JUDGES 17:1-18:31
JOHN 3:1-21
PSALM 104:1-23
PROVERBS 14:20-21
JUDGES 17:1-18:31
A man named Micah lived in the hill country of Ephraim. 2 One day he said to his mother, " I heard you curse the thief who stole eleven hundred pieces of silver from you. Well, here they are. I was the one who took them." " The LORD bless you for admitting it," his mother replied. 3 He returned the money to her, and she said, " I now dedicate these silver coins to the LORD. In honor of my son, I will have an image carved and an idol cast." 4 So his mother took two hundred of the silver coins to a silversmith, who made them into an image and an idol. And these were placed in Micah's house. 5 Micah set up a shrine, and he made a sacred ephod and some household idols. Then he installed one of his sons as the priest. 6 In those days Israel had no king, so the people did whatever seemed right in their own eyes. 7 One day a young Levite from Bethlehem in Judah 8 arrived in that area of Ephraim, looking for a good place to live. He happened to stop at Micah's house as he was traveling through. 9 " Where are you from?" Micah asked him. And he replied, " I am a Levite from Bethlehem in Judah, and I am looking for a place to live." 10 " Stay here with me," Micah said, " and you can be a father and priest to me. I will give you ten pieces of silver a year, plus a change of clothes and your food." 11 The Levite agreed to this and became like one of Micah's sons. 12 So Micah ordained the Levite as his personal priest, and he lived in Micah's house. 13 " I know the LORD will bless me now," Micah said, " because I have a Levite serving as my priest."18:1 NOW in those days Israel had no king. And the tribe of Dan was trying to find a place to settle, for they had not yet driven out the people who lived in the land assigned to them. 2 So the men of Dan chose five warriors from among their clans, who lived in the towns of Zorah and Eshtaol, to scout out a land for them to settle in. When these warriors arrived in the hill country of Ephraim, they came to Micah's home and spent the night there. 3 Noticing the young Levite's accent, they took him aside and asked him, " Who brought you here, and what are you doing? Why are you here?" 4 He told them about his agreement with Micah and that he was Micah's personal priest. 5 Then they said, " Ask God whether or not our journey will be successful." 6 " Go in peace," the priest replied. " For the LORD will go ahead of you on your journey." 7 So the five men went on to the town of Laish, where they noticed the people living carefree lives, like the Sidonians; they were peaceful and secure. The people were also wealthy because their land was very fertile. And they lived a great distance from Sidon and had no allies nearby. 8 When the men returned to Zorah and Eshtaol, their relatives asked them, " What did you find?" 9 The men replied, " Let's attack! We have seen the land, and it is very good. You should not hesitate to go and take possession of it. 10 When you get there, you will find the people living carefree lives. God has given us a spacious and fertile land, lacking in nothing!" 11 So six hundred warriors from the tribe of Dan set out from Zorah and Eshtaol. 12 They camped at a place west of Kiriath-jearim in Judah, which is called Mahaneh-dan to this day. 13 Then they went up into the hill country of Ephraim and came to the house of Micah. 14 The five men who had scouted out the land around Laish said to the others, " There is a shrine here with a sacred ephod, some household idols, a carved image, and a cast idol. It's obvious what we ought to do." 15 So the five men went over to Micah's house, where the young Levite lived, and greeted him kindly. 16 As the six hundred warriors from the tribe of Dan stood just outside the gate, 17 the five spies entered the shrine and took the carved image, the sacred ephod, the household idols, and the cast idol. 18 When the priest saw the men carrying all the sacred objects out of Micah's shrine, he said, " What are you doing?" 19 " Be quiet and come with us," they said. " Be a father and priest to all of us. Isn't it better to be a priest for an entire tribe of Israel than just for the household of one man?" 20 The young priest was quite happy to go with them, so he took along the sacred ephod, the household idols, and the carved image. 21 They started on their way again, placing their children, livestock, and possessions in front of them. 22 When the people from the tribe of Dan were quite a distance from Micah's home, Micah and some of his neighbors came chasing after them. 23 They were shouting as they caught up with them. The men of Dan turned around and said, " What do you want? Why have you called these men together and chased after us like this?" 24 " What do you mean, What do I want? " Micah replied. " You've taken away all my gods and my priest, and I have nothing left!" 25 The men of Dan said, " Watch what you say! Some of us are short-tempered, and they might get angry and kill you and your family." 26 So the men of Dan went on their way. When Micah saw that there were too many of them for him to attack, he turned around and went home. 27 Then, with Micah's idols and his priest, the men of Dan came to the town of Laish, whose people were peaceful and secure. They attacked and killed all the people and burned the town to the ground. 28 There was no one to rescue the residents of the town, for they lived a great distance from Sidon and had no allies nearby. This happened in the valley near Beth-rehob. Then the people of the tribe of Dan rebuilt the town and lived there. 29 They renamed the town Dan after their ancestor, Israel's son, but it had originally been called Laish. 30 Then they set up the carved image, and they appointed Jonathan son of Gershom, a descendant of Moses, as their priest. This family continued as priests for the tribe of Dan until the Exile. 31 So Micah's carved image was worshiped by the tribe of Dan as long as the Tabernacle of God remained at Shiloh.
