Daily Bible GNT April 07 Scroll

Jesus Is Crucified
(Mark 15.21-32; Luke 23.26-43; John 19.17-27)

Matthew 27 ³²As they were going out, they met a man from Cyrene named Simon, and the soldiers forced him to carry Jesus' cross. ³³They came to a place called Golgotha, which means, "The Place of the Skull." ³⁴There they offered Jesus wine mixed with a bitter substance; but after tasting it, he would not drink it.

³⁵They crucified him and then divided his clothes among them by throwing dice. ³⁶After that they sat there and watched him. ³⁷Above his head they put the written notice of the accusation against him: "This is Jesus, the King of the Jews." ³⁸Then they crucified two bandits with Jesus, one on his right and the other on his left.

³⁹People passing by shook their heads and hurled insults at Jesus: ⁴⁰"You were going to tear down the Temple and build it back up in three days! Save yourself if you are God's Son! Come on down from the cross!"

⁴¹In the same way the chief priests and the teachers of the Law and the elders made fun of him: ⁴²"He saved others, but he cannot save himself ! Isn't he the king of Israel? If he will come down off the cross now, we will believe in him! ⁴³He trusts in God and claims to be God's Son. Well, then, let us see if God wants to save him now!"

⁴⁴Even the bandits who had been crucified with him insulted him in the same way.

The Death of Jesus
(Mark 15.33-41; Luke 23.44-49; John 19.28-30)

⁴⁵At noon the whole country was covered with darkness, which lasted for three hours. ⁴⁶At about three o'clock Jesus cried out with a loud shout, "Eli, Eli, lema sabachthani?" which means, "My God, my God, why did you abandon me?"

⁴⁷Some of the people standing there heard him and said, "He is calling for Elijah!" ⁴⁸One of them ran up at once, took a sponge, soaked it in cheap wine, put it on the end of a stick, and tried to make him drink it.

⁴⁹But the others said, "Wait, let us see if Elijah is coming to save him!"

⁵⁰Jesus again gave a loud cry and breathed his last.

⁵¹Then the curtain hanging in the Temple was torn in two from top to bottom. The earth shook, the rocks split apart, ⁵²the graves broke open, and many of God's people who had died were raised to life. ⁵³They left the graves, and after Jesus rose from death, they went into the Holy City, where many people saw them.

⁵⁴When the army officer and the soldiers with him who were watching Jesus saw the earthquake and everything else that happened, they were terrified and said, "He really was the Son of God!"

⁵⁵There were many women there, looking on from a distance, who had followed Jesus from Galilee and helped him. ⁵⁶Among them were Mary Magdalene, Mary the mother of James and Joseph, and the wife of Zebedee.

The Burial of Jesus
(Mark 15.42-47; Luke 23.50-56; John 19.38-42)

⁵⁷When it was evening, a rich man from Arimathea arrived; his name was Joseph, and he also was a disciple of Jesus. ⁵⁸He went into the presence of Pilate and asked for the body of Jesus. Pilate gave orders for the body to be given to Joseph. ⁵⁹So Joseph took it, wrapped it in a new linen sheet, ⁶⁰and placed it in his own tomb, which he had just recently dug out of solid rock. Then he rolled a large stone across the entrance to the tomb and went away. ⁶¹Mary Magdalene and the other Mary were sitting there, facing the tomb.

The Guard at the Tomb

⁶²The next day, which was a Sabbath, the chief priests and the Pharisees met with Pilate ⁶³and said, "Sir, we remember that while that liar was still alive he said, 'I will be raised to life three days later.' ⁶⁴Give orders, then, for his tomb to be carefully guarded until the third day, so that his disciples will not be able to go and steal the body, and then tell the people that he was raised from death. This last lie would be even worse than the first one."

⁶⁵"Take a guard," Pilate told them; "go and make the tomb as secure as you can."

⁶⁶So they left and made the tomb secure by putting a seal on the stone and leaving the guard on watch.

