Read the Bible in a Year
Each day, we'll post passages so that you can read the Bible in one year. This is part of The Colossians 13:16 Project, sponsored by Cove Presbyterian Church, 3404 Main Street, Weirton, West Virginia. You're invited to worship with us Sundays, at 11:00 a.m. or Saturdays, at 6:30 p.m. You may also want to consider joining one our adult Bible Studies: Thursdays at 12:00 noon and Sundays at 9:30 a.m. and 10:00 a.m. We also have a full range of programs for children. If you want more information about the church, check out the other blogs. And please feel free to leave any comments.
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Today our passages are Judges
11:1–12:15; John 1:1-28; Psalm 101:1-8; and Proverbs 14:13-14. The readings are
the Contemporary English
Version.
Judges 11-12:15 (Contemporary English Version)
Judges 11
Jephthah
1-5The leaders of
the Gilead clan decided to ask a brave warrior named Jephthah son of Gilead to
lead the attack against the Ammonites.
Even though Jephthah belonged to the Gilead clan, he had earlier been
forced to leave the region where they had lived. Jephthah was the son of a
prostitute, but his half brothers were the sons of his father's wife.
One day his half brothers told him, " You don't really belong to our
family, so you can't have any of the family property." Then they forced Jephthah
to leave home.
Jephthah went to the country of Tob, where he was joined by a number of
men who would do anything for money.
So the leaders of Gilead went to Jephthah and said,
6" Please come back to Gilead!
If you lead our army, we will be able to fight off the Ammonites."
7" Didn't you hate me?"
Jephthah replied. " Weren't you the ones who forced me to leave my family?
You're coming to me now, just because you're in trouble."
8" But we do want you to come
back," the leaders said. " And if you lead us in battle against the Ammonites,
we will make you the ruler of Gilead."
9" All right," Jephthah said. "
If I go back with you and the LORD lets me defeat the Ammonites, will you really
make me your ruler?"
10" You have our word," the
leaders answered. " And the LORD is a witness to what we have said."
11So Jephthah went back to
Mizpah
with the leaders of Gilead. The people of Gilead gathered at the place of
worship and made Jephthah their ruler. Jephthah also made promises to them.
12After the ceremony, Jephthah
sent messengers to say to the king of Ammon, " Are you trying to start a war?
You have invaded my country, and I want to know why!"
13The king of Ammon replied, "
Tell Jephthah that the land really belongs to me, all the way from the Arnon
River in the south, to the Jabbok River in the north, and west to the Jordan
River. When the Israelites came out of Egypt, they stole it. Tell Jephthah to
return it to me, and there won't be any war."
14Jephthah sent the messengers
back to the king of Ammon,
15and they told him that
Jephthah had said:
Israel hasn't taken any territory from Moab or Ammon.
16When the Israelites came from
Egypt, they traveled in the desert to the Red Sea
and then to Kadesh.
17They sent messengers to the
king of Edom and said, " Please, let us go through your country." But the king
of Edom refused. They also sent messengers to the king of Moab, but he wouldn't
let them cross his country either. And so the Israelites stayed at Kadesh.
18A little later, the
Israelites set out into the desert, going east of Edom and Moab, and camping on
the eastern side of the Arnon River gorge. The Arnon is the eastern border of
Moab, and since the Israelites didn't cross it, they didn't even set foot in
Moab.
19The Israelites sent
messengers to the Amorite King Sihon of Heshbon. " Please," they said, " let our
people go through your country to get to our own land."
20Sihon didn't think the
Israelites could be trusted, so he called his army together. They set up camp at
Jahaz, then they attacked the Israelite camp.
21But the LORD God helped
Israel defeat Sihon and his army. Israel took over all of the Amorite land where
Sihon's people had lived,
22from the Arnon River in the
south to the Jabbok River in the north, and from the desert in the east to the
Jordan River in the west.
23The messengers also told the
king of Ammon that Jephthah had said:
The LORD God of Israel helped his nation get rid of the Amorites and take
their land. Now do you think you're going to take over that same territory?
24If Chemosh your god
takes over a country and gives it to you, don't you have a right to it? And if
the LORD takes over a country and gives it to us, the land is ours!
25Are you better than Balak the
son of Zippor? He was the king of Moab, but he didn't quarrel with Israel or
start a war with us.
