Daily Bible GNT February 07 Scroll

Jesus Is Greater than Moses

Hebrews 3 My Christian friends, who also have been called by God! Think of Jesus, whom God sent to be the High Priest of the faith we profess. ²He was faithful to God, who chose him to do this work, just as Moses was faithful in his work in God's house. ³A man who builds a house receives more honor than the house itself. In the same way Jesus is worthy of much greater honor than Moses. ⁴Every house, of course, is built by someone--and God is the one who has built all things. ⁵Moses was faithful in God's house as a servant, and he spoke of the things that God would say in the future. ⁶But Christ is faithful as the Son in charge of God's house. We are his house if we keep up our courage and our confidence in what we hope for.

A Rest for God's People

⁷So then, as the Holy Spirit says,

"If you hear God's voice today,

⁸

do not be stubborn, as your ancestors were when they rebelled against God,

as they were that day in the desert when they put him to the test.

⁹There they put me to the test and tried me, says God,

although they had seen what I did for forty years.

¹⁰And so I was angry with those people and said,

'They are always disloyal

and refuse to obey my commands.'

¹¹I was angry and made a solemn promise:

'They will never enter the land where I would have given them rest!'"

¹²My friends, be careful that none of you have a heart so evil and unbelieving that you will turn away from the living God. ¹³Instead, in order that none of you be deceived by sin and become stubborn, you must help one another every day, as long as the word "Today" in the scripture applies to us. ¹⁴For we are all partners with Christ if we hold firmly to the end the confidence we had at the beginning.

¹⁵This is what the scripture says:

"If you hear God's voice today,

do not be stubborn, as your ancestors were

when they rebelled against God."

¹⁶Who were the people who heard God's voice and rebelled against him? All those who were led out of Egypt by Moses. ¹⁷With whom was God angry for forty years? With the people who sinned, who fell down dead in the desert. ¹⁸When God made his solemn promise, "They will never enter the land where I would have given them rest"--of whom was he speaking? Of those who rebelled. ¹⁹We see, then, that they were not able to enter the land, because they did not believe.
Hebrews 4 Now, God has offered us the promise that we may receive that rest he spoke about. Let us take care, then, that none of you will be found to have failed to receive that promised rest. ²For we have heard the Good News, just as they did. They heard the message, but it did them no good, because when they heard it, they did not accept it with faith. ³We who believe, then, do receive that rest which God promised. It is just as he said,

"I was angry and made a solemn promise:

'They will never enter the land where I would have given them rest!'"
He said this even though his work had been finished from the time he created the world. ⁴For somewhere in the Scriptures this is said about the seventh day: "God rested on the seventh day from all his work." ⁵This same matter is spoken of again: "They will never enter that land where I would have given them rest." ⁶Those who first heard the Good News did not receive that rest, because they did not believe. There are, then, others who are allowed to receive it. ⁷This is shown by the fact that God sets another day, which is called "Today." Many years later he spoke of it through David in the scripture already quoted:

"If you hear God's voice today,

do not be stubborn."

⁸If Joshua had given the people the rest that God had promised, God would not have spoken later about another day. ⁹As it is, however, there still remains for God's people a rest like God's resting on the seventh day. ¹⁰For those who receive that rest which God promised will rest from their own work, just as God rested from his. ¹¹Let us, then, do our best to receive that rest, so that no one of us will fail as they did because of their lack of faith.

¹²The word of God is alive and active, sharper than any double-edged sword. It cuts all the way through, to where soul and spirit meet, to where joints and marrow come together. It judges the desires and thoughts of the heart. ¹³There is nothing that can be hid from God; everything in all creation is exposed and lies open before his eyes. And it is to him that we must all give an account of ourselves.

Jacob Blesses Ephraim and Manasseh

Genesis 48 Some time later Joseph was told that his father was ill. So he took his two sons, Manasseh and Ephraim, and went to see Jacob. ²When Jacob was told that his son Joseph had come to see him, he gathered his strength and sat up in bed. ³Jacob said to Joseph, "Almighty God appeared to me at Luz in the land of Canaan and blessed me. ⁴He said to me, 'I will give you many children, so that your descendants will become many nations; I will give this land to your descendants as their possession forever.'"

