Recommended Reading List - Day Two

Gen. Chapter. 2
CHAPTER 2
The Benefits of Wisdom
1  My child,* listen to what I say,
and treasure my commands.
2  Tune your ears to wisdom,
and concentrate on understanding.
3  Cry out for insight,
and ask for understanding.
4  Search for them as you would for silver;
seek them like hidden treasures.
5  Then you will understand what it means to fear the Lord,
and you will gain knowledge of God.
6  For the Lord grants wisdom!
From his mouth come knowledge and understanding.
7  He grants a treasure of common sense to the honest.
He is a shield to those who walk with integrity.
8  He guards the paths of the just
and protects those who are faithful to him.
9  Then you will understand what is right, just, and fair,
and you will find the right way to go.
10  For wisdom will enter your heart,
and knowledge will fill you with joy.
11  Wise choices will watch over you.
Understanding will keep you safe.
12  Wisdom will save you from evil people,
from those whose words are twisted.
13  These men turn from the right way
to walk down dark paths.
14  They take pleasure in doing wrong,
and they enjoy the twisted ways of evil.
15  Their actions are crooked,
and their ways are wrong.
16  Wisdom will save you from the immoral woman,
from the seductive words of the promiscuous woman.
17  She has abandoned her husband
and ignores the covenant she made before God.
18  Entering her house leads to death;
it is the road to the grave.*
19  The man who visits her is doomed.
He will never reach the paths of life.
20  Follow the steps of good men instead,
and stay on the paths of the righteous.
21  For only the godly will live in the land,
and those with integrity will remain in it.
22  But the wicked will be removed from the land,
and the treacherous will be uprooted.

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PROVERBS CHAPTER 10
CHAPTER 2
The Benefits of Wisdom
1  My child,* listen to what I say,
and treasure my commands.
2  Tune your ears to wisdom,
and concentrate on understanding.
3  Cry out for insight,
and ask for understanding.
4  Search for them as you would for silver;
seek them like hidden treasures.
5  Then you will understand what it means to fear the Lord,
and you will gain knowledge of God.
6  For the Lord grants wisdom!
From his mouth come knowledge and understanding.
7  He grants a treasure of common sense to the honest.
He is a shield to those who walk with integrity.
8  He guards the paths of the just
and protects those who are faithful to him.
9  Then you will understand what is right, just, and fair,
and you will find the right way to go.
10  For wisdom will enter your heart,
and knowledge will fill you with joy.
11  Wise choices will watch over you.
Understanding will keep you safe.
12  Wisdom will save you from evil people,
from those whose words are twisted.
13  These men turn from the right way
to walk down dark paths.
14  They take pleasure in doing wrong,
and they enjoy the twisted ways of evil.
15  Their actions are crooked,
and their ways are wrong.
16  Wisdom will save you from the immoral woman,
from the seductive words of the promiscuous woman.
17  She has abandoned her husband
and ignores the covenant she made before God.
18  Entering her house leads to death;
it is the road to the grave.*
19  The man who visits her is doomed.
He will never reach the paths of life.
20  Follow the steps of good men instead,
and stay on the paths of the righteous.
21  For only the godly will live in the land,
and those with integrity will remain in it.
22  But the wicked will be removed from the land,
and the treacherous will be uprooted.

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PSALM 2
1  Why are the nations so angry?
Why do they waste their time with futile plans?
2  The kings of the earth prepare for battle;
the rulers plot together
against the Lord
and against his anointed one.
3  “Let us break their chains,” they cry,
“and free ourselves from slavery to God.”
4  But the one who rules in heaven laughs.
The Lord scoffs at them.
5  Then in anger he rebukes them,
terrifying them with his fierce fury.
6  For the Lord declares, “I have placed my chosen king on the throne
in Jerusalem,* on my holy mountain.”
7  The king proclaims the Lord’s decree:
“The Lord said to me, ‘You are my son.*
Today I have become your Father.*
8  Only ask, and I will give you the nations as your inheritance,
the whole earth as your possession.
9  You will break* them with an iron rod
and smash them like clay pots.’”
10  Now then, you kings, act wisely!
Be warned, you rulers of the earth!
11  Serve the Lord with reverent fear,
and rejoice with trembling.
12  Submit to God’s royal son,* or he will become angry,
and you will be destroyed in the midst of all your activities—
for his anger flares up in an instant.
But what joy for all who take refuge in him!


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Matthew 2

CHAPTER 2
Visitors from the East
1 Jesus was born in Bethlehem in Judea, during the reign of King Herod. About that time some wise men* from eastern lands arrived in Jerusalem, asking, 2 “Where is the newborn king of the Jews? We saw his star as it rose,* and we have come to worship him.”
3 King Herod was deeply disturbed when he heard this, as was everyone in Jerusalem. 4 He called a meeting of the leading priests and teachers of religious law and asked, “Where is the Messiah supposed to be born?”
5 “In Bethlehem in Judea,” they said, “for this is what the prophet wrote:
6  ‘And you, O Bethlehem in the land of Judah,
are not least among the ruling cities* of Judah,
for a ruler will come from you
who will be the shepherd for my people Israel.’*”
7 Then Herod called for a private meeting with the wise men, and he learned from them the time when the star first appeared. 8 Then he told them, “Go to Bethlehem and search carefully for the child. And when you find him, come back and tell me so that I can go and worship him, too!”
9 After this interview the wise men went their way. And the star they had seen in the east guided them to Bethlehem. It went ahead of them and stopped over the place where the child was. 10 When they saw the star, they were filled with joy! 11 They entered the house and saw the child with his mother, Mary, and they bowed down and worshiped him. Then they opened their treasure chests and gave him gifts of gold, frankincense, and myrrh.
12 When it was time to leave, they returned to their own country by another route, for God had warned them in a dream not to return to Herod.
The Escape to Egypt
13 After the wise men were gone, an angel of the Lord appeared to Joseph in a dream. “Get up! Flee to Egypt with the child and his mother,” the angel said. “Stay there until I tell you to return, because Herod is going to search for the child to kill him.”
14 That night Joseph left for Egypt with the child and Mary, his mother, 15 and they stayed there until Herod’s death. This fulfilled what the Lord had spoken through the prophet: “I called my Son out of Egypt.”*
16 Herod was furious when he realized that the wise men had outwitted him. He sent soldiers to kill all the boys in and around Bethlehem who were two years old and under, based on the wise men’s report of the star’s first appearance. 17 Herod’s brutal action fulfilled what God had spoken through the prophet Jeremiah:
18  “A cry was heard in Ramah—
weeping and great mourning.
Rachel weeps for her children,
refusing to be comforted,
for they are dead.”*
The Return to Nazareth
19 When Herod died, an angel of the Lord appeared in a dream to Joseph in Egypt. 20 “Get up!” the angel said. “Take the child and his mother back to the land of Israel, because those who were trying to kill the child are dead.”
21 So Joseph got up and returned to the land of Israel with Jesus and his mother. 22 But when he learned that the new ruler of Judea was Herod’s son Archelaus, he was afraid to go there. Then, after being warned in a dream, he left for the region of Galilee. 23 So the family went and lived in a town called Nazareth. This fulfilled what the prophets had said: “He will be called a Nazarene.”

All quotations are from the New Living Translation Bible

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