March 21

Matthew 27:27-44

Jesus Is Mocked

[27] Then the soldiers of the governor took Jesus into the governor’s headquarters, and they gathered the whole battalion before him. [28] And they stripped him and put a scarlet robe on him, [29] and twisting together a crown of thorns, they put it on his head and put a reed in his right hand. And kneeling before him, they mocked him, saying, “Hail, King of the Jews!” [30] And they spit on him and took the reed and struck him on the head. [31] And when they had mocked him, they stripped him of the robe and put his own clothes on him and led him away to crucify him.

The Crucifixion

[32] As they went out, they found a man of Cyrene, Simon by name. They compelled this man to carry his cross. [33] And when they came to a place called Golgotha (which means Place of a Skull), [34] they offered him wine to drink, mixed with gall, but when he tasted it, he would not drink it. [35] And when they had crucified him, they divided his garments among them by casting lots. [36] Then they sat down and kept watch over him there. [37] And over his head they put the charge against him, which read, “This is Jesus, the King of the Jews.” [38] Then two robbers were crucified with him, one on the right and one on the left. [39] And those who passed by derided him, wagging their heads [40] and saying, “You who would destroy the temple and rebuild it in three days, save yourself! If you are the Son of God, come down from the cross.” [41] So also the chief priests, with the scribes and elders, mocked him, saying, [42] “He saved others; he cannot save himself. He is the King of Israel; let him come down now from the cross, and we will believe in him. [43] He trusts in God; let God deliver him now, if he desires him. For he said, ‘I am the Son of God.’” [44] And the robbers who were crucified with him also reviled him in the same way.

Romans 13

Submission to the Authorities

[1] Let every person be subject to the governing authorities. For there is no authority except from God, and those that exist have been instituted by God. [2] Therefore whoever resists the authorities resists what God has appointed, and those who resist will incur judgment. [3] For rulers are not a terror to good conduct, but to bad. Would you have no fear of the one who is in authority? Then do what is good, and you will receive his approval, [4] for he is God’s servant for your good. But if you do wrong, be afraid, for he does not bear the sword in vain. For he is the servant of God, an avenger who carries out God’s wrath on the wrongdoer. [5] Therefore one must be in subjection, not only to avoid God’s wrath but also for the sake of conscience. [6] For because of this you also pay taxes, for the authorities are ministers of God, attending to this very thing. [7] Pay to all what is owed to them: taxes to whom taxes are owed, revenue to whom revenue is owed, respect to whom respect is owed, honor to whom honor is owed.

Fulfilling the Law Through Love

[8] Owe no one anything, except to love each other, for the one who loves another has fulfilled the law. [9] For the commandments, “You shall not commit adultery, You shall not murder, You shall not steal, You shall not covet,” and any other commandment, are summed up in this word: “You shall love your neighbor as yourself.” [10] Love does no wrong to a neighbor; therefore love is the fulfilling of the law.

[11] Besides this you know the time, that the hour has come for you to wake from sleep. For salvation is nearer to us now than when we first believed. [12] The night is far gone; the day is at hand. So then let us cast off the works of darkness and put on the armor of light. [13] Let us walk properly as in the daytime, not in orgies and drunkenness, not in sexual immorality and sensuality, not in quarreling and jealousy. [14] But put on the Lord Jesus Christ, and make no provision for the flesh, to gratify its desires.

Psalm 68

God Shall Scatter His Enemies

To the choirmaster. A Psalm of David. A Song.

    [1] God shall arise, his enemies shall be scattered;

        and those who hate him shall flee before him! 

    [2] As smoke is driven away, so you shall drive them away;

        as wax melts before fire,

        so the wicked shall perish before God! 

    [3] But the righteous shall be glad;

        they shall exult before God;

        they shall be jubilant with joy!

    [4] Sing to God, sing praises to his name;

        lift up a song to him who rides through the deserts;

    his name is the LORD;

        exult before him! 

    [5] Father of the fatherless and protector of widows

        is God in his holy habitation. 

    [6] God settles the solitary in a home;

        he leads out the prisoners to prosperity,

        but the rebellious dwell in a parched land.

    [7] O God, when you went out before your people,

        when you marched through the wilderness, Selah 

    [8] the earth quaked, the heavens poured down rain,

        before God, the One of Sinai,

        before God, the God of Israel. 

    [9] Rain in abundance, O God, you shed abroad;

        you restored your inheritance as it languished; 

    [10] your flock found a dwelling in it;

        in your goodness, O God, you provided for the needy.

