Podcasts about Ishmaelites

BOOK OF JUDGES Part 2: The Weak Made Strong Judges 6:1-10 (ESV) 1 The people of Israel did what was evil in the sight of the Lord, and the Lord gave them into the hand of Midian seven years. 2 And the hand of Midian overpowered Israel, and because of Midian the people of Israel made for themselves the dens that are in the mountains and the caves and the strongholds. 3 For whenever the Israelites planted crops, the Midianites and the Amalekites and the people of the East would come up against them… 6 And Israel was brought very low because of Midian. And the people of Israel cried out for help to the Lord. 7 When the people of Israel cried out to the Lord on account of the Midianites, 8 the Lord sent a prophet to the people of Israel. And he said to them, “Thus says the Lord, the God of Israel: I led you up from Egypt and brought you out of the house of slavery. 9 And I delivered you from the hand of the Egyptians and from the hand of all who oppressed you, and drove them out before you and gave you their land. 10 And I said to you, ‘I am the Lord your God; you shall not fear the gods of the Amorites in whose land you dwell.' But you have not obeyed my voice.” The book of Judges is so much more than just a sin cycle; it is also a redemption cycle. Judges 6:11-16 (ESV) 11 Now the angel of the Lord came and sat under the terebinth at Ophrah, which belonged to Joash the Abiezrite, while his son Gideon was beating out wheat in the winepress to hide it from the Midianites. 12 And the angel of the Lord appeared to him and said to him, “The Lord is with you, O mighty man of valor.” 13 And Gideon said to him, “Please, my lord, if the Lord is with us, why then has all this happened to us? And where are all his wonderful deeds that our fathers recounted to us, saying, ‘Did not the Lord bring us up from Egypt?' But now the Lord has forsaken us and given us into the hand of Midian.” 14 And the Lord turned to him and said, “Go in this might of yours and save Israel from the hand of Midian; do not I send you?” 15 And he said to him, “Please, Lord, how can I save Israel? Behold, my clan is the weakest in Manasseh, and I am the least in my father's house.” 16 And the Lord said to him, “But I will be with you, and you shall strike the Midianites as one man.” Your identity comes before your activity. Are you a critic or a servant? Judges 7:2-8 (ESV) 2 The Lord said to Gideon, “The people with you are too many for me to give the Midianites into their hand, lest Israel boast over me, saying, ‘My own hand has saved me.' 3 Now therefore proclaim in the ears of the people, saying, ‘Whoever is fearful and trembling, let him return home and hurry away from Mount Gilead.'” Then 22,000 of the people returned, and 10,000 remained. 4 And the Lord said to Gideon, “The people are still too many. Take them down to the water, and I will test them for you there, and anyone of whom I say to you, ‘This one shall go with you,' shall go with you, and anyone of whom I say to you, ‘This one shall not go with you,' shall not go.” 5 So he brought the people down to the water. And the Lord said to Gideon, “Every one who laps the water with his tongue, as a dog laps, you shall set by himself. Likewise, every one who kneels down to drink.” 6 And the number of those who lapped, putting their hands to their mouths, was 300 men, but all the rest of the people knelt down to drink water. 7 And the Lord said to Gideon, “With the 300 men who lapped I will save you and give the Midianites into your hand, and let all the others go every man to his home.” 8 So the people took provisions in their hands, and their trumpets. And he sent all the rest of Israel every man to his tent, but retained the 300 men. And the camp of Midian was below him in the valley. In the process of salvation, the only thing that you and I bring to God is our sin. God supplies all the rest. God cuts down the army twice; once for a good reason, once for a reason that is never explained. Judges 8:22-31 (ESV) 22 Then the men of Israel said to Gideon, “Rule over us, you and your son and your grandson also, for you have saved us from the hand of Midian.” 23 Gideon said to them, “I will not rule over you, and my son will not rule over you; the Lord will rule over you.” 24 And Gideon said to them, “Let me make a request of you: every one of you give me the earrings from his spoil.” (For they had golden earrings, because they were Ishmaelites.) 25 And they answered, “We will willingly give them.” And they spread a cloak, and every man threw in it the earrings of his spoil. 26 And the weight of the golden earrings that he requested was 1,700 shekels of gold, besides the crescent ornaments and the pendants and the purple garments worn by the kings of Midian, and besides the collars that were around the necks of their camels. 27 And Gideon made an ephod of it and put it in his city, in Ophrah. And all Israel whored after it there, and it became a snare to Gideon and to his family. 28 So Midian was subdued before the people of Israel, and they raised their heads no more. And the land had rest forty years in the days of Gideon. 29 Jerubbaal the son of Joash went and lived in his own house. 30 Now Gideon had seventy sons, his own offspring, for he had many wives. 31 And his concubine who was in Shechem also bore him a son, and he called his name Abimelech. Gideon's story is one of hope, the faithfulness of God, but also a cautionary tale about finishing well.

Please note that the 1st part is in English, and the 2nd part is in Malayalam starting a 19:25 mark.Genesis 12:2,3 – God said, “And I will make you a great nation, and I will bless you and make your name great; and so you shall be a blessing; and I will bless those who bless you.  And the one who curses you I will curse.  And in you all the families of the earth will be blessed.” ഞാൻ നിന്നെവലിയോരു ജാതിയാക്കും; നിന്നെ അനുഗ്രഹിച്ചു നിന്റെ പേർ വലുതാക്കും; നീ ഒരുഅനുഗ്രഹമായിരിക്കും.  നിന്നെ അനുഗ്രഹിക്കുന്നവരെ ഞാൻ അനുഗ്രഹിക്കും. നിന്നെശപിക്കുന്നവരെ ഞാൻ ശപിക്കും; നിന്നിൽ ഭൂമിയിലെ സകല വംശങ്ങളും അനുഗ്രഹിക്കപ്പെടും.Abraham is one of the most important figures in the Bible.  Abraham is recognized as the patriarch of the Israelites, Ishmaelites, Edomites, and Midianites. The life of Abraham is a testament to the power of faith, obedience, and trust in God.  Abraham had a long and challenging journey. Throughout this journey, he worked hard and experienced grief and blessings.  We know through Abraham that God always keeps His promises. We may not have all the answers but God surely does. The life and legacy of Abraham continues to influence the world today.  Despite the challenges he faced, he remained steadfast in his commitment to God. Additionally, his covenant with God is seen as a precursor to the New Covenant established by Jesus Christ.   Abraham is mentioned many times throughout the books of the Old Testament and New Testament. When we commit to obey God, we will be blessed through generations.My name... Cicilysunny@gmail.com

We can practice righteousness when being treated unfairly because we have been justified by Christ. Genesis 39:1–22 (ESV): 39 Now Joseph had been brought down to Egypt, and Potiphar, an officer of Pharaoh, the captain of the guard, an Egyptian, had bought him from the Ishmaelites who had brought him down there. 2 The LORD was with Joseph, and he became a successful man, and he was in the house of his Egyptian master. 3 His master saw that the LORD was with him and that the LORD caused all that he did to succeed in his hands. 4 So Joseph found favor in his sight and attended him, and he made him overseer of his house and put him in charge of all that he had. 5 From the time that he made him overseer in his house and over all that he had, the LORD blessed the Egyptian's house for Joseph's sake; the blessing of the LORD was on all that he had, in house and field. 6 So he left all that he had in Joseph's charge, and because of him he had no concern about anything but the food he ate. Now Joseph was handsome in form and appearance. 7 And after a time his master's wife cast her eyes on Joseph and said, “Lie with me.” 8 But he refused and said to his master's wife, “Behold, because of me my master has no concern about anything in the house, and he has put everything that he has in my charge. 9 He is not greater in this house than I am, nor has he kept back anything from me except you, because you are his wife. How then can I do this great wickedness and sin against God?” 10 And as she spoke to Joseph day after day, he would not listen to her, to lie beside her or to be with her. 11 But one day, when he went into the house to do his work and none of the men of the house was there in the house, 12 she caught him by his garment, saying, “Lie with me.” But he left his garment in her hand and fled and got out of the house. 13 And as soon as she saw that he had left his garment in her hand and had fled out of the house, 14 she called to the men of her household and said to them, “See, he has brought among us a Hebrew to laugh at us. He came in to me to lie with me, and I cried out with a loud voice. 15 And as soon as he heard that I lifted up my voice and cried out, he left his garment beside me and fled and got out of the house.” 16 Then she laid up his garment by her until his master came home, 17 and she told him the same story, saying, “The Hebrew servant, whom you have brought among us, came in to me to laugh at me. 18 But as soon as I lifted up my voice and cried, he left his garment beside me and fled out of the house.” 19 As soon as his master heard the words that his wife spoke to him, “This is the way your servant treated me,” his anger was kindled. 20 And Joseph's master took him and put him into the prison, the place where the king's prisoners were confined, and he was there in prison. 21 But the LORD was with Joseph and showed him steadfast love and gave him favor in the sight of the keeper of the prison. 22 And the keeper of the prison put Joseph in charge of all the prisoners who were in the prison. Whatever was done there, he was the one who did it.

Sin can only gain the appearance of victory, so we must not be deceived. Instead, we must remember that God has the ultimate victory over sin. Genesis 37:18–34 (ESV): 18 They saw him from afar, and before he came near to them they conspired against him to kill him. 19 They said to one another, “Here comes this dreamer. 20 Come now, let us kill him and throw him into one of the pits. Then we will say that a fierce animal has devoured him, and we will see what will become of his dreams.” 21 But when Reuben heard it, he rescued him out of their hands, saying, “Let us not take his life.” 22 And Reuben said to them, “Shed no blood; throw him into this pit here in the wilderness, but do not lay a hand on him”—that he might rescue him out of their hand to restore him to his father. 23 So when Joseph came to his brothers, they stripped him of his robe, the robe of many colors that he wore. 24 And they took him and threw him into a pit. The pit was empty; there was no water in it. 25 Then they sat down to eat. And looking up they saw a caravan of Ishmaelites coming from Gilead, with their camels bearing gum, balm, and myrrh, on their way to carry it down to Egypt. 26 Then Judah said to his brothers, “What profit is it if we kill our brother and conceal his blood? 27 Come, let us sell him to the Ishmaelites, and let not our hand be upon him, for he is our brother, our own flesh.” And his brothers listened to him. 28 Then Midianite traders passed by. And they drew Joseph up and lifted him out of the pit, and sold him to the Ishmaelites for twenty shekels of silver. They took Joseph to Egypt. 29 When Reuben returned to the pit and saw that Joseph was not in the pit, he tore his clothes 30 and returned to his brothers and said, “The boy is gone, and I, where shall I go?” 31 Then they took Joseph's robe and slaughtered a goat and dipped the robe in the blood. 32 And they sent the robe of many colors and brought it to their father and said, “This we have found; please identify whether it is your son's robe or not.” 33 And he identified it and said, “It is my son's robe. A fierce animal has devoured him. Joseph is without doubt torn to pieces.” 34 Then Jacob tore his garments and put sackcloth on his loins and mourned for his son many days.

Al Fadi and Dr Jay discuss two more claims; Claim # 10 is John Nikiou, An Egyptian Coptic Bishop, who mentions Muhammad and Islam. The problem of this claim is that the earliest manuscript of this quote is from the 1700 AD and not the 7th century. Claim #11 John of Damascus, 730 AD, He mentions Muhammad as a false prophet, who taught the heresy of the Ishmaelites, who had four revelation three of them are called Suras in today's Quran. This is hardly a compliment to Islam or Muhammad.See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

Every dream from God will _______ before it is ______________. [Exodus 2:15] And sure enough, Pharaoh heard what had happened, and he tried to kill Moses. But Moses fled from Pharaoh and went to live in the land of Midian. When Moses arrived in Midian, he sat down beside a well. The dream gives us the _______________ to go through the _______________. [Genesis 37:18-20] When Joseph's brothers saw him coming, they recognized him in the distance. As he approached, they made plans to kill him. [19] “Here comes the dreamer!” they said. [20] “Come on, let's kill him and throw him into one of these cisterns. We can tell our father, ‘A wild animal has eaten him.' Then we'll see what becomes of his dreams!” [Genesis 37:26-28] Judah said to his brothers, “What will we gain by killing our brother? We'd have to cover up the crime. [27] Instead of hurting him, let's sell him to those Ishmaelite traders. After all, he is our brother—our own flesh and blood!” And his brothers agreed. [28] So when the Ishmaelites, who were Midianite traders, came by, Joseph's brothers pulled him out of the cistern and sold him to them for twenty pieces of silver. And the traders took him to Egypt. Sometimes the __________________ in your life will be in direct conflict with your dream. What Joseph thought was _______________ became his _______________ to Egypt. [Genesis 39:2; 6-12] The Lord was with Joseph, so he succeeded in everything he did as he served in the home of his Egyptian master. [6] So Potiphar gave Joseph complete administrative responsibility over everything he owned. With Joseph there, he didn't worry about a thing—except what kind of food to eat! Joseph was a very handsome and well-built young man, [7] and Potiphar's wife soon began to look at him lustfully. “Come and sleep with me,” she demanded. [8] But Joseph refused. “Look,” he told her, “my master trusts me with everything in his entire household. [9] No one here has more authority than I do. He has held back nothing from me except you, because you are his wife. How could I do such a wicked thing? It would be a great sin against God.” [10] She kept putting pressure on Joseph day after day, but he refused to sleep with her, and he kept out of her way as much as possible. [11] One day, however, no one else was around when he went in to do his work. [12] She came and grabbed him by his cloak, demanding, “Come on, sleep with me!” Joseph tore himself away, but he left his cloak in her hand as he ran from the house. Joseph had dreams of a _______________ but first had to go through the ________ and the ____________. Don't _______________ the dream when it dies. [Galatians 6:9] So let's not get tired of doing what is good. At just the right time we will reap a harvest of blessing if we don't give up. When life is in the _______ see what you can _________ ______.

In this provocative Episode we look into the claims of former Jesuit Alberto Rivera that Islam was created by the Vatican in order to harness the multitudes of the Ishmaelites to kill all true Christians and Jews. Do all roads really lead to Rome?Links⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠email:beyondtheparadigm@yahoo.com⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠Beyond the Paradigm - YouTube⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠instagram.com/paradigm1979⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠twitter.com/paradigm_79⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠(1) Facebook⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠Support The Show⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠patreon.com/BeyondTheParadigm⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠buymeacoffee.com/beyondthep5⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠Guest Link⁠About Johnny – Johnny Cirucci⁠

A Sermon for the Fourth Sunday in Lent Galatians 4:21-31 by the Rev'd Dr. Matthew Colvin Our epistle lesson this morning comes from Galatians 4. I know that Pastor Bill preached on it just recently, but I would like to look at it too, from a different angle. It is one of the most controversial chapters in the NT, both for its view of Judaism and for its hermeneutical maneuvers. Paul is concerned for Christians in Galatia. The Judaizers were taunting Gentile Christians with the manifest visible superiority of Judaism: its splendid temple; its priesthood; its Torah; all the society's esteem and honor. And against this, what did Christians have to show? They were hiding for fear of the Jews; they were subjected to persecution and arrest; they had been kicked out of the synagogue and subjected to the ban, excommunication. Above all, there was the disgrace of worshipping a criminal who had been killed by the most shameful sort of execution, crucifixion by the Romans. All this was exploited by Paul's enemies in Galatia, the Judaizers or the circumcision party. Their strategy was to exalt themselves by trying to get the Gentiles to envy them - “They zealously court you, but for no good; yes, they want to exclude you, that you may be zealous for them.” – The verb zeloō means both to be zealous and to be jealous. Paul's enemies are behaving like spiteful middle school girls — not like the righteous women of this church, but like the ones I knew when I was in school — trying to exclude a hated rival by social shunning, in order to magnify their own status. To stop them and shut them down, Paul needs to do more than just answer their case logically. He also needs to undermine their ethos; he needs to subvert the system of value that makes their case so plausible at first glance. They are counting on Paul's readers sharing their value system. Paul wants to make sure his readers do not share it. It is a task that he undertakes in many of his letters. In Romans he addresses the Jews as those who “rest on the law, and make your boast in God, and know His will, and approve the things that are excellent, being instructed out of the law, and are confident that you yourself are a guide to the blind, a light to those who are in darkness, an instructor of the foolish, a teacher of babes, having the form of knowledge and truth in the law.” He is setting forth the Jewish system of value, the grounds of their boasting. And it was a very good grounds for boasting. The longest book in the Bible, Psalm 119, is one continuing paean of praise to the Law, the Torah. It is full of statements like, “I love thy commandments above gold and precious stones” and “The law of thy mouth is dearer unto me than thousands of gold and silver.” But Paul rips this point of boasting away by asking, “Yes, the Law is wonderful — but do you actually obey it?” In Philippians 3, Paul gathers together all the things that he could have been proud of as a Jew: “If anyone else thinks he may have confidence in the flesh, I more so: circumcised the eighth day, of the stock of Israel, of the tribe of Benjamin, a Hebrew of the Hebrews; concerning the law, a Pharisee; concerning zeal, persecuting the church; concerning the righteousness which is in the law, blameless. But what things were gain to me, these I have counted loss for Christ. Yet indeed I also count all things loss for the excellence of the knowledge of Christ Jesus my Lord, for whom I have suffered the loss of all things, and count them as rubbish, that I may gain Christ and be found in Him, not having my own righteousness, which is from the law, but that which is through faith in Christ, the righteousness which is from God by faith;” That stuff that the Jews think is so valuable? Their circumcision, their membership in one of the two faithful tribes (Benjamin and Judah)? Their zeal, their lawkeeping? It's all worthless. In fact, it's so worthless that I threw it all away. I have something of real value that none of that stuff can give you. In the book of Hebrews, Paul or someone from his circles who thought an awful lot like him has the difficult task of undermining Jewish boasting about the Temple, the priesthood, and the sacrifices — a task that might seem impossible, since these things were instituted by God and everybody knew it. The temple was imposing, gleaming with gold. Paul calls it a “tent”, the sort of makeshift, flimsy structure that you go camping in, and you lie down in it, and there's nothing but a thin layer of cloth between you and the outside, and if it's too windy, the thing is in danger of collapsing; and anyway, it's that way because you're going to take it down and pack it up anyway. That's what he thinks of your fancy temple. Besides, the real temple is in heaven. Your tent is made by human hands; the only Temple worthy of the name is made by God. The priests' ministry was observable; they were dressed in robes; everyone could see their work, and that they had been instituted by God. Paul says, “They keep on dying, which is proof that their work isn't much good. And they have to offer sacrifices for their own sins, not just the people's.” The sacrifices were there for all to see: they had been commanded by God himself. The blood of the sacrifices flowed continually at the temple, on a daily basis. Paul says, “See how they have to do it over and over again? That's because it doesn't really work. They need Jesus. That's the only sacrifice that works, and that's why Jesus only needed to be sacrificed once.” Yes, Paul is a genius at overthrowing his opponents' strongest arguments. He loves to take their most powerful evidence and use it against them. He is a master of rhetorical jujitsu, throwing his opponents to the mat by using the momentum and force of their own attacks. He is like Elijah in the contest with the prophets of Baal, one man against 450, “And he put the wood in order, cut the bull in pieces, and laid it on the wood, and said, “Fill four waterpots with water, and pour it on the burnt sacrifice and on the wood.” Then he said, “Do it a second time,” and they did it a second time; and he said, “Do it a third time,” and they did it a third time. So the water ran all around the altar; and he also filled the trench with water.” In Galatians 4, it is a terribly difficult rhetorical task that Paul faces: his opponents appear to have the Torah, the OT, on their side. It does, after all, command circumcision; it does prohibit the eating of unclean foods; it does tell the stories of Ishmael, Moab, and Ben-Ammi, the ancestors of the rival nations surrounding Israel, all of whom are deprecated as the offspring of incest, slave marriage, or concubinage. These stories account for the origins of the Gentiles around Israel. Israel itself, however, was descended from Isaac, the legitimate son and heir of Abraham. These stories underscore the chosenness of Israel, and the fact that these other nations were not chosen. “Jacob have I loved, and Esau have I hated” was not just a statement about two sons. It was a statement about two nations: the Edomites and Israel. It says that Israel is the covenant people that God loves, and Edom is not. So it is Paul's opponents, not Paul, who have the easier case to make here: Jewish people are (most of them) descended from Jacob (Israel) and Gentiles are not. And they might have made this case most plainly from the story of Isaac, Abraham's son miraculously conceived by the power of God in Abraham's old age. This is strong rhetorical ground for the circumcision advocates in Galatia. Circumcision is commanded in the Torah for God's people. It is breathtakingly audacious for Paul to argue that a proper understanding of the Torah will lead you to the conclusion that circumcision doesn't matter. Paul calls the Torah a yoke of bondage. I'm not sure we appreciate how bold a move this is. The exodus was Israel's independence day. It's when they came out of slavery in Egypt and became a free nation. Paul says that the circumcizers advocating Torah-obedience in Galatia are like those who wanted to go back to Egypt. It would be like an American saying that the Declaration of Independence is the document in American history that made everyone slaves. But that is what Paul says about the Torah, given on Mount Sinai: that covenant has led to the present state of affairs: Jerusalem that now is, and is in bondage with her children. Now, we know from elsewhere in Paul's letters, especially Romans, that he considered the Law a good gift of God and the reason why the Law was now leading to slavery was because Israel was using it wrongly, not because the Law was bad. The slavery results from Israel's sinfulness, not something wrong with the Law. But here, he doesn't go into that, because he is focused not on the Law as it was given by God, but on the Law as it was used rhetorically by his opponents. You have heard the expression, “He is wrapping himself in the flag”? That is what the Judaizers in Galatia are doing with the Torah: using it as a uniform to distinguish true, Jewish Christians from second-rate, Gentile Christians. And Paul says: You think that you look cool with your bling; but it's really chains to keep you enslaved. Above all, Paul takes the bull by the horns and uses an audacious maneuver to deal with the Judaizers' most powerful weapon: the taunt of illegitimacy. That is the point of the Ishmael story as used by Jews: the Ishmaelites, the Arabs, are illegitimate offspring of Abraham, just as the Moabites and Ammonites were stigmatized as the offspring of Lot's daughters after the destruction of Sodom. Only Jews were the children of Isaac; they had been called into existence by the power of YHWH himself. They were not the product of an ill-conceived attempt at surrogate pregnancy, and with a slave wife. Be aware that the Judaizers have centuries and centuries of social and legal precedent for their view. That line that Paul quotes from Sarah — “Cast out the bondwoman and her son, for the son of the bondwoman shall not be heir with the son of the freewoman” — that was a line that Paul's opponents loved to quote. When Sarah said it to Abraham, she wasn't just being mean. The lawcodes of Ur-Nammu and Lipit-Ishtar, from around the same time as Abraham, contained rules about exactly this sort of situation, and they are formulated with exactly the same sort of phrasing: “If a man has a wife a free woman who has born children to him, and he takes a slave wife and she also bears children to him, the children of the slave wife shall not share in the inheritance with the children of the free wife.” Sarah is saying, “Husband, you know the law from when we lived in Ur. This is what we have to do.” And the heretics in Galatia were taking up this two-thousand year tradition of legal and social stigma against children of slavery, and applying it to Gentile Christians. It's a powerful tool of shaming and social marginalization, and it is based on a very foundational text of the covenant: the story of the birth of Isaac. Both the Judaizers and their Galatian Gentile victims believed this text was the word of God. Both believed that the Jews were descendants of Isaac. Paul knows all this. He has chosen to fight them on their strongest ground; he gives them home field advantage. He pours water so that it fills up the trench. And then he incinerates their whole argument like Elijah. The stigma of illegitimacy? He turns it back on the Judaizers. They are the bastards now, the “children of the flesh”; they are “in bondage” with their slave-mother. The Gentile Galatian Christians? They are “children of the promise.” And just as it was back then, the child of the slave woman is persecuting the child of the promise. The two sons are marked not by their circumcised or uncircumcised status but by the slave/free polarity that distinguishes their mothers. Paul has to reach a little bit here. The LXX Greek translation that Paul used here doesn't actually say, “persecuting”. What the LXX says is that Sarah “saw the son of Hagar the Egyptian who had been born to Abraham playing with her son Isaac (paizonta meta Isaac tou huiou autes).” That's the most straightforward way to take it. But the word “playing” can also mean “mocking”. And that's probably how Paul took it. And then he magnifies it into the sibling rivalry from hell by glossing “mocking” as “persecuting”. Where did he get this from? It is transferred from the situation between the Judaizers and the Gentile Christians in Galatia. By casting the rivalry as a conflict between the flesh and the promise, Paul undercuts the Judaizers' use of the Torah. That is why he says, “These are two covenants” — the boldest piece of clever interpretation in the Bible. It is all part of his rhetorical strategy concerning the Torah that he has laid in the previous chapter, Galatians 3. The two covenants are NOT the Old and the New. They are the Torah covenant and the covenant with Abraham (which turns out to find its fulfillment in Christ). And the covenant with Abraham is more original, more foundational, more important, more primary. The law was added 430 years later. The Torah was a stop-gap measure to keep things under control until the fulfillment of the covenant with Abraham. And for Paul, Gentile Christians are that fulfillment: “in you, all the nations — the ethnê — shall be blessed.” This aligns the Gentile Christians with the whole purpose of the Covenant with Abraham, and means that Paul can cast them as the true children of the promise. They are citizens of the only Jerusalem that counts, the “Jerusalem above”. And by citing the line of Sarah, “cast out the bondwoman and her son, for the son of the bondwoman shall not be heir with the son of the free woman”, Paul makes clear what the stakes are here: the Judaizers and those who trust in the Torah to be their badge of membership in the covenant are not merely mistaken. They are Ishmaels and they will not inherit. They will be cast out. The Gentile Christians — and faithful Jewish Christians who did not pressure them to get circumcized — will be counted as true members of the covenant with Abraham, and the Judaizing circumcision-pushers will not. Who are the bastards now? Paul revels in what God has done. It is perfectly in accordance with his way of working: "He catches the wise in their own craftiness, and the counsel of the cunning is brought to a quick end.” (Job 5). The Judaizers have fallen into the pit that they have dug: their taunts of illegitimacy rebound on their own heads; the glory of the title of “true children of Abraham” is wrapped around the Gentile believers whom they had stigmatized. Paul's jujitsu victory is complete and total, because it is the victory of Christ, who led captivity captive and triumphed by being crucified. In the end, Paul's fierce warfare over the Galatians has to do with vindicating the honor of Christ, with proving that He has really accomplished all that Paul says he has; with showing that the covenant with Abraham is truly fulfilled in Jesus, because he is the yes and amen. To go back to the Torah is to turn the clock back and engage in historical reenactment; to live a life of live-action-role-playing instead of reality. It is a costly and foolish attempt to gain privilege and honor by denying the completeness and finality of Jesus' work, and attempting to supplement it with another identity in terms of the Torah. The true Exodus is via Christ, not via the Torah. That is part of the meaning of our gospel lesson this morning from John 6. Here the true bread from heaven, Jesus, works a miraculous feeding like the manna of old. But he does it not in order to cause the crowd to envy his disciples; he has no desire for his followers to act like the Judaizers, zealous courting others to provoke them envy. No, his disciples are to be the means by which the bread of life is given to the multitudes — and the two small fish, symbol of Gentiles and of fishing for men, of the fulfillment of Jeremiah 16:16: “Behold, I am sending for many fishers, declares the Lord, and they shall catch them.” In the end, the nations are to be blessed through the disobedience of Israel. Our time is short, so I will not try to prove this exhaustively, but I want you to see the pattern: Joseph's brothers disobey and sell him into slavery, so that he is carried off to a Gentile land, Egypt, and becomes assimilated to Egyptian ways. But God works it all out so that Joseph's imprisonment in an Egyptian prison works out for the salvation of Joseph's brothers and all Egypt, “to save many alive.” When Jesus touches dead bodies, a woman with a 12 year flow of bleeding that made her unclean, or a leper, what happens? The usual laws of uncleanness work backward: rather than becoming unclean, Jesus makes these people clean. That is the way God has designed the exile of Israel to work: rather than the exiled members of Israel becoming lost and destroyed, they have mingled with the nations and thereby brought it about that in order to keep His promises to Israel, God will save the Gentiles as well. As a result, “In Abraham's seed, all the nations shall be blessed.” Isn't it funny how Satan's schemes always backfire? He is truly the Wile E. Coyote of the Bible. He will have his church be Israel for the sake of the world; thus we are to be true heirs of Abraham, fulfilling the purpose for which He was called. Amen.

