Professor Horner’s Reading Plan

¹Soon afterward Jesus began a tour of the nearby towns and villages, preaching and announcing the Good News about the Kingdom of God. He took his twelve disciples with him,

²along with some women who had been cured of evil spirits and diseases. Among them were Mary Magdalene, from whom he had cast out seven demons;

³Joanna, the wife of Chuza, Herod’s business manager; Susanna; and many others who were contributing from their own resources to support Jesus and his disciples.

⁴One day Jesus told a story in the form of a parable to a large crowd that had gathered from many towns to hear him:

⁵“A farmer went out to plant his seed. As he scattered it across his field, some seed fell on a footpath, where it was stepped on, and the birds ate it.

⁶Other seed fell among rocks. It began to grow, but the plant soon wilted and died for lack of moisture.

⁷Other seed fell among thorns that grew up with it and choked out the tender plants.

⁸Still other seed fell on fertile soil. This seed grew and produced a crop that was a hundred times as much as had been planted!” When he had said this, he called out, “Anyone with ears to hear should listen and understand.”

⁹His disciples asked him what this parable meant.

¹⁰He replied, “You are permitted to understand the secrets of the Kingdom of God. But I use parables to teach the others so that the Scriptures might be fulfilled: ‘When they look, they won’t really see. When they hear, they won’t understand.’

¹¹“This is the meaning of the parable: The seed is God’s word.

¹²The seeds that fell on the footpath represent those who hear the message, only to have the devil come and take it away from their hearts and prevent them from believing and being saved.

¹³The seeds on the rocky soil represent those who hear the message and receive it with joy. But since they don’t have deep roots, they believe for a while, then they fall away when they face temptation.

¹⁴The seeds that fell among the thorns represent those who hear the message, but all too quickly the message is crowded out by the cares and riches and pleasures of this life. And so they never grow into maturity.

¹⁵And the seeds that fell on the good soil represent honest, good-hearted people who hear God’s word, cling to it, and patiently produce a huge harvest.

¹⁶“No one lights a lamp and then covers it with a bowl or hides it under a bed. A lamp is placed on a stand, where its light can be seen by all who enter the house.

¹⁷For all that is secret will eventually be brought into the open, and everything that is concealed will be brought to light and made known to all.

¹⁸“So pay attention to how you hear. To those who listen to my teaching, more understanding will be given. But for those who are not listening, even what they think they understand will be taken away from them.”

¹⁹Then Jesus’ mother and brothers came to see him, but they couldn’t get to him because of the crowd.

²⁰Someone told Jesus, “Your mother and your brothers are standing outside, and they want to see you.”

²¹Jesus replied, “My mother and my brothers are all those who hear God’s word and obey it.”

²²One day Jesus said to his disciples, “Let’s cross to the other side of the lake.” So they got into a boat and started out.

²³As they sailed across, Jesus settled down for a nap. But soon a fierce storm came down on the lake. The boat was filling with water, and they were in real danger.

²⁴The disciples went and woke him up, shouting, “Master, Master, we’re going to drown!” When Jesus woke up, he rebuked the wind and the raging waves. Suddenly the storm stopped and all was calm.

²⁵Then he asked them, “Where is your faith?” The disciples were terrified and amazed. “Who is this man?” they asked each other. “When he gives a command, even the wind and waves obey him!”

²⁶So they arrived in the region of the Gerasenes, across the lake from Galilee.

²⁷As Jesus was climbing out of the boat, a man who was possessed by demons came out to meet him. For a long time he had been homeless and naked, living in the tombs outside the town.

²⁸As soon as he saw Jesus, he shrieked and fell down in front of him. Then he screamed, “Why are you interfering with me, Jesus, Son of the Most High God? Please, I beg you, don’t torture me!”

²⁹For Jesus had already commanded the evil spirit to come out of him. This spirit had often taken control of the man. Even when he was placed under guard and put in chains and shackles, he simply broke them and rushed out into the wilderness, completely under the demon’s power.

