March 14: Exodus 25; John 4; Proverbs 1; 2 Corinthians 13 - a podcast by Crossway

Exodus 25(Listen)

Contributions for the Sanctuary

25 The LORD said to Moses,2 “Speak to the people of Israel, that they take for me a contribution. From every man whose heart moves him you shall receive the contribution for me.3 And this is the contribution that you shall receive from them: gold, silver, and bronze,4 blue and purple and scarlet yarns and fine twined linen, goats’ hair,5 tanned rams’ skins, goatskins,¹acacia wood,6 oil for the lamps, spices for the anointing oil and for the fragrant incense,7 onyx stones, and stones for setting, for the ephod and for the breastpiece.8 And let them make me a sanctuary, that I may dwell in their midst.9 Exactly as I show you concerning the pattern of the tabernacle, and of all its furniture, so you shall make it.

The Ark of the Covenant

10 “They shall make an ark of acacia wood. Two cubits²and a half shall be its length, a cubit and a half its breadth, and a cubit and a half its height.11 You shall overlay it with pure gold, inside and outside shall you overlay it, and you shall make on it a molding of gold around it.12 You shall cast four rings of gold for it and put them on its four feet, two rings on the one side of it, and two rings on the other side of it.13 You shall make poles of acacia wood and overlay them with gold.14 And you shall put the poles into the rings on the sides of the ark to carry the ark by them.15 The poles shall remain in the rings of the ark; they shall not be taken from it.16 And you shall put into the ark the testimony that I shall give you.

17 “You shall make a mercy seat³of pure gold. Two cubits and a half shall be its length, and a cubit and a half its breadth.18 And you shall make two cherubim of gold; of hammered work shall you make them, on the two ends of the mercy seat.19 Make one cherub on the one end, and one cherub on the other end. Of one piece with the mercy seat shall you make the cherubim on its two ends.20 The cherubim shall spread out their wings above, overshadowing the mercy seat with their wings, their faces one to another; toward the mercy seat shall the faces of the cherubim be.21 And you shall put the mercy seat on the top of the ark, and in the ark you shall put the testimony that I shall give you.22 There I will meet with you, and from above the mercy seat, from between the two cherubim that are on the ark of the testimony, I will speak with you about all that I will give you in commandment for the people of Israel.

The Table for Bread

23 “You shall make a table of acacia wood. Two cubits shall be its length, a cubit its breadth, and a cubit and a half its height.24 You shall overlay it with pure gold and make a molding of gold around it.25 And you shall make a rim around it a handbreadth⁴wide, and a molding of gold around the rim.26 And you shall make for it four rings of gold, and fasten the rings to the four corners at its four legs.27 Close to the frame the rings shall lie, as holders for the poles to carry the table.28 You shall make the poles of acacia wood, and overlay them with gold, and the table shall be carried with these.29 And you shall make its plates and dishes for incense, and its flagons and bowls with which to pour drink offerings; you shall make them of pure gold.30 And you shall set the bread of the Presence on the table before me regularly.

The Golden Lampstand

31 “You shall make a lampstand of pure gold. The lampstand shall be made of hammered work: its base, its stem, its cups, its calyxes, and its flowers shall be of one piece with it.32 And there shall be six branches going out of its sides, three branches of the lampstand out of one side of it and three branches of the lampstand out of the other side of it;33 three cups made like almond blossoms, each with calyx and flower, on one branch, and three cups made like almond blossoms, each with calyx and flower, on the other branch—so for the six branches going out of the lampstand.34 And on the lampstand itself there shall be four cups made like almond blossoms, with their calyxes and flowers,35 and a calyx of one piece with it under each pair of the six branches going out from the lampstand.36 Their calyxes and their branches shall be of one piece with it, the whole of it a single piece of hammered work of pure gold.37 You shall make seven lamps for it. And the lamps shall be set up so as to give light on the space in front of it.38 Its tongs and their trays shall be of pure gold.39 It shall be made, with all these utensils, out of a talent⁵of pure gold.40 And see that you make them after the pattern for them, which is being shown you on the mountain.