26For three hundred years,
Israelites have been living in Heshbon and Aroer and the nearby villages, and in
the towns along the Arnon River gorge. If the land really belonged to you
Ammonites, you wouldn't have waited until now to try to get it back.
27I haven't done anything to
you, but it's certainly wrong of you to start a war. I pray that the LORD will
show whether Israel or Ammon is in the right.
28But the king of Ammon paid no
attention to Jephthah's message.
29Then the LORD's Spirit took
control of Jephthah, and Jephthah went through Gilead and Manasseh, raising an
army. Finally, he arrived at Mizpah in Gilead, where
30he promised the LORD, " If
you will let me defeat the Ammonites
31and come home safely, I will
sacrifice to you whoever comes out to meet me first."
32From Mizpah, Jephthah
attacked the Ammonites, and the LORD helped him defeat them.
33Jephthah and his army
destroyed the twenty towns between Aroer and Minnith, and others as far as
Abel-Keramim. After that, the Ammonites could not invade Israel any more.
Jephthah's Daughter
34When
Jephthah returned to his home in Mizpah, the first one to meet him was his
daughter. She was playing a tambourine and dancing to celebrate his victory, and
she was his only child.
35" Oh!" Jephthah cried. Then
he tore his clothes in sorrow and said to his daughter, " I made a sacred
promise to the LORD, and I must keep it. Your coming out to meet me has broken
my heart."
36" Father," she said, " you
made a sacred promise to the LORD, and he let you defeat the Ammonites. Now, you
must do what you promised, even if it means I must die.
37But first, please let me
spend two months, wandering in the hill country with my friends. We will cry
together, because I can never get married and have children."
38" Yes, you may have two
months," Jephthah said.
She and some other girls left, and for two months they wandered in the
hill country, crying because she could never get married and have children.
39Then she went back to her
father. He did what he had promised, and she never got married.
That's why
40every year, Israelite girls
walk around for four days, weeping for
Jephthah's daughter.
Judges 12
The Ephraim Tribe Fights Jephthah's Army
1The men of the Ephraim tribe got together an army and went
across the Jordan River to Zaphon to meet with Jephthah. They said, " Why did
you go to war with the Ammonites without asking us to help? Just for that, we're
going to burn down your house with you inside!"
2" But I did ask for your
help," Jephthah answered. " That was back when the people of Gilead and I were
having trouble with the Ammonites, and you wouldn't do a thing to help us.
3So when we realized you
weren't coming, we risked our lives and attacked the Ammonites. And the LORD let
us defeat them. There's no reason for you to come here today to attack me."
4But the men from Ephraim said,
" You people of Gilead are nothing more than refugees from Ephraim. You even
live on land that belongs to the tribes of Ephraim and Manasseh."
So Jephthah called together the army of Gilead, then they attacked and defeated
the army from Ephraim.
5The army of Gilead also posted
guards at all the places where the soldiers from Ephraim could cross the Jordan
River to return to their own land.
Whenever one of the men from Ephraim would try to cross the river, the
guards would say, " Are you from Ephraim?"
"No," the man would answer, "I'm not from Ephraim."
6The guards would then tell
them to say "Shiboleth," because they knew that people of Ephraim could say
"Sibboleth," but not "Shiboleth."
If the man said "Sibboleth," the guards would grab him and kill him right
there. Altogether, forty-two thousand men from Ephraim were killed in the battle
and at the Jordan.
7Jephthah was a leader
of Israel for six years, before he died and was buried in his hometown Mizpah
in Gilead.
Ibzan
8Ibzan, the next leader
of Israel, came from Bethlehem.
9He had thirty daughters and
thirty sons, and he let them all marry outside his clan. Ibzan was a leader for
seven years,
10before he died and was buried
in Bethlehem.
Elon
11Elon from the Zebulun
tribe was the next leader
of Israel. He was a leader for ten years,
12before he died and was buried
in Aijalon that belonged to the Zebulun tribe.
Abdon
13-15Abdon the son of
Hillel was the next leader
of Israel. He had forty sons and thirty grandsons, and each one of them had his
own donkey.
Abdon was a leader
for eight years, before he died and was buried in his hometown of Pirathon,
which is located in the part of the hill country of Ephraim where Amalekites
used to live.
