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Daily Readings for June 5
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Joshua 23
1.It happened after many days, when Yahweh had given rest to Israel from their enemies all around, and Joshua was old and well advanced in years, 2.that Joshua called for all Israel, for their elders and for their heads, and for their judges and for their officers, and said to them, "I am old and well advanced in years. 3.You have seen all that Yahweh your God has done to all these nations because of you; for it is Yahweh your God who has fought for you. 4.Behold, I have allotted to you these nations that remain, to be an inheritance for your tribes, from the Jordan, with all the nations that I have cut off, even to the great sea toward the going down of the sun. 5.Yahweh your God will thrust them out from before you, and drive them from out of your sight. You shall possess their land, as Yahweh your God spoke to you.
6."Therefore be very courageous to keep and to do all that is written in the book of the law of Moses, that you not turn aside from it to the right hand or to the left; 7.that you not come among these nations, these that remain among you; neither make mention of the name of their gods, nor cause to swear by them, neither serve them, nor bow down yourselves to them; 8.but hold fast to Yahweh your God, as you have done to this day.
9."For Yahweh has driven great and strong nations out from before you. But as for you, no man has stood before you to this day. 10.One man of you shall chase a thousand; for it is Yahweh your God who fights for you, as he spoke to you. 11.Take good heed therefore to yourselves, that you love Yahweh your God.
12."But if you do at all go back, and hold fast to the remnant of these nations, even these who remain among you, and make marriages with them, and go in to them, and they to you; 13.know for a certainty that Yahweh your God will no longer drive these nations from out of your sight; but they shall be a snare and a trap to you, a scourge in your sides, and thorns in your eyes, until you perish from off this good land which Yahweh your God has given you.
14."Behold, today I am going the way of all the earth. You know in all your hearts and in all your souls that not one thing has failed of all the good things which Yahweh your God spoke concerning you. All have happened to you. Not one thing has failed of it. 15.It shall happen that as all the good things have come on you of which Yahweh your God spoke to you, so Yahweh will bring on you all the evil things, until he has destroyed you from off this good land which Yahweh your God has given you, 16.when you disobey the covenant of Yahweh your God, which he commanded you, and go and serve other gods, and bow down yourselves to them. Then the anger of Yahweh will be kindled against you, and you will perish quickly from off the good land which he has given to you."
Joshua 24
1.Joshua gathered all the tribes of Israel to Shechem, and called for the elders of Israel, for their heads, for their judges, and for their officers; and they presented themselves before God. 2.Joshua said to all the people, "Thus says Yahweh, the God of Israel, 'Your fathers lived of old time beyond the River, even Terah, the father of Abraham, and the father of Nahor: and they served other gods. 3.I took your father Abraham from beyond the River, and led him throughout all the land of Canaan, and multiplied his seed, and gave him Isaac. 4.I gave to Isaac Jacob and Esau: and I gave to Esau Mount Seir, to possess it. Jacob and his children went down into Egypt.
5."'I sent Moses and Aaron, and I plagued Egypt, according to that which I did in its midst: and afterward I brought you out. 6.I brought your fathers out of Egypt: and you came to the sea. The Egyptians pursued after your fathers with chariots and with horsemen to the Red Sea7. 7.When they cried out to Yahweh, he put darkness between you and the Egyptians, and brought the sea on them, and covered them; and your eyes saw what I did in Egypt: and you lived in the wilderness many days.
8."'I brought you into the land of the Amorites, that lived beyond the Jordan: and they fought with you; and I gave them into your hand. You possessed their land; and I destroyed them from before you. 9.Then Balak the son of Zippor, king of Moab, arose and fought against Israel. He sent and called Balaam the son of Beor to curse you; 10.but I would not listen to Balaam; therefore he blessed you still. So I delivered you out of his hand.
11."'You went over the Jordan, and came to Jericho. The men of Jericho fought against you, the Amorite, the Perizzite, the Canaanite, the Hittite, the Girgashite, the Hivite, and the Jebusite; and I delivered them into your hand. 12.I sent the hornet before you, which drove them out from before you, even the two kings of the Amorites; not with your sword, nor with your bow. 13.I gave you a land whereon you had not labored, and cities which you didn't build, and you live in them. You eat of vineyards and olive groves which you didn't plant.'
14."Now therefore fear Yahweh, and serve him in sincerity and in truth. Put away the gods which your fathers served beyond the River, in Egypt; and serve Yahweh. 15.If it seems evil to you to serve Yahweh, choose this day whom you will serve; whether the gods which your fathers served that were beyond the River, or the gods of the Amorites, in whose land you dwell: but as for me and my house, we will serve Yahweh."
