JOB 8:1-11:20
1 CORINTHIANS 15:1-28
PSALM 38:1-22
PROVERBS 21:28-29
JOB 8:1-11:20
Then Bildad the Shuhite replied to Job: 2 " How long will you go on like this? Your words are a blustering wind. 3 Does God twist justice? Does the Almighty twist what is right? 4 Your children obviously sinned against him, so their punishment was well deserved. 5 But if you pray to God and seek the favor of the Almighty, 6 if you are pure and live with complete integrity, he will rise up and restore your happy home. 7 And though you started with little, you will end with much. 8 " Just ask the former generation. Pay attention to the experience of our ancestors. 9 For we were born but yesterday and know so little. Our days on earth are as transient as a shadow. 10 But those who came before us will teach you. They will teach you from the wisdom of former generations. 11 " Can papyrus reeds grow where there is no marsh? Can bulrushes flourish where there is no water? 12 While they are still flowering, not ready to be cut, they begin to wither. 13 Such is the fate of all who forget God. The hope of the godless comes to nothing. 14 Everything they count on will collapse. They are leaning on a spiderweb. 15 They cling to their home for security, but it won't last. They try to hold it fast, but it will not endure. 16 The godless seem so strong, like a lush plant growing in the sunshine, its branches spreading across the garden. 17 Its roots grow down through a pile of rocks to hold it firm. 18 But when it is uprooted, it isn't even missed! 19 That is the end of its life, and others spring up from the earth to replace it. 20 " But look! God will not reject a person of integrity, nor will he make evildoers prosper. 21 He will yet fill your mouth with laughter and your lips with shouts of joy. 22 Those who hate you will be clothed with shame, and the tent of the wicked will be destroyed."9:1 THEN Job spoke again: 2 " Yes, I know this is all true in principle. But how can a person be declared innocent in the eyes of God? 3 If someone wanted to take God to court, would it be possible to answer him even once in a thousand times? 4 For God is so wise and so mighty. Who has ever challenged him successfully? 5 " Without warning, he moves the mountains, overturning them in his anger. 6 He shakes the earth from its place, and its foundations tremble. 7 If he commands it, the sun won't rise and the stars won't shine. 8 He alone has spread out the heavens and marches on the waves of the sea. 9 He made all the stars--the Bear, Orion, the Pleiades, and the constellations of the southern sky. 10 His great works are too marvelous to understand. He performs miracles without number.11 "Yet when he comes near, I cannot see him. When he moves on, I do not see him go. 12 If he sends death to snatch someone away, who can stop him? Who dares to ask him, ` What are you doing?' 13 And God does not restrain his anger. The mightiest forces against him are crushed beneath his feet. 14 " And who am I, that I should try to answer God or even reason with him? 15 Even if I were innocent, I would have no defense. I could only plead for mercy. 16 And even if I summoned him and he responded, he would never listen to me. 17 For he attacks me without reason, and he multiplies my wounds without cause. 18 He will not let me catch my breath, but fills me instead with bitter sorrows. 19 As for strength, he has it. As for justice, who can challenge him? 20 Though I am innocent, my own mouth would pronounce me guilty. Though I am blameless, it would prove me wicked. 21 " I am innocent, but it makes no difference to me--I despise my life. 22 Innocent or wicked, it is all the same to him. That is why I say, ` He destroys both the blameless and the wicked.' 23 He laughs when a plague suddenly kills the innocent. 24 The whole earth is in the hands of the wicked, and God blinds the eyes of the judges and lets them be unfair. If not he, then who?25 " My life passes more swiftly than a runner. It flees away, filled with tragedy. 26 It disappears like a swift boat, like an eagle that swoops down on its prey. 27 If I decided to forget my complaints, if I decided to end my sadness and be cheerful, 28 I would dread all the pain he would send. For I know you will not hold me innocent, O God. 29 Whatever happens, I will be found guilty. So what's the use of trying? 