Thurzo Gizella Bible Study

Word for today: A man who loves wisdom brings joy to his father. Proverbs 29:3 NIV

A Christian’s goal should be to create the Kingdom of God here on earth, as it is in Heaven. Not only, to get to Heaven.

Watch this to start your day.

Reflection for Today.

To finish the Bible in one year, Read 2 Maccabees 7,8, & Matthew 25: 31-46

Old Testament Reading for today – Listen or read it for yourself:

Also read the verses, if you like.

2 Maccabees 7

1 And it came to pass that seven kindred also with their mother were at the king’s command taken and shamefully handled with scourges and cords, to compel them to taste of the abominable swine’s flesh.

2 But one of them made himself the spokesman and said, What would you ask and learn of us? for we are ready to die rather than transgress the laws of our fathers.

3 And the king fell into a rage, and commanded to heat pans and cauldrons:

4 and when these forthwith were heated, he commanded to cut out the tongue of him that had been their spokesman, and to scalp him, and to cut off his extremities, the rest of his kindred and his mother looking on.

5 And when he was utterly maimed, the king commanded to bring him to the fire, being yet alive, and to fry him in the pan. And as the vapour of the pan spread far, they and their mother also exhorted one another to die nobly, saying thus:

6 The Lord God sees, and in truth is entreated for us, as Moses declared in his song, which witnesses against the people to their faces, saying, And he shall be entreated for his servants.

7 And when the first had died after this manner, they brought the second to the mocking; and they pulled off the skin of his head with the hair and asked him, Wilt you eat, before your body be punished in every limb?

8 But he answered in the language of his fathers and said to them, No. Wherefore he also underwent the next torture in succession, as the first had done.

9 And when he was at the last gasp, he said, You, miscreant, do release us out of this present life, but the King of the world shall raise up us, who have died for his laws, to an eternal renewal of life.

10 And after him was the third made a mocking-stock. And when he was required, he quickly put out his tongue, and stretched forth his hands courageously,

11 and nobly said, From heaven I possess these; and for his laws’ sake I treat these with contempt; and from him I hope to receive these back again:

12 insomuch that the king himself and those who were with him were astonished at the young man’s soul, for that he nothing regarded the pains.

13 And when he too was dead, they shamefully handled and tortured the fourth in like manner.

14 And being come near to death he said thus: It is good to die at the hands of men and look for the hopes which are given by God, that we shall be raised up again by him; for as for you, you shall have no resurrection to life.

15 And next after him they brought the fifth, and shamefully handled him.

16 But he looked towards the king and said, Because you have authority amongst men, though you are yourself corruptible, you do what you will; yet think not that our race has been forsaken of God;

17 but hold you on your way, and behold his sovereign majesty, how it will torture you and your seed.

18 And after him they brought the sixth. And when he was at the point to die he said, Be not vainly deceived, for we suffer these things for our own doings, as sinning against our own God: marvellous things are come to pass;

19 but think not you that you shall be unpunished, having assayed to fight against God.

20 But above all was the mother marvellous and worthy of honourable memory; for when she looked on seven sons perishing within the space of one day, she bare the sight with a good courage for the hopes that she had set on the Lord.

21 And she exhorted each one of them in the language of their fathers, filled with a noble temper and stirring up her womanish thought with manly passion, saying to them,

22 I know not how you° came into my womb, neither was it I that bestowed on you your spirit and your life, and it was not I that brought into order the first elements of each one of you.

23 Therefore the Creator of the world, who fashioned the generation of man and devised the generation of all things, in mercy gives back to you again both your spirit and your life, as you° now treat yourselves with contempt for his laws’ sake.

24 But Antiochus, thinking himself to be despised, and suspecting the reproachful voice, while the youngest was yet alive didn’t only make his appeal to him by words, but also at the same time promised with oaths that he would enrich him and raise him to high estate, if he would turn from the customs of his fathers, and that he would take him for his Friend and entrust him with affairs.

25 But when the young man would in no wise give heed, the king called to him his mother, and exhorted her that she would counsel the lad to save himself.

26 And when he had exhorted her with many words, she undertook to persuade her son.

27 But bending towards him, laughing the cruel tyrant to scorn, she spoke thus in the language of her fathers: My son, have pity upon me that carried you nine months in my womb, and gave you suck three years, and nourished and brought you up to this age, and sustained you.

28 I beseech you, my child, to lift your eyes to the heaven and the earth, and to see all things that are in it, and thus to recognise that God made them not of things that were, and that the race of men in this wise comes into being.

29 Don’t be afraid of this butcher, but, proving yourself worthy of your kindred, accept your death, that in the mercy of God I may receive you again with your kindred.

30 But before she had yet ended speaking, the young man said, Whom wait you° for? I obey not the commandment of the king, but I listen to the commandment of the law that was given to our fathers through Moses.

31 But you, that have devised all manner of evil against the Hebrews, shall in no wise escape the hands of God.

32 For we are suffering because of our own sins;

33 and if for rebuke and chastening our living Lord has been angered a little while, yet shall he again be reconciled with his own servants.

