a thread opens
I have declared the former things from the beginning; and they went forth out of my mouth, and I showed them; I did them suddenly, and they happened.
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.
Let all the nations be gathered together, and let the people be assembled: who among them can declare this, and show us former things? let them bring forth their witnesses, so that they may be justified: or let them hear, and say, It is truth.
from Isaiah 48:3
Keep silence before me, O islands; and let the people renew their strength: let them come near; then let them speak: let us come near together to judgment.
from Isaiah 43:9
Beat your plowshares into swords, and your pruning hooks into spears: let the weak say, I am strong.
from Isaiah 41:1
a thread opens
Then Moses said to Aaron, This is it that the LORD spoke, saying, I will be sanctified in them that come near me, and before all the people I will be glorified. And Aaron held his peace.
And I will harden Pharaoh’s heart, that he shall follow after them; and I will be honored upon Pharaoh, and upon all his host; that the Egyptians may know that I am the LORD. And they did so.
from Leviticus 10:3
What if God, willing to show his wrath, and to make his power known, endured with much patience the vessels of wrath fitted to destruction:
from Exodus 14:4 · a strong link
And a stone of stumbling, and a rock of offense, even to them which stumble at the word, being disobedient: to which also they were appointed.
from Romans 9:22 · a strong link
For certain people have crept in unnoticed, who were long ago designated for this condemnation, ungodly men, turning the grace of our God into sensuality, and denying the only Lord God, and our Lord Jesus Christ.
from I Peter 2:8
For the grace of God that brings salvation has appeared to all men,
from Jude 1:4
Who will have all men to be saved, and to come to the knowledge of the truth.
from Titus 2:11 · a strong link
a thread opens
Now to him that is able to keep you from stumbling, and to present you blameless before the presence of his glory with exceeding joy,
That he might present it to himself a glorious church, not having spot, or wrinkle, or any such thing; but that it should be holy and without blemish.
from Jude 1:24 · a strong link
For I am jealous over you with godly jealousy: for I have betrothed you to one husband, so that I may present you as a chaste virgin to Christ.
from Ephesians 5:27 · a strong link
That he might sanctify and cleanse it with the washing of water by the word,
from II Corinthians 11:2
In that day there shall be a fountain opened to the house of David and to the inhabitants of Jerusalem for sin and for uncleanness.
from Ephesians 5:26
And I will pour upon the house of David, and upon the inhabitants of Jerusalem, the spirit of grace and of supplications: and they shall look upon me whom they have pierced, and they shall mourn for him, as one mourns for his only son, and shall be in bitterness for him, as one that is in bitterness for his firstborn.
from Zechariah 13:1
a thread opens
Woe to them! for they have gone in the way of Cain, and ran greedily after the error of Balaam for reward, and perished in the rebellion of Korah.
But I have a few things against you, because you have there them that hold the doctrine of Balaam, who taught Balac to cast a stumbling block before the children of Israel, to eat things sacrificed to idols, and to commit sexual immorality.
from Jude 1:11
But that we write to them, that they abstain from pollutions of idols, and from sexual immorality, and from things strangled, and from blood.
Only you shall not eat the blood; you shall pour it upon the earth as water.
from Acts 15:20
Only you shall not eat its blood; you shall pour it upon the ground as water.
from Deuteronomy 12:16
a thread opens
Glory to God in the highest, and on earth peace, good will toward men.
I have glorified you on the earth: I have finished the work which you gave me to do.
from Luke 2:14
But none of these things move me, neither count I my life dear to myself, so that I might finish my course with joy, and the ministry, which I have received of the Lord Jesus, to testify the gospel of the grace of God.
from John 17:4
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 20:24
a thread opens
And shall not God give justice to his own elect, which cry day and night to him, though he bear long with them?
But the LORD is with me as a mighty terrible one: therefore my persecutors shall stumble, and they shall not prevail: they shall be greatly ashamed; for they shall not prosper: their everlasting confusion shall never be forgotten.
from Luke 18:7
Let all my enemies be ashamed and deeply troubled: let them return and be ashamed suddenly.
from Jeremiah 20:11 · a strong link
Let them curse, but bless you: when they arise, let them be ashamed; but let your servant rejoice.
from Psalms 6:10
And the king said, What have I to do with you, you sons of Zeruiah? so let him curse, because the LORD has said to him, Curse David. Who shall then say, Why have you done so?
from Psalms 109:28
No but, O man, who are you that reply against God? Shall the thing formed say to him that formed it, Why have you made me thus?
from II Samuel 16:10
Shall empty words have an end? or what emboldens you that you answer?
from Romans 9:20
a thread opens
If any man come to me, and hate not his father, and mother, and wife, and children, and brothers, and sisters, yes, and his own life also, he cannot be my disciple.
And they overcame him by the blood of the Lamb, and by the word of their testimony; and they loved not their lives to the death.
from Luke 14:26 · a strong link
He that overcomes, the same shall be clothed in white apparel; and I will not blot out his name out of the book of life, but I will confess his name before my Father, and before his angels.
And I saw the dead, small and great, stand before God; and the books were opened: and another book was opened, which is the book of life: and the dead were judged out of those things which were written in the books, according to their works.
from Revelation of John 3:5 · a strong link
For God shall bring every work into judgment, with every secret thing, whether it be good, or whether it be evil.
from Revelation of John 20:12 · a strong link
For we must all appear before the judgment seat of Christ; that every one may receive the things done in his body, according to that he has done, whether it be good or bad.
from Ecclesiastes 12:14
That is the whole thread.
Every verse the cross-references reach from Isaiah 48:3 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