Daily Bible GNT April 19 Scroll

Acts 7²³"When Moses was forty years old, he decided to find out how his fellow Israelites were being treated. ²⁴He saw one of them being mistreated by an Egyptian, so he went to his help and took revenge on the Egyptian by killing him. ( ²⁵He thought that his own people would understand that God was going to use him to set them free, but they did not understand.) ²⁶The next day he saw two Israelites fighting, and he tried to make peace between them. 'Listen, men,' he said, 'you are fellow Israelites; why are you fighting like this?' ²⁷But the one who was mistreating the other pushed Moses aside. 'Who made you ruler and judge over us?' he asked. ²⁸'Do you want to kill me, just as you killed that Egyptian yesterday?' ²⁹When Moses heard this, he fled from Egypt and went to live in the land of Midian. There he had two sons.

³⁰"After forty years had passed, an angel appeared to Moses in the flames of a burning bush in the desert near Mount Sinai. ³¹Moses was amazed by what he saw, and went near the bush to get a better look. But he heard the Lord's voice: ³²'I am the God of your ancestors, the God of Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob.' Moses trembled with fear and dared not look. ³³The Lord said to him, 'Take your sandals off, for the place where you are standing is holy ground. ³⁴I have seen the cruel suffering of my people in Egypt. I have heard their groans, and I have come down to set them free. Come now; I will send you to Egypt.'

³⁵"Moses is the one who was rejected by the people of Israel. 'Who made you ruler and judge over us?' they asked. He is the one whom God sent to rule the people and set them free with the help of the angel who appeared to him in the burning bush. ³⁶He led the people out of Egypt, performing miracles and wonders in Egypt and at the Red Sea and for forty years in the desert. ³⁷Moses is the one who said to the people of Israel, 'God will send you a prophet, just as he sent me, and he will be one of your own people.' ³⁸He is the one who was with the people of Israel assembled in the desert; he was there with our ancestors and with the angel who spoke to him on Mount Sinai, and he received God's living messages to pass on to us.

³⁹"But our ancestors refused to obey him; they pushed him aside and wished that they could go back to Egypt. ⁴⁰So they said to Aaron, 'Make us some gods who will lead us. We do not know what has happened to that man Moses, who brought us out of Egypt.' ⁴¹It was then that they made an idol in the shape of a bull, offered sacrifice to it, and had a feast in honor of what they themselves had made. ⁴²So God turned away from them and gave them over to worship the stars of heaven, as it is written in the book of the prophets:

'People of Israel! It was not to me

that you slaughtered and sacrificed animals

for forty years in the desert.

⁴³It was the tent of the god Molech that you carried,

and the image of Rephan, your star god;

they were idols that you had made to worship.

And so I will send you into exile beyond Babylon.'

⁴⁴"Our ancestors had the Tent of God's presence with them in the desert. It had been made as God had told Moses to make it, according to the pattern that Moses had been shown. ⁴⁵Later on, our ancestors who received the tent from their fathers carried it with them when they went with Joshua and took over the land from the nations that God drove out as they advanced. And it stayed there until the time of David. ⁴⁶He won God's favor and asked God to allow him to provide a dwelling place for the God of Jacob. ⁴⁷But it was Solomon who built him a house.

⁴⁸"But the Most High God does not live in houses built by human hands; as the prophet says,

⁴⁹'Heaven is my throne, says the Lord,

and the earth is my footstool.

What kind of house would you build for me?

Where is the place for me to live in?

⁵⁰Did not I myself make all these things?'

⁵¹"How stubborn you are!" Stephen went on to say. "How heathen your hearts, how deaf you are to God's message! You are just like your ancestors: you too have always resisted the Holy Spirit! ⁵²Was there any prophet that your ancestors did not persecute? They killed God's messengers, who long ago announced the coming of his righteous Servant. And now you have betrayed and murdered him. ⁵³You are the ones who received God's law, that was handed down by angels--yet you have not obeyed it!"

The Stoning of Stephen

⁵⁴As the members of the Council listened to Stephen, they became furious and ground their teeth at him in anger. ⁵⁵But Stephen, full of the Holy Spirit, looked up to heaven and saw God's glory and Jesus standing at the right side of God. ⁵⁶"Look!" he said. "I see heaven opened and the Son of Man standing at the right side of God!"

