Day 344 reading

Wisdom·Proverbs 25:1–8

¹These are additional proverbs of Solomon, which were copied by the men of Hezekiah king of Judah: ²It is the glory of God to conceal a matter and the glory of kings to search it out. ³As the heavens are high and the earth is deep, so the hearts of kings cannot be searched. ⁴Remove the dross from the silver, and a vessel for a silversmith will come forth. ⁵Remove the wicked from the king’s presence, and his throne will be established in righteousness. ⁶Do not exalt yourself in the presence of the king, and do not stand in the place of great men; ⁷for it is better that he says to you, “Come up here!” than that you should be demoted in the presence of the prince. Even what you have seen with your own eyes, ⁸do not bring hastily to court. Otherwise, what will you do in the end when your neighbor puts you to shame?

New Testament·1 John 5

¹Everyone who believes that Jesus is the Christ has been born of God, and everyone who loves the Father also loves those born of Him. ²By this we know that we love the children of God: when we love God and keep His commandments. ³For this is the love of God, that we keep His commandments. And His commandments are not burdensome, ⁴because everyone born of God overcomes the world. And this is the victory that has overcome the world: our faith. ⁵Who then overcomes the world? Only he who believes that Jesus is the Son of God. ⁶This is the One who came by water and blood, Jesus Christ—not by water alone, but by water and blood. And it is the Spirit who testifies to this, because the Spirit is the truth. ⁷For there are three that testify: ⁸the Spirit, the water, and the blood—and these three are in agreement. ⁹Even if we accept human testimony, the testimony of God is greater. For this is the testimony that God has given about His Son. ¹⁰Whoever believes in the Son of God has this testimony within him; whoever does not believe God has made Him out to be a liar, because he has not believed in the testimony that God has given about His Son. ¹¹And this is that testimony: God has given us eternal life, and this life is in His Son. ¹²Whoever has the Son has life; whoever does not have the Son of God does not have life. ¹³I have written these things to you who believe in the name of the Son of God, so that you may know that you have eternal life. ¹⁴And this is the confidence that we have before Him: If we ask anything according to His will, He hears us. ¹⁵And if we know that He hears us in whatever we ask, we know that we already possess what we have asked of Him. ¹⁶If anyone sees his brother committing a sin not leading to death, he should ask God, who will give life to those who commit this kind of sin. There is a sin that leads to death; I am not saying he should ask regarding that sin. ¹⁷All unrighteousness is sin, yet there is sin that does not lead to death. ¹⁸We know that anyone born of God does not keep on sinning; the One who was born of God protects him, and the evil one cannot touch him. ¹⁹We know that we are of God, and that the whole world is under the power of the evil one. ²⁰And we know that the Son of God has come and has given us understanding, so that we may know Him who is true; and we are in Him who is true—in His Son Jesus Christ. He is the true God and eternal life. ²¹Little children, keep yourselves from idols.

Old Testament·Daniel 8–9

¹In the third year of the reign of King Belshazzar, a vision appeared to me, Daniel, subsequent to the one that had appeared to me earlier. ²And in the vision I saw myself in the citadel of Susa, in the province of Elam. I saw in the vision that I was beside the Ulai Canal. ³Then I lifted up my eyes and saw a ram with two horns standing beside the canal. The horns were long, but one was longer than the other, and the longer one grew up later. ⁴I saw the ram charging toward the west and the north and the south. No animal could stand against him, and there was no deliverance from his power. He did as he pleased and became great. ⁵As I was contemplating all this, suddenly a goat with a prominent horn between his eyes came out of the west, crossing the surface of the entire earth without touching the ground. ⁶He came toward the two-horned ram I had seen standing beside the canal and rushed at him with furious power. ⁷I saw him approach the ram in a rage against him, and he struck the ram and shattered his two horns. The ram was powerless to stand against him, and the goat threw him to the ground and trampled him, and no one could deliver the ram from his power. ⁸Thus the goat became very great, but at the height of his power, his large horn was broken off, and four prominent horns came up in its place, pointing toward the four winds of heaven. ⁹From one of these horns a little horn emerged and grew extensively toward the south and the east and toward the Beautiful Land. ¹⁰It grew as high as the host of heaven, and it cast down some of the host and some of the stars to the earth, and trampled them. ¹¹It magnified itself, even to the Prince of the host; it removed His daily sacrifice and overthrew the place of His sanctuary. ¹²And in the rebellion, the host and the daily sacrifice were given over to the horn, and it flung truth to the ground and prospered in whatever it did. ¹³Then I heard a holy one speaking, and another holy one said to him, “How long until the fulfillment of the vision of the daily sacrifice, the rebellion that causes desolation, and the surrender of the sanctuary and of the host to be trampled?” ¹⁴He said to me, “It will take 2,300 evenings and mornings; then the sanctuary will be properly restored.” ¹⁵While I, Daniel, was watching the vision and trying to understand it, there stood before me one having the appearance of a man. ¹⁶And I heard the voice of a man calling from between the banks of the Ulai: “Gabriel, explain the vision to this man.” ¹⁷As he came near to where I stood, I was terrified and fell facedown. “Son of man,” he said to me, “understand that the vision concerns the time of the end.” ¹⁸While he was speaking with me, I fell into a deep sleep, with my face to the ground. Then he touched me, helped me to my feet, ¹⁹and said, “Behold, I will make known to you what will happen in the latter time of wrath, because it concerns the appointed time of the end. ²⁰The two-horned ram that you saw represents the kings of Media and Persia. ²¹The shaggy goat represents the king of Greece, and the large horn between his eyes is the first king. ²²The four horns that replaced the broken one represent four kingdoms that will rise from that nation, but will not have the same power. ²³In the latter part of their reign, when the rebellion has reached its full measure, an insolent king, skilled in intrigue, will come to the throne. ²⁴His power will be great, but it will not be his own. He will cause terrible destruction and succeed in whatever he does. He will destroy the mighty men along with the holy people. ²⁵Through his craft and by his hand, he will cause deceit to prosper, and in his own mind he will make himself great. In a time of peace he will destroy many, and he will even stand against the Prince of princes. Yet he will be broken off, but not by human hands. ²⁶The vision of the evenings and the mornings that has been spoken is true. Now you must seal up the vision, for it concerns the distant future.” ²⁷I, Daniel, was exhausted and lay ill for days. Then I got up and went about the king’s business. I was confounded by the vision; it was beyond understanding.

