Daily Reading, Thursday, 11/7/13 Ezekiel 16:42-17:24 Hebrews 8:1-13 Psalms 106:13-31 Proverbs 27:7-9 Have a wonderful day in the Lord. Storms may rage and winds may blow, but who can destroy the Lords chosen? Stand firm knowing He is on your side. You are victorious because of whose you are! Ezekiel 16:42–17:24 42“Then at last my fury against you [Jerusalem] will be spent, and my jealous anger will subside. I [the Lord] will be calm and will not be angry with you anymore. 43But first, because you have not remembered your youth but have angered me by doing all these evil things, I will fully repay you for all of your sins, says the Sovereign Lord. For you have added lewd acts to all your detestable sins. 44Everyone who makes up proverbs will say of you, ‘Like mother, like daughter.’ 45For your mother loathed her husband and her children, and so do you. And you are exactly like your sisters, for they despised their husbands and their children. Truly your mother was a Hittite and your father an Amorite. 46“Your older sister was Samaria, who lived with her daughters in the north. Your younger sister was Sodom, who lived with her daughters in the south. 47But you have not merely sinned as they did. You quickly surpassed them in corruption. 48As surely as I live, says the Sovereign Lord, Sodom and her daughters were never as wicked as you and your daughters. 49Sodom’s sins were pride, gluttony, and laziness, while the poor and needy suffered outside her door. 50She was proud and committed detestable sins, so I wiped her out, as you have seen. 51“Even Samaria did not commit half your sins. You have done far more detestable things than your sisters ever did. They seem righteous compared to you. 52Shame on you! Your sins are so terrible that you make your sisters seem righteous, even virtuous. 53“But someday I will restore the fortunes of Sodom and Samaria, and I will restore you, too. 54Then you will be truly ashamed of everything you have done, for your sins make them feel good in comparison. 55Yes, your sisters, Sodom and Samaria, and all their people will be restored, and at that time you also will be restored. 56In your proud days you held Sodom in contempt. 57But now your greater wickedness has been exposed to all the world, and you are the one who is scorned—by Edom* and all her neighbors and by Philistia. 58This is your punishment for all your lewdness and detestable sins, says the Lord. 59“Now this is what the Sovereign Lord says: I will give you what you deserve, for you have taken your solemn vows lightly by breaking your covenant. 60Yet I will remember the covenant I made with you when you were young, and I will establish an everlasting covenant with you. 61Then you will remember with shame all the evil you have done. I will make your sisters, Samaria and Sodom, to be your daughters, even though they are not part of our covenant. 62And I will reaffirm my covenant with you, and you will know that I am the Lord. 63You will remember your sins and cover your mouth in silent shame when I forgive you of all that you have done. I, the Sovereign Lord, have spoken!” Chapter 17 1Then this message came to me from the Lord: 2“Son of man, give this riddle, and tell this story to the people of Israel. 3Give them this message from the Sovereign Lord: “A great eagle with broad wings and long feathers, covered with many-colored plumage, came to Lebanon. He seized the top of a cedar tree 4 and plucked off its highest branch. He carried it away to a city filled with merchants. He planted it in a city of traders. 5 He also took a seedling from the land and planted it in fertile soil. He placed it beside a broad river, where it could grow like a willow tree. 6 It took root there and grew into a low, spreading vine. Its branches turned up toward the eagle, and its roots grew down into the ground. It produced strong branches and put out shoots. 7 But then another great eagle came with broad wings and full plumage. So the vine now sent its roots and branches toward him for water, 8 even though it was already planted in good soil and had plenty of water so it could grow into a splendid vine and produce rich leaves and luscious fruit. 9 “So now the Sovereign Lord asks: Will this vine grow and prosper? No! I will pull it up, roots and all! I will cut off its fruit and let its leaves wither and die. I will pull it up easily without a strong arm or a large army. 10 But when the vine is transplanted, will it thrive? No, it will wither away when the east wind blows against it. It will die in the same good soil where it had grown so well.” 11Then this message came to me from the Lord: 12“Say to these rebels of Israel: Don’t you understand the meaning of this riddle of the eagles? The king of Babylon came to Jerusalem, took away her king and princes, and brought them to Babylon. 13He made a treaty with a member of the royal family and forced him to take an oath of loyalty. He also exiled Israel’s most influential leaders, 14so Israel would not become strong again and revolt. Only by keeping her treaty with Babylon could Israel survive. 15“Nevertheless, this man of Israel’s royal family rebelled against Babylon, sending ambassadors to Egypt to request a great army and many horses. Can Israel break her sworn treaties like that and get away with it? 16No! For as surely as I live, says the Sovereign Lord, the king of Israel will die in Babylon, the land of the king who put him in power and whose treaty he disregarded and broke. 