Open Word

Semicontinuous (Track 1)

FIRST READING

Hosea 6:1-10

Verse 1. Come, let us return to the LORD. For He has torn us to pieces, but He will heal us; He has wounded us, but He will bind up our wounds. Verse 2. After two days He will revive us; on the third day He will raise us up, that we may live in His presence. Verse 3. So let us know — let us press on to know the LORD. As surely as the sun rises, He will appear; He will come to us like the rain, like the spring showers that water the earth. Verse 4. What shall I do with you, O Ephraim ? What shall I do with you, O Judah? For your loyalty is like a morning mist, like the early dew that vanishes. Verse 5. Therefore I have hewn them by the prophets; I have slain them by the words of My mouth, and My judgments go forth like lightning. Verse 6. For I desire mercy, not sacrifice, and the knowledge of God rather than burnt offerings. Verse 7. But they, like Adam, have transgressed the covenant; there they were unfaithful to Me. Verse 8. Gilead is a city of evildoers, tracked with footprints of blood. Verse 9. Like raiders who lie in ambush, so does a band of priests; they murder on the way to Shechem; surely they have committed atrocities. Verse 10. In the house of Israel I have seen a horrible thing: Ephraim practices prostitution there, and Israel is defiled.

PSALM

Psalm 44

For the choirmaster. A Maskil of the sons of Korah. We have heard with our ears, O God; our fathers have told us the work You did in their days, in the days of old.

With Your hand You drove out the nations and planted our fathers there; You crushed the peoples and cast them out.

For it was not by their sword that they took the land; their arm did not bring them victory. It was by Your right hand, Your arm, and the light of Your face, because You favored them.

You are my King, O God, who ordains victories for Jacob.

Through You we repel our foes; through Your name we trample our enemies.

For I do not trust in my bow, nor does my sword save me.

For You save us from our enemies; You put those who hate us to shame.

In God we have boasted all day long, and Your name we will praise forever.

But You have rejected and humbled us; You no longer go forth with our armies.

You have made us retreat from the foe, and those who hate us have plundered us.

You have given us up as sheep to be devoured; You have scattered us among the nations.

You sell Your people for nothing; no profit do You gain from their sale.

You have made us a reproach to our neighbors, a mockery and derision to those around us.

You have made us a byword among the nations, a laughingstock among the peoples.

All day long my disgrace is before me, and shame has covered my face,

at the voice of the scorner and reviler, because of the enemy, bent on revenge.

All this has come upon us, though we have not forgotten You or betrayed Your covenant.

Our hearts have not turned back; our steps have not strayed from Your path.

But You have crushed us in the lair of jackals; You have covered us with deepest darkness.

If we had forgotten the name of our God or spread out our hands to a foreign god,

would not God have discovered, since He knows the secrets of the heart?

Yet for Your sake we face death all day long; we are considered as sheep to be slaughtered.

Wake up, O Lord! Why are You sleeping? Arise! Do not reject us forever.

Why do You hide Your face and forget our affliction and oppression?

For our soul has sunk to the dust; our bodies cling to the earth.

Rise up; be our help! Redeem us on account of Your loving devotion.

Complementary (Track 2)

FIRST READING

Esther 6:1-7:6

Verse 1. That night sleep escaped the king; so he ordered the Book of Records, the Chronicles, to be brought in and read to him. Verse 2. And there it was found recorded that Mordecai had exposed Bigthana and Teresh, two of the eunuchs who guarded the king’s entrance, when they had conspired to assassinate King Xerxes. Verse 3. The king inquired, “What honor or dignity has been bestowed on Mordecai for this act?” “Nothing has been done for him,” replied the king’s attendants. Verse 4. “Who is in the court?” the king asked. Now Haman had just entered the outer court of the palace to ask the king to hang Mordecai on the gallows he had prepared for him. Verse 5. So the king’s attendants answered him, “Haman is there, standing in the court.” “Bring him in,” ordered the king. Verse 6. Haman entered, and the king asked him, “What should be done for the man whom the king is delighted to honor?” Now Haman thought to himself, “Whom would the king be delighted to honor more than me?” Verse 7. And Haman told the king, “For the man whom the king is delighted to honor, Verse 8. have them bring a royal robe that the king himself has worn and a horse on which the king himself has ridden— one with a royal crest placed on its head. Verse 9. Let the robe and the horse be entrusted to one of the king’s most noble princes. Let them array the man the king wants to honor and parade him on the horse through the city square, proclaiming before him, ‘This is what is done for the man whom the king is delighted to honor!’” Verse 10. “Hurry,” said the king to Haman, “and do just as you proposed. Take the robe and the horse to Mordecai the Jew, who is sitting at the king’s gate. Do not neglect anything that you have suggested.” Verse 11. So Haman took the robe and the horse, arrayed Mordecai, and paraded him through the city square, crying out before him, “This is what is done for the man whom the king is delighted to honor!” Verse 12. Then Mordecai returned to the king’s gate. But Haman rushed home, with his head covered in grief. Verse 13. Haman told his wife Zeresh and all his friends everything that had happened. His advisers and his wife Zeresh said to him, “Since Mordecai, before whom your downfall has begun, is Jewish, you will not prevail against him — for surely you will fall before him.” Verse 14. While they were still speaking with Haman, the king’s eunuchs arrived and rushed him to the banquet that Esther had prepared. Verse 1. So the king and Haman went to dine with Esther the queen, Verse 2. and as they drank their wine on that second day, the king asked once more, “Queen Esther, what is your petition? It will be given to you. What is your request? Even up to half the kingdom, it will be fulfilled.” Verse 3. Queen Esther replied, “If I have found favor in your sight, O king, and if it pleases the king, grant me my life as my petition, and the lives of my people as my request. Verse 4. For my people and I have been sold out to destruction, death, and annihilation. If we had merely been sold as menservants and maidservants, I would have remained silent, because no such distress would justify burdening the king.” Verse 5. Then King Xerxes spoke up and asked Queen Esther, “Who is this, and where is the one who would devise such a scheme?” Verse 6. Esther replied, “The adversary and enemy is this wicked man — Haman!” And Haman stood in terror before the king and queen.

PSALM

Psalm 55:16-23

But I call to God, and the LORD saves me.

Morning, noon, and night, I cry out in distress, and He hears my voice.

He redeems my soul in peace from the battle waged against me, even though many oppose me.

God will hear and humiliate them — the One enthroned for the ages — because they do not change and they have no fear of God.

My companion attacks his friends; he violates his covenant.

His speech is smooth as butter, but war is in his heart. His words are softer than oil, yet they are swords unsheathed.

Cast your burden upon the LORD and He will sustain you; He will never let the righteous be shaken.

But You, O God, will bring them down to the Pit of destruction; men of bloodshed and deceit will not live out half their days. But I will trust in You.

SECOND READING

Romans 9:30-10:4

Verse 30. What then will we say? That the Gentiles, who did not pursue righteousness, have obtained it, a righteousness that is by faith; Verse 31. but Israel, who pursued a law of righteousness, has not attained it. Verse 32. Why not? Because their pursuit was not by faith, but as if it were by works. They stumbled over the stumbling stone, Verse 33. as it is written: “See, I lay in Zion a stone of stumbling and a rock of offense; and the one who believes in Him will never be put to shame.” Verse 1. Brothers, my heart’s desire and prayer to God for the Israelites is for their salvation. Verse 2. For I testify about them that they are zealous for God, but not on the basis of knowledge. Verse 3. Because they were ignorant of God’s righteousness and sought to establish their own, they did not submit to God’s righteousness. Verse 4. For Christ is the end of the law, to bring righteousness to everyone who believes.