Night Watch Devotion

A Psalm. A Song for the Sabbath.
¹ It is good to give thanks to the LORD, to sing praises to your name, O Most High;
² to declare your steadfast love in the morning, and your faithfulness by night,
³ to the music of the lute and the harp, to the melody of the lyre.
⁴ For you, O LORD, have made me glad by your work; at the works of your hands I sing for joy.
⁵ How great are your works, O LORD! Your thoughts are very deep!
⁶ The stupid man cannot know; the fool cannot understand this:
⁷ that though the wicked sprout like grass and all evildoers flourish, they are doomed to destruction forever;
⁸ but you, O LORD, are on high forever.
⁹ For behold, your enemies, O LORD, for behold, your enemies shall perish; all evildoers shall be scattered.
¹⁰ But you have exalted my horn like that of the wild ox; you have poured over me fresh oil.
¹¹ My eyes have seen the downfall of my enemies; my ears have heard the doom of my evil assailants.
¹² The righteous flourish like the palm tree and grow like a cedar in Lebanon.
¹³ They are planted in the house of the LORD; they flourish in the courts of our God.
¹⁴ They still bear fruit in old age; they are ever full of sap and green,
¹⁵ to declare that the LORD is upright; he is my rock, and there is no unrighteousness in him. (ESV)

A Prayer of Moses, the man of God.
¹ Lord, you have been our dwelling place in all generations.
² Before the mountains were brought forth, or ever you had formed the earth and the world, from everlasting to everlasting you are God.
³ You return man to dust and say, “Return, O children of man!”
⁴ For a thousand years in your sight are but as yesterday when it is past, or as a watch in the night.
⁵ You sweep them away as with a flood; they are like a dream, like grass that is renewed in the morning:
⁶ in the morning it flourishes and is renewed; in the evening it fades and withers.
⁷ For we are brought to an end by your anger; by your wrath we are dismayed.
⁸ You have set our iniquities before you, our secret sins in the light of your presence.
⁹ For all our days pass away under your wrath; we bring our years to an end like a sigh.
¹⁰ The years of our life are seventy, or even by reason of strength eighty; yet their span is but toil and trouble; they are soon gone, and we fly away.
¹¹ Who considers the power of your anger, and your wrath according to the fear of you?
¹² So teach us to number our days that we may get a heart of wisdom.
¹³ Return, O LORD! How long? Have pity on your servants!
¹⁴ Satisfy us in the morning with your steadfast love, that we may rejoice and be glad all our days.
¹⁵ Make us glad for as many days as you have afflicted us, and for as many years as we have seen evil.
¹⁶ Let your work be shown to your servants, and your glorious power to their children.
¹⁷ Let the favor of the Lord our God be upon us, and establish the work of our hands upon us; yes, establish the work of our hands! (ESV)

¹ Why do the nations rage and the peoples plot in vain?
² The kings of the earth set themselves, and the rulers take counsel together, against the LORD and against his Anointed, saying,
³ “Let us burst their bonds apart and cast away their cords from us.”
⁴ He who sits in the heavens laughs; the Lord holds them in derision.
⁵ Then he will speak to them in his wrath, and terrify them in his fury, saying,
⁶ “As for me, I have set my King on Zion, my holy hill.”
⁷ I will tell of the decree: The LORD said to me, “You are my Son; today I have begotten you.
⁸ Ask of me, and I will make the nations your heritage, and the ends of the earth your possession.
⁹ You shall break them with a rod of iron and dash them in pieces like a potter’s vessel.”
¹⁰ Now therefore, O kings, be wise; be warned, O rulers of the earth.
¹¹ Serve the LORD with fear, and rejoice with trembling.
¹² Kiss the Son, lest he be angry, and you perish in the way, for his wrath is quickly kindled. Blessed are all who take refuge in him.

