Day 28 reading

Wisdom·Psalm 21:1–7

¹O LORD, the king rejoices in Your strength. How greatly he exults in Your salvation! ²You have granted his heart’s desire and have not withheld the request of his lips. Selah ³For You welcomed him with rich blessings; You placed on his head a crown of pure gold. ⁴He asked You for life, and You granted it— length of days, forever and ever. ⁵Great is his glory in Your salvation; You bestow on him splendor and majesty. ⁶For You grant him blessings forever; You cheer him with joy in Your presence. ⁷For the king trusts in the LORD; through the loving devotion of the Most High, he will not be shaken.

New Testament·Matthew 18

¹At that time the disciples came to Jesus and asked, “Who then is the greatest in the kingdom of heaven?” ²Jesus invited a little child to stand among them. ³“Truly I tell you,” He said, “unless you change and become like little children, you will never enter the kingdom of heaven. ⁴Therefore, whoever humbles himself like this little child is the greatest in the kingdom of heaven. ⁵And whoever welcomes a little child like this in My name welcomes Me. ⁶But if anyone causes one of these little ones who believe in Me to stumble, it would be better for him to have a large millstone hung around his neck and to be drowned in the depths of the sea. ⁷Woe to the world for the causes of sin. These stumbling blocks must come, but woe to the man through whom they come! ⁸If your hand or your foot causes you to sin, cut it off and throw it away. It is better for you to enter life crippled or lame than to have two hands and two feet and be thrown into the eternal fire. ⁹And if your eye causes you to sin, gouge it out and throw it away. It is better for you to enter life with one eye than to have two eyes and be thrown into the fire of hell. ¹⁰See that you do not look down on any of these little ones. For I tell you that their angels in heaven always see the face of My Father in heaven. ¹²What do you think? If a man has a hundred sheep and one of them goes astray, will he not leave the ninety-nine on the hills and go out to search for the one that is lost? ¹³And if he finds it, truly I tell you, he rejoices more over that one sheep than over the ninety-nine that did not go astray. ¹⁴In the same way, your Father in heaven is not willing that any of these little ones should perish. ¹⁵If your brother sins against you, go and confront him privately. If he listens to you, you have won your brother over. ¹⁶But if he will not listen, take one or two others along, so that ‘every matter may be established by the testimony of two or three witnesses.’ ¹⁷If he refuses to listen to them, tell it to the church. And if he refuses to listen even to the church, regard him as you would a pagan or a tax collector. ¹⁸Truly I tell you, whatever you bind on earth will be bound in heaven, and whatever you loose on earth will be loosed in heaven. ¹⁹Again, I tell you truly that if two of you on the earth agree about anything you ask for, it will be done for you by My Father in heaven. ²⁰For where two or three gather together in My name, there am I with them.” ²¹Then Peter came to Jesus and asked, “Lord, how many times shall I forgive my brother who sins against me? Up to seven times?” ²²Jesus answered, “I tell you, not just seven times, but seventy-seven times! ²³Because of this, the kingdom of heaven is like a king who wanted to settle accounts with his servants. ²⁴As he began the settlements, a debtor was brought to him owing ten thousand talents. ²⁵Since the man was unable to pay, the master ordered that he be sold to pay his debt, along with his wife and children and everything he owned. ²⁶Then the servant fell on his knees before him. ‘Have patience with me,’ he begged, ‘and I will pay back everything.’ ²⁷His master had compassion on him, forgave his debt, and released him. ²⁸But when that servant went out, he found one of his fellow servants who owed him a hundred denarii. He grabbed him and began to choke him, saying, ‘Pay back what you owe me!’ ²⁹So his fellow servant fell down and begged him, ‘Have patience with me, and I will pay you back.’ ³⁰But he refused. Instead, he went and had the man thrown into prison until he could pay his debt. ³¹When his fellow servants saw what had happened, they were greatly distressed, and they went and recounted all of this to their master. ³²Then the master summoned him and declared, ‘You wicked servant! I forgave all your debt because you begged me. ³³Shouldn’t you have had mercy on your fellow servant, just as I had on you?’ ³⁴In anger his master turned him over to the jailers to be tortured, until he should repay all that he owed. ³⁵That is how My heavenly Father will treat each of you unless you forgive your brother from your heart.”

