Daily Readings for January 29
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Genesis 48

 

1.It happened after these things, that someone said to Joseph, "Behold, your father is sick." He took with him his two sons, Manasseh and Ephraim. 2.Someone told Jacob, and said, "Behold, your son Joseph comes to you," and Israel strengthened himself, and sat on the bed. 3.Jacob said to Joseph, "God Almighty appeared to me at Luz in the land of Canaan, and blessed me, 4.and said to me, 'Behold, I will make you fruitful, and multiply you, and I will make of you a company of peoples, and will give this land to your seed after you for an everlasting possession.' 5.Now your two sons, who were born to you in the land of Egypt before I came to you into Egypt, are mine; Ephraim and Manasseh, even as Reuben and Simeon, will be mine. 6.Your issue, whom you become the father of after them, will be yours. They will be called after the name of their brothers in their inheritance. 7.As for me, when I came from Paddan, Rachel died by me in the land of Canaan in the way, when there was still some distance to come to Ephrath, and I buried her there in the way to Ephrath (the same is Bethlehem)."

8.Israel saw Joseph's sons, and said, "Who are these?"

9.Joseph said to his father, "They are my sons, whom God has given me here."

He said, "Please bring them to me, and I will bless them." 10.Now the eyes of Israel were dim for age, so that he couldn't see. He brought them near to him; and he kissed them, and embraced them. 11.Israel said to Joseph, "I didn't think I would see your face, and behold, God has let me see your seed also." 12.Joseph brought them out from between his knees, and he bowed himself with his face to the earth. 13.Joseph took them both, Ephraim in his right hand toward Israel's left hand, and Manasseh in his left hand toward Israel's right hand, and brought them near to him. 14.Israel stretched out his right hand, and laid it on Ephraim's head, who was the younger, and his left hand on Manasseh's head, guiding his hands knowingly, for Manasseh was the firstborn. 15.He blessed Joseph, and said, "The God before whom my fathers Abraham and Isaac walked, the God who has fed me all my life long to this day, 16.the angel who has redeemed me from all evil, bless the lads, and let my name be named on them, and the name of my fathers Abraham and Isaac. Let them grow into a multitude in the midst of the earth."

17.When Joseph saw that his father laid his right hand on the head of Ephraim, it displeased him. He held up his father's hand, to remove it from Ephraim's head to Manasseh's head. 18.Joseph said to his father, "Not so, my father; for this is the firstborn; put your right hand on his head."

19.His father refused, and said, "I know, my son, I know. He also will become a people, and he also will be great. However, his younger brother will be greater than he, and his seed will become a multitude of nations." 20.He blessed them that day, saying, "In you will Israel bless, saying, 'God make you as Ephraim and as Manasseh'" He set Ephraim before Manasseh. 21.Israel said to Joseph, "Behold, I am dying, but God will be with you, and bring you again to the land of your fathers. 22.Moreover I have given to you one portion above your brothers, which I took out of the hand of the Amorite with my sword and with my bow."

 

Genesis 49

 

1.Jacob called to his sons, and said: "Gather yourselves together, that I may tell you that which will happen to you in the days to come. 2.Assemble yourselves, and hear, you sons of Jacob. Listen to Israel, your father.

3."Reuben, you are my firstborn, my might, and the beginning of my strength; excelling in dignity, and excelling in power. 4.Boiling over as water, you shall not excel; because you went up to your father's bed, then defiled it. He went up to my couch.

5."Simeon and Levi are brothers. Their swords are weapons of violence. 6.My soul, don't come into their council. My glory, don't be united to their assembly; for in their anger they killed men. In their self-will they hamstrung cattle. 7.Cursed be their anger, for it was fierce; and their wrath, for it was cruel. I will divide them in Jacob, and scatter them in Israel.

8."Judah, your brothers will praise you. Your hand will be on the neck of your enemies. Your father's sons will bow down before you. 9.Judah is a lion's cub. From the prey, my son, you have gone up. He stooped down, he crouched as a lion, as a lioness. Who will rouse him up? 10.The scepter will not depart from Judah, nor the ruler's staff from between his feet, until he comes to whom it belongs. To him will the obedience of the peoples be. 11.Binding his foal to the vine, his donkey's colt to the choice vine; he has washed his garments in wine, his robes in the blood of grapes. 12.His eyes will be red with wine, his teeth white with milk.