John 1:1-28 (Contemporary English Version)
John 1
The Word of Life
1In the
beginning was the one
who is called the Word.
The Word was with God
and was truly God.
2From the very beginning
the Word was with God.
3And with this Word,
God created all things.
Nothing was made
without the Word.
Everything that was created
4received its life from him,
and his life gave light
to everyone.
5The light keeps shining
in the dark,
and darkness has never
put it out.
6God sent a man named John,
7who came to tell
about the light
and to lead all people
to have faith.
8John wasn't that light.
He came only to tell
about the light.
9The true light that shines
on everyone
was coming into the world.
10The Word was in the world,
but no one knew him,
though God had made the world
with his Word.
11He came into his own world,
but his own nation
did not welcome him.
12Yet some people accepted him
and put their faith in him.
So he gave them the right
to be the children of God.
13They were not God's children
by nature
or because
of any human desires.
God himself was the one
who made them his children.
14The Word became
a human being
and lived here with us.
We saw his true glory,
the glory of the only Son
of the Father.
From him all the kindness
and all the truth of God
have come down to us.
15John spoke about him and
shouted, "This is the one I told you would come! He is greater than I am,
because he was alive before I was born."
16Because of all that the Son
is, we have been given one blessing after another.
17The Law was given by Moses, but
Jesus Christ brought us undeserved kindness and truth. 18No one has ever seen God. The only Son, who is truly God
and is closest to the Father, has shown us what God is like.
John the Baptist Tells about Jesus
(Matthew 3.1-12; Mark 1.1-8; Luke 3.15-17)
19-20The Jewish leaders in Jerusalem sent priests and
temple helpers to ask John who he was. He told them plainly, "I am not the
Messiah." 21Then when they asked him
if he were Elijah, he said, "No, I am not!" And when they asked if he were the
Prophet,
he also said "No!" 22Finally, they
said, "Who are you then? We have to give an answer to the ones who sent us. Tell
us who you are!"
23John answered in the words of
the prophet Isaiah, "I am only someone shouting in the desert, `Get the road
ready for the Lord!' "
24Some Pharisees had also been
sent to John. 25They asked him, "Why
are you baptizing people, if you are not the Messiah or Elijah or the Prophet?"
26John told them, "I use water
to baptize people. But here with you is someone you don't know. 27Even though I came first, I am not good
enough to untie his sandals." 28John
said this as he was baptizing east of the Jordan River in Bethany.
Psalm 101:1-8 (Contemporary English Version)
Psalm 101
(A psalm by David.)
A King and His Promises
1I
will sing to you, LORD!
I will celebrate your kindness
and your justice.
2Please help me learn
to do the right thing,
and I will be honest and fair
in my own kingdom.
3I refuse to be corrupt
or to take part
in anything crooked,
4and I won't be dishonest
or deceitful.
5Anyone who spreads gossip
will be silenced,
and no one who is conceited
will be my friend.
6I will find trustworthy people
to serve as my advisors,
and only an honest person
will serve as an official.
7No one who cheats or lies
will have a position
in my royal court.
8Each morning I will silence
any lawbreakers I find
in the countryside
or in the city of the LORD.
Proverbs 14:13-14 (Contemporary English Version)
13Sorrow may hide
behind laughter,
and happiness may end
in sorrow.
14You harvest what you plant,
whether good or bad.
Verse of the Day
“Love should always make us tell the truth. Then we will grow in every way
and be more like Christ, the head” - Ephesians
4:15
Thought
for the Day
Siddhartha
Gautama Buddha wrote, “Do not dwell in the past, do not dream of the future,
concentrate the mind on the present moment.”
Today our passages are Judges
9:22–10:18; Luke 24:13-53; Psalm 100:1-5; and Proverbs 14:11-12. The readings
are the Contemporary English
Version.
Judges 9:22-10:18 (Contemporary English Version)
Abimelech Destroys Shechem
22Abimelech had been a military commander of Israel for
three years,
23-24when God decided to punish
him and the leaders of Shechem for killing Gideon's seventy sons.
So God turned the leaders of Shechem against Abimelech.
25Then they sent some men to
hide on the hilltops and watch for Abimelech and his troops, while they sent
others to rob everyone that went by on the road. But Abimelech found out what
they were doing.
