Day 20 - Matthew 20:1-16

“For the kingdom of heaven is like a landowner who went out early in the morning to hire laborers for his vineyard. 2After agreeing with the laborers for the usual daily wage, he sent them into his vineyard. 3When he went out about nine o’clock, he saw others standing idle in the marketplace; 4and he said to them, ‘You also go into the vineyard, and I will pay you whatever is right.’ So they went. 5When he went out again about noon and about three o’clock, he did the same. 6And about five o’clock he went out and found others standing around; and he said to them, ‘Why are you standing here idle all day?’ 7They said to him, ‘Because no one has hired us.’ He said to them, ‘You also go into the vineyard.’ 8When evening came, the owner of the vineyard said to his manager, ‘Call the laborers and give them their pay, beginning with the last and then going to the first.’ 9When those hired about five o’clock came, each of them received the usual daily wage. 10Now when the first came, they thought they would receive more; but each of them also received the usual daily wage. 11And when they received it, they grumbled against the landowner, 12saying, ‘These last worked only one hour, and you have made them equal to us who have borne the burden of the day and the scorching heat.’ 13But he replied to one of them, ‘Friend, I am doing you no wrong; did you not agree with me for the usual daily wage? 14Take what belongs to you and go; I choose to give to this last the same as I give to you. 15Am I not allowed to do what I choose with what belongs to me? Or are you envious because I am generous?’ 16So the last will be first, and the first will be last.”

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Day 19 - Matthew 11:1-6

11Now when Jesus had finished instructing his twelve disciples, he went on from there to teach and proclaim his message in their cities.

Messengers from John the Baptist

2 When John heard in prison what the Messiah was doing, he sent word by his disciples 3and said to him, ‘Are you the one who is to come, or are we to wait for another?’ 4Jesus answered them, ‘Go and tell John what you hear and see: 5the blind receive their sight, the lame walk, the lepers are cleansed, the deaf hear, the dead are raised, and the poor have good news brought to them. 6And blessed is anyone who takes no offence at me.’

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Day 18 - Micah 6:1-16

God Challenges Israel

6Hear what the Lord says:

   Rise, plead your case before the mountains,

   and let the hills hear your voice.

2 Hear, you mountains, the controversy of the Lord,

   and you enduring foundations of the earth;

for the Lord has a controversy with his people,

   and he will contend with Israel.

3 ‘O my people, what have I done to you?

   In what have I wearied you? Answer me!

4 For I brought you up from the land of Egypt,

   and redeemed you from the house of slavery;

and I sent before you Moses,

   Aaron, and Miriam.

5 O my people, remember now what King Balak of Moab devised,

   what Balaam son of Beor answered him,

and what happened from Shittim to Gilgal,

   that you may know the saving acts of the Lord.’

What God Requires

6 ‘With what shall I come before the Lord,

   and bow myself before God on high?

Shall I come before him with burnt-offerings,

   with calves a year old?

7 Will the Lord be pleased with thousands of rams,

   with tens of thousands of rivers of oil?

Shall I give my firstborn for my transgression,

   the fruit of my body for the sin of my soul?’

8 He has told you, O mortal, what is good;

   and what does the Lord require of you

but to do justice, and to love kindness,

   and to walk humbly with your God?

Cheating and Violence to Be Punished

9 The voice of the Lord cries to the city

   (it is sound wisdom to fear your name):

Hear, O tribe and assembly of the city!

10   Can I forget the treasures of wickedness in the house of the wicked,

   and the scant measure that is accursed?

11 Can I tolerate wicked scales

   and a bag of dishonest weights?

12 Your wealthy are full of violence;

   your inhabitants speak lies,

   with tongues of deceit in their mouths.

13 Therefore I have begun to strike you down,

   making you desolate because of your sins.

14 You shall eat, but not be satisfied,

   and there shall be a gnawing hunger within you;

you shall put away, but not save,

   and what you save, I will hand over to the sword.

15 You shall sow, but not reap;

   you shall tread olives, but not anoint yourselves with oil;

   you shall tread grapes, but not drink wine.

16 For you have kept the statutes of Omri

   and all the works of the house of Ahab,

   and you have followed their counsels.

Therefore I will make you a desolation, and your inhabitants an object of hissing;

   so you shall bear the scorn of my people.

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Day 17 - Amos 5:18-24

The Day of the Lord a Dark Day

18 Alas for you who desire the day of the Lord!

   Why do you want the day of the Lord?

It is darkness, not light;

19   as if someone fled from a lion,

   and was met by a bear;

or went into the house and rested a hand against the wall,

   and was bitten by a snake.

20 Is not the day of the Lord darkness, not light,

   and gloom with no brightness in it?

21 I hate, I despise your festivals,

   and I take no delight in your solemn assemblies.