⁵Jacob continued, "Joseph, your two sons, who were born to you in Egypt before I came here, belong to me; Ephraim and Manasseh are just as much my sons as Reuben and Simeon. ⁶If you have any more sons, they will not be considered mine; the inheritance they get will come through Ephraim and Manasseh. ⁷I am doing this because of your mother Rachel. To my great sorrow she died in the land of Canaan, not far from Ephrath, as I was returning from Mesopotamia. I buried her there beside the road to Ephrath." (Ephrath is now known as Bethlehem.)

⁸When Jacob saw Joseph's sons, he asked, "Who are these boys?"

⁹Joseph answered, "These are my sons, whom God has given me here in Egypt."

Jacob said, "Bring them to me so that I may bless them." ¹⁰Jacob's eyesight was failing because of his age, and he could not see very well. Joseph brought the boys to him, and he hugged them and kissed them. ¹¹Jacob said to Joseph, "I never expected to see you again, and now God has even let me see your children." ¹²Then Joseph took them from Jacob's lap and bowed down before him with his face to the ground.

¹³Joseph put Ephraim at Jacob's left and Manasseh at his right. ¹⁴But Jacob crossed his hands, and put his right hand on the head of Ephraim, even though he was the younger, and his left hand on the head of Manasseh, who was the older. ¹⁵Then he blessed Joseph:

"May God, whom my fathers Abraham and Isaac served, bless these boys!

May God, who has led me to this very day, bless them!

¹⁶May the angel, who has rescued me from all harm, bless them!

May my name and the name of my fathers Abraham and Isaac live on through these boys!

May they have many children, many descendants!"

¹⁷Joseph was upset when he saw that his father had put his right hand on Ephraim's head; so he took his father's hand to move it from Ephraim's head to the head of Manasseh. ¹⁸He said to his father, "Not that way, father. This is the older boy; put your right hand on his head."

¹⁹His father refused, saying, "I know, son, I know. Manasseh's descendants will also become a great people. But his younger brother will be greater than he, and his descendants will become great nations."

²⁰So he blessed them that day, saying, "The Israelites will use your names when they pronounce blessings. They will say, 'May God make you like Ephraim and Manasseh.'" In this way Jacob put Ephraim before Manasseh.

²¹Then Jacob said to Joseph, "As you see, I am about to die, but God will be with you and will take you back to the land of your ancestors. ²²It is to you and not to your brothers that I am giving Shechem, that fertile region which I took from the Amorites with my sword and my bow."

The Prayer of a Sufferer

Psalm 38 O LORD, don't punish me in your anger!

²You have wounded me with your arrows;

you have struck me down.

³Because of your anger, I am in great pain;

my whole body is diseased because of my sins.

⁴I am drowning in the flood of my sins;

they are a burden too heavy to bear.

⁵Because I have been foolish,

my sores stink and rot.

⁶I am bent over, I am crushed;

I mourn all day long.

⁷I am burning with fever

and I am near death.

⁸I am worn out and utterly crushed;

my heart is troubled, and I groan with pain.

⁹O Lord, you know what I long for;

you hear all my groans.

¹⁰My heart is pounding, my strength is gone,

and my eyes have lost their brightness.

¹¹My friends and neighbors will not come near me,

because of my sores;

even my family keeps away from me.

¹²Those who want to kill me lay traps for me,

and those who want to hurt me threaten to ruin me;

they never stop plotting against me.

¹³I am like the deaf and cannot hear,

like the dumb and cannot speak.

¹⁴I am like those who do not answer,

because they cannot hear.

¹⁵But I trust in you, O LORD;

and you, O Lord my God, will answer me.

¹⁶Don't let my enemies gloat over my distress;

don't let them boast about my downfall!

¹⁷I am about to fall

and am in constant pain.

¹⁸I confess my sins;

they fill me with anxiety.

¹⁹My enemies are healthy and strong;

there are many who hate me for no reason.

²⁰Those who pay back evil for good

are against me because I try to do right.

²¹Do not abandon me, O LORD;

do not stay away, my God!

²²Help me now, O Lord my savior!

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.