Sunday, December 18, 2022

December 18


John 19:28-37


The Death of Jesus


[28] After this, Jesus, knowing that all was now finished, said (to fulfill the Scripture), “I thirst.” [29] A jar full of sour wine stood there, so they put a sponge full of the sour wine on a hyssop branch and held it to his mouth. [30] When Jesus had received the sour wine, he said, “It is finished,” and he bowed his head and gave up his spirit.


Jesus’ Side Is Pierced


[31] Since it was the day of Preparation, and so that the bodies would not remain on the cross on the Sabbath (for that Sabbath was a high day), the Jews asked Pilate that their legs might be broken and that they might be taken away. [32] So the soldiers came and broke the legs of the first, and of the other who had been crucified with him. [33] But when they came to Jesus and saw that he was already dead, they did not break his legs. [34] But one of the soldiers pierced his side with a spear, and at once there came out blood and water. [35] He who saw it has borne witness—his testimony is true, and he knows that he is telling the truth—that you also may believe. [36] For these things took place that the Scripture might be fulfilled: “Not one of his bones will be broken.” [37] And again another Scripture says, “They will look on him whom they have pierced.”


Revelation 15


The Seven Angels with Seven Plagues


[1] Then I saw another sign in heaven, great and amazing, seven angels with seven plagues, which are the last, for with them the wrath of God is finished.


[2] And I saw what appeared to be a sea of glass mingled with fire—and also those who had conquered the beast and its image and the number of its name, standing beside the sea of glass with harps of God in their hands. [3] And they sing the song of Moses, the servant of God, and the song of the Lamb, saying, 


    “Great and amazing are your deeds,

        O Lord God the Almighty!

    Just and true are your ways,

        O King of the nations! 

    [4] Who will not fear, O Lord,

        and glorify your name?

    For you alone are holy.

        All nations will come

        and worship you,

    for your righteous acts have been revealed.”


    [5] After this I looked, and the sanctuary of the tent of witness in heaven was opened, [6] and out of the sanctuary came the seven angels with the seven plagues, clothed in pure, bright linen, with golden sashes around their chests. [7] And one of the four living creatures gave to the seven angels seven golden bowls full of the wrath of God who lives forever and ever, [8] and the sanctuary was filled with smoke from the glory of God and from his power, and no one could enter the sanctuary until the seven plagues of the seven angels were finished.


Job 37


Elihu Proclaims God’s Majesty


    [1] “At this also my heart trembles

        and leaps out of its place. 

    [2] Keep listening to the thunder of his voice

        and the rumbling that comes from his mouth. 

    [3] Under the whole heaven he lets it go,

        and his lightning to the corners of the earth. 

    [4] After it his voice roars;

        he thunders with his majestic voice,

        and he does not restrain the lightnings when his voice is heard. 

    [5] God thunders wondrously with his voice;

        he does great things that we cannot comprehend. 

    [6] For to the snow he says, ‘Fall on the earth,’

        likewise to the downpour, his mighty downpour. 

    [7] He seals up the hand of every man,

        that all men whom he made may know it. 

    [8] Then the beasts go into their lairs,

        and remain in their dens. 

    [9] From its chamber comes the whirlwind,

        and cold from the scattering winds. 

    [10] By the breath of God ice is given,

        and the broad waters are frozen fast. 

    [11] He loads the thick cloud with moisture;

        the clouds scatter his lightning. 

    [12] They turn around and around by his guidance,

        to accomplish all that he commands them

        on the face of the habitable world. 

    [13] Whether for correction or for his land

        or for love, he causes it to happen.


    [14] “Hear this, O Job;

        stop and consider the wondrous works of God. 

    [15] Do you know how God lays his command upon them

        and causes the lightning of his cloud to shine? 

    [16] Do you know the balancings of the clouds,

        the wondrous works of him who is perfect in knowledge, 

    [17] you whose garments are hot

        when the earth is still because of the south wind? 

    [18] Can you, like him, spread out the skies,

        hard as a cast metal mirror? 

    [19] Teach us what we shall say to him;

        we cannot draw up our case because of darkness. 

    [20] Shall it be told him that I would speak?

