Daily Bible GNT May 04 Scroll

Timothy Goes with Paul and Silas

Acts 16 Paul traveled on to Derbe and Lystra, where a Christian named Timothy lived. His mother, who was also a Christian, was Jewish, but his father was a Greek. ²All the believers in Lystra and Iconium spoke well of Timothy. ³Paul wanted to take Timothy along with him, so he circumcised him. He did so because all the Jews who lived in those places knew that Timothy's father was Greek. ⁴As they went through the towns, they delivered to the believers the rules decided upon by the apostles and elders in Jerusalem, and they told them to obey those rules. ⁵So the churches were made stronger in the faith and grew in numbers every day.

In Troas: Paul's Vision

⁶They traveled through the region of Phrygia and Galatia because the Holy Spirit did not let them preach the message in the province of Asia. ⁷When they reached the border of Mysia, they tried to go into the province of Bithynia, but the Spirit of Jesus did not allow them. ⁸So they traveled right on through Mysia and went to Troas. ⁹That night Paul had a vision in which he saw a Macedonian standing and begging him, "Come over to Macedonia and help us!" ¹⁰As soon as Paul had this vision, we got ready to leave for Macedonia, because we decided that God had called us to preach the Good News to the people there.

In Philippi: the Conversion of Lydia

¹¹We left by ship from Troas and sailed straight across to Samothrace, and the next day to Neapolis. ¹²From there we went inland to Philippi, a city of the first district of Macedonia; it is also a Roman colony. We spent several days there. ¹³On the Sabbath we went out of the city to the riverside, where we thought there would be a place where Jews gathered for prayer. We sat down and talked to the women who gathered there. ¹⁴One of those who heard us was Lydia from Thyatira, who was a dealer in purple cloth. She was a woman who worshiped God, and the Lord opened her mind to pay attention to what Paul was saying. ¹⁵After she and the people of her house had been baptized, she invited us, "Come and stay in my house if you have decided that I am a true believer in the Lord." And she persuaded us to go.

The Angel of the LORD at Bochim

Judges 2 The angel of the LORD went from Gilgal to Bochim and said to the Israelites, "I took you out of Egypt and brought you to the land that I promised to your ancestors. I said, 'I will never break my covenant with you. ²You must not make any covenant with the people who live in this land. You must tear down their altars.' But you have not done what I told you. You have done just the opposite! ³So I tell you now that I will not drive these people out as you advance. They will be your enemies, and you will be trapped by the worship of their gods." ⁴When the angel had said this, all the people of Israel began to cry, ⁵and that is why the place is called Bochim. There they offered sacrifices to the LORD.

The Death of Joshua

⁶Joshua sent the people of Israel on their way, and each man went to take possession of his own share of the land. ⁷As long as Joshua lived, the people of Israel served the LORD, and even after his death they continued to do so as long as the leaders were alive who had seen for themselves all the great things that the LORD had done for Israel. ⁸The LORD's servant Joshua son of Nun died at the age of a hundred and ten. ⁹He was buried in his own part of the land at Timnath Serah in the hill country of Ephraim north of Mount Gaash. ¹⁰That whole generation also died, and the next generation forgot the LORD and what he had done for Israel.

Israel Stops Worshiping the LORD

¹¹Then the people of Israel sinned against the LORD and began to serve the Baals. ¹²They stopped worshiping the LORD, the God of their ancestors, the God who had brought them out of Egypt, and they began to worship other gods, the gods of the peoples around them. They bowed down to them and made the LORD angry. ¹³They stopped worshiping the LORD and served the Baals and the Astartes. ¹⁴And so the LORD became furious with Israel and let raiders attack and rob them. He let the enemies all around overpower them, and the Israelites could no longer protect themselves. ¹⁵Every time they would go into battle, the LORD was against them, just as he had said he would be. They were in great distress.

¹⁶Then the LORD gave the Israelites leaders who saved them from the raiders. ¹⁷But the Israelites paid no attention to their leaders. Israel was unfaithful to the LORD and worshiped other gods. Their fathers had obeyed the LORD's commands, but this new generation soon stopped doing so. ¹⁸Whenever the LORD gave Israel a leader, the LORD would help that leader and would save the people from their enemies as long as that leader lived. The LORD would have mercy on them because they groaned under their suffering and oppression. ¹⁹But when the leader died, the people would return to the old ways and behave worse than the previous generation. They would serve and worship other gods, and stubbornly continue their own evil ways. ²⁰Then the LORD would become furious with Israel and say, "This nation has broken the covenant that I commanded their ancestors to keep. Because they have not obeyed me, ²¹I will no longer drive out any of the nations that were still in the land when Joshua died. ²²I will use them to find out whether or not these Israelites will follow my ways, as their ancestors did." ²³So the LORD allowed these nations to remain in the land; he did not give Joshua victory over them, nor did he drive them out soon after Joshua's death.

The Nations Remaining in the Land

Judges 3 So then, the LORD left some nations in the land to test the Israelites who had not been through the wars in Canaan. ²He did this only in order to teach each generation of Israelites about war, especially those who had never been in battle before. ³Those left in the land were the five Philistine cities, all the Canaanites, the Sidonians, and the Hivites who lived in the Lebanon Mountains from Mount Baal Hermon as far as Hamath Pass. ⁴They were to be a test for Israel, to find out whether or not the Israelites would obey the commands that the LORD had given their ancestors through Moses. ⁵And so the people of Israel settled down among the Canaanites, the Hittites, the Amorites, the Perizzites, the Hivites, and the Jebusites. ⁶They intermarried with them and worshiped their gods.

