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Psalms 80:8
You brought Israel out of Egypt. Israel was like a vine. After you drove the nations out of Canaan, you planted the vine in their land.
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Deuteronomy 4:32-38
Ask now about the days of long ago. Find out what happened long before your time. Ask about what has happened since the time God created human beings on the earth. Ask from one end of the world to the other. Has anything as great as this ever happened? Has anything like it ever been heard of?You heard the voice of God speaking out of fire. And you lived! Has that happened to any other people?Has any god ever tried to take one nation out of another to be his own? Has any god done it by testing his people? Has any god done it with signs and amazing deeds or with war? Has any god reached out his mighty hand and powerful arm? Or has any god shown his people his great and wonderful acts? The Lord your God did all those things for you in Egypt. With your very own eyes you saw him do them.The Lord showed you those things so that you might know he is God. There is no other God except him.From heaven he made you hear his voice. He wanted to teach you. On earth he showed you his great fire. You heard his words coming out of the fire.He loved your people of long ago. He chose their children after them. So he brought you out of Egypt. He used his great strength to do it.He drove out nations to make room for you. They were greater and stronger than you are. He will bring you into their land. He wants to give it to you as your very own. The whole land is as good as yours right now.
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Psalms 78:12-72
He did miracles right in front of their people who lived long ago. At that time they were living in Egypt, in the area of Zoan.God parted the Red Sea and led them through it. He made the water stand up like a wall.He guided them with the cloud during the day. He led them with the light of a fire all night long.He broke the rocks open in the desert. He gave them as much water as there is in the oceans.He brought streams out of a rocky cliff. He made water flow down like rivers.But they continued to sin against him. In the desert they refused to obey the Most High God.They were stubborn and tested God. They ordered him to give them the food they wanted.They spoke against God. They said,“ Can God really put food on a table in the desert?It is true that he struck the rock, and streams of water poured out. Huge amounts of water flowed down. But can he also give us bread? Can he supply meat for his people?”When the Lord heard what they said, he was very angry. His anger broke out like fire against the people of Jacob. He became very angry with Israel.That was because they didn’t believe in God. They didn’t trust in his power to save them.But he gave a command to the skies above. He opened the doors of the heavens.He rained down manna for the people to eat. He gave them the grain of heaven.Mere human beings ate the bread of angels. He sent them all the food they could eat.He made the east wind blow from the heavens. By his power he caused the south wind to blow.He rained down meat on them like dust. He sent them birds like sand on the seashore.He made the birds come down inside their camp. The birds fell all around their tents.People ate until they couldn’t eat any more. He gave them what they had wanted.But even before they had finished eating, God acted. He did it while the food was still in their mouths.His anger rose up against them. He put to death the strongest among them. He struck down Israel’s young men.But even after all that, they kept on sinning. Even after the wonderful things he had done, they still didn’t believe.So he brought their days to an end like a puff of smoke. He ended their years with terror.Every time God killed some of them, the others would seek him. They gladly turned back to him again.They remembered that God was their Rock. They remembered that God Most High had set them free.But they didn’t mean it when they praised him. They lied to him when they spoke.They turned away from him. They weren’t faithful to the covenant he had made with them.But he was full of tender love. He forgave their sins and didn’t destroy his people. Time after time he held back his anger. He didn’t let all his burning anger blaze out.He remembered that they were only human. He remembered they were only a breath of air that drifts by and doesn’t return.How often they refused to obey him in the desert! How often they caused him sorrow in that dry and empty land!Again and again they tested God. They made the Holy One of Israel sad and angry.They didn’t remember his power. They forgot the day he set them free from those who had treated them so badly.They forgot how he had shown them his signs in Egypt. They forgot his miracles in the area of Zoan.He turned the river of Egypt into blood. The people of Egypt couldn’t drink water from their streams.He sent large numbers of flies that bit them. He sent frogs that destroyed their land.He gave their crops to the grasshoppers. He gave their food to the locusts.He destroyed their vines with hail. He destroyed their fig trees with sleet.He killed their cattle with hail. Their livestock were struck by lightning.Because he was so angry with Egypt, he caused them to have great trouble. In his great anger he sent destroying angels against them.God prepared a path for his anger. He didn’t spare their lives. He gave them over to the plague.He killed the oldest son of each family in Egypt. He struck down the oldest son in every house in the land of Ham.But he brought his people out like a