This Bible reading plan takes you through most of the Holy Scriptures each weekday of the year. Each day has three Bible readings:
You're welcome to read one, two, or all three of the readings every weekday. And if you fall behind, don't worry! You can either use the weekends to catch up or you can simply dive in to the reading for that day, even if you've missed a few days, weeks, or even months!
24:1 And after five days the high priest Ananias came down with some elders and a spokesman, one Tertullus. They laid before the governor their case against Paul. 2 And when he had been summoned, Tertullus began to accuse him, saying:
“Since through you we enjoy much peace, and since by your foresight, most excellent Felix, reforms are being made for this nation, 3 in every way and everywhere we accept this with all gratitude. 4 But, to detain1 you no further, I beg you in your kindness to hear us briefly. 5 For we have found this man a plague, one who stirs up riots among all the Jews throughout the world and is a ringleader of the sect of the Nazarenes. 6 He even tried to profane the temple, but we seized him.2 8 By examining him yourself you will be able to find out from him about everything of which we accuse him.”
9 The Jews also joined in the charge, affirming that all these things were so.
10 And when the governor had nodded to him to speak, Paul replied:
“Knowing that for many years you have been a judge over this nation, I cheerfully make my defense. 11 You can verify that it is not more than twelve days since I went up to worship in Jerusalem, 12 and they did not find me disputing with anyone or stirring up a crowd, either in the temple or in the synagogues or in the city. 13 Neither can they prove to you what they now bring up against me. 14 But this I confess to you, that according to the Way, which they call a sect, I worship the God of our fathers, believing everything laid down by the Law and written in the Prophets, 15 having a hope in God, which these men themselves accept, that there will be a resurrection of both the just and the unjust. 16 So I always take pains to have a clear conscience toward both God and man. 17 Now after several years I came to bring alms to my nation and to present offerings. 18 While I was doing this, they found me purified in the temple, without any crowd or tumult. But some Jews from Asia—19 they ought to be here before you and to make an accusation, should they have anything against me. 20 Or else let these men themselves say what wrongdoing they found when I stood before the council, 21 other than this one thing that I cried out while standing among them: ‘It is with respect to the resurrection of the dead that I am on trial before you this day.’”
22 But Felix, having a rather accurate knowledge of the Way, put them off, saying, “When Lysias the tribune comes down, I will decide your case.” 23 Then he gave orders to the centurion that he should be kept in custody but have some liberty, and that none of his friends should be prevented from attending to his needs.
24 After some days Felix came with his wife Drusilla, who was Jewish, and he sent for Paul and heard him speak about faith in Christ Jesus. 25 And as he reasoned about righteousness and self-control and the coming judgment, Felix was alarmed and said, “Go away for the present. When I get an opportunity I will summon you.” 26 At the same time he hoped that money would be given him by Paul. So he sent for him often and conversed with him. 27 When two years had elapsed, Felix was succeeded by Porcius Festus. And desiring to do the Jews a favor, Felix left Paul in prison.
[1] 24:4
[2] 24:6
(ESV)
Antonius Felix was the Roman procurator of Judea from AD 52-58. According to the first century Jewish historian Josephus, he secured his position as procurator through his brother Pallus, who was secretary for the Roman Emperor Claudius. Josephus also notes that Felix, as a ruler, was a ruthless tyrant. He arrested the Zealot leader, Eleazar, and transferred him to Rome to hold him there while he crucified his followers. He also was rumored to have been behind the assassination of Israel's high priest at that time, a man named Jonathan. He was so wicked that even Rome's own historians described him poorly. The Roman senator Tacitus, for instance, writes, "Antonius Felix indulged in every kind of cruelty and immorality, wielding a king's authority with all the instincts of a slave" (Histories, Book 5). By all accounts, Felix was a miserable failure as a ruler.
That's what makes the opening of today's reading from Acts 24 so surprising. Paul is made to stand trial before the wicked and inept Felix. Paul's prosecutor, serving on behalf of his Jewish accusers, a man named Tertullus, opens his case against Paul thusly: "We have enjoyed a long period of peace under you, and your foresight has brought about reforms in this nation. Everywhere and in every way, most excellent Felix, we acknowledge this with profound gratitude" (verses 2-3). Huh? Peace? Foresight? Reforms? This praise is lavished upon a man who eventually had to resign his post because he conspired to kill many of his region's inhabitants! That hardly sounds like a peaceful, thoughtful, reformational rule to me.
