Daily Readings for November 28

Daily Readings for November 28
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Esther 3

1.After these things King Ahasuerus promoted Haman the son of Hammedatha the Agagite, and advanced him, and set his seat above all the princes who were with him. 2.All the king's servants who were in the king's gate bowed down, and paid homage to Haman; for the king had so commanded concerning him. But Mordecai didn't bow down or pay him homage. 3.Then the king's servants, who were in the king's gate, said to Mordecai, "Why do you disobey the king's commandment?" 4.Now it came to pass, when they spoke daily to him, and he didn't listen to them, that they told Haman, to see whether Mordecai's reason would stand; for he had told them that he was a Jew. 5.When Haman saw that Mordecai didn't bow down, nor pay him homage, Haman was full of wrath. 6.But he scorned the thought of laying hands on Mordecai alone, for they had made known to him Mordecai's people. Therefore Haman sought to destroy all the Jews who were throughout the whole kingdom of Ahasuerus, even Mordecai's people.

7.In the first month, which is the month Nisan, in the twelfth year of King Ahasuerus, they cast Pur, that is, the lot, before Haman from day to day, and from month to month, and chose the twelfth month, which is the month Adar. 8.Haman said to King Ahasuerus, "There is a certain people scattered abroad and dispersed among the peoples in all the provinces of your kingdom, and their laws are different than other people's. They don't keep the king's laws. Therefore it is not for the king's profit to allow them to remain. 9.If it pleases the king, let it be written that they be destroyed; and I will pay ten thousand talents of silver into the hands of those who are in charge of the king's business, to bring it into the king's treasuries."

10.The king took his ring from his hand, and gave it to Haman the son of Hammedatha the Agagite, the Jews' enemy. 11.The king said to Haman, "The silver is given to you, the people also, to do with them as it seems good to you." 12.Then the king's scribes were called in on the first month, on the thirteenth day of the month; and all that Haman commanded was written to the king's satraps, and to the governors who were over every province, and to the princes of every people, to every province according its writing, and to every people in their language. It was written in the name of King Ahasuerus, and it was sealed with the king's ring. 13.Letters were sent by couriers into all the king's provinces, to destroy, to kill, and to cause to perish, all Jews, both young and old, little children and women, in one day, even on the thirteenth day of the twelfth month, which is the month Adar, and to plunder their possessions. 14.A copy of the letter, that the decree should be given out in every province, was published to all the peoples, that they should be ready against that day. 15.The couriers went forth in haste by the king's commandment, and the decree was given out in the citadel of Susa. The king and Haman sat down to drink; but the city of Shushan was perplexed.

Esther 4

1.Now when Mordecai found out all that was done, Mordecai tore his clothes, and put on sackcloth with ashes, and went out into the midst of the city, and wailed loudly and a bitterly. 2.He came even before the king's gate, for no one is allowed inside the king's gate clothed with sackcloth. 3.In every province, wherever the king's commandment and his decree came, there was great mourning among the Jews, and fasting, and weeping, and wailing; and many lay in sackcloth and ashes. 4.Esther's maidens and her eunuchs came and told her this, and the queen was exceedingly grieved. She sent clothing to Mordecai, to replace his sackcloth; but he didn't receive it. 5.Then Esther called for Hathach, one of the king's eunuchs, whom he had appointed to attend her, and commanded him to go to Mordecai, to find out what this was, and why it was. 6.So Hathach went out to Mordecai, to city square which was before the king's gate. 7.Mordecai told him of all that had happened to him, and the exact sum of the money that Haman had promised to pay to the king's treasuries for the destruction of the Jews. 8.He also gave him the copy of the writing of the decree that was given out in Shushan to destroy them, to show it to Esther, and to declare it to her, and to urge her to go in to the king, to make supplication to him, and to make request before him, for her people.

9.Hathach came and told Esther the words of Mordecai. 10.Then Esther spoke to Hathach, and gave him a message to Mordecai: 11."All the king's servants, and the people of the king's provinces, know, that whoever, whether man or woman, comes to the king into the inner court without being called, there is one law for him, that he be put to death, except those to whom the king might hold out the golden scepter, that he may live. I have not been called to come in to the king these thirty days."

12.They told to Mordecai Esther's words. 13.Then Mordecai asked them return answer to Esther, "Don't think to yourself that you will escape in the king's house any more than all the Jews. 14.For if you remain silent now, then relief and deliverance will come to the Jews from another place, but you and your father's house will perish. Who knows if you haven't come to the kingdom for such a time as this?"