16.The people answered, "Far be it from us that we should forsake Yahweh, to serve other gods; 17.for it is Yahweh our God who brought us and our fathers up out of the land of Egypt, from the house of bondage, and who did those great signs in our sight, and preserved us in all the way in which we went, and among all the peoples through the midst of whom we passed. 18.Yahweh drove out from before us all the peoples, even the Amorites who lived in the land. Therefore we also will serve Yahweh; for he is our God."
19.Joshua said to the people, "You can't serve Yahweh; for he is a holy God. He is a jealous God. He will not forgive your disobedience nor your sins. 20.If you forsake Yahweh, and serve foreign gods, then he will turn and do you evil, and consume you, after he has done you good."
21.The people said to Joshua, "No; but we will serve Yahweh." 22.Joshua said to the people, "You are witnesses against yourselves that you have chosen Yahweh yourselves, to serve him."
They said, "We are witnesses."
23."Now therefore put away the foreign gods which are among you, and incline your heart to Yahweh, the God of Israel."
24.The people said to Joshua, "We will serve Yahweh our God, and we will listen to his voice."
25.So Joshua made a covenant with the people that day, and made for them a statute and an ordinance in Shechem. 26.Joshua wrote these words in the book of the law of God; and he took a great stone, and set it up there under the oak that was by the sanctuary of Yahweh. 27.Joshua said to all the people, "Behold, this stone shall be a witness against us; for it has heard all the words of Yahweh which he spoke to us. It shall be therefore a witness against you, lest you deny your God." 28.So Joshua sent the people away, every man to his inheritance.
29.It happened after these things, that Joshua the son of Nun, the servant of Yahweh, died, being one hundred and ten years old. 30.They buried him in the border of his inheritance in Timnathserah, which is in the hill country of Ephraim, on the north of the mountain of Gaash. 31.Israel served Yahweh all the days of Joshua, and all the days of the elders who outlived Joshua, and had known all the work of Yahweh, that he had worked for Israel. 32.They buried the bones of Joseph, which the children of Israel brought up out of Egypt, in Shechem, in the parcel of ground which Jacob bought of the sons of Hamor the father of Shechem for a hundred pieces of money. They became the inheritance of the children of Joseph. 33.Eleazar the son of Aaron died. They buried him in the hill of Phinehas his son, which was given him in the hill country of Ephraim.
Isaiah 29
1.Woe to Ariel! Ariel, the city where David encamped! Add year to year; let the feasts come around; 2.then I will distress Ariel, and there will be mourning and lamentation. She shall be to me as an altar hearth16. 3.I will encamp against you all around you, and will lay siege against you with posted troops. I will raise siege works against you. 4.You will be brought down, and will speak out of the ground. Your speech will mumble out of the dust. Your voice will be as of one who has a familiar spirit, out of the ground, and your speech will whisper out of the dust. 5.But the multitude of your foes will be like fine dust, and the multitude of the ruthless ones like chaff that blows away. Yes, it will be in an instant, suddenly. 6.She will be visited by Yahweh of Armies with thunder, with earthquake, with great noise, with whirlwind and storm, and with the flame of a devouring fire. 7.The multitude of all the nations that fight against Ariel, even all who fight against her and her stronghold, and who distress her, will be like a dream, a vision of the night. 8.It will be like when a hungry man dreams, and behold, he eats; but he awakes, and his hunger isn't satisfied; or like when a thirsty man dreams, and behold, he drinks; but he awakes, and behold, he is faint, and he is still thirsty. The multitude of all the nations that fight against Mount Zion will be like that. 9.Pause and wonder! Blind yourselves and be blind! They are drunken, but not with wine; they stagger, but not with strong drink. 10.For Yahweh has poured out on you a spirit of deep sleep, and has closed your eyes, the prophets; and he has covered your heads, the seers. 11.All vision has become to you like the words of a book that is sealed, which men deliver to one who is educated, saying, "Read this, please;" and he says, "I can't, for it is sealed:" 12.and the book is delivered to one who is not educated, saying, "Read this, please;" and he says, "I can't read." 13.The Lord said, "Because this people draws near with their mouth and with their lips to honor me, but they have removed their heart far from me, and their fear of me is a commandment of men which has been taught; 14.therefore, behold, I will proceed to do a marvelous work among this people, even a marvelous work and a wonder; and the wisdom of their wise men will perish, and the understanding of their prudent men will be hidden."
