January 10: Daily Readings & Quote

To search and understand the Scriptures rightly, we need a good life and a pure soul. Christian virtue must guide the mind to grasp, as for as human nature can, the truth concerning God the Word.

-St. Athanasius of Alexandria

Today's readings are:

Genesis Chapter 21-23

 Mark 4:1-25

 

1

The LORD took note of Sarah as he had said he would; he did for her as he had promised.

2

Sarah became pregnant and bore Abraham a son in his old age, at the set time that God had stated.

3

Abraham gave the name Isaac to this son of his whom Sarah bore him.

4

When his son Isaac was eight days old, Abraham circumcised him, as God had commanded.

5

Abraham was a hundred years old when his son Isaac was born to him.

6

Sarah then said, "God has given me cause to laugh, and all who hear of it will laugh with me.

7

Who would have told Abraham," she added, "that Sarah would nurse children! Yet I have borne him a son in his old age."

8

Isaac grew, and on the day of the child's weaning, Abraham held a great feast.

9

¹ Sarah noticed the son whom Hagar the Egyptian had borne to Abraham playing with her son Isaac;

10

so she demanded of Abraham: "Drive out that slave and her son! No son of that slave is going to share the inheritance with my son Isaac!"

11

Abraham was greatly distressed, especially on account of his son Ishmael.

12

But God said to Abraham: "Do not be distressed about the boy or about your slave woman. Heed the demands of Sarah, no matter what she is asking of you; for it is through Isaac that descendants shall bear your name.

13

As for the son of the slave woman, I will make a great nation of him also, since he too is your offspring."

14

² Early the next morning Abraham got some bread and a skin of water and gave them to Hagar. Then, placing the child on her back, he sent her away. As she roamed aimlessly in the wilderness of Beer-sheba,

15

the water in the skin was used up. So she put the child down under a shrub,

16

and then went and sat down opposite him, about a bowshot away; for she said to herself, "Let me not watch to see the child die." As she sat opposite him, he began to cry.

17

God heard the boy's cry, and God's messenger called to Hagar from heaven: "What is the matter, Hagar? Don't be afraid; God has heard the boy's cry in this plight of his.

18

Arise, lift up the boy and hold him by the hand; for I will make of him a great nation."

19

Then God opened her eyes, and she saw a well of water. She went and filled the skin with water, and then let the boy drink.

20

God was with the boy as he grew up. He lived in the wilderness and became an expert bowman,

21

with his home in the wilderness of Paran. His mother got a wife for him from the land of Egypt.

22

³ About that time Abimelech, accompanied by Phicol, the commander of his army, said to Abraham: "God is with you in everything you do.

23

⁴ Therefore, swear to me by God at this place that you will not deal falsely with me or with my progeny and posterity, but will act as loyally toward me and the land in which you stay as I have acted toward you."

24

To this Abraham replied, "I so swear."

25

Abraham, however, reproached Abimelech about a well that Abimelech's men had seized by force.

26

"I have no idea who did that," Abimelech replied. "In fact, you never told me about it, nor did I ever hear of it until now."

27

Then Abraham took sheep and cattle and gave them to Abimelech and the two made a pact.

28

Abraham also set apart seven ewe lambs of the flock,

29

and Abimelech asked him, "What is the purpose of these seven ewe lambs that you have set apart?"

30

Abraham answered, "The seven ewe lambs you shall accept from me that thus I may have your acknowledgment that the well was dug by me."

31

⁵ This is why the place is called Beer-sheba; the two took an oath there.

32

When they had thus made the pact in Beer-sheba, Abimelech, along with Phicol, the commander of his army, left and returned to the land of the Philistines.

33

⁶ Abraham planted a tamarisk at Beer-sheba, and there he invoked by name the LORD, God the Eternal.

34

Abraham resided in the land of the Philistines for many years.

 

1

¹ Some time after these events, God put Abraham to the test. He called to him, "Abraham!" "Ready!" he replied.

2

² Then God said: "Take your son Isaac, your only one, whom you love, and go to the land of Moriah. There you shall offer him up as a holocaust on a height that I will point out to you."

3

Early the next morning Abraham saddled his donkey, took with him his son Isaac, and two of his servants as well, and with the wood that he had cut for the holocaust, set out for the place of which God had told him.

4

On the third day Abraham got sight of the place from afar.

5

Then he said to his servants: "Both of you stay here with the donkey, while the boy and I go on over yonder. We will worship and then come back to you."

6

Thereupon Abraham took the wood for the holocaust and laid it on his son Isaac's shoulders, while he himself carried the fire and the knife.

7

As the two walked on together, Isaac spoke to his father Abraham. "Father!" he said. "Yes, son," he replied. Isaac continued, "Here are the fire and the wood, but where is the sheep for the holocaust?"

8

"Son," Abraham answered, "God himself will provide the sheep for the holocaust." Then the two continued going forward.

9

When they came to the place of which God had told him, Abraham built an altar there and arranged the wood on it. Next he tied up his son Isaac, and put him on top of the wood on the altar.

10

Then he reached out and took the knife to slaughter his son.

11

But the LORD'S messenger called to him from heaven, "Abraham, Abraham!" "Yes, Lord," he answered.

12

"Do not lay your hand on the boy," said the messenger. "Do not do the least thing to him. I know now how devoted you are to God, since you did not withhold from me your own beloved son."

13

As Abraham looked about, he spied a ram caught by its horns in the thicket. So he went and took the ram and offered it up as a holocaust in place of his son.

