Day 280 reading

Wisdom·Proverbs 5:1–12

¹My son, pay attention to my wisdom; incline your ear to my insight, ²that you may maintain discretion and your lips may preserve knowledge. ³Though the lips of the forbidden woman drip honey and her speech is smoother than oil, ⁴in the end she is bitter as wormwood, sharp as a double-edged sword. ⁵Her feet go down to death; her steps lead straight to Sheol. ⁶She does not consider the path of life; she does not know that her ways are unstable. ⁷So now, my sons, listen to me, and do not turn aside from the words of my mouth. ⁸Keep your path far from her; do not go near the door of her house, ⁹lest you concede your vigor to others, and your years to one who is cruel; ¹⁰lest strangers feast on your wealth, and your labors enrich the house of a foreigner. ¹¹At the end of your life you will groan when your flesh and your body are spent, ¹²and you will say, “How I hated discipline, and my heart despised reproof!

New Testament·Ephesians 2

¹And you were dead in your trespasses and sins, ²in which you used to walk when you conformed to the ways of this world and of the ruler of the power of the air, the spirit who is now at work in the sons of disobedience. ³All of us also lived among them at one time, fulfilling the cravings of our flesh and indulging its desires and thoughts. Like the rest, we were by nature children of wrath. ⁴But because of His great love for us, God, who is rich in mercy, ⁵made us alive with Christ even when we were dead in our trespasses. It is by grace you have been saved! ⁶And God raised us up with Christ and seated us with Him in the heavenly realms in Christ Jesus, ⁷in order that in the coming ages He might display the surpassing riches of His grace, demonstrated by His kindness to us in Christ Jesus. ⁸For it is by grace you have been saved through faith, and this not from yourselves; it is the gift of God, ⁹not by works, so that no one can boast. ¹⁰For we are God’s workmanship, created in Christ Jesus to do good works, which God prepared in advance as our way of life. ¹¹Therefore remember that formerly you who are Gentiles in the flesh and called uncircumcised by the so-called circumcision (that done in the body by human hands)— ¹²remember that at that time you were separate from Christ, alienated from the commonwealth of Israel, and strangers to the covenants of the promise, without hope and without God in the world. ¹³But now in Christ Jesus you who once were far away have been brought near through the blood of Christ. ¹⁴For He Himself is our peace, who has made the two one and has torn down the dividing wall of hostility ¹⁵by abolishing in His flesh the law of commandments and decrees. He did this to create in Himself one new man out of the two, thus making peace ¹⁶and reconciling both of them to God in one body through the cross, by which He extinguished their hostility. ¹⁷He came and preached peace to you who were far away and peace to those who were near. ¹⁸For through Him we both have access to the Father by one Spirit. ¹⁹Therefore you are no longer strangers and foreigners, but fellow citizens with the saints and members of God’s household, ²⁰built on the foundation of the apostles and prophets, with Christ Jesus Himself as the cornerstone. ²¹In Him the whole building is fitted together and grows into a holy temple in the Lord. ²²And in Him you too are being built together into a dwelling place for God in His Spirit.

Old Testament·Isaiah 42–43

¹“Here is My Servant, whom I uphold, My Chosen One, in whom My soul delights. I will put My Spirit on Him, and He will bring justice to the nations. ²He will not cry out or raise His voice, nor make His voice heard in the streets. ³A bruised reed He will not break and a smoldering wick He will not extinguish; He will faithfully bring forth justice. ⁴He will not grow weak or discouraged before He has established justice on the earth. In His law the islands will put their hope.” ⁵This is what God the LORD says— He who created the heavens and stretched them out, who spread out the earth and its offspring, who gives breath to the people on it and life to those who walk in it: ⁶“I, the LORD, have called you for a righteous purpose, and I will take hold of your hand. I will keep you and appoint you to be a covenant for the people and a light to the nations, ⁷to open the eyes of the blind, to bring prisoners out of the dungeon and those sitting in darkness out from the prison house. ⁸I am the LORD; that is My name! I will not yield My glory to another or My praise to idols. ⁹Behold, the former things have happened, and now I declare new things. Before they spring forth I proclaim them to you.” ¹⁰Sing to the LORD a new song— His praise from the ends of the earth— you who go down to the sea, and all that is in it, you islands, and all who dwell in them. ¹¹Let the desert and its cities raise their voices; let the villages of Kedar cry aloud. Let the people of Sela sing for joy; let them cry out from the mountaintops. ¹²Let them give glory to the LORD and declare His praise in the islands. ¹³The LORD goes forth like a mighty one; He stirs up His zeal like a warrior. He shouts; yes, He roars in triumph over His enemies: ¹⁴“I have kept silent from ages past; I have remained quiet and restrained. But now I will groan like a woman in labor; I will at once gasp and pant. ¹⁵I will lay waste the mountains and hills and dry up all their vegetation. I will turn the rivers into dry land and drain the marshes. ¹⁶I will lead the blind by a way they did not know; I will guide them on unfamiliar paths. I will turn darkness into light before them and rough places into level ground. These things I will do for them, and I will not forsake them. ¹⁷But those who trust in idols and say to molten images, ‘You are our gods!’ will be turned back in utter shame. ¹⁸Listen, you deaf ones; look, you blind ones, that you may see! ¹⁹Who is blind but My servant, or deaf like the messenger I am sending? Who is blind like My covenant partner, or blind like the servant of the LORD? ²⁰Though seeing many things, you do not keep watch. Though your ears are open, you do not hear.” ²¹The LORD was pleased, for the sake of His righteousness, to magnify His law and make it glorious. ²²But this is a people plundered and looted, all trapped in caves or imprisoned in dungeons. They have become plunder with no one to rescue them, and loot with no one to say, “Send them back!” ²³Who among you will pay attention to this? Who will listen and obey hereafter? ²⁴Who gave Jacob up for spoil, and Israel to the plunderers? Was it not the LORD, against whom we have sinned? They were unwilling to walk in His ways, and they would not obey His law. ²⁵So He poured out on them His furious anger and the fierceness of battle. It enveloped them in flames, but they did not understand; it consumed them, but they did not take it to heart.

