Meditate

Deuteronomy 18

18. Offerings for Priests

¹ The Levitical priests—indeed, the whole tribe of Levi—are to have no allotment or inheritance with Israel. They shall live on the food offerings presented to the LORD, for that is their inheritance. ² They shall have no inheritance among their fellow Israelites; the LORD is their inheritance, as he promised them.

    ³ This is the share due the priests from the people who sacrifice a bull or a sheep: the shoulder, the internal organs and the meat from the head. ⁴ You are to give them the firstfruits of your grain, new wine and olive oil, and the first wool from the shearing of your sheep, ⁵ for the LORD your God has chosen them and their descendants out of all your tribes to stand and minister in the LORD’s name always.

    ⁶ If a Levite moves from one of your towns anywhere in Israel where he is living, and comes in all earnestness to the place the LORD will choose, ⁷ he may minister in the name of the LORD his God like all his fellow Levites who serve there in the presence of the LORD. ⁸ He is to share equally in their benefits, even though he has received money from the sale of family possessions.

Occult Practices

    ⁹ When you enter the land the LORD your God is giving you, do not learn to imitate the detestable ways of the nations there. ¹⁰ Let no one be found among you who sacrifices their son or daughter in the fire, who practices divination or sorcery, interprets omens, engages in witchcraft, ¹¹ or casts spells, or who is a medium or spiritist or who consults the dead. ¹² Anyone who does these things is detestable to the LORD; because of these same detestable practices the LORD your God will drive out those nations before you. ¹³ You must be blameless before the LORD your God.

The Prophet

    ¹⁴ The nations you will dispossess listen to those who practice sorcery or divination. But as for you, the LORD your God has not permitted you to do so. ¹⁵ The LORD your God will raise up for you a prophet like me from among you, from your fellow Israelites. You must listen to him. ¹⁶ For this is what you asked of the LORD your God at Horeb on the day of the assembly when you said, “Let us not hear the voice of the LORD our God nor see this great fire anymore, or we will die.”

    ¹⁷ The LORD said to me: “What they say is good. ¹⁸ I will raise up for them a prophet like you from among their fellow Israelites, and I will put my words in his mouth. He will tell them everything I command him. ¹⁹ I myself will call to account anyone who does not listen to my words that the prophet speaks in my name. ²⁰ But a prophet who presumes to speak in my name anything I have not commanded, or a prophet who speaks in the name of other gods, is to be put to death.”

    ²¹ You may say to yourselves, “How can we know when a message has not been spoken by the LORD?” ²² If what a prophet proclaims in the name of the LORD does not take place or come true, that is a message the LORD has not spoken. That prophet has spoken presumptuously, so do not be alarmed.

Luke 11:45-46

11. Teachings of Jesus

⁴⁵ One of the experts in the law answered him, “Teacher, when you say these things, you insult us also.”

    ⁴⁶ Jesus replied, “And you experts in the law, woe to you, because you load people down with burdens they can hardly carry, and you yourselves will not lift one finger to help them.

   

Psalm 49

49. Psalm 49

¹ Hear this, all you peoples;
   listen, all who live in this world,
² both low and high,
   rich and poor alike:
³ My mouth will speak words of wisdom;
   the meditation of my heart will give you understanding.
⁴ I will turn my ear to a proverb;
   with the harp I will expound my riddle:

    ⁵ Why should I fear when evil days come,
   when wicked deceivers surround me—
⁶ those who trust in their wealth
   and boast of their great riches?
⁷ No one can redeem the life of another
   or give to God a ransom for them—
⁸ the ransom for a life is costly,
   no payment is ever enough—
⁹ so that they should live on forever
   and not see decay.
¹⁰ For all can see that the wise die,
   that the foolish and the senseless also perish,
   leaving their wealth to others.
¹¹ Their tombs will remain their houses Septuagint and Syriac; Hebrew In their thoughts their houses will remain forever,
   their dwellings for endless generations,
   though they had Or generations, / for they have named lands after themselves.

    ¹² People, despite their wealth, do not endure;
   they are like the beasts that perish.

    ¹³ This is the fate of those who trust in themselves,
   and of their followers, who approve their sayings. The Hebrew has Selah (a word of uncertain meaning) here and at the end of verse 15.
¹⁴ They are like sheep and are destined to die;
   death will be their shepherd
   (but the upright will prevail over them in the morning).
Their forms will decay in the grave,
   far from their princely mansions.
¹⁵ But God will redeem me from the realm of the dead;
   he will surely take me to himself.
¹⁶ Do not be overawed when others grow rich,
   when the splendor of their houses increases;
¹⁷ for they will take nothing with them when they die,
   their splendor will not descend with them.
¹⁸ Though while they live they count themselves blessed—
   and people praise you when you prosper—
¹⁹ they will join those who have gone before them,
   who will never again see the light of life.

    ²⁰ People who have wealth but lack understanding
   are like the beasts that perish.