Thurzo Gizella Bible Study

He changeth the times and the seasons: he removeth kings, and setteth up kings: he giveth wisdom unto the wise, and knowledge to them that know understanding. Daniel 2:21 KJV

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.

To finish the Bible in one year, Read Sirach : 47-49 and Acts 7.

To view all previous blogs click here.

Verses for today – Listen here: For explanations

Reflection for Today.

My other websites:

Also read the verses, if you like.

Sirach 47

Nathan

47 After him Nathan rose up
    to prophesy in the days of David.

David

² As the fat is set apart from the offering of well-being,
    so David was set apart from the Israelites.
³ He played with lions as though they were young goats
    and with bears as though they were lambs of the flock.
⁴ In his youth did he not kill a giant
    and take away the people’s disgrace,
when he whirled the stone in the sling
    and struck down the boasting Goliath?
⁵ For he called on the Lord, the Most High,
    and he gave strength to his right arm
to strike down a mighty warrior
    and to exalt the power^[a] of his people.
⁶ So they glorified him for the tens of thousands
    and praised him for the blessings bestowed by the Lord,
    when the glorious diadem was given to him.
⁷ For he wiped out his enemies on every side
    and scorned his adversaries the Philistines;
    he crushed their power^[b] to our own day.
⁸ In all that he did he gave thanks
    to the Holy One, the Most High, proclaiming his glory;
he sang praise with all his heart,
    and he loved his Maker.
⁹ He placed singers before the altar,
    to make sweet melody with their voices.^[c]
10 He gave beauty to the festivals
    and arranged their times throughout the year,^[d]
while they praised God’s^[e] holy name
    and the sanctuary resounded from early morning.
¹¹ The Lord took away his sins
    and exalted his power^[f] forever;
he gave him a covenant of kingship
    and a glorious throne in Israel.

Solomon

¹² After him a wise son rose up
    who because of him lived in security:^[g]
13 Solomon reigned in an age of peace,
    because God gave him rest all around,
so that he might build a house in his name
    and provide a sanctuary to stand forever.
¹⁴ How wise you were when you were young!
    You overflowed like the Nile^[h] with understanding.
¹⁵ Your influence spread throughout the earth,
    and you filled it with proverbs having deep meaning.
¹⁶ Your fame reached to far-off islands,
    and you were loved for your peaceful reign.
¹⁷ For your songs, proverbs, parables,
    and understanding the nations marveled at you.
¹⁸ In the name of the Lord God,
    who is called the God of Israel,
you gathered gold like tin
    and amassed silver like lead.
¹⁹ But you brought in women to lie at your side,
    and through your body you were brought into subjection.
²⁰ You stained your honor
    and defiled your family line,
so that you brought wrath upon your children,
    and they were grieved^[i] at your folly,
²¹ because the sovereignty was divided
    and a rebel kingdom arose out of Ephraim.
²² But the Lord will never give up his mercy
    or cause any of his words^[j] to perish;
he will never blot out the descendants of his chosen one
    or destroy the family line of him who loved him.
So he gave a remnant to Jacob
    and to David a root from his own family.

Rehoboam and Jeroboam

²³ Solomon rested with his ancestors
    and left behind him one of his sons
broad in^[k] folly and lacking in sense,
    Rehoboam, whose policy drove the people to revolt.
Then Jeroboam son of Nebat led Israel into sin
    and started Ephraim on its sinful ways.
²⁴ Their sins increased more and more
    until they were exiled from their land.
²⁵ For they sought out every kind of wickedness
    until vengeance came upon them

Sirach 48

Elijah

48 Then Elijah arose, a prophet like fire,
    and his word burned like a torch.
² He brought a famine upon them,
    and by his zeal he made them few in number.
³ By the word of the Lord he shut up the heavens
    and also three times brought down fire.
⁴ How glorious you were, Elijah, in your wondrous deeds!
    Who can boast^[a] as you can?
⁵ You who raised a corpse from death
    and from Hades, by the word of the Most High,
⁶ who sent kings down to destruction
    and famous men from their sickbeds,
⁷ who heard rebuke at Sinai
    and judgments of vengeance at Horeb,
⁸ who anointed kings to inflict retribution
    and prophets to succeed you,^[b]
9 who were taken up by a whirlwind of fire
    in a chariot with horses of fire,
¹⁰ who were prepared at the appointed time^[c]
    to calm wrath before it breaks out in fury,
to turn the hearts of parents to their children
    and to restore the tribes of Jacob.
¹¹ Happy are those who saw you
    and were adorned^[d] in love!
    For we also shall surely live.^[e]

