Daily Bible Reading: July 20

Judges 3: Israel Tested, Oppression, and Deliverance by Othniel and Ehud

Judges 3,. Now these are the nations which Yahweh allowed to remain, to test Israel by them, that is, all who had not known of any of the wars of Canaan. However, God tested them in order that the generations of the sons of Israel would know war by learning war, especially those who had not known it formerly.

These nations are, The five lords of the Philistines, and all the Canaanites, and the Sidonians, and the Hivites who lived in Mount Lebanon, from Mount Baal Hermon as far as Labo Hamath. And they were for testing Israel, to know if they would obey the commandments of Yahweh, which he had commanded their fathers by the hand of Moses.

And they were for testing Israel, to know if they would obey the commandments of Yahweh, which he had commanded their fathers by the hand of Moses. Now the sons of Israel lived among the Canaanites, the Hittites, the Amorites, the Perizzites, the Hivites, and the Jebusites.

And they took their daughters for themselves as wives, and gave their own daughters to their sons, and served their gods. Thus the sons of Israel did what was evil in the eyes of Yahweh, and forgot Yahweh their God, and served the Baals and the Ashtoreth.

Then the anger of Yahweh burned against Israel, so that he sold them into the hands of Cushan Rishathayim, king of Mesopotamia. And the sons of Israel served Cushan Rishathayim eight years. Then the sons of Israel cried to Yahweh, and Yahweh raised up a Savior for the sons of Israel to save them, Othniel the son of Canaaz, Caleb's younger brother.

And the spirit of Yahweh came upon him, and he judged Israel. And he went out to war, and Yahweh gave Cushan Rishathayim, king of Mesopotamia, into his hand. So his hand was strong against Cushan Rishathayim.

Then the land was quiet for forty years, and Othniel the son of Canaaz died. Then the sons of Israel again did what was evil in the eyes of Yahweh. So Yahweh strengthened Eglon the king of Moab against Israel, because they had done what was evil in the eyes of Yahweh.

And he gathered to himself the sons of Ammon and Amalek, and he went and struck Israel, and they possessed the city of the palm trees. So the sons of Israel served Eglon the king of Moab eighteen years.

Then the sons of Israel cried to Yahweh, and Yahweh raised up a Savior for them, Ehud the son of Gera, the Benjamite, a left-handed man. And the sons of Israel sent tribute by his hand to Eglon the king of Moab.

And Ehud made himself a sword which had two edges, a cubit in length, and he bound it on his right thigh under his cloak. Then he brought the tribute near to Eglon king of Moab. Now Eglon was a very fat man, and it happened when he had finished bringing the tribute near that he sent away the people who had carried the tribute.

But he himself turned back from the graven images which were at Gilgal, and said, I have a secret message for you, O king. And he said, Keep silence. And all who stood by him left him. But Ehud came to him while he was sitting alone in his cool roof chamber.

And Ehud said, I have a message from God for you. And he arose from his seat. Then Ehud sent forth his left hand, took the sword from his right thigh, and thrust it into his belly. The handle also went in after the blade, and the fat closed over the blade, for he did not draw the sword out of his belly, and the refuse came out.

Then Ehud went out into the vestibule and shut the doors of the roof chamber behind him and locked them. Now he went out, and his servants came in and looked. And behold, the doors of the roof chamber were locked.

And they said, He is surely relieving himself in the cool room. Then they waited until they were ashamed. But behold, he did not open the doors of the roof chamber. Therefore they took the key and opened them.

And behold, their master had fallen to the floor dead. Now Ehud escaped while they were delaying, and he passed by the graven images and escaped to Sarai. And it happened, when he had arrived, that he blew the trumpet in the hill country of Ephraim.

And the sons of Israel went down with him from the hill country, and he was in front of them. Then he said to them, Pursue them, for Yahweh has given your enemies the Moabites into your hands. So they went down after him and captured the fords of the Jordan opposite Moab, and did not allow anyone to cross.

And they struck down at that time about ten thousand Moabites, all robust and valiant men, and no one escaped. So Moab was subdued that day under the hand of Israel, and the land was quiet for eighty years.

