Oct 2, 2022
2CHRONICLES 28:
Yesterday we heard of the reign of Uzziah (who
suffered a terrible punishment for his pride) and the reign of his
son, Jotham. Both were basically good kings.
ECCLESIASTES 4:
Yesterday we heard the famous chapter of
Ecclesiastes which starts with
Ecc. 3:1 (like NLT) For everything (turn, turn, turn) there is a season, (turn, turn, turn) a time for every activity under heaven.
GNT is very perceptive in bringing out some implicit information that would have been understood by Solomon’s audience, but which modern readers could easily miss in NLT’s translation, namely that God sets the seasons:
Ecc. 3:1 GNT Everything that
happens in this world happens at the time God
chooses.
2 He
sets the time for birth and the time for death,
the
time for planting and the time for pulling up,
MATTHEW 18a:
Yesterday in Matthew 17 we heard the story of
the mount of transfiguration, the shorter story of the healing of
the demon possessed boy right afterward, and we ended with Peter
catching a fish to pay the temple tax for him and Jesus.
GNT Translation
notes:
Mat.
18:1 At that time [we//the] disciples came to Jesus, asking, “Who
is the greatest in the Kingdom of heaven?”
2 So
Jesus called a child to come and stand in front of
[us//them],
6
“If anyone should cause one of these little ones to [stop
believing//lose his faith] in me, it would be better for that
person to have a large millstone tied around his neck and be
drowned in the deep sea.
7
How terrible for the world that there are things that make people
[stop believing in me//lose their faith]! Such things will always
happen—but how terrible for the one who causes them!
8
“If your hand or your foot makes you [stop believing//lose your
faith], cut it off and throw it away! It is better for you to enter
life without a hand or a foot than to keep both hands and both feet
and be thrown into the eternal fire.
9
And if your eye makes you [stop believing//lose your faith], take
it out and throw it away! It is better for you to enter life with
only one eye than to keep both eyes and be thrown into the fire of
hell.
20 For where two or three [of you]
come together [because you want to glorify Me//in my name], I am
there with [you//them].”