Day 110 reading

Wisdom·Psalm 69:13–21

¹³But my prayer to You, O LORD, is for a time of favor. In Your abundant loving devotion, O God, answer me with Your sure salvation. ¹⁴Rescue me from the mire and do not let me sink; deliver me from my foes and out of the deep waters. ¹⁵Do not let the floods engulf me or the depths swallow me up; let not the Pit close its mouth over me. ¹⁶Answer me, O LORD, for Your loving devotion is good; turn to me in keeping with Your great compassion. ¹⁷Hide not Your face from Your servant, for I am in distress. Answer me quickly! ¹⁸Draw near to my soul and redeem me; ransom me because of my foes. ¹⁹You know my reproach, my shame and disgrace. All my adversaries are before You. ²⁰Insults have broken my heart, and I am in despair. I looked for sympathy, but there was none, for comforters, but I found no one. ²¹They poisoned my food with gall and gave me vinegar to quench my thirst.

New Testament·Luke 13

¹At that time some of those present told Jesus about the Galileans whose blood Pilate had mixed with their sacrifices. ²To this He replied, “Do you think that these Galileans were worse sinners than all the other Galileans, because they suffered this fate? ³No, I tell you. But unless you repent, you too will all perish. ⁴Or those eighteen who were killed when the tower of Siloam collapsed on them: Do you think that they were more sinful than all the others living in Jerusalem? ⁵No, I tell you. But unless you repent, you too will all perish.” ⁶Then Jesus told this parable: “A man had a fig tree that was planted in his vineyard. He went to look for fruit on it, but did not find any. ⁷So he said to the keeper of the vineyard, ‘Look, for the past three years I have come to search for fruit on this fig tree and haven’t found any. Therefore cut it down! Why should it use up the soil?’ ⁸‘Sir,’ the man replied, ‘leave it alone again this year, until I dig around it and fertilize it. ⁹If it bears fruit next year, fine. But if not, you can cut it down.’” ¹⁰One Sabbath Jesus was teaching in one of the synagogues, ¹¹and a woman there had been disabled by a spirit for eighteen years. She was hunched over and could not stand up straight. ¹²When Jesus saw her, He called her over and said, “Woman, you are set free from your disability.” ¹³Then He placed His hands on her, and immediately she straightened up and began to glorify God. ¹⁴But the synagogue leader was indignant that Jesus had healed on the Sabbath. “There are six days for work,” he told the crowd. “So come and be healed on those days and not on the Sabbath.” ¹⁵“You hypocrites!” the Lord replied. “Does not each of you on the Sabbath untie his ox or donkey from the stall and lead it to water? ¹⁶Then should not this daughter of Abraham, whom Satan has kept bound for eighteen long years, be released from her bondage on the Sabbath day?” ¹⁷When Jesus said this, all His adversaries were humiliated. And the whole crowd rejoiced at all the glorious things He was doing. ¹⁸Then Jesus asked, “What is the kingdom of God like? To what can I compare it? ¹⁹It is like a mustard seed that a man tossed into his garden. It grew and became a tree, and the birds of the air nested in its branches.” ²⁰Again He asked, “To what can I compare the kingdom of God? ²¹It is like leaven that a woman took and mixed into three measures of flour, until all of it was leavened.” ²²Then Jesus traveled throughout the towns and villages, teaching as He made His way toward Jerusalem. ²³“Lord,” someone asked Him, “will only a few people be saved?” Jesus answered, ²⁴“Make every effort to enter through the narrow door. For many, I tell you, will try to enter and will not be able. ²⁵After the master of the house gets up and shuts the door, you will stand outside knocking and saying, ‘Lord, open the door for us.’ But he will reply, ‘I do not know where you are from.’ ²⁶Then you will say, ‘We ate and drank with you, and you taught in our streets.’ ²⁷And he will answer, ‘I tell you, I do not know where you are from. Depart from me, all you evildoers.’ ²⁸There will be weeping and gnashing of teeth when you see Abraham, Isaac, Jacob, and all the prophets in the kingdom of God, but you yourselves are thrown out. ²⁹People will come from east and west and north and south, and will recline at the table in the kingdom of God. ³⁰And indeed, some who are last will be first, and some who are first will be last.” ³¹At that very hour, some Pharisees came to Jesus and told Him, “Leave this place and get away, because Herod wants to kill You.” ³²But Jesus replied, “Go tell that fox, ‘Look, I will keep driving out demons and healing people today and tomorrow, and on the third day I will reach My goal.’ ³³Nevertheless, I must keep going today and tomorrow and the next day, for it is not admissible for a prophet to perish outside of Jerusalem. ³⁴O Jerusalem, Jerusalem, who kills the prophets and stones those sent to her, how often I have longed to gather your children together as a hen gathers her chicks under her wings, but you were unwilling! ³⁵Look, your house is left to you desolate. And I tell you that you will not see Me again until you say, ‘Blessed is He who comes in the name of the Lord.’”

