Daily Bible CEV November 23 Scroll

2 PETER

2 Peter 1 From Simon Peter, a servant and an apostle of Jesus Christ.

To everyone who shares with us in the privilege of believing that our God and Savior Jesus Christ will do what is just and fair.

²I pray that God will be kind to you and will let you live in perfect peace! May you keep learning more and more about God and our Lord Jesus.

Living as the Lord's Followers

³We have everything we need to live a life that pleases God. It was all given to us by God's own power, when we learned that he had invited us to share in his wonderful goodness. ⁴God made great and marvelous promises, so that his nature would become part of us. Then we could escape our evil desires and the corrupt influences of this world.

⁵Do your best to improve your faith. You can do this by adding goodness, understanding, ⁶self-control, patience, devotion to God, ⁷concern for others, and love. ⁸If you keep growing in this way, it will show that what you know about our Lord Jesus Christ has made your lives useful and meaningful. ⁹But if you don't grow, you are like someone who is nearsighted or blind, and you have forgotten that your past sins are forgiven.

¹⁰My friends, you must do all you can to show that God has really chosen and selected you. If you keep on doing this, you won't stumble and fall. ¹¹Then our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ will give you a glorious welcome into his kingdom that will last forever.

¹²You are holding firmly to the truth that you were given. But I am still going to remind you of these things. ¹³In fact, I think I should keep on reminding you until I leave this body. ¹⁴And our Lord Jesus Christ has already told me that I will soon leave it behind. ¹⁵That is why I am doing my best to make sure that each of you remembers all of this after I am gone.

The Message about the Glory of Christ

¹⁶When we told you about the power and the return of our Lord Jesus Christ, we were not telling clever stories that someone had made up. But with our own eyes we saw his true greatness. ¹⁷God, our great and wonderful Father, truly honored him by saying, "This is my own dear Son, and I am pleased with him." ¹⁸We were there with Jesus on the holy mountain and heard this voice speak from heaven.

¹⁹All of this makes us even more certain that what the prophets said is true. So you should pay close attention to their message, as you would to a lamp shining in some dark place. You must keep on paying attention until daylight comes and the morning star rises in your hearts. ²⁰But you need to realize that no one alone can understand any of the prophecies in the Scriptures. ²¹The prophets did not think these things up on their own, but they were guided by the Spirit of God.

Jeremiah 41 But in the seventh month, Ishmael came to Mizpah with ten of his soldiers. He had been one of the king's officials and was a member of the royal family. Ishmael and his men were invited to eat with Gedaliah. ²During the meal, Ishmael and his soldiers killed Gedaliah, the man chosen as ruler of Judah by the king of Babylonia. ³Then they killed the Jews who were with Gedaliah, and they also killed the Babylonian soldiers who were there.

⁴The next day, the murders had still not been discovered, ⁵when eighty men came down the road toward Mizpah from the towns of Shechem, Shiloh, and Samaria. They were on their way to the temple to offer gifts of grain and incense to the LORD. They had shaved off their beards, torn their clothes, and cut themselves, because they were mourning.

⁶Ishmael went out the town gate to meet them. He pretended to be weeping, and he asked them to come into Mizpah to meet with Gedaliah, the ruler of Judah. ⁷But after they were inside the town, Ishmael had his soldiers kill them and throw their bodies into a well. ⁸He let ten of the men live, because they offered to give him supplies of wheat, barley, olive oil, and honey they had hidden in a field. ⁹The well that he filled with bodies had been dug by King Asa of Judah to store rainwater, because he was afraid that King Baasha of Israel might surround Mizpah and keep the people from getting to their water supply.

¹⁰Nebuzaradan, King Nebuchadnezzar's officer in charge of the guard, had left King Zedekiah's daughters and many other people at Mizpah, and he had put Gedaliah in charge of them. But now Ishmael took them all prisoner and led them toward Ammon, on the other side of the Jordan River.

¹¹Johanan and the other army officers heard what Ishmael had done. ¹²So they and their troops chased Ishmael and caught up with him at the large pit at Gibeon. ¹³When Ishmael's prisoners saw Johanan and the officers, they were happy ¹⁴and turned around and ran toward Johanan. ¹⁵But Ishmael and eight of his men escaped and went to Ammon.

Johanan Decides To Take the People to Egypt

¹⁶Johanan and the officers had rescued the women, children, and royal officials that Ishmael had taken prisoner after killing Gedaliah. Johanan led the people from Gibeon ^17-18toward Egypt. They wanted to go there, because they were afraid of what the Babylonians would do when they found out that Ishmael had killed Gedaliah, the ruler appointed by King Nebuchadnezzar.