⁵⁷With a loud cry the Council members covered their ears with their hands. Then they all rushed at him at once, ⁵⁸threw him out of the city, and stoned him. The witnesses left their cloaks in the care of a young man named Saul. ⁵⁹They kept on stoning Stephen as he called out to the Lord, "Lord Jesus, receive my spirit!" ⁶⁰He knelt down and cried out in a loud voice, "Lord! Do not remember this sin against them!" He said this and died.
Acts 8 And Saul approved of his murder.

Joshua Becomes Moses' Successor

Deuteronomy 31 Moses continued speaking to the people of Israel, ²and said, "I am now a hundred and twenty years old and am no longer able to be your leader. And besides this, the LORD has told me that I will not cross the Jordan. ³The LORD your God himself will go before you and destroy the nations living there, so that you can occupy their land; and Joshua will be your leader, as the LORD has said. ⁴The LORD will destroy those people, just as he defeated Sihon and Og, kings of the Amorites, and destroyed their country. ⁵The LORD will give you victory over them, and you are to treat them exactly as I have told you. ⁶Be determined and confident. Do not be afraid of them. Your God, the LORD himself, will be with you. He will not fail you or abandon you."

⁷Then Moses called Joshua and said to him in the presence of all the people of Israel, "Be determined and confident; you are the one who will lead these people to occupy the land that the LORD promised to their ancestors. ⁸The LORD himself will lead you and be with you. He will not fail you or abandon you, so do not lose courage or be afraid."

The Law Is to Be Read Every Seven Years

⁹So Moses wrote down God's Law and gave it to the levitical priests, who were in charge of the LORD's Covenant Box, and to the leaders of Israel. ¹⁰He commanded them, "At the end of every seven years, when the year that debts are canceled comes around, read this aloud at the Festival of Shelters. ¹¹Read it to the people of Israel when they come to worship the LORD your God at the one place of worship. ¹²Call together all the men, women, and children, and the foreigners who live in your towns, so that everyone may hear it and learn to honor the LORD your God and to obey his teachings faithfully. ¹³In this way your descendants who have never heard the Law of the LORD your God will hear it. And so they will learn to obey him as long as they live in the land that you are about to occupy across the Jordan."

The LORD's Last Instructions to Moses

¹⁴Then the LORD said to Moses, "You do not have much longer to live. Call Joshua and bring him to the Tent, so that I may give him his instructions." Moses and Joshua went to the Tent, ¹⁵and the LORD appeared to them there in a pillar of cloud that stood by the door of the Tent.

¹⁶The LORD said to Moses, "You will soon die, and after your death the people will become unfaithful to me and break the covenant that I made with them. They will abandon me and worship the pagan gods of the land they are about to enter. ¹⁷When that happens, I will become angry with them; I will abandon them, and they will be destroyed. Many terrible disasters will come upon them, and then they will realize that these things are happening to them because I, their God, am no longer with them. ¹⁸And I will refuse to help them then, because they have done evil and worshiped other gods.

¹⁹"Now, write down this song. Teach it to the people of Israel, so that it will stand as evidence against them. ²⁰I will take them into this rich and fertile land, as I promised their ancestors. There they will have all the food they want, and they will live comfortably. But they will turn away and worship other gods. They will reject me and break my covenant, ²¹and many terrible disasters will come on them. But this song will still be sung, and it will stand as evidence against them. Even now, before I take them into the land that I promised to give them, I know what they are thinking."

²²That same day Moses wrote down the song and taught it to the people of Israel.

²³Then the LORD spoke to Joshua son of Nun and told him, "Be confident and determined. You will lead the people of Israel into the land that I promised them, and I will be with you."