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John 4(Listen)

Jesus and the Woman of Samaria

4 Now when Jesus learned that the Pharisees had heard that Jesus was making and baptizing more disciples than John2 (although Jesus himself did not baptize, but only his disciples),3 he left Judea and departed again for Galilee.4 And he had to pass through Samaria.5 So he came to a town of Samaria called Sychar, near the field that Jacob had given to his son Joseph.6 Jacob’s well was there; so Jesus, wearied as he was from his journey, was sitting beside the well. It was about the sixth hour.¹

7 A woman from Samaria came to draw water. Jesus said to her,“Give me a drink.”8 (For his disciples had gone away into the city to buy food.)9 The Samaritan woman said to him, “How is it that you, a Jew, ask for a drink from me, a woman of Samaria?” (For Jews have no dealings with Samaritans.)10 Jesus answered her,“If you knew the gift of God, and who it is that is saying to you, ‘Give me a drink,’ you would have asked him, and he would have given you living water.”11 The woman said to him, “Sir, you have nothing to draw water with, and the well is deep. Where do you get that living water?12 Are you greater than our father Jacob? He gave us the well and drank from it himself, as did his sons and his livestock.”13 Jesus said to her,“Everyone who drinks of this water will be thirsty again,14 but whoever drinks of the water that I will give him will never be thirsty again.²The water that I will give him will become in him a spring of water welling up to eternal life.”15 The woman said to him, “Sir, give me this water, so that I will not be thirsty or have to come here to draw water.”

16 Jesus said to her,“Go, call your husband, and come here.”17 The woman answered him, “I have no husband.” Jesus said to her,“You are right in saying, ‘I have no husband’;18 for you have had five husbands, and the one you now have is not your husband. What you have said is true.”19 The woman said to him, “Sir, I perceive that you are a prophet.20 Our fathers worshiped on this mountain, but you say that in Jerusalem is the place where people ought to worship.”21 Jesus said to her,“Woman, believe me, the hour is coming when neither on this mountain nor in Jerusalem will you worship the Father.22 You worship what you do not know; we worship what we know, for salvation is from the Jews.23 But the hour is coming, and is now here, when the true worshipers will worship the Father in spirit and truth, for the Father is seeking such people to worship him.24 God is spirit, and those who worship him must worship in spirit and truth.”25 The woman said to him, “I know that Messiah is coming (he who is called Christ). When he comes, he will tell us all things.”26 Jesus said to her,“I who speak to you am he.”

27 Just then his disciples came back. They marveled that he was talking with a woman, but no one said, “What do you seek?” or, “Why are you talking with her?”28 So the woman left her water jar and went away into town and said to the people,29 “Come, see a man who told me all that I ever did. Can this be the Christ?”30 They went out of the town and were coming to him.

31 Meanwhile the disciples were urging him, saying, “Rabbi, eat.”32 But he said to them,“I have food to eat that you do not know about.”33 So the disciples said to one another, “Has anyone brought him something to eat?”34 Jesus said to them,“My food is to do the will of him who sent me and to accomplish his work.35 Do you not say, ‘There are yet four months, then comes the harvest’? Look, I tell you, lift up your eyes, and see that the fields are white for harvest.36 Alreadythe one who reaps is receiving wages and gathering fruit for eternal life, so that sower and reaper may rejoice together.37 For here the saying holds true, ‘One sows and another reaps.’38 I sent you to reap that for which you did not labor. Others have labored, and you have entered into their labor.”

39 Many Samaritans from that town believed in him because of the woman’s testimony, “He told me all that I ever did.”40 So when the Samaritans came to him, they asked him to stay with them, and he stayed there two days.41 And many more believed because of his word.42 They said to the woman, “It is no longer because of what you said that we believe, for we have heard for ourselves, and we know that this is indeed the Savior of the world.”

43 After the two days he departed for Galilee.44 (For Jesus himself had testified that a prophet has no honor in his own hometown.)45 So when he came to Galilee, the Galileans welcomed him, having seen all that he had done in Jerusalem at the feast. For they too had gone to the feast.

Jesus Heals an Official’s Son

46 So he came again to Cana in Galilee, where he had made the water wine. And at Capernaum there was an official whose son was ill.47 When this man heard that Jesus had come from Judea to Galilee, he went to him and asked him to come down and heal his son, for he was at the point of death.48 So Jesus said to him,“Unless you³see signs and wonders you will not believe.”49 The official said to him, “Sir, come down before my child dies.”50 Jesus said to him,“Go; your son will live.”The man believed the word that Jesus spoke to him and went on his way.51 As he was going down, his servants⁴met him and told him that his son was recovering.52 So he asked them the hour when he began to get better, and they said to him, “Yesterday at the seventh hour⁵the fever left him.”53 The father knew that was the hour when Jesus had said to him,“Your son will live.”And he himself believed, and all his household.54 This was now the second sign that Jesus did when he had come from Judea to Galilee.

