Day 157 reading

Wisdom·Psalm 90

¹Lord, You have been our dwelling place through all generations. ²Before the mountains were born or You brought forth the earth and the world, from everlasting to everlasting You are God. ³You return man to dust, saying, “Return, O sons of mortals.” ⁴For in Your sight a thousand years are but a day that passes, or a watch of the night. ⁵You whisk them away in their sleep; they are like the new grass of the morning— ⁶in the morning it springs up new, but by evening it fades and withers. ⁷For we are consumed by Your anger and terrified by Your wrath. ⁸You have set our iniquities before You, our secret sins in the light of Your presence. ⁹For all our days decline in Your fury; we finish our years with a sigh. ¹⁰The length of our days is seventy years— or eighty if we are strong— yet their pride is but labor and sorrow, for they quickly pass, and we fly away. ¹¹Who knows the power of Your anger? Your wrath matches the fear You are due. ¹²So teach us to number our days, that we may present a heart of wisdom. ¹³Return, O LORD! How long will it be? Have compassion on Your servants. ¹⁴Satisfy us in the morning with Your loving devotion, that we may sing for joy and be glad all our days. ¹⁵Make us glad for as many days as You have afflicted us, for as many years as we have seen evil. ¹⁶May Your work be shown to Your servants, and Your splendor to their children. ¹⁷May the favor of the Lord our God rest upon us; establish for us the work of our hands— yes, establish the work of our hands!

New Testament·John 11:27–57

²⁷“Yes, Lord,” she answered, “I believe that You are the Christ, the Son of God, who was to come into the world.” ²⁸After Martha had said this, she went back and called her sister Mary aside to tell her, “The Teacher is here and is asking for you.” ²⁹And when Mary heard this, she got up quickly and went to Him. ³⁰Now Jesus had not yet entered the village, but was still at the place where Martha had met Him. ³¹When the Jews who were in the house consoling Mary saw how quickly she got up and went out, they followed her, supposing she was going to the tomb to mourn there. ³²When Mary came to Jesus and saw Him, she fell at His feet and said, “Lord, if You had been here, my brother would not have died.” ³³When Jesus saw her weeping, and the Jews who had come with her also weeping, He was deeply moved in spirit and troubled. ³⁴“Where have you put him?” He asked. “Come and see, Lord,” they answered. ³⁵Jesus wept. ³⁶Then the Jews said, “See how He loved him!” ³⁷But some of them asked, “Could not this man who opened the eyes of the blind also have kept Lazarus from dying?” ³⁸Jesus, once again deeply moved, came to the tomb. It was a cave with a stone laid across the entrance. ³⁹“Take away the stone,” Jesus said. “Lord, by now he stinks,” said Martha, the sister of the dead man. “It has already been four days.” ⁴⁰Jesus replied, “Did I not tell you that if you believed, you would see the glory of God?” ⁴¹So they took away the stone. Then Jesus lifted His eyes upward and said, “Father, I thank You that You have heard Me. ⁴²I knew that You always hear Me, but I say this for the benefit of the people standing here, so they may believe that You sent Me.” ⁴³After Jesus had said this, He called out in a loud voice, “Lazarus, come out!” ⁴⁴The man who had been dead came out with his hands and feet bound in strips of linen, and his face wrapped in a cloth. “Unwrap him and let him go,” Jesus told them. ⁴⁵Therefore many of the Jews who had come to Mary, and had seen what Jesus did, believed in Him. ⁴⁶But some of them went to the Pharisees and told them what Jesus had done. ⁴⁷Then the chief priests and Pharisees convened the Sanhedrin and said, “What are we to do? This man is performing many signs. ⁴⁸If we let Him go on like this, everyone will believe in Him, and then the Romans will come and take away both our place and our nation.” ⁴⁹But one of them, named Caiaphas, who was high priest that year, said to them, “You know nothing at all! ⁵⁰You do not realize that it is better for you that one man die for the people than that the whole nation perish.” ⁵¹Caiaphas did not say this on his own. Instead, as high priest that year, he was prophesying that Jesus would die for the nation, ⁵²and not only for the nation, but also for the scattered children of God, to gather them together into one. ⁵³So from that day on they plotted to kill Him. ⁵⁴As a result, Jesus no longer went about publicly among the Jews, but He withdrew to a town called Ephraim in an area near the wilderness. And He stayed there with the disciples. ⁵⁵Now the Jewish Passover was near, and many people went up from the country to Jerusalem to purify themselves before the Passover. ⁵⁶They kept looking for Jesus and asking one another as they stood in the temple courts, “What do you think? Will He come to the feast at all?” ⁵⁷But the chief priests and Pharisees had given orders that anyone who knew where He was must report it, so that they could arrest Him.

