Day 91 – April 1, 2021

Leviticus 26

Blessing for Obedience

1 ‘Now you shall not make handcrafted objects for yourselves; neither a carved image nor a pillar shall you rear up for yourselves; nor shall you set up a distinctive stone in your land, to worship it; for I am the Lord your God.

2 You shall keep My Sabbaths and reverence My holy things: I am the Lord.

3 ‘If you walk in My ordinances and keep My commandments, and do them,†

4 then I will give you rain in its season, the land shall yield its produce, and the trees of the field shall yield their fruit.

5 Your threshing shall last till the time of vintage, and the vintage shall last till the time of sowing; and you shall eat your bread to the full, and dwell in your land safely.

6 War shall not pass through your land, and I will give peace in the land; and you shall lie down, and none will make you afraid; and I will utterly destroy the bad wild animals from the land.

7 You will chase your enemies, and they shall fall by slaughter before you.

8 Five of you shall chase a hundred, and a hundred of you shall put ten thousand to flight; your enemies shall fall by the sword before you.

9 For I will look upon you and make you fruitful, and multiply and establish My covenant with you.

10 You shall eat the old harvest of the past two years, and clear out the old because of the new.

11 I will establish My covenant among you, and My soul shall not abhor you.

12 I will walk among you and be your God, and you shall be My people.

13 I am the Lord your God, who brings you out of the land of Egypt, that you should not be their servants; I broke the bands of your yoke and made you walk with confidence.

Punishment for Disobedience

14 ‘Now if you do not obey Me, neither do all these ordinances,

15 but your soul disobeys them and despises My judgments, so as not to do all My commandments but to shatter My covenant,

16 I also will do thus to you: I will bring difficulty upon you, both the itch, the jaundice, the gangrenous eyes, and the withering away of your life. You shall sow your seed in vain, for your enemies shall eat it.

17 I will set My face against you, and you shall fall before your enemies. Those who hate you shall pursue you, and you shall flee when no one pursues you.

18 ‘Then after all this, if you do not obey Me, I will increase your punishment seven times more for your sins.

19 I will crush your excessive arrogance; I will make your sky like iron and your earth like bronze.

20 Your strength shall be spent in vain; for your land shall not yield its produce, nor shall the trees of the land yield their fruit.

21 Then if after this, you walk contrariwise and are not willing to obey Me, I will bring on you seven times more plagues, according to your sins.

22 I will also send among you the wild animals of the land; and they will eat you, and utterly destroy your cattle, and make you few in number; and your highways shall be desolate.

23 ‘Then if by these things you are not corrected by Me, but walk contrary to Me,

24 then I also will walk in hostility to you, and I will strike you yet seven times for your sins.

25 I will also strike you with the sword, exacting the vengeance of the covenant; and you will flee for refuge to your cities. I will also send forth death among you, and you shall be delivered into the hand of enemies.

26 When you are afflicted by want of bread, ten women shall bake your bread in one oven; and they shall dole out your bread by measure, and you shall eat and still be hungry.

27 ‘Now if after all this, you do not obey Me, but walk contrary to Me,

28 then I also will walk in hostility to you; and I, even I, will chastise you seven times for your sins.

29 Then you shall eat the flesh of your sons and daughters.

30 I will make desolate your pillars, and will utterly destroy your wooden handcrafted objects; and I will put your carcasses on the carcasses of your idols, and My soul shall abhor you.

31 I will lay your cities waste, and bring your holy things to desolation; and I will not smell the odor of your sacrifices.

32 I will bring your land to desolation, and your enemies who dwell in it shall be astonished at it.

33 I will scatter you among the Gentiles, and the sword shall suddenly destroy you. Then your land shall be a desert and your cities deserts.

34 Then the land shall enjoy its Sabbaths as long as it lies desolate, and you are in your enemies’ land. Thus the land shall rest and enjoy its Sabbaths.

35 As long as it lies desolate it shall rest—for the time it did not rest on your Sabbaths when you dwelt in it.

36 ‘Now as for those of you remaining in the land, I will send faintness into their heart in the land of their enemies; and the sound of the shaking leaf shall chase them. Then they shall flee as though fleeing from a battle, and shall fall when no one pursues.

37 Brother shall disregard brother as in warfare though no one is in pursuit; and you will be unable to withstand your enemies.

38 You shall perish among the Gentiles, and the land of your enemies shall devour you.

39 Now those of you who are left shall be destroyed because of their sins, and waste away in their enemies’ land.

40 ‘But if they confess their sins and the sins of their fathers, that they transgressed and disregarded Me and walked contrary to Me,

41 and that I also have walked in hostility to them and destroyed them in the land of their enemies, then their uncircumcised heart will feel ashamed, and they will render satisfaction for their guilt.

42 Then I will remember My covenant with Jacob, and My covenant with Isaac, and My covenant with Abraham I will remember; and I will remember the land.

43 The land also shall be deserted by them; and the land will enjoy its Sabbaths while it lies desolate because of them. Then they must take responsibility for their lawless acts, because they disregarded My judgments, and their soul abhorred My ordinances.

44 Yet for all that, when they were in the land of their enemies, I did not neglect them nor treat them with contempt, so as to utterly destroy them and break My covenant with them; for I am the Lord their God.

