Day 34 reading

Wisdom·Psalm 24

¹The earth is the LORD’s, and the fullness thereof, the world and all who dwell therein. ²For He has founded it upon the seas and established it upon the waters. ³Who may ascend the hill of the LORD? Who may stand in His holy place? ⁴He who has clean hands and a pure heart, who does not lift up his soul to an idol or swear deceitfully. ⁵He will receive blessing from the LORD and vindication from the God of his salvation. ⁶Such is the generation of those who seek Him, who seek Your face, O God of Jacob. Selah ⁷Lift up your heads, O gates! Be lifted up, O ancient doors, that the King of Glory may enter! ⁸Who is this King of Glory? The LORD strong and mighty, the LORD mighty in battle. ⁹Lift up your heads, O gates! Be lifted up, O ancient doors, that the King of Glory may enter! ¹⁰Who is He, this King of Glory? The LORD of Hosts— He is the King of Glory. Selah

New Testament·Matthew 22:1–14

¹Once again, Jesus spoke to them in parables: ²“The kingdom of heaven is like a king who prepared a wedding banquet for his son. ³He sent his servants to call those he had invited to the banquet, but they refused to come. ⁴Again, he sent other servants and said, ‘Tell those who have been invited that I have prepared my dinner. My oxen and fattened cattle have been killed, and everything is ready. Come to the wedding banquet.’ ⁵But they paid no attention and went away, one to his field, another to his business. ⁶The rest seized his servants, mistreated them, and killed them. ⁷The king was enraged, and he sent his troops to destroy those murderers and burn their city. ⁸Then he said to his servants, ‘The wedding banquet is ready, but those I invited were not worthy. ⁹Go therefore to the crossroads and invite to the banquet as many as you can find.’ ¹⁰So the servants went out into the streets and gathered everyone they could find, both evil and good, and the wedding hall was filled with guests. ¹¹But when the king came in to see the guests, he spotted a man who was not dressed in wedding clothes. ¹²‘Friend,’ he asked, ‘how did you get in here without wedding clothes?’ But the man was speechless. ¹³Then the king told the servants, ‘Tie him hand and foot, and throw him into the outer darkness, where there will be weeping and gnashing of teeth.’ ¹⁴For many are called, but few are chosen.”

Old Testament·Exodus 10:1–12:25

¹Then the LORD said to Moses, “Go to Pharaoh, for I have hardened his heart and the hearts of his officials, that I may perform these miraculous signs of Mine among them, ²and that you may tell your children and grandchildren how severely I dealt with the Egyptians when I performed miraculous signs among them, so that all of you may know that I am the LORD.” ³So Moses and Aaron went to Pharaoh and told him, “This is what the LORD, the God of the Hebrews, says: ‘How long will you refuse to humble yourself before Me? Let My people go, so that they may worship Me. ⁴But if you refuse to let My people go, I will bring locusts into your territory tomorrow. ⁵They will cover the face of the land so that no one can see it. They will devour whatever is left after the hail and eat every tree that grows in your fields. ⁶They will fill your houses and the houses of all your officials and every Egyptian—something neither your fathers nor your grandfathers have seen since the day they came into this land.’” Then Moses turned and left Pharaoh’s presence. ⁷Pharaoh’s officials asked him, “How long will this man be a snare to us? Let the people go, so that they may worship the LORD their God. Do you not yet realize that Egypt is in ruins?” ⁸So Moses and Aaron were brought back to Pharaoh. “Go, worship the LORD your God,” he said. “But who exactly will be going?” ⁹“We will go with our young and old,” Moses replied. “We will go with our sons and daughters, and with our flocks and herds, for we must hold a feast to the LORD.” ¹⁰Then Pharaoh told them, “May the LORD be with you if I ever let you go with your little ones. Clearly you are bent on evil. ¹¹No, only the men may go and worship the LORD, since that is what you have been requesting.” And Moses and Aaron were driven from Pharaoh’s presence. ¹²Then the LORD said to Moses, “Stretch out your hand over the land of Egypt, so that the locusts may swarm over it and devour every plant in the land—everything that the hail has left behind.” ¹³So Moses stretched out his staff over the land of Egypt, and throughout that day and night the LORD sent an east wind across the land. By morning the east wind had brought the locusts. ¹⁴The locusts swarmed across the land and settled over the entire territory of Egypt. Never before had there been so many locusts, and never again will there be. ¹⁵They covered the face of all the land until it was black, and they consumed all the plants on the ground and all the fruit on the trees that the hail had left behind. Nothing green was left on any tree or plant in all the land of Egypt. ¹⁶Pharaoh quickly summoned Moses and Aaron and said, “I have sinned against the LORD your God and against you. ¹⁷Now please forgive my sin once more and appeal to the LORD your God, that He may remove this death from me.” ¹⁸So Moses left Pharaoh’s presence and appealed to the LORD. ¹⁹And the LORD changed the wind to a very strong west wind that carried off the locusts and blew them into the Red Sea. Not a single locust remained anywhere in Egypt. ²⁰But the LORD hardened Pharaoh’s heart, and he would not let the Israelites go. ²¹Then the LORD said to Moses, “Stretch out your hand toward heaven, so that darkness may spread over the land of Egypt—a palpable darkness.” ²²So Moses stretched out his hand toward heaven, and total darkness covered all the land of Egypt for three days. ²³No one could see anyone else, and for three days no one left his place. Yet all the Israelites had light in their dwellings. ²⁴Then Pharaoh summoned Moses and said, “Go, worship the LORD. Even your little ones may go with you; only your flocks and herds must stay behind.” ²⁵But Moses replied, “You must also provide us with sacrifices and burnt offerings to present to the LORD our God. ²⁶Even our livestock must go with us; not a hoof will be left behind, for we will need some of them to worship the LORD our God, and we will not know how we are to worship the LORD until we arrive.” ²⁷But the LORD hardened Pharaoh’s heart, and he was unwilling to let them go. ²⁸“Depart from me!” Pharaoh said to Moses. “Make sure you never see my face again, for on the day you see my face, you will die.” ²⁹“As you say,” Moses replied, “I will never see your face again.”