Old Testament·Joshua 4–5

¹When the whole nation had finished crossing the Jordan, the LORD said to Joshua, ²“Choose twelve men from among the people, one from each tribe, ³and command them: ‘Take up for yourselves twelve stones from the middle of the Jordan where the priests were standing, carry them with you, and set them down in the place where you spend the night.’” ⁴So Joshua summoned the twelve men he had appointed from the Israelites, one from each tribe, ⁵and said to them, “Cross over before the ark of the LORD your God into the middle of the Jordan. Each of you is to take a stone upon his shoulder, according to the number of the tribes of Israel, ⁶to serve as a sign among you. In the future, when your children ask, ‘What do these stones mean to you?’ ⁷you are to tell them, ‘The waters of the Jordan were cut off before the ark of the covenant of the LORD. When it crossed the Jordan, the waters were cut off.’ Therefore these stones will be a memorial to the Israelites forever.” ⁸Thus the Israelites did as Joshua had commanded them. They took up twelve stones from the middle of the Jordan, one for each tribe of Israel, just as the LORD had told Joshua; and they carried them to the camp, where they set them down. ⁹Joshua also set up twelve stones in the middle of the Jordan, in the place where the priests who carried the ark of the covenant stood. And the stones are there to this day. ¹⁰Now the priests who carried the ark remained standing in the middle of the Jordan until the people had completed everything the LORD had commanded Joshua to tell them, just as Moses had directed Joshua. The people hurried across, ¹¹and after everyone had finished crossing, the priests with the ark of the LORD crossed in the sight of the people. ¹²The Reubenites, the Gadites, and the half-tribe of Manasseh crossed over before the Israelites, armed for battle as Moses had instructed them. ¹³About 40,000 troops armed for battle crossed over before the LORD into the plains of Jericho. ¹⁴On that day the LORD exalted Joshua in the sight of all Israel, and they revered him all the days of his life, just as they had revered Moses. ¹⁵Then the LORD said to Joshua, ¹⁶“Command the priests who carry the ark of the Testimony to come up from the Jordan.” ¹⁷So Joshua commanded the priests, “Come up from the Jordan.” ¹⁸When the priests carrying the ark of the covenant of the LORD came up out of the Jordan and their feet touched the dry land, the waters of the Jordan returned to their course and overflowed all the banks as before. ¹⁹On the tenth day of the first month the people went up from the Jordan and camped at Gilgal on the eastern border of Jericho. ²⁰And there at Gilgal Joshua set up the twelve stones they had taken from the Jordan. ²¹Then Joshua said to the Israelites, “In the future, when your children ask their fathers, ‘What is the meaning of these stones?’ ²²you are to tell them, ‘Israel crossed the Jordan on dry ground.’ ²³For the LORD your God dried up the waters of the Jordan before you until you had crossed over, just as He did to the Red Sea, which He dried up before us until we had crossed over. ²⁴He did this so that all the peoples of the earth may know that the hand of the LORD is mighty, and so that you may always fear the LORD your God.”

5Now when all the Amorite kings west of the Jordan and all the Canaanite kings along the coast heard how the LORD had dried up the waters of the Jordan before the Israelites until they had crossed over, their hearts melted and their spirits failed for fear of the Israelites. ²At that time the LORD said to Joshua, “Make flint knives and circumcise the sons of Israel once again.” ³So Joshua made flint knives and circumcised the sons of Israel at Gibeath-haaraloth. ⁴Now this is why Joshua circumcised them: All those who came out of Egypt—all the men of war—had died on the journey in the wilderness after they had left Egypt. ⁵Though all who had come out were circumcised, none of those born in the wilderness on the journey from Egypt had been circumcised. ⁶For the Israelites had wandered in the wilderness forty years, until all the nation’s men of war who had come out of Egypt had died, since they did not obey the LORD. So the LORD vowed never to let them see the land He had sworn to their fathers to give us, a land flowing with milk and honey. ⁷And Joshua raised up their sons in their place, and these were the ones he circumcised. Until this time they were still uncircumcised, since they had not been circumcised along the way. ⁸And after all the nation had been circumcised, they stayed there in the camp until they were healed. ⁹Then the LORD said to Joshua, “Today I have rolled away the reproach of Egypt from you.” So that place has been called Gilgal to this day. ¹⁰On the evening of the fourteenth day of the month, while the Israelites were camped at Gilgal on the plains of Jericho, they kept the Passover. ¹¹The day after the Passover, on that very day, they ate unleavened bread and roasted grain from the produce of the land. ¹²And the day after they had eaten from the produce of the land, the manna ceased. There was no more manna for the Israelites, so that year they began to eat the crops of the land of Canaan. ¹³Now when Joshua was near Jericho, he looked up and saw a man standing in front of him with a drawn sword in His hand. Joshua approached Him and asked, “Are You for us or for our enemies?” ¹⁴“Neither,” He replied. “I have now come as Commander of the LORD’s army.” Then Joshua fell facedown in reverence and asked Him, “What does my Lord have to say to His servant?” ¹⁵The Commander of the LORD’s army replied, “Take off your sandals, for the place where you are standing is holy.” And Joshua did so.