Get the Flash Player to see this player.
Daily Readings for December 26
Click the arrow above to the left of the audio strip to start audio for today
Job 35
1.Moreover Elihu answered, 2."Do you think this to be your right, or do you say, 'My righteousness is more than God's,' 3.That you ask, 'What advantage will it be to you? What profit shall I have, more than if I had sinned?' 4.I will answer you, and your companions with you. 5.Look to the heavens, and see. See the skies, which are higher than you. 6.If you have sinned, what effect do you have against him? If your transgressions are multiplied, what do you do to him? 7.If you are righteous, what do you give him? Or what does he receive from your hand? 8.Your wickedness may hurt a man as you are, and your righteousness may profit a son of man.
9."By reason of the multitude of oppressions they cry out. They cry for help by reason of the arm of the mighty. 10.But none says, 'Where is God my Maker, who gives songs in the night, 11.who teaches us more than the animals of the earth, and makes us wiser than the birds of the sky?' 12.There they cry, but none gives answer, because of the pride of evil men. 13.Surely God will not hear an empty cry, neither will the Almighty regard it. 14.How much less when you say you don't see him. The cause is before him, and you wait for him! 15.But now, because he has not visited in his anger, neither does he greatly regard arrogance. 16.Therefore Job opens his mouth with empty talk, and he multiplies words without knowledge."
Job 36
1.Elihu also continued, and said, 2."Bear with me a little, and I will show you; for I still have something to say on God's behalf. 3.I will get my knowledge from afar, and will ascribe righteousness to my Maker. 4.For truly my words are not false. One who is perfect in knowledge is with you.
5."Behold, God is mighty, and doesn't despise anyone. He is mighty in strength of understanding. 6.He doesn't preserve the life of the wicked, but gives to the afflicted their right. 7.He doesn't withdraw his eyes from the righteous, but with kings on the throne, he sets them forever, and they are exalted. 8.If they are bound in fetters, and are taken in the cords of afflictions, 9.then he shows them their work, and their transgressions, that they have behaved themselves proudly. 10.He also opens their ears to instruction, and commands that they return from iniquity. 11.If they listen and serve him, they shall spend their days in prosperity, and their years in pleasures. 12.But if they don't listen, they shall perish by the sword; they shall die without knowledge.
13."But those who are godless in heart lay up anger. They don't cry for help when he binds them. 14.They die in youth. Their life perishes among the unclean. 15.He delivers the afflicted by their affliction, and opens their ear in oppression. 16.Yes, he would have allured you out of distress, into a broad place, where there is no restriction. That which is set on your table would be full of fatness.
17."But you are full of the judgment of the wicked. Judgment and justice take hold of you. 18.Don't let riches entice you to wrath, neither let the great size of a bribe turn you aside. 19.Would your wealth sustain you in distress, or all the might of your strength? 20.Don't desire the night, when people are cut off in their place. 21.Take heed, don't regard iniquity; for you have chosen this rather than affliction. 22.Behold, God is exalted in his power. Who is a teacher like him? 23.Who has prescribed his way for him? Or who can say, 'You have committed unrighteousness?'
24."Remember that you magnify his work, whereof men have sung. 25.All men have looked thereon. Man sees it afar off. 26.Behold, God is great, and we don't know him. The number of his years is unsearchable. 27.For he draws up the drops of water, which distill in rain from his vapor, 28.Which the skies pour down and which drop on man abundantly. 29.Yes, can any understand the spreading of the clouds, and the thunderings of his pavilion? 30.Behold, he spreads his light around him. He covers the bottom of the sea. 31.For by these he judges the people. He gives food in abundance. 32.He covers his hands with the lightning, and commands it to strike the mark. 33.Its noise tells about him, and the livestock also concerning the storm that comes up.
Zechariah 11
1.Open your doors, Lebanon, that the fire may devour your cedars. 2.Wail, fir tree, for the cedar has fallen, because the stately ones are destroyed. Wail, you oaks of Bashan, for the strong forest has come down. 3.A voice of the wailing of the shepherds! For their glory is destroyed: a voice of the roaring of young lions! For the pride of the Jordan is ruined.
4.Thus says Yahweh my God: "Feed the flock of slaughter. 5.Their buyers slaughter them, and go unpunished. Those who sell them say, 'Blessed be Yahweh, for I am rich;' and their own shepherds don't pity them. 6.For I will no more pity the inhabitants of the land," says Yahweh; "but, behold, I will deliver the men everyone into his neighbor's hand, and into the hand of his king. They will strike the land, and out of their hand I will not deliver them."
7.So I fed the flock of slaughter, especially the oppressed of the flock. I took for myself two staffs. The one I called "Favor," and the other I called "Union," and I fed the flock. 8.I cut off the three shepherds in one month; for my soul was weary of them, and their soul also loathed me. 9.Then I said, "I will not feed you. That which dies, let it die; and that which is to be cut off, let it be cut off; and let those who are left eat each other's flesh." 10.I took my staff Favor, and cut it apart, that I might break my covenant that I had made with all the peoples. 11.It was broken in that day; and thus the poor of the flock that listened to me knew that it was the word of Yahweh. 12.I said to them, "If you think it best, give me my wages; and if not, keep them." So they weighed for my wages thirty pieces of silver. 13.Yahweh said to me, "Throw it to the potter, the handsome price that I was valued at by them!" I took the thirty pieces of silver, and threw them to the potter, in the house of Yahweh. 14.Then I cut apart my other staff, even Union, that I might break the brotherhood between Judah and Israel.
