Day 76 reading

Wisdom·Psalm 48:1–7

¹Great is the LORD, and greatly to be praised in the city of our God, His holy mountain. ²Beautiful in loftiness, the joy of all the earth, like the peaks of Zaphon is Mount Zion, the city of the great King. ³God is in her citadels; He has shown Himself to be a fortress. ⁴For behold, the kings assembled; they all advanced together. ⁵They saw and were astounded; they fled in terror. ⁶Trembling seized them there, anguish like a woman in labor. ⁷With a wind from the east You wrecked the ships of Tarshish.

New Testament·Mark 14:30–50

³⁰“Truly I tell you,” Jesus replied, “this very night, before the rooster crows twice, you will deny Me three times.” ³¹But Peter kept insisting, “Even if I have to die with You, I will never deny You.” And all the others said the same thing. ³²Then they came to a place called Gethsemane, and Jesus told His disciples, “Sit here while I pray.” ³³He took with Him Peter, James, and John, and began to be deeply troubled and distressed. ³⁴Then He said to them, “My soul is consumed with sorrow to the point of death. Stay here and keep watch.” ³⁵Going a little farther, He fell to the ground and prayed that, if it were possible, the hour would pass from Him. ³⁶“Abba, Father,” He said, “all things are possible for You. Take this cup from Me. Yet not what I will, but what You will.” ³⁷Then Jesus returned and found them sleeping. “Simon, are you asleep?” He asked. “Were you not able to keep watch for one hour? ³⁸Watch and pray so that you will not enter into temptation. For the spirit is willing, but the body is weak.” ³⁹Again He went away and prayed, saying the same thing. ⁴⁰And again Jesus returned and found them sleeping—for their eyes were heavy. And they did not know what to answer Him. ⁴¹When Jesus returned the third time, He said, “Are you still sleeping and resting? That is enough! The hour has come. Look, the Son of Man is betrayed into the hands of sinners. ⁴²Rise, let us go. See, My betrayer is approaching!” ⁴³While Jesus was still speaking, Judas, one of the Twelve, arrived, accompanied by a crowd armed with swords and clubs, sent from the chief priests, scribes, and elders. ⁴⁴Now the betrayer had arranged a signal with them: “The One I kiss is the man; arrest Him and lead Him away securely.” ⁴⁵Going directly to Jesus, he said, “Rabbi!” and kissed Him. ⁴⁶Then the men seized Jesus and arrested Him. ⁴⁷And one of the bystanders drew his sword and struck the servant of the high priest, cutting off his ear. ⁴⁸Jesus asked the crowd, “Have you come out with swords and clubs to arrest Me as you would an outlaw? ⁴⁹Every day I was with you, teaching in the temple courts, and you did not arrest Me. But this has happened that the Scriptures would be fulfilled.” ⁵⁰Then everyone deserted Him and fled.

Old Testament·Numbers 12–13

¹Then Miriam and Aaron criticized Moses because of the Cushite woman he had married, for he had taken a Cushite wife. ²“Does the LORD speak only through Moses?” they said. “Does He not also speak through us?” And the LORD heard this. ³Now Moses was a very humble man, more so than any man on the face of the earth. ⁴And suddenly the LORD said to Moses, Aaron, and Miriam, “You three, come out to the Tent of Meeting.” So the three went out, ⁵and the LORD came down in a pillar of cloud, stood at the entrance to the Tent, and summoned Aaron and Miriam. When both of them had stepped forward, ⁶He said, “Hear now My words: If there is a prophet among you, I, the LORD, will reveal Myself to him in a vision; I will speak to him in a dream. ⁷But this is not so with My servant Moses; he is faithful in all My house. ⁸I speak with him face to face, clearly and not in riddles; he sees the form of the LORD. Why then were you unafraid to speak against My servant Moses?” ⁹So the anger of the LORD burned against them, and He departed. ¹⁰As the cloud lifted from above the Tent, suddenly Miriam became leprous, white as snow. Aaron turned toward her, saw that she was leprous, ¹¹and said to Moses, “My lord, please do not hold against us this sin we have so foolishly committed. ¹²Please do not let her be like a stillborn infant whose flesh is half consumed when he comes out of his mother’s womb.” ¹³So Moses cried out to the LORD, “O God, please heal her!” ¹⁴But the LORD answered Moses, “If her father had but spit in her face, would she not have been in disgrace for seven days? Let her be confined outside the camp for seven days; after that she may be brought back in.” ¹⁵So Miriam was confined outside the camp for seven days, and the people did not move on until she was brought in again. ¹⁶After that, the people set out from Hazeroth and camped in the Wilderness of Paran.