A Psalm of David.
¹ The LORD says to my Lord: “Sit at my right hand, until I make your enemies your footstool.”
² The LORD sends forth from Zion your mighty scepter. Rule in the midst of your enemies!
³ Your people will offer themselves freely on the day of your power, in holy garments; from the womb of the morning, the dew of your youth will be yours.
⁴ The LORD has sworn and will not change his mind, “You are a priest forever after the order of Melchizedek.”
⁵ The Lord is at your right hand; he will shatter kings on the day of his wrath.
⁶ He will execute judgment among the nations, filling them with corpses; he will shatter chiefs over the wide earth.
⁷ He will drink from the brook by the way; therefore he will lift up his head. (ESV)

¹⁴ for anything that becomes visible is light. Therefore it says, “Awake, O sleeper, and arise from the dead, and Christ will shine on you.” (ESV)

²⁹ Moses said to him, “As soon as I have gone out of the city, I will stretch out my hands to the LORD. The thunder will cease, and there will be no more hail, so that you may know that the earth is the LORD’s.
³⁰ But as for you and your servants, I know that you do not yet fear the LORD God.”
³¹ (The flax and the barley were struck down, for the barley was in the ear and the flax was in bud.
³² But the wheat and the emmer were not struck down, for they are late in coming up.)
³³ So Moses went out of the city from Pharaoh and stretched out his hands to the LORD, and the thunder and the hail ceased, and the rain no longer poured upon the earth.
³⁴ But when Pharaoh saw that the rain and the hail and the thunder had ceased, he sinned yet again and hardened his heart, he and his servants.
³⁵ So the heart of Pharaoh was hardened, and he did not let the people of Israel go, just as the LORD had spoken through Moses.
¹ Then the LORD said to Moses, “Go in to Pharaoh, for I have hardened his heart and the heart of his servants, that I may show these signs of mine among them,
² and that you may tell in the hearing of your son and of your grandson how I have dealt harshly with the Egyptians and what signs I have done among them, that you may know that I am the LORD.”
³ So Moses and Aaron went in to Pharaoh and said to him, “Thus says the LORD, the God of the Hebrews, ‘How long will you refuse to humble yourself before me? Let my people go, that they may serve me.
⁴ For if you refuse to let my people go, behold, tomorrow I will bring locusts into your country,
⁵ and they shall cover the face of the land, so that no one can see the land. And they shall eat what is left to you after the hail, and they shall eat every tree of yours that grows in the field,
⁶ and they shall fill your houses and the houses of all your servants and of all the Egyptians, as neither your fathers nor your grandfathers have seen, from the day they came on earth to this day.’” Then he turned and went out from Pharaoh.
⁷ Then Pharaoh’s servants said to him, “How long shall this man be a snare to us? Let the men go, that they may serve the LORD their God. Do you not yet understand that Egypt is ruined?”
⁸ So Moses and Aaron were brought back to Pharaoh. And he said to them, “Go, serve the LORD your God. But which ones are to go?”
⁹ Moses said, “We will go with our young and our old. We will go with our sons and daughters and with our flocks and herds, for we must hold a feast to the LORD.”
¹⁰ But he said to them, “The LORD be with you, if ever I let you and your little ones go! Look, you have some evil purpose in mind.
¹¹ No! Go, the men among you, and serve the LORD, for that is what you are asking.” And they were driven out from Pharaoh’s presence.
¹² Then the LORD said to Moses, “Stretch out your hand over the land of Egypt for the locusts, so that they may come upon the land of Egypt and eat every plant in the land, all that the hail has left.”
¹³ So Moses stretched out his staff over the land of Egypt, and the LORD brought an east wind upon the land all that day and all that night. When it was morning, the east wind had brought the locusts.
¹⁴ The locusts came up over all the land of Egypt and settled on the whole country of Egypt, such a dense swarm of locusts as had never been before, nor ever will be again.
¹⁵ They covered the face of the whole land, so that the land was darkened, and they ate all the plants in the land and all the fruit of the trees that the hail had left. Not a green thing remained, neither tree nor plant of the field, through all the land of Egypt.
¹⁶ Then Pharaoh hastily called Moses and Aaron and said, “I have sinned against the LORD your God, and against you.
¹⁷ Now therefore, forgive my sin, please, only this once, and plead with the LORD your God only to remove this death from me.”
¹⁸ So he went out from Pharaoh and pleaded with the LORD.
¹⁹ And the LORD turned the wind into a very strong west wind, which lifted the locusts and drove them into the Red Sea. Not a single locust was left in all the country of Egypt.
²⁰ But the LORD hardened Pharaoh’s heart, and he did not let the people of Israel go. (ESV)

