Friday, July 2, 2021

Fast Day

Romans 11:1-12
Matthew 13:43-52

Romans 11:1-12

[1] I ask, then, has God rejected his people? By no means! I myself am an Israelite, a descendant of Abraham, a member of the tribe of Benjamin.
[2] God has not rejected his people whom he foreknew. Do you not know what the scripture says of Eli’jah, how he pleads with God against Israel?
[3] “Lord, they have killed thy prophets, they have demolished thy altars, and I alone am left, and they seek my life.”
[4] But what is God’s reply to him? “I have kept for myself seven thousand men who have not bowed the knee to Ba’al.”
[5] So too at the present time there is a remnant, chosen by grace.
[6] But if it is by grace, it is no longer on the basis of works; otherwise grace would no longer be grace.
[7] What then? Israel failed to obtain what it sought. The elect obtained it, but the rest were hardened,
[8] as it is written, “God gave them a spirit of stupor,
eyes that should not see and ears that should not hear,
down to this very day.”
[9] And David says,
“Let their table become a snare and a trap,
a pitfall and a retribution for them;
[10] let their eyes be darkened so that they cannot see,
and bend their backs for ever.”
[11] So I ask, have they stumbled so as to fall? By no means! But through their trespass salvation has come to the Gentiles, so as to make Israel jealous.
[12] Now if their trespass means riches for the world, and if their failure means riches for the Gentiles, how much more will their full inclusion mean!

Matthew 13:43-52

[43] Then the righteous will shine like the sun in the kingdom of their Father. He who has ears, let him hear.
[44] “The kingdom of heaven is like treasure hidden in a field, which a man found and covered up; then in his joy he goes and sells all that he has and buys that field.
[45] “Again, the kingdom of heaven is like a merchant in search of fine pearls,
[46] who, on finding one pearl of great value, went and sold all that he had and bought it.
[47] “Again, the kingdom of heaven is like a net which was thrown into the sea and gathered fish of every kind;
[48] when it was full, men drew it ashore and sat down and sorted the good into vessels but threw away the bad.
[49] So it will be at the close of the age. The angels will come out and separate the evil from the righteous,
[50] and throw them into the furnace of fire; there men will weep and gnash their teeth.
[51] “Have you understood all this?” They said to him, “Yes.”
[52] And he said to them, “Therefore every scribe who has been trained for the kingdom of heaven is like a householder who brings out of his treasure what is new and what is old.”

The Revised Standard Version of the Bible is copyright © National Council of Churches of Christ in America