Joseph's Dreams37.1 Jacob lived in the land of his father's sojournings, in the land of Canaan.2 These are the generations of Jacob.Joseph, being seventeen years old, was pasturing the flock with his brothers. He was a boy with the sons of Bilhah and Zilpah, his father's wives. And Joseph brought a bad report of them to their father. 3 Now Israel loved Joseph more than any other of his sons, because he was the son of his old age. And he made him a robe of many colors. 4 But when his brothers saw that their father loved him more than all his brothers, they hated him and could not speak peacefully to him.5 Now Joseph had a dream, and when he told it to his brothers they hated him even more. 6 He said to them, “Hear this dream that I have dreamed: 7 Behold, we were binding sheaves in the field, and behold, my sheaf arose and stood upright. And behold, your sheaves gathered around it and bowed down to my sheaf.” 8 His brothers said to him, “Are you indeed to reign over us? Or are you indeed to rule over us?” So they hated him even more for his dreams and for his words.9 Then he dreamed another dream and told it to his brothers and said, “Behold, I have dreamed another dream. Behold, the sun, the moon, and eleven stars were bowing down to me.” 10 But when he told it to his father and to his brothers, his father rebuked him and said to him, “What is this dream that you have dreamed? Shall I and your mother and your brothers indeed come to bow ourselves to the ground before you?”11 And his brothers were jealous of him, but his father kept the saying in mind.Joseph Sold by His Brothers12 Now his brothers went to pasture their father's flock near Shechem.13 And Israel said to Joseph, “Are not your brothers pasturing the flock at Shechem? Come, I will send you to them.” And he said to him, “Here I am.” 14 So he said to him, “Go now, see if it is well with your brothers and with the flock, and bring me word.” So he sent him from the Valley of Hebron, and he came to Shechem. 15 And a man found him wandering in the fields. And the man asked him, “What are you seeking?” 16 “I am seeking my brothers,” he said. “Tell me, please, where they are pasturing the flock.” 17 And the man said, “They have gone away, for I heard them say, ‘Let us go to Dothan.'” So Joseph went after his brothers and found them at Dothan.18 They saw him from afar, and before he came near to them they conspired against him to kill him. 19 They said to one another, “Here comes this dreamer. 20 Come now, let us kill him and throw him into one of the pits. Then we will say that a fierce animal has devoured him, and we will see what will become of his dreams.” 21 But when Reuben heard it, he rescued him out of their hands, saying, “Let us not take his life.”22 And Reuben said to them, “Shed no blood; throw him into this pit here in the wilderness, but do not lay a hand on him”—that he might rescue him out of their hand to restore him to his father. 23 So when Joseph came to his brothers, they stripped him of his robe, the robe of many colors that he wore. 24 And they took him and threw him into a pit. The pit was empty; there was no water in it.25 Then they sat down to eat. And looking up they saw a caravan of Ishmaelites coming from Gilead, with their camels bearing gum, balm, and myrrh, on their way to carry it down to Egypt. 26 Then Judah said to his brothers, “What profit is it if we kill our brother and conceal his blood? 27 Come, let us sell him to the Ishmaelites, and let not our hand be upon him, for he is our brother, our own flesh.” And his brothers listened to him. 28 Then Midianite traders passed by. And they drew Joseph up and lifted him out of the pit, and sold him to the Ishmaelites for twenty shekels of silver. They took Joseph to Egypt.29 When Reuben returned to the pit and saw that Joseph was not in the pit, he tore his clothes 30 and returned to his brothers and said, “The boy is gone, and I, where shall I go?” 31 Then they took Joseph's robe...

Bible Study (2:19) Genesis 37:3-4, 12-13a, 17b-28a Fr. Simon discusses the story of Joseph and how he was thrown in the cistern. The site of the house of Caiaphas had a cistern. Reuben wanted to save Joseph, but Joseph was sold to a caravan of Ishmaelites. Matthew 21:33-43, 45-46 This parable from Jesus is a serious one. The tone that the builders rejected the cornerstone. That is literally true as Cavalry wasn’t a hill, it was a planned out stone quarry. Letters Art – What is your stance or hitting a toddler as a form of discipline? (18:21) What is your understanding of the word, “basilea”? (25:07) My husband and I want to get married in the Church? How can I help him understand the importance of going to Sunday Mass every week? (29:45) Word of the Day: Cornerstone (32:26) Phones: Craig - What does it mean when Jesus told the apostles that they would judge the 12 tribes of Israel? AND what does new heaven and earth? (37:51) Chris - Could you follow up about the origin about the papacy? It seems like it was peter's confession that was the rock and NOT Peter himself. (43:07)

Genesis 371 Jacob lived in the land where his father had stayed, the land of Canaan.2 This is the account of Jacob's family line. Joseph, a young man of seventeen, was tending the flocks with his brothers, the sons of Bilhah and the sons of Zilpah, his father's wives, and he brought their father a bad report about them.3 Now Israel loved Joseph more than any of his other sons, because he had been born to him in his old age; and he made an ornate robe for him. 4 When his brothers saw that their father loved him more than any of them, they hated him and could not speak a kind word to him.5 Joseph had a dream, and when he told it to his brothers, they hated him all the more. 6 He said to them, “Listen to this dream I had: 7 We were binding sheaves of grain out in the field when suddenly my sheaf rose and stood upright, while your sheaves gathered around mine and bowed down to it.”8 His brothers said to him, “Do you intend to reign over us? Will you actually rule us?” And they hated him all the more because of his dream and what he had said.9 Then he had another dream, and he told it to his brothers. “Listen,” he said, “I had another dream, and this time the sun and moon and eleven stars were bowing down to me.”10 When he told his father as well as his brothers, his father rebuked him and said, “What is this dream you had? Will your mother and I and your brothers actually come and bow down to the ground before you?” 11 His brothers were jealous of him, but his father kept the matter in mind.12 Now his brothers had gone to graze their father's flocks near Shechem, 13 and Israel said to Joseph, “As you know, your brothers are grazing the flocks near Shechem. Come, I am going to send you to them.” “Very well,” he replied.14 So he said to him, “Go and see if all is well with your brothers and with the flocks, and bring word back to me.” Then he sent him off from the Valley of Hebron. When Joseph arrived at Shechem, 15 a man found him wandering around in the fields and asked him, “What are you looking for?”16 He replied, “I'm looking for my brothers. Can you tell me where they are grazing their flocks?”17 “They have moved on from here,” the man answered. “I heard them say, ‘Let's go to Dothan.'” So Joseph went after his brothers and found them near Dothan. 18 But they saw him in the distance, and before he reached them, they plotted to kill him.19 “Here comes that dreamer!” they said to each other. 20 “Come now, let's kill him and throw him into one of these cisterns and say that a ferocious animal devoured him. Then we'll see what comes of his dreams.”21 When Reuben heard this, he tried to rescue him from their hands. “Let's not take his life,” he said. 22 “Don't shed any blood. Throw him into this cistern here in the wilderness, but don't lay a hand on him.” Reuben said this to rescue him from them and take him back to his father.23 So when Joseph came to his brothers, they stripped him of his robe—the ornate robe he was wearing— 24 and they took him and threw him into the cistern. The cistern was empty; there was no water in it.25 As they sat down to eat their meal, they looked up and saw a caravan of Ishmaelites coming from Gilead. Their camels were loaded with spices, balm and myrrh, and they were on their way to take them down to Egypt.26 Judah said to his brothers, “What will we gain if we kill our brother and cover up his blood? 27 Come, let's sell him to the Ishmaelites and not lay our hands on him; after all, he is our brother, our own flesh and blood.” His brothers agreed.28 So when the Midianite merchants came by, his brothers pulled Joseph up out of the cistern and sold him for twenty shekels of silver to the Ishmaelites, who took him to Egypt.29 When Reuben returned to the cistern and saw that Joseph was not there, he tore his clothes. 30 He went back to his brothers and said, “The boy isn't there! Where can I turn now?”31 Then they got Joseph's robe, slaughtered a goat and dipped the robe in the blood. 32 They took the ornate robe back to their father and said, “We found this. Examine it to see whether it is your son's robe.”33 He recognized it and said, “It is my son's robe! Some ferocious animal has devoured him. Joseph has surely been torn to pieces.”34 Then Jacob tore his clothes, put on sackcloth and mourned for his son many days. 35 All his sons and daughters came to comfort him, but he refused to be comforted. “No,” he said, “I will continue to mourn until I join my son in the grave.” So his father wept for him.36 Meanwhile, the Midianites sold Joseph in Egypt to Potiphar, one of Pharaoh's officials, the captain of the guard.

In this episode, Dr. Dru Johnson interviews Rabbi Dr. Ari Lamm about a provocative interpretation of the Joseph narrative: Joseph's brothers did not sell him into slavery. Rabbi Lamm explains that while the brothers planned to sell Joseph, they never completed the act. Instead, Midianite merchants discovered Joseph in the pit and sold him to Ishmaelites, creating ambiguity in the biblical text. Rabbi Lamm delves into the narrative techniques of the Hebrew Bible, emphasizing its minimalist yet profound storytelling. He discusses how key Hebrew words and repeated motifs, such as “sell” (Machar), link the Joseph story to broader biblical themes of chosenness, rejection, and familial dynamics. Joseph's perception of rejection by his father, Jacob, is also explored, tying his emotional journey to the larger narrative of Genesis. The discussion highlights the development of key characters, including Judah's moral growth and Reuben's failure to lead. These arcs foreshadow the future roles of the tribes of Israel, underscoring Genesis's role as a foundational text for understanding biblical theology and history. This episode invites listeners to engage deeply with scripture, appreciate its narrative sophistication, and consider alternative interpretations that illuminate its enduring relevance. Find Ari Lamm at: https://twitter.com/arilamm https://twitter.com/gfaitheffort https://www.instagram.com/holy_landings For more articles: https://thebiblicalmind.org/ Social Links: Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/HebraicThought/ Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/hebraicthought/ X: https://www.twitter.com/HebraicThought/ Bluesky: https://bsky.app/profile/hebraicthought.org Chapters 00:00 Introduction 02:40 Understanding Joseph's Silence 05:19 The Role of Dreams in Joseph's Life 08:12 The Emotional Revelation of Family 10:39 The Complexity of Selling Joseph 13:30 The Brothers' Journey of Growth 16:07 The Consequences of Actions 18:52 The Legacy of the Tribes 21:42 The Moral Implications of the Sale 24:37 The Brothers' Guilt and Recognition 25:58 The Brothers' Guilt and Joseph's Plea 27:38 The Pit: A Place of Despair 30:10 The Brothers' Plan and Reuben's Dilemma 33:36 The Caravan and the Brothers' Decision 37:07 Reuben's Return and the Aftermath 41:42 The Complexity of Joseph's Journey 45:28 Understanding the Text: Insights and Interpretations 45:51 Learning Hebrew: Resources and Recommendations

The Question WHY Frustrating when kids ask But a REALLY GOOD QUESTION WHY do you do what you do? WHY Are you here? WHY do you exist? What is your WHY? We all have one Abundant Life is a PURPOSEFUL LIFE John 10:10 10 A thief comes only to steal and kill and destroy. I have come so that they may have life and have it in abundance. Last week… What is abundant life? Abundant life is a life full of the spiritual gifts of God's Holy Spirit given to His faithful followers   Current Statistics: 2023 Harvard Graduate School of Education More than half of young adults (58%) reported that they lacked “meaning or purpose” in their lives in the previous month and half of young adults reported that their mental health was negatively influenced by “not knowing what to do with my life.” There are many other factors that may contribute to feelings of meaninglessness and purposelessness as well as to anxiety and depression, including: The increasing focus on the self in our culture; Difficulties making choices given new, rapidly changing, and sometimes undefined career paths; Young adults marrying at older ages Declines in religious participation High social media use and other forms of digital media use A media ecosystem that floods us with frightening messages Higher expectations than their predecessors for finding meaning and purpose “Religious communities can provide you with a meta story, can give you a sense of meaning, a place across geographic boundaries and time,” Weissbourd said. “So I'm not again saying we should become more religious, but we should think about how we create some of these aspects of religion in secular life.”   2 Rules for having a PURPOSEFUL ABUNDANT LIFE Rule 1: Your purpose cannot start with you “What's my WHY?” is the wrong question for the Christian Scripture teaches that… True purpose is found in God Alone God Created ALL THINGS on purpose for a purpose 2 Types of Purpose General Purpose: The chief end of man is to Glorify God with your life   1 Corinthians 10:31 So, whether you eat or drink, or whatever you do, do everything for the glory of God. This is the FOUNDATION of your WHY You exist to GLORY GOD with your WHOLE LIFE You cannot bypass this to get to your “Specific purpose” Specific Purpose/Calling: Empowered by specific gifts of the Holy Spirit Lived out through the FRUIT OF THE HOLY SPIRIT Can be: Something right now Something Later in life Tips to knowing your specific calling: Grow where you are planted Luke 16:10 Whoever is faithful in very little is also faithful in much, and whoever is unrighteous in very little is also unrighteous in much. Healthy things grow Whether you are a… Parent Student Spouse Employee Leader Teacher Your calling will often follow your gifts/passions But the Lord can “ADD TO” the meet what He has purposed you for   Your Purpose is for you but not ABOUT YOU Bigger than you Will take FAITH/OBEDIENCE   Rule 2: God's Purpose for your life Is a PROCESS, Not a PLACE   God's purpose for your life is not linear Romans 8:20 We know that all things work together for the good of those who love God, who are called according to his purpose. Process = Sanctification Sanctification: The process of being made into the image of Christ in your life   Joseph in Potiphar's house Summarize up to this point Joseph's dreams   Genesis 39 1 Now Joseph had been taken to Egypt. An Egyptian named Potiphar, an officer of Pharaoh and the captain of the guards, bought him from the Ishmaelites who had brought him there. 2 The Lord was with Joseph, and he became a successful man, serving in the household of his Egyptian master. 3 When his master saw that the Lord was with him and that the Lord made everything he did successful, 4 Joseph found favor with his master and became his personal attendant. Potiphar also put him in charge of his household and placed all that he owned under his authority. 5 From the time that he put him in charge of his household and of all that he owned, the Lord blessed the Egyptian's house because of Joseph. The Lord's blessing was on all that he owned, in his house and in his fields. 6 He left all that he owned under Joseph's authority; he did not concern himself with anything except the food he ate.   Rule #1 in action: Your purpose cannot start with you If your purpose starts with you, you can never live higher than your circumstances Joseph – Doing all things to the GLORY OF GOD God blessed him But he wasn't fulfilling his “SPECIFIC CALLING” The dreams Being faithful in his difficulty paved the way for future purpose New Troubles are on the way… Now Joseph was well-built and handsome. 7 After some time his master's wife looked longingly at Joseph and said, “Sleep with me.”   8 But he refused. “Look,” he said to his master's wife, “with me here my master does not concern himself with anything in his house, and he has put all that he owns under my authority. 9 No one in this house is greater than I am. He has withheld nothing from me except you, because you are his wife. So how could I do this immense evil, and how could I sin against God?”   10 Although she spoke to Joseph day after day, he refused to go to bed with her. 11 Now one day he went into the house to do his work, and none of the household servants were there. 12 She grabbed him by his garment and said, “Sleep with me!” But leaving his garment in her hand, he escaped and ran outside. She kept his garment and lied to her husband 19 When his master heard the story his wife told him—“These are the things your slave did to me”—he was furious 20 and had him thrown into prison, where the king's prisoners were confined. So Joseph was there in prison. Rule #2: God's Purpose for your life Is a PROCESS, Not a PLACE When you are living in God's purpose, the enemy will ALWAYS send you a “POTIPHAR'S WIFE“   2 things: Distraction Easier way If your WHY is found in the right thing, you can say NO to the wrong things When our purpose is grounded in God, it allows us to let God shoulder the burden When we choose OUR OWN purpose, we become responsible Rule 1: Your purpose cannot start with you Rule 2: God's Purpose for your life Is a PROCESS, Not a PLACE

Ps 83 (NKJV) 1 DO not keep silent, O God! Do not hold Your peace, And do not be still, O God! 2 For behold, Your enemies make a tumult; And those who hate You have lifted up their head. 3 They have taken crafty counsel against Your people, And consulted together against Your sheltered ones. 4 They have said, “Come, and let us cut them off from being a nation, That the name of Israel may be remembered no more.” 5 For they have consulted together with one consent; They form a confederacy against You: 6 The tents of Edom and the Ishmaelites; Moab and the Hagrites; 7 Gebal, Ammon, and Amalek; Philistia with the inhabitants of Tyre; 8 Assyria also has joined with them; They have helped the children of Lot. ​Selah 9 Deal with them as with Midian, As with Sisera, As with Jabin at the Brook Kishon, 10 Who perished at En Dor, Who became as refuse on the earth. 11 Make their nobles like Oreb and like Zeeb, Yes, all their princes like Zebah and Zalmunna, 12 Who said, “Let us take for ourselves The pastures of God for a possession.” 13 O my God, make them like the whirling dust, Like the chaff before the wind! 14 As the fire burns the woods, And as the flame sets the mountains on fire, 15 So pursue them with Your tempest, And frighten them with Your storm. 16 Fill their faces with shame, That they may seek Your name, O LORD. 17 Let them be confounded and dismayed forever; Yes, let them be put to shame and perish, 18 That they may know that You, whose name alone is the LORD, Are the Most High over all the earth.

One of the most shocking events in the whole Torah occurs in our Parsha: Joseph's brothers sell him as a slave to a caravan of traveling Ishmaelites. Two of his brothers helped ensure that he wasn't killed. Reuben argued that he should be cast into a pit and not to slaughtered outright, and Judah urged […]

One of the most shocking events in the whole Torah occurs in our Parsha: Joseph's brothers sell him as a slave to a caravan of traveling Ishmaelites. Two of his brothers helped ensure that he wasn't killed. Reuben argued that he should be cast into a pit and not to slaughtered outright, and Judah urged them to sell him as a slave and not allow him to languish in the waterless pit. Why did Reuben and Judah, out of all the brothers, stand up to save Joseph? When we examine the sources, we make some interesting discoveries.– – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – –DONATE to TORCH: Please consider supporting the podcasts by making a donation to help fund our Jewish outreach and educational efforts at https://www.torchweb.org/support.php. Thank you!– – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – –Email me with questions, comments, and feedback: rabbiwolbe@gmail.com– – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – –SUBSCRIBE to my Newsletterrabbiwolbe.com/newsletter– – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – –SUBSCRIBE to Rabbi Yaakov Wolbe's PodcastsThe Parsha PodcastThe Jewish History PodcastThe Mitzvah Podcast This Jewish LifeThe Ethics PodcastTORAH 101 ★ Support this podcast ★

Genesis 37: The Beginning of Joseph's Story Genesis 37 marks the start of Joseph's narrative, which is central to the latter part of the book of Genesis. It highlights themes of favoritism, jealousy, betrayal, and God's sovereignty in shaping His purposes through human actions. Jacob, also called Israel, is living in the land of Canaan. Among Jacob's 12 sons, Joseph is his favorite because he was born to Jacob in his old age through Rachel, his beloved wife. Jacob gives Joseph a richly ornamented robe (often referred to as a “coat of many colors”), symbolizing his special status. This favoritism breeds hatred among Joseph's brothers, who cannot speak to him peaceably. Joseph shares two dreams with his family. In the first dream, Joseph and his brothers are binding sheaves of grain in the field, and the brothers' sheaves bow to Joseph's sheaf. In the second dream, the sun, moon, and eleven stars bow down to Joseph. These dreams suggest Joseph's future elevation over his family. The dreams intensify his brothers' jealousy and even draw a rebuke from Jacob, though Jacob keeps the matter in mind. Jacob sends Joseph to check on his brothers, who are tending the flocks in Shechem. Joseph travels from Hebron to Shechem and eventually to Dothan, where his brothers have moved. Seeing Joseph approach, the brothers conspire to kill him and throw him into a cistern, intending to say a wild animal devoured him. Reuben, the eldest, intervenes, suggesting they throw Joseph into the cistern without shedding blood, intending to rescue him later. When Joseph arrives, the brothers strip him of his robe and cast him into an empty cistern. While they eat, a caravan of Ishmaelites traveling to Egypt passes by. Judah suggests selling Joseph to the Ishmaelites instead of killing him. The brothers sell Joseph for twenty pieces of silver, and he is taken to Egypt. Reuben returns to the cistern and finds Joseph gone. In despair, he asks, “The boy isn't there! Where can I turn now?” The brothers dip Joseph's robe in goat's blood and present it to Jacob, deceiving him into believing a wild animal killed Joseph. Jacob mourns deeply and refuses comfort from his family. Meanwhile, Joseph is sold in Egypt to Potiphar, one of Pharaoh's officials and captain of the guard. Genesis 37 demonstrates the dangers of favoritism, as Jacob's unequal treatment of his sons causes division and hostility within the family. The brothers' jealousy leads to betrayal and violence, illustrating how unchecked envy can lead to sin. Despite the human failures and sins in the story, God's overarching plan is at work. Joseph's journey to Egypt, though tragic, is the first step in God's plan to save His people during a future famine. Joseph's dreams foreshadow his eventual rise to power and the fulfillment of God's purposes, even though they are initially met with disbelief and scorn. The chapter begins Joseph's journey of suffering and eventual exaltation, which parallels the biblical theme of redemption through suffering. Genesis 37 reminds readers that God's plans are often hidden in the midst of human struggles and failings. While Joseph's story begins with betrayal and suffering, it is a key part of God's providential plan for the salvation of His people. This chapter also challenges us to reflect on our relationships, particularly in family dynamics, and to consider how favoritism, jealousy, and unresolved conflicts can lead to destruction. At the same time, it offers hope that God can redeem even the darkest situations for His glory and our good.Become a supporter of this podcast: https://www.spreaker.com/podcast/sendme-radio--732966/support.