26One day, Gaal son of Ebed
went to live in Shechem. His brothers moved there too, and soon the leaders of
Shechem started trusting him.
27The time came for the grape
harvest, and the people of Shechem went into their vineyards and picked the
grapes. They put the grapes in their wine-pits and walked on them to squeeze out
the juice in order to make wine. Then they went into the temple of their god and
threw a big party. There was a lot of eating and drinking, and before long they
were cursing Abimelech.
28Gaal said:
Hamor was the founder of Shechem, and one of his descendants should be our
ruler. But Abimelech's father was Gideon, so Abimelech isn't really one of us.
He shouldn't be our king, and we shouldn't have to obey him or Zebul, who rules
Shechem for him.
29If I were the ruler of
Shechem, I'd get rid of that Abimelech. I'd tell him, " Get yourself an even
bigger army, and we will still defeat you."
30Zebul was angry when he found
out what Gaal had said.
31And so he sent some
messengers to Abimelech. But they had to pretend to be doing something else, or
they would not have been allowed to leave Shechem.
Zebul told the messengers to say: Gaal the son of Ebed has come to Shechem along
with his brothers, and they have persuaded the people to let Gaal rule Shechem
instead of you.
32This is what I think you
should do. Lead your army here during the night and hide in the fields.
33Get up the next morning at
sunrise and rush out of your hiding places to attack the town. Gaal and his
followers will come out to fight you, but you will easily defeat them.
34So one night, Abimelech led
his soldiers to Shechem. He divided them into four groups, and they all hid near
the town.
35The next morning, Gaal went
out and stood in the opening of the town gate. Abimelech and his soldiers left
their hiding places,
36and Gaal saw them. Zebul was
standing there with Gaal, and Gaal remarked, " Zebul, that looks like a crowd of
people coming down from the mountaintops."
" No," Zebul answered, " it's just the shadows of the mountains. It only
looks like people moving."
37" But Zebul, look over
there," Gaal said. " There's a crowd coming down from the sacred mountain,
and another group is coming along the road from the tree where people talk with
the spirits of the dead."
38Then Zebul replied, " What
good is all of your bragging now? You were the one who said Abimelech shouldn't
be the ruler of Shechem. Out there is the army that you made fun of. So go out
and fight them!"
39Gaal and the leaders of
Shechem went out and fought Abimelech.
40Soon the people of Shechem
turned and ran back into the town. However, Abimelech and his troops were close
behind and killed many of them along the way.
41Abimelech stayed at Arumah,
and Zebul forced Gaal and his brothers out of Shechem.
42The next morning, the people
of Shechem were getting ready to work in their fields as usual, but someone told
Abimelech about it.
43Abimelech divided his army
into three groups and set up an ambush in the fields near Shechem. When the
people came out of the town, he and his army rushed out from their hiding places
and attacked.
44Abimelech and the troops with
him ran to the town gate and took control of it, while two other groups attacked
and killed the people who were in the fields.
45He and his troops fought in
Shechem all day, until they had killed everyone in town. Then he and his men
tore down the houses and buildings and scattered salt
everywhere.
46Earlier that day, the leaders
of the temple of El Berith
at Shechem had heard about the attack. So they went into the temple fortress,
47but Abimelech found out where
they were.
48He led his troops to Mount
Zalmon, where he took an ax and chopped off a tree branch. He lifted the branch
onto his shoulder and shouted, " Hurry! Cut off a branch just as I did."
49When they all had branches,
they followed Abimelech back to Shechem. They piled the branches against the
fortress and set them on fire, burning down the fortress and killing about one
thousand men and women.
50After destroying Shechem,
Abimelech went to Thebez. He surrounded the town and captured it.
51But there was a tall fortress
in the middle of the town, and the town leaders and everyone else went inside.
Then they barred the gates and went up to the flat roof.
52Abimelech and his army rushed
to the fortress and tried to force their way inside. Abimelech himself was about
to set the heavy wooden doors on fire,
53when a woman on the roof
dropped a large rock
on his head and cracked his skull.
54The soldier who carried his
weapons was nearby, and Abimelech told him, " Take out your sword and kill me. I
don't want people to say that I was killed by a woman!" So the soldier ran his
sword through Abimelech.
55And when the Israelite
soldiers saw that their leader was dead, they went back home.