³⁰Jesus demanded, “What is your name?” “Legion,” he replied, for he was filled with many demons.

³¹The demons kept begging Jesus not to send them into the bottomless pit.

³²There happened to be a large herd of pigs feeding on the hillside nearby, and the demons begged him to let them enter into the pigs. So Jesus gave them permission.

³³Then the demons came out of the man and entered the pigs, and the entire herd plunged down the steep hillside into the lake and drowned.

³⁴When the herdsmen saw it, they fled to the nearby town and the surrounding countryside, spreading the news as they ran.

³⁵People rushed out to see what had happened. A crowd soon gathered around Jesus, and they saw the man who had been freed from the demons. He was sitting at Jesus’ feet, fully clothed and perfectly sane, and they were all afraid.

³⁶Then those who had seen what happened told the others how the demon-possessed man had been healed.

³⁷And all the people in the region of the Gerasenes begged Jesus to go away and leave them alone, for a great wave of fear swept over them. So Jesus returned to the boat and left, crossing back to the other side of the lake.

³⁸The man who had been freed from the demons begged to go with him. But Jesus sent him home, saying,

³⁹“No, go back to your family, and tell them everything God has done for you.” So he went all through the town proclaiming the great things Jesus had done for him.

⁴⁰On the other side of the lake the crowds welcomed Jesus, because they had been waiting for him.

⁴¹Then a man named Jairus, a leader of the local synagogue, came and fell at Jesus’ feet, pleading with him to come home with him.

⁴²His only daughter, who was about twelve years old, was dying. As Jesus went with him, he was surrounded by the crowds.

⁴³A woman in the crowd had suffered for twelve years with constant bleeding, and she could find no cure.

⁴⁴Coming up behind Jesus, she touched the fringe of his robe. Immediately, the bleeding stopped.

⁴⁵“Who touched me?” Jesus asked. Everyone denied it, and Peter said, “Master, this whole crowd is pressing up against you.”

⁴⁶But Jesus said, “Someone deliberately touched me, for I felt healing power go out from me.”

⁴⁷When the woman realized that she could not stay hidden, she began to tremble and fell to her knees in front of him. The whole crowd heard her explain why she had touched him and that she had been immediately healed.

⁴⁸“Daughter,” he said to her, “your faith has made you well. Go in peace.”

⁴⁹While he was still speaking to her, a messenger arrived from the home of Jairus, the leader of the synagogue. He told him, “Your daughter is dead. There’s no use troubling the Teacher now.”

⁵⁰But when Jesus heard what had happened, he said to Jairus, “Don’t be afraid. Just have faith, and she will be healed.”

⁵¹When they arrived at the house, Jesus wouldn’t let anyone go in with him except Peter, John, James, and the little girl’s father and mother.

⁵²The house was filled with people weeping and wailing, but he said, “Stop the weeping! She isn’t dead; she’s only asleep.”

⁵³But the crowd laughed at him because they all knew she had died.

⁵⁴Then Jesus took her by the hand and said in a loud voice, “My child, get up!”

⁵⁵And at that moment her life returned, and she immediately stood up! Then Jesus told them to give her something to eat.

⁵⁶Her parents were overwhelmed, but Jesus insisted that they not tell anyone what had happened.

¹Then the LORD told Moses,

²“Give the following instructions to the people of Israel. “When you finally settle in the land I am giving you,

³you will offer special gifts as a pleasing aroma to the LORD. These gifts may take the form of a burnt offering, a sacrifice to fulfill a vow, a voluntary offering, or an offering at any of your annual festivals, and they may be taken from your herds of cattle or your flocks of sheep and goats.

⁴When you present these offerings, you must also give the LORD a grain offering of two quarts of choice flour mixed with one quart of olive oil.

⁵For each lamb offered as a burnt offering or a special sacrifice, you must also present one quart of wine as a liquid offering.

⁶“If the sacrifice is a ram, give a grain offering of four quarts of choice flour mixed with a third of a gallon of olive oil,

⁷and give a third of a gallon of wine as a liquid offering. This will be a pleasing aroma to the LORD.