Throughout this week, we'll be reading from the life of Joseph. Genesis 37:2-4 NLT When Joseph was seventeen years old, he often tended his father's flocks. He worked for his half-brothers, the sons of his father's wives Bilhah and Zilpah. But Joseph reported to his father some of the bad things his brothers were doing. Jacob loved Joseph more than any of his other children because Joseph had been born to him in his old age. So, one day Jacob had a special gift made for Joseph—a beautiful robe. But his brothers hated Joseph because their father loved him more than the rest of them. They couldn't say a kind word to him. Now, fast-forward to Joseph being sent by his dad to check on his brothers who were working in the field … Genesis 37:23-28 NLT When Joseph arrived, his brothers ripped off the beautiful robe he was wearing. Then they grabbed him and threw him into the cistern. Now the cistern was empty; there was no water in it. Then, just as they were sitting down to eat, they looked up and saw a caravan of camels in the distance coming toward them. It was a group of Ishmaelite traders … Judah said to his brothers, “What will we gain by killing our brother? We'd have to cover up the crime.  Instead of hurting him, let's sell him to those Ishmaelite traders. After all, he is our brother—our own flesh and blood!” And his brothers agreed. So when the Ishmaelites, who were Midianite traders, came by, Joseph's brothers pulled him out of the cistern and sold him to them for twenty pieces of silver. And the traders took him to Egypt. We all know the end of the story. How God used all of these terrible situations for ultimate good. But before we get ahead of ourselves to the redemption - Do you have a memory in your own life that this story triggered for you? Something tragic? Betrayal? An injustice? While this story is painful to hear, the bottom line is we all understand family dysfunction that causes pain and creates scars that we have to deal with for a long time. But these events in our lives offer us a choice: will I let this define me or will I allow this to become a defining moment? Your relationship with God can bring purpose to create a greater, stronger you out of any circumstance. But for this to happen, the pain and the process has to be surrendered to God and then stay submitted to Him on the journey to wholeness and healing. As we walk through this week, and the story of Joseph, can you ask God to start to reveal his purpose for your pain, maybe like you have never seen it before. Let's pray: “Father, thank You for providing examples in Scripture that show me how to navigate the tragedies of life through You. Right now, I surrender my hurts, my pain, and my process of healing to You. Use it all—the good and bad—to bring me a greater sense of purpose about my life, as You lead me. As above, so below.”

Genesis 39:1-23 39 Now Joseph had been taken down to Egypt. Potiphar, an Egyptian who was one of Pharaoh's officials, the captain of the guard, bought him from the Ishmaelites who had taken him there. 2 The Lord was with Joseph so that he prospered, and he lived in the house of his Egyptian master. 3 When his master saw that the Lord was with him and that the Lord gave him success in everything he did, 4 Joseph found favor in his eyes and became his attendant. Potiphar put him in charge of his household, and he entrusted to his care everything he owned. 5 From the time he put him in charge of his household and of all that he owned, the Lord blessed the household of the Egyptian because of Joseph. The blessing of the Lord was on everything Potiphar had, both in the house and in the field. 6 So Potiphar left everything he had in Joseph's care; with Joseph in charge, he did not concern himself with anything except the food he ate. Now Joseph was well-built and handsome, 7 and after a while his master's wife took notice of Joseph and said, “Come to bed with me!” 8 But he refused. “With me in charge,” he told her, “my master does not concern himself with anything in the house; everything he owns he has entrusted to my care. 9 No one is greater in this house than I am. My master has withheld nothing from me except you, because you are his wife. How then could I do such a wicked thing and sin against God?” 10 And though she spoke to Joseph day after day, he refused to go to bed with her or even be with her. 11 One day he went into the house to attend to his duties, and none of the household servants was inside. 12 She caught him by his cloak and said, “Come to bed with me!” But he left his cloak in her hand and ran out of the house. 13 When she saw that he had left his cloak in her hand and had run out of the house, 14 she called her household servants. “Look,” she said to them, “this Hebrew has been brought to us to make sport of us! He came in here to sleep with me, but I screamed. 15 When he heard me scream for help, he left his cloak beside me and ran out of the house.” 16 She kept his cloak beside her until his master came home. 17 Then she told him this story: “That Hebrew slave you brought us came to me to make sport of me. 18 But as soon as I screamed for help, he left his cloak beside me and ran out of the house.” 19 When his master heard the story his wife told him, saying, “This is how your slave treated me,” he burned with anger. 20 Joseph's master took him and put him in prison, the place where the king's prisoners were confined. But while Joseph was there in the prison, 21 the Lord was with him; he showed him kindness and granted him favor in the eyes of the prison warden. 22 So the warden put Joseph in charge of all those held in the prison, and he was made responsible for all that was done there. 23 The warden paid no attention to anything under Joseph's care, because the Lord was with Joseph and gave him success in whatever he did.

Judges 8 (Judges 8:22-28) NLT 22 Then the Israelites said to Gideon, “Be our ruler! You and your son and your grandson will be our rulers, for you have rescued us from Midian.”23 But Gideon replied, “I will not rule over you, nor will my son. The Lord will rule over you! 24 However, I do have one request—that each of you give me an earring from the plunder you collected from your fallen enemies.” (The enemies, being Ishmaelites, all wore gold earrings.)25 “Gladly!” they replied. They spread out a cloak, and each one threw in a gold earring he had gathered from the plunder. 26 The weight of the gold earrings was forty-three pounds, not including the royal ornaments and pendants, the purple clothing worn by the kings of Midian, or the chains around the necks of their camels.27 Gideon made a sacred ephod from the gold and put it in Ophrah, his hometown. But soon all the Israelites prostituted themselves by worshiping it, and it became a trap for Gideon and his family.28 That is the story of how the people of Israel defeated Midian, which never recovered. Throughout the rest of Gideon's lifetime—about forty years—there was peace in the land.Week 6, 9/22 Sometime this week, read about Gideon's tragic ending in …  Judges 8:1-27 - Extra challenge: read & journal any thoughts, questions, confessions, studies

God used Joseph to execute integral parts of his much greater plan for humanity. And it was during the times of waiting and holding and longing for a change that he prepared Joseph to do the important work he had ahead. Joseph chose to do what he could, where he could, while he waited to see what God had for him next. He made good use of the time in between.  SUBSCRIBE to our sister podcasts:Your Daily Prayer: https://www.lifeaudio.com/your-daily-prayer/Your Daily Bible Verse: https://www.lifeaudio.com/your-daily-bible-verse/ Full Transcript Below: Working While We Wait  by Deidre Braley  Genesis 39:22-23: And the keeper of the prison put Joseph in charge of all the prisoners who were in the prison. Whatever was done there, he was the one who did it. The keeper of the prison paid no attention to anything that was in Joseph's charge, because the Lord was with him.  I have been attached to my phone for the last ten days, refreshing my email at consistent intervals between all my daily tasks. Unload the dishwasher—check my email. Walk the dog—check my email. Kiss the kids goodnight—check my email. I'm in the querying process, which for a writer means the period of time when you send your heart and soul and life's work into the world and then wait to see whether anyone cares or if you should go back to your day job.  When I left my career two years ago, I had my eyes set on one goal: to publish a book. I thought by now I'd be well on my way, would have something to show. But it turns out there have been a lot of slow-moving parts, like the gears on a clock moving at half-speed. How infuriating! I've been waiting for this email to let me know whether it's time, finally time, to do the work I've been wanting to do for so long now.  This holding pattern is nothing compared to what Joseph experienced, though. The son of Israel (Jacob), Joseph was his father's favorite. As if it wasn't already enough that his dad had given him a beautifully colored cloak, Joseph also started having dreams that his brothers and family would one day bow down before him. Ouch. His brothers decided to kill him.  At the last minute, his brother Reuben stepped in with an alternate plan to try to spare his life—they'd just throw him in a pit and leave him. While Reuben was away, however, the brothers decided they might as well make some money from the whole ordeal, and sold Joseph to some Ishmaelites on their way to Egypt, instead.  This could read as an incredibly cruel and frustrating tale—one in which a promising young man's life is needlessly upended. Being sold into slavery in a foreign land sounds like the kind of holding pattern you don't escape from. But Scripture tells us otherwise. “The Lord was with Joseph, and he became a successful man, and he was in the house of his Egyptian master,” Genesis 39:2 says. In fact, Joseph was so respected and things went so well under his care that his master, Potiphar, put him in charge of everything he had.  Later, when Potiphar's wife wrongfully accuses Joseph of indecency, he is thrown into another holding pattern: this time, a jail cell. But just as he did after being sold to Potiphar, Joseph (with God's help) finds favor with the keeper of the prison, who puts him in charge over everything there. And Genesis 39:23 tells us, “...whatever he did, the Lord made it succeed.”  Joseph is the embodiment of the old adage, “Bloom where you are planted.” It's probably safe to assume that Joseph didn't want to be sold to an Egyptian master, and would have preferred to spend that time otherwise. And it's probably even safer to suggest he didn't want to spend years of his life in a jail cell for a crime he didn't commit. But what stands out about Joseph's story is the way he used the time that others may consider ‘wasted.' Rather than mope and wallow or wait for it to be over so he could just get on with his life, Joseph walked closely with God and worked at whatever was put before him with integrity and wisdom. It was his time served in Potiphar's house and the jail cell that prepared him (though somewhat unconventionally) to eventually serve Pharoah as governor of all the land of Egypt.  God used Joseph to execute integral parts of his much greater plan for humanity. And it was during the times of waiting and holding and longing for a change that he prepared Joseph to do the important work he had ahead. Joseph chose to do what he could, where he could, while he waited to see what God had for him next. He made good use of the time in between.  When we find ourselves in our own holding patterns, we can look at how God was with Joseph in the waiting and be encouraged. Yes, it might be taking longer than we'd like and no, we might not understand how it's going to result in anything of value, but our job isn't to worry about all that. Our job is to put our hand to what's before us with integrity and to walk with God while we do it.  Whether we're longing for career-changing news or freedom from existing commitments or just for something fresh and exciting to happen in our lives, today let's take a page from Joseph's book and assess what we can do with where we are right now, at this very point in our lives. We might be surprised to see how God can use that humble obedience.  Intersecting Faith & Life  What areas of your life feel like holding patterns (or jail cells!) right now? Consider bringing them before the Lord and asking him:  How can I use this time in a way that would be fruitful? What would it look like to walk with you and work with integrity in this area?● Will you please give me endurance to stay faithful in this season of waiting?● Would you give me a glimpse of how you might use this work as part of your granderplan for my life and the lives of others? Further Reading  To read through Joseph's entire story, look into: ● Genesis 37-50 Discover more Christian podcasts at lifeaudio.com and inquire about advertising opportunities at lifeaudio.com/contact-us.

Joseph and Potiphar’s Wife 39 Now Joseph had been brought down to Egypt, and Potiphar, an officer of Pharaoh, the captain of the guard, an Egyptian, had bought him from the Ishmaelites who had brought him down there. 2 The Lord was with Joseph, and he became a successful man, and he was in the house of his Egyptian master. 3 His master saw that […]

Big Idea: Jesus goes with you into the pit. In the Beginning: Joseph Genesis 39:1-23 I. Jesus is in control over the pit.   1-7 Now Joseph had been taken to Egypt. An Egyptian named Potiphar, an officer of Pharaoh and the captain of the guards, bought him from the Ishmaelites who had brought him there. The Lord was with Joseph, and he became a successful man, serving in the household of his Egyptian master. When his master saw that the Lord was with him and that the Lord made everything he did successful, Joseph found favor with his master and became his personal attendant. Potiphar also put him in charge of his household and placed all that he owned under his authority. From the time that he put him in charge of his household and of all that he owned, the Lord blessed the Egyptian's house because of Joseph. The Lord's blessing was on all that he owned, in his house and in his fields. He left all that he owned under Joseph's authority; he did not concern himself with anything except the food he ate. II. Temptation is waiting for you in the pit.   7-10 Now Joseph was well-built and handsome. After some time his master's wife looked longingly at Joseph and said, “Sleep with me.” But he refused. “Look,” he said to his master's wife, “with me here my master does not concern himself with anything in his house, and he has put all that he owns under my authority. No one in this house is greater than I am. He has withheld nothing from me except you, because you are his wife. So how could I do this immense evil, and how could I sin against God?” Although she spoke to Joseph day after day, he refused to go to bed with her. III. The pit can always get deeper.   11-20 Now one day he went into the house to do his work, and none of the household servants were there. She grabbed him by his garment and said, “Sleep with me!” But leaving his garment in her hand, he escaped and ran outside. When she saw that he had left his garment with her and had run outside, she called her household servants. “Look,” she said to them, “my husband brought a Hebrew man to make fools of us. He came to me so he could sleep with me, and I screamed as loud as I could. When he heard me screaming for help, he left his garment beside me and ran outside.” She put Joseph's garment beside her until his master came home. Then she told him the same story: “The Hebrew slave you brought to us came to make a fool of me, but when I screamed for help, he left his garment beside me and ran outside.” When his master heard the story his wife told him—“These are the things your slave did to me”—he was furious and had him thrown into prison, where the king's prisoners were confined. So Joseph was there in prison. IV. Don't lose hope in the pit.   21-23 But the Lord was with Joseph and extended kindness to him. He granted him favor with the prison warden. The warden put all the prisoners who were in the prison under Joseph's authority, and he was responsible for everything that was done there. The warden did not bother with anything under Joseph's authority, because the Lord was with him, and the Lord made everything that he did successful. Next Steps:  Believe: I need Jesus to pull me out of my pit of sin. Become: I am in a pit. I need Jesus's presence in my pit. Be Sent: I will be Jesus's hands to someone in a pit this week. Group Discussion Questions:  When was the last time you were in a pit? Did anyone show up to help you or sit with you in the pit? How did your time in the pit affect your relationship with God? How do you identify God's favor on someone's life? In your opinion, is temptation more powerful in the pit? Have you ever suffered even though you did the right thing? Ask the Holy Spirit to give you the strength to face the pit with hope.

Genesis 37:28 So when the Midianite merchants came by, his brothers pulled Joseph up out of the cistern and sold him for twenty shekels of silver to the Ishmaelites, who took him to Egypt. 1. The Test of Brokenness Genesis 39:1-5 Now Joseph had been taken down to Egypt. Potiphar, an Egyptian who was one of Pharaoh's officials, the captain of the guard, bought him from the Ishmaelites who had taken him there. The Lord was with Joseph so that he prospered, and he lived in the house of his Egyptian master. 3 When his master saw that the Lord was with him and that the Lord gave him success in everything he did, 4 Joseph found favor in his eyes and became his attendant. Potiphar put him in charge of his household, and he entrusted to his care everything he owned. 5 From the time he put him in charge of his household and of all that he owned, the Lord blessed the household of the Egyptian because of Joseph. Genesis 39:6-8 Now Joseph was well-built and handsome, 7 and after a while his master's wife took notice of Joseph and said, “Come to bed with me!” 8 But he refused. 2. The Test of Character Genesis 39:20-23 20 Joseph's master took him and put him in prison, the place where the king's prisoners were confined. But while Joseph was there in the prison, 21 the Lord was with him; he showed him kindness and granted him favor in the eyes of the prison warden. 22 So the warden put Joseph in charge of all those held in the prison, and he was made responsible for all that was done there. 23 The warden paid no attention to anything under Joseph's care, because the Lord was with Joseph and gave him success in whatever he did. What if God establishes you and gives you favor in a place you despise or don't want to be? Genesis 40:23 23 The chief cupbearer, however, did not remember Joseph; he forgot him. 3. Test of Faithfulness We are often so focused on the destination, we forget that God is more concerned with our heart and obedience to Him. Genesis 45:4-8 Then Joseph said to his brothers, “Come close to me.” When they had done so, he said, “I am your brother Joseph, the one you sold into Egypt! 5 And now, do not be distressed and do not be angry with yourselves for selling me here, because it was to save lives that God sent me ahead of you. 6 For two years now there has been famine in the land, and for the next five years there will be no plowing and reaping. 7 But God sent me ahead of you to preserve for you a remnant on earth and to save your lives by a great deliverance. 8 “So then, it was not you who sent me here, but God. 4. Test of Forgiveness

Psalm 83 is a significant chapter in the Book of Psalms, often attributed to Asaph, a prominent figure among the Levite musicians in King David's court. This psalm is a communal lament, where the psalmist passionately appeals to God for deliverance and protection against the coalition of hostile nations threatening Israel. Structure and Themes 1.Introduction and Appeal to God (Verses 1-4): The psalm opens with a plea for God not to remain silent or inactive in the face of Israel's enemies' conspiracies. The psalmist emphasizes the urgency and gravity of the situation, calling for divine intervention. 2.Listing of the Enemies (Verses 5-8): A detailed enumeration of the nations forming a coalition against Israel follows. These include Edom, the Ishmaelites, Moab, the Hagrites, Gebal, Ammon, Amalek, Philistia, and the inhabitants of Tyre, with Assyria also lending its support. This list underscores the formidable and diverse nature of the threat. 3.Petition for Divine Retribution (Verses 9-15): The psalmist invokes historical examples of God's past deliverances, such as the defeat of Midian and the victories over Sisera and Jabin at the Kishon River. These references serve as a basis for asking God to similarly defeat the current enemies. 4.Prayer for God's Glory (Verses 16-18): The closing verses shift focus from destruction to a broader theological purpose. The psalmist prays that the enemies be shamed and dismayed, ultimately leading them to seek God's name. The ultimate aim is for God's sovereignty and power to be recognized universally. Key Takeaways •Divine Sovereignty: The psalm highlights God's supreme authority over all nations and events. The call for God to act is rooted in the belief that He is the ultimate judge and protector of Israel. •Historical Remembrance: By recalling past victories granted by God, the psalmist reinforces the community's faith and hope in God's continued protection and intervention. •Vindication and Conversion: While the psalm seeks the defeat of enemies, it also expresses a hope that through their humiliation, they may come to recognize and acknowledge God's power. Contemporary Reflection Psalm 83 resonates with modern readers in various ways. It reflects the timeless struggle for survival and protection in the face of overwhelming odds. It also emphasizes the importance of collective memory and faith in divine justice. For many, it serves as a reminder of the need for spiritual reliance and the hope that adversities can lead to greater understanding and recognition of divine truths. In summary, Psalm 83 is a powerful prayer for deliverance, grounded in the historical experiences of Israel and infused with a profound trust in God's ability to save and transform. It calls for divine justice, not merely for retribution but for the ultimate realization of God's glory and authority among all nations.Become a supporter of this podcast: https://www.spreaker.com/podcast/sendme-radio--732966/support.

Big Idea: The crushing weight of God's will. In the Beginning: Joseph Genesis 37:1-36 I. Joseph's pride and dad's joy burned his brothers.   1-5 Jacob lived in the land where his father had stayed, the land of Canaan. These are the family records of Jacob. At seventeen years of age, Joseph tended sheep with his brothers. The young man was working with the sons of Bilhah and Zilpah, his father's wives, and he brought a bad report about them to their father. Now Israel loved Joseph more than his other sons because Joseph was a son born to him in his old age, and he made a long-sleeved robe for him. When his brothers saw that their father loved him more than all his brothers, they hated him and could not bring themselves to speak peaceably to him. Then Joseph had a dream. When he told it to his brothers, they hated him even more. II. Your dreams and God's dreams might be wildly different.   6-11 He said to them, “Listen to this dream I had: There we were, binding sheaves of grain in the field. Suddenly my sheaf stood up, and your sheaves gathered around it and bowed down to my sheaf.” “Are you really going to reign over us?” his brothers asked him. “Are you really going to rule us?” So they hated him even more because of his dream and what he had said. Then he had another dream and told it to his brothers. “Look,” he said, “I had another dream, and this time the sun, moon, and eleven stars were bowing down to me.” He told his father and brothers, and his father rebuked him. “What kind of dream is this that you have had?” he said. “Am I and your mother and your brothers really going to come and bow down to the ground before you?” His brothers were jealous of him, but his father kept the matter in mind. III. If evil worked the first time, does that prove it will work again?   12-20 His brothers had gone to pasture their father's flocks at Shechem. Israel said to Joseph, “Your brothers, you know, are pasturing the flocks at Shechem. Get ready. I'm sending you to them.” “I'm ready,” Joseph replied. Then Israel said to him, “Go and see how your brothers and the flocks are doing, and bring word back to me.” So he sent him from the Hebron Valley, and he went to Shechem. A man found him there, wandering in the field, and asked him, “What are you looking for?” “I'm looking for my brothers,” Joseph said. “Can you tell me where they are pasturing their flocks?” “They've moved on from here,” the man said. “I heard them say, ‘Let's go to Dothan.' ” So Joseph set out after his brothers and found them at Dothan. They saw him in the distance, and before he had reached them, they plotted to kill him. They said to one another, “Oh, look, here comes that dream expert! So now, come on, let's kill him and throw him into one of the pits. We can say that a vicious animal ate him. Then we'll see what becomes of his dreams!” IV. The dreamer tumbles down the rabbit hole.   21-36 When Reuben heard this, he tried to save him from them. He said, “Let's not take his life.” Reuben also said to them, “Don't shed blood. Throw him into this pit in the wilderness, but don't lay a hand on him”—intending to rescue him from them and return him to his father. When Joseph came to his brothers, they stripped off Joseph's robe, the long-sleeved robe that he had on. Then they took him and threw him into the pit. The pit was empty, without water. They sat down to eat a meal, and when they looked up, there was a caravan of Ishmaelites coming from Gilead. Their camels were carrying aromatic gum, balsam, and resin, going down to Egypt. Judah said to his brothers, “What do we gain if we kill our brother and cover up his blood? Come on, let's sell him to the Ishmaelites and not lay a hand on him, for he is our brother, our own flesh,” and his brothers agreed. When Midianite traders passed by, his brothers pulled Joseph out of the pit and sold him for twenty pieces of silver to the Ishmaelites, who took Joseph to Egypt. When Reuben returned to the pit and saw that Joseph was not there, he tore his clothes. He went back to his brothers and said, “The boy is gone! What am I going to do?” So they took Joseph's robe, slaughtered a male goat, and dipped the robe in its blood. They sent the long-sleeved robe to their father and said, “We found this. Examine it. Is it your son's robe or not?” His father recognized it. “It is my son's robe,” he said. “A vicious animal has devoured him. Joseph has been torn to pieces!” Then Jacob tore his clothes, put sackcloth around his waist, and mourned for his son many days. All his sons and daughters tried to comfort him, but he refused to be comforted. “No,” he said. “I will go down to Sheol to my son, mourning.” And his father wept for him. Meanwhile, the Midianites sold Joseph in Egypt to Potiphar, an officer of Pharaoh and the captain of the guards. Next Steps:  Believe: I need to start a relationship with Jesus today. Become: I will turn to Jesus when the world turns against me. Be Sent: I will speak up when I face evil this week. Group Discussion Questions:  Have you ever had a dream from God? Have you ever had your dreams crushed by circumstances out of your control? If so, explain. Was there a time when your family turned against you? How closely do your will and God's will align? Have you ever been criticized for sharing the truth? When was the last time you tried to stop something evil from happening? Ask the Holy Spirit to help you surrender to God's will this week.

Joseph's brothers didn't even fake it with Joseph…they hated him and were jealous of him. Worse of all, they were indifferent to him as a human. They thought seriously about killing him. Then, they decided to make some money from him by selling him to the Ishmaelites. In this passage, Joseph comes across as a spoiled, arrogant know-it-all. He had two dreams, both of which indicated that he would be the patriarch and head of the family one day. Out of ten boys, he declares himself to be the one they all would look up to. But while Joseph may have come across as conceited, let's not give the brothers a free pass. Their plan of revenge was even more despicable than was his conceit. Now, yes, in a roundabout way, and through his brothers, Joseph got what God had coming to him.Genesis 37If you are interested in starting a micro church or hosting a small group in your home with like-minded individuals, we've got you covered. Our library of resources includes video messages and study questions for both group leaders and participants. To gain access to these resources or request access to our message videos, please get in touch with me atdanhollandC3@gmail.com.

