Day 154 reading

Wisdom·Psalm 89:29–38

²⁹I will establish his line forever, his throne as long as the heavens endure. ³⁰If his sons forsake My law and do not walk in My judgments, ³¹if they violate My statutes and fail to keep My commandments, ³²I will attend to their transgression with the rod, and to their iniquity with stripes. ³³But I will not withdraw My loving devotion from him, nor ever betray My faithfulness. ³⁴I will not violate My covenant or alter the utterance of My lips. ³⁵Once and for all I have sworn by My holiness— I will not lie to David— ³⁶his offspring shall endure forever, and his throne before Me like the sun, ³⁷like the moon, established forever, a faithful witness in the sky.” Selah ³⁸Now, however, You have spurned and rejected him; You are enraged by Your anointed one.

New Testament·John 10:1–24

¹“Truly, truly, I tell you, whoever does not enter the sheepfold by the gate, but climbs in some other way, is a thief and a robber. ²But the one who enters by the gate is the shepherd of the sheep. ³The gatekeeper opens the gate for him, and the sheep listen for his voice. He calls his own sheep by name and leads them out. ⁴When he has brought out all his own, he goes on ahead of them, and his sheep follow him because they know his voice. ⁵But they will never follow a stranger; in fact, they will flee from him because they do not recognize his voice.” ⁶Jesus spoke to them using this illustration, but they did not understand what He was telling them. ⁷So He said to them again, “Truly, truly, I tell you, I am the gate for the sheep. ⁸All who came before Me were thieves and robbers, but the sheep did not listen to them. ⁹I am the gate. If anyone enters through Me, he will be saved. He will come in and go out and find pasture. ¹⁰The thief comes only to steal and kill and destroy. I have come that they may have life, and have it in all its fullness. ¹¹I am the good shepherd. The good shepherd lays down His life for the sheep. ¹²The hired hand is not the shepherd, and the sheep are not his own. When he sees the wolf coming, he abandons the sheep and runs away. Then the wolf pounces on them and scatters the flock. ¹³The man runs away because he is a hired servant and is unconcerned for the sheep. ¹⁴I am the good shepherd. I know My sheep and My sheep know Me, ¹⁵just as the Father knows Me and I know the Father. And I lay down My life for the sheep. ¹⁶I have other sheep that are not of this fold. I must bring them in as well, and they will listen to My voice. Then there will be one flock and one shepherd. ¹⁷The reason the Father loves Me is that I lay down My life in order to take it up again. ¹⁸No one takes it from Me, but I lay it down of My own accord. I have authority to lay it down and authority to take it up again. This charge I have received from My Father.” ¹⁹Again there was division among the Jews because of Jesus’ message. ²⁰Many of them said, “He is demon-possessed and insane. Why would you listen to Him?” ²¹But others replied, “These are not the words of a man possessed by a demon. Can a demon open the eyes of the blind?” ²²At that time the Feast of Dedication took place in Jerusalem. It was winter, ²³and Jesus was walking in the temple courts in Solomon’s Colonnade. ²⁴So the Jews gathered around Him and demanded, “How long will You keep us in suspense? If You are the Christ, tell us plainly.”

