20 June 2022

Today's Readings and Stuff -- Monday, 20 June 2022


Today is the last day of Spring for this year.  Spring is my favorite time of the year, and the months with short names are the only ones that I really like.  I've reached the point in my life where it's no longer certain that I'll see another Spring, though one never knows.  So, starting tomorrow, the "day" part of the 24 hours will become shorter and shorter.  Sad.
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There are two entries for "song of the day".  The first came to me in that odd pre-waking time that I have quite frequently these days.  I am fond of both.  The first is a good one for congregational singing (or even when one is driving, alone, down the road. It's worthy and sincere, if not often heard.   A good prayer song/hymn.

The second is probably better for a choral presentation.  I've been fortunate to be involved in several good-sized choral groups in several states, where we did this one.  It means a lot to me, not just for the wonderful arrangement, but also the text.  It's important.  Very.

Open My Eyes That I May See



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2nd Kings 25

1 Now it came to pass in the ninth year of his reign, in the tenth month, on the tenth day of the month, that Nebuchadnezzar king of Babylon and all his army came against Jerusalem and encamped against it; and they built a siege wall against it all around. 

So the city was besieged until the eleventh year of King Zedekiah. 

By the ninth day of the fourth month the famine had become so severe in the city that there was no food for the people of the land.

Then the city wall was broken through, and all the men of war fled at night by way of the gate between two walls, which was by the king’s garden, even though the Chaldeans were still encamped all around against the city. And the king[a] went by way of the [b]plain. 

But the army of the Chaldeans pursued the king, and they overtook him in the plains of Jericho. All his army was scattered from him. So they took the king and brought him up to the king of Babylon at Riblah, and they pronounced judgment on him. Then they killed the sons of Zedekiah before his eyes, put[c] out the eyes of Zedekiah, bound him with bronze fetters, and took him to Babylon.

And in the fifth month, on the seventh day of the month (which was the nineteenth year of King Nebuchadnezzar king of Babylon), Nebuzaradan the captain of the guard, a servant of the king of Babylon, came to Jerusalem. '

He burned the house of the Lord and the king’s house; all the houses of Jerusalem, that is, all the houses of the great, he burned with fire. 

10 And all the army of the Chaldeans who were with the captain of the guard broke down the walls of Jerusalem all around.

11 Then Nebuzaradan the captain of the guard carried away captive the rest of the people who remained in the city and the defectors who had deserted to the king of Babylon, with the rest of the multitude. 

12 But the captain of the guard left some of the poor of the land as vinedressers and farmers. 

13 The bronze pillars that were in the house of the Lord, and the carts and the bronze Sea that were in the house of the Lord, the Chaldeans broke in pieces, and carried their bronze to Babylon. 

14 They also took away the pots, the shovels, the trimmers, the spoons, and all the bronze utensils with which the priests ministered. 

15 The firepans and the basins, the things of solid gold and solid silver, the captain of the guard took away. 

16 The two pillars, one Sea, and the carts, which Solomon had made for the house of the Lord, the bronze of all these articles was beyond measure. 

17 The height of one pillar was [d]eighteen cubits, and the capital on it was of bronze. The height of the capital was three cubits, and the network and pomegranates all around the capital were all of bronze. The second pillar was the same, with a network.

18 And the captain of the guard took Seraiah the chief priest, Zephaniah the second priest, and the three doorkeepers. 

19 He also took out of the city an officer who had charge of the men of war, five men of [e]the king’s close associates who were found in the city, the chief recruiting officer of the army, who mustered the people of the land, and sixty men of the people of the land who were found in the city. 

20 So Nebuzaradan, captain of the guard, took these and brought them to the king of Babylon at Riblah. 

21 Then the king of Babylon struck them and put them to death at Riblah in the land of Hamath. Thus Judah was carried away captive from its own land.

Gedaliah Made Governor of Judah

22 Then he made Gedaliah the son of Ahikam, the son of Shaphan, governor over the people who remained in the land of Judah, whom Nebuchadnezzar king of Babylon had left. 

23 Now when all the captains of the armies, they and their men, heard that the king of Babylon had made Gedaliah governor, they came to Gedaliah at Mizpah—Ishmael the son of Nethaniah, Johanan the son of Careah, Seraiah the son of Tanhumeth the Netophathite, and [f]Jaazaniah the son of a Maachathite, they and their men. 

24 And Gedaliah took an oath before them and their men, and said to them, “Do not be afraid of the servants of the Chaldeans. Dwell in the land and serve the king of Babylon, and it shall be well with you.”

25 But it happened in the seventh month that Ishmael the son of Nethaniah, the son of Elishama, of the royal family, came with ten men and struck and killed Gedaliah, the Jews, as well as the Chaldeans who were with him at Mizpah. 