The LORD's Own People
(Exodus 34.11-16)

Deuteronomy 7 "The LORD your God will bring you into the land that you are going to occupy, and he will drive many nations out of it. As you advance, he will drive out seven nations larger and more powerful than you: the Hittites, the Girgashites, the Amorites, the Canaanites, the Perizzites, the Hivites, and the Jebusites. ²When the LORD your God places these people in your power and you defeat them, you must put them all to death. Do not make an alliance with them or show them any mercy. ³Do not marry any of them, and do not let your children marry any of them, ⁴because then they would lead your children away from the LORD to worship other gods. If that happens, the LORD will be angry with you and destroy you at once. ⁵So then, tear down their altars, break their sacred stone pillars in pieces, cut down their symbols of the goddess Asherah, and burn their idols. ⁶Do this because you belong to the LORD your God. From all the peoples on earth he chose you to be his own special people.

⁷"The LORD did not love you and choose you because you outnumbered other peoples; you were the smallest nation on earth. ⁸But the LORD loved you and wanted to keep the promise that he made to your ancestors. That is why he saved you by his great might and set you free from slavery to the king of Egypt. ⁹Remember that the LORD your God is the only God and that he is faithful. He will keep his covenant and show his constant love to a thousand generations of those who love him and obey his commands, ¹⁰but he will not hesitate to punish those who hate him. ¹¹Now then, obey what you have been taught; obey all the laws that I have given you today.

The Blessings of Obedience
(Deuteronomy 28.1-14)

¹²"If you listen to these commands and obey them faithfully, then the LORD your God will continue to keep his covenant with you and will show you his constant love, as he promised your ancestors. ¹³He will love you and bless you, so that you will increase in number and have many children; he will bless your fields, so that you will have grain, wine, and olive oil; and he will bless you by giving you many cattle and sheep. He will give you all these blessings in the land that he promised your ancestors he would give to you. ¹⁴No people in the world will be as richly blessed as you. None of you nor any of your livestock will be sterile. ¹⁵The LORD will protect you from all sickness, and he will not bring on you any of the dreadful diseases that you experienced in Egypt, but he will bring them on all your enemies. ¹⁶Destroy every nation that the LORD your God places in your power, and do not show them any mercy. Do not worship their gods, for that would be fatal.

¹⁷"Do not tell yourselves that these peoples outnumber you and that you cannot drive them out. ¹⁸Do not be afraid of them; remember what the LORD your God did to the king of Egypt and to all his people. ¹⁹Remember the terrible plagues that you saw with your own eyes, the miracles and wonders, and the great power and strength by which the LORD your God set you free. In the same way that he destroyed the Egyptians, he will destroy all these people that you now fear. ²⁰He will even cause panic among them and will destroy those who escape and go into hiding. ²¹So do not be afraid of these people. The LORD your God is with you; he is a great God and one to be feared. ²²Little by little he will drive out these nations as you advance. You will not be able to destroy them all at once, for, if you did, the number of wild animals would increase and be a threat to you. ²³The LORD will put your enemies in your power and make them panic until they are destroyed. ²⁴He will put their kings in your power. You will kill them, and they will be forgotten. No one will be able to stop you; you will destroy everyone. ²⁵Burn their idols. Do not desire the silver or gold that is on them, and do not take it for yourselves. If you do, that will be fatal, because the LORD hates idolatry. ²⁶Do not bring any of these idols into your homes, or the same curse will be on you that is on them. You must hate and despise these idols, because they are under the LORD's curse.

