Day 314 reading

Wisdom·Proverbs 15:28–33

²⁸The heart of the righteous ponders how to answer, but the mouth of the wicked blurts out evil. ²⁹The LORD is far from the wicked, but He hears the prayer of the righteous. ³⁰The light of the eyes cheers the heart, and good news nourishes the bones. ³¹He who listens to life-giving reproof will dwell among the wise. ³²He who ignores discipline despises himself, but whoever heeds correction gains understanding. ³³The fear of the LORD is the instruction of wisdom, and humility comes before honor.

New Testament·Hebrews 1–2

¹On many past occasions and in many different ways, God spoke to our fathers through the prophets. ²But in these last days He has spoken to us by His Son, whom He appointed heir of all things, and through whom He made the universe. ³The Son is the radiance of God’s glory and the exact representation of His nature, upholding all things by His powerful word. After He had provided purification for sins, He sat down at the right hand of the Majesty on high. ⁴So He became as far superior to the angels as the name He has inherited is excellent beyond theirs. ⁵For to which of the angels did God ever say: “You are My Son; today I have become Your Father”? Or again: “I will be His Father, and He will be My Son”? ⁶And again, when God brings His firstborn into the world, He says: “Let all God’s angels worship Him.” ⁷Now about the angels He says: “He makes His angels winds, His servants flames of fire.” ⁸But about the Son He says: “Your throne, O God, endures forever and ever, and justice is the scepter of Your kingdom. ⁹You have loved righteousness and hated wickedness; therefore God, Your God, has anointed You above Your companions with the oil of joy.” ¹⁰And: “In the beginning, O Lord, You laid the foundations of the earth, and the heavens are the work of Your hands. ¹¹They will perish, but You remain; they will all wear out like a garment. ¹²You will roll them up like a robe; like a garment they will be changed; but You remain the same, and Your years will never end.” ¹³Yet to which of the angels did God ever say: “Sit at My right hand until I make Your enemies a footstool for Your feet”? ¹⁴Are not the angels ministering spirits sent to serve those who will inherit salvation?

2We must pay closer attention, therefore, to what we have heard, so that we do not drift away. ²For if the message spoken by angels was binding, and every transgression and disobedience received its just punishment, ³how shall we escape if we neglect such a great salvation? This salvation was first announced by the Lord, was confirmed to us by those who heard Him, ⁴and was affirmed by God through signs, wonders, various miracles, and gifts of the Holy Spirit distributed according to His will. ⁵For it is not to angels that He has subjected the world to come, about which we are speaking. ⁶But somewhere it is testified in these words: “What is man that You are mindful of him, or the son of man that You care for him? ⁷You made him a little lower than the angels; You crowned him with glory and honor ⁸and placed everything under his feet.” When God subjected all things to him, He left nothing outside of his control. Yet at present we do not see everything subject to him. ⁹But we see Jesus, who was made a little lower than the angels, now crowned with glory and honor because He suffered death, so that by the grace of God He might taste death for everyone. ¹⁰In bringing many sons to glory, it was fitting for God, for whom and through whom all things exist, to make the author of their salvation perfect through suffering. ¹¹For both the One who sanctifies and those who are sanctified are of the same family. So Jesus is not ashamed to call them brothers. ¹²He says: “I will proclaim Your name to My brothers; I will sing Your praises in the assembly.” ¹³And again: “I will put My trust in Him.” And once again: “Here am I, and the children God has given Me.” ¹⁴Now since the children have flesh and blood, He too shared in their humanity, so that by His death He might destroy him who holds the power of death, that is, the devil, ¹⁵and free those who all their lives were held in slavery by their fear of death. ¹⁶For surely it is not the angels He helps, but the descendants of Abraham. ¹⁷For this reason He had to be made like His brothers in every way, so that He might become a merciful and faithful high priest in service to God, in order to make atonement for the sins of the people. ¹⁸Because He Himself suffered when He was tempted, He is able to help those who are being tempted.