        Did a man ever wish that he would be swallowed up?


    [21] “And now no one looks on the light

        when it is bright in the skies,

        when the wind has passed and cleared them. 

    [22] Out of the north comes golden splendor;

        God is clothed with awesome majesty. 

    [23] The Almighty—we cannot find him;

        he is great in power;

        justice and abundant righteousness he will not violate. 

    [24] Therefore men fear him;

        he does not regard any who are wise in their own conceit.”


Habakkuk 1


[1] The oracle that Habakkuk the prophet saw.


Habakkuk’s Complaint


    [2] O LORD, how long shall I cry for help,

        and you will not hear?

    Or cry to you “Violence!”

        and you will not save? 

    [3] Why do you make me see iniquity,

        and why do you idly look at wrong?

    Destruction and violence are before me;

        strife and contention arise. 

    [4] So the law is paralyzed,

        and justice never goes forth.

    For the wicked surround the righteous;

        so justice goes forth perverted.


    The LORD’s Answer


    [5] “Look among the nations, and see;

        wonder and be astounded.

    For I am doing a work in your days

        that you would not believe if told. 

    [6] For behold, I am raising up the Chaldeans,

        that bitter and hasty nation,

    who march through the breadth of the earth,

        to seize dwellings not their own. 

    [7] They are dreaded and fearsome;

        their justice and dignity go forth from themselves. 

    [8] Their horses are swifter than leopards,

        more fierce than the evening wolves;

        their horsemen press proudly on.

    Their horsemen come from afar;

        they fly like an eagle swift to devour. 

    [9] They all come for violence,

        all their faces forward.

        They gather captives like sand. 

    [10] At kings they scoff,

        and at rulers they laugh.

    They laugh at every fortress,

        for they pile up earth and take it. 

    [11] Then they sweep by like the wind and go on,

        guilty men, whose own might is their god!”


    Habakkuk’s Second Complaint


    [12] Are you not from everlasting,

        O LORD my God, my Holy One?

        We shall not die.

    O LORD, you have ordained them as a judgment,

        and you, O Rock, have established them for reproof. 

    [13] You who are of purer eyes than to see evil

        and cannot look at wrong,

    why do you idly look at traitors

        and remain silent when the wicked swallows up

        the man more righteous than he? 

    [14] You make mankind like the fish of the sea,

        like crawling things that have no ruler. 

    [15] He brings all of them up with a hook;

        he drags them out with his net;

    he gathers them in his dragnet;

        so he rejoices and is glad. 

    [16] Therefore he sacrifices to his net

        and makes offerings to his dragnet;

    for by them he lives in luxury,

        and his food is rich. 

    [17] Is he then to keep on emptying his net

        and mercilessly killing nations forever?


Habakkuk 2


    [1] I will take my stand at my watchpost

        and station myself on the tower,

    and look out to see what he will say to me,

        and what I will answer concerning my complaint.


The Righteous Shall Live by His Faith


[2] And the LORD answered me:


    “Write the vision;

        make it plain on tablets,

        so he may run who reads it. 

    [3] For still the vision awaits its appointed time;

        it hastens to the end—it will not lie.

    If it seems slow, wait for it;

        it will surely come; it will not delay.


    [4] “Behold, his soul is puffed up; it is not upright within him,

        but the righteous shall live by his faith.


    [5] “Moreover, wine is a traitor,

        an arrogant man who is never at rest.

    His greed is as wide as Sheol;

        like death he has never enough.

    He gathers for himself all nations

        and collects as his own all peoples.”


    Woe to the Chaldeans


[6] Shall not all these take up their taunt against him, with scoffing and riddles for him, and say, 


    “Woe to him who heaps up what is not his own—

        for how long?—

        and loads himself with pledges!” 

    [7] Will not your debtors suddenly arise,

        and those awake who will make you tremble?

        Then you will be spoil for them. 

    [8] Because you have plundered many nations,

        all the remnant of the peoples shall plunder you,

    for the blood of man and violence to the earth,

        to cities and all who dwell in them.


    [9] “Woe to him who gets evil gain for his house,

        to set his nest on high,

        to be safe from the reach of harm! 