22 Even though you offer me your burnt-offerings and grain-offerings,

   I will not accept them;

and the offerings of well-being of your fatted animals

   I will not look upon.

23 Take away from me the noise of your songs;

   I will not listen to the melody of your harps.

24 But let justice roll down like waters,

   and righteousness like an ever-flowing stream.

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Day 16 - Jeremiah 5:23-30

23 But this people has a stubborn and rebellious heart;

   they have turned aside and gone away.

24 They do not say in their hearts,

   ‘Let us fear the Lord our God,

who gives the rain in its season,

   the autumn rain and the spring rain,

and keeps for us

   the weeks appointed for the harvest.’

25 Your iniquities have turned these away,

   and your sins have deprived you of good.

26 For scoundrels are found among my people;

   they take over the goods of others.

Like fowlers they set a trap;

   they catch human beings.

27 Like a cage full of birds,

   their houses are full of treachery;

therefore they have become great and rich,

28   they have grown fat and sleek.

They know no limits in deeds of wickedness;

   they do not judge with justice

the cause of the orphan, to make it prosper,

   and they do not defend the rights of the needy.

29 Shall I not punish them for these things?

says the Lord,

   and shall I not bring retribution

   on a nation such as this?

30 An appalling and horrible thing

   has happened in the land:

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Day 15 - Isaiah 61:1-11

The Good News of Deliverance

61The spirit of the Lord God is upon me,

   because the Lord has anointed me;

he has sent me to bring good news to the oppressed,

   to bind up the broken-hearted,

to proclaim liberty to the captives,

   and release to the prisoners;

2 to proclaim the year of the Lord’s favour,

   and the day of vengeance of our God;

   to comfort all who mourn;

3 to provide for those who mourn in Zion—

   to give them a garland instead of ashes,

the oil of gladness instead of mourning,

   the mantle of praise instead of a faint spirit.

They will be called oaks of righteousness,

   the planting of the Lord, to display his glory.

4 They shall build up the ancient ruins,

   they shall raise up the former devastations;

they shall repair the ruined cities,

   the devastations of many generations.

5 Strangers shall stand and feed your flocks,

   foreigners shall till your land and dress your vines;

6 but you shall be called priests of the Lord,

   you shall be named ministers of our God;

you shall enjoy the wealth of the nations,

   and in their riches you shall glory.

7 Because their shame was double,

   and dishonour was proclaimed as their lot,

therefore they shall possess a double portion;

   everlasting joy shall be theirs.

8 For I the Lord love justice,

   I hate robbery and wrongdoing;

I will faithfully give them their recompense,

   and I will make an everlasting covenant with them.

9 Their descendants shall be known among the nations,

   and their offspring among the peoples;

all who see them shall acknowledge

   that they are a people whom the Lord has blessed.

10 I will greatly rejoice in the Lord,

   my whole being shall exult in my God;

for he has clothed me with the garments of salvation,

   he has covered me with the robe of righteousness,

as a bridegroom decks himself with a garland,

   and as a bride adorns herself with her jewels.

11 For as the earth brings forth its shoots,

   and as a garden causes what is sown in it to spring up,

so the Lord God will cause righteousness and praise

   to spring up before all the nations.

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Day 14 - Isaiah 58:6-14

6 Is not this the fast that I choose:

   to loose the bonds of injustice,

   to undo the thongs of the yoke,

to let the oppressed go free,

   and to break every yoke?

7 Is it not to share your bread with the hungry,

   and bring the homeless poor into your house;

when you see the naked, to cover them,

   and not to hide yourself from your own kin?

8 Then your light shall break forth like the dawn,

   and your healing shall spring up quickly;

your vindicator shall go before you,

   the glory of the Lord shall be your rearguard.

9 Then you shall call, and the Lord will answer;

   you shall cry for help, and he will say, Here I am.

If you remove the yoke from among you,

   the pointing of the finger, the speaking of evil,

10 if you offer your food to the hungry

   and satisfy the needs of the afflicted,

then your light shall rise in the darkness

   and your gloom be like the noonday.

11 The Lord will guide you continually,

   and satisfy your needs in parched places,

   and make your bones strong;

and you shall be like a watered garden,

   like a spring of water,

   whose waters never fail.

12 Your ancient ruins shall be rebuilt;

   you shall raise up the foundations of many generations;

you shall be called the repairer of the breach,

   the restorer of streets to live in.

13 If you refrain from trampling the sabbath,

   from pursuing your own interests on my holy day;

if you call the sabbath a delight

   and the holy day of the Lord honourable;

if you honour it, not going your own ways,

   serving your own interests, or pursuing your own affairs;

14 then you shall take delight in the Lord,

   and I will make you ride upon the heights of the earth;

I will feed you with the heritage of your ancestor Jacob,

   for the mouth of the Lord has spoken.

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