Perhaps a clue as to why this prosecuting lawyer Tertullus would say such flattering, even if completely untrue, things to Felix comes in the Greek word used for "lawyer" in verse 1. It is the word rhetor, from whence we get our English word "rhetorician." Apparently, Tertullus was a man who knew how to give a good speech. He knew how to butter someone up. He knew how to curry favor. And this is exactly what he's doing with Felix. He flatters Felix, not because he truly believes that he's a good ruler, but in order to win his approval so that Felix will approve Paul's condemnation. Thus, Tertullus tells Felix what he wants to hear. He tells him that he's good.
Like Tertullus with Felix, we, more often than not, desire the same kind of affirmation and flattery, even if it's untrue. We like to be told what we want to hear. We like to be told that we are good. That's why company executives have "yes men" and superstars have "groupies." Adoration is a potent drug.
In his book Soul Searching: The Religious and Spiritual Lives of American Teenagers, which is sure to become a watershed work with time, Christian Smith, a sociologist at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill, describes what he has coined as the "moralistic therapeutic deism" of today's teenagers. At the heart of this theological system, or, more accurately, this theological hodgepodge, is the belief that "the central goal of life is to be happy and feel good about oneself." In other words, today's teens want to be told what they want to hear. They want to be told that they are good.
For our teens, and for many people for that matter, God becomes a mere means to an end - a divinity who will tell them what they want to hear - who will tell them that they're doing a good, or at least adequate, job. As Smith writes, "God is something like a combination Divine Butler and Cosmic Therapist: he is always on call, takes care of any problems that arise, [and] professionally helps his people to feel better about themselves." The problem with this is that it's not true and, I might add, is a pathetically hollow vision of God. Perhaps that is why people who believe in this god believe in him only nominally and conveniently.
In the final analysis, we are both worse and better than the tepid term "good" would connote. We are, of course, worse than "good" because we are sinners, deserving of death and eternal condemnation. But then again, we are also much better than "good" because we are God's redeemed children, declared righteous for Christ's sake, which means that, in God's sight, we're not just "good," we are perfect, for we wear Christ's robe of righteousness. But this is not, nor has it ever been, a particularly popular message. It is not what people want to hear. And the Scripture writers knew full well that this is not what people want to hear. As Paul writes: "For the time will come when men will not put up with sound doctrine. Instead, to suit their own desires, they will gather around them a great number of teachers to say what their itching ears want to hear" (2 Timothy 4:3). Itching ears will settle for the siren of moralistic therapeutic deism long before they will trust the true and certain message of Scripture concerning our sin and Christ's righteousness.
A great thing about Scripture is that even if it doesn't tell us what we want to hear, it always tells us what we need to hear. Unlike Tertullus, it never uses empty rhetoric to massage our pride and inflate our egos. Scripture always tells us the truth - the truth about ourselves and the truth about God. I hope you're listening.
15 And now, O Lord our God, who brought your people out of the land of Egypt with a mighty hand, and have made a name for yourself, as at this day, we have sinned, we have done wickedly.
16 “O Lord, according to all your righteous acts, let your anger and your wrath turn away from your city Jerusalem, your holy hill, because for our sins, and for the iniquities of our fathers, Jerusalem and your people have become a byword among all who are around us. 17 Now therefore, O our God, listen to the prayer of your servant and to his pleas for mercy, and for your own sake, O Lord,1 make your face to shine upon your sanctuary, which is desolate. 18 O my God, incline your ear and hear. Open your eyes and see our desolations, and the city that is called by your name. For we do not present our pleas before you because of our righteousness, but because of your great mercy. 19 O Lord, hear; O Lord, forgive. O Lord, pay attention and act. Delay not, for your own sake, O my God, because your city and your people are called by your name.”
20 While I was speaking and praying, confessing my sin and the sin of my people Israel, and presenting my plea before the LORD my God for the holy hill of my God, 21 while I was speaking in prayer, the man Gabriel, whom I had seen in the vision at the first, came to me in swift flight at the time of the evening sacrifice. 22 He made me understand, speaking with me and saying, “O Daniel, I have now come out to give you insight and understanding. 23 At the beginning of your pleas for mercy a word went out, and I have come to tell it to you, for you are greatly loved. Therefore consider the word and understand the vision.