⁸“When you present a young bull as a burnt offering or as a sacrifice to fulfill a vow or as a peace offering to the LORD,

⁹you must also give a grain offering of six quarts of choice flour mixed with two quarts of olive oil,

¹⁰and give two quarts of wine as a liquid offering. This will be a special gift, a pleasing aroma to the LORD.

¹¹“Each sacrifice of a bull, ram, lamb, or young goat should be prepared in this way.

¹²Follow these instructions with each offering you present.

¹³All of you native-born Israelites must follow these instructions when you offer a special gift as a pleasing aroma to the LORD.

¹⁴And if any foreigners visit you or live among you and want to present a special gift as a pleasing aroma to the LORD, they must follow these same procedures.

¹⁵Native-born Israelites and foreigners are equal before the LORD and are subject to the same decrees. This is a permanent law for you, to be observed from generation to generation.

¹⁶The same instructions and regulations will apply both to you and to the foreigners living among you.”

¹⁷Then the LORD said to Moses,

¹⁸“Give the following instructions to the people of Israel. “When you arrive in the land where I am taking you,

¹⁹and you eat the crops that grow there, you must set some aside as a sacred offering to the LORD.

²⁰Present a cake from the first of the flour you grind, and set it aside as a sacred offering, as you do with the first grain from the threshing floor.

²¹Throughout the generations to come, you are to present a sacred offering to the LORD each year from the first of your ground flour.

²²“But suppose you unintentionally fail to carry out all these commands that the LORD has given you through Moses.

²³And suppose your descendants in the future fail to do everything the LORD has commanded through Moses.

²⁴If the mistake was made unintentionally, and the community was unaware of it, the whole community must present a young bull for a burnt offering as a pleasing aroma to the LORD. It must be offered along with its prescribed grain offering and liquid offering and with one male goat for a sin offering.

²⁵With it the priest will purify the whole community of Israel, making them right with the LORD, and they will be forgiven. For it was an unintentional sin, and they have corrected it with their offerings to the LORD — the special gift and the sin offering.

²⁶The whole community of Israel will be forgiven, including the foreigners living among you, for all the people were involved in the sin.

²⁷“If one individual commits an unintentional sin, the guilty person must bring a one-year-old female goat for a sin offering.

²⁸The priest will sacrifice it to purify the guilty person before the LORD, and that person will be forgiven.

²⁹These same instructions apply both to native-born Israelites and to the foreigners living among you.

³⁰“But those who brazenly violate the LORD’s will, whether native-born Israelites or foreigners, have blasphemed the LORD, and they must be cut off from the community.

³¹Since they have treated the LORD’s word with contempt and deliberately disobeyed his command, they must be completely cut off and suffer the punishment for their guilt.”

³²One day while the people of Israel were in the wilderness, they discovered a man gathering wood on the Sabbath day.

³³The people who found him doing this took him before Moses, Aaron, and the rest of the community.

³⁴They held him in custody because they did not know what to do with him.

³⁵Then the LORD said to Moses, “The man must be put to death! The whole community must stone him outside the camp.”

³⁶So the whole community took the man outside the camp and stoned him to death, just as the LORD had commanded Moses.

³⁷Then the LORD said to Moses,

³⁸“Give the following instructions to the people of Israel: Throughout the generations to come you must make tassels for the hems of your clothing and attach them with a blue cord.

³⁹When you see the tassels, you will remember and obey all the commands of the LORD instead of following your own desires and defiling yourselves, as you are prone to do.

⁴⁰The tassels will help you remember that you must obey all my commands and be holy to your God.

⁴¹I am the LORD your God who brought you out of the land of Egypt that I might be your God. I am the LORD your God!”

¹Now, dear brothers and sisters — you who are familiar with the law — don’t you know that the law applies only while a person is living?

²For example, when a woman marries, the law binds her to her husband as long as he is alive. But if he dies, the laws of marriage no longer apply to her.

