Jesus set for His disciples the example of a resolute life. He was determined to accomplish His purpose for coming to this earth. He tolerated no double-mindedness in His followers. He wanted them to be determined, resolved, bold, and steady. He challenged them to totally cast aside their comforts, worldly desires, and ties to family (both living and dead) in order to put their hands to the “gospel plow.”
In order to follow Him, His disciples needed to be like Him. In the final days of His life, He issued two simple commands to them: “come” and “go.” First, he commanded, “Come, be my disciple” (Luke 9:59), encouraging them to imitate His example of resolve. Next, he challenged them, saying, “Go now, and remember that I am sending you out as lambs among wolves” (Luke 10:3). The disciples were given clear instruction to waste no time on greetings along the way or in lingering in towns that rejected the gospel message.
Time is of the essence when the harvest is ripe and a storm is approaching. Similarly, there is a spiritual harvest of souls waiting to be reaped. We must leave behind earthly distractions and work passionately for God, like Jesus did, recognizing that “there is little time left before the night falls and all work comes to an end” (John 9:4).
The Law commanded, “Do not plow with an ox and a donkey harnessed together” (Deuteronomy 22:10). If you hook up to the gospel plow, don’t mix with the wrong company. Be single-minded and resolute, straining “to reach the end of the race and receive the prize for which God, through Christ Jesus, is calling us up to heaven” (Philippians 3:14).
Deuteronomy 21-22
Atonement for an Unsolved Murder
21 If someone is found slain, lying in a field in the land the LORD your God is giving you to possess, and it is not known who the killer was,2your elders and judges shall go out and measure the distance from the body to the neighboring towns.3Then the elders of the town nearest the body shall take a heifer that has never been worked and has never worn a yoke4and lead it down to a valley that has not been plowed or planted and where there is a flowing stream. There in the valley they are to break the heifer’s neck.5The Levitical priests shall step forward, for the LORD your God has chosen them to minister and to pronounce blessings in the name of the LORD and to decide all cases of dispute and assault.6Then all the elders of the town nearest the body shall wash their hands over the heifer whose neck was broken in the valley,7and they shall declare: “Our hands did not shed this blood, nor did our eyes see it done.8Accept this atonement for your people Israel, whom you have redeemed, LORD, and do not hold your people guilty of the blood of an innocent person.” Then the bloodshed will be atoned for,9and you will have purged from yourselves the guilt of shedding innocent blood, since you have done what is right in the eyes of the LORD.
Marrying a Captive Woman
10When you go to war against your enemies and the LORD your God delivers them into your hands and you take captives,11if you notice among the captives a beautiful woman and are attracted to her, you may take her as your wife.12Bring her into your home and have her shave her head, trim her nails13and put aside the clothes she was wearing when captured. After she has lived in your house and mourned her father and mother for a full month, then you may go to her and be her husband and she shall be your wife.14If you are not pleased with her, let her go wherever she wishes. You must not sell her or treat her as a slave, since you have dishonored her.
The Right of the Firstborn
15If a man has two wives, and he loves one but not the other, and both bear him sons but the firstborn is the son of the wife he does not love,16when he wills his property to his sons, he must not give the rights of the firstborn to the son of the wife he loves in preference to his actual firstborn, the son of the wife he does not love.17He must acknowledge the son of his unloved wife as the firstborn by giving him a double share of all he has. That son is the first sign of his father’s strength. The right of the firstborn belongs to him.
A Rebellious Son
18If someone has a stubborn and rebellious son who does not obey his father and mother and will not listen to them when they discipline him,19his father and mother shall take hold of him and bring him to the elders at the gate of his town.20They shall say to the elders, “This son of ours is stubborn and rebellious. He will not obey us. He is a glutton and a drunkard.”21Then all the men of his town are to stone him to death. You must purge the evil from among you. All Israel will hear of it and be afraid.
Various Laws
22If someone guilty of a capital offense is put to death and their body is exposed on a pole,23you must not leave the body hanging on the pole overnight. Be sure to bury it that same day, because anyone who is hung on a pole is under God’s curse. You must not desecrate the land the LORD your God is giving you as an inheritance.
22 If you see your fellow Israelite’s ox or sheep straying, do not ignore it but be sure to take it back to its owner.2If they do not live near you or if you do not know who owns it, take it home with you and keep it until they come looking for it. Then give it back.3Do the same if you find their donkey or cloak or anything else they have lost. Do not ignore it.
4If you see your fellow Israelite’s donkey or ox fallen on the road, do not ignore it. Help the owner get it to its feet.
5A woman must not wear men’s clothing, nor a man wear women’s clothing, for the LORD your God detests anyone who does this.
6If you come across a bird’s nest beside the road, either in a tree or on the ground, and the mother is sitting on the young or on the eggs, do not take the mother with the young.7You may take the young, but be sure to let the mother go, so that it may go well with you and you may have a long life.
8When you build a new house, make a parapet around your roof so that you may not bring the guilt of bloodshed on your house if someone falls from the roof.
9Do not plant two kinds of seed in your vineyard; if you do, not only the crops you plant but also the fruit of the vineyard will be defiled.
10Do not plow with an ox and a donkey yoked together.
11Do not wear clothes of wool and linen woven together.
12Make tassels on the four corners of the cloak you wear.
Marriage Violations
13If a man takes a wife and, after sleeping with her, dislikes her14and slanders her and gives her a bad name, saying, “I married this woman, but when I approached her, I did not find proof of her virginity,”15then the young woman’s father and mother shall bring to the town elders at the gate proof that she was a virgin.16Her father will say to the elders, “I gave my daughter in marriage to this man, but he dislikes her.17Now he has slandered her and said, ‘I did not find your daughter to be a virgin.’ But here is the proof of my daughter’s virginity.” Then her parents shall display the cloth before the elders of the town,18and the elders shall take the man and punish him.19They shall fine him a hundred shekels of silver and give them to the young woman’s father, because this man has given an Israelite virgin a bad name. She shall continue to be his wife; he must not divorce her as long as he lives.
