Day 98 reading

Wisdom·Psalm 63:1–6

¹O God, You are my God. Earnestly I seek You; my soul thirsts for You. My body yearns for You in a dry and weary land without water. ²So I have seen You in the sanctuary and beheld Your power and glory. ³Because Your loving devotion is better than life, my lips will glorify You. ⁴So I will bless You as long as I live; in Your name I will lift my hands. ⁵My soul is satisfied as with the richest of foods; with joyful lips my mouth will praise You. ⁶When I remember You on my bed, I think of You through the watches of the night.

New Testament·Luke 8:18–39

¹⁸Pay attention, therefore, to how you listen. Whoever has will be given more, but whoever does not have, even what he thinks he has will be taken away from him.” ¹⁹Then Jesus’ mother and brothers came to see Him, but they were unable to reach Him because of the crowd. ²⁰He was told, “Your mother and brothers are standing outside, wanting to see You.” ²¹But He replied, “My mother and brothers are those who hear the word of God and carry it out.” ²²One day Jesus said to His disciples, “Let us cross to the other side of the lake.” So He got into a boat with them and set out. ²³As they sailed, He fell asleep, and a windstorm came down on the lake, so that the boat was being swamped, and they were in great danger. ²⁴The disciples went and woke Him, saying, “Master, Master, we are perishing!” Then Jesus got up and rebuked the wind and the raging waters, and they subsided, and all was calm. ²⁵“Where is your faith?” He asked. Frightened and amazed, they asked one another, “Who is this? He commands even the winds and the water, and they obey Him!” ²⁶Then they sailed to the region of the Gerasenes, across the lake from Galilee. ²⁷When Jesus stepped ashore, He was met by a demon-possessed man from the town. For a long time this man had not worn clothing or lived in a house, but he stayed in the tombs. ²⁸When the man saw Jesus, he cried out and fell down before Him, shouting in a loud voice, “What do You want with me, Jesus, Son of the Most High God? I beg You not to torture me!” ²⁹For Jesus had commanded the unclean spirit to come out of the man. Many times it had seized him, and though he was bound with chains and shackles, he had broken the chains and been driven by the demon into solitary places. ³⁰“What is your name?” Jesus asked. “Legion,” he replied, because many demons had gone into him. ³¹And the demons kept begging Jesus not to order them to go into the Abyss. ³²There on the hillside a large herd of pigs was feeding. So the demons begged Jesus to let them enter the pigs, and He gave them permission. ³³Then the demons came out of the man and went into the pigs, and the herd rushed down the steep bank into the lake and was drowned. ³⁴When those tending the pigs saw what had happened, they ran off and reported this in the town and countryside. ³⁵So the people went out to see what had happened. They came to Jesus and found the man whom the demons had left, sitting at Jesus’ feet, clothed and in his right mind; and they were afraid. ³⁶Meanwhile, those who had seen it reported how the demon-possessed man had been healed. ³⁷Then all the people of the region of the Gerasenes asked Jesus to depart from them, because great fear had taken hold of them. So He got into the boat and started back. ³⁸The man whom the demons had left begged to go with Jesus. But He sent him away, saying, ³⁹“Return home and describe how much God has done for you.” So the man went away and proclaimed all over the town how much Jesus had done for him.