15.Yahweh said to me, "Take for yourself yet again the equipment of a foolish shepherd. 16.For, behold, I will raise up a shepherd in the land, who will not visit those who are cut off, neither will seek those who are scattered, nor heal that which is broken, nor feed that which is sound; but he will eat the flesh of the fat sheep, and will tear their hoofs in pieces. 17.Woe to the worthless shepherd who leaves the flock! The sword will be on his arm, and on his right eye. His arm will be completely withered, and his right eye will be totally blinded!"
Revelation 12
1.A great sign was seen in heaven: a woman clothed with the sun, and the moon under her feet, and on her head a crown of twelve stars. 2.She was with child. She cried out in pain, laboring to give birth. 3.Another sign was seen in heaven. Behold, a great red dragon, having seven heads and ten horns, and on his heads seven crowns. 4.His tail drew one third of the stars of the sky, and threw them to the earth. The dragon stood before the woman who was about to give birth, so that when she gave birth he might devour her child. 5.She gave birth to a son, a male child, who is to rule all the nations with a rod of iron. Her child was caught up to God, and to his throne. 6.The woman fled into the wilderness, where she has a place prepared by God, that there they may nourish her one thousand two hundred sixty days.
7.There was war in the sky. Michael and his angels made war on the dragon. The dragon and his angels made war. 8.They didn't prevail, neither was a place found for him any more in heaven. 9.The great dragon was thrown down, the old serpent, he who is called the devil and Satan, the deceiver of the whole world. He was thrown down to the earth, and his angels were thrown down with him. 10.I heard a loud voice in heaven, saying, "Now the salvation, the power, and the Kingdom of our God, and the authority of his Christ has come; for the accuser of our brothers has been thrown down, who accuses them before our God day and night. 11.They overcame him because of the Lamb's blood, and because of the word of their testimony. They didn't love their life, even to death. 12.Therefore rejoice, heavens, and you who dwell in them. Woe to the earth and to the sea, because the devil has gone down to you, having great wrath, knowing that he has but a short time."
13.When the dragon saw that he was thrown down to the earth, he persecuted the woman who gave birth to the male child. 14.Two wings of the great eagle were given to the woman, that she might fly into the wilderness to her place, so that she might be nourished for a time, and times, and half a time, from the face of the serpent. 15.The serpent spewed water out of his mouth after the woman like a river, that he might cause her to be carried away by the stream. 16.The earth helped the woman, and the earth opened its mouth and swallowed up the river which the dragon spewed out of his mouth. 17.The dragon grew angry with the woman, and went away to make war with the rest of her seed, who keep God's commandments and hold Jesus' testimony.
Revelation 13
1.Then I stood on the sand of the sea. I saw a beast coming up out of the sea, having ten horns and seven heads. On his horns were ten crowns, and on his heads, blasphemous names. 2.The beast which I saw was like a leopard, and his feet were like those of a bear, and his mouth like the mouth of a lion. The dragon gave him his power, his throne, and great authority. 3.One of his heads looked like it had been wounded fatally. His fatal wound was healed, and the whole earth marveled at the beast. 4.They worshiped the dragon, because he gave his authority to the beast, and they worshiped the beast, saying, "Who is like the beast? Who is able to make war with him?" 5.A mouth speaking great things and blasphemy was given to him. Authority to make war for forty-two months was given to him. 6.He opened his mouth for blasphemy against God, to blaspheme his name, and his dwelling, those who dwell in heaven. 7.It was given to him to make war with the saints, and to overcome them. Authority over every tribe, people, language, and nation was given to him. 8.All who dwell on the earth will worship him, everyone whose name has not been written from the foundation of the world in the book of life of the Lamb who has been killed. 9.If anyone has an ear, let him hear. 10.If anyone is to go into captivity, he will go into captivity. If anyone is to be killed with the sword, he must be killed.31 Here is the endurance and the faith of the saints.
11.I saw another beast coming up out of the earth. He had two horns like a lamb, and he spoke like a dragon. 12.He exercises all the authority of the first beast in his presence. He makes the earth and those who dwell in it to worship the first beast, whose fatal wound was healed. 13.He performs great signs, even making fire come down out of the sky to the earth in the sight of people. 14.He deceives my own32 people who dwell on the earth because of the signs he was granted to do in front of the beast; saying to those who dwell on the earth, that they should make an image to the beast who had the sword wound and lived. 15.It was given to him to give breath to it, to the image of the beast, that the image of the beast should both speak, and cause as many as wouldn't worship the image of the beast to be killed. 16.He causes all, the small and the great, the rich and the poor, and the free and the slave, to be given marks on their right hands, or on their foreheads; 17.and that no one would be able to buy or to sell, unless he has that mark, the name of the beast or the number of his name. 18.Here is wisdom. He who has understanding, let him calculate the number of the beast, for it is the number of a man. His number is six hundred sixty-six.