The People Ask Jeremiah To Pray for Them

On the way to Egypt, we stopped at the town of Geruth Chimham near Bethlehem.
Jeremiah 42 ¹Johanan, Jezaniah, the other army officers, and everyone else in the group, came to me ²and said, "Please pray to the LORD your God for us. Judah used to have many people, but as you can see, only a few of us are left. ³Ask the LORD to tell us where he wants us to go and what he wants us to do."

⁴"All right," I answered, "I will pray to the LORD your God, and I will tell you everything he says."

⁵They answered, "The LORD himself will be our witness that we promise to do whatever he says, ⁶even if it isn't what we want to do. We will obey the LORD so that all will go well for us."

⁷Ten days later, the LORD gave me an answer for ⁸Johanan, the officers, and the other people. So I called them together ⁹and told them that the LORD God of Israel had said:

You asked Jeremiah to pray and find out what you should do. ¹⁰I am sorry that I had to punish you, and so I now tell you to stay here in Judah, where I will plant you and build you up, instead of tearing you down and uprooting you. ¹¹Don't be afraid of the King of Babylonia. I will protect you from him, ¹²and I will even force him to have mercy on you and give back your farms.

¹³But you might keep on saying, "We won't stay here in Judah, and we won't obey the LORD our God. ¹⁴We are going to Egypt, where there is plenty of food and no danger of war."

¹⁵People of Judah, you survived when the Babylonian army attacked. Now you are planning to move to Egypt, and if you do go, this is what will happen. ^16-17You are afraid of war, starvation, and disease here in Judah, but they will follow you to Egypt and kill you there. None of you will survive the disasters I will send.

¹⁸I, the LORD, was angry with the people of Jerusalem and punished them. And if you go to Egypt, I will be angry and punish you the same way. You will never again see your homeland. People will be horrified at what I do to you, and they will use the name of your city as a curse word.

Jeremiah Gives a Warning

¹⁹I told the people:

You escaped the disaster that struck Judah, but now the LORD warns you to stay away from Egypt. ²⁰You asked me to pray and find out what the LORD our God wants you to do, and you promised to obey him. But that was a terrible mistake, ²¹because now that I have given you the LORD's answer, you refuse to obey him. ²²And so, you will die in Egypt from war, hunger, and disease.

Psalm 139
[A psalm by David for the music leader.]
The LORD Is Always Near

¹You have looked deep into my heart, LORD,

and you know all about me.

²You know when I am resting or when I am working,

and from heaven you discover my thoughts.

³You notice everything I do and everywhere I go.

⁴Before I even speak a word,

you know what I will say,

⁵and with your powerful arm

you protect me from every side.

⁶I can't understand all of this!

Such wonderful knowledge is far above me.

⁷Where could I go to escape

from your Spirit or from your sight?

⁸If I were to climb up to the highest heavens,

you would be there.

If I were to dig down to the world of the dead

you would also be there.

⁹Suppose I had wings like the dawning day

and flew across the ocean.

¹⁰Even then your powerful arm

would guide and protect me.

¹¹Or suppose I said, "I'll hide in the dark

until night comes to cover me over."

¹²But you see in the dark

because daylight and dark are all the same to you.

¹³You are the one who put me together

inside my mother's body,

¹⁴and I praise you

because of the wonderful way you created me.

Everything you do is marvelous!

Of this I have no doubt.

¹⁵Nothing about me is hidden from you!

I was secretly woven together

deep in the earth below,

¹⁶but with your own eyes

you saw my body being formed.

Even before I was born, you had written in your book

everything I would do.

¹⁷Your thoughts are far beyond my understanding,

much more than I could ever imagine.

¹⁸I try to count your thoughts,

but they outnumber the grains of sand on the beach.

And when I awake, I will find you nearby.

¹⁹How I wish that you would kill

all cruel and heartless people and protect me from them!

²⁰They are always rebelling and speaking evil of you.

²¹You know I hate anyone who hates you, LORD,

and refuses to obey.

²²They are my enemies too, and I truly hate them.

²³Look deep into my heart, God,

and find out everything I am thinking.

²⁴Don't let me follow evil ways,

but lead me in the way that time has proven true.

These daily Bible readings from the Contemporary English Version (CEV) are published by BibleNetUSA. The web site and BibleCard® designs are by iCreative. BibleCard® images copyright iCreative. All rights reserved.