Old Testament·Deuteronomy 12–14

¹These are the statutes and ordinances you must be careful to follow all the days you live in the land that the LORD, the God of your fathers, has given you to possess. ²Destroy completely all the places where the nations you are dispossessing have served their gods—atop the high mountains, on the hills, and under every green tree. ³Tear down their altars, smash their sacred pillars, burn up their Asherah poles, cut down the idols of their gods, and wipe out their names from every place. ⁴You shall not worship the LORD your God in this way. ⁵Instead, you must seek the place the LORD your God will choose from among all your tribes to establish as a dwelling for His Name, and there you must go. ⁶To that place you are to bring your burnt offerings and sacrifices, your tithes and heave offerings, your vow offerings and freewill offerings, as well as the firstborn of your herds and flocks. ⁷There, in the presence of the LORD your God, you and your households shall eat and rejoice in all you do, because the LORD your God has blessed you. ⁸You are not to do as we are doing here today, where everyone does what seems right in his own eyes. ⁹For you have not yet come to the resting place and the inheritance that the LORD your God is giving you. ¹⁰When you cross the Jordan and live in the land that the LORD your God is giving you as an inheritance, and He gives you rest from all the enemies around you and you dwell securely, ¹¹then the LORD your God will choose a dwelling for His Name. And there you are to bring everything I command you: your burnt offerings and sacrifices, your tithes and special gifts, and all the choice offerings you vow to the LORD. ¹²And you shall rejoice before the LORD your God—you, your sons and daughters, your menservants and maidservants, and the Levite within your gates, since he has no portion or inheritance among you. ¹³Be careful not to offer your burnt offerings in just any place you see; ¹⁴you must offer them only in the place the LORD will choose in one of your tribal territories, and there you shall do all that I command you. ¹⁵But whenever you want, you may slaughter and eat meat within any of your gates, according to the blessing the LORD your God has given you. Both the ceremonially clean and unclean may eat it as they would a gazelle or deer, ¹⁶but you must not eat the blood; pour it on the ground like water. ¹⁷Within your gates you must not eat the tithe of your grain or new wine or oil, the firstborn of your herds or flocks, any of the offerings that you have vowed to give, or your freewill offerings or special gifts. ¹⁸Instead, you must eat them in the presence of the LORD your God at the place the LORD your God will choose—you, your sons and daughters, your menservants and maidservants, and the Levite within your gates. Rejoice before the LORD your God in all you do, ¹⁹and be careful not to neglect the Levites as long as you live in your land. ²⁰When the LORD your God expands your territory as He has promised, and you crave meat and say, “I want to eat meat,” you may eat it whenever you want. ²¹If the place where the LORD your God chooses to put His Name is too far from you, then you may slaughter any of the herd or flock He has given you, as I have commanded you, and you may eat it within your gates whenever you want. ²²Indeed, you may eat it as you would eat a gazelle or deer; both the ceremonially unclean and the clean may eat it. ²³Only be sure not to eat the blood, because the blood is the life, and you must not eat the life with the meat. ²⁴You must not eat the blood; pour it on the ground like water. ²⁵Do not eat it, so that it may go well with you and your children after you, because you will be doing what is right in the eyes of the LORD. ²⁶But you are to take your holy things and your vow offerings and go to the place the LORD will choose. ²⁷Present the meat and blood of your burnt offerings on the altar of the LORD your God. The blood of your other sacrifices must be poured out beside the altar of the LORD your God, but you may eat the meat. ²⁸Be careful to obey all these things I command you, so that it may always go well with you and your children after you, because you will be doing what is good and right in the eyes of the LORD your God. ²⁹When the LORD your God cuts off before you the nations you are entering to dispossess, and you drive them out and live in their land, ³⁰be careful not to be ensnared by their ways after they have been destroyed before you. Do not inquire about their gods, asking, “How do these nations serve their gods? I will do likewise.” ³¹You must not worship the LORD your God in this way, because they practice for their gods every abomination which the LORD hates. They even burn their sons and daughters in the fire as sacrifices to their gods. ³²See that you do everything I command you; do not add to it or subtract from it.

