September 8

Luke 22:24-30

Who Is the Greatest?

[24] A dispute also arose among them, as to which of them was to be regarded as the greatest. [25] And he said to them, “The kings of the Gentiles exercise lordship over them, and those in authority over them are called benefactors. [26] But not so with you. Rather, let the greatest among you become as the youngest, and the leader as one who serves. [27] For who is the greater, one who reclines at table or one who serves? Is it not the one who reclines at table? But I am among you as the one who serves.

[28] “You are those who have stayed with me in my trials, [29] and I assign to you, as my Father assigned to me, a kingdom, [30] that you may eat and drink at my table in my kingdom and sit on thrones judging the twelve tribes of Israel.

Hebrews 5

[1] For every high priest chosen from among men is appointed to act on behalf of men in relation to God, to offer gifts and sacrifices for sins. [2] He can deal gently with the ignorant and wayward, since he himself is beset with weakness. [3] Because of this he is obligated to offer sacrifice for his own sins just as he does for those of the people. [4] And no one takes this honor for himself, but only when called by God, just as Aaron was.

[5] So also Christ did not exalt himself to be made a high priest, but was appointed by him who said to him, 

    “You are my Son,

        today I have begotten you”;

    [6] as he says also in another place, 

    “You are a priest forever,

        after the order of Melchizedek.”

    [7] In the days of his flesh, Jesus offered up prayers and supplications, with loud cries and tears, to him who was able to save him from death, and he was heard because of his reverence. [8] Although he was a son, he learned obedience through what he suffered. [9] And being made perfect, he became the source of eternal salvation to all who obey him, [10] being designated by God a high priest after the order of Melchizedek.

Warning Against Apostasy

[11] About this we have much to say, and it is hard to explain, since you have become dull of hearing. [12] For though by this time you ought to be teachers, you need someone to teach you again the basic principles of the oracles of God. You need milk, not solid food, [13] for everyone who lives on milk is unskilled in the word of righteousness, since he is a child. [14] But solid food is for the mature, for those who have their powers of discernment trained by constant practice to distinguish good from evil.

Proverbs 22:1-16

    [1] A good name is to be chosen rather than great riches,

        and favor is better than silver or gold. 

    [2] 

    The rich and the poor meet together;

        the LORD is the Maker of them all. 

    [3] 

    The prudent sees danger and hides himself,

        but the simple go on and suffer for it. 

    [4] 

    The reward for humility and fear of the LORD

        is riches and honor and life. 

    [5] 

    Thorns and snares are in the way of the crooked;

        whoever guards his soul will keep far from them. 

    [6] 

    Train up a child in the way he should go;

        even when he is old he will not depart from it. 

    [7] 

    The rich rules over the poor,

        and the borrower is the slave of the lender. 

    [8] 

    Whoever sows injustice will reap calamity,

        and the rod of his fury will fail. 

    [9] 

    Whoever has a bountiful eye will be blessed,

        for he shares his bread with the poor. 

    [10] 

    Drive out a scoffer, and strife will go out,

        and quarreling and abuse will cease. 

    [11] 

    He who loves purity of heart,

        and whose speech is gracious, will have the king as his friend. 

    [12] 

    The eyes of the LORD keep watch over knowledge,

        but he overthrows the words of the traitor. 

    [13] 

    The sluggard says, “There is a lion outside!

        I shall be killed in the streets!” 

    [14] 

    The mouth of forbidden women is a deep pit;

        he with whom the LORD is angry will fall into it. 

    [15] 

    Folly is bound up in the heart of a child,

        but the rod of discipline drives it far from him. 

    [16] 

    Whoever oppresses the poor to increase his own wealth,

        or gives to the rich, will only come to poverty.

Isaiah 21

Fallen, Fallen Is Babylon

[1] The oracle concerning the wilderness of the sea. 

    As whirlwinds in the Negeb sweep on,

        it comes from the wilderness,

        from a terrible land. 

