Day 15 reading

Wisdom·Psalms 12–13

¹Help, O LORD, for the godly are no more; the faithful have vanished from among men. ²They lie to one another; they speak with flattering lips and a double heart. ³May the LORD cut off all flattering lips and every boastful tongue. ⁴They say, “With our tongues we will prevail. We own our lips—who can be our master?” ⁵“For the cause of the oppressed and for the groaning of the needy, I will now arise,” says the LORD. “I will bring safety to him who yearns.” ⁶The words of the LORD are flawless, like silver refined in a furnace, like gold purified sevenfold. ⁷You, O LORD, will keep us; You will forever guard us from this generation. ⁸The wicked wander freely, and vileness is exalted among men.

13How long, O LORD? Will You forget me forever? How long will You hide Your face from me? ²How long must I wrestle in my soul, with sorrow in my heart each day? How long will my enemy dominate me? ³Consider me and respond, O LORD my God. Give light to my eyes, lest I sleep in death, ⁴lest my enemy say, “I have overcome him,” and my foes rejoice when I fall. ⁵But I have trusted in Your loving devotion; my heart will rejoice in Your salvation. ⁶I will sing to the LORD, for He has been good to me.

New Testament·Matthew 10:33–11:11

³³But whoever denies Me before men, I will also deny him before My Father in heaven. ³⁴Do not assume that I have come to bring peace to the earth; I have not come to bring peace, but a sword. ³⁵For I have come to turn ‘a man against his father, a daughter against her mother, a daughter-in-law against her mother-in-law. ³⁶A man’s enemies will be the members of his own household.’ ³⁷Anyone who loves his father or mother more than Me is not worthy of Me; anyone who loves his son or daughter more than Me is not worthy of Me; ³⁸and anyone who does not take up his cross and follow Me is not worthy of Me. ³⁹Whoever finds his life will lose it, and whoever loses his life for My sake will find it. ⁴⁰He who receives you receives Me, and he who receives Me receives the One who sent Me. ⁴¹Whoever receives a prophet because he is a prophet will receive a prophet’s reward, and whoever receives a righteous man because he is a righteous man will receive a righteous man’s reward. ⁴²And if anyone gives even a cup of cold water to one of these little ones because he is My disciple, truly I tell you, he will never lose his reward.”

11After Jesus had finished instructing His twelve disciples, He went on from there to teach and preach in their cities. ²Meanwhile John heard in prison about the works of Christ, and he sent his disciples ³to ask Him, “Are You the One who was to come, or should we look for someone else?” ⁴Jesus replied, “Go back and report to John what you hear and see: ⁵The blind receive sight, the lame walk, the lepers are cleansed, the deaf hear, the dead are raised, and the good news is preached to the poor. ⁶Blessed is the one who does not fall away on account of Me.” ⁷As John’s disciples were leaving, Jesus began to speak to the crowds about John: “What did you go out into the wilderness to see? A reed swaying in the wind? ⁸Otherwise, what did you go out to see? A man dressed in fine clothes? Look, those who wear fine clothing are found in kings’ palaces. ⁹What then did you go out to see? A prophet? Yes, I tell you, and more than a prophet. ¹⁰This is the one about whom it is written: ‘Behold, I will send My messenger ahead of You, who will prepare Your way before You.’ ¹¹Truly I tell you, among those born of women there has risen no one greater than John the Baptist. Yet even the least in the kingdom of heaven is greater than he.

Old Testament·Genesis 28

¹So Isaac called for Jacob and blessed him. “Do not take a wife from the Canaanite women,” he commanded. ²“Go at once to Paddan-aram, to the house of your mother’s father Bethuel, and take a wife from among the daughters of Laban, your mother’s brother. ³May God Almighty bless you and make you fruitful and multiply you, so that you may become a company of peoples. ⁴And may He give the blessing of Abraham to you and your descendants, so that you may possess the land where you dwell as a foreigner, the land God gave to Abraham.” ⁵So Isaac sent Jacob to Paddan-aram, to Laban son of Bethuel the Aramean, the brother of Rebekah, who was the mother of Jacob and Esau. ⁶Now Esau learned that Isaac had blessed Jacob and sent him to Paddan-aram to take a wife there, commanding him, “Do not marry a Canaanite woman,” ⁷and that Jacob had obeyed his father and mother and gone to Paddan-aram. ⁸And seeing that his father Isaac disapproved of the Canaanite women, ⁹Esau went to Ishmael and married Mahalath, the sister of Nebaioth and daughter of Abraham’s son Ishmael, in addition to the wives he already had. ¹⁰Meanwhile Jacob left Beersheba and set out for Haran. ¹¹On reaching a certain place, he spent the night there because the sun had set. And taking one of the stones from that place, he put it under his head and lay down to sleep. ¹²And Jacob had a dream about a ladder that rested on the earth with its top reaching up to heaven, and God’s angels were going up and down the ladder. ¹³And there at the top the LORD was standing and saying, “I am the LORD, the God of your father Abraham and the God of Isaac. I will give you and your descendants the land on which you now lie. ¹⁴Your descendants will be like the dust of the earth, and you will spread out to the west and east and north and south. All the families of the earth will be blessed through you and your offspring. ¹⁵Look, I am with you, and I will watch over you wherever you go, and I will bring you back to this land. For I will not leave you until I have done what I have promised you.” ¹⁶When Jacob woke up, he thought, “Surely the LORD is in this place, and I was unaware of it.” ¹⁷And he was afraid and said, “How awesome is this place! This is none other than the house of God; this is the gate of heaven!” ¹⁸Early the next morning, Jacob took the stone that he had placed under his head, and he set it up as a pillar. He poured oil on top of it, ¹⁹and he called that place Bethel, though previously the city had been named Luz. ²⁰Then Jacob made a vow, saying, “If God will be with me and watch over me on this journey, and if He will provide me with food to eat and clothes to wear, ²¹so that I may return safely to my father’s house, then the LORD will be my God. ²²And this stone I have set up as a pillar will be God’s house, and of all that You give me I will surely give You a tenth.”