    [11] The Lord gives the word;

        the women who announce the news are a great host: 

    [12]     “The kings of the armies—they flee, they flee!”

    The women at home divide the spoil—

    [13]     though you men lie among the sheepfolds—

    the wings of a dove covered with silver,

        its pinions with shimmering gold. 

    [14] When the Almighty scatters kings there,

        let snow fall on Zalmon.

    [15] O mountain of God, mountain of Bashan;

        O many-peaked mountain, mountain of Bashan! 

    [16] Why do you look with hatred, O many-peaked mountain,

        at the mount that God desired for his abode,

        yes, where the LORD will dwell forever? 

    [17] The chariots of God are twice ten thousand,

        thousands upon thousands;

        the Lord is among them; Sinai is now in the sanctuary. 

    [18] You ascended on high,

        leading a host of captives in your train

        and receiving gifts among men,

    even among the rebellious, that the LORD God may dwell there.

    [19] Blessed be the Lord,

        who daily bears us up;

        God is our salvation. Selah 

    [20] Our God is a God of salvation,

        and to GOD, the Lord, belong deliverances from death. 

    [21] But God will strike the heads of his enemies,

        the hairy crown of him who walks in his guilty ways. 

    [22] The Lord said,

        “I will bring them back from Bashan,

    I will bring them back from the depths of the sea, 

    [23] that you may strike your feet in their blood,

        that the tongues of your dogs may have their portion from the foe.”

    [24] Your procession is seen, O God,

        the procession of my God, my King, into the sanctuary—

    [25] the singers in front, the musicians last,

        between them virgins playing tambourines: 

    [26] “Bless God in the great congregation,

        the LORD, O you who are of Israel’s fountain!” 

    [27] There is Benjamin, the least of them, in the lead,

        the princes of Judah in their throng,

        the princes of Zebulun, the princes of Naphtali.

    [28] Summon your power, O God,

        the power, O God, by which you have worked for us. 

    [29] Because of your temple at Jerusalem

        kings shall bear gifts to you. 

    [30] Rebuke the beasts that dwell among the reeds,

        the herd of bulls with the calves of the peoples.

    Trample underfoot those who lust after tribute;

        scatter the peoples who delight in war. 

    [31] Nobles shall come from Egypt;

        Cush shall hasten to stretch out her hands to God.

    [32] O kingdoms of the earth, sing to God;

        sing praises to the Lord, Selah 

    [33] to him who rides in the heavens, the ancient heavens;

        behold, he sends out his voice, his mighty voice. 

    [34] Ascribe power to God,

        whose majesty is over Israel,

        and whose power is in the skies. 

    [35] Awesome is God from his sanctuary;

        the God of Israel—he is the one who gives power and strength to his people.

    Blessed be God!

Deuteronomy 22

Various Laws

[1] “You shall not see your brother’s ox or his sheep going astray and ignore them. You shall take them back to your brother. [2] And if he does not live near you and you do not know who he is, you shall bring it home to your house, and it shall stay with you until your brother seeks it. Then you shall restore it to him. [3] And you shall do the same with his donkey or with his garment, or with any lost thing of your brother’s, which he loses and you find; you may not ignore it. [4] You shall not see your brother’s donkey or his ox fallen down by the way and ignore them. You shall help him to lift them up again.

[5] “A woman shall not wear a man’s garment, nor shall a man put on a woman’s cloak, for whoever does these things is an abomination to the LORD your God.

[6] “If you come across a bird’s nest in any tree or on the ground, with young ones or eggs and the mother sitting on the young or on the eggs, you shall not take the mother with the young. [7] You shall let the mother go, but the young you may take for yourself, that it may go well with you, and that you may live long.

[8] “When you build a new house, you shall make a parapet for your roof, that you may not bring the guilt of blood upon your house, if anyone should fall from it.

[9] “You shall not sow your vineyard with two kinds of seed, lest the whole yield be forfeited, the crop that you have sown and the yield of the vineyard. [10] You shall not plow with an ox and a donkey together. [11] You shall not wear cloth of wool and linen mixed together.

[12] “You shall make yourself tassels on the four corners of the garment with which you cover yourself.