The Real Good News (15) - All Needs Supplied in Christ Philippians 1:6 being confident of this very thing, that he who began a good work in you will perfect it until the day of Jesus Christ: Colossians 1:27 to whom God was pleased to make known what is the riches of the glory of this mystery among the Gentiles, which is Christ in you, the hope of glory: Matthew 21:22 And all things, whatsoever ye shall ask in prayer, believing, ye shall receive. Mark 11:24 Therefore I say unto you, All things whatsoever ye pray and ask for, believe that ye received them, and ye shall have them. Philippians 4:19 And my God shall supply every need of yours according to his riches in glory in Christ Jesus. 2 Corinthians 12:9 And he hath said unto me, My grace is sufficient for thee: for my power is made perfect in weakness. Most gladly therefore will I rather glory in my weaknesses, that the power of Christ may rest upon me. Ephesians 1:3 Blessed be the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, who hath blessed us with every spiritual blessing in the heavenly places in Christ: 1 John 2:24 As for you, let that abide in you which ye heard from the beginning. If that which ye heard from the beginning abide in you, ye also shall abide in the Son, and in the Father. Jude 1:3 Beloved, while I was giving all diligence to write unto you of our common salvation, I was constrained to write unto you exhorting you to contend earnestly for the faith which was once for all delivered unto the saints. 1 John 2:6 he that saith he abideth in him ought himself also to walk even as he walked. 1 John 3:6 Whosoever abideth in him sinneth not: whosoever sinneth hath not seen him, neither knoweth him. James 4:17 To him therefore that knoweth to do good, and doeth it not, to him it is sin. Hebrews 10:26 For if we sin wilfully after that we have received the knowledge of the truth, there remaineth no more a sacrifice for sins, Hebrews 10:27 but a certain fearful expectation of judgment, and a fierceness of fire which shall devour the adversaries. 1 John 3:5 And ye know that he was manifested to take away sins; and in him is no sin. 1 Corinthians 6:18 Flee fornication. Every sin that a man doeth is without the body; but he that committeth fornication sinneth against his own body. Philippians 4:19 And my God shall supply every need of yours according to his riches in glory in Christ Jesus. Mark 11:24 Therefore I say unto you, All things whatsoever ye pray and ask for, believe that ye receive them, and ye shall have them. Galatians 3:11 Now that no man is justified by the law before God, is evident: for, The righteous shall live by faith; Matthew 10:9 Get you no gold, nor silver, nor brass in your purses; Matthew 10:10 no wallet for your journey, neither two coats, nor shoes, nor staff: for the laborer is worthy of his food. Galatians 3:13 Christ redeemed us from the curse of the law, having become a curse for us; for it is written, Cursed is every one that hangeth on a tree: Galatians 3:14 that upon the Gentiles might come the blessing of Abraham in Christ Jesus; that we might receive the promise of the Spirit through faith. Genesis 24:1 And Abraham was old, and well stricken in age: and Jehovah had blessed Abraham in all things. Ephesians 1:3 Blessed be the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, who hath blessed us with every spiritual blessing in the heavenly places in Christ: Galatians 3:15 Brethren, I speak after the manner of men: Though it be but a man's covenant, yet when it hath been confirmed, no one maketh it void, or addeth thereto. Galatians 3:16 Now to Abraham were the promises spoken, and to his seed. He saith not, And to seeds, as of many; but as of one, And to thy seed, which is Christ. Romans 4:13 For not through the law was the promise to Abraham or to his seed that he should be heir of the world, but through the righteousness of faith. 1 Corinthians 3:21 Wherefore let no one glory in men. For all things are yours; Romans 8:17 and if children, then heirs; heirs of God, and joint-heirs with Christ; if so be that we suffer with him, that we may be also glorified with him. Ephesians 1:21 far above all rule, and authority, and power, and dominion, and every name that is named, not only in this world, but also in that which is to come: Romans 4:16 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 Galatians 3:16 Now to Abraham were the promises spoken, and to his seed. He saith not, And to seeds, as of many; but as of one, And to thy seed, which is Christ. Galatians 3:14 that upon the Gentiles might come the blessing of Abraham in Christ Jesus; that we might receive the promise of the Spirit through faith. 1 John 5:11 And the witness is this, that God gave unto us eternal life, and this life is in his Son. 1 John 3:5 And ye know that he was manifested to take away sins; and in him is no sin. James 4:17 To him therefore that knoweth to do good, and doeth it not, to him it is sin. Hebrews 10:26 For if we sin wilfully after that we have received the knowledge of the truth, there remaineth no more a sacrifice for sins, Galatians 3:17 Now this I say: A covenant confirmed beforehand by God, the law, which came four hundred and thirty years after, doth not disannul, so as to make the promise of none effect. Luke 10:7 And in that same house remain, eating and drinking such things as they give: for the laborer is worthy of his hire. Go not from house to house. Galatians 3:18 For if the inheritance is of the law, it is no more of promise: but God hath granted it to Abraham by promise. Galatians 3:19 What then is the law? It was added because of transgressions, till the seed should come to whom the promise hath been made; and it was ordained through angels by the hand of a mediator. Romans 10:4 For Christ is the end of the law unto righteousness to every one that believeth. Romans 8:17 and if children, then heirs; heirs of God, and joint-heirs with Christ; if so be that we suffer with him, that we may be also glorified with him. Genesis 15:18 In that day Jehovah made a covenant with Abram, saying, Unto thy seed have I given this land, from the river of Egypt unto the great river, the river Euphrates: Matthew 24:50 the lord of that servant shall come in a day when he expecteth not, and in an hour when he knoweth not, Matthew 24:51 and shall cut him asunder, and appoint his portion with the hypocrites: there shall be the weeping and the gnashing of teeth. Hebrews 7:22 by so much also hath Jesus become the surety of a better covenant. Hebrews 8:6 But now hath he obtained a ministry the more excellent, by so much as he is also the mediator of a better covenant, which hath been enacted upon better promises. Genesis 15:12 And when the sun was going down, a deep sleep fell upon Abram; and, lo, a horror of great darkness fell upon him. Ephesians 6:12 For our wrestling is not against flesh and blood, but against the principalities, against the powers, against the world-rulers of this darkness, against the spiritual hosts of wickedness in the heavenly places. Colossians 1:19 For it was the good pleasure of the Father that in him should all the fulness dwell; Colossians 1:16 for in him were all things created, in the heavens and upon the earth, things visible and things invisible, whether thrones or dominions or principalities or powers; all things have been created through him, and unto him; Colossians 1:17 and he is before all things, and in him all things consist. Colossians 1:18 And he is the head of the body, the church: who is the beginning, the firstborn from the dead; that in all things he might have the preeminence. Colossians 1:19 For it was the good pleasure of the Father that in him should all the fulness dwell; Colossians 1:20 and through him to reconcile all things unto himself, having made peace through the blood of his cross; through him, I say, whether things upon the earth, or things in the heavens. Genesis 15:12 And when the sun was going down, a deep sleep fell upon Abram; and, lo, a horror of great darkness fell upon him. Genesis 15:13 And he said unto Abram, Know of a surety that thy seed shall be sojourners in a land that is not theirs, and shall serve them; and they shall afflict them four hundred years; Genesis 15:14 and also that nation, whom they shall serve, will I judge: and afterward shall they come out with great substance. Genesis 15:15 But thou shalt go to thy fathers in peace; thou shalt be buried in a good old age. Genesis 15:16 And in the fourth generation they shall come hither again: for the iniquity of the Amorite is not yet full. Genesis 15:17 And it came to pass, that, when the sun went down, and it was dark, behold, a smoking furnace, and a flaming torch that passed between these pieces. Deuteronomy 4:24 For Jehovah thy God is a devouring fire, a jealous God. Malachi 3:2 But who can abide the day of his coming? and who shall stand when he appeareth? for he is like a refiner's fire, and like fullers' soap: Malachi 3:3 and he will sit as a refiner and purifier of silver, and he will purify the sons of Levi, and refine them as gold and silver; and they shall offer unto Jehovah offerings in righteousness. Malachi 3:4 Then shall the offering of Judah and Jerusalem be pleasant unto Jehovah, as in the days of old, and as in ancient years. Deuteronomy 9:1 Hear, O Israel: thou art to pass over the Jordan this day, to go in to dispossess nations greater and mightier than thyself, cities great and fortified up to heaven, Hebrews 6:7 For the land which hath drunk the rain that cometh oft upon it, and bringeth forth herbs meet for them for whose sake it is also tilled, receiveth blessing from God: Deuteronomy 9:2 a people great and tall, the sons of the Anakim, whom thou knowest, and of whom thou hast heard say, Who can stand before the sons of Anak? Deuteronomy 9:3 Know therefore this day, that Jehovah thy God is he who goeth over before thee as a devouring fire; he will destroy them, and he will bring them down before thee: so shalt thou drive them out, and make them to perish quickly, as Jehovah hath spoken unto thee. Psalms 119:105 NUN. Thy word is a lamp unto my feet, And light unto my path. Genesis 15:18 In that day Jehovah made a covenant with Abram, saying, Unto thy seed have I given this land, from the river of Egypt unto the great river, the river Euphrates: Malachi 3:11 And I will rebuke the devourer for your sakes, and he shall not destroy the fruits of your ground; neither shall your vine cast its fruit before the time in the field, saith Jehovah of hosts. Malachi 3:12 And all nations shall call you happy; for ye shall be a delightsome land, saith Jehovah of hosts. Ephesians 6:17 And take the helmet of salvation, and the sword of the Spirit, which is the word of God: Galatians 2:20 I have been crucified with Christ; and it is no longer I that live, but Christ liveth in me: and that life which I now live in the flesh I live in faith, the faith which is in the Son of God, who loved me, and gave himself up for me. 2 Peter 1:3 seeing that his divine power hath granted unto us all things that pertain unto life and godliness, through the knowledge of him that called us by his own glory and virtue; Romans 4:13 For not through the law was the promise to Abraham or to his seed that he should be heir of the world, but through the righteousness of faith. 1 John 2:6 he that saith he abideth in him ought himself also to walk even as he walked. Matthew 6:19 Lay not up for yourselves treasures upon the earth, where moth and rust consume, and where thieves break through and steal: Matthew 6:20 but lay up for yourselves treasures in heaven, where neither moth nor rust doth consume, and where thieves do not break through nor steal: Matthew 6:21 for where thy treasure is, there will thy heart be also. Ephesians 1:3 Blessed be the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, who hath blessed us with every spiritual blessing in the heavenly places in Christ: Luke 12:33 Sell that which ye have, and give alms; make for yourselves purses which wax not old, a treasure in the heavens that faileth not, where no thief draweth near, neither moth destroyeth. Luke 12:34 For where your treasure is, there will your heart be also. 1 John 3:17 But whoso hath the world's goods, and beholdeth his brother in need, and shutteth up his compassion from him, how doth the love of God abide in him? Luke 18:22 And when Jesus heard it, he said unto him, One thing thou lackest yet: sell all that thou hast, and distribute unto the poor, and thou shalt have treasure in heaven: and come, follow me. Matthew 6:21 for where thy treasure is, there will thy heart be also. Matthew 6:22 The lamp of the body is the eye: if therefore thine eye be single, thy whole body shall be full of light. Matthew 6:23 But if thine eye be evil, thy whole body shall be full of darkness. If therefore the light that is in thee be darkness, how great is the darkness! Matthew 6:24 No man can serve two masters: for either he will hate the one, and love the other; or else he will hold to one, and despise the other. Ye cannot serve God and mammon. Luke 14:33 So therefore whosoever he be of you that renounceth not all that he hath, he cannot be my disciple. Matthew 23:23 Woe unto you, scribes and Pharisees, hypocrites! for ye tithe mint and anise and cummin, and have left undone the weightier matters of the law, justice, and mercy, and faith: but these ye ought to have done, and not to have left the other undone. Matthew 6:25 Therefore I say unto you, Be not anxious for your life, what ye shall eat, or what ye shall drink; nor yet for your body, what ye shall put on. Is not the life more than the food, and the body than the raiment? Matthew 6:26 Behold the birds of the heaven, that they sow not, neither do they reap, nor gather into barns; and your heavenly Father feedeth them. Are not ye of much more value than they? Matthew 6:27 And which of you by being anxious can add one cubit unto the measure of his life? Matthew 6:28 And why are ye anxious concerning raiment? Consider the lilies of the field, how they grow; they toil not, neither do they spin: Matthew 6:29 yet I say unto you, that even Solomon in all his glory was not arrayed like one of these. Matthew 6:30 But if God doth so clothe the grass of the field, which to-day is, and to-morrow is cast into the oven, shall he not much more clothe you, O ye of little faith? Matthew 6:31 Be not therefore anxious, saying, What shall we eat? or, What shall we drink? or, Wherewithal shall we be clothed? Matthew 6:32 For after all these things do the Gentiles seek; for your heavenly Father knoweth that ye have need of all these things. Matthew 6:33 But seek ye first his kingdom, and his righteousness; and all these things shall be added unto you. Matthew 6:34 Be not therefore anxious for the morrow: for the morrow will be anxious for itself. Sufficient unto the day is the evil thereof. The Real Good News (16) - Treasures in Heaven Philippians 2:13 for it is God who worketh in you both to will and to work, for his good pleasure. Ephesians 1:3 Blessed be the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, who hath blessed us with every spiritual blessing in the heavenly places in Christ: Hebrews 10:32 But call to remembrance the former days, in which, after ye were enlightened, ye endured a great conflict of sufferings; Hebrews 10:33 partly, being made a gazingstock both by reproaches and afflictions; and partly, becoming partakers with them that were so used. Hebrews 10:34 For ye both had compassion on them that were in bonds, and took joyfully the spoiling of your possessions, knowing that ye have for yourselves a better possession and an abiding one. Matthew 6:19 Lay not up for yourselves treasures upon the earth, where moth and rust consume, and where thieves break through and steal: Matthew 6:20 but lay up for yourselves treasures in heaven, where neither moth nor rust doth consume, and where thieves do not break through nor steal: Revelation 12:6 And the woman fled into the wilderness, where she hath a place prepared of God, that there they may nourish her a thousand two hundred and threescore days. Luke 12:31 Yet seek ye his kingdom, and these things shall be added unto you. Luke 12:32 Fear not, little flock; for it is your Father's good pleasure to give you the kingdom. Matthew 6:26 Behold the birds of the heaven, that they sow not, neither do they reap, nor gather into barns; and your heavenly Father feedeth them. Are not ye of much more value than they? Luke 12:33 Sell that which ye have, and give alms; make for yourselves purses which wax not old, a treasure in the heavens that faileth not, where no thief draweth near, neither moth destroyeth. Luke 12:18 And he said, This will I do: I will pull down my barns, and build greater; and there will I bestow all my grain and my goods. Luke 12:19 And I will say to my soul, Soul, thou hast much goods laid up for many years; take thine ease, eat, drink, be merry. Luke 12:20 But God said unto him, Thou foolish one, this night is thy soul required of thee; and the things which thou hast prepared, whose shall they be? Luke 12:21 So is he that layeth up treasure for himself, and is not rich toward God. Luke 6:38 give, and it shall be given unto you; good measure, pressed down, shaken together, running over, shall they give into your bosom. For with what measure ye mete it shall be measured to you again. Luke 21:2 And he saw a certain poor widow casting in thither two mites. Luke 21:3 And he said, Of a truth I say unto you, This poor widow cast in more than they all: Luke 18:22 And when Jesus heard it, he said unto him, One thing thou lackest yet: sell all that thou hast, and distribute unto the poor, and thou shalt have treasure in heaven: and come, follow me. Matthew 10:7 And as ye go, preach, saying, The kingdom of heaven is at hand. Matthew 10:8 Heal the sick, raise the dead, cleanse the lepers, cast out demons: freely ye received, freely give. Matthew 10:9 Get you no gold, nor silver, nor brass in your purses; Matthew 10:10 no wallet for your journey, neither two coats, nor shoes, nor staff: for the laborer is worthy of his food. Luke 22:35 And he said unto them, When I sent you forth without purse, and wallet, and shoes, lacked ye anything? And they said, Nothing. Luke 22:36 And he said unto them, But now, he that hath a purse, let him take it, and likewise a wallet; and he that hath none, let him sell his cloak, and buy a sword. Luke 22:37 For I say unto you, that this which is written must be fulfilled in me, And he was reckoned with transgressors: for that which concerneth me hath fulfilment. Galatians 3:11 Now that no man is justified by the law before God, is evident: for, The righteous shall live by faith; Genesis 37:14 And he said to him, Go now, see whether it is well with thy brethren, and well with the flock; and bring me word again. So he sent him out of the vale of Hebron, and he came to Shechem. Genesis 37:11 And his brethren envied him; but his father kept the saying in mind. 2 Corinthians 3:6 who also made us sufficient as ministers of a new covenant; not of the letter, but of the spirit: for the letter killeth, but the spirit giveth life. Genesis 37:18 And they saw him afar off, and before he came near unto them, they conspired against him to slay him. John 1:11 He came unto his own, and they that were his own received him not. Genesis 37:19 And they said one to another, Behold, this dreamer cometh. Genesis 37:20 Come now therefore, and let us slay him, and cast him into one of the pits, and we will say, An evil beast hath devoured him: and we shall see what will become of his dreams. Mark 14:41 And he cometh the third time, and saith unto them, Sleep on now, and take your rest: it is enough; the hour is come; behold, the Son of man is betrayed into the hands of sinners. 2 Peter 1:5 Yea, and for this very cause adding on your part all diligence, in your faith supply virtue; and in your virtue knowledge; 2 Peter 1:6 and in your knowledge self-control; and in your self-control patience; and in your patience godliness; 2 Peter 1:7 and in your godliness brotherly kindness; and in your brotherly kindness love. Genesis 37:27 Come, and let us sell him to the Ishmaelites, and let not our hand be upon him; for he is our brother, our flesh. And his brethren hearkened unto him. Genesis 37:28 And there passed by Midianites, merchantmen; and they drew and lifted up Joseph out of the pit, and sold Joseph to the Ishmaelites for twenty pieces of silver. And they brought Joseph into Egypt. Matthew 26:15 and said, What are ye willing to give me, and I will deliver him unto you? And they weighed unto him thirty pieces of silver. Genesis 37:33 And he knew it, and said, It is my son's coat: an evil beast hath devoured him; Joseph is without doubt torn in pieces. Genesis 37:36 And the Midianites sold him into Egypt unto Potiphar, an officer of Pharaoh's, the captain of the guard. Matthew 27:2 and they bound him, and led him away, and delivered him up to Pilate the governor. Genesis 39:1 And Joseph was brought down to Egypt; and Potiphar, an officer of Pharaoh's, the captain of the guard, an Egyptian, bought him of the hand of the Ishmaelites, that had brought him down thither. Revelation 17:3 And he carried me away in the Spirit into a wilderness: and I saw a woman sitting upon a scarlet-colored beast, full of names of blasphemy, having seven heads and ten horns. Genesis 39:12 And she caught him by his garment, saying, Lie with me: and he left his garment in her hand, and fled, and got him out. 1 Corinthians 6:15 Know ye not that your bodies are members of Christ? shall I then take away the members of Christ, and make them members of a harlot? God forbid. 1 Corinthians 6:16 Or know ye not that he that is joined to a harlot is one body? for, The twain, saith he, shall become one flesh. 1 Corinthians 6:17 But he that is joined unto the Lord is one spirit. 1 Corinthians 6:18 Flee fornication. Every sin that a man doeth is without the body; but he that committeth fornication sinneth against his own body. Revelation 17:6 And I saw the woman drunken with the blood of the saints, and with the blood of the martyrs of Jesus. And when I saw her, I wondered with a great wonder. Genesis 39:17 And she spake unto him according to these words, saying, The Hebrew servant, whom thou hast brought unto us, came in unto me to mock me: Genesis 39:18 and it came to pass, as I lifted up my voice and cried, that he left his garment by me, and fled out. Genesis 39:20 And Joseph's master took him, and put him into the prison, the place where the king's prisoners were bound: and he was there in the prison. 1 Peter 3:19 in which also he went and preached unto the spirits in prison, Luke 16:23 And in Hades he lifted up his eyes, being in torments, and seeth Abraham afar off, and Lazarus in his bosom. John 3:3 Jesus answered and said unto him, Verily, verily, I say unto thee, Except one be born anew, he cannot see the kingdom of God. Ephesians 4:8 Wherefore he saith, When he ascended on high, he led captivity captive, And gave gifts unto men. Genesis 39:22 And the keeper of the prison committed to Joseph's hand all the prisoners that were in the prison; and whatsoever they did there, he was the doer of it. Genesis 41:1 And it came to pass at the end of two full years, that Pharaoh dreamed: and, behold, he stood by the river. Matthew 12:40 for as Jonah was three days and three nights in the belly of the whale; so shall the Son of man be three days and three nights in the heart of the earth. 2 Peter 3:8 But forget not this one thing, beloved, that one day is with the Lord as a thousand years, and a thousand years as one day. 2 Corinthians 3:18 But we all, with unveiled face beholding as in a mirror the glory of the Lord, are transformed into the same image from glory to glory, even as from the Lord the Spirit. Galatians 2:20 I have been crucified with Christ; and it is no longer I that live, but Christ liveth in me: and that life which I now live in the flesh I live in faith, the faith which is in the Son of God, who loved me, and gave himself up for me. Ecclesiastes 1:9 That which hath been is that which shall be; and that which hath been done is that which shall be done: and there is no new thing under the sun. John 16:21 A woman when she is in travail hath sorrow, because her hour is come: but when she is delivered of the child, she remembereth no more the anguish, for the joy that a man is born into the world. Colossians 1:27 to whom God was pleased to make known what is the riches of the glory of this mystery among the Gentiles, which is Christ in you, the hope of glory: Revelation 4:1 After these things I saw, and behold, a door opened in heaven, and the first voice that I heard, a voice as of a trumpet speaking with me, one saying, Come up hither, and I will show thee the things which must come to pass hereafter. Revelation 12:5 And she was delivered of a son, a man child, who is to rule all the nations with a rod of iron: and her child was caught up unto God, and unto his throne. Genesis 41:29 Behold, there come seven years of great plenty throughout all the land of Egypt: Genesis 41:30 and there shall arise after them seven years of famine; and all the plenty shall be forgotten in the land of Egypt; and the famine shall consume the land; Revelation 12:6 And the woman fled into the wilderness, where she hath a place prepared of God, that there they may nourish her a thousand two hundred and threescore days. Genesis 41:31 and the plenty shall not be known in the land by reason of that famine which followeth; for it shall be very grievous. Romans 1:3 concerning his Son, who was born of the seed of David according to the flesh, Romans 1:4 who was declared to be the Son of God with power, according to the spirit of holiness, by the resurrection from the dead; even Jesus Christ our Lord, Genesis 41:40 thou shalt be over my house, and according unto thy word shall all my people be ruled: only in the throne will I be greater than thou. Matthew 28:18 And Jesus came to them and spake unto them, saying, All authority hath been given unto me in heaven and on earth. Matthew 28:19 Go ye therefore, and make disciples of all the nations, baptizing them into the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit: Matthew 18:18 Verily I say unto you, What things soever ye shall bind on earth shall be bound in heaven; and what things soever ye shall loose on earth shall be loosed in heaven. Mark 11:24 Therefore I say unto you, All things whatsoever ye pray and ask for, believe that ye received them, and ye shall have them. Genesis 41:43 and he made him to ride in the second chariot which he had; and they cried before him, Bow the knee: and he set him over all the land of Egypt. Romans 14:11 For it is written, As I live, saith the Lord, to me every knee shall bow, And every tongue shall confess to God. Genesis 41:44 And Pharaoh said unto Joseph, I am Pharaoh, and without thee shall no man lift up his hand or his foot in all the land of Egypt. Genesis 41:45 And Pharaoh called Joseph's name Zaphenath-paneah; and he gave him to wife Asenath, the daughter of Poti-phera priest of On. And Joseph went out over the land of Egypt. Genesis 41:47 And in the seven plenteous years the earth brought forth by handfuls. Genesis 41:48 And he gathered up all the food of the seven years which were in the land of Egypt, and laid up the food in the cities: the food of the field, which was round about every city, laid he up in the same. Matthew 6:19 Lay not up for yourselves treasures upon the earth, where moth and rust consume, and where thieves break through and steal: Matthew 6:20 but lay up for yourselves treasures in heaven, where neither moth nor rust doth consume, and where thieves do not break through nor steal: John 6:31 Our fathers ate the manna in the wilderness; as it is written, He gave them bread out of heaven to eat. Genesis 41:55 And when all the land of Egypt was famished, the people cried to Pharaoh for bread: and Pharaoh said unto all the Egyptians, Go unto Joseph; what he saith to you, do. Genesis 41:56 And the famine was over all the face of the earth: and Joseph opened all the store-houses, and sold unto the Egyptians; and the famine was sore in the land of Egypt. Luke 12:33 Sell that which ye have, and give alms; make for yourselves purses which wax not old, a treasure in the heavens that faileth not, where no thief draweth near, neither moth destroyeth. Genesis 42:7 And Joseph saw his brethren, and he knew them, but made himself strange unto them, and spake roughly with them; and he said unto them. Whence come ye? And they said, From the land of Canaan to buy food. Matthew 20:16 So the last shall be first, and the first last. Genesis 42:25 Then Joseph commanded to fill their vessels with grain, and to restore every man's money into his sack, and to give them provisions for the way: and thus was it done unto them. Genesis 42:26 And they laded their asses with their grain, and departed thence. Genesis 43:21 and it came to pass, when we came to the lodging-place, that we opened our sacks, and, behold, every man's money was in the mouth of his sack, our money in full weight: and we have brought it again in our hand. Genesis 43:23 And he said, Peace be to you, fear not: your God, and the God of your father, hath given you treasure in your sacks: I had your money. And he brought Simeon out unto them. Genesis 44:1 And he commanded the steward of his house, saying, Fill the men's sacks with food, as much as they can carry, and put every man's money in his sack's mouth. Genesis 45:6 For these two years hath the famine been in the land: and there are yet five years, in which there shall be neither plowing nor harvest. Genesis 45:20 Also regard not your stuff; for the good of all the land of Egypt is yours. Luke 18:22 And when Jesus heard it, he said unto him, One thing thou lackest yet: sell all that thou hast, and distribute unto the poor, and thou shalt have treasure in heaven: and come, follow me.  