13If a prophet or dreamer of dreams arises among you and proclaims a sign or wonder to you, ²and if the sign or wonder he has spoken to you comes about, but he says, “Let us follow other gods (which you have not known) and let us worship them,” ³you must not listen to the words of that prophet or dreamer. For the LORD your God is testing you to find out whether you love Him with all your heart and with all your soul. ⁴You are to follow the LORD your God and fear Him. Keep His commandments and listen to His voice; serve Him and hold fast to Him. ⁵Such a prophet or dreamer must be put to death, because he has advocated rebellion against the LORD your God, who brought you out of the land of Egypt and redeemed you from the house of slavery; he has tried to turn you from the way in which the LORD your God has commanded you to walk. So you must purge the evil from among you. ⁶If your very own brother, or your son or daughter, or the wife you embrace, or your closest friend secretly entices you, saying, “Let us go and worship other gods” (which neither you nor your fathers have known, ⁷the gods of the peoples around you, whether near or far, whether from one end of the earth or the other), ⁸you must not yield to him or listen to him. Show him no pity, and do not spare him or shield him. ⁹Instead, you must surely kill him. Your hand must be the first against him to put him to death, and then the hands of all the people. ¹⁰Stone him to death for trying to turn you away from the LORD your God, who brought you out of the land of Egypt, out of the house of slavery. ¹¹Then all Israel will hear and be afraid, and will never again do such a wicked thing among you. ¹²If, regarding one of the cities the LORD your God is giving you to inhabit, you hear it said ¹³that wicked men have arisen from among you and have led the people of their city astray, saying, “Let us go and serve other gods” (which you have not known), ¹⁴then you must inquire, investigate, and interrogate thoroughly. And if it is established with certainty that this abomination has been committed among you, ¹⁵you must surely put the inhabitants of that city to the sword. Devote to destruction all its people and livestock. ¹⁶And you are to gather all its plunder in the middle of the public square, and completely burn the city and all its plunder as a whole burnt offering to the LORD your God. The city must remain a mound of ruins forever, never to be rebuilt. ¹⁷Nothing devoted to destruction shall cling to your hands, so that the LORD will turn from His fierce anger, grant you mercy, show you compassion, and multiply you as He swore to your fathers, ¹⁸because you obey the LORD your God, keeping all His commandments I am giving you today and doing what is right in the eyes of the LORD your God.

14You are sons of the LORD your God; do not cut yourselves or shave your foreheads on behalf of the dead, ²for you are a people holy to the LORD your God. The LORD has chosen you to be a people for His prized possession out of all the peoples on the face of the earth. ³You must not eat any detestable thing. ⁴These are the animals that you may eat: The ox, the sheep, the goat, ⁵the deer, the gazelle, the roe deer, the wild goat, the ibex, the antelope, and the mountain sheep. ⁶You may eat any animal that has a split hoof divided in two and that chews the cud. ⁷But of those that chew the cud or have a completely divided hoof, you are not to eat the following: the camel, the rabbit, or the rock badger. Although they chew the cud, they do not have a divided hoof. They are unclean for you, ⁸as well as the pig; though it has a divided hoof, it does not chew the cud. It is unclean for you. You must not eat its meat or touch its carcass. ⁹Of all the creatures that live in the water, you may eat anything with fins and scales, ¹⁰but you may not eat anything that does not have fins and scales; it is unclean for you. ¹¹You may eat any clean bird, ¹²but these you may not eat: the eagle, the bearded vulture, the black vulture, ¹³the red kite, the falcon, any kind of kite, ¹⁴any kind of raven, ¹⁵the ostrich, the screech owl, the gull, any kind of hawk, ¹⁶the little owl, the great owl, the white owl, ¹⁷the desert owl, the osprey, the cormorant, ¹⁸the stork, any kind of heron, the hoopoe, or the bat. ¹⁹All flying insects are unclean for you; they may not be eaten. ²⁰But you may eat any clean bird. ²¹You are not to eat any carcass; you may give it to the foreigner residing within your gates, and he may eat it, or you may sell it to a foreigner. For you are a holy people belonging to the LORD your God. You must not cook a young goat in its mother’s milk. ²²You must be sure to set aside a tenth of all the produce brought forth each year from your fields. ²³And you are to eat a tenth of your grain, new wine, and oil, and the firstborn of your herds and flocks, in the presence of the LORD your God at the place He will choose as a dwelling for His Name, so that you may learn to fear the LORD your God always. ²⁴But if the distance is too great for you to carry that with which the LORD your God has blessed you, because the place where the LORD your God will choose to put His Name is too far away, ²⁵then exchange it for money, take the money in your hand, and go to the place the LORD your God will choose. ²⁶Then you may spend the money on anything you desire: cattle, sheep, wine, strong drink, or anything you wish. You are to feast there in the presence of the LORD your God and rejoice with your household. ²⁷And do not neglect the Levite within your gates, since he has no portion or inheritance among you. ²⁸At the end of every three years, bring a tenth of all your produce for that year and lay it up within your gates. ²⁹Then the Levite (because he has no portion or inheritance among you), the foreigner, the fatherless, and the widow within your gates may come and eat and be satisfied. And the LORD your God will bless you in all the work of your hands.