Judges 3

• 1. The LORD left certain nations in the land to test those Israelites who had not participated in the wars of Canaan.
• 2. He did this to teach warfare to generations of Israelites who had no experience in battle.
• 3. These were the nations: the Philistines (those living under the five Philistine rulers), all the Canaanites, the Sidonians, and the Hivites living in the hill country of Lebanon from Mount Baal-hermon to Lebo-hamath.
• 4. These people were left to test the Israelites--to see whether they would obey the commands the LORD had given to their ancestors through Moses.
• 5. So Israel lived among the Canaanites, Hittites, Amorites, Perizzites, Hivites, and Jebusites,
• 6. and they intermarried with them. Israelite sons married their daughters, and Israelite daughters were given in marriage to their sons. And the Israelites worshiped their gods.
• 7. The Israelites did what was evil in the LORD's sight. They forgot about the LORD their God, and they worshiped the images of Baal and the Asherah poles.
• 8. Then the LORD burned with anger against Israel, and he handed them over to King Cushan-rishathaim of Aram-naharaim. And the Israelites were subject to Cushan-rishathaim for eight years.
• 9. But when Israel cried out to the LORD for help, the LORD raised up a man to rescue them. His name was Othniel, the son of Caleb's younger brother, Kenaz.
• 10. The Spirit of the LORD came upon him, and he became Israel's judge. He went to war against King Cushan-rishathaim of Aram, and the LORD gave Othniel victory over him.
• 11. So there was peace in the land for forty years. Then Othniel son of Kenaz died.
• 12. Once again the Israelites did what was evil in the LORD's sight, so the LORD gave King Eglon of Moab control over Israel.
• 13. Together with the Ammonites and Amalekites, Eglon attacked Israel and took possession of Jericho.
• 14. And the Israelites were subject to Eglon of Moab for eighteen years.
• 15. But when Israel cried out to the LORD for help, the LORD raised up a man to rescue them. His name was Ehud son of Gera, of the tribe of Benjamin, who was left-handed. The Israelites sent Ehud to deliver their tax money to King Eglon of Moab.
• 16. So Ehud made himself a double-edged dagger that was eighteen inches long, and he strapped it to his right thigh, keeping it hidden under his clothing.
• 17. He brought the tax money to Eglon, who was very fat.
• 18. After delivering the payment, Ehud sent home those who had carried the tax money.
• 19. But when Ehud reached the stone carvings near Gilgal, he turned back. He came to Eglon and said, "I have a secret message for you." So the king commanded his servants to be silent and sent them all out of the room.
• 20. Ehud walked over to Eglon as he was sitting alone in a cool upstairs room and said, "I have a message for you from God!" As King Eglon rose from his seat,
• 21. Ehud reached with his left hand, pulled out the dagger strapped to his right thigh, and plunged it into the king's belly.
• 22. The dagger went so deep that the handle disappeared beneath the king's fat. So Ehud left the dagger in, and the king's bowels emptied.
• 23. Then Ehud closed and locked the doors and climbed down the latrine and escaped through the sewage access.
• 24. After Ehud was gone, the king's servants returned and found the doors to the upstairs room locked. They thought he might be using the latrine,
• 25. so they waited. But when the king didn't come out after a long delay, they became concerned and got a key. And when they opened the door, they found their master dead on the floor.
• 26. While the servants were waiting, Ehud escaped, passing the idols on his way to Seirah.
• 27. When he arrived in the hill country of Ephraim, Ehud sounded a call to arms. Then he led a band of Israelites down from the hills.
• 28. "Follow me," he said, "for the LORD has given you victory over Moab your enemy." So they followed him. And the Israelites took control of the shallows of the Jordan River across from Moab, preventing anyone from crossing.
• 29. They attacked the Moabites and killed about ten thousand of their strongest and bravest warriors. Not one of them escaped.
• 30. So Moab was conquered by Israel that day, and the land was at peace for eighty years.
• 31. After Ehud, Shamgar son of Anath rescued Israel. He killed six hundred Philistines with an ox goad.

