Bible Readings - Mar. 19, 2024

Reading I

Daniel 14:1-42

After King Astyages was gathered to his ancestors, Cyrus the Persian succeeded to his kingdom.

Daniel was a companion of the king and was held in higher honor than any of the Friends of the King.

The Babylonians had an idol called Bel, and every day they provided for it six bushels of fine flour, forty sheep, and six measures of wine.

The king revered it and went every day to worship it; but Daniel worshiped only his God.

When the king asked him, “Why do you not worship Bel?” Daniel replied, “Because I do not revere idols made with hands, but only the living God who made heaven and earth and has dominion over all flesh.”

Then the king continued, “You do not think Bel is a living god? Do you not see how much he eats and drinks every day?”

Daniel began to laugh. “Do not be deceived, O king,” he said; “it is only clay inside and bronze outside; it has never eaten or drunk anything.”

Enraged, the king called his priests and said to them, “Unless you tell me who it is that consumes these provisions, you shall die. But if you can show that Bel consumes them, Daniel shall die for blaspheming Bel.”

Daniel said to the king, “Let it be as you say!”

There were seventy priests of Bel, besides their wives and children.

When the king went with Daniel into the temple of Bel,

the priests of Bel said, “See, we are going to leave. You, O king, set out the food and prepare the wine; then shut the door and seal it with your ring.

If you do not find that Bel has eaten it all when you return in the morning, we are to die; otherwise Daniel shall die for his lies against us.”

They were not perturbed, because under the table they had made a secret entrance through which they always came in to consume the food.

After they departed the king set the food before Bel, while Daniel ordered his servants to bring some ashes, which they scattered through the whole temple; the king alone was present. Then they went outside, sealed the closed door with the king’s ring, and departed.

The priests entered that night as usual, with their wives and children, and they ate and drank everything.

Early the next morning, the king came with Daniel.

“Are the seals unbroken, Daniel?” he asked. And Daniel answered, “They are unbroken, O king.”

As soon as he had opened the door, the king looked at the table and cried aloud, “You are great, O Bel; there is no deceit in you.”

But Daniel laughed and kept the king from entering. He said, “Look at the floor and consider whose footprints these are.”

“I see the footprints of men, women, and children!” said the king.

In his wrath the king arrested the priests, their wives, and their children. They showed him the secret door by which they used to enter to consume what was on the table.

The king put them to death, and handed Bel over to Daniel, who destroyed it and its temple.

There was a great dragon which the Babylonians revered.

The king said to Daniel, “You cannot deny that this is a living god, so worship it.”

But Daniel answered, “I worship the Lord, my God, for he is the living God.

Give me permission, O king, and I will kill this dragon without sword or club.” “I give you permission,” the king said.

Then Daniel took some pitch, fat, and hair; these he boiled together and made into cakes. He put them into the mouth of the dragon, and when the dragon ate them, he burst. “This,” he said, “is what you revered.”

When the Babylonians heard this, they were angry and turned against the king. “The king has become a Jew,” they said; “he has destroyed Bel, killed the dragon, and put the priests to death.”

They went to the king and demanded: “Hand Daniel over to us, or we will kill you and your family.”

When he saw himself threatened with violence, the king was forced to hand Daniel over to them.

They threw Daniel into a lions’ den, where he remained six days.

In the den were seven lions. Two carcasses and two sheep had been given to them daily, but now they were given nothing, so that they would devour Daniel.

The prophet Habakkuk was in Judea. He mixed some bread in a bowl with the stew he had boiled, and was going to bring it to the reapers in the field,

when an angel of the Lord told him, “Take the meal you have to Daniel in the lions’ den at Babylon.”

But Habakkuk answered, “Sir, I have never seen Babylon, and I do not know the den!”

The angel of the Lord seized him by the crown of his head and carried him by the hair; with the speed of the wind, he set him down in Babylon above the den.

“Daniel, Daniel,” cried Habakkuk, “take the meal God has sent you.”

“You have remembered me, O God,” said Daniel; “you have not forsaken those who love you.”

So Daniel ate, but the angel of God at once brought Habakkuk back to his own place.

On the seventh day the king came to mourn for Daniel. As he came to the den and looked in, there was Daniel, sitting there.

The king cried aloud, “You are great, O Lord, the God of Daniel, and there is no other besides you!”

He brought Daniel out, but those who had tried to destroy him he threw into the den, and they were devoured in a moment before his eyes.

Psalm 24:1-6

The earth is the LORD’s and all it holds, the world and those who dwell in it.

For he founded it on the seas,

established it over the rivers.

Who may go up the mountain of the LORD?

Who can stand in his holy place?

“The clean of hand and pure of heart,

who has not given his soul to useless things,

what is vain.

He will receive blessings from the LORD,

and justice from his saving God.

Such is the generation that seeks him,

that seeks the face of the God of Jacob.”

see 1 John 4:14-16

We testify that the Father sent his Son as savior of the world.

Whoever acknowledges that Jesus is the Son of God, God remains in him and he in God.

We have come to know and to believe in the love God has for us.

Gospel

John 8:12-30

Jesus spoke to them again, saying, “I am the light of the world. Whoever follows me will not walk in darkness, but will have the light of life.”

So the Pharisees said to him, “You testify on your own behalf, so your testimony cannot be verified.” Jesus answered and said to them, “Even if I do testify on my own behalf, my testimony can be verified, because I know where I came from and where I am going. But you do not know where I come from or where I am going.

You judge by appearances, but I do not judge anyone.

And even if I should judge, my judgment is valid, because I am not alone, but it is I and the Father who sent me.

Even in your law it is written that the testimony of two men can be verified.

I testify on my behalf and so does the Father who sent me.”

So they said to him, “Where is your father?” Jesus answered, “You know neither me nor my Father. If you knew me, you would know my Father also.”

He spoke these words while teaching in the treasury in the temple area. But no one arrested him, because his hour had not yet come.

Jesus, the Father’s Ambassador.

He said to them again, “I am going away and you will look for me, but you will die in your sin.

Where I am going you cannot come.”

So the Jews said, “He is not going to kill himself, is he, because he said, ‘Where I am going you cannot come’?”

He said to them, “You belong to what is below, I belong to what is above. You belong to this world, but I do not belong to this world.

That is why I told you that you will die in your sins. For if you do not believe that I AM, you will die in your sins."

So they said to him, “Who are you?” Jesus said to them, “What I told you from the beginning.

I have much to say about you in condemnation. But the one who sent me is true, and what I heard from him I tell the world.”

They did not realize that he was speaking to them of the Father.

So Jesus said (to them), “When you lift up the Son of Man, then you will realize that I AM, and that I do nothing on my own, but I say only what the Father taught me.

The one who sent me is with me. He has not left me alone, because I always do what is pleasing to him.

”Because he spoke this way, many came to believe in him.