Bible Readings - Feb. 10, 2024

Reading 1

1 Kings 12:26-32; 13:33-34

Jeroboam thought to himself:

"The kingdom will return to David's house.

If now this people go up to offer sacrifices

in the temple of the LORD in Jerusalem,

the hearts of this people will return to their master,

Rehoboam, king of Judah,

and they will kill me."

After taking counsel, the king made two calves of gold

and said to the people:

"You have been going up to Jerusalem long enough.

Here is your God, O Israel, who brought you up from the land of Egypt."

And he put one in Bethel, the other in Dan.

This led to sin, because the people frequented those calves

in Bethel and in Dan.

He also built temples on the high places

and made priests from among the people who were not Levites.

Jeroboam established a feast in the eighth month

on the fifteenth day of the month

to duplicate in Bethel the pilgrimage feast of Judah,

with sacrifices to the calves he had made;

and he stationed in Bethel priests of the high places he had built.

Jeroboam did not give up his evil ways after this,

but again made priests for the high places

from among the common people.

Whoever desired it was consecrated

and became a priest of the high places.

This was a sin on the part of the house of Jeroboam

for which it was to be cut off and destroyed from the earth.

Psalm  106:6-7ab, 19-22

(4a) Remember us, O Lord, as you favor your people.

We have sinned, we and our fathers;

we have committed crimes; we have done wrong.

Our fathers in Egypt

considered not your wonders.

They made a calf in Horeb

and adored a molten image;

They exchanged their glory

for the image of a grass-eating bullock.

They forgot the God who had saved them,

who had done great deeds in Egypt,

Wondrous deeds in the land of Ham,

terrible things at the Red Sea.

Matthew 4:4b

Alleluia, alleluia.

One does not live on bread alone,

but on every word that comes forth from the mouth of God.

Alleluia, alleluia.

Gospel

Mark 8:1-10

In those days when there again was a great crowd without anything to eat,

Jesus summoned the disciples and said,

“My heart is moved with pity for the crowd,

because they have been with me now for three days

and have nothing to eat.

If I send them away hungry to their homes,

they will collapse on the way,

and some of them have come a great distance.”

His disciples answered him, “Where can anyone get enough bread

to satisfy them here in this deserted place?”

Still he asked them, “How many loaves do you have?”

They replied, “Seven.”

He ordered the crowd to sit down on the ground.

Then, taking the seven loaves he gave thanks, broke them,

and gave them to his disciples to distribute,

and they distributed them to the crowd.

They also had a few fish.

He said the blessing over them

and ordered them distributed also.

They ate and were satisfied.

They picked up the fragments left over–seven baskets.

There were about four thousand people.

He dismissed the crowd and got into the boat with his disciples

and came to the region of Dalmanutha.

1 Peter 2:6-10

For it says in scripture:

“Behold, I am laying a stone in Zion,

a cornerstone, chosen and precious,

and whoever believes in it shall not be put to shame.”

Therefore, its value is for you who have faith,

but for those without faith:

“The stone which the builders rejected

has become the cornerstone,”

and

“A stone that will make people stumble,

and a rock that will make them fall.”

They stumble by disobeying the word, as is their destiny.

But you are “a chosen race, a royal priesthood, a holy nation,

a people of his own, so that you may announce the praises” of him

who called you out of darkness into his wonderful light.

Once you were “no people”

but now you are God’s people;

you “had not received mercy”

but now you have received mercy.