January 11th - Day 11

GENESIS 24:52 - 26:16

52 When Abraham’s servant heard their words, he bowed himself to the ground before the Lord. 53And the servant brought out jewellery of silver and of gold, and garments, and gave them to Rebekah; he also gave to her brother and to her mother costly ornaments. 54Then he and the men who were with him ate and drank, and they spent the night there. When they rose in the morning, he said, ‘Send me back to my master.’ 55Her brother and her mother said, ‘Let the girl remain with us a while, at least ten days; after that she may go.’ 56But he said to them, ‘Do not delay me, since the Lord has made my journey successful; let me go, that I may go to my master.’ 57They said, ‘We will call the girl, and ask her.’ 58And they called Rebekah, and said to her, ‘Will you go with this man?’ She said, ‘I will.’ 59So they sent away their sister Rebekah and her nurse along with Abraham’s servant and his men. 60And they blessed Rebekah and said to her,‘May you, our sister, become thousands of myriads; may your offspring gain possession of the gates of their foes.’ 61Then Rebekah and her maids rose up, mounted the camels, and followed the man; thus the servant took Rebekah, and went his way. 62 Now Isaac had come from* Beer-lahai-roi, and was settled in the Negeb. 63Isaac went out in the evening to walk* in the field; and looking up, he saw camels coming. 64And Rebekah looked up, and when she saw Isaac, she slipped quickly from the camel, 65and said to the servant, ‘Who is the man over there, walking in the field to meet us?’ The servant said, ‘It is my master.’ So she took her veil and covered herself. 66And the servant told Isaac all the things that he had done. 67Then Isaac brought her into his mother Sarah’s tent. He took Rebekah, and she became his wife; and he loved her. So Isaac was comforted after his mother’s death. 26Now there was a famine in the land, besides the former famine that had occurred in the days of Abraham. And Isaac went to Gerar, to King Abimelech of the Philistines. 2The Lord appeared to Isaac* and said, ‘Do not go down to Egypt; settle in the land that I shall show you. 3Reside in this land as an alien, and I will be with you, and will bless you; for to you and to your descendants I will give all these lands, and I will fulfil the oath that I swore to your father Abraham. 4I will make your offspring as numerous as the stars of heaven, and will give to your offspring all these lands; and all the nations of the earth shall gain blessing for themselves through your offspring, 5because Abraham obeyed my voice and kept my charge, my commandments, my statutes, and my laws.’ 6 So Isaac settled in Gerar. 7When the men of the place asked him about his wife, he said, ‘She is my sister’; for he was afraid to say, ‘My wife,’ thinking, ‘or else the men of the place might kill me for the sake of Rebekah, because she is attractive in appearance.’ 8When Isaac had been there a long time, King Abimelech of the Philistines looked out of a window and saw him fondling his wife Rebekah. 9So Abimelech called for Isaac, and said, ‘So she is your wife! Why then did you say, “She is my sister”?’ Isaac said to him, ‘Because I thought I might die because of her.’ 10Abimelech said, ‘What is this you have done to us? One of the people might easily have lain with your wife, and you would have brought guilt upon us.’ 11So Abimelech warned all the people, saying, ‘Whoever touches this man or his wife shall be put to death.’ 12 Isaac sowed seed in that land, and in the same year reaped a hundredfold. The Lord blessed him, 13and the man became rich; he prospered more and more until he became very wealthy. 14He had possessions of flocks and herds, and a great household, so that the Philistines envied him. 15(Now the Philistines had stopped up and filled with earth all the wells that his father’s servants had dug in the days of his father Abraham.) 16And Abimelech said to Isaac, ‘Go away from us; you have become too powerful for us.’

