Today’s Readings: Mon 12 Dec 2016

Genesis 47–49

47:1So Joseph went in and told Pharaoh, “My father and my brothers, with their flocks and herds and all that they possess, have come from the land of Canaan. They are now in the land of Goshen.” 2And from among his brothers he took five men and presented them to Pharaoh. 3Pharaoh said to his brothers, “What is your occupation?” And they said to Pharaoh, “Your servants are shepherds, as our fathers were.” 4They said to Pharaoh, “We have come to sojourn in the land, for there is no pasture for your servants’ flocks, for the famine is severe in the land of Canaan. And now, please let your servants dwell in the land of Goshen.” 5Then Pharaoh said to Joseph, “Your father and your brothers have come to you. 6The land of Egypt is before you. Settle your father and your brothers in the best of the land. Let them settle in the land of Goshen, and if you know any able men among them, put them in charge of my livestock.”

7Then Joseph brought in Jacob his father and stood him before Pharaoh, and Jacob blessed Pharaoh. 8And Pharaoh said to Jacob, “How many are the days of the years of your life?” 9And Jacob said to Pharaoh, “The days of the years of my sojourning are 130 years. Few and evil have been the days of the years of my life, and they have not attained to the days of the years of the life of my fathers in the days of their sojourning.” 10And Jacob blessed Pharaoh and went out from the presence of Pharaoh. 11Then Joseph settled his father and his brothers and gave them a possession in the land of Egypt, in the best of the land, in the land of Rameses, as Pharaoh had commanded. 12And Joseph provided his father, his brothers, and all his father’s household with food, according to the number of their dependents.

13Now there was no food in all the land, for the famine was very severe, so that the land of Egypt and the land of Canaan languished by reason of the famine. 14And Joseph gathered up all the money that was found in the land of Egypt and in the land of Canaan, in exchange for the grain that they bought. And Joseph brought the money into Pharaoh’s house. 15And when the money was all spent in the land of Egypt and in the land of Canaan, all the Egyptians came to Joseph and said, “Give us food. Why should we die before your eyes? For our money is gone.” 16And Joseph answered, “Give your livestock, and I will give you food in exchange for your livestock, if your money is gone.” 17So they brought their livestock to Joseph, and Joseph gave them food in exchange for the horses, the flocks, the herds, and the donkeys. He supplied them with food in exchange for all their livestock that year. 18And when that year was ended, they came to him the following year and said to him, “We will not hide from my lord that our money is all spent. The herds of livestock are my lord’s. There is nothing left in the sight of my lord but our bodies and our land. 19Why should we die before your eyes, both we and our land? Buy us and our land for food, and we with our land will be servants to Pharaoh. And give us seed that we may live and not die, and that the land may not be desolate.”

20So Joseph bought all the land of Egypt for Pharaoh, for all the Egyptians sold their fields, because the famine was severe on them. The land became Pharaoh’s. 21As for the people, he made servants of them from one end of Egypt to the other. 22Only the land of the priests he did not buy, for the priests had a fixed allowance from Pharaoh and lived on the allowance that Pharaoh gave them; therefore they did not sell their land.

23Then Joseph said to the people, “Behold, I have this day bought you and your land for Pharaoh. Now here is seed for you, and you shall sow the land. 24And at the harvests you shall give a fifth to Pharaoh, and four fifths shall be your own, as seed for the field and as food for yourselves and your households, and as food for your little ones.” 25And they said, “You have saved our lives; may it please my lord, we will be servants to Pharaoh.” 26So Joseph made it a statute concerning the land of Egypt, and it stands to this day, that Pharaoh should have the fifth; the land of the priests alone did not become Pharaoh’s.

27Thus Israel settled in the land of Egypt, in the land of Goshen. And they gained possessions in it, and were fruitful and multiplied greatly. 28And Jacob lived in the land of Egypt seventeen years. So the days of Jacob, the years of his life, were 147 years.

29And when the time drew near that Israel must die, he called his son Joseph and said to him, “If now I have found favor in your sight, put your hand under my thigh and promise to deal kindly and truly with me. Do not bury me in Egypt, 30but let me lie with my fathers. Carry me out of Egypt and bury me in their burying place.” He answered, “I will do as you have said.” 31And he said, “Swear to me”; and he swore to him. Then Israel bowed himself upon the head of his bed.

