Week 30, Day 5 in the LEB

Jul 26, 2024

Podcast: Play in new window (Duration: 16:49 — 5.26MB)
The reading for today is Joel 1-3; Matthew 10.

Scripture quotations are from the Lexham English Bible. Copyright 2012 Logos Bible Software. Lexham is a registered trademark of Logos Bible Software.

Joel 1

The word of Yahweh that came to Joel son of Pethuel.

Hear this, O elders,
    and give ear, all the inhabitants of the land.
Has this happened in your days?
    Or the days of your ancestors?
Tell it to your children,
    and your children to their children,
        and their children to the following generation.
What the cutting locust left,
    the swarming locust has eaten.
What the swarming locust left,
    the hopping locust has eaten.
And what the hopping locust left,
    the destroying locust has eaten.
Wake up, drunkards, and weep!
Wail, all drinkers of wine, over the new wine,
    for it is cut off from your mouth.
Because a nation has invaded my land,
    strong and beyond counting.
Its teeth are the teeth of a lion,
    and its fangs are those of a lioness.
It has made my vine a desolation,
    and my fig tree a completely splintered stump.
It has stripped them bare and thrown them down;
    their branches have turned white.
Lament like a virgin girded in sackcloth
    for the husband of her youth.
The offering and libation are withheld
    from the house of Yahweh.
The priests mourn,
    the ministers of Yahweh.
The field is destroyed;
    the earth mourns
because the grain is destroyed,
    the new wine dries up,
        the olive oil languishes.
Be ashamed, farmers;
    Wail, vinedressers,
over the wheat and over the barley,
    because the harvest of the field is ruined.
The vine withers
    and the fig tree droops.
The pomegranate tree, and also the palm tree, the apple tree
    —all the trees of the field—are dried up.
Indeed, joy is dried up
    among the sons of men.
Gird yourselves and lament, O priests!
    Wail, O ministers of the altar!
Come spend the night in sackcloth,
    O ministers of my God,
because offering and libation
    are withheld from the house of your God.
Solemnize a fast!
    Call an assembly!
Gather the elders,
    all of the inhabitants of the land
in the house of Yahweh your God,
    and cry out to Yahweh.
Ah! For the day!
For the day of Yahweh is near.
    It will come like destruction from Shaddai.
Is not food cut off
    before our eyes,
from the house of our God,
    joy and gladness?
The seeds shrivel under their clods;
    the storehouses are desolate.
The grain storage places are destroyed
    because grain has dried out.
How the beasts groan;
    the herds of cattle wander around
because there is no pasture for them;
    the flocks of sheep are in distress.
To you, O Yahweh, I cry out,
because fire has devoured
    the pastures of the desert,
and flames burned
    all the trees of the field.
Also, the beasts of the field
    long for you,
because the courses of water
    are dried up,
and fire has devoured
    the pastures of the desert.

Joel 2

Blow the trumpet in Zion,
    and sound the alarm on my holy mountain!
Let all the inhabitants of the land tremble,
    for the day of Yahweh is coming
        it is indeed near.
A day of darkness and gloom,
    a day of cloud and thick darkness,
like the dawn spreads on the mountains,
    a great and strong army!
There has been nothing like it from old,
    and after it nothing will be again for generations to come.
Before them a fire devours,
    and behind them a flame burns.
Like the garden of Eden is the land before them,
    and after them it is like a desolate desert,
    and nothing can escape them.
Like the appearance of horses is their appearance,
    and like horsemen they run;
like the sound of chariots on the tops of the mountains, they leap about;
    like the sound of a flame of fire
        devouring stubble;
like a strong army arranged
    in rows for battle.
From before them nations writhe,
    all faces turn pale.
They run like mighty warriors,
    they scale the wall like men of war;
each goes on its own way,
    and they do not swerve from their paths.
They do not jostle one another;
    each goes on its own trail;
and through the falling weapons,
    they are not halted.
In the city they rush forth;
    on the walls they run.
Into the houses they climb up;
    through the windows
        they enter like a thief.
Before them the earth quakes;
    the heavens tremble;
the sun and the moon grow dark,
    and the stars have withheld their splendor
And Yahweh utters his voice before his army,
    because his encampment is very large;
strong is the one who carries out his decree,
    for great is the day of Yahweh
and exceedingly fearful.
    Who can endure it?

