Daily Lectionary

Deuteronomy 28:1-22

¹ “And if you faithfully obey the voice of the LORD your God, being careful to do all his commandments that I command you today, the LORD your God will set you high above all the nations of the earth.
² And all these blessings shall come upon you and overtake you, if you obey the voice of the LORD your God.
³ Blessed shall you be in the city, and blessed shall you be in the field.
⁴ Blessed shall be the fruit of your womb and the fruit of your ground and the fruit of your cattle, the increase of your herds and the young of your flock.
⁵ Blessed shall be your basket and your kneading bowl.
⁶ Blessed shall you be when you come in, and blessed shall you be when you go out.
⁷ “The LORD will cause your enemies who rise against you to be defeated before you. They shall come out against you one way and flee before you seven ways.
⁸ The LORD will command the blessing on you in your barns and in all that you undertake. And he will bless you in the land that the LORD your God is giving you.
⁹ The LORD will establish you as a people holy to himself, as he has sworn to you, if you keep the commandments of the LORD your God and walk in his ways.
¹⁰ And all the peoples of the earth shall see that you are called by the name of the LORD, and they shall be afraid of you.
¹¹ And the LORD will make you abound in prosperity, in the fruit of your womb and in the fruit of your livestock and in the fruit of your ground, within the land that the LORD swore to your fathers to give you.
¹² The LORD will open to you his good treasury, the heavens, to give the rain to your land in its season and to bless all the work of your hands. And you shall lend to many nations, but you shall not borrow.
¹³ And the LORD will make you the head and not the tail, and you shall only go up and not down, if you obey the commandments of the LORD your God, which I command you today, being careful to do them,
¹⁴ and if you do not turn aside from any of the words that I command you today, to the right hand or to the left, to go after other gods to serve them.
¹⁵ “But if you will not obey the voice of the LORD your God or be careful to do all his commandments and his statutes that I command you today, then all these curses shall come upon you and overtake you.
¹⁶ Cursed shall you be in the city, and cursed shall you be in the field.
¹⁷ Cursed shall be your basket and your kneading bowl.
¹⁸ Cursed shall be the fruit of your womb and the fruit of your ground, the increase of your herds and the young of your flock.
¹⁹ Cursed shall you be when you come in, and cursed shall you be when you go out.
²⁰ “The LORD will send on you curses, confusion, and frustration in all that you undertake to do, until you are destroyed and perish quickly on account of the evil of your deeds, because you have forsaken me.
²¹ The LORD will make the pestilence stick to you until he has consumed you off the land that you are entering to take possession of it.
²² The LORD will strike you with wasting disease and with fever, inflammation and fiery heat, and with drought and with blight and with mildew. They shall pursue you until you perish. (ESV)

Matthew 15:1-20

¹ Then Pharisees and scribes came to Jesus from Jerusalem and said,
² “Why do your disciples break the tradition of the elders? For they do not wash their hands when they eat.”
³ He answered them, “And why do you break the commandment of God for the sake of your tradition?
⁴ For God commanded, ‘Honor your father and your mother,’ and, ‘Whoever reviles father or mother must surely die.’
⁵ But you say, ‘If anyone tells his father or his mother, “What you would have gained from me is given to God,”
⁶ he need not honor his father.’ So for the sake of your tradition you have made void the word of God.
⁷ You hypocrites! Well did Isaiah prophesy of you, when he said:
⁸ “‘This people honors me with their lips, but their heart is far from me;
⁹ in vain do they worship me, teaching as doctrines the commandments of men.’”
¹⁰ And he called the people to him and said to them, “Hear and understand:
¹¹ it is not what goes into the mouth that defiles a person, but what comes out of the mouth; this defiles a person.”
¹² Then the disciples came and said to him, “Do you know that the Pharisees were offended when they heard this saying?”
¹³ He answered, “Every plant that my heavenly Father has not planted will be rooted up.
¹⁴ Let them alone; they are blind guides. And if the blind lead the blind, both will fall into a pit.”
¹⁵ But Peter said to him, “Explain the parable to us.”
¹⁶ And he said, “Are you also still without understanding?
¹⁷ Do you not see that whatever goes into the mouth passes into the stomach and is expelled?
¹⁸ But what comes out of the mouth proceeds from the heart, and this defiles a person.
¹⁹ For out of the heart come evil thoughts, murder, adultery, sexual immorality, theft, false witness, slander.
²⁰ These are what defile a person. But to eat with unwashed hands does not defile anyone.” (ESV)