Genesis 28

• 1. So Isaac called for Jacob, blessed him, and said, "Do not marry any of these Canaanite women.
• 2. Instead, go at once to Paddan-aram, to the house of your grandfather Bethuel, and marry one of your uncle Laban's daughters.
• 3. May God Almighty bless you and give you many children. And may your descendants become a great assembly of nations!
• 4. May God pass on to you and your descendants the blessings he promised to Abraham. May you own this land where we now are foreigners, for God gave it to Abraham."
• 5. So Isaac sent Jacob away, and he went to Paddan-aram to stay with his uncle Laban, his mother's brother, the son of Bethuel the Aramean.
• 6. Esau heard that his father had blessed Jacob and sent him to Paddan-aram to find a wife, and that he had warned Jacob not to marry a Canaanite woman.
• 7. He also knew that Jacob had obeyed his parents and gone to Paddan-aram.
• 8. It was now very clear to Esau that his father despised the local Canaanite women.
• 9. So he visited his uncle Ishmael's family and married one of Ishmael's daughters, in addition to the wives he already had. His new wife's name was Mahalath. She was the sister of Nebaioth and the daughter of Ishmael, Abraham's son.
• 10. Meanwhile, Jacob left Beersheba and traveled toward Haran.
• 11. At sundown he arrived at a good place to set up camp and stopped there for the night. Jacob found a stone for a pillow and lay down to sleep.
• 12. As he slept, he dreamed of a stairway that reached from earth to heaven. And he saw the angels of God going up and down on it.
• 13. At the top of the stairway stood the LORD, and he said, "I am the LORD, the God of your grandfather Abraham and the God of your father, Isaac. The ground you are lying on belongs to you. I will give it to you and your descendants.
• 14. Your descendants will be as numerous as the dust of the earth! They will cover the land from east to west and from north to south. All the families of the earth will be blessed through you and your descendants.
• 15. What's more, I will be with you, and I will protect you wherever you go. I will someday bring you safely back to this land. I will be with you constantly until I have finished giving you everything I have promised."
• 16. Then Jacob woke up and said, "Surely the LORD is in this place, and I wasn't even aware of it."
• 17. He was afraid and said, "What an awesome place this is! It is none other than the house of God--the gateway to heaven!"
• 18. The next morning he got up very early. He took the stone he had used as a pillow and set it upright as a memorial pillar. Then he poured olive oil over it.
• 19. He named the place Bethel--"house of God"--though the name of the nearby village was Luz.
• 20. Then Jacob made this vow: "If God will be with me and protect me on this journey and give me food and clothing,
• 21. and if he will bring me back safely to my father, then I will make the LORD my God.
• 22. This memorial pillar will become a place for worshiping God, and I will give God a tenth of everything he gives me."

