Thursday 12 October 2023 DAILY LECTIONARY

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Thursday 12 October 2023
DAILY LECTIONARY

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2 Kings 23:4-25

The king commanded the high priest Hilkiah, the priests of the second
order, and the guardians of the threshold, to bring out of the temple
of the Lord all the vessels made for Baal, for Asherah, and for all
the host of heaven; he burned them outside Jerusalem in the fields of
the Kidron, and carried their ashes to Bethel. He deposed the
idolatrous priests whom the kings of Judah had ordained to make
offerings in the high places at the cities of Judah and around
Jerusalem; those also who made offerings to Baal, to the sun, the
moon, the constellations, and all the host of the heavens. He brought
out the image of* Asherah from the house of the Lord, outside
Jerusalem, to the Wadi Kidron, burned it at the Wadi Kidron, beat it
to dust and threw the dust of it upon the graves of the common people.
He broke down the houses of the male temple prostitutes that were in
the house of the Lord, where the women did weaving for Asherah. He
brought all the priests out of the towns of Judah, and defiled the
high places where the priests had made offerings, from Geba to
Beer-sheba; he broke down the high places of the gates that were at
the entrance of the gate of Joshua the governor of the city, which
were on the left at the gate of the city. The priests of the high
places, however, did not come up to the altar of the Lord in
Jerusalem, but ate unleavened bread among their kindred. He defiled
Topheth, which is in the valley of Ben-hinnom, so that no one would
make a son or a daughter pass through fire as an offering to Molech.
He removed the horses that the kings of Judah had dedicated to the
sun, at the entrance to the house of the Lord, by the chamber of the
eunuch Nathan-melech, which was in the precincts;* then he burned the
chariots of the sun with fire. The altars on the roof of the upper
chamber of Ahaz, which the kings of Judah had made, and the altars
that Manasseh had made in the two courts of the house of the Lord, he
pulled down from there and broke in pieces, and threw the rubble into
the Wadi Kidron. The king defiled the high places that were east of
Jerusalem, to the south of the Mount of Destruction, which King
Solomon of Israel had built for Astarte the abomination of the
Sidonians, for Chemosh the abomination of Moab, and for Milcom the
abomination of the Ammonites. He broke the pillars in pieces, cut down
the sacred poles,* and covered the sites with human bones.

 Moreover, the altar at Bethel, the high place erected by Jeroboam
son of Nebat, who caused Israel to sin—he pulled down that altar
along with the high place. He burned the high place, crushing it to
dust; he also burned the sacred pole.* As Josiah turned, he saw the
tombs there on the mount; and he sent and took the bones out of the
tombs, and burned them on the altar, and defiled it, according to the
word of the Lord that the man of God proclaimed,* when Jeroboam stood
by the altar at the festival; he turned and looked up at the tomb of
the man of God who had predicted these things. Then he said, ‘What
is that monument that I see?’ The people of the city told him, ‘It
is the tomb of the man of God who came from Judah and predicted these
things that you have done against the altar at Bethel.’ He said,
‘Let him rest; let no one move his bones.’ So they let his bones
alone, with the bones of the prophet who came out of Samaria.
Moreover, Josiah removed all the shrines of the high places that were
in the towns of Samaria, which kings of Israel had made, provoking the
Lord to anger; he did to them just as he had done at Bethel. He
slaughtered on the altars all the priests of the high places who were
there, and burned human bones on them. Then he returned to Jerusalem.
 The king commanded all the people, ‘Keep the passover to the Lord
your God as prescribed in this book of the covenant.’ No such
passover had been kept since the days of the judges who judged Israel,
even during all the days of the kings of Israel and of the kings of
Judah; but in the eighteenth year of King Josiah this passover was
kept to the Lord in Jerusalem.

 Moreover, Josiah did away with the mediums, wizards, teraphim,*
idols, and all the abominations that were seen in the land of Judah
and in Jerusalem, so that he established the words of the law that
were written in the book that the priest Hilkiah had found in the
house of the Lord. Before him there was no king like him, who turned
to the Lord with all his heart, with all his soul, and with all his
might, according to all the law of Moses; nor did any like him arise
after him.
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1 Corinthians 12:1-11

Now concerning spiritual gifts,* brothers and sisters,* I do not want
you to be uninformed. You know that when you were pagans, you were
enticed and led astray to idols that could not speak. Therefore I want
you to understand that no one speaking by the Spirit of God ever says
‘Let Jesus be cursed!’ and no one can say ‘Jesus is Lord’
except by the Holy Spirit.