56That's how God punished
Abimelech for killing his brothers and bringing shame on his father's family.
57God also punished the people
of Shechem for helping Abimelech.
Everything happened just as Jotham's curse said it would.
Judges 10
Tola
1Tola was the next
person to rescue Israel. He belonged to the Issachar tribe, but he lived in
Shamir, a town in the hill country of Ephraim. His father was Puah, and his
grandfather was Dodo.
2Tola was a leader
of Israel for twenty-three years, then he died and was buried in Shamir.
Jair
3The next leader
of Israel was Jair, who lived in Gilead. He was a leader for twenty-two years.
4He had thirty sons, and each
son had his own mule and was in charge of one town in Gilead. Those thirty towns
are still called The Settlements of Jair.
5When he died, he was buried in
the town of Kamon.
Israel Is Unfaithful Again
6Before long, the Israelites began disobeying the LORD by
worshiping Baal, Astarte, and gods from Syria, Sidon, Moab, Ammon, and
Philistia.
7The LORD was angry at Israel
and decided to let Philistia and Ammon conquer them.
8So the same year that Jair
died, Israel's army was crushed by these two nations. For eighteen years, Ammon
was cruel to the Israelites who lived in Gilead, the region east of the Jordan
River that had once belonged to the Amorites.
9Then the Ammonites began
crossing the Jordan and attacking the tribes of Judah, Benjamin, and Ephraim.
Life was miserable for the Israelites.
10They begged the LORD for help
and confessed, " We were unfaithful to you, our LORD. We stopped worshiping you
and started worshiping idols of Baal."
11-12The LORD answered:
In the past when you came crying to me for help, I rescued you. At one
time or another I've rescued you from the Egyptians, the Amorites, the
Ammonites, the Philistines, the Sidonians, the Amalekites, and the Maonites.
13-14But I'm not going to
rescue you any more! You've left me and gone off to worship other gods. If
you're in such big trouble, go cry to them for help!
15" We have been unfaithful,"
the Israelites admitted. " If we must be punished, do it yourself, but please
rescue us from the Ammonites."
16Then the Israelites got rid
of the idols of the foreign gods, and they began worshiping only the LORD.
Finally, there came a time when the LORD could no longer stand to see them
suffer.
The Ammonites Invade Gilead
17The rulers of Ammon called their soldiers together and
led them to Gilead, where they set up camp.
The Israelites gathered at Mizpah
and set up camp there.
18The leaders of Gilead asked
each other, " Who can lead an attack on the Ammonites?" Then they agreed, " If
we can find someone who can lead the attack, we'll make him the ruler of
Gilead."
Luke 24:13-53 (Contemporary English Version)
Jesus Appears to Two Disciples
(Mark 16.12,13)
13That same
day two of Jesus' disciples were going to the village of Emmaus, which was about
seven miles from Jerusalem. 14As they
were talking and thinking about what had happened, 15Jesus came near and started walking along beside them.
16But they did not know who he was.
17Jesus asked them, "What were
you talking about as you walked along?"
The two of them stood there looking sad and gloomy. 18Then the one named Cleopas asked Jesus, "Are you the only
person from Jerusalem who didn't know what was happening there these last few
days?"
19"What do you mean?" Jesus
asked.
They answered:
Those things that happened to Jesus from Nazareth. By what he did and said
he showed that he was a powerful prophet, who pleased God and all the people.
20Then the chief priests and our
leaders had him arrested and sentenced to die on a cross. 21We had hoped that he would be the one to set Israel free!
But it has already been three days since all this happened.
22Some women in our group
surprised us. They had gone to the tomb early in the morning, 23but did not find the body of Jesus. They
came back, saying that they had seen a vision of angels who told them that he is
alive. 24Some men from our group went
to the tomb and found it just as the women had said. But they didn't see Jesus
either.
25Then Jesus asked the two
disciples, "Why can't you understand? How can you be so slow to believe all that
the prophets said? 26Didn't you know
that the Messiah would have to suffer before he was given his glory?" 27Jesus then explained everything written
about himself in the Scriptures, beginning with the Law of Moses and the Books
of the Prophets.
28When the two of them came near the
village where they were going, Jesus seemed to be going farther. 29They begged him, "Stay with us! It's
already late, and the sun is going down." So Jesus went into the house to stay
with them.