Now after him was Shamgar the son of Anath, and he struck down six hundred Philistines with an ox-goat, and he also saved Israel. Acts 7. And the high priest said, Are these things so? And he said, Hear me, brothers and fathers.

Stephen’s Defense Before the Sanhedrin in Acts 7

The God of glory appeared to our father Abraham when he was in Mesopotamia, before he lived in Haran, and said to him, Leave your country and your relatives, and come into the land that I will show you.

Then he left the land of the Chaldeans and settled in Haran. From there, after his father died, God had him move to this country in which you are now living. But he gave him no inheritance in it, not even a foot of ground, and he promised that he would give it to him as a possession, and to his seed after him, even when he had no child.

But God spoke in this way, that his seed would be sojourners in a foreign land, and that they would be enslaved and mistreated for four hundred years. And I myself will judge the nation to which they will be enslaved, said God.

And after that they will come out and serve me in this place. And he gave him the covenant of circumcision. And so Abraham was the father of Isaac, and circumcised him on the eighth day. And Isaac was the father of Jacob, and Jacob of the twelve patriarchs.

And the patriarchs, becoming jealous of Joseph, sold him into Egypt, yet God was with him, and rescued him from all his afflictions, and granted him favor and wisdom in the sight of Pharaoh king of Egypt, and he appointed him governor over Egypt and all his household.

Now a famine came over all Egypt and Canaan, and great affliction with it, and our fathers could find no food. But when Jacob heard that there was grain in Egypt, he sent our fathers there the first time.

And on the second visit Joseph made himself known to his brothers, and Joseph's family was disclosed to Pharaoh. Then Joseph sent word, and invited Jacob his father and all his relatives to come to him, seventy-five persons in all.

And Jacob went down to Egypt, and there he and our fathers died. And from there they were removed to Shechem, and placed in the tomb which Abraham had purchased for a sum of money from the sons of Hamor in Shechem.

But as the time of the promise was drawing near which God had assured to Abraham, the people increased and multiplied in Egypt, until another king arose over Egypt who did not know about Joseph. It was he who deceitfully took advantage of our family, and mistreated our fathers to set their infants outside so that they would not survive.

It was at this time that Moses was born, and he was lovely in the sight of God, and he was nurtured three months in his father's home. And after he had been set outside, Pharaoh's daughter took him away and nurtured him as her own son.

And Moses was educated in all the wisdom of the Egyptians, and he was powerful in words and deeds. But when he was approaching the age of forty, it entered his heart to visit his brothers, the sons of Israel.

And when he saw one of them being treated unjustly, he defended him, and took justice for the oppressed by striking down the Egyptian. And he supposed that his brothers understood that God was granting them salvation through him, but they did not understand.

On the following day, he appeared to them as they were fighting together, and he tried to reconcile them in peace, saying, Men, you are brothers. Why are you treating one another unjustly? But the one who was treating his neighbor unjustly pushed him away, saying, Who has made you a ruler and judge over us?

Do you intend to kill me as you killed the Egyptian yesterday? At this remark, Moses fled and became a sojourner in the land of Midian, where he was the father of two sons. And after forty years had passed, an angel appeared to him in the wilderness of Mount Sinai in the flame of a burning bush.

When Moses saw it, he was marveling at the sight. And as he approached to look more closely, there came the voice of the Lord, I am the God of your fathers, the God of Abraham and Isaac and Jacob. Moses trembled with fear and would not dare to look.

But the Lord said to him, Remove the sandals from your feet, for the place on which you are standing is holy ground. I have surely seen the oppression of my people in Egypt and have heard their groans, and I have come down to deliver them.

Come now, and I will send you to Egypt. This Moses, whom they disowned, saying, Who made you a ruler and a judge, is the one whom God sent to be both a ruler and a deliverer with the help of the angel who appeared to him in the bush.

This man led them out, doing wonders and signs in the land of Egypt and in the Red Sea and in the wilderness for forty years. This is the Moses who said to the sons of Israel, God will raise up for you a prophet like me from your brothers.