30 Even if I were to wash myself with soap and cleanse my hands with lye to make them absolutely clean, 31 you would plunge me into a muddy ditch, and I would be so filthy my own clothing would hate me. 32 " God is not a mortal like me, so I cannot argue with him or take him to trial. 33 If only there were a mediator who could bring us together, but there is none. 34 The mediator could make God stop beating me, and I would no longer live in terror of his punishment. 35 Then I could speak to him without fear, but I cannot do that in my own strength. 10:1 " I AM disgusted with my life. Let me complain freely. I will speak in the bitterness of my soul. 2 I will say to God, ` Don't simply condemn me--tell me the charge you are bringing against me. 3 What do you gain by oppressing me? Why do you reject me, the work of your own hands, while sending joy and prosperity to the wicked? 4 Are your eyes only those of a human? Do you see things as people see them? 5 Is your lifetime merely human? Is your life so short 6 that you are in a hurry to probe for my guilt, to search for my sin? 7 Although you know I am not guilty, no one can rescue me from your power. 8 " ` You formed me with your hands; you made me, and yet you completely destroy me. 9 Remember that I am made of dust--will you turn me back to dust so soon? 10 You guided my conception and formed me in the womb. 11 You clothed me with skin and flesh, and you knit my bones and sinews together. 12 You gave me life and showed me your unfailing love. My life was preserved by your care. 13 " ` Yet your real motive--I know this was your intent--14 was to watch me, and if I sinned, you would not forgive my iniquity. 15 If I am guilty, too bad for me. And even if I'm innocent, I am filled with shame and misery so that I can't hold my head high. 16 And if I hold my head high, you hunt me like a lion and display your awesome power against me. 17 Again and again you witness against me. You pour out an ever-increasing volume of anger upon me and bring fresh armies against me. 18 " ` Why, then, did you bring me out of my mother's womb? Why didn't you let me die at birth? 19 Then I would have been spared this miserable existence. I would have gone directly from the womb to the grave. 20 I have only a little time left, so leave me alone--that I may have a little moment of comfort 21 before I leave for the land of darkness and utter gloom, never to return. 22 It is a land as dark as midnight, a land of utter gloom where confusion reigns and the light is as dark as midnight.' "11:1 THEN Zophar the Naamathite replied to Job: 2 " Shouldn't someone answer this torrent of words? Is a person proved innocent just by talking a lot? 3 Should I remain silent while you babble on? When you mock God, shouldn't someone make you ashamed? 4 You claim, ` My teaching is pure,' and ` I am clean in the sight of God.' 5 If only God would speak; if only he would tell you what he thinks! 6 If only he would tell you the secrets of wisdom, for true wisdom is not a simple matter. Listen! God is doubtless punishing you far less than you deserve! 7 " Can you solve the mysteries of God? Can you discover everything there is to know about the Almighty? 8 Such knowledge is higher than the heavens--but who are you? It is deeper than the underworld--what can you know in comparison to him? 9 It is broader than the earth and wider than the sea. 10 If God comes along and puts a person in prison, or if he calls the court to order, who is going to stop him? 11 For he knows those who are false, and he takes note of all their sins. 12 An empty-headed person won't become wise any more than a wild donkey can bear human offspring!13 " If only you would prepare your heart and lift up your hands to him in prayer! 14 Get rid of your sins and leave all iniquity behind you. 15 Then your face will brighten in innocence. You will be strong and free of fear. 16 You will forget your misery. It will all be gone like water under the bridge. 17 Your life will be brighter than the noonday. Any darkness will be as bright as morning. 18 You will have courage because you will have hope. You will be protected and will rest in safety. 19 You will lie down unafraid, and many will look to you for help. 20 But the wicked will lose hope. They have no escape. Their hope becomes despair."
