacob—appeared to me and said: I have watched over you and have seen what has been done to you in Egypt. 17.And I have promised to bring you up out of your misery in Egypt into the land of the Canaanites, Hittites, Amorites, Perizzites, Hivites and Jebusites—a land flowing with milk and honey.’
18.“The elders of Israel will listen to you. Then you and the elders are to go to the king of Egypt and say to him, ‘The Lord, the God of the Hebrews, has met with us. Let us take a three-day journey into the wilderness to offer sacrifices to the Lord our God.’ 19.But I know that the king of Egypt will not let you go unless a mighty hand compels him. 20.So I will stretch out my hand and strike the Egyptians with all the wonders that I will perform among them. After that, he will let you go.
21.“And I will make the Egyptians favorably disposed toward this people, so that when you leave you will not go empty-handed. 22.Every woman is to ask her neighbor and any woman living in her house for articles of silver and gold and for clothing, which you will put on your sons and daughters. And so you will plunder the Egyptians.”
Joshua Installed as Leader
1.After the death of Moses the servant of the Lord, the Lord said to Joshua son of Nun, Moses’ aide: 2.“Moses my servant is dead. Now then, you and all these people, get ready to cross the Jordan River into the land I am about to give to them—to the Israelites. 3.I will give you every place where you set your foot, as I promised Moses. 4.Your territory will extend from the desert to Lebanon, and from the great river, the Euphrates—all the Hittite country—to the Mediterranean Sea in the west. 5.No one will be able to stand against you all the days of your life. As I was with Moses, so I will be with you; I will never leave you nor forsake you. 6.Be strong and courageous, because you will lead these people to inherit the land I swore to their ancestors to give them.
7.“Be strong and very courageous. Be careful to obey all the law my servant Moses gave you; do not turn from it to the right or to the left, that you may be successful wherever you go. 8.Keep this Book of the Law always on your lips; meditate on it day and night, so that you may be careful to do everything written in it. Then you will be prosperous and successful. 9.Have I not commanded you? Be strong and courageous. Do not be afraid; do not be discouraged, for the Lord your God will be with you wherever you go.”
10.So Joshua ordered the officers of the people: 11.“Go through the camp and tell the people, ‘Get your provisions ready. Three days from now you will cross the Jordan here to go in and take possession of the land the Lord your God is giving you for your own.’ ”
12.But to the Reubenites, the Gadites and the half-tribe of Manasseh, Joshua said, 13.“Remember the command that Moses the servant of the Lord gave you after he said, ‘The Lord your God will give you rest by giving you this land.’ 14.Your wives, your children and your livestock may stay in the land that Moses gave you east of the Jordan, but all your fighting men, ready for battle, must cross over ahead of your fellow Israelites. You are to help them 15.until the Lord gives them rest, as he has done for you, and until they too have taken possession of the land the Lord your God is giving them. After that, you may go back and occupy your own land, which Moses the servant of the Lord gave you east of the Jordan toward the sunrise.”
16.Then they answered Joshua, “Whatever you have commanded us we will do, and wherever you send us we will go. 17.Just as we fully obeyed Moses, so we will obey you. Only may the Lord your God be with you as he was with Moses. 18.Whoever rebels against your word and does not obey it, whatever you may command them, will be put to death. Only be strong and courageous!”
Rahab and the Spies
1.Then Joshua son of Nun secretly sent two spies from Shittim. “Go, look over the land,” he said, “especially Jericho.” So they went and entered the house of a prostitute named Rahab and stayed there.
2.The king of Jericho was told, “Look, some of the Israelites have come here tonight to spy out the land.” 3.So the king of Jericho sent this message to Rahab: “Bring out the men who came to you and entered your house, because they have come to spy out the whole land.”
4.But the woman had taken the two men and hidden them. She said, “Yes, the men came to me, but I did not know where they had come from. 5.At dusk, when it was time to close the city gate, they left. I don’t know which way they went. Go after them quickly. You may catch up with them.” 6.(But she had taken them up to the roof and hidden them under the stalks of flax she had laid out on the roof.) 7.So the men set out in pursuit of the spies on the road that leads to the fords of the Jordan, and as soon as the pursuers had gone out, the gate was shut.
8.Before the spies lay down for the night, she went up on the roof 9.and said to them, “I know that the Lord has given you this land and that a great fear of you has fallen on us, so that all who live in this country are melting in fear because of you. 10.We have heard how the Lord dried up the water of the Red Sea2:10 Or the Sea of Reeds for you when you came out of Egypt, and what you did to Sihon and Og, the two kings of the Amorites east of the Jordan, whom you completely destroyed.2:10 The Hebrew term refers to the irrevocable giving over of things or persons to the Lord, often by totally destroying them. 11.When we heard of it, our hearts melted in fear and everyone’s courage failed because of you, for the Lord your God is God in heaven above and on the earth below.
12.“Now then, please swear to me by the Lord that you will show kindness to my family, because I have shown kindness to you. Give me a sure sign 13.that you will spare the lives of my father and mother, my brothers and sisters, and all who belong to them—and that you will save us from death.”
14.“Our lives for your lives!” the men assured her. “If you don’t tell what we are doing, we will treat you kindly and faithfully when the Lord gives us the land.”
15.So she let them down by a rope through the window, for the house she lived in was part of the city wall. 16.She said to them, “Go to the hills so the pursuers will not find you. Hide yourselves there three days until they return, and then go on your way.”
17.Now the men had said to her, “This oath you made us swear will not be binding on us 18.unless, when we enter the land, you have tied this scarlet cord in the window through which you let us down, and unless you have brought your father and mother, your brothers and all your family into your house. 19.If any of them go outside your house into the street, their blood will be on their own heads; we will not be responsible. As for those who are in the house with you, their blood will be on our head if a hand is laid on them. 20.But if you tell what we are doing, we will be released from the oath you made us swear.”
21.“Agreed,” she replied. “Let it be as you say.”
So she sent them away, and they departed. And she tied the scarlet cord in the window.
22.When they left, they went into the hills and stayed there three days, until the pursuers had searched all along the road and returned without finding them. 23.Then the two men started back. They went down out of the hills, forded the river and came to Joshua son of Nun and told him everything that had happened to them. 24.They said to Joshua, “The Lord has surely given the whole land into our hands; all the people are melting in fear because of us.”
10.So do not fear, for I am with you;
do not be dismayed, for I am your God.
I will strengthen you and help you;
I will uphold you with my righteous right hand.
4.The weapons we fight with are not the weapons of the world. On the contrary, they have divine power to demolish strongholds. 5.We demolish arguments and every pretension that sets itself up against the knowledge of God, and we take captive every thought to make it obedient to Christ.
31.What, then, shall we say in response to these things? If God is for us, who can be against us? 32.He who did not spare his own Son, but gave him up for us all—how will he not also, along with him, graciously give us all things?
35.Who shall separate us from the love of Christ? Shall trouble or hardship or persecution or famine or nakedness or danger or sword?
37.No, in all these things we are more than conquerors through him who loved us. 38.For I am convinced that neither death nor life, neither angels nor demons,8:38 Or nor heavenly rulers neither the present nor the future, nor any powers, 39.neither height nor depth, nor anything else in all creation, will be able to separate us from the love of God that is in Christ Jesus our Lord.
