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Friday
The First
Lesson
1 Maccabees 2:31-43
31 Now when it was told the king's servants, and the host that
was at Jerusalem, in the city of David, that certain men, who
had broken the king's commandment, were gone down into the secret
places in the wilderness,
32 They pursued after them a great number, and having overtaken
them, they camped against them, and made war against them on
the sabbath day.
33 And they said unto them, Let that which ye have done hitherto
suffice; come forth, and do according to the commandment of the
king, and ye shall live.
34 But they said, We will not come forth, neither will we do
the king's commandment, to profane the sabbath day.
35 So then they gave them the battle with all speed.
36 Howbeit they answered them not, neither cast they a stone
at them, nor stopped the places where they lay hid;
37 But said, Let us die all in our innocency: heaven and earth
will testify for us, that ye put us to death wrongfully.
38 So they rose up against them in battle on the sabbath, and
they slew them, with their wives and children and their cattle,
to the number of a thousand people.
39 Now when Mattathias and his friends understood hereof, they
mourned for them right sore.
40 And one of them said to another, If we all do as our brethren
have done, and fight not for our lives and laws against the heathen,
they will now quickly root us out of the earth.
41 At that time therefore they decreed, saying, Whosoever shall
come to make battle with us on the sabbath day, we will fight
against him; neither will we die all, as our brethren that were
murdered in the secret places.
42 Then came there unto him a company of Assideans who were mighty
men of Israel, even all such as were voluntarily devoted unto
the law.
43 Also all they that fled for persecution joined themselves
unto them, and were a stay unto them.
1st Lesson Questions -
Am I willing to die for the Faith? RESOLVE.
The Second
Lesson
Acts 17:1-15
1 Now when they had passed through Amphipolis and Apollonia,
they came to Thessalonica, where was a synagogue of the Jews:
2 And Paul, as his manner was, went in unto them, and three sabbath
days reasoned with them out of the scriptures,
3 Opening and alleging, that Christ must needs have suffered,
and risen again from the dead; and that this Jesus, whom I preach
unto you, is Christ.
4 And some of them believed, and consorted with Paul and Silas;
and of the devout Greeks a great multitude, and of the chief
women not a few.
5 But the Jews which believed not, moved with envy, took unto
them certain lewd fellows of the baser sort, and gathered a company,
and set all the city on an uproar, and assaulted the house of
Jason, and sought to bring them out to the people.
6 And when they found them not, they drew Jason and certain brethren
unto the rulers of the city, crying, These that have turned the
world upside down are come hither also;
7 Whom Jason hath received: and these all do contrary to the
decrees of Caesar, saying that there is another king, one Jesus.
8 And they troubled the people and the rulers of the city, when
they heard these things.
9 And when they had taken security of Jason, and of the other,
they let them go.
10 And the brethren immediately sent away Paul and Silas by night
unto Berea: who coming thither went into the synagogue of the
Jews.
11 These were more noble than those in Thessalonica, in that
they received the word with all readiness of mind, and searched
the scriptures daily, whether those things were so.
12 Therefore many of them believed; also of honourable women
which were Greeks, and of men, not a few.
13 But when the Jews of Thessalonica had knowledge that the word
of God was preached of Paul at Berea, they came thither also,
and stirred up the people.
14 And then immediately the brethren sent away Paul to go as
it were to the sea: but Silas and Timotheus abode there still.
15 And they that conducted Paul brought him unto Athens: and
receiving a commandment unto Silas and Timotheus for to come
to him with all speed, they departed.
2nd Lesson Questions -
Is the Gospel still able to turn the world upside down? RESOLVE.