Day 32 of 365

¹But a certain man named Ananias, with Sappirah, his wife, sold a possession,

²and kept back part of the price, his wife also being aware of it, and brought a certain part, and put it at the apostles' feet.

³But Peter said, "Ananias, why has Satan filled your heart to lie to the Holy Spirit, and to keep back part of the price of the land?

⁴While you kept it, did not it remain your own? After it was sold, was not it in your power? How is it that you have conceived this thing in your heart? You have not lied to men, but to God."

⁵Ananias, hearing these words, fell down and died. Great fear came on all who heard it.

⁶The young men arose and wrapped him up, and they carried him out and buried him.

⁷About three hours later, his wife, not knowing what had happened, came in.

⁸Peter answered her, "Tell me whether you sold the land for so much." She said, "Yes, for so much."

⁹But Peter asked her, "How is it that you have agreed together to tempt the Spirit of the Lord? Behold, the feet of those who have buried your husband are at the door, and they will carry you out."

¹⁰She fell down immediately at his feet, and died. The young men came in and found her dead, and they carried her out and buried her by her husband.

¹¹Great fear came on the whole church, and on all who heard these things.

¹²By the hands of the apostles many signs and wonders were done among the people. They were all with one accord in Solomon's porch.

¹³None of the rest dared to join them, however the people honored them.

¹⁴More believers were added to the Lord, multitudes of both men and women.

¹⁵They even carried out the sick into the streets, and put them on cots and mattresses, so that as Peter came by, at the least his shadow might overshadow some of them.

¹⁶Multitudes also came together from the cities around Jerusalem, bringing sick people, and those who were tormented by unclean spirits: and they were all healed.

¹⁷But the high priest rose up, and all those who were with him (which is the sect of the Sadducees), and they were filled with jealousy,

¹⁸and laid hands on the apostles, and put them in public custody.

¹⁹But an angel of the Lord opened the prison doors by night, and brought them out, and said,

²⁰"Go stand and speak in the temple to the people all the words of this life."

²¹When they heard this, they entered into the temple about daybreak, and taught. But the high priest came, and those who were with him, and called the council together, and all the senate of the children of Israel, and sent to the prison to have them brought.

²²But the officers who came did not find them in the prison. They returned and reported,

²³"We found the prison shut and locked, and the guards standing before the doors, but when we opened them, we found no one inside!"

²⁴Now when the captain of the temple, and the chief priests heard these words, they were very perplexed about them and what might become of this.

²⁵One came and told them, "Behold, the men whom you put in prison are in the temple, standing and teaching the people."

²⁶Then the captain went with the officers, and brought them without violence, for they were afraid that the people might stone them.

²⁷When they had brought them, they set them before the council. The high priest questioned them,

²⁸saying, "Did not we strictly command you not to teach in this name? Behold, you have filled Jerusalem with your teaching, and intend to bring this man's blood on us."

²⁹But Peter and the apostles answered, "We must obey God rather than men.

³⁰The God of our fathers raised up Jesus, whom you killed, hanging him on a tree.

³¹God exalted him with his right hand to be a Prince and a Savior, to give repentance to Israel, and remission of sins.

³²We are witnesses of these things; and so also is the Holy Spirit, whom God has given to those who obey him."

³³But they, when they heard this, were cut to the heart, and wanted to kill them.

³⁴But one stood up in the council, a Pharisee named Gamaliel, a teacher of the Law, honored by all the people, and commanded to put the men out for a little while.

³⁵He said to them, "You men of Israel, be careful concerning these men, what you are about to do.

³⁶For before these days Todah rose up, making himself out to be somebody; to whom a number of men, about four hundred, joined themselves: who was slain; and all, as many as obeyed him, were dispersed, and came to nothing.

³⁷After this man, Judas of Galilee rose up in the days of the enrollment, and drew away some people after him. He also perished, and all, as many as obeyed him, were scattered abroad.

³⁸Now I tell you, withdraw from these men, and leave them alone. For if this counsel or this work is of man, it will be overthrown.

³⁹But if it is of God, you will not be able to overthrow them, and you would be found even to be fighting against God!"

⁴⁰They agreed with him. Summoning the apostles, they beat them and commanded them not to speak in the name of Jesus, and let them go.