¹ Therefore, holy brothers, you who share in a heavenly calling, consider Jesus, the apostle and high priest of our confession,
² who was faithful to him who appointed him, just as Moses also was faithful in all God’s house.
³ For Jesus has been counted worthy of more glory than Moses—as much more glory as the builder of a house has more honor than the house itself.
⁴ (For every house is built by someone, but the builder of all things is God.)
⁵ Now Moses was faithful in all God’s house as a servant, to testify to the things that were to be spoken later,
⁶ but Christ is faithful over God’s house as a son. And we are his house, if indeed we hold fast our confidence and our boasting in our hope.
⁷ Therefore, as the Holy Spirit says, “Today, if you hear his voice,
⁸ do not harden your hearts as in the rebellion, on the day of testing in the wilderness,
⁹ where your fathers put me to the test and saw my works for forty years.
¹⁰ Therefore I was provoked with that generation, and said, ‘They always go astray in their heart; they have not known my ways.’
¹¹ As I swore in my wrath, ‘They shall not enter my rest.’”
¹² Take care, brothers, lest there be in any of you an evil, unbelieving heart, leading you to fall away from the living God.
¹³ But exhort one another every day, as long as it is called “today,” that none of you may be hardened by the deceitfulness of sin.
¹⁴ For we have come to share in Christ, if indeed we hold our original confidence firm to the end.
¹⁵ As it is said, “Today, if you hear his voice, do not harden your hearts as in the rebellion.”
¹⁶ For who were those who heard and yet rebelled? Was it not all those who left Egypt led by Moses?
¹⁷ And with whom was he provoked for forty years? Was it not with those who sinned, whose bodies fell in the wilderness?
¹⁸ And to whom did he swear that they would not enter his rest, but to those who were disobedient?
¹⁹ So we see that they were unable to enter because of unbelief. (ESV)

¹² “On the fifteenth day of the seventh month you shall have a holy convocation. You shall not do any ordinary work, and you shall keep a feast to the LORD seven days.
¹³ And you shall offer a burnt offering, a food offering, with a pleasing aroma to the LORD, thirteen bulls from the herd, two rams, fourteen male lambs a year old; they shall be without blemish;
¹⁴ and their grain offering of fine flour mixed with oil, three tenths of an ephah for each of the thirteen bulls, two tenths for each of the two rams,
¹⁵ and a tenth for each of the fourteen lambs;
¹⁶ also one male goat for a sin offering, besides the regular burnt offering, its grain offering and its drink offering.
¹⁷ “On the second day twelve bulls from the herd, two rams, fourteen male lambs a year old without blemish,
¹⁸ with the grain offering and the drink offerings for the bulls, for the rams, and for the lambs, in the prescribed quantities;
¹⁹ also one male goat for a sin offering, besides the regular burnt offering and its grain offering, and their drink offerings.
²⁰ “On the third day eleven bulls, two rams, fourteen male lambs a year old without blemish,
²¹ with the grain offering and the drink offerings for the bulls, for the rams, and for the lambs, in the prescribed quantities;
²² also one male goat for a sin offering, besides the regular burnt offering and its grain offering and its drink offering.
²³ “On the fourth day ten bulls, two rams, fourteen male lambs a year old without blemish,
²⁴ with the grain offering and the drink offerings for the bulls, for the rams, and for the lambs, in the prescribed quantities;
²⁵ also one male goat for a sin offering, besides the regular burnt offering, its grain offering and its drink offering.
²⁶ “On the fifth day nine bulls, two rams, fourteen male lambs a year old without blemish,
²⁷ with the grain offering and the drink offerings for the bulls, for the rams, and for the lambs, in the prescribed quantities;
²⁸ also one male goat for a sin offering; besides the regular burnt offering and its grain offering and its drink offering.
²⁹ “On the sixth day eight bulls, two rams, fourteen male lambs a year old without blemish,
³⁰ with the grain offering and the drink offerings for the bulls, for the rams, and for the lambs, in the prescribed quantities;
³¹ also one male goat for a sin offering; besides the regular burnt offering, its grain offering, and its drink offerings.
³² “On the seventh day seven bulls, two rams, fourteen male lambs a year old without blemish,
³³ with the grain offering and the drink offerings for the bulls, for the rams, and for the lambs, in the prescribed quantities;
³⁴ also one male goat for a sin offering; besides the regular burnt offering, its grain offering, and its drink offering.
³⁵ “On the eighth day you shall have a solemn assembly. You shall not do any ordinary work,
³⁶ but you shall offer a burnt offering, a food offering, with a pleasing aroma to the LORD: one bull, one ram, seven male lambs a year old without blemish,
³⁷ and the grain offering and the drink offerings for the bull, for the ram, and for the lambs, in the prescribed quantities;
³⁸ also one male goat for a sin offering; besides the regular burnt offering and its grain offering and its drink offering.
³⁹ “These you shall offer to the LORD at your appointed feasts, in addition to your vow offerings and your freewill offerings, for your burnt offerings, and for your grain offerings, and for your drink offerings, and for your peace offerings.”
⁴⁰ So Moses told the people of Israel everything just as the LORD had commanded Moses.