Matthew 27

• 1. Very early in the morning, the leading priests and other leaders met again to discuss how to persuade the Roman government to sentence Jesus to death.
• 2. Then they bound him and took him to Pilate, the Roman governor.
• 3. When Judas, who had betrayed him, realized that Jesus had been condemned to die, he was filled with remorse. So he took the thirty pieces of silver back to the leading priests and other leaders.
• 4. "I have sinned," he declared, "for I have betrayed an innocent man.What do we care?" they retorted. "That's your problem."
• 5. Then Judas threw the money onto the floor of the Temple and went out and hanged himself.
• 6. The leading priests picked up the money. "We can't put it in the Temple treasury," they said, "since it's against the law to accept money paid for murder."
• 7. After some discussion they finally decided to buy the potter's field, and they made it into a cemetery for foreigners.
• 8. That is why the field is still called the Field of Blood.
• 9. This fulfilled the prophecy of Jeremiah that says, "They took the thirty pieces of silver--the price at which he was valued by the people of Israel--
• 10. and purchased the potter's field, as the Lord directed. "
• 11. Now Jesus was standing before Pilate, the Roman governor. "Are you the King of the Jews?" the governor asked him. Jesus replied, "Yes, it is as you say."
• 12. But when the leading priests and other leaders made their accusations against him, Jesus remained silent.
• 13. "Don't you hear their many charges against you?" Pilate demanded.
• 14. But Jesus said nothing, much to the governor's great surprise.
• 15. Now it was the governor's custom to release one prisoner to the crowd each year during the Passover celebration--anyone they wanted.
• 16. This year there was a notorious criminal in prison, a man named Barabbas.
• 17. As the crowds gathered before Pilate's house that morning, he asked them, "Which one do you want me to release to you--Barabbas, or Jesus who is called the Messiah?"
• 18. (He knew very well that the Jewish leaders had arrested Jesus out of envy.)
• 19. Just then, as Pilate was sitting on the judgment seat, his wife sent him this message: "Leave that innocent man alone, because I had a terrible nightmare about him last night."
• 20. Meanwhile, the leading priests and other leaders persuaded the crowds to ask for Barabbas to be released and for Jesus to be put to death.
• 21. So when the governor asked again, "Which of these two do you want me to release to you?" the crowd shouted back their reply: "Barabbas!"
• 22. "But if I release Barabbas," Pilate asked them, "what should I do with Jesus who is called the Messiah?" And they all shouted, "Crucify him!"
• 23. "Why?" Pilate demanded. "What crime has he committed?" But the crowd only roared the louder, "Crucify him!"
• 24. Pilate saw that he wasn't getting anywhere and that a riot was developing. So he sent for a bowl of water and washed his hands before the crowd, saying, "I am innocent of the blood of this man. The responsibility is yours!"
• 25. And all the people yelled back, "We will take responsibility for his death--we and our children!"
• 26. So Pilate released Barabbas to them. He ordered Jesus flogged with a lead-tipped whip, then turned him over to the Roman soldiers to crucify him.
• 27. Some of the governor's soldiers took Jesus into their headquarters and called out the entire battalion.
• 28. They stripped him and put a scarlet robe on him.
• 29. They made a crown of long, sharp thorns and put it on his head, and they placed a stick in his right hand as a scepter. Then they knelt before him in mockery, yelling, "Hail! King of the Jews!"
• 30. And they spit on him and grabbed the stick and beat him on the head with it.
• 31. When they were finally tired of mocking him, they took off the robe and put his own clothes on him again. Then they led him away to be crucified.
• 32. As they were on the way, they came across a man named Simon, who was from Cyrene, and they forced him to carry Jesus' cross.
• 33. Then they went out to a place called Golgotha (which means Skull Hill).
• 34. The soldiers gave him wine mixed with bitter gall, but when he had tasted it, he refused to drink it.
• 35. After they had nailed him to the cross, the soldiers gambled for his clothes by throwing dice.
• 36. Then they sat around and kept guard as he hung there.
• 37. A signboard was fastened to the cross above Jesus' head, announcing the charge against him. It read: "This is Jesus, the King of the Jews."
• 38. Two criminals were crucified with him, their crosses on either side of his.
• 39. And the people passing by shouted abuse, shaking their heads in mockery.
• 40. "So! You can destroy the Temple and build it again in three days, can you? Well then, if you are the Son of God, save yourself and come down from the cross!"
• 41. The leading priests, the teachers of religious law, and the other leaders also mocked Jesus.
• 42. "He saved others," they scoffed, "but he can't save himself! So he is the king of Israel, is he? Let him come down from the cross, and we will believe in him!
• 43. He trusted God--let God show his approval by delivering him! For he said, 'I am the Son of God.'"
• 44. And the criminals who were crucified with him also shouted the same insults at him.
• 45. At noon, darkness fell across the whole land until three o'clock.
• 46. At about three o'clock, Jesus called out with a loud voice, "Eli, Eli, lema sabachthani?" which means, "My God, my God, why have you forsaken me?"
• 47. Some of the bystanders misunderstood and thought he was calling for the prophet Elijah.
• 48. One of them ran and filled a sponge with sour wine, holding it up to him on a stick so he could drink.
• 49. But the rest said, "Leave him alone. Let's see whether Elijah will come and save him."
• 50. Then Jesus shouted out again, and he gave up his spirit.
• 51. At that moment the curtain in the Temple was torn in two, from top to bottom. The earth shook, rocks split apart,
• 52. and tombs opened. The bodies of many godly men and women who had died were raised from the dead
• 53. after Jesus' resurrection. They left the cemetery, went into the holy city of Jerusalem, and appeared to many people.
• 54. The Roman officer and the other soldiers at the crucifixion were terrified by the earthquake and all that had happened. They said, "Truly, this was the Son of God!"
• 55. And many women who had come from Galilee with Jesus to care for him were watching from a distance.
• 56. Among them were Mary Magdalene, Mary (the mother of James and Joseph), and Zebedee's wife, the mother of James and John.
• 57. As evening approached, Joseph, a rich man from Arimathea who was one of Jesus' followers,
• 58. went to Pilate and asked for Jesus' body. And Pilate issued an order to release it to him.
• 59. Joseph took the body and wrapped it in a long linen cloth.
• 60. He placed it in his own new tomb, which had been carved out of the rock. Then he rolled a great stone across the entrance as he left.
• 61. Both Mary Magdalene and the other Mary were sitting nearby watching.
• 62. The next day--on the first day of the Passover ceremonies--the leading priests and Pharisees went to see Pilate.
• 63. They told him, "Sir, we remember what that deceiver once said while he was still alive: 'After three days I will be raised from the dead.'
• 64. So we request that you seal the tomb until the third day. This will prevent his disciples from coming and stealing his body and then telling everyone he came back to life! If that happens, we'll be worse off than we were at first."
• 65. Pilate replied, "Take guards and secure it the best you can."
• 66. So they sealed the tomb and posted guards to protect it.

