a thread opens
Look, the birds of the air: for they sow not, neither do they reap, nor gather into barns; yet your heavenly Father feeds them. Are you not much better than they?
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.
Who teaches us more than the beasts of the earth, and makes us wiser than the birds of heaven?
from Matthew 6:26 · a strong link
Blessed is the man whom you chasten, O LORD, and teach him out of your law;
from Job 35:11 · a strong link
As many as I love, I rebuke and chasten: be zealous therefore, and repent.
from Psalms 94:12 · a strong link
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 let the priests also, which come near to the LORD, sanctify themselves, lest the LORD break forth upon them.
from Leviticus 10:3
And he sent young men of the children of Israel, which offered burnt offerings, and sacrificed peace offerings of oxen to the LORD.
from Exodus 19:22
And Jethro, Moses’ father-in-law, took a burnt offering and sacrifices for God: and Aaron came, and all the elders of Israel, to eat bread with Moses’ father-in-law before God.
from Exodus 24:5
Then Jacob offered sacrifice upon the mount, and called his brothers to eat bread: and they did eat bread, and stayed all night in the mount.
from Exodus 18:12
And the child grew, and was weaned: and Abraham made a great feast the same day that Isaac was weaned.
from Genesis 31:54
And it happened the third day, which was Pharaoh’s birthday, that he made a feast to all his servants: and he lifted up the head of the chief cupbearer and of the chief baker among his servants.
from Genesis 21:8
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,
My Father, which gave them me, is greater than all; and no man is able to pluck them out of my Father’s hand.
from Jude 1:24
I have manifested your name to the men which you gave me out of the world: yours they were, and you gave them me; and they have kept your word.
from John 10:29
And we know that the Son of God has come, and has given us an understanding, that we may know him that is true, and we are in him that is true, even in his Son Jesus Christ. This is the true God, and eternal life.
from John 17:6
And this is the testimony, that God has given to us eternal life, and this life is in his Son.
from I John 5:20
For as the Father has life in himself; so has he given to the Son to have life in himself;
from I John 5:11
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 the sons of Eliab; Nemuel, and Dathan, and Abiram. This is that Dathan and Abiram, which were famous in the congregation, who strove against Moses and against Aaron in the company of Korah, when they strove against the LORD:
from Jude 1:11
These were the renowned of the congregation, princes of the tribes of their fathers, heads of thousands in Israel.
from Numbers 26:9 · a strong link
Moreover you shall provide out of all the people able men, such as fear God, men of truth, hating greed; and place such over them, to be rulers of thousands, and rulers of hundreds, rulers of fifties, and rulers of tens:
from Numbers 1:16 · a strong link
The God of Israel said, the Rock of Israel spoke to me, He that rules over men must be just, ruling in the fear of God.
from Exodus 18:21
a thread opens
Glory to God in the highest, and on earth peace, good will toward men.
Therefore being justified by faith, we have peace with God through our Lord Jesus Christ:
from Luke 2:14
Much more then, being now justified by his blood, we shall be saved from wrath through him.
from Romans 5:1
Truly, truly, I say to you, He that hears my word, and believes on him that sent me, has eternal life, and shall not come into condemnation; but is passed from death to life.
from Romans 5:9
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?
A Song or Psalm for the sons of Korah, to the director of music upon Mahalath Leannoth, Maschil of Heman the Ezrahite. O LORD God of my salvation, I have cried day and night before you:
from Luke 18:7 · a strong link
But after that the kindness and love of God our Savior toward man appeared,
from Psalms 88:1
For then must he often have suffered since the foundation of the world: but now once in the end of the world has he appeared to put away sin by the sacrifice of himself.
from Titus 3:4
How much more shall the blood of Christ, who through the eternal Spirit offered himself without spot to God, purge your conscience from dead works to serve the living God?
from Hebrews 9:26
Neither by the blood of goats and calves, but by his own blood he entered in once into the holy place, having obtained eternal redemption for us.
from Hebrews 9:14 · a strong link
And for this cause he is the mediator of the new covenant, that by means of death, for the redemption of the transgressions under the first covenant, they which are called might receive the promise of eternal inheritance.
from Hebrews 9:12
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
So when they had dined, Jesus says to Simon Peter, Simon, son of John, love you me more than these? He says to him, Yes, Lord; you know that I love you. He says to him, Feed my lambs.
from Matthew 10:37
Now the God of peace, that brought again from the dead our Lord Jesus, that great shepherd of the sheep, through the blood of the everlasting covenant,
from John 21:15
Whom God has raised up, having loosed the pains of death: because it was not possible that he should be held of it.
from Hebrews 13:20 · a strong link
This Jesus has God raised up, of which we all are witnesses.
from Acts 2:24 · a strong link
That is the whole thread.
Every verse the cross-references reach from Matthew 6:26 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