a thread opens
And Samuel said, Has the LORD as great delight in burnt offerings and sacrifices, as in obeying the voice of the LORD? Look, to obey is better than sacrifice, and to listen than the fat of rams.
The Vigil
Today’s scroll, one verse at a time — each linked to the last by the cross-references rather than by any model of you. The same vigil for everyone, and a different one tomorrow.
For I spoke not to your fathers, nor commanded them in the day that I brought them out of the land of Egypt, concerning burnt offerings or sacrifices:
from I Samuel 15:22 · a strong link
For I desired mercy, and not sacrifice; and the knowledge of God more than burnt offerings.
from Jeremiah 7:22 · a strong link
To what purpose is the multitude of your sacrifices to me? says the LORD: I am full of the burnt offerings of rams, and the fat of fed beasts; and I delight not in the blood of young bulls, or of lambs, or of he goats.
from Hosea 6:6 · a strong link
Will the LORD be pleased with thousands of rams, or with ten thousands of rivers of oil? shall I give my firstborn for my transgression, the fruit of my body for the sin of my soul?
from Isaiah 1:11
For you desire not sacrifice; else would I give it: you delight not in burnt offering.
from Micah 6:7
a thread opens
As concerning therefore the eating of those things that are offered in sacrifice to idols, we know that an idol is nothing in the world, and that there is none other God but one.
For there is one God, and one mediator between God and men, the man Christ Jesus;
from I Corinthians 8:4
For there is no difference between the Jew and the Greek: for the same Lord over all is rich to all that call upon him.
from I Timothy 2:5
For you, Lord, are good, and ready to forgive; and plenteous in mercy to all them that call upon you.
from Romans 10:12
And the LORD passed by before him, and proclaimed, The LORD, The LORD God, merciful and gracious, patience, and abundant in goodness and truth,
from Psalms 86:5 · a strong link
a thread opens
By this we perceive the love of God, because he laid down his life for us: and we ought to lay down our lives for the brothers.
This is my commandment, That you love one another, as I have loved you.
from I John 3:16
And this is his commandment, That we should believe on the name of his Son Jesus Christ, and love one another, as he gave us commandment.
from John 15:12 · a strong link
And the second is like to it, You shall love your neighbor as yourself.
from I John 3:23
a thread opens
But the anointing which you have received of him remains in you, and you need not that any man teach you: but as the same anointing teaches you of all things, and is truth, and is no lie, and even as it has taught you, you shall remain in him.
Which things also we speak, not in the words which man’s wisdom teaches, but which the Holy Spirit teaches; comparing spiritual things with spiritual.
from I John 2:27
To whom it was revealed, that not to themselves, but to us they did minister the things, which are now reported to you by them that have preached the gospel to you with the Holy Spirit sent down from heaven; which things the angels desire to look into.
from I Corinthians 2:13
But when the Helper has come, whom I will send to you from the Father, even the Spirit of truth, which proceeds from the Father, he shall testify of me:
from I Peter 1:12
However when he, the Spirit of truth, has come, he will guide you into all truth: for he shall not speak of himself; but whatever he shall hear, that shall he speak: and he will show you things to come.
from John 15:26
I speak that which I have seen with my Father: and you do that which you have seen with your father.
from John 16:13
He that loves me not keeps not my sayings: and the word which you hear is not mine, but the Father’s which sent me.
from John 8:38
a thread opens
And God has set some in the church, first apostles, secondarily prophets, thirdly teachers, after that miracles, then gifts of healings, helps, governments, varieties of tongues.
Obey your leaders, and submit yourselves: for they watch for your souls, as they that must give account, that they may do it with joy, and not with grief: for that is unprofitable for you.
from I Corinthians 12:28 · a strong link
Let the elders that rule well be counted worthy of double honor, especially they who labor in the word and doctrine.
from Hebrews 13:17 · a strong link
Or he that exhorts, on exhortation: he that gives, let him do it with simplicity; he that rules, with diligence; he that shows mercy, with cheerfulness.
from I Timothy 5:17 · a strong link
And Judas and Silas, being prophets also themselves, exhorted the brothers with many words, and confirmed them.
from Romans 12:8
By Silvanus, a faithful brother to you, as I suppose, I have written briefly, exhorting, and testifying that this is the true grace of God in which you stand.
from Acts 15:32
a thread opens
I know also, my God, that you try the heart, and have pleasure in uprightness. As for me, in the uprightness of my heart I have willingly offered all these things: and now have I seen with joy your people, who are present here, to offer willingly to you.
For the word of God is living and active, and sharper than any two-edged sword, piercing even to the dividing of soul and spirit, and of the joints and marrow, and discerns the thoughts and intents of the heart.
from I Chronicles 29:17
To whom coming, as to a living stone, rejected indeed of men, but chosen of God, and precious,
from Hebrews 4:12 · a strong link
To you therefore which believe he is precious: but to them which are disobedient, the stone which the builders rejected, the same is made the cornerstone,
from I Peter 2:4 · a strong link
And have you not read this Scripture; The stone which the builders rejected has become the cornerstone:
from I Peter 2:7
a thread opens
Clean out therefore the old leaven, so that you may be a new lump, as you are unleavened. For even Christ our Passover is sacrificed for us:
Seven days shall you eat unleavened bread; even the first day you shall put away leaven out of your houses: for whoever eats leavened bread from the first day until the seventh day, that soul shall be cut off from Israel.
from I Corinthians 5:7
Seven days shall there be no leaven found in your houses: for whoever eats that which is leavened, even that soul shall be cut off from the congregation of Israel, whether he be a stranger, or born in the land.
from Exodus 12:15
But the man that is clean, and is not in a journey, and forbears to keep the Passover, even the same soul shall be cut off from among his people: because he brought not the offering of the LORD in his appointed season, that man shall bear his sin.
from Exodus 12:19
That is the whole thread.
Every verse the cross-references reach from I Samuel 15:22 along this chain. Today’s own vigil is laid separately.
Each verse follows the one before it along the chain a study Bible draws — a century old, public, and compiled by people arguing about Scripture rather than about how long you stay. Every card says which verse it came from and opens the chapter it belongs to. Today’s vigil is the same for every reader and is worked out from the date alone, so there is no account, no counter, and nothing stored in your browser or ours.
The text is the Lantern Modern Standard. The links are openbible.info’s cross-reference set (CC BY), the same apparatus behind the reader’s Echoes drawer. Read a whole book · Today’s table