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John 20:19-23
Jesus Appears to His Disciples
19 That Sunday evening the disciples were meeting behind locked doors because they were afraid of the Jewish leaders. Suddenly, Jesus was standing there among them! “Peace be with you,” he said.
20 As he spoke, he showed them the wounds in his hands and his side. They were filled with joy when they saw the Lord!
21 Again he said, “Peace be with you. As the Father has sent me, so I am sending you.”
22 Then he breathed on them and said, “Receive the Holy Spirit.
23 If you forgive anyone’s sins, they are forgiven. If you do not forgive them, they are not forgiven.”
Devarim (Deuteronomy) Chapter 7
12 “If you will heed these ordinances and safeguard them by studying how to perform them, and perform them, God, your God, will keep the covenant for you, as well as the kindness that He swore to your forefathers.
13 He will love you, bless you, and multiply you. He will bless the fruit of your womb; the fruit of your soil: your grain, your wine, and your oil; the offspring of your cattle and the choice of your flocks—in the land that He swore to your forefathers to give you.
14 You will be blessed above all peoples. There will be no sterile male or barren female among you or your domestic animals.
15 God will remove from you all illness. He will not set upon you any of the evil diseases of Egypt that you knew, but will put them upon all your enemies.
16 You must destroy all the peoples whom God, your God, is handing over to you. You must not spare them, nor may you worship their deities, for that will be a snare for you.
17 Perhaps you will say to yourself, ‘These nations are more numerous than me; how will I be able to drive them out?’
18 You must not fear them. You must remember well what God, your God, did to Pharaoh and to all of Egypt:
19 the great trials that you saw with your own eyes, the signs, the marvels, the mighty hand, and the outstretched arm with which God, your God, took you out. So will God, your God, do to all the peoples whom you fear.
20 In addition, God, your God, will incite wasps against them, until the survivors and those who hide from you perish.
21 You must not be terrified of them, for God, your God, who is in your midst, is a great and awesome God.
22 God, your God, will cast out these nations from before you gradually. You will not be able to destroy them quickly, lest the beasts of the field outnumber you.
23 God, your God, will deliver them to you, and He will derange them with great pandemonium until they are destroyed.
24 He will deliver their kings into your hand, and you will destroy their renown from everywhere under heaven. No man will be able to stand up before you, until you have destroyed them.
25 You must burn the sculpted images of their deities with fire. You must not desire the silver or gold that is plated upon them and take it for yourself, lest you be ensnared by it, for it is disgusting to God, your God.
26 Nor should you bring an idol, which is an object of God’s disgust, into your house, lest you become condemned to destruction like it. You must utterly loathe it and utterly detest it, for it is to be destroyed.
Devarim (Deuteronomy) Chapter 8
1 You must safeguard all the commandments that I am commanding you today, in order to be able to perform them properly in order that you may live, multiply, and come take possession of the land that God swore to your forefathers.
2 You must recall the entire journey on which God, your God, led you during these 40 years in the desert, in order to afflict you and thereby to test you, to know what is in your heart, whether or not you would keep His commandments.
3 He afflicted you, let you go hungry, and then fed you with manna, which neither you nor your forefathers had ever known, in order to make you know that man does not live by bread alone, but that man lives by whatever issues from God’s mouth.
4 Your clothing did not wear out, nor did your feet swell these 40 years.
5 You know in your heart that just as a man chastises his son, so does God, your God, chastise you.
6 You must keep the commandments of God, your God, to go in His ways and revere Him.
7For God, your God, is bringing you to a good land: a land of brooks of water, fountains, and aquifers that emerge in valleys and mountains;
8 a land of wheat, barley, grapevines, figs, and pomegranates; a land of oil-producing olives and honey-producing dates;
9 a land in which you will eat bread without scarcity—you will lack nothing in it; a land whose stones yield iron, and out of whose mountains you will mine copper.
10 You will eat, be satiated, and bless God, your God, for the good land He has given you.
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John 20:24-29
Jesus Appears to Thomas
24 One of the twelve disciples, Thomas (nicknamed the Twin), was not with the others when Jesus came.
25 They told him, “We have seen the Lord!”
But he replied, “I won’t believe it unless I see the nail wounds in his hands, put my fingers into them, and place my hand into the wound in his side.”
