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JULY 3
Psalm 79:1–4
A Psalm of Asaph.
O God, the nations have come into 11:3 ate with them! The Jewish believers
Your inheritance;
were outraged over such a blatant breach of
Your holy temple they have defiled; Jewish custom.It was difficult for them to con-
They have laid Jerusalem in heaps. ceive that Jesus could be equally Lord of
2 Gentile believers.
The dead bodies of Your servants
They have given as food for the birds
of the heavens,
The flesh of Your saints to the beasts an object descending like a great sheet, let
of the earth. down from heaven by four corners; and it
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3 came to me. When I observed it intently and
Their blood they have shed like water
all around Jerusalem, considered, I saw four-footed animals of the
And there was no one to bury them. earth, wild beasts, creeping things, and birds
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We have become a reproach to our
4 of the air. And I heard a voice saying to me,
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neighbors, ‘Rise, Peter; kill and eat.’ But I said, ‘Not so,
A scorn and derision to those who are Lord! For nothing common or unclean has at
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around us. any time entered my mouth.’ But the voice
answered me again from heaven, ‘What God
has cleansed you must not call common.’
10 Now this was done three times, and all were
drawn up again into heaven. At that very
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79:1–13 The historical basis for this lament moment, three men stood before the house
psalm was probably Nebuchadnezzar’s destruc- where I was, having been sent to me from
tion of the temple in 586 B.C.(Ps. 74; 2 Kin. Caesarea. Then the Spirit told me to go with
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25:8–21; Lam. 1–5). The psalm contains prayer them, doubting nothing. Moreover these six
for the nation’s spiritual needs, curses against brethren accompanied me, and we entered
the enemies of God’s people, and praises in the man’s house. And he told us how he had
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anticipation of God’s actions.The psalm helps seen an angel standing in his house, who said
the believer express his anguish in a disaster to him, ‘Send men to Joppa, and call for Simon
when it seems as though God is aloof. 14
whose surname is Peter, who will tell you
words by which you and all your household
79:1 nations. In this context,the word refers to will be saved.’ And as I began to speak, the
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heathen, pagan people. inheritance. The
inheritance of God was national Israel, and Holy Spirit fell upon them, as upon us at the
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specifically its capital city,Jerusalem,where the beginning. Then I remembered the word of
temple was located. the Lord, how He said, ‘John indeed baptized
with water, but you shall be baptized with the
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Holy Spirit.’ If therefore God gave them the
same gift as He gave us when we believed on
Proverbs 20:8–9
the Lord Jesus Christ, who was I that I could
8 A king who sits on the throne of withstand God?”
judgment 18 When they heard these things they became
Scatters all evil with his eyes. silent; and they glorified God, saying, “Then
God has also granted to the Gentiles repen-
9 Who can say, “I have made my heart
clean, tance to life.”
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I am pure from my sin”? Now those who were scattered after the
persecution that arose over Stephen traveled
Acts 11:1–30 as far as Phoenicia, Cyprus, and Antioch,
Now the apostles and brethren who were
11 in Judea heard that the Gentiles had also
2
received the word of God. And when Peter
came up to Jerusalem, those of the circumci- 11:18 God has also granted to the Gentiles
sion contended with him, saying, “You went repentance to life. One of the most shocking
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in to uncircumcised men and ate with them!” admissions in Jewish history,but an event that
4 But Peter explained it to them in order the Old Testament had prophesied (Is. 42:1,6;
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from the beginning, saying: “I was in the city 49:6; Acts 2:38).
of Joppa praying; and in a trance I saw a vision,
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