Day 202 reading

Wisdom·Psalms 111:6–112:4

⁶He has shown His people the power of His works by giving them the inheritance of the nations. ⁷The works of His hands are truth and justice; all His precepts are trustworthy. ⁸They are upheld forever and ever, enacted in truth and uprightness. ⁹He has sent redemption to His people; He has ordained His covenant forever; holy and awesome is His name. ¹⁰The fear of the LORD is the beginning of wisdom; all who follow His precepts gain rich understanding. His praise endures forever!

112Hallelujah! Blessed is the man who fears the LORD, who greatly delights in His commandments. ²His descendants will be mighty in the land; the generation of the upright will be blessed. ³Wealth and riches are in his house, and his righteousness endures forever. ⁴Light dawns in the darkness for the upright— for the gracious, compassionate, and righteous.

New Testament·Acts 17

¹When they had passed through Amphipolis and Apollonia, they came to Thessalonica, where there was a Jewish synagogue. ²As was his custom, Paul went into the synagogue, and on three Sabbaths he reasoned with them from the Scriptures, ³explaining and proving that the Christ had to suffer and rise from the dead. “This Jesus I am proclaiming to you is the Christ,” he declared. ⁴Some of the Jews were persuaded and joined Paul and Silas, along with a large number of God-fearing Greeks and quite a few leading women. ⁵The Jews, however, became jealous. So they brought in some troublemakers from the marketplace, formed a mob, and sent the city into an uproar. They raided Jason’s house in search of Paul and Silas, hoping to bring them out to the people. ⁶But when they could not find them, they dragged Jason and some other brothers before the city officials, shouting, “These men who have turned the world upside down have now come here, ⁷and Jason has welcomed them into his home. They are all defying Caesar’s decrees, saying that there is another king, named Jesus!” ⁸On hearing this, the crowd and city officials were greatly disturbed. ⁹And they collected bond from Jason and the others, and then released them. ¹⁰As soon as night had fallen, the brothers sent Paul and Silas away to Berea. On arriving there, they went into the Jewish synagogue. ¹¹Now the Bereans were more noble-minded than the Thessalonians, for they received the message with great eagerness and examined the Scriptures every day to see if these teachings were true. ¹²As a result, many of them believed, along with quite a few prominent Greek women and men. ¹³But when the Jews from Thessalonica learned that Paul was also proclaiming the word of God in Berea, they went there themselves to incite and agitate the crowds. ¹⁴The brothers immediately sent Paul to the coast, but Silas and Timothy remained in Berea. ¹⁵Those who escorted Paul brought him to Athens and then returned with instructions for Silas and Timothy to join him as soon as possible. ¹⁶While Paul was waiting for them in Athens, he was deeply disturbed in his spirit to see that the city was full of idols. ¹⁷So he reasoned in the synagogue with the Jews and God-fearing Gentiles, and in the marketplace with those he met each day. ¹⁸Some Epicurean and Stoic philosophers also began to debate with him. Some of them asked, “What is this babbler trying to say?” Others said, “He seems to be advocating foreign gods.” They said this because Paul was proclaiming the good news of Jesus and the resurrection. ¹⁹So they took Paul and brought him to the Areopagus, where they asked him, “May we know what this new teaching is that you are presenting? ²⁰For you are bringing some strange notions to our ears, and we want to know what they mean.” ²¹Now all the Athenians and foreigners who lived there spent their time doing nothing more than hearing and articulating new ideas. ²²Then Paul stood up in the meeting of the Areopagus and said, “Men of Athens, I see that in every way you are very religious. ²³For as I walked around and examined your objects of worship, I even found an altar with this inscription: TO AN UNKNOWN GOD. Therefore what you worship as something unknown, I now proclaim to you. ²⁴The God who made the world and everything in it is the Lord of heaven and earth and does not live in temples made by human hands. ²⁵Nor is He served by human hands, as if He needed anything, because He Himself gives everyone life and breath and everything else. ²⁶From one man He made every nation of men, that they should inhabit the whole earth; and He determined their appointed times and the boundaries of their lands. ²⁷God intended that they would seek Him and perhaps reach out for Him and find Him, though He is not far from each one of us. ²⁸‘For in Him we live and move and have our being.’ As some of your own poets have said, ‘We are His offspring.’ ²⁹Therefore, being offspring of God, we should not think that the Divine Being is like gold or silver or stone, an image formed by man’s skill and imagination. ³⁰Although God overlooked the ignorance of earlier times, He now commands all people everywhere to repent. ³¹For He has set a day when He will judge the world with justice by the Man He has appointed. He has given proof of this to everyone by raising Him from the dead.” ³²When they heard about the resurrection of the dead, some began to mock him, but others said, “We want to hear you again on this topic.” ³³At that, Paul left the Areopagus. ³⁴But some joined him and believed, including Dionysius the Areopagite, a woman named Damaris, and others who were with them.