30After Jesus sat down to eat,
he took some bread. He blessed it and broke it. Then he gave it to them. 31At once they knew who he was, but he
disappeared. 32They said to each
other, "When he talked with us along the road and explained the Scriptures to
us, didn't it warm our hearts?" 33So
they got right up and returned to Jerusalem.
The two disciples found the eleven apostles and the others gathered
together. 34And they learned from the
group that the Lord was really alive and had appeared to Peter. 35Then the disciples from Emmaus told what
happened on the road and how they knew he was the Lord when he broke the bread.
What Jesus' Followers Must Do
(Matthew 28.16-20; Mark 16.14-18; John 20.19-23; Acts 1.6-8)
36While Jesus' disciples were talking about
what had happened, Jesus appeared and greeted them. 37They were frightened and terrified because they thought
they were seeing a ghost.
38But Jesus said, "Why are you
so frightened? Why do you doubt? 39Look at my hands and my feet and see who I am! Touch me
and find out for yourselves. Ghosts don't have flesh and bones as you see I
have."
40After Jesus said this, he
showed them his hands and his feet. 41The disciples were so glad and amazed that they could not
believe it. Jesus then asked them, "Do you have something to eat?" 42They gave him a piece of baked fish. 43He took it and ate it as they watched.
44Jesus said to them, "While I
was still with you, I told you that everything written about me in the Law of
Moses, the Books of the Prophets, and in the Psalms
had to happen." 45Then he helped them
understand the Scriptures. 46He told
them:
The Scriptures say that the Messiah must suffer, then three days later he
will rise from death. 47They also say
that all people of every nation must be told in my name to turn to God, in order
to be forgiven. So beginning in Jerusalem, 48you must tell everything that has happened. 49I will send you the one my Father has
promised,
but you must stay in the city until you are given power from heaven.
Jesus Returns to Heaven
(Mark 16.19,20; Acts 1.9-11)
50Jesus led his disciples out to Bethany, where he raised
his hands and blessed them. 51As he
was doing this, he left and was taken up to heaven.
52After his disciples had worshiped
him,
they returned to Jerusalem and were very happy. 53They spent their time in the temple, praising God.
Psalm 100:1-5 (Contemporary English Version)
Psalm 100
(A psalm of praise.)
The LORD Is God
1Shout
praises to the LORD,
everyone on this earth.
2Be joyful and sing
as you come in
to worship the LORD!
3You know the LORD is God!
He created us,
and we belong to him;
we are his people,
the sheep in his pasture.
4Be thankful and praise the
LORD
as you enter his temple.
5The LORD is good!
His love and faithfulness
will last forever.
Proverbs 14:11-12 (Contemporary English Version)
11The tent of a good person
stands longer
than the house
of someone evil.
12You may think you are
on the right road
and still end up dead.
Verse of the Day
“I know that my Savior lives, and at the end he will stand on this earth.” -
Job
19:25
Thought
for the Day
French mathematician, theoretical physicist, engineer, and a
philosopher of science Henri Poincaré
wrote, “It is by logic that we prove, but by intuition that we discover. To know
how to criticize is good, to know how to create is
better.”
Today our passages are Judges
8:18–9:21; Luke 23:44–24:12; Psalm 99:1-9; and Proverbs 14:9-10. The readings
are the Contemporary English
Version.
Judges 8:18-9:21 (Contemporary English Version)
18Then Gideon said, " Zebah and
Zalmunna, tell me about the men you killed at Tabor."
" They were a lot like you," the two kings answered. " They were
dignified, almost like royalty."
19" They were my very own
brothers!" Gideon said. " I swear by the living LORD that if you had let them
live, I would let you live."
20Gideon turned to Jether, his
oldest son. " Kill them!" Gideon said.
But Jether was young,
and he was too afraid to even pull out his sword.
21" What's the matter, Gideon?"
Zebah and Zalmunna asked. " Do it yourself, if you're not too much of a coward!"
Gideon jumped up and killed them both. Then he took the fancy gold
ornaments from the necks of their camels.
The Israelites Ask Gideon To Be Their King
22After the battle with the Midianites, the Israelites
said, " Gideon, you rescued us! Now we want you to be our king. Then after your
death, your son and then your grandson will rule."
