Day 317 reading

Wisdom·Proverbs 16:23–33

²³The heart of the wise man instructs his mouth and adds persuasiveness to his lips. ²⁴Pleasant words are a honeycomb, sweet to the soul and healing to the bones. ²⁵There is a way that seems right to a man, but its end is the way of death. ²⁶A worker’s appetite works for him because his hunger drives him onward. ²⁷A worthless man digs up evil, and his speech is like a scorching fire. ²⁸A perverse man spreads dissension, and a gossip divides close friends. ²⁹A violent man entices his neighbor and leads him down a path that is not good. ³⁰He who winks his eye devises perversity; he who purses his lips is bent on evil. ³¹Gray hair is a crown of glory; it is attained along the path of righteousness. ³²He who is slow to anger is better than a warrior, and he who controls his temper is greater than one who captures a city. ³³The lot is cast into the lap, but its every decision is from the LORD.

New Testament·Hebrews 5–6

¹Every high priest is appointed from among men to represent them in matters relating to God, to offer gifts and sacrifices for sins. ²He is able to deal gently with those who are ignorant and misguided, since he himself is beset by weakness. ³That is why he is obligated to offer sacrifices for his own sins, as well as for the sins of the people. ⁴No one takes this honor upon himself; he must be called by God, just as Aaron was. ⁵So also Christ did not take upon Himself the glory of becoming a high priest, but He was called by the One who said to Him: “You are My Son; today I have become Your Father.” ⁶And in another passage God says: “You are a priest forever in the order of Melchizedek.” ⁷During the days of Jesus’ earthly life, He offered up prayers and petitions with loud cries and tears to the One who could save Him from death, and He was heard because of His reverence. ⁸Although He was a Son, He learned obedience from what He suffered. ⁹And having been made perfect, He became the source of eternal salvation to all who obey Him ¹⁰and was designated by God as high priest in the order of Melchizedek. ¹¹We have much to say about this, but it is hard to explain, because you are dull of hearing. ¹²Although by this time you ought to be teachers, you need someone to reteach you the basic principles of God’s word. You need milk, not solid food! ¹³For everyone who lives on milk is still an infant, inexperienced in the message of righteousness. ¹⁴But solid food is for the mature, who by constant use have trained their senses to distinguish good from evil.

6Therefore let us leave the elementary teachings about Christ and go on to maturity, not laying again the foundation of repentance from dead works, and of faith in God, ²instruction about baptisms, the laying on of hands, the resurrection of the dead, and eternal judgment. ³And this we will do, if God permits. ⁴It is impossible for those who have once been enlightened, who have tasted the heavenly gift, who have shared in the Holy Spirit, ⁵who have tasted the goodness of the word of God and the powers of the coming age— ⁶and then have fallen away—to be restored to repentance, because they themselves are crucifying the Son of God all over again and subjecting Him to open shame. ⁷For land that drinks in the rain often falling on it and that produces a crop useful to those for whom it is tended receives the blessing of God. ⁸But land that produces thorns and thistles is worthless, and its curse is imminent. In the end it will be burned. ⁹Even though we speak like this, beloved, we are convinced of better things in your case—things that accompany salvation. ¹⁰For God is not unjust. He will not forget your work and the love you have shown for His name as you have ministered to the saints and continue to do so. ¹¹We want each of you to show this same diligence to the very end, in order to make your hope sure. ¹²Then you will not be sluggish, but will imitate those who through faith and patience inherit what has been promised. ¹³When God made His promise to Abraham, since He had no one greater to swear by, He swore by Himself, ¹⁴saying, “I will surely bless you and multiply your descendants.” ¹⁵And so Abraham, after waiting patiently, obtained the promise. ¹⁶Men swear by someone greater than themselves, and their oath serves as a confirmation to end all argument. ¹⁷So when God wanted to make the unchanging nature of His purpose very clear to the heirs of the promise, He guaranteed it with an oath. ¹⁸Thus by two unchangeable things in which it is impossible for God to lie, we who have fled to take hold of the hope set before us may be strongly encouraged. ¹⁹We have this hope as an anchor for the soul, firm and secure. It enters the inner sanctuary behind the curtain, ²⁰where Jesus our forerunner has entered on our behalf. He has become a high priest forever in the order of Melchizedek.

Old Testament·Ezekiel 2–4

¹“Son of man,” He said to me, “stand up on your feet and I will speak to you.” ²And as He spoke to me, the Spirit entered me and set me on my feet, and I heard Him speaking to me. ³“Son of man,” He said to me, “I am sending you to the Israelites, to a rebellious nation that has rebelled against Me. To this very day they and their fathers have rebelled against Me. ⁴They are obstinate and stubborn children. I am sending you to them, and you are to say to them, ‘This is what the Lord GOD says.’ ⁵And whether they listen or refuse to listen—for they are a rebellious house—they will know that a prophet has been among them. ⁶But you, son of man, do not be afraid of them or their words. Do not be afraid, though briers and thorns surround you, and you dwell among scorpions. Do not be afraid of their words or dismayed by their presence, though they are a rebellious house. ⁷But speak My words to them, whether they listen or refuse to listen, for they are rebellious. ⁸And you, son of man, listen to what I tell you. Do not be rebellious like that rebellious house. Open your mouth and eat what I give you.” ⁹Then I looked and saw a hand reaching out to me, and in it was a scroll, ¹⁰which He unrolled before me. And written on the front and back of it were words of lamentation, mourning, and woe.