²⁴Moses wrote God's Law in a book, taking care not to leave out anything. ²⁵When he finished, he said to the levitical priests, who were in charge of the LORD's Covenant Box, ²⁶"Take this book of God's Law and place it beside the Covenant Box of the LORD your God, so that it will remain there as a witness against his people. ²⁷I know how stubborn and rebellious they are. They have rebelled against the LORD during my lifetime, and they will rebel even more after I am dead. ²⁸Assemble all your tribal leaders and officials before me, so that I can tell them these things; I will call heaven and earth to be my witnesses against them. ²⁹I know that after my death the people will become wicked and reject what I have taught them. And in time to come they will meet with disaster, because they will have made the LORD angry by doing what he has forbidden."

The Song of Moses

³⁰Then Moses recited the entire song while all the people of Israel listened.

Deuteronomy 32 "Earth and sky, hear my words,

listen closely to what I say.

²My teaching will fall like drops of rain

and form on the earth like dew.

My words will fall like showers on young plants,

like gentle rain on tender grass.

³I will praise the name of the LORD,

and his people will tell of his greatness.

⁴"The LORD is your mighty defender,

perfect and just in all his ways;

Your God is faithful and true;

he does what is right and fair.

⁵But you are unfaithful, unworthy to be his people,

a sinful and deceitful nation.

⁶Is this the way you should treat the LORD,

you foolish, senseless people?

He is your father, your Creator,

he made you into a nation.

⁷"Think of the past, of the time long ago;

ask your parents to tell you what happened,

ask the old people to tell of the past.

⁸The Most High assigned nations their lands;

he determined where peoples should live.

He assigned to each nation a heavenly being,

⁹

but Jacob's descendants he chose for himself.

¹⁰"He found them wandering through the desert,

a desolate, wind-swept wilderness.

He protected them and cared for them,

as he would protect himself.

¹¹Like an eagle teaching its young to fly,

catching them safely on its spreading wings,

the LORD kept Israel from falling.

¹²The LORD alone led his people

without the help of a foreign god.

¹³"He let them rule the highlands,

and they ate what grew in the fields.

They found wild honey among the rocks;

their olive trees flourished in stony ground.

¹⁴Their cows and goats gave plenty of milk;

they had the best sheep, goats, and cattle,

the finest wheat, and the choicest wine.

¹⁵"The LORD's people grew rich, but rebellious;

they were fat and stuffed with food.

They abandoned God their Creator

and rejected their mighty savior.

¹⁶Their idolatry made the LORD jealous;

the evil they did made him angry.

¹⁷They sacrificed to gods that are not real,

new gods their ancestors had never known,

gods that Israel had never obeyed.

¹⁸They forgot their God, their mighty savior,

the one who had given them life.

¹⁹"When the LORD saw this, he was angry

and rejected his sons and daughters.

²⁰'I will no longer help them,' he said;

'then I will see what happens to them,

those stubborn, unfaithful people.

²¹With their idols they have made me angry,

jealous with their so-called gods,

gods that are really not gods.

So I will use a so-called nation to make them angry;

I will make them jealous with a nation of fools.

²²My anger will flame up like fire

and burn everything on earth.

It will reach to the world below

and consume the roots of the mountains.

²³"'I will bring on them endless disasters

and use all my arrows against them.

²⁴They will die from hunger and fever;

they will die from terrible diseases.

I will send wild animals to attack them,

and poisonous snakes to bite them.

²⁵War will bring death in the streets;

terrors will strike in the homes.

Young men and young women will die;

neither babies nor old people will be spared.

²⁶I would have destroyed them completely,

so that no one would remember them.

²⁷But I could not let their enemies boast

that they had defeated my people,

when it was I myself who had crushed them.'

²⁸"Israel is a nation without sense;

they have no wisdom at all.

²⁹They fail to see why they were defeated;

they cannot understand what happened.

³⁰Why were a thousand defeated by one,

and ten thousand by only two?

The LORD, their God, had abandoned them;

their mighty God had given them up.

³¹Their enemies know that their own gods are weak,

not mighty like Israel's God.

³²Their enemies, corrupt as Sodom and Gomorrah,

are like vines that bear bitter and poisonous grapes,

³³

like wine made from the venom of snakes.

³⁴"The LORD remembers what their enemies have done;

he waits for the right time to punish them.

³⁵The LORD will take revenge and punish them;

the time will come when they will fall;

the day of their doom is near.