Esther 4

• 1. When Mordecai learned what had been done, he tore his clothes, put on sackcloth and ashes, and went out into the city, crying with a loud and bitter wail.
• 2. He stood outside the gate of the palace, for no one was allowed to enter while wearing clothes of mourning.
• 3. And as news of the king's decree reached all the provinces, there was great mourning among the Jews. They fasted, wept, and wailed, and many people lay in sackcloth and ashes.
• 4. When Queen Esther's maids and eunuchs came and told her about Mordecai, she was deeply distressed. She sent clothing to him to replace the sackcloth, but he refused it.
• 5. Then Esther sent for Hathach, one of the king's eunuchs who had been appointed as her attendant. She ordered him to go to Mordecai and find out what was troubling him and why he was in mourning.
• 6. So Hathach went out to Mordecai in the square in front of the palace gate.
• 7. Mordecai told him the whole story and told him how much money Haman had promised to pay into the royal treasury for the destruction of the Jews.
• 8. Mordecai gave Hathach a copy of the decree issued in Susa that called for the death of all Jews, and he asked Hathach to show it to Esther. He also asked Hathach to explain it to her and to urge her to go to the king to beg for mercy and plead for her people.
• 9. So Hathach returned to Esther with Mordecai's message.
• 10. Then Esther told Hathach to go back and relay this message to Mordecai:
• 11. "The whole world knows that anyone who appears before the king in his inner court without being invited is doomed to die unless the king holds out his gold scepter. And the king has not called for me to come to him in more than a month."
• 12. So Hathach gave Esther's message to Mordecai.
• 13. Mordecai sent back this reply to Esther: "Don't think for a moment that you will escape there in the palace when all other Jews are killed.
• 14. If you keep quiet at a time like this, deliverance for the Jews will arise from some other place, but you and your relatives will die. What's more, who can say but that you have been elevated to the palace for just such a time as this?"
• 15. Then Esther sent this reply to Mordecai:
• 16. "Go and gather together all the Jews of Susa and fast for me. Do not eat or drink for three days, night or day. My maids and I will do the same. And then, though it is against the law, I will go in to see the king. If I must die, I am willing to die."
• 17. So Mordecai went away and did as Esther told him.

New Living Translation: 27 of 365 days.