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Deuteronomy 30: 15-20

 

Moses said to all Israel the words which the Lord commanded him, “See, I have set before you today life and prosperity, death and adversity.  If you obey the commandments of the Lord your God that I am commanding you today, by loving the Lord your God, walking in his ways, and observing his commandments, decrees, and ordinances, then you shall live and become numerous, and the Lord your God will bless you in the land that you are entering to possess.  But if your heart turns away and you do not hear, but are led astray to bow down to other gods and serve them, I declare to you today that you shall perish; you shall not live long in the land that you are crossing the Jordan to enter and possess.  I call heaven and earth to witness against you today that I have set before you life and death, blessings and curses.  Choose life so that you and your descendents may live, loving the Lord your God, obeying him, and holding fast to him; for that means life to you and length of days, so that you may live in the land that the Lord swore to give to your ancestors, to Abraham, to Isaac, and to Jacob.”

 

Joshua 24:1-2a, 14-25

 

Then Joshua gathered all the tribes of Israel to Sechem, and summoned the elders, the heads, the judges, and the officers of Israel; and they presented themselves before God.  And Joshua said to all the people, “Thus says the Lord, the God of Israel: Revere the Lord, and serve him in sincerity and in faithfulness; put away the gods that your ancestors served beyond the River, and in Egypt, and serve the Lord.  Now if you are unwilling to serve the Lord, choose this day whom you will serve, whether the gods your ancestors served in the region beyond the River, or the gods of the Amorites in whose land you are living, but as for me and my household, we will serve the Lord.”  Then the people answered, “Far be it from us that we should forsake the Lord to serve other gods; for it is the Lord our God who brought us and our ancestors up from the land of Egypt, out of the house of slavery, and who did those great signs in our sight.  He protected us along all the way that we went, and among all the peoples through whom we passed; and the Lord drove out before us all the peoples, the Amorites who lived in the land.  Therefore we also will serve the Lord, for he is our God.”  But Joshua said to the people, “You cannot serve the Lord, for he is a holy God.  He is a jealous God; he will not forgive your transgressions or your sins.  If you forsake the Lord and serve foreign gods, then he will turn and do you harm, and consume you, after having done you good.”  And the people said to Joshua, “No, we will serve the Lord!”  Then Joshua said to the people, “You are witnesses against yourselves that you have chosen the Lord, to serve him.”  And they said, “We are witnesses.”  He said, “Then put away the foreign gods that are among you, and incline your hearts to the Lord, the god of Israel.”  The people said to Joshua, “The Lord our God we will serve, and him we will obey.”  So Joshua made a covenant with the people that day, and made statutes and ordinances for them at Shechem.

 

Jeremiah 31:31-34

 

“The days are surely coming,” says the Lord, “when I will make a new covenant with the house of Israel and the house of Judah.  It will not be like the covenant that I made with their ancestors when I took them by the hand to lead them out of the land of Egypt—a covenant that they broke, though I was their husband,” says the Lord.  “But this is the covenant that I will make with the house of Israel after those days,” says the Lord: “I will put my law within them, and I will write it on their hearts; and I will be their God, and they shall be my people.  No longer shall they teach one another, or say to each other, ‘Know the Lord,’ for they shall all know me, from the least of them to the greatest,” says the Lord; “for I will forgive their iniquity, and remember their sin no more.”

 

Comments on the colonists’ massacre of the Pequots at Mystic Fort by the colonial commanders

 

Captain John Mason:  The Lord was as it were pleased to say unto us, The Land of Canaan will I give unto thee tho’ but few and strangers in it.

 

Captain John Underhill: We had sufficient light from the word of God for our proceedings. . . .  Our Indians came to us, and much rejoiced at our victories, and greatly admired [i.e., were surprised at] the manner of the Englishmen’s fight, but cried mach it mach it [i.e., machit, an Algonquian word for “bad”]: that is, it is naught [i.e., wicked], because it is too furious, and slays too many men.