¹ Moses spoke to the heads of the tribes of the people of Israel, saying, “This is what the LORD has commanded.
² If a man vows a vow to the LORD, or swears an oath to bind himself by a pledge, he shall not break his word. He shall do according to all that proceeds out of his mouth.
³ “If a woman vows a vow to the LORD and binds herself by a pledge, while within her father’s house in her youth,
⁴ and her father hears of her vow and of her pledge by which she has bound herself and says nothing to her, then all her vows shall stand, and every pledge by which she has bound herself shall stand.
⁵ But if her father opposes her on the day that he hears of it, no vow of hers, no pledge by which she has bound herself shall stand. And the LORD will forgive her, because her father opposed her.
⁶ “If she marries a husband, while under her vows or any thoughtless utterance of her lips by which she has bound herself,
⁷ and her husband hears of it and says nothing to her on the day that he hears, then her vows shall stand, and her pledges by which she has bound herself shall stand.
⁸ But if, on the day that her husband comes to hear of it, he opposes her, then he makes void her vow that was on her, and the thoughtless utterance of her lips by which she bound herself. And the LORD will forgive her.
⁹ (But any vow of a widow or of a divorced woman, anything by which she has bound herself, shall stand against her.)
¹⁰ And if she vowed in her husband’s house or bound herself by a pledge with an oath,
¹¹ and her husband heard of it and said nothing to her and did not oppose her, then all her vows shall stand, and every pledge by which she bound herself shall stand.
¹² But if her husband makes them null and void on the day that he hears them, then whatever proceeds out of her lips concerning her vows or concerning her pledge of herself shall not stand. Her husband has made them void, and the LORD will forgive her.
¹³ Any vow and any binding oath to afflict herself, her husband may establish, or her husband may make void.
¹⁴ But if her husband says nothing to her from day to day, then he establishes all her vows or all her pledges that are upon her. He has established them, because he said nothing to her on the day that he heard of them.
¹⁵ But if he makes them null and void after he has heard of them, then he shall bear her iniquity.”
¹⁶ These are the statutes that the LORD commanded Moses about a man and his wife and about a father and his daughter while she is in her youth within her father’s house.