23" No," Gideon replied, " I
won't be your king, and my son won't be king either. Only the LORD is your
ruler.
24But I will ask you to do one
thing: Give me all the earrings you took from the enemy."
The enemy soldiers had been Ishmaelites,
and they wore gold earrings.
25The Israelite soldiers
replied, " Of course we will give you the earrings." Then they spread out a robe
on the ground and tossed the earrings on it.
26The total weight of this gold
was over forty pounds. In addition, there was the gold from the camels'
ornaments and from the beautiful jewelry worn by the Midianite kings. Gideon
also took their purple robes.
27-29Gideon returned to his
home in Ophrah and had the gold made into a statue, which the Israelites soon
started worshiping. They became unfaithful to God, and even Gideon and his
family were trapped into worshiping the statue.
The Midianites had been defeated so badly that they were no longer strong enough
to attack Israel. And so Israel was at peace for the remaining forty years of
Gideon's life.
Gideon Dies
30Gideon had many
wives and seventy sons.
31He even had a wife
who lived at Shechem.
They had a son, and Gideon named him Abimelech.
32Gideon lived to be an old
man. And when he died, he was buried in the family tomb in his hometown of
Ophrah, which belonged to the Abiezer clan.
33Soon after Gideon's death,
the Israelites turned their backs on God again. They set up idols of Baal and
worshiped Baal Berith
as their god.
34The Israelites forgot that
the LORD was their God, and that he had rescued them from the enemies who lived
around them.
35Besides all that, the
Israelites were unkind to Gideon's family, even though Gideon had done so much
for Israel.
Judges 9
Abimelech Tries To Be King
1Abimelech the son of Gideon
went to Shechem. While there, he met with his mother's relatives
2and told them to say to the
leaders of Shechem, " Do you think it would be good to have all seventy of
Gideon's sons ruling us? Wouldn't you rather have just one man be king?
Abimelech would make a good king, and he's related to us."
3Abimelech's uncles talked it
over with the leaders of Shechem who agreed, " Yes, it would be better for one
of our relatives to be king."
4Then they gave Abimelech
seventy pieces
of silver from the temple of their god Baal Berith.
Abimelech used the silver to hire a gang of rough soldiers who would do anything
for money.
5Abimelech and his soldiers
went to his father's home in Ophrah and brought out Gideon's other sons to a
large rock, where they murdered all seventy. Gideon's youngest son Jotham hid
from the soldiers, but he was the only one who escaped.
6The leaders of Shechem,
including the priests and the military officers,
met at the tree next to the sacred rock
in Shechem to crown Abimelech king.
7Jotham heard what they were
doing. So he climbed to the top of Mount Gerizim and shouted down to the people
who were there at the meeting: Leaders of Shechem,
listen to me,
and maybe God
will listen to you.
8Once the trees searched
for someone to be king;
they asked the olive tree,
" Will you be our king?"
9But the olive tree replied,
" My oil brings honor
to people and gods.
I won't stop making oil,
just to have my branches wave
above the other trees."
10Then they asked the fig tree,
" Will you be our king?"
11But the fig tree replied,
" I won't stop growing
my delicious fruit,
just to have my branches wave
above the other trees."
12Next they asked the grape
vine,
" Will you be our king?"
13But the grape vine replied,
" My wine brings cheer
to people and gods.
I won't stop making wine,
just to have my branches wave
above the other trees."
14Finally, they went
to the thornbush and asked,
" Will you be our king?"
15The thornbush replied,
" If you really want me
to be your king,
then come into my shade
and I will protect you.
But if you're deceiving me,
I'll start a fire
that will spread out and destroy
the cedars of Lebanon."
After Jotham had finished telling this story, he said:
16-18My father Gideon risked
his life for you when he fought to rescue you from the Midianites. Did you
reward Gideon by being kind to his family? No, you did not! You attacked his
family and killed all seventy of his sons on that rock.
And was it right to make Abimelech your king? He's merely the son of my
father's slave girl.
But just because he's your relative, you made him king of Shechem.
19So, you leaders of Shechem,
if you treated Gideon and his family the way you should have, then I hope you
and Abimelech will make each other very happy.
20But if it was wrong to treat
Gideon and his family the way you did, then I pray that Abimelech will destroy
you with fire, and I pray that you will do the same to him.