This is the one who, in the congregation of the wilderness, was with the angel who was speaking to him on Mount Sinai and with our fathers, the one who received living oracles to pass on to you. Our fathers were unwilling to be obedient to him, but rejected him and in their hearts turned back to Egypt, saying to Aaron, Make for us gods who will go before us.

For this Moses who led us out of the land of Egypt, we do not know what has become of him. At that time they made a calf and brought a sacrifice to the idol, and were rejoicing in the works of their hands.

But God turned away and delivered them up to serve the host of heaven, as it is written in the book of the prophets, Did you present me with slain beasts and sacrifices forty years in the wilderness, O house of Israel?

You also took along the tabernacle of Moloch in the star of the god Rompha, the images which you made to worship. I also will remove you beyond Babylon. Our fathers had the tabernacle of testimony in the wilderness, just as he who spoke to Moses directed him to make it according to the pattern which he had seen.

And having received it in their turn, our fathers brought it in with Joshua when they dispossessed the nations whom God drove out from before our fathers, until the time of David. David found favor in the sight of God, and asked that he might find a dwelling place for the god of Jacob.

But Solomon built a house for him. However, the Most High does not dwell in houses made by human hands. As the prophet says, Heaven is my throne, and earth is the footstool of my feet. What kind of house will you build for me, says the Lord?

Or what place is there for my rest? Was it not my hand which made all these things? You men, stiff-necked and uncircumcised in heart and ears, are always resisting the Holy Spirit. As your fathers did, so do you.

In which one of the prophets did your fathers not persecute? They killed those who had previously announced the coming of the Righteous One, whose betrayers and murderers you have now become. You who receive the law as ordained by angels, and yet did not observe it.

Now when they heard this, they became furious in their hearts, and they began gnashing their teeth at him. But being full of the Holy Spirit, he gazed intently into heaven, and saw the glory of God, and Jesus standing at the right hand of God.

And he said, Behold, I see the heavens opened up, and the Son of Man standing at the right hand of God. But crying out with a loud voice, they covered their ears, and rushed at him with one accord. And when they had driven him out of the city, they began stoning him, and the witnesses laid aside their garments at the feet of a young man named Saul.

They went on stoning Stephen as he was calling out, and saying, Lord Jesus, receive my spirit. Then falling on his knees, he cried out with a loud voice, Lord, do not hold this sin against them. And having said this, he fell asleep.

Jeremiah’s Warning of Judgment and Future Restoration

Jeremiah 16. The word of Yahweh also came to me, saying, You shall not take a wife for yourself, nor have sons or daughters in this place. For thus says Yahweh concerning the sons and daughters born in this place, and concerning their mothers who bear them, and their fathers who beget them in this land.

They will die of deadly diseases. They will not be lamented or buried. They will be as dung on the surface of the ground, and come to an end by sword and famine, and their carcasses will become food for the birds of the sky and for the beasts of the earth.

For thus says Yahweh, Do not enter the house of a funeral meal, or go to lament or to console them. For I have withdrawn my peace from this people, declares Yahweh, my loving kindness and compassion. Both great men and small will die in this land.

They will not be buried. They will not be lamented, nor will anyone gash himself or shave his head for them. Men will not break bread in mourning for them, to comfort anyone for the dead, nor give them a cup of comforting to drink for anyone's father or mother.

Moreover, you shall not go into a house of feasting to sit with them to eat and drink. For thus says Yahweh of hosts, the God of Israel, Behold, I am going to cause to cease from this place, before your eyes and in your days, the voice of rejoicing and the voice of gladness, the voice of the groom and the voice of the bride.

Now when you tell this people all these words, they will say to you, For what reason has Yahweh declared all this great calamity against us? And what is our iniquity? Or what is our sin which we have committed against Yahweh our God?

Then you are to say to them, It is because your fathers have forsaken me, declares Yahweh, and have walked after other gods and served them and worshipped them. But me they have forsaken and have not kept my law.

You too have done evil, even more than your fathers. For behold, you are each one walking according to the stubbornness of his own evil heart without listening to me. So I will hurl you out of this land into the land which you have not known, neither you nor your fathers.