¹ The LORD spoke to Moses, saying,
² “Avenge the people of Israel on the Midianites. Afterward you shall be gathered to your people.”
³ So Moses spoke to the people, saying, “Arm men from among you for the war, that they may go against Midian to execute the LORD’s vengeance on Midian.
⁴ You shall send a thousand from each of the tribes of Israel to the war.”
⁵ So there were provided, out of the thousands of Israel, a thousand from each tribe, twelve thousand armed for war.
⁶ And Moses sent them to the war, a thousand from each tribe, together with Phinehas the son of Eleazar the priest, with the vessels of the sanctuary and the trumpets for the alarm in his hand.
⁷ They warred against Midian, as the LORD commanded Moses, and killed every male.
⁸ They killed the kings of Midian with the rest of their slain, Evi, Rekem, Zur, Hur, and Reba, the five kings of Midian. And they also killed Balaam the son of Beor with the sword.
⁹ And the people of Israel took captive the women of Midian and their little ones, and they took as plunder all their cattle, their flocks, and all their goods.
¹⁰ All their cities in the places where they lived, and all their encampments, they burned with fire,
¹¹ and took all the spoil and all the plunder, both of man and of beast.
¹² Then they brought the captives and the plunder and the spoil to Moses, and to Eleazar the priest, and to the congregation of the people of Israel, at the camp on the plains of Moab by the Jordan at Jericho.
¹³ Moses and Eleazar the priest and all the chiefs of the congregation went to meet them outside the camp.
¹⁴ And Moses was angry with the officers of the army, the commanders of thousands and the commanders of hundreds, who had come from service in the war.
¹⁵ Moses said to them, “Have you let all the women live?
¹⁶ Behold, these, on Balaam’s advice, caused the people of Israel to act treacherously against the LORD in the incident of Peor, and so the plague came among the congregation of the LORD.
¹⁷ Now therefore, kill every male among the little ones, and kill every woman who has known man by lying with him.
¹⁸ But all the young girls who have not known man by lying with him keep alive for yourselves.
¹⁹ Encamp outside the camp seven days. Whoever of you has killed any person and whoever has touched any slain, purify yourselves and your captives on the third day and on the seventh day.
²⁰ You shall purify every garment, every article of skin, all work of goats’ hair, and every article of wood.”
²¹ Then Eleazar the priest said to the men in the army who had gone to battle: “This is the statute of the law that the LORD has commanded Moses:
²² only the gold, the silver, the bronze, the iron, the tin, and the lead,
²³ everything that can stand the fire, you shall pass through the fire, and it shall be clean. Nevertheless, it shall also be purified with the water for impurity. And whatever cannot stand the fire, you shall pass through the water.
²⁴ You must wash your clothes on the seventh day, and you shall be clean. And afterward you may come into the camp.” (ESV)

¹⁹ Then his mother and his brothers came to him, but they could not reach him because of the crowd.
²⁰ And he was told, “Your mother and your brothers are standing outside, desiring to see you.”
²¹ But he answered them, “My mother and my brothers are those who hear the word of God and do it.”
²² One day he got into a boat with his disciples, and he said to them, “Let us go across to the other side of the lake.” So they set out,
²³ and as they sailed he fell asleep. And a windstorm came down on the lake, and they were filling with water and were in danger.
²⁴ And they went and woke him, saying, “Master, Master, we are perishing!” And he awoke and rebuked the wind and the raging waves, and they ceased, and there was a calm.
²⁵ He said to them, “Where is your faith?” And they were afraid, and they marveled, saying to one another, “Who then is this, that he commands even winds and water, and they obey him?”
²⁶ Then they sailed to the country of the Gerasenes, which is opposite Galilee.
²⁷ When Jesus had stepped out on land, there met him a man from the city who had demons. For a long time he had worn no clothes, and he had not lived in a house but among the tombs.
²⁸ When he saw Jesus, he cried out and fell down before him and said with a loud voice, “What have you to do with me, Jesus, Son of the Most High God? I beg you, do not torment me.”
²⁹ For he had commanded the unclean spirit to come out of the man. (For many a time it had seized him. He was kept under guard and bound with chains and shackles, but he would break the bonds and be driven by the demon into the desert.)
³⁰ Jesus then asked him, “What is your name?” And he said, “Legion,” for many demons had entered him.
³¹ And they begged him not to command them to depart into the abyss.
³² Now a large herd of pigs was feeding there on the hillside, and they begged him to let them enter these. So he gave them permission.
³³ Then the demons came out of the man and entered the pigs, and the herd rushed down the steep bank into the lake and drowned.
³⁴ When the herdsmen saw what had happened, they fled and told it in the city and in the country.
³⁵ Then people went out to see what had happened, and they came to Jesus and found the man from whom the demons had gone, sitting at the feet of Jesus, clothed and in his right mind, and they were afraid.
³⁶ And those who had seen it told them how the demon-possessed man had been healed.
³⁷ Then all the people of the surrounding country of the Gerasenes asked him to depart from them, for they were seized with great fear. So he got into the boat and returned.
³⁸ The man from whom the demons had gone begged that he might be with him, but Jesus sent him away, saying,
³⁹ “Return to your home, and declare how much God has done for you.” And he went away, proclaiming throughout the whole city how much Jesus had done for him. (ESV)