JOHN 3:1-21
After dark one evening, a Jewish religious leader named Nicodemus, a Pharisee, 2 came to speak with Jesus. " Teacher," he said, " we all know that God has sent you to teach us. Your miraculous signs are proof enough that God is with you." 3 Jesus replied, " I assure you, unless you are born again, you can never see the Kingdom of God." 4 " What do you mean?" exclaimed Nicodemus. " How can an old man go back into his mother's womb and be born again?" 5 Jesus replied, " The truth is, no one can enter the Kingdom of God without being born of water and the Spirit. 6 Humans can reproduce only human life, but the Holy Spirit gives new life from heaven. 7 So don't be surprised at my statement that you must be born again. 8 Just as you can hear the wind but can't tell where it comes from or where it is going, so you can't explain how people are born of the Spirit." 9 " What do you mean?" Nicodemus asked. 10 Jesus replied, " You are a respected Jewish teacher, and yet you don't understand these things? 11 I assure you, I am telling you what we know and have seen, and yet you won't believe us. 12 But if you don't even believe me when I tell you about things that happen here on earth, how can you possibly believe if I tell you what is going on in heaven? 13 For only I, the Son of Man, have come to earth and will return to heaven again. 14 And as Moses lifted up the bronze snake on a pole in the wilderness, so I, the Son of Man, must be lifted up on a pole,* 15 so that everyone who believes in me will have eternal life.16 " For God so loved the world that he gave his only Son, so that everyone who believes in him will not perish but have eternal life. 17 God did not send his Son into the world to condemn it, but to save it. 18 " There is no judgment awaiting those who trust him. But those who do not trust him have already been judged for not believing in the only Son of God. 19 Their judgment is based on this fact: The light from heaven came into the world, but they loved the darkness more than the light, for their actions were evil. 20 They hate the light because they want to sin in the darkness. They stay away from the light for fear their sins will be exposed and they will be punished. 21 But those who do what is right come to the light gladly, so everyone can see that they are doing what God wants."
PSALM 104:1-23
Praise the LORD, I tell myself;
O LORD my God, how great you are!
You are robed with honor and with majesty;
2 you are dressed in a robe of light.
You stretch out the starry curtain of the heavens;
3 you lay out the rafters of your home in the rain clouds.
You make the clouds your chariots;
you ride upon the wings of the wind.
4 The winds are your messengers;
flames of fire are your servants.
5 You placed the world on its foundation
so it would never be moved.
6 You clothed the earth with floods of water,
water that covered even the mountains.
7 At the sound of your rebuke, the water fled;
at the sound of your thunder, it fled away.
8 Mountains rose and valleys sank
to the levels you decreed.
9 Then you set a firm boundary for the seas,
so they would never again cover the earth.
10 You make the springs pour water into ravines,
so streams gush down from the mountains.
11 They provide water for all the animals,
and the wild donkeys quench their thirst.
12 The birds nest beside the streams
and sing among the branches of the trees.
13 You send rain on the mountains from your heavenly home,
and you fill the earth with the fruit of your labor.
14 You cause grass to grow for the cattle.
You cause plants to grow for people to use.
You allow them to produce food from the earth--
15 wine to make them glad,
olive oil as lotion for their skin,
and bread to give them strength.
16 The trees of the LORD are well cared for--
the cedars of Lebanon that he planted.
17 There the birds make their nests,
and the storks make their homes in the firs.
18 High in the mountains are pastures for the wild goats,
and the rocks form a refuge for rock badgers.
19 You made the moon to mark the seasons
and the sun that knows when to set.
20 You send the darkness, and it becomes night,
when all the forest animals prowl about.
21 Then the young lions roar for their food,
but they are dependent on God.
22 At dawn they slink back
into their dens to rest.
23 Then people go off to their work;
they labor until the evening shadows fall again.
PROVERBS 14:20-21
The poor are despised even by their neighbors, while the rich have many " friends." It is sin to despise one's neighbors; blessed are those who help the poor.
