Monday, June 22, 2026

^9:18So then, he has mercy on whom he desires, and he hardens whom he desires. ¹⁹You will say then to me, “Why does he still find fault? For who withstands his will?” ²⁰But indeed, O man, who are you to reply against God? Will the thing formed ask him who formed it, “Why did you make me like this?” ²¹Or hasn’t the potter a right over the clay, from the same lump to make one part a vessel for honor, and another for dishonor? ²²What if God, willing to show his wrath and to make his power known, endured with much patience vessels of wrath prepared for destruction, ²³and that he might make known the riches of his glory on vessels of mercy, which he prepared beforehand for glory— ²⁴us, whom he also called, not from the Jews only, but also from the Gentiles? ²⁵As he says also in Hosea, “I will call them ‘my people,’ which were not my people; and her ‘beloved,’ who was not beloved.” ²⁶“It will be that in the place where it was said to them, ‘You are not my people,’ there they will be called ‘children of the living God.’” ²⁷Isaiah cries concerning Israel, “If the number of the children of Israel are as the sand of the sea, it is the remnant who will be saved; ²⁸for he will finish the work and cut it short in righteousness, because the Lord will make a short work upon the earth.” ²⁹As Isaiah has said before, “Unless the Lord of Armies had left us a seed, we would have become like Sodom, and would have been made like Gomorrah.” ³⁰What shall we say then? That the Gentiles, who didn’t follow after righteousness, attained to righteousness, even the righteousness which is of faith; ³¹but Israel, following after a law of righteousness, didn’t arrive at the law of righteousness. ³²Why? Because they didn’t seek it by faith, but as it were by works of the law. They stumbled over the stumbling stone, ³³even as it is written, “Behold, I lay in Zion a stumbling stone and a rock of offense; and no one who believes in him will be disappointed.”

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^11:2Now when John heard in the prison the works of Christ, he sent two of his disciples ³and said to him, “Are you he who comes, or should we look for another?” ⁴Jesus answered them, “Go and tell John the things which you hear and see: ⁵the blind receive their sight, the lame walk, the lepers are cleansed, the deaf hear, the dead are raised up, and the poor have good news preached to them. ⁶Blessed is he who finds no occasion for stumbling in me.” ⁷As these went their way, Jesus began to say to the multitudes concerning John, “What did you go out into the wilderness to see? A reed shaken by the wind? ⁸But what did you go out to see? A man in soft clothing? Behold, those who wear soft clothing are in kings’ houses. ⁹But why did you go out? To see a prophet? Yes, I tell you, and much more than a prophet. ¹⁰For this is he, of whom it is written, ‘Behold, I send my messenger before your face, who will prepare your way before you.’ ¹¹Most certainly I tell you, among those who are born of women there has not arisen anyone greater than John the Baptizer; yet he who is least in the Kingdom of Heaven is greater than he. ¹²From the days of John the Baptizer until now, the Kingdom of Heaven suffers violence, and the violent take it by force. ¹³For all the prophets and the law prophesied until John. ¹⁴If you are willing to receive it, this is Elijah, who is to come. ¹⁵He who has ears to hear, let him hear.

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