Lectionary Readings for Thursday, January 9th, 2020

Book of Sethantes Chapter IX, Chapter X

1. When God’s visit was ended, and the hosts notified, the Lord gave a banquet that
lasted two days and nights, during which the angels sang and danced and trumpeted
before God. After that God and his hosts embarked on the ship in readiness to proceed on
the journey; and the Lord went up to the ship to take leave, and his host went with him.

2. God said: When dan approacheth we shall meet again. May Jehovih prosper thy
harvests till then!

3. The Lord said: That is another hundred years! O God, I almost live in a wilderness. I
have not ten millions of souls, mortals and spirits!

4. God said: Thy kingdom shall be mighty when I come again. May it glorify Jehovih!

5.They embraced and separated! Each gave the sign of Jehovih’s name. Upward raised the
ship of God, with banners outstretched, and new ornamented by the Lord’s angels. And
now, taking course still west, sped on above the mountain tops, like a meteor hurled from
heaven. Meanwhile the trumpeters gave forth the gladly solemn sound of the march of
God.

6. But ere the ship had made half its journey, an approaching light came forth from the far
west, radiant and laden with hosts from the Lord of Dis, and the Lord of the earth also.

7. When the ships drew near and halted, God called with a loud voice, saying: In
Jehovih’s name, all hail! I know my Lord cometh.

8. And thereupon the Lord answered: Hail to thee, O God, Son of Jehovih! And
they turned the Lord’s ship and lashed the twain together even as they sped on.

9. Now after they had all exchanged welcome and good wishes, the Lord said: Ere we go
to my central throne let us survey the continent over which thy servant is Lord of land and
water.

10. And God answered: Thy will be done, O Lord. And so they journeyed for many
days, oft descending to the earth in places where the Lord’s angels had begun
colonies with mortals, impressing man with words of speech, and to live in villages.

11. And God saw that all he saw was good and well done. So they came to the throne of
the Lord and halted and sojourned for sixty days.

12. And God and his hosts and the Lord and his ashars and asaphs were together
in general reunion, praying, singing and dancing and reasoning on the endless works
of Jehovih. But one book could not contain all that was said and done, and of the
excursions made, and the visits over the plains and mountains, where in thousands
of years hence man should live and build cities, and go to war and destroy them.

13. And the mathematicians foretold the great cities and nations that would rise up;
how this one and that one would move to battle; how their great cities would fall in ruins
and be covered up by falling nebulae, and by denuding mountains washing down
upon them, so that even their remembrance should be lost. And yet, further on, the
mathematicians foretold the coming of kosmon when the ruined cities would be
discovered and their histories deciphered by the su’is of man in Great Jehovih’s hand.

14. And now when all these things were estimated, the prophets and mathematicians went
before God according to the commandments of the Lord, and they spake before God, Son
of Jehovih, telling all these wonders.

15. When they had finished, God said: What is our service on the earth, O Lord? A few
centuries at most, and we will have risen up from the earth, taking our hosts with us
to dwell in higher realms. But there shall be other Gods and Lords after us, to deal
with mortals and spirits newly born. After awhile there shall be great warriors and
great cities and nations; and they shall have Gods and Lords of their times who will dwell
many a weary year, aye, century, in the darkness with man. After that again, even the
Gods and Lords will be forgotten. And man will turn against Great Jehovih, putting to
death his adherents, preferring idols of stone and metal, and spirits born of woman.

16. The Lord said: And yet further on, a brighter light adorneth the way: Great
Jehovih’s hand sendeth the traveling worlds into the light of kosmon, and new
prophets arise gathering up the histories lost, and glorious plan of the Great Spirit
over all. Yea, even thy labor and my ships will be seen by mortals of that day.

17. Thus they discoursed, reading the past and the future, and weighing the present;
whilst angels less informed, gathered around to learn how worlds are peopled, and nations
and cities destroyed; the far-off, and the near at hand, being as nothing in Jehovih’s vast
universe.

18. But the time came for God’s departure, and he and his traveling host embarked, and
the Lord and his angels drew around to receive God’s prayer ere he left. And so after they
had embraced and parted, God said:

19. Though I go away, my love abideth with you all. And now, O Jehovih, bless these my
fellow-laborers, and make them strong to endure their great trials. Thine is the power and
glory, O Father! Amen!

20. The ship rose up and the trumpeters gave forth: Glory to Thee, O Jehovih, forever and
ever!

CHAPTER X.

1. Jehovih spake to God, saying: Steer thy ship to the south land, My Son, and visit thy
Lord, who is God of Vohu. And God went as commanded, to the south, running close to
the earth, over deserts and mountains.

2. But when they were a short way on the journey they were met by the Lord,
who had been apprised of God’s coming. And the ship of the Lord came also,
and made fast to the vessel of God, and all the angels saluted and intermingled,
having known one another hundreds of years, and some for more than a thousand years.

3. The Lord said: On our journey let us run through the valleys and the banks of rivers,
for it is here that both asu and men dwell. And so they journeyed, surveying the earth
as they sailed above. The country was mostly barren, not supporting man nor beast.

4. But by the river sides man dwelt, burrowing in the ground to avoid the heat by day and
the cold by night. And they came to places where the angels of the Lord were dwelling
with mortals, having inspired them to make villages and to hide their nakedness.

5. The Lord said: Behold, O God, only the unseen is potent over man. Could the beasts or
the stones or the forest tell man to hide his nakedness, he would not; neither will he heed
his brother’s voice. Without experience man cannot be advised profitably to himself, for
such hath Jehovih made him. Because man cannot discern angel presence, the angels
alone can teach man and inspire him to new life. For they talk to him in his sleep, and
show him what is for his own good. And when he waketh in the morning, he supposeth it
was himself talking, and he is ambitious to obey himself. Patient and of long endurance
are the angels of the Lord.

6. God said: Will man ever know he hath been raised up? Will he be believing? Or will
he, too, need go to some new world and raise up the first fruits thereof and toil his
hundreds of years with naked mortals? O Jehovih, how wisely hast Thou shapen the
labors of the believing and the unbelieving!

7. Lo, man cometh forth out of the earth, boasting of his unbelief, saying: Except I
see with my own eyes, and feel with my own hands, I will not believe. But Thou,
O Jehovih, hast fitted a labor for his eyes, and for his hands, to his heart’s content.

8. And yet another man cometh forth out of the earth, being believing, and quickly he
mounteth to the thrones of Thy exalted heavens. Great is the work of Thy Lord, O Father.

9. The Lord said: Who knoweth thy wisdom, O Jehovih! Who cannot perceive Thee in
the foundations of Thy everlasting worlds? Thou hast provided nurses for the new earth;
and out of this, Thy footstool, wilt Thou bring forth many, who will, in the far future
time, be laboring as Thy Lord and his angels labor here. Of what expanse is Thy wisdom,
O Jehovih!

10. Thus they conversed and journeyed forth till they reached the throne and place of the
Lord. And here they made fast their ships, and they descended down to the city of Ong’oo,
in upper middle of the continent of Vohu.

11. And the Lord now sent messengers to all the ashars in his dominions, appointing ten
days of rest, and time for feasting and music, and dancing and worshipping Jehovih.

12. And so it came to pass that the angels of the Lord and of God held a reunion, being
the first one for over a hundred years.

13. And then God went around about over all the continent of Vohu, inspecting the work
the Lord had done, and he pronounced it good before Jehovih.

14. When God had rested the full time, he and his hosts entered the ship of God, and
taking leave of the Lord and his hosts, departed on the journey, saluting the Lord with a
thousand trumpeters in the name of Jehovih.