Day 210 reading

Wisdom·Psalm 118:1–12

¹Give thanks to the LORD, for He is good; His loving devotion endures forever. ²Let Israel say, “His loving devotion endures forever.” ³Let the house of Aaron say, “His loving devotion endures forever.” ⁴Let those who fear the LORD say, “His loving devotion endures forever.” ⁵In my distress I called to the LORD, and He answered and set me free. ⁶The LORD is on my side; I will not be afraid. What can man do to me? ⁷The LORD is on my side; He is my helper. Therefore I will look in triumph on those who hate me. ⁸It is better to take refuge in the LORD than to trust in man. ⁹It is better to take refuge in the LORD than to trust in princes. ¹⁰All the nations surrounded me, but in the name of the LORD I cut them off. ¹¹They surrounded me on every side, but in the name of the LORD I cut them off. ¹²They swarmed around me like bees, but they were extinguished like burning thorns; in the name of the LORD I cut them off.

New Testament·Acts 22

¹“Brothers and fathers, listen now to my defense before you.” ²When they heard him speak to them in Hebrew, they became even more silent. Then Paul declared, ³“I am a Jew, born in Tarsus of Cilicia, but raised in this city. I was educated at the feet of Gamaliel in strict conformity to the law of our fathers. I am just as zealous for God as any of you here today. ⁴I persecuted this Way even to the death, detaining both men and women and throwing them into prison, ⁵as the high priest and the whole Council can testify about me. I even obtained letters from them to their brothers in Damascus, and I was on my way to apprehend these people and bring them to Jerusalem to be punished. ⁶About noon as I was approaching Damascus, suddenly a bright light from heaven flashed around me. ⁷I fell to the ground and heard a voice say to me, ‘Saul, Saul, why do you persecute Me?’ ⁸‘Who are You, Lord?’ I asked. ‘I am Jesus of Nazareth, whom you are persecuting,’ He replied. ⁹My companions saw the light, but they could not understand the voice of the One speaking to me. ¹⁰Then I asked, ‘What should I do, Lord?’ ‘Get up and go into Damascus,’ He told me. ‘There you will be told all that you have been appointed to do.’ ¹¹Because the brilliance of the light had blinded me, my companions led me by the hand into Damascus. ¹²There a man named Ananias, a devout observer of the law who was highly regarded by all the Jews living there, ¹³came and stood beside me. ‘Brother Saul,’ he said, ‘receive your sight.’ And at that moment I could see him. ¹⁴Then he said, ‘The God of our fathers has appointed you to know His will, and to see the Righteous One, and to hear His voice. ¹⁵You will be His witness to everyone of what you have seen and heard. ¹⁶And now what are you waiting for? Get up, be baptized, and wash your sins away, calling on His name.’ ¹⁷Later, when I had returned to Jerusalem and was praying at the temple, I fell into a trance ¹⁸and saw the Lord saying to me, ‘Hurry! Leave Jerusalem quickly, because the people here will not accept your testimony about Me.’ ¹⁹‘Lord,’ I answered, ‘they know very well that in one synagogue after another I imprisoned and beat those who believed in You. ²⁰And when the blood of Your witness Stephen was shed, I stood there giving my approval and watching over the garments of those who killed him.’ ²¹Then He said to me, ‘Go! I will send you far away to the Gentiles.’” ²²The crowd listened to Paul until he made this statement. Then they lifted up their voices and shouted, “Rid the earth of him! He is not fit to live!” ²³As they were shouting and throwing off their cloaks and tossing dust into the air, ²⁴the commander ordered that Paul be brought into the barracks. He directed that Paul be flogged and interrogated to determine the reason for this outcry against him. ²⁵But as they stretched him out to strap him down, Paul said to the centurion standing there, “Is it lawful for you to flog a Roman citizen without a trial?” ²⁶On hearing this, the centurion went and reported it to the commander. “What are you going to do?” he said. “This man is a Roman citizen.” ²⁷The commander went to Paul and asked, “Tell me, are you a Roman citizen?” “Yes,” he answered. ²⁸“I paid a high price for my citizenship,” said the commander. “But I was born a citizen,” Paul replied. ²⁹Then those who were about to interrogate Paul stepped back, and the commander himself was alarmed when he realized that he had put a Roman citizen in chains. ³⁰The next day the commander, wanting to learn the real reason Paul was accused by the Jews, released him and ordered the chief priests and the whole Sanhedrin to assemble. Then he brought Paul down and had him stand before them.

