Daily Bible GNT May 29 Scroll

The Example of Abraham

Romans 4 What shall we say, then, of Abraham, the father of our race? What was his experience? ²If he was put right with God by the things he did, he would have something to boast about--but not in God's sight. ³The scripture says, "Abraham believed God, and because of his faith God accepted him as righteous." ⁴A person who works is paid wages, but they are not regarded as a gift; they are something that has been earned. ⁵But those who depend on faith, not on deeds, and who believe in the God who declares the guilty to be innocent, it is this faith that God takes into account in order to put them right with himself. ⁶This is what David meant when he spoke of the happiness of the person whom God accepts as righteous, apart from anything that person does:

⁷"Happy are those whose wrongs are forgiven,

whose sins are pardoned!

⁸Happy is the person whose sins the Lord will not keep account of !"

⁹Does this happiness that David spoke of belong only to those who are circumcised? No indeed! It belongs also to those who are not circumcised. For we have quoted the scripture, "Abraham believed God, and because of his faith God accepted him as righteous." ¹⁰When did this take place? Was it before or after Abraham was circumcised? It was before, not after. ¹¹He was circumcised later, and his circumcision was a sign to show that because of his faith God had accepted him as righteous before he had been circumcised. And so Abraham is the spiritual father of all who believe in God and are accepted as righteous by him, even though they are not circumcised. ¹²He is also the father of those who are circumcised, that is, of those who, in addition to being circumcised, also live the same life of faith that our father Abraham lived before he was circumcised.

God's Promise Is Received through Faith

¹³When God promised Abraham and his descendants that the world would belong to him, he did so, not because Abraham obeyed the Law, but because he believed and was accepted as righteous by God. ¹⁴For if what God promises is to be given to those who obey the Law, then faith means nothing and God's promise is worthless. ¹⁵The Law brings down God's anger; but where there is no law, there is no disobeying of the law.

¹⁶And so the promise was based on faith, in order that the promise should be guaranteed as God's free gift to all of Abraham's descendants--not just to those who obey the Law, but also to those who believe as Abraham did. For Abraham is the spiritual father of us all; ¹⁷as the scripture says, "I have made you father of many nations." So the promise is good in the sight of God, in whom Abraham believed--the God who brings the dead to life and whose command brings into being what did not exist. ¹⁸Abraham believed and hoped, even when there was no reason for hoping, and so became "the father of many nations." Just as the scripture says, "Your descendants will be as many as the stars." ¹⁹He was then almost one hundred years old; but his faith did not weaken when he thought of his body, which was already practically dead, or of the fact that Sarah could not have children. ²⁰His faith did not leave him, and he did not doubt God's promise; his faith filled him with power, and he gave praise to God. ²¹He was absolutely sure that God would be able to do what he had promised. ²²That is why Abraham, through faith, "was accepted as righteous by God." ²³The words "he was accepted as righteous" were not written for him alone. ²⁴They were written also for us who are to be accepted as righteous, who believe in him who raised Jesus our Lord from death. ²⁵Because of our sins he was given over to die, and he was raised to life in order to put us right with God.

War against the Philistines

1 Samuel 13 ²Saul picked three thousand men, keeping two thousand of them with him in Michmash and in the hill country of Bethel and sending one thousand with his son Jonathan to Gibeah, in the territory of the tribe of Benjamin. The rest of the men Saul sent home.

³Jonathan killed the Philistine commander in Geba, and all the Philistines heard about it. Then Saul sent messengers to call the Hebrews to war by blowing a trumpet throughout the whole country. ⁴All the Israelites were told that Saul had killed the Philistine commander and that the Philistines hated them. So the people answered the call to join Saul at Gilgal.

⁵The Philistines assembled to fight the Israelites; they had thirty thousand war chariots, six thousand cavalry troops, and as many soldiers as there are grains of sand on the seashore. They went to Michmash, east of Bethaven, and camped there. ⁶Then they launched a strong attack against the Israelites, putting them in a desperate situation. Some of the Israelites hid in caves and holes or among the rocks or in pits and wells; ⁷others crossed the Jordan River into the territories of Gad and Gilead.

Saul was still at Gilgal, and the people with him were trembling with fear. ⁸He waited seven days for Samuel, as Samuel had instructed him to do, but Samuel still had not come to Gilgal. The people began to desert Saul, ⁹so he said to them, "Bring me the burnt sacrifices and the fellowship sacrifices." He offered a burnt sacrifice, ¹⁰and just as he was finishing, Samuel arrived. Saul went out to meet him and welcome him, ¹¹but Samuel said, "What have you done?"

Saul answered, "The people were deserting me, and you had not come when you said you would; besides that, the Philistines are gathering at Michmash. ¹²So I thought, 'The Philistines are going to attack me here in Gilgal, and I have not tried to win the LORD's favor.' So I felt I had to offer a sacrifice."

¹³"That was a foolish thing to do," Samuel answered. "You have not obeyed the command the LORD your God gave you. If you had obeyed, he would have let you and your descendants rule over Israel forever. ¹⁴But now your rule will not continue. Because you have disobeyed him, the LORD will find the kind of man he wants and make him ruler of his people."

¹⁵Samuel left Gilgal and went on his way. The rest of the people followed Saul as he went to join his soldiers. They went from Gilgal to Gibeah in the territory of Benjamin. Saul inspected his troops, about six hundred men. ¹⁶Saul, his son Jonathan, and their men camped in Geba in the territory of Benjamin; the Philistine camp was at Michmash. ¹⁷The Philistine soldiers went out on raids from their camp in three groups: one group went toward Ophrah in the territory of Shual, ¹⁸another went toward Beth Horon, and the other one went to the border overlooking Zeboim Valley and the wilderness.

¹⁹There were no blacksmiths in Israel because the Philistines were determined to keep the Hebrews from making swords and spears. ( ²⁰The Israelites had to go to the Philistines to get their plows, hoes, axes, and sickles sharpened; ²¹the charge was one small coin for sharpening axes and for fixing goads, and two coins for sharpening plows or hoes.) ²²And so on the day of battle none of the Israelite soldiers except Saul and his son Jonathan had swords or spears.

²³The Philistines sent a group of soldiers to defend Michmash Pass.

A Prayer for God to Punish the Wicked

Psalm 58 Do you rulers ever give a just decision?

Do you judge everyone fairly?

²No! You think only of the evil you can do,

and commit crimes of violence in the land.

³Evildoers go wrong all their lives;

they tell lies from the day they are born.

⁴They are full of poison like snakes;

they stop up their ears like a deaf cobra,

⁵which does not hear the voice of the snake charmer,

or the chant of the clever magician.

⁶Break the teeth of these fierce lions, O God.

⁷May they disappear like water draining away;

may they be crushed like weeds on a path.

⁸May they be like snails that dissolve into slime;

may they be like a baby born dead that never sees the light.

⁹Before they know it, they are cut down like weeds;

in his fierce anger God will blow them away

while they are still living.

¹⁰The righteous will be glad when they see sinners punished;

they will wade through the blood of the wicked.

¹¹People will say, "The righteous are indeed rewarded;

there is indeed a God who judges the world."

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.