Day 225 reading

Wisdom·Psalm 119:114–122

¹¹⁴You are my hiding place and my shield; I put my hope in Your word. ¹¹⁵Depart from me, you evildoers, that I may obey the commandments of my God. ¹¹⁶Sustain me as You promised, that I may live; let me not be ashamed of my hope. ¹¹⁷Uphold me, and I will be saved, that I may always regard Your statutes. ¹¹⁸You reject all who stray from Your statutes, for their deceitfulness is in vain. ¹¹⁹All the wicked on earth You discard like dross; therefore I love Your testimonies. ¹²⁰My flesh trembles in awe of You; I stand in fear of Your judgments. ¹²¹I have done what is just and right; do not leave me to my oppressors. ¹²²Ensure Your servant’s well-being; do not let the arrogant oppress me.

New Testament·Romans 4:11–25

¹¹And he received the sign of circumcision as a seal of the righteousness that he had by faith while he was still uncircumcised. So then, he is the father of all who believe but are not circumcised, in order that righteousness might be credited to them. ¹²And he is also the father of the circumcised who not only are circumcised, but who also walk in the footsteps of the faith that our father Abraham had before he was circumcised. ¹³For the promise to Abraham and his offspring that he would be heir of the world was not given through the law, but through the righteousness that comes by faith. ¹⁴For if those who live by the law are heirs, faith is useless and the promise is worthless, ¹⁵because the law brings wrath. And where there is no law, there is no transgression. ¹⁶Therefore, the promise comes by faith, so that it may rest on grace and may be guaranteed to all Abraham’s offspring—not only to those who are of the law, but also to those who are of the faith of Abraham. He is the father of us all. ¹⁷As it is written: “I have made you a father of many nations.” He is our father in the presence of God, in whom he believed, the God who gives life to the dead and calls into being what does not yet exist. ¹⁸Against all hope, Abraham in hope believed and so became the father of many nations, just as he had been told, “So shall your offspring be.” ¹⁹Without weakening in his faith, he acknowledged the decrepitness of his body (since he was about a hundred years old) and the lifelessness of Sarah’s womb. ²⁰Yet he did not waver through disbelief in the promise of God, but was strengthened in his faith and gave glory to God, ²¹being fully persuaded that God was able to do what He had promised. ²²This is why “it was credited to him as righteousness.” ²³Now the words “it was credited to him” were written not only for Abraham, ²⁴but also for us, to whom righteousness will be credited—for us who believe in Him who raised Jesus our Lord from the dead. ²⁵He was delivered over to death for our trespasses and was raised to life for our justification.

Old Testament·Ezra 5–6

¹Later, the prophets Haggai and Zechariah son of Iddo prophesied to the Jews in Judah and Jerusalem in the name of the God of Israel, who was over them. ²Then Zerubbabel son of Shealtiel and Jeshua son of Jozadak rose up and began to rebuild the house of God in Jerusalem. And the prophets of God were with them, helping them. ³At that time Tattenai the governor of the region west of the Euphrates, Shethar-bozenai, and their associates went to the Jews and asked, “Who authorized you to rebuild this temple and restore this structure?” ⁴They also asked, “What are the names of the men who are constructing this building?” ⁵But the eye of their God was on the elders of the Jews, so that they were not stopped until a report was sent to Darius and written instructions about this matter were returned. ⁶This is the text of the letter that Tattenai the governor of the region west of the Euphrates, Shethar-bozenai, and their associates, the officials in the region, sent to King Darius. ⁷The report they sent him read as follows: To King Darius: All peace. ⁸Let it be known to the king that we went into the province of Judah, to the house of the great God. The people are rebuilding it with large stones, and placing timbers in the walls. This work is being carried out diligently and is prospering in their hands. ⁹So we questioned the elders and asked, “Who authorized you to rebuild this temple and restore this structure?” ¹⁰We also asked for their names, so that we could write down the names of their leaders for your information. ¹¹And this is the answer they returned: “We are servants of the God of heaven and earth, and we are rebuilding the temple that was built many years ago, which a great king of Israel built and completed. ¹²But since our fathers angered the God of heaven, He delivered them into the hand of Nebuchadnezzar king of Babylon, the Chaldean who destroyed this temple and carried away the people to Babylon. ¹³In his first year, however, Cyrus king of Babylon issued a decree to rebuild this house of God. ¹⁴He also removed from the temple of Babylon the gold and silver articles belonging to the house of God, which Nebuchadnezzar had taken and carried there from the temple in Jerusalem. King Cyrus gave these articles to a man named Sheshbazzar, whom he appointed governor ¹⁵and instructed, ‘Take these articles, put them in the temple in Jerusalem, and let the house of God be rebuilt on its original site.’ ¹⁶So this Sheshbazzar came and laid the foundation of the house of God in Jerusalem, and from that time until now it has been under construction, but it has not yet been completed.” ¹⁷Now, therefore, if it pleases the king, let a search be made of the royal archives in Babylon to see if King Cyrus did indeed issue a decree to rebuild the house of God in Jerusalem. Then let the king send us his decision in this matter.

