Select: First Reading Second Reading Bible Background
First Reading: Job Chapter 4 and 5
Job 4
4:1 Then Eliphaz the Temanite replied:
2 "If someone ventures a word with you, will you be impatient? But who
can keep from speaking? 3 Think how you have instructed many, how you have strengthened
feeble hands. 4 Your words have supported those who stumbled; you have strengthened
faltering knees. 5 But now trouble comes to you, and you are discouraged; it
strikes you, and you are dismayed. 6 Should not your piety be your confidence
and your blameless ways your hope?
7 "Consider now: Who, being innocent, has ever perished? Where were the
upright ever destroyed? 8 As I have observed, those who plow evil and those
who sow trouble reap it. 9 At the breath of God they are destroyed; at the blast
of his anger they perish. 10 The lions may roar and growl, yet the teeth of
the great lions are broken. 11 The lion perishes for lack of prey, and the cubs
of the lioness are scattered.
12 "A word was secretly brought to me, my ears caught a whisper of it.
13 Amid disquieting dreams in the night, when deep sleep falls on men, 14 fear
and trembling seized me and made all my bones shake. 15 A spirit glided past
my face, and the hair on my body stood on end. 16 It stopped, but I could not
tell what it was. A form stood before my eyes, and I heard a hushed voice: 17'Can
a mortal be more righteous than God? Can a man be more pure than his Maker?
18 If God places no trust in his servants, if he charges his angels with error,
19 how much more those who live in houses of clay, whose foundations are in
the dust, who are crushed more readily than a moth! 20 Between dawn and dusk
they are broken to pieces; unnoticed, they perish forever. 21 Are not the cords
of their tent pulled up, so that they die without wisdom?'
Job 5
5:1
"Call if you will, but who will answer you? To which of the holy ones will
you turn? 2 Resentment kills a fool, and envy slays the simple. 3 I myself have
seen a fool taking root, but suddenly his house was cursed. 4 His children are
far from safety, crushed in court without a defender. 5 The hungry consume his
harvest, taking it even from among thorns, and the thirsty pant after his wealth.
6 For hardship does not spring from the soil, nor does trouble sprout from the
ground. 7 Yet man is born to trouble as surely as sparks fly upward.
8 "But if it were I, I would appeal to God; I would lay my cause before
him. 9 He performs wonders that cannot be fathomed, miracles that cannot be
counted. 10 He bestows rain on the earth; he sends water upon the countryside.
11 The lowly he sets on high, and those who mourn are lifted to safety. 12 He
thwarts the plans of the crafty, so that their hands achieve no success. 13
He catches the wise in their craftiness, and the schemes of the wily are swept
away. 14 Darkness comes upon them in the daytime; at noon they grope as in the
night. 15 He saves the needy from the sword in their mouth; he saves them from
the clutches of the powerful. 16 So the poor have hope, and injustice shuts
its mouth.
17 "Blessed is the man whom God corrects; so do not despise the discipline
of the Almighty. 18 For he wounds, but he also binds up; he injures, but his
hands also heal. 19 From six calamities he will rescue you; in seven no harm
will befall you. 20 In famine he will ransom you from death, and in battle from
the stroke of the sword. 21 You will be protected from the lash of the tongue,
and need not fear when destruction comes. 22 You will laugh at destruction and
famine, and need not fear the beasts of the earth. 23 For you will have a covenant
with the stones of the field, and the wild animals will be at peace with you.
24 You will know that your tent is secure; you will take stock of your property
and find nothing missing. 25 You will know that your children will be many,
and your descendants like the grass of the earth. 26 You will come to the grave
in full vigor, like sheaves gathered in season.
27 "We have examined this, and it is true. So hear it and apply it to yourself."
Second Reading: Luke Chapter 4
Luke 4
4:1 Jesus, full of the Holy Spirit, returned from the Jordan and was led by
the Spirit in the desert, 2 where for forty days he was tempted by the devil.
He ate nothing during those days, and at the end of them he was hungry.
3 The devil said to him, "If you are the Son of God, tell this stone to
become bread."
4 Jesus answered, "It is written: 'Man does not live on bread alone.'"
5 The devil led him up to a high place and showed him in an instant all the
kingdoms of the world. 6 And he said to him, "I will give you all their
authority and splendor, for it has been given to me, and I can give it to anyone
I want to. 7 So if you worship me, it will all be yours."