Old Testament·Lamentations 2:1–3:28

¹How the Lord has covered the Daughter of Zion with the cloud of His anger! He has cast the glory of Israel from heaven to earth. He has abandoned His footstool in the day of His anger. ²Without pity the Lord has swallowed up all the dwellings of Jacob. In His wrath He has demolished the fortified cities of the Daughter of Judah. He brought to the ground and defiled her kingdom and its princes. ³In fierce anger He has cut off every horn of Israel and withdrawn His right hand at the approach of the enemy. He has burned in Jacob like a flaming fire that consumes everything around it. ⁴He has bent His bow like an enemy; His right hand is positioned. Like a foe He has killed all who were pleasing to the eye; He has poured out His wrath like fire on the tent of the Daughter of Zion. ⁵The Lord is like an enemy; He has swallowed up Israel. He has swallowed up all her palaces and destroyed her strongholds. He has multiplied mourning and lamentation for the Daughter of Judah. ⁶He has laid waste His tabernacle like a garden booth; He has destroyed His place of meeting. The LORD has made Zion forget her appointed feasts and Sabbaths. In His fierce anger He has despised both king and priest. ⁷The Lord has rejected His altar; He has abandoned His sanctuary; He has delivered the walls of her palaces into the hand of the enemy. They have raised a shout in the house of the LORD as on the day of an appointed feast. ⁸The LORD determined to destroy the wall of the Daughter of Zion. He stretched out a measuring line and did not withdraw His hand from destroying. He made the ramparts and walls lament; together they waste away. ⁹Her gates have sunk into the ground; He has destroyed and shattered their bars. Her king and her princes are exiled among the nations, the law is no more, and even her prophets find no vision from the LORD. ¹⁰The elders of the Daughter of Zion sit on the ground in silence. They have thrown dust on their heads and put on sackcloth. The young women of Jerusalem have bowed their heads to the ground. ¹¹My eyes fail from weeping; I am churning within. My heart is poured out in grief over the destruction of the daughter of my people, because children and infants faint in the streets of the city. ¹²They cry out to their mothers: “Where is the grain and wine?” as they faint like the wounded in the streets of the city, as their lives fade away in the arms of their mothers. ¹³What can I say for you? To what can I compare you, O Daughter of Jerusalem? To what can I liken you, that I may console you, O Virgin Daughter of Zion? For your wound is as deep as the sea. Who can ever heal you? ¹⁴The visions of your prophets were empty and deceptive; they did not expose your guilt to ward off your captivity. The burdens they envisioned for you were empty and misleading. ¹⁵All who pass by clap their hands at you in scorn. They hiss and shake their heads at the Daughter of Jerusalem: “Is this the city that was called the perfection of beauty, the joy of all the earth?” ¹⁶All your enemies open their mouths against you. They hiss and gnash their teeth, saying, “We have swallowed her up. This is the day for which we have waited. We have lived to see it!” ¹⁷The LORD has done what He planned; He has accomplished His decree, which He ordained in days of old; He has overthrown you without pity. He has let the enemy gloat over you and exalted the horn of your foes. ¹⁸The hearts of the people cry out to the Lord. O wall of the Daughter of Zion, let your tears run down like a river day and night. Give yourself no relief, and your eyes no rest. ¹⁹Arise, cry out in the night from the first watch of the night. Pour out your heart like water in the presence of the Lord. Lift up your hands to Him for the lives of your children who are fainting from hunger on the corner of every street. ²⁰Look, O LORD, and consider: Whom have You ever treated like this? Should women eat their offspring, the infants they have nurtured? Should priests and prophets be killed in the sanctuary of the Lord? ²¹Both young and old lie together in the dust of the streets. My young men and maidens have fallen by the sword. You have slain them in the day of Your anger; You have slaughtered them without compassion. ²²You summoned my attackers on every side, as for the day of an appointed feast. In the day of the LORD’s anger no one escaped or survived; my enemy has destroyed those I nurtured and reared.

3I am the man who has seen affliction under the rod of God’s wrath. ²He has driven me away and made me walk in darkness instead of light. ³Indeed, He keeps turning His hand against me all day long. ⁴He has worn away my flesh and skin; He has shattered my bones. ⁵He has besieged me and surrounded me with bitterness and hardship. ⁶He has made me dwell in darkness like those dead for ages. ⁷He has walled me in so I cannot escape; He has weighed me down with chains. ⁸Even when I cry out and plead for help, He shuts out my prayer. ⁹He has barred my ways with cut stones; He has made my paths crooked. ¹⁰He is a bear lying in wait, a lion hiding in ambush. ¹¹He forced me off my path and tore me to pieces; He left me without help. ¹²He bent His bow and set me as the target for His arrow. ¹³He pierced my kidneys with His arrows. ¹⁴I am a laughingstock to all my people; they mock me in song all day long. ¹⁵He has filled me with bitterness; He has intoxicated me with wormwood. ¹⁶He has ground my teeth with gravel and trampled me in the dust. ¹⁷My soul has been deprived of peace; I have forgotten what prosperity is. ¹⁸So I say, “My strength has perished, along with my hope from the LORD.” ¹⁹Remember my affliction and wandering, the wormwood and the gall. ²⁰Surely my soul remembers and is humbled within me. ²¹Yet I call this to mind, and therefore I have hope: ²²Because of the loving devotion of the LORD we are not consumed, for His mercies never fail. ²³They are new every morning; great is Your faithfulness! ²⁴“The LORD is my portion,” says my soul, “therefore I will hope in Him.” ²⁵The LORD is good to those who wait for Him, to the soul who seeks Him. ²⁶It is good to wait quietly for the salvation of the LORD. ²⁷It is good for a man to bear the yoke while he is still young. ²⁸Let him sit alone in silence, for God has disciplined him.