The One Year Bible TLB (98 page)

Judges 13:1–14:20

John 1:29-51

Psalm 102:1-28

Proverbs 14:15-16

Judges 13:1–14:20

Once again Israel sinned by worshiping other gods, so the Lord let them be conquered by the Philistines, who kept them in subjection for forty years.

2-3
 Then one day the Angel of the Lord appeared to the wife of Manoah, of the tribe of Dan, who lived in the city of Zorah. She had no children, but the Angel said to her, “Even though you have been barren so long, you will soon conceive and have a son!
4
 Don’t drink any wine or beer and don’t eat any food that isn’t kosher.
5
 Your son’s hair must never be cut, for he shall be a Nazirite, a special servant of God from the time of his birth; and he will begin to rescue Israel from the Philistines.”

6
 The woman ran and told her husband, “A man from God appeared to me and I think he must be the Angel of the Lord, for he was almost too glorious to look at. I didn’t ask where he was from, and he didn’t tell me his name,
7
 but he told me, ‘You are going to have a baby boy!’ And he told me not to drink any wine or beer and not to eat food that isn’t kosher, for the baby is going to be a Nazirite—he will be dedicated to God from the moment of his birth until the day of his death!”

8
 Then Manoah prayed, “O Lord, please let the man from God come back to us again and give us more instructions about the child you are going to give us.”
9
 The Lord answered his prayer, and the Angel of God appeared once again to his wife as she was sitting in the field. But again she was alone—Manoah was not with her—
10
 so she quickly ran and found her husband and told him, “The same man is here again!”

11
 Manoah ran back with his wife and asked, “Are you the man who talked to my wife the other day?”

“Yes,” he replied, “I am.”

12
 So Manoah asked him, “Can you give us any special instructions about how we should raise the baby after he is born?”

13-14
 And the Angel replied, “Be sure that your wife follows the instructions I gave her. She must not eat grapes or raisins, or drink any wine or beer, or eat anything that isn’t kosher.”

15
 Then Manoah said to the Angel, “Please stay here until we can get you something to eat.”

16
 “I’ll stay,” the Angel replied, “but I’ll not eat anything. However, if you wish to bring something, bring an offering to sacrifice to the Lord.” (Manoah didn’t yet realize that he was the Angel of the Lord.)

17
 Then Manoah asked him for his name. “When all this comes true and the baby is born,” he said to the Angel, “we will certainly want to tell everyone that you predicted it!”

18
 “Don’t even ask my name,” the Angel replied, “for it is a secret.”

19
 Then Manoah took a young goat and a grain offering and offered it as a sacrifice to the Lord; and the Angel did a strange and wonderful thing,
20
 for as the flames from the altar were leaping up toward the sky, and as Manoah and his wife watched, the Angel ascended in the fire! Manoah and his wife fell face downward to the ground,
21
 and that was the last they ever saw of him. It was then that Manoah finally realized that it had been the Angel of the Lord.

22
 “We will die,” Manoah cried out to his wife, “for we have seen God!”

23
 But his wife said, “If the Lord were going to kill us, he wouldn’t have accepted our burnt offerings and wouldn’t have appeared to us and told us this wonderful thing and done these miracles.”

24
 When her son was born they named him Samson, and the Lord blessed him as he grew up.
25
 And the Spirit of the Lord began to excite him whenever he visited the parade grounds of the army of the tribe of Dan, located between the cities of Zorah and Eshtaol.

14:
1
 One day when Samson was in Timnah he noticed a certain Philistine girl,
2
 and when he got home he told his father and mother that he wanted to marry her.
3
 They objected strenuously.

“Why don’t you marry a Jewish girl?” they asked. “Why must you go and get a wife from these heathen Philistines? Isn’t there one girl among all the people of Israel you could marry?”

But Samson told his father, “She is the one I want. Get her for me.”

4
 His father and mother didn’t realize that the Lord was behind the request, for God was setting a trap for the Philistines, who at that time were the rulers of Israel.

5
 As Samson and his parents were going to Timnah, a young lion attacked Samson in the vineyards on the outskirts of the town.
6
 At that moment the Spirit of the Lord came mightily upon him and since he had no weapon, he ripped the lion’s jaws apart and did it as easily as though it were a young goat! But he didn’t tell his father or mother about it.
7
 Upon arriving at Timnah, he talked with the girl and found her to be just what he wanted, so the arrangements were made.
*

8
 When he returned for the wedding, he turned off the path to look at the carcass of the lion. And he found a swarm of bees in it and some honey!
9
 He took some of the honey with him, eating as he went, and gave some of it to his father and mother. But he didn’t tell them where he had gotten it.

10-11
 As his father was making final arrangements for the marriage, Samson threw a party for thirty young men of the village, as was the custom of the day.
12
 When Samson asked if they would like to hear a riddle, they replied that they would.

“If you solve my riddle during these seven days of the celebration,” he said, “I’ll give you thirty plain robes and thirty fancy robes.
13
 But if you can’t solve it, then you must give the robes to me!”

“All right,” they agreed, “let’s hear it.”

14
 This was his riddle: “Food came out of the eater, and sweetness from the strong!” Three days later they were still trying to figure it out.

15
 On the fourth day they said to his new wife, “Get the answer from your husband, or we’ll burn down your father’s house with you in it. Were we invited to this party just to make us poor?”

16
 So Samson’s wife broke down in tears before him and said, “You don’t love me at all; you hate me, for you have told a riddle to my people and haven’t told me the answer!”