"And even now," declares Yahweh,
    "return to me with all your heart,
with fasting, and weeping, and wailing."
    Rend your hearts and not your garments,
and return to Yahweh your God,
    because he is gracious and compassionate,
slow to anger and great in loyal love,
    and relenting from harm.
Who knows whether he will turn and relent,
    and leave a blessing behind him,
an offering and a libation,
    for Yahweh your God?
Blow the trumpet in Zion,
    sanctify a fast, call an assembly;
gather the people, consecrate the assembly;
    assemble the elders, gather the children,
        even those who are breast-feeding;
let the bridegroom come out from his private room,
    and the bride from her canopy.
Between the colonnade and the altar,
    let the priests, the ministers of Yahweh, weep.
And let them say, "Take pity, Yahweh, on your people.
    Do not make your inheritance a reproach,
        a byword among the nations.
Why should they say among the nations,
    ‘Where is their God?’"

Then Yahweh became jealous for his land
    and took pity on his people.
And Yahweh answered and said to his people,
    "Look at me, I am sending to you
grain, new wine, and olive oil,
    and you will be satisfied by it.
I will not give you over any more
    as a disgrace among the nations.
The northerners
    I will remove from you;
I will drive them to a desert
    and desolate land,
its front to the eastern sea,
    and its rear into the western sea;
its stench and odor will rise up
    because he has done great things.
Do not fear, O land,
    rejoice and be glad,
        because Yahweh has done great things.
Do not fear, wild animals of the field,
    because the pastures of the desert have put forth new green shoots,
because the tree has produced its fruit,
    the fig tree and the vine
        have yielded their produce.
Be glad, O children of Zion,
    be glad and rejoice in Yahweh your God,
because he has given for you
    the autumn rains for your righteousness,
        and he has poured down for you rainwater,
the autumn and spring rains, as before.
The threshing floors will be full with grain,
    and the vats will overflow
        with new wine and olive oil.
I will repay you the years
    that the locust has eaten,
the hopper, the destroyer, and the cutter,
    my mighty troops that I sent against you.
And you will eat abundantly and be satisfied,
    and praise the name of Yahweh your God,
    who has dealt with you wondrously.
My people will never be ashamed.
And you will know that I am in the midst of Israel,
and I am Yahweh,
    your God, and there is no other.
My people will never be ashamed again.

And it will happen afterward thus:
    I will pour out my Spirit on all flesh,
and your sons and your daughters will prophesy,
    and your elders will dream dreams;
your young men shall see visions.
And also on the male slaves and on the female slaves,
    I will pour out my Spirit in those days.

And I will set wonders in the heavens, and on earth, blood and fire and columns of smoke. The sun will be changed to darkness, and the moon to blood, before the coming of the great and awesome day of Yahweh. And it will happen—everyone who calls on the name of Yahweh will be rescued, because on Mount Zion and in Jerusalem there will be those who escape, as Yahweh said, and among the survivors whom Yahweh is calling.

Joel 3

For look! In those days, and in that time, when I will return the fortunes of Judah and Jerusalem, I will gather all the nations, and I will bring them down to the valley of Jehoshaphat, and I will argue a case against them there concerning my people and my inheritance Israel whom they have scattered among the nations, and my land that they have divided. For my people they cast lots, and they traded the male child for the prostitute, and the female child they sold for wine and they drank it.

What are you to me, O Tyre and O Sidon, and all of the regions of Philistia? Are you repaying to me what is deserved? If you are recompensing me, I will return swiftly and quickly what you deserve on your head! For you have taken my silver and my gold, and my beautiful treasures you have carried into your temples. And the sons of Judah and Jerusalem you sold to the sons of the Greeks, in order to remove them from their border. Look! I am rousing them from the place where you have sold them, and I will return what you deserve on your head! I will sell your sons and your daughters into the hand of the children of Judah, and they will sell them to the Sabeans and to a nation far away, for Yahweh has spoken.

Proclaim this among the nations:
    Prepare for war!
        Stir up the mighty warriors;
let them approach and come up;
    let all the men of war approach.
Beat your cutting tools of iron into swords
    and your pruning hooks into spears;
        let the weakling say, ‘I am a mighty warrior!’
Hurry and come,
    all the nations, from all around,
        and gather yourselves there.
Bring down your mighty warriors, O Yahweh!
Let the nations be roused and let them come up
    to the valley of Jehoshaphat,
for there I will sit to judge
    all the nations from all around.
Send forth the sickle,
    for the harvest is ripe!
        Go tread,
for the winepress is full!
    The vats overflow,
        because their evil is great!
Commotion, commotion
    in the valley of decision!
For the day of Yahweh is near
    in the valley of decision!
The sun and the moon grow dark,
    and the stars have withheld their splendor.
And Yahweh roars from Zion;
    from Jerusalem he utters his voice,
and the heavens and the earth shake.
But Yahweh is a refuge for his people,
    and a protection for the children of Israel.
And you will know that I, Yahweh your God,
    am dwelling in Zion, my holy mountain.
And Jerusalem will be a place of holiness,
    and strangers will pass through it no longer.
And it will happen on that day;
the mountains will drip new wine,
    and the hills will flow with milk,
    and all the channels of Judah will flow with water.
A spring from the house of Yahweh will come forth,
    and it will water the valley of Acacia Trees.
Egypt will become a desolation,
    and Edom will become a desolate desert,
because of the violence they did against the children of Judah,
    in whose land they have shed innocent blood.
But Judah will be inhabited forever,
    and Jerusalem for all generations.
I will cleanse their bloodguilt that I did not cleanse,
    for Yahweh is dwelling in Zion.