13."Zebulun will dwell at the haven of the sea. He will be for a haven of ships. His border will be on Sidon.

14."Issachar is a strong donkey, lying down between the saddlebags. 15.He saw a resting place, that it was good, the land, that it was pleasant. He bows his shoulder to the burden, and becomes a servant doing forced labor.

16."Dan will judge his people, as one of the tribes of Israel. 17.Dan will be a serpent in the way, an adder in the path, That bites the horse's heels, so that his rider falls backward. 18.I have waited for your salvation, Yahweh.

19."A troop will press on Gad, but he will press on their heel.

20."Asher's food will be rich. He will yield royal dainties.

21."Naphtali is a doe set free, who bears beautiful fawns.

22."Joseph is a fruitful vine, a fruitful vine by a spring. His branches run over the wall. 23.The archers have severely grieved him, shot at him, and persecute him: 24.But his bow remained strong. The arms of his hands were made strong, by the hands of the Mighty One of Jacob, (from there is the shepherd, the stone of Israel), 25.even by the God of your father, who will help you; by the Almighty, who will bless you, with blessings of heaven above, blessings of the deep that lies below, blessings of the breasts, and of the womb. 26.The blessings of your father have prevailed above the blessings of your ancestors, above the boundaries of the ancient hills. They will be on the head of Joseph, on the crown of the head of him who is separated from his brothers.

27."Benjamin is a ravenous wolf. In the morning he will devour the prey. At evening he will divide the spoil."

28.All these are the twelve tribes of Israel, and this is what their father spoke to them and blessed them. He blessed everyone according to his blessing. 29.He instructed them, and said to them, "I am to be gathered to my people. Bury me with my fathers in the cave that is in the field of Ephron the Hittite, 30.in the cave that is in the field of Machpelah, which is before Mamre, in the land of Canaan, which Abraham bought with the field from Ephron the Hittite as a burial place. 31.There they buried Abraham and Sarah, his wife. There they buried Isaac and Rebekah, his wife, and there I buried Leah: 32.the field and the cave that is therein, which was purchased from the children of Heth." 33.When Jacob made an end of charging his sons, he gathered up his feet into the bed, and yielded up the spirit, and was gathered to his people.

 

Genesis 50

 

1.Joseph fell on his father's face, wept on him, and kissed him. 2.Joseph commanded his servants, the physicians, to embalm his father; and the physicians embalmed Israel. 3.Forty days were fulfilled for him, for that is how many the days it takes to embalm. The Egyptians wept for him for seventy days.

4.When the days of weeping for him were past, Joseph spoke to the house of Pharaoh, saying, "If now I have found favor in your eyes, please speak in the ears of Pharaoh, saying, 5.'My father made me swear, saying, "Behold, I am dying. Bury me in my grave which I have dug for myself in the land of Canaan." Now therefore, please let me go up and bury my father, and I will come again.'"

6.Pharaoh said, "Go up, and bury your father, just like he made you swear."

7.Joseph went up to bury his father; and with him went up all the servants of Pharaoh, the elders of his house, all the elders of the land of Egypt, 8.all the house of Joseph, his brothers, and his father's house. Only their little ones, their flocks, and their herds, they left in the land of Goshen. 9.There went up with him both chariots and horsemen. It was a very great company. 10.They came to the threshing floor of Atad, which is beyond the Jordan, and there they lamented with a very great and severe lamentation. He mourned for his father seven days. 11.When the inhabitants of the land, the Canaanites, saw the mourning in the floor of Atad, they said, "This is a grievous mourning by the Egyptians." Therefore, its name was called Abel Mizraim, which is beyond the Jordan. 12.His sons did to him just as he commanded them, 13.for his sons carried him into the land of Canaan, and buried him in the cave of the field of Machpelah, which Abraham bought with the field, for a possession of a burial site, from Ephron the Hittite, before Mamre. 14.Joseph returned into Egypt--he, and his brothers, and all that went up with him to bury his father, after he had buried his father.