20If, however, the charge is true and no proof of the young woman’s virginity can be found,21she shall be brought to the door of her father’s house and there the men of her town shall stone her to death. She has done an outrageous thing in Israel by being promiscuous while still in her father’s house. You must purge the evil from among you.
22If a man is found sleeping with another man’s wife, both the man who slept with her and the woman must die. You must purge the evil from Israel.
23If a man happens to meet in a town a virgin pledged to be married and he sleeps with her,24you shall take both of them to the gate of that town and stone them to death—the young woman because she was in a town and did not scream for help, and the man because he violated another man’s wife. You must purge the evil from among you.
25But if out in the country a man happens to meet a young woman pledged to be married and rapes her, only the man who has done this shall die.26Do nothing to the woman; she has committed no sin deserving death. This case is like that of someone who attacks and murders a neighbor,27for the man found the young woman out in the country, and though the betrothed woman screamed, there was no one to rescue her.
28If a man happens to meet a virgin who is not pledged to be married and rapes her and they are discovered,29he shall pay her father fifty shekels of silver. He must marry the young woman, for he has violated her. He can never divorce her as long as he lives.
30A man is not to marry his father’s wife; he must not dishonor his father’s bed.
Luke 9:51-10:12
Samaritan Opposition
51As the time approached for him to be taken up to heaven, Jesus resolutely set out for Jerusalem.52And he sent messengers on ahead, who went into a Samaritan village to get things ready for him;53but the people there did not welcome him, because he was heading for Jerusalem.54When the disciples James and John saw this, they asked, “Lord, do you want us to call fire down from heaven to destroy them?”55But Jesus turned and rebuked them.56Then he and his disciples went to another village.
The Cost of Following Jesus
57As they were walking along the road, a man said to him, “I will follow you wherever you go.”
58Jesus replied, “Foxes have dens and birds have nests, but the Son of Man has no place to lay his head.”
59He said to another man, “Follow me.”
But he replied, “Lord, first let me go and bury my father.”
60Jesus said to him, “Let the dead bury their own dead, but you go and proclaim the kingdom of God.”
61Still another said, “I will follow you, Lord; but first let me go back and say goodbye to my family.”
62Jesus replied, “No one who puts a hand to the plow and looks back is fit for service in the kingdom of God.”
Jesus Sends Out the Seventy-Two
10 After this the Lord appointed seventy-two others and sent them two by two ahead of him to every town and place where he was about to go.2He told them, “The harvest is plentiful, but the workers are few. Ask the Lord of the harvest, therefore, to send out workers into his harvest field.3Go! I am sending you out like lambs among wolves.4Do not take a purse or bag or sandals; and do not greet anyone on the road.
5“When you enter a house, first say, ‘Peace to this house.’6If someone who promotes peace is there, your peace will rest on them; if not, it will return to you.7Stay there, eating and drinking whatever they give you, for the worker deserves his wages. Do not move around from house to house.
8“When you enter a town and are welcomed, eat what is offered to you.9Heal the sick who are there and tell them, ‘The kingdom of God has come near to you.’10But when you enter a town and are not welcomed, go into its streets and say,11‘Even the dust of your town we wipe from our feet as a warning to you. Yet be sure of this: The kingdom of God has come near.’12I tell you, it will be more bearable on that day for Sodom than for that town.
Psalm 74
Psalm 74
74 O God, why have you rejected us forever?
Why does your anger smolder against the sheep of your pasture?
2Remember the nation you purchased long ago,
the people of your inheritance, whom you redeemed—
Mount Zion, where you dwelt.
3Turn your steps toward these everlasting ruins,
all this destruction the enemy has brought on the sanctuary.
4Your foes roared in the place where you met with us;
they set up their standards as signs.
5They behaved like men wielding axes
to cut through a thicket of trees.
6They smashed all the carved paneling
with their axes and hatchets.
7They burned your sanctuary to the ground;
they defiled the dwelling place of your Name.
8They said in their hearts, “We will crush them completely!”
They burned every place where God was worshiped in the land.
9We are given no signs from God;
no prophets are left,
and none of us knows how long this will be.
10How long will the enemy mock you, God?
Will the foe revile your name forever?
11Why do you hold back your hand, your right hand?
Take it from the folds of your garment and destroy them!
12But God is my King from long ago;
he brings salvation on the earth.
13It was you who split open the sea by your power;
you broke the heads of the monster in the waters.
14It was you who crushed the heads of Leviathan
and gave it as food to the creatures of the desert.
15It was you who opened up springs and streams;
you dried up the ever-flowing rivers.
16The day is yours, and yours also the night;
you established the sun and moon.
17It was you who set all the boundaries of the earth;
you made both summer and winter.
18Remember how the enemy has mocked you, LORD,
how foolish people have reviled your name.
19Do not hand over the life of your dove to wild beasts;
do not forget the lives of your afflicted people forever.
20Have regard for your covenant,
because haunts of violence fill the dark places of the land.
21Do not let the oppressed retreat in disgrace;
may the poor and needy praise your name.
22Rise up, O God, and defend your cause;
remember how fools mock you all day long.
23Do not ignore the clamor of your adversaries,
the uproar of your enemies, which rises continually.
Proverbs 12:11
11Those who work their land will have abundant food,
but those who chase fantasies have no sense.
