August 13, 2026

Job39

1 “Do you know when the mountain goats give birth?

Do you observe the calving of the does?

2 Can you number the months that they fulfill,

and do you know the time when they give birth,

3 when they crouch, bring forth their offspring,

and are delivered of their young?

4 Their young ones become strong; they grow up in the open;

they go out and do not return to them.

5 “Who has let the wild donkey go free?

Who has loosed the bonds of the swift donkey,

6 to whom I have given the arid plain for his home

and the salt land for his dwelling place?

7 He scorns the tumult of the city;

he hears not the shouts of the driver.

8 He ranges the mountains as his pasture,

and he searches after every green thing.

9 “Is the wild ox willing to serve you?

Will he spend the night at your manger?

10 Can you bind him in the furrow with ropes,

or will he harrow the valleys after you?

11 Will you depend on him because his strength is great,

and will you leave to him your labor?

12 Do you have faith in him that he will return your grain

and gather it to your threshing floor?

13 “The wings of the ostrich wave proudly,

but are they the pinions and plumage of love?

14 For she leaves her eggs to the earth

and lets them be warmed on the ground,

15 forgetting that a foot may crush them

and that the wild beast may trample them.

16 She deals cruelly with her young, as if they were not hers;

though her labor be in vain, yet she has no fear,

17 because God has made her forget wisdom

and given her no share in understanding.

18 When she rouses herself to flee,

she laughs at the horse and his rider.

19 “Do you give the horse his might?

Do you clothe his neck with a mane?

20 Do you make him leap like the locust?

His majestic snorting is terrifying.

21 He paws in the valley and exults in his strength;

he goes out to meet the weapons.

22 He laughs at fear and is not dismayed;

he does not turn back from the sword.

23 Upon him rattle the quiver,

the flashing spear, and the javelin.

24 With fierceness and rage he swallows the ground;

he cannot stand still at the sound of the trumpet.

25 When the trumpet sounds, he says ‘Aha!’

He smells the battle from afar,

the thunder of the captains, and the shouting.

26 “Is it by your understanding that the hawk soars

and spreads his wings toward the south?

27 Is it at your command that the eagle mounts up

and makes his nest on high?

28 On the rock he dwells and makes his home,

on the rocky crag and stronghold.

29 From there he spies out the prey;

his eyes behold it from far away.

30 His young ones suck up blood,

and where the slain are, there is he.”

Job40

1 And the Lord said to Job:

2 “Shall a faultfinder contend with the Almighty?

He who argues with God, let him answer it.”

Job Promises Silence

3 Then Job answered the Lord and said:

4 “Behold, I am of small account; what shall I answer you?

I lay my hand on my mouth.

5 I have spoken once, and I will not answer;

twice, but I will proceed no further.”

The ndLord Challenges Job

6 Then the Lord answered Job out of the whirlwind and said:

7 “Dress for action like a man;

I will question you, and you make it known to me.

8 Will you even put me in the wrong?

Will you condemn me that you may be in the right?

9 Have you an arm like God,

and can you thunder with a voice like his?

10 “Adorn yourself with majesty and dignity;

clothe yourself with glory and splendor.

11 Pour out the overflowings of your anger,

and look on everyone who is proud and abase him.

12 Look on everyone who is proud and bring him low

and tread down the wicked where they stand.

13 Hide them all in the dust together;

bind their faces in the world below.

14 Then will I also acknowledge to you

that your own right hand can save you.

15 “Behold, Behemoth,

which I made as I made you;

he eats grass like an ox.

16 Behold, his strength in his loins,

and his power in the muscles of his belly.

17 He makes his tail stiff like a cedar;

the sinews of his thighs are knit together.

18 His bones are tubes of bronze,

his limbs like bars of iron.

19 “He is the first of the works of God;

let him who made him bring near his sword!

20 For the mountains yield food for him

where all the wild beasts play.

21 Under the lotus plants he lies,

in the shelter of the reeds and in the marsh.

22 For his shade the lotus trees cover him;

the willows of the brook surround him.

23 Behold, if the river is turbulent he is not frightened;

he is confident though Jordan rushes against his mouth.

24 Can one take him by his eyes,

or pierce his nose with a snare?

Job41

1 “Can you draw out Leviathan with a fishhook

or press down his tongue with a cord?

2 Can you put a rope in his nose

or pierce his jaw with a hook?

3 Will he make many pleas to you?

Will he speak to you soft words?

4 Will he make a covenant with you

to take him for your servant forever?

5 Will you play with him as with a bird,

or will you put him on a leash for your girls?

6 Will traders bargain over him?

Will they divide him up among the merchants?

7 Can you fill his skin with harpoons

or his head with fishing spears?

8 Lay your hands on him;

remember the battle—you will not do it again!

9 Behold, the hope of a man is false;

he is laid low even at the sight of him.

10 No one is so fierce that he dares to stir him up.

Who then is he who can stand before me?

11 Who has first given to me, that I should repay him?

Whatever is under the whole heaven is mine.

12 “I will not keep silence concerning his limbs,

or his mighty strength, or his goodly frame.

13 Who can strip off his outer garment?

Who would come near him with a bridle?

14 Who can open the doors of his face?

Around his teeth is terror.

15 His back is made of rows of shields,

shut up closely as with a seal.

16 One is so near to another

that no air can come between them.