³So while her husband is alive, she would be committing adultery if she married another man. But if her husband dies, she is free from that law and does not commit adultery when she remarries.

⁴So, my dear brothers and sisters, this is the point: You died to the power of the law when you died with Christ. And now you are united with the one who was raised from the dead. As a result, we can produce a harvest of good deeds for God.

⁵When we were controlled by our old nature, sinful desires were at work within us, and the law aroused these evil desires that produced a harvest of sinful deeds, resulting in death.

⁶But now we have been released from the law, for we died to it and are no longer captive to its power. Now we can serve God, not in the old way of obeying the letter of the law, but in the new way of living in the Spirit.

⁷Well then, am I suggesting that the law of God is sinful? Of course not! In fact, it was the law that showed me my sin. I would never have known that coveting is wrong if the law had not said, “You must not covet.”

⁸But sin used this command to arouse all kinds of covetous desires within me! If there were no law, sin would not have that power.

⁹At one time I lived without understanding the law. But when I learned the command not to covet, for instance, the power of sin came to life,

¹⁰and I died. So I discovered that the law’s commands, which were supposed to bring life, brought spiritual death instead.

¹¹Sin took advantage of those commands and deceived me; it used the commands to kill me.

¹²But still, the law itself is holy, and its commands are holy and right and good.

¹³But how can that be? Did the law, which is good, cause my death? Of course not! Sin used what was good to bring about my condemnation to death. So we can see how terrible sin really is. It uses God’s good commands for its own evil purposes.

¹⁴So the trouble is not with the law, for it is spiritual and good. The trouble is with me, for I am all too human, a slave to sin.

¹⁵I don’t really understand myself, for I want to do what is right, but I don’t do it. Instead, I do what I hate.

¹⁶But if I know that what I am doing is wrong, this shows that I agree that the law is good.

¹⁷So I am not the one doing wrong; it is sin living in me that does it.

¹⁸And I know that nothing good lives in me, that is, in my sinful nature. I want to do what is right, but I can’t.

¹⁹I want to do what is good, but I don’t. I don’t want to do what is wrong, but I do it anyway.

²⁰But if I do what I don’t want to do, I am not really the one doing wrong; it is sin living in me that does it.

²¹I have discovered this principle of life — that when I want to do what is right, I inevitably do what is wrong.

²²I love God’s law with all my heart.

²³But there is another power within me that is at war with my mind. This power makes me a slave to the sin that is still within me.

²⁴Oh, what a miserable person I am! Who will free me from this life that is dominated by sin and death?

²⁵Thank God! The answer is in Jesus Christ our Lord. So you see how it is: In my mind I really want to obey God’s law, but because of my sinful nature I am a slave to sin.

¹Then I heard a mighty voice from the Temple say to the seven angels, “Go your ways and pour out on the earth the seven bowls containing God’s wrath.”

²So the first angel left the Temple and poured out his bowl on the earth, and horrible, malignant sores broke out on everyone who had the mark of the beast and who worshiped his statue.

³Then the second angel poured out his bowl on the sea, and it became like the blood of a corpse. And everything in the sea died.

⁴Then the third angel poured out his bowl on the rivers and springs, and they became blood.

⁵And I heard the angel who had authority over all water saying, “You are just, O Holy One, who is and who always was, because you have sent these judgments.

⁶Since they shed the blood of your holy people and your prophets, you have given them blood to drink. It is their just reward.”

⁷And I heard a voice from the altar, saying, “Yes, O Lord God, the Almighty, your judgments are true and just.”

⁸Then the fourth angel poured out his bowl on the sun, causing it to scorch everyone with its fire.

⁹Everyone was burned by this blast of heat, and they cursed the name of God, who had control over all these plagues. They did not repent of their sins and turn to God and give him glory.

¹⁰Then the fifth angel poured out his bowl on the throne of the beast, and his kingdom was plunged into darkness. His subjects ground their teeth in anguish,

¹¹and they cursed the God of heaven for their pains and sores. But they did not repent of their evil deeds and turn to God.

