The Lamb and His People

Revelation 14 Then I looked, and there was the Lamb standing on Mount Zion; with him were 144,000 people who have his name and his Father's name written on their foreheads. ²And I heard a voice from heaven that sounded like a roaring waterfall, like a loud peal of thunder. It sounded like the music made by musicians playing their harps. ³The 144,000 people stood before the throne, the four living creatures, and the elders; they were singing a new song, which only they could learn. Of the whole human race they are the only ones who have been redeemed. ⁴They are the men who have kept themselves pure by not having sexual relations with women; they are virgins. They follow the Lamb wherever he goes. They have been redeemed from the rest of the human race and are the first ones to be offered to God and to the Lamb. ⁵They have never been known to tell lies; they are faultless.

The Three Angels

⁶Then I saw another angel flying high in the air, with an eternal message of Good News to announce to the peoples of the earth, to every race, tribe, language, and nation. ⁷He said in a loud voice, "Honor God and praise his greatness! For the time has come for him to judge all people. Worship him who made heaven, earth, sea, and the springs of water!"
⁸A second angel followed the first one, saying, "She has fallen! Great Babylon has fallen! She made all peoples drink her wine--the strong wine of her immoral lust!"
⁹A third angel followed the first two, saying in a loud voice, "Those who worship the beast and its image and receive the mark on their forehead or on their hand ¹⁰will themselves drink God's wine, the wine of his fury, which he has poured at full strength into the cup of his anger! All who do this will be tormented in fire and sulfur before the holy angels and the Lamb. ¹¹The smoke of the fire that torments them goes up forever and ever. There is no relief day or night for those who worship the beast and its image, for anyone who has the mark of its name."
¹²This calls for endurance on the part of God's people, those who obey God's commandments and are faithful to Jesus.
¹³Then I heard a voice from heaven saying, "Write this: Happy are those who from now on die in the service of the Lord!"
"Yes indeed!" answers the Spirit. "They will enjoy rest from their hard work, because the results of their service go with them."

The Harvest of the Earth

¹⁴Then I looked, and there was a white cloud, and sitting on the cloud was what looked like a human being, with a crown of gold on his head and a sharp sickle in his hand. ¹⁵Then another angel came out from the temple and cried out in a loud voice to the one who was sitting on the cloud, "Use your sickle and reap the harvest, because the time has come; the earth is ripe for the harvest!" ¹⁶Then the one who sat on the cloud swung his sickle on the earth, and the earth's harvest was reaped.
¹⁷Then I saw another angel come out of the temple in heaven, and he also had a sharp sickle.
¹⁸Then another angel, who is in charge of the fire, came from the altar. He shouted in a loud voice to the angel who had the sharp sickle, "Use your sickle, and cut the grapes from the vineyard of the earth, because the grapes are ripe!" ¹⁹So the angel swung his sickle on the earth, cut the grapes from the vine, and threw them into the wine press of God's furious anger. ²⁰The grapes were squeezed out in the wine press outside the city, and blood came out of the wine press in a flood two hundred miles long and about five feet deep.

Esther Invites the King and Haman to a Banquet

Esther 5 On the third day of her fast Esther put on her royal robes and went and stood in the inner courtyard of the palace, facing the throne room. The king was inside, seated on the royal throne, facing the entrance. ²When the king saw Queen Esther standing outside, she won his favor, and he held out to her the gold scepter. She then came up and touched the tip of it. ³"What is it, Queen Esther?" the king asked. "Tell me what you want, and you shall have it--even if it is half my empire."
⁴Esther replied, "If it please Your Majesty, I would like you and Haman to be my guests tonight at a banquet I am preparing for you."
⁵The king then ordered Haman to come quickly, so that they could be Esther's guests. So the king and Haman went to Esther's banquet. ⁶Over the wine the king asked her, "Tell me what you want, and you shall have it. I will grant your request, even if you ask for half my empire."
⁷Esther replied, ⁸"If Your Majesty is kind enough to grant my request, I would like you and Haman to be my guests tomorrow at another banquet that I will prepare for you. At that time I will tell you what I want."