15.Then Esther asked them to answer Mordecai, 16."Go, gather together all the Jews who are present in Shushan, and fast for me, and neither eat nor drink three days, night or day. I and my maidens will also fast the same way. Then I will go in to the king, which is against the law; and if I perish, I perish." 17.So Mordecai went his way, and did according to all that Esther had commanded him.

Amos 8

1.Thus the Lord Yahweh showed me: behold, a basket of summer fruit.

2.He said, "Amos, what do you see?"

I said, "A basket of summer fruit."

Then Yahweh said to me, "The end has come on my people Israel. I will not again pass by them any more. 3.The songs of the temple will be wailings in that day," says the Lord Yahweh. "The dead bodies will be many. In every place they will throw them out with silence. 4.Hear this, you who desire to swallow up the needy, and cause the poor of the land to fail, 5.Saying, 'When will the new moon be gone, that we may sell grain? And the Sabbath, that we may market wheat, making the ephah⁴ small, and the shekel large, and dealing falsely with balances of deceit; 6.that we may buy the poor for silver, and the needy for a pair of shoes, and sell the sweepings with the wheat?'" 7.Yahweh has sworn by the pride of Jacob, "Surely I will never forget any of their works. 8.Won't the land tremble for this, and everyone mourn who dwells in it? Yes, it will rise up wholly like the River; and it will be stirred up and sink again, like the River of Egypt. 9.It will happen in that day," says the Lord Yahweh, "that I will cause the sun to go down at noon, and I will darken the earth in the clear day. 10.I will turn your feasts into mourning, and all your songs into lamentation; and I will make you wear sackcloth on all your bodies, and baldness on every head. I will make it like the mourning for an only son, and its end like a bitter day. 11.Behold, the days come," says the Lord Yahweh, "that I will send a famine in the land, not a famine of bread, nor a thirst for water, but of hearing the words of Yahweh. 12.They will wander from sea to sea, and from the north even to the east; they will run back and forth to seek the word of Yahweh, and will not find it. 13.In that day the beautiful virgins and the young men will faint for thirst. 14.Those who swear by the sin of Samaria, and say, 'As your god, Dan, lives;' and, 'As the way of Beersheba lives;' they will fall, and never rise up again."

Philemon 1

1.Paul, a prisoner of Christ Jesus, and Timothy our brother, to Philemon, our beloved fellow worker, 2.to the beloved Apphia, to Archippus, our fellow soldier, and to the assembly in your house: 3.Grace to you and peace from God our Father and the Lord Jesus Christ.

4.I thank my God always, making mention of you in my prayers, 5.hearing of your love, and of the faith which you have toward the Lord Jesus, and toward all the saints; 6.that the fellowship of your faith may become effective, in the knowledge of every good thing which is in us in Christ Jesus. 7.For we have much joy and comfort in your love, because the hearts of the saints have been refreshed through you, brother.

8.Therefore, though I have all boldness in Christ to command you that which is appropriate, 9.yet for love's sake I rather beg, being such a one as Paul, the aged, but also a prisoner of Jesus Christ. 10.I beg you for my child, whom I have become the father of in my chains, Onesimus,¹ 11.who once was useless to you, but now is useful to you and to me. 12.I am sending him back. Therefore receive him, that is, my own heart, 13.whom I desired to keep with me, that on your behalf he might serve me in my chains for the Good News. 14.But I was willing to do nothing without your consent, that your goodness would not be as of necessity, but of free will. 15.For perhaps he was therefore separated from you for a while, that you would have him forever, 16.no longer as a slave, but more than a slave, a beloved brother, especially to me, but how much rather to you, both in the flesh and in the Lord.

17.If then you count me a partner, receive him as you would receive me. 18.But if he has wronged you at all, or owes you anything, put that to my account. 19.I, Paul, write this with my own hand: I will repay it (not to mention to you that you owe to me even your own self besides). 20.Yes, brother, let me have joy from you in the Lord. Refresh my heart in the Lord. 21.Having confidence in your obedience, I write to you, knowing that you will do even beyond what I say.

22.Also, prepare a guest room for me, for I hope that through your prayers I will be restored to you.

23.Epaphras, my fellow prisoner in Christ Jesus, greets you, 24.as do Mark, Aristarchus, Demas, and Luke, my fellow workers. 25.The grace of our Lord Jesus Christ be with your spirit. Amen.