48:1After this, Joseph was told, “Behold, your father is ill.” So he took with him his two sons, Manasseh and Ephraim. 2And it was told to Jacob, “Your son Joseph has come to you.” Then Israel summoned his strength and sat up in bed. 3And Jacob said to Joseph, “God Almighty appeared to me at Luz in the land of Canaan and blessed me, 4and said to me, ‘Behold, I will make you fruitful and multiply you, and I will make of you a company of peoples and will give this land to your offspring after you for an everlasting possession.’ 5And now your two sons, who were born to you in the land of Egypt before I came to you in Egypt, are mine; Ephraim and Manasseh shall be mine, as Reuben and Simeon are. 6And the children that you fathered after them shall be yours. They shall be called by the name of their brothers in their inheritance. 7As for me, when I came from Paddan, to my sorrow Rachel died in the land of Canaan on the way, when there was still some distance to go to Ephrath, and I buried her there on the way to Ephrath (that is, Bethlehem).”

8When Israel saw Joseph’s sons, he said, “Who are these?” 9Joseph said to his father, “They are my sons, whom God has given me here.” And he said, “Bring them to me, please, that I may bless them.” 10Now the eyes of Israel were dim with age, so that he could not see. So Joseph brought them near him, and he kissed them and embraced them. 11And Israel said to Joseph, “I never expected to see your face; and behold, God has let me see your offspring also.” 12Then Joseph removed them from his knees, and he bowed himself with his face to the earth. 13And Joseph took them both, Ephraim in his right hand toward Israel’s left hand, and Manasseh in his left hand toward Israel’s right hand, and brought them near him. 14And Israel stretched out his right hand and laid it on the head of Ephraim, who was the younger, and his left hand on the head of Manasseh, crossing his hands (for Manasseh was the firstborn). 15And he blessed Joseph and said,

“The God before whom my fathers Abraham and Isaac walked,the God who has been my shepherd all my life long to this day,16the angel who has redeemed me from all evil, bless the boys;and in them let my name be carried on, and the name of my fathers Abraham and Isaac;and let them grow into a multitude in the midst of the earth.”

17When Joseph saw that his father laid his right hand on the head of Ephraim, it displeased him, and he took his father’s hand to move it from Ephraim’s head to Manasseh’s head. 18And Joseph said to his father, “Not this way, my father; since this one is the firstborn, put your right hand on his head.” 19But his father refused and said, “I know, my son, I know. He also shall become a people, and he also shall be great. Nevertheless, his younger brother shall be greater than he, and his offspring shall become a multitude of nations.” 20So he blessed them that day, saying,

“By you Israel will pronounce blessings, saying,‘God make you as Ephraim and as Manasseh.’”

Thus he put Ephraim before Manasseh. 21Then Israel said to Joseph, “Behold, I am about to die, but God will be with you and will bring you again to the land of your fathers. 22Moreover, I have given to you rather than to your brothers one mountain slope that I took from the hand of the Amorites with my sword and with my bow.”

49:1Then Jacob called his sons and said, “Gather yourselves together, that I may tell you what shall happen to you in days to come.