¹²Then the sixth angel poured out his bowl on the great Euphrates River, and it dried up so that the kings from the east could march their armies toward the west without hindrance.

¹³And I saw three evil spirits that looked like frogs leap from the mouths of the dragon, the beast, and the false prophet.

¹⁴They are demonic spirits who work miracles and go out to all the rulers of the world to gather them for battle against the Lord on that great judgment day of God the Almighty.

¹⁵“Look, I will come as unexpectedly as a thief! Blessed are all who are watching for me, who keep their clothing ready so they will not have to walk around naked and ashamed.”

¹⁶And the demonic spirits gathered all the rulers and their armies to a place with the Hebrew name Armageddon.

¹⁷Then the seventh angel poured out his bowl into the air. And a mighty shout came from the throne in the Temple, saying, “It is finished!”

¹⁸Then the thunder crashed and rolled, and lightning flashed. And a great earthquake struck — the worst since people were placed on the earth.

¹⁹The great city of Babylon split into three sections, and the cities of many nations fell into heaps of rubble. So God remembered all of Babylon’s sins, and he made her drink the cup that was filled with the wine of his fierce wrath.

²⁰And every island disappeared, and all the mountains were leveled.

²¹There was a terrible hailstorm, and hailstones weighing as much as seventy-five pounds fell from the sky onto the people below. They cursed God because of the terrible plague of the hailstorm.

¹Then Job spoke again:

²“Yes, I know all this is true in principle. But how can a person be declared innocent in God’s sight?

³If someone wanted to take God to court, would it be possible to answer him even once in a thousand times?

⁴For God is so wise and so mighty. Who has ever challenged him successfully?

⁵“Without warning, he moves the mountains, overturning them in his anger.

⁶He shakes the earth from its place, and its foundations tremble.

⁷If he commands it, the sun won’t rise and the stars won’t shine.

⁸He alone has spread out the heavens and marches on the waves of the sea.

⁹He made all the stars — the Bear and Orion, the Pleiades and the constellations of the southern sky.

¹⁰He does great things too marvelous to understand. He performs countless miracles.

¹¹“Yet when he comes near, I cannot see him. When he moves by, I do not see him go.

¹²If he snatches someone in death, who can stop him? Who dares to ask, ‘What are you doing?’

¹³And God does not restrain his anger. Even the monsters of the sea are crushed beneath his feet.

¹⁴“So who am I, that I should try to answer God or even reason with him?

¹⁵Even if I were right, I would have no defense. I could only plead for mercy.

¹⁶And even if I summoned him and he responded, I’m not sure he would listen to me.

¹⁷For he attacks me with a storm and repeatedly wounds me without cause.

¹⁸He will not let me catch my breath, but fills me instead with bitter sorrows.

¹⁹If it’s a question of strength, he’s the strong one. If it’s a matter of justice, who dares to summon him to court?

²⁰Though I am innocent, my own mouth would pronounce me guilty. Though I am blameless, it would prove me wicked.

²¹“I am innocent, but it makes no difference to me — I despise my life.

²²Innocent or wicked, it is all the same to God. That’s why I say, ‘He destroys both the blameless and the wicked.’

²³When a plague sweeps through, he laughs at the death of the innocent.

²⁴The whole earth is in the hands of the wicked, and God blinds the eyes of the judges. If he’s not the one who does it, who is?

²⁵“My life passes more swiftly than a runner. It flees away without a glimpse of happiness.

²⁶It disappears like a swift papyrus boat, like an eagle swooping down on its prey.

²⁷If I decided to forget my complaints, to put away my sad face and be cheerful,

²⁸I would still dread all the pain, for I know you will not find me innocent, O God.

²⁹Whatever happens, I will be found guilty. So what’s the use of trying?

³⁰Even if I were to wash myself with soap and clean my hands with lye,

³¹you would plunge me into a muddy ditch, and my own filthy clothing would hate me.

³²“God is not a mortal like me, so I cannot argue with him or take him to trial.

³³If only there were a mediator between us, someone who could bring us together.

