Day 219 reading

Wisdom·Psalm 119:58–67

⁵⁸I have sought Your face with all my heart; be gracious to me according to Your promise. ⁵⁹I considered my ways and turned my steps to Your testimonies. ⁶⁰I hurried without hesitating to keep Your commandments. ⁶¹Though the ropes of the wicked bind me, I do not forget Your law. ⁶²At midnight I rise to give You thanks for Your righteous judgments. ⁶³I am a friend to all who fear You, and to those who keep Your precepts. ⁶⁴The earth is filled with Your loving devotion, O LORD; teach me Your statutes. ⁶⁵You are good to Your servant, O LORD, according to Your word. ⁶⁶Teach me good judgment and knowledge, for I believe in Your commandments. ⁶⁷Before I was afflicted, I went astray; but now I keep Your word.

New Testament·Acts 28

¹Once we were safely ashore, we learned that the island was called Malta. ²The islanders showed us extraordinary kindness. They kindled a fire and welcomed all of us because it was raining and cold. ³Paul gathered a bundle of sticks, and as he laid them on the fire, a viper, driven out by the heat, fastened itself to his hand. ⁴When the islanders saw the creature hanging from his hand, they said to one another, “Surely this man is a murderer. Although he was saved from the sea, Justice has not allowed him to live.” ⁵But Paul shook the creature off into the fire and suffered no ill effects. ⁶The islanders were expecting him to swell up or suddenly drop dead. But after waiting a long time and seeing nothing unusual happen to him, they changed their minds and said he was a god. ⁷Nearby stood an estate belonging to Publius, the chief official of the island. He welcomed us and entertained us hospitably for three days. ⁸The father of Publius was sick in bed, suffering from fever and dysentery. Paul went in to see him, and after praying and placing his hands on him, he healed the man. ⁹After this had happened, the rest of the sick on the island came and were cured as well. ¹⁰The islanders honored us in many ways and supplied our needs when we were ready to sail. ¹¹After three months we set sail in an Alexandrian ship that had wintered in the island. It had the Twin Brothers as a figurehead. ¹²Putting in at Syracuse, we stayed there three days. ¹³From there we weighed anchor and came to Rhegium. After one day, a south wind came up, and on the second day we arrived at Puteoli. ¹⁴There we found some brothers who invited us to spend the week with them. And so we came to Rome. ¹⁵The brothers there had heard about us and traveled as far as the Forum of Appius and the Three Taverns to meet us. When Paul saw them, he was encouraged and gave thanks to God. ¹⁶When we arrived in Rome, Paul was permitted to stay by himself, with a soldier to guard him. ¹⁷After three days, he called together the leaders of the Jews. When they had gathered, he said to them, “Brothers, although I have done nothing against our people or the customs of our fathers, I was taken prisoner in Jerusalem and handed over to the Romans. ¹⁸They examined me and wanted to release me, because there was no basis for a death sentence against me. ¹⁹But when the Jews objected, I was compelled to appeal to Caesar, even though I have no charge to bring against my nation. ²⁰So for this reason I have called to see you and speak with you. It is because of the hope of Israel that I am bound with this chain.” ²¹The leaders replied, “We have not received any letters about you from Judea, nor have any of the brothers from there reported or even mentioned anything bad about you. ²²But we consider your views worth hearing, because we know that people everywhere are speaking against this sect.” ²³So they set a day to meet with Paul, and many people came to the place he was staying. He expounded to them from morning to evening, testifying about the kingdom of God and persuading them about Jesus from the Law of Moses and the Prophets. ²⁴Some of them were convinced by what he said, but others refused to believe. ²⁵They disagreed among themselves and began to leave after Paul had made this final statement: “The Holy Spirit was right when He spoke to your fathers through Isaiah the prophet: ²⁶‘Go to this people and say, “You will be ever hearing but never understanding; you will be ever seeing but never perceiving.” ²⁷For this people’s heart has grown callous; they hardly hear with their ears, and they have closed their eyes. Otherwise they might see with their eyes, hear with their ears, understand with their hearts, and turn, and I would heal them.’ ²⁸Be advised, therefore, that God’s salvation has been sent to the Gentiles, and they will listen!” ³⁰Paul stayed there two full years in his own rented house, welcoming all who came to visit him. ³¹Boldly and freely he proclaimed the kingdom of God and taught about the Lord Jesus Christ.

