Daily Readings for July 29
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2Samuel 15

 

1.It happened after this, that Absalom prepared him a chariot and horses, and fifty men to run before him. 2.Absalom rose up early, and stood beside the way of the gate. It was so, that when any man had a suit which should come to the king for judgment, then Absalom called to him, and said, "What city are you from?"

He said, "Your servant is of one of the tribes of Israel."

3.Absalom said to him, "Behold, your matters are good and right; but there is no man deputized by the king to hear you." 4.Absalom said moreover, "Oh that I were made judge in the land, that every man who has any suit or cause might come to me, and I would do him justice!" 5.It was so, that when any man came near to do him obeisance, he put forth his hand, and took hold of him, and kissed him. 6.Absalom did this sort of thing to all Israel who came to the king for judgment. So Absalom stole the hearts of the men of Israel. 7.It happened at the end of forty years, that Absalom said to the king, "Please let me go and pay my vow, which I have vowed to Yahweh, in Hebron. 8.For your servant vowed a vow while I stayed at Geshur in Syria, saying, 'If Yahweh shall indeed bring me again to Jerusalem, then I will serve Yahweh.'"

9.The king said to him, "Go in peace."

So he arose, and went to Hebron. 10.But Absalom sent spies throughout all the tribes of Israel, saying, "As soon as you hear the sound of the trumpet, then you shall say, 'Absalom is king in Hebron!'" 11.Two hundred men went with Absalom out of Jerusalem, who were invited, and went in their simplicity; and they didn't know anything. 12.Absalom sent for Ahithophel the Gilonite, David's counselor, from his city, even from Giloh, while he was offering the sacrifices. The conspiracy was strong; for the people increased continually with Absalom. 13.A messenger came to David, saying, "The hearts of the men of Israel are after Absalom."

14.David said to all his servants who were with him at Jerusalem, "Arise, and let us flee; for else none of us shall escape from Absalom. Make speed to depart, lest he overtake us quickly, and bring down evil on us, and strike the city with the edge of the sword."

15.The king's servants said to the king, "Behold, your servants are ready to do whatever my lord the king chooses."

16.The king went forth, and all his household after him. The king left ten women, who were concubines, to keep the house. 17.The king went forth, and all the people after him; and they stayed in Beth Merhak. 18.All his servants passed on beside him; and all the Cherethites, and all the Pelethites, and all the Gittites, six hundred men who came after him from Gath, passed on before the king. 19.Then the king said to Ittai the Gittite, "Why do you also go with us? Return, and stay with the king; for you are a foreigner, and also an exile. Return to your own place. 20.Whereas you came but yesterday, should I this day make you go up and down with us, since I go where I may? Return, and take back your brothers. Mercy and truth be with you."

21.Ittai answered the king, and said, "As Yahweh lives, and as my lord the king lives, surely in what place my lord the king shall is, whether for death or for life, even there also will your servant be."

22.David said to Ittai, "Go and pass over." Ittai the Gittite passed over, and all his men, and all the little ones who were with him. 23.All the country wept with a loud voice, and all the people passed over: the king also himself passed over the brook Kidron, and all the people passed over, toward the way of the wilderness. 24.Behold, Zadok also came, and all the Levites with him, bearing the ark of the covenant of God; and they set down the ark of God; and Abiathar went up, until all the people finished passing out of the city. 25.The king said to Zadok, "Carry back the ark of God into the city. If I find favor in the eyes of Yahweh, he will bring me again, and show me both it, and his habitation; 26.but if he say thus, 'I have no delight in you;' behold, here am I. Let him do to me as seems good to him." 27.The king said also to Zadok the priest, "Aren't you a seer? Return into the city in peace, and your two sons with you, Ahimaaz your son, and Jonathan the son of Abiathar. 28.Behold, I will stay at the fords of the wilderness, until word comes from you to inform me." 29.Zadok therefore and Abiathar carried the ark of God again to Jerusalem; and they stayed there. 30.David went up by the ascent of the Mount of Olives, and wept as he went up; and he had his head covered, and went barefoot: and all the people who were with him covered every man his head, and they went up, weeping as they went up. 31.Someone told David, saying, "Ahithophel is among the conspirators with Absalom."

David said, "Yahweh, please turn the counsel of Ahithophel into foolishness."

