a thread opens
For a small moment have I forsaken you; but with great mercies will I gather you.
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.
Come, my people, enter you into your rooms, and shut your doors about you: hide yourself as it were for a little moment, until the indignation be overpast.
from Isaiah 54:7 · a strong link
But this thing commanded I them, saying, Obey my voice, and I will be your God, and you shall be my people: and walk you in all the ways that I have commanded you, that it may be well to you.
from Isaiah 26:20
Casting down arguments, and every high thing that exalts itself against the knowledge of God, and bringing into captivity every thought to the obedience of Christ;
from Jeremiah 7:23
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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.
I was mute, I opened not my mouth; because you did it.
from Leviticus 10:3
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 39:9
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
Surely your turning of things upside down shall be esteemed as the potter’s clay: for shall the work say of him that made it, He made me not? or shall the thing framed say of him that framed it, He had no understanding?
from Romans 9:20 · a strong link
You will say then to me, Why does he yet find fault? For who has resisted his will?
from Isaiah 29:16 · a strong link
And all the inhabitants of the earth are reputed as nothing: and he does according to his will in the army of heaven, and among the inhabitants of the earth: and none can stay his hand, or say to him, What do you do?
from Romans 9:19 · a strong link
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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,
Knowing that he which raised up the Lord Jesus shall raise up us also by Jesus, and shall present us with you.
from Jude 1:24 · a strong link
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 II Corinthians 4:14
According as he has chosen us in him before the foundation of the world, so that we should be holy and without blame before him in love:
from Ephesians 5:27 · a strong link
But speaking the truth in love, may grow up into him in all things, which is the head, even Christ:
from Ephesians 1:4
As newborn infants, desire the sincere milk of the word, that you may grow thereby:
from Ephesians 4:15
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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.
Not as Cain, who was of that wicked one, and slew his brother. And why he slew him? Because his own works were evil, and his brother’s righteous.
from Jude 1:11 · a strong link
By faith Abel offered to God a more excellent sacrifice than Cain, by which he obtained witness that he was righteous, God testifying of his gifts: and by it he being dead yet speaks.
from I John 3:12 · a strong link
That upon you may come all the righteous blood shed upon the earth, from the blood of righteous Abel to the blood of Zacharias son of Barachias, whom you slew between the temple and the altar.
from Hebrews 11:4 · a strong link
In the eighth month, in the second year of Darius, came the word of the LORD to Zechariah, the son of Berechiah, the son of Iddo the prophet, saying,
from Matthew 23:35 · a strong link
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Glory to God in the highest, and on earth peace, good will toward men.
For to us a child is born, to us a son is given: and the government shall be upon his shoulder: and his name shall be called Wonderful, Counselor, The mighty God, The everlasting Father, The Prince of Peace.
from Luke 2:14
Namely, that God was in Christ, reconciling the world to himself, not imputing their trespasses to them; and has committed to us the word of reconciliation.
from Isaiah 9:6
Being justified freely by his grace through the redemption in Christ Jesus:
from II Corinthians 5:19
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And shall not God give justice to his own elect, which cry day and night to him, though he bear long with them?
Now she that is a widow indeed, and desolate, trusts in God, and continues in supplications and prayers night and day.
from Luke 18:7
If any man or woman that believes have widows, let them relieve them, and let not the church be charged; that it may relieve them that are widows indeed.
from I Timothy 5:5
But if any provide not for his own, and especially for those of his own house, he has denied the faith, and is worse than an infidel.
from I Timothy 5:16
Is it not to deal your bread to the hungry, and that you bring the poor that are cast out to your house? when you see the naked, that you cover him; and that you hide not yourself from your own flesh?
from I Timothy 5:8
But whoever has the world’s goods, and sees his brother have need, and closes his heart against him, how dwells the love of God in him?
from Isaiah 58:7
A righteous man regards the life of his beast: but the tender mercies of the wicked are cruel.
from I John 3:17
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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.
Who said to his father and to his mother, I have not seen him; neither did he acknowledge his brothers, nor knew his own children: for they have observed your word, and kept your covenant.
from Luke 14:26
For do I now persuade men, or God? or do I seek to please men? for if I yet pleased men, I should not be the servant of Christ.
from Deuteronomy 33:9
But Peter and John answered and said to them, Whether it be right in the sight of God to listen to you more than to God, judge you.
from Galatians 1:10 · a strong link
For this is good and acceptable in the sight of God our Savior;
from Acts 4:19
Paul, an apostle of Jesus Christ by the commandment of God our Savior, and Lord Jesus Christ, which is our hope;
from I Timothy 2:3
That is the whole thread.
Every verse the cross-references reach from Isaiah 54:7 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