Old Testament·2 Chronicles 29–30

¹Hezekiah was twenty-five years old when he became king, and he reigned in Jerusalem twenty-nine years. His mother’s name was Abijah, the daughter of Zechariah. ²And he did what was right in the eyes of the LORD, just as his father David had done. ³In the first month of the first year of his reign, Hezekiah opened and repaired the doors of the house of the LORD. ⁴Then he brought in the priests and Levites and gathered them in the square on the east side. ⁵“Listen to me, O Levites,” he said. “Consecrate yourselves now and consecrate the house of the LORD, the God of your fathers. Remove from the Holy Place every impurity. ⁶For our fathers were unfaithful and did evil in the sight of the LORD our God. They abandoned Him, turned their faces away from the dwelling place of the LORD, and turned their backs on Him. ⁷They also shut the doors of the portico and extinguished the lamps. They did not burn incense or present burnt offerings in the Holy Place of the God of Israel. ⁸Therefore, the wrath of the LORD has fallen upon Judah and Jerusalem, and He has made them an object of terror, horror, and mockery, as you can see with your own eyes. ⁹For behold, this is why our fathers have fallen by the sword, and our sons and daughters and wives are in captivity. ¹⁰Now it is in my heart to make a covenant with the LORD, the God of Israel, so that His fierce anger will turn away from us. ¹¹Now, my sons, do not be negligent, for the LORD has chosen you to stand before Him, to serve Him, to minister before Him, and to burn incense.” ¹²Then the Levites set to work: Mahath son of Amasai and Joel son of Azariah from the Kohathites; Kish son of Abdi and Azariah son of Jehallelel from the Merarites; Joah son of Zimmah and Eden son of Joah from the Gershonites; ¹³Shimri and Jeuel from the Elizaphanites; Zechariah and Mattaniah from the Asaphites; ¹⁴Jehiel and Shimei from the Hemanites; and Shemaiah and Uzziel from the Jeduthunites. ¹⁵When they had assembled their brothers and consecrated themselves, they went in to cleanse the house of the LORD, according to the command of the king by the words of the LORD. ¹⁶So the priests went inside the house of the LORD to cleanse it, and they brought out to the courtyard all the unclean things that they found in the temple of the LORD. Then the Levites took these things and carried them out to the Kidron Valley. ¹⁷They began the consecration on the first day of the first month, and on the eighth day of the month they reached the portico of the LORD. For eight more days they consecrated the house of the LORD itself, finishing on the sixteenth day of the first month. ¹⁸Then they went in to King Hezekiah and reported, “We have cleansed the entire house of the LORD, the altar of burnt offering with all its utensils, and the table of the showbread with all its utensils. ¹⁹Moreover, we have prepared and consecrated all the articles that King Ahaz in his unfaithfulness cast aside during his reign. They are now in front of the altar of the LORD.” ²⁰Early the next morning King Hezekiah gathered the city officials and went up to the house of the LORD. ²¹They brought seven bulls, seven rams, seven lambs, and seven male goats as a sin offering for the kingdom, for the sanctuary, and for Judah. And the king commanded the priests, the descendants of Aaron, to offer them on the altar of the LORD. ²²So they slaughtered the bulls, and the priests took the blood and sprinkled it on the altar. They slaughtered the rams and sprinkled the blood on the altar. And they slaughtered the lambs and sprinkled the blood on the altar. ²³Then they brought the goats for the sin offering before the king and the assembly, who laid their hands on them. ²⁴And the priests slaughtered the goats and put their blood on the altar for a sin offering, to make atonement for all Israel, because the king had ordered the burnt offering and the sin offering for all Israel. ²⁵Hezekiah stationed the Levites in the house of the LORD with cymbals, harps, and lyres according to the command of David, of Gad the king’s seer, and of Nathan the prophet. For the command had come from the LORD through His prophets. ²⁶The Levites stood with the instruments of David, and the priests with the trumpets. ²⁷And Hezekiah ordered that the burnt offering be sacrificed on the altar. When the burnt offering began, the song of the LORD and the trumpets began as well, accompanied by the instruments of David king of Israel. ²⁸The whole assembly was worshiping, the singers were singing, and the trumpeters were playing. All this continued until the burnt offering was completed. ²⁹When the offerings were completed, the king and all those present with him bowed down and worshiped. ³⁰Then King Hezekiah and his officials ordered the Levites to sing praises to the LORD in the words of David and of Asaph the seer. So they sang praises with gladness and bowed their heads and worshiped. ³¹Then Hezekiah said, “Now that you have consecrated yourselves to the LORD, come near and bring sacrifices and thank offerings to the house of the LORD.” So the assembly brought sacrifices and thank offerings, and all whose hearts were willing brought burnt offerings. ³²The number of burnt offerings the assembly brought was seventy bulls, a hundred rams, and two hundred lambs; all these were for a burnt offering to the LORD. ³³And the consecrated offerings were six hundred bulls and three thousand sheep. ³⁴However, since there were not enough priests to skin all the burnt offerings, their Levite brothers helped them until the work was finished and until the priests had been consecrated. For the Levites had been more diligent in consecrating themselves than the priests had been. ³⁵Furthermore, the burnt offerings were abundant, along with the fat of the peace offerings and the drink offerings for the burnt offerings. So the service of the house of the LORD was established. ³⁶Then Hezekiah and all the people rejoiced at what God had prepared for the people, because everything had been accomplished so quickly.

