a thread opens
While the bridegroom was delayed, they all slumbered and slept.
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.
But even if that evil servant shall say in his heart, My lord delays his coming;
from Matthew 25:5
And supper having ended, the devil having now put into the heart of Judas Iscariot, Simon’s son, to betray him;
from Matthew 24:48
But Peter said, Ananias, why has Satan filled your heart to lie to the Holy Spirit, and to keep back part of the price of the land?
from John 13:2
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 said to me, You are my servant, O Israel, in whom I will be glorified.
from Leviticus 10:3
Hear now, O Joshua the high priest, you, and your fellows that sit before you: for they are men wondered at: for, look, I will bring forth my servant the BRANCH.
from Isaiah 49:3
For he shall grow up before him as a tender plant, and as a root out of a dry ground: he has no form nor comeliness; and when we shall see him, there is no beauty that we should desire him.
from Zechariah 3:8
Who, being in the form of God, did not count equality with God a thing to be grasped:
from Isaiah 53:2 · a strong link
Look, a virgin shall be with child, and shall bring forth a son, and they shall call his name Emmanuel, which being interpreted is, God with us.
from Philippians 2:6
Teaching them to observe all things whatever I have commanded you: and, look, I am with you always, even to the end of the world. Amen.
from Matthew 1:23
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,
And the Lord shall deliver me from every evil work, and will preserve me to his heavenly kingdom: to whom be glory for ever and ever. Amen.
from Jude 1:24
And Jabez called on the God of Israel, saying, Oh that you would bless me indeed, and enlarge my coast, and that your hand might be with me, and that you would keep me from evil, that it may not grieve me! And God granted him that which he requested.
from II Timothy 4:18
I love the LORD, because he has heard my voice and my supplications.
from I Chronicles 4:10 · a strong link
We love him, because he first loved us.
from Psalms 116:1
But the fruit of the Spirit is love, joy, peace, patience, gentleness, goodness, faith,
from I John 4:19
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.
And in process of time it happened, that Cain brought of the fruit of the ground an offering to the LORD.
from Jude 1:11
All the best of the oil, and all the best of the wine, and of the wheat, the firstfruits of them which they shall offer to the LORD, them have I given you.
from Genesis 4:3
The first of the firstfruits of your land you shall bring to the house of the LORD your God. You shall not boil a young goat in his mother’s milk.
from Numbers 18:12
That you shall take of the first of all the fruit of the earth, which you shall bring of your land that the LORD your God gives you, and shall put it in a basket, and shall go to the place which the LORD your God shall choose to place his name there.
from Exodus 34:26
a thread opens
Glory to God in the highest, and on earth peace, good will toward men.
To give light to them that sit in darkness and in the shadow of death, to guide our feet into the way of peace.
from Luke 2:14 · a strong link
To open their eyes, and to turn them from darkness to light, and from the power of Satan to God, so that they may receive forgiveness of sins, and inheritance among them which are sanctified by faith in me.
from Luke 1:79
To give knowledge of salvation to his people by the remission of their sins,
from Acts 26:18
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?
Who shall lay anything to the charge of God’s elect? It is God that justifies.
from Luke 18:7
He is near that justifies me; who will contend with me? let us stand together: who is my adversary? let him come near to me.
from Romans 8:33 · a strong link
He that spared not his own Son, but delivered him up for us all, how shall he not with him also freely give us all things?
from Isaiah 50:8
Therefore let no man glory in men. For all things are yours;
from Romans 8:32
And we know that all things work together for good to them that love God, to them who are the called according to his purpose.
from I Corinthians 3:21 · a strong link
Moreover whom he predestined, them he also called: and whom he called, them he also justified: and whom he justified, them he also glorified.
from Romans 8:28 · a strong link
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.
He that loves father or mother more than me is not worthy of me: and he that loves son or daughter more than me is not worthy of me.
from Luke 14:26 · a strong link
Jesus said to him, You shall love the Lord your God with all your heart, and with all your soul, and with all your mind.
from Matthew 10:37 · a strong link
And Jesus answered him, The first of all the commandments is, Hear, O Israel; The Lord our God is one Lord:
from Matthew 22:37 · a strong link
You believe that there is one God; you do well: the demons also believe, and tremble.
from Mark 12:29
Now a mediator is not a mediator of one, but God is one.
from James 2:19
That is the whole thread.
Every verse the cross-references reach from Matthew 25:5 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