21 January 2016

Today's Readings and Stuff -- Thursday, 21 January 2016

another cold and wintry day.  But then, it IS winter, especially here.  I do see the weather forecasts of a truly awful winter storm heading through the eastern part of the US.  Amazingly, it appears that the worst of it will track somewhere SOUTH of us, then broadening to cover an area from North Carolina to Vermont, hammering D.C. and NYC. 

Slightly less cold (I refuse to say "warmer" when the "high" is in the upper teens) here than earlier in the week, and supposedly moderating a bit more as the week progresses.  Hope so.  We can almost sense the end of January, and February is a short month.  March holds the Vernal Equinox, the first day of theoretical Spring.  We can still have snow for the six weeks after that auspicious moment, but it lets us have some hope.  Some.  A little.  And perhaps Dear Wife will continue her painfully slow recovery from the September surgeries.  We hope.  Been a tough road so far.

Got word that the mother of one of the deacon's wives is having a downturn in her leukemia case.  She's located a LONG way from here, central Colorado I believe, and the prayer requests have gone  out.
And tomorrow is the annual March for Life in Washington, D.C., the day coincinding as always with the hideous anniversary of the Roe v. Wade diktat from SCOTUS.  Also expected to be a blizzard hitting around that time.    Hope all goes well.

==================================
=====================================
The Old Testament reading today is chapters 49 and 50 of the Genesis.  This completes the Genesis, which I regard as one of the most important in all the Old Testament.  And in the time of three weeks, we've seen the foundation of all we know.  From the Beginning, when the Lord, for reasons of His own, decided to invent light, gravity, time, and much else, and to create the physical Universe, the Earth, and human beings.  Now we see families, tribes, nations, and empires like Egypt.  Quite a lot.  And names and structures that affect our world even today.  A covenant between Abraham and the Lord.  And a promise of a Savior. 

1
And Jacob called unto his sons, and said, Gather yourselves together, that I may tell you that which shall befall you in the last days.
2
Gather yourselves together, and hear, ye sons of Jacob; and hearken unto Israel your father.
3
Reuben, thou art my firstborn, my might, and the beginning of my strength, the excellency of dignity, and the excellency of power:
4
Unstable as water, thou shalt not excel; because thou wentest up to thy father's bed; then defiledst thou it: he went up to my couch.
5
Simeon and Levi are brethren; instruments of cruelty are in their habitations.
6
O my soul, come not thou into their secret; unto their assembly, mine honor, be not thou united: for in their anger they slew a man, and in their self-will they digged down a wall.
7
Cursed be their anger, for it was fierce; and their wrath, for it was cruel: I will divide them in Jacob, and scatter them in Israel.
8
Judah, thou art he whom thy brethren shall praise: thy hand shall be in the neck of thine enemies; thy father's children shall bow down before thee.
9
Judah is a lion's whelp: from the prey, my son, thou art gone up: he stooped down, he couched as a lion, and as an old lion; who shall rouse him up?
10
The sceptre shall not depart from Judah, nor a lawgiver from between his feet, until Shiloh come; and unto him shall the gathering of the people be.
11
Binding his foal unto the vine, and his ass's colt unto the choice vine; he washed his garments in wine, and his clothes in the blood of grapes:
12
His eyes shall be red with wine, and his teeth white with milk.
13
Zebulun shall dwell at the haven of the sea; and he shall be for an haven of ships; and his border shall be unto Zidon.
14
Issachar is a strong ass couching down between two burdens:
15
And he saw that rest was good, and the land that it was pleasant; and bowed his shoulder to bear, and became a servant unto tribute.
16
Dan shall judge his people, as one of the tribes of Israel.
17
Dan shall be a serpent by the way, an adder in the path, that biteth the horse heels, so that his rider shall fall backward.
18
I have waited for thy salvation, O LORD.
19
Gad, a troop shall overcome him: but he shall overcome at the last.
20
Out of Asher his bread shall be fat, and he shall yield royal dainties.
21
Naphtali is a hind let loose: he giveth goodly words.
22
Joseph is a fruitful bough, even a fruitful bough by a well; whose branches run over the wall:
23
The archers have sorely grieved him, and shot at him, and hated him:
24
But his bow abode in strength, and the arms of his hands were made strong by the hands of the mighty God of Jacob; (from thence is the shepherd, the stone of Israel:)
25
Even by the God of thy father, who shall help thee; and by the Almighty, who shall bless thee with blessings of heaven above, blessings of the deep that lieth under, blessings of the breasts, and of the womb:
26
The blessings of thy father have prevailed above the blessings of my progenitors unto the utmost bound of the everlasting hills: they shall be on the head of Joseph, and on the crown of the head of him that was separate from his brethren.
27
Benjamin shall raven as a wolf: in the morning he shall devour the prey, and at night he shall divide the spoil.
28
All these are the twelve tribes of Israel: and this is it that their father spake unto them, and blessed them; every one according to his blessing he blessed them.
29
And he charged them, and said unto them, I am to be gathered unto my people: bury me with my fathers in the cave that is in the field of Ephron the Hittite,
30
In the cave that is in the field of Machpelah, which is before Mamre, in the land of Canaan, which Abraham bought with the field of Ephron the Hittite for a possession of a buryingplace.
31
There they buried Abraham and Sarah his wife; there they buried Isaac and Rebekah his wife; and there I buried Leah.
32
The purchase of the field and of the cave that is therein was from the children of Heth.
33
And when Jacob had made an end of commanding his sons, he gathered up his feet into the bed, and yielded up the ghost, and was gathered unto his people.


