First ReadingDeuteronomy 4:32-40*
From the Book of Deuteronomy
32For ask now of the days that are past,which were before you,since the day that God created man on the earth,and from the one end of the sky to the other,whether there has been anything as great as this thing is,or has been heard like it?33Did a people ever hear the voice of God speaking out of the middle of the fire,as you have heard, and live?34Or has God tried to goand 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 allthat the Lord your God did for you in Egypt before your eyes?35It was shown to you sothat you might know that the Lord is God.There is no one else besides him.36Out of heaven he made you to hear his voice,that he might instruct you.On earth he made you to see his great fire;and you heard his words out of the middle of the fire.37Because he loved your fathers,therefore he chose their offspring after them,and brought you out with his presence,with his great power, out of Egypt;38to drive out nations from before you greaterand mightier than you,to bring you in, to give you their land for an inheritance, as it is today.39Know therefore today,and take it to heart,that the Lord himself is God in heaven aboveand on the earth beneath.There is no one else.40You shall keep his statutesand his commandments which I command you today,that it may go well with youand with your children after you,and that you may prolong your days in the landwhich the Lord your God gives you for all time.