To the choirmaster: to Jeduthun. A Psalm of David.
¹ I said, “I will guard my ways, that I may not sin with my tongue; I will guard my mouth with a muzzle, so long as the wicked are in my presence.”
² I was mute and silent; I held my peace to no avail, and my distress grew worse.
³ My heart became hot within me. As I mused, the fire burned; then I spoke with my tongue:
⁴ “O LORD, make me know my end and what is the measure of my days; let me know how fleeting I am!
⁵ Behold, you have made my days a few handbreadths, and my lifetime is as nothing before you. Surely all mankind stands as a mere breath! Selah
⁶ Surely a man goes about as a shadow! Surely for nothing they are in turmoil; man heaps up wealth and does not know who will gather!
⁷ “And now, O Lord, for what do I wait? My hope is in you.
⁸ Deliver me from all my transgressions. Do not make me the scorn of the fool!
⁹ I am mute; I do not open my mouth, for it is you who have done it.
¹⁰ Remove your stroke from me; I am spent by the hostility of your hand.
¹¹ When you discipline a man with rebukes for sin, you consume like a moth what is dear to him; surely all mankind is a mere breath! Selah
¹² “Hear my prayer, O LORD, and give ear to my cry; hold not your peace at my tears! For I am a sojourner with you, a guest, like all my fathers.
¹³ Look away from me, that I may smile again, before I depart and am no more!” (ESV)

¹ The revelation of Jesus Christ, which God gave him to show to his servants the things that must soon take place. He made it known by sending his angel to his servant John,
² who bore witness to the word of God and to the testimony of Jesus Christ, even to all that he saw.
³ Blessed is the one who reads aloud the words of this prophecy, and blessed are those who hear, and who keep what is written in it, for the time is near.
⁴ John to the seven churches that are in Asia: Grace to you and peace from him who is and who was and who is to come, and from the seven spirits who are before his throne,
⁵ and from Jesus Christ the faithful witness, the firstborn of the dead, and the ruler of kings on earth. To him who loves us and has freed us from our sins by his blood
⁶ and made us a kingdom, priests to his God and Father, to him be glory and dominion forever and ever. Amen.
⁷ Behold, he is coming with the clouds, and every eye will see him, even those who pierced him, and all tribes of the earth will wail on account of him. Even so. Amen.
⁸ “I am the Alpha and the Omega,” says the Lord God, “who is and who was and who is to come, the Almighty.”
⁹ I, John, your brother and partner in the tribulation and the kingdom and the patient endurance that are in Jesus, was on the island called Patmos on account of the word of God and the testimony of Jesus.
¹⁰ I was in the Spirit on the Lord’s day, and I heard behind me a loud voice like a trumpet
¹¹ saying, “Write what you see in a book and send it to the seven churches, to Ephesus and to Smyrna and to Pergamum and to Thyatira and to Sardis and to Philadelphia and to Laodicea.”
¹² Then I turned to see the voice that was speaking to me, and on turning I saw seven golden lampstands,
¹³ and in the midst of the lampstands one like a son of man, clothed with a long robe and with a golden sash around his chest.
¹⁴ The hairs of his head were white, like white wool, like snow. His eyes were like a flame of fire,
¹⁵ his feet were like burnished bronze, refined in a furnace, and his voice was like the roar of many waters.
¹⁶ In his right hand he held seven stars, from his mouth came a sharp two-edged sword, and his face was like the sun shining in full strength.
¹⁷ When I saw him, I fell at his feet as though dead. But he laid his right hand on me, saying, “Fear not, I am the first and the last,
¹⁸ and the living one. I died, and behold I am alive forevermore, and I have the keys of Death and Hades.
¹⁹ Write therefore the things that you have seen, those that are and those that are to take place after this.
²⁰ As for the mystery of the seven stars that you saw in my right hand, and the seven golden lampstands, the seven stars are the angels of the seven churches, and the seven lampstands are the seven churches.