In this episode of Bible Backdrop, we start the narrative of Joseph and his sale to the Ishmaelites. Then we talk about a side story with Judah and about how that fits into the Joseph narrative. Why was Joseph sold so cheaply? What was Reuben's motive to rescue Joseph? What does the Bible include the story about Judah in the middle of the Joseph narrative? Listen to this episode to find out more.If you are enjoying Bible Backdrop, please leave a 5 star rating and review. You can also contact the show by using the e-mail in the episode.

Judges 8 verses 18 to 35. Then Gideon asked Zebah and Zalmunna, “The men you killed at Tabor—what were they like?” “Like you,” they replied. “They all had the look of a king's son.” “They were my brothers, the sons of my own mother!” Gideon exclaimed. “As surely as the Lord lives, I wouldn't kill you if you hadn't killed them.” Turning to Jether, his oldest son, he said, “Kill them!” But Jether did not draw his sword, for he was only a boy and was afraid. Then Zebah and Zalmunna said to Gideon, “Be a man! Kill us yourself!” So Gideon killed them both and took the royal ornaments from the necks of their camels. Then the Israelites said to Gideon, “Be our ruler! You and your son and your grandson will be our rulers, for you have rescued us from Midian.” But Gideon replied, “I will not rule over you, nor will my son. The Lord will rule over you! However, I do have one request—that each of you give me an earring from the plunder you collected from your fallen enemies.” (The enemies, being Ishmaelites, all wore gold earrings.) “Gladly!” they replied. They spread out a cloak, and each one threw in a gold earring he had gathered from the plunder. The weight of the gold earrings was forty-three pounds, not including the royal ornaments and pendants, the purple clothing worn by the kings of Midian, or the chains around the necks of their camels. Gideon made a sacred ephod from the gold and put it in Ophrah, his hometown. But soon all the Israelites prostituted themselves by worshiping it, and it became a trap for Gideon and his family. That is the story of how the people of Israel defeated Midian, which never recovered. Throughout the rest of Gideon's lifetime—about forty years—there was peace in the land. Then Gideon son of Joash returned home. He had seventy sons born to him, for he had many wives. He also had a concubine in Shechem, who gave birth to a son, whom he named Abimelech. Gideon died when he was very old, and he was buried in the grave of his father, Joash, at Ophrah in the land of the clan of Abiezer. As soon as Gideon died, the Israelites prostituted themselves by worshiping the images of Baal, making Baal-berith their god. They forgot the Lord their God, who had rescued them from all their enemies surrounding them. Nor did they show any loyalty to the family of Jerub-baal (that is, Gideon), despite all the good he had done for Israel.

3:52 - Why are the Jews looking for Red Heiffers? / 10:28 - Are the Ishmaelites and Midianites the same people group? / 18:35 - Why does the Catholic Bible have the Apocrypha? / 24:40 - Is church membership Biblical? / 40:05 - Where do the Catholics source purgatory in scripture? / 48:05 - How were people in the Old Testament saved? / 52:41 - Can you explain John 9:35-37?

Genesis 37:5  //  Joseph had a dream, and when he told it to his brothers, they hated him all the more. Genesis 37:17b-20  //  So Joseph went after his brothers and found them near Dothan. But they saw him in the distance, and before he reached them, they plotted to kill him. “Here comes that dreamer!” they said to each other. “Come now, let's kill him and throw him into one of these cisterns and say that a ferocious animal devoured him. Then we'll see what comes of his dreams.” Genesis 37:23-24  //  So when Joseph came to his brothers, they stripped him of his robe—the ornate robe he was wearing—and they took him and threw him into the cistern. The cistern was empty; there was no water in it. Genesis 37:28  //  So when the Midianite merchants came by, his brothers pulled Joseph up out of the cistern and sold him for twenty shekels of silver to the Ishmaelites, who took him to Egypt. Genesis 50:20  //  You intended to harm me, but God intended it for good to accomplish what is now being done, the saving of many lives. When life is unfair, it is to my advantage to: Recognize God's Presence Genesis 39:1-2  //  Now Joseph had been taken down to Egypt. Potiphar, an Egyptian who was one of Pharaoh's officials, the captain of the guard, bought him from the Ishmaelites who had taken him there. The Lord was with Joseph so that he prospered, and he lived in the house of his Egyptian master. Joshua 1:5  //  No one will be able to stand against you all the days of your life. As I was with Moses, so I will be with you; I will never leave you nor forsake you. When life is unfair, it is to my advantage to: Move Forward Genesis 39:3-4  //  When his master saw that the Lord was with him and that the Lord gave him success in everything he did, Joseph found favor in his eyes and became his attendant. Potiphar put him in charge of his household, and he entrusted to his care everything he owned. Don't let the bad of a past season create bitterness in your current season. When life is unfair, it is to my advantage to: Embrace God's Redirection Genesis 39:20-21  //  Joseph's master took him and put him in prison, the place where the king's prisoners were confined. But while Joseph was there in the prison, the Lord was with him. As a follower of Jesus, even haters help make my purpose happen. When life is unfair, it is to my advantage to: Choose Forgiveness Genesis 50:15  //  When Joseph's brothers saw that their father was dead, they said, “What if Joseph holds a grudge against us and pays us back for all the wrongs we did to him?” Genesis 50:18-21  //  His brothers then came and threw themselves down before him. “We are your slaves,” they said. But Joseph said to them, “Don't be afraid. Am I in the place of God? You intended to harm me, but God intended it for good to accomplish what is now being done, the saving of many lives. So then, don't be afraid. I will provide for you and your children.” Unfair scenarios happen to the best of us, but they don't have to get the best of us. Luke 23:34  //  Jesus said, “Father, forgive them, for they do not know what they are doing.” And they divided up his clothes by casting lots.

Study Passage: Genesis 39:1-23Now Joseph had been brought down to Egypt, and Potiphar, an officer of Pharaoh, the captain of the guard, an Egyptian, had bought him from the Ishmaelites who had brought him down there. 2 The LORD was with Joseph, and he became asuccessful man, and he was in the house of his Egyptian master. 3 His master saw that the Lord was with him and that the Lord caused all that he did to succeed in his hands. 4 So Joseph found favor in his sight and attended him, and he made him overseer of his house and put him in charge of all that he had. 5 From the time that he made him overseer in his house and over all that he had, the Lord blessed the Egyptian's house for Joseph's sake; the blessing of the Lord was on all that he had, in house and field. 6 So he left all that he had in Joseph's charge, and because of him he had no concern about anything but the food he ate. Now Joseph was handsome in form and appearance. 7 And after a time his master's wife cast her eyes on Joseph and said, “Lie with me.” 8 But he refused and said to his master's wife, “Behold, because of me my master has no concern about anything in the house, and he has put everything that he has in my charge. 9 He is not greater in this house than I am, nor has he kept back anything from me except you, because you are his wife. How then can I do this great wickedness and sin against God?” 10 And as she spoke to Joseph day after day, he would not listen to her, to lie beside her or to be with her. 11 But one day, when he went into the house to do his work and none of the men of the house was there in the house, 12 she caught him by his garment, saying, “Lie with me.” But he left his garment in her hand and fled and got out of the house. 13 And as soon as she saw that he had left his garment in her hand and had fled out of the house, 14 she called to the men of her household and said to them, “See, he has brought among us a Hebrew to laugh at us. He came in to me to lie with me, and I cried out with a loud voice. 15 And as soon as he heard that I lifted up my voice and cried out, he left his garment beside me and fled and got out of the house.” 16 Then she laid up his garment by her until his master came home, 17 and she told him the same story, saying, “The Hebrew servant, whom you have brought among us, came in to me to laugh at me. 18 But as soon as I lifted up my voice and cried, he left his garment beside me and fled out of the house.” 19 As soon as his master heard the words that his wife spoke to him, “This is the way your servant treated me,” his anger was kindled. 20 And Joseph's master took him and put him into the prison, the place where the king's prisoners were confined, and he was there in prison. 21 But the Lord was with Joseph and showed him steadfast love and gave him favor in the sight of the keeper of the prison. 22 And the keeper of the prison put Joseph in charge of all the prisoners who were in the prison. Whatever was done there, he was the one who did it. 23 The keeper of the prison paid no attention to anything that was in Joseph's charge, because the Lord was with him. And whatever he did, the Lord made it succeed.

Pastor Robert Baltodano and Dr. Jay Falzarano Question Timestamps: Laurie, NH (6:50) - Why does Genesis 37:36 say that the Midianites bought Joseph, but then Genesis 39:1 says that the Ishmaelites sold him in Egypt? Nicholas, NY (8:35) - How much do we contribute to our salvation? Sammy, MA (17:56) - The Bible says not to make vows, is it possible to make a vow in return for God to do something like Hannah?  Susan, email (27:53) - Does God hate? Riley, KY (34:17) - Why are so many Christians silent on the violence in Palestine? Lourdes, NJ (40:39) - What is the difference between the spirit and the soul? Rosemary, email (47:29) - What does Luke 11 mean when it says the Queen of the South “will rise up in judgment?” Suzanne, FL (51:40) - Is an ex-Satan worshiper still saved if they become a Christian? Questions? 888-712-7434 Answers@bbtlive.org

Study Passage: Genesis 37:12-3612 Now his brothers went to pasture their father's flock near Shechem. 13 And Israel said to Joseph, “Are not your brothers pasturing the flock at Shechem? Come, I will send you to them.” And he said to him, “Here I am.” 14 So he said to him, “Go now, see if it is well with your brothers and with the flock, and bring me word.” So he sent him from the Valley of Hebron, and he came to Shechem. 15 And a man found him wandering in the fields. And the man asked him, “What are you seeking?” 16 “I am seeking my brothers,” he said. “Tell me, please, where they are pasturing the flock.” 17 And the man said, “They have gone away, for I heard them say, ‘Let us go to Dothan.'” So Joseph went after his brothers and found them at Dothan. 18 They saw him from afar, and before he came near to them they conspired against him to kill him. 19 They said to one another, “Here comes this dreamer. 20 Come now, let us kill him and throw him into one of the pits. Then we will say that a fierce animal has devoured him, and we will see what will become of his dreams.” 21 But when Reuben heard it, he rescued him out of their hands, saying, “Let us not take his life.” 22 And Reuben said to them, “Shed no blood; throw him into this pit here in the wilderness, but do not lay a hand on him”—that he might rescue him out of their hand to restore him to his father. 23 So when Joseph came to his brothers, they stripped him of his robe, the robe of many colors that he wore. 24 And they took him and threw him into a pit. The pit was empty; there was no water in it. 25 Then they sat down to eat. And looking up they saw a caravan of Ishmaelites coming from Gilead, with their camels bearing gum, balm, and myrrh, on their way to carry it down to Egypt. 26 Then Judah said to his brothers, “What profit is it if we kill our brother and conceal his blood? 27 Come, let us sell him to the Ishmaelites, and let not our hand be upon him, for he is our brother, our own flesh.” And his brothers listened to him. 28 Then Midianite traders passed by. And they drew Joseph up and lifted him out of the pit, and sold him to the Ishmaelites for twenty shekels of silver. They took Joseph to Egypt. 29 When Reuben returned to the pit and saw that Joseph was not in the pit, he tore his clothes 30 and returned to his brothers and said, “The boy is gone, and I, where shall I go?” 31 Then they took Joseph's robe and slaughtered a goat and dipped the robe in the blood. 32 And they sent the robe of many colors and brought it to their father and said, “This we have found; please identify whether it is your son's robe or not.” 33 And he identified it and said, “It is my son's robe. A fierce animal has devoured him. Joseph is without doubt torn to pieces.” 34 Then Jacob tore his garments and put sackcloth on his loins and mourned for his son many days. 35 All his sons and all his daughters rose up to comfort him, but he refused to be comforted and said, “No, I shall go down to Sheol to my son, mourning.” Thus his father wept for him. 36 Meanwhile the Midianites had sold him in Egypt to Potiphar, an officer of Pharaoh, the captain of the guard.

Support Common Prayer Daily @ PatreonVisit our Website for more www.commonprayerdaily.com_______________LentJesus said, “If anyone would come after me, let him deny himself and take up his cross and follow me.”Mark 8:34 ConfessionOfficiant: Let us humbly confess our sins unto Almighty God.People: Almighty and most merciful Father, we have erred and strayed from your ways like lost sheep. We have followed too much the devices and desires of our own hearts. We have offended against your holy laws.We have left undone those things which we ought to have done, and we have done those things which we ought not to have done; and apart from your grace, there is no health in us. O Lord, have mercy upon us. Spare all those who confess their faults. Restore all those who are penitent, according to your promises declared to all people in Christ Jesus our Lord. And grant, O most merciful Father, for his sake, that we may now live a godly, righteous, and sober life, to the glory of your holy Name. Amen.Officiant: Almighty God have mercy on us, forgive us all our sins through our Lord Jesus Christ, strengthen us in all goodness, and by the power of the Holy Spirit keep us in eternal life. Amen. The Lord's PrayerOur Father, who art in heaven, hallowed be thy Name, thy kingdom come, thy will be done, on earth as it is in heaven. Give us this day our daily bread. And forgive us our trespasses, as we forgive those who trespass against us. And lead us not into temptation, but deliver us from evil. For thine is the kingdom, and the power, and the glory, for ever and ever. Amen. Invitatory & PsalmsOfficiant: O God, make speed to save us. People: O Lord, make haste to help us. Officiant & People: Glory to the Father, and to the Son, and to the Holy Spirit: as it was in the beginning, is now, and will be for ever. Amen. LentThe Lord is full of compassion and mery: Come let us adore him.Venite Psalm 95:1-7Come, let us sing to the Lord; *let us shout for joy to the Rock of our salvation.Let us come before his presence with thanksgiving * and raise a loud shout to him with psalms.For the Lord is a great God, *and a great King above all gods.In his hand are the caverns of the earth, * and the heights of the hills are his also.The sea is his, for he made it, *and his hands have molded the dry land.Come, let us bow down, and bend the knee, * and kneel before the Lord our Maker.For he is our God, and we are the people of his pasture and the sheep of his hand. * Oh, that today you would hearken to his voice!The Lord is full of compassion and mery: Come let us adore him. Psalm 68Exsurgat Deus1Let God arise, and let his enemies be scattered; *let those who hate him flee before him.2Let them vanish like smoke when the wind drives it away; *as the wax melts at the fire, so let the wicked perish at the presence of God.3But let the righteous be glad and rejoice before God; *let them also be merry and joyful.4Sing to God, sing praises to his Name;exalt him who rides upon the heavens; *Yahweh is his Name, rejoice before him!5Father of orphans, defender of widows, *God in his holy habitation!6God gives the solitary a home and brings forth prisoners into freedom; *but the rebels shall live in dry places.7O God, when you went forth before your people, *when you marched through the wilderness,8The earth shook, and the skies poured down rain,at the presence of God, the God of Sinai, *at the presence of God, the God of Israel.9You sent a gracious rain, O God, upon your inheritance; *you refreshed the land when it was weary.10Your people found their home in it; *in your goodness, O God, you have made provision for the poor.11The Lord gave the word; *great was the company of women who bore the tidings:12“Kings with their armies are fleeing away; *the women at home are dividing the spoils.”13Though you lingered among the sheepfolds, *you shall be like a dove whose wings are covered with silver,whose feathers are like green gold.14When the Almighty scattered kings, *it was like snow falling in Zalmon.15O mighty mountain, O hill of Bashan! *O rugged mountain, O hill of Bashan!16Why do you look with envy, O rugged mountain,at the hill which God chose for his resting place? *truly, the Lord will dwell there for ever.17The chariots of God are twenty thousand,even thousands of thousands; *the Lord comes in holiness from Sinai.18You have gone up on high and led captivity captive;you have received gifts even from your enemies, *that the Lord God might dwell among them.19Blessed be the Lord day by day, *the God of our salvation, who bears our burdens. Glory to the Father, and to the Son, and to the Holy Spirit: as it was in the beginning, is now, and will be for ever. Amen. The LessonsGenesis 37:3-28English Standard Version3 Now Israel loved Joseph more than any other of his sons, because he was the son of his old age. And he made him a robe of many colors. 4 But when his brothers saw that their father loved him more than all his brothers, they hated him and could not speak peacefully to him.5 Now Joseph had a dream, and when he told it to his brothers they hated him even more. 6 He said to them, “Hear this dream that I have dreamed: 7 Behold, we were binding sheaves in the field, and behold, my sheaf arose and stood upright. And behold, your sheaves gathered around it and bowed down to my sheaf.” 8 His brothers said to him, “Are you indeed to reign over us? Or are you indeed to rule over us?” So they hated him even more for his dreams and for his words.9 Then he dreamed another dream and told it to his brothers and said, “Behold, I have dreamed another dream. Behold, the sun, the moon, and eleven stars were bowing down to me.” 10 But when he told it to his father and to his brothers, his father rebuked him and said to him, “What is this dream that you have dreamed? Shall I and your mother and your brothers indeed come to bow ourselves to the ground before you?” 11 And his brothers were jealous of him, but his father kept the saying in mind.12 Now his brothers went to pasture their father's flock near Shechem. 13 And Israel said to Joseph, “Are not your brothers pasturing the flock at Shechem? Come, I will send you to them.” And he said to him, “Here I am.” 14 So he said to him, “Go now, see if it is well with your brothers and with the flock, and bring me word.” So he sent him from the Valley of Hebron, and he came to Shechem. 15 And a man found him wandering in the fields. And the man asked him, “What are you seeking?” 16 “I am seeking my brothers,” he said. “Tell me, please, where they are pasturing the flock.” 17 And the man said, “They have gone away, for I heard them say, ‘Let us go to Dothan.'” So Joseph went after his brothers and found them at Dothan.18 They saw him from afar, and before he came near to them they conspired against him to kill him. 19 They said to one another, “Here comes this dreamer. 20 Come now, let us kill him and throw him into one of the pits. Then we will say that a fierce animal has devoured him, and we will see what will become of his dreams.” 21 But when Reuben heard it, he rescued him out of their hands, saying, “Let us not take his life.” 22 And Reuben said to them, “Shed no blood; throw him into this pit here in the wilderness, but do not lay a hand on him”—that he might rescue him out of their hand to restore him to his father. 23 So when Joseph came to his brothers, they stripped him of his robe, the robe of many colors that he wore. 24 And they took him and threw him into a pit. The pit was empty; there was no water in it.25 Then they sat down to eat. And looking up they saw a caravan of Ishmaelites coming from Gilead, with their camels bearing gum, balm, and myrrh, on their way to carry it down to Egypt. 26 Then Judah said to his brothers, “What profit is it if we kill our brother and conceal his blood? 27 Come, let us sell him to the Ishmaelites, and let not our hand be upon him, for he is our brother, our own flesh.” And his brothers listened to him. 28 Then Midianite traders passed by. And they drew Joseph up and lifted him out of the pit, and sold him to the Ishmaelites for twenty shekels of silver. They took Joseph to Egypt.Genesis 37:36English Standard Version36 Meanwhile the Midianites had sold him in Egypt to Potiphar, an officer of Pharaoh, the captain of the guard. Officiant: The Word of the LordPeople: Thanks be to God. A Song of Penitence(Kyrie Pantokrator)O Lord and Ruler of the hosts of heaven, * God of Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob,and of all their righteous offspring:You made the heavens and the earth, * with all their vast array.All things quake with fear at your presence; * they tremble because of your power.But your merciful promise is beyond all measure; * it surpasses all that our minds can fathom.O Lord, you are full of compassion, * long-suffering, and abounding in mercy.You hold back your hand; *you do not punish as we deserve.In your great goodness, Lord,you have promised forgiveness to sinners, * that they may repent of their sin and be saved.And now, O Lord, I bend the knee of my heart, * and make my appeal, sure of your gracious goodness.I have sinned, O Lord, I have sinned, * and I know my wickedness only too well.Therefore I make this prayer to you: * Forgive me, Lord, forgive me.Do not let me perish in my sin, * nor condemn me to the depths of the earth.For you, O Lord, are the God of those who repent, * and in me you will show forth your goodness.Unworthy as I am, you will save me, in accordance with your great mercy, * and I will praise you without ceasing all the days of my life.For all the powers of heaven sing your praises, * and yours is the glory to ages of ages. Amen. 1 Corinthians 9:15-27English Standard Version15 But I have made no use of any of these rights, nor am I writing these things to secure any such provision. For I would rather die than have anyone deprive me of my ground for boasting. 16 For if I preach the gospel, that gives me no ground for boasting. For necessity is laid upon me. Woe to me if I do not preach the gospel! 17 For if I do this of my own will, I have a reward, but if not of my own will, I am still entrusted with a stewardship. 18 What then is my reward? That in my preaching I may present the gospel free of charge, so as not to make full use of my right in the gospel.19 For though I am free from all, I have made myself a servant to all, that I might win more of them. 20 To the Jews I became as a Jew, in order to win Jews. To those under the law I became as one under the law (though not being myself under the law) that I might win those under the law. 21 To those outside the law I became as one outside the law (not being outside the law of God but under the law of Christ) that I might win those outside the law. 22 To the weak I became weak, that I might win the weak. I have become all things to all people, that by all means I might save some. 23 I do it all for the sake of the gospel, that I may share with them in its blessings.24 Do you not know that in a race all the runners run, but only one receives the prize? So run that you may obtain it. 25 Every athlete exercises self-control in all things. They do it to receive a perishable wreath, but we an imperishable. 26 So I do not run aimlessly; I do not box as one beating the air. 27 But I discipline my body and keep it under control, lest after preaching to others I myself should be disqualified.Officiant: The Word of the LordPeople: Thanks be to God. A Song of Praise(Benedictus es, Domine Song of the Three Young Men, 29-34)Glory to you, Lord God of our fathers; * you are worthy of praise; glory to you.Glory to you for the radiance of your holy Name; * we will praise you and highly exalt you for ever.Glory to you in the splendor of your temple; * on the throne of your majesty, glory to you.Glory to you, seated between the Cherubim; * we will praise you and highly exalt you for ever.Glory to you, beholding the depths; * in the high vault of heaven, glory to you.Glory to you, Father, Son, and Holy Spirit; * we will praise you and highly exalt you for ever. The CreedI believe in God, the Father almighty, creator of heaven and earth.I believe in Jesus Christ, his only Son, our Lord. He was conceived by the power of the Holy Spirit and born of the Virgin Mary. He suffered under Pontius Pilate, was crucified, died, and was buried. He descended to the dead. On the third day he rose again. He ascended into heaven, and is seated at the right hand of the Father. He will come again to judge the living and the dead.I believe in the Holy Spirit, the holy catholic Church, the communion of saints, the forgiveness of sins, the resurrection of the body, and the life everlasting. Amen. The PrayersOfficiant: The Lord be with you.People: And also with you.Officiant: Let us pray The SuffragesShow us your mercy, O Lord;And grant us your salvation.Clothe your ministers with righteousness;Let your people sing with joy.Give peace, O Lord, in all the world;For only in you can we live in safety. Lord, keep this nation under your care;And guide us in the way of justice and truth. Let your way be known upon earth; Your saving health among all nations. Let not the needy, O Lord, be forgotten; Nor the hope of the poor be taken away. Create in us clean hearts, O God; And sustain us with your Holy Spirit.Take a moment at this time to reflect and pray for the needs of others. Third Sunday in Lent (Anglican Prayer Book)ALMIGHTY God, consider the sincere desires of your humble servants, we humbly pray, and stretch out the right hand of your power to defend us against our enemies; through Jesus Christ our LORD. Amen.A Collect for PeaceO God, the author of peace and lover of concord, to know you is eternal life and to serve you is perfect freedom: Defend us, your humble servants, in all assaults of our enemies; that we, surely trusting in your defense, may not fear the power of any adversaries; through the might of Jesus Christ our Lord. Amen.A Collect for GraceLord God, almighty and everlasting Father, you have brought us in safety to this new day: Preserve us with your mighty power, that we may not fall into sin, nor be overcome by adversity; and in all we do, direct us to the fulfilling of your purpose; through Jesus Christ our Lord. Amen.For MissionAlmighty and everlasting God, by whose Spirit the whole body of your faithful people is governed and sanctified: Receive our supplications and prayers which we offer before you for all members of your holy Church, that in their vocation and ministry they may truly and devoutly serve you; through our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ. Amen. ThanksgivingsThe General ThanksgivingAlmighty God, Father of all mercies, we your unworthy servants give you humble thanks for all your goodness and loving-kindness to us and to all whom you have made. We bless you for our creation, preservation, and all the blessings of this life; but above all for your immeasurable love in the redemption of the world by our Lord Jesus Christ; for the means of grace, and for the hope of glory. And, we pray, give us such an awareness of your mercies, that with truly thankful hearts we may show forth your praise, not only with our lips, but in our lives, by giving up our selves to your service, and by walking before you in holiness and righteousness all our days; through Jesus Christ our Lord, to whom, with you and the Holy Spirit, be honor and glory throughout all ages. Amen.A Prayer of St. ChrysostomAlmighty God, you have given us grace at this time with one accord to make our common supplication to you; and you have promised through your well-beloved Son that when two or three are gathered together in his Name you will be in the midst of them: Fulfill now, O Lord, our desires and petitions as may be best for us; granting us in this world knowledge of your truth, and in the age to come life everlasting. Amen. ConclusionThe grace of our Lord Jesus Christ, and the love of God, and the fellowship of the Holy Spirit, be with us all evermore. Amen. 2 Corinthians 13:14