Acts 7

• 1. Then the high priest asked Stephen, "Are these accusations true?"
• 2. This was Stephen's reply: "Brothers and honorable fathers, listen to me. Our glorious God appeared to our ancestor Abraham in Mesopotamia before he moved to Haran.
• 3. God told him, 'Leave your native land and your relatives, and come to the land that I will show you.'
• 4. So Abraham left the land of the Chaldeans and lived in Haran until his father died. Then God brought him here to the land where you now live.
• 5. But God gave him no inheritance here, not even one square foot of land. God did promise, however, that eventually the whole country would belong to Abraham and his descendants--though he had no children yet.
• 6. But God also told him that his descendants would live in a foreign country where they would be mistreated as slaves for four hundred years.
• 7. 'But I will punish the nation that enslaves them,' God told him, 'and in the end they will come out and worship me in this place.'
• 8. God also gave Abraham the covenant of circumcision at that time. And so Isaac, Abraham's son, was circumcised when he was eight days old. Isaac became the father of Jacob, and Jacob was the father of the twelve patriarchs of the Jewish nation.
• 9. "These sons of Jacob were very jealous of their brother Joseph, and they sold him to be a slave in Egypt. But God was with him
• 10. and delivered him from his anguish. And God gave him favor before Pharaoh, king of Egypt. God also gave Joseph unusual wisdom, so that Pharaoh appointed him governor over all of Egypt and put him in charge of all the affairs of the palace.
• 11. "But a famine came upon Egypt and Canaan. There was great misery for our ancestors, as they ran out of food.
• 12. Jacob heard that there was still grain in Egypt, so he sent his sons to buy some.
• 13. The second time they went, Joseph revealed his identity to his brothers, and they were introduced to Pharaoh.
• 14. Then Joseph sent for his father, Jacob, and all his relatives to come to Egypt, seventy-five persons in all.
• 15. So Jacob went to Egypt. He died there, as did all his sons.
• 16. All of them were taken to Shechem and buried in the tomb Abraham had bought from the sons of Hamor in Shechem.
• 17. "As the time drew near when God would fulfill his promise to Abraham, the number of our people in Egypt greatly increased.
• 18. But then a new king came to the throne of Egypt who knew nothing about Joseph.
• 19. This king plotted against our people and forced parents to abandon their newborn babies so they would die.
• 20. "At that time Moses was born--a beautiful child in God's eyes. His parents cared for him at home for three months.
• 21. When at last they had to abandon him, Pharaoh's daughter found him and raised him as her own son.
• 22. Moses was taught all the wisdom of the Egyptians, and he became mighty in both speech and action.
• 23. "One day when he was forty years old, he decided to visit his relatives, the people of Israel.
• 24. During this visit, he saw an Egyptian mistreating a man of Israel. So Moses came to his defense and avenged him, killing the Egyptian.
• 25. Moses assumed his brothers would realize that God had sent him to rescue them, but they didn't.
• 26. "The next day he visited them again and saw two men of Israel fighting. He tried to be a peacemaker. 'Men,' he said, 'you are brothers. Why are you hurting each other?'
• 27. "But the man in the wrong pushed Moses aside and told him to mind his own business. 'Who made you a ruler and judge over us?' he asked.
• 28. 'Are you going to kill me as you killed that Egyptian yesterday?'
• 29. When Moses heard that, he fled the country and lived as a foreigner in the land of Midian, where his two sons were born.
• 30. "Forty years later, in the desert near Mount Sinai, an angel appeared to Moses in the flame of a burning bush.
• 31. Moses saw it and wondered what it was. As he went to see, the voice of the Lord called out to him,
• 32. 'I am the God of your ancestors--the God of Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob.' Moses shook with terror and dared not look.
• 33. "And the Lord said to him, 'Take off your sandals, for you are standing on holy ground.
• 34. You can be sure that I have seen the misery of my people in Egypt. I have heard their cries. So I have come to rescue them. Now go, for I will send you to Egypt.'
• 35. And so God sent back the same man his people had previously rejected by demanding, 'Who made you a ruler and judge over us?' Through the angel who appeared to him in the burning bush, Moses was sent to be their ruler and savior.
• 36. And by means of many miraculous signs and wonders, he led them out of Egypt, through the Red Sea, and back and forth through the wilderness for forty years.
• 37. "Moses himself told the people of Israel, 'God will raise up a Prophet like me from among your own people.'
• 38. Moses was with the assembly of God's people in the wilderness. He was the mediator between the people of Israel and the angel who gave him life-giving words on Mount Sinai to pass on to us.
• 39. "But our ancestors rejected Moses and wanted to return to Egypt.
• 40. They told Aaron, 'Make us some gods who can lead us, for we don't know what has become of this Moses, who brought us out of Egypt.'
• 41. So they made an idol shaped like a calf, and they sacrificed to it and rejoiced in this thing they had made.
• 42. Then God turned away from them and gave them up to serve the sun, moon, and stars as their gods! In the book of the prophets it is written, 'Was it to me you were bringing sacrifices during those forty years in the wilderness, Israel?
• 43. No, your real interest was in your pagan gods--the shrine of Molech, the star god Rephan, and the images you made to worship them. So I will send you into captivity far away in Babylon.'
• 44. "Our ancestors carried the Tabernacle with them through the wilderness. It was constructed in exact accordance with the plan shown to Moses by God.
• 45. Years later, when Joshua led the battles against the Gentile nations that God drove out of this land, the Tabernacle was taken with them into their new territory. And it was used there until the time of King David.
• 46. "David found favor with God and asked for the privilege of building a permanent Temple for the God of Jacob.
• 47. But it was Solomon who actually built it.
• 48. However, the Most High doesn't live in temples made by human hands. As the prophet says,
• 49. 'Heaven is my throne, and the earth is my footstool. Could you ever build me a temple as good as that?' asks the Lord. 'Could you build a dwelling place for me?
• 50. Didn't I make everything in heaven and earth?'
• 51. "You stubborn people! You are heathen at heart and deaf to the truth. Must you forever resist the Holy Spirit? But your ancestors did, and so do you!
• 52. Name one prophet your ancestors didn't persecute! They even killed the ones who predicted the coming of the Righteous One--the Messiah whom you betrayed and murdered.
• 53. You deliberately disobeyed God's law, though you received it from the hands of angels. "
• 54. The Jewish leaders were infuriated by Stephen's accusation, and they shook their fists in rage.
• 55. But Stephen, full of the Holy Spirit, gazed steadily upward into heaven and saw the glory of God, and he saw Jesus standing in the place of honor at God's right hand.
• 56. And he told them, "Look, I see the heavens opened and the Son of Man standing in the place of honor at God's right hand!"
• 57. Then they put their hands over their ears, and drowning out his voice with their shouts, they rushed at him.
• 58. They dragged him out of the city and began to stone him. The official witnesses took off their coats and laid them at the feet of a young man named Saul.
• 59. And as they stoned him, Stephen prayed, "Lord Jesus, receive my spirit."
• 60. And he fell to his knees, shouting, "Lord, don't charge them with this sin!" And with that, he died.

