Deuteronomy 15, Psalm 102, Isaiah 42, Revelation 12

Deuteronomy 15,

1 At the end of every seven years you must cancel debts.
 
2 This is how it is to be done: Every creditor shall cancel the loan he has made to his fellow Israelite. He shall not require payment from his fellow Israelite or brother, because the LORD's time for canceling debts has been proclaimed.
 
3 You may require payment from a foreigner, but you must cancel any debt your brother owes you.
 
4 However, there should be no poor among you, for in the land the LORD your God is giving you to possess as your inheritance, he will richly bless you,
 
5 if only you fully obey the LORD your God and are careful to follow all these commands I am giving you today.
 
6 For the LORD your God will bless you as he has promised, and you will lend to many nations but will borrow from none. You will rule over many nations but none will rule over you.
 
7 If there is a poor man among your brothers in any of the towns of the land that the LORD your God is giving you, do not be hardhearted or tightfisted toward your poor brother.
 
8 Rather be openhanded and freely lend him whatever he needs.
 
9 Be careful not to harbor this wicked thought: "The seventh year, the year for canceling debts, is near," so that you do not show ill will toward your needy brother and give him nothing. He may then appeal to the LORD against you, and you will be found guilty of sin.
 
10 Give generously to him and do so without a grudging heart; then because of this the LORD your God will bless you in all your work and in everything you put your hand to.
 
11 There will always be poor people in the land. Therefore I command you to be openhanded toward your brothers and toward the poor and needy in your land.
 
12 If a fellow Hebrew, a man or a woman, sells himself to you and serves you six years, in the seventh year you must let him go free.
 
13 And when you release him, do not send him away empty-handed.
 
14 Supply him liberally from your flock, your threshing floor and your winepress. Give to him as the LORD your God has blessed you.
 
15 Remember that you were slaves in Egypt and the LORD your God redeemed you. That is why I give you this command today.
 
16 But if your servant says to you, "I do not want to leave you," because he loves you and your family and is well off with you,
 
17 then take an awl and push it through his ear lobe into the door, and he will become your servant for life. Do the same for your maidservant.
 
18 Do not consider it a hardship to set your servant free, because his service to you these six years has been worth twice as much as that of a hired hand. And the LORD your God will bless you in everything you do.
 
19 Set apart for the LORD your God every firstborn male of your herds and flocks. Do not put the firstborn of your oxen to work, and do not shear the firstborn of your sheep.
 
20 Each year you and your family are to eat them in the presence of the LORD your God at the place he will choose.
 
21 If an animal has a defect, is lame or blind, or has any serious flaw, you must not sacrifice it to the LORD your God.
 
22 You are to eat it in your own towns. Both the ceremonially unclean and the clean may eat it, as if it were gazelle or deer.
 
23 But you must not eat the blood; pour it out on the ground like water.

Psalm 102,

1 Hear my prayer, O LORD; let my cry for help come to you.
 
2 Do not hide your face from me when I am in distress. Turn your ear to me; when I call, answer me quickly.
 
3 For my days vanish like smoke; my bones burn like glowing embers.
 
4 My heart is blighted and withered like grass; I forget to eat my food.
 
5 Because of my loud groaning I am reduced to skin and bones.
 
6 I am like a desert owl, like an owl among the ruins.
 
7 I lie awake; I have become like a bird alone on a roof.
 
8 All day long my enemies taunt me; those who rail against me use my name as a curse.
 
9 For I eat ashes as my food and mingle my drink with tears
 
10 because of your great wrath, for you have taken me up and thrown me aside.
 
11 My days are like the evening shadow; I wither away like grass.
 
12 But you, O LORD, sit enthroned forever; your renown endures through all generations.
 
13 You will arise and have compassion on Zion, for it is time to show favor to her; the appointed time has come.
 
14 For her stones are dear to your servants; her very dust moves them to pity.
 
15 The nations will fear the name of the LORD, all the kings of the earth will revere your glory.
 
16 For the LORD will rebuild Zion and appear in his glory.
 
17 He will respond to the prayer of the destitute; he will not despise their plea.
 
18 Let this be written for a future generation, that a people not yet created may praise the LORD:
 
19 "The LORD looked down from his sanctuary on high, from heaven he viewed the earth,
 
20 to hear the groans of the prisoners and release those condemned to death."
 
21 So the name of the LORD will be declared in Zion and his praise in Jerusalem
 
22 when the peoples and the kingdoms assemble to worship the LORD.
 
23 In the course of my life he broke my strength; he cut short my days.
 
24 So I said: "Do not take me away, O my God, in the midst of my days; your years go on through all generations.
 
25 In the beginning you laid the foundations of the earth, and the heavens are the work of your hands.
 
26 They will perish, but you remain; they will all wear out like a garment. Like clothing you will change them and they will be discarded.
 
27 But you remain the same, and your years will never end.
 
28 The children of your servants will live in your presence; their descendants will be established before you."

Isaiah 42,

1 "Here is my servant, whom I uphold, my chosen one in whom I delight; I will put my Spirit on him and he will bring justice to the nations.
 
