April 6

Mark 2:13-17

Jesus Calls Levi

[13] He went out again beside the sea, and all the crowd was coming to him, and he was teaching them. [14] And as he passed by, he saw Levi the son of Alphaeus sitting at the tax booth, and he said to him, “Follow me.” And he rose and followed him.

[15] And as he reclined at table in his house, many tax collectors and sinners were reclining with Jesus and his disciples, for there were many who followed him. [16] And the scribes of the Pharisees, when they saw that he was eating with sinners and tax collectors, said to his disciples, “Why does he eat with tax collectors and sinners?” [17] And when Jesus heard it, he said to them, “Those who are well have no need of a physician, but those who are sick. I came not to call the righteous, but sinners.”

1 Corinthians 5

Sexual Immorality Defiles the Church

[1] It is actually reported that there is sexual immorality among you, and of a kind that is not tolerated even among pagans, for a man has his father’s wife. [2] And you are arrogant! Ought you not rather to mourn? Let him who has done this be removed from among you.

[3] For though absent in body, I am present in spirit; and as if present, I have already pronounced judgment on the one who did such a thing. [4] When you are assembled in the name of the Lord Jesus and my spirit is present, with the power of our Lord Jesus, [5] you are to deliver this man to Satan for the destruction of the flesh, so that his spirit may be saved in the day of the Lord.

[6] Your boasting is not good. Do you not know that a little leaven leavens the whole lump? [7] Cleanse out the old leaven that you may be a new lump, as you really are unleavened. For Christ, our Passover lamb, has been sacrificed. [8] Let us therefore celebrate the festival, not with the old leaven, the leaven of malice and evil, but with the unleavened bread of sincerity and truth.

[9] I wrote to you in my letter not to associate with sexually immoral people—[10] not at all meaning the sexually immoral of this world, or the greedy and swindlers, or idolaters, since then you would need to go out of the world. [11] But now I am writing to you not to associate with anyone who bears the name of brother if he is guilty of sexual immorality or greed, or is an idolater, reviler, drunkard, or swindler—not even to eat with such a one. [12] For what have I to do with judging outsiders? Is it not those inside the church whom you are to judge? [13] God judges those outside. “Purge the evil person from among you.”

Psalm 77

In the Day of Trouble I Seek the Lord

To the choirmaster: according to Jeduthun. A Psalm of Asaph.

    [1] I cry aloud to God,

        aloud to God, and he will hear me. 

    [2] In the day of my trouble I seek the Lord;

        in the night my hand is stretched out without wearying;

        my soul refuses to be comforted. 

    [3] When I remember God, I moan;

        when I meditate, my spirit faints. Selah

    [4] You hold my eyelids open;

        I am so troubled that I cannot speak. 

    [5] I consider the days of old,

        the years long ago. 

    [6] I said, “Let me remember my song in the night;

        let me meditate in my heart.”

        Then my spirit made a diligent search: 

    [7] “Will the Lord spurn forever,

        and never again be favorable? 

    [8] Has his steadfast love forever ceased?

        Are his promises at an end for all time? 

    [9] Has God forgotten to be gracious?

        Has he in anger shut up his compassion?” Selah

    [10] Then I said, “I will appeal to this,

        to the years of the right hand of the Most High.”

    [11] I will remember the deeds of the LORD;

        yes, I will remember your wonders of old. 

    [12] I will ponder all your work,

        and meditate on your mighty deeds. 

    [13] Your way, O God, is holy.

        What god is great like our God? 

    [14] You are the God who works wonders;

        you have made known your might among the peoples. 

    [15] You with your arm redeemed your people,

        the children of Jacob and Joseph. Selah

    [16] When the waters saw you, O God,

        when the waters saw you, they were afraid;

        indeed, the deep trembled. 

    [17] The clouds poured out water;

        the skies gave forth thunder;

        your arrows flashed on every side. 

    [18] The crash of your thunder was in the whirlwind;

        your lightnings lighted up the world;

        the earth trembled and shook. 

    [19] Your way was through the sea,

        your path through the great waters;

        yet your footprints were unseen. 

    [20] You led your people like a flock

        by the hand of Moses and Aaron.

Joshua 13

Land Still to Be Conquered

[1] Now Joshua was old and advanced in years, and the LORD said to him, “You are old and advanced in years, and there remains yet very much land to possess. [2] This is the land that yet remains: all the regions of the Philistines, and all those of the Geshurites [3] (from the Shihor, which is east of Egypt, northward to the boundary of Ekron, it is counted as Canaanite; there are five rulers of the Philistines, those of Gaza, Ashdod, Ashkelon, Gath, and Ekron), and those of the Avvim, [4] in the south, all the land of the Canaanites, and Mearah that belongs to the Sidonians, to Aphek, to the boundary of the Amorites, [5] and the land of the Gebalites, and all Lebanon, toward the sunrise, from Baal-gad below Mount Hermon to Lebo-hamath, [6] all the inhabitants of the hill country from Lebanon to Misrephoth-maim, even all the Sidonians. I myself will drive them out from before the people of Israel. Only allot the land to Israel for an inheritance, as I have commanded you. [7] Now therefore divide this land for an inheritance to the nine tribes and half the tribe of Manasseh.”

