Preparing with Joy for the Paschal Feast I

Preparing with Joy for the Paschal Feast

Part I of XV

Sunday 28 January 2018

Third Sunday before Lent

The Charge to Moses and Joshua

Deuteronomy 31:19-30

¹⁹Now therefore write this song, and teach it to the Israelites; put it in their mouths, in order that this song may be a witness for me against the Israelites.  ²⁰For when I have brought them into the land flowing with milk and honey, which I promised on oath to their ancestors, and they have eaten their fill and grown fat, they will turn to other gods and serve them, despising me and breaking my covenant.  ²¹And when many terrible troubles come upon them, this song will confront them as a witness, because it will not be lost from the mouths of their descendants.  For I know what they are inclined to do even now, before I have brought them into the land that I promised them on oath.”  ²²That very day Moses wrote this song and taught it to the Israelites.  ²³Then the Lord commissioned Joshua son of Nun and said, “Be strong and bold, for you shall bring the Israelites into the land that I promised them; I will be with you.”  ²⁴When Moses had finished writing down in a book the words of this law to the very end, ²⁵Moses commanded the Levites who carried the ark of the covenant of the Lord, saying, ²⁶“Take this book of the law and put it beside the ark of the covenant of the Lord your God; let it remain there as a witness against you.  ²⁷For I know well how rebellious and stubborn you are. If you already have been so rebellious toward the Lord while I am still alive among you, how much more after my death!  ²⁸Assemble to me all the elders of your tribes and your officials, so that I may recite these words in their hearing and call heaven and earth to witness against them.  ²⁹For I know that after my death you will surely act corruptly, turning aside from the way that I have commanded you.  In time to come trouble will befall you, because you will do what is evil in the sight of the Lord, provoking him to anger through the work of your hands.”  ³⁰Then Moses recited the words of this song, to the very end, in the hearing of the whole assembly of Israel.

The Rev’d Timothy Alleman

Rector

The Church of the Holy Cross