Daily Bible GNT November 07 Scroll

The Last Days

2 Timothy 3 Remember that there will be difficult times in the last days. ²People will be selfish, greedy, boastful, and conceited; they will be insulting, disobedient to their parents, ungrateful, and irreligious; ³they will be unkind, merciless, slanderers, violent, and fierce; they will hate the good; ⁴they will be treacherous, reckless, and swollen with pride; they will love pleasure rather than God; ⁵they will hold to the outward form of our religion, but reject its real power. Keep away from such people. ⁶Some of them go into people's houses and gain control over weak women who are burdened by the guilt of their sins and driven by all kinds of desires, ⁷women who are always trying to learn but who can never come to know the truth. ⁸As Jannes and Jambres were opposed to Moses, so also these people are opposed to the truth--people whose minds do not function and who are failures in the faith. ⁹But they will not get very far, because everyone will see how stupid they are. That is just what happened to Jannes and Jambres.

Last Instructions

¹⁰But you have followed my teaching, my conduct, and my purpose in life; you have observed my faith, my patience, my love, my endurance, ¹¹my persecutions, and my sufferings. You know all that happened to me in Antioch, Iconium, and Lystra, the terrible persecutions I endured! But the Lord rescued me from them all. ¹²Everyone who wants to live a godly life in union with Christ Jesus will be persecuted; ¹³and evil persons and impostors will keep on going from bad to worse, deceiving others and being deceived themselves. ¹⁴But as for you, continue in the truths that you were taught and firmly believe. You know who your teachers were, ¹⁵and you remember that ever since you were a child, you have known the Holy Scriptures, which are able to give you the wisdom that leads to salvation through faith in Christ Jesus. ¹⁶All Scripture is inspired by God and is useful for teaching the truth, rebuking error, correcting faults, and giving instruction for right living, ¹⁷so that the person who serves God may be fully qualified and equipped to do every kind of good deed.

Jeremiah 9 I wish my head were a well of water,

and my eyes a fountain of tears,

so that I could cry day and night

for my people who have been killed.

²I wish I had a place to stay in the desert

where I could get away from my people.

They are all unfaithful,

a mob of traitors.

³They are always ready to tell lies;

dishonesty instead of truth rules the land.

The LORD says,

"My people do one evil thing after another

and do not acknowledge me as their God."

⁴Everyone must be on guard against their friends,

and no one can trust their relatives;

for all relatives are as deceitful as Jacob,

and everyone slanders their friends.

^5-6They all mislead their friends,

and no one tells the truth;

they have taught their tongues to lie

and will not give up their sinning.

They do one violent thing after another,

and one deceitful act follows another.

The LORD says that his people reject him.

⁷Because of this the LORD Almighty says,

"I will refine my people like metal

and put them to the test.

My people have done evil--

what else can I do with them?

⁸Their tongues are like deadly arrows;

they always tell lies.

Everyone speaks friendly words to their neighbors,

but they are really setting a trap for them.

⁹Will I not punish them for these things?

Will I not take revenge on a nation like this?

I, the LORD, have spoken."

¹⁰I said, "I will mourn for the mountains

and weep for the pastures,

because they have dried up,

and no one travels through them.

The sound of livestock is no longer heard;

birds and wild animals have fled and gone."

¹¹The LORD says, "I will make Jerusalem a pile of ruins,

a place where jackals live;

the cities of Judah will become a desert,

a place where no one lives."

¹²I asked, "LORD, why is the land devastated and dry as a desert, so that no one travels through it? Who is wise enough to understand this? To whom have you explained it so that they can tell others?"

¹³The LORD answered, "This has happened because my people have abandoned the teaching that I gave them. They have not obeyed me or done what I told them. ¹⁴Instead, they have been stubborn and have worshiped the idols of Baal as their ancestors taught them to do. ¹⁵So then, listen to what I, the LORD Almighty, the God of Israel, will do: I will give my people bitter plants to eat and poison to drink. ¹⁶I will scatter them among nations that neither they nor their ancestors have heard about, and I will send armies against them until I have completely destroyed them."

The People of Jerusalem Cry Out for Help

¹⁷The LORD Almighty said,

"Think about what is happening!

Call for the mourners to come,

for the women who sing funeral songs."

¹⁸The people said,

"Tell them to hurry and sing a funeral song for us,

until our eyes fill with tears,

and our eyelids are wet from crying."

¹⁹Listen to the sound of crying in Zion:

"We are ruined!

We are completely disgraced!

We must leave our land;

our homes have been torn down."