15.When Joseph's brothers saw that their father was dead, they said, "It may be that Joseph will hate us, and will fully pay us back for all of the evil which we did to him." 16.They sent a message to Joseph, saying, "Your father commanded before he died, saying, 17.'You shall tell Joseph, "Now please forgive the disobedience of your brothers, and their sin, because they did evil to you."' Now, please forgive the disobedience of the servants of the God of your father." Joseph wept when they spoke to him. 18.His brothers also went and fell down before his face; and they said, "Behold, we are your servants." 19.Joseph said to them, "Don't be afraid, for am I in the place of God? 20.As for you, you meant evil against me, but God meant it for good, to bring to pass, as it is this day, to save many people alive. 21.Now therefore don't be afraid. I will nourish you and your little ones." He comforted them, and spoke kindly to them.

22.Joseph lived in Egypt, he, and his father's house. Joseph lived one hundred ten years. 23.Joseph saw Ephraim's children to the third generation. The children also of Machir, the son of Manasseh, were born on Joseph's knees. 24.Joseph said to his brothers, "I am dying, but God will surely visit you, and bring you up out of this land to the land which he swore to Abraham, to Isaac, and to Jacob." 25.Joseph took an oath of the children of Israel, saying, "God will surely visit you, and you shall carry up my bones from here." 26.So Joseph died, being one hundred ten years old, and they embalmed him, and he was put in a coffin in Egypt.

 

Psalm 51

 

1.Have mercy on me, God, according to your loving kindness. According to the multitude of your tender mercies, blot out my transgressions. 2.Wash me thoroughly from my iniquity. Cleanse me from my sin. 3.For I know my transgressions. My sin is constantly before me. 4.Against you, and you only, have I sinned, and done that which is evil in your sight; that you may be proved right when you speak, and justified when you judge. 5.Behold, I was brought forth in iniquity. In sin my mother conceived me. 6.Behold, you desire truth in the inward parts. You teach me wisdom in the inmost place. 7.Purify me with hyssop, and I will be clean. Wash me, and I will be whiter than snow. 8.Let me hear joy and gladness, That the bones which you have broken may rejoice. 9.Hide your face from my sins, and blot out all of my iniquities. 10.Create in me a clean heart, O God. Renew a right spirit within me. 11.Don't throw me from your presence, and don't take your holy Spirit from me. 12.Restore to me the joy of your salvation. Uphold me with a willing spirit. 13.Then I will teach transgressors your ways. Sinners shall be converted to you. 14.Deliver me from bloodguiltiness, O God, the God of my salvation. My tongue shall sing aloud of your righteousness. 15.Lord, open my lips. My mouth shall declare your praise. 16.For you don't delight in sacrifice, or else I would give it. You have no pleasure in burnt offering. 17.The sacrifices of God are a broken spirit. A broken and contrite heart, O God, you will not despise.

18.Do well in your good pleasure to Zion. Build the walls of Jerusalem. 19.Then you will delight in the sacrifices of righteousness, in burnt offerings and in whole burnt offerings. Then they will offer bulls on your altar.

 

Psalm 52

 

1.Why do you boast of mischief, mighty man? God's loving kindness endures continually. 2.Your tongue plots destruction, like a sharp razor, working deceitfully. 3.You love evil more than good, lying rather than speaking the truth. Selah. 4.You love all devouring words, you deceitful tongue. 5.God will likewise destroy you forever. He will take you up, and pluck you out of your tent, and root you out of the land of the living. Selah. 6.The righteous also will see it, and fear, and laugh at him, saying, 7."Behold, this is the man who didn't make God his strength, but trusted in the abundance of his riches, and strengthened himself in his wickedness." 8.But as for me, I am like a green olive tree in God's house. I trust in God's loving kindness forever and ever. 9.I will give you thanks forever, because you have done it. I will hope in your name, for it is good, in the presence of your saints.

