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Look, I send you forth as sheep in the midst of wolves: be therefore wise as serpents, and harmless as doves.
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.
That you may be blameless and innocent, the sons of God, without rebuke, in the midst of a crooked and perverse nation, among whom you shine as lights in the world;
from Matthew 10:16 · a strong link
He was a burning and a shining light: and you were willing for a while to rejoice in his light.
from Philippians 2:15
But if we shall say, Of men; we fear the people; for all hold John as a prophet.
from John 5:35
But what went you out to see? A prophet? yes, I say to you, and more than a prophet.
from Matthew 21:26
And you, child, shall be called the prophet of the Highest: for you shall go before the face of the Lord to prepare his ways;
from Matthew 11:9 · a strong link
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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.
Look, you are of nothing, and your work of nothing: an abomination is he that chooses you.
from I Corinthians 8:4
Look, they are all vanity; their works are nothing: their cast images are wind and confusion.
from Isaiah 41:24
And the prophets shall become wind, and the word is not in them: thus shall it be done to them.
from Isaiah 41:29
Therefore thus says the LORD concerning the prophets that prophesy in my name, and I sent them not, yet they say, Sword and famine shall not be in this land; By sword and famine shall those prophets be consumed.
from Jeremiah 5:13
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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.
As the Father knows me, even so know I the Father: and I lay down my life for the sheep.
from I John 3:16
He was taken from prison and from judgment: and who shall declare his generation? for he was cut off out of the land of the living: for the transgression of my people was he stricken.
from John 10:15
In his humiliation his judgment was taken away: and who shall declare his generation? for his life is taken from the earth.
from Isaiah 53:8 · a strong link
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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.
For the truth’s sake, which dwells in us, and shall be with us for ever.
from I John 2:27
If we say that we have no sin, we deceive ourselves, and the truth is not in us.
from II John 1:2
What is man, so that he should be clean? and he which is born of a woman, so that he should be righteous?
from I John 1:8 · a strong link
Who can say, I have made my heart clean, I am pure from my sin?
from Job 15:14 · a strong link
For there is not a just man upon earth, that does good, and sins not.
from Proverbs 20:9
All we like sheep have gone astray; we have turned every one to his own way; and the LORD has laid on him the iniquity of us all.
from Ecclesiastes 7:20
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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.
And he gave some, apostles; and some, prophets; and some, evangelists; and some, pastors and teachers;
from I Corinthians 12:28 · a strong link
Now for a long season Israel has been without the true God, and without a teaching priest, and without law.
from Ephesians 4:11
For the children of Israel shall remain many days without a king, and without a prince, and without a sacrifice, and without an image, and without an ephod, and without teraphim:
from II Chronicles 15:3
And the man Micah had a house of gods, and made an ephod, and teraphim, and consecrated one of his sons, who became his priest.
from Hosea 3:4 · a strong link
And he said, You have taken away my gods which I made, and the priest, and you have gone away: and what have I more? and what is this that you say to me, What ails you?
from Judges 17:5
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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.
I the LORD search the heart, I try the inmost thoughts, even to give every man according to his ways, and according to the fruit of his doings.
from I Chronicles 29:17 · a strong link
Great in counsel, and mighty in work: for your eyes are open upon all the ways of the sons of men: to give every one according to his ways, and according to the fruit of his doings:
from Jeremiah 17:10 · a strong link
For the ways of man are before the eyes of the LORD, and he ponders all his goings.
from Jeremiah 32:19
The LORD is in his holy temple, the LORD’s throne is in heaven: his eyes look, his eyelids try, the children of men.
from Proverbs 5:21
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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 you shall eat unleavened bread, and in the seventh day shall be a feast to the LORD.
from I Corinthians 5:7
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 Exodus 13:6
You shall keep the feast of unleavened bread: (you shall eat unleavened bread seven days, as I commanded you, in the time appointed of the month Abib; for in it you came out from Egypt: and none shall appear before me empty:)
from Exodus 12:15 · a strong link
That is the whole thread.
Every verse the cross-references reach from Matthew 10:16 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