¹ “To the angel of the church in Ephesus write: ‘The words of him who holds the seven stars in his right hand, who walks among the seven golden lampstands.
² “‘I know your works, your toil and your patient endurance, and how you cannot bear with those who are evil, but have tested those who call themselves apostles and are not, and found them to be false.
³ I know you are enduring patiently and bearing up for my name’s sake, and you have not grown weary.
⁴ But I have this against you, that you have abandoned the love you had at first.
⁵ Remember therefore from where you have fallen; repent, and do the works you did at first. If not, I will come to you and remove your lampstand from its place, unless you repent.
⁶ Yet this you have: you hate the works of the Nicolaitans, which I also hate.
⁷ He who has an ear, let him hear what the Spirit says to the churches. To the one who conquers I will grant to eat of the tree of life, which is in the paradise of God.’
⁸ “And to the angel of the church in Smyrna write: ‘The words of the first and the last, who died and came to life.
⁹ “‘I know your tribulation and your poverty (but you are rich) and the slander of those who say that they are Jews and are not, but are a synagogue of Satan.
¹⁰ Do not fear what you are about to suffer. Behold, the devil is about to throw some of you into prison, that you may be tested, and for ten days you will have tribulation. Be faithful unto death, and I will give you the crown of life.
¹¹ He who has an ear, let him hear what the Spirit says to the churches. The one who conquers will not be hurt by the second death.’
¹² “And to the angel of the church in Pergamum write: ‘The words of him who has the sharp two-edged sword.
¹³ “‘I know where you dwell, where Satan’s throne is. Yet you hold fast my name, and you did not deny my faith even in the days of Antipas my faithful witness, who was killed among you, where Satan dwells.
¹⁴ But I have a few things against you: you have some there who hold the teaching of Balaam, who taught Balak to put a stumbling block before the sons of Israel, so that they might eat food sacrificed to idols and practice sexual immorality.
¹⁵ So also you have some who hold the teaching of the Nicolaitans.
¹⁶ Therefore repent. If not, I will come to you soon and war against them with the sword of my mouth.
¹⁷ He who has an ear, let him hear what the Spirit says to the churches. To the one who conquers I will give some of the hidden manna, and I will give him a white stone, with a new name written on the stone that no one knows except the one who receives it.’
¹⁸ “And to the angel of the church in Thyatira write: ‘The words of the Son of God, who has eyes like a flame of fire, and whose feet are like burnished bronze.
¹⁹ “‘I know your works, your love and faith and service and patient endurance, and that your latter works exceed the first.
²⁰ But I have this against you, that you tolerate that woman Jezebel, who calls herself a prophetess and is teaching and seducing my servants to practice sexual immorality and to eat food sacrificed to idols.
²¹ I gave her time to repent, but she refuses to repent of her sexual immorality.
²² Behold, I will throw her onto a sickbed, and those who commit adultery with her I will throw into great tribulation, unless they repent of her works,
²³ and I will strike her children dead. And all the churches will know that I am he who searches mind and heart, and I will give to each of you according to your works.
²⁴ But to the rest of you in Thyatira, who do not hold this teaching, who have not learned what some call the deep things of Satan, to you I say, I do not lay on you any other burden.
²⁵ Only hold fast what you have until I come.
²⁶ The one who conquers and who keeps my works until the end, to him I will give authority over the nations,
²⁷ and he will rule them with a rod of iron, as when earthen pots are broken in pieces, even as I myself have received authority from my Father.
²⁸ And I will give him the morning star.
²⁹ He who has an ear, let him hear what the Spirit says to the churches.’

