February 19: Psalm 50; Genesis 45; 2 Chronicles 23; Acts 17:16–34 - a podcast by Crossway

Psalm 50(Listen)

God Himself Is Judge

A Psalm of Asaph.

50   The Mighty One, God the LORD,
    speaks and summons the earth
    from the rising of the sun to its setting.
2   Out of Zion, the perfection of beauty,
    God shines forth.
3   Our God comes; he does not keep silence;¹
    before him is a devouring fire,
    around him a mighty tempest.
4   He calls to the heavens above
    and to the earth, that he may judge his people:
5   “Gather to me my faithful ones,
    who made a covenant with me by sacrifice!”
6   The heavens declare his righteousness,
    for God himself is judge!Selah
7   “Hear, O my people, and I will speak;
    O Israel, I will testify against you.
    I am God, your God.
8   Not for your sacrifices do I rebuke you;
    your burnt offerings are continually before me.
9   I will not accept a bull from your house
    or goats from your folds.
10   For every beast of the forest is mine,
    the cattle on a thousand hills.
11   I know all the birds of the hills,
    and all that moves in the field is mine.
12   “If I were hungry, I would not tell you,
    for the world and its fullness are mine.
13   Do I eat the flesh of bulls
    or drink the blood of goats?
14   Offer to God a sacrifice of thanksgiving,²
    and perform your vows to the Most High,
15   and call upon me in the day of trouble;
    I will deliver you, and you shall glorify me.”
16   But to the wicked God says:
    “What right have you to recite my statutes
    or take my covenant on your lips?
17   For you hate discipline,
    and you cast my words behind you.
18   If you see a thief, you are pleased with him,
    and you keep company with adulterers.
19   “You give your mouth free rein for evil,
    and your tongue frames deceit.
20   You sit and speak against your brother;
    you slander your own mother’s son.
21   These things you have done, and I have been silent;
    you thought that I³was one like yourself.
  But now I rebuke you and lay the charge before you.
22   “Mark this, then, you who forget God,
    lest I tear you apart, and there be none to deliver!
23   The one who offers thanksgiving as his sacrifice glorifies me;
    to one who orders his way rightly
    I will show the salvation of God!”

(ESV)

Genesis 45(Listen)

Joseph Provides for His Brothers and Family

45 Then Joseph could not control himself before all those who stood by him. He cried, “Make everyone go out from me.” So no one stayed with him when Joseph made himself known to his brothers.2 And he wept aloud, so that the Egyptians heard it, and the household of Pharaoh heard it.3 And Joseph said to his brothers, “I am Joseph! Is my father still alive?” But his brothers could not answer him, for they were dismayed at his presence.

4 So Joseph said to his brothers, “Come near to me, please.” And they came near. And he said, “I am your brother, Joseph, whom you sold into Egypt.5 And now do not be distressed or angry with yourselves because you sold me here, for God sent me before you to preserve life.6 For the famine has been in the land these two years, and there are yet five years in which there will be neither plowing nor harvest.7 And God sent me before you to preserve for you a remnant on earth, and to keep alive for you many survivors.8 So it was not you who sent me here, but God. He has made me a father to Pharaoh, and lord of all his house and ruler over all the land of Egypt.9 Hurry and go up to my father and say to him, ‘Thus says your son Joseph, God has made me lord of all Egypt. Come down to me; do not tarry.10 You shall dwell in the land of Goshen, and you shall be near me, you and your children and your children’s children, and your flocks, your herds, and all that you have.11 There I will provide for you, for there are yet five years of famine to come, so that you and your household, and all that you have, do not come to poverty.’12 And now your eyes see, and the eyes of my brother Benjamin see, that it is my mouth that speaks to you.13 You must tell my father of all my honor in Egypt, and of all that you have seen. Hurry and bring my father down here.”14 Then he fell upon his brother Benjamin’s neck and wept, and Benjamin wept upon his neck.15 And he kissed all his brothers and wept upon them. After that his brothers talked with him.

16 When the report was heard in Pharaoh’s house, “Joseph’s brothers have come,” it pleased Pharaoh and his servants.17 And Pharaoh said to Joseph, “Say to your brothers, ‘Do this: load your beasts and go back to the land of Canaan,18 and take your father and your households, and come to me, and I will give you the best of the land of Egypt, and you shall eat the fat of the land.’19 And you, Joseph, are commanded to say, ‘Do this: take wagons from the land of Egypt for your little ones and for your wives, and bring your father, and come.20 Have no concern for¹your goods, for the best of all the land of Egypt is yours.’”

21 The sons of Israel did so: and Joseph gave them wagons, according to the command of Pharaoh, and gave them provisions for the journey.22 To each and all of them he gave a change of clothes, but to Benjamin he gave three hundred shekels²of silver and five changes of clothes.23 To his father he sent as follows: ten donkeys loaded with the good things of Egypt, and ten female donkeys loaded with grain, bread, and provision for his father on the journey.24 Then he sent his brothers away, and as they departed, he said to them, “Do not quarrel on the way.”

25 So they went up out of Egypt and came to the land of Canaan to their father Jacob.26 And they told him, “Joseph is still alive, and he is ruler over all the land of Egypt.” And his heart became numb, for he did not believe them.27 But when they told him all the words of Joseph, which he had said to them, and when he saw the wagons that Joseph had sent to carry him, the spirit of their father Jacob revived.28 And Israel said, “It is enough; Joseph my son is still alive. I will go and see him before I die.”

