Day 298 reading

Wisdom·Proverbs 11:1–7

¹Dishonest scales are an abomination to the LORD, but an accurate weight is His delight. ²When pride comes, disgrace follows, but with humility comes wisdom. ³The integrity of the upright guides them, but the perversity of the faithless destroys them. ⁴Riches are worthless in the day of wrath, but righteousness brings deliverance from death. ⁵The righteousness of the blameless directs their path, but the wicked fall by their own wickedness. ⁶The righteousness of the upright delivers them, but the faithless are trapped by their own desires. ⁷When the wicked man dies, his hope perishes, and the hope of his strength vanishes.

New Testament·1 Thessalonians 5

¹Now about the times and seasons, brothers, we do not need to write to you. ²For you are fully aware that the Day of the Lord will come like a thief in the night. ³While people are saying, “Peace and security,” destruction will come upon them suddenly, like labor pains on a pregnant woman, and they will not escape. ⁴But you, brothers, are not in the darkness so that this day should overtake you like a thief. ⁵For you are all sons of the light and sons of the day; we do not belong to the night or to the darkness. ⁶So then, let us not sleep as the others do, but let us remain awake and sober. ⁷For those who sleep, sleep at night; and those who get drunk, get drunk at night. ⁸But since we belong to the day, let us be sober, putting on the breastplate of faith and love, and the helmet of our hope of salvation. ⁹For God has not appointed us to suffer wrath, but to obtain salvation through our Lord Jesus Christ. ¹⁰He died for us so that, whether we are awake or asleep, we may live together with Him. ¹¹Therefore encourage and build one another up, just as you are already doing. ¹²But we ask you, brothers, to acknowledge those who work diligently among you, who preside over you in the Lord and give you instruction. ¹³In love, hold them in highest regard because of their work. Live in peace with one another. ¹⁴And we urge you, brothers, to admonish the unruly, encourage the fainthearted, help the weak, and be patient with everyone. ¹⁵Make sure that no one repays evil for evil. Always pursue what is good for one another and for all people. ¹⁶Rejoice at all times. ¹⁷Pray without ceasing. ¹⁸Give thanks in every circumstance, for this is God’s will for you in Christ Jesus. ¹⁹Do not extinguish the Spirit. ²⁰Do not treat prophecies with contempt, ²¹but test all things. Hold fast to what is good. ²²Abstain from every form of evil. ²³Now may the God of peace Himself sanctify you completely, and may your entire spirit, soul, and body be kept blameless at the coming of our Lord Jesus Christ. ²⁴The One who calls you is faithful, and He will do it. ²⁵Brothers, pray for us as well. ²⁶Greet all the brothers with a holy kiss. ²⁷I charge you before the Lord to have this letter read to all the brothers. ²⁸The grace of our Lord Jesus Christ be with you.