flock. He led them like sheep through the desert.He guided them safely, and they weren’t afraid. But the Red Sea swallowed up their enemies.And so he brought his people to the border of his holy land. He led them to the central hill country he had taken by his power.He drove out the nations to make room for his people. He gave to each family a piece of land to pass on to their children. He gave the tribes of Israel a place to make their homes.But they tested God. They refused to obey the Most High God. They didn’t keep his laws.They were like their people who lived long ago. They turned away from him and were not faithful. They were like a bow that doesn’t shoot straight. They couldn’t be trusted.They made God angry by going to their high places. They made him jealous by worshiping the statues of their gods.When God saw what the people were doing, he was very angry. He turned away from them completely.He deserted the holy tent at Shiloh. He left the tent he had set up among his people.He allowed the ark to be captured. Into the hands of his enemies he sent the ark where his glory rested.He let his people be killed by swords. He was very angry with them.Fire destroyed their young men. Their young women had no one to marry.Their priests were killed by swords. Their widows weren’t able to weep.Then the Lord woke up as if he had been sleeping. He was like a warrior waking up from the deep sleep caused by wine.He drove back his enemies. He put them to shame that will last forever.He turned his back on the tents of the people of Joseph. He didn’t choose to live in the tribe of Ephraim.Instead, he chose to live in the tribe of Judah. He chose Mount Zion, which he loved.There he built his holy place as secure as the heavens. He built it to last forever, like the earth.He chose his servant David. He took him from the sheep pens.He brought him from tending sheep to be the shepherd of his people Jacob. He made him the shepherd of Israel, his special people.David cared for them with a faithful and honest heart. With skilled hands he led them.
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Psalms 2:8
Ask me, and I will give the nations to you. All nations on earth will belong to you.
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Joshua 10:13-14
So the sun stood still. The moon stopped. They didn’t move again until the nation won the battle over its enemies. You can read about it in the Book of Jashar. The sun stopped in the middle of the sky. It didn’t go down for about a full day.There has never been a day like it before or since. It was a day when the Lord listened to a mere human being. Surely the Lord was fighting for Israel!
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Psalms 44:2
By your power you drove out the nations. You gave our people homes in the land. You crushed the people who were there. And you made our people do well.
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Joshua 3:14-17
So the people took their tents down. They prepared to go across the Jordan River. The priests carrying the ark of the covenant went ahead of them.The water of the Jordan was going over its banks. It always does that at the time the crops are being gathered. The priests came to the river. Their feet touched the water’s edge.Right away the water coming down the river stopped flowing. It piled up far away at a town called Adam near Zarethan. The water flowing down to the Dead Sea was completely cut off. So the people went across the Jordan River opposite Jericho.The priests carried the ark of the covenant of the Lord. They stopped in the middle of the river and stood on dry ground. They stayed there until the whole nation of Israel had gone across on dry ground.
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Joshua 6:20
The priests blew the trumpets. As soon as the army heard the sound, they gave a loud shout. Then the wall fell down. Everyone charged straight in. So they took the city.
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Psalms 105:27-45
The Lord gave them the power to do signs among the Egyptians. They did his wonders in the land of Ham.The Lord sent darkness over the land. He did it because the Egyptians had refused to obey his words.He turned their rivers and streams into blood. He caused the fish in them to die.Their land was covered with frogs. Frogs even went into the bedrooms of the rulers.The Lord spoke, and large numbers of flies came. Gnats filled the whole country.He turned their rain into hail. Lightning flashed all through their land.He destroyed their vines and fig trees. He broke down the trees in Egypt.He spoke, and the locusts came. There were so many of them they couldn’t be counted.They ate up every green thing in the land. They ate up what the land produced.Then he killed the oldest son of every family in Egypt. He struck down the oldest of all their sons.He brought the people of Israel out of Egypt. The Egyptians loaded them down with silver and gold. From among the tribes of Israel no one got tired or fell down.The Egyptians were glad when the people of Israel left. They were terrified because of Israel.The Lord spread out a cloud to cover his people. He gave them a fire to light up the night.They asked for meat, and he brought them quail. He fed them well with manna, the bread of heaven.He broke open a rock, and streams of water poured out. They flowed like a river in the desert.He remembered the holy promise he had made to his servant Abraham.His chosen people shouted for joy as he brought them out of Egypt.He gave them the lands of other nations. He let them take over what others had worked for.He did it so they might obey his rules and follow his laws. Praise the Lord.