6Thus King Darius ordered a search of the archives stored in the treasury of Babylon. ²And a scroll was found in the fortress of Ecbatana, in the province of Media, with the following written on it: Memorandum: ³In the first year of King Cyrus, he issued a decree concerning the house of God in Jerusalem: Let the house be rebuilt as a place for offering sacrifices, and let its foundations be firmly laid. It is to be sixty cubits high and sixty cubits wide, ⁴with three layers of cut stones and one of timbers. The costs are to be paid from the royal treasury. ⁵Furthermore, the gold and silver articles of the house of God, which Nebuchadnezzar took from the temple in Jerusalem and carried to Babylon, must also be returned to the temple in Jerusalem and deposited in the house of God. ⁶Therefore Darius decreed: To Tattenai governor of the region west of the Euphrates, Shethar-bozenai, and your associates and officials in the region: You must stay away from that place! ⁷Leave this work on the house of God alone. Let the governor and elders of the Jews rebuild this house of God on its original site. ⁸I hereby decree what you must do for these elders of the Jews who are rebuilding this house of God: The cost is to be paid in full to these men from the royal treasury out of the taxes of the provinces west of the Euphrates, so that the work will not be hindered. ⁹Whatever is needed—young bulls, rams, and lambs for burnt offerings to the God of heaven, as well as wheat, salt, wine, and oil, as requested by the priests in Jerusalem—must be given to them daily without fail. ¹⁰Then they will be able to offer sacrifices of a sweet aroma to the God of heaven and to pray for the lives of the king and his sons. ¹¹I also decree that if any man interferes with this directive, a beam is to be torn from his house and raised up, and he is to be impaled on it. And his own house shall be made a pile of rubble for this offense. ¹²May God, who has caused His Name to dwell there, overthrow any king or people who lifts a hand to alter this decree or to destroy this house of God in Jerusalem. I, Darius, have issued the decree. Let it be carried out with diligence. ¹³In response, Tattenai the governor of the region west of the Euphrates, Shethar-bozenai, and their associates diligently carried out what King Darius had decreed. ¹⁴So the Jewish elders built and prospered through the prophesying of Haggai the prophet and Zechariah son of Iddo. They finished building according to the command of the God of Israel and the decrees of Cyrus, Darius, and Artaxerxes, kings of Persia. ¹⁵And this temple was completed on the third day of the month of Adar, in the sixth year of the reign of King Darius. ¹⁶Then the people of Israel—the priests, the Levites, and the rest of the exiles—celebrated the dedication of the house of God with joy. ¹⁷For the dedication of the house of God they offered a hundred bulls, two hundred rams, four hundred lambs, and a sin offering for all Israel of twelve male goats, one for each tribe of Israel. ¹⁸They also appointed the priests by their divisions and the Levites by their groups to the service of God in Jerusalem, according to what is written in the Book of Moses. ¹⁹On the fourteenth day of the first month, the exiles kept the Passover. ²⁰All the priests and Levites had purified themselves and were ceremonially clean. And the Levites slaughtered the Passover lamb for all the exiles, for their priestly brothers, and for themselves. ²¹The Israelites who had returned from exile ate it, together with all who had separated themselves from the uncleanness of the peoples of the land to seek the LORD, the God of Israel. ²²For seven days they kept the Feast of Unleavened Bread with joy, because the LORD had made them joyful and turned the heart of the king of Assyria toward them to strengthen their hands in the work on the house of the God of Israel.