Day 279 reading

Wisdom·Proverbs 4:21–27

²¹Do not lose sight of them; keep them within your heart. ²²For they are life to those who find them, and health to the whole body. ²³Guard your heart with all diligence, for from it flow springs of life. ²⁴Put away deception from your mouth; keep your lips from perverse speech. ²⁵Let your eyes look forward; fix your gaze straight ahead. ²⁶Make a level path for your feet, and all your ways will be sure. ²⁷Do not swerve to the right or to the left; turn your feet away from evil.

New Testament·Ephesians 1

¹Paul, an apostle of Christ Jesus by the will of God, To the saints in Ephesus, the faithful in Christ Jesus: ²Grace and peace to you from God our Father and the Lord Jesus Christ. ³Blessed be the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, who has blessed us in Christ with every spiritual blessing in the heavenly realms. ⁴For He chose us in Him before the foundation of the world to be holy and blameless in His presence. In love ⁵He predestined us for adoption as His sons through Jesus Christ, according to the good pleasure of His will, ⁶to the praise of His glorious grace, which He has freely given us in the Beloved One. ⁷In Him we have redemption through His blood, the forgiveness of our trespasses, according to the riches of His grace ⁸that He lavished on us with all wisdom and understanding. ⁹And He has made known to us the mystery of His will according to His good pleasure, which He purposed in Christ ¹⁰as a plan for the fullness of time, to bring all things in heaven and on earth together in Christ. ¹¹In Him we were also chosen as God’s own, having been predestined according to the plan of Him who works out everything by the counsel of His will, ¹²in order that we, who were the first to hope in Christ, would be for the praise of His glory. ¹³And in Him, having heard and believed the word of truth—the gospel of your salvation—you were sealed with the promised Holy Spirit, ¹⁴who is the pledge of our inheritance until the redemption of those who are God’s possession, to the praise of His glory. ¹⁵For this reason, ever since I heard about your faith in the Lord Jesus and your love for all the saints, ¹⁶I have not stopped giving thanks for you, remembering you in my prayers, ¹⁷that the God of our Lord Jesus Christ, the glorious Father, may give you a spirit of wisdom and revelation in your knowledge of Him. ¹⁸I ask that the eyes of your heart may be enlightened, so that you may know the hope of His calling, the riches of His glorious inheritance in the saints, ¹⁹and the surpassing greatness of His power to us who believe. These are in accordance with the working of His mighty strength, ²⁰which He exerted in Christ when He raised Him from the dead and seated Him at His right hand in the heavenly realms, ²¹far above all rule and authority, power and dominion, and every name that is named, not only in the present age but also in the one to come. ²²And God put everything under His feet and made Him head over everything for the church, ²³which is His body, the fullness of Him who fills all in all.

Old Testament·Isaiah 40–41

¹“Comfort, comfort My people,” says your God. ²“Speak tenderly to Jerusalem, and proclaim to her that her forced labor has been completed; her iniquity has been pardoned. For she has received from the hand of the LORD double for all her sins.” ³A voice of one calling: “Prepare the way for the LORD in the wilderness; make a straight highway for our God in the desert. ⁴Every valley shall be lifted up, and every mountain and hill made low; the uneven ground will become smooth, and the rugged land a plain. ⁵And the glory of the LORD will be revealed, and all humanity together will see it. For the mouth of the LORD has spoken.” ⁶A voice says, “Cry out!” And I asked, “What should I cry out?” “All flesh is like grass, and all its glory like the flowers of the field. ⁷The grass withers and the flowers fall when the breath of the LORD blows on them; indeed, the people are grass. ⁸The grass withers and the flowers fall, but the word of our God stands forever.” ⁹Go up on a high mountain, O Zion, herald of good news. Raise your voice loudly, O Jerusalem, herald of good news. Lift it up, do not be afraid! Say to the cities of Judah, “Here is your God!” ¹⁰Behold, the Lord GOD comes with might, and His arm establishes His rule. His reward is with Him, and His recompense accompanies Him. ¹¹He tends His flock like a shepherd; He gathers the lambs in His arms and carries them close to His heart. He gently leads the nursing ewes. ¹²Who has measured the waters in the hollow of his hand, or marked off the heavens with the span of his hand? Who has held the dust of the earth in a basket, or weighed the mountains on a scale and the hills with a balance? ¹³Who has directed the Spirit of the LORD, or informed Him as His counselor? ¹⁴Whom did He consult to enlighten Him, and who taught Him the paths of justice? Who imparted knowledge to Him and showed Him the way of understanding? ¹⁵Surely the nations are like a drop in a bucket; they are considered a speck of dust on the scales; He lifts up the islands like fine dust. ¹⁶Lebanon is not sufficient for fuel, nor its animals enough for a burnt offering. ¹⁷All the nations are as nothing before Him; He regards them as nothingness and emptiness. ¹⁸To whom will you liken God? To what image will you compare Him? ¹⁹To an idol that a craftsman casts and a metalworker overlays with gold and fits with silver chains? ²⁰To one bereft of an offering who chooses wood that will not rot, who seeks a skilled craftsman to set up an idol that will not topple? ²¹Do you not know? Have you not heard? Has it not been declared to you from the beginning? Have you not understood since the foundation of the earth? ²²He sits enthroned above the circle of the earth; its dwellers are like grasshoppers. He stretches out the heavens like a curtain, and spreads them out like a tent to dwell in. ²³He brings the princes to nothing and makes the rulers of the earth meaningless. ²⁴No sooner are they planted, no sooner are they sown, no sooner have their stems taken root in the ground, than He blows on them and they wither, and a whirlwind sweeps them away like stubble. ²⁵“To whom will you liken Me, or who is My equal?” asks the Holy One. ²⁶Lift up your eyes on high: Who created all these? He leads forth the starry host by number; He calls each one by name. Because of His great power and mighty strength, not one of them is missing. ²⁷Why do you say, O Jacob, and why do you assert, O Israel, “My way is hidden from the LORD, and my claim is ignored by my God”? ²⁸Do you not know? Have you not heard? The LORD is the everlasting God, the Creator of the ends of the earth. He will not grow tired or weary; His understanding is beyond searching out. ²⁹He gives power to the faint and increases the strength of the weak. ³⁰Even youths grow tired and weary, and young men stumble and fall. ³¹But those who wait upon the LORD will renew their strength; they will mount up with wings like eagles; they will run and not grow weary, they will walk and not faint.