1
And Joseph fell upon his father's face, and wept upon him, and kissed him.
2
And Joseph commanded his servants the physicians to embalm his father: and the physicians embalmed Israel.
3
And forty days were fulfilled for him; for so are fulfilled the days of those which are embalmed: and the Egyptians mourned for him threescore and ten days.
4
And when the days of his mourning were past, Joseph spake unto the house of Pharaoh, saying, If now I have found grace in your eyes, speak, I pray you, in the ears of Pharaoh, saying,
5
My father made me swear, saying, Lo, I die: in my grave which I have digged for me in the land of Canaan, there shalt thou bury me. Now therefore let me go up, I pray thee, and bury my father, and I will come again.
6
And Pharaoh said, Go up, and bury thy father, according as he made thee swear.
7
And Joseph went up to bury his father: and with him went up all the servants of Pharaoh, the elders of his house, and all the elders of the land of Egypt,
8
And all the house of Joseph, and his brethren, and his father's house: only their little ones, and their flocks, and their herds, they left in the land of Goshen.
9
And there went up with him both chariots and horsemen: and it was a very great company.
10
And they came to the threshingfloor of Atad, which is beyond Jordan, and there they mourned with a great and very sore lamentation: and he made a mourning for his father seven days.
11
And when the inhabitants of the land, the Canaanites, saw the mourning in the floor of Atad, they said, This is a grievous mourning to the Egyptians: wherefore the name of it was called Abelmizraim, which is beyond Jordan.
12
And his sons did unto him according as he commanded them:
13
For his sons carried him into the land of Canaan, and buried him in the cave of the field of Machpelah, which Abraham bought with the field for a possession of a buryingplace of Ephron the Hittite, before Mamre.
14
And Joseph returned into Egypt, he, and his brethren, and all that went up with him to bury his father, after he had buried his father.
15
And when Joseph's brethren saw that their father was dead, they said, Joseph will peradventure hate us, and will certainly requite us all the evil which we did unto him.
16
And they sent a messenger unto Joseph, saying, Thy father did command before he died, saying,
17
So shall ye say unto Joseph, Forgive, I pray thee now, the trespass of thy brethren, and their sin; for they did unto thee evil: and now, we pray thee, forgive the trespass of the servants of the God of thy father. And Joseph wept when they spake unto him.
18
And his brethren also went and fell down before his face; and they said, Behold, we be thy servants.
19
And Joseph said unto them, Fear not: for am I in the place of God?
20
But as for you, ye thought evil against me; but God meant it unto good, to bring to pass, as it is this day, to save much people alive.
21
Now therefore fear ye not: I will nourish you, and your little ones. And he comforted them, and spake kindly unto them.
22
And Joseph dwelt in Egypt, he, and his father's house: and Joseph lived an hundred and ten years.
23
And Joseph saw Ephraim's children of the third generation: the children also of Machir the son of Manasseh were brought up upon Joseph's knees.
24
And Joseph said unto his brethren, I die: and God will surely visit you, and bring you out of this land unto the land which he sware to Abraham, to Isaac, and to Jacob.
25
And Joseph took an oath of the children of Israel, saying, God will surely visit you, and ye shall carry up my bones from hence.
26
So Joseph died, being an hundred and ten years old: and they embalmed him, and he was put in a coffin in Egypt.




===============================
===================================

The New Testament reading is verses 1-20 of the 15th chapter in the Gospel of Matthew.

1
Then came to Jesus scribes and Pharisees, which were of Jerusalem, saying,
2
Why do thy disciples transgress the tradition of the elders? for they wash not their hands when they eat bread.
3
But he answered and said unto them, Why do ye also transgress the commandment of God by your tradition?
4
For God commanded, saying, Honour thy father and mother: and, He that curseth father or mother, let him die the death.
5
But ye say, Whosoever shall say to his father or his mother, It is a gift, by whatsoever thou mightest be profited by me;
6
And honour not his father or his mother, he shall be free. Thus have ye made the commandment of God of none effect by your tradition.
7
Ye hypocrites, well did Esaias prophesy of you, saying,
8
This people draweth nigh unto me with their mouth, and honoureth me with their lips; but their heart is far from me.
9
But in vain they do worship me, teaching for doctrines the commandments of men.
10
And he called the multitude, and said unto them, Hear, and understand:
11
Not that which goeth into the mouth defileth a man; but that which cometh out of the mouth, this defileth a man.
12
Then came his disciples, and said unto him, Knowest thou that the Pharisees were offended, after they heard this saying?
13
But he answered and said, Every plant, which my heavenly Father hath not planted, shall be rooted up.
14
Let them alone: they be blind leaders of the blind. And if the blind lead the blind, both shall fall into the ditch.
15
Then answered Peter and said unto him, Declare unto us this parable.
16
And Jesus said, Are ye also yet without understanding?
17
Do not ye yet understand, that whatsoever entereth in at the mouth goeth into the belly, and is cast out into the draught?
18
But those things which proceed out of the mouth come forth from the heart; and they defile the man.
19
For out of the heart proceed evil thoughts, murders, adulteries, fornications, thefts, false witness, blasphemies:
20
These are the things which defile a man: but to eat with unwashen hands defileth not a man.

No comments:

Post a Comment

You are free to comment.
I am free to moderate, and I do. Profane, lewd, and unlawful comments will be sent to the Great Beyond, never to be seen again. I reserve all rights to do so for any and all reasons and whims.