³⁴The mediator could make God stop beating me, and I would no longer live in terror of his punishment.

³⁵Then I could speak to him without fear, but I cannot do that in my own strength.

¹The heavens proclaim the glory of God. The skies display his craftsmanship.

²Day after day they continue to speak; night after night they make him known.

³They speak without a sound or word; their voice is never heard.

⁴Yet their message has gone throughout the earth, and their words to all the world. God has made a home in the heavens for the sun.

⁵It bursts forth like a radiant bridegroom after his wedding. It rejoices like a great athlete eager to run the race.

⁶The sun rises at one end of the heavens and follows its course to the other end. Nothing can hide from its heat.

⁷The instructions of the LORD are perfect, reviving the soul. The decrees of the LORD are trustworthy, making wise the simple.

⁸The commandments of the LORD are right, bringing joy to the heart. The commands of the LORD are clear, giving insight for living.

⁹Reverence for the LORD is pure, lasting forever. The laws of the LORD are true; each one is fair.

¹⁰They are more desirable than gold, even the finest gold. They are sweeter than honey, even honey dripping from the comb.

¹¹They are a warning to your servant, a great reward for those who obey them.

¹²How can I know all the sins lurking in my heart? Cleanse me from these hidden faults.

¹³Keep your servant from deliberate sins! Don’t let them control me. Then I will be free of guilt and innocent of great sin.

¹⁴May the words of my mouth and the meditation of my heart be pleasing to you, O LORD, my rock and my redeemer.

¹Wisdom has built her house; she has carved its seven columns.

²She has prepared a great banquet, mixed the wines, and set the table.

³She has sent her servants to invite everyone to come. She calls out from the heights overlooking the city.

⁴“Come in with me,” she urges the simple. To those who lack good judgment, she says,

⁵“Come, eat my food, and drink the wine I have mixed.

⁶Leave your simple ways behind, and begin to live; learn to use good judgment.”

⁷Anyone who rebukes a mocker will get an insult in return. Anyone who corrects the wicked will get hurt.

⁸So don’t bother correcting mockers; they will only hate you. But correct the wise, and they will love you.

⁹Instruct the wise, and they will be even wiser. Teach the righteous, and they will learn even more.

¹⁰Fear of the LORD is the foundation of wisdom. Knowledge of the Holy One results in good judgment.

¹¹Wisdom will multiply your days and add years to your life.

¹²If you become wise, you will be the one to benefit. If you scorn wisdom, you will be the one to suffer.

¹³The woman named Folly is brash. She is ignorant and doesn’t know it.

¹⁴She sits in her doorway on the heights overlooking the city.

¹⁵She calls out to men going by who are minding their own business.

¹⁶“Come in with me,” she urges the simple. To those who lack good judgment, she says,

¹⁷“Stolen water is refreshing; food eaten in secret tastes the best!”

¹⁸But little do they know that the dead are there. Her guests are in the depths of the grave.

¹David went to the town of Nob to see Ahimelech the priest. Ahimelech trembled when he saw him. “Why are you alone?” he asked. “Why is no one with you?”

²“The king has sent me on a private matter,” David said. “He told me not to tell anyone why I am here. I have told my men where to meet me later.

³Now, what is there to eat? Give me five loaves of bread or anything else you have.”

⁴“We don’t have any regular bread,” the priest replied. “But there is the holy bread, which you can have if your young men have not slept with any women recently.”

⁵“Don’t worry,” David replied. “I never allow my men to be with women when we are on a campaign. And since they stay clean even on ordinary trips, how much more on this one!”

⁶Since there was no other food available, the priest gave him the holy bread — the Bread of the Presence that was placed before the LORD in the Tabernacle. It had just been replaced that day with fresh bread.

⁷Now Doeg the Edomite, Saul’s chief herdsman, was there that day, having been detained before the LORD.

⁸David asked Ahimelech, “Do you have a spear or sword? The king’s business was so urgent that I didn’t even have time to grab a weapon!”