    [10] You have devised shame for your house

        by cutting off many peoples;

        you have forfeited your life. 

    [11] For the stone will cry out from the wall,

        and the beam from the woodwork respond.


    [12] “Woe to him who builds a town with blood

        and founds a city on iniquity! 

    [13] Behold, is it not from the LORD of hosts

        that peoples labor merely for fire,

        and nations weary themselves for nothing? 

    [14] For the earth will be filled

        with the knowledge of the glory of the LORD

        as the waters cover the sea.


    [15] “Woe to him who makes his neighbors drink—

        you pour out your wrath and make them drunk,

        in order to gaze at their nakedness! 

    [16] You will have your fill of shame instead of glory.

        Drink, yourself, and show your uncircumcision!

    The cup in the LORD’s right hand

        will come around to you,

        and utter shame will come upon your glory! 

    [17] The violence done to Lebanon will overwhelm you,

        as will the destruction of the beasts that terrified them,

    for the blood of man and violence to the earth,

        to cities and all who dwell in them.


    [18] “What profit is an idol

        when its maker has shaped it,

        a metal image, a teacher of lies?

    For its maker trusts in his own creation

        when he makes speechless idols! 

    [19] Woe to him who says to a wooden thing, Awake;

        to a silent stone, Arise!

    Can this teach?

    Behold, it is overlaid with gold and silver,

        and there is no breath at all in it. 

    [20] But the LORD is in his holy temple;

        let all the earth keep silence before him.”


Habakkuk 3


Habakkuk’s Prayer


[1] A prayer of Habakkuk the prophet, according to Shigionoth.


    [2] O LORD, I have heard the report of you,

        and your work, O LORD, do I fear.

    In the midst of the years revive it;

        in the midst of the years make it known;

        in wrath remember mercy. 

    [3] God came from Teman,

        and the Holy One from Mount Paran. Selah

    His splendor covered the heavens,

        and the earth was full of his praise. 

    [4] His brightness was like the light;

        rays flashed from his hand;

        and there he veiled his power. 

    [5] Before him went pestilence,

        and plague followed at his heels. 

    [6] He stood and measured the earth;

        he looked and shook the nations;

    then the eternal mountains were scattered;

        the everlasting hills sank low.

        His were the everlasting ways. 

    [7] I saw the tents of Cushan in affliction;

        the curtains of the land of Midian did tremble. 

    [8] Was your wrath against the rivers, O LORD?

        Was your anger against the rivers,

        or your indignation against the sea,

    when you rode on your horses,

        on your chariot of salvation? 

    [9] You stripped the sheath from your bow,

        calling for many arrows. Selah

        You split the earth with rivers. 

    [10] The mountains saw you and writhed;

        the raging waters swept on;

    the deep gave forth its voice;

        it lifted its hands on high. 

    [11] The sun and moon stood still in their place

        at the light of your arrows as they sped,

        at the flash of your glittering spear. 

    [12] You marched through the earth in fury;

        you threshed the nations in anger. 

    [13] You went out for the salvation of your people,

        for the salvation of your anointed.

    You crushed the head of the house of the wicked,

        laying him bare from thigh to neck. Selah 

    [14] You pierced with his own arrows the heads of his warriors,

        who came like a whirlwind to scatter me,

        rejoicing as if to devour the poor in secret. 

    [15] You trampled the sea with your horses,

        the surging of mighty waters.


    [16] I hear, and my body trembles;

        my lips quiver at the sound;

    rottenness enters into my bones;

        my legs tremble beneath me.

    Yet I will quietly wait for the day of trouble

        to come upon people who invade us.


    Habakkuk Rejoices in the LORD


    [17] Though the fig tree should not blossom,

        nor fruit be on the vines,

    the produce of the olive fail

        and the fields yield no food,

    the flock be cut off from the fold

        and there be no herd in the stalls, 

    [18] yet I will rejoice in the LORD;

        I will take joy in the God of my salvation. 

    [19] GOD, the Lord, is my strength;

        he makes my feet like the deer’s;

        he makes me tread on my high places.


    To the choirmaster: with stringed instruments.

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