Day 181

Daily Bible Reading

(ESV: Through The Bible)

Job 19-20 (Listen)

Job Replies: My Redeemer Lives

19:1 Then Job answered and said:

“How long will you torment me
  and break me in pieces with words?
These ten times you have cast reproach upon me;
  are you not ashamed to wrong me?
And even if it be true that I have erred,
  my error remains with myself.
If indeed you magnify yourselves against me
  and make my disgrace an argument against me,
know then that God has put me in the wrong
  and closed his net about me.
Behold, I cry out, ‘Violence!’ but I am not answered;
  I call for help, but there is no justice.
He has walled up my way, so that I cannot pass,
  and he has set darkness upon my paths.
He has stripped from me my glory
  and taken the crown from my head.
He breaks me down on every side, and I am gone,
  and my hope has he pulled up like a tree.
He has kindled his wrath against me
  and counts me as his adversary.
His troops come on together;
  they have cast up their siege ramp [1] against me
  and encamp around my tent.

“He has put my brothers far from me,
  and those who knew me are wholly estranged from me.
My relatives have failed me,
  my close friends have forgotten me.
The guests in my house and my maidservants count me as a stranger;
  I have become a foreigner in their eyes.
I call to my servant, but he gives me no answer;
  I must plead with him with my mouth for mercy.
My breath is strange to my wife,
  and I am a stench to the children of my own mother.
Even young children despise me;
  when I rise they talk against me.
All my intimate friends abhor me,
  and those whom I loved have turned against me.
My bones stick to my skin and to my flesh,
  and I have escaped by the skin of my teeth.
Have mercy on me, have mercy on me, O you my friends,
  for the hand of God has touched me!
Why do you, like God, pursue me?
  Why are you not satisfied with my flesh?

“Oh that my words were written!
  Oh that they were inscribed in a book!
Oh that with an iron pen and lead
  they were engraved in the rock forever!
For I know that my Redeemer lives,
  and at the last he will stand upon the earth. [2]
And after my skin has been thus destroyed,
  yet in [3] my flesh I shall see God,
whom I shall see for myself,
  and my eyes shall behold, and not another.
  My heart faints within me!
If you say, ‘How we will pursue him!’
  and, ‘The root of the matter is found in him,’
be afraid of the sword,
  for wrath brings the punishment of the sword,
  that you may know there is a judgment.”

Zophar Speaks: The Wicked Will Suffer

20:1 Then Zophar the Naamathite answered and said:

“Therefore my thoughts answer me,
  because of my haste within me.
I hear censure that insults me,
  and out of my understanding a spirit answers me.
Do you not know this from of old,
  since man was placed on earth,
that the exulting of the wicked is short,
  and the joy of the godless but for a moment?
Though his height mount up to the heavens,
  and his head reach to the clouds,
he will perish forever like his own dung;
  those who have seen him will say, ‘Where is he?’
He will fly away like a dream and not be found;
  he will be chased away like a vision of the night.
The eye that saw him will see him no more,
  nor will his place any more behold him.
His children will seek the favor of the poor,
  and his hands will give back his wealth.
His bones are full of his youthful vigor,
  but it will lie down with him in the dust.

“Though evil is sweet in his mouth,
  though he hides it under his tongue,
though he is loath to let it go
  and holds it in his mouth,
yet his food is turned in his stomach;
  it is the venom of cobras within him.
He swallows down riches and vomits them up again;
  God casts them out of his belly.
He will suck the poison of cobras;
  the tongue of a viper will kill him.
He will not look upon the rivers,
  the streams flowing with honey and curds.
He will give back the fruit of his toil
  and will not swallow it down;
from the profit of his trading
  he will get no enjoyment.
For he has crushed and abandoned the poor;
  he has seized a house that he did not build.

“Because he knew no contentment in his belly,
  he will not let anything in which he delights escape him.
There was nothing left after he had eaten;
  therefore his prosperity will not endure.
In the fullness of his sufficiency he will be in distress;
  the hand of everyone in misery will come against him.
To fill his belly to the full,
  God [4] will send his burning anger against him
  and rain it upon him into his body.
He will flee from an iron weapon;
  a bronze arrow will strike him through.
It is drawn forth and comes out of his body;
  the glittering point comes out of his gallbladder;
  terrors come upon him.
Utter darkness is laid up for his treasures;
  a fire not fanned will devour him;
  what is left in his tent will be consumed.
The heavens will reveal his iniquity,
  and the earth will rise up against him.
The possessions of his house will be carried away,
  dragged off in the day of God's [5] wrath.
This is the wicked man's portion from God,
  the heritage decreed for him by God.”

Acts 9:23-43 (Listen)

Saul Escapes from Damascus

When many days had passed, the Jews plotted to kill him, but their plot became known to Saul. They were watching the gates day and night in order to kill him, but his disciples took him by night and let him down through an opening in the wall, [6] lowering him in a basket.

Saul in Jerusalem

And when he had come to Jerusalem, he attempted to join the disciples. And they were all afraid of him, for they did not believe that he was a disciple. But Barnabas took him and brought him to the apostles and declared to them how on the road he had seen the Lord, who spoke to him, and how at Damascus he had preached boldly in the name of Jesus. So he went in and out among them at Jerusalem, preaching boldly in the name of the Lord. And he spoke and disputed against the Hellenists. [7] But they were seeking to kill him. And when the brothers learned this, they brought him down to Caesarea and sent him off to Tarsus.

So the church throughout all Judea and Galilee and Samaria had peace and was being built up. And walking in the fear of the Lord and in the comfort of the Holy Spirit, it multiplied.

The Healing of Aeneas

Now as Peter went here and there among them all, he came down also to the saints who lived at Lydda. There he found a man named Aeneas, bedridden for eight years, who was paralyzed. And Peter said to him, “Aeneas, Jesus Christ heals you; rise and make your bed.” And immediately he rose. And all the residents of Lydda and Sharon saw him, and they turned to the Lord.

Dorcas Restored to Life

Now there was in Joppa a disciple named Tabitha, which, translated, means Dorcas. [8] She was full of good works and acts of charity. In those days she became ill and died, and when they had washed her, they laid her in an upper room. Since Lydda was near Joppa, the disciples, hearing that Peter was there, sent two men to him, urging him, “Please come to us without delay.” So Peter rose and went with them. And when he arrived, they took him to the upper room. All the widows stood beside him weeping and showing tunics [9] and other garments that Dorcas made while she was with them. But Peter put them all outside, and knelt down and prayed; and turning to the body he said, “Tabitha, arise.” And she opened her eyes, and when she saw Peter she sat up. And he gave her his hand and raised her up. Then calling the saints and widows, he presented her alive. And it became known throughout all Joppa, and many believed in the Lord. And he stayed in Joppa for many days with one Simon, a tanner.

Footnotes

[1] 19:12 Hebrew their way
[2] 19:25 Hebrew dust
[3] 19:26 Or without
[4] 20:23 Hebrew he
[5] 20:28 Hebrew his
[6] 9:25 Greek through the wall
[7] 9:29 That is, Greek-speaking Jews
[8] 9:36 The Aramaic name Tabitha and the Greek name Dorcas both mean gazelle
[9] 9:39 Greek chiton, a long garment worn under the cloak next to the skin

 

 

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