A Good Land to Be Possessed

Deuteronomy 8 "Obey faithfully all the laws that I have given you today, so that you may live, increase in number, and occupy the land that the LORD promised to your ancestors. ²Remember how the LORD your God led you on this long journey through the desert these past forty years, sending hardships to test you, so that he might know what you intended to do and whether you would obey his commands. ³He made you go hungry, and then he gave you manna to eat, food that you and your ancestors had never eaten before. He did this to teach you that you must not depend on bread alone to sustain you, but on everything that the LORD says. ⁴During these forty years your clothes have not worn out, nor have your feet swollen up. ⁵Remember that the LORD your God corrects and punishes you just as parents discipline their children. ⁶So then, do as the LORD has commanded you: live according to his laws and obey him. ⁷The LORD your God is bringing you into a fertile land--a land that has rivers and springs, and underground streams gushing out into the valleys and hills; ⁸a land that produces wheat and barley, grapes, figs, pomegranates, olives, and honey. ⁹There you will never go hungry or ever be in need. Its rocks have iron in them, and from its hills you can mine copper. ¹⁰You will have all you want to eat, and you will give thanks to the LORD your God for the fertile land that he has given you.

Warnings against Forgetting the LORD

¹¹"Make certain that you do not forget the LORD your God; do not fail to obey any of his laws that I am giving you today. ¹²When you have all you want to eat and have built good houses to live in ¹³and when your cattle and sheep, your silver and gold, and all your other possessions have increased, ¹⁴be sure that you do not become proud and forget the LORD your God who rescued you from Egypt, where you were slaves. ¹⁵He led you through that vast and terrifying desert where there were poisonous snakes and scorpions. In that dry and waterless land he made water flow out of solid rock for you. ¹⁶In the desert he gave you manna to eat, food that your ancestors had never eaten. He sent hardships on you to test you, so that in the end he could bless you with good things. ¹⁷So then, you must never think that you have made yourselves wealthy by your own power and strength. ¹⁸Remember that it is the LORD your God who gives you the power to become rich. He does this because he is still faithful today to the covenant that he made with your ancestors. ¹⁹Never forget the LORD your God or turn to other gods to worship and serve them. If you do, then I warn you today that you will certainly be destroyed. ²⁰If you do not obey the LORD, then you will be destroyed just like those nations that he is going to destroy as you advance.

Job 7 Human life is like forced army service,

like a life of hard manual labor,

like a slave longing for cool shade;

like a worker waiting to be paid.

³Month after month I have nothing to live for;

night after night brings me grief.

⁴When I lie down to sleep, the hours drag;

I toss all night and long for dawn.

⁵My body is full of worms;

it is covered with scabs;

pus runs out of my sores.

⁶My days pass by without hope,

pass faster than a weaver's shuttle.

⁷Remember, O God, my life is only a breath;

my happiness has already ended.

⁸You see me now, but never again.

If you look for me, I'll be gone.

^9-10Like a cloud that fades and is gone,

we humans die and never return;

we are forgotten by all who knew us.

¹¹No! I can't be quiet!

I am angry and bitter.

I have to speak.

¹²Why do you keep me under guard?

Do you think I am a sea monster?

¹³I lie down and try to rest;

I look for relief from my pain.

¹⁴But you--you terrify me with dreams;

you send me visions and nightmares

¹⁵

until I would rather be strangled

than live in this miserable body.

¹⁶I give up; I am tired of living.

Leave me alone. My life makes no sense.

¹⁷Why are people so important to you?

Why pay attention to what they do?

¹⁸You inspect them every morning

and test them every minute.

¹⁹Won't you look away long enough

for me to swallow my spit?

²⁰Are you harmed by my sin, you jailer?

Why use me for your target practice?

Am I so great a burden to you?

²¹Can't you ever forgive my sin?

Can't you pardon the wrong I do?

Soon I will be in my grave,

and I'll be gone when you look for me.

This reading is from The Holy Bible, Today's English Version, Second Edition copyright © American Bible Society, 1992;
Old Testament copyright © American Bible Society, 1976, 1992; New Testament © American Bible Society, 1966, 1971, 1976, 1992.

These daily Bible readings from the Good News Translation (GNT), formerly the Today's English Version (TEV), are published by BibleNetUSA. The web site and BibleCard® designs are by iCreative. All BibleCard® images are copyrighted by iCreative. All rights reserved.