Day 85 –  Judges 5:1-6:10; Psalm 73:1–11; Proverbs 15:11–15; Luke 3:1–20

Judges 5:1-6:10

​¹ Then Deborah and Barak the son of Abinoam sang on that day, saying,
² A revelation was made known in Israel
To the people who were willing, bless the Lord!
³ O kings, receive the news! O princes, listen closely!
I, even I, will sing to the Lord;
  I will sing a psalm to the Lord God of Israel.
⁴ Lord, when You went out in Seir,
When You left from the field of Edom,
The earth trembled and the heavens poured dew,
The clouds poured water;
⁵ The mountains were shaken before the Lord Eloi,
This Sinai, before the Lord God of Israel.
⁶ In the days of Shamgar son of Anath, in the days of Jael,
They deserted the main road and traveled the byways,
Corrupting the way as they went.
⁷ The mighty of Israel failed, they came to an end;
Until Deborah, whom He raised;
Until a mother whom He raised in Israel.
⁸ They chose new gods;
Then the cities of the rulers waged war;
Not a shield or a spear was seen
Among the forty thousand in Israel.
⁹ My heart is with the leaders of Israel;
To those among the people who freely sacrifice, bless the Lord!
¹⁰ You who mount upon a female donkey at midday,
Sitting on the seat of judgment,
Who conduct your life on the road, mediating along the way,
¹¹ Turn back and shout out every detail
While drawing up water;
There, in that place, what is rightful to the Lord is given,
Spreading righteousness in Israel.
Then the people of the Lord came down to the cities.
¹² Awake, awake, Deborah!
Awake, awake, sing a song!
Arise, Barak, O son of Abinoam,
And lead your host of captives captive!
¹³ Then the remnant came down to the mighty;
The people of the Lord came down to him, to the mighty.
¹⁴ My Ephraim rooted them out in Amalek;
O Benjamin, your people were behind you.
Machir came to know more about Me,
And from Zebulun, those able to record with the pen of a scribe.
¹⁵ And the princes in Issachar were with Deborah and Barak,
So she sent Barak into the valley by foot.
Among the regions of Reuben
There were great resolves of heart.
¹⁶ Why go up to sit in the midst of the sheepfold,
To hear the trumpet of the angels?
In the divisions of Reuben
There were great searchings of heart.
¹⁷ Gilead is beyond the Jordan, where he made his dwelling;
Why did Dan remain on the ships?
Asher sat down on the seashore,
And he will dwell at his seaports.
¹⁸ The people of Zebulun reproached its soul unto death,
And Naphtali denounced the high places of the fields.
¹⁹ Kings set themselves in battle array;
Then the kings of Canaan waged war in Taanach,
By the waters of Megiddo;
They took no gift of silver.
²⁰ The stars of the heavens were arrayed for battle;
On their path they arrayed themselves to war against Sisera.
²¹ The brook of Kishon swept them away,
That ancient brook, the brook of Kishon;
My mighty soul will trample him down.
²² When the hooves of the horses were fettered,
In earnest his mighty ones hastened.
²³ Curse Meroz, said the angel of the Lord, curse them,
Cursed is every one who dwells there,
Because they did not come to the help of the Lord,
To the help of the Lord against the mighty.
²⁴ Jael is blessed among women,
The wife of Heber the Kenite;
Blessed is she from among the women in tents.
  ²⁵ He requested water, she gave him milk in a dish;
Surpassing this, she offered butter.
²⁶ She stretched her left hand to the tent peg,
Her right hand to the workmen’s hammer;
She drove the nail through his head with a hammer;
She put the nail into his temple.
²⁷ He rolled down between her feet;
He fell and lay between her feet;
He bent over and fell;
When he sat down there, he fell, departing life.
²⁸ The mother of Sisera peered out through the archer’s window;
For his chariot is not where it should be,
For the feet of his chariot’s horses tarry.
²⁹ The wise of her leading ladies answered her,
And she answered to herself,
³⁰ Will they not find him dividing the spoil;
The merciful having compassion for the head of a man;
Spoils of the dyed garments for Sisera;
The spoils of dyed embroidery,
Embroiderer’s dyes as spoils for his neck?
³¹ O Lord, let all Your enemies perish in the way;
And those desiring Him, be as the coming out of His sun in power.
And let the land be at peace for forty years.
The People of Midian Oppress Israel
​¹ Then the sons of Israel did evil before the Lord, and the Lord delivered them into the hand of Midian for seven years, ² and the hand of Midian prevailed against Israel. The sons of Israel made dens for themselves in the mountains and caves, and strongholds away from the presence of the Midianites. ³ So it was, whenever the sons of Israel had sown, Midianites would come up, and the Amalekites and the sons of the East would come up with them. ⁴ Then they encamped against them and destroyed the fruits of the earth until they came to Gaza, and left no substance of life in the land of Israel, not even an ox or a donkey among the herds. ⁵ For they came up with their livestock and their tents, and appeared just as numerous as locusts; they and their camels were without number; and they came into the land of Israel and destroyed it. ⁶ And Israel was exceedingly destitute before the face of the Midianites, and the sons of Israel cried out to the Lord ⁷ because of the presence of the Midianites.
⁸ And the Lord sent a prophet to the sons of Israel, who said to them, “Thus says the Lord God of Israel, ‘I am He who brought you up from Egypt and brought you out of the house of your bondage; ⁹ and I delivered you out of the hand of the Egyptians and out of the hand of all who oppressed you, and drove them out before you and gave you their land. ¹⁰ And I said to you, I am the Lord your God; do not fear the gods of the Amorites, in whose land you dwell. But you did not obey My voice.’ ”