Laws Concerning Sexual Immorality

[13] “If any man takes a wife and goes in to her and then hates her [14] and accuses her of misconduct and brings a bad name upon her, saying, ‘I took this woman, and when I came near her, I did not find in her evidence of virginity,’ [15] then the father of the young woman and her mother shall take and bring out the evidence of her virginity to the elders of the city in the gate. [16] And the father of the young woman shall say to the elders, ‘I gave my daughter to this man to marry, and he hates her; [17] and behold, he has accused her of misconduct, saying, “I did not find in your daughter evidence of virginity.” And yet this is the evidence of my daughter’s virginity.’ And they shall spread the cloak before the elders of the city. [18] Then the elders of that city shall take the man and whip him, [19] and they shall fine him a hundred shekels of silver and give them to the father of the young woman, because he has brought a bad name upon a virgin of Israel. And she shall be his wife. He may not divorce her all his days. [20] But if the thing is true, that evidence of virginity was not found in the young woman, [21] then they shall bring out the young woman to the door of her father’s house, and the men of her city shall stone her to death with stones, because she has done an outrageous thing in Israel by whoring in her father’s house. So you shall purge the evil from your midst.

[22] “If a man is found lying with the wife of another man, both of them shall die, the man who lay with the woman, and the woman. So you shall purge the evil from Israel.

[23] “If there is a betrothed virgin, and a man meets her in the city and lies with her, [24] then you shall bring them both out to the gate of that city, and you shall stone them to death with stones, the young woman because she did not cry for help though she was in the city, and the man because he violated his neighbor’s wife. So you shall purge the evil from your midst.

[25] “But if in the open country a man meets a young woman who is betrothed, and the man seizes her and lies with her, then only the man who lay with her shall die. [26] But you shall do nothing to the young woman; she has committed no offense punishable by death. For this case is like that of a man attacking and murdering his neighbor, [27] because he met her in the open country, and though the betrothed young woman cried for help there was no one to rescue her.

[28] “If a man meets a virgin who is not betrothed, and seizes her and lies with her, and they are found, [29] then the man who lay with her shall give to the father of the young woman fifty shekels of silver, and she shall be his wife, because he has violated her. He may not divorce her all his days.

[30]  “A man shall not take his father’s wife, so that he does not uncover his father’s nakedness.

Deuteronomy 23

Those Excluded from the Assembly

[1] “No one whose testicles are crushed or whose male organ is cut off shall enter the assembly of the LORD.

[2] “No one born of a forbidden union may enter the assembly of the LORD. Even to the tenth generation, none of his descendants may enter the assembly of the LORD.

[3] “No Ammonite or Moabite may enter the assembly of the LORD. Even to the tenth generation, none of them may enter the assembly of the LORD forever, [4] because they did not meet you with bread and with water on the way, when you came out of Egypt, and because they hired against you Balaam the son of Beor from Pethor of Mesopotamia, to curse you. [5] But the LORD your God would not listen to Balaam; instead the LORD your God turned the curse into a blessing for you, because the LORD your God loved you. [6] You shall not seek their peace or their prosperity all your days forever.

[7] “You shall not abhor an Edomite, for he is your brother. You shall not abhor an Egyptian, because you were a sojourner in his land. [8] Children born to them in the third generation may enter the assembly of the LORD.

Uncleanness in the Camp

[9] “When you are encamped against your enemies, then you shall keep yourself from every evil thing.

[10] “If any man among you becomes unclean because of a nocturnal emission, then he shall go outside the camp. He shall not come inside the camp, [11] but when evening comes, he shall bathe himself in water, and as the sun sets, he may come inside the camp.

[12] “You shall have a place outside the camp, and you shall go out to it. [13] And you shall have a trowel with your tools, and when you sit down outside, you shall dig a hole with it and turn back and cover up your excrement. [14] Because the LORD your God walks in the midst of your camp, to deliver you and to give up your enemies before you, therefore your camp must be holy, so that he may not see anything indecent among you and turn away from you.

Miscellaneous Laws

[15] “You shall not give up to his master a slave who has escaped from his master to you. [16] He shall dwell with you, in your midst, in the place that he shall choose within one of your towns, wherever it suits him. You shall not wrong him.

[17] “None of the daughters of Israel shall be a cult prostitute, and none of the sons of Israel shall be a cult prostitute. [18] You shall not bring the fee of a prostitute or the wages of a dog into the house of the LORD your God in payment for any vow, for both of these are an abomination to the LORD your God.