“I haven’t even told it to my father or mother; why should I tell you?” he replied.

17
 So she cried whenever she was with him and kept it up for the remainder of the celebration. At last, on the seventh day, he told her the answer and she, of course, gave the answer to the young men.
18
 So before sunset of the seventh day they gave him their reply.

“What is sweeter than honey?” they asked, “and what is stronger than a lion?”

“If you hadn’t plowed with my heifer, you wouldn’t have found the answer to my riddle!” he retorted.

19
 Then the Spirit of the Lord came upon him and he went to the city of Ashkelon, killed thirty men, took their clothing, and gave it to the young men who had told him the answer to his riddle. But he was furious about it and abandoned his wife and went back home to live with his father and mother.
20
 So his wife was married instead to the fellow who had been best man at Samson’s wedding.

John 1:29-51

The next day John saw Jesus coming toward him and said, “Look! There is the Lamb of God who takes away the world’s sin!
30
 He is the one I was talking about when I said, ‘Soon a man far greater than I am is coming, who existed long before me!’
31
 I didn’t know he was the one, but I am here baptizing with water in order to point him out to the nation of Israel.”

32
 Then John told about seeing the Holy Spirit in the form of a dove descending from heaven and resting upon Jesus.

33
 “I didn’t know he was the one,” John said again, “but at the time God sent me to baptize he told me, ‘When you see the Holy Spirit descending and resting upon someone—he is the one you are looking for. He is the one who baptizes with the Holy Spirit.’
34
 I saw it happen to this man, and I therefore testify that he is the Son of God.”

35
 The following day as John was standing with two of his disciples,
36
 Jesus walked by. John looked at him intently and then declared, “See! There is the Lamb of God!”

37
 Then John’s two disciples turned and followed Jesus.

38
 Jesus looked around and saw them following.
“What do you want?”
he asked them.

“Sir,” they replied, “where do you live?”

39
 
“Come and see,”
he said. So they went with him to the place where he was staying and were with him from about four o’clock that afternoon until the evening.
40
 (One of these men was Andrew, Simon Peter’s brother.)

41
 Andrew then went to find his brother Peter and told him, “We have found the Messiah!”
42
 And he brought Peter to meet Jesus.

Jesus looked intently at Peter for a moment and then said,
“You are Simon, John’s son—but you shall be called Peter, the rock!”

43
 The next day Jesus decided to go to Galilee. He found Philip and told him,
“Come with me.”
44
 (Philip was from Bethsaida, Andrew and Peter’s hometown.)

45
 Philip now went off to look for Nathanael and told him, “We have found the Messiah!—the very person Moses and the prophets told about! His name is Jesus, the son of Joseph from Nazareth!”

46
 “Nazareth!” exclaimed Nathanael. “Can anything good come from there?”

“Just come and see for yourself,” Philip declared.

47
 As they approached, Jesus said,
“Here comes an honest man—a true son of Israel.”

48
 “How do you know what I am like?” Nathanael demanded.

And Jesus replied,
“I could see you under the fig tree before Philip found you.”

49
 Nathanael replied, “Sir, you are the Son of God—the King of Israel!”

50
 Jesus asked him,
“Do you believe all this just because I told you I had seen you under the fig tree? You will see greater proofs than this.
51
 
You will even see heaven open and the angels of God coming back and forth to me, the Messiah.”
*

Psalm 102:1-28

A prayer when overwhelmed with trouble.

Lord, hear my prayer! Listen to my plea!

2
 Don’t turn away from me in this time of my distress. Bend down your ear and give me speedy answers,
3-4
 for my days disappear like smoke. My health is broken, and my heart is sick; it is trampled like grass and is withered. My food is tasteless, and I have lost my appetite.
5
 I am reduced to skin and bones because of all my groaning and despair.
6
 I am like a vulture in a far-off wilderness or like an owl alone in the desert.
7
 I lie awake, lonely as a solitary sparrow on the roof.

8
 My enemies taunt me day after day and curse at me.
9-10
 I eat ashes instead of bread. My tears run down into my drink because of your anger against me, because of your wrath. For you have rejected me and thrown me out.
11
 My life is passing swiftly as the evening shadows. I am withering like grass,
12
 while you, Lord, are a famous King forever. Your fame will endure to every generation.

13
 I know that you will come and have mercy on Jerusalem—and now is the time to pity her—the time you promised help.
14
 For your people love every stone in her walls and feel sympathy for every grain of dust in her streets.
15
 Now let the nations and their rulers tremble before the Lord, before his glory.
16
 For Jehovah will rebuild Jerusalem! He will appear in his glory!

17
 He will listen to the prayers of the destitute, for he is never too busy to heed their requests.
18
 I am recording this so that future generations will also praise the Lord for all that he has done. And a people that shall be created shall praise the Lord.
19
 Tell them that God looked down from his temple in heaven
20
 and heard the groans of his people in slavery—they were children of death—and released them,
21-22
 so that multitudes would stream to the Temple in Jerusalem to praise him, and his praises were sung throughout the city; and many rulers throughout the earth came to worship him.

23
 He has cut me down in middle life, shortening my days.
24
 But I cried to him, “O God, you live forever and forever! Don’t let me die halfway through my years!
25
 In ages past you laid the foundations of the earth and made the heavens with your hands!
26
 They shall perish, but you go on forever. They will grow old like worn-out clothing, and you will change them like a man putting on a new shirt and throwing away the old one!
27
 But you yourself never grow old. You are forever, and your years never end.

28
 “But our families will continue; generation after generation will be preserved by your protection.”