⁹“I only have the sword of Goliath the Philistine, whom you killed in the valley of Elah,” the priest replied. “It is wrapped in a cloth behind the ephod. Take that if you want it, for there is nothing else here.” “There is nothing like it!” David replied. “Give it to me!”

¹⁰So David escaped from Saul and went to King Achish of Gath.

¹¹But the officers of Achish were unhappy about his being there. “Isn’t this David, the king of the land?” they asked. “Isn’t he the one the people honor with dances, singing, ‘Saul has killed his thousands, and David his ten thousands’?”

¹²David heard these comments and was very afraid of what King Achish of Gath might do to him.

¹³So he pretended to be insane, scratching on doors and drooling down his beard.

¹⁴Finally, King Achish said to his men, “Must you bring me a madman?

¹⁵We already have enough of them around here! Why should I let someone like this be my guest?”

¹“If a man divorces a woman and she goes and marries someone else, he will not take her back again, for that would surely corrupt the land. But you have prostituted yourself with many lovers, so why are you trying to come back to me?” says the LORD.

²“Look at the shrines on every hilltop. Is there any place you have not been defiled by your adultery with other gods? You sit like a prostitute beside the road waiting for a customer. You sit alone like a nomad in the desert. You have polluted the land with your prostitution and your wickedness.

³That’s why even the spring rains have failed. For you are a brazen prostitute and completely shameless.

⁴Yet you say to me, ‘Father, you have been my guide since my youth.

⁵Surely you won’t be angry forever! Surely you can forget about it!’ So you talk, but you keep on doing all the evil you can.”

⁶During the reign of King Josiah, the LORD said to me, “Have you seen what fickle Israel has done? Like a wife who commits adultery, Israel has worshiped other gods on every hill and under every green tree.

⁷I thought, ‘After she has done all this, she will return to me.’ But she did not return, and her faithless sister Judah saw this.

⁸She saw that I divorced faithless Israel because of her adultery. But that treacherous sister Judah had no fear, and now she, too, has left me and given herself to prostitution.

⁹Israel treated it all so lightly — she thought nothing of committing adultery by worshiping idols made of wood and stone. So now the land has been polluted.

¹⁰But despite all this, her faithless sister Judah has never sincerely returned to me. She has only pretended to be sorry. I, the LORD, have spoken!”

¹¹Then the LORD said to me, “Even faithless Israel is less guilty than treacherous Judah!

¹²Therefore, go and give this message to Israel. This is what the LORD says: “O Israel, my faithless people, come home to me again, for I am merciful. I will not be angry with you forever.

¹³Only acknowledge your guilt. Admit that you rebelled against the LORD your God and committed adultery against him by worshiping idols under every green tree. Confess that you refused to listen to my voice. I, the LORD, have spoken!

¹⁴“Return home, you wayward children,” says the LORD, “for I am your master. I will bring you back to the land of Israel — one from this town and two from that family — from wherever you are scattered.

¹⁵And I will give you shepherds after my own heart, who will guide you with knowledge and understanding.

¹⁶“And when your land is once more filled with people,” says the LORD, “you will no longer wish for ‘the good old days’ when you possessed the Ark of the LORD’s Covenant. You will not miss those days or even remember them, and there will be no need to rebuild the Ark.

¹⁷In that day Jerusalem will be known as ‘The Throne of the LORD.’ All nations will come there to honor the LORD. They will no longer stubbornly follow their own evil desires.

¹⁸In those days the people of Judah and Israel will return together from exile in the north. They will return to the land I gave your ancestors as an inheritance forever.

¹⁹“I thought to myself, ‘I would love to treat you as my own children!’ I wanted nothing more than to give you this beautiful land — the finest possession in the world. I looked forward to your calling me ‘Father,’ and I wanted you never to turn from me.

²⁰But you have been unfaithful to me, you people of Israel! You have been like a faithless wife who leaves her husband. I, the LORD, have spoken.”

²¹Voices are heard high on the windswept mountains, the weeping and pleading of Israel’s people. For they have chosen crooked paths and have forgotten the LORD their God.