Elisha

¹² When Elijah was enveloped in the whirlwind,
    Elisha was filled with his spirit.
He performed twice as many signs
    and marvels with every utterance of his mouth.^[f]
Never in his lifetime did he tremble before any ruler,
    nor could anyone intimidate him at all.
¹³ Nothing was too hard for him,^[g]
    and when he was dead his body prophesied.
¹⁴ In his life he did wonders,
    and in death his deeds were marvelous.

¹⁵ Despite all this the people did not repent,
    nor did they forsake their sins,
until they were carried off as plunder from their land
    and were scattered over all the earth.
The people were left very few in number
    but with a ruler from the house of David.
¹⁶ Some of them did what was right,
    but others sinned more and more.

Hezekiah

¹⁷ Hezekiah fortified his city
    and brought water into its midst;
he tunneled the rock with iron tools
    and built cisterns for the water.
¹⁸ In his days Sennacherib invaded the country;
    he sent his commander^[h] and departed;
he shook his fist against Zion
    and made great boasts in his arrogance.
¹⁹ Then their hearts and hands were shaken,
    and they were in anguish, like women in labor.
²⁰ But they called upon the Lord who is merciful,
    spreading out their hands toward him.
The Holy One quickly heard them from heaven
    and delivered them through Isaiah.
²¹ The Lord^[i] struck down the camp of the Assyrians,
    and his angel wiped them out.
²² For Hezekiah did what was pleasing to the Lord,
    and he kept firmly to the ways of his ancestor David,
as he was commanded by the prophet Isaiah,
    who was great and trustworthy in his visions.

Isaiah

²³ In Isaiah’s^[j] days the sun went backward,
    and he prolonged the life of the king.
²⁴ By his dauntless spirit he saw the future
    and comforted the mourners in Zion.
²⁵ He revealed what was to occur to the end of time
    and the hidden things before they happened.

Sirach 49

Josiah and Other Worthies

49 The name^[a] of Josiah is like blended incense
    prepared by the skill of the perfumer;
his memory^[b] is as sweet as honey to every mouth
    and like music at a banquet of wine.
² He did what was right by reforming the people
    and removing the lawless abominations.
³ He kept his heart fixed on the Lord;
    in lawless times he made godliness prevail.

⁴ Except for David and Hezekiah and Josiah,
    all of them were great sinners,
for they abandoned the law of the Most High;
    the kings of Judah came to an end.
⁵ They^[c] gave their power to others
    and their glory to a foreign nation,
⁶ who set fire to the chosen city of the sanctuary
    and made its streets desolate,
    as Jeremiah had foretold.^[d]
7 For they had mistreated him,
    who even in the womb had been consecrated a prophet,
to pluck up and ruin and destroy
    and likewise to build and to plant.

⁸ It was Ezekiel who saw the vision of glory,
    which God^[e] showed him above the chariot of the cherubim.
⁹ For he also mentioned Job,
    who held fast to all the ways of justice.^[f]
10 May the bones of the Twelve Prophets
    send forth new life from where they lie,
for they comforted the people of Jacob
    and delivered them with confident hope.

¹¹ How shall we magnify Zerubbabel?
    He was like a signet ring on the right hand,
¹²     and so was Jeshua son of Jozadak;
in their days they built the house
    and raised a temple^[g] holy to the Lord,
    prepared for everlasting glory.
¹³ The memory of Nehemiah also is lasting;
    he raised our fallen walls
and set up gates and bars
    and rebuilt our ruined houses.