8 Jesus answered, "It is written: 'Worship the Lord your God and serve
him only.'"
9 The devil led him to Jerusalem and had him stand on the highest point of the
temple. "If you are the Son of God," he said, "throw yourself
down from here. 10 For it is written:
"'He will command his angels concerning you to guard you carefully; 11
they will lift you up in their hands, so that you will not strike your foot
against a stone.'"
12 Jesus answered, "It says: 'Do not put the Lord your God to the test.'"
13 When the devil had finished all this tempting, he left him until an opportune
time.
14 Jesus returned to Galilee in the power of the Spirit, and news about him
spread through the whole countryside. 15 He taught in their synagogues, and
everyone praised him.
16 He went to Nazareth, where he had been brought up, and on the Sabbath day
he went into the synagogue, as was his custom. And he stood up to read. 17 The
scroll of the prophet Isaiah was handed to him. Unrolling it, he found the place
where it is written:
18 "The Spirit of the Lord is on me, because he has anointed me to preach
good news to the poor. He has sent me to proclaim freedom for the prisoners
and recovery of sight for the blind, to release the oppressed, 19 to proclaim
the year of the Lord's favor."
20 Then he rolled up the scroll, gave it back to the attendant and sat down.
The eyes of everyone in the synagogue were fastened on him, 21 and he began
by saying to them, "Today this scripture is fulfilled in your hearing."
22 All spoke well of him and were amazed at the gracious words that came from
his lips. "Isn't this Joseph's son?" they asked.
23 Jesus said to them, "Surely you will quote this proverb to me: 'Physician,
heal yourself! Do here in your hometown what we have heard that you did in Capernaum.'"
24 "I tell you the truth," he continued, "no prophet is accepted
in his hometown. 25 I assure you that there were many widows in Israel in Elijah's
time, when the sky was shut for three and a half years and there was a severe
famine throughout the land. 26 Yet Elijah was not sent to any of them, but to
a widow in Zarephath in the region of Sidon. 27 And there were many in Israel
with leprosy in the time of Elisha the prophet, yet not one of them was cleansed-only
Naaman the Syrian."
28 All the people in the synagogue were furious when they heard this. 29 They
got up, drove him out of the town, and took him to the brow of the hill on which
the town was built, in order to throw him down the cliff. 30 But he walked right
through the crowd and went on his way.
31 Then he went down to Capernaum, a town in Galilee, and on the Sabbath began
to teach the people. 32 They were amazed at his teaching, because his message
had authority.
33 In the synagogue there was a man possessed by a demon, an evil spirit. He
cried out at the top of his voice, 34 "Ha! What do you want with us, Jesus
of Nazareth? Have you come to destroy us? I know who you are-the Holy One of
God!"
35 "Be quiet!" Jesus said sternly. "Come out of him!" Then
the demon threw the man down before them all and came out without injuring him.
36 All the people were amazed and said to each other, "What is this teaching?
With authority and power he gives orders to evil spirits and they come out!"
37 And the news about him spread throughout the surrounding area.
38 Jesus left the synagogue and went to the home of Simon. Now Simon's mother-in-law
was suffering from a high fever, and they asked Jesus to help her. 39 So he
bent over her and rebuked the fever, and it left her. She got up at once and
began to wait on them.
40 When the sun was setting, the people brought to Jesus all who had various
kinds of sickness, and laying his hands on each one, he healed them. 41 Moreover,
demons came out of many people, shouting, "You are the Son of God!"
But he rebuked them and would not allow them to speak, because they knew he
was the Christ.
42 At daybreak Jesus went out to a solitary place. The people were looking for
him and when they came to where he was, they tried to keep him from leaving
them. 43 But he said, "I must preach the good news of the kingdom of God
to the other towns also, because that is why I was sent." 44 And he kept
on preaching in the synagogues of Judea.
BOOKS OF THE BIBLE
JOB
Part 1 of 4
The author of Job is unknown. It was apparently written around 1500 B.C. which is near the time of Moses. It is the first poetic book of the Old Testament. It relates the anguish of a righteous man as he and his friends struggle to explain the affliction which has befallen Job and has stripped him of his wealth, his family, and his health. The dialogue continues between Job and his friends as each presents his opinion on the reasons behind such troubles. The purpose of the book of Job is to counter the belief of "exact retribution" (justification by works).
Select: First Reading Second Reading Bible Background