Old Testament·1 Chronicles 18–20

¹Some time later, David defeated the Philistines, subdued them, and took Gath and its villages from the hand of the Philistines. ²David also defeated the Moabites, and they became subject to David and brought him tribute. ³As far as Hamath, David also defeated King Hadadezer of Zobah, who had marched out to establish his dominion along the Euphrates River. ⁴David captured from him a thousand chariots, seven thousand charioteers, and twenty thousand foot soldiers, and he hamstrung all the horses except a hundred he kept for the chariots. ⁵When the Arameans of Damascus came to help King Hadadezer of Zobah, David struck down twenty-two thousand men. ⁶Then he placed garrisons in Aram of Damascus, and the Arameans became subject to David and brought him tribute. So the LORD made David victorious wherever he went. ⁷And David took the gold shields that belonged to the officers of Hadadezer and brought them to Jerusalem. ⁸And from Tibhath and Cun, cities of Hadadezer, David took a large amount of bronze, with which Solomon made the bronze Sea, the pillars, and various bronze articles. ⁹When King Tou of Hamath heard that David had defeated the entire army of Hadadezer king of Zobah, ¹⁰he sent his son Hadoram to greet King David and bless him for fighting and defeating Hadadezer, who had been at war with Tou. Hadoram brought all kinds of articles of gold and silver and bronze, ¹¹and King David dedicated these to the LORD, along with the silver and gold he had carried off from all these nations—from Edom and Moab, and from the Ammonites, Philistines, and Amalekites. ¹²Moreover, Abishai son of Zeruiah struck down eighteen thousand Edomites in the Valley of Salt. ¹³He placed garrisons in Edom, and all the Edomites were subject to David. So the LORD made David victorious wherever he went. ¹⁴Thus David reigned over all Israel and administered justice and righteousness for all his people: ¹⁵Joab son of Zeruiah was over the army; Jehoshaphat son of Ahilud was the recorder; ¹⁶Zadok son of Ahitub and Ahimelech son of Abiathar were priests; Shavsha was the scribe; ¹⁷Benaiah son of Jehoiada was over the Cherethites and Pelethites; and David’s sons were chief officials at the king’s side.

19Some time later, Nahash king of the Ammonites died and was succeeded by his son. ²And David said, “I will show kindness to Hanun son of Nahash, because his father showed kindness to me.” So David sent messengers to console Hanun concerning his father. But when David’s servants arrived in the land of the Ammonites to console him, ³the princes of the Ammonites said to Hanun, “Just because David has sent you comforters, do you really believe he is showing respect for your father? Have not his servants come to you to explore the land, spy it out, and overthrow it?” ⁴So Hanun took David’s servants, shaved their beards, cut off their garments at the hips, and sent them away. ⁵When someone came and told David about his men, he sent messengers to meet them, since the men had been thoroughly humiliated. The king told them, “Stay in Jericho until your beards have grown back, and then return.” ⁶When the Ammonites realized that they had become a stench to David, Hanun and the Ammonites sent a thousand talents of silver to hire for themselves chariots and horsemen from Aram-naharaim, Aram-maacah, and Zobah. ⁷So they hired for themselves thirty-two thousand chariots, as well as the king of Maacah with his troops, who came and camped near Medeba while the Ammonites came from their cities and marched out for battle. ⁸On hearing this, David sent Joab and the entire army of mighty men. ⁹The Ammonites marched out and arrayed themselves for battle at the entrance to the city, while the kings who had come stayed by themselves in the open country. ¹⁰When Joab saw the battle lines before him and behind him, he selected some of the best men of Israel and arrayed them against the Arameans. ¹¹And he placed the rest of the forces under the command of his brother Abishai, who arrayed them against the Ammonites. ¹²“If the Arameans are too strong for me,” said Joab, “then you will come to my rescue. And if the Ammonites are too strong for you, then I will come to your rescue. ¹³Be strong and let us fight bravely for our people and for the cities of our God. May the LORD do what is good in His sight.” ¹⁴So Joab and his troops advanced to fight the Arameans, who fled before him. ¹⁵When the Ammonites saw that the Arameans had fled, they too fled before Joab’s brother Abishai, and they entered the city. So Joab went back to Jerusalem. ¹⁶When the Arameans saw that they had been defeated by Israel, they sent messengers to bring more Arameans from beyond the Euphrates, with Shophach the commander of Hadadezer’s army leading them. ¹⁷When this was reported to David, he gathered all Israel, crossed the Jordan, advanced toward the Arameans, and arrayed for battle against them. When David lined up to engage them in battle, they fought against him. ¹⁸But the Arameans fled before Israel, and David killed seven thousand of their charioteers and forty thousand foot soldiers. He also killed Shophach the commander of their army. ¹⁹When Hadadezer’s subjects saw that they had been defeated by Israel, they made peace with David and became subject to him. So the Arameans were unwilling to help the Ammonites anymore.

20In the spring, at the time when kings march out to war, Joab led out the army and ravaged the land of the Ammonites. He came to Rabbah and besieged it, but David remained in Jerusalem. And Joab attacked Rabbah and demolished it. ²Then David took the crown from the head of their king. It was found to weigh a talent of gold and was set with precious stones, and it was placed on David’s head. And David took a great amount of plunder from the city. ³David brought out the people who were there and put them to work with saws, iron picks, and axes. And he did the same to all the Ammonite cities. Then David and all his troops returned to Jerusalem. ⁴Some time later, war broke out with the Philistines at Gezer. At that time Sibbecai the Hushathite killed Sippai, a descendant of the Rephaim, and the Philistines were subdued. ⁵Once again there was a battle with the Philistines, and Elhanan son of Jair killed Lahmi the brother of Goliath the Gittite, the shaft of whose spear was like a weaver’s beam. ⁶And there was still another battle at Gath, where there was a man of great stature with six fingers on each hand and six toes on each foot—twenty-four in all. He too was descended from Rapha, ⁷and when he taunted Israel, Jonathan the son of David’s brother Shimei killed him. ⁸So these descendants of Rapha in Gath fell at the hands of David and his servants.