Thursday, February 16, 2017
Ps 105:1-45 - Thank You, Lord! Let all peoples consider His deeds and sing His praises! Let us glory in His holy Name, and all rejoice who seek Him with all our hearts. Let us search for God and His strength. Let us recount His marvelous works, and His just judgments. Let all the heirs of Abraham agree: this Is our God, the Lord, Whose judgments prevail in all creation. He makes and keeps His covenant; His promises stand forever. He gave Canaan to the offspring of Israel; He chose and protected this sparse band of sojourners. He sent Joseph before them into Egyptian bondage—and God’s man rose to guide Egypt through times of plenty and years of famine. The household of Jacob sojourned in the land of Ham, and YHWH made His people exceedingly fruitful, stronger than their enemies. God turned Egyptian hearts against the Israelites, whom they treated unjustly. God chose Moses, and brought His people out from Egypt by mighty works. They despoiled Egypt in departing, through cloud and sea, to God’s mountain, and there YHWH gave them Torah. God provided manna and water and quail in the wilderness, and gave His people the lands of the gentiles—their cities and farms, their orchards and flocks. He led them into the Land of promise, that they might keep His statutes and observe His laws.
Isa 65:1-12 – As He had announced to Abraham, God was ready to be found by nations that had not sought or called out for Him. And God was provoked by the unfaithfulness of the offspring of the patriarchs, who practiced idolatries and broke His Law repeatedly. God said, “I will repay into their laps their iniquities and those of their ancestors—full payment for their rebellion, disobedience, idolatry, sin! Yet I will not destroy them all; I will bring forth descendants from Jacob and from Judah, to inherit My mountains; to pasture flocks in Sharon and herds in Achor. But to those who forsake the Lord, who forget the Law and My holy mountain, who worship Fortune and Destiny—these I destine to sword and slaughter, because you were silent when I called; when I spoke, you did not listen; and you did what is evil in My sight and chose what does not delight Me!”
1 Tim 4:1-16 – The Holy Spirit stipulates that in later times, some will renounce faith in triune God, paying attention instead to deceitful spirits and demonic teachings, heeding the hypocrisy of liars whose consciences are seared with a hot iron. These heretics forbid marriage; they demand abstinence from foods—both of which God created to be received with thanksgiving by all who believe and know the truth. Everything God created is good; nothing He made is to be rejected, provided it is received with thanks to God; for all this is sanctified by God’s word and by prayer. If you put these instructions before the brothers and sisters, you will be a good servant of the Messiah Jesus, nourished on the words of the faith and of sound teaching. Have nothing to do with profane myths and old wives’ tales. Train yourself in godliness—far more valuable than physical training. Godliness holds promise for both this life and the life to come—a saying that is sure and worthy of full acceptance. We toil and struggle to this end: we have set our hope on the living God, the Savior of all people and especially of those who believe. You must teach and insist upon these things! Let no one despise you because of your age; rather, set the believers a fit example in speech, conduct, love, faith and purity. Focus on public reading of scripture, exhortation and teaching. Exercise the gift that is in you, given through prophecy and laying on of hands by the council of elders. Put these things into practice, with consistent devotion, so anyone who observes can see your progress. Pay close attention to yourself and your teaching; persevere in these things, for doing this will save both yourself and your hearers!
Mk 12:13-27 – The Jewish authorities sent some Pharisees and Herodians to trap Jesus in what He said. They challenged Him, saying, ‘Teacher, we know that you are sincere, and show deference to no one; for you do not regard people with partiality, but teach the way of God in accordance with truth. So: is it lawful to pay taxes to the emperor, or not?’ Jesus knew their hypocrisy and replied ‘Why are you putting Me to the test? Bring Me a denarius and let me see it.’ They brought one and Jesus went on: ‘Whose image is this? And whose inscription?’ They answered, ‘these belong to Caesar—the emperor.’ And Jesus said to them, ‘Give to the emperor the things that are the emperor’s, and to God the things that are God’s.’ His questioners were utterly amazed at Him.
Some Sadducees, who say there is no resurrection, came to Jesus and asked Him, ‘Teacher, Moses wrote for us that if a man’s brother dies, leaving a wife but no child, the man shall marry his brother’s widow and raise up children for his brother. There were seven brothers; the first married and died childless; so also the second brother and then the third. In turn, all seven brothers married this woman, and none of the marriages produced offspring. Last of all, the woman herself died. In the resurrection, whose wife will she be—for all seven had married her?’
Jesus answered, ‘Is this not the reason you are wrong, that you know neither the scriptures nor the power of God? When people rise from the dead, they neither marry nor are given in marriage, but are like the angels in heaven. And as for the dead being raised, have you not read in the book of Moses, in the story about the burning bush, how God said to him, ‘I Am the God of Abraham, the God of Isaac, and the God of Jacob’? He Is God not of the dead, but of the living. You are quite wrong.’
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