13And the LORD said to Moses, ²“Send out for yourself men to spy out the land of Canaan, which I am giving to the Israelites. From each of their fathers’ tribes send one man who is a leader among them.” ³So at the consent of the LORD, Moses sent them out from the Wilderness of Paran. All the men were leaders of the Israelites, ⁴and these were their names: From the tribe of Reuben, Shammua son of Zaccur; ⁵from the tribe of Simeon, Shaphat son of Hori; ⁶from the tribe of Judah, Caleb son of Jephunneh; ⁷from the tribe of Issachar, Igal son of Joseph; ⁸from the tribe of Ephraim, Hoshea son of Nun; ⁹from the tribe of Benjamin, Palti son of Raphu; ¹⁰from the tribe of Zebulun, Gaddiel son of Sodi; ¹¹from the tribe of Manasseh (a tribe of Joseph), Gaddi son of Susi; ¹²from the tribe of Dan, Ammiel son of Gemalli; ¹³from the tribe of Asher, Sethur son of Michael; ¹⁴from the tribe of Naphtali, Nahbi son of Vophsi; ¹⁵and from the tribe of Gad, Geuel son of Machi. ¹⁶These were the names of the men Moses sent to spy out the land; and Moses gave to Hoshea son of Nun the name Joshua. ¹⁷When Moses sent them to spy out the land of Canaan, he told them, “Go up through the Negev and into the hill country. ¹⁸See what the land is like and whether its people are strong or weak, few or many. ¹⁹Is the land where they live good or bad? Are the cities where they dwell open camps or fortifications? ²⁰Is the soil fertile or unproductive? Are there trees in it or not? Be courageous, and bring back some of the fruit of the land.” (It was the season for the first ripe grapes.) ²¹So they went up and spied out the land from the Wilderness of Zin as far as Rehob, toward Lebo-hamath. ²²They went up through the Negev and came to Hebron, where Ahiman, Sheshai, and Talmai, the descendants of Anak, dwelled. It had been built seven years before Zoan in Egypt. ²³When they came to the Valley of Eshcol, they cut down a branch with a single cluster of grapes, which they carried on a pole between two men. They also took some pomegranates and figs. ²⁴Because of the cluster of grapes the Israelites cut there, that place was called the Valley of Eshcol. ²⁵After forty days the men returned from spying out the land, ²⁶and they went back to Moses, Aaron, and the whole congregation of Israel in the Wilderness of Paran at Kadesh. They brought back a report for the whole congregation and showed them the fruit of the land. ²⁷And they gave this account to Moses: “We went into the land to which you sent us, and indeed, it is flowing with milk and honey. Here is some of its fruit! ²⁸Nevertheless, the people living in the land are strong, and the cities are large and fortified. We even saw the descendants of Anak there. ²⁹The Amalekites live in the land of the Negev; the Hittites, Jebusites, and Amorites live in the hill country; and the Canaanites live by the sea and along the Jordan.” ³⁰Then Caleb quieted the people before Moses and said, “We must go up and take possession of the land, for we can certainly conquer it!” ³¹But the men who had gone up with him replied, “We cannot go up against the people, for they are stronger than we are!” ³²So they gave the Israelites a bad report about the land that they had spied out: “The land we explored devours its inhabitants, and all the people we saw there are great in stature. ³³We even saw the Nephilim there—the descendants of Anak that come from the Nephilim! We seemed like grasshoppers in our own sight, and we must have seemed the same to them!”