1 CORINTHIANS 15:1-28
Now let me [Paul] remind you, dear brothers and sisters,* of the Good News I preached to you before. You welcomed it then and still do now, for your faith is built on this wonderful message. 2 And it is this Good News that saves you if you firmly believe it--unless, of course, you believed something that was never true in the first place. 3 I passed on to you what was most important and what had also been passed on to me--that Christ died for our sins, just as the Scriptures said. 4 He was buried, and he was raised from the dead on the third day, as the Scriptures said. 5 He was seen by Peter and then by the twelve apostles. 6 After that, he was seen by more than five hundred of his followers at one time, most of whom are still alive, though some have died by now. 7 Then he was seen by James and later by all the apostles. 8 Last of all, I saw him, too, long after the others, as though I had been born at the wrong time. 9 For I am the least of all the apostles, and I am not worthy to be called an apostle after the way I persecuted the church of God. 10 But whatever I am now, it is all because God poured out his special favor on me--and not without results. For I have worked harder than all the other apostles, yet it was not I but God who was working through me by his grace. 11 So it makes no difference whether I preach or they preach. The important thing is that you believed what we preached to you. 12 But tell me this--since we preach that Christ rose from the dead, why are some of you saying there will be no resurrection of the dead? 13 For if there is no resurrection of the dead, then Christ has not been raised either. 14 And if Christ was not raised, then all our preaching is useless, and your trust in God is useless. 15 And we apostles would all be lying about God, for we have said that God raised Christ from the grave, but that can't be true if there is no resurrection of the dead. 16 If there is no resurrection of the dead, then Christ has not been raised. 17 And if Christ has not been raised, then your faith is useless, and you are still under condemnation for your sins. 18 In that case, all who have died believing in Christ have perished! 19 And if we have hope in Christ only for this life, we are the most miserable people in the world. 20 But the fact is that Christ has been raised from the dead. He has become the first of a great harvest of those who will be raised to life again. 21 So you see, just as death came into the world through a man, Adam, now the resurrection from the dead has begun through another man, Christ. 22 Everyone dies because all of us are related to Adam, the first man. But all who are related to Christ, the other man, will be given new life. 23 But there is an order to this resurrection: Christ was raised first; then when Christ comes back, all his people will be raised. 24 After that the end will come, when he will turn the Kingdom over to God the Father, having put down all enemies of every kind. 25 For Christ must reign until he humbles all his enemies beneath his feet. 26 And the last enemy to be destroyed is death. 27 For the Scriptures say, " God has given him authority over all things." (Of course, when it says " authority over all things," it does not include God himself, who gave Christ his authority.) 28 Then, when he has conquered all things, the Son will present himself to God, so that God, who gave his Son authority over all things, will be utterly supreme over everything everywhere.
PSALM 38:1-22
A psalm of David, to bring us to the LORD's remembrance.
1 O LORD, don't rebuke me in your anger!
Don't discipline me in your rage!
2 Your arrows have struck deep,
and your blows are crushing me.
3 Because of your anger, my whole body is sick;
my health is broken because of my sins.
4 My guilt overwhelms me--
it is a burden too heavy to bear.
5 My wounds fester and stink
because of my foolish sins.
6 I am bent over and racked with pain.
My days are filled with grief.
7 A raging fever burns within me,
and my health is broken.
8 I am exhausted and completely crushed.
My groans come from an anguished heart.
9 You know what I long for, Lord;
you hear my every sigh.
10 My heart beats wildly, my strength fails,
and I am going blind.
11 My loved ones and friends stay away, fearing my disease.
Even my own family stands at a distance.
12 Meanwhile, my enemies lay traps for me;
they make plans to ruin me.
They think up treacherous deeds all day long.
13 But I am deaf to all their threats.
I am silent before them as one who cannot speak.
14 I choose to hear nothing,
and I make no reply.
15 For I am waiting for you, O LORD.
You must answer for me, O Lord my God.
16 I prayed, " Don't let my enemies gloat over me
or rejoice at my downfall."
17 I am on the verge of collapse,
facing constant pain.
18 But I confess my sins;
I am deeply sorry for what I have done.
19 My enemies are many;
they hate me though I have done nothing against them.
20 They repay me evil for good
and oppose me because I stand for the right.
21 Do not abandon me, LORD.
Do not stand at a distance, my God.
22 Come quickly to help me, O Lord my savior.
PROVERBS 21:28-29
A false witness will be cut off, but an attentive witness will be allowed to speak. The wicked put up a bold front, but the upright proceed with care.
