Night Watch Devotion

¹ He who dwells in the shelter of the Most High will abide in the shadow of the Almighty.
² I will say to the LORD, “My refuge and my fortress, my God, in whom I trust.”
³ For he will deliver you from the snare of the fowler and from the deadly pestilence.
⁴ He will cover you with his pinions, and under his wings you will find refuge; his faithfulness is a shield and buckler.
⁵ You will not fear the terror of the night, nor the arrow that flies by day,
⁶ nor the pestilence that stalks in darkness, nor the destruction that wastes at noonday.
⁷ A thousand may fall at your side, ten thousand at your right hand, but it will not come near you.
⁸ You will only look with your eyes and see the recompense of the wicked.
⁹ Because you have made the LORD your dwelling place— the Most High, who is my refuge—
¹⁰ no evil shall be allowed to befall you, no plague come near your tent.
¹¹ For he will command his angels concerning you to guard you in all your ways.
¹² On their hands they will bear you up, lest you strike your foot against a stone.
¹³ You will tread on the lion and the adder; the young lion and the serpent you will trample underfoot.
¹⁴ “Because he holds fast to me in love, I will deliver him; I will protect him, because he knows my name.
¹⁵ When he calls to me, I will answer him; I will be with him in trouble; I will rescue him and honor him.
¹⁶ With long life I will satisfy him and show him my salvation.” (ESV)

A Psalm for giving thanks.
¹ Make a joyful noise to the LORD, all the earth!
² Serve the LORD with gladness! Come into his presence with singing!
³ Know that the LORD, he is God! It is he who made us, and we are his; we are his people, and the sheep of his pasture.
⁴ Enter his gates with thanksgiving, and his courts with praise! Give thanks to him; bless his name!
⁵ For the LORD is good; his steadfast love endures forever, and his faithfulness to all generations. (ESV)

²³ Jesus answered him, “If anyone loves me, he will keep my word, and my Father will love him, and we will come to him and make our home with him. (ESV)

⁵ Jethro, Moses’ father-in-law, came with his sons and his wife to Moses in the wilderness where he was encamped at the mountain of God.
⁶ And when he sent word to Moses, “I, your father-in-law Jethro, am coming to you with your wife and her two sons with her,”
⁷ Moses went out to meet his father-in-law and bowed down and kissed him. And they asked each other of their welfare and went into the tent.
⁸ Then Moses told his father-in-law all that the LORD had done to Pharaoh and to the Egyptians for Israel’s sake, all the hardship that had come upon them in the way, and how the LORD had delivered them.
⁹ And Jethro rejoiced for all the good that the LORD had done to Israel, in that he had delivered them out of the hand of the Egyptians.
¹⁰ Jethro said, “Blessed be the LORD, who has delivered you out of the hand of the Egyptians and out of the hand of Pharaoh and has delivered the people from under the hand of the Egyptians.
¹¹ Now I know that the LORD is greater than all gods, because in this affair they dealt arrogantly with the people.”
¹² And Jethro, Moses’ father-in-law, brought a burnt offering and sacrifices to God; and Aaron came with all the elders of Israel to eat bread with Moses’ father-in-law before God.
¹³ The next day Moses sat to judge the people, and the people stood around Moses from morning till evening.
¹⁴ When Moses’ father-in-law saw all that he was doing for the people, he said, “What is this that you are doing for the people? Why do you sit alone, and all the people stand around you from morning till evening?”
¹⁵ And Moses said to his father-in-law, “Because the people come to me to inquire of God;
¹⁶ when they have a dispute, they come to me and I decide between one person and another, and I make them know the statutes of God and his laws.”
¹⁷ Moses’ father-in-law said to him, “What you are doing is not good.
¹⁸ You and the people with you will certainly wear yourselves out, for the thing is too heavy for you. You are not able to do it alone.
¹⁹ Now obey my voice; I will give you advice, and God be with you! You shall represent the people before God and bring their cases to God,
²⁰ and you shall warn them about the statutes and the laws, and make them know the way in which they must walk and what they must do.
²¹ Moreover, look for able men from all the people, men who fear God, who are trustworthy and hate a bribe, and place such men over the people as chiefs of thousands, of hundreds, of fifties, and of tens.
²² And let them judge the people at all times. Every great matter they shall bring to you, but any small matter they shall decide themselves. So it will be easier for you, and they will bear the burden with you.
²³ If you do this, God will direct you, you will be able to endure, and all this people also will go to their place in peace.”
²⁴ So Moses listened to the voice of his father-in-law and did all that he had said.
²⁵ Moses chose able men out of all Israel and made them heads over the people, chiefs of thousands, of hundreds, of fifties, and of tens.
²⁶ And they judged the people at all times. Any hard case they brought to Moses, but any small matter they decided themselves.
²⁷ Then Moses let his father-in-law depart, and he went away to his own country. (ESV)