45 But I will remember their former covenant when I brought them out of the land of Egypt, out of the house of bondage, in the sight of the Gentiles, to be their God: I am the Lord.’ ”

46 These are the judgments, the ordinances, and the law which the Lord made between Himself and the children of Israel on Mount Sinai by the hand of Moses.

Psalms 77

1 Concerning understanding; for Asaph. †Give heed, O my people, to my law; Incline your ear to the words of my mouth; 

2 I shall open my mouth in parables; I shall speak of hidden things from of old. 

3 What things we heard, these we also knew, And our fathers described them to us.

4 It was not hidden from their children in a different generation, Who declare the praises of the Lord And His mighty deeds And His wondrous things He did. 

5 He raised up a testimony in Jacob And appointed a law in Israel, Whatever He commanded our fathers To make these things known to their children, 

6 That a different generation may know, Children yet to be born; And they will arise, and declare these things to their children, 

7 So they may put their hope in God, And not forget the works of God, And seek out His commandments, 

8 So they may not become like their fathers, A generation rebellious and embittered, A generation that did not keep its heart right, And its spirit was not faithful with God. 

9 The sons of Ephraim who bend and shoot their bows Turned back in the day of battle. 

10 They did not keep God’s covenant, And they did not desire to walk in His law; 

11 And they forgot His good deeds And His wonders He showed them 

12 In the sight of their fathers, The marvelous things He did In the land of Egypt, in the field of Zoan. 

13 He parted the sea and led them through; The waters stood like a dam, 

14 And He led them with a cloud by day, And all night by the light of a fire. 

15 He split the rock in the desert And gave them water to drink as in a great deep; 

16 And He brought out water from the rock, And He brought it down like the waters of rivers. 

17 And they still continued to sin against Him; They rebelled against the Most High in a place without water,

Proverbs of Solomon 16

6 There is an oracle on the lips of a king, And his mouth does not err in judgment. 

7 The weight of a scale is righteousness before the Lord, For His works are righteous standards.† 

8 He who does evil things is an abomination to a king, For the throne of a ruler is prepared with righteousness. 

9 Righteous lips are acceptable to a king, And he loves upright words.† 

10 The wrath of a king is a messenger of death, But a wise man will appease him.

Luke 6

The Lord of the Sabbath

1 Now it happened on the second Sabbath after the first that He went through the grainfields. And His disciples plucked the heads of grain and ate them, rubbing them in their hands.†

2 And some of the Pharisees said to them, “Why are you doing what is not lawful to do on the Sabbath?”

3 But Jesus answering them said, “Have you not even read this, what David did when he was hungry, he and those who were with him:

4 how he went into the house of God, took and ate the showbread, and also gave some to those with him, which is not lawful for any but the priests to eat?”

5 And He said to them, “The Son of Man is also Lord of the Sabbath.”

Healing on the Sabbath

6 Now it happened on another Sabbath, also, that He entered the synagogue and taught. And a man was there whose right hand was withered.

7 So the scribes and Pharisees watched Him closely, whether He would heal on the Sabbath, that they might find an accusation against Him.†

8 But He knew their thoughts, and said to the man who had the withered hand, “Arise and stand here.” And he arose and stood.

9 Then Jesus said to them, “I will ask you one thing: Is it lawful on the Sabbath to do good or to do evil, to save life or to destroy?”

10 And when He had looked around at them all, He said to the man, “Stretch out your hand.” And he did so, and his hand was restored as whole as the other.

11 But they were filled with rage, and discussed with one another what they might do to Jesus.

The Twelve Chosen

12 Now it came to pass in those days that He went out to the mountain to pray, and continued all night in prayer to God.†

13 And when it was day, He called His disciples to Himself; and from them He chose twelve whom He also named apostles:

14 Simon, whom He also named Peter, and Andrew his brother; James and John; Philip and Bartholomew;†

15 Matthew and Thomas; James the son of Alphaeus, and Simon called the Zealot;

16 Judas the son of James, and Judas Iscariot who also became a traitor.

Crowds Follow Jesus

17 And He came down with them and stood on a level place with a crowd of His disciples and a great multitude of people from all Judea and Jerusalem, and from the seacoast of Tyre and Sidon, who came to hear Him and be healed of their diseases, †

18 as well as those who were tormented with unclean spirits. And they were healed.

19 And the whole multitude sought to touch Him, for power went out from Him and healed them all.

The Beatitudes, the Woes

20 Then He lifted up His eyes toward His disciples, and said: “Blessed are you poor, For yours is the kingdom of God. 

21 Blessed are you who hunger now, For you shall be filled. Blessed are you who weep now, For you shall laugh. 

22 Blessed are you when men hate you, And when they exclude you, And revile you, and cast out your name as evil, For the Son of Man’s sake. 

23 Rejoice in that day and leap for joy! For indeed your reward is great in heaven, For in like manner their fathers did to the prophets. 

24 “But woe to you who are rich, For you have received your consolation.† 

25 Woe to you who are full, For you shall hunger. Woe to you who laugh now, For you shall mourn and weep. 

26 Woe to you when all men speak well of you, For so did their fathers to the false prophets.