³⁶The LORD will rescue his people

when he sees that their strength is gone.

He will have mercy on those who serve him,

when he sees how helpless they are.

³⁷Then the LORD will ask his people,

'Where are those mighty gods you trusted?

³⁸You fed them the fat of your sacrifices

and offered them wine to drink.

Let them come and help you now;

let them run to your rescue.

³⁹"'I, and I alone, am God;

no other god is real.

I kill and I give life, I wound and I heal,

and no one can oppose what I do.

⁴⁰As surely as I am the living God,

I raise my hand and I vow

⁴¹

that I will sharpen my flashing sword

and see that justice is done.

I will take revenge on my enemies

and punish those who hate me.

⁴²My arrows will drip with their blood,

and my sword will kill all who oppose me.

I will spare no one who fights against me;

even the wounded and prisoners will die.'

⁴³"Nations, you must praise the LORD's people--

he punishes all who kill them.

He takes revenge on his enemies

and forgives the sins of his people."

⁴⁴Moses and Joshua son of Nun recited this song, so that the people of Israel could hear it.

Moses' Final Instructions

⁴⁵When Moses had finished giving God's teachings to the people, ⁴⁶he said, "Be sure to obey all these commands that I have given you today. Repeat them to your children, so that they may faithfully obey all of God's teachings. ⁴⁷These teachings are not empty words; they are your very life. Obey them and you will live long in that land across the Jordan that you are about to occupy."

⁴⁸That same day the LORD said to Moses, ⁴⁹"Go to the Abarim Mountains in the land of Moab opposite the city of Jericho; climb Mount Nebo and look at the land of Canaan that I am about to give the people of Israel. ⁵⁰You will die on that mountain as your brother Aaron died on Mount Hor, ⁵¹because both of you were unfaithful to me in the presence of the people of Israel. When you were at the waters of Meribah, near the town of Kadesh in the wilderness of Zin, you dishonored me in the presence of the people. ⁵²You will look at the land from a distance, but you will not enter the land that I am giving the people of Israel."

Job 19

Job

^1-2Why do you keep tormenting me with words?

³Time after time you insult me

and show no shame for the way you abuse me.

⁴Even if I have done wrong,

how does that hurt you?

⁵You think you are better than I am,

and regard my troubles as proof of my guilt.

⁶Can't you see it is God who has done this?

He has set a trap to catch me.

⁷I protest his violence,

but no one is listening;

no one hears my cry for justice.

⁸God has blocked the way, and I can't get through;

he has hidden my path in darkness.

⁹He has taken away all my wealth

and destroyed my reputation.

¹⁰He batters me from every side.

He uproots my hope

and leaves me to wither and die.

¹¹God is angry and rages against me;

he treats me like his worst enemy.

¹²He sends his army to attack me;

they dig trenches and lay siege to my tent.

¹³God has made my own family forsake me;

I am a stranger to those who knew me;

¹⁴

my relatives and friends are gone.

¹⁵Those who were guests in my house have forgotten me;

my servant women treat me like a stranger and a foreigner.

¹⁶When I call a servant, he doesn't answer--

even when I beg him to help me.

¹⁷My wife can't stand the smell of my breath,

and my own brothers won't come near me.

¹⁸Children despise me and laugh when they see me.

¹⁹My closest friends look at me with disgust;

those I loved most have turned against me.

²⁰My skin hangs loose on my bones;

I have barely escaped with my life.

²¹You are my friends! Take pity on me!

The hand of God has struck me down.

²²Why must you persecute me the way God does?

Haven't you tormented me enough?

²³How I wish that someone would remember my words

and record them in a book!

²⁴Or with a chisel carve my words in stone

and write them so that they would last forever.

²⁵But I know there is someone in heaven

who will come at last to my defense.

²⁶Even after my skin is eaten by disease,

while still in this body I will see God.

²⁷I will see him with my own eyes,

and he will not be a stranger.

My courage failed because you said,

²⁸

"How can we torment him?"

You looked for some excuse to attack me.

²⁹But now, be afraid of the sword--

the sword that brings God's wrath on sin,

so that you will know there is one who judges.

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.