²²“My wayward children,” says the LORD, “come back to me, and I will heal your wayward hearts.” “Yes, we’re coming,” the people reply, “for you are the LORD our God.

²³Our worship of idols on the hills and our religious orgies on the mountains are a delusion. Only in the LORD our God will Israel ever find salvation.

²⁴From childhood we have watched as everything our ancestors worked for — their flocks and herds, their sons and daughters — was squandered on a delusion.

²⁵Let us now lie down in shame and cover ourselves with dishonor, for we and our ancestors have sinned against the LORD our God. From our childhood to this day we have never obeyed him.”

¹Soon the news reached the apostles and other believers in Judea that the Gentiles had received the word of God.

²But when Peter arrived back in Jerusalem, the Jewish believers criticized him.

³“You entered the home of Gentiles and even ate with them!” they said.

⁴Then Peter told them exactly what had happened.

⁵“I was in the town of Joppa,” he said, “and while I was praying, I went into a trance and saw a vision. Something like a large sheet was let down by its four corners from the sky. And it came right down to me.

⁶When I looked inside the sheet, I saw all sorts of tame and wild animals, reptiles, and birds.

⁷And I heard a voice say, ‘Get up, Peter; kill and eat them.’

⁸“‘No, Lord,’ I replied. ‘I have never eaten anything that our Jewish laws have declared impure or unclean. ’

⁹“But the voice from heaven spoke again: ‘Do not call something unclean if God has made it clean.’

¹⁰This happened three times before the sheet and all it contained was pulled back up to heaven.

¹¹“Just then three men who had been sent from Caesarea arrived at the house where we were staying.

¹²The Holy Spirit told me to go with them and not to worry that they were Gentiles. These six brothers here accompanied me, and we soon entered the home of the man who had sent for us.

¹³He told us how an angel had appeared to him in his home and had told him, ‘Send messengers to Joppa, and summon a man named Simon Peter.

¹⁴He will tell you how you and everyone in your household can be saved!’

¹⁵“As I began to speak,” Peter continued, “the Holy Spirit fell on them, just as he fell on us at the beginning.

¹⁶Then I thought of the Lord’s words when he said, ‘John baptized with water, but you will be baptized with the Holy Spirit.’

¹⁷And since God gave these Gentiles the same gift he gave us when we believed in the Lord Jesus Christ, who was I to stand in God’s way?”

¹⁸When the others heard this, they stopped objecting and began praising God. They said, “We can see that God has also given the Gentiles the privilege of repenting of their sins and receiving eternal life.”

¹⁹Meanwhile, the believers who had been scattered during the persecution after Stephen’s death traveled as far as Phoenicia, Cyprus, and Antioch of Syria. They preached the word of God, but only to Jews.

²⁰However, some of the believers who went to Antioch from Cyprus and Cyrene began preaching to the Gentiles about the Lord Jesus.

²¹The power of the Lord was with them, and a large number of these Gentiles believed and turned to the Lord.

²²When the church at Jerusalem heard what had happened, they sent Barnabas to Antioch.

²³When he arrived and saw this evidence of God’s blessing, he was filled with joy, and he encouraged the believers to stay true to the Lord.

²⁴Barnabas was a good man, full of the Holy Spirit and strong in faith. And many people were brought to the Lord.

²⁵Then Barnabas went on to Tarsus to look for Saul.

²⁶When he found him, he brought him back to Antioch. Both of them stayed there with the church for a full year, teaching large crowds of people. (It was at Antioch that the believers were first called Christians.)

²⁷During this time some prophets traveled from Jerusalem to Antioch.

²⁸One of them named Agabus stood up in one of the meetings and predicted by the Spirit that a great famine was coming upon the entire Roman world. (This was fulfilled during the reign of Claudius.)

²⁹So the believers in Antioch decided to send relief to the brothers and sisters in Judea, everyone giving as much as they could.

³⁰This they did, entrusting their gifts to Barnabas and Saul to take to the elders of the church in Jerusalem.