⁴¹They therefore departed from the presence of the council, rejoicing that they were counted worthy to suffer dishonor for the Name.

⁴²Every day, in the temple and at home, they never stopped teaching and proclaiming Jesus, the Messiah.

¹Now in those days, when the number of the disciples was multiplying, a complaint arose from the Hellenists against the Hebrews, because their widows were neglected in the daily service.

²The twelve summoned the multitude of the disciples and said, "It is not appropriate for us to forsake the word of God and serve tables.

³Therefore select from among you, brothers, seven men of good report, full of the Spirit and of wisdom, whom we may appoint over this business.

⁴But we will continue steadfastly in prayer and in the ministry of the word."

⁵These words pleased the whole multitude. They chose Stephen, a man full of faith and of the Holy Spirit, Philip, Prochorus, Nicanor, Timon, Parmenas, and Nicolaus, a proselyte of Antioch;

⁶whom they set before the apostles. When they had prayed, they laid their hands on them.

⁷The word of God increased and the number of the disciples multiplied in Jerusalem exceedingly. A great company of the priests were obedient to the faith.

⁸Stephen, full of grace and power, performed great wonders and signs among the people.

⁹But some of those who were of the synagogue called "The Libertines," and of the Cyrenians, of the Alexandrians, and of those of Cilicia and Asia arose, disputing with Stephen.

¹⁰They weren't able to withstand the wisdom and the Spirit by which he spoke.

¹¹Then they secretly induced men to say, "We have heard him speak blasphemous words against Moses and God."

¹²They stirred up the people, the elders, and the scribes, and came against him and seized him, and brought him in to the council,

¹³and set up false witnesses who said, "This man never stops speaking blasphemous words against this holy place and the Law.

¹⁴For we have heard him say that this Jesus of Nazareth will destroy this place, and will change the customs which Moses delivered to us."

¹⁵All who sat in the council, fastening their eyes on him, saw his face like it was the face of an angel.

¹The high priest said, "Are these things so?"

²He said, "Brothers and fathers, listen. The God of glory appeared to our father Abraham, when he was in Mesopotamia, before he lived in Haran,

³and said to him, 'Get out of your land, and from your relatives, and come into a land which I will show you.'

⁴Then he came out of the land of the Chaldaeans, and lived in Haran. From there, when his father was dead, God moved him into this land, where you are now living.

⁵He gave him no inheritance in it, no, not so much as to set his foot on. He promised that he would give it to him for a possession, and to his seed after him, when he still had no child.

⁶God spoke in this way: that his seed would live as foreigners in a strange land, and that they would be enslaved and mistreated for four hundred years.

⁷'I will judge the nation to which they will be in bondage,' said God, 'and after that will they come out, and serve me in this place.'

⁸He gave him the covenant of circumcision. So Abraham became the father of Isaac, and circumcised him the eighth day. Isaac became the father of Jacob, and Jacob became the father of the twelve patriarchs.

⁹"The patriarchs, moved with jealousy against Joseph, sold him into Egypt. God was with him,

¹⁰and delivered him out of all his afflictions, and gave him favor and wisdom before Pharaoh, king of Egypt. He made him governor over Egypt and all his house.

¹¹Now a famine came over all Egypt and Canaan, and great affliction. Our fathers found no food.

¹²But when Jacob heard that there was grain in Egypt, he sent out our fathers the first time.

¹³On the second time Joseph was made known to his brothers, and Joseph's race was revealed to Pharaoh.

¹⁴Then Joseph sent, and summoned Jacob, his father, and all his relatives, seventy-five souls.

¹⁵Jacob went down into Egypt, and he died, himself and our fathers,

¹⁶and they were brought back to Shechem, and placed in the tomb that Abraham bought for a price in silver from the children of Hamor in Shechem.

¹⁷"But as the time of the promise came close which God had made to Abraham, the people grew and multiplied in Egypt,

¹⁸until there arose a different king over Egypt, who did not know Joseph.

¹⁹The same took advantage of our race, and mistreated our fathers, and forced them to throw out their babies, so that they would not stay alive.

²⁰At that time Moses was born, and was exceedingly handsome. He was nourished three months in his father's house.

