Reference links:
Old Testament
Everyone in the world will someday declare Jerusalem to be awesome. Those who don’t will be punished. Reading these verses, it is certainly easy to see how people thought that God’s kingdom was near when Jews started settling the land that would later be made the state of Israel.
The reading also declares that those Jews who are currently suffering as captives and prisoners will be restored to prosperity.
The last section of today’s reading is a prayer declaring the author’s love for Jerusalem. It is clear how much passion the author shows for the restoration of the city. So passionate, in fact, that I can see how he may have come to truly believe that his visions of restoration and revenge were visions from God.
New Testament
Unity will be a sign that the Philippian church is saved. As I think I have mentioned before, if we apply that standard to the modern church, well, it doesn’t come out very well.
Most of the rest of today’s reading consists of various moral instructions (don’t be selfish, be humble, work hard, live cleanly). In the midst of that we have a bit of poetry that is interesting because it is thought to be a fragment of an early hymn.
Psalms and Proverbs
Save those who are unjustly condemned.