Galatians 5:22-23 But the fruit of the Spirit is love, joy, peace, longsuffering, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, 23 gentleness, self-control. Against such there is no law.Genesis 39:1- 39 Now Joseph had been taken down to Egypt. And Potiphar, an officer of Pharaoh, captain of the guard, an Egyptian, bought him from the Ishmaelites who had taken him down there. 2 The Lord was with Joseph, and he was a successful man; and he was in the house of his master the Egyptian. 3 And his master saw that the Lord was with him and that the Lord made all he did to prosper in his hand. 4 So Joseph found favor in his sight, and served him. Then he made him overseer of his house, and all that he had he put under his authority. 5 So it was, from the time that he had made him overseer of his house and all that he had, that the Lord blessed the Egyptian's house for Joseph's sake; and the blessing of the Lord was on all that he had in the house and in the field. 6 Thus he left all that he had in Joseph's hand, and he did not know what he had except for the bread which he ate.Now Joseph was handsome in form and appearance.7 And it came to pass after these things that his master's wife cast longing eyes on Joseph, and she said, “Lie with me.”8 But he refused and said to his master's wife, “Look, my master does not know what is with me in the house, and he has committed all that he has to my hand. 9 There is no one greater in this house than I, nor has he kept back anything from me but you, because you are his wife. How then can I do this great wickedness, and sin against God?”10 So it was, as she spoke to Joseph day by day, that he did not heed her, to lie with her or to be with her.11 But it happened about this time, when Joseph went into the house to do his work, and none of the men of the house was inside, 12 that she caught him by his garment, saying, “Lie with me.” But he left his garment in her hand, and fled and ran outside. 13 And so it was, when she saw that he had left his garment in her hand and fled outside, 14 that she called to the men of her house and spoke to them, saying, “See, he has brought in to us a Hebrew to mock us. He came in to me to lie with me, and I cried out with a loud voice. 15 And it happened, when he heard that I lifted my voice and cried out, that he left his garment with me, and fled and went outside.”1 corinthians 10 13 No temptation has overtaken you except such as is common to man;but God is faithful, who will not allow you to be tempted beyond what you are able, but with the temptation will also make the way of escape, that you may be able to bear it.

Galatians 5:22-23 But the fruit of the Spirit is love, joy, peace, longsuffering, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, 23 gentleness, self-control. Against such there is no law.Genesis 39:1- 39 Now Joseph had been taken down to Egypt. And Potiphar, an officer of Pharaoh, captain of the guard, an Egyptian, bought him from the Ishmaelites who had taken him down there. 2 The Lord was with Joseph, and he was a successful man; and he was in the house of his master the Egyptian. 3 And his master saw that the Lord was with him and that the Lord made all he did to prosper in his hand. 4 So Joseph found favor in his sight, and served him. Then he made him overseer of his house, and all that he had he put under his authority. 5 So it was, from the time that he had made him overseer of his house and all that he had, that the Lord blessed the Egyptian's house for Joseph's sake; and the blessing of the Lord was on all that he had in the house and in the field. 6 Thus he left all that he had in Joseph's hand, and he did not know what he had except for the bread which he ate.Now Joseph was handsome in form and appearance.7 And it came to pass after these things that his master's wife cast longing eyes on Joseph, and she said, “Lie with me.”8 But he refused and said to his master's wife, “Look, my master does not know what is with me in the house, and he has committed all that he has to my hand. 9 There is no one greater in this house than I, nor has he kept back anything from me but you, because you are his wife. How then can I do this great wickedness, and sin against God?”10 So it was, as she spoke to Joseph day by day, that he did not heed her, to lie with her or to be with her.11 But it happened about this time, when Joseph went into the house to do his work, and none of the men of the house was inside, 12 that she caught him by his garment, saying, “Lie with me.” But he left his garment in her hand, and fled and ran outside. 13 And so it was, when she saw that he had left his garment in her hand and fled outside, 14 that she called to the men of her house and spoke to them, saying, “See, he has brought in to us a Hebrew to mock us. He came in to me to lie with me, and I cried out with a loud voice. 15 And it happened, when he heard that I lifted my voice and cried out, that he left his garment with me, and fled and went outside.”1 corinthians 10 13 No temptation has overtaken you except such as is common to man;but God is faithful, who will not allow you to be tempted beyond what you are able, but with the temptation will also make the way of escape, that you may be able to bear it.

How much can one person take, and still choose to offer kindness?   In Genesis Chapter 37, verses 12–36, 17-year-old Joseph is sent by his father to visit his brothers, who were tending the family's flock of sheep in the countryside.   Rather than the friendly check-in he expected, Joseph's brothers initially plotted to kill him out of jealousy, but instead sold him into slavery to a group of Ishmaelites heading for Egypt. Among the brothers, only Reuben wished to leave Joseph unharmed, attempting (but failing) to set up a situation where he could rescue his brother and return him to their father.   In Egypt, Joseph was falsely accused of a crime, thrown into prison, became an interpreter of dreams for Pharaoh, and eventually attained a seat of power over Egypt.   When famine hit the land where his brothers lived, they came to Egypt to buy grain. They didn't know Joseph was not only alive, but was now the governor of Egypt. To their surprise, Joseph wasn't angry at his brothers, but showed them compassion when he saw them again. Instead of taking revenge, he took them in and cared for them. Joseph knew everything that had happened was part of God's plan, and what his brothers intended for harm, God intended for good.   Ephesians 4:2 says, “Be completely humble and gentle; be patient, bearing with one another in love.”   The story of Joseph teaches us that humility, patience, gentleness, and love are not just qualities to be saved up for those who we think deserve it; God asks us to approach others with love even if they have offended or caused us harm.   Let's pray.   Lord, sometimes the people in our lives are disappointing, frustrating, or downright hurtful. God, help us to love those who fall short and need our forgiveness the most, and to bear with each other with patience and with grace. In Jesus' name, amen.

Then Midianite traders passed by; so the brothers pulled Joseph up and lifted him out of the pit, and sold him to the Ishmaelites for twenty shekels of silver. [1 hour 3 minutes]

Have you been experiencing a season of continual disappointments and setbacks? In this powerful morning prayer, Pastor Sean shares how Joseph was thrown down into the pit by his brothers, then he was sold as a slave to the Ishmaelites and taken down to Egypt. In Egypt, he was sold to Potiphar, and he began to experience some success. But Potiphar's wife lied on him, and Potiphar threw him down into Pharaoh's dungeon. Everything seemed to be going down for Joseph, but God was working all things together for good. In prison, Joseph met the Pharaoh's butler, who mentioned him to Pharaoh. In one night, Pharaoh promoted Joseph, and Joseph went from being a prisoner to the prime minister of Egypt. Learn how God is working everything out for your good and how to trust in His timing. Get ready to go from the pit to the palace and experience supernatural favor in your life.

Rabbi Jacobson will discuss the following topics:How Yud Tes Kislev provides us with strength and direction in these trying times  What lessons do we take from Yud Tes Kislev for today's war  What is the significance of the Alter Rebbe saying Padah B'shalom Nafshi when he was notified of his release?  What can we derive from the Tanya we learn these days?  How can we improve our prayers based on the last section in Tanya?  What message do we learn from Tanya's cover page?   What lessons do the lights of Chanukah offer us?  What is the spiritual difference between the wick, the oil and the lame they produce?  Can G-d make miracles as he has done in past wars or does He want us to do the fighting ourselves?  Is the current war closer to what happened on Chanukah or Purim?  Are the turncoat Jewish women marching with Hamas supporters a reincarnation of Miriam bas Bilgah?  Who is today's Yehudis?  Is there a connection between Chassidus and the oil we use to light the menorah?    Is there a connection in all this to Moshiach?  Should freeing the hostages and winning the war take precedent over doing all we can to bring Moshiach?  How does the Torah story of Joseph and his brothers help us understand today's events?  What can we learn from the fact that they sold Joseph to the Ishmaelites?  How does separating Challa help in times like this?  Would it be appropriate to pray for more children to compensate for those tragically taken from us?  Did the visit to the Ohel by the families of the hostages help free them?  How Chanukah provides us with strength and direction in these trying times Empowering Torah Portions   Actions  What lessons do the lights of Chanukah offer us?  What is the spiritual difference between the wick, the oil and the lame they produce?  Can G-d make miracles as he has done in past wars or does He want us to do the fighting ourselves?  Is the current war closer to what happened on Chanukah or Purim?  Are the turncoat Jewish women marching with Hamas supporters a reincarnation of Miriam bas Bilgah?  Who is today's Yehudis?  Is there a connection between Chassidus and the oil we use to light the menorah?    Is there a connection in all this to Moshiach?  Should freeing the hostages and winning the war take precedent over doing all we can to bring Moshiach?  How does the Torah story of Joseph and his brothers help us understand today's events?  What can we learn from the fact that they sold Joseph to the Ishmaelites?  How does separating Challa help in times like this?  Would it be appropriate to pray for more children to compensate for those tragically taken from us?  Did the visit to the Ohel by the families of the hostages help free them?  Empowering Torah Portions   Actions  How does the Torah story of Joseph and his brothers help us understand today's events?  What can we learn from the fact that they sold Joseph to the Ishmaelites?   Actions  How does separating Challa help in times like this?  Would it be appropriate to pray for more children to compensate for those tragically taken from us?  Did the visit to the Ohel by the families of the hostages help free them? 

Apophis rises, Horus prepares, and mages go "this could get interesting". Adam and Terry talk the ka, khaibit, Cabiri, Ishmaelites and the vastly expanded landscape of Mummy in its Second Edition printing. Mummy 2nd Edition - This book! Mummy the Curse 2nd Edition - CoD book! Religion in Mage with James Estes - Previous episode with the author --- Send in a voice message: https://podcasters.spotify.com/pod/show/mage-the-podcast/message

Proper 27 First Psalm: Psalm 23; Psalm 27; Psalm 83 Psalm 23 (Listen) The Lord Is My Shepherd A Psalm of David. 23   The LORD is my shepherd; I shall not want.2     He makes me lie down in green pastures.  He leads me beside still waters.13     He restores my soul.  He leads me in paths of righteousness2    for his name's sake. 4   Even though I walk through the valley of the shadow of death,3    I will fear no evil,  for you are with me;    your rod and your staff,    they comfort me. 5   You prepare a table before me    in the presence of my enemies;  you anoint my head with oil;    my cup overflows.6   Surely4 goodness and mercy5 shall follow me    all the days of my life,  and I shall dwell6 in the house of the LORD    forever.7 Footnotes [1] 23:2 Hebrew beside waters of rest [2] 23:3 Or in right paths [3] 23:4 Or the valley of deep darkness [4] 23:6 Or Only [5] 23:6 Or steadfast love [6] 23:6 Or shall return to dwell [7] 23:6 Hebrew for length of days (ESV) Psalm 27 (Listen) The Lord Is My Light and My Salvation Of David. 27   The LORD is my light and my salvation;    whom shall I fear?  The LORD is the stronghold1 of my life;    of whom shall I be afraid? 2   When evildoers assail me    to eat up my flesh,  my adversaries and foes,    it is they who stumble and fall. 3   Though an army encamp against me,    my heart shall not fear;  though war arise against me,    yet2 I will be confident. 4   One thing have I asked of the LORD,    that will I seek after:  that I may dwell in the house of the LORD    all the days of my life,  to gaze upon the beauty of the LORD    and to inquire3 in his temple. 5   For he will hide me in his shelter    in the day of trouble;  he will conceal me under the cover of his tent;    he will lift me high upon a rock. 6   And now my head shall be lifted up    above my enemies all around me,  and I will offer in his tent    sacrifices with shouts of joy;  I will sing and make melody to the LORD. 7   Hear, O LORD, when I cry aloud;    be gracious to me and answer me!8   You have said, “Seek4 my face.”  My heart says to you,    “Your face, LORD, do I seek.”59     Hide not your face from me.  Turn not your servant away in anger,    O you who have been my help.  Cast me not off; forsake me not,    O God of my salvation!10   For my father and my mother have forsaken me,    but the LORD will take me in. 11   Teach me your way, O LORD,    and lead me on a level path    because of my enemies.12   Give me not up to the will of my adversaries;    for false witnesses have risen against me,    and they breathe out violence. 13   I believe that I shall look6 upon the goodness of the LORD    in the land of the living!14   Wait for the LORD;    be strong, and let your heart take courage;    wait for the LORD! Footnotes [1] 27:1 Or refuge [2] 27:3 Or in this [3] 27:4 Or meditate [4] 27:8 The command (seek) is addressed to more than one person [5] 27:8 The meaning of the Hebrew verse is uncertain [6] 27:13 Other Hebrew manuscripts Oh! Had I not believed that I would look (ESV) Psalm 83 (Listen) O God, Do Not Keep Silence A Song. A Psalm of Asaph. 83   O God, do not keep silence;    do not hold your peace or be still, O God!2   For behold, your enemies make an uproar;    those who hate you have raised their heads.3   They lay crafty plans against your people;    they consult together against your treasured ones.4   They say, “Come, let us wipe them out as a nation;    let the name of Israel be remembered no more!”5   For they conspire with one accord;    against you they make a covenant—6   the tents of Edom and the Ishmaelites,    Moab and the Hagrites,7   Gebal and Ammon and Amalek,    Philistia with the inhabitants of Tyre;8   Asshur also has joined them;    they are the strong arm of the children of Lot. Selah 9   Do to them as you did to Midian,    as to Sisera and Jabin at the river Kishon,10   who were destroyed at En-dor,    who became dung for the ground.11   Make their nobles like Oreb and Zeeb,    all their princes like Zebah and Zalmunna,12   who said, “Let us take possession for ourselves    of the pastures of God.” 13   O my God, make them like whirling dust,1    like chaff before the wind.14   As fire consumes the forest,    as the flame sets the mountains ablaze,15   so may you pursue them with your tempest    and terrify them with your hurricane!16   Fill their faces with shame,    that they may seek your name, O LORD.17   Let them be put to shame and dismayed forever;    let them perish in disgrace,18   that they may know that you alone,    whose name is the LORD,    are the Most High over all the earth. Footnotes [1] 83:13 Or like a tumbleweed (ESV) Second Psalm: Psalms 85–86 Psalms 85–86 (Listen) Revive Us Again To the choirmaster. A Psalm of the Sons of Korah. 85   LORD, you were favorable to your land;    you restored the fortunes of Jacob.2   You forgave the iniquity of your people;    you covered all their sin. Selah3   You withdrew all your wrath;    you turned from your hot anger. 4   Restore us again, O God of our salvation,    and put away your indignation toward us!5   Will you be angry with us forever?    Will you prolong your anger to all generations?6   Will you not revive us again,    that your people may rejoice in you?7   Show us your steadfast love, O LORD,    and grant us your salvation. 8   Let me hear what God the LORD will speak,    for he will speak peace to his people, to his saints;    but let them not turn back to folly.9   Surely his salvation is near to those who fear him,    that glory may dwell in our land. 10   Steadfast love and faithfulness meet;    righteousness and peace kiss each other.11   Faithfulness springs up from the ground,    and righteousness looks down from the sky.12   Yes, the LORD will give what is good,    and our land will yield its increase.13   Righteousness will go before him    and make his footsteps a way. Great Is Your Steadfast Love A Prayer of David. 86   Incline your ear, O LORD, and answer me,    for I am poor and needy.2   Preserve my life, for I am godly;    save your servant, who trusts in you—you are my God.3   Be gracious to me, O Lord,    for to you do I cry all the day.4   Gladden the soul of your servant,    for to you, O Lord, do I lift up my soul.5   For you, O Lord, are good and forgiving,    abounding in steadfast love to all who call upon you.6   Give ear, O LORD, to my prayer;    listen to my plea for grace.7   In the day of my trouble I call upon you,    for you answer me. 8   There is none like you among the gods, O Lord,    nor are there any works like yours.9   All the nations you have made shall come    and worship before you, O Lord,    and shall glorify your name.10   For you are great and do wondrous things;    you alone are God.11   Teach me your way, O LORD,    that I may walk in your truth;    unite my heart to fear your name.12   I give thanks to you, O Lord my God, with my whole heart,    and I will glorify your name forever.13   For great is your steadfast love toward me;    you have delivered my soul from the depths of Sheol. 14   O God, insolent men have risen up against me;    a band of ruthless men seeks my life,    and they do not set you before them.15   But you, O Lord, are a God merciful and gracious,    slow to anger and abounding in steadfast love and faithfulness.16   Turn to me and be gracious to me;    give your strength to your servant,    and save the son of your maidservant.17   Show me a sign of your favor,    that those who hate me may see and be put to shame    because you, LORD, have helped me and comforted me. (ESV) Old Testament: 1 Maccabees 1:1-28 New Testament: Revelation 19:1–10 Revelation 19:1–10 (Listen) Rejoicing in Heaven 19 After this I heard what seemed to be the loud voice of a great multitude in heaven, crying out,   “Hallelujah!  Salvation and glory and power belong to our God,2     for his judgments are true and just;  for he has judged the great prostitute    who corrupted the earth with her immorality,  and has avenged on her the blood of his servants.” 3 Once more they cried out,   “Hallelujah!  The smoke from her goes up forever and ever.” 4 And the twenty-four elders and the four living creatures fell down and worshiped God who was seated on the throne, saying, “Amen. Hallelujah!” 5 And from the throne came a voice saying,   “Praise our God,    all you his servants,  you who fear him,    small and great.” The Marriage Supper of the Lamb 6 Then I heard what seemed to be the voice of a great multitude, like the roar of many waters and like the sound of mighty peals of thunder, crying out,   “Hallelujah!  For the Lord our God    the Almighty reigns.7   Let us rejoice and exult    and give him the glory,  for the marriage of the Lamb has come,    and his Bride has made herself ready;8   it was granted her to clothe herself    with fine linen, bright and pure”— for the fine linen is the righteous deeds of the saints. 9 And the angel said1 to me, “Write this: Blessed are those who are invited to the marriage supper of the Lamb.” And he said to me, “These are the true words of God.” 10 Then I fell down at his feet to worship him, but he said to me, “You must not do that! I am a fellow servant with you and your brothers who hold to the testimony of Jesus. Worship God.” For the testimony of Jesus is the spirit of prophecy. Footnotes [1] 19:9 Greek he said (ESV) Gospel: Matthew 16:1–12 Matthew 16:1–12 (Listen) The Pharisees and Sadducees Demand Signs 16 And the Pharisees and Sadducees came, and to test him they asked him to show them a sign from heaven. 2 He answered them,1 “When it is evening, you say, ‘It will be fair weather, for the sky is red.' 3 And in the morning, ‘It will be stormy today, for the sky is red and threatening.' You know how to interpret the appearance of the sky, but you cannot interpret the signs of the times. 4 An evil and adulterous generation seeks for a sign, but no sign will be given to it except the sign of Jonah.” So he left them and departed. The Leaven of the Pharisees and Sadducees 5 When the disciples reached the other side, they had forgotten to bring any bread. 6 Jesus said to them, “Watch and beware of the leaven of the Pharisees and Sadducees.” 7 And they began discussing it among themselves, saying, “We brought no bread.” 8 But Jesus, aware of this, said, “O you of little faith, why are you discussing among yourselves the fact that you have no bread? 9 Do you not yet perceive? Do you not remember the five loaves for the five thousand, and how many baskets you gathered? 10 Or the seven loaves for the four thousand, and how many baskets you gathered? 11 

Throughout this week, we'll be reading from the life of Joseph. Genesis 37:2-4 NLT When Joseph was seventeen years old, he often tended his father's flocks. He worked for his half-brothers, the sons of his father's wives Bilhah and Zilpah. But Joseph reported to his father some of the bad things his brothers were doing. Jacob loved Joseph more than any of his other children because Joseph had been born to him in his old age. So, one day Jacob had a special gift made for Joseph—a beautiful robe. But his brothers hated Joseph because their father loved him more than the rest of them. They couldn't say a kind word to him. Now, fast-forward to Joseph being sent by his dad to check on his brothers who were working in the field … Genesis 37:23-28 NLT When Joseph arrived, his brothers ripped off the beautiful robe he was wearing. Then they grabbed him and threw him into the cistern. Now the cistern was empty; there was no water in it. Then, just as they were sitting down to eat, they looked up and saw a caravan of camels in the distance coming toward them. It was a group of Ishmaelite traders … Judah said to his brothers, “What will we gain by killing our brother? We'd have to cover up the crime.  Instead of hurting him, let's sell him to those Ishmaelite traders. After all, he is our brother—our own flesh and blood!” And his brothers agreed. So when the Ishmaelites, who were Midianite traders, came by, Joseph's brothers pulled him out of the cistern and sold him to them for twenty pieces of silver. And the traders took him to Egypt. We all know the end of the story. How God used all of these terrible situations for ultimate good. But before we get ahead of ourselves to the redemption - Do you have a memory in your own life that this story triggered for you? Something tragic? Betrayal? An injustice? While this story is painful to hear, the bottom line is we all understand family dysfunction that causes pain and creates scars that we have to deal with for a long time. But these events in our lives offer us a choice: will I let this define me or will I allow this to become a defining moment? Your relationship with God can bring purpose to create a greater, stronger you out of any circumstance. But for this to happen, the pain and the process has to be surrendered to God and then stay submitted to Him on the journey to wholeness and healing. As we walk through this week, and the story of Joseph, can you ask God to start to reveal his purpose for your pain, maybe like you have never seen it before. Let's pray: “Father, thank You for providing examples in Scripture that show me how to navigate the tragedies of life through You. Right now, I surrender my hurts, my pain, and my process of healing to You. Use it all—the good and bad—to bring me a greater sense of purpose about my life, as You lead me. As above, so below.”