The Inheritance East of the Jordan

[8] With the other half of the tribe of Manasseh the Reubenites and the Gadites received their inheritance, which Moses gave them, beyond the Jordan eastward, as Moses the servant of the LORD gave them: [9] from Aroer, which is on the edge of the Valley of the Arnon, and the city that is in the middle of the valley, and all the tableland of Medeba as far as Dibon; [10] and all the cities of Sihon king of the Amorites, who reigned in Heshbon, as far as the boundary of the Ammonites; [11] and Gilead, and the region of the Geshurites and Maacathites, and all Mount Hermon, and all Bashan to Salecah; [12] all the kingdom of Og in Bashan, who reigned in Ashtaroth and in Edrei (he alone was left of the remnant of the Rephaim); these Moses had struck and driven out. [13] Yet the people of Israel did not drive out the Geshurites or the Maacathites, but Geshur and Maacath dwell in the midst of Israel to this day.

[14] To the tribe of Levi alone Moses gave no inheritance. The offerings by fire to the LORD God of Israel are their inheritance, as he said to him.

[15] And Moses gave an inheritance to the tribe of the people of Reuben according to their clans. [16] So their territory was from Aroer, which is on the edge of the Valley of the Arnon, and the city that is in the middle of the valley, and all the tableland by Medeba; [17] with Heshbon, and all its cities that are in the tableland; Dibon, and Bamoth-baal, and Beth-baal-meon, [18] and Jahaz, and Kedemoth, and Mephaath, [19] and Kiriathaim, and Sibmah, and Zereth-shahar on the hill of the valley, [20] and Beth-peor, and the slopes of Pisgah, and Beth-jeshimoth, [21] that is, all the cities of the tableland, and all the kingdom of Sihon king of the Amorites, who reigned in Heshbon, whom Moses defeated with the leaders of Midian, Evi and Rekem and Zur and Hur and Reba, the princes of Sihon, who lived in the land. [22] Balaam also, the son of Beor, the one who practiced divination, was killed with the sword by the people of Israel among the rest of their slain. [23] And the border of the people of Reuben was the Jordan as a boundary. This was the inheritance of the people of Reuben, according to their clans with their cities and villages.

[24] Moses gave an inheritance also to the tribe of Gad, to the people of Gad, according to their clans. [25] Their territory was Jazer, and all the cities of Gilead, and half the land of the Ammonites, to Aroer, which is east of Rabbah, [26] and from Heshbon to Ramath-mizpeh and Betonim, and from Mahanaim to the territory of Debir, [27] and in the valley Beth-haram, Beth-nimrah, Succoth, and Zaphon, the rest of the kingdom of Sihon king of Heshbon, having the Jordan as a boundary, to the lower end of the Sea of Chinnereth, eastward beyond the Jordan. [28] This is the inheritance of the people of Gad according to their clans, with their cities and villages.

[29] And Moses gave an inheritance to the half-tribe of Manasseh. It was allotted to the half-tribe of the people of Manasseh according to their clans. [30] Their region extended from Mahanaim, through all Bashan, the whole kingdom of Og king of Bashan, and all the towns of Jair, which are in Bashan, sixty cities, [31] and half Gilead, and Ashtaroth, and Edrei, the cities of the kingdom of Og in Bashan. These were allotted to the people of Machir the son of Manasseh for the half of the people of Machir according to their clans.

[32] These are the inheritances that Moses distributed in the plains of Moab, beyond the Jordan east of Jericho. [33] But to the tribe of Levi Moses gave no inheritance; the LORD God of Israel is their inheritance, just as he said to them.

Joshua 14

The Inheritance West of the Jordan

[1] These are the inheritances that the people of Israel received in the land of Canaan, which Eleazar the priest and Joshua the son of Nun and the heads of the fathers’ houses of the tribes of the people of Israel gave them to inherit. [2] Their inheritance was by lot, just as the LORD had commanded by the hand of Moses for the nine and one-half tribes. [3] For Moses had given an inheritance to the two and one-half tribes beyond the Jordan, but to the Levites he gave no inheritance among them. [4] For the people of Joseph were two tribes, Manasseh and Ephraim. And no portion was given to the Levites in the land, but only cities to dwell in, with their pasturelands for their livestock and their substance. [5] The people of Israel did as the LORD commanded Moses; they allotted the land.

Caleb’s Request and Inheritance

[6] Then the people of Judah came to Joshua at Gilgal. And Caleb the son of Jephunneh the Kenizzite said to him, “You know what the LORD said to Moses the man of God in Kadesh-barnea concerning you and me. [7] I was forty years old when Moses the servant of the LORD sent me from Kadesh-barnea to spy out the land, and I brought him word again as it was in my heart. [8] But my brothers who went up with me made the heart of the people melt; yet I wholly followed the LORD my God. [9] And Moses swore on that day, saying, ‘Surely the land on which your foot has trodden shall be an inheritance for you and your children forever, because you have wholly followed the LORD my God.’ [10] And now, behold, the LORD has kept me alive, just as he said, these forty-five years since the time that the LORD spoke this word to Moses, while Israel walked in the wilderness. And now, behold, I am this day eighty-five years old. [11] I am still as strong today as I was in the day that Moses sent me; my strength now is as my strength was then, for war and for going and coming. [12] So now give me this hill country of which the LORD spoke on that day, for you heard on that day how the Anakim were there, with great fortified cities. It may be that the LORD will be with me, and I shall drive them out just as the LORD said.”

[13] Then Joshua blessed him, and he gave Hebron to Caleb the son of Jephunneh for an inheritance. [14] Therefore Hebron became the inheritance of Caleb the son of Jephunneh the Kenizzite to this day, because he wholly followed the LORD, the God of Israel. [15] Now the name of Hebron formerly was Kiriath-arba. (Arba was the greatest man among the Anakim.) And the land had rest from war.