Author: shamp

Genesis 15:1-20

After this, Abraham had a vision and heard the LORD say to him, “Do not be afraid, Abraham. I will shield you from danger and give you a great reward.”
But Abram answered, “Sovereign LORD, what good will your reward do me, since i have no children? My only heir is Eliazer of Damascus. You have given me no children, and one of my slaves will inherit my property.”

Then he heard the LORD speaking to him again: “This slave Eliazar will not inherit your property; your own son will be your heir,” The LORD took him outside and said, “Look at the sky and try to count the stars; you will have as many descendants as that,”
Abram put his trust in the LORD and because of this the LORD was pleased with him and accepted him.
Then the LORD said to him, “I am the LORD, who led you out of Ur in Babylonia, to give you this land as your own.”

But Abram asked, “Sovereign LORD, how can i know that it will be mine?”
He answered, “Bring me a cow, a goat, and a dove and a pigeon.”
Abram brought the animals to God, cut them in half, and placed the halves opposite each other in two rows; but he did not cut up the birds. Vultures came down on the bodies, but Abram drove them off.
When the sun was going down, Abram fell into a deep sleep, and fear and terror came over him. The LORD said to him, “Your descendants will be strangers in a foreign land; they will be slaves there and will be treated cruelly for four hundred years. But i will punish the nations that enslaves them. You yourself will live to a ripe old age, die in peace, and be buried. It will be four generations before your descendants come back here, because i will not drive out the Amorites until they become so wicked that they must be punished.”
When the sun had set and it was dark, a smoking fire-pot and a flaming touch suddenly appered and passed between the pieces of the animals.
Then and there the LORD made a covenant with Abraham. He said, “I promise to give your descendants all this land from this border of Egypt to the River Euphrates, including the lands of the Kenites, the Kenizzites, the Rephaim, the Amorites, the Cananites, the Girgashites and the Jebusites.

May the Lord bless his word, Amen.

Genesis 37:12-36

One day when Joseph’s brothers had gone to Shechem to take care of their fathers’s flock, Jacob said to Joseph, “I want you to go to Shechem where your brothers are taking care of the flock.”
Joseph answered, “I am ready.”
His father said, “Go and see if your brothers are safe and if the flock is all right; then come back and tell me.” So his father sent him on his way from the valley of Hebron.

Joseph arrived at Shechem and was wandering about in the country when a man saw him and asked him “What are you looking for?”
“I am looking for my brothers, who are taking care of their flock,” he answered “Can you tell me where they are?
The man said, “They have already left, I heard them say that they were going to Dothan,” So Joseph went after his brothers and found them at Dothan.
They saw him in the distance, and before he reached them, they plotted against him and decided to kill him.
They said to one another, “Here comes that dreamer. Come on now, lets kill him and throw his body into one of the dry wells, we can say that a wild animal killed him. Then we will see what become of his dreams.”

Reuben heard them and tried to save Joseph. “Let’s not kill him,” he said. Just throw him into the well in the wilderness, but dont hurt him”. He said this planning to save him from them and send him back to his father.
When Joseph came up to his brothers, they ripped off his long rope with full sleeves. Then they took him and threw him into the well, which was dry.

While they were eating, they suddenly saw a group of Ishmaelites travelling from Gilead to Egypt. Their camels were loaded with spices resins. Judah said to his brothers, “What will we gain by killing our brother and covering up the murder? Lets sell him to these Ishmaelites. Then we wont have to hurt him, after all, he is our brother, our own flesh and blood”.

His brothers agreed and when some Midanite traders came by, the brothers pulled joseph out of the well and sold him for twenty pieces of silver to the Ishmaelites, who took him to Egypt.
When Reuben came back to the well and found that Joseph was not there, he tore his clothes in sorrow. He returned to his brothers and said, “The boy is not there! what am i going to do?
Then they killed a goat and dipped Joseph’s robe to their father and said, “We found this. Does it belong to your son?
He recognized it and said, “Yes it is his! Some wild animal has killed him. My son Joseph has been torn to pieces! Jacob tore his clothes in sorrow and put on sackcloth. He mourned for his son a long time. All his sons and daughters came to comfort him but he refused but he refused to be comforted and said, !I will go down to the world of the dead still mourning for my son Joseph.
Meanwhile, in Egypt, the Midianites had sold Joseph to Potiphar, one of the king’s officers, who was the captain of the palace guard.

May the LORD bless his word, Amen.

Ezekiel 4:2-17

God said “Mortal man” get a brick, put it in front of you, and scratch lines on it to represent a siege, put trenches, earthworks, camps, and battering rams all round it. Take an iron pan and set it up like a wall between you and the city. Face the city, it is under siege, and you are the one besieging it.

This will be a sign to the nation of israel.
Then lie down on your left side, and i will placeon youthe guilt of the nation of israel. For 390 days you will stay there and suffer because of their guilt. I have sentenced you to one day for each year their punishment will last. When you finish that, turn over on your right side and suffer for the guilt of Judah for forty days, one day for each year of their punishment.

Fix your eyes on the siege of Jerusalem. Shake your fist at the city and prophecy against it. I will tie you up so that you cannot turn from one side to the other until the siege is over.
Now take some wheat, barley, beans, peas, millet, and spelt. Mix them altogether and make bread. That is what you are to eat during the 390 days you are lying on your left side. You will be allowed 230 grammes of bread a day, and it will have to last until the next day.