    [2] A stern vision is told to me;

        the traitor betrays,

        and the destroyer destroys.

    Go up, O Elam;

        lay siege, O Media;

    all the sighing she has caused

        I bring to an end. 

    [3] Therefore my loins are filled with anguish;

        pangs have seized me,

        like the pangs of a woman in labor;

    I am bowed down so that I cannot hear;

        I am dismayed so that I cannot see. 

    [4] My heart staggers; horror has appalled me;

        the twilight I longed for

        has been turned for me into trembling. 

    [5] They prepare the table,

        they spread the rugs,

        they eat, they drink.

    Arise, O princes;

        oil the shield! 

    [6] For thus the Lord said to me:

    “Go, set a watchman;

        let him announce what he sees. 

    [7] When he sees riders, horsemen in pairs,

        riders on donkeys, riders on camels,

    let him listen diligently,

        very diligently.” 

    [8] Then he who saw cried out:

    “Upon a watchtower I stand, O Lord,

        continually by day,

    and at my post I am stationed

        whole nights. 

    [9] And behold, here come riders,

        horsemen in pairs!”

    And he answered,

        “Fallen, fallen is Babylon;

    and all the carved images of her gods

        he has shattered to the ground.” 

    [10] O my threshed and winnowed one,

        what I have heard from the LORD of hosts,

        the God of Israel, I announce to you.

    [11] The oracle concerning Dumah. 

    One is calling to me from Seir,

        “Watchman, what time of the night?

        Watchman, what time of the night?” 

    [12] The watchman says:

    “Morning comes, and also the night.

        If you will inquire, inquire;

        come back again.”

    [13] The oracle concerning Arabia. 

    In the thickets in Arabia you will lodge,

        O caravans of Dedanites. 

    [14] To the thirsty bring water;

        meet the fugitive with bread,

        O inhabitants of the land of Tema. 

    [15] For they have fled from the swords,

        from the drawn sword,

    from the bent bow,

        and from the press of battle.

    [16] For thus the Lord said to me, “Within a year, according to the years of a hired worker, all the glory of Kedar will come to an end. [17] And the remainder of the archers of the mighty men of the sons of Kedar will be few, for the LORD, the God of Israel, has spoken.”

Isaiah 22

An Oracle Concerning Jerusalem

[1] The oracle concerning the valley of vision. 

    What do you mean that you have gone up,

        all of you, to the housetops, 

    [2] you who are full of shoutings,

        tumultuous city, exultant town?

    Your slain are not slain with the sword

        or dead in battle. 

    [3] All your leaders have fled together;

        without the bow they were captured.

    All of you who were found were captured,

        though they had fled far away. 

    [4] Therefore I said:

    “Look away from me;

        let me weep bitter tears;

    do not labor to comfort me

        concerning the destruction of the daughter of my people.”

    [5] For the Lord GOD of hosts has a day

        of tumult and trampling and confusion

        in the valley of vision,

    a battering down of walls

        and a shouting to the mountains. 

    [6] And Elam bore the quiver

        with chariots and horsemen,

        and Kir uncovered the shield. 

    [7] Your choicest valleys were full of chariots,

        and the horsemen took their stand at the gates. 

    [8] He has taken away the covering of Judah.

    In that day you looked to the weapons of the House of the Forest,  [9] and you saw that the breaches of the city of David were many. You collected the waters of the lower pool, [10] and you counted the houses of Jerusalem, and you broke down the houses to fortify the wall. [11] You made a reservoir between the two walls for the water of the old pool. But you did not look to him who did it, or see him who planned it long ago.

    [12] In that day the Lord GOD of hosts

        called for weeping and mourning,

        for baldness and wearing sackcloth; 

    [13] and behold, joy and gladness,

        killing oxen and slaughtering sheep,

        eating flesh and drinking wine.

    “Let us eat and drink,

        for tomorrow we die.” 

    [14] The LORD of hosts has revealed himself in my ears:

    “Surely this iniquity will not be atoned for you until you die,”

        says the Lord GOD of hosts.

