Daily Lectionary

Nehemiah 9:1-21

¹ Now on the twenty-fourth day of this month the people of Israel were assembled with fasting and in sackcloth, and with earth on their heads.
² And the Israelites separated themselves from all foreigners and stood and confessed their sins and the iniquities of their fathers.
³ And they stood up in their place and read from the Book of the Law of the LORD their God for a quarter of the day; for another quarter of it they made confession and worshiped the LORD their God.
⁴ On the stairs of the Levites stood Jeshua, Bani, Kadmiel, Shebaniah, Bunni, Sherebiah, Bani, and Chenani; and they cried with a loud voice to the LORD their God.
⁵ Then the Levites, Jeshua, Kadmiel, Bani, Hashabneiah, Sherebiah, Hodiah, Shebaniah, and Pethahiah, said, “Stand up and bless the LORD your God from everlasting to everlasting. Blessed be your glorious name, which is exalted above all blessing and praise.
⁶ “You are the LORD, you alone. You have made heaven, the heaven of heavens, with all their host, the earth and all that is on it, the seas and all that is in them; and you preserve all of them; and the host of heaven worships you.
⁷ You are the LORD, the God who chose Abram and brought him out of Ur of the Chaldeans and gave him the name Abraham.
⁸ You found his heart faithful before you, and made with him the covenant to give to his offspring the land of the Canaanite, the Hittite, the Amorite, the Perizzite, the Jebusite, and the Girgashite. And you have kept your promise, for you are righteous.
⁹ “And you saw the affliction of our fathers in Egypt and heard their cry at the Red Sea,
¹⁰ and performed signs and wonders against Pharaoh and all his servants and all the people of his land, for you knew that they acted arrogantly against our fathers. And you made a name for yourself, as it is to this day.
¹¹ And you divided the sea before them, so that they went through the midst of the sea on dry land, and you cast their pursuers into the depths, as a stone into mighty waters.
¹² By a pillar of cloud you led them in the day, and by a pillar of fire in the night to light for them the way in which they should go.
¹³ You came down on Mount Sinai and spoke with them from heaven and gave them right rules and true laws, good statutes and commandments,
¹⁴ and you made known to them your holy Sabbath and commanded them commandments and statutes and a law by Moses your servant.
¹⁵ You gave them bread from heaven for their hunger and brought water for them out of the rock for their thirst, and you told them to go in to possess the land that you had sworn to give them.
¹⁶ “But they and our fathers acted presumptuously and stiffened their neck and did not obey your commandments.
¹⁷ They refused to obey and were not mindful of the wonders that you performed among them, but they stiffened their neck and appointed a leader to return to their slavery in Egypt. But you are a God ready to forgive, gracious and merciful, slow to anger and abounding in steadfast love, and did not forsake them.
¹⁸ Even when they had made for themselves a golden calf and said, ‘This is your God who brought you up out of Egypt,’ and had committed great blasphemies,
¹⁹ you in your great mercies did not forsake them in the wilderness. The pillar of cloud to lead them in the way did not depart from them by day, nor the pillar of fire by night to light for them the way by which they should go.
²⁰ You gave your good Spirit to instruct them and did not withhold your manna from their mouth and gave them water for their thirst.
²¹ Forty years you sustained them in the wilderness, and they lacked nothing. Their clothes did not wear out and their feet did not swell. (ESV)

1 Timothy 3:1-16

¹ The saying is trustworthy: If anyone aspires to the office of overseer, he desires a noble task.
² Therefore an overseer must be above reproach, the husband of one wife, sober-minded, self-controlled, respectable, hospitable, able to teach,
³ not a drunkard, not violent but gentle, not quarrelsome, not a lover of money.
⁴ He must manage his own household well, with all dignity keeping his children submissive,
⁵ for if someone does not know how to manage his own household, how will he care for God’s church?
⁶ He must not be a recent convert, or he may become puffed up with conceit and fall into the condemnation of the devil.
⁷ Moreover, he must be well thought of by outsiders, so that he may not fall into disgrace, into a snare of the devil.
⁸ Deacons likewise must be dignified, not double-tongued, not addicted to much wine, not greedy for dishonest gain.
⁹ They must hold the mystery of the faith with a clear conscience.
¹⁰ And let them also be tested first; then let them serve as deacons if they prove themselves blameless.
¹¹ Their wives likewise must be dignified, not slanderers, but sober-minded, faithful in all things.
¹² Let deacons each be the husband of one wife, managing their children and their own households well.
¹³ For those who serve well as deacons gain a good standing for themselves and also great confidence in the faith that is in Christ Jesus.
¹⁴ I hope to come to you soon, but I am writing these things to you so that,
¹⁵ if I delay, you may know how one ought to behave in the household of God, which is the church of the living God, a pillar and buttress of the truth.
¹⁶ Great indeed, we confess, is the mystery of godliness: He was manifested in the flesh, vindicated by the Spirit, seen by angels, proclaimed among the nations, believed on in the world, taken up in glory. (ESV)