Old Testament·Genesis 48–49

¹Some time later Joseph was told, “Your father is ill.” So he set out with his two sons, Manasseh and Ephraim. ²When Jacob was told, “Your son Joseph has come to you,” Israel rallied his strength and sat up in bed. ³Jacob said to Joseph, “God Almighty appeared to me at Luz in the land of Canaan, and there He blessed me ⁴and told me, ‘Behold, I will make you fruitful and multiply you; I will make you a multitude of peoples, and will give this land to your descendants after you as an everlasting possession.’ ⁵And now your two sons born to you in Egypt before I came to you here shall be reckoned as mine; Ephraim and Manasseh shall be mine, just as Reuben and Simeon are mine. ⁶Any children born to you after them shall be yours, and they shall be called by the names of their brothers in the territory they inherit. ⁷Now as for me, when I was returning from Paddan, to my sorrow Rachel died along the way in the land of Canaan, some distance from Ephrath. So I buried her there beside the road to Ephrath” (that is, Bethlehem). ⁸When Israel saw the sons of Joseph, he asked, “Who are these?” ⁹Joseph said to his father, “They are the sons God has given me in this place.” So Jacob said, “Please bring them to me, that I may bless them.” ¹⁰Now Israel’s eyesight was poor because of old age; he could hardly see. Joseph brought his sons to him, and his father kissed them and embraced them. ¹¹“I never expected to see your face again,” Israel said to Joseph, “but now God has let me see your children as well.” ¹²Then Joseph removed his sons from his father’s knees and bowed facedown. ¹³And Joseph took both of them—with Ephraim in his right hand toward Israel’s left hand, and Manasseh in his left hand toward Israel’s right hand—and brought them close to him. ¹⁴But Israel stretched out his right hand and put it on the head of Ephraim, the younger; and crossing his hands, he put his left on Manasseh’s head, although Manasseh was the firstborn. ¹⁵Then he blessed Joseph and said: “May the God before whom my fathers Abraham and Isaac walked, the God who has been my shepherd all my life to this day, ¹⁶the angel who has redeemed me from all harm— may He bless these boys. And may they be called by my name and the names of my fathers Abraham and Isaac, and may they grow into a multitude upon the earth.” ¹⁷When Joseph saw that his father had placed his right hand on Ephraim’s head, he was displeased and took his father’s hand to move it from Ephraim’s head to Manasseh’s. ¹⁸“Not so, my father!” Joseph said. “This one is the firstborn; put your right hand on his head.” ¹⁹But his father refused. “I know, my son, I know!” he said. “He too shall become a people, and he too shall be great; nevertheless, his younger brother shall be greater than he, and his offspring shall become a multitude of nations.” ²⁰So that day Jacob blessed them and said: “By you shall Israel pronounce this blessing: ‘May God make you like Ephraim and Manasseh.’” So he put Ephraim before Manasseh. ²¹Then Israel said to Joseph, “Look, I am about to die, but God will be with you and bring you back to the land of your fathers. ²²And to you, as one who is above your brothers, I give the ridge of land that I took from the Amorites with my sword and bow.”

49Then Jacob called for his sons and said, “Gather around so that I can tell you what will happen to you in the days to come: ²Come together and listen, O sons of Jacob; listen to your father Israel. ³Reuben, you are my firstborn, my might, and the beginning of my strength, excelling in honor, excelling in power. ⁴Uncontrolled as the waters, you will no longer excel, because you went up to your father’s bed, onto my couch, and defiled it. ⁵Simeon and Levi are brothers; their swords are weapons of violence. ⁶May I never enter their council; may I never join their assembly. For they kill men in their anger, and hamstring oxen on a whim. ⁷Cursed be their anger, for it is strong, and their wrath, for it is cruel! I will disperse them in Jacob and scatter them in Israel. ⁸Judah, your brothers shall praise you. Your hand shall be on the necks of your enemies; your father’s sons shall bow down to you. ⁹Judah is a young lion— my son, you return from the prey. Like a lion he crouches and lies down; like a lioness, who dares to rouse him? ¹⁰The scepter will not depart from Judah, nor the staff from between his feet, until Shiloh comes and the allegiance of the nations is his. ¹¹He ties his donkey to the vine, his colt to the choicest branch. He washes his garments in wine, his robes in the blood of grapes. ¹²His eyes are darker than wine, and his teeth are whiter than milk. ¹³Zebulun shall dwell by the seashore and become a harbor for ships; his border shall extend to Sidon. ¹⁴Issachar is a strong donkey, lying down between the sheepfolds. ¹⁵He saw that his resting place was good and that his land was pleasant, so he bent his shoulder to the burden and submitted to labor as a servant. ¹⁶Dan shall provide justice for his people as one of the tribes of Israel. ¹⁷He will be a snake by the road, a viper in the path that bites the horse’s heels so that its rider tumbles backward. ¹⁸I await Your salvation, O LORD. ¹⁹Gad will be attacked by raiders, but he will attack their heels. ²⁰Asher’s food will be rich; he shall provide royal delicacies. ²¹Naphtali is a doe set free that bears beautiful fawns. ²²Joseph is a fruitful vine— a fruitful vine by a spring, whose branches scale the wall. ²³The archers attacked him with bitterness; they aimed at him in hostility. ²⁴Yet he steadied his bow, and his strong arms were tempered by the hands of the Mighty One of Jacob, in the name of the Shepherd, the Rock of Israel, ²⁵by the God of your father who helps you, and by the Almighty who blesses you, with blessings of the heavens above, with blessings of the depths below, with blessings of the breasts and womb. ²⁶The blessings of your father have surpassed the blessings of the ancient mountains and the bounty of the everlasting hills. May they rest on the head of Joseph, on the brow of the prince of his brothers. ²⁷Benjamin is a ravenous wolf; in the morning he devours the prey, in the evening he divides the plunder.” ²⁸These are the tribes of Israel, twelve in all, and this was what their father said to them. He blessed them, and he blessed each one with a suitable blessing. ²⁹Then Jacob instructed them, “I am about to be gathered to my people. Bury me with my fathers in the cave in the field of Ephron the Hittite. ³⁰The cave is in the field of Machpelah near Mamre, in the land of Canaan. This is the field Abraham purchased from Ephron the Hittite as a burial site. ³¹There Abraham and his wife Sarah are buried, there Isaac and his wife Rebekah are buried, and there I buried Leah. ³²The field and the cave that is in it were purchased from the Hittites.” ³³When Jacob had finished instructing his sons, he pulled his feet into the bed and breathed his last, and he was gathered to his people.