11Then the LORD said to Moses, “I will bring upon Pharaoh and Egypt one more plague. After that, he will allow you to leave this place. And when he lets you go, he will drive you out completely. ²Now announce to the people that men and women alike should ask their neighbors for articles of silver and gold.” ³And the LORD gave the people favor in the sight of the Egyptians. Moreover, Moses himself was highly regarded in Egypt by Pharaoh’s officials and by the people. ⁴So Moses declared, “This is what the LORD says: ‘About midnight I will go throughout Egypt, ⁵and every firstborn son in the land of Egypt will die, from the firstborn of Pharaoh who sits on his throne, to the firstborn of the servant girl behind the hand mill, as well as the firstborn of all the cattle. ⁶Then a great cry will go out over all the land of Egypt. Such an outcry has never been heard before and will never be heard again. ⁷But among all the Israelites, not even a dog will snarl at man or beast.’ Then you will know that the LORD makes a distinction between Egypt and Israel. ⁸And all these officials of yours will come and bow before me, saying, ‘Go, you and all the people who follow you!’ After that, I will depart.” And hot with anger, Moses left Pharaoh’s presence. ⁹The LORD said to Moses, “Pharaoh will not listen to you, so that My wonders may be multiplied in the land of Egypt.” ¹⁰Moses and Aaron did all these wonders before Pharaoh, but the LORD hardened Pharaoh’s heart so that he would not let the Israelites go out of his land.

12Now the LORD said to Moses and Aaron in the land of Egypt, ²“This month is the beginning of months for you; it shall be the first month of your year. ³Tell the whole congregation of Israel that on the tenth day of this month each man must select a lamb for his family, one per household. ⁴If the household is too small for a whole lamb, they are to share with the nearest neighbor based on the number of people, and apportion the lamb accordingly. ⁵Your lamb must be an unblemished year-old male, and you may take it from the sheep or the goats. ⁶You must keep it until the fourteenth day of the month, when the whole assembly of the congregation of Israel will slaughter the animals at twilight. ⁷They are to take some of the blood and put it on the sides and tops of the doorframes of the houses where they eat the lambs. ⁸They are to eat the meat that night, roasted over the fire, along with unleavened bread and bitter herbs. ⁹Do not eat any of the meat raw or cooked in boiling water, but only roasted over the fire—its head and legs and inner parts. ¹⁰Do not leave any of it until morning; before the morning you must burn up any part that is left over. ¹¹This is how you are to eat it: You must be fully dressed for travel, with your sandals on your feet and your staff in your hand. You are to eat in haste; it is the LORD’s Passover. ¹²On that night I will pass through the land of Egypt and strike down every firstborn male, both man and beast, and I will execute judgment against all the gods of Egypt. I am the LORD. ¹³The blood on the houses where you are staying will distinguish them; when I see the blood, I will pass over you. No plague will fall on you to destroy you when I strike the land of Egypt. ¹⁴And this day will be a memorial for you, and you are to celebrate it as a feast to the LORD, as a permanent statute for the generations to come. ¹⁵For seven days you must eat unleavened bread. On the first day you are to remove the leaven from your houses. Whoever eats anything leavened from the first day through the seventh must be cut off from Israel. ¹⁶On the first day you are to hold a sacred assembly, and another on the seventh day. You must not do any work on those days, except to prepare the meals—that is all you may do. ¹⁷So you are to keep the Feast of Unleavened Bread, for on this very day I brought your divisions out of the land of Egypt. You must keep this day as a permanent statute for the generations to come. ¹⁸In the first month you are to eat unleavened bread, from the evening of the fourteenth day until the evening of the twenty-first day. ¹⁹For seven days there must be no leaven found in your houses. If anyone eats something leavened, that person, whether a foreigner or native of the land, must be cut off from the congregation of Israel. ²⁰You are not to eat anything leavened; eat unleavened bread in all your homes.” ²¹Then Moses summoned all the elders of Israel and told them, “Go at once and select for yourselves a lamb for each family, and slaughter the Passover lamb. ²²Take a cluster of hyssop, dip it into the blood in the basin, and brush the blood on the top and sides of the doorframe. None of you shall go out the door of his house until morning. ²³When the LORD passes through to strike down the Egyptians, He will see the blood on the top and sides of the doorframe and will pass over that doorway; so He will not allow the destroyer to enter your houses and strike you down. ²⁴And you are to keep this command as a permanent statute for you and your descendants. ²⁵When you enter the land that the LORD will give you as He promised, you are to keep this service.