30Then Hezekiah sent word throughout all Israel and Judah, and he also wrote letters to Ephraim and Manasseh inviting them to come to the house of the LORD in Jerusalem to keep the Passover of the LORD, the God of Israel. ²For the king and his officials and the whole assembly in Jerusalem had decided to keep the Passover in the second month, ³since they had been unable to observe it at the regular time, because not enough priests had consecrated themselves and the people had not been gathered in Jerusalem. ⁴This proposal pleased the king and the whole assembly. ⁵So they established a decree to circulate a proclamation throughout Israel, from Beersheba to Dan, that the people should come to keep the Passover of the LORD, the God of Israel, in Jerusalem. For they had not observed it as a nation as prescribed. ⁶So the couriers went throughout Israel and Judah with letters from the king and his officials, which read: “Children of Israel, return to the LORD, the God of Abraham, Isaac, and Israel, so that He may return to those of you who remain, who have escaped the grasp of the kings of Assyria. ⁷Do not be like your fathers and brothers who were unfaithful to the LORD, the God of their fathers, so that He made them an object of horror, as you can see. ⁸Now do not stiffen your necks as your fathers did. Submit to the LORD and come to His sanctuary, which He has consecrated forever. Serve the LORD your God, so that His fierce anger will turn away from you. ⁹For if you return to the LORD, your brothers and sons will receive mercy in the presence of their captors and will return to this land. For the LORD your God is gracious and merciful; He will not turn His face away from you if you return to Him.” ¹⁰And the couriers traveled from city to city through the land of Ephraim and Manasseh as far as Zebulun; but the people scorned and mocked them. ¹¹Nevertheless, some from Asher, Manasseh, and Zebulun humbled themselves and came to Jerusalem. ¹²Moreover, the power of God was on the people in Judah to give them one heart to obey the command of the king and his officials according to the word of the LORD. ¹³In the second month, a very great assembly gathered in Jerusalem to celebrate the Feast of Unleavened Bread. ¹⁴They proceeded to remove the altars in Jerusalem and to take away the incense altars and throw them into the Kidron Valley. ¹⁵And on the fourteenth day of the second month they slaughtered the Passover lamb. The priests and Levites were ashamed, and they consecrated themselves and brought burnt offerings to the house of the LORD. ¹⁶They stood at their prescribed posts, according to the Law of Moses the man of God. The priests sprinkled the blood, which they received from the hand of the Levites. ¹⁷Since there were many in the assembly who had not consecrated themselves, the Levites were in charge of slaughtering the Passover lambs for every unclean person to consecrate the lambs to the LORD. ¹⁸A large number of the people—many from Ephraim, Manasseh, Issachar, and Zebulun—had not purified themselves, yet they ate the Passover, contrary to what was written. But Hezekiah interceded for them, saying, “May the LORD, who is good, provide atonement for everyone ¹⁹who sets his heart on seeking God—the LORD, the God of his fathers—even if he is not cleansed according to the purification rules of the sanctuary.” ²⁰And the LORD heard Hezekiah and healed the people. ²¹The Israelites who were present in Jerusalem celebrated the Feast of Unleavened Bread for seven days with great joy, and the Levites and priests praised the LORD day after day, accompanied by loud instruments of praise to the LORD. ²²And Hezekiah encouraged all the Levites who performed skillfully before the LORD. For seven days they ate their assigned portion, sacrificing fellowship offerings and giving thanks to the LORD, the God of their fathers. ²³The whole assembly agreed to observe seven more days, so they observed seven days with joy. ²⁴For Hezekiah king of Judah contributed a thousand bulls and seven thousand sheep for the assembly, and the officials contributed a thousand bulls and ten thousand sheep for the assembly, and a great number of priests consecrated themselves. ²⁵Then the whole assembly of Judah rejoiced along with the priests and Levites and the whole assembly that had come from Israel, including the foreigners who had come from Israel and those who lived in Judah. ²⁶So there was great rejoicing in Jerusalem, for nothing like this had happened there since the days of Solomon son of David king of Israel. ²⁷Then the priests and the Levites stood to bless the people, and God heard their voice, and their prayer came into His holy dwelling place in heaven.