41“Be silent before Me, O islands, and let the peoples renew their strength. Let them come forward and testify; let us together draw near for judgment. ²Who has aroused one from the east and called him to his feet in righteousness? He hands nations over to him and subdues kings before him. He turns them to dust with his sword, to windblown chaff with his bow. ³He pursues them, going on safely, hardly touching the path with his feet. ⁴Who has performed this and carried it out, calling forth the generations from the beginning? I, the LORD—the first and the last— I am He.” ⁵The islands see and fear; the ends of the earth tremble. They approach and come forward. ⁶Each one helps the other and says to his brother, “Be strong!” ⁷The craftsman encourages the goldsmith, and he who wields the hammer cheers him who strikes the anvil, saying of the welding, “It is good.” He nails it down so it will not be toppled. ⁸“But you, O Israel, My servant, Jacob, whom I have chosen, descendant of Abraham My friend— ⁹I brought you from the ends of the earth and called you from its farthest corners. I said, ‘You are My servant.’ I have chosen and not rejected you. ¹⁰Do not fear, for I am with you; do not be afraid, for I am your God. I will strengthen you; I will surely help you; I will uphold you with My right hand of righteousness. ¹¹Behold, all who rage against you will be ashamed and disgraced; those who contend with you will be reduced to nothing and will perish. ¹²You will seek them but will not find them. Those who wage war against you will come to nothing. ¹³For I am the LORD your God, who takes hold of your right hand and tells you: Do not fear, I will help you. ¹⁴Do not fear, O worm of Jacob, O few men of Israel. I will help you,” declares the LORD. “Your Redeemer is the Holy One of Israel. ¹⁵Behold, I will make you into a threshing sledge, new and sharp, with many teeth. You will thresh the mountains and crush them, and reduce the hills to chaff. ¹⁶You will winnow them, and a wind will carry them away; a gale will scatter them. But you will rejoice in the LORD; you will glory in the Holy One of Israel. ¹⁷The poor and needy seek water, but there is none; their tongues are parched with thirst. I, the LORD, will answer them; I, the God of Israel, will not forsake them. ¹⁸I will open rivers on the barren heights, and fountains in the middle of the valleys. I will turn the desert into a pool of water, and the dry land into flowing springs. ¹⁹I will plant cedars in the wilderness, acacias, myrtles, and olive trees. I will set cypresses in the desert, elms and boxwood together, ²⁰so that all may see and know, may consider and understand, that the hand of the LORD has done this and the Holy One of Israel has created it.” ²¹“Present your case,” says the LORD. “Submit your arguments,” says the King of Jacob. ²²“Let them come and tell us what will happen. Tell the former things, so that we may reflect on them and know the outcome. Or announce to us what is coming. ²³Tell us the things that are to come, so that we may know that you are gods. Yes, do something good or evil, that we may look on together in dismay. ²⁴Behold, you are nothing and your work is of no value. Anyone who chooses you is detestable. ²⁵I have raised up one from the north, and he has come— one from the east who calls on My name. He will march over rulers as if they were mortar, like a potter who treads the clay. ²⁶Who has declared this from the beginning, so that we may know, and from times past, so that we may say: ‘He was right’? No one announced it, no one foretold it, no one heard your words. ²⁷I was the first to tell Zion: ‘Look, here they are!’ And I gave to Jerusalem a herald of good news. ²⁸When I look, there is no one; there is no counselor among them; when I ask them, they have nothing to say. ²⁹See, they are all a delusion; their works amount to nothing; their images are as empty as the wind.