2“Assemble and listen, O sons of Jacob,listen to Israel your father. 3“Reuben, you are my firstborn,my might, and the firstfruits of my strength,preeminent in dignity and preeminent in power.4Unstable as water, you shall not have preeminence,because you went up to your father’s bed;then you defiled it—he went up to my couch! 5“Simeon and Levi are brothers;weapons of violence are their swords.6Let my soul come not into their council;O my glory, be not joined to their company.For in their anger they killed men,and in their willfulness they hamstrung oxen.7Cursed be their anger, for it is fierce,and their wrath, for it is cruel!I will divide them in Jacoband scatter them in Israel. 8“Judah, your brothers shall praise you;your hand shall be on the neck of your enemies;your father’s sons shall bow down before you.9Judah is a lion’s cub;from the prey, my son, you have gone up.He stooped down; he crouched as a lionand as a lioness; who dares rouse him?10The scepter shall not depart from Judah,nor the ruler’s staff from between his feet,until tribute comes to him;and to him shall be the obedience of the peoples.11Binding his foal to the vineand his donkey’s colt to the choice vine,he has washed his garments in wineand his vesture in the blood of grapes.12His eyes are darker than wine,and his teeth whiter than milk. 13“Zebulun shall dwell at the shore of the sea;he shall become a haven for ships,and his border shall be at Sidon. 14“Issachar is a strong donkey,crouching between the sheepfolds.15He saw that a resting place was good,and that the land was pleasant,so he bowed his shoulder to bear,and became a servant at forced labor. 16“Dan shall judge his peopleas one of the tribes of Israel.17Dan shall be a serpent in the way,a viper by the path,that bites the horse’s heelsso that his rider falls backward.18I wait for your salvation, O LORD. 19“Raiders shall raid Gad,but he shall raid at their heels. 20“Asher’s food shall be rich,and he shall yield royal delicacies. 21“Naphtali is a doe let loosethat bears beautiful fawns. 22“Joseph is a fruitful bough,a fruitful bough by a spring;his branches run over the wall.23The archers bitterly attacked him,shot at him, and harassed him severely,24yet his bow remained unmoved;his arms were made agileby the hands of the Mighty One of Jacob(from there is the Shepherd, the Stone of Israel),25by the God of your father who will help you,by the Almighty who will bless youwith blessings of heaven above,blessings of the deep that crouches beneath,blessings of the breasts and of the womb.26The blessings of your fatherare mighty beyond the blessings of my parents,up to the bounties of the everlasting hills.May they be on the head of Joseph,and on the brow of him who was set apart from his brothers. 27“Benjamin is a ravenous wolf,in the morning devouring the preyand at evening dividing the spoil.”

28All these are the twelve tribes of Israel. This is what their father said to them as he blessed them, blessing each with the blessing suitable to him. 29Then he commanded them and said to them, “I am to be gathered to my people; bury me with my fathers in the cave that is in the field of Ephron the Hittite, 30in the cave that is in the field at Machpelah, to the east of Mamre, in the land of Canaan, which Abraham bought with the field from Ephron the Hittite to possess as a burying place. 31There they buried Abraham and Sarah his wife. There they buried Isaac and Rebekah his wife, and there I buried Leah—32the field and the cave that is in it were bought from the Hittites.” 33When Jacob finished commanding his sons, he drew up his feet into the bed and breathed his last and was gathered to his people.

John 16:25–33

25“I have said these things to you in figures of speech. The hour is coming when I will no longer speak to you in figures of speech but will tell you plainly about the Father. 26In that day you will ask in my name, and I do not say to you that I will ask the Father on your behalf; 27for the Father himself loves you, because you have loved me and have believed that I came from God. 28I came from the Father and have come into the world, and now I am leaving the world and going to the Father.”

29His disciples said, “Ah, now you are speaking plainly and not using figurative speech! 30Now we know that you know all things and do not need anyone to question you; this is why we believe that you came from God.” 31Jesus answered them, “Do you now believe? 32Behold, the hour is coming, indeed it has come, when you will be scattered, each to his own home, and will leave me alone. Yet I am not alone, for the Father is with me. 33I have said these things to you, that in me you may have peace. In the world you will have tribulation. But take heart; I have overcome the world.”

Psalm 105:8–22

8He remembers his covenant forever,the word that he commanded, for a thousand generations,9the covenant that he made with Abraham,his sworn promise to Isaac,10which he confirmed to Jacob as a statute,to Israel as an everlasting covenant,11saying, “To you I will give the land of Canaanas your portion for an inheritance.” 12When they were few in number,of little account, and sojourners in it,13wandering from nation to nation,from one kingdom to another people,14he allowed no one to oppress them;he rebuked kings on their account,15saying, “Touch not my anointed ones,do my prophets no harm!” 16When he summoned a famine on the landand broke all supply of bread,17he had sent a man ahead of them,Joseph, who was sold as a slave.18His feet were hurt with fetters;his neck was put in a collar of iron;19until what he had said came to pass,the word of the LORD tested him.20The king sent and released him;the ruler of the peoples set him free;21he made him lord of his houseand ruler of all his possessions,22to bind his princes at his pleasureand to teach his elders wisdom.

Ecclesiastes 7:1–4

7:1A good name is better than precious ointment,and the day of death than the day of birth.2It is better to go to the house of mourningthan to go to the house of feasting,for this is the end of all mankind,and the living will lay it to heart.3Sorrow is better than laughter,for by sadness of face the heart is made glad.4The heart of the wise is in the house of mourning,but the heart of fools is in the house of mirth.