9In the first year of Darius son of Xerxes, a Mede by descent, who was made ruler over the kingdom of the Chaldeans — ²in the first year of his reign, I, Daniel, understood from the sacred books, according to the word of the LORD to Jeremiah the prophet, that the desolation of Jerusalem would last seventy years. ³So I turned my attention to the Lord God to seek Him by prayer and petition, with fasting, sackcloth, and ashes. ⁴And I prayed to the LORD my God and confessed, “O, Lord, the great and awesome God, who keeps His covenant of loving devotion to those who love Him and keep His commandments, ⁵we have sinned and done wrong. We have acted wickedly and rebelled. We have turned away from Your commandments and ordinances. ⁶We have not listened to Your servants the prophets, who spoke in Your name to our kings, leaders, and fathers, and to all the people of the land. ⁷To You, O Lord, belongs righteousness, but this day we are covered with shame—the men of Judah, the people of Jerusalem, and all Israel near and far, in all the countries to which You have driven us because of our unfaithfulness to You. ⁸O LORD, we are covered with shame—our kings, our leaders, and our fathers—because we have sinned against You. ⁹To the Lord our God belong compassion and forgiveness, even though we have rebelled against Him ¹⁰and have not obeyed the voice of the LORD our God to walk in His laws, which He set before us through His servants the prophets. ¹¹All Israel has transgressed Your law and turned away, refusing to obey Your voice; so the oath and the curse written in the Law of Moses the servant of God has been poured out on us, because we have sinned against You. ¹²You have carried out the words spoken against us and against our rulers by bringing upon us a great disaster. For under all of heaven, nothing has ever been done like what has been done to Jerusalem. ¹³Just as it is written in the Law of Moses, all this disaster has come upon us, yet we have not sought the favor of the LORD our God by turning from our iniquities and giving attention to Your truth. ¹⁴Therefore the LORD has kept the calamity in store and brought it upon us. For the LORD our God is righteous in all He does; yet we have not obeyed His voice. ¹⁵Now, O Lord our God, who brought Your people out of the land of Egypt with a mighty hand, and who made for Yourself a name renowned to this day, we have sinned; we have acted wickedly. ¹⁶O Lord, in keeping with all Your righteous acts, I pray that Your anger and wrath may turn away from Your city Jerusalem, Your holy mountain; for because of our sins and the iniquities of our fathers, Jerusalem and Your people are a reproach to all around us. ¹⁷So now, our God, hear the prayers and petitions of Your servant. For Your sake, O Lord, cause Your face to shine upon Your desolate sanctuary. ¹⁸Incline Your ear, O my God, and hear; open Your eyes and see the desolation of the city that bears Your name. For we are not presenting our petitions before You because of our righteous acts, but because of Your great compassion. ¹⁹O Lord, listen! O Lord, forgive! O Lord, hear and act! For Your sake, O my God, do not delay, because Your city and Your people bear Your name.” ²⁰While I was speaking, praying, confessing my sin and that of my people Israel, and presenting my petition before the LORD my God concerning His holy mountain— ²¹while I was still praying, Gabriel, the man I had seen in the earlier vision, came to me in swift flight about the time of the evening sacrifice. ²²He instructed me and spoke with me, saying: “O Daniel, I have come now to give you insight and understanding. ²³At the beginning of your petitions, an answer went out, and I have come to tell you, for you are highly precious. So consider the message and understand the vision: ²⁴Seventy weeks are decreed for your people and your holy city to stop their transgression, to put an end to sin, to make atonement for iniquity, to bring in everlasting righteousness, to seal up vision and prophecy, and to anoint the Most Holy Place. ²⁵Know and understand this: From the issuance of the decree to restore and rebuild Jerusalem, until the Messiah, the Prince, there will be seven weeks and sixty-two weeks. It will be rebuilt with streets and a trench, but in times of distress. ²⁶Then after the sixty-two weeks the Messiah will be cut off and will have nothing. Then the people of the prince who is to come will destroy the city and the sanctuary. The end will come like a flood, and until the end there will be war; desolations have been decreed. ²⁷And he will confirm a covenant with many for one week, but in the middle of the week he will put an end to sacrifice and offering. And on the wing of the temple will come the abomination that causes desolation, until the decreed destruction is poured out upon him.”