Jeremiah 16

• 1. The LORD gave me another message. He said,
• 2. "Do not marry or have children in this place.
• 3. For this is what the LORD says about the children born here in this city and about their mothers and fathers:
• 4. They will die from terrible diseases. No one will mourn for them or bury them, and they will lie scattered on the ground like dung. They will die from war and famine, and their bodies will be food for the vultures and wild animals.
• 5. "Do not go to their funerals to mourn and show sympathy for them," says the LORD, "for I have removed my protection and peace from them. I have taken away my unfailing love and my mercy.
• 6. Both the great and the lowly will die in this land. No one will bury them or mourn for them. Their friends will not cut themselves or shave their heads in sadness.
• 7. No one will offer a meal to comfort those who mourn for the dead--not even for the death of a mother or a father. No one will send a cup of wine to console them.
• 8. "And do not go to their feasts and parties. Do not eat and drink with them at all.
• 9. For the LORD Almighty, the God of Israel, says: In your own lifetime, before your very eyes, I will put an end to the happy singing and laughter in this land. The joyful voices of bridegrooms and brides will no longer be heard.
• 10. "When you tell the people all these things, they will ask, `Why has the LORD decreed such terrible things against us? What have we done to deserve such treatment? What is our sin against the LORD our God?'
• 11. Tell them that this is the LORD's reply: It is because your ancestors were unfaithful to me. They worshiped other gods and served them. They abandoned me. They did not keep my law.
• 12. And you are even worse than your ancestors! You stubbornly follow your own evil desires and refuse to listen to me.
• 13. So I will throw you out of this land and send you into a foreign land where you and your ancestors have never been. There you can worship idols all you like--and I will grant you no favors!
• 14. "But the time is coming," says the LORD, "when people who are taking an oath will no longer say, `As surely as the LORD lives, who rescued the people of Israel from the land of Egypt.'
• 15. Instead, they will say, `As surely as the LORD lives, who brought the people of Israel back to their own land from the land of the north and from all the countries to which he had exiled them.' For I will bring them back to this land that I gave their ancestors.
• 16. "But now I am sending for many fishermen who will catch them," says the LORD. "I am sending for hunters who will search for them in the forests and caves.
• 17. I am watching them closely, and I see every sin. They cannot hope to hide from me.
• 18. I will punish them doubly for all their sins, because they have defiled my land with lifeless images of their detestable gods and filled my inheritance with their evil deeds."
• 19. LORD, you are my strength and fortress, my refuge in the day of trouble! Nations from around the world will come to you and say, "Our ancestors were foolish, for they worshiped worthless idols.
• 20. Can people make their own god? The gods they make are not real gods at all!"
• 21. "So now I will show them my power and might," says the LORD. "At last they will know that I am the LORD."

New Living Translation: 201 of 365 days.