Joshua 24:31

“I am the true vine, and my Father is the farmer.

Therefore, my beloved brothers, be steadfast, immovable, always abounding in the Lord’s work, because you know that your labor is not in vain in the Lord.

He set himself to seek God in the days of Zechariah, who had understanding in the vision of God; and as long as he sought Yahweh, God made him prosper.

“Behold, I send you out as sheep among wolves. Therefore be wise as serpents, and harmless as doves.

His affection is more abundantly toward you, while he remembers all of your obedience, how with fear and trembling you received him.

Let’s therefore give diligence to enter into that rest, lest anyone fall after the same example of disobedience.

Beloved, I beg you as foreigners and pilgrims, to abstain from fleshly lusts, which war against the soul;

You will bring them in, and plant them in the mountain of your inheritance, the place, Yahweh, which you have made for yourself to dwell in; the sanctuary, Lord, which your hands have established.

“Lord Yahweh, you have begun to show your servant your greatness, and your strong hand. For what god is there in heaven or in earth that can do works like yours, and mighty acts like yours?

They gave him seventy pieces of silver out of the house of Baal Berith, with which Abimelech hired vain and reckless fellows who followed him.

When all the men of the tower of Shechem heard of it, they entered into the stronghold of the house of Elberith.

Serve Yahweh with fear, and rejoice with trembling.

You brought a vine out of Egypt. You drove out the nations, and planted it.

He dug it up, gathered out its stones, planted it with the choicest vine, built a tower in the middle of it, and also cut out a wine press in it. He looked for it to yield grapes, but it yielded wild grapes.

What could have been done more to my vineyard, that I have not done in it? Why, when I looked for it to yield grapes, did it yield wild grapes?

“Beware of false prophets, who come to you in sheep’s clothing, but inwardly are ravening wolves.

For there is no good tree that produces rotten fruit; nor again a rotten tree that produces good fruit.

Yes, and for this very cause adding on your part all diligence, in your faith supply moral excellence; and in moral excellence, knowledge;

“Don’t make a covenant with the inhabitants of the land, lest they play the prostitute after their gods, and sacrifice to their gods, and one call you and you eat of his sacrifice;

and you said, “Behold, Yahweh our God has shown us his glory and his greatness, and we have heard his voice out of the middle of the fire. We have seen today that God does speak with man, and he lives.

The people served Yahweh all the days of Joshua, and all the days of the elders who outlived Joshua, who had seen all the great work of Yahweh that he had worked for Israel.

The children of Israel again did that which was evil in Yahweh’s sight, when Ehud was dead.

You drove out the nations with your hand, but you planted them. You afflicted the peoples, but you spread them abroad.

In that day, sing to her, “A pleasant vineyard!

They have turned back to the iniquities of their forefathers, who refused to hear my words. They have gone after other gods to serve them. The house of Israel and the house of Judah have broken my covenant which I made with their fathers.

For Yahweh of Armies, who planted you, has pronounced evil against you, because of the evil of the house of Israel and of the house of Judah, which they have done to themselves in provoking me to anger by offering incense to Baal.

“Son of man, prophesy against the shepherds of Israel. Prophesy, and tell them, even the shepherds, ‘The Lord Yahweh says: “Woe to the shepherds of Israel who feed themselves! Shouldn’t the shepherds feed the sheep?

From the days of John the Baptizer until now, the Kingdom of Heaven suffers violence, and the violent take it by force.

not in the way of service only when eyes are on you, as men pleasers, but as servants of Christ, doing the will of God from the heart,

Brothers, I don’t regard myself as yet having taken hold, but one thing I do: forgetting the things which are behind, and stretching forward to the things which are before,

Therefore I endure all things for the chosen ones’ sake, that they also may obtain the salvation which is in Christ Jesus with eternal glory.

If you call on him as Father, who without respect of persons judges according to each man’s work, pass the time of your living as foreigners here in reverent fear,

The rest of mankind, who were not killed with these plagues, didn’t repent of the works of their hands, that they wouldn’t worship demons, and the idols of gold, and of silver, and of brass, and of stone, and of wood; which can’t see, hear, or walk.

Jacob called to his sons, and said: “Gather yourselves together, that I may tell you that which will happen to you in the days to come.

Yahweh spoke to Moses, “Go, get down; for your people, who you brought up out of the land of Egypt, have corrupted themselves!

Yahweh said to me, “Arise, get down quickly from here; for your people whom you have brought out of Egypt have corrupted themselves. They have quickly turned away from the way which I commanded them. They have made a molten image for themselves!”

Know this day—for I don’t speak with your children who have not known, and who have not seen the chastisement of Yahweh your God, his greatness, his mighty hand, his outstretched arm,

and that their children, who have not known, may hear and learn to fear Yahweh your God, as long as you live in the land where you go over the Jordan to possess it.”

They have dealt corruptly with him. They are not his children, because of their defect. They are a perverse and crooked generation.

For their vine is of the vine of Sodom, of the fields of Gomorrah. Their grapes are poison grapes. Their clusters are bitter.

The children of Israel again did that which was evil in Yahweh’s sight, and Yahweh strengthened Eglon the king of Moab against Israel, because they had done that which was evil in Yahweh’s sight.

Gideon made an ephod out of it, and put it in Ophrah, his city. Then all Israel played the prostitute with it there; and it became a snare to Gideon and to his house.