Psalms and Wisdom: Psalm 83 Psalm 83 (Listen) O God, Do Not Keep Silence A Song. A Psalm of Asaph. 83   O God, do not keep silence;    do not hold your peace or be still, O God!2   For behold, your enemies make an uproar;    those who hate you have raised their heads.3   They lay crafty plans against your people;    they consult together against your treasured ones.4   They say, “Come, let us wipe them out as a nation;    let the name of Israel be remembered no more!”5   For they conspire with one accord;    against you they make a covenant—6   the tents of Edom and the Ishmaelites,    Moab and the Hagrites,7   Gebal and Ammon and Amalek,    Philistia with the inhabitants of Tyre;8   Asshur also has joined them;    they are the strong arm of the children of Lot. Selah 9   Do to them as you did to Midian,    as to Sisera and Jabin at the river Kishon,10   who were destroyed at En-dor,    who became dung for the ground.11   Make their nobles like Oreb and Zeeb,    all their princes like Zebah and Zalmunna,12   who said, “Let us take possession for ourselves    of the pastures of God.” 13   O my God, make them like whirling dust,1    like chaff before the wind.14   As fire consumes the forest,    as the flame sets the mountains ablaze,15   so may you pursue them with your tempest    and terrify them with your hurricane!16   Fill their faces with shame,    that they may seek your name, O LORD.17   Let them be put to shame and dismayed forever;    let them perish in disgrace,18   that they may know that you alone,    whose name is the LORD,    are the Most High over all the earth. Footnotes [1] 83:13 Or like a tumbleweed (ESV) Pentateuch and History: 1 Kings 15:25–16:34 1 Kings 15:25–16:34 (Listen) Nadab Reigns in Israel 25 Nadab the son of Jeroboam began to reign over Israel in the second year of Asa king of Judah, and he reigned over Israel two years. 26 He did what was evil in the sight of the LORD and walked in the way of his father, and in his sin which he made Israel to sin. 27 Baasha the son of Ahijah, of the house of Issachar, conspired against him. And Baasha struck him down at Gibbethon, which belonged to the Philistines, for Nadab and all Israel were laying siege to Gibbethon. 28 So Baasha killed him in the third year of Asa king of Judah and reigned in his place. 29 And as soon as he was king, he killed all the house of Jeroboam. He left to the house of Jeroboam not one that breathed, until he had destroyed it, according to the word of the LORD that he spoke by his servant Ahijah the Shilonite. 30 It was for the sins of Jeroboam that he sinned and that he made Israel to sin, and because of the anger to which he provoked the LORD, the God of Israel. 31 Now the rest of the acts of Nadab and all that he did, are they not written in the Book of the Chronicles of the Kings of Israel? 32 And there was war between Asa and Baasha king of Israel all their days. Baasha Reigns in Israel 33 In the third year of Asa king of Judah, Baasha the son of Ahijah began to reign over all Israel at Tirzah, and he reigned twenty-four years. 34 He did what was evil in the sight of the LORD and walked in the way of Jeroboam and in his sin which he made Israel to sin. 16 And the word of the LORD came to Jehu the son of Hanani against Baasha, saying, 2 “Since I exalted you out of the dust and made you leader over my people Israel, and you have walked in the way of Jeroboam and have made my people Israel to sin, provoking me to anger with their sins, 3 behold, I will utterly sweep away Baasha and his house, and I will make your house like the house of Jeroboam the son of Nebat. 4 Anyone belonging to Baasha who dies in the city the dogs shall eat, and anyone of his who dies in the field the birds of the heavens shall eat.” 5 Now the rest of the acts of Baasha and what he did, and his might, are they not written in the Book of the Chronicles of the Kings of Israel? 6 And Baasha slept with his fathers and was buried at Tirzah, and Elah his son reigned in his place. 7 Moreover, the word of the LORD came by the prophet Jehu the son of Hanani against Baasha and his house, both because of all the evil that he did in the sight of the LORD, provoking him to anger with the work of his hands, in being like the house of Jeroboam, and also because he destroyed it. Elah Reigns in Israel 8 In the twenty-sixth year of Asa king of Judah, Elah the son of Baasha began to reign over Israel in Tirzah, and he reigned two years. 9 But his servant Zimri, commander of half his chariots, conspired against him. When he was at Tirzah, drinking himself drunk in the house of Arza, who was over the household in Tirzah, 10 Zimri came in and struck him down and killed him, in the twenty-seventh year of Asa king of Judah, and reigned in his place. 11 When he began to reign, as soon as he had seated himself on his throne, he struck down all the house of Baasha. He did not leave him a single male of his relatives or his friends. 12 Thus Zimri destroyed all the house of Baasha, according to the word of the LORD, which he spoke against Baasha by Jehu the prophet, 13 for all the sins of Baasha and the sins of Elah his son, which they sinned and which they made Israel to sin, provoking the LORD God of Israel to anger with their idols. 14 Now the rest of the acts of Elah and all that he did, are they not written in the Book of the Chronicles of the Kings of Israel? Zimri Reigns in Israel 15 In the twenty-seventh year of Asa king of Judah, Zimri reigned seven days in Tirzah. Now the troops were encamped against Gibbethon, which belonged to the Philistines, 16 and the troops who were encamped heard it said, “Zimri has conspired, and he has killed the king.” Therefore all Israel made Omri, the commander of the army, king over Israel that day in the camp. 17 So Omri went up from Gibbethon, and all Israel with him, and they besieged Tirzah. 18 And when Zimri saw that the city was taken, he went into the citadel of the king's house and burned the king's house over him with fire and died, 19 because of his sins that he committed, doing evil in the sight of the LORD, walking in the way of Jeroboam, and for his sin which he committed, making Israel to sin. 20 Now the rest of the acts of Zimri, and the conspiracy that he made, are they not written in the Book of the Chronicles of the Kings of Israel? Omri Reigns in Israel 21 Then the people of Israel were divided into two parts. Half of the people followed Tibni the son of Ginath, to make him king, and half followed Omri. 22 But the people who followed Omri overcame the people who followed Tibni the son of Ginath. So Tibni died, and Omri became king. 23 In the thirty-first year of Asa king of Judah, Omri began to reign over Israel, and he reigned for twelve years; six years he reigned in Tirzah. 24 He bought the hill of Samaria from Shemer for two talents1 of silver, and he fortified the hill and called the name of the city that he built Samaria, after the name of Shemer, the owner of the hill. 25 Omri did what was evil in the sight of the LORD, and did more evil than all who were before him. 26 For he walked in all the way of Jeroboam the son of Nebat, and in the sins that he made Israel to sin, provoking the LORD, the God of Israel, to anger by their idols. 27 Now the rest of the acts of Omri that he did, and the might that he showed, are they not written in the Book of the Chronicles of the Kings of Israel? 28 And Omri slept with his fathers and was buried in Samaria, and Ahab his son reigned in his place. Ahab Reigns in Israel 29 In the thirty-eighth year of Asa king of Judah, Ahab the son of Omri began to reign over Israel, and Ahab the son of Omri reigned over Israel in Samaria twenty-two years. 30 And Ahab the son of Omri did evil in the sight of the LORD, more than all who were before him. 31 And as if it had been a light thing for him to walk in the sins of Jeroboam the son of Nebat, he took for his wife Jezebel the daughter of Ethbaal king of the Sidonians, and went and served Baal and worshiped him. 32 He erected an altar for Baal in the house of Baal, which he built in Samaria. 33 And Ahab made an Asherah. Ahab did more to provoke the LORD, the God of Israel, to anger than all the kings of Israel who were before him. 34 In his days Hiel of Bethel built Jericho. He laid its foundation at the cost of Abiram his firstborn, and set up its gates at the cost of his youngest son Segub, according to the word of the LORD, which he spoke by Joshua the son of Nun. Footnotes [1] 16:24 A talent was about 75 pounds or 34 kilograms (ESV) Chronicles and Prophets: Ezekiel 46 Ezekiel 46 (Listen) The Prince and the Feasts 46 “Thus says the Lord GOD: The gate of the inner court that faces east shall be shut on the six working days, but on the Sabbath day it shall be opened, and on the day of the new moon it shall be opened. 2 The prince shall enter by the vestibule of the gate from outside, and shall take his stand by the post of the gate. The priests shall offer his burnt offering and his peace offerings, and he shall worship at the threshold of the gate. Then he shall go out, but the gate shall not be shut until evening. 3 The people of the land shall bow down at the entrance of that gate before the LORD on the Sabbaths and on the new moons. 4 The burnt offering that the prince offers to the LORD on the Sabbath day shall be six lambs without blemish and a ram without blemish. 5 And the grain offering with the ram shall be an ephah,1 and the grain offering with the lambs shall be as much as he is able, together with a hin2 of oil to each ephah. 6 On the day of the new moon he shall offer a bull from the herd without blemish, and six lambs and a ram, which shall be without blemish. 7 As a grain offering he shall provide an ephah with the bull and an ephah with the ram, and with the lambs as much as he is able, together with a hin of oil to each ephah. 8 When the prince enters, he shall enter by the vestibule of the gate, and he shall go out by the same way. 9 “When the people of the land come before the LORD at the appointed feasts, he who enters by the north gate to worship shall go out by the south gate, and he who enters by the south gate shall go out by the north gate: no one shall return by way of the gate by which he entered, but each shall go out straight ahead. 10 When they enter, the prince shall enter with them, and when they go out, he shall go out. 11 “At the feasts and the appointed festivals, the grain offering with a young bull shall be an ephah, and with a ram an ephah, and with the lambs as much as one is able to give, together with a hin of oil to an ephah. 12 When the prince provides a freewill offering, either a burnt offering or peace offerings as a freewill offering to the LORD, the gate facing east shall be opened for him. And he shall offer his burnt offering or his peace offerings as he does on the Sabbath day. Then he shall go out, and after he has gone out the gate shall be shut. 13 “You shall provide a lamb a year old without blemish for a burnt offering to the LORD daily; morning by morning you shall provide it. 14 And you shall provide a grain offering with it morning by morning, one sixth of an ephah, and one third of a hin of oil to moisten the flour, as a grain offering to the LORD. This is a perpetual statute. 15 Thus the lamb and the meal offering and the oil shall be provided, morning by morning, for a regular burnt offering. 16 “Thus says the Lord GOD: If the prince makes a gift to any of his sons as his inheritance, it shall belong to his sons. It is their property by inheritance. 17 But if he makes a gift out of his inheritance to one of his servants, it shall be his to the year of liberty. Then it shall revert to the prince; surely it is his inheritance—it shall belong to his sons. 18 The prince shall not take any of the inheritance of the people, thrusting them out of their property. He shall give his sons their inheritance out of his own property, so that none of my people shall be scattered from his property.” Boiling Places for Offerings 19 Then he brought me through the entrance, which was at the side of the gate, to the north row of the holy chambers for the priests, and behold, a place was there at the extreme western end of them. 20 And he said to me, “This is the place where the priests shall boil the guilt offering and the sin offering, and where they shall bake the grain offering, in order not to bring them out into the outer court and so transmit holiness to the people.” 21 Then he brought me out to the outer court and led me around to the four corners of the court. And behold, in each corner of the court there was another court—22 in the four corners of the court were small3 courts, forty cubits4 long and thirty broad; the four were of the same size. 23 On the inside, around each of the four courts was a row of masonry, with hearths made at the bottom of the rows all around. 24 Then he said to me, “These are the kitchens where those who minister at the temple shall boil the sacrifices of the people.” Footnotes [1] 46:5 An ephah was about 3/5 bushel or 22 liters [2] 46:5 A hin was about 4 quarts or 3.5 liters [3] 46:22 Septuagint, Syriac, Vulgate; the meaning of the Hebrew word is uncertain [4] 46:22 A cubit was about 18 inches or 45 centimeters (ESV) Gospels and Epistles: Romans 15:1–13 Romans 15:1–13 (Listen) The Example of Christ 15 We who are strong have an obligation to bear with the failings of the weak, and not to please ourselves. 2 Let each of us please his neighbor for his good, to build him up. 3 For Christ did not please himself, but as it is written, “The reproaches of those who reproached you fell on me.” 4 For whatever was written in former days was written for our instruction, that through endurance and through the encouragement of the Scriptures we might have hope. 5 May the God of endurance and encouragement grant you to live in such harmony with one another, in accord with Christ Jesus, 6 that together you may with one voice glorify the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ. 7 Therefore welcome one another as Christ has welcomed you, for the glory of God. Christ the Hope of Jews and Gentiles 8 For I tell you that Christ became a servant to the circumcised to show God's truthfulness, in order to confirm the promises given to the patriarchs, 9 and in order that the Gentiles might glorify God for his mercy. As it is written,   “Therefore I will praise you among the Gentiles,    and sing to your name.” 10 And again it is said,   “Rejoice, O Gentiles, with his people.” 11 And again,   “Praise the Lord, all you Gentiles,    and let all the peoples extol him.” 12 And again Isaiah says,   “The root of Jesse will come,    even he who arises to rule the Gentiles;  in him will the Gentiles hope.” 13 May the God of hope fill you with all joy and peace in believing, so that by the power of the Holy Spirit you may abound in hope. (ESV)

With family: 1 Kings 3; Ephesians 1 1 Kings 3 (Listen) Solomon's Prayer for Wisdom 3 Solomon made a marriage alliance with Pharaoh king of Egypt. He took Pharaoh's daughter and brought her into the city of David until he had finished building his own house and the house of the LORD and the wall around Jerusalem. 2 The people were sacrificing at the high places, however, because no house had yet been built for the name of the LORD. 3 Solomon loved the LORD, walking in the statutes of David his father, only he sacrificed and made offerings at the high places. 4 And the king went to Gibeon to sacrifice there, for that was the great high place. Solomon used to offer a thousand burnt offerings on that altar. 5 At Gibeon the LORD appeared to Solomon in a dream by night, and God said, “Ask what I shall give you.” 6 And Solomon said, “You have shown great and steadfast love to your servant David my father, because he walked before you in faithfulness, in righteousness, and in uprightness of heart toward you. And you have kept for him this great and steadfast love and have given him a son to sit on his throne this day. 7 And now, O LORD my God, you have made your servant king in place of David my father, although I am but a little child. I do not know how to go out or come in. 8 And your servant is in the midst of your people whom you have chosen, a great people, too many to be numbered or counted for multitude. 9 Give your servant therefore an understanding mind to govern your people, that I may discern between good and evil, for who is able to govern this your great people?” 10 It pleased the Lord that Solomon had asked this. 11 And God said to him, “Because you have asked this, and have not asked for yourself long life or riches or the life of your enemies, but have asked for yourself understanding to discern what is right, 12 behold, I now do according to your word. Behold, I give you a wise and discerning mind, so that none like you has been before you and none like you shall arise after you. 13 I give you also what you have not asked, both riches and honor, so that no other king shall compare with you, all your days. 14 And if you will walk in my ways, keeping my statutes and my commandments, as your father David walked, then I will lengthen your days.” 15 And Solomon awoke, and behold, it was a dream. Then he came to Jerusalem and stood before the ark of the covenant of the Lord, and offered up burnt offerings and peace offerings, and made a feast for all his servants. Solomon's Wisdom 16 Then two prostitutes came to the king and stood before him. 17 The one woman said, “Oh, my lord, this woman and I live in the same house, and I gave birth to a child while she was in the house. 18 Then on the third day after I gave birth, this woman also gave birth. And we were alone. There was no one else with us in the house; only we two were in the house. 19 And this woman's son died in the night, because she lay on him. 20 And she arose at midnight and took my son from beside me, while your servant slept, and laid him at her breast, and laid her dead son at my breast. 21 When I rose in the morning to nurse my child, behold, he was dead. But when I looked at him closely in the morning, behold, he was not the child that I had borne.” 22 But the other woman said, “No, the living child is mine, and the dead child is yours.” The first said, “No, the dead child is yours, and the living child is mine.” Thus they spoke before the king. 23 Then the king said, “The one says, ‘This is my son that is alive, and your son is dead'; and the other says, ‘No; but your son is dead, and my son is the living one.'” 24 And the king said, “Bring me a sword.” So a sword was brought before the king. 25 And the king said, “Divide the living child in two, and give half to the one and half to the other.” 26 Then the woman whose son was alive said to the king, because her heart yearned for her son, “Oh, my lord, give her the living child, and by no means put him to death.” But the other said, “He shall be neither mine nor yours; divide him.” 27 Then the king answered and said, “Give the living child to the first woman, and by no means put him to death; she is his mother.” 28 And all Israel heard of the judgment that the king had rendered, and they stood in awe of the king, because they perceived that the wisdom of God was in him to do justice. (ESV) Ephesians 1 (Listen) Greeting 1 Paul, an apostle of Christ Jesus by the will of God, To the saints who are in Ephesus, and are faithful1 in Christ Jesus: 2 Grace to you and peace from God our Father and the Lord Jesus Christ. Spiritual Blessings in Christ 3 Blessed be the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, who has blessed us in Christ with every spiritual blessing in the heavenly places, 4 even as he chose us in him before the foundation of the world, that we should be holy and blameless before him. In love 5 he predestined us2 for adoption to himself as sons through Jesus Christ, according to the purpose of his will, 6 to the praise of his glorious grace, with which he has blessed us in the Beloved. 7 In him we have redemption through his blood, the forgiveness of our trespasses, according to the riches of his grace, 8 which he lavished upon us, in all wisdom and insight 9 making known3 to us the mystery of his will, according to his purpose, which he set forth in Christ 10 as a plan for the fullness of time, to unite all things in him, things in heaven and things on earth. 11 In him we have obtained an inheritance, having been predestined according to the purpose of him who works all things according to the counsel of his will, 12 so that we who were the first to hope in Christ might be to the praise of his glory. 13 In him you also, when you heard the word of truth, the gospel of your salvation, and believed in him, were sealed with the promised Holy Spirit, 14 who is the guarantee4 of our inheritance until we acquire possession of it,5 to the praise of his glory. Thanksgiving and Prayer 15 For this reason, because I have heard of your faith in the Lord Jesus and your love6 toward all the saints, 16 I do not cease to give thanks for you, remembering you in my prayers, 17 that the God of our Lord Jesus Christ, the Father of glory, may give you the Spirit of wisdom and of revelation in the knowledge of him, 18 having the eyes of your hearts enlightened, that you may know what is the hope to which he has called you, what are the riches of his glorious inheritance in the saints, 19 and what is the immeasurable greatness of his power toward us who believe, according to the working of his great might 20 that he worked in Christ when he raised him from the dead and seated him at his right hand in the heavenly places, 21 far above all rule and authority and power and dominion, and above every name that is named, not only in this age but also in the one to come. 22 And he put all things under his feet and gave him as head over all things to the church, 23 which is his body, the fullness of him who fills all in all. Footnotes [1] 1:1 Some manuscripts saints who are also faithful (omitting in Ephesus) [2] 1:5 Or before him in love, 5having predestined us [3] 1:9 Or he lavished upon us in all wisdom and insight, making known . . . [4] 1:14 Or down payment [5] 1:14 Or until God redeems his possession [6] 1:15 Some manuscripts omit your love (ESV) In private: Psalms 83–84; Ezekiel 34 Psalms 83–84 (Listen) O God, Do Not Keep Silence A Song. A Psalm of Asaph. 83   O God, do not keep silence;    do not hold your peace or be still, O God!2   For behold, your enemies make an uproar;    those who hate you have raised their heads.3   They lay crafty plans against your people;    they consult together against your treasured ones.4   They say, “Come, let us wipe them out as a nation;    let the name of Israel be remembered no more!”5   For they conspire with one accord;    against you they make a covenant—6   the tents of Edom and the Ishmaelites,    Moab and the Hagrites,7   Gebal and Ammon and Amalek,    Philistia with the inhabitants of Tyre;8   Asshur also has joined them;    they are the strong arm of the children of Lot. Selah 9   Do to them as you did to Midian,    as to Sisera and Jabin at the river Kishon,10   who were destroyed at En-dor,    who became dung for the ground.11   Make their nobles like Oreb and Zeeb,    all their princes like Zebah and Zalmunna,12   who said, “Let us take possession for ourselves    of the pastures of God.” 13   O my God, make them like whirling dust,1    like chaff before the wind.14   As fire consumes the forest,    as the flame sets the mountains ablaze,15   so may you pursue them with your tempest    and terrify them with your hurricane!16   Fill their faces with shame,    that they may seek your name, O LORD.17   Let them be put to shame and dismayed forever;    let them perish in disgrace,18   that they may know that you alone,    whose name is the LORD,    are the Most High over all the earth. My Soul Longs for the Courts of the Lord To the choirmaster: according to The Gittith.2 A Psalm of the Sons of Korah. 84   How lovely is your dwelling place,    O LORD of hosts!2   My soul longs, yes, faints    for the courts of the LORD;  my heart and flesh sing for joy    to the living God. 3   Even the sparrow finds a home,    and the swallow a nest for herself,    where she may lay her young,  at your altars, O LORD of hosts,    my King and my God.4   Blessed are those who dwell in your house,    ever singing your praise! Selah 5   Blessed are those whose strength is in you,    in whose heart are the highways to Zion.36   As they go through the Valley of Baca    they make it a place of springs;    the early rain also covers it with pools.7   They go from strength to strength;    each one appears before God in Zion. 8   O LORD God of hosts, hear my prayer;    give ear, O God of Jacob! Selah9   Behold our shield, O God;    look on the face of your anointed! 10   For a day in your courts is better    than a thousand elsewhere.  I would rather be a doorkeeper in the house of my God    than dwell in the tents of wickedness.11   For the LORD God is a sun and shield;    the LORD bestows favor and honor.  No good thing does he withhold    from those who walk uprightly.12   O LORD of hosts,    blessed is the one who trusts in you! Footnotes [1] 83:13 Or like a tumbleweed [2] 84:1 Probably a musical or liturgical term [3] 84:5 Hebrew lacks to Zion (ESV) Ezekiel 34 (Listen) Prophecy Against the Shepherds of Israel 34 The word of the LORD came to me: 2 “Son of man, prophesy against the shepherds of Israel; prophesy, and say to them, even to the shepherds, Thus says the Lord GOD: Ah, shepherds of Israel who have been feeding yourselves! Should not shepherds feed the sheep? 3 You eat the fat, you clothe yourselves with the wool, you slaughter the fat ones, but you do not feed the sheep. 4 The weak you have not strengthened, the sick you have not healed, the injured you have not bound up, the strayed you have not brought back, the lost you have not sought, and with force and harshness you have ruled them. 5 So they were scattered, because there was no shepherd, and they became food for all the wild beasts. My sheep were scattered; 6 they wandered over all the mountains and on every high hill. My sheep were scattered over all the face of the earth, with none to search or seek for them. 7 “Therefore, you shepherds, hear the word of the LORD: 8 As I live, declares the Lord GOD, surely because my sheep have become a prey, and my sheep have become food for all the wild beasts, since there was no shepherd, and because my shepherds have not searched for my sheep, but the shepherds have fed themselves, and have not fed my sheep, 9 therefore, you shepherds, hear the word of the LORD: 10 Thus says the Lord GOD, Behold, I am against the shepherds, and I will require my sheep at their hand and put a stop to their feeding the sheep. No longer shall the shepherds feed themselves. I will rescue my sheep from their mouths, that they may not be food for them. The Lord God Will Seek Them Out 11 “For thus says the Lord GOD: Behold, I, I myself will search for my sheep and will seek them out. 12 As a shepherd seeks out his flock when he is among his sheep that have been scattered, so will I seek out my sheep, and I will rescue them from all places where they have been scattered on a day of clouds and thick darkness. 13 And I will bring them out from the peoples and gather them from the countries, and will bring them into their own land. And I will feed them on the mountains of Israel, by the ravines, and in all the inhabited places of the country. 14 I will feed them with good pasture, and on the mountain heights of Israel shall be their grazing land. There they shall lie down in good grazing land, and on rich pasture they shall feed on the mountains of Israel. 15 I myself will be the shepherd of my sheep, and I myself will make them lie down, declares the Lord GOD. 16 I will seek the lost, and I will bring back the strayed, and I will bind up the injured, and I will strengthen the weak, and the fat and the strong I will destroy.1 I will feed them in justice. 17 “As for you, my flock, thus says the Lord GOD: Behold, I judge between sheep and sheep, between rams and male goats. 18 Is it not enough for you to feed on the good pasture, that you must tread down with your feet the rest of your pasture; and to drink of clear water, that you must muddy the rest of the water with your feet? 19 And must my sheep eat what you have trodden with your feet, and drink what you have muddied with your feet? 20 “Therefore, thus says the Lord GOD to them: Behold, I, I myself will judge between the fat sheep and the lean sheep. 21 Because you push with side and shoulder, and thrust at all the weak with your horns, till you have scattered them abroad, 22 I will rescue2 my flock; they shall no longer be a prey. And I will judge between sheep and sheep. 23 And I will set up over them one shepherd, my servant David, and he shall feed them: he shall feed them and be their shepherd. 24 And I, the LORD, will be their God, and my servant David shall be prince among them. I am the LORD; I have spoken. The Lord's Covenant of Peace 25 “I will make with them a covenant of peace and banish wild beasts from the land, so that they may dwell securely in the wilderness and sleep in the woods. 26 And I will make them and the places all around my hill a blessing, and I will send down the showers in their season; they shall be showers of blessing. 27 And the trees of the field shall yield their fruit, and the earth shall yield its increase, and they shall be secure in their land. And they shall know that I am the LORD, when I break the bars of their yoke, and deliver them from the hand of those who enslaved them. 28 They shall no more be a prey to the nations, nor shall the beasts of the land devour them. They shall dwell securely, and none shall make them afraid. 29 And I will provide for them renowned plantations so that they shall no more be consumed with hunger in the land, and no longer suffer the reproach of the nations. 30 And they shall know that I am the LORD their God with them, and that they, the house of Israel, are my people, declares the Lord GOD. 31 And you are my sheep, human sheep of my pasture, and I am your God, declares the Lord GOD.” Footnotes [1] 34:16 Septuagint, Syriac, Vulgate I will watch over [2] 34:22 Or save (ESV)