26 Eight days later the disciples were together again, and this time Thomas was with them. The doors were locked; but suddenly, as before, Jesus was standing among them. “Peace be with you,” he said.
27 Then he said to Thomas, “Put your finger here, and look at my hands. Put your hand into the wound in my side. Don’t be faithless any longer. Believe!”
28 “My Lord and my God!” Thomas exclaimed.
29 Then Jesus told him, “You believe because you have seen me. Blessed are those who believe without seeing me.”
Devarim (Deuteronomy) Chapter 8
11 Beware lest you forget God, your God, by not keeping His commandments, ordinances, and rules, which I am commanding you today;
12 lest you eat and be sated and build sturdy houses and dwell in them,
13 and your herds and your flocks multiply and your silver and gold increase, and all that you have increase,
14 and your heart grow haughty and you forget God, your God, who took you out of Egypt, out of the house of slaves;
15 who led you through the great and awesome desert, notorious for its snakes, vipers, scorpions, and thirst induced from lack of water; who brought forth water for you out of flint-stone;
16 who fed you in the desert with manna, which your forefathers did not know, in order to afflict you and in order to test you, for your ultimate benefit—
17 and you say to yourself, ‘It is my strength and the might of my hand that have accumulated this wealth for me.’
18 Rather, you should remember God, your God, for it is He who gives you strength to become wealthy, in order to fulfill His covenant that He swore to your forefathers, as He is doing today.
19 If you forget God, your God, and you follow other peoples’ deities, worship them, and prostrate yourself before them, I testify before you today that you will surely perish.
20 You will perish just as the nations that God destroys before you will perish, since you will not obey God, your God.
Devarim (Deuteronomy) Chapter 9
1 Hear, Israel: Today, you are crossing the Jordan River in order to come dispossess nations greater and stronger than you, great cities fortified up to heaven,
2 as well as great and tall people, the descendants of the giants, whom you know and of whom you have heard said by the spies, ‘Who can stand up against the descendants of a giant?!’
3 You must know today that it is God, your God, who passes over before you as a consuming fire. He will destroy them and He will subdue them before you. You will drive them out or destroy them quickly, as God spoke to you.
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Revelation 7:9-10, 13-17
Witness around the Throne
9 After this I saw a vast crowd, too great to count, from every nation and tribe and people and language, standing in front of the throne and before the Lamb. They were clothed in white robes and held palm branches in their hands.
10 And they were shouting with a great roar,
“Salvation comes from our God who sits on the throne
and from the Lamb!”11 And all the angels were standing around the throne and around the elders and the four living beings. And they fell before the throne with their faces to the ground and worshiped God.
12 They sang,
“Amen! Blessing and glory and wisdom
and thanksgiving and honor
and power and strength belong to our God
forever and ever! Amen.”13 Then one of the twenty-four elders asked me, “Who are these who are clothed in white? Where did they come from?”
14 And I said to him, “Sir, you are the one who knows.”
Then he said to me, “These are the ones who died in the great tribulation. They have washed their robes in the blood of the Lamb and made them white.
15
“That is why they stand in front of God’s throne
and serve him day and night in his Temple.
And he who sits on the throne
will give them shelter.16
They will never again be hungry or thirsty;
they will never be scorched by the heat of the sun.17
For the Lamb on the throne
will be their Shepherd.
He will lead them to springs of life-giving water.
And God will wipe every tear from their eyes.”Devarim (Deuteronomy) Chapter 9
4 Do not say to yourself—when God, your God, has repelled them from before you—‘Because of my righteousness, God has brought me to take possession of this land,’ and that because of the wickedness of these nations, God is driving them out from before you.
5 You are coming to take possession of their land neither because of your righteousness nor because of the integrity of your heart. Rather, it is because of the wickedness of these nations that God, your God, is driving them out from before you, as well as in order to fulfill the promise that God swore to your forefathers, Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob.
6 You must know that God, your God, is not giving you this land to possess because of your righteousness, for you are a stiff-necked people.