He did that which was right in Yahweh’s eyes, but not with a perfect heart.

Let me sing for my well beloved a song of my beloved about his vineyard. My beloved had a vineyard on a very fruitful hill.

For my hand has made all these things, and so all these things came to be,” says Yahweh: “but I will look to this man, even to he who is poor and of a contrite spirit, and who trembles at my word.

“But when the righteous turns away from his righteousness, and commits iniquity, and does according to all the abominations that the wicked man does, should he live? None of his righteous deeds that he has done will be remembered. In his trespass that he has trespassed, and in his sin that he has sinned, in them he shall die.

They have deeply corrupted themselves, as in the days of Gibeah. He will remember their iniquity. He will punish them for their sins.

Take my yoke upon you, and learn from me, for I am gentle and humble in heart; and you will find rest for your souls.

Watch and pray, that you may not enter into temptation. The spirit indeed is willing, but the flesh is weak.”

Go your ways. Behold, I send you out as lambs among wolves.

He who is a hired hand, and not a shepherd, who doesn’t own the sheep, sees the wolf coming, leaves the sheep, and flees. The wolf snatches the sheep, and scatters them.

Great fear came on the whole assembly, and on all who heard these things.

Take heed, therefore, to yourselves, and to all the flock, in which the Holy Spirit has made you overseers, to shepherd the assembly of the Lord and God which he purchased with his own blood.

True; by their unbelief they were broken off, and you stand by your faith. Don’t be conceited, but fear;

Servants, be obedient to those who according to the flesh are your masters, with fear and trembling, in singleness of your heart, as to Christ,

Only let your way of life be worthy of the Good News of Christ, that whether I come and see you or am absent, I may hear of your state, that you stand firm in one spirit, with one soul striving for the faith of the Good News;

Having been made perfect, he became to all of those who obey him the author of eternal salvation,

Therefore let’s also, seeing we are surrounded by so great a cloud of witnesses, lay aside every weight and the sin which so easily entangles us, and let’s run with perseverance the race that is set before us,

looking carefully lest there be any man who falls short of the grace of God, lest any root of bitterness springing up trouble you, and many be defiled by it,

But grow in the grace and knowledge of our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ. To him be the glory both now and forever. Amen.

They said to you, “In the last time there will be mockers, walking after their own ungodly lusts.”

When you are in oppression, and all these things have come on you, in the latter days you shall return to Yahweh your God and listen to his voice.

Or has God tried to go and take a nation for himself from among another nation, by trials, by signs, by wonders, by war, by a mighty hand, by an outstretched arm, and by great terrors, according to all that Yahweh your God did for you in Egypt before your eyes?

but your eyes have seen all of Yahweh’s great work which he did.

All of you stand today in the presence of Yahweh your God: your heads, your tribes, your elders, and your officers, even all the men of Israel,

For I know that after my death you will utterly corrupt yourselves, and turn away from the way which I have commanded you; and evil will happen to you in the latter days, because you will do that which is evil in Yahweh’s sight, to provoke him to anger through the work of your hands.”

Yet they didn’t listen to their judges; for they prostituted themselves to other gods, and bowed themselves down to them. They quickly turned away from the way in which their fathers walked, obeying Yahweh’s commandments. They didn’t do so.

But when the judge was dead, they turned back, and dealt more corruptly than their fathers in following other gods to serve them and to bow down to them. They didn’t cease what they were doing, or give up their stubborn ways.

As soon as Gideon was dead, the children of Israel turned again and played the prostitute following the Baals, and made Baal Berith their god.

“When you saw that Nahash the king of the children of Ammon came against you, you said to me, ‘No, but a king shall reign over us;’ when Yahweh your God was your king.

Joash did that which was right in Yahweh’s eyes all the days of Jehoiada the priest.

Josiah took away all the abominations out of all the countries that belonged to the children of Israel, and made all who were found in Israel to serve, even to serve Yahweh their God. All his days they didn’t depart from following Yahweh, the God of their fathers.

But as for me, I know that my Redeemer lives. In the end, he will stand upon the earth.

For, behold, those who are far from you shall perish. You have destroyed all those who are unfaithful to you.

Who can utter the mighty acts of Yahweh, or fully declare all his praise?

Praise him for his mighty acts! Praise him according to his excellent greatness!

Train up a child in the way he should go, and when he is old he will not depart from it.

I teach you today, even you, So that your trust may be in Yahweh.

Yet I had planted you a noble vine, a pure and faithful seed. How then have you turned into the degenerate branches of a foreign vine to me?

Contend with your mother! Contend, for she is not my wife, neither am I her husband; and let her put away her prostitution from her face, and her adulteries from between her breasts;

They will fall by the edge of the sword, and will be led captive into all the nations. Jerusalem will be trampled down by the Gentiles, until the times of the Gentiles are fulfilled.

For I know that after my departure, vicious wolves will enter in among you, not sparing the flock.

You fathers, don’t provoke your children to wrath, but nurture them in the discipline and instruction of the Lord.

So then, my beloved, even as you have always obeyed, not only in my presence, but now much more in my absence, work out your own salvation with fear and trembling.

But the Spirit says expressly that in later times some will fall away from the faith, paying attention to seducing spirits and doctrines of demons,