Old Testament·2 Samuel 17–18

¹Furthermore, Ahithophel said to Absalom, “Let me choose twelve thousand men and set out tonight in pursuit of David. ²I will attack him while he is weak and weary; I will throw him into a panic, and all the people with him will flee; I will strike down only the king ³and bring all the people back to you as a bride returning to her husband. You seek the life of only one man; then all the people will be at peace.” ⁴This proposal seemed good to Absalom and all the elders of Israel. ⁵Then Absalom said, “Summon Hushai the Archite as well, and let us hear what he too has to say.” ⁶So Hushai came to Absalom, who told him, “Ahithophel has spoken this proposal. Should we carry it out? If not, what do you say?” ⁷Hushai replied, “This time the advice of Ahithophel is not sound.” ⁸He continued, “You know your father and his men. They are mighty men, and as fierce as a wild bear robbed of her cubs. Moreover, your father is a man of war who will not spend the night with the troops. ⁹Surely by now he is hiding in a cave or some other location. If some of your troops fall first, whoever hears of it will say, ‘There has been a slaughter among the troops who follow Absalom.’ ¹⁰Then even the most valiant soldier with the heart of a lion will melt with fear, because all Israel knows that your father is a mighty man who has valiant men with him. ¹¹Instead, I advise that all Israel from Dan to Beersheba—a multitude like the sand on the seashore—be gathered to you, and that you yourself lead them into battle. ¹²Then we will attack David wherever we find him, and we will descend on him like dew on the ground. And of all the men with him, not even one will remain. ¹³If he retreats to a city, all Israel will bring ropes to that city, and we will drag it down to the valley until not even a pebble can be found.” ¹⁴Then Absalom and all the men of Israel said, “The advice of Hushai the Archite is better than that of Ahithophel.” For the LORD had purposed to thwart the good counsel of Ahithophel in order to bring disaster on Absalom. ¹⁵So Hushai told Zadok and Abiathar, the priests, “This is what Ahithophel has advised Absalom and the elders of Israel, and this is what I have advised. ¹⁶Now send quickly and tell David, ‘Do not spend the night at the fords of the wilderness, but be sure to cross over. Otherwise the king and all the people with him will be swallowed up.’” ¹⁷Now Jonathan and Ahimaaz were staying at En-rogel, where a servant girl would come and pass along information to them. They in turn would go and inform King David, for they dared not be seen entering the city. ¹⁸But a young man did see them and told Absalom. So the two left quickly and came to the house of a man in Bahurim. He had a well in his courtyard, and they climbed down into it. ¹⁹Then the man’s wife took a covering and spread it over the mouth of the well, scattering grain over it so nobody would know a thing. ²⁰When Absalom’s servants came to the woman at the house, they asked, “Where are Ahimaaz and Jonathan?” “They have crossed over the brook,” she replied. The men searched but did not find them, so they returned to Jerusalem. ²¹After the men had gone, Ahimaaz and Jonathan climbed up out of the well and went to inform King David, saying, “Get up and cross over the river at once, for Ahithophel has given this advice against you.” ²²So David and all the people with him got up and crossed the Jordan. By daybreak, there was no one left who had not crossed the Jordan. ²³When Ahithophel saw that his advice had not been followed, he saddled his donkey and set out for his house in his hometown. He put his affairs in order and hanged himself. So he died and was buried in his father’s tomb. ²⁴Then David went to Mahanaim, and Absalom crossed the Jordan with all the men of Israel. ²⁵Absalom had appointed Amasa over the army in place of Joab. Amasa was the son of a man named Ithra, the Ishmaelite who had married Abigail, the daughter of Nahash and sister of Zeruiah the mother of Joab. ²⁶So the Israelites and Absalom camped in the land of Gilead. ²⁷When David came to Mahanaim, he was met by Shobi son of Nahash from Rabbah of the Ammonites, Machir son of Ammiel from Lo-debar, and Barzillai the Gileadite from Rogelim. ²⁸They brought beds, basins, and earthen vessels, as well as wheat, barley, flour, roasted grain, beans, lentils, ²⁹honey, curds, sheep, and cheese from the herd for David and his people to eat. For they said, “The people have become hungry, exhausted, and thirsty in the wilderness.”

