Daily Bible GNT July 31 Scroll

The Resurrection Body

1 Corinthians 15 ³⁵Someone will ask, "How can the dead be raised to life? What kind of body will they have?" ³⁶You fool! When you plant a seed in the ground, it does not sprout to life unless it dies. ³⁷And what you plant is a bare seed, perhaps a grain of wheat or some other grain, not the full-bodied plant that will later grow up. ³⁸God provides that seed with the body he wishes; he gives each seed its own proper body.

³⁹And the flesh of living beings is not all the same kind of flesh; human beings have one kind of flesh, animals another, birds another, and fish another.

⁴⁰And there are heavenly bodies and earthly bodies; the beauty that belongs to heavenly bodies is different from the beauty that belongs to earthly bodies. ⁴¹The sun has its own beauty, the moon another beauty, and the stars a different beauty; and even among stars there are different kinds of beauty.

⁴²This is how it will be when the dead are raised to life. When the body is buried, it is mortal; when raised, it will be immortal. ⁴³When buried, it is ugly and weak; when raised, it will be beautiful and strong. ⁴⁴When buried, it is a physical body; when raised, it will be a spiritual body. There is, of course, a physical body, so there has to be a spiritual body. ⁴⁵For the scripture says, "The first man, Adam, was created a living being"; but the last Adam is the life-giving Spirit. ⁴⁶It is not the spiritual that comes first, but the physical, and then the spiritual. ⁴⁷The first Adam, made of earth, came from the earth; the second Adam came from heaven. ⁴⁸Those who belong to the earth are like the one who was made of earth; those who are of heaven are like the one who came from heaven. ⁴⁹Just as we wear the likeness of the man made of earth, so we will wear the likeness of the Man from heaven.

⁵⁰What I mean, friends, is that what is made of flesh and blood cannot share in God's Kingdom, and what is mortal cannot possess immortality.

^51-52Listen to this secret truth: we shall not all die, but when the last trumpet sounds, we shall all be changed in an instant, as quickly as the blinking of an eye. For when the trumpet sounds, the dead will be raised, never to die again, and we shall all be changed. ⁵³For what is mortal must be changed into what is immortal; what will die must be changed into what cannot die. ⁵⁴So when this takes place, and the mortal has been changed into the immortal, then the scripture will come true: "Death is destroyed; victory is complete!"

⁵⁵"Where, Death, is your victory?

Where, Death, is your power to hurt?"
⁵⁶Death gets its power to hurt from sin, and sin gets its power from the Law. ⁵⁷But thanks be to God who gives us the victory through our Lord Jesus Christ!

⁵⁸So then, my dear friends, stand firm and steady. Keep busy always in your work for the Lord, since you know that nothing you do in the Lord's service is ever useless.

Queen Athaliah of Judah
(2 Chronicles 22.10 --23.15)

2 Kings 11 As soon as King Ahaziah's mother Athaliah learned of her son's murder, she gave orders for all the members of the royal family to be killed. ²Only Ahaziah's son Joash escaped. He was about to be killed with the others, but was rescued by his aunt Jehosheba, who was King Jehoram's daughter and Ahaziah's half sister. She took him and his nurse into a bedroom in the Temple and hid him from Athaliah, so that he was not killed. ³For six years Jehosheba took care of the boy and kept him hidden in the Temple, while Athaliah ruled as queen.
⁴But in the seventh year Jehoiada the priest sent for the officers in charge of the royal bodyguard and of the palace guards, and told them to come to the Temple, where he made them agree under oath to what he planned to do. He showed them King Ahaziah's son Joash ⁵and gave them the following orders: "When you come on duty on the Sabbath, one third of you are to guard the palace; ⁶another third are to stand guard at the Sur Gate, and the other third are to stand guard at the gate behind the other guards. ⁷The two groups that go off duty on the Sabbath are to stand guard at the Temple to protect the king. ⁸You are to guard King Joash with drawn swords and stay with him wherever he goes. Anyone who comes near you is to be killed."
⁹The officers obeyed Jehoiada's instructions and brought their men to him--those going off duty on the Sabbath and those going on duty. ¹⁰He gave the officers the spears and shields that had belonged to King David and had been kept in the Temple, ¹¹and he stationed the men with drawn swords all around the front of the Temple, to protect the king. ¹²Then Jehoiada led Joash out, placed the crown on his head, and gave him a copy of the laws governing kingship. Then Joash was anointed and proclaimed king. The people clapped their hands and shouted, "Long live the king!"
¹³Queen Athaliah heard the noise being made by the guards and the people, so she hurried to the Temple, where the crowd had gathered. ¹⁴There she saw the new king standing by the column at the entrance of the Temple, as was the custom. He was surrounded by the officers and the trumpeters, and the people were all shouting joyfully and blowing trumpets. Athaliah tore her clothes in distress and shouted, "Treason! Treason!"
¹⁵Jehoiada did not want Athaliah killed in the Temple area, so he ordered the army officers: "Take her out between the rows of guards, and kill anyone who tries to rescue her." ¹⁶They seized her, took her to the palace, and there at the Horse Gate they killed her.

Jehoiada's Reforms
(2 Chronicles 23.16 -21)

¹⁷The priest Jehoiada had King Joash and the people make a covenant with the LORD that they would be the LORD's people; he also made a covenant between the king and the people. ¹⁸Then the people went to the temple of Baal and tore it down; they smashed the altars and the idols, and killed Mattan, the priest of Baal, in front of the altars.
Jehoiada put guards on duty at the Temple, ¹⁹and then he, the officers, the royal bodyguard, and the palace guards escorted the king from the Temple to the palace, followed by all the people. Joash entered by the Guard Gate and took his place on the throne. ²⁰All the people were filled with happiness, and the city was quiet, now that Athaliah had been killed in the palace.
²¹Joash became king of Judah at the age of seven.

The Fate of Those Who Oppress the Poor

Micah 2 How terrible it will be for those who lie awake and plan evil! When morning comes, as soon as they have the chance, they do the evil they planned. ²When they want fields, they seize them; when they want houses, they take them. No one's family or property is safe.

³And so the LORD says, "I am planning to bring disaster on you, and you will not be able to escape it. You are going to find yourselves in trouble, and then you will not walk so proudly any more. ⁴When that time comes, people will use the story about you as an example of disaster, and they will sing this song of despair about your experience:

We are completely ruined!

The LORD has taken our land away

And given it to those who took us captive."

⁵So then, when the time comes for the land to be given back to the LORD's people, there will be no share for any of you.

⁶The people preach at me and say, "Don't preach at us. Don't preach about all that. God is not going to disgrace us. ⁷Do you think the people of Israel are under a curse? Has the LORD lost his patience? Would he really do such things? Doesn't he speak kindly to those who do right?"

⁸The LORD replies, "You attack my people like enemies. Men return from battle, thinking they are safe at home, but there you are, waiting to steal the coats off their backs. ⁹You drive the women of my people out of the homes they love, and you have robbed their children of my blessings forever. ¹⁰Get up and go; there is no safety here any more. Your sins have doomed this place to destruction.

¹¹"These people want the kind of prophet who goes around full of lies and deceit and says, 'I prophesy that wine and liquor will flow for you.'

¹²"But I will gather you together, all you people of Israel that are left. I will bring you together like sheep returning to the fold. Like a pasture full of sheep, your land will once again be filled with many people."

¹³God will open the way for them and lead them out of exile. They will break out of the city gates and go free. Their king, the LORD himself, will lead them out.

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.