24 “Seventy weeks2 are decreed about your people and your holy city, to finish the transgression, to put an end to sin, and to atone for iniquity, to bring in everlasting righteousness, to seal both vision and prophet, and to anoint a most holy place.3 25 Know therefore and understand that from the going out of the word to restore and build Jerusalem to the coming of an anointed one, a prince, there shall be seven weeks. And for sixty-two weeks it shall be built again4 with squares and moat, but in a troubled time. 26 And after the sixty-two weeks, an anointed one shall be cut off and shall have nothing. And the people of the prince who is to come shall destroy the city and the sanctuary. Its5 end shall come with a flood, and to the end there shall be war. Desolations are decreed. 27 And he shall make a strong covenant with many for one week,6 and for half of the week he shall put an end to sacrifice and offering. And on the wing of abominations shall come one who makes desolate, until the decreed end is poured out on the desolator.”
[1] 9:17
[2] 9:24
[3] 9:24
[4] 9:25
[5] 9:26
[6] 9:27
(ESV)
Daniel recalled God's loving kindness in bringing His people out of Egypt, to entreat Him for mercy because, "we have sinned, we have done wickedly." Then, Daniel reminded God of the pitiful condition of Jerusalem and how Israel had become the epitome of misery and desolation to all the nations around them. Finally, Daniel relied entirely on God's grace, "for we do not present our pleas before you because of our righteousness, but because of your great mercy." Beseeching God on behalf of His people "who are called by your name," and relying on God's covenant with Israel, Daniel pleaded for God's forgiveness and called on Him to act to restore His people. While Daniel was praying, in the evening Gabriel came to him "in swift flight." Gabriel spoke reassuringly to Daniel promising him insight and understanding, "for you are greatly loved." Who could ask for more than to be greatly loved by God? Gabriel proceeded to share the vision of the "70 Weeks." In this vision, God gave Daniel a glimpse of the future promise of a Redeemer fulfilled. This vision was built around the number seven, the symbolic number of divine (3 for the Trinity) and human (4 for the points of the compass) fulfillment of purpose. God decreed "seventy weeks" to "finish the transgression, to put an end to sin, and to atone for iniquity, to bring in everlasting righteousness, to seal both vision and prophet, and to anoint a most holy [One]" (preferable to the ESV "place"). In the Traditional Messianic interpretation, the 70 Weeks are reckoned as a period of 490 years (70 weeks of years) beginning in 458 BC when King Artaxerxes issued the decree for the rebuilding of Jerusalem, until the time of Christ. In the final "seven" Christ would be crucified when "the anointed one shall be cut off and have nothing." This would put an end to the need for sacrifice, which would be definitively concluded when the Romans destroyed Jerusalem in 70 AD. Another, more apocalyptic view sees the prophecy begin with Cyrus' decree in 538 BC. There would be seven more symbolic "weeks" until the first coming of Christ. The 62 "weeks" would represent the Church age, and the prophecy would conclude with the final "week", or the period of Tribulation leading up to the Second Coming of Christ. This interpretation would align well with the apocalyptic nature of Daniel's visions, but the Traditional Messianic understanding is much more popular among most interpreters of Scripture. The Traditional Messianic interpretation provides a very accurate timeline leading up to the death of Christ, which did indeed atone for iniquity, bring in everlasting righteousness, and put the seal of fulfillment on Old Testament prophecy. It was for this that Jesus Christ, the "most holy" One was anointed. Thus, Daniel's prophecy of the 70 Weeks is a powerful testimony to the Bible as the inspired and inerrant Word of God.
22 “The LORD possessed1 me at the beginning of his work,2
the first of his acts of old.
23 Ages ago I was set up,
at the first, before the beginning of the earth.
24 When there were no depths I was brought forth,
when there were no springs abounding with water.
25 Before the mountains had been shaped,
before the hills, I was brought forth,
26 before he had made the earth with its fields,
or the first of the dust of the world.
27 When he established the heavens, I was there;
when he drew a circle on the face of the deep,
28 when he made firm the skies above,
when he established3 the fountains of the deep,
29 when he assigned to the sea its limit,
so that the waters might not transgress his command,
when he marked out the foundations of the earth,
30 then I was beside him, like a master workman,
and I was daily his4 delight,
rejoicing before him always,
31 rejoicing in his inhabited world
and delighting in the children of man.
32 “And now, O sons, listen to me:
blessed are those who keep my ways.
33 Hear instruction and be wise,
and do not neglect it.
34 Blessed is the one who listens to me,
watching daily at my gates,
waiting beside my doors.
35 For whoever finds me finds life
and obtains favor from the LORD,
36 but he who fails to find me injures himself;
all who hate me love death.”
[1] 8:22
[2] 8:22
[3] 8:28
[4] 8:30
(ESV)