Acts 7

Stephen’s Speech to the Council

7 Then the high priest asked him, “Are these things so?” ² And Stephen replied:

“Brothers^[a] and fathers, listen to me. The God of glory appeared to our ancestor Abraham when he was in Mesopotamia, before he lived in Haran, ³ and said to him, ‘Leave your country and your relatives and go to the land that I will show you.’ ⁴ Then he left the country of the Chaldeans and settled in Haran. After his father died, God had him move from there to this country in which you are now living. ⁵ He did not give him any of it as a heritage, not even a foot’s length, but promised to give it to him as his possession and to his descendants after him, even though he had no child. ⁶ And God spoke in these terms, that his descendants would be resident aliens in a country belonging to others, who would enslave them and mistreat them during four hundred years. ⁷ ‘But I will judge the people whom they serve,’ said God, ‘and after that they shall come out and worship me in this place.’ ⁸ Then he gave him the covenant of circumcision. And so Abraham^[b] became the father of Isaac and circumcised him on the eighth day, and Isaac did likewise to Jacob and Jacob to the twelve patriarchs.

⁹ “The patriarchs, jealous of Joseph, sold him into Egypt; but God was with him ¹⁰ and rescued him from all his afflictions and enabled him to win favor and to show wisdom when he stood before Pharaoh, king of Egypt, who appointed him ruler over Egypt and over all his household. ¹¹ Now there came a famine throughout Egypt and Canaan and great suffering, and our ancestors could find no food. ¹² But when Jacob heard that there was grain in Egypt, he sent our ancestors there on their first visit. ¹³ On the second visit Joseph made himself known to his brothers, and Joseph’s family became known to Pharaoh. ¹⁴ Then Joseph sent and invited his father Jacob and all his relatives to come to him, seventy-five in all; ¹⁵ so Jacob went down to Egypt. He himself died there as well as our ancestors, ¹⁶ and their bodies^[c] were brought back to Shechem and laid in the tomb that Abraham had bought for a sum of silver from the sons of Hamor in Shechem.

¹⁷ “But as the time drew near for the fulfillment of the promise that God had made to Abraham, our people in Egypt increased and multiplied ¹⁸ until another king who had not known Joseph ruled over Egypt. ¹⁹ He dealt craftily with our people and forced our ancestors to abandon their infants so that they would die. ²⁰ At this time Moses was born, and he was beautiful before God. For three months he was brought up in his father’s house, ²¹ and when he was abandoned, Pharaoh’s daughter adopted him and brought him up as her own son. ²² So Moses was instructed in all the wisdom of the Egyptians and was powerful in his words and deeds.

²³ “When he was forty years old, it came into his heart to visit his kinfolk, the Israelites. ²⁴ When he saw one of them being wronged, he defended the oppressed man and avenged him by striking down the Egyptian. ²⁵ He supposed that his kinsfolk would understand that God through him was rescuing them, but they did not understand. ²⁶ The next day he came to some of them as they were quarreling and tried to reconcile them, saying, ‘Men, you are brothers; why do you wrong each other?’ ²⁷ But the man who was wronging his neighbor pushed Moses^[d] aside, saying, ‘Who made you a ruler and a judge over us? ²⁸ Do you want to kill me as you killed the Egyptian yesterday?’ ²⁹ When he heard this, Moses fled and became a resident alien in the land of Midian. There he became the father of two sons.

³⁰ “Now when forty years had passed, an angel appeared to him in the wilderness of Mount Sinai, in the flame of a burning bush. ³¹ When Moses saw it, he was amazed at the sight, and as he approached to look, there came the voice of the Lord: ³² ‘I am the God of your ancestors, the God of Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob.’ Moses began to tremble and did not dare to look. ³³ Then the Lord said to him, ‘Take off the sandals from your feet, for the place where you are standing is holy ground. ³⁴ I have surely seen the mistreatment of my people who are in Egypt and have heard their groaning, and I have come down to rescue them. Come now, I will send you to Egypt.’