7 Remember—do not forget—how you angered God, your God, in the desert. You have been rebelling against God from the day you went out of Egypt until you came to this place.
8 You angered God at Mount Horeb, and God was incensed with you and wanted to destroy you.
9 When I ascended the mountain to receive the stone tablets, the tablets of the covenant that God made with you, I remained on the mountain for 40 days and 40 nights. I neither ate bread nor drank water,
10 and God gave me the two stone tablets, inscribed by the finger of God, on which were engraved all the words that God spoke with you on the mountain out of the midst of the fire on the day of the assembly.
11 At the end of 40 days and 40 nights, God gave me the two stone tablets, the Tablets of the Covenant.
12 God said to me, ‘Arise, descend quickly from here, for your people, whom you have brought out of Egypt, have become corrupt. They have been quick to turn away from the path that I commanded them to follow; they have made for themselves a molten calf.’
13 God spoke to me, saying, ‘I have observed this people, and they are indeed a stiff-necked people.
14 Leave Me alone, and I will destroy them and obliterate their name from everywhere beneath heaven, and I will make you into a nation mightier and more numerous than they.’
15 I turned and came down from the mountain. The mountain was ablaze with fire, and the two Tablets of the Covenant were in my two hands.
16 I saw that you had sinned against God, your God: you had made yourselves a molten calf. You were quick to turn away from the path that God had commanded you to follow.
17 So I grasped the two tablets and hurled them from my two hands, shattering them before your eyes.
18 I threw myself down before God, staying on the mountain as before, for 40 days and 40 nights. I neither ate bread nor drank water, because I was preoccupied with seeking forgiveness for all the sins that you committed by doing evil in the eyes of God to anger Him,
19 for I was frightened by the wrath and the fury that God displayed when He was angry at you, threatening to destroy you. God hearkened to me also at that time.
20 God was extremely furious with Aaron, threatening to destroy him, so I prayed also for Aaron at that time.
21 I took the object of your sin—the calf that you had made—and I burned it with fire. I crushed it, grinding it well, until it was as fine as dust, and I cast its dust into the stream that descended from the mountain.
22 You provoked God to anger at Tav’erah, at Masah and Merivah, at Kivrot HaTa’avah,
23 and when God sent you from Kadesh Barnei’a, saying, ‘Go up and take possession of the land I have given you,’ you defied the word of God, your God. You did not believe Him, nor did you obey Him.
24 You have been rebelling against God since the day I became acquainted with you.
25 I threw myself down before God, remaining prostrate for the 40 days and the 40 nights after I threw myself down, because God had said that He intended to destroy you.
26 I prayed to God and said, ‘God, do not destroy Your people and Your inheritance, whom You have redeemed in Your greatness and whom You have taken out of Egypt with a mighty hand.
27 Remember Your servants, Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob. Pay no heed to the stubbornness of this people, or to their wickedness, or to their sin,
28 lest the people of the land from which you took us out say, “Because of God’s inability to bring them into the land about which He spoke to them, and because of His hatred toward them, He has brought them out to slay them in the desert.”
29 But they are Your people and Your inheritance, whom You took out with Your great strength and with Your outstretched arm.’
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Revelation 12:7-11
Overcoming Witness
7 Then there was war in heaven. Michael and his angels fought against the dragon and his angels.
8 And the dragon lost the battle, and he and his angels were forced out of heaven.
9 This great dragon—the ancient serpent called the devil, or Satan, the one deceiving the whole world—was thrown down to the earth with all his angels.
10 Then I heard a loud voice shouting across the heavens,
“It has come at last—
salvation and power
and the Kingdom of our God,
and the authority of his Christ.
For the accuser of our brothers and sisters
has been thrown down to earth—
the one who accuses them
before our God day and night.11
And they have defeated him by the blood of the Lamb
and by their testimony.
And they did not love their lives so much
that they were afraid to die.Devarim (Deuteronomy) Chapter 10
1 At that time, God said to me, ‘Hew yourself two tablets of stone like the first ones, and come up to Me onto the mountain. Make yourself a wooden ark.
2 I will inscribe on the tablets the words that were on the first tablets, which you shattered, and you must place them into the ark.’
