NL-Day140 1 Samuel 5-6; Psalm 93; Romans 2:13-29

1SAMUEL 5-6:
Yesterday we saw the touching way that God revealed to Samuel how to listen for God's voice, and at the same time how He again warned Eli of impending disaster. Eli was incredibly able to recognize the way the Lord works, but at the same time was unconcerned about how God's words applied to him. Let us not be like him! Observe this link to Romans: God's judgment will come to us just as surely as it did to Eli's sons.

PSALM 93:
Like the Gettysburg Address, sometimes the noblest thoughts are best expressed with brevity.

ROMANS 2b:
In yesterday's reading, Paul continued to prove that man is not “basically good” (which one keeps hearing in Hollywood films and on the television). Not only are we sinful, but we tend to be self-righteous— which in itself is sinful. The ‘bad news’ is compounded in these additional points: “A day of anger is coming, when God’s righteous judgment will be revealed. … There will be trouble and calamity for everyone who keeps on doing what is evil— especially for the Jews, but also for the non-Jews.”

Verse 12 is difficult so I suggest reading verse 12 from the PET before picking up reading at verse 13.
Rom. 2:12 PET So people who already know the Law and break it are just the same as those who've never heard about the law and commit sin. Sinners who don't know the Law will be destroyed. Similarly, people who already know the Law and commit sin will be judged according to the law.

NLT Translation notes:
Ps. 93:5 NLT Your royal laws cannot be changed. [Holiness, O Lord, aptly adorns your house forever.//Your reign, O LORD, is holy forever and ever.]
[Using NLT’s version, the listener will likely misunderstand ‘holy’ as ‘wholy’.]
[NET] Holiness aptly adorns your house, O Lord, forever.//
[HCSB] holiness is what makes your house beautiful for days without end.//
[GW] holiness is the beauty of Your house for all the days to come.]
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Rom. 2:9 There will be trouble and calamity for everyone who keeps on doing what is evil—[especially for the Jews, but also for the non-Jews//for the Jew first and also for the Gentile].
10 But there will be glory and honor and peace from God for all who do good—[especially for the Jews, but also for the non-Jews//for the Jew first and also for the Gentile].
12 [CEV [Non-Jewish people//Those people} who don't know about God's Law will still be punished {and destroyed} for {the wrong they have done//what they do wrong}. And the Law will be used to judge everyone who knows what it says.//PET So people who already know the Law and break it are just the same as those who've never heard about the law and commit sin. Sinners who don't know the Law will be destroyed. Similarly, people who already know the Law and commit sin will be judged according to the law.//When the [non-Jews//Gentiles] sin, they will be destroyed, even though they never had God’s written law. And the Jews, who do have God’s law, will be judged by that law when they fail to obey it.]
[The NLT starting with a ‘When’ phrase makes this sound like sudden destruction from God would come on non-Jews during their lives on earth. The original does not start with a ‘When’ phrase but with a ‘therefore/so’. The PET starts with a sentence of implicit information based on the grammatical parallelism of the Greek.]
14 Even [non-Jews//Gentiles], who do not have God’s written law, show that they know his law when they instinctively obey it, even without having heard it.
24 No wonder the Scriptures say, “The [non-Jews//Gentiles] blaspheme the name of God because of you.”
25 The Jewish ceremony of circumcision has value only if you obey God’s law. But if you don’t obey God’s law, you are no better off than an uncircumcised [non-Jews//Gentile].
26 And if the [non-Jews//Gentiles] obey God’s law, won’t God declare them to be his own people?
27 In fact, uncircumcised [non-Jews//Gentiles] who keep God’s law will condemn you Jews who are circumcised and possess God’s law but don’t obey it.

 

Unless otherwise indicated, all Scripture quotations are taken from the Holy Bible, New Living Translation, copyright © 1996, 2004, 2015 by Tyndale House Foundation. Used by permission of Tyndale House Publishers, Carol Stream, Illinois 60188. All rights reserved.