THE BLESSINGS OF OBEDIENCE
8 “Therefore, be careful to obey every command I am giving you today, so you may have strength to go in and take over the land you are about to enter.
9 If you obey, you will enjoy a long life in the land the Lord swore to give to your ancestors and to you, their descendants—a land flowing with milk and honey!
10 For the land you are about to enter and take over is not like the land of Egypt from which you came, where you planted your seed and made irrigation ditches with your foot as in a vegetable garden.
11 Rather, the land you will soon take over is a land of hills and valleys with plenty of rain—
12 a land that the Lord your God cares for. He watches over it through each season of the year!
13 “If you carefully obey the commands I am giving you today, and if you love the Lord your God and serve him with all your heart and soul,
14 then he will send the rains in their proper seasons—the early and late rains—so you can bring in your harvests of grain, new wine, and olive oil.
15 He will give you lush pastureland for your livestock, and you yourselves will have all you want to eat.
16 “But be careful. Don’t let your heart be deceived so that you turn away from the Lord and serve and worship other gods.
17 If you do, the Lord’s anger will burn against you. He will shut up the sky and hold back the rain, and the ground will fail to produce its harvests. Then you will quickly die in that good land the Lord is giving you.
18 “So commit yourselves wholeheartedly to these words of mine. Tie them to your hands and wear them on your forehead as reminders.
19 Teach them to your children. Talk about them when you are at home and when you are on the road, when you are going to bed and when you are getting up.
20 Write them on the doorposts of your house and on your gates,
21 so that as long as the sky remains above the earth, you and your children may flourish in the land the Lord swore to give your ancestors.
22 “Be careful to obey all these commands I am giving you. Show love to the Lord your God by walking in his ways and holding tightly to him.
23 Then the Lord will drive out all the nations ahead of you, though they are much greater and stronger than you, and you will take over their land.
24 Wherever you set foot, that land will be yours. Your frontiers will stretch from the wilderness in the south to Lebanon in the north, and from the Euphrates River in the east to the Mediterranean Sea in the west.
25 No one will be able to stand against you, for the Lord your God will cause the people to fear and dread you, as he promised, wherever you go in the whole land.
26 “Look, today I am giving you the choice between a blessing and a curse!
27 You will be blessed if you obey the commands of the Lord your God that I am giving you today.
28 But you will be cursed if you reject the commands of the Lord your God and turn away from him and worship gods you have not known before.
29 “When the Lord your God brings you into the land and helps you take possession of it, you must pronounce the blessing at Mount Gerizim and the curse at Mount Ebal.
30 (These two mountains are west of the Jordan River in the land of the Canaanites who live in the Jordan Valley, near the town of Gilgal, not far from the oaks of Moreh.)
31 For you are about to cross the Jordan River to take over the land the Lord your God is giving you. When you take that land and are living in it,
32 you must be careful to obey all the decrees and regulations I am giving you today.
ACTS 15:22-35
THE LETTER TO THE GENTILE BELIEVERS
22 Then the apostles and elders together with the whole church in Jerusalem chose delegates, and they sent them to Antioch of Syria with Paul and Barnabas to report on this decision. The men chosen were two of the church leaders—Judas (also called Barsabbas) and Silas.
23 This is the letter they took with them: “This letter is from the apostles and elders, your brothers in Jerusalem. It is written to the Gentile believers in Antioch, Syria, and Cilicia. Greetings!
24 “We understand that some men from here have troubled you and upset you with their teaching, but we did not send them!
25 So we decided, having come to complete agreement, to send you official representatives, along with our beloved Barnabas and Paul,
26 who have risked their lives for the name of our Lord Jesus Christ.
27 We are sending Judas and Silas to confirm what we have decided concerning your question.
28 “For it seemed good to the Holy Spirit and to us to lay no greater burden on you than these few requirements:
29 You must abstain from eating food offered to idols, from consuming blood or the meat of strangled animals, and from sexual immorality. If you do this, you will do well. Farewell.”
30 The messengers went at once to Antioch, where they called a general meeting of the believers and delivered the letter.
31 And there was great joy throughout the church that day as they read this encouraging message.
32 Then Judas and Silas, both being prophets, spoke at length to the believers, encouraging and strengthening their faith.
33 They stayed for a while, and then the believers sent them back to the church in Jerusalem with a blessing of peace.***
35 Paul and Barnabas stayed in Antioch. They and many others taught and preached the word of the Lord there.
***Some manuscripts add verse 34, But Silas decided to stay there
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