[19] “You shall not charge interest on loans to your brother, interest on money, interest on food, interest on anything that is lent for interest. [20] You may charge a foreigner interest, but you may not charge your brother interest, that the LORD your God may bless you in all that you undertake in the land that you are entering to take possession of it.

[21] “If you make a vow to the LORD your God, you shall not delay fulfilling it, for the LORD your God will surely require it of you, and you will be guilty of sin. [22] But if you refrain from vowing, you will not be guilty of sin. [23] You shall be careful to do what has passed your lips, for you have voluntarily vowed to the LORD your God what you have promised with your mouth.

[24] “If you go into your neighbor’s vineyard, you may eat your fill of grapes, as many as you wish, but you shall not put any in your bag. [25] If you go into your neighbor’s standing grain, you may pluck the ears with your hand, but you shall not put a sickle to your neighbor’s standing grain.

Deuteronomy 24

Laws Concerning Divorce

[1] “When a man takes a wife and marries her, if then she finds no favor in his eyes because he has found some indecency in her, and he writes her a certificate of divorce and puts it in her hand and sends her out of his house, and she departs out of his house, [2] and if she goes and becomes another man’s wife, [3] and the latter man hates her and writes her a certificate of divorce and puts it in her hand and sends her out of his house, or if the latter man dies, who took her to be his wife, [4] then her former husband, who sent her away, may not take her again to be his wife, after she has been defiled, for that is an abomination before the LORD. And you shall not bring sin upon the land that the LORD your God is giving you for an inheritance.

Miscellaneous Laws

[5] “When a man is newly married, he shall not go out with the army or be liable for any other public duty. He shall be free at home one year to be happy with his wife whom he has taken.

[6] “No one shall take a mill or an upper millstone in pledge, for that would be taking a life in pledge.

[7] “If a man is found stealing one of his brothers of the people of Israel, and if he treats him as a slave or sells him, then that thief shall die. So you shall purge the evil from your midst.

[8] “Take care, in a case of leprous disease, to be very careful to do according to all that the Levitical priests shall direct you. As I commanded them, so you shall be careful to do. [9] Remember what the LORD your God did to Miriam on the way as you came out of Egypt.

[10] “When you make your neighbor a loan of any sort, you shall not go into his house to collect his pledge. [11] You shall stand outside, and the man to whom you make the loan shall bring the pledge out to you. [12] And if he is a poor man, you shall not sleep in his pledge. [13] You shall restore to him the pledge as the sun sets, that he may sleep in his cloak and bless you. And it shall be righteousness for you before the LORD your God.

[14] “You shall not oppress a hired worker who is poor and needy, whether he is one of your brothers or one of the sojourners who are in your land within your towns. [15] You shall give him his wages on the same day, before the sun sets (for he is poor and counts on it), lest he cry against you to the LORD, and you be guilty of sin.

[16] “Fathers shall not be put to death because of their children, nor shall children be put to death because of their fathers. Each one shall be put to death for his own sin.

[17] “You shall not pervert the justice due to the sojourner or to the fatherless, or take a widow’s garment in pledge, [18] but you shall remember that you were a slave in Egypt and the LORD your God redeemed you from there; therefore I command you to do this.

[19] “When you reap your harvest in your field and forget a sheaf in the field, you shall not go back to get it. It shall be for the sojourner, the fatherless, and the widow, that the LORD your God may bless you in all the work of your hands. [20] When you beat your olive trees, you shall not go over them again. It shall be for the sojourner, the fatherless, and the widow. [21] When you gather the grapes of your vineyard, you shall not strip it afterward. It shall be for the sojourner, the fatherless, and the widow. [22] You shall remember that you were a slave in the land of Egypt; therefore I command you to do this.

Deuteronomy 25

[1] “If there is a dispute between men and they come into court and the judges decide between them, acquitting the innocent and condemning the guilty, [2] then if the guilty man deserves to be beaten, the judge shall cause him to lie down and be beaten in his presence with a number of stripes in proportion to his offense. [3] Forty stripes may be given him, but not more, lest, if one should go on to beat him with more stripes than these, your brother be degraded in your sight.

[4] “You shall not muzzle an ox when it is treading out the grain.