26 And all the people, small and great, and the captains of the armies, arose and went to Egypt; for they were afraid of the Chaldeans.

Jehoiachin Released from Prison

27 Now it came to pass in the thirty-seventh year of the captivity of Jehoiachin king of Judah, in the twelfth month, on the twenty-seventh day of the month, that [g]Evil-Merodach king of Babylon, in the year that he began to reign, released Jehoiachin king of Judah from prison. 

28 He spoke kindly to him, and gave him a more prominent seat than those of the kings who were with him in Babylon. 

29 So Jehoiachin changed from his prison garments, and he ate [h]bread regularly before the king all the days of his life. 

30 And as for his [i]provisions, there was a [j]regular ration given him by the king, a portion for each day, all the days of his life.

Footnotes

  1. 2 Kings 25:4 Lit. he
  2. 2 Kings 25:4 Or Arabah, the Jordan Valley
  3. 2 Kings 25:7 blinded
  4. 2 Kings 25:17 About 27 feet
  5. 2 Kings 25:19 Lit. those seeing the king’s face
  6. 2 Kings 25:23 Jezaniah, Jer. 40:8
  7. 2 Kings 25:27 Lit. Man of Marduk
  8. 2 Kings 25:29 Food
  9. 2 Kings 25:30 Lit. allowance
  10. 2 Kings 25:30 Lit. allowance



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Psalm 119, verses 17 - 24

ג GIMEL

17 Deal bountifully with Your servant,
That I may live and keep Your word.
18 Open my eyes, that I may see
Wondrous things from Your law.
19 am a stranger in the earth;
Do not hide Your commandments from me.
20 My soul [c]breaks with longing
For Your judgments at all times.
21 You rebuke the proud—the cursed,
Who stray from Your commandments.
22 Remove from me reproach and contempt,
For I have kept Your testimonies.
23 Princes also sit and speak against me,
But Your servant meditates on Your statutes.
24 Your testimonies also are my delight
And my counselors.




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Romans 4

1  What then shall we say that Abraham our father[a] has found according to the flesh? 

For if Abraham was justified by works, he has something to boast about, but not before God. 

For what does the Scripture say? “Abraham believed God, and it was [b]accounted to him for righteousness.” 

Now to him who works, the wages are not counted [c]as grace but as debt.

David Celebrates the Same Truth

But to him who does not work but believes on Him who justifies the ungodly, his faith is accounted for righteousness, 

just as David also describes the blessedness of the man to whom God imputes righteousness apart from works:

Blessed are those whose lawless deeds are forgiven,
And whose sins are covered;
Blessed is the man to whom the Lord shall not impute sin.”

Abraham Justified Before Circumcision

Does this blessedness then come upon the circumcised only, or upon the uncircumcised also? For we say that faith was accounted to Abraham for righteousness. 

10 How then was it accounted? While he was circumcised, or uncircumcised? Not while circumcised, but while uncircumcised. 

11 And he received the sign of circumcision, a seal of the righteousness of the faith which he had while still uncircumcised, that he might be the father of all those who believe, though they are uncircumcised, that righteousness might be imputed to them also, 

12 and the father of circumcision to those who not only are of the circumcision, but who also walk in the steps of the faith which our father Abraham had while still uncircumcised.

The Promise Granted Through Faith

13 For the promise that he would be the heir of the world was not to Abraham or to his seed through the law, but through the righteousness of faith. 

14 For if those who are of the law are heirs, faith is made void and the promise made of no effect, 

15 because the law brings about wrath; for where there is no law there is no transgression.

16 Therefore it is of faith that it might be according to grace, so that the promise might be [d]sure to all the seed, not only to those who are of the law, but also to those who are of the faith of Abraham, who is the father of us all 

17 (as it is written, “I have made you a father of many nations”) in the presence of Him whom he believed—God, who gives life to the dead and calls those things which do not exist as though they did; 

18 who, contrary to hope, in hope believed, so that he became the father of many nations, according to what was spoken, “So shall your descendants be.” 

19 And not being weak in faith, he did not consider his own body, already dead (since he was about a hundred years old), and the deadness of Sarah’s womb. 

20 He did not waver at the promise of God through unbelief, but was strengthened in faith, giving glory to God, 

21 and being fully convinced that what He had promised He was also able to perform.

22 And therefore “it was accounted to him for righteousness.”

23 Now it was not written for his sake alone that it was imputed to him, 

24 but also for us. It shall be imputed to us who believe in Him who raised up Jesus our Lord from the dead, 

25 who was delivered up because of our offenses, and was raised because of our justification.

Footnotes

  1. Romans 4:1 Or (fore)father according to the flesh has found?
  2. Romans 4:3 imputed, credited, reckoned, counted
  3. Romans 4:4 according to
  4. Romans 4:16 certain

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