Memory Text: Matthew 5:5 NIV “Blessed are the meek, for they will inherit the earth.”

Sunday – Broken Bread and Poured-Out Wine
Ezekiel 24:15-27 God’s Word to the Nations “15 ¶ Then the LORD spoke his word to me. He said, 16 "Son of man, with one blow I’m going to take away from you the person you love the most. But you must not mourn, cry, or let tears run down your face. 17 Groan silently. Don’t grieve for the person who dies. Tie on your turban, and put on your sandals. Don’t cover your face or eat the food that mourners eat." 18 So I spoke to the people in the morning, and in the evening my wife died. The next morning I did as I was ordered. 19 The people asked me, "Tell us, what do these things that you are doing mean to us?" 20 I told them, "The LORD spoke his word to me. He said, 21 ‘Tell the nation of Israel, "This is what the Almighty LORD says: I’m going to dishonor my holy place. You brag that my holy place gives you strength. It’s the thing you love the most. It’s your hearts’ desire. So the sons and daughters that you left behind will die in battle. 22 Then you must do as I did. Don’t cover your faces or eat the food that mourners eat. 23 Leave your turbans on your heads and your sandals on your feet. Don’t grieve or cry! You will waste away because of your guilt and groan to one another. 24 Ezekiel is a sign to you. You will do everything he has done. Then you will know that I am the Almighty LORD."’ 25 "Son of man, on that day I will take their stronghold away from them. It makes them happy and proud. It is their hearts’ desire and the thing they love the most. I will also take away their sons and daughters. 26 On that day a refugee will come to you to tell you the news. 27 On that very day your mouth will be opened, and you will talk to the refugee. You will speak and not be silent anymore. You will be a sign to them. Then they will know that I am the LORD."”
Ezekiel 24:25 JOHN WESLEY NOTES All their public and private joys and hopes shall be destroyed in the destruction of the kingdom, and their children.

Monday – Interceding for Grace
Exodus 32:1-14 NLT “1 ¶ When Moses failed to come back down the mountain right away, the people went to Aaron. "Look," they said, "make us some gods who can lead us. This man Moses, who brought us here from Egypt, has disappeared. We don’t know what has happened to him." 2 So Aaron said, "Tell your wives and sons and daughters to take off their gold earrings, and then bring them to me." 3 All the people obeyed Aaron and brought him their gold earrings. 4 Then Aaron took the gold, melted it down, and molded and tooled it into the shape of a calf. The people exclaimed, "O Israel, these are the gods who brought you out of Egypt!" 5 When Aaron saw how excited the people were about it, he built an altar in front of the calf and announced, "Tomorrow there will be a festival to the LORD!" 6 So the people got up early the next morning to sacrifice burnt offerings and peace offerings. After this, they celebrated with feasting and drinking, and indulged themselves in pagan revelry. 7 ¶ Then the LORD told Moses, "Quick! Go down the mountain! The people you brought from Egypt have defiled themselves. 8 They have already turned from the way I commanded them to live. They have made an idol shaped like a calf, and they have worshiped and sacrificed to it. They are saying, ‘These are your gods, O Israel, who brought you out of Egypt.’" 9 Then the LORD said, "I have seen how stubborn and rebellious these people are. 10 Now leave me alone so my anger can blaze against them and destroy them all. Then I will make you, Moses, into a great nation instead of them." 11 But Moses pleaded with the LORD his God not to do it. "O LORD!" he exclaimed. "Why are you so angry with your own people whom you brought from the land of Egypt with such great power and mighty acts? 12 The Egyptians will say, ‘God tricked them into coming to the mountains so he could kill them and wipe them from the face of the earth.’ Turn away from your fierce anger. Change your mind about this terrible disaster you are planning against your people! 13 Remember your covenant with your servants—Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob. You swore by your own self, ‘I will make your descendants as numerous as the stars of heaven. Yes, I will give them all of this land that I have promised to your descendants, and they will possess it forever.’" 14 So the LORD withdrew his threat and didn’t bring against his people the disaster he had threatened.”
Exodus 32:10 COMMENTARY BY JAMIESON, FAUSSET, AND BROWN the manner in which God spoke to Moses served two important purposes--it tended to develop the faith and intercessory patriotism of the Hebrew leader, and to excite the serious alarm of the people, that God would reject them and deprive them of the privileges they had fondly fancied were so secure.

Tuesday – Loving Those Who Hurt Us
Matthew 5:43-38 CEV “43 ¶ You have heard people say, "Love your neighbors and hate your enemies." 44 But I tell you to love your enemies and pray for anyone who mistreats you. 45 Then you will be acting like your Father in heaven. He makes the sun rise on both good and bad people. And he sends rain for the ones who do right and for the ones who do wrong. 46 If you love only those people who love you, will God reward you for that? Even tax collectors love their friends. 47 If you greet only your friends, what’s so great about that? Don’t even unbelievers do that? 48 But you must always act like your Father in heaven.”
Matthew 5:44 COMMENTARY BY ALBERT BARNES There are two kinds of love, involving the same general feeling, or springing from the same fountain of goodwill to all mankind, but differing still so far as to admit of separation in idea. The one is that feeling by which we approve of the conduct of another, commonly called the love of complacency; the other, by which we wish well to the person of another, though we cannot approve his conduct. This is the love of benevolence; and this love we are to bear towards our enemies. It is impossible to love the conduct of a man that curses and reviles us, and injures our person or property, or that violates all the laws of God; but though we may hate his conduct, and feel deeply that we are affected by it, yet we may still wish well to the person.

