Daily Bible GNT January 10 Scroll

Jesus Sends Out the Seventy-Two

Luke 10 After this the Lord chose another seventy-two men and sent them out two by two, to go ahead of him to every town and place where he himself was about to go. ²He said to them, "There is a large harvest, but few workers to gather it in. Pray to the owner of the harvest that he will send out workers to gather in his harvest. ³Go! I am sending you like lambs among wolves. ⁴Don't take a purse or a beggar's bag or shoes; don't stop to greet anyone on the road. ⁵Whenever you go into a house, first say, 'Peace be with this house.' ⁶If someone who is peace-loving lives there, let your greeting of peace remain on that person; if not, take back your greeting of peace. ⁷Stay in that same house, eating and drinking whatever they offer you, for workers should be given their pay. Don't move around from one house to another. ⁸Whenever you go into a town and are made welcome, eat what is set before you, ⁹heal the sick in that town, and say to the people there, 'The Kingdom of God has come near you.' ¹⁰But whenever you go into a town and are not welcomed, go out in the streets and say, ¹¹'Even the dust from your town that sticks to our feet we wipe off against you. But remember that the Kingdom of God has come near you!' ¹²I assure you that on the Judgment Day God will show more mercy to Sodom than to that town!

The Unbelieving Towns
(Matthew 11.20-24)

¹³"How terrible it will be for you, Chorazin! How terrible for you too, Bethsaida! If the miracles which were performed in you had been performed in Tyre and Sidon, the people there would have long ago sat down, put on sackcloth, and sprinkled ashes on themselves, to show that they had turned from their sins! ¹⁴God will show more mercy on the Judgment Day to Tyre and Sidon than to you. ¹⁵And as for you, Capernaum! Did you want to lift yourself up to heaven? You will be thrown down to hell!"

¹⁶Jesus said to his disciples, "Whoever listens to you listens to me; whoever rejects you rejects me; and whoever rejects me rejects the one who sent me."

The Return of the Seventy-Two

¹⁷The seventy-two men came back in great joy. "Lord," they said, "even the demons obeyed us when we gave them a command in your name!"

¹⁸Jesus answered them, "I saw Satan fall like lightning from heaven. ¹⁹Listen! I have given you authority, so that you can walk on snakes and scorpions and overcome all the power of the Enemy, and nothing will hurt you. ²⁰But don't be glad because the evil spirits obey you; rather be glad because your names are written in heaven."

Circumcision, the Sign of the Covenant

Genesis 17 When Abram was ninety-nine years old, the LORD appeared to him and said, "I am the Almighty God. Obey me and always do what is right. ²I will make my covenant with you and give you many descendants." ³Abram bowed down with his face touching the ground, and God said, ⁴"I make this covenant with you: I promise that you will be the ancestor of many nations. ⁵Your name will no longer be Abram, but Abraham, because I am making you the ancestor of many nations. ⁶I will give you many descendants, and some of them will be kings. You will have so many descendants that they will become nations.

⁷"I will keep my promise to you and to your descendants in future generations as an everlasting covenant. I will be your God and the God of your descendants. ⁸I will give to you and to your descendants this land in which you are now a foreigner. The whole land of Canaan will belong to your descendants forever, and I will be their God."

⁹God said to Abraham, "You also must agree to keep the covenant with me, both you and your descendants in future generations. ¹⁰You and your descendants must all agree to circumcise every male among you. ^11-12From now on you must circumcise every baby boy when he is eight days old, including slaves born in your homes and slaves bought from foreigners. This will show that there is a covenant between you and me. ¹³Each one must be circumcised, and this will be a physical sign to show that my covenant with you is everlasting. ¹⁴Any male who has not been circumcised will no longer be considered one of my people, because he has not kept the covenant with me."

¹⁵God said to Abraham, "You must no longer call your wife Sarai; from now on her name is Sarah. ¹⁶I will bless her, and I will give you a son by her. I will bless her, and she will become the mother of nations, and there will be kings among her descendants."

¹⁷Abraham bowed down with his face touching the ground, but he began to laugh when he thought, "Can a man have a child when he is a hundred years old? Can Sarah have a child at ninety?" ¹⁸He asked God, "Why not let Ishmael be my heir?"

¹⁹But God said, "No. Your wife Sarah will bear you a son and you will name him Isaac. I will keep my covenant with him and with his descendants forever. It is an everlasting covenant. ²⁰I have heard your request about Ishmael, so I will bless him and give him many children and many descendants. He will be the father of twelve princes, and I will make a great nation of his descendants. ²¹But I will keep my covenant with your son Isaac, who will be born to Sarah about this time next year." ²²When God finished speaking to Abraham, he left him.

²³On that same day Abraham obeyed God and circumcised his son Ishmael and all the other males in his household, including the slaves born in his home and those he had bought. ²⁴Abraham was ninety-nine years old when he was circumcised, ²⁵and his son Ishmael was thirteen. ²⁶They were both circumcised on the same day, ²⁷together with all of Abraham's slaves.

A Prayer for Justice

Psalm 10 Why are you so far away, O LORD?

Why do you hide yourself when we are in trouble?

²The wicked are proud and persecute the poor;

catch them in the traps they have made.

³The wicked are proud of their evil desires;

the greedy curse and reject the LORD.

⁴The wicked do not care about the LORD;

in their pride they think that God doesn't matter.

⁵The wicked succeed in everything.

They cannot understand God's judgments;

they sneer at their enemies.

⁶They say to themselves, "We will never fail;

we will never be in trouble."

⁷Their speech is filled with curses, lies, and threats;

they are quick to speak hateful, evil words.

⁸They hide themselves in the villages,

waiting to murder innocent people.

They spy on their helpless victims;

⁹

they wait in their hiding place like lions.

They lie in wait for the poor;

they catch them in their traps and drag them away.

¹⁰The helpless victims lie crushed;

brute strength has defeated them.

¹¹The wicked say to themselves, "God doesn't care!

He has closed his eyes and will never see me!"

¹²O LORD, punish those wicked people!

Remember those who are suffering!

¹³How can the wicked despise God

and say to themselves, "He will not punish me"?

¹⁴But you do see; you take notice of trouble and suffering

and are always ready to help.

The helpless commit themselves to you;

you have always helped the needy.

¹⁵Break the power of wicked and evil people;

punish them for the wrong they have done

until they do it no more.

¹⁶The LORD is king forever and ever.

Those who worship other gods

will vanish from his land.

¹⁷You will listen, O LORD, to the prayers of the lowly;

you will give them courage.

¹⁸You will hear the cries of the oppressed and the orphans;

you will judge in their favor,

so that mortal men may cause terror no more.

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.