Exodus 16

• 1. Then they left Elim and journeyed into the Sin Desert, between Elim and Mount Sinai. They arrived there a month after leaving Egypt.
• 2. There, too, the whole community of Israel spoke bitterly against Moses and Aaron.
• 3. "Oh, that we were back in Egypt," they moaned. "It would have been better if the LORD had killed us there! At least there we had plenty to eat. But now you have brought us into this desert to starve us to death."
• 4. Then the LORD said to Moses, "Look, I'm going to rain down food from heaven for you. The people can go out each day and pick up as much food as they need for that day. I will test them in this to see whether they will follow my instructions.
• 5. Tell them to pick up twice as much as usual on the sixth day of each week."
• 6. Then Moses and Aaron called a meeting of all the people of Israel and told them, "In the evening you will realize that it was the LORD who brought you out of the land of Egypt.
• 7. In the morning you will see the glorious presence of the LORD. He has heard your complaints, which are against the LORD and not against us.
• 8. The LORD will give you meat to eat in the evening and bread in the morning, for he has heard all your complaints against him. Yes, your complaints are against the LORD, not against us."
• 9. Then Moses said to Aaron, "Say this to the entire community of Israel: `Come into the LORD's presence, and hear his reply to your complaints.'"
• 10. And as Aaron spoke to the people, they looked out toward the desert. Within the guiding cloud, they could see the awesome glory of the LORD.
• 11. And the LORD said to Moses,
• 12. "I have heard the people's complaints. Now tell them, `In the evening you will have meat to eat, and in the morning you will be filled with bread. Then you will know that I am the LORD your God.'"
• 13. That evening vast numbers of quail arrived and covered the camp. The next morning the desert all around the camp was wet with dew.
• 14. When the dew disappeared later in the morning, thin flakes, white like frost, covered the ground.
• 15. The Israelites were puzzled when they saw it. "What is it?" they asked. And Moses told them, "It is the food the LORD has given you.
• 16. The LORD says that each household should gather as much as it needs. Pick up two quarts for each person."
• 17. So the people of Israel went out and gathered this food--some getting more, and some getting less.
• 18. By gathering two quarts for each person, everyone had just enough. Those who gathered a lot had nothing left over, and those who gathered only a little had enough. Each family had just what it needed.
• 19. Then Moses told them, "Do not keep any of it overnight."
• 20. But, of course, some of them didn't listen and kept some of it until morning. By then it was full of maggots and had a terrible smell. And Moses was very angry with them.
• 21. The people gathered the food morning by morning, each family according to its need. And as the sun became hot, the food they had not picked up melted and disappeared.
• 22. On the sixth day, there was twice as much as usual on the ground--four quarts for each person instead of two. The leaders of the people came and asked Moses why this had happened.
• 23. He replied, "The LORD has appointed tomorrow as a day of rest, a holy Sabbath to the LORD. On this day we will rest from our normal daily tasks. So bake or boil as much as you want today, and set aside what is left for tomorrow."
• 24. The next morning the leftover food was wholesome and good, without maggots or odor.
• 25. Moses said, "This is your food for today, for today is a Sabbath to the LORD. There will be no food on the ground today.
• 26. Gather the food for six days, but the seventh day is a Sabbath. There will be no food on the ground for you on that day."
• 27. Some of the people went out anyway to gather food, even though it was the Sabbath day. But there was none to be found.
• 28. "How long will these people refuse to obey my commands and instructions?" the LORD asked Moses.
• 29. "Do they not realize that I have given them the seventh day, the Sabbath, as a day of rest? That is why I give you twice as much food on the sixth day, so there will be enough for two days. On the Sabbath day you must stay in your places. Do not pick up food from the ground on that day."
• 30. So the people rested on the seventh day.
• 31. In time, the food became known as manna. It was white like coriander seed, and it tasted like honey cakes.
• 32. Then Moses gave them this command from the LORD: "Take two quarts of manna and keep it forever as a treasured memorial of the LORD's provision. By doing this, later generations will be able to see the bread that the LORD provided in the wilderness when he brought you out of Egypt."
• 33. Moses said to Aaron, "Get a container and put two quarts of manna into it. Then store it in a sacred place as a reminder for all future generations."
• 34. Aaron did this, just as the LORD had commanded Moses. He eventually placed it for safekeeping in the Ark of the Covenant.
• 35. So the people of Israel ate manna for forty years until they arrived in the land of Canaan, where there were crops to eat.
• 36. (The container used to measure the manna was an omer, which held about two quarts.)