²¹When he was thrown out, Pharaoh's daughter took him up, and reared him as her own son.

²²Moses was instructed in all the wisdom of the Egyptians. He was mighty in his words and works.

²³But when he was forty years old, it came into his heart to visit his brothers, the children of Israel.

²⁴Seeing one of them suffer wrong, he defended him, and avenged him who was oppressed, striking the Egyptian.

²⁵He supposed that his brothers understood that God, by his hand, was giving them deliverance; but they did not understand.

²⁶"The day following, he appeared to them as they fought, and urged them to be at peace again, saying, 'Sirs, you are brothers. Why do you wrong one another?'

²⁷But he who did his neighbor wrong pushed him away, saying, 'Who made you a ruler and a judge over us?

²⁸Do you want to kill me, as you killed the Egyptian yesterday?'

²⁹Moses fled at this saying, and became a stranger in the land of Midian, where he became the father of two sons.

³⁰"When forty years were fulfilled, an angel appeared to him in the wilderness of Mount Sinai, in a flame of fire in a bush.

³¹When Moses saw it, he wondered at the sight. As he came close to see, a voice of the Lord came,

³²'I am the God of your fathers, the God of Abraham, and of Isaac, and of Jacob.' Moses trembled, and dared not look.

³³The Lord said to him, 'Take your sandals off of your feet, for the place where you stand is holy ground.

³⁴I have surely seen the affliction of my people that is in Egypt, and have heard their groaning. I have come down to deliver them. Now come, I will send you into Egypt.'

³⁵"This Moses, whom they refused, saying, 'Who made you a ruler and a judge?'-God has sent him as both a ruler and a deliverer by the hand of the angel who appeared to him in the bush.

³⁶This man led them out, having worked wonders and signs in Egypt, in the Red Sea, and in the wilderness for forty years.

³⁷This is that Moses, who said to the children of Israel, 'God will raise up a prophet for you from among your brothers, like me.'

³⁸This is he who was in the assembly in the wilderness with the angel that spoke to him on Mount Sinai, and with our fathers, who received words of life to give to us,

³⁹to whom our fathers would not be obedient, but rejected him, and turned back in their hearts to Egypt,

⁴⁰saying to Aaron, 'Make us gods that will go before us, for as for this Moses, who led us out of the land of Egypt, we do not know what has become of him.'

⁴¹They made a calf in those days, and brought a sacrifice to the idol, and rejoiced in the works of their hands.

⁴²But God turned, and abandoned them to serve the hosts of heaven, as it is written in the book of the prophets, 'Did you offer to me slain animals and sacrifices forty years in the wilderness, O house of Israel?

⁴³You took up the tabernacle of Moloch, the star of your god Rephan, the figures which you made to worship. I will carry you away beyond Babylon.'

⁴⁴"Our fathers had the tabernacle of the testimony in the wilderness, even as he who spoke to Moses commanded him to make it according to the pattern that he had seen;

⁴⁵which also our fathers, in their turn, brought in with Joshua when they entered into the possession of the nations, whom God drove out before the face of our fathers, to the days of David,

⁴⁶who found favor in the sight of God, and asked to find a habitation for the God of Jacob.

⁴⁷But Solomon built him a house.

⁴⁸However, the Most High does not dwell in temples made with hands, as the prophet says,

⁴⁹'heaven is my throne, and the earth a footstool for my feet. What kind of house will you build me?' says the Lord; 'or what is the place of my rest?

⁵⁰Did not my hand make all these things?'

⁵¹"You stiff-necked and uncircumcised in heart and ears, you always resist the Holy Spirit! As your fathers did, so you do.

⁵²Which of the prophets did not your fathers persecute? They killed those who foretold the coming of the Righteous One, of whom you have now become betrayers and murderers.

⁵³You received the Law as it was ordained by angels, and did not keep it!"

⁵⁴Now when they heard these things, they were cut to the heart, and they gnashed at him with their teeth.

⁵⁵But he, being full of the Holy Spirit, looked up steadfastly into heaven, and saw the glory of God, and Jesus standing on the right hand of God,

⁵⁶and said, "Behold, I see the heavens opened, and the Son of Man standing at the right hand of God!"