15.Woe to those who deeply hide their counsel from Yahweh, and whose works are in the dark, and who say, "Who sees us?" and "Who knows us?" 16.You turn things upside down! Should the potter be thought to be like clay; that the thing made should say about him who made it, "He didn't make me;" or the thing formed say of him who formed it, "He has no understanding?"
17.Isn't it yet a very little while, and Lebanon will be turned into a fruitful field, and the fruitful field will be regarded as a forest? 18.In that day, the deaf will hear the words of the book, and the eyes of the blind will see out of obscurity and out of darkness. 19.The humble also will increase their joy in Yahweh, and the poor among men will rejoice in the Holy One of Israel. 20.For the ruthless is brought to nothing, and the scoffer ceases, and all those who are alert to do evil are cut off-- 21.who cause a person to be indicted by a word, and lay a snare for the arbiter in the gate, and who deprive the innocent of justice with false testimony. 22.Therefore thus says Yahweh, who redeemed Abraham, concerning the house of Jacob: "Jacob shall no longer be ashamed, neither shall his face grow pale. 23.But when he sees his children, the work of my hands, in the midst of him, they will sanctify my name. Yes, they will sanctify the Holy One of Jacob, and will stand in awe of the God of Israel. 24.They also who err in spirit will come to understanding, and those who grumble will receive instruction."
Hebrews 12
1.Therefore let us also, seeing we are surrounded by so great a cloud of witnesses, lay aside every weight and the sin which so easily entangles us, and let us run with patience the race that is set before us, 2.looking to Jesus, the author and perfecter of faith, who for the joy that was set before him endured the cross, despising its shame, and has sat down at the right hand of the throne of God. 3.For consider him who has endured such contradiction of sinners against himself, that you don't grow weary, fainting in your souls. 4.You have not yet resisted to blood, striving against sin; 5.and you have forgotten the exhortation which reasons with you as with children, "My son, don't take lightly the chastening of the Lord, nor faint when you are reproved by him; 6.For whom the Lord loves, he chastens, and scourges every son whom he receives."45
7.It is for discipline that you endure. God deals with you as with children, for what son is there whom his father doesn't discipline? 8.But if you are without discipline, of which all have been made partakers, then are you illegitimate, and not children. 9.Furthermore, we had the fathers of our flesh to chasten us, and we paid them respect. Shall we not much rather be in subjection to the Father of spirits, and live? 10.For they indeed, for a few days, punished us as seemed good to them; but he for our profit, that we may be partakers of his holiness. 11.All chastening seems for the present to be not joyous but grievous; yet afterward it yields the peaceful fruit of righteousness to those who have been exercised thereby. 12.Therefore, lift up the hands that hang down and the feeble knees,46 13.and make straight paths for your feet,47 so that which is lame may not be dislocated, but rather be healed. 14.Follow after peace with all men, and the sanctification without which no man will see the Lord, 15.looking carefully lest there be any man who falls short of the grace of God; lest any root of bitterness springing up trouble you, and many be defiled by it; 16.lest there be any sexually immoral person, or profane person, like Esau, who sold his birthright for one meal. 17.For you know that even when he afterward desired to inherit the blessing, he was rejected, for he found no place for a change of mind though he sought it diligently with tears. 18.For you have not come to a mountain that might be touched, and that burned with fire, and to blackness, darkness, storm, 19.the sound of a trumpet, and the voice of words; which those who heard it begged that not one more word should be spoken to them, 20.for they could not stand that which was commanded, "If even an animal touches the mountain, it shall be stoned48;"49 21.and so fearful was the appearance, that Moses said, "I am terrified and trembling."50
22.But you have come to Mount Zion, and to the city of the living God, the heavenly Jerusalem, and to innumerable multitudes of angels, 23.to the general assembly and assembly of the firstborn who are enrolled in heaven, to God the Judge of all, to the spirits of just men made perfect, 24.to Jesus, the mediator of a new covenant,51 and to the blood of sprinkling that speaks better than that of Abel.
25.See that you don't refuse him who speaks. For if they didn't escape when they refused him who warned on the earth, how much more will we not escape who turn away from him who warns from heaven, 26.whose voice shook the earth then, but now he has promised, saying, "Yet once more I will shake not only the earth, but also the heavens."52 27.This phrase, "Yet once more," signifies the removing of those things that are shaken, as of things that have been made, that those things which are not shaken may remain. 28.Therefore, receiving a Kingdom that can't be shaken, let us have grace, through which we serve God acceptably, with reverence and awe, 29.for our God is a consuming fire.53