¹ “And to the angel of the church in Sardis write: ‘The words of him who has the seven spirits of God and the seven stars. “‘I know your works. You have the reputation of being alive, but you are dead.
² Wake up, and strengthen what remains and is about to die, for I have not found your works complete in the sight of my God.
³ Remember, then, what you received and heard. Keep it, and repent. If you will not wake up, I will come like a thief, and you will not know at what hour I will come against you.
⁴ Yet you have still a few names in Sardis, people who have not soiled their garments, and they will walk with me in white, for they are worthy.
⁵ The one who conquers will be clothed thus in white garments, and I will never blot his name out of the book of life. I will confess his name before my Father and before his angels.
⁶ He who has an ear, let him hear what the Spirit says to the churches.’
⁷ “And to the angel of the church in Philadelphia write: ‘The words of the holy one, the true one, who has the key of David, who opens and no one will shut, who shuts and no one opens.
⁸ “‘I know your works. Behold, I have set before you an open door, which no one is able to shut. I know that you have but little power, and yet you have kept my word and have not denied my name.
⁹ Behold, I will make those of the synagogue of Satan who say that they are Jews and are not, but lie—behold, I will make them come and bow down before your feet, and they will learn that I have loved you.
¹⁰ Because you have kept my word about patient endurance, I will keep you from the hour of trial that is coming on the whole world, to try those who dwell on the earth.
¹¹ I am coming soon. Hold fast what you have, so that no one may seize your crown.
¹² The one who conquers, I will make him a pillar in the temple of my God. Never shall he go out of it, and I will write on him the name of my God, and the name of the city of my God, the new Jerusalem, which comes down from my God out of heaven, and my own new name.
¹³ He who has an ear, let him hear what the Spirit says to the churches.’
¹⁴ “And to the angel of the church in Laodicea write: ‘The words of the Amen, the faithful and true witness, the beginning of God’s creation.
¹⁵ “‘I know your works: you are neither cold nor hot. Would that you were either cold or hot!
¹⁶ So, because you are lukewarm, and neither hot nor cold, I will spit you out of my mouth.
¹⁷ For you say, “I am rich, I have prospered, and I need nothing,” not realizing that you are wretched, pitiable, poor, blind, and naked.
¹⁸ I counsel you to buy from me gold refined by fire, so that you may be rich, and white garments so that you may clothe yourself and the shame of your nakedness may not be seen, and salve to anoint your eyes, so that you may see.
¹⁹ Those whom I love, I reprove and discipline, so be zealous and repent.
²⁰ Behold, I stand at the door and knock. If anyone hears my voice and opens the door, I will come in to him and eat with him, and he with me.
²¹ The one who conquers, I will grant him to sit with me on my throne, as I also conquered and sat down with my Father on his throne.
²² He who has an ear, let him hear what the Spirit says to the churches.’”

¹ After this I looked, and behold, a door standing open in heaven! And the first voice, which I had heard speaking to me like a trumpet, said, “Come up here, and I will show you what must take place after this.”
² At once I was in the Spirit, and behold, a throne stood in heaven, with one seated on the throne.
³ And he who sat there had the appearance of jasper and carnelian, and around the throne was a rainbow that had the appearance of an emerald.
⁴ Around the throne were twenty-four thrones, and seated on the thrones were twenty-four elders, clothed in white garments, with golden crowns on their heads.
⁵ From the throne came flashes of lightning, and rumblings and peals of thunder, and before the throne were burning seven torches of fire, which are the seven spirits of God,
⁶ and before the throne there was as it were a sea of glass, like crystal. And around the throne, on each side of the throne, are four living creatures, full of eyes in front and behind:
⁷ the first living creature like a lion, the second living creature like an ox, the third living creature with the face of a man, and the fourth living creature like an eagle in flight.
⁸ And the four living creatures, each of them with six wings, are full of eyes all around and within, and day and night they never cease to say, “Holy, holy, holy, is the Lord God Almighty, who was and is and is to come!”
⁹ And whenever the living creatures give glory and honor and thanks to him who is seated on the throne, who lives forever and ever,
¹⁰ the twenty-four elders fall down before him who is seated on the throne and worship him who lives forever and ever. They cast their crowns before the throne, saying,
¹¹ “Worthy are you, our Lord and God, to receive glory and honor and power, for you created all things, and by your will they existed and were created.” (ESV)