Old Testament·Jeremiah 22–23

¹This is what the LORD says: “Go down to the palace of the king of Judah and proclaim this message there, ²saying, ‘Hear the word of the LORD, O king of Judah, who sits on the throne of David—you and your officials and your people who enter these gates. ³This is what the LORD says: Administer justice and righteousness. Rescue the victim of robbery from the hand of his oppressor. Do no wrong or violence to the foreigner, the fatherless, or the widow. Do not shed innocent blood in this place. ⁴For if you will indeed carry out these commands, then kings who sit on David’s throne will enter through the gates of this palace riding on chariots and horses—they and their officials and their people. ⁵But if you do not obey these words, then I swear by Myself, declares the LORD, that this house will become a pile of rubble.’” ⁶For this is what the LORD says concerning the house of the king of Judah: “You are like Gilead to Me, like the summit of Lebanon; but I will surely turn you into a desert, like cities that are uninhabited. ⁷I will appoint destroyers against you, each man with his weapons, and they will cut down the choicest of your cedars and throw them into the fire. ⁸And many nations will pass by this city and ask one another, ‘Why has the LORD done such a thing to this great city?’ ⁹Then people will reply, ‘Because they have forsaken the covenant of the LORD their God and have worshiped and served other gods.’” ¹⁰Do not weep for the dead king; do not mourn his loss. Weep bitterly for the one who is exiled, for he will never return to see his native land. ¹¹For this is what the LORD says concerning Shallum son of Josiah, king of Judah, who succeeded his father Josiah but has gone forth from this place: “He will never return, ¹²but he will die in the place to which he was exiled; he will never see this land again.” ¹³“Woe to him who builds his palace by unrighteousness, and his upper rooms without justice, who makes his countrymen serve without pay, and fails to pay their wages, ¹⁴who says, ‘I will build myself a great palace, with spacious upper rooms.’ So he cuts windows in it, panels it with cedar, and paints it with vermilion. ¹⁵Does it make you a king to excel in cedar? Did not your father have food and drink? He administered justice and righteousness, and so it went well with him. ¹⁶He took up the cause of the poor and needy, and so it went well with him. Is this not what it means to know Me?” declares the LORD. ¹⁷“But your eyes and heart are set on nothing except your own dishonest gain, on shedding innocent blood, on practicing extortion and oppression.” ¹⁸Therefore this is what the LORD says concerning Jehoiakim son of Josiah king of Judah: “They will not mourn for him: ‘Alas, my brother! Alas, my sister!’ They will not mourn for him: ‘Alas, my master! Alas, his splendor!’ ¹⁹He will be buried like a donkey, dragged away and thrown outside the gates of Jerusalem. ²⁰Go up to Lebanon and cry out; raise your voice in Bashan; cry out from Abarim, for all your lovers have been crushed. ²¹I warned you when you were secure. You said, ‘I will not listen.’ This has been your way from youth, that you have not obeyed My voice. ²²The wind will drive away all your shepherds, and your lovers will go into captivity. Then you will be ashamed and humiliated because of all your wickedness. ²³O inhabitant of Lebanon, nestled in the cedars, how you will groan when pangs of anguish come upon you, agony like a woman in labor.” ²⁴“As surely as I live,” declares the LORD, “even if you, Coniah son of Jehoiakim king of Judah, were a signet ring on My right hand, I would pull you off. ²⁵In fact, I will hand you over to those you dread, who want to take your life—to Nebuchadnezzar king of Babylon and to the Chaldeans. ²⁶I will hurl you and the mother who gave you birth into another land, where neither of you were born—and there you both will die. ²⁷You will never return to the land for which you long.” ²⁸Is this man Coniah a despised and shattered pot, a jar that no one wants? Why are he and his descendants hurled out and cast into a land they do not know? ²⁹O land, land, land, hear the word of the LORD! ³⁰This is what the LORD says: “Enroll this man as childless, a man who will not prosper in his lifetime. None of his descendants will prosper to sit on the throne of David or to rule again in Judah.”

