To The Word – Day 160

₁There was a man named Job, living in the land of Uz, who worshipped God and was faithful to him. He was a good man, careful not to do anything evil. ₂He had seven sons and three daughters, ₃and owned 7,000 sheep, 3,000 camels, 1,000 head of cattle, and 500 donkeys. He also had a large number of servants and was the richest man in the East.

₄Job's sons used to take it in turns to give a feast, to which all the others would come, and they always invited their three sisters to join them. ₅The morning after each feast, Job would get up early and offer sacrifices for each of his children in order to purify them. He always did this because he thought that one of them might have sinned by insulting God unintentionally.

₆When the day came for the heavenly beings to appear before the LORD, Satan was there among them. ₇The LORD asked him, “What have you been doing?”

Satan answered, “I have been walking here and there, roaming round the earth.”

₈“Did you notice my servant Job?” the LORD asked. “There is no one on earth as faithful and good as he is. He worships me and is careful not to do anything evil.”

₉Satan replied, “Would Job worship you if he got nothing out of it? ₁₀You have always protected him and his family and everything he owns. You bless everything he does, and you have given him enough cattle to fill the whole country. ₁₁But now suppose you take away everything he has — he will curse you to your face!”

₁₂“All right,” the LORD said to Satan, “everything he has is in your power, but you must not hurt Job himself.” So Satan left.

₁₃One day when Job's children were having a feast at the home of their eldest brother, ₁₄a messenger came running to Job. “We were ploughing the fields with the oxen,” he said, “and the donkeys were in a nearby pasture. ₁₅Suddenly the Sabeans attacked and stole them all. They killed every one of your servants except me. I am the only one who escaped to tell you.”

₁₆Before he had finished speaking, another servant came and said, “Lightning struck the sheep and the shepherds and killed them all. I am the only one who escaped to tell you.”

₁₇Before he had finished speaking, another servant came and said, “Three bands of Chaldean raiders attacked us, took away the camels, and killed all your servants except me. I am the only one who escaped to tell you.”

₁₈Before he had finished speaking, another servant came and said, “Your children were having a feast at the home of your eldest son, ₁₉when a storm swept in from the desert. It blew the house down and killed them all. I am the only one who escaped to tell you.”

₂₀Then Job stood up and tore his clothes in grief. He shaved his head and threw himself face downwards on the ground. ₂₁He said, “I was born with nothing, and I will die with nothing. The LORD gave, and now he has taken away. May his name be praised!”

₂₂In spite of everything that had happened, Job did not sin by blaming God.

₁When the day came for the heavenly beings to appear before the LORD again, Satan was there among them. ₂The LORD asked him, “Where have you been?”

Satan answered, “I have been walking here and there, roaming round the earth.”

₃“Did you notice my servant Job?” the LORD asked. “There is no one on earth as faithful and good as he is. He worships me and is careful not to do anything evil. You persuaded me to let you attack him for no reason at all, but Job is still as faithful as ever.”

₄Satan replied, “A person will give up everything in order to stay alive. ₅But now suppose you hurt his body — he will curse you to your face!”

₆So the LORD said to Satan, “All right, he is in your power, but you are not to kill him.”

₇Then Satan left the LORD's presence and made sores break out all over Job's body. ₈Job went and sat by the rubbish heap and took a piece of broken pottery to scrape his sores. ₉His wife said to him, “You are still as faithful as ever, aren't you? Why don't you curse God and die?”

₁₀Job answered, “You are talking nonsense! When God sends us something good, we welcome it. How can we complain when he sends us trouble?” In spite of everything he suffered, Job said nothing against God.

₁₁Three of Job's friends were Eliphaz, from the city of Teman, Bildad, from the land of Shuah, and Zophar, from the land of Naamah. When they heard how much Job had been suffering, they decided to go and comfort him. ₁₂While they were still a long way off they saw Job, but did not recognize him. When they did, they began to weep and wail, tearing their clothes in grief and throwing dust into the air and on their heads. ₁₃Then they sat there on the ground with him for seven days and nights without saying a word, because they saw how much he was suffering.

₁Finally Job broke the silence and cursed the day on which he had been born.

₁From Paul, a servant of Christ Jesus and an apostle chosen and called by God to preach his Good News.