⁵⁷But they shouted out with a loud voice, and stopped their ears, and rushed at him with one accord.

⁵⁸They threw him out of the city, and stoned him. The witnesses placed their garments at the feet of a young man named Saul.

⁵⁹They stoned Stephen as he called out, saying, "Lord Jesus, receive my spirit!"

⁶⁰He kneeled down, and shouted out, "Lord, do not hold this sin against them!" When he had said this, he fell asleep.

¹Blessed is he whose disobedience is forgiven, whose sin is covered.

²Blessed is the man to whom the Lord doesn't impute iniquity, in whose spirit there is no deceit.

³When I kept silence, my bones wasted away through my groaning all day long.

⁴For day and night your hand was heavy on me. My strength was sapped in the heat of summer. Selah.

⁵I acknowledged my sin to you. I did not hide my iniquity. I said, I will confess my transgressions to the Lord, and you forgave the iniquity of my sin. Selah.

⁶For this, let everyone who is godly pray to you in a time when you may be found. Surely when the great waters overflow, they shall not reach to him.

⁷You are my hiding place. You will preserve me from trouble. You will surround me with songs of deliverance. Selah.

⁸I will instruct you and teach you in the way which you shall go. I will counsel you with my eye on you.

⁹Do not be like the horse, or like the mule, which have no understanding, who are controlled by bit and bridle, or else they will not come near to you.

¹⁰Many sorrows come to the wicked, but loving kindness shall surround him who trusts in the Lord.

¹¹Be glad in the Lord, and rejoice, you righteous! Shout for joy, all you who are upright in heart!

¹The proverbs of Solomon, the son of David, king of Israel:

²to know wisdom and instruction; to discern the words of understanding;

³to receive instruction in wise dealing, in righteousness, justice, and equity;

⁴to give prudence to the simple, knowledge and discretion to the young man:

⁵that the wise man may hear, and increase in learning; that the man of understanding may attain to sound counsel:

⁶to understand a proverb, and parables, the words and riddles of the wise.

⁷The fear of the Lord is the beginning of knowledge; but the foolish despise wisdom and instruction.

⁸My son, listen to your father's instruction, and do not forsake your mother's teaching:

⁹for they will be a garland to grace your head, and chains around your neck.

¹⁰My son, if sinners entice you, do not consent.

¹¹If they say, "Come with us, Let's lie in wait for blood; let's lurk secretly for the innocent without cause;

¹²let's swallow them up alive like Sheol, and whole, like those who go down into the pit.

¹³We'll find all valuable wealth. We'll fill our houses with spoil.

¹⁴You shall cast your lot among us. We'll all have one purse."

¹⁵My son, do not walk in the way with them. Keep your foot from their path,

¹⁶for their feet run to evil. They hurry to shed blood.

¹⁷For in vain is the net spread in the sight of any bird:

¹⁸but these lie in wait for their own blood. They lurk secretly for their own lives.

¹⁹So are the ways of everyone who is greedy for gain. It takes away the life of its owners.

²⁰Wisdom calls aloud in the street. She utters her voice in the public squares.

²¹She calls at the head of noisy places. At the entrance of the city gates, she utters her words:

²²"How long, you simple ones, will you love simplicity? How long will mockers delight themselves in mockery, and fools hate knowledge?

²³Turn at my reproof. Behold, I will pour out my spirit on you. I will make known my words to you.

²⁴Because I have called, and you have refused; I have stretched out my hand, and no one has paid attention;

²⁵but you have ignored all my counsel, and wanted none of my reproof;

²⁶I also will laugh at your disaster. I will mock when calamity overtakes you;

²⁷when calamity overtakes you like a storm, when your disaster comes on like a whirlwind; when distress and anguish come on you.

²⁸Then will they call on me, but I will not answer. They will seek me diligently, but they will not find me;

²⁹because they hated knowledge, and did not choose the fear of the Lord.

³⁰They wanted none of my counsel. They despised all my reproof.

³¹Therefore they will eat of the fruit of their own way, and be filled with their own schemes.

³²For the backsliding of the simple will kill them. The careless ease of fools will destroy them.

³³But whoever listens to me will dwell securely, and will be at ease, without fear of harm."