34 But you, O unholy man and of all most vile, be not vainly lifted up in your wild pride with uncertain hopes, raising your hand against the heavenly children;

35 For not yet have you escaped the judgement of the Almighty God that sees all things.

36 For these our kindred, having endured a short pain that brings everlasting life, have now died under God’s covenant; But you, through the judgement of God, shall receive in just measure the penalties of your arrogance.

37 But I, as my kindred, give up both body and soul for the laws of our fathers, calling upon God that he may speedily become gracious to the nation; and that you amidst trials and plagues may confess that he alone is God;

38 and that in me and my kindred you may stay the wrath of the Almighty, which has been justly brought upon our whole race.

39 But the king, falling into a rage, handled him worse than all the rest, being exasperated at his mocking.

40 So he also died pure from pollution, putting his whole trust in the Lord.

41 And last of all after her sons the mother died.

42 Let it then suffice to have said thus much concerning the enforcement of sacrificial feasts and the king’s exceeding barbarities.

2 Maccabees 8

1 But Judas, who is also called Maccabaeus, and those who were with him, making their way privily into the villages, called to them their kinsfolk; and taking to them such as had continued in the Jews’ religion, gathered together as many as six thousand.

2 And they called upon the Lord, beseeching him to look upon the people that was oppressed by all; and to have compassion on the sanctuary also that had been profaned by the ungodly men;

3 and to have pity on the city also that was suffering ruin and ready to be made even even with the ground; and to listen to the blood that cried to him;

4 and to remember also the lawless slaughter of the innocent infants, and the blasphemies that had been committed against his name; and to show his hatred of wickedness.

5 And when Maccabaeus had trained his men for service, the heathen at once found him irresistible, for that the wrath of the Lord was turned into pity.

6 And coming unawares he set fire to cities and villages. And in winning back the most important positions, putting to flight no small number of the enemies,

7 he especially took advantage of the nights for such assaults. And his courage was loudly talked of everywhere.

8 But when Philip saw the man gaining ground by little and little, and increasing more and more in his prosperity, he wrote to Ptolemy, the governor of Coelesyria and Phoenicia, that he should support the king’s cause.

9 And Ptolemy quickly appointed Nicanor the son of Patroclus, one of the king’s Chief Friends, and sent him, in command of no fewer than twenty thousand of all nations, to destroy the whole race of Judea; and with him he joined Gorgias also, a captain and one that had experience in matters of war.

10 And Nicanor undertook by the sale of the captive Jews to make up for the king the tribute of two thousand talents which he was to pay to the Romans.

11 And immediately he sent to the cities upon the sea coast, inviting them to buy Jewish slaves, promising to allow fourscore and ten slaves for a talent, not expecting the judgement that was to follow upon him from the Almighty.

12 But tidings came to Judas concerning the inroad of Nicanor; and when he communicated to those who were with him the presence of the army,

13 those who were cowardly and distrustful of the judgement of God ran away and left the country.

14 And others sold all that was left over to them, and withal implored the Lord to deliver those who had been sold as slaves by the impious Nicanor or ever he met them;

15 and this, if not for their own sakes, yet for the covenants made with their fathers, and because he had called them by his reverend and glorious name.

16 And Maccabaeus gathered his men together, six thousand in number, and exhorted them not to be stricken with dismay at the enemy, nor to fear the great multitude of the heathen who came wrongfully against them; but to contend nobly,

17 setting before their eyes the outrage that had been lawlessly perpetrated upon the holy place, and the shameful handling of the city that had been turned to mockery, and further the overthrow of the mode of life received from their ancestors.

18 For they, said he, trust to arms, and withal to deeds of daring; but we trust on the almighty God, since he is able at a beck to cast down those who are coming against us, and even the whole world.

19 And moreover he recounted to them the help given from time to time in the days of their ancestors, both the help given in the days of Sennacherib, how that a hundred fourscore and five thousand perished,

20 and the help given in the land of Babylon, even the battle that was fought against the Gauls, how that they came to the engagement eight thousand in all, with four thousand Macedonians, and how that, the Macedonians being hard pressed, the six thousand destroyed the hundred and twenty thousand, because of the help which they had from heaven, and took great booty.

21 And when he had with these words made them of good courage, and ready to die for the laws and their country, he divided his army into four parts;

22 appointing his kindred to be with himself leaders of the several bands, to wit, Simon and Joseph and Jonathan, giving each the command of fifteen hundred men,

23 and moreover Eleazer also: then, having read aloud the sacred book, and having given as watchword, THE HELP OF GOD, leading the first band himself, he joined battle with Nicanor.

24 And, since the Almighty fought on their side, they killed of the enemy above nine thousand, and wounded and disabled the more part of Nicanor’s army, and compelled all to flee:

25 and they took the money of those that had come there to buy them. And after they had pursued them for some distance, they returned, being constrained by the time of the day;

26 for it was the day before the Sabbath, and for this cause they made no effort to chase them far.