Old Testament: Isaiah 5–7 Isaiah 5–7 (Listen) The Vineyard of the Lord Destroyed 5   Let me sing for my beloved    my love song concerning his vineyard:  My beloved had a vineyard    on a very fertile hill.2   He dug it and cleared it of stones,    and planted it with choice vines;  he built a watchtower in the midst of it,    and hewed out a wine vat in it;  and he looked for it to yield grapes,    but it yielded wild grapes. 3   And now, O inhabitants of Jerusalem    and men of Judah,  judge between me and my vineyard.4   What more was there to do for my vineyard,    that I have not done in it?  When I looked for it to yield grapes,    why did it yield wild grapes? 5   And now I will tell you    what I will do to my vineyard.  I will remove its hedge,    and it shall be devoured;1  I will break down its wall,    and it shall be trampled down.6   I will make it a waste;    it shall not be pruned or hoed,    and briers and thorns shall grow up;  I will also command the clouds    that they rain no rain upon it. 7   For the vineyard of the LORD of hosts    is the house of Israel,  and the men of Judah    are his pleasant planting;  and he looked for justice,    but behold, bloodshed;2  for righteousness,    but behold, an outcry!3 Woe to the Wicked 8   Woe to those who join house to house,    who add field to field,  until there is no more room,    and you are made to dwell alone    in the midst of the land.9   The LORD of hosts has sworn in my hearing:  “Surely many houses shall be desolate,    large and beautiful houses, without inhabitant.10   For ten acres4 of vineyard shall yield but one bath,    and a homer of seed shall yield but an ephah.”5 11   Woe to those who rise early in the morning,    that they may run after strong drink,  who tarry late into the evening    as wine inflames them!12   They have lyre and harp,    tambourine and flute and wine at their feasts,  but they do not regard the deeds of the LORD,    or see the work of his hands. 13   Therefore my people go into exile    for lack of knowledge;6  their honored men go hungry,7    and their multitude is parched with thirst.14   Therefore Sheol has enlarged its appetite    and opened its mouth beyond measure,  and the nobility of Jerusalem8 and her multitude will go down,    her revelers and he who exults in her.15   Man is humbled, and each one is brought low,    and the eyes of the haughty9 are brought low.16   But the LORD of hosts is exalted10 in justice,    and the Holy God shows himself holy in righteousness.17   Then shall the lambs graze as in their pasture,    and nomads shall eat among the ruins of the rich. 18   Woe to those who draw iniquity with cords of falsehood,    who draw sin as with cart ropes,19   who say: “Let him be quick,    let him speed his work    that we may see it;  let the counsel of the Holy One of Israel draw near,    and let it come, that we may know it!”20   Woe to those who call evil good    and good evil,  who put darkness for light    and light for darkness,  who put bitter for sweet    and sweet for bitter!21   Woe to those who are wise in their own eyes,    and shrewd in their own sight!22   Woe to those who are heroes at drinking wine,    and valiant men in mixing strong drink,23   who acquit the guilty for a bribe,    and deprive the innocent of his right! 24   Therefore, as the tongue of fire devours the stubble,    and as dry grass sinks down in the flame,  so their root will be as rottenness,    and their blossom go up like dust;  for they have rejected the law of the LORD of hosts,    and have despised the word of the Holy One of Israel.25   Therefore the anger of the LORD was kindled against his people,    and he stretched out his hand against them and struck them,    and the mountains quaked;  and their corpses were as refuse    in the midst of the streets.  For all this his anger has not turned away,    and his hand is stretched out still. 26   He will raise a signal for nations far away,    and whistle for them from the ends of the earth;  and behold, quickly, speedily they come!27   None is weary, none stumbles,    none slumbers or sleeps,  not a waistband is loose,    not a sandal strap broken;28   their arrows are sharp,    all their bows bent,  their horses' hoofs seem like flint,    and their wheels like the whirlwind.29   Their roaring is like a lion,    like young lions they roar;  they growl and seize their prey;    they carry it off, and none can rescue.30   They will growl over it on that day,    like the growling of the sea.  And if one looks to the land,    behold, darkness and distress;  and the light is darkened by its clouds. Isaiah's Vision of the Lord 6 In the year that King Uzziah died I saw the Lord sitting upon a throne, high and lifted up; and the train11 of his robe filled the temple. 2 Above him stood the seraphim. Each had six wings: with two he covered his face, and with two he covered his feet, and with two he flew. 3 And one called to another and said:   “Holy, holy, holy is the LORD of hosts;  the whole earth is full of his glory!”12 4 And the foundations of the thresholds shook at the voice of him who called, and the house was filled with smoke. 5 And I said: “Woe is me! For I am lost; for I am a man of unclean lips, and I dwell in the midst of a people of unclean lips; for my eyes have seen the King, the LORD of hosts!” 6 Then one of the seraphim flew to me, having in his hand a burning coal that he had taken with tongs from the altar. 7 And he touched my mouth and said: “Behold, this has touched your lips; your guilt is taken away, and your sin atoned for.” Isaiah's Commission from the Lord 8 And I heard the voice of the Lord saying, “Whom shall I send, and who will go for us?” Then I said, “Here I am! Send me.” 9 And he said, “Go, and say to this people:   “‘Keep on hearing,13 but do not understand;  keep on seeing,14 but do not perceive.'10   Make the heart of this people dull,15    and their ears heavy,    and blind their eyes;  lest they see with their eyes,    and hear with their ears,  and understand with their hearts,    and turn and be healed.”11   Then I said, “How long, O Lord?”  And he said:  “Until cities lie waste    without inhabitant,  and houses without people,    and the land is a desolate waste,12   and the LORD removes people far away,    and the forsaken places are many in the midst of the land.13   And though a tenth remain in it,    it will be burned16 again,  like a terebinth or an oak,    whose stump remains    when it is felled.”  The holy seed17 is its stump. Isaiah Sent to King Ahaz 7 In the days of Ahaz the son of Jotham, son of Uzziah, king of Judah, Rezin the king of Syria and Pekah the son of Remaliah the king of Israel came up to Jerusalem to wage war against it, but could not yet mount an attack against it. 2 When the house of David was told, “Syria is in league with18 Ephraim,” the heart of Ahaz19 and the heart of his people shook as the trees of the forest shake before the wind. 3 And the LORD said to Isaiah, “Go out to meet Ahaz, you and Shear-jashub20 your son, at the end of the conduit of the upper pool on the highway to the Washer's Field. 4 And say to him, ‘Be careful, be quiet, do not fear, and do not let your heart be faint because of these two smoldering stumps of firebrands, at the fierce anger of Rezin and Syria and the son of Remaliah. 5 Because Syria, with Ephraim and the son of Remaliah, has devised evil against you, saying, 6 “Let us go up against Judah and terrify it, and let us conquer it21 for ourselves, and set up the son of Tabeel as king in the midst of it,” 7 thus says the Lord GOD:   “‘It shall not stand,    and it shall not come to pass.8   For the head of Syria is Damascus,    and the head of Damascus is Rezin.  And within sixty-five years    Ephraim will be shattered from being a people.9   And the head of Ephraim is Samaria,    and the head of Samaria is the son of Remaliah.  If you22 are not firm in faith,    you will not be firm at all.'” The Sign of Immanuel 10 Again the LORD spoke to Ahaz: 11 “Ask a sign of the LORD your23 God; let it be deep as Sheol or high as heaven.” 12 But Ahaz said, “I will not ask, and I will not put the LORD to the test.” 13 And he24 said, “Hear then, O house of David! Is it too little for you to weary men, that you weary my God also? 14 Therefore the Lord himself will give you a sign. Behold, the virgin shall conceive and bear a son, and shall call his name Immanuel.25 15 He shall eat curds and honey when he knows how to refuse the evil and choose the good. 16 For before the boy knows how to refuse the evil and choose the good, the land whose two kings you dread will be deserted. 17 The LORD will bring upon you and upon your people and upon your father's house such days as have not come since the day that Ephraim departed from Judah—the king of Assyria!” 18 In that day the LORD will whistle for the fly that is at the end of the streams of Egypt, and for the bee that is in the land of Assyria. 19 And they will all come and settle in the steep ravines, and in the clefts of the rocks, and on all the thornbushes, and on all the pastures.26 20 In that day the Lord will shave with a razor that is hired beyond the River27—with the king of Assyria—the head and the hair of the feet, and it will sweep away the beard also. 21 In that day a man will keep alive a young cow and two sheep, 22 and because of the abundance of milk that they give, he will eat curds, for everyone who is left in the land will eat curds and honey. 23 In that day every place where there used to be a thousand vines, worth a thousand shekels28 of silver, will become briers and thorns. 24 With bow and arrows a man will come there, for all the land will be briers and thorns. 25 And as for all the hills that used to be hoed with a hoe, you will not come there for fear of briers and thorns, but they will become a place where cattle are let loose and where sheep tread. Footnotes [1] 5:5 Or grazed over; compare Exodus 22:5 [2] 5:7 The Hebrew words for justice and bloodshed sound alike [3] 5:7 The Hebrew words for righteous and outcry sound alike [4] 5:10 Hebrew ten yoke, the area ten yoke of oxen can plow in a day [5] 5:10 A bath was about 6 gallons or 22 liters; a homer was about 6 bushels or 220 liters; an ephah was about 3/5 bushel or 22 liters [6] 5:13 Or without their knowledge [7] 5:13 Or die of hunger [8] 5:14 Hebrew her nobility [9] 5:15 Hebrew high [10] 5:16 Hebrew high [11] 6:1 Or hem [12] 6:3 Or may his glory fill the whole earth [13] 6:9 Or Hear indeed [14] 6:9 Or see indeed [15] 6:10 Hebrew fat [16] 6:13 Or purged [17] 6:13 Or offspring [18] 7:2 Hebrew Syria has rested upon [19] 7:2 Hebrew his heart [20] 7:3 Shear-jashub means A remnant shall return [21] 7:6 Hebrew let us split it open [22] 7:9 The Hebrew for you is plural in verses 9, 13, 14 [23] 7:11 The Hebrew for you and your is singular in verses 11, 16, 17 [24] 7:13 That is, Isaiah [25] 7:14 Immanuel means God is with us [26] 7:19 Or watering holes, or brambles [27] 7:20 That is, the Euphrates [28] 7:23 A shekel was about 2/5 ounce or 11 grams (ESV) Psalm: Psalm 83 Psalm 83 (Listen) O God, Do Not Keep Silence A Song. A Psalm of Asaph. 83   O God, do not keep silence;    do not hold your peace or be still, O God!2   For behold, your enemies make an uproar;    those who hate you have raised their heads.3   They lay crafty plans against your people;    they consult together against your treasured ones.4   They say, “Come, let us wipe them out as a nation;    let the name of Israel be remembered no more!”5   For they conspire with one accord;    against you they make a covenant—6   the tents of Edom and the Ishmaelites,    Moab and the Hagrites,7   Gebal and Ammon and Amalek,    Philistia with the inhabitants of Tyre;

With family: Judges 8; Acts 12 Judges 8 (Listen) Gideon Defeats Zebah and Zalmunna 8 Then the men of Ephraim said to him, “What is this that you have done to us, not to call us when you went to fight against Midian?” And they accused him fiercely. 2 And he said to them, “What have I done now in comparison with you? Is not the gleaning of the grapes of Ephraim better than the grape harvest of Abiezer? 3 God has given into your hands the princes of Midian, Oreb and Zeeb. What have I been able to do in comparison with you?” Then their anger1 against him subsided when he said this. 4 And Gideon came to the Jordan and crossed over, he and the 300 men who were with him, exhausted yet pursuing. 5 So he said to the men of Succoth, “Please give loaves of bread to the people who follow me, for they are exhausted, and I am pursuing after Zebah and Zalmunna, the kings of Midian.” 6 And the officials of Succoth said, “Are the hands of Zebah and Zalmunna already in your hand, that we should give bread to your army?” 7 So Gideon said, “Well then, when the LORD has given Zebah and Zalmunna into my hand, I will flail your flesh with the thorns of the wilderness and with briers.” 8 And from there he went up to Penuel, and spoke to them in the same way, and the men of Penuel answered him as the men of Succoth had answered. 9 And he said to the men of Penuel, “When I come again in peace, I will break down this tower.” 10 Now Zebah and Zalmunna were in Karkor with their army, about 15,000 men, all who were left of all the army of the people of the East, for there had fallen 120,000 men who drew the sword. 11 And Gideon went up by the way of the tent dwellers east of Nobah and Jogbehah and attacked the army, for the army felt secure. 12 And Zebah and Zalmunna fled, and he pursued them and captured the two kings of Midian, Zebah and Zalmunna, and he threw all the army into a panic. 13 Then Gideon the son of Joash returned from the battle by the ascent of Heres. 14 And he captured a young man of Succoth and questioned him. And he wrote down for him the officials and elders of Succoth, seventy-seven men. 15 And he came to the men of Succoth and said, “Behold Zebah and Zalmunna, about whom you taunted me, saying, ‘Are the hands of Zebah and Zalmunna already in your hand, that we should give bread to your men who are exhausted?'” 16 And he took the elders of the city, and he took thorns of the wilderness and briers and with them taught the men of Succoth a lesson. 17 And he broke down the tower of Penuel and killed the men of the city. 18 Then he said to Zebah and Zalmunna, “Where are the men whom you killed at Tabor?” They answered, “As you are, so were they. Every one of them resembled the son of a king.” 19 And he said, “They were my brothers, the sons of my mother. As the LORD lives, if you had saved them alive, I would not kill you.” 20 So he said to Jether his firstborn, “Rise and kill them!” But the young man did not draw his sword, for he was afraid, because he was still a young man. 21 Then Zebah and Zalmunna said, “Rise yourself and fall upon us, for as the man is, so is his strength.” And Gideon arose and killed Zebah and Zalmunna, and he took the crescent ornaments that were on the necks of their camels. Gideon's Ephod 22 Then the men of Israel said to Gideon, “Rule over us, you and your son and your grandson also, for you have saved us from the hand of Midian.” 23 Gideon said to them, “I will not rule over you, and my son will not rule over you; the LORD will rule over you.” 24 And Gideon said to them, “Let me make a request of you: every one of you give me the earrings from his spoil.” (For they had golden earrings, because they were Ishmaelites.) 25 And they answered, “We will willingly give them.” And they spread a cloak, and every man threw in it the earrings of his spoil. 26 And the weight of the golden earrings that he requested was 1,700 shekels2 of gold, besides the crescent ornaments and the pendants and the purple garments worn by the kings of Midian, and besides the collars that were around the necks of their camels. 27 And Gideon made an ephod of it and put it in his city, in Ophrah. And all Israel whored after it there, and it became a snare to Gideon and to his family. 28 So Midian was subdued before the people of Israel, and they raised their heads no more. And the land had rest forty years in the days of Gideon. The Death of Gideon 29 Jerubbaal the son of Joash went and lived in his own house. 30 Now Gideon had seventy sons, his own offspring,3 for he had many wives. 31 And his concubine who was in Shechem also bore him a son, and he called his name Abimelech. 32 And Gideon the son of Joash died in a good old age and was buried in the tomb of Joash his father, at Ophrah of the Abiezrites. 33 As soon as Gideon died, the people of Israel turned again and whored after the Baals and made Baal-berith their god. 34 And the people of Israel did not remember the LORD their God, who had delivered them from the hand of all their enemies on every side, 35 and they did not show steadfast love to the family of Jerubbaal (that is, Gideon) in return for all the good that he had done to Israel. Footnotes [1] 8:3 Hebrew their spirit [2] 8:26 A shekel was about 2/5 ounce or 11 grams [3] 8:30 Hebrew who came from his own loins (ESV) Acts 12 (Listen) James Killed and Peter Imprisoned 12 About that time Herod the king laid violent hands on some who belonged to the church. 2 He killed James the brother of John with the sword, 3 and when he saw that it pleased the Jews, he proceeded to arrest Peter also. This was during the days of Unleavened Bread. 4 And when he had seized him, he put him in prison, delivering him over to four squads of soldiers to guard him, intending after the Passover to bring him out to the people. 5 So Peter was kept in prison, but earnest prayer for him was made to God by the church. Peter Is Rescued 6 Now when Herod was about to bring him out, on that very night, Peter was sleeping between two soldiers, bound with two chains, and sentries before the door were guarding the prison. 7 And behold, an angel of the Lord stood next to him, and a light shone in the cell. He struck Peter on the side and woke him, saying, “Get up quickly.” And the chains fell off his hands. 8 And the angel said to him, “Dress yourself and put on your sandals.” And he did so. And he said to him, “Wrap your cloak around you and follow me.” 9 And he went out and followed him. He did not know that what was being done by the angel was real, but thought he was seeing a vision. 10 When they had passed the first and the second guard, they came to the iron gate leading into the city. It opened for them of its own accord, and they went out and went along one street, and immediately the angel left him. 11 When Peter came to himself, he said, “Now I am sure that the Lord has sent his angel and rescued me from the hand of Herod and from all that the Jewish people were expecting.” 12 When he realized this, he went to the house of Mary, the mother of John whose other name was Mark, where many were gathered together and were praying. 13 And when he knocked at the door of the gateway, a servant girl named Rhoda came to answer. 14 Recognizing Peter's voice, in her joy she did not open the gate but ran in and reported that Peter was standing at the gate. 15 They said to her, “You are out of your mind.” But she kept insisting that it was so, and they kept saying, “It is his angel!” 16 But Peter continued knocking, and when they opened, they saw him and were amazed. 17 But motioning to them with his hand to be silent, he described to them how the Lord had brought him out of the prison. And he said, “Tell these things to James and to the brothers.”1 Then he departed and went to another place. 18 Now when day came, there was no little disturbance among the soldiers over what had become of Peter. 19 And after Herod searched for him and did not find him, he examined the sentries and ordered that they should be put to death. Then he went down from Judea to Caesarea and spent time there. The Death of Herod 20 Now Herod was angry with the people of Tyre and Sidon, and they came to him with one accord, and having persuaded Blastus, the king's chamberlain,2 they asked for peace, because their country depended on the king's country for food. 21 On an appointed day Herod put on his royal robes, took his seat upon the throne, and delivered an oration to them. 22 And the people were shouting, “The voice of a god, and not of a man!” 23 Immediately an angel of the Lord struck him down, because he did not give God the glory, and he was eaten by worms and breathed his last. 24 But the word of God increased and multiplied. 25 And Barnabas and Saul returned from3 Jerusalem when they had completed their service, bringing with them John, whose other name was Mark. Footnotes [1] 12:17 Or brothers and sisters [2] 12:20 That is, trusted personal attendant [3] 12:25 Some manuscripts to (ESV) In private: Jeremiah 21; Mark 7 Jeremiah 21 (Listen) Jerusalem Will Fall to Nebuchadnezzar 21 This is the word that came to Jeremiah from the LORD, when King Zedekiah sent to him Pashhur the son of Malchiah and Zephaniah the priest, the son of Maaseiah, saying, 2 “Inquire of the LORD for us, for Nebuchadnezzar1 king of Babylon is making war against us. Perhaps the LORD will deal with us according to all his wonderful deeds and will make him withdraw from us.” 3 Then Jeremiah said to them: “Thus you shall say to Zedekiah, 4 ‘Thus says the LORD, the God of Israel: Behold, I will turn back the weapons of war that are in your hands and with which you are fighting against the king of Babylon and against the Chaldeans who are besieging you outside the walls. And I will bring them together into the midst of this city. 5 I myself will fight against you with outstretched hand and strong arm, in anger and in fury and in great wrath. 6 And I will strike down the inhabitants of this city, both man and beast. They shall die of a great pestilence. 7 Afterward, declares the LORD, I will give Zedekiah king of Judah and his servants and the people in this city who survive the pestilence, sword, and famine into the hand of Nebuchadnezzar king of Babylon and into the hand of their enemies, into the hand of those who seek their lives. He shall strike them down with the edge of the sword. He shall not pity them or spare them or have compassion.' 8 “And to this people you shall say: ‘Thus says the LORD: Behold, I set before you the way of life and the way of death. 9 He who stays in this city shall die by the sword, by famine, and by pestilence, but he who goes out and surrenders to the Chaldeans who are besieging you shall live and shall have his life as a prize of war. 10 For I have set my face against this city for harm and not for good, declares the LORD: it shall be given into the hand of the king of Babylon, and he shall burn it with fire.' Message to the House of David 11 “And to the house of the king of Judah say, ‘Hear the word of the LORD, 12 O house of David! Thus says the LORD:   “‘Execute justice in the morning,    and deliver from the hand of the oppressor    him who has been robbed,  lest my wrath go forth like fire,    and burn with none to quench it,    because of your evil deeds.'” 13   “Behold, I am against you, O inhabitant of the valley,    O rock of the plain,      declares the LORD;  you who say, ‘Who shall come down against us,    or who shall enter our habitations?'14   I will punish you according to the fruit of your deeds,      declares the LORD;    I will kindle a fire in her forest,    and it shall devour all that is around her.” Footnotes [1] 21:2 Hebrew Nebuchadrezzar, an alternate spelling of Nebuchadnezzar (king of Babylon) occurring frequently from Jeremiah 21–52; this latter spelling is used throughout Jeremiah for consistency (ESV) Mark 7 (Listen) Traditions and Commandments 7 Now when the Pharisees gathered to him, with some of the scribes who had come from Jerusalem, 2 they saw that some of his disciples ate with hands that were defiled, that is, unwashed. 3 (For the Pharisees and all the Jews do not eat unless they wash their hands properly,1 holding to the tradition of the elders, 4 and when they come from the marketplace, they do not eat unless they wash.2 And there are many other traditions that they observe, such as the washing of cups and pots and copper vessels and dining couches.3) 5 And the Pharisees and the scribes asked him, “Why do your disciples not walk according to the tradition of the elders, but eat with defiled hands?” 6 And he said to them, “Well did Isaiah prophesy of you hypocrites, as it is written,   “‘This people honors me with their lips,    but their heart is far from me;7   in vain do they worship me,    teaching as doctrines the commandments of men.' 8 You leave the commandment of God and hold to the tradition of men.” 9 And he said to them, “You have a fine way of rejecting the commandment of God in order to establish your tradition! 10 For Moses said, ‘Honor your father and your mother'; and, ‘Whoever reviles father or mother must surely die.' 11 But you say, ‘If a man tells his father or his mother, “Whatever you would have gained from me is Corban”' (that is, given to God)4—12 then you no longer permit him to do anything for his father or mother, 13 thus making void the word of God by your tradition that you have handed down. And many such things you do.” What Defiles a Person 14 And he called the people to him again and said to them, “Hear me, all of you, and understand: 15 There is nothing outside a person that by going into him can defile him, but the things that come out of a person are what defile him.”5 17 And when he had entered the house and left the people, his disciples asked him about the parable. 18 And he said to them, “Then are you also without understanding? Do you not see that whatever goes into a person from outside cannot defile him, 19 since it enters not his heart but his stomach, and is expelled?”6 (Thus he declared all foods clean.) 20 And he said, “What comes out of a person is what defiles him. 21 For from within, out of the heart of man, come evil thoughts, sexual immorality, theft, murder, adultery, 22 coveting, wickedness, deceit, sensuality, envy, slander, pride, foolishness. 23 All these evil things come from within, and they defile a person.” The Syrophoenician Woman's Faith 24 And from there he arose and went away to the region of Tyre and Sidon.7 And he entered a house and did not want anyone to know, yet he could not be hidden. 25 But immediately a woman whose little daughter had an unclean spirit heard of him and came and fell down at his feet. 26 Now the woman was a Gentile, a Syrophoenician by birth. And she begged him to cast the demon out of her daughter. 27 And he said to her, “Let the children be fed first, for it is not right to take the children's bread and throw it to the dogs.” 28 But she answered him, “Yes, Lord; yet even the dogs under the table eat the children's crumbs.” 29 And he said to her, “For this statement you may go your way; the demon has left your daughter.” 30 And she went home and found the child lying in bed and the demon gone. Jesus Heals a Deaf Man 31 Then he returned from the region of Tyre and went through Sidon to the Sea of Galilee, in the region of the Decapolis. 32 And they brought to him a man who was deaf and had a speech impediment, and they begged him to lay his hand on him. 33 And taking him aside from the crowd privately, he put his fingers into his ears, and after spitting touched his tongue. 34 And looking up to heaven, he sighed and said to him, “Ephphatha,” that is, “Be opened.” 35 And his ears were opened, his tongue was released, and he spoke plainly. 36 And Jesus8 charged them to tell no one. But the more he charged them, the more zealously they proclaimed it. 37 And they were astonished beyond measure, saying, “He has done all things well. He even makes the deaf hear and the mute speak.” Footnotes [1] 7:3 Greek unless they wash the hands with a fist, probably indicating a kind of ceremonial washing [2] 7:4 Greek unless they baptize; some manuscripts unless they purify themselves [3] 7:4 Some manuscripts omit and dining couches [4] 7:11 Or an offering [5] 7:15 Some manuscripts add verse 16: If anyone has ears to hear, let him hear [6] 7:19 Greek goes out into the latrine [7] 7:24 Some manuscripts omit and Sidon [8] 7:36 Greek he (ESV)