3 I made an ark of acacia wood, and I hewed two stone tablets like the first ones. I ascended the mountain with the two tablets in my hand.
4 He inscribed on the tablets—according to the original text—the Ten Commandments that God spoke to you on the mountain out of the midst of the fire on the day of the assembly. God gave them to me.
5 I turned, came down from the mountain, and placed the tablets in the ark that I had made, and they remained there, as God had commanded me.
6 The Israelites journeyed from the wells of Benei Ya’akan to Moserah. There, you mourned Aaron as if he had died and had been buried there, and his son Eleazar had been installed to serve as high priest in his stead.
7 From there, you journeyed to HaGudgod, and from HaGudgod to Yotvatah, a land with streams of water.
8 God separated the tribe of Levi at that time to bear the Ark of the Covenant of God, to stand before God to minister to Him as priests, and to bless the people in His Name, as they do to this day.
9 Therefore, the tribe of Levi has no portion in the spoils of war nor any land-inheritance with its brothers. God is their inheritance, as God, your God, spoke regarding them.
10 I remained on the mountain like the first days, for 40 days and 40 nights, and God hearkened to me also at that time; God did not seek to destroy you.
11 God said to me, ‘Arise, go before the people to lead them on their journey, so that they may come and take possession of the land I promised their forefathers that I would give them.’
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Acts 6:7-14
Spirit-filled Witness
7 So God’s message continued to spread. The number of believers greatly increased in Jerusalem, and many of the Jewish priests were converted, too.
Stephen Is Arrested
8 Stephen, a man full of God’s grace and power, performed amazing miracles and signs among the people.
9 But one day some men from the Synagogue of Freed Slaves, as it was called, started to debate with him. They were Jews from Cyrene, Alexandria, Cilicia, and the province of Asia.
10 None of them could stand against the wisdom and the Spirit with which Stephen spoke.
11 So they persuaded some men to lie about Stephen, saying, “We heard him blaspheme Moses, and even God.”
12 This roused the people, the elders, and the teachers of religious law. So they arrested Stephen and brought him before the high council.
13 The lying witnesses said, “This man is always speaking against the holy Temple and against the law of Moses.
14 We have heard him say that this Jesus of Nazareth will destroy the Temple and change the customs Moses handed down to us.”
Devarim (Deuteronomy) Chapter 10
12 And now, Israel, what does God, your God, demand of you? Only to revere God, your God, to walk in all His ways, to love Him, and to serve God, your God, with all your heart and with all your soul,
13 by keeping God’s commandments and rules, which I am commanding you today, for your own good.
14 Behold, both the physical heaven and the spiritual heavens beyond the physical heaven, not to mention the earth and all that is on it, belong to God, your God.
15 Yet God desired only your forefathers, to love them, and He chose their seed after them—you—out of all peoples, as you remain His chosen ones to this day.
16 You must therefore circumcise the foreskin of your heart and cease being stiff-necked.
17 For God, your God, is God over all divine beings and Lord over all earthly kings and lords, the great, mighty, and awesome God, who will not be partial, nor will He accept a bribe.
18 He executes justice on behalf of the orphan and widow, and He showers love upon the convert by giving him bread and clothing.
19 You must love the convert, for you were strangers in Egypt.
20 You must revere God, your God, worship Him, and be attached to Him in love; only then may you swear by His Name.
21 He deserves to be the object of your praise, because He is your God, who did these great and awesome things for you, as you have seen with your own eyes.
22 Your forefathers descended to Egypt with seventy souls, and now God, your God, has made you as numerous as the stars of heaven.
Devarim (Deuteronomy) Chapter 11
1 You must love God, your God, and guard His charge, rules, ordinances, and commandments, all the days.
2 Know all that I am saying today, for I am not speaking with your children—who did not know and who did not see the chastisement of God, your God, His greatness, His mighty hand, His outstretched arm,
3 His signs, and His deeds, which He performed in the midst of Egypt, to Pharaoh, king of Egypt, and to his entire land;
4 and what He did to the army of Egypt, to its steeds, and to its chariots, how He made the water of the Sea of Reeds inundate them when they pursued you, and how God destroyed them, so that their army remains crippled to this day;
5 and what He did for you in the desert, until you arrived at this place;
6 and what He did to Dathan and Aviram sons of Eli’av grandson of Reuben, when the earth opened its mouth and swallowed them up, along with their households, their tents, and all their money, which stood them on their feet, in the midst of all Israel—
7 rather, it is with you that I am speaking, for your eyes have seen all the great work of God, which He did.