MATTHEW 8:18-34

8When Jesus* had come down from the mountain, great crowds followed him; 2and there was a leper* who came to him and knelt before him, saying, ‘Lord, if you choose, you can make me clean.’ 3He stretched out his hand and touched him, saying, ‘I do choose. Be made clean!’ Immediately his leprosy* was cleansed. 4Then Jesus said to him, ‘See that you say nothing to anyone; but go, show yourself to the priest, and offer the gift that Moses commanded, as a testimony to them.’ 5 When he entered Capernaum, a centurion came to him, appealing to him 6and saying, ‘Lord, my servant is lying at home paralysed, in terrible distress.’ 7And he said to him, ‘I will come and cure him.’ 8The centurion answered, ‘Lord, I am not worthy to have you come under my roof; but only speak the word, and my servant will be healed. 9For I also am a man under authority, with soldiers under me; and I say to one, “Go”, and he goes, and to another, “Come”, and he comes, and to my slave, “Do this”, and the slave does it.’ 10When Jesus heard him, he was amazed and said to those who followed him, ‘Truly I tell you, in no one* in Israel have I found such faith. 11I tell you, many will come from east and west and will eat with Abraham and Isaac and Jacob in the kingdom of heaven, 12while the heirs of the kingdom will be thrown into the outer darkness, where there will be weeping and gnashing of teeth.’ 13And to the centurion Jesus said, ‘Go; let it be done for you according to your faith.’ And the servant was healed in that hour. 14 When Jesus entered Peter’s house, he saw his mother-in-law lying in bed with a fever; 15he touched her hand, and the fever left her, and she got up and began to serve him. 16That evening they brought to him many who were possessed by demons; and he cast out the spirits with a word, and cured all who were sick. 17This was to fulfil what had been spoken through the prophet Isaiah, ‘He took our infirmities and bore our diseases.’ 18 Now when Jesus saw great crowds around him, he gave orders to go over to the other side. 19A scribe then approached and said, ‘Teacher, I will follow you wherever you go.’ 20And Jesus said to him, ‘Foxes have holes, and birds of the air have nests; but the Son of Man has nowhere to lay his head.’ 21Another of his disciples said to him, ‘Lord, first let me go and bury my father.’ 22But Jesus said to him, ‘Follow me, and let the dead bury their own dead.’ 23 And when he got into the boat, his disciples followed him. 24A gale arose on the lake, so great that the boat was being swamped by the waves; but he was asleep. 25And they went and woke him up, saying, ‘Lord, save us! We are perishing!’ 26And he said to them, ‘Why are you afraid, you of little faith?’ Then he got up and rebuked the winds and the sea; and there was a dead calm. 27They were amazed, saying, ‘What sort of man is this, that even the winds and the sea obey him?’ 28 When he came to the other side, to the country of the Gadarenes,* two demoniacs coming out of the tombs met him. They were so fierce that no one could pass that way. 29Suddenly they shouted, ‘What have you to do with us, Son of God? Have you come here to torment us before the time?’ 30Now a large herd of swine was feeding at some distance from them. 31The demons begged him, ‘If you cast us out, send us into the herd of swine.’ 32And he said to them, ‘Go!’ So they came out and entered the swine; and suddenly, the whole herd rushed down the steep bank into the lake and perished in the water. 33The swineherds ran off, and on going into the town, they told the whole story about what had happened to the demoniacs. 34Then the whole town came out to meet Jesus; and when they saw him, they begged him to leave their neighbourhood.

PSALM 10:1-15

1Why, O Lord, do you stand far off? Why do you hide yourself in times of trouble? 2In arrogance the wicked persecute the poor— let them be caught in the schemes they have devised. 3For the wicked boast of the desires of their heart, those greedy for gain curse and renounce the Lord. 4In the pride of their countenance the wicked say, ‘God will not seek it out’; all their thoughts are, ‘There is no God.’ 5Their ways prosper at all times; your judgements are on high, out of their sight; as for their foes, they scoff at them. 6They think in their heart, ‘We shall not be moved; throughout all generations we shall not meet adversity.’ 7Their mouths are filled with cursing and deceit and oppression; under their tongues are mischief and iniquity. 8They sit in ambush in the villages; in hiding-places they murder the innocent. Their eyes stealthily watch for the helpless; 9 they lurk in secret like a lion in its covert;they lurk that they may seize the poor; they seize the poor and drag them off in their net. 10They stoop, they crouch, and the helpless fall by their might. 11They think in their heart, ‘God has forgotten, he has hidden his face, he will never see it.’ 12Rise up, O Lord; O God, lift up your hand; do not forget the oppressed. 13Why do the wicked renounce God, and say in their hearts, ‘You will not call us to account’? 14But you do see! Indeed you note trouble and grief, that you may take it into your hands;the helpless commit themselves to you; you have been the helper of the orphan. 15Break the arm of the wicked and evildoers; seek out their wickedness until you find none.

PROVERBS 3:7-8

7Do not be wise in your own eyes; fear the Lord, and turn away from evil. 8It will be a healing for your flesh and a refreshment for your body.