23“Woe to the shepherds who destroy and scatter the sheep of My pasture!” declares the LORD. ²Therefore this is what the LORD, the God of Israel, says about the shepherds who tend My people: “You have scattered My flock and driven them away, and have not attended to them. Behold, I will attend to you for the evil of your deeds, declares the LORD. ³Then I Myself will gather the remnant of My flock from all the lands to which I have banished them, and I will return them to their pasture, where they will be fruitful and multiply. ⁴I will raise up shepherds over them who will tend them, and they will no longer be afraid or dismayed, nor will any go missing, declares the LORD. ⁵Behold, the days are coming, declares the LORD, when I will raise up for David a righteous Branch, and He will reign wisely as King and will administer justice and righteousness in the land. ⁶In His days Judah will be saved, and Israel will dwell securely. And this is His name by which He will be called: The LORD Our Righteousness. ⁷So behold, the days are coming, declares the LORD, when they will no longer say, ‘As surely as the LORD lives, who brought the Israelites up out of the land of Egypt.’ ⁸Instead they will say, ‘As surely as the LORD lives, who brought and led the descendants of the house of Israel up out of the land of the north and all the other lands to which He had banished them.’ Then they will dwell once more in their own land.” ⁹As for the prophets: My heart is broken within me, and all my bones tremble. I have become like a drunkard, like a man overcome by wine, because of the LORD, because of His holy words. ¹⁰For the land is full of adulterers— because of the curse, the land mourns and the pastures of the wilderness have dried up— their course is evil and their power is misused. ¹¹“For both prophet and priest are ungodly; even in My house I have found their wickedness,” declares the LORD. ¹²“Therefore their path will become slick; they will be driven away into the darkness and fall into it. For I will bring disaster upon them in the year of their punishment,” declares the LORD. ¹³“Among the prophets of Samaria I saw an offensive thing: They prophesied by Baal and led My people Israel astray. ¹⁴And among the prophets of Jerusalem I have seen a horrible thing: They commit adultery and walk in lies. They strengthen the hands of evildoers, so that no one turns his back on wickedness. They are all like Sodom to Me; the people of Jerusalem are like Gomorrah.” ¹⁵Therefore this is what the LORD of Hosts says concerning the prophets: “I will feed them wormwood and give them poisoned water to drink, for from the prophets of Jerusalem ungodliness has spread throughout the land.” ¹⁶This is what the LORD of Hosts says: “Do not listen to the words of the prophets who prophesy to you. They are filling you with false hopes. They speak visions from their own minds, not from the mouth of the LORD. ¹⁷They keep saying to those who despise Me, ‘The LORD says that you will have peace,’ and to everyone who walks in the stubbornness of his own heart, ‘No harm will come to you.’ ¹⁸But which of them has stood in the council of the LORD to see and hear His word? Who has given heed to His word and obeyed it? ¹⁹Behold, the storm of the LORD has gone out with fury, a whirlwind swirling down upon the heads of the wicked. ²⁰The anger of the LORD will not turn back until He has fully accomplished the purposes of His heart. In the days to come you will understand this clearly. ²¹I did not send these prophets, yet they have run with their message; I did not speak to them, yet they have prophesied. ²²But if they had stood in My council, they would have proclaimed My words to My people and turned them back from their evil ways and deeds.” ²³“Am I only a God nearby,” declares the LORD, “and not a God far away?” ²⁴“Can a man hide in secret places where I cannot see him?” declares the LORD. “Do I not fill the heavens and the earth?” declares the LORD. ²⁵“I have heard the sayings of the prophets who prophesy lies in My name: ‘I had a dream! I had a dream!’ ²⁶How long will this continue in the hearts of these prophets who prophesy falsehood, these prophets of the delusion of their own minds? ²⁷They suppose the dreams that they tell one another will make My people forget My name, just as their fathers forgot My name through the worship of Baal. ²⁸Let the prophet who has a dream retell it, but let him who has My word speak it truthfully. For what is straw compared to grain?” declares the LORD. ²⁹“Is not My word like fire,” declares the LORD, “and like a hammer that smashes a rock?” ³⁰“Therefore behold,” declares the LORD, “I am against the prophets who steal from one another words they attribute to Me.” ³¹“Yes,” declares the LORD, “I am against the prophets who wag their own tongues and proclaim, ‘The LORD declares it.’” ³²“Indeed,” declares the LORD, “I am against those who prophesy false dreams and retell them to lead My people astray with their reckless lies. It was not I who sent them or commanded them, and they are of no benefit at all to these people,” declares the LORD. ³³“Now when this people or a prophet or priest asks you, ‘What is the burden of the LORD?’ you are to say to them, ‘What burden? I will forsake you, declares the LORD.’ ³⁴As for the prophet or priest or anyone who claims, ‘This is the burden of the LORD,’ I will punish that man and his household. ³⁵This is what each man is to say to his friend and to his brother: ‘What has the LORD answered?’ or ‘What has the LORD spoken?’ ³⁶But refer no more to the burden of the LORD, for each man’s word becomes the burden, so that you pervert the words of the living God, the LORD of Hosts, our God. ³⁷Thus you are to say to the prophet: ‘What has the LORD answered you?’ and ‘What has the LORD spoken?’ ³⁸But if you claim, ‘This is the burden of the LORD,’ then this is what the LORD says: Because you have said, ‘This is the burden of the LORD,’ and I specifically told you not to make this claim, ³⁹therefore I will surely forget you and will cast you out of My presence, both you and the city that I gave to you and your fathers. ⁴⁰And I will bring upon you everlasting shame and perpetual humiliation that will never be forgotten.”