Wednesday – A Closed Mouth
1 Peter 2:18-25 NRSV “18 Slaves, accept the authority of your masters with all deference, not only those who are kind and gentle but also those who are harsh. 19 For it is a credit to you if, being aware of God, you endure pain while suffering unjustly. 20 If you endure when you are beaten for doing wrong, what credit is that? But if you endure when you do right and suffer for it, you have God’s approval. 21 For to this you have been called, because Christ also suffered for you, leaving you an example, so that you should follow in his steps. 22 "He committed no sin, and no deceit was found in his mouth." 23 When he was abused, he did not return abuse; when he suffered, he did not threaten; but he entrusted himself to the one who judges justly. 24 He himself bore our sins in his body on the cross, so that, free from sins, we might live for righteousness; by his wounds you have been healed. 25 For you were going astray like sheep, but now you have returned to the shepherd and guardian of your souls.”
1 Peter 2:18 COMMENTARY BY MATTHEW HENRY Servants in those days generally were slaves, and had heathen masters, who often used them cruelly; yet the apostle directs them to be subject to the masters placed over them by Providence, with a fear to dishonour or offend God. And not only to those pleased with reasonable service, but to the severe, and those angry without cause.
1 Peter 2:20 COMMENTARY BY ADAM CLARKE It appears from this that the poor Christians, and especially those who had been converted to Christianity while in a state of slavery, were often grievously abused, they were buffeted because they were Christians, and because they would not join with their masters in idolatrous worship.

Thursday – Our Rock and Refuge
Psalm 62:1-8 CEV “1 ¶ (A psalm by David for Jeduthun, the music leader.) Only God can save me, and I calmly wait for him. 2 God alone is the mighty rock that keeps me safe and the fortress where I am secure. 3 I feel like a shaky fence or a sagging wall. How long will all of you attack and assault me? 4 You want to bring me down from my place of honor. You love to tell lies, and when your words are kind, hatred hides in your heart. 5 Only God gives inward peace, and I depend on him. 6 God alone is the mighty rock that keeps me safe, and he is the fortress where I feel secure. 7 God saves me and honors me. He is that mighty rock where I find safety. 8 ¶ Trust God, my friends, and always tell him each one of your concerns. God is our place of safety.”
Psalm 62:1 COMMENTARY BY CHARLES SPURGEON From him cometh my salvation. The good man will, therefore, in patience possess his soul till deliverance comes: faith can hear the footsteps of coming salvation, because she has learned to be silent. Our salvation in no measure or degree comes to us from any inferior source; let us, therefore, look alone to the true fountain, and avoid the detestable crime of ascribing to the creature what belongs alone to the Creator.
Psalm 62:4 COMMENTARY BY CHARLES SPURGEON The excellencies of the righteous are obnoxious to the wicked, and the main object of their fury. The elevation which God gives to the godly in Providence, or in dispute, is also the envy of the baser sort, and they labour to pull them down to their own level…To lie is base enough, but to delight in it is one of the blackest marks of infamy…Flattery has ever been a favourite weapon with the enemies of good men; they can curse bitterly enough when it serves their turn; meanwhile, since it answers their purpose, they mask their wrath, and with smooth words pretend to bless those whom they would willingly tear in pieces.

Friday – Further Study
Ellen G. White, Desire of Ages, p. 301 – “Through affliction God reveals to us the plague spots in our characters, that by His grace we may overcome our faults. Unknown chapters in regard to ourselves are opened to us, and the test comes, whether we will accept the reproof and the counsel of God. When brought into trial, we are not to fret and complain. We should not rebel, or worry ourselves out of the hand of Christ. We are to humble the soul before God. The ways of the Lord are obscure to him who desires to see things in a light pleasing to himself. They appear dark and joyless to our human nature. But God’s ways are ways of mercy and the end is salvation.”
Ellen G. White, Desire of Ages, p. 305 – “The multitudes were amazed at this teaching, which was so at variance with the precepts and example of the Pharisees. The people had come to think that happiness consisted in the possession of the things of this world, and that fame and the honor of men were much to be coveted. It was very pleasing to be called "Rabbi," and to be extolled as wise and religious, having their virtues paraded before the public. This was regarded as the crown of happiness. But in the presence of that vast throng, Jesus declared that earthly gain and honor were all the reward such persons would ever receive. He spoke with certainty, and a convincing power attended His words.”