³⁵ “It was this Moses whom they rejected when they said, ‘Who made you a ruler and a judge?’ and whom God now sent as both ruler and liberator through the angel who appeared to him in the bush. ³⁶ He led them out, having performed wonders and signs in Egypt, at the Red Sea, and in the wilderness for forty years. ³⁷ This is the Moses who said to the Israelites, ‘God will raise up a prophet for you from your own people as he raised me up.’ ³⁸ He is the one who was in the congregation in the wilderness with the angel who spoke to him at Mount Sinai and with our ancestors, and he received living oracles to give to us. ³⁹ Our ancestors were unwilling to obey him; instead, they pushed him aside, and in their hearts they turned back to Egypt, ⁴⁰ saying to Aaron, ‘Make gods for us who will lead the way for us; as for this Moses who led us out from the land of Egypt, we do not know what has happened to him.’ ⁴¹ At that time they made a calf, offered a sacrifice to the idol, and reveled in the works of their hands. ⁴² But God turned away from them and handed them over to worship the host of heaven, as it is written in the book of the prophets:

‘Did you offer to me slain victims and sacrifices
    forty years in the wilderness, O house of Israel?
⁴³ No; you took along the tent of Moloch
    and the star of your god Rephan,
        the images that you made to worship;
so I will remove you beyond Babylon.’

⁴⁴ “Our ancestors had the tent of testimony in the wilderness, as God^[e] directed when he spoke to Moses, ordering him to make it according to the pattern he had seen. ⁴⁵ Our ancestors in turn brought it in with Joshua when they dispossessed the peoples whom God drove out before our ancestors. And it was there until the time of David, ⁴⁶ who found favor with God and asked that he might find a dwelling place for the house of Jacob.^{[f] 47} But it was Solomon who built a house for him. ⁴⁸ Yet the Most High does not dwell in houses made with human hands;^[g] as the prophet says,

⁴⁹ ‘Heaven is my throne,
    and the earth is my footstool.
What kind of house will you build for me, says the Lord,
    or what is the place of my rest?
⁵⁰ Did not my hand make all these things?’

⁵¹ “You stiff-necked people, uncircumcised in heart and ears, you are forever opposing the Holy Spirit, just as your ancestors used to do. ⁵² Which of the prophets did your ancestors not persecute? They killed those who foretold the coming of the Righteous One, and now you have become his betrayers and murderers. ⁵³ You are the ones who received the law as ordained by angels, and yet you have not kept it.”

The Stoning of Stephen

⁵⁴ When they heard these things, they became enraged and ground their teeth at Stephen.^{[h] 55} But filled with the Holy Spirit, he gazed into heaven and saw the glory of God and Jesus standing at the right hand of God. ⁵⁶ “Look,” he said, “I see the heavens opened and the Son of Man standing at the right hand of God!” ⁵⁷ But they covered their ears, and with a loud shout all rushed together against him. ⁵⁸ Then they dragged him out of the city and began to stone him, and the witnesses laid their coats at the feet of a young man named Saul. ⁵⁹ While they were stoning Stephen, he prayed, “Lord Jesus, receive my spirit.” ⁶⁰ Then he knelt down and cried out in a loud voice, “Lord, do not hold this sin against them.” When he had said this, he died.^[i]

Sermons by various teachers about these verses.

Catholic Daily Readings and Reflections

Gospel, Luke 5:1-11

¹ Now it happened that he was standing one day by the Lake of Gennesaret, with the crowd pressing round him listening to the word of God,

² when he caught sight of two boats at the water’s edge. The fishermen had got out of them and were washing their nets.

³ He got into one of the boats — it was Simon’s — and asked him to put out a little from the shore. Then he sat down and taught the crowds from the boat.

⁴ When he had finished speaking he said to Simon, ‘Put out into deep water and pay out your nets for a catch.’

⁵ Simon replied, ‘Master, we worked hard all night long and caught nothing, but if you say so, I will pay out the nets.’

⁶ And when they had done this they netted such a huge number of fish that their nets began to tear,

⁷ so they signalled to their companions in the other boat to come and help them; when these came, they filled both boats to sinking point.

⁸ When Simon Peter saw this he fell at the knees of Jesus saying, ‘Leave me, Lord; I am a sinful man.’

⁹ For he and all his companions were completely awestruck at the catch they had made;

¹⁰ so also were James and John, sons of Zebedee, who were Simon’s partners. But Jesus said to Simon, ‘Do not be afraid; from now on it is people you will be catching.’

¹¹ Then, bringing their boats back to land they left everything and followed him.

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