Open Word

Semicontinuous (Track 1)

FIRST READING

Jeremiah 31:31-34

Verse 31. Behold, the days are coming, declares the LORD, when I will make a new covenant with the house of Israel and with the house of Judah. Verse 32. It will not be like the covenant I made with their fathers when I took them by the hand to lead them out of the land of Egypt— a covenant they broke, though I was a husband to them, ” Verse 33. “But this is the covenant I will make with the house of Israel after those days, declares the LORD. I will put My law in their minds and inscribe it on their hearts. And I will be their God, and they will be My people. Verse 34. No longer will each man teach his neighbor or his brother, saying, ‘Know the LORD,’ because they will all know Me, from the least of them to the greatest, declares the LORD. For I will forgive their iniquities and will remember their sins no more.”

PSALM

Psalm 78

A Maskil of Asaph. Give ear, O my people, to my instruction; listen to the words of my mouth.

I will open my mouth in parables; I will utter things hidden from the beginning,

that we have heard and known and our fathers have relayed to us.

We will not hide them from their children but will declare to the next generation the praises of the LORD and His might and the wonders He has performed.

For He established a testimony in Jacob and appointed a law in Israel, which He commanded our fathers to teach to their children,

that the coming generation would know them— even children yet to be born— to arise and tell their own children

that they should put their confidence in God, not forgetting His works, but keeping His commandments.

Then they will not be like their fathers, a stubborn and rebellious generation, whose heart was not loyal, whose spirit was not faithful to God.

The archers of Ephraim turned back on the day of battle.

They failed to keep God’s covenant and refused to live by His law.

They forgot what He had done, the wonders He had shown them.

He worked wonders before their fathers in the land of Egypt, in the region of Zoan.

He split the sea and brought them through; He set the waters upright like a wall.

He led them with a cloud by day and with a light of fire all night.

He split the rocks in the wilderness and gave them drink as abundant as the seas.

He brought streams from the stone and made water flow down like rivers.

But they continued to sin against Him, rebelling in the desert against the Most High.

They willfully tested God by demanding the food they craved.

They spoke against God, saying, “Can God really prepare a table in the wilderness?

When He struck the rock, water gushed out and torrents raged. But can He also give bread or supply His people with meat?”

Therefore the LORD heard and was filled with wrath; so a fire was kindled against Jacob, and His anger flared against Israel,

because they did not believe God or rely on His salvation.

Yet He commanded the clouds above and opened the doors of the heavens.

He rained down manna for them to eat; He gave them grain from heaven.

Man ate the bread of angels; He sent them food in abundance.

He stirred the east wind from the heavens and drove the south wind by His might.

He rained meat on them like dust, and winged birds like the sand of the sea.

He felled them in the midst of their camp, all around their dwellings.

So they ate and were well filled, for He gave them what they craved.

Yet before they had filled their desire, with the food still in their mouths,

God’s anger flared against them, and He put to death their strongest and subdued the young men of Israel.

In spite of all this, they kept on sinning; despite His wonderful works, they did not believe.

So He ended their days in futility, and their years in sudden terror.

When He slew them, they would seek Him; they repented and searched for God.

And they remembered that God was their Rock, that God Most High was their Redeemer.

But they deceived Him with their mouths, and lied to Him with their tongues.

Their hearts were disloyal to Him, and they were unfaithful to His covenant.

And yet He was compassionate; He forgave their iniquity and did not destroy them. He often restrained His anger and did not unleash His full wrath.

He remembered that they were but flesh, a passing breeze that does not return.

How often they disobeyed Him in the wilderness and grieved Him in the desert!

Again and again they tested God and provoked the Holy One of Israel.

They did not remember His power — the day He redeemed them from the adversary,

when He performed His signs in Egypt and His wonders in the fields of Zoan.

He turned their rivers to blood, and from their streams they could not drink.

He sent swarms of flies that devoured them, and frogs that devastated them.

He gave their crops to the grasshopper, the fruit of their labor to the locust.

He killed their vines with hailstones and their sycamore-figs with sleet.

He abandoned their cattle to the hail and their livestock to bolts of lightning.

He unleashed His fury against them, wrath, indignation, and calamity— a band of destroying angels.

He cleared a path for His anger; He did not spare them from death but delivered their lives to the plague.

He struck all the firstborn of Egypt, the virility in the tents of Ham.

He led out His people like sheep and guided them like a flock in the wilderness.

He led them safely, so they did not fear, but the sea engulfed their enemies.

He brought them to His holy land, to the mountain His right hand had acquired.

