Day 270 reading

Wisdom·Proverbs 1:28–33

²⁸Then they will call on me, but I will not answer; they will earnestly seek me, but will not find me. ²⁹For they hated knowledge and chose not to fear the LORD. ³⁰They accepted none of my counsel; they despised all my reproof. ³¹So they will eat the fruit of their own way, and be filled with their own devices. ³²For the waywardness of the simple will slay them, and the complacency of fools will destroy them. ³³But whoever listens to me will dwell in safety, secure from the fear of evil.”

New Testament·2 Corinthians 12

¹I must go on boasting. Although there is nothing to gain, I will go on to visions and revelations from the Lord. ²I know a man in Christ who fourteen years ago was caught up to the third heaven. Whether it was in the body or out of it I do not know, but God knows. ³And I know that this man—whether in the body or out of it I do not know, but God knows— ⁴was caught up to Paradise. The things he heard were too sacred for words, things that man is not permitted to tell. ⁵I will boast about such a man, but I will not boast about myself, except in my weaknesses. ⁶Even if I wanted to boast, I would not be a fool, because I would be speaking the truth. But I refrain, so no one will credit me with more than he sees in me or hears from me, ⁷or because of these surpassingly great revelations. So to keep me from becoming conceited, I was given a thorn in my flesh, a messenger of Satan, to torment me. ⁸Three times I pleaded with the Lord to take it away from me. ⁹But He said to me, “My grace is sufficient for you, for My power is perfected in weakness.” Therefore I will boast all the more gladly in my weaknesses, so that the power of Christ may rest on me. ¹⁰That is why, for the sake of Christ, I delight in weaknesses, in insults, in hardships, in persecutions, in difficulties. For when I am weak, then I am strong. ¹¹I have become a fool, but you drove me to it. In fact, you should have commended me, since I am in no way inferior to those “super-apostles,” even though I am nothing. ¹²The true marks of an apostle—signs, wonders, and miracles—were performed among you with great perseverance. ¹³In what way were you inferior to the other churches, except that I was not a burden to you? Forgive me this wrong! ¹⁴See, I am ready to come to you a third time, and I will not be a burden, because I am not seeking your possessions, but you. For children should not have to save up for their parents, but parents for their children. ¹⁵And for the sake of your souls, I will most gladly spend my money and myself. If I love you more, will you love me less? ¹⁶Be that as it may, I was not a burden to you; but crafty as I am, I caught you by trickery. ¹⁷Did I exploit you by anyone I sent you? ¹⁸I urged Titus to visit you, and I sent our brother with him. Did Titus exploit you in any way? Did we not walk in the same Spirit and follow in the same footsteps? ¹⁹Have you been thinking all along that we were making a defense to you? We speak before God in Christ, and all of this, beloved, is to build you up. ²⁰For I am afraid that when I come, I may not find you as I wish, and you may not find me as you wish. I fear that there may be quarreling, jealousy, rage, rivalry, slander, gossip, arrogance, and disorder. ²¹I am afraid that when I come again, my God will humble me before you, and I will be grieved over many who have sinned earlier and have not repented of their acts of impurity, sexual immorality, and debauchery.

Old Testament·Isaiah 15–17

¹This is the burden against Moab: Ar in Moab is ruined, destroyed in a night! Kir in Moab is devastated, destroyed in a night! ²Dibon goes up to its temple to weep at its high places. Moab wails over Nebo, as well as over Medeba. Every head is shaved, every beard is cut off. ³In its streets they wear sackcloth; on the rooftops and in the public squares they all wail, falling down weeping. ⁴Heshbon and Elealeh cry out; their voices are heard as far as Jahaz. Therefore the soldiers of Moab cry out; their souls tremble within. ⁵My heart cries out over Moab; her fugitives flee as far as Zoar, as far as Eglath-shelishiyah. With weeping they ascend the slope of Luhith; they lament their destruction on the road to Horonaim. ⁶The waters of Nimrim are dried up, and the grass is withered; the vegetation is gone, and the greenery is no more. ⁷So they carry their wealth and belongings over the Brook of the Willows. ⁸For their outcry echoes to the border of Moab. Their wailing reaches Eglaim; it is heard in Beer-elim. ⁹The waters of Dimon are full of blood, but I will bring more upon Dimon— a lion upon the fugitives of Moab and upon the remnant of the land.

