The Two Witnesses

Revelation 11 An angel gave me a measuring stick and said:

Measure around God's temple. Be sure to include the altar and everyone worshiping there. ²But don't measure the courtyard outside the temple building. Leave it out. It has been given to those people who don't know God, and they will trample all over the holy city for forty-two months. ³My two witnesses will wear sackcloth, while I let them preach for one thousand two hundred sixty days.

⁴These two witnesses are the two olive trees and the two lampstands that stand in the presence of the Lord who rules the earth. ⁵Any enemy who tries to harm them will be destroyed by the fire that comes out of their mouths. ⁶They have the power to lock up the sky and to keep rain from falling while they are prophesying. And whenever they want to, they can turn water to blood and cause all kinds of terrible troubles on earth.
⁷After the two witnesses have finished preaching God's message, the beast that lives in the deep pit will come up and fight against them. It will win the battle and kill them. ⁸Their bodies will be left lying in the streets of the same great city where their Lord was nailed to a cross. And that city is spiritually like the city of Sodom or the country of Egypt.
⁹For three and a half days the people of every nation, tribe, language, and race will stare at the bodies of these two witnesses and refuse to let them be buried. ¹⁰Everyone on earth will celebrate and be happy. They will give gifts to each other, because of what happened to the two prophets who caused them so much trouble. ¹¹But three and a half days later, God will breathe life into their bodies. They will stand up, and everyone who sees them will be terrified.
¹²The witnesses then heard a loud voice from heaven, saying, "Come up here." And while their enemies were watching, they were taken up to heaven in a cloud. ¹³At that same moment there was a terrible earthquake that destroyed a tenth of the city. Seven thousand people were killed, and the rest were frightened and praised the God who rules in heaven.
¹⁴The second horrible thing has now happened! But the third one will be here soon.

The Seventh Trumpet

¹⁵At the sound of the seventh trumpet, loud voices were heard in heaven. They said,
"Now the kingdom of this world
belongs to our Lord and to his Chosen One!
And he will rule forever and ever!"
¹⁶Then the twenty-four elders, who were seated on thrones in God's presence, knelt down and worshiped him. ¹⁷They said,
"Lord God All-Powerful, you are and you were,
and we thank you.
You used your great power and started ruling.
¹⁸When the nations got angry, you became angry too!
Now the time has come
for the dead to be judged.
It is time for you to reward your servants the prophets
and all of your people who honor your name,
no matter who they are.
It is time to destroy everyone who has destroyed the earth."
¹⁹The door to God's temple in heaven was then opened, and the sacred chest could be seen inside the temple. I saw lightning and heard roars of thunder. The earth trembled and huge hailstones fell to the ground.

ESTHER

Queen Vashti Disobeys King Xerxes

Esther 1 ^1-2King Xerxes of Persia lived in his capital city of Susa and ruled one hundred twenty-seven provinces from India to Ethiopia. ³During the third year of his rule, Xerxes gave a big dinner for all his officials and officers. The governors and leaders of the provinces were also invited, and even the commanders of the Persian and Median armies came. ⁴For one hundred eighty days he showed off his wealth and spent a lot of money to impress his guests with the greatness of his kingdom.
⁵King Xerxes soon gave another dinner and invited everyone in the city of Susa, no matter who they were. The eating and drinking lasted seven days in the beautiful palace gardens. ⁶The area was decorated with blue and white cotton curtains tied back with purple linen cords that ran through silver rings fastened to marble columns. Couches of gold and silver rested on pavement that had all kinds of designs made from costly bright-colored stones and marble and mother-of-pearl.
⁷The guests drank from gold cups, and each cup had a different design. The king was generous ⁸and said to them, "Drink all you want!" Then he told his servants, "Keep their cups full."
⁹While the men were enjoying themselves, Queen Vashti gave the women a big dinner inside the royal palace.
¹⁰By the seventh day, King Xerxes was feeling happy because of so much wine. And he asked his seven personal servants, Mehuman, Biztha, Harbona, Bigtha, Abagtha, Zethar, and Carkas, ¹¹to bring Queen Vashti to him. The king wanted her to wear her crown and let his people and his officials see how beautiful she was. ¹²The king's servants told Queen Vashti what he had said, but she refused to go to him, and this made him terribly angry.
^13-14The king called in the seven highest officials of Persia and Media. They were Carshena, Shethar, Admatha, Tarshish, Meres, Marsena, and Memucan. These men were very wise and understood all the laws and customs of the country, and the king always asked them what they thought about such matters.
¹⁵The king said to them, "Queen Vashti refused to come to me when I sent my servants for her. What does the law say I should do about that?"
¹⁶Then Memucan told the king and the officials:

Your Majesty, Queen Vashti has not only embarrassed you, but she has insulted your officials and everyone else in all the provinces.

¹⁷The women in the kingdom will hear about this, and they will refuse to respect their husbands. They will say, "If Queen Vashti doesn't obey her husband, why should we?" ¹⁸Before this day is over, the wives of the officials of Persia and Media will find out what Queen Vashti has done, and they will refuse to obey their husbands. They won't respect their husbands, and their husbands will be angry with them.

¹⁹Your Majesty, if you agree, you should write for the Medes and Persians a law that can never be changed. This law would keep Queen Vashti from ever seeing you again. Then you could let someone who respects you be queen in her place.

²⁰When the women in your great kingdom hear about this new law, they will respect their husbands, no matter if they are rich or poor.

²¹King Xerxes and his officials liked what Memucan had said, ²²and he sent letters to all of his provinces. Each letter was written in the language of the province to which it was sent, and it said that husbands should have complete control over their wives and children.

Psalm 105
The LORD Can Be Trusted

¹Praise the LORD and pray in his name!
Tell everyone what he has done.
²Sing praises to the LORD! Tell about his miracles.
³Celebrate and worship his holy name with all your heart.

⁴Trust the LORD and his mighty power.
⁵Remember his miracles and all his wonders
and his fair decisions.
⁶You belong to the family of Abraham, his servant;
you are his chosen ones, the descendants of Jacob.

⁷The LORD is our God,
bringing justice everywhere on earth.
⁸He will never forget his agreement or his promises,
not in thousands of years.
^*9God made an eternal promise
¹⁰to Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob,
¹¹when he said, "I'll give you the land of Canaan."

¹²At the time there were only a few of us,
and we were homeless.
¹³We wandered from nation to nation,
from one country to another.
¹⁴God did not let anyone mistreat our people.
Instead he protected us by punishing rulers
¹⁵and telling them,
"Don't touch my chosen leaders or harm my prophets!"

¹⁶God kept crops from growing
until food was scarce everywhere in the land.
¹⁷But he had already sent Joseph,
sold as a slave into Egypt,
¹⁸with chains of iron around his legs and neck.

¹⁹Joseph remained a slave
until his own words had come true,
and the LORD had finished testing him.
²⁰Then the king of Egypt set Joseph free
²¹and put him in charge of everything he owned.
²²Joseph was in command of the officials,
and he taught the leaders how to use wisdom.

²³Jacob and his family came
and settled in Egypt as foreigners.
²⁴They were the LORD's people,
so he let them grow stronger than their enemies.
²⁵They served the LORD, and he made the Egyptians plan
hateful things against them.