And there you will serve other gods day and night, for I will grant you no favor. Therefore, behold, days are coming, declares Yahweh, when it will no longer be said, As Yahweh lives, who brought up the sons of Israel out of the land of Egypt.

But, As Yahweh lives, who brought up the sons of Israel from the land of the north and from all the lands where he had banished them. For I will return them to their own land which I gave to their fathers.

Behold, I am going to send for many fishermen, declares Yahweh, and they will fish for them. And afterwards I will send for many hunters, and they will hunt them from every mountain and every hill and from the crevices of the rocks.

For my eyes are on all their ways, they are not hidden from my face, nor is their iniquity concealed from my eyes. I will first doubly repay their iniquity and their sin, because they have profaned my land.

They have filled my inheritance with the carcasses of their detestable idols and with their abominations. O Yahweh, my strength and my strong defense, and my refuge in the day of distress! To you the nations will come from the ends of the earth and say, Our fathers have inherited nothing but lies, futility, and things of no profit.

Can man make gods for himself? Yet they are not gods. Therefore, behold, I am going to make them know. This time I will make them know my power and my might, and they shall know that my name is Yahweh.

Jesus Forgives Sins, Calls Levi, and Teaches About Fasting and the Sabbath

Mark 2. And when he had come back to Capernaum several days afterward, it was heard that he was at home. And many were gathered together, so that there was no longer room, not even near the door, and he was speaking the word to them.

And they came, bringing to him a paralytic, carried by four men. And being unable to bring him to Jesus because of the crowd, they removed the roof over where he was. And when they had dug an opening, they let down the mat where the paralytic was lying.

And Jesus, seeing their faith, said to the paralytic, Child, your sins are forgiven. But some of the scribes were sitting there and reasoning in their hearts, Why does this man speak that way? He is blaspheming.

Who can forgive sins but God alone? Immediately Jesus, aware in his spirit that they were reasoning that way within themselves, said to them, Why are you reasoning about these things in your heart? Which is easier, to say to the paralytic, Your sins are forgiven, or to say, Get up and pick up your mat and walk?

But so that you may know that the Son of Man has authority on earth to forgive sins, he said to the paralytic, I say to you, Get up, pick up your mat, and go to your home. And he got up and immediately picked up the mat and went out before everyone, so that they were all amazed and were glorifying God, saying, We have never seen anything like this.

And he went out again by the seashore, and the entire crowd was coming to him, and he was teaching them. And as he passed by, he saw Levi the son of Alphaeus sitting in the tax office. And he said to him, Follow me.

And he stood up and followed him. And it happened that as he was reclining at the table in his house, many tax collectors and sinners were reclining with Jesus and his disciples, for there were many of them, and they were following him.

And when the scribes of the Pharisees saw that he was eating with the sinners and tax collectors, they were saying to his disciples, He is eating and drinking with tax collectors and sinners. And hearing this, Jesus said to them, Those who are healthy do not have need for a physician, but only those who are sick.

I did not come to call the righteous, but sinners. And John's disciples and the Pharisees were fasting, and they came and said to him, Why do John's disciples and the disciples of the Pharisees fast, but your disciples do not fast?

And Jesus said to them, Can the attendants of the bridegroom fast when the bridegroom is with them? So long as they have the bridegroom with them, they cannot fast. But the days will come when the bridegroom is taken away from them, and then they will fast in that day.

No one sews a piece of unshrunk cloth on an old garment, otherwise that patch pulls away from it, the new from the old, into worse tear results. And no one puts new wine into old wineskins, otherwise the wine will burst the skins, and the wine is lost in the skins as well.

But one puts new wine into fresh wineskins. And it happened that he was passing through the grainfields on the Sabbath, and his disciples began to make their way along while picking the heads of grain.

And the Pharisees were saying to him, Look, why are they doing what is not lawful on the Sabbath? And he said to them, Have you never read what David did when he was in need, and he and his companions became hungry?

How he entered the house of God around the time of Abiathar the high priest, and ate the consecrated bread, which is not lawful for anyone to eat except the priests, and he also gave it to those who were with him.

And Jesus was saying to them, The Sabbath was made for man, and not man for the Sabbath. Consequently, the Son of Man is Lord, even of the Sabbath.