3“Son of man,” He said to me, “eat what you find here. Eat this scroll, then go and speak to the house of Israel.” ²So I opened my mouth, and He fed me the scroll. ³“Son of man,” He said to me, “eat and fill your stomach with this scroll I am giving you.” So I ate, and it was as sweet as honey in my mouth. ⁴Then He said to me, “Son of man, go now to the house of Israel and speak My words to them. ⁵For you are not being sent to a people of unfamiliar speech or difficult language, but to the house of Israel— ⁶not to the many peoples of unfamiliar speech and difficult language whose words you cannot understand. Surely if I had sent you to them, they would have listened to you. ⁷But the house of Israel will be unwilling to listen to you, since they are unwilling to listen to Me. For the whole house of Israel is hard-headed and hard-hearted. ⁸Behold, I will make your face as hard as their faces, and your forehead as hard as their foreheads. ⁹I will make your forehead like a diamond, harder than flint. Do not be afraid of them or dismayed at their presence, even though they are a rebellious house.” ¹⁰“Son of man,” He added, “listen carefully to all the words I speak to you, and take them to heart. ¹¹Go to your people, the exiles; speak to them and tell them, ‘This is what the Lord GOD says,’ whether they listen or refuse to listen.” ¹²Then the Spirit lifted me up, and I heard a great rumbling sound behind me: ‘Blessed be the glory of the LORD in His dwelling place!’ ¹³It was the sound of the wings of the living creatures brushing against one another and the sound of the wheels beside them, a great rumbling sound. ¹⁴So the Spirit lifted me up and took me away, and I went in bitterness and in the anger of my spirit, with the strong hand of the LORD upon me. ¹⁵I came to the exiles at Tel-abib who dwelt by the River Kebar. And for seven days I sat where they sat and remained there among them, overwhelmed. ¹⁶At the end of seven days the word of the LORD came to me, saying, ¹⁷“Son of man, I have made you a watchman for the house of Israel. Whenever you hear a word from My mouth, give them a warning from Me. ¹⁸If I say to the wicked man, ‘You will surely die,’ but you do not warn him or speak out to warn him from his wicked way to save his life, that wicked man will die in his iniquity, and I will hold you responsible for his blood. ¹⁹But if you warn a wicked man and he does not turn from his wickedness and his wicked way, he will die in his iniquity, but you will have saved yourself. ²⁰Now if a righteous man turns from his righteousness and commits iniquity, and I put a stumbling block before him, he will die. If you did not warn him, he will die in his sin, and the righteous acts he did will not be remembered. And I will hold you responsible for his blood. ²¹But if you warn the righteous man not to sin, and he does not sin, he will indeed live because he heeded your warning, and you will have saved yourself.” ²²And there the hand of the LORD was upon me, and He said to me, “Get up, go out to the plain, and there I will speak with you.” ²³So I got up and went out to the plain, and behold, the glory of the LORD was present there, like the glory I had seen by the River Kebar, and I fell facedown. ²⁴Then the Spirit entered me and set me on my feet. He spoke with me and said, “Go, shut yourself inside your house. ²⁵And you, son of man, they will tie with ropes, and you will be bound so that you cannot go out among the people. ²⁶I will make your tongue stick to the roof of your mouth, and you will be silent and unable to rebuke them, though they are a rebellious house. ²⁷But when I speak with you, I will open your mouth, and you are to tell them, ‘This is what the Lord GOD says.’ Whoever listens, let him listen; and whoever refuses, let him refuse, for they are a rebellious house.

4“Now you, son of man, take a brick, place it before you, and draw on it the city of Jerusalem. ²Then lay siege against it: Construct a siege wall, build a ramp to it, set up camps against it, and place battering rams around it on all sides. ³Then take an iron plate and set it up as an iron wall between yourself and the city. Turn your face toward it so that it is under siege, and besiege it. This will be a sign to the house of Israel. ⁴Then lie down on your left side and place the iniquity of the house of Israel upon yourself. You are to bear their iniquity for the number of days you lie on your side. ⁵For I have assigned to you 390 days, according to the number of years of their iniquity. So you shall bear the iniquity of the house of Israel. ⁶When you have completed these days, lie down again, but on your right side, and bear the iniquity of the house of Judah. I have assigned to you 40 days, a day for each year. ⁷You must turn your face toward the siege of Jerusalem with your arm bared, and prophesy against it. ⁸Now behold, I will tie you up with ropes so you cannot turn from side to side until you have finished the days of your siege. ⁹But take wheat, barley, beans, lentils, millet, and spelt; put them in a single container and make them into bread for yourself. This is what you are to eat during the 390 days you lie on your side. ¹⁰You are to weigh out twenty shekels of food to eat each day, and you are to eat it at set times. ¹¹You are also to measure out a sixth of a hin of water to drink, and you are to drink it at set times. ¹²And you shall eat the food as you would a barley cake, after you bake it over dried human excrement in the sight of the people.” ¹³Then the LORD said, “This is how the Israelites will eat their defiled bread among the nations to which I will banish them.” ¹⁴“Ah, Lord GOD,” I said, “I have never defiled myself. From my youth until now I have not eaten anything found dead or mauled by wild beasts. No unclean meat has ever entered my mouth.” ¹⁵“Look,” He replied, “I will let you use cow dung instead of human excrement, and you may bake your bread over that.” ¹⁶Then He told me, “Son of man, I am going to cut off the supply of food in Jerusalem. They will anxiously eat bread rationed by weight, and in despair they will drink water by measure. ¹⁷So they will lack food and water; they will be appalled at the sight of one another wasting away in their iniquity.