Old Testament·2 Chronicles 7–8

¹When Solomon had finished praying, fire came down from heaven and consumed the burnt offering and the sacrifices, and the glory of the LORD filled the temple. ²The priests were unable to enter the house of the LORD, because the glory of the LORD had filled it. ³When all the Israelites saw the fire coming down and the glory of the LORD above the temple, they bowed down on the pavement with their faces to the ground, and they worshiped and gave thanks to the LORD: “For He is good; His loving devotion endures forever.” ⁴Then the king and all the people offered sacrifices before the LORD. ⁵And King Solomon offered a sacrifice of 22,000 oxen and 120,000 sheep. So the king and all the people dedicated the house of God. ⁶The priests stood at their posts, as did the Levites with the musical instruments of the LORD, which King David had made for giving thanks to the LORD and with which David had offered praise, saying, “For His loving devotion endures forever.” Across from the Levites, the priests sounded trumpets, and all the Israelites were standing. ⁷Then Solomon consecrated the middle of the courtyard in front of the house of the LORD, and there he offered the burnt offerings and the fat of the peace offerings, since the bronze altar he had made could not contain all these offerings. ⁸So at that time Solomon and all Israel with him—a very great assembly of people from Lebo-hamath to the Brook of Egypt—kept the feast for seven days. ⁹On the eighth day they held a solemn assembly, for the dedication of the altar had lasted seven days, and the feast seven days more. ¹⁰On the twenty-third day of the seventh month, Solomon sent the people away to their homes, joyful and glad of heart for the good things that the LORD had done for David, for Solomon, and for His people Israel. ¹¹When Solomon had finished the house of the LORD and the royal palace, successfully carrying out all that was in his heart to do for the house of the LORD and for his own palace, ¹²the LORD appeared to him at night and said to him: “I have heard your prayer and have chosen this place for Myself as a house of sacrifice. ¹³If I close the sky so there is no rain, or if I command the locust to devour the land, or if I send a plague among My people, ¹⁴and if My people who are called by My name humble themselves and pray and seek My face and turn from their wicked ways, then I will hear from heaven, forgive their sin, and heal their land. ¹⁵Now My eyes will be open and My ears attentive to the prayers offered in this place. ¹⁶For I have now chosen and consecrated this temple so that My Name may be there forever. My eyes and My heart will be there for all time. ¹⁷And as for you, if you walk before Me as your father David walked, doing all I have commanded you, and if you keep My statutes and ordinances, ¹⁸then I will establish your royal throne, as I covenanted with your father David when I said, ‘You will never fail to have a man to rule over Israel.’ ¹⁹But if you turn away and forsake the statutes and commandments I have set before you, and if you go off to serve and worship other gods, ²⁰then I will uproot Israel from the soil I have given them, and I will banish from My presence this temple I have sanctified for My Name. I will make it an object of scorn and ridicule among all the peoples. ²¹And when this temple has become a heap of rubble, all who pass by it will be appalled and say, ‘Why has the LORD done such a thing to this land and to this temple?’ ²²And others will answer, ‘Because they have forsaken the LORD, the God of their fathers, who brought them out of the land of Egypt, and have embraced other gods, worshiping and serving them—because of this, He has brought all this disaster upon them.’”

8Now at the end of the twenty years during which Solomon had built the house of the LORD and his own palace, ²Solomon rebuilt the cities Hiram had given him and settled Israelites there. ³Then Solomon went to Hamath-zobah and captured it. ⁴He built Tadmor in the wilderness, in addition to all the store cities that he had built in Hamath. ⁵He rebuilt Upper and Lower Beth-horon as fortified cities with walls, gates, and bars, ⁶as well as Baalath, all the store cities that belonged to Solomon, and all the cities for his chariots and horses —whatever he desired to build in Jerusalem, Lebanon, and throughout the land of his dominion. ⁷As for all the people who remained of the Hittites, Amorites, Perizzites, Hivites, and Jebusites (the people who were not Israelites)— ⁸their descendants who remained in the land, those whom the Israelites were unable to destroy—Solomon conscripted these people to be forced laborers, as they are to this day. ⁹But Solomon did not consign any of the Israelites to slave labor, because they were his men of war, his officers and captains, and the commanders of his chariots and cavalry. ¹⁰They were also the chief officers for King Solomon: 250 supervisors. ¹¹Solomon brought the daughter of Pharaoh up from the City of David to the palace he had built for her. For he said, “My wife must not live in the house of David king of Israel, because the places the ark of the LORD has entered are holy.” ¹²At that time Solomon offered burnt offerings to the LORD on the altar of the LORD he had built in front of the portico. ¹³He observed the daily requirement for offerings according to the commandment of Moses for Sabbaths, New Moons, and the three annual appointed feasts—the Feast of Unleavened Bread, the Feast of Weeks, and the Feast of Tabernacles. ¹⁴In keeping with the ordinances of his father David, Solomon appointed the divisions of the priests over their service, and the Levites for their duties to offer praise and to minister before the priests according to the daily requirement. He also appointed gatekeepers by their divisions at each gate, for this had been the command of David, the man of God. ¹⁵They did not turn aside from the king’s command regarding the priests or the Levites or any matter concerning the treasuries. ¹⁶Thus all the work of Solomon was carried out, from the day the foundation was laid for the house of the LORD until it was finished. So the house of the LORD was completed. ¹⁷Then Solomon went to Ezion-geber and to Eloth on the coast of Edom. ¹⁸So Hiram sent him ships captained by his servants, along with crews of experienced sailors. They went with Solomon’s servants to Ophir and acquired from there 450 talents of gold, which they delivered to King Solomon.