 Now there are varieties of gifts, but the same Spirit; and there are
varieties of services, but the same Lord; and there are varieties of
activities, but it is the same God who activates all of them in
everyone. To each is given the manifestation of the Spirit for the
common good. To one is given through the Spirit the utterance of
wisdom, and to another the utterance of knowledge according to the
same Spirit, to another faith by the same Spirit, to another gifts of
healing by the one Spirit, to another the working of miracles, to
another prophecy, to another the discernment of spirits, to another
various kinds of tongues, to another the interpretation of tongues.
All these are activated by one and the same Spirit, who allots to each
one individually just as the Spirit chooses.
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Matthew 9:18-26
 
While he was saying these things to them, suddenly a leader of the
synagogue* came in and knelt before him, saying, ‘My daughter has
just died; but come and lay your hand on her, and she will live.’
And Jesus got up and followed him, with his disciples. Then suddenly a
woman who had been suffering from haemorrhages for twelve years came
up behind him and touched the fringe of his cloak, for she said to
herself, ‘If I only touch his cloak, I will be made well.’ Jesus
turned, and seeing her he said, ‘Take heart, daughter; your faith
has made you well.’ And instantly the woman was made well. When
Jesus came to the leader’s house and saw the flute-players and the
crowd making a commotion, he said, ‘Go away; for the girl is not
dead but sleeping.’ And they laughed at him. But when the crowd had
been put outside, he went in and took her by the hand, and the girl
got up. And the report of this spread throughout that district.
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Morning Psalms: Psalm 131, 132

Psalm 131

O Lord, my heart is not lifted up,
   my eyes are not raised too high;
I do not occupy myself with things
   too great and too marvellous for me. 
But I have calmed and quieted my soul,
   like a weaned child with its mother;
   my soul is like the weaned child that is with me.* 

O Israel, hope in the Lord
   from this time on and for evermore.

Psalm 132

O Lord, remember in David’s favour
   all the hardships he endured; 
how he swore to the Lord
   and vowed to the Mighty One of Jacob, 
‘I will not enter my house
   or get into my bed; 
I will not give sleep to my eyes
   or slumber to my eyelids, 
until I find a place for the Lord,
   a dwelling-place for the Mighty One of Jacob.’ 

We heard of it in Ephrathah;
   we found it in the fields of Jaar. 
‘Let us go to his dwelling-place;
   let us worship at his footstool.’ 

Rise up, O Lord, and go to your resting-place,
   you and the ark of your might. 
Let your priests be clothed with righteousness,
   and let your faithful shout for joy. 
For your servant David’s sake
   do not turn away the face of your anointed one. 

The Lord swore to David a sure oath
   from which he will not turn back:
‘One of the sons of your body
   I will set on your throne. 
If your sons keep my covenant
   and my decrees that I shall teach them,
their sons also, for evermore,
   shall sit on your throne.’ 

For the Lord has chosen Zion;
   he has desired it for his habitation: 
‘This is my resting-place for ever;
   here I will reside, for I have desired it. 
I will abundantly bless its provisions;
   I will satisfy its poor with bread. 
Its priests I will clothe with salvation,
   and its faithful will shout for joy. 
There I will cause a horn to sprout up for David;
   I have prepared a lamp for my anointed one. 
His enemies I will clothe with disgrace,
   but on him, his crown will gleam.’
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Evening Psalms: Psalm 134, 135

Psalm 134

Come, bless the Lord, all you servants of the Lord,
   who stand by night in the house of the Lord! 
Lift up your hands to the holy place,
   and bless the Lord. 

May the Lord, maker of heaven and earth,
   bless you from Zion.

Psalm 135

Praise the Lord!
   Praise the name of the Lord;
   give praise, O servants of the Lord, 
you that stand in the house of the Lord,
   in the courts of the house of our God. 
Praise the Lord, for the Lord is good;
   sing to his name, for he is gracious. 
For the Lord has chosen Jacob for himself,
   Israel as his own possession. 

For I know that the Lord is great;
   our Lord is above all gods. 
Whatever the Lord pleases he does,
   in heaven and on earth,
   in the seas and all deeps. 
He it is who makes the clouds rise at the end of the earth;
   he makes lightnings for the rain
   and brings out the wind from his storehouses. 

He it was who struck down the firstborn of Egypt,
   both human beings and animals; 
he sent signs and wonders
   into your midst, O Egypt,
   against Pharaoh and all his servants. 
He struck down many nations
   and killed mighty kings— 
Sihon, king of the Amorites,
   and Og, king of Bashan,
   and all the kingdoms of Canaan— 
and gave their land as a heritage,
   a heritage to his people Israel. 

Your name, O Lord, endures for ever,
   your renown, O Lord, throughout all ages. 
For the Lord will vindicate his people,
   and have compassion on his servants. 

The idols of the nations are silver and gold,
   the work of human hands. 
They have mouths, but they do not speak;
   they have eyes, but they do not see; 
they have ears, but they do not hear,
   and there is no breath in their mouths. 
Those who make them
   and all who trust them
   shall become like them. 

O house of Israel, bless the Lord!
   O house of Aaron, bless the Lord! 
O house of Levi, bless the Lord!
   You that fear the Lord, bless the Lord! 
Blessed be the Lord from Zion,
   he who resides in Jerusalem.
Praise the Lord!
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