32.It happened that when David had come to the top, where God was worshiped, behold, Hushai the Archite came to meet him with his coat torn, and earth on his head. 33.David said to him, "If you pass on with me, then you will be a burden to me; 34.but if you return to the city, and tell Absalom, 'I will be your servant, O king. As I have been your father's servant in time past, so will I now be your servant; then will you defeat for me the counsel of Ahithophel.' 35.Don't you have Zadok and Abiathar the priests there with you? Therefore it shall be, that whatever thing you shall hear out of the king's house, you shall tell it to Zadok and Abiathar the priests. 36.Behold, they have there with them their two sons, Ahimaaz, Zadok's son, and Jonathan, Abiathar's son; and by them you shall send to me everything that you shall hear."

37.So Hushai, David's friend, came into the city; and Absalom came into Jerusalem.

 

Jeremiah 19

 

1.Thus said Yahweh, Go, and buy a potter's earthen bottle, and take some of the elders of the people, and of the elders of the priests; 2.and go forth to the valley of the son of Hinnom, which is by the entry of the gate Harsith, and proclaim there the words that I shall tell you; 3.and say, Hear the word of Yahweh, kings of Judah, and inhabitants of Jerusalem: thus says Yahweh of Armies, the God of Israel, Behold, I will bring evil on this place, which whoever hears, his ears shall tingle. 4.Because they have forsaken me, and have estranged this place, and have burned incense in it to other gods, that they didn't know, they and their fathers and the kings of Judah; and have filled this place with the blood of innocents, 5.and have built the high places of Baal, to burn their sons in the fire for burnt offerings to Baal; which I didn't command, nor spoke it, neither came it into my mind: 6.therefore, behold, the days come, says Yahweh, that this place shall no more be called Topheth, nor The valley of the son of Hinnom, but The valley of Slaughter. 7.I will make void the counsel of Judah and Jerusalem in this place; and I will cause them to fall by the sword before their enemies, and by the hand of those who seek their life: and their dead bodies will I give to be food for the birds of the sky, and for the animals of the earth. 8.I will make this city an astonishment, and a hissing; everyone who passes thereby shall be astonished and hiss because of all its plagues. 9.I will cause them to eat the flesh of their sons and the flesh of their daughters; and they shall eat everyone the flesh of his friend, in the siege and in the distress, with which their enemies, and those who seek their life, shall distress them. 10.Then you shall break the bottle in the sight of the men who go with you, 11.and shall tell them, Thus says Yahweh of Armies: Even so will I break this people and this city, as one breaks a potter's vessel, that can't be made whole again; and they shall bury in Topheth, until there be no place to bury. 12.Thus will I do to this place, says Yahweh, and to its inhabitants, even making this city as Topheth: 13.and the houses of Jerusalem, and the houses of the kings of Judah, which are defiled, shall be as the place of Topheth, even all the houses on whose roofs they have burned incense to all the army of the sky, and have poured out drink offerings to other gods. 14.Then came Jeremiah from Topheth, where Yahweh had sent him to prophesy; and he stood in the court of Yahweh's house, and said to all the people: 15.Thus says Yahweh of Armies, the God of Israel, Behold, I will bring on this city and on all its towns all the evil that I have pronounced against it; because they have made their neck stiff, that they may not hear my words.

 

Romans 3

 

1.Then what advantage does the Jew have? Or what is the profit of circumcision? 2.Much in every way! Because first of all, they were entrusted with the oracles of God. 3.For what if some were without faith? Will their lack of faith nullify the faithfulness of God? 4.May it never be! Yes, let God be found true, but every man a liar. As it is written, "That you might be justified in your words, and might prevail when you come into judgment."[4]

5.But if our unrighteousness commends the righteousness of God, what will we say? Is God unrighteous who inflicts wrath? I speak like men do. 6.May it never be! For then how will God judge the world? 7.For if the truth of God through my lie abounded to his glory, why am I also still judged as a sinner? 8.Why not (as we are slanderously reported, and as some affirm that we say), "Let us do evil, that good may come?" Those who say so are justly condemned. 9.What then? Are we better than they? No, in no way. For we previously warned both Jews and Greeks, that they are all under sin. 10.As it is written, "There is no one righteous; no, not one. 11.There is no one who understands. There is no one who seeks after God. 12.They have all turned aside. They have together become unprofitable. There is no one who does good, no, not, so much as one."[5]