27 And when they had gathered the arms of the enemy together, and had stripped off their spoils, they occupied themselves about the Sabbath, blessing and thanking the Lord exceedingly, who had saved them to this day, for that he had caused a beginning of mercy to distil upon them.

28 And after the Sabbath, when they had given of the spoils to the maimed, and to the widows and orphans, the residue they distributed amongst themselves and their children.

29 And when they had accomplished these things, and had made a common supplication, they implored the merciful Lord to be wholly reconciled with his servants.

30 And having had an encounter with the forces of Timotheus and Bacchides, they killed above twenty thousand of them, and made themselves masters of strongholds exceedingly high, and divided very much plunder, giving the maimed and orphans and widows, and moreover the aged also, an equal share with themselves.

31 And when they had gathered the arms of the enemy together, they stored them all up carefully in the most important positions, and the residue of the spoils they carried to Jerusalem.

32 And they killed the phylarch of Timotheus’s forces, a most unholy man, and one who had done the Jews much hurt.

33 And as they kept the feast of victory in the city of their fathers, they burnt those that had set the sacred gates on fire, and amongst them Callisthenes, who had fled into an outhouse; and so they received the meet reward of their impiety.

34 And the thrice-accursed Nicanor, who had brought the thousand merchants to buy the Jews for slaves,

35 being through the help of the Lord humbled by them who in his eyes were held to be of least account, put off his glorious apparel, and passing through the midland, shunning all company like a fugitive slave, arrived at Antioch, having, as he thought, had the greatest possible good fortune, though his army was destroyed.

36 And he that had taken upon him to make tribute sure for the Romans by the captivity of the men of Jerusalem published abroad that the Jews had One who fought for them, and that because this was so the Jews were invulnerable, because they followed the laws ordained by him.

New Testament Reading for today

Matthew 25 :31-46

25 And I was afraid, and went and hid thy talent in the earth: lo, there thou hast what is thine.

26 His lord answered and said to him, Thou wicked and slothful servant, thou knewest that I reap where I have not sown, and gather where I have not strewed:

27 Thou oughtest therefore to have put my money to the exchangers, and then at my coming I should have received my own with interest.

28 Take therefore the talent from him, and give it to him who hath ten talents.

29 For to every one that hath shall be given, and he shall have abundance: but from him that hath not shall be taken away even that which he hath.

30 And cast ye the unprofitable servant into utter darkness: there shall be weeping and gnashing of teeth.

31 When the Son of man shall come in his glory, and all the holy angels with him, then will he sit upon the throne of his glory:

32 And before him shall be gathered all nations: and he will separate them one from another, as a shepherd divideth his sheep from the goats:

33 And he will set the sheep on his right hand, but the goats on the left.

34 Then will the King say to them on his right hand, Come, ye blessed of my Father, inherit the kingdom prepared for you from the foundation of the world:

35 For I was hungry, and ye gave me food: I was thirsty, and ye gave me drink: I was a stranger, and ye took me in:

36 Naked, and ye clothed me: I was sick, and ye visited me: I was in prison, and ye came to me.

37 Then will the righteous answer him, saying, Lord, when saw we thee hungry, and fed thee? or thirsty, and gave thee drink?

38 When saw we thee a stranger, and took thee in? or naked, and clothed thee?

39 Or when saw we thee sick, or in prison, and came to thee?

40 And the king will answer and say to them, Verily I say to you, Inasmuch as ye have done it to one of the least of these my brethren, ye have done it to me.

41 Then will he say also to them on the left hand, Depart from me, ye cursed, into everlasting fire, prepared for the devil and his angels:

42 For I was hungry, and ye gave me no food: I was thirsty, and ye gave me no drink:

43 I was a stranger, and ye took me not in: naked, and ye clothed me not: sick, and in prison, and ye visited me not.

44 Then will they also answer him, saying, Lord, when saw we thee hungry, or thirsty, or a stranger, or naked, or sick, or in prison, and did not minister to thee?

45 Then will he answer them, saying, Verily I say to you, Inasmuch as ye did it not to one of the least of these, ye did it not to me.

46 And these shall go away into everlasting punishment: but the righteous into life eternal.

Sermons or explanations by different people of the above chapters.

The Message Bible – Eugene H. Peterson – In Contemporary Language Read today’s verses in this bible on line, if you like.

The Catholic Daily Mass Readings and reflections for today.

Catholic Daily Reflections

Reflection Prayer,

Lord of holiness, help me to live a hidden life of grace. Help me to serve You even when no one sees. From the solitude of those moments, bring forth Your grace and mercy for the world. Jesus, I trust in You.

Previous Daily Bible Study Blogs

Book of 2 Maccabees , Outline Summary, Outline Book of Matthew (we are studying these books presently)

Audio Drama: Old Testament New Testament Each book is read in its entirety. You can listen to the bible, one book at a time in contemporary English.

Dr. Myles Munroe

I am including a video by Dr. Myles Munroe, I’ve listened to him back in the nineties, and rediscovered him recently. Now his perspective seems to be a good way to also look at scripture. In Pursuit of Purpose – Book Highlights