¹ Therefore, since we are surrounded by so great a cloud of witnesses, let us also lay aside every weight, and sin which clings so closely, and let us run with endurance the race that is set before us,
² looking to Jesus, the founder and perfecter of our faith, who for the joy that was set before him endured the cross, despising the shame, and is seated at the right hand of the throne of God.
³ Consider him who endured from sinners such hostility against himself, so that you may not grow weary or fainthearted.
⁴ In your struggle against sin you have not yet resisted to the point of shedding your blood.
⁵ And have you forgotten the exhortation that addresses you as sons? “My son, do not regard lightly the discipline of the Lord, nor be weary when reproved by him.
⁶ For the Lord disciplines the one he loves, and chastises every son whom he receives.”
⁷ It is for discipline that you have to endure. God is treating you as sons. For what son is there whom his father does not discipline?
⁸ If you are left without discipline, in which all have participated, then you are illegitimate children and not sons.
⁹ Besides this, we have had earthly fathers who disciplined us and we respected them. Shall we not much more be subject to the Father of spirits and live?
¹⁰ For they disciplined us for a short time as it seemed best to them, but he disciplines us for our good, that we may share his holiness.
¹¹ For the moment all discipline seems painful rather than pleasant, but later it yields the peaceful fruit of righteousness to those who have been trained by it.
¹² Therefore lift your drooping hands and strengthen your weak knees,
¹³ and make straight paths for your feet, so that what is lame may not be put out of joint but rather be healed.
¹⁴ Strive for peace with everyone, and for the holiness without which no one will see the Lord.
¹⁵ See to it that no one fails to obtain the grace of God; that no “root of bitterness” springs up and causes trouble, and by it many become defiled;
¹⁶ that no one is sexually immoral or unholy like Esau, who sold his birthright for a single meal.
¹⁷ For you know that afterward, when he desired to inherit the blessing, he was rejected, for he found no chance to repent, though he sought it with tears.
¹⁸ For you have not come to what may be touched, a blazing fire and darkness and gloom and a tempest
¹⁹ and the sound of a trumpet and a voice whose words made the hearers beg that no further messages be spoken to them.
²⁰ For they could not endure the order that was given, “If even a beast touches the mountain, it shall be stoned.”
²¹ Indeed, so terrifying was the sight that Moses said, “I tremble with fear.”
²² But you have come to Mount Zion and to the city of the living God, the heavenly Jerusalem, and to innumerable angels in festal gathering,
²³ and to the assembly of the firstborn who are enrolled in heaven, and to God, the judge of all, and to the spirits of the righteous made perfect,
²⁴ and to Jesus, the mediator of a new covenant, and to the sprinkled blood that speaks a better word than the blood of Abel. (ESV)

