Judges 4, Acts 8, Jeremiah 17, Mark 3

Judges 4,

1 After Ehud died, the Israelites once again did evil in the eyes of the LORD.
 
2 So the LORD sold them into the hands of Jabin, a king of Canaan, who reigned in Hazor. The commander of his army was Sisera, who lived in Harosheth Haggoyim.
 
3 Because he had nine hundred iron chariots and had cruelly oppressed the Israelites for twenty years, they cried to the LORD for help.
 
4 Deborah, a prophetess, the wife of Lappidoth, was leading Israel at that time.
 
5 She held court under the Palm of Deborah between Ramah and Bethel in the hill country of Ephraim, and the Israelites came to her to have their disputes decided.
 
6 She sent for Barak son of Abinoam from Kedesh in Naphtali and said to him, "The LORD, the God of Israel, commands you: 'Go, take with you ten thousand men of Naphtali and Zebulun and lead the way to Mount Tabor.
 
7 I will lure Sisera, the commander of Jabin's army, with his chariots and his troops to the Kishon River and give him into your hands.' "
 
8 Barak said to her, "If you go with me, I will go; but if you don't go with me, I won't go."
 
9 "Very well," Deborah said, "I will go with you. But because of the way you are going about this, the honor will not be yours, for the LORD will hand Sisera over to a woman." So Deborah went with Barak to Kedesh,
 
10 where he summoned Zebulun and Naphtali. Ten thousand men followed him, and Deborah also went with him.
 
11 Now Heber the Kenite had left the other Kenites, the descendants of Hobab, Moses' brother-in-law, and pitched his tent by the great tree in Zaanannim near Kedesh.
 
12 When they told Sisera that Barak son of Abinoam had gone up to Mount Tabor,
 
13 Sisera gathered together his nine hundred iron chariots and all the men with him, from Harosheth Haggoyim to the Kishon River.
 
14 Then Deborah said to Barak, "Go! This is the day the LORD has given Sisera into your hands. Has not the LORD gone ahead of you?" So Barak went down Mount Tabor, followed by ten thousand men.
 
15 At Barak's advance, the LORD routed Sisera and all his chariots and army by the sword, and Sisera abandoned his chariot and fled on foot.
 
16 But Barak pursued the chariots and army as far as Harosheth Haggoyim. All the troops of Sisera fell by the sword; not a man was left.
 
17 Sisera, however, fled on foot to the tent of Jael, the wife of Heber the Kenite, because there were friendly relations between Jabin king of Hazor and the clan of Heber the Kenite.
 
18 Jael went out to meet Sisera and said to him, "Come, my Lord , come right in. Don't be afraid." So he entered her tent, and she put a covering over him.
 
19 "I'm thirsty," he said. "Please give me some water." She opened a skin of milk, gave him a drink, and covered him up.
 
20 "Stand in the doorway of the tent," he told her. "If someone comes by and asks you, 'Is anyone here?' say 'No.' "
 
21 But Jael, Heber's wife, picked up a tent peg and a hammer and went quietly to him while he lay fast asleep, exhausted. She drove the peg through his temple into the ground, and he died.
 
22 Barak came by in pursuit of Sisera, and Jael went out to meet him. "Come," she said, "I will show you the man you're looking for." So he went in with her, and there lay Sisera with the tent peg through his temple-dead.
 
23 On that day God subdued Jabin, the Canaanite king, before the Israelites.
 
24 And the hand of the Israelites grew stronger and stronger against Jabin, the Canaanite king, until they destroyed him.
 

Acts 8,

1 And Saul was there, giving approval to his death. On that day a great persecution broke out against the church at Jerusalem, and all except the apostles were scattered throughout Judea and Samaria.
 
2 Godly men buried Stephen and mourned deeply for him.
 
3 But Saul began to destroy the church. Going from house to house, he dragged off men and women and put them in prison.
 
4 Those who had been scattered preached the word wherever they went.
 
5 Philip went down to a city in Samaria and proclaimed the Christ there.
 
6 When the crowds heard Philip and saw the miraculous signs he did, they all paid close attention to what he said.
 
7 With shrieks, evil spirits came out of many, and many paralytics and cripples were healed.
 
8 So there was great joy in that city.
 
9 Now for some time a man named Simon had practiced sorcery in the city and amazed all the people of Samaria. He boasted that he was someone great,
 
10 and all the people, both high and low, gave him their attention and exclaimed, "This man is the divine power known as the Great Power."
 
11 They followed him because he had amazed them for a long time with his magic.
 
12 But when they believed Philip as he preached the good news of the kingdom of God and the name of Jesus Christ, they were baptized, both men and women.
 
13 Simon himself believed and was baptized. And he followed Philip everywhere, astonished by the great signs and miracles he saw.
 