    [15] Thus says the Lord GOD of hosts, “Come, go to this steward, to Shebna, who is over the household, and say to him: [16] What have you to do here, and whom have you here, that you have cut out here a tomb for yourself, you who cut out a tomb on the height and carve a dwelling for yourself in the rock? [17] Behold, the LORD will hurl you away violently, O you strong man. He will seize firm hold on you [18] and whirl you around and around, and throw you like a ball into a wide land. There you shall die, and there shall be your glorious chariots, you shame of your master’s house. [19] I will thrust you from your office, and you will be pulled down from your station. [20] In that day I will call my servant Eliakim the son of Hilkiah, [21] and I will clothe him with your robe, and will bind your sash on him, and will commit your authority to his hand. And he shall be a father to the inhabitants of Jerusalem and to the house of Judah. [22] And I will place on his shoulder the key of the house of David. He shall open, and none shall shut; and he shall shut, and none shall open. [23] And I will fasten him like a peg in a secure place, and he will become a throne of honor to his father’s house. [24] And they will hang on him the whole honor of his father’s house, the offspring and issue, every small vessel, from the cups to all the flagons. [25] In that day, declares the LORD of hosts, the peg that was fastened in a secure place will give way, and it will be cut down and fall, and the load that was on it will be cut off, for the LORD has spoken.”

Isaiah 23

An Oracle Concerning Tyre and Sidon

[1] The oracle concerning Tyre. 

    Wail, O ships of Tarshish,

        for Tyre is laid waste, without house or harbor!

    From the land of Cyprus

        it is revealed to them. 

    [2] Be still, O inhabitants of the coast;

        the merchants of Sidon, who cross the sea, have filled you. 

    [3] And on many waters

    your revenue was the grain of Shihor,

        the harvest of the Nile;

        you were the merchant of the nations. 

    [4] Be ashamed, O Sidon, for the sea has spoken,

        the stronghold of the sea, saying:

    “I have neither labored nor given birth,

        I have neither reared young men

        nor brought up young women.” 

    [5] When the report comes to Egypt,

        they will be in anguish over the report about Tyre. 

    [6] Cross over to Tarshish;

        wail, O inhabitants of the coast! 

    [7] Is this your exultant city

        whose origin is from days of old,

    whose feet carried her

        to settle far away? 

    [8] Who has purposed this

        against Tyre, the bestower of crowns,

    whose merchants were princes,

        whose traders were the honored of the earth? 

    [9] The LORD of hosts has purposed it,

        to defile the pompous pride of all glory,

        to dishonor all the honored of the earth. 

    [10] Cross over your land like the Nile,

        O daughter of Tarshish;

        there is no restraint anymore. 

    [11] He has stretched out his hand over the sea;

        he has shaken the kingdoms;

    the LORD has given command concerning Canaan

        to destroy its strongholds. 

    [12] And he said:

    “You will no more exult,

        O oppressed virgin daughter of Sidon;

    arise, cross over to Cyprus,

        even there you will have no rest.”

    [13] Behold the land of the Chaldeans! This is the people that was not; Assyria destined it for wild beasts. They erected their siege towers, they stripped her palaces bare, they made her a ruin.

    [14] Wail, O ships of Tarshish,

        for your stronghold is laid waste.

    [15] In that day Tyre will be forgotten for seventy years, like the days of one king. At the end of seventy years, it will happen to Tyre as in the song of the prostitute:

    [16] “Take a harp;

        go about the city,

        O forgotten prostitute!

    Make sweet melody;

        sing many songs,

        that you may be remembered.”

    [17] At the end of seventy years, the LORD will visit Tyre, and she will return to her wages and will prostitute herself with all the kingdoms of the world on the face of the earth. [18] Her merchandise and her wages will be holy to the LORD. It will not be stored or hoarded, but her merchandise will supply abundant food and fine clothing for those who dwell before the LORD.