¹ “If a prophet or a dreamer of dreams arises among you and gives you a sign or a wonder,
² and the sign or wonder that he tells you comes to pass, and if he says, ‘Let us go after other gods,’ which you have not known, ‘and let us serve them,’
³ you shall not listen to the words of that prophet or that dreamer of dreams. For the LORD your God is testing you, to know whether you love the LORD your God with all your heart and with all your soul.
⁴ You shall walk after the LORD your God and fear him and keep his commandments and obey his voice, and you shall serve him and hold fast to him.
⁵ But that prophet or that dreamer of dreams shall be put to death, because he has taught rebellion against the LORD your God, who brought you out of the land of Egypt and redeemed you out of the house of slavery, to make you leave the way in which the LORD your God commanded you to walk. So you shall purge the evil from your midst.
⁶ “If your brother, the son of your mother, or your son or your daughter or the wife you embrace or your friend who is as your own soul entices you secretly, saying, ‘Let us go and serve other gods,’ which neither you nor your fathers have known,
⁷ some of the gods of the peoples who are around you, whether near you or far off from you, from the one end of the earth to the other,
⁸ you shall not yield to him or listen to him, nor shall your eye pity him, nor shall you spare him, nor shall you conceal him.
⁹ But you shall kill him. Your hand shall be first against him to put him to death, and afterward the hand of all the people.
¹⁰ You shall stone him to death with stones, because he sought to draw you away from the LORD your God, who brought you out of the land of Egypt, out of the house of slavery.
¹¹ And all Israel shall hear and fear and never again do any such wickedness as this among you.
¹² “If you hear in one of your cities, which the LORD your God is giving you to dwell there,
¹³ that certain worthless fellows have gone out among you and have drawn away the inhabitants of their city, saying, ‘Let us go and serve other gods,’ which you have not known,
¹⁴ then you shall inquire and make search and ask diligently. And behold, if it be true and certain that such an abomination has been done among you,
¹⁵ you shall surely put the inhabitants of that city to the sword, devoting it to destruction, all who are in it and its cattle, with the edge of the sword.
¹⁶ You shall gather all its spoil into the midst of its open square and burn the city and all its spoil with fire, as a whole burnt offering to the LORD your God. It shall be a heap forever. It shall not be built again.
¹⁷ None of the devoted things shall stick to your hand, that the LORD may turn from the fierceness of his anger and show you mercy and have compassion on you and multiply you, as he swore to your fathers,
¹⁸ if you obey the voice of the LORD your God, keeping all his commandments that I am commanding you today, and doing what is right in the sight of the LORD your God.

¹ “You are the sons of the LORD your God. You shall not cut yourselves or make any baldness on your foreheads for the dead.
² For you are a people holy to the LORD your God, and the LORD has chosen you to be a people for his treasured possession, out of all the peoples who are on the face of the earth.
³ “You shall not eat any abomination.
⁴ These are the animals you may eat: the ox, the sheep, the goat,
⁵ the deer, the gazelle, the roebuck, the wild goat, the ibex, the antelope, and the mountain sheep.
⁶ Every animal that parts the hoof and has the hoof cloven in two and chews the cud, among the animals, you may eat.
⁷ Yet of those that chew the cud or have the hoof cloven you shall not eat these: the camel, the hare, and the rock badger, because they chew the cud but do not part the hoof, are unclean for you.
⁸ And the pig, because it parts the hoof but does not chew the cud, is unclean for you. Their flesh you shall not eat, and their carcasses you shall not touch.
⁹ “Of all that are in the waters you may eat these: whatever has fins and scales you may eat.
¹⁰ And whatever does not have fins and scales you shall not eat; it is unclean for you.
¹¹ “You may eat all clean birds.
¹² But these are the ones that you shall not eat: the eagle, the bearded vulture, the black vulture,
¹³ the kite, the falcon of any kind;
¹⁴ every raven of any kind;
¹⁵ the ostrich, the nighthawk, the sea gull, the hawk of any kind;
¹⁶ the little owl and the short-eared owl, the barn owl
¹⁷ and the tawny owl, the carrion vulture and the cormorant,
¹⁸ the stork, the heron of any kind; the hoopoe and the bat.
¹⁹ And all winged insects are unclean for you; they shall not be eaten.
²⁰ All clean winged things you may eat.
²¹ “You shall not eat anything that has died naturally. You may give it to the sojourner who is within your towns, that he may eat it, or you may sell it to a foreigner. For you are a people holy to the LORD your God. “You shall not boil a young goat in its mother’s milk.
²² “You shall tithe all the yield of your seed that comes from the field year by year.
²³ And before the LORD your God, in the place that he will choose, to make his name dwell there, you shall eat the tithe of your grain, of your wine, and of your oil, and the firstborn of your herd and flock, that you may learn to fear the LORD your God always.
²⁴ And if the way is too long for you, so that you are not able to carry the tithe, when the LORD your God blesses you, because the place is too far from you, which the LORD your God chooses, to set his name there,
²⁵ then you shall turn it into money and bind up the money in your hand and go to the place that the LORD your God chooses
²⁶ and spend the money for whatever you desire—oxen or sheep or wine or strong drink, whatever your appetite craves. And you shall eat there before the LORD your God and rejoice, you and your household.
²⁷ And you shall not neglect the Levite who is within your towns, for he has no portion or inheritance with you.
²⁸ “At the end of every three years you shall bring out all the tithe of your produce in the same year and lay it up within your towns.
²⁹ And the Levite, because he has no portion or inheritance with you, and the sojourner, the fatherless, and the widow, who are within your towns, shall come and eat and be filled, that the LORD your God may bless you in all the work of your hands that you do. (ESV)