Old Testament·2 Samuel 12–13

¹Then the LORD sent Nathan to David, and when he arrived, he said, “There were two men in a certain city, one rich and the other poor. ²The rich man had a great number of sheep and cattle, ³but the poor man had nothing except one small ewe lamb that he had bought. He raised it, and it grew up with him and his children. It shared his food and drank from his cup; it slept in his arms and was like a daughter to him. ⁴Now a traveler came to the rich man, who refrained from taking one of his own sheep or cattle to prepare for the traveler who had come to him. Instead, he took the poor man’s lamb and prepared it for his guest.” ⁵David burned with anger against the man and said to Nathan: “As surely as the LORD lives, the man who did this deserves to die! ⁶Because he has done this thing and has shown no pity, he must pay for the lamb four times over.” ⁷Then Nathan said to David, “You are that man! This is what the LORD, the God of Israel, says: ‘I anointed you king over Israel, and I delivered you from the hand of Saul. ⁸I gave your master’s house to you and your master’s wives into your arms. I gave you the house of Israel and Judah, and if that was not enough, I would have given you even more. ⁹Why then have you despised the command of the LORD by doing evil in His sight? You put Uriah the Hittite to the sword and took his wife as your own, for you have slain him with the sword of the Ammonites. ¹⁰Now, therefore, the sword will never depart from your house, because you have despised Me and have taken the wife of Uriah the Hittite to be your own.’ ¹¹This is what the LORD says: ‘I will raise up adversity against you from your own house. Before your very eyes I will take your wives and give them to another, and he will lie with them in broad daylight. ¹²You have acted in secret, but I will do this thing in broad daylight before all Israel.’” ¹³Then David said to Nathan, “I have sinned against the LORD.” “The LORD has taken away your sin,” Nathan replied. “You will not die. ¹⁴Nevertheless, because by this deed you have shown utter contempt for the word of the LORD, the son born to you will surely die.” ¹⁵After Nathan had gone home, the LORD struck the child that Uriah’s wife had borne to David, and he became ill. ¹⁶David pleaded with God for the boy. He fasted and went into his house and spent the night lying in sackcloth on the ground. ¹⁷The elders of his household stood beside him to help him up from the ground, but he was unwilling and would not eat anything with them. ¹⁸On the seventh day the child died. But David’s servants were afraid to tell him that the child was dead, for they said, “Look, while the child was alive, we spoke to him, and he would not listen to us. So how can we tell him the child is dead? He may even harm himself.” ¹⁹When David saw that his servants were whispering to one another, he perceived that the child was dead. So he asked his servants, “Is the child dead?” “He is dead,” they replied. ²⁰Then David got up from the ground, washed and anointed himself, changed his clothes, and went into the house of the LORD and worshiped. Then he went to his own house, and at his request they set food before him, and he ate. ²¹“What is this you have done?” his servants asked. “While the child was alive, you fasted and wept, but when he died, you got up and ate.” ²²David answered, “While the child was alive, I fasted and wept, for I said, ‘Who knows? The LORD may be gracious to me and let him live.’ ²³But now that he is dead, why should I fast? Can I bring him back again? I will go to him, but he will not return to me.” ²⁴Then David comforted his wife Bathsheba, and he went to her and lay with her. So she gave birth to a son, and they named him Solomon. Now the LORD loved the child ²⁵and sent word through Nathan the prophet to name him Jedidiah because the LORD loved him. ²⁶Meanwhile, Joab fought against Rabbah of the Ammonites and captured the royal fortress. ²⁷Then Joab sent messengers to David to say, “I have fought against Rabbah and have captured the water supply of the city. ²⁸Now, therefore, assemble the rest of the troops, lay siege to the city, and capture it. Otherwise I will capture the city, and it will be named after me.” ²⁹So David assembled all the troops and went to Rabbah; and he fought against it and captured it. ³⁰Then he took the crown from the head of their king. It weighed a talent of gold and was set with precious stones, and it was placed on David’s head. And David took a great amount of plunder from the city. ³¹David brought out the people who were there and put them to work with saws, iron picks, and axes, and he made them work at the brick kilns. He did the same to all the Ammonite cities. Then David and all his troops returned to Jerusalem.