2 He will not shout or cry out, or raise his voice in the streets.
 
3 A bruised reed he will not break, and a smoldering wick he will not snuff out. In faithfulness he will bring forth justice;
 
4 he will not falter or be discouraged till he establishes justice on earth. In his law the islands will put their hope."
 
5 This is what God the LORD says-he who created the heavens and stretched them out, who spread out the earth and all that comes out of it, who gives breath to its people, and life to those who walk on it:
 
6 "I, the LORD, have called you in righteousness; I will take hold of your hand. I will keep you and will make you to be a covenant for the people and a light for the Gentiles,
 
7 to open eyes that are blind, to free captives from prison and to release from the dungeon those who sit in darkness.
 
8 "I am the LORD; that is my name! I will not give my glory to another or my praise to idols.
 
9 See, the former things have taken place, and new things I declare; before they spring into being I announce them to you."
 
10 Sing to the LORD a new song, his praise from the ends of the earth, you who go down to the sea, and all that is in it, you islands, and all who live in them.
 
11 Let the desert and its towns raise their voices; let the settlements where Kedar lives rejoice. Let the people of Sela sing for joy; let them shout from the mountaintops.
 
12 Let them give glory to the LORD and proclaim his praise in the islands.
 
13 The LORD will march out like a mighty man, like a warrior he will stir up his zeal; with a shout he will raise the battle cry and will triumph over his enemies.
 
14 "For a long time I have kept silent, I have been quiet and held myself back. But now, like a woman in childbirth, I cry out, I gasp and pant.
 
15 I will lay waste the mountains and hills and dry up all their vegetation; I will turn rivers into islands and dry up the pools.
 
16 I will lead the blind by ways they have not known, along unfamiliar paths I will guide them; I will turn the darkness into light before them and make the rough places smooth. These are the things I will do; I will not forsake them.
 
17 But those who trust in idols, who say to images, 'You are our gods,' will be turned back in utter shame.
 
18 "Hear, you deaf; look, you blind, and see!
 
19 Who is blind but my servant, and deaf like the messenger I send? Who is blind like the one committed to me, blind like the servant of the LORD?
 
20 You have seen many things, but have paid no attention; your ears are open, but you hear nothing."
 
21 It pleased the LORD for the sake of his righteousness to make his law great and glorious.
 
22 But this is a people plundered and looted, all of them trapped in pits or hidden away in prisons. They have become plunder, with no one to rescue them; they have been made loot, with no one to say, "Send them back."
 
23 Which of you will listen to this or pay close attention in time to come?
 
24 Who handed Jacob over to become loot, and Israel to the plunderers? Was it not the LORD, against whom we have sinned? For they would not follow his ways; they did not obey his law.
 
25 So he poured out on them his burning anger, the violence of war. It enveloped them in flames, yet they did not understand; it consumed them, but they did not take it to heart.

Revelation 12

1 A great and wondrous sign appeared in heaven: a woman clothed with the sun, with the moon under her feet and a crown of twelve stars on her head.
 
2 She was pregnant and cried out in pain as she was about to give birth.
 
3 Then another sign appeared in heaven: an enormous red dragon with seven heads and ten horns and seven crowns on his heads.
 
4 His tail swept a third of the stars out of the sky and flung them to the earth. The dragon stood in front of the woman who was about to give birth, so that he might devour her child the moment it was born.
 
5 5She gave birth to a son, a male child, who will rule all the nations with an iron scepter. And her child was snatched up to God and to his throne.
 
6 The woman fled into the desert to a place prepared for her by God, where she might be taken care of for 1,260 days.
 
7 And there was war in heaven. Michael and his angels fought against the dragon, and the dragon and his angels fought back.
 
8 But he was not strong enough, and they lost their place in heaven.
 
9 The great dragon was hurled down-that ancient serpent called the devil, or Satan, who leads the whole world astray. He was hurled to the earth, and his angels with him.
 
10 Then I heard a loud voice in heaven say: "Now have come the salvation and the power and the kingdom of our God, and the authority of his Christ. For the accuser of our brothers, who accuses them before our God day and night, has been hurled down.
 
11 They overcame him by the blood of the Lamb and by the word of their testimony; they did not love their lives so much as to shrink from death.
 
12 Therefore rejoice, you heavens and you who dwell in them! But woe to the earth and the sea, because the devil has gone down to you! He is filled with fury, because he knows that his time is short."
 
13 When the dragon saw that he had been hurled to the earth, he pursued the woman who had given birth to the male child.
 
14 The woman was given the two wings of a great eagle, so that she might fly to the place prepared for her in the desert, where she would be taken care of for a time, times and half a time, out of the serpent's reach.
 
15 Then from his mouth the serpent spewed water like a river, to overtake the woman and sweep her away with the torrent.
 
16 But the earth helped the woman by opening its mouth and swallowing the river that the dragon had spewed out of his mouth.
 
17 Then the dragon was enraged at the woman and went off to make war against the rest of her offspring-those who obey God's commandments and hold to the testimony of Jesus.