18Then David reviewed his troops and appointed over them commanders of hundreds and of thousands. ²He sent out the troops, a third under Joab, a third under Joab’s brother Abishai son of Zeruiah, and a third under Ittai the Gittite. And the king said to the troops, “I will surely march out with you as well.” ³But the people pleaded, “You must not go out! For if we have to flee, they will pay no attention to us. Even if half of us die, they will not care; but you are worth ten thousand of us. It is better for now if you support us from the city.” ⁴“I will do whatever seems best to you,” the king replied. So he stood beside the gate, while all the troops marched out by hundreds and by thousands. ⁵Now the king had commanded Joab, Abishai, and Ittai, “Treat the young man Absalom gently for my sake.” And all the people heard the king’s orders to each of the commanders regarding Absalom. ⁶So David’s army marched into the field to engage Israel in the battle, which took place in the forest of Ephraim. ⁷There the people of Israel were defeated by David’s servants, and the slaughter was great that day—twenty thousand men. ⁸The battle spread over the whole countryside, and that day the forest devoured more people than the sword. ⁹Now Absalom was riding on his mule when he met the servants of David, and as the mule went under the thick branches of a large oak, Absalom’s head was caught fast in the tree. The mule under him kept going, so that he was suspended in midair. ¹⁰When one of the men saw this, he told Joab, “I just saw Absalom hanging in an oak tree!” ¹¹“You just saw him!” Joab exclaimed. “Why did you not strike him to the ground right there? I would have given you ten shekels of silver and a warrior’s belt!” ¹²The man replied, “Even if a thousand shekels of silver were weighed out into my hands, I would not raise my hand against the son of the king. For we heard the king command you and Abishai and Ittai, ‘Protect the young man Absalom for my sake.’ ¹³If I had jeopardized my own life —and nothing is hidden from the king—you would have abandoned me.” ¹⁴But Joab declared, “I am not going to wait like this with you!” And he took three spears in his hand and thrust them through the heart of Absalom while he was still alive in the oak tree. ¹⁵And ten young men who carried Joab’s armor surrounded Absalom, struck him, and killed him. ¹⁶Then Joab blew the ram’s horn, and the troops broke off their pursuit of Israel because Joab had restrained them. ¹⁷They took Absalom, cast him into a large pit in the forest, and piled a huge mound of stones over him. Meanwhile, all the Israelites fled, each to his home. ¹⁸During his lifetime, Absalom had set up for himself a pillar in the King’s Valley, for he had said, “I have no son to preserve the memory of my name.” So he gave the pillar his name, and to this day it is called Absalom’s Monument. ¹⁹Then Ahimaaz son of Zadok said, “Please let me run and tell the king the good news that the LORD has avenged him of his enemies.” ²⁰But Joab replied, “You are not the man to take good news today. You may do it another day, but you must not do so today, because the king’s son is dead.” ²¹So Joab said to a Cushite, “Go, tell the king what you have seen.” The Cushite bowed to Joab and took off running. ²²Ahimaaz son of Zadok, however, persisted and said to Joab, “Regardless of whatever may happen, please let me also run behind the Cushite!” “My son,” Joab replied, “why do you want to run, since you will not receive a reward?” ²³“No matter what, I want to run!” he replied. “Then run!” Joab told him. So Ahimaaz ran by way of the plain and outran the Cushite. ²⁴Now David was sitting between the two gates when the watchman went up to the roof of the gateway by the wall, looked out, and saw a man running alone. ²⁵So he called out and told the king. “If he is alone,” the king replied, “he bears good news.” As the first runner drew near, ²⁶the watchman saw another man running, and he called out to the gatekeeper, “Look! Another man is running alone!” “This one also brings good news,” said the king. ²⁷The watchman said, “The first man appears to me to be running like Ahimaaz son of Zadok.” “This is a good man,” said the king. “He comes with good news.” ²⁸Then Ahimaaz called out to the king, “All is well!” And he bowed facedown before the king. He continued, “Blessed be the LORD your God! He has delivered up the men who raised their hands against my lord the king.” ²⁹The king asked, “Is the young man Absalom all right?” And Ahimaaz replied, “When Joab sent the king’s servant and your servant, I saw a great tumult, but I do not know what it was.” ³⁰“Move aside,” said the king, “and stand here.” So he stepped aside. ³¹Just then the Cushite came and said, “May my lord the king hear the good news: Today the LORD has avenged you of all who rose up against you!” ³²The king asked the Cushite, “Is the young man Absalom all right?” And the Cushite replied, “May what has become of the young man happen to the enemies of my lord the king and to all who rise up against you to harm you.” ³³The king was shaken and went up to the gate chamber and wept. And as he walked, he cried out, “O my son Absalom! My son, my son Absalom! If only I had died instead of you, O Absalom, my son, my son!”