13After some time, David’s son Amnon fell in love with Tamar, the beautiful sister of David’s son Absalom. ²Amnon was sick with frustration over his sister Tamar, for she was a virgin, and it seemed implausible for him to do anything to her. ³Now Amnon had a friend named Jonadab, the son of David’s brother Shimeah. Jonadab was a very shrewd man, ⁴so he asked Amnon, “Why are you, the son of the king, so depressed morning after morning? Won’t you tell me?” Amnon replied, “I am in love with Tamar, my brother Absalom’s sister.” ⁵Jonadab told him, “Lie down on your bed and pretend you are ill. When your father comes to see you, say to him, ‘Please let my sister Tamar come and give me something to eat. Let her prepare it in my sight so I may watch her and eat it from her hand.’” ⁶So Amnon lay down and feigned illness. When the king came to see him, Amnon said, “Please let my sister Tamar come and make a couple of cakes in my sight, so that I may eat from her hand.” ⁷Then David sent word to Tamar at the palace: “Please go to the house of Amnon your brother and prepare a meal for him.” ⁸So Tamar went to the house of her brother Amnon, who was lying down. She took some dough, kneaded it, made cakes in his sight, and baked them. ⁹Then she brought the pan and set it down before him, but he refused to eat. “Send everyone away!” said Amnon. And everyone went out. ¹⁰Then Amnon said to Tamar, “Bring the food into the bedroom, so that I may eat it from your hand.” Tamar took the cakes she had made and went to her brother Amnon’s bedroom. ¹¹And when she had brought them to him to eat, he took hold of her and said, “Come lie with me, my sister!” ¹²“No, my brother!” she cried. “Do not humiliate me, for such a thing should never be done in Israel. Do not do this disgraceful thing! ¹³Where could I ever take my shame? And you would be like one of the fools in Israel! Please speak to the king, for he will not withhold me from you.” ¹⁴But Amnon refused to listen to her, and being stronger, he violated her and lay with her. ¹⁵Then Amnon hated Tamar with such intensity that his hatred was greater than the love he previously had. “Get up!” he said to her. “Be gone!” ¹⁶“No,” she replied, “sending me away is worse than this great wrong you have already done to me!” But he refused to listen to her. ¹⁷Instead, he called to his attendant and said, “Throw this woman out and bolt the door behind her!” ¹⁸So Amnon’s attendant threw her out and bolted the door behind her. Now Tamar was wearing a robe of many colors, because this is what the king’s virgin daughters wore. ¹⁹And Tamar put ashes on her head and tore her robe. And putting her hand on her head, she went away crying bitterly. ²⁰Her brother Absalom said to her, “Has your brother Amnon been with you? Be quiet for now, my sister. He is your brother. Do not take this thing to heart.” So Tamar lived as a desolate woman in the house of her brother Absalom. ²¹When King David heard all this, he was furious. ²²And Absalom never said a word to Amnon, either good or bad, because he hated Amnon for disgracing his sister Tamar. ²³Two years later, when Absalom’s sheepshearers were at Baal-hazor near Ephraim, he invited all the sons of the king. ²⁴And he went to the king and said, “Your servant has just hired shearers. Will the king and his servants please come with me?” ²⁵“No, my son,” the king replied, “we should not all go, or we would be a burden to you.” Although Absalom urged him, he was not willing to go, but gave him his blessing. ²⁶“If not,” said Absalom, “please let my brother Amnon go with us.” “Why should he go with you?” the king asked. ²⁷But Absalom urged him, so the king sent Amnon and the rest of his sons. ²⁸Now Absalom had ordered his young men, “Watch Amnon until his heart is merry with wine, and when I order you to strike Amnon down, you are to kill him. Do not be afraid. Have I not commanded you? Be courageous and valiant!” ²⁹So Absalom’s young men did to Amnon just as Absalom had ordered. Then all the other sons of the king got up, and each one fled on his mule. ³⁰While they were on the way, a report reached David: “Absalom has struck down all the sons of the king; not one of them is left!” ³¹Then the king stood up, tore his clothes, and lay down on the ground; and all his servants stood by with their clothes torn. ³²But Jonadab, the son of David’s brother Shimeah, spoke up: “My lord must not think they have killed all the sons of the king, for only Amnon is dead. In fact, Absalom has planned this since the day Amnon violated his sister Tamar. ³³So now, my lord the king, do not take to heart the report that all the sons of the king are dead. Only Amnon is dead.” ³⁴Meanwhile, Absalom had fled. When the young man standing watch looked up, he saw many people coming down the road west of him, along the side of the hill. And the watchman went and reported to the king, “I see men coming from the direction of Horonaim, along the side of the hill.” ³⁵So Jonadab said to the king, “Look, the sons of the king have arrived! It is just as your servant said.” ³⁶And as he finished speaking, the sons of the king came in, wailing loudly. Then the king and all his servants also wept very bitterly. ³⁷Now Absalom fled and went to Talmai son of Ammihud, the king of Geshur. But David mourned for his son every day. ³⁸After Absalom had fled and gone to Geshur, he stayed there three years. ³⁹And King David longed to go to Absalom, for he had been consoled over Amnon’s death.