²⁰I said,

"Listen to the LORD, you women,

and pay attention to his words.

Teach your daughters how to mourn,

and your friends how to sing a funeral song.

²¹Death has come in through our windows

and entered our palaces;

it has cut down the children in the streets

and the young men in the marketplaces.

²²Dead bodies are scattered everywhere,

like piles of manure on the fields,

like grain cut and left behind by the reapers,

grain that no one gathers.

This is what the LORD has told me to say."

²³The LORD says,

"The wise should not boast of their wisdom,

nor the strong of their strength,

nor the rich of their wealth.

²⁴If any want to boast,

they should boast that they know and understand me,

because my love is constant,

and I do what is just and right.

These are the things that please me.

I, the LORD, have spoken."

^25-26The LORD says, "The time is coming when I will punish the people of Egypt, Judah, Edom, Ammon, Moab, and the desert people, who have their hair cut short. All these people are circumcised, but have not kept the covenant it symbolizes. None of these people and none of the people of Israel have kept my covenant."

Idolatry and True Worship

Jeremiah 10 People of Israel, listen to the message that the LORD has for you. ²He says,

"Do not follow the ways of other nations;

do not be disturbed by unusual sights in the sky,

even though other nations are terrified.

³The religion of these people is worthless.

A tree is cut down in the forest;

it is carved by the tools of the woodworker

⁴

and decorated with silver and gold.

It is fastened down with nails

to keep it from falling over.

⁵Such idols are like scarecrows in a field of melons;

they cannot speak;

they have to be carried

because they cannot walk.

Do not be afraid of them:

they can cause you no harm,

and they can do you no good."

⁶LORD, there is no one like you;

you are mighty,

and your name is great and powerful.

⁷Who would not honor you, the king of all nations?

You deserve to be honored.

There is no one like you

among all the wise men of the nations

or among any of their kings.

⁸All of them are stupid and foolish.

What can they learn from wooden idols?

⁹Their idols are covered with silver from Spain

and with gold from Uphaz,

all the work of artists;

they are dressed in violet and purple cloth

woven by skilled weavers.

¹⁰But you, LORD, are the true God,

you are the living God

and the eternal king.

When you are angry, the world trembles;

the nations cannot endure your anger.

( ¹¹ You people must tell them that the gods who did not make the earth and the sky will be destroyed. They will no longer exist anywhere on earth.)

A Hymn of Praise to God

¹²The LORD made the earth by his power;

by his wisdom he created the world

and stretched out the heavens.

¹³At his command the waters above the sky roar;

he brings clouds from the ends of the earth.

He makes lightning flash in the rain

and sends the wind from his storeroom.

¹⁴At the sight of this, people feel stupid and senseless;

those who make idols are disillusioned,

because the gods they make are false and lifeless.

¹⁵They are worthless and should be despised;

they will be destroyed when the LORD comes to deal with them.

¹⁶The God of Jacob is not like them;

he is the one who made everything,

and he has chosen Israel to be his very own people.

The LORD Almighty is his name.

The Coming Exile

¹⁷People of Jerusalem, you are under siege! Gather up your belongings. ¹⁸The LORD is going to throw you out of this land; he is going to crush you until not one of you is left. The LORD has spoken.

¹⁹The people of Jerusalem cried out,

"How badly we are hurt!

Our wounds will not heal.

And we thought this was something we could endure!

²⁰Our tents are ruined;

the ropes that held them have broken.

Our children have all gone away;

there is no one left to put up our tents again;

there is no one to hang their curtains."

²¹I answered, "Our leaders are stupid;

they do not ask the LORD for guidance.

This is why they have failed,

and our people have been scattered.

²²Listen! News has come!

There is a great commotion in a nation to the north;

its army will turn the cities of Judah into a desert,

a place where jackals live."

²³LORD, I know that none of us are in charge of our own destiny;

none of us have control over our own life.

²⁴Correct your people, LORD,

but do not be too hard on us

or punish us when you are angry;

that would be the end of us.

²⁵Turn your anger on the nations that do not worship you

and on the people who reject you.

They have killed your people;

they have destroyed us completely

and left our country in ruins.

A Prayer for Mercy

Psalm 123 LORD, I look up to you,

up to heaven, where you rule.

²As a servant depends on his master,

as a maid depends on her mistress,

so we will keep looking to you, O LORD our God,

until you have mercy on us.

³Be merciful to us, LORD, be merciful;

we have been treated with so much contempt.

⁴We have been mocked too long by the rich

and scorned by proud oppressors.

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.