Immerse: Beginnings Full Volume - Flipbook - Page 328
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IMMERSE
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BEGINNINGS
29:14-29
today, he will establish you as his people and confirm that he is your God,
just as he promised you and as he swore to your ancestors Abraham, Isaac,
and Jacob.
“But you are not the only ones with whom I am making this covenant
with its curses. I am making this covenant both with you who stand here
today in the presence of the Lord our God, and also with the future generations who are not standing here today.
“You remember how we lived in the land of Egypt and how we traveled through the lands of enemy nations as we left. You have seen their
detestable practices and their idols made of wood, stone, silver, and gold.
I am making this covenant with you so that no one among you—no man,
woman, clan, or t ribe—will turn away from the Lord our God to worship
these gods of other nations, and so that no root among you bears bitter
and poisonous fruit.
“Those who hear the warnings of this curse should not congratulate
themselves, thinking, ‘I am safe, even though I am following the desires
of my own stubborn heart.’ This would lead to utter ruin! The Lord will
never pardon such people. Instead his anger and jealousy will burn against
them. All the curses written in this book will come down on them, and the
Lord will erase their names from under heaven. The Lord will separate
them from all the tribes of Israel, to pour out on them all the curses of the
covenant recorded in this Book of Instruction.
“Then the generations to come, both your own descendants and
the foreigners who come from distant lands, will see the devastation
of the land and the diseases the Lord inflicts on it. They will exclaim,
‘The whole land is devastated by sulfur and salt. It is a wasteland with
nothing planted and nothing growing, not even a blade of grass. It is like
the cities of Sodom and Gomorrah, Admah and Zeboiim, which the Lord
destroyed in his intense anger.’
“And all the surrounding nations will ask, ‘Why has the Lord done this
to this land? Why was he so angry?’
“And the answer will be, ‘This happened because the people of the land
abandoned the covenant that the Lord, the God of their ancestors, made
with them when he brought them out of the land of Egypt. Instead, they
turned away to serve and worship gods they had not known before, gods
that were not from the Lord. That is why the Lord’s anger has burned
against this land, bringing down on it every curse recorded in this book.
In great anger and fury the Lord uprooted his people from their land and
banished them to another land, where they still live today!’
“The Lord our God has secrets known to no one. We are not accountable for them, but we and our children are accountable forever for all that he
has revealed to us, so that we may obey all the terms of these instructions.