He drove out nations before them and apportioned their inheritance; He settled the tribes of Israel in their tents.

But they tested and disobeyed God Most High, for they did not keep His decrees.

They turned back and were faithless like their fathers, twisted like a faulty bow.

They enraged Him with their high places and provoked His jealousy with their idols.

On hearing it, God was furious and rejected Israel completely.

He abandoned the tabernacle of Shiloh, the tent He had pitched among men.

He delivered His strength to captivity, and His splendor to the hand of the adversary.

He surrendered His people to the sword because He was enraged by His heritage.

Fire consumed His young men, and their maidens were left without wedding songs.

His priests fell by the sword, but their widows could not lament.

Then the Lord awoke as from sleep, like a mighty warrior overcome by wine.

He beat back His foes; He put them to everlasting shame.

He rejected the tent of Joseph and refused the tribe of Ephraim.

But He chose the tribe of Judah, Mount Zion, which He loved.

He built His sanctuary like the heights, like the earth He has established forever.

He chose David His servant and took him from the sheepfolds;

from tending the ewes He brought him to be shepherd of His people Jacob, of Israel His inheritance.

So David shepherded them with integrity of heart and guided them with skillful hands.

Complementary (Track 2)

FIRST READING

Joel 3:9-21

Verse 9. Proclaim this among the nations: “Prepare for war; rouse the mighty men; let all the men of war advance and attack! Verse 10. Beat your plowshares into swords and your pruning hooks into spears. Let the weak say, ‘I am strong!’ Verse 11. Come quickly, all you surrounding nations, and gather yourselves. Bring down Your mighty ones, O LORD. Verse 12. Let the nations be roused and advance to the Valley of Jehoshaphat, for there I will sit down to judge all the nations on every side. Verse 13. Swing the sickle, for the harvest is ripe. Come, trample the grapes, for the winepress is full; the wine vats overflow because their wickedness is great. Verse 14. Multitudes, multitudes in the valley of decision! For the Day of the LORD is near in the valley of decision. Verse 15. The sun and moon will grow dark, and the stars will no longer shine. Verse 16. The LORD will roar from Zion and raise His voice from Jerusalem; heaven and earth will tremble. But the LORD will be a refuge for His people, a stronghold for the people of Israel. Verse 17. Then you will know that I am the LORD your God, who dwells in Zion, My holy mountain. Jerusalem will be holy, never again to be overrun by foreigners. Verse 18. And in that day the mountains will drip with sweet wine, and the hills will flow with milk. All the streams of Judah will run with water, and a spring will flow from the house of the LORD to water the Valley of Acacias. Verse 19. Egypt will become desolate, and Edom a desert wasteland, because of the violence done to the people of Judah, in whose land they shed innocent blood. Verse 20. But Judah will be inhabited forever, and Jerusalem from generation to generation. Verse 21. For I will avenge their blood, which I have not yet avenged. ”

PSALM

Psalm 63

A Psalm of David, when he was in the Wilderness of Judah. O God, You are my God. Earnestly I seek You; my soul thirsts for You. My body yearns for You in a dry and weary land without water.

So I have seen You in the sanctuary and beheld Your power and glory.

Because Your loving devotion is better than life, my lips will glorify You.

So I will bless You as long as I live; in Your name I will lift my hands.

My soul is satisfied as with the richest of foods; with joyful lips my mouth will praise You.

When I remember You on my bed, I think of You through the watches of the night.

For You are my help; I will sing for joy in the shadow of Your wings.

My soul clings to You; Your right hand upholds me.

But those who seek my life to destroy it will go into the depths of the earth.

They will fall to the power of the sword; they will become a portion for foxes.

But the king will rejoice in God; all who swear by Him will exult, for the mouths of liars will be shut.

SECOND READING

Matthew 24:29-35

Verse 29. Immediately after the tribulation of those days: ‘The sun will be darkened, and the moon will not give its light; the stars will fall from the sky, and the powers of the heavens will be shaken. ’ Verse 30. At that time the sign of the Son of Man will appear in heaven, and all the tribes of the earth will mourn. They will see the Son of Man coming on the clouds of heaven with power and great glory. Verse 31. And He will send out His angels with a loud trumpet call, and they will gather His elect from the four winds, from one end of the heavens to the other. Verse 32. Now learn this lesson from the fig tree: As soon as its branches become tender and sprout leaves, you know that summer is near. Verse 33. So also, when you see all these things, you will know that He is near, right at the door. Verse 34. Truly I tell you, this generation will not pass away until all these things have happened. Verse 35. Heaven and earth will pass away, but My words will never pass away.