21Jotham ran off and went to
live in the town of Beer, where he could be safe from his brother Abimelech.
Luke 23:44-24:12 (Contemporary English Version)
The Death of Jesus
(Matthew 27.45-56; Mark 15.33-41; John 19.28-30)
44Around noon the sky turned dark and stayed that way until
the middle of the afternoon. 45The sun
stopped shining, and the curtain in the temple
split down the middle. 46Jesus
shouted, "Father, I put myself in your hands!" Then he died. 47When the Roman officer saw what had
happened, he praised God and said, "Jesus must really have been a good man!"
48A crowd had gathered to see
the terrible sight. Then after they had seen it, they felt brokenhearted and
went home. 49All of Jesus' close
friends and the women who had come with him from Galilee stood at a distance and
watched.
Jesus Is Buried
(Matthew 27.57-61; Mark 15.42-47; John 19.38-42)
50-51There was a man named Joseph, who was from Arimathea
in Judea. Joseph was a good and honest man, and he was eager for God's kingdom
to come. He was also a member of the council, but he did not agree with what
they had decided.
52Joseph went to Pilate and
asked for Jesus' body. 53He took the
body down from the cross and wrapped it in fine cloth. Then he put it in a tomb
that had been cut out of solid rock and had never been used. 54It was Friday, and the Sabbath was about
to begin.
55The women who had come with Jesus
from Galilee followed Joseph and watched how Jesus' body was placed in the tomb.
56Then they went to prepare some
sweet-smelling spices for his burial. But on the Sabbath they rested, as the Law
of Moses commands.
Luke 24
Jesus Is Alive
(Matthew 28.1-10; Mark 16.1-8; John 20.1-10)
1Very early on Sunday morning the women went to the tomb,
carrying the spices that they had prepared. 2When they found the stone rolled away from the entrance,
3they went in. But they did not find
the body of the Lord
Jesus, 4and they did not know what to
think. Suddenly two men in shining white clothes stood beside them. 5The women were afraid and bowed to the
ground. But the men said, "Why are you looking in the place of the dead for
someone who is alive? 6Jesus isn't
here! He has been raised from death. Remember that while he was still in
Galilee, he told you, 7'The Son of Man
will be handed over to sinners who will nail him to a cross. But three days
later he will rise to life.' " 8Then
they remembered what Jesus had said.
9-10Mary Magdalene, Joanna,
Mary the mother of James, and some other women were the ones who had gone to the
tomb. When they returned, they told the eleven apostles and the others what had
happened. 11The apostles thought it
was all nonsense, and they would not believe.
12But Peter ran to the tomb.
And when he stooped down and looked in, he saw only the burial clothes. Then he
returned, wondering what had happened.
Psalm 99:1-9 (Contemporary English Version)
Psalm 99
Our LORD Is King
1Our LORD,
you are King!
You rule from your throne
above the winged creatures,
as people tremble
and the earth shakes.
2You are praised in Zion,
and you control all nations.
3Only you are God!
And your power alone,
so great and fearsome,
is worthy of praise.
4You are our mighty King,
a lover of fairness,
who sees that justice is done
everywhere in Israel.
5Our LORD and our God,
we praise you
and kneel down to worship you,
the God of holiness!
6Moses and Aaron were two
of your priests.
Samuel was also one of those
who prayed in your name,
and you, our LORD,
answered their prayers.
7You spoke to them
from a thick cloud,
and they obeyed your laws.
8Our LORD and our God,
you answered their prayers
and forgave their sins,
but when they did wrong,
you punished them.
9We praise you, LORD God,
and we worship you
at your sacred mountain.
Only you are God!
Proverbs 14:9-10 (Contemporary English Version)
9Fools don't care
if they are wrong,
but God is pleased
when people do right.
10No one else can really know
how sad or happy you are.
Verse of the Day
“and think the same way that Christ Jesus thought: Christ was truly God. But
he did not try to remain equal with God. Instead he gave up everything and
became a slave, when he became like one of us. Christ was humble. He obeyed God
and even died on a cross.” - Philippians
2:5-8
Thought for the Day
American author, activist, and civil rights leader Coretta Scott King
wrote, “Freedom and justice cannot be parceled out in pieces to suit political
convenience.”
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Thought
for the Day