Laws Concerning Levirate Marriage

[5] “If brothers dwell together, and one of them dies and has no son, the wife of the dead man shall not be married outside the family to a stranger. Her husband’s brother shall go in to her and take her as his wife and perform the duty of a husband’s brother to her. [6] And the first son whom she bears shall succeed to the name of his dead brother, that his name may not be blotted out of Israel. [7] And if the man does not wish to take his brother’s wife, then his brother’s wife shall go up to the gate to the elders and say, ‘My husband’s brother refuses to perpetuate his brother’s name in Israel; he will not perform the duty of a husband’s brother to me.’ [8] Then the elders of his city shall call him and speak to him, and if he persists, saying, ‘I do not wish to take her,’ [9] then his brother’s wife shall go up to him in the presence of the elders and pull his sandal off his foot and spit in his face. And she shall answer and say, ‘So shall it be done to the man who does not build up his brother’s house.’ [10] And the name of his house shall be called in Israel, ‘The house of him who had his sandal pulled off.’

Miscellaneous Laws

[11] “When men fight with one another and the wife of the one draws near to rescue her husband from the hand of him who is beating him and puts out her hand and seizes him by the private parts, [12] then you shall cut off her hand. Your eye shall have no pity.

[13] “You shall not have in your bag two kinds of weights, a large and a small. [14] You shall not have in your house two kinds of measures, a large and a small. [15] A full and fair weight you shall have, a full and fair measure you shall have, that your days may be long in the land that the LORD your God is giving you. [16] For all who do such things, all who act dishonestly, are an abomination to the LORD your God.

[17] “Remember what Amalek did to you on the way as you came out of Egypt, [18] how he attacked you on the way when you were faint and weary, and cut off your tail, those who were lagging behind you, and he did not fear God. [19] Therefore when the LORD your God has given you rest from all your enemies around you, in the land that the LORD your God is giving you for an inheritance to possess, you shall blot out the memory of Amalek from under heaven; you shall not forget.

Deuteronomy 26:1-4

Offerings of Firstfruits and Tithes

[1] “When you come into the land that the LORD your God is giving you for an inheritance and have taken possession of it and live in it, [2] you shall take some of the first of all the fruit of the ground, which you harvest from your land that the LORD your God is giving you, and you shall put it in a basket, and you shall go to the place that the LORD your God will choose, to make his name to dwell there. [3] And you shall go to the priest who is in office at that time and say to him, ‘I declare today to the LORD your God that I have come into the land that the LORD swore to our fathers to give us.’ [4] Then the priest shall take the basket from your hand and set it down before the altar of the LORD your God.

[5] “And you shall make response before the LORD your God, ‘A wandering Aramean was my father. And he went down into Egypt and sojourned there, few in number, and there he became a nation, great, mighty, and populous. [6] And the Egyptians treated us harshly and humiliated us and laid on us hard labor. [7] Then we cried to the LORD, the God of our fathers, and the LORD heard our voice and saw our affliction, our toil, and our oppression. [8] And the LORD brought us out of Egypt with a mighty hand and an outstretched arm, with great deeds of terror, with signs and wonders. [9] And he brought us into this place and gave us this land, a land flowing with milk and honey. [10] And behold, now I bring the first of the fruit of the ground, which you, O LORD, have given me.’ And you shall set it down before the LORD your God and worship before the LORD your God. [11] And you shall rejoice in all the good that the LORD your God has given to you and to your house, you, and the Levite, and the sojourner who is among you.

[12] “When you have finished paying all the tithe of your produce in the third year, which is the year of tithing, giving it to the Levite, the sojourner, the fatherless, and the widow, so that they may eat within your towns and be filled, [13] then you shall say before the LORD your God, ‘I have removed the sacred portion out of my house, and moreover, I have given it to the Levite, the sojourner, the fatherless, and the widow, according to all your commandment that you have commanded me. I have not transgressed any of your commandments, nor have I forgotten them. [14] I have not eaten of the tithe while I was mourning, or removed any of it while I was unclean, or offered any of it to the dead. I have obeyed the voice of the LORD my God. I have done according to all that you have commanded me. [15] Look down from your holy habitation, from heaven, and bless your people Israel and the ground that you have given us, as you swore to our fathers, a land flowing with milk and honey.’

[16] “This day the LORD your God commands you to do these statutes and rules. You shall therefore be careful to do them with all your heart and with all your soul. [17] You have declared today that the LORD is your God, and that you will walk in his ways, and keep his statutes and his commandments and his rules, and will obey his voice. [18] And the LORD has declared today that you are a people for his treasured possession, as he has promised you, and that you are to keep all his commandments, [19] and that he will set you in praise and in fame and in honor high above all nations that he has made, and that you shall be a people holy to the LORD your God, as he promised.”