Psalm 73:1–11

​¹ Of understanding; for Asaph.
O God, why have You rejected us to the end?
Why has Your anger raged against the sheep of Your pasture?
² Remember Your congregation You acquired from the beginning,
That You redeemed the rod of Your inheritance,
This Mount Zion, where You encamped.
³ Lift up Your hands against their arrogance to the end,
Against everything the enemy prostituted in Your holy places.
⁴ Those who hate You boasted in the midst of Your feast;
They set up their signs, yes signs, and they did not know.
⁵ As into an entrance hall,
⁶ As in a thicket of trees, they cut down its doors with axes;
With battle axes and hammers, they broke it down.
⁷ They burned down Your sanctuary;
They defiled the tabernacle of Your name to the ground.
⁸ Their kindred said in their heart together,
“Come, let us abolish all the feasts of God from the earth.”
⁹ We do not see our signs;
There is no longer any prophet, and He will no longer know us.
¹⁰ How long, O God, will the enemy reproach?
Will the adversary provoke Your name to the end?
¹¹ Why do You turn away Your hand,
Your right hand from the midst of Your breast to the end?

Proverbs 15:11–15

¹¹ The instruction of the simple is known by those who pass by,
But those who hate reproofs will die shamefully.
¹² Hades and destruction are manifest before the Lord;
How can the hearts of men not be also?
¹³ An uninstructed man will not love those who reprove him,
And he will not keep company with the wise.
¹⁴ When one’s heart is glad, his face is cheerful,
But when it is in grief, his face is sad.
¹⁵ The upright heart seeks perception,
But the mouth of the uninstructed will know evil things.

Luke 3:1–20

​¹ Now in the fifteenth year of the reign of Tiberius Caesar, Pontius Pilate being governor of Judea, Herod being tetrarch of Galilee, his brother Philip tetrarch of Iturea and the region of Trachonitis, and Lysanias tetrarch of Abilene,
² while Annas and Caiaphas were high priests, the word of God came to John the son of Zacharias in the wilderness.
³ And he went into all the region around the Jordan, preaching a baptism of repentance for the remission of sins,
⁴ as it is written in the book of the words of Isaiah the prophet, saying:
“The voice of one crying in the wilderness:
‘Prepare the way of the Lord;
Make His paths straight.
⁵ Every valley shall be filled
And every mountain and hill brought low;
The crooked places shall be made straight
And the rough ways smooth;
⁶ And all flesh shall see the salvation of God.’ ”
John Preaches to the People
(Matt. 3:7–12; Mark 1:7, 8; John 1:24–28)
⁷ Then he said to the multitudes that came out to be baptized by him, “Brood of vipers! Who warned you to flee from the wrath to come?
⁸ “Therefore bear fruits worthy of repentance, and do not begin to say to yourselves, ‘We have Abraham as our father.’ For I say to you that God is able to raise up children to Abraham from these stones.
⁹ “And even now the ax is laid to the root of the trees. Therefore every tree which does not bear good fruit is cut down and thrown into the fire.”
¹⁰ So the people asked him, saying, “What shall we do then?”
¹¹ He answered and said to them, “He who has two tunics, let him give to him who has none; and he who has food, let him do likewise.”
¹² Then tax collectors also came to be baptized, and said to him, “Teacher, what shall we do?”
¹³ And he said to them, “Collect no more than what is appointed for you.”
¹⁴ Likewise the soldiers asked him, saying, “And what shall we do?” So he said to them, “Do not intimidate anyone or accuse falsely, and be content with your wages.”
¹⁵ Now as the people were in expectation, and all reasoned in their hearts about John, whether he was the Christ or not,
¹⁶ John answered, saying to all, “I indeed baptize you with water; but One mightier than I is coming, whose sandal strap I am not worthy to loose. He will baptize you with the Holy Spirit and fire.
  ¹⁷ “His winnowing fan is in His hand, and He will thoroughly clean out His threshing floor, and gather the wheat into His barn; but the chaff He will burn with unquenchable fire.”
¹⁸ And with many other exhortations he preached to the people.
¹⁹ But Herod the tetrarch, being rebuked by him concerning Herodias, his brother Philip’s wife, and for all the evils which Herod had done,
²⁰ also added this, above all, that he shut John up in prison.