8 Keep all the commandments that I am commanding you today, in order that you be strong and come take possession of the land that you are crossing the Jordan River into in order to possess,
9 and in order that you endure in the land that God swore to your forefathers that He would give to them and to their seed, a land flowing with milk and date- and fig-honey.
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Psalm 116:1-9
Grateful Witness
1
I love the Lord because he hears my voice
and my prayer for mercy.
2
Because he bends down to listen,
I will pray as long as I have breath!
3
Death wrapped its ropes around me;
the terrors of the grave overtook me.
I saw only trouble and sorrow.
4
Then I called on the name of the Lord:
“Please, Lord, save me!”
5
How kind the Lord is! How good he is!
So merciful, this God of ours!
6
The Lord protects those of childlike faith;
I was facing death, and he saved me.
7
Let my soul be at rest again,
for the Lord has been good to me.
8
He has saved me from death,
my eyes from tears,
my feet from stumbling.
9
And so I walk in the Lord’s presence
as I live here on earth!
Devarim (Deuteronomy) Chapter 11
10 For the land to which you are coming to possess is not like Egypt, out of which you came, in which, after you sowed your seed, you watered the fields by foot like a vegetable garden.
11 The land that you are crossing into in order to possess is a land of mountains and valleys; it is watered by rain falling from the sky.
12 It is the land that God, your God, watches over. The eyes of God, your God, are always upon it, from the beginning of the year to the end of the year.
13 If you continuously study My commandments that I am commanding to you today, out of love for God, your God, and in order to serve Him with all your heart and with all your soul,
14 I will give the rain for your land in its time—the early rain and the latter rain. You will gather in your grain, wine, and oil.
15 I will give grass to your domestic animals in your field; you will eat and be sated.
16 Beware, lest your heart be misled and you neglect the study of the Torah, and you worship other peoples’ deities and prostrate yourselves before them,
17 for then the wrath of God will be kindled against you. He will close off heaven and there will be no rain, and the ground will not give its produce. You will perish quickly from upon the good land that God is giving you.
18 You must set these words of Mine upon your heart and upon your soul. You must bind them as a sign upon your arm and they must act as a reminder on your forehead, above the point between your eyes.
19 You must teach them to your children, so that they speak with them with them when you are sitting in your house and when you are walking on the way, when you lie down to sleep at night and when you awaken in the morning.
20 You must inscribe this paragraph upon the parchment placed on the doorposts of your house and upon your gates,
21 in order that your days and the days of your children increase in the land that God swore to your forefathers to give them, for as long as the days of heaven above earth.
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Psalm 116:10-19
Steadfast Witness
10
I believed in you, so I said,
“I am deeply troubled, Lord.”11
In my anxiety I cried out to you,
“These people are all liars!”12
What can I offer the Lord
for all he has done for me?13
I will lift up the cup of salvation
and praise the Lord’s name for saving me.14
I will keep my promises to the Lord
in the presence of all his people.15
The Lord cares deeply
when his loved ones die.16
O Lord, I am your servant;
yes, I am your servant, born into your household;
you have freed me from my chains.17
I will offer you a sacrifice of thanksgiving
and call on the name of the Lord.18
I will fulfill my vows to the Lord
in the presence of all his people—19
in the house of the Lord
in the heart of Jerusalem.Praise the Lord!
Devarim (Deuteronomy) Chapter 11
22 For if you safeguard all these commandments that I am commanding you, by studying the Torah’s instructions regarding how to perform them properly, to love God, your God, to walk in all His ways, and to cleave to Him,
23 God will drive out all these nations from before you. You will dispossess nations who are greater and stronger than you.
24 Every place upon which the soles of your feet will tread will be yours. Your border will extend from the desert and Lebanon, from the river—the Euphrates River—to the western sea
25 No one will stand up against you, not even as formidable a man as Og. God, your God, will cast the terror of you and the dread of you on all the inhabitants of the land upon which you tread, as He spoke concerning you.”
