Daily Lectionary

Deuteronomy 15:19-16:22

¹⁹ “All the firstborn males that are born of your herd and flock you shall dedicate to the LORD your God. You shall do no work with the firstborn of your herd, nor shear the firstborn of your flock.
²⁰ You shall eat it, you and your household, before the LORD your God year by year at the place that the LORD will choose.
²¹ But if it has any blemish, if it is lame or blind or has any serious blemish whatever, you shall not sacrifice it to the LORD your God.
²² You shall eat it within your towns. The unclean and the clean alike may eat it, as though it were a gazelle or a deer.
²³ Only you shall not eat its blood; you shall pour it out on the ground like water.
¹ “Observe the month of Abib and keep the Passover to the LORD your God, for in the month of Abib the LORD your God brought you out of Egypt by night.
² And you shall offer the Passover sacrifice to the LORD your God, from the flock or the herd, at the place that the LORD will choose, to make his name dwell there.
³ You shall eat no leavened bread with it. Seven days you shall eat it with unleavened bread, the bread of affliction—for you came out of the land of Egypt in haste—that all the days of your life you may remember the day when you came out of the land of Egypt.
⁴ No leaven shall be seen with you in all your territory for seven days, nor shall any of the flesh that you sacrifice on the evening of the first day remain all night until morning.
⁵ You may not offer the Passover sacrifice within any of your towns that the LORD your God is giving you,
⁶ but at the place that the LORD your God will choose, to make his name dwell in it, there you shall offer the Passover sacrifice, in the evening at sunset, at the time you came out of Egypt.
⁷ And you shall cook it and eat it at the place that the LORD your God will choose. And in the morning you shall turn and go to your tents.
⁸ For six days you shall eat unleavened bread, and on the seventh day there shall be a solemn assembly to the LORD your God. You shall do no work on it.
⁹ “You shall count seven weeks. Begin to count the seven weeks from the time the sickle is first put to the standing grain.
¹⁰ Then you shall keep the Feast of Weeks to the LORD your God with the tribute of a freewill offering from your hand, which you shall give as the LORD your God blesses you.
¹¹ And you shall rejoice before the LORD your God, you and your son and your daughter, your male servant and your female servant, the Levite who is within your towns, the sojourner, the fatherless, and the widow who are among you, at the place that the LORD your God will choose, to make his name dwell there.
¹² You shall remember that you were a slave in Egypt; and you shall be careful to observe these statutes.
¹³ “You shall keep the Feast of Booths seven days, when you have gathered in the produce from your threshing floor and your winepress.
¹⁴ You shall rejoice in your feast, you and your son and your daughter, your male servant and your female servant, the Levite, the sojourner, the fatherless, and the widow who are within your towns.
¹⁵ For seven days you shall keep the feast to the LORD your God at the place that the LORD will choose, because the LORD your God will bless you in all your produce and in all the work of your hands, so that you will be altogether joyful.
¹⁶ “Three times a year all your males shall appear before the LORD your God at the place that he will choose: at the Feast of Unleavened Bread, at the Feast of Weeks, and at the Feast of Booths. They shall not appear before the LORD empty-handed.
¹⁷ Every man shall give as he is able, according to the blessing of the LORD your God that he has given you.
¹⁸ “You shall appoint judges and officers in all your towns that the LORD your God is giving you, according to your tribes, and they shall judge the people with righteous judgment.
¹⁹ You shall not pervert justice. You shall not show partiality, and you shall not accept a bribe, for a bribe blinds the eyes of the wise and subverts the cause of the righteous.
²⁰ Justice, and only justice, you shall follow, that you may live and inherit the land that the LORD your God is giving you.
²¹ “You shall not plant any tree as an Asherah beside the altar of the LORD your God that you shall make.
²² And you shall not set up a pillar, which the LORD your God hates. (ESV)

Matthew 11:1-19

¹ When Jesus had finished instructing his twelve disciples, he went on from there to teach and preach in their cities.
² Now when John heard in prison about the deeds of the Christ, he sent word by his disciples
³ and said to him, “Are you the one who is to come, or shall we look for another?”
⁴ And Jesus answered them, “Go and tell John what you hear and see:
⁵ the blind receive their sight and the lame walk, lepers are cleansed and the deaf hear, and the dead are raised up, and the poor have good news preached to them.
⁶ And blessed is the one who is not offended by me.”
⁷ As they went away, Jesus began to speak to the crowds concerning John: “What did you go out into the wilderness to see? A reed shaken by the wind?
⁸ What then did you go out to see? A man dressed in soft clothing? Behold, those who wear soft clothing are in kings’ houses.
⁹ What then did you go out to see? A prophet? Yes, I tell you, and more than a prophet.
¹⁰ This is he of whom it is written, “‘Behold, I send my messenger before your face, who will prepare your way before you.’
¹¹ Truly, I say to you, among those born of women there has arisen no one greater than John the Baptist. Yet the one who is least in the kingdom of heaven is greater than he.
¹² From the days of John the Baptist until now the kingdom of heaven has suffered violence, and the violent take it by force.
¹³ For all the Prophets and the Law prophesied until John,
¹⁴ and if you are willing to accept it, he is Elijah who is to come.
¹⁵ He who has ears to hear, let him hear.
¹⁶ “But to what shall I compare this generation? It is like children sitting in the marketplaces and calling to their playmates,
¹⁷ “‘We played the flute for you, and you did not dance; we sang a dirge, and you did not mourn.’
¹⁸ For John came neither eating nor drinking, and they say, ‘He has a demon.’
¹⁹ The Son of Man came eating and drinking, and they say, ‘Look at him! A glutton and a drunkard, a friend of tax collectors and sinners!’ Yet wisdom is justified by her deeds.” (ESV)