17 They are joined one to another;

they clasp each other and cannot be separated.

18 His sneezings flash forth light,

and his eyes are like the eyelids of the dawn.

19 Out of his mouth go flaming torches;

sparks of fire leap forth.

20 Out of his nostrils comes forth smoke,

as from a boiling pot and burning rushes.

21 His breath kindles coals,

and a flame comes forth from his mouth.

22 In his neck abides strength,

and terror dances before him.

23 The folds of his flesh stick together,

firmly cast on him and immovable.

24 His heart is hard as a stone,

hard as the lower millstone.

25 When he raises himself up, the mighty are afraid;

at the crashing they are beside themselves.

26 Though the sword reaches him, it does not avail,

nor the spear, the dart, or the javelin.

27 He counts iron as straw,

and bronze as rotten wood.

28 The arrow cannot make him flee;

for him, sling stones are turned to stubble.

29 Clubs are counted as stubble;

he laughs at the rattle of javelins.

30 His underparts are like sharp potsherds;

he spreads himself like a threshing sledge on the mire.

31 He makes the deep boil like a pot;

he makes the sea like a pot of ointment.

32 Behind him he leaves a shining wake;

one would think the deep to be white-haired.

33 On earth there is not his like,

a creature without fear.

34 He sees everything that is high;

he is king over all the sons of pride.”

Romans8

Life in the Spirit

1 There is therefore now no condemnation for those who are in Christ Jesus. 2 For the law of the Spirit of life has set you free in Christ Jesus from the law of sin and death. 3 For God has done what the law, weakened by the flesh, could not do. By sending his own Son in the likeness of sinful flesh and for sin, he condemned sin in the flesh, 4 in order that the righteous requirement of the law might be fulfilled in us, who walk not according to the flesh but according to the Spirit. 5 For those who live according to the flesh set their minds on the things of the flesh, but those who live according to the Spirit set their minds on the things of the Spirit. 6 For to set the mind on the flesh is death, but to set the mind on the Spirit is life and peace. 7 For the mind that is set on the flesh is hostile to God, for it does not submit to God’s law; indeed, it cannot. 8 Those who are in the flesh cannot please God.

9 You, however, are not in the flesh but in the Spirit, if in fact the Spirit of God dwells in you. Anyone who does not have the Spirit of Christ does not belong to him. 10 But if Christ is in you, although the body is dead because of sin, the Spirit is life because of righteousness. 11 If the Spirit of him who raised Jesus from the dead dwells in you, he who raised Christ Jesus from the dead will also give life to your mortal bodies through his Spirit who dwells in you.

Heirs with Christ

12 So then, brothers, we are debtors, not to the flesh, to live according to the flesh. 13 For if you live according to the flesh you will die, but if by the Spirit you put to death the deeds of the body, you will live. 14 For all who are led by the Spirit of God are sons of God. 15 For you did not receive the spirit of slavery to fall back into fear, but you have received the Spirit of adoption as sons, by whom we cry, “Abba! Father!” 16 The Spirit himself bears witness with our spirit that we are children of God, 17 and if children, then heirs—heirs of God and fellow heirs with Christ, provided we suffer with him in order that we may also be glorified with him.

Future Glory

18 For I consider that the sufferings of this present time are not worth comparing with the glory that is to be revealed to us. 19 For the creation waits with eager longing for the revealing of the sons of God. 20 For the creation was subjected to futility, not willingly, but because of him who subjected it, in hope 21 that the creation itself will be set free from its bondage to corruption and obtain the freedom of the glory of the children of God. 22 For we know that the whole creation has been groaning together in the pains of childbirth until now. 23 And not only the creation, but we ourselves, who have the firstfruits of the Spirit, groan inwardly as we wait eagerly for adoption as sons, the redemption of our bodies. 24 For in this hope we were saved. Now hope that is seen is not hope. For who hopes for what he sees? 25 But if we hope for what we do not see, we wait for it with patience.

26 Likewise the Spirit helps us in our weakness. For we do not know what to pray for as we ought, but the Spirit himself intercedes for us with groanings too deep for words. 27 And he who searches hearts knows what is the mind of the Spirit, because the Spirit intercedes for the saints according to the will of God. 28 And we know that for those who love God all things work together for good, for those who are called according to his purpose. 29 For those whom he foreknew he also predestined to be conformed to the image of his Son, in order that he might be the firstborn among many brothers. 30 And those whom he predestined he also called, and those whom he called he also justified, and those whom he justified he also glorified.

God’s Everlasting Love

31 What then shall we say to these things? If God is for us, who can be against us? 32 He who did not spare his own Son but gave him up for us all, how will he not also with him graciously give us all things? 33 Who shall bring any charge against God’s elect? It is God who justifies. 34 Who is to condemn? Christ Jesus is the one who died—more than that, who was raised—who is at the right hand of God, who indeed is interceding for us. 35 Who shall separate us from the love of Christ? Shall tribulation, or distress, or persecution, or famine, or nakedness, or danger, or sword? 36 As it is written,

“For your sake we are being killed all the day long;

we are regarded as sheep to be slaughtered.”

37 No, in all these things we are more than conquerors through him who loved us. 38 For I am sure that neither death nor life, nor angels nor rulers, nor things present nor things to come, nor powers, 39 nor height nor depth, nor anything else in all creation, will be able to separate us from the love of God in Christ Jesus our Lord.