₂The Good News was promised long ago by God through his prophets, as written in the Holy Scriptures. ₃It is about his Son, our Lord Jesus Christ: as to his humanity, he was born a descendant of David; ₄as to his divine holiness, he was shown with great power to be the Son of God by being raised from death. ₅Through him God gave me the privilege of being an apostle for the sake of Christ, in order to lead people of all nations to believe and obey. ₆This also includes you who are in Rome, whom God has called to belong to Jesus Christ.

₇And so I write to all of you in Rome whom God loves and has called to be his own people:

May God our Father and the Lord Jesus Christ give you grace and peace.

₈First, I thank my God through Jesus Christ for all of you, because the whole world is hearing about your faith. ₉God is my witness that what I say is true — the God whom I serve with all my heart by preaching the Good News about his Son. God knows that I remember you ₁₀every time I pray. I ask that God in his good will may at last make it possible for me to visit you now. ₁₁For I want very much to see you, in order to share a spiritual blessing with you to make you strong. ₁₂What I mean is that both you and I will be helped at the same time, you by my faith and I by yours.

₁₃You must remember, my brothers and sisters, that many times I have planned to visit you, but something has always kept me from doing so. I want to win converts among you also, as I have among other Gentiles. ₁₄For I have an obligation to all peoples, to the civilized and to the savage, to the educated and to the ignorant. ₁₅So then, I am eager to preach the Good News to you also who live in Rome.

₁₆I have complete confidence in the gospel; it is God's power to save all who believe, first the Jews and also the Gentiles. ₁₇For the gospel reveals how God puts people right with himself: it is through faith from beginning to end. As the scripture says, “The person who is put right with God through faith shall live.”

₁₈God's anger is revealed from heaven against all the sin and evil of the people whose evil ways prevent the truth from being known. ₁₉God punishes them, because what can be known about God is plain to them, for God himself made it plain. ₂₀Ever since God created the world, his invisible qualities, both his eternal power and his divine nature, have been clearly seen; they are perceived in the things that God has made. So those people have no excuse at all! ₂₁They know God, but they do not give him the honour that belongs to him, nor do they thank him. Instead, their thoughts have become complete nonsense, and their empty minds are filled with darkness. ₂₂They say they are wise, but they are fools; ₂₃instead of worshipping the immortal God, they worship images made to look like mortal human beings or birds or animals or reptiles.

₂₄And so God has given those people over to do the filthy things their hearts desire, and they do shameful things with each other. ₂₅They exchange the truth about God for a lie; they worship and serve what God has created instead of the Creator himself, who is to be praised for ever! Amen.

₂₆Because they do this, God has given them over to shameful passions. Even the women pervert the natural use of their sex by unnatural acts. ₂₇In the same way the men give up natural sexual relations with women and burn with passion for each other. Men do shameful things with each other, and as a result they bring upon themselves the punishment they deserve for their wrongdoing.

₂₈Because those people refuse to keep in mind the true knowledge about God, he has given them over to corrupted minds, so that they do the things that they should not do. ₂₉They are filled with all kinds of wickedness, evil, greed, and vice; they are full of jealousy, murder, fighting, deceit, and malice. They gossip ₃₀and speak evil of one another; they are hateful to God, insolent, proud, and boastful; they think of more ways to do evil; they disobey their parents; ₃₁they have no conscience; they do not keep their promises, and they show no kindness or pity for others. ₃₂They know that God's law says that people who live in this way deserve death. Yet, not only do they continue to do these very things, but they even approve of others who do them.

₁Do you, my friend, pass judgement on others? You have no excuse at all, whoever you are. For when you judge others and then do the same things which they do, you condemn yourself. ₂We know that God is right when he judges the people who do such things as these. ₃But you, my friend, do those very things for which you pass judgement on others! Do you think you will escape God's judgement? ₄Or perhaps you despise his great kindness, tolerance, and patience. Surely you know that God is kind, because he is trying to lead you to repent. ₅But you have a hard and stubborn heart, and so you are making your own punishment even greater on the Day when God's anger and righteous judgements will be revealed. ₆For God will reward every person according to what each has done. ₇Some people keep on doing good, and seek glory, honour, and immortal life; to them God will give eternal life. ₈Other people are selfish and reject what is right, in order to follow what is wrong; on them God will pour out his anger and fury. ₉There will be suffering and pain for all those who do what is evil, for the Jews first and also for the Gentiles. ₁₀But God will give glory, honour, and peace to all who do what is good, to the Jews first and also to the Gentiles. ₁₁For God judges everyone by the same standard.