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Proverbs 1(Listen)

The Beginning of Knowledge

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

2   To know wisdom and instruction,
    to understand words of insight,
3   to receive instruction in wise dealing,
    in righteousness, justice, and equity;
4   to give prudence to the simple,
    knowledge and discretion to the youth—
5   Let the wise hear and increase in learning,
    and the one who understands obtain guidance,
6   to understand a proverb and a saying,
    the words of the wise and their riddles.
7   The fear of the LORD is the beginning of knowledge;
    fools despise wisdom and instruction.

The Enticement of Sinners

8   Hear, my son, your father’s instruction,
    and forsake not your mother’s teaching,
9   for they are a graceful garland for your head
    and pendants for your neck.
10   My son, if sinners entice you,
    do not consent.
11   If they say, “Come with us, let us lie in wait for blood;
    let us ambush the innocent without reason;
12   like Sheol let us swallow them alive,
    and whole, like those who go down to the pit;
13   we shall find all precious goods,
    we shall fill our houses with plunder;
14   throw in your lot among us;
    we will all have one purse”—
15   my son, do not walk in the way with them;
    hold back your foot from their paths,
16   for their feet run to evil,
    and they make haste to shed blood.
17   For in vain is a net spread
    in the sight of any bird,
18   but these men lie in wait for their own blood;
    they set an ambush for their own lives.
19   Such are the ways of everyone who is greedy for unjust gain;
    it takes away the life of its possessors.

The Call of Wisdom

20   Wisdom cries aloud in the street,
    in the markets she raises her voice;
21   at the head of the noisy streets she cries out;
    at the entrance of the city gates she speaks:
22   “How long, O simple ones, will you love being simple?
  How long will scoffers delight in their scoffing
    and fools hate knowledge?
23   If you turn at my reproof,¹
  behold, I will pour out my spirit to you;
    I will make my words known to you.
24   Because I have called and you refused to listen,
    have stretched out my hand and no one has heeded,
25   because you have ignored all my counsel
    and would have none of my reproof,
26   I also will laugh at your calamity;
    I will mock when terror strikes you,
27   when terror strikes you like a storm
    and your calamity comes like a whirlwind,
    when distress and anguish come upon you.
28   Then they will call upon me, but I will not answer;
    they will seek me diligently but will not find me.
29   Because they hated knowledge
    and did not choose the fear of the LORD,
30   would have none of my counsel
    and despised all my reproof,
31   therefore they shall eat the fruit of their way,
    and have their fill of their own devices.
32   For the simple are killed by their turning away,
    and the complacency of fools destroys them;
33   but whoever listens to me will dwell secure
    and will be at ease, without dread of disaster.”

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2 Corinthians 13(Listen)

Final Warnings

13 This is the third time I am coming to you. Every charge must be established by the evidence of two or three witnesses.2 I warned those who sinned before and all the others, and I warn them now while absent, as I did when present on my second visit, that if I come again I will not spare them—3 since you seek proof that Christ is speaking in me. He is not weak in dealing with you, but is powerful among you.4 For he was crucified in weakness, but lives by the power of God. For we also are weak in him, but in dealing with you we will live with him by the power of God.

5 Examine yourselves, to see whether you are in the faith. Test yourselves. Or do you not realize this about yourselves, that Jesus Christ is in you?—unless indeed you fail to meet the test!6 I hope you will find out that we have not failed the test.7 But we pray to God that you may not do wrong—not that we may appear to have met the test, but that you may do what is right, though we may seem to have failed.8 For we cannot do anything against the truth, but only for the truth.9 For we are glad when we are weak and you are strong. Your restoration is what we pray for.10 For this reason I write these things while I am away from you, that when I come I may not have to be severe in my use of the authority that the Lord has given me for building up and not for tearing down.

Final Greetings

11 Finally, brothers,¹rejoice. Aim for restoration, comfort one another,²agree with one another, live in peace; and the God of love and peace will be with you.12 Greet one another with a holy kiss.13 All the saints greet you.

14 The grace of the Lord Jesus Christ and the love of God and the fellowship of the Holy Spirit be with you all.

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