¹ There were some present at that very time who told him about the Galileans whose blood Pilate had mingled with their sacrifices.
² And he answered them, “Do you think that these Galileans were worse sinners than all the other Galileans, because they suffered in this way?
³ No, I tell you; but unless you repent, you will all likewise perish.
⁴ Or those eighteen on whom the tower in Siloam fell and killed them: do you think that they were worse offenders than all the others who lived in Jerusalem?
⁵ No, I tell you; but unless you repent, you will all likewise perish.”
⁶ And he told this parable: “A man had a fig tree planted in his vineyard, and he came seeking fruit on it and found none.
⁷ And he said to the vinedresser, ‘Look, for three years now I have come seeking fruit on this fig tree, and I find none. Cut it down. Why should it use up the ground?’
⁸ And he answered him, ‘Sir, let it alone this year also, until I dig around it and put on manure.
⁹ Then if it should bear fruit next year, well and good; but if not, you can cut it down.’”
¹⁰ Now he was teaching in one of the synagogues on the Sabbath.
¹¹ And behold, there was a woman who had had a disabling spirit for eighteen years. She was bent over and could not fully straighten herself.
¹² When Jesus saw her, he called her over and said to her, “Woman, you are freed from your disability.”
¹³ And he laid his hands on her, and immediately she was made straight, and she glorified God.
¹⁴ But the ruler of the synagogue, indignant because Jesus had healed on the Sabbath, said to the people, “There are six days in which work ought to be done. Come on those days and be healed, and not on the Sabbath day.”
¹⁵ Then the Lord answered him, “You hypocrites! Does not each of you on the Sabbath untie his ox or his donkey from the manger and lead it away to water it?
¹⁶ And ought not this woman, a daughter of Abraham whom Satan bound for eighteen years, be loosed from this bond on the Sabbath day?”
¹⁷ As he said these things, all his adversaries were put to shame, and all the people rejoiced at all the glorious things that were done by him.
¹⁸ He said therefore, “What is the kingdom of God like? And to what shall I compare it?
¹⁹ It is like a grain of mustard seed that a man took and sowed in his garden, and it grew and became a tree, and the birds of the air made nests in its branches.”
²⁰ And again he said, “To what shall I compare the kingdom of God?
²¹ It is like leaven that a woman took and hid in three measures of flour, until it was all leavened.”
²² He went on his way through towns and villages, teaching and journeying toward Jerusalem.
²³ And someone said to him, “Lord, will those who are saved be few?” And he said to them,
²⁴ “Strive to enter through the narrow door. For many, I tell you, will seek to enter and will not be able.
²⁵ When once the master of the house has risen and shut the door, and you begin to stand outside and to knock at the door, saying, ‘Lord, open to us,’ then he will answer you, ‘I do not know where you come from.’
²⁶ Then you will begin to say, ‘We ate and drank in your presence, and you taught in our streets.’
²⁷ But he will say, ‘I tell you, I do not know where you come from. Depart from me, all you workers of evil!’
²⁸ In that place there will be weeping and gnashing of teeth, when you see Abraham and Isaac and Jacob and all the prophets in the kingdom of God but you yourselves cast out.
²⁹ And people will come from east and west, and from north and south, and recline at table in the kingdom of God.
³⁰ And behold, some are last who will be first, and some are first who will be last.” (ESV)

¹ Wisdom has built her house; she has hewn her seven pillars.
² She has slaughtered her beasts; she has mixed her wine; she has also set her table.
³ She has sent out her young women to call from the highest places in the town,
⁴ “Whoever is simple, let him turn in here!” To him who lacks sense she says,
⁵ “Come, eat of my bread and drink of the wine I have mixed.
⁶ Leave your simple ways, and live, and walk in the way of insight.”
⁷ Whoever corrects a scoffer gets himself abuse, and he who reproves a wicked man incurs injury.
⁸ Do not reprove a scoffer, or he will hate you; reprove a wise man, and he will love you.
⁹ Give instruction to a wise man, and he will be still wiser; teach a righteous man, and he will increase in learning.
¹⁰ The fear of the LORD is the beginning of wisdom, and the knowledge of the Holy One is insight.
¹¹ For by me your days will be multiplied, and years will be added to your life.
¹² If you are wise, you are wise for yourself; if you scoff, you alone will bear it. (ESV)