You will also have a limited amount of water to drink, two cups a day. You are to build a fire out of dried human excrement, bake bread on the fire, and eat it where everyone can see you.”
The LORD said, “Thisrepresents the way the israelites will have to eat food which Law forbids, when i scatter them to foreign countries.”
But i replied, “No” Sovereign LORD! I have never defiled myself. From childhood on i have eaten meat from any animal that died a natural death or was killed by wild animals. I have never eaten any food considered unclean.”
So God said, “Very well, i will let you use cow dung innstead and you can bake your bread on that.”

And he added, “Mortal man, i am going to cut off the supply of bread for Jerusalem. The people there will be distressed and anxious as they measure out the food they eat and the water they drink . They will run out of bread a n water, they will be in despair , and they will waste away because of their sins.

May the LORD bless his word, Amen.

Ezekiel 30:1-19

The LORD spoke again. “Mortal man” he said, “prophesy and announce what i, the sovereign LORD, am saying. You are to shout these words:
A day of terror is coming!
The day is near, the day when the LORD will act,
A day of the clouds and trouble for the nations.
There will be war in Egypt and a great distress in Ethiopia
Many in Egypt will be killed ;
The country will be plundered and left in ruins.
“That war will also kill the soldiers hired from Ethiopia, Lydia, Arabia, Kub and even from my own people.”

The LORD says, “From Migol in the north to Aswan in the south , all Egypt’s defenders will be killed in battle. Egypt’s proud army will be destroyed. I the sovereign LORD, have spoken. The land will be the most desolate in the world, and its cities will be left totally in ruins. When i set fire to Egypt and all her defenders are killed, then they will know that I am the LORD.

When that day comes and Egypt is destroyed, I will send messengers in ships to arouse the unsuspecting people of Ethiopia, and they will be terrified.
That day is coming.
The Sovereign LORD says, “I will use King Nebuchadnezzar of Babylonia to put an end to Egypt’s wealth. He and his ruthless army will come to devastate the land. They will attack Egypt with swords, and the land will be full of corpses, I will dry up the Nile and put Egypt and all its people. I, the sovereign LORD, have spoken.”

May the LORD bless his word, Amen.

Mathew 5:38-41
You have heard that it was said, An eye for an eye, and a tooth for a tooth. But now i tell you: do not take revenge on someone who wrongs you. If anyone slaps your right cheek, let him slap your left cheek too. And if someone takes you to court to sue you for your shirt, let him have your coat as well and if one of the occupation troops forces you carry his pack one kilometer .
When someone asks you for something , give it to him, when someone wants to borrow something, lend it to him.

May the LORD bless his word, Amen.

Mathew 5:33-36

“You have also heard that people were told in the past , Do not break your promise, but do what you have vowed to the Lord to do. But now i tell you, do not use any vow when you make a promise. Do not swear by heaven for it is God’s throne, nor by earth for it is the resting place for his feet , nor by King . Do not even swear by your head, because you cannot make a single hair white or black. Just say Yes or No anything you say comes from the Evil One.

May the LORD bless his word, Amen.

Mathew 5:27-30

“You have heard that it was said, Do not commit Adultery. But now i tell you: anyone who looks a woman and wants to posses her is gulty of commiting adultery with her in his heart. So if your right eye causes you to sin, take it out and throw it away, it is much better for you to lose part of your body than to have your whole body thrown to hell. If your right hand causes you to sin, cut it off and throw it away! It is much better for you to lose one of your limbs than for your whole body to go to hell.

May the LORD bless his word, Amen.

Mathew 5:21-26

You have heard that people were told in the past, Do not commit murder, anyone who does will be brought to trial. But now i tell you: whoever is angry with his brother will be brought to trial, whoever calls his brother You good for nothing will be brought before the council, and whoever calls his brother a worthless fool will be in danger of going to the fire of hell. So if you are about to offer your gift to God at the altar and there you remember that your brother has something against you, leave your gift to God at the altar and there in front of the altar, go at once and make peace with your brother, and then come back and offer your gift to God.

“If someone brings a lawsuit against you and takes you to court, settle the dispute with him while there is time, before you get to court. Once you are there, he will hand you over to the judge, who will hand you over to the police, and you will be put in jail.
There you will stay. I tell you, until you pay the last penny of your fine.

May the LORD bless his word, Amen.

Isaiah 63:15-18

LORD, look upon from heaven where your you live in your holiness and glory. Where is your great concern for us? Where is your power? Where are your love and compassion? Do not ignore us. You are our father, our ancestors Abraham and Jacob do not acknowledge us, but you LORD are our father, the one who has always rescued us, why do you make us so sturborn that we turn away from you? Come back, for the sake of those who serve you, for the sake of the people who have always been yours.

We, your holy people, were driven out by our enemies for a little while, they trampled down your sanctuary.
You treat us as though you had never been our ruler, as though we had never been your people.

May the LORD bless his word, Amen.

Hosea 12:7-14

The LORD says “The people of israel are as dishonest as the Canaanites, they love to cheat their customers with false scales. We are rich they say, we have made a fortune and no one can accuse us of getting rich dishonestly. But I the LORD your God who led you out of Egypt, i will make you live in tents again, as you did when i came to you in the desert.

“I spoke to the prophets and gave them many visions, and through the prophets i gave my people warnings. Yet idols are worshipped in Gilead and those who worship them will die. Bulls are sacrificed in Gilead and the altars there will become piles of stone in the open fields.”

Our ancestors Jacob had to flee to Mesopotania, where, in order to get a wife, he took care of his sheep . The LORD sent a prophet to rescue the people of israel from slavery in Egypt and to take care of them. The people of israel have made the LORD bitterly angry; they deserve death for their crimes. Their Lord will punish them for the disgrace they have brought on him.

May the LORD bless his word, Amen.