₁₂The Gentiles do not have the Law of Moses; they sin and are lost apart from the Law. The Jews have the Law; they sin and are judged by the Law. ₁₃For it is not by hearing the Law that people are put right with God, but by doing what the Law commands. ₁₄The Gentiles do not have the Law; but whenever they do by instinct what the Law commands, they are their own law, even though they do not have the Law. ₁₅Their conduct shows that what the Law commands is written in their hearts. Their consciences also show that this is true, since their thoughts sometimes accuse them and sometimes defend them. ₁₆And so, according to the Good News I preach, this is how it will be on that Day when God through Jesus Christ will judge the secret thoughts of all.

₁₇What about you? You call yourself a Jew; you depend on the Law and boast about God; ₁₈you know what God wants you to do, and you have learnt from the Law to choose what is right; ₁₉you are sure that you are a guide for the blind, a light for those who are in darkness, ₂₀an instructor for the foolish, and a teacher for the ignorant. You are certain that in the Law you have the full content of knowledge and of truth. ₂₁You teach others — why don't you teach yourself? You preach, “Do not steal” — but do you yourself steal? ₂₂You say, “Do not commit adultery” — but do you commit adultery? You detest idols — but do you rob temples? ₂₃You boast about having God's law — but do you bring shame on God by breaking his law? ₂₄The scripture says, “Because of you Jews, the Gentiles speak evil of God.”

₂₅If you obey the Law, your circumcision is of value; but if you disobey the Law, you might as well never have been circumcised. ₂₆If the Gentile, who is not circumcised, obeys the commands of the Law, will God not regard him as though he were circumcised? ₂₇And so you Jews will be condemned by the Gentiles because you break the Law, even though you have it written down and are circumcised; but they obey the Law, even though they are not physically circumcised. ₂₈After all, who is a real Jew, truly circumcised? It is not the man who is a Jew on the outside, whose circumcision is a physical thing. ₂₉Rather, the real Jew is the person who is a Jew on the inside, that is, whose heart has been circumcised, and this is the work of God's Spirit, not of the written Law. Such a person receives praise from God, not from human beings.

₁Have the Jews then any advantage over the Gentiles? Or is there any value in being circumcised? ₂Much, indeed, in every way! In the first place, God trusted his message to the Jews. ₃But what if some of them were not faithful? Does this mean that God will not be faithful? ₄Certainly not! God must be true, even though every human being is a liar. As the scripture says,

₅But what if our doing wrong serves to show up more clearly God's doing right? Can we say that God does wrong when he punishes us? (This would be the natural question to ask.) ₆By no means! If God is not just, how can he judge the world?

₇But what if my untruth serves God's glory by making his truth stand out more clearly? Why should I still be condemned as a sinner? ₈Why not say, then, “Let us do evil so that good may come”? Some people, indeed, have insulted me by accusing me of saying this very thing! They will be condemned, as they should be.

₉Well then, are we Jews in any better condition than the Gentiles? Not at all! I have already shown that Jews and Gentiles alike are all under the power of sin. ₁₀As the Scriptures say:

₁₉Now we know that everything in the Law applies to those who live under the Law, in order to stop all human excuses and bring the whole world under God's judgement. ₂₀For no one is put right in God's sight by doing what the Law requires; what the Law does is to make people know that they have sinned.

₂₁But now God's way of putting people right with himself has been revealed. It has nothing to do with law, even though the Law of Moses and the prophets gave their witness to it. ₂₂God puts people right through their faith in Jesus Christ. God does this to all who believe in Christ, because there is no difference at all: ₂₃everyone has sinned and is far away from God's saving presence. ₂₄But by the free gift of God's grace all are put right with him through Christ Jesus, who sets them free. _25-26God offered him, so that by his blood he should become the means by which people's sins are forgiven through their faith in him. God did this in order to demonstrate that he is righteous. In the past he was patient and overlooked people's sins; but in the present time he deals with their sins, in order to demonstrate his righteousness. In this way God shows that he himself is righteous and that he puts right everyone who believes in Jesus.

₂₇What, then, can we boast about? Nothing! And what is the reason for this? Is it that we obey the Law? No, but that we believe. ₂₈For we conclude that a person is put right with God only through faith, and not by doing what the Law commands. ₂₉Or is God the God of the Jews only? Is he not the God of the Gentiles also? Of course he is. ₃₀God is one, and he will put the Jews right with himself on the basis of their faith, and will put the Gentiles right through their faith. ₃₁Does this mean that by this faith we do away with the Law? No, not at all; instead, we uphold the Law.