13."Their throat is an open tomb. With their tongues they have used deceit."[6]

"The poison of vipers is under their lips;"[7] 14."whose mouth is full of cursing and bitterness."[8]

15."Their feet are swift to shed blood. 16.Destruction and misery are in their ways. 17.The way of peace, they haven't known."[9]

18."There is no fear of God before their eyes."[10]

19.Now we know that whatever things the law says, it speaks to those who are under the law, that every mouth may be closed, and all the world may be brought under the judgment of God. 20.Because by the works of the law, no flesh will be justified in his sight. For through the law comes the knowledge of sin. 21.But now apart from the law, a righteousness of God has been revealed, being testified by the law and the prophets; 22.even the righteousness of God through faith in Jesus Christ to all and on all those who believe. For there is no distinction, 23.for all have sinned, and fall short of the glory of God; 24.being justified freely by his grace through the redemption that is in Christ Jesus; 25.whom God set forth to be an atoning sacrifice¹¹, through faith in his blood, for a demonstration of his righteousness through the passing over of prior sins, in God's forbearance; 26.to demonstrate his righteousness at this present time; that he might himself be just, and the justifier of him who has faith in Jesus.

27.Where then is the boasting? It is excluded. By what kind of law? Of works? No, but by a law of faith. 28.We maintain therefore that a man is justified by faith apart from the works of the law. 29.Or is God the God of Jews only? Isn't he the God of Gentiles also? Yes, of Gentiles also, 30.since indeed there is one God who will justify the circumcised by faith, and the uncircumcised through faith. 31.Do we then nullify the law through faith? May it never be! No, we establish the law.

 

Romans 4

 

1.What then will we say that Abraham, our forefather, has found according to the flesh? 2.For if Abraham was justified by works, he has something to boast about, but not toward God. 3.For what does the Scripture say? "Abraham believed God, and it was accounted to him for righteousness."[12] 4.Now to him who works, the reward is not counted as grace, but as something owed. 5.But to him who doesn't work, but believes in him who justifies the ungodly, his faith is accounted for righteousness. 6.Even as David also pronounces blessing on the man to whom God counts righteousness apart from works, 7."Blessed are they whose iniquities are forgiven, whose sins are covered. 8.Blessed is the man whom the Lord will by no means charge with sin."[13]

9.Is this blessing then pronounced on the circumcised, or on the uncircumcised also? For we say that faith was accounted to Abraham for righteousness. 10.How then was it counted? When he was in circumcision, or in uncircumcision? Not in circumcision, but in uncircumcision. 11.He received the sign of circumcision, a seal of the righteousness of the faith which he had while he was in uncircumcision, that he might be the father of all those who believe, though they might be in uncircumcision, that righteousness might also be accounted to them. 12.He is the father of circumcision to those who not only are of the circumcision, but who also walk in the steps of that faith of our father Abraham, which he had in uncircumcision. 13.For the promise to Abraham and to his seed that he should be heir of the world wasn't through the law, but through the righteousness of faith. 14.For if those who are of the law are heirs, faith is made void, and the promise is made of no effect. 15.For the law works wrath, for where there is no law, neither is there disobedience. 16.For this cause it is of faith, that it may be according to grace, to the end that the promise may be sure to all the seed, not to that only which is of the law, but to that also which is of the faith of Abraham, who is the father of us all. 17.As it is written, "I have made you a father of many nations."[14] This is in the presence of him whom he believed: God, who gives life to the dead, and calls the things that are not, as though they were. 18.Who in hope believed against hope, to the end that he might become a father of many nations, according to that which had been spoken, "So will your seed be."[15] 19.Without being weakened in faith, he didn't consider his own body, already having been worn out, (he being about a hundred years old), and the deadness of Sarah's womb. 20.Yet, looking to the promise of God, he didn't waver through unbelief, but grew strong through faith, giving glory to God, 21.and being fully assured that what he had promised, he was also able to perform. 22.Therefore it also was "reckoned to him for righteousness."[16] 23.Now it was not written that it was accounted to him for his sake alone, 24.but for our sake also, to whom it will be accounted, who believe in him who raised Jesus, our Lord, from the dead, 25.who was delivered up for our trespasses, and was raised for our justification.

 

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