Bible Readings: for Victims of Unsafe Coal Mine

My heart and prayers are with the coal miners, rescuers, and their families. Obviously that mine was in too unsafe a situation for too long.

Deuteronomy 8
For the Lord, your God, is bringing you into a good country…a land whose stones contain iron and in whose hills you can mine copper. But when you have eaten your fill, you must bless the Lord, your God, for the good country he has given you…who guided you through the vast and terrible desert with its seraph serpents and scorpions, its parched and waterless ground; who brought forth water for you from the flinty rock.

Job 28
There is indeed a mine for silver,
And a place for gold which men refine.
Iron is taken from the earth,
And copper is melted out of stone.
The earth, though out of it comes forth bread;
Is in fiery upheaval underneath.
Its stones are the source of sapphires,
And there is gold in its dust.
But whence can wisdom be obtained,
And where is the place of understanding?

Job 29
When the Almighty was yet with me,
And my children were round about me;
When my footsteps were bathed in milk,
And the rock flowed with streams of oil;
When I went forth to the gate of the city
And set up my seat in the square...


Psalm 103
Bless the Lord, my soul;
All my being, bless his holy name!
Bless the Lord, my soul;
Do not forget all the gifts of God,
Who pardons all your sins,
Heals all your ills,
Delivers your life from the pit,
Surrounds you with love and compassion,
Fills your days with good things;
Your youth is renewed like the eagle’s.