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Yeshayahu (Isaiah) Chapter 49
14 And Zion said, "The Lord has forsaken me, and the Lord has forgotten me."
15 Shall a woman forget her sucking child, from having mercy on the child of her womb? These too shall forget, but I will not forget you.
16 Behold on [My] hands have I engraved you; your walls are before Me always.
17 Your sons have hastened; those who destroy you and those who lay you waste shall go forth from you.
18 Lift your eyes around and see, all of them have gathered, have come to you; as I live, says the Lord, that you shall wear all of them as jewelry, and you shall tie them as a bride.
19 For your ruins and your desolate places and your land that has been destroyed, for now you shall be crowded by the inhabitants, and those who would destroy you shall be far away.
20 Your children of whom you were bereaved shall yet say in your ears, "The place is too narrow for me; move over for me so that I will dwell."
21 And you shall say to yourself, "Who begot these for me, seeing that I am bereaved and solitary, exiled and rejected, and who raised these? Behold I was left alone; these-[from] where are they?"
22 So said the Lord God, "Behold I will raise My hand to the nations, and to the peoples will I raise My standard, and they shall bring your sons in their armpits, and your daughters shall be borne on their shoulder[s].
23 And kings shall be your nursing fathers and their princesses your wet nurses; they shall prostrate themselves to you with their face on the ground, and they shall lick the dust of your feet, and you shall know that I am the Lord, for those who wait for Me shall not be ashamed.
24 Shall prey be taken from a mighty warrior, or shall the captives of the righteous escape?"
25 For so said the Lord, "Even the captives of a mighty warrior can be taken and the prey of a tyrant shall escape, and with your contender will I contend, and your sons I will save.
26 And those who taunt you-I will feed their flesh, and as with sweet wine they shall become drunk [from] their blood; and all flesh shall know that I am the Lord Who saves you, and your Redeemer, the Mighty One of Jacob.
Yeshayahu (Isaiah) Chapter 50
1 So said the Lord, "Where is your mother's bill of divorce that I sent her away? Or, who is it of My creditors to whom I sold you? Behold for your iniquities you were sold, and for your transgressions your mother was sent away.
2 Why have I come and there is no man? [Why] have I called and no one answers? Is My hand too short to redeem, or do I have no strength to save? Behold, with My rebuke I dry up the sea, I make rivers into a desert; their fish become foul because there is no water and die because of thirst.
3 I clothe the heavens with darkness, and I make sackcloth their raiment.
4 The Lord God gave me a tongue for teaching, to know to establish times for the faint [for His] word; He awakens me every morning, He awakens My ear, to hear according to the teachings.
5 The Lord God opened my ear, and I did not rebel; I did not turn away backwards.
6 I gave my back to smiters and my cheeks to them that plucked off the hair; I did not hide my face from embarrassments and spitting.
7 But the Lord God helps me, therefore, I was not embarrassed; therefore, I made my face like flint, and I knew that I would not be ashamed.
8 He Who vindicates me is near, whoever wishes to quarrel with me-let us stand together; whoever is my contender shall approach me.
9 Behold, the Lord God shall help me; who is he that will condemn me? Behold all of them shall wear out like a garment, a moth shall consume them.
10 Who among you is God-fearing, who hearkens to the voice of His servant, who went in darkness and who has no light, let him trust in the name of the Lord and lean on his God.
11 Behold all of you who kindle fire, who give power to flames; go in the flame of your fire, and in the flames you have kindled; from My hand has this come to you, in grief you shall lie down.
Yeshayahu (Isaiah) Chapter 51
1 Hearken to Me, you pursuers of righteousness, you seekers of the Lord; look at the rock whence you were hewn and at the hole of the pit whence you were dug.
2 Look at Abraham your father and at Sarah who bore you, for when he was but one I called him, and I blessed him and made him many.
3 For the Lord shall console Zion, He shall console all its ruins, and He shall make its desert like a paradise and its wasteland like the garden of the Lord; joy and happiness shall be found therein, thanksgiving and a voice of song.