 

Romans 5

 

1.Being therefore justified by faith, we have peace with God through our Lord Jesus Christ; 2.through whom we also have our access by faith into this grace in which we stand. We rejoice in hope of the glory of God. 3.Not only this, but we also rejoice in our sufferings, knowing that suffering works perseverance; 4.and perseverance, proven character; and proven character, hope: 5.and hope doesn't disappoint us, because God's love has been poured out into our hearts through the Holy Spirit who was given to us. 6.For while we were yet weak, at the right time Christ died for the ungodly. 7.For one will hardly die for a righteous man. Yet perhaps for a righteous person someone would even dare to die. 8.But God commends his own love toward us, in that while we were yet sinners, Christ died for us.

9.Much more then, being now justified by his blood, we will be saved from God's wrath through him. 10.For if, while we were enemies, we were reconciled to God through the death of his Son, much more, being reconciled, we will be saved by his life.

11.Not only so, but we also rejoice in God through our Lord Jesus Christ, through whom we have now received the reconciliation. 12.Therefore, as sin entered into the world through one man, and death through sin; and so death passed to all men, because all sinned. 13.For until the law, sin was in the world; but sin is not charged when there is no law. 14.Nevertheless death reigned from Adam until Moses, even over those whose sins weren't like Adam's disobedience, who is a foreshadowing of him who was to come. 15.But the free gift isn't like the trespass. For if by the trespass of the one the many died, much more did the grace of God, and the gift by the grace of the one man, Jesus Christ, abound to the many. 16.The gift is not as through one who sinned: for the judgment came by one to condemnation, but the free gift came of many trespasses to justification. 17.For if by the trespass of the one, death reigned through the one; so much more will those who receive the abundance of grace and of the gift of righteousness reign in life through the one, Jesus Christ. 18.So then as through one trespass, all men were condemned; even so through one act of righteousness, all men were justified to life. 19.For as through the one man's disobedience many were made sinners, even so through the obedience of the one, many will be made righteous. 20.The law came in besides, that the trespass might abound; but where sin abounded, grace abounded more exceedingly; 21.that as sin reigned in death, even so grace might reign through righteousness to eternal life through Jesus Christ our Lord.

 

Romans 6

 

1.What shall we say then? Shall we continue in sin, that grace may abound? 2.May it never be! We who died to sin, how could we live in it any longer? 3.Or don't you know that all we who were baptized into Christ Jesus were baptized into his death? 4.We were buried therefore with him through baptism to death, that just like Christ was raised from the dead through the glory of the Father, so we also might walk in newness of life. 5.For if we have become united with him in the likeness of his death, we will also be part of his resurrection; 6.knowing this, that our old man was crucified with him, that the body of sin might be done away with, so that we would no longer be in bondage to sin. 7.For he who has died has been freed from sin. 8.But if we died with Christ, we believe that we will also live with him; 9.knowing that Christ, being raised from the dead, dies no more. Death no more has dominion over him! 10.For the death that he died, he died to sin one time; but the life that he lives, he lives to God. 11.Thus consider yourselves also to be dead to sin, but alive to God in Christ Jesus our Lord.

12.Therefore don't let sin reign in your mortal body, that you should obey it in its lusts. 13.Neither present your members to sin as instruments of unrighteousness, but present yourselves to God, as alive from the dead, and your members as instruments of righteousness to God. 14.For sin will not have dominion over you. For you are not under law, but under grace. 15.What then? Shall we sin, because we are not under law, but under grace? May it never be! 16.Don't you know that to whom you present yourselves as servants to obedience, his servants you are whom you obey; whether of sin to death, or of obedience to righteousness? 17.But thanks be to God, that, whereas you were bondservants of sin, you became obedient from the heart to that form of teaching whereunto you were delivered. 18.Being made free from sin, you became bondservants of righteousness.

19.I speak in human terms because of the weakness of your flesh, for as you presented your members as servants to uncleanness and to wickedness upon wickedness, even so now present your members as servants to righteousness for sanctification. 20.For when you were servants of sin, you were free in regard to righteousness. 21.What fruit then did you have at that time in the things of which you are now ashamed? For the end of those things is death. 22.But now, being made free from sin, and having become servants of God, you have your fruit of sanctification, and the result of eternal life. 23.For the wages of sin is death, but the free gift of God is eternal life in Christ Jesus our Lord.

 

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