43Now this is what the LORD says— He who created you, O Jacob, and He who formed you, O Israel: “Do not fear, for I have redeemed you; I have called you by your name; you are Mine! ²When you pass through the waters, I will be with you; and when you go through the rivers, they will not overwhelm you. When you walk through the fire, you will not be scorched; the flames will not set you ablaze. ³For I am the LORD your God, the Holy One of Israel, your Savior; I give Egypt for your ransom, Cush and Seba in your place. ⁴Because you are precious and honored in My sight, and because I love you, I will give men in exchange for you and nations in place of your life. ⁵Do not be afraid, for I am with you; I will bring your offspring from the east and gather you from the west. ⁶I will say to the north, ‘Give them up!’ and to the south, ‘Do not hold them back!’ Bring My sons from afar, and My daughters from the ends of the earth— ⁷everyone called by My name and created for My glory, whom I have indeed formed and made.” ⁸Bring out a people who have eyes but are blind, and who have ears but are deaf. ⁹All the nations gather together and the peoples assemble. Who among them can declare this, and proclaim to us the former things? Let them present their witnesses to vindicate them, so that others may hear and say, “It is true.” ¹⁰“You are My witnesses,” declares the LORD, “and My servant whom I have chosen, so that you may consider and believe Me and understand that I am He. Before Me no god was formed, and after Me none will come. ¹¹I, yes I, am the LORD, and there is no Savior but Me. ¹²I alone decreed and saved and proclaimed— I, and not some foreign god among you. So you are My witnesses,” declares the LORD, “that I am God. ¹³Even from eternity I am He, and none can deliver out of My hand. When I act, who can reverse it?” ¹⁴Thus says the LORD your Redeemer, the Holy One of Israel: “For your sake, I will send to Babylon and bring them all as fugitives, even the Chaldeans, in the ships in which they rejoice. ¹⁵I am the LORD, your Holy One, the Creator of Israel, and your King.” ¹⁶Thus says the LORD, who makes a way in the sea and a path through the surging waters, ¹⁷who brings out the chariots and horses, the armies and warriors together, to lie down, never to rise again; to be extinguished, snuffed out like a wick: ¹⁸“Do not call to mind the former things; pay no attention to the things of old. ¹⁹Behold, I am about to do something new; even now it is coming. Do you not see it? Indeed, I will make a way in the wilderness and streams in the desert. ²⁰The beasts of the field will honor Me, the jackals and the ostriches, because I provide water in the wilderness and rivers in the desert, to give drink to My chosen people. ²¹The people I formed for Myself will declare My praise. ²²But you have not called on Me, O Jacob, because you have grown weary of Me, O Israel. ²³You have not brought Me sheep for burnt offerings, nor honored Me with your sacrifices. I have not burdened you with offerings, nor wearied you with frankincense. ²⁴You have not bought Me sweet cane with your silver, nor satisfied Me with the fat of your sacrifices. But you have burdened Me with your sins; you have wearied Me with your iniquities. ²⁵I, yes I, am He who blots out your transgressions for My own sake and remembers your sins no more. ²⁶Remind Me, let us argue the matter together. State your case, so that you may be vindicated. ²⁷Your first father sinned, and your spokesmen rebelled against Me. ²⁸So I will disgrace the princes of your sanctuary, and I will devote Jacob to destruction and Israel to reproach.”