14

³ Abraham named the site Yahweh-yireh; hence people now say, "On the mountain the LORD will see."

15

Again the LORD'S messenger called to Abraham from heaven

16

and said: "I swear by myself, declares the LORD, that because you acted as you did in not withholding from me your beloved son,

17

I will bless you abundantly and make your descendants as countless as the stars of the sky and the sands of the seashore; your descendants shall take possession of the gates of their enemies,

18

and in your descendants all the nations of the earth shall find blessing--all this because you obeyed my command.''

19

Abraham then returned to his servants, and they set out together for Beer-sheba, where Abraham made his home.

20

⁴ Some time afterward, the news came to Abraham: "Milcah too has borne sons, to your brother Nahor:

21

Uz, his first-born, his brother Buz, Kemuel (the father of Aram),

22

Chesed, Hazo, Pildash, Jidlaph, and Bethuel."

23

Bethuel became the father of Rebekah. These eight Milcah bore to Abraham's brother Nahor.

24

His concubine, whose name was Reumah, also bore children: Tebah, Gaham, Tahash, and Maacah.

1

The span of Sarah's life was one hundred and twenty-seven years.

2

She died in Kiriatharba (that is, Hebron) in the land of Canaan, and Abraham performed the customary mourning rites for her.

3

¹ Then he left the side of his dead one and addressed the Hittites:

4

² "Although I am a resident alien among you, sell me from your holdings a piece of property for a burial ground, that I may bury my dead wife."

5

The Hittites answered Abraham: "Please, sir,

6

listen to us! You are an elect of God among us. Bury your dead in the choicest of our burial sites. None of us would deny you his burial ground for the burial of your dead."

7

Abraham, however, began to bow low before the local citizens, the Hittites,

8

while he appealed to them: "If you will allow me room for burial of my dead, listen to me! Intercede for me with Ephron, son of Zohar, asking him

9

to sell me the cave of Machpelah that he owns; it is at the edge of his field. Let him sell it to me in your presence, at its full price, for a burial place."

10

³ Now Ephron was present with the Hittites. So Ephron the Hittite replied to Abraham in the hearing of the Hittites who sat on his town council:

11

"Please, sir, listen to me! I give you both the field and the cave in it; in the presence of my kinsmen I make this gift. Bury your dead!"

12

But Abraham, after bowing low before the local citizens, addressed Ephron in the hearing of these men:

13

"Ah, if only you would please listen to me! I will pay you the price of the field. Accept it from me, that I may bury my dead there."

14

Ephron replied to Abraham, "Please,

15

⁴ sir, listen to me! A piece of land worth four hundred shekels of silver--what is that between you and me, as long as you can bury your dead?"

16

⁵ Abraham accepted Ephron's terms; he weighed out to him the silver that Ephron had stipulated in the hearing of the Hittites, four hundred shekels of silver at the current market value.

17

Thus Ephron's field in Machpelah, facing Mamre, together with its cave and all the trees anywhere within its limits, was conveyed

18

to Abraham by purchase in the presence of all the Hittites who sat on Ephron's town council.

19

After this transaction, Abraham buried his wife Sarah in the cave of the field of Machpelah, facing Mamre (that is, Hebron) in the land of Canaan.

20

Thus the field with its cave was transferred from the Hittites to Abraham as a burial place.

 

1

¹ On another occasion he began to teach by the sea. ² A very large crowd gathered around him so that he got into a boat on the sea and sat down. And the whole crowd was beside the sea on land.

2

And he taught them at length in parables, and in the course of his instruction he said to them,

3

³ "Hear this! A sower went out to sow.

4

And as he sowed, some seed fell on the path, and the birds came and ate it up.

5

Other seed fell on rocky ground where it had little soil. It sprang up at once because the soil was not deep.

6

And when the sun rose, it was scorched and it withered for lack of roots.

7

Some seed fell among thorns, and the thorns grew up and choked it and it produced no grain.

8

And some seed fell on rich soil and produced fruit. It came up and grew and yielded thirty, sixty, and a hundredfold."

9

He added, "Whoever has ears to hear ought to hear."

10

And when he was alone, those present along with the Twelve questioned him about the parables.

11

⁴ He answered them, "The mystery of the kingdom of God has been granted to you. But to those outside everything comes in parables,

12

so that 'they may look and see but not perceive, and hear and listen but not understand, in order that they may not be converted and be forgiven.'"

13

⁵ Jesus said to them, "Do you not understand this parable? Then how will you understand any of the parables?

14

The sower sows the word.

15

These are the ones on the path where the word is sown. As soon as they hear, Satan comes at once and takes away the word sown in them.

16

And these are the ones sown on rocky ground who, when they hear the word, receive it at once with joy.

17

But they have no root; they last only for a time. Then when tribulation or persecution comes because of the word, they quickly fall away.

18

Those sown among thorns are another sort. They are the people who hear the word,

19

but worldly anxiety, the lure of riches, and the craving for other things intrude and choke the word, and it bears no fruit.

20

But those sown on rich soil are the ones who hear the word and accept it and bear fruit thirty and sixty and a hundredfold."

21

He said to them, "Is a lamp brought in to be placed under a bushel basket or under a bed, and not to be placed on a lampstand?

22

For there is nothing hidden except to be made visible; nothing is secret except to come to light.

23

Anyone who has ears to hear ought to hear."

24

He also told them, "Take care what you hear. The measure with which you measure will be measured out to you, and still more will be given to you.

25

To the one who has, more will be given; from the one who has not, even what he has will be taken away."