14 When the apostles in Jerusalem heard that Samaria had accepted the word of God, they sent Peter and John to them.
 
15 When they arrived, they prayed for them that they might receive the Holy Spirit,
 
16 because the Holy Spirit had not yet come upon any of them; they had simply been baptized into the name of the Lord Jesus.
 
17 Then Peter and John placed their hands on them, and they received the Holy Spirit.
 
18 When Simon saw that the Spirit was given at the laying on of the apostles' hands, he offered them money
 
19 and said, "Give me also this ability so that everyone on whom I lay my hands may receive the Holy Spirit."
 
20 Peter answered: "May your money perish with you, because you thought you could buy the gift of God with money!
 
21 You have no part or share in this ministry, because your heart is not right before God.
 
22 Repent of this wickedness and pray to the Lord. Perhaps he will forgive you for having such a thought in your heart.
 
23 For I see that you are full of bitterness and captive to sin."
 
24 Then Simon answered, "Pray to the Lord for me so that nothing you have said may happen to me."
 
25 When they had testified and proclaimed the word of the Lord, Peter and John returned to Jerusalem, preaching the gospel in many Samaritan villages.
 
26 Now an angel of the Lord said to Philip, "Go south to the road-the desert road-that goes down from Jerusalem to Gaza."
 
27 So he started out, and on his way he met an Ethiopian eunuch, an important official in charge of all the treasury of Candace, queen of the Ethiopians. This man had gone to Jerusalem to worship,
 
28 and on his way home was sitting in his chariot reading the book of Isaiah the prophet.
 
29 The Spirit told Philip, "Go to that chariot and stay near it."
 
30 Then Philip ran up to the chariot and heard the man reading Isaiah the prophet. "Do you understand what you are reading?" Philip asked.
 
31 "How can I," he said, "unless someone explains it to me?" So he invited Philip to come up and sit with him.
 
32 The eunuch was reading this passage of Scripture: "He was led like a sheep to the slaughter, and as a lamb before the shearer is silent, so he did not open his mouth.
 
33 In his humiliation he was deprived of justice. Who can speak of his descendants? For his life was taken from the earth."
 
34 The eunuch asked Philip, "Tell me, please, who is the prophet talking about, himself or someone else?"
 
35 Then Philip began with that very passage of Scripture and told him the good news about Jesus.
 
36 As they traveled along the road, they came to some water and the eunuch said, "Look, here is water. Why shouldn't I be baptized?"
 
37 NONE
 
38 And he gave orders to stop the chariot. Then both Philip and the eunuch went down into the water and Philip baptized him.
 
39 When they came up out of the water, the Spirit of the Lord suddenly took Philip away, and the eunuch did not see him again, but went on his way rejoicing.
 
40 Philip, however, appeared at Azotus and traveled about, preaching the gospel in all the towns until he reached Caesarea.
 

Jeremiah 17,

1 "Judah's sin is engraved with an iron tool, inscribed with a flint point, on the tablets of their hearts and on the horns of their altars.
 
2 Even their children remember their altars and Asherah poles beside the spreading trees and on the high hills.
 
3 My mountain in the land and your wealth and all your treasures I will give away as plunder, together with your high places, because of sin throughout your country.
 
4 Through your own fault you will lose the inheritance I gave you. I will enslave you to your enemies in a land you do not know, for you have kindled my anger, and it will burn forever."
 
5 This is what the LORD says: "Cursed is the one who trusts in man, who depends on flesh for his strength and whose heart turns away from the LORD.
 
6 He will be like a bush in the wastelands; he will not see prosperity when it comes. He will dwell in the parched places of the desert, in a salt land where no one lives.
 
7 "But blessed is the man who trusts in the LORD, whose confidence is in him.
 
8 He will be like a tree planted by the water that sends out its roots by the stream. It does not fear when heat comes; its leaves are always green. It has no worries in a year of drought and never fails to bear fruit."
 
9 The heart is deceitful above all things and beyond cure. Who can understand it?
 
10 "I the LORD search the heart and examine the mind, to reward a man according to his conduct, according to what his deeds deserve."
 
11 Like a partridge that hatches eggs it did not lay is the man who gains riches by unjust means. When his life is half gone, they will desert him, and in the end he will prove to be a fool.
 
12 A glorious throne, exalted from the beginning, is the place of our sanctuary.
 
13 O LORD, the hope of Israel, all who forsake you will be put to shame. Those who turn away from you will be written in the dust because they have forsaken the LORD, the spring of living water.
 
14 Heal me, O LORD, and I will be healed; save me and I will be saved, for you are the one I praise.
 
15 They keep saying to me, "Where is the word of the LORD ? Let it now be fulfilled!"
 
16 I have not run away from being your shepherd; you know I have not desired the day of despair. What passes my lips is open before you.
 
17 Do not be a terror to me; you are my refuge in the day of disaster.
 
18 Let my persecutors be put to shame, but keep me from shame; let them be terrified, but keep me from terror. Bring on them the day of disaster; destroy them with double destruction.
 