Matthew 10

And summoning his twelve disciples, he gave them authority over unclean spirits, so that they could expel them and could heal every disease and every sickness. Now these are the names of the twelve apostles: first Simon who is called Peter, and Andrew his brother, James the son of Zebedee, and John his brother, Philip, and Bartholomew, Thomas, and Matthew the tax collector, James the son of Alphaeus, and Thaddaeus, Simon the Zealot, and Judas Iscariot—the one who also betrayed him.

Jesus sent out these twelve, instructing them saying, "Do not go on the road to the Gentiles, and do not enter into a city of the Samaritans, but go instead to the lost sheep of the house of Israel. And as you are going, preach, saying, ‘The kingdom of heaven has come near!’ Heal those who are sick, raise the dead, cleanse lepers, expel demons. Freely you have received; freely give. Do not procure gold or silver or copper for your belts. Do not take a traveler’s bag for the road, or two tunics, or sandals, or a staff, for the worker is deserving of his provisions. And into whatever town or village you enter, inquire who in it is worthy, and stay there until you depart. And when you enter into the house, greet it. And if the house is worthy, let your peace come upon it, but if it is not worthy, let your peace return to you. And whoever does not welcome you or listen to your words, shake off the dust from your feet as you are going out of that house or that town. Truly I say to you, it will be more bearable for the region of Sodom and Gomorrah on the day of judgment than for that town!

"Behold, I am sending you out like sheep in the midst of wolves. Therefore be wise as serpents and innocent as doves. But beware of people, because they will hand you over to councils, and they will flog you in their synagogues. And you will be brought before both governors and kings because of me, for a witness to them and to the Gentiles. But whenever they hand you over, do not be anxious how to speak or what you should say, for what you should say will be given to you at that hour. For you are not the ones who are speaking, but the Spirit of your Father who is speaking through you.

"And brother will hand over brother to death, and a father his children, and children will rise up against parents and have them put to death, and you will be hated by everyone because of my name. But the one who endures to the end—this one will be saved. And whenever they persecute you in this town, flee to another, for truly I say to you, you will never finish going through the towns of Israel until the Son of Man comes.

"A disciple is not superior to his teacher, nor a slave superior to his master. It is enough for the disciple that he become like his teacher, and the slave like his master. If they have called the master of the house Beelzebul, how much more the members of his household?

"Therefore do not be afraid of them, because nothing is hidden that will not be revealed, and nothing secret that will not become known. What I say to you in the dark, tell in the light, and what you hear in your ear, proclaim on the housetops. And do not be afraid of those who kill the body but are not able to kill the soul, but instead be afraid of the one who is able to destroy both soul and body in hell. Are not two sparrows sold for a penny? And one of them will not fall to the ground without the knowledge and consent of your Father. And even the hairs of your head are all numbered! Therefore do not be afraid; you are worth more than many sparrows.

"Therefore everyone who acknowledges me before people, I also will acknowledge him before my Father who is in heaven. But whoever denies me before people, I also will deny him before my Father who is in heaven.

"Do not think that I have come to bring peace on the earth! I have not come to bring peace, but a sword. For I have come to turn a man against his father, and a daughter against her mother, and a daughter-in-law against her mother-in-law. And the enemies of a man will be the members of his household. The one who loves father or mother more than me is not worthy of me, and the one who loves son or daughter more than me is not worthy of me. And whoever does not take up his cross and follow me is not worthy of me. The one who finds his life will lose it, and the one who loses his life because of me will find it.

"The one who receives you receives me, and the one who receives me receives the one who sent me. The one who receives a prophet in the name of a prophet will receive a prophet’s reward, and the one who receives a righteous person in the name of a righteous person will receive a righteous person’s reward. And whoever gives one of these little ones only a cup of cold water to drink in the name of a disciple, truly I say to you, he will never lose his reward."