Othniel

⁷The people of Israel forgot the LORD their God; they sinned against him and worshiped the idols of Baal and Asherah. ⁸So the LORD became angry with Israel and let King Cushan Rishathaim of Mesopotamia conquer them. They were subject to him for eight years. ⁹Then the Israelites cried out to the LORD, and he sent someone to free them. This was Othniel, the son of Caleb's younger brother Kenaz. ¹⁰The spirit of the LORD came upon him, and he became Israel's leader. Othniel went to war, and the LORD gave him the victory over the king of Mesopotamia. ¹¹There was peace in the land for forty years, and then Othniel died.

Ehud

¹²The people of Israel sinned against the LORD again. Because of this the LORD made King Eglon of Moab stronger than Israel. ¹³Eglon joined the Ammonites and the Amalekites; they defeated Israel and captured Jericho, the city of palm trees. ¹⁴The Israelites were subject to Eglon for eighteen years.

¹⁵Then the Israelites cried out to the LORD, and he sent someone to free them. This was Ehud, a left-handed man, who was the son of Gera, from the tribe of Benjamin. The people of Israel sent Ehud to King Eglon of Moab with gifts for him. ¹⁶Ehud had made himself a double-edged sword about a foot and a half long. He had it fastened on his right side under his clothes. ¹⁷Then he took the gifts to Eglon, who was a very fat man. ¹⁸When Ehud had given him the gifts, he told the men who had carried them to go back home. ¹⁹But Ehud himself turned back at the carved stones near Gilgal, went back to Eglon, and said, "Your Majesty, I have a secret message for you."

So the king ordered his servants, "Leave us alone!" And they all went out.

²⁰Then, as the king was sitting there alone in his cool room on the roof, Ehud went over to him and said, "I have a message from God for you." The king stood up. ²¹With his left hand Ehud took the sword from his right side and plunged it into the king's belly. ²²The whole sword went in, handle and all, and the fat covered it up. Ehud did not pull it out of the king's belly, and it stuck out behind, between his legs. ²³Then Ehud went outside, closed the doors behind him, locked them, ²⁴and left. The servants came and saw that the doors were locked, but they only thought that the king was inside, relieving himself. ²⁵They waited as long as they thought they should, but when he still did not open the door, they took the key and opened it. And there was their master, lying dead on the floor.

²⁶Ehud got away while they were waiting. He went past the carved stones and escaped to Seirah. ²⁷When he arrived there in the hill country of Ephraim, he blew a trumpet to call the people of Israel to battle; then he led them down from the hills. ²⁸He told them, "Follow me! The LORD has given you victory over your enemies, the Moabites." So they followed Ehud down and captured the place where the Moabites were to cross the Jordan; they did not allow anyone to cross. ²⁹That day they killed about ten thousand of the best Moabite soldiers; none of them escaped. ³⁰That day the Israelites defeated Moab, and there was peace in the land for eighty years.

Shamgar

³¹The next leader was Shamgar son of Anath. He too rescued Israel, and did so by killing six hundred Philistines with an oxgoad.

Job 34 ^1-2You men are so wise, so clever;

listen now to what I am saying.

³You know good food when you taste it,

but not wise words when you hear them.

⁴It is up to us to decide the case.

⁵Job claims that he is innocent,

that God refuses to give him justice.

⁶He asks, "How could I lie and say I am wrong?

I am fatally wounded, but I am sinless."

⁷Have you ever seen anyone like this man Job?

He never shows respect for God.

⁸He likes the company of evil people

and goes around with sinners.

⁹He says that it never does any good

to try to follow God's will.

¹⁰Listen to me, you men who understand!

Will Almighty God do what is wrong?

¹¹He rewards people for what they do

and treats them as they deserve.

¹²Almighty God does not do evil;

he is never unjust to anyone.

¹³Did God get his power from someone else?

Did someone put him in charge of the world?

¹⁴If God took back the breath of life,

¹⁵

then everyone living would die

and turn into dust again.

¹⁶Now listen to me, if you are wise.

¹⁷Are you condemning the righteous God?

Do you think that he hates justice?

¹⁸God condemns kings and rulers

when they are worthless or wicked.

¹⁹He does not take the side of rulers

nor favor the rich over the poor,

for he created everyone.

²⁰We may suddenly die at night.

God strikes us down and we perish;

he kills the mighty with no effort at all.

²¹He watches every step we take.

²²There is no darkness dark enough

to hide a sinner from God.

²³God does not need to set a time

for us to go and be judged by him.

²⁴He does not need an investigation

to remove leaders and replace them with others.

²⁵Because he knows what they do;

he overthrows them and crushes them by night.

²⁶He punishes sinners where all can see it,

²⁷

because they have stopped following him

and ignored all his commands.

²⁸They forced the poor to cry out to God,

and he heard their calls for help.

²⁹If God decided to do nothing at all,

no one could criticize him.

If he hid his face, we would be helpless.

³⁰There would be nothing that nations could do

to keep godless oppressors from ruling them.

³¹Job, have you confessed your sins to God

and promised not to sin again?

³²Have you asked God to show you your faults,

and have you agreed to stop doing evil?

³³Since you object to what God does,

can you expect him to do what you want?

The decision is yours, not mine;

tell us now what you think.

³⁴Any sensible person will surely agree;

and the wise who hear me will say

³⁵

that Job is speaking from ignorance

and that nothing he says makes sense.

³⁶Think through everything that Job says;

you will see that he talks like an evil man.

³⁷To his sins he adds rebellion;

in front of us all he mocks God.

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.