Haman Plots to Kill Mordecai

⁹When Haman left the banquet he was happy and in a good mood. But then he saw Mordecai at the entrance of the palace, and when Mordecai did not rise or show any sign of respect as he passed, Haman was furious with him. ¹⁰But he controlled himself and went on home. Then he invited his friends to his house and asked his wife Zeresh to join them. ¹¹He boasted to them about how rich he was, how many sons he had, how the king had promoted him to high office, and how much more important he was than any of the king's other officials. ¹²"What is more," Haman went on, "Queen Esther gave a banquet for no one but the king and me, and we are invited back tomorrow. ¹³But none of this means a thing to me as long as I see that Jew Mordecai sitting at the entrance of the palace."
¹⁴So his wife and all his friends suggested, "Why don't you have a gallows built, seventy-five feet tall? Tomorrow morning you can ask the king to have Mordecai hanged on it, and then you can go to the banquet happy."
Haman thought this was a good idea, so he had the gallows built.

The King Honors Mordecai

Esther 6 That same night the king could not get to sleep, so he had the official records of the empire brought and read to him. ²The part they read included the account of how Mordecai had uncovered a plot to assassinate the king--the plot made by Bigthana and Teresh, the two palace eunuchs who had guarded the king's rooms. ³The king asked, "How have we honored and rewarded Mordecai for this?"
His servants answered, "Nothing has been done for him."
⁴"Are any of my officials in the palace?" the king asked.
Now Haman had just entered the courtyard; he had come to ask the king to have Mordecai hanged on the gallows that was now ready. ⁵So the servants answered, "Haman is here, waiting to see you."
"Show him in," said the king.
⁶So Haman came in, and the king said to him, "There is someone I wish very much to honor. What should I do for this man?"
Haman thought to himself, "Now who could the king want to honor so much? Me, of course."
^7-8So he answered the king, "Have royal robes brought for this man--robes that you yourself wear. Have a royal ornament put on your own horse. ⁹Then have one of your highest noblemen dress the man in these robes and lead him, mounted on the horse, through the city square. Have the nobleman announce as they go: 'See how the king rewards someone he wishes to honor!'"
¹⁰Then the king said to Haman, "Hurry and get the robes and the horse, and provide these honors for Mordecai the Jew. Do everything for him that you have suggested. You will find him sitting at the entrance of the palace."
¹¹So Haman got the robes and the horse, and he put the robes on Mordecai. Mordecai got on the horse, and Haman led him through the city square, announcing to the people as they went: "See how the king rewards a man he wishes to honor!"
¹²Mordecai then went back to the palace entrance while Haman hurried home, covering his face in embarrassment. ¹³He told his wife and all his friends everything that had happened to him. Then she and those wise friends of his told him, "You are beginning to lose power to Mordecai. He is a Jew, and you cannot overcome him. He will certainly defeat you."

Psalm 106²⁴Then they rejected the pleasant land,
because they did not believe God's promise.
²⁵They stayed in their tents and grumbled
and would not listen to the LORD.
²⁶So he gave them a solemn warning
that he would make them die in the desert
²⁷and scatter their descendants among the heathen,
letting them die in foreign countries.

²⁸Then at Peor, God's people joined in the worship of Baal
and ate sacrifices offered to dead gods.
²⁹They stirred up the LORD's anger by their actions,
and a terrible disease broke out among them.
³⁰But Phinehas stood up and punished the guilty,
and the plague was stopped.
³¹This has been remembered in his favor ever since
and will be for all time to come.

³²At the springs of Meribah the people made the LORD angry,
and Moses was in trouble on their account.
³³They made him so bitter
that he spoke without stopping to think.

³⁴They did not kill the heathen,
as the LORD had commanded them to do,
³⁵but they intermarried with them
and adopted their pagan ways.
³⁶God's people worshiped idols,
and this caused their destruction.
³⁷They offered their own sons and daughters
as sacrifices to the idols of Canaan.
³⁸They killed those innocent children,
and the land was defiled by those murders.
³⁹They made themselves impure by their actions
and were unfaithful to God.

⁴⁰So the LORD was angry with his people;
he was disgusted with them.
⁴¹He abandoned them to the power of the heathen,
and their enemies ruled over them.
⁴²They were oppressed by their enemies
and were in complete subjection to them.
⁴³Many times the LORD rescued his people,
but they chose to rebel against him
and sank deeper into sin.
⁴⁴Yet the LORD heard them when they cried out,
and he took notice of their distress.
⁴⁵For their sake he remembered his covenant,
and because of his great love he relented.
⁴⁶He made all their oppressors
feel sorry for them.

⁴⁷Save us, O LORD our God,
and bring us back from among the nations,
so that we may be thankful
and praise your holy name.

⁴⁸Praise the LORD, the God of Israel;
praise him now and forever!
Let everyone say, "Amen!"

Praise the LORD!