19 This is what the LORD said to me: "Go and stand at the gate of the people, through which the kings of Judah go in and out; stand also at all the other gates of Jerusalem.
 
20 Say to them, 'Hear the word of the LORD, O kings of Judah and all people of Judah and everyone living in Jerusalem who come through these gates.
 
21 This is what the LORD says: Be careful not to carry a load on the Sabbath day or bring it through the gates of Jerusalem.
 
22 Do not bring a load out of your houses or do any work on the Sabbath, but keep the Sabbath day holy, as I commanded your forefathers.
 
23 Yet they did not listen or pay attention; they were stiff-necked and would not listen or respond to discipline.
 
24 But if you are careful to obey me, declares the LORD, and bring no load through the gates of this city on the Sabbath, but keep the Sabbath day holy by not doing any work on it,
 
25 then kings who sit on David's throne will come through the gates of this city with their officials. They and their officials will come riding in chariots and on horses, accompanied by the men of Judah and those living in Jerusalem, and this city will be inhabited forever.
 
26 People will come from the towns of Judah and the villages around Jerusalem, from the territory of Benjamin and the western foothills, from the hill country and the Negev, bringing burnt offerings and sacrifices, grain offerings, incense and thank offerings to the house of the LORD.
 
27 But if you do not obey me to keep the Sabbath day holy by not carrying any load as you come through the gates of Jerusalem on the Sabbath day, then I will kindle an unquenchable fire in the gates of Jerusalem that will consume her fortresses.' "
 

Mark 3

1 Another time he went into the synagogue, and a man with a shriveled hand was there.
 
2 Some of them were looking for a reason to accuse Jesus, so they watched him closely to see if he would heal him on the Sabbath.
 
3 Jesus said to the man with the shriveled hand, "Stand up in front of everyone."
 
4 Then Jesus asked them, "Which is lawful on the Sabbath: to do good or to do evil, to save life or to kill?" But they remained silent.
 
5 He looked around at them in anger and, deeply distressed at their stubborn hearts, said to the man, "Stretch out your hand." He stretched it out, and his hand was completely restored.
 
6 Then the Pharisees went out and began to plot with the Herodians how they might kill Jesus.
 
7 Jesus withdrew with his disciples to the lake, and a large crowd from Galilee followed.
 
8 When they heard all he was doing, many people came to him from Judea, Jerusalem, Idumea, and the regions across the Jordan and around Tyre and Sidon.
 
9 Because of the crowd he told his disciples to have a small boat ready for him, to keep the people from crowding him.
 
10 For he had healed many, so that those with diseases were pushing forward to touch him.
 
11 Whenever the evil spirits saw him, they fell down before him and cried out, "You are the Son of God."
 
12 But he gave them strict orders not to tell who he was.
 
13 Jesus went up on a mountainside and called to him those he wanted, and they came to him.
 
14 He appointed twelve-designating them apostles-that they might be with him and that he might send them out to preach
 
15 and to have authority to drive out demons.
 
16 These are the twelve he appointed: Simon (to whom he gave the name Peter);
 
17 James son of Zebedee and his brother John (to them he gave the name Boanerges, which means Sons of Thunder);
 
18 Andrew, Philip, Bartholomew, Matthew, Thomas, James son of Alphaeus, Thaddaeus, Simon the Zealot
 
19 and Judas Iscariot, who betrayed him.
 
20 Then Jesus entered a house, and again a crowd gathered, so that he and his disciples were not even able to eat.
 
21 When his family heard about this, they went to take charge of him, for they said, "He is out of his mind."
 
22 And the teachers of the law who came down from Jerusalem said, "He is possessed by Beelzebub! By the prince of demons he is driving out demons."
 
23 So Jesus called them and spoke to them in parables: "How can Satan drive out Satan?
 
24 If a kingdom is divided against itself, that kingdom cannot stand.
 
25 If a house is divided against itself, that house cannot stand.
 
26 And if Satan opposes himself and is divided, he cannot stand; his end has come.
 
27 In fact, no one can enter a strong man's house and carry off his possessions unless he first ties up the strong man. Then he can rob his house.
 
28 I tell you the truth, all the sins and blasphemies of men will be forgiven them.
 
29 But whoever blasphemes against the Holy Spirit will never be forgiven; he is guilty of an eternal sin."
 
30 He said this because they were saying, "He has an evil spirit."
 
31 Then Jesus' mother and brothers arrived. Standing outside, they sent someone in to call him.
 
32 A crowd was sitting around him, and they told him, "Your mother and brothers are outside looking for you."
 
33 "Who are my mother and my brothers?" he asked.
 
34 Then he looked at those seated in a circle around him and said, "Here are my mother and my brothers!
 
35 Whoever does God's will is my brother and sister and mother."