17Pharaoh and all his mighty army will fail to help Israel when the king of Babylon lays siege to Jerusalem again and destroys many lives. 18For the king of Israel disregarded his treaty and broke it after swearing to obey; therefore, he will not escape. 19“So this is what the Sovereign Lord says: As surely as I live, I will punish him for breaking my covenant and disregarding the solemn oath he made in my name. 20I will throw my net over him and capture him in my snare. I will bring him to Babylon and put him on trial for this treason against me. 21And all his best warriors will be killed in battle, and those who survive will be scattered to the four winds. Then you will know that I, the Lord, have spoken. 22“This is what the Sovereign Lord says: I will take a branch from the top of a tall cedar, and I will plant it on the top of Israel’s highest mountain. 23It will become a majestic cedar, sending forth its branches and producing seed. Birds of every sort will nest in it, finding shelter in the shade of its branches. 24And all the trees will know that it is I, the Lord, who cuts the tall tree down and makes the short tree grow tall. It is I who makes the green tree wither and gives the dead tree new life. I, the Lord, have spoken, and I will do what I said!” Hebrews 8:1-13 1Here is the main point: We have a High Priest who sat down in the place of honor beside the throne of the majestic God in heaven. 2There he ministers in the heavenly Tabernacle, the true place of worship that was built by the Lord and not by human hands. 3And since every high priest is required to offer gifts and sacrifices, our High Priest must make an offering, too. 4If he were here on earth, he would not even be a priest, since there already are priests who offer the gifts required by the law. 5They serve in a system of worship that is only a copy, a shadow of the real one in heaven. For when Moses was getting ready to build the Tabernacle, God gave him this warning: “Be sure that you make everything according to the pattern I have shown you here on the mountain.” 6But now Jesus, our High Priest, has been given a ministry that is far superior to the old priesthood, for he is the one who mediates for us a far better covenant with God, based on better promises. 7If the first covenant had been faultless, there would have been no need for a second covenant to replace it. 8But when God found fault with the people, he said: “The day is coming, says the Lord, when I will make a new covenant with the people of Israel and Judah. 9 This covenant will not be like the one I made with their ancestors when I took them by the hand and led them out of the land of Egypt. They did not remain faithful to my covenant, so I turned my back on them, says the Lord. 10 But this is the new covenant I will make with the people of Israel on that day, says the Lord: I will put my laws in their minds, and I will write them on their hearts. I will be their God, and they will be my people. 11 And they will not need to teach their neighbors, nor will they need to teach their relatives, saying, ‘You should know the Lord.’ For everyone, from the least to the greatest, will know me already. 12 And I will forgive their wickedness, and I will never again remember their sins.” 13When God speaks of a “new” covenant, it means he has made the first one obsolete. It is now out of date and will soon disappear. Psalm 106:13-31 13 Yet how quickly they [the Israelites] forgot what he had done! They wouldn’t wait for his counsel! 14 In the wilderness their desires ran wild, testing God’s patience in that dry wasteland. 15 So he gave them what they asked for, but he sent a plague along with it. 16 The people in the camp were jealous of Moses and envious of Aaron, the Lord’s holy priest. 17 Because of this, the earth opened up; it swallowed Dathan and buried Abiram and the other rebels. 18 Fire fell upon their followers; a flame consumed the wicked. 19 The people made a calf at Mount Sinai; they bowed before an image made of gold. 20 They traded their glorious God for a statue of a grass-eating bull. 21 They forgot God, their savior, who had done such great things in Egypt— 22 such wonderful things in the land of Ham, such awesome deeds at the Red Sea. 23 So he declared he would destroy them. But Moses, his chosen one, stepped between the Lord and the people. He begged him to turn from his anger and not destroy them. 24 The people refused to enter the pleasant land, for they wouldn’t believe his promise to care for them. 25 Instead, they grumbled in their tents and refused to obey the Lord. 26 Therefore, he solemnly swore that he would kill them in the wilderness, 27 that he would scatter their descendants among the nations, exiling them to distant lands. 28 Then our ancestors joined in the worship of Baal at Peor; they even ate sacrifices offered to the dead! 29 They angered the Lord with all these things, so a plague broke out among them. 30 But Phinehas had the courage to intervene, and the plague was stopped. 31 So he has been regarded as a righteous man ever since that time. Proverbs 27:7-9 7 A person who is full refuses honey, but even bitter food tastes sweet to the hungry. 8 A person who strays from home is like a bird that strays from its nest. 9 The heartfelt counsel of a friend is as sweet as perfume and incense.
Posted on: Thu, 07 Nov 2013 11:36:17 +0000
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