(ESV)

2 Chronicles 23(Listen)

Joash Made King

23 But in the seventh year Jehoiada took courage and entered into a covenant with the commanders of hundreds, Azariah the son of Jeroham, Ishmael the son of Jehohanan, Azariah the son of Obed, Maaseiah the son of Adaiah, and Elishaphat the son of Zichri.2 And they went about through Judah and gathered the Levites from all the cities of Judah, and the heads of fathers’ houses of Israel, and they came to Jerusalem.3 And all the assembly made a covenant with the king in the house of God. And Jehoiada¹said to them, “Behold, the king’s son! Let him reign, as the LORD spoke concerning the sons of David.4 This is the thing that you shall do: of you priests and Levites who come off duty on the Sabbath, one third shall be gatekeepers,5 and one third shall be at the king’s house and one third at the Gate of the Foundation. And all the people shall be in the courts of the house of the LORD.6 Let no one enter the house of the LORD except the priests and ministering Levites. They may enter, for they are holy, but all the people shall keep the charge of the LORD.7 The Levites shall surround the king, each with his weapons in his hand. And whoever enters the house shall be put to death. Be with the king when he comes in and when he goes out.”

8 The Levites and all Judah did according to all that Jehoiada the priest commanded, and they each brought his men, who were to go off duty on the Sabbath, with those who were to come on duty on the Sabbath, for Jehoiada the priest did not dismiss the divisions.9 And Jehoiada the priest gave to the captains the spears and the large and small shields that had been King David’s, which were in the house of God.10 And he set all the people as a guard for the king, every man with his weapon in his hand, from the south side of the house to the north side of the house, around the altar and the house.11 Then they brought out the king’s son and put the crown on him and gave him the testimony. And they proclaimed him king, and Jehoiada and his sons anointed him, and they said, “Long live the king.”

Athaliah Executed

12 When Athaliah heard the noise of the people running and praising the king, she went into the house of the LORD to the people.13 And when she looked, there was the king standing by his pillar at the entrance, and the captains and the trumpeters beside the king, and all the people of the land rejoicing and blowing trumpets, and the singers with their musical instruments leading in the celebration. And Athaliah tore her clothes and cried, “Treason! Treason!”14 Then Jehoiada the priest brought out the captains who were set over the army, saying to them, “Bring her out between the ranks, and anyone who follows her is to be put to death with the sword.” For the priest said, “Do not put her to death in the house of the LORD.”15 So they laid hands on her,²and she went into the entrance of the horse gate of the king’s house, and they put her to death there.

Jehoiada’s Reforms

16 And Jehoiada made a covenant between himself and all the people and the king that they should be the LORD’s people.17 Then all the people went to the house of Baal and tore it down; his altars and his images they broke in pieces, and they killed Mattan the priest of Baal before the altars.18 And Jehoiada posted watchmen for the house of the LORD under the direction of the Levitical priests and the Levites whom David had organized to be in charge of the house of the LORD, to offer burnt offerings to the LORD, as it is written in the Law of Moses, with rejoicing and with singing, according to the order of David.19 He stationed the gatekeepers at the gates of the house of the LORD so that no one should enter who was in any way unclean.20 And he took the captains, the nobles, the governors of the people, and all the people of the land, and they brought the king down from the house of the LORD, marching through the upper gate to the king’s house. And they set the king on the royal throne.21 So all the people of the land rejoiced, and the city was quiet after Athaliah had been put to death with the sword.

(ESV)

Acts 17:16–34(Listen)

Paul in Athens

16 Now while Paul was waiting for them at Athens, his spirit was provoked within him as he saw that the city was full of idols.17 So he reasoned in the synagogue with the Jews and the devout persons, and in the marketplace every day with those who happened to be there.18 Some of the Epicurean and Stoic philosophers also conversed with him. And some said, “What does this babbler wish to say?” Others said, “He seems to be a preacher of foreign divinities”—because he was preaching Jesus and the resurrection.19 And they took him and brought him to the Areopagus, saying, “May we know what this new teaching is that you are presenting?20 For you bring some strange things to our ears. We wish to know therefore what these things mean.”21 Now all the Athenians and the foreigners who lived there would spend their time in nothing except telling or hearing something new.

Paul Addresses the Areopagus

22 So Paul, standing in the midst of the Areopagus, said: “Men of Athens, I perceive that in every way you are very religious.23 For as I passed along and observed the objects of your worship, I found also an altar with this inscription: ‘To the unknown god.’ What therefore you worship as unknown, this I proclaim to you.24 The God who made the world and everything in it, being Lord of heaven and earth, does not live in temples made by man,¹25 nor is he served by human hands, as though he needed anything, since he himself gives to all mankind life and breath and everything.26 And he made from one man every nation of mankind to live on all the face of the earth, having determined allotted periods and the boundaries of their dwelling place,27 that they should seek God, and perhaps feel their way toward him and find him. Yet he is actually not far from each one of us,28 for

  “‘In him we live and move and have our being’;²

as even some of your own poets have said,

  “‘For we are indeed his offspring.’³

29 Being then God’s offspring, we ought not to think that the divine being is like gold or silver or stone, an image formed by the art and imagination of man.30 The times of ignorance God overlooked, but now he commands all people everywhere to repent,31 because he has fixed a day on which he will judge the world in righteousness by a man whom he has appointed; and of this he has given assurance to all by raising him from the dead.”

32 Now when they heard of the resurrection of the dead, some mocked. But others said, “We will hear you again about this.”33 So Paul went out from their midst.34 But some men joined him and believed, among whom also were Dionysius the Areopagite and a woman named Damaris and others with them.

(ESV)