16Send the tribute lambs to the ruler of the land, from Sela in the desert to the mount of Daughter Zion. ²Like fluttering birds pushed out of the nest, so are the daughters of Moab at the fords of the Arnon: ³“Give us counsel; render a decision. Shelter us at noonday with shade as dark as night. Hide the refugees; do not betray the one who flees. ⁴Let my fugitives stay with you; be a refuge for Moab from the destroyer.” When the oppressor has gone, destruction has ceased, and the oppressors have vanished from the land, ⁵in loving devotion a throne will be established in the tent of David. A judge seeking justice and hastening righteousness will sit on it in faithfulness. ⁶We have heard of Moab’s pomposity, his exceeding pride and conceit, his overflowing arrogance. But his boasting is empty. ⁷Therefore let Moab wail; let them wail together for Moab. Moan for the raisin cakes of Kir-hareseth, you who are utterly stricken. ⁸For the fields of Heshbon have withered, along with the grapevines of Sibmah. The rulers of the nations have trampled its choicest vines, which had reached as far as Jazer and spread toward the desert. Their shoots had spread out and passed over the sea. ⁹So I weep with Jazer for the vines of Sibmah; I drench Heshbon and Elealeh with my tears. Triumphant shouts have fallen silent over your summer fruit and your harvest. ¹⁰Joy and gladness are removed from the orchard; no one sings or shouts in the vineyards. No one tramples the grapes in the winepresses; I have put an end to the cheering. ¹¹Therefore my heart laments for Moab like a harp, my inmost being for Kir-heres. ¹²When Moab appears on the high place, when he wearies himself and enters his sanctuary to pray, it will do him no good. ¹³This is the message that the LORD spoke earlier concerning Moab. ¹⁴And now the LORD says, “In three years, as a hired worker counts the years, Moab’s splendor will become an object of contempt, with all her many people. And those who are left will be few and feeble.”

17This is the burden against Damascus: “Behold, Damascus is no longer a city; it has become a heap of ruins. ²The cities of Aroer are forsaken; they will be left to the flocks, which will lie down with no one to fear. ³The fortress will disappear from Ephraim, and the sovereignty from Damascus. The remnant of Aram will be like the splendor of the Israelites,” declares the LORD of Hosts. ⁴“In that day the splendor of Jacob will fade, and the fat of his body will waste away, ⁵as the reaper gathers the standing grain and harvests the ears with his arm, as one gleans heads of grain in the Valley of Rephaim. ⁶Yet gleanings will remain, like an olive tree that has been beaten— two or three berries atop the tree, four or five on its fruitful branches,” declares the LORD, the God of Israel. ⁷In that day men will look to their Maker and turn their eyes to the Holy One of Israel. ⁸They will not look to the altars they have fashioned with their hands or to the Asherahs and incense altars they have made with their fingers. ⁹In that day their strong cities will be like forsaken thickets and summits, abandoned to the Israelites and to utter desolation. ¹⁰For you have forgotten the God of your salvation and failed to remember the Rock of your refuge. Therefore, though you cultivate delightful plots and set out cuttings from exotic vines— ¹¹though on the day you plant you make them grow, and on that morning you help your seed sprout— yet the harvest will vanish on the day of disease and incurable pain. ¹²Alas, the tumult of many peoples; they rage like the roaring seas and clamoring nations; they rumble like the crashing of mighty waters. ¹³The nations rage like the rush of many waters. He rebukes them, and they flee far away, driven before the wind like chaff on the hills, like tumbleweeds before a gale. ¹⁴In the evening, there is sudden terror! Before morning, they are no more! This is the portion of those who loot us and the lot of those who plunder us.