Saturday, September 23, 2023

 Joel 1:13–20

¹³Put on sackcloth, O priests, and mourn; wail, you who minister before the altar. Come, spend the night in sackcloth, you who minister before my God; for the grain offerings and drink offerings are withheld from the house of your God. ¹⁴Declare a holy fast; call a sacred assembly. Summon the elders and all who live in the land to the house of the LORD your God, and cry out to the LORD.

¹⁵Alas for that day! For the day of the LORD is near; it will come like destruction from the Almighty.

¹⁶Has not the food been cut off before our very eyes-- joy and gladness from the house of our God? ¹⁷The seeds are shriveled beneath the clods. The storehouses are in ruins, the granaries have been broken down, for the grain has dried up. ¹⁸How the cattle moan! The herds mill about because they have no pasture; even the flocks of sheep are suffering.

¹⁹To you, O LORD, I call, for fire has devoured the open pastures and flames have burned up all the trees of the field. ²⁰Even the wild animals pant for you; the streams of water have dried up and fire has devoured the open pastures.

 

 

Psalm 80

¹For the director of music. To [the tune of] "The Lilies of the Covenant." Of Asaph. A psalm. Hear us, O Shepherd of Israel, you who lead Joseph like a flock; you who sit enthroned between the cherubim, shine forth ²before Ephraim, Benjamin and Manasseh. Awaken your might; come and save us. ³Restore us, O God; make your face shine upon us, that we may be saved. ⁴O LORD God Almighty, how long will your anger smolder against the prayers of your people? ⁵You have fed them with the bread of tears; you have made them drink tears by the bowlful. ⁶You have made us a source of contention to our neighbors, and our enemies mock us. ⁷Restore us, O God Almighty; make your face shine upon us, that we may be saved. ⁸You brought a vine out of Egypt; you drove out the nations and planted it. ⁹You cleared the ground for it, and it took root and filled the land. ¹⁰The mountains were covered with its shade, the mighty cedars with its branches. ¹¹It sent out its boughs to the Sea, its shoots as far as the River. ¹²Why have you broken down its walls so that all who pass by pick its grapes? ¹³Boars from the forest ravage it and the creatures of the field feed on it. ¹⁴Return to us, O God Almighty! Look down from heaven and see! Watch over this vine, ¹⁵the root your right hand has planted, the son you have raised up for yourself. ¹⁶Your vine is cut down, it is burned with fire; at your rebuke your people perish. ¹⁷Let your hand rest on the man at your right hand, the son of man you have raised up for yourself. ¹⁸Then we will not turn away from you; revive us, and we will call on your name. ¹⁹Restore us, O LORD God Almighty; make your face shine upon us, that we may be saved.

 

 

Romans 11:11–24

¹¹Again I ask: Did they stumble so as to fall beyond recovery? Not at all! Rather, because of their transgression, salvation has come to the Gentiles to make Israel envious. ¹²But if their transgression means riches for the world, and their loss means riches for the Gentiles, how much greater riches will their fullness bring!

¹³I am talking to you Gentiles. Inasmuch as I am the apostle to the Gentiles, I make much of my ministry ¹⁴in the hope that I may somehow arouse my own people to envy and save some of them. ¹⁵For if their rejection is the reconciliation of the world, what will their acceptance be but life from the dead? ¹⁶If the part of the dough offered as firstfruits is holy, then the whole batch is holy; if the root is holy, so are the branches.

¹⁷If some of the branches have been broken off, and you, though a wild olive shoot, have been grafted in among the others and now share in the nourishing sap from the olive root, ¹⁸do not boast over those branches. If you do, consider this: You do not support the root, but the root supports you. ¹⁹You will say then, "Branches were broken off so that I could be grafted in." ²⁰Granted. But they were broken off because of unbelief, and you stand by faith. Do not be arrogant, but be afraid. ²¹For if God did not spare the natural branches, he will not spare you either.

²²Consider therefore the kindness and sternness of God: sternness to those who fell, but kindness to you, provided that you continue in his kindness. Otherwise, you also will be cut off. ²³And if they do not persist in unbelief, they will be grafted in, for God is able to graft them in again. ²⁴After all, if you were cut out of an olive tree that is wild by nature, and contrary to nature were grafted into a cultivated olive tree, how much more readily will these, the natural branches, be grafted into their own olive tree!