Luke 20

• 1. One day as Jesus was teaching and preaching the Good News in the Temple, the leading priests and teachers of religious law and other leaders came up to him.
• 2. They demanded, "By whose authority did you drive out the merchants from the Temple? Who gave you such authority?"
• 3. "Let me ask you a question first," he replied.
• 4. "Did John's baptism come from heaven, or was it merely human?"
• 5. They talked it over among themselves. "If we say it was from heaven, he will ask why we didn't believe him.
• 6. But if we say it was merely human, the people will stone us, because they are convinced he was a prophet."
• 7. Finally they replied, "We don't know."
• 8. And Jesus responded, "Then I won't answer your question either."
• 9. Now Jesus turned to the people again and told them this story: "A man planted a vineyard, leased it out to tenant farmers, and moved to another country to live for several years.
• 10. At grape-picking time, he sent one of his servants to collect his share of the crop. But the farmers attacked the servant, beat him up, and sent him back empty-handed.
• 11. So the owner sent another servant, but the same thing happened; he was beaten up and treated shamefully, and he went away empty-handed.
• 12. A third man was sent and the same thing happened. He, too, was wounded and chased away.
• 13. "'What will I do?' the owner asked himself. 'I know! I'll send my cherished son. Surely they will respect him.'
• 14. "But when the farmers saw his son, they said to each other, 'Here comes the heir to this estate. Let's kill him and get the estate for ourselves!'
• 15. So they dragged him out of the vineyard and murdered him. "What do you suppose the owner of the vineyard will do to those farmers?" Jesus asked.
• 16. "I'll tell you--he will come and kill them all and lease the vineyard to others.But God forbid that such a thing should ever happen," his listeners protested.
• 17. Jesus looked at them and said, "Then what do the Scriptures mean? 'The stone rejected by the builders has now become the cornerstone.'
• 18. All who stumble over that stone will be broken to pieces, and it will crush anyone on whom it falls."
• 19. When the teachers of religious law and the leading priests heard this story, they wanted to arrest Jesus immediately because they realized he was pointing at them--that they were the farmers in the story. But they were afraid there would be a riot if they arrested him.
• 20. Watching for their opportunity, the leaders sent secret agents pretending to be honest men. They tried to get Jesus to say something that could be reported to the Roman governor so he would arrest Jesus.
• 21. They said, "Teacher, we know that you speak and teach what is right and are not influenced by what others think. You sincerely teach the ways of God.
• 22. Now tell us--is it right to pay taxes to the Roman government or not?"
• 23. He saw through their trickery and said,
• 24. "Show me a Roman coin. Whose picture and title are stamped on it?Caesar's," they replied.
• 25. "Well then," he said, "give to Caesar what belongs to him. But everything that belongs to God must be given to God."
• 26. So they failed to trap him in the presence of the people. Instead, they were amazed by his answer, and they were silenced.
• 27. Then some Sadducees stepped forward--a group of Jews who say there is no resurrection after death.
• 28. They posed this question: "Teacher, Moses gave us a law that if a man dies, leaving a wife but no children, his brother should marry the widow and have a child who will be the brother's heir.
• 29. Well, there were seven brothers. The oldest married and then died without children.
• 30. His brother married the widow, but he also died. Still no children.
• 31. And so it went, one after the other, until each of the seven had married her and died, leaving no children.
• 32. Finally, the woman died, too.
• 33. So tell us, whose wife will she be in the resurrection? For all seven were married to her!"
• 34. Jesus replied, "Marriage is for people here on earth.
• 35. But that is not the way it will be in the age to come. For those worthy of being raised from the dead won't be married then.
• 36. And they will never die again. In these respects they are like angels. They are children of God raised up to new life.
• 37. But now, as to whether the dead will be raised--even Moses proved this when he wrote about the burning bush. Long after Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob had died, he referred to the Lord as 'the God of Abraham, the God of Isaac, and the God of Jacob.'
• 38. So he is the God of the living, not the dead. They are all alive to him."
• 39. "Well said, Teacher!" remarked some of the teachers of religious law who were standing there.
• 40. And that ended their questions; no one dared to ask any more.
• 41. Then Jesus presented them with a question. "Why is it," he asked, "that the Messiah is said to be the son of David?
• 42. For David himself wrote in the book of Psalms: 'The LORD said to my Lord, Sit in honor at my right hand
• 43. until I humble your enemies, making them a footstool under your feet.'
• 44. Since David called him Lord, how can he be his son at the same time?"
• 45. Then, with the crowds listening, he turned to his disciples and said,
• 46. "Beware of these teachers of religious law! For they love to parade in flowing robes and to have everyone bow to them as they walk in the marketplaces. And how they love the seats of honor in the synagogues and at banquets.
• 47. But they shamelessly cheat widows out of their property, and then, to cover up the kind of people they really are, they make long prayers in public. Because of this, their punishment will be the greater."

Job 35

• 1. Then Elihu said:
• 2. "Do you think it is right for you to claim, `I am righteous before God'?
• 3. Yet you also ask, `What's the use of living a righteous life? How will it benefit me?'
• 4. "I will answer you and all your friends, too.
• 5. Look up into the sky and see the clouds high above you.
• 6. If you sin, what do you accomplish against him? Even if you sin again and again, what effect will it have on him?
• 7. If you are good, is this some great gift to him? What could you possibly give him?
• 8. No, your sins affect only people like yourself, and your good deeds affect only other people.
• 9. "The oppressed cry out beneath the wrongs that are done to them. They groan beneath the power of the mighty.
• 10. Yet they don't ask, `Where is God my Creator, the one who gives songs in the night?
• 11. Where is the one who makes us wiser than the animals and birds?'
• 12. "And if they do cry out and God does not answer, it is because of their pride.
• 13. But it is wrong to say God doesn't listen, to say the Almighty isn't concerned.
• 14. And it is even more false to say he doesn't see what is going on. He will bring about justice if you will only wait.
• 15. But do you cry out against him because he does not respond in anger?
• 16. Job, you have protested in vain. You have spoken like a fool."

New Living Translation: 65 of 365 days.