Good News [1976], GOOD NEWS BIBLE WITH DEUTEROCANONICALS / APOCRYPHA Today's English Version (AMERICAN BIBLE SOCIETY, New York) [word count] [B15000].
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The Human Mind Cannot Understand
God's Ways
1 The angel Uriel, who had been
sent to me, replied,
2 “You can't
-- --
even understand what happens in
this world. Do you think you can understand
the ways of God Most
High?”
3 “Yes, sir, I do!” I answered.
3 The angel continued, “I have been
sent to ask you to solve three riddles
about what happens in this world.
4 If you can explain even one of them
to me, I will answer your questions
about God's ways and teach you
why the human race has an evil impulse.”
5 “I agree, sir,” I said.
5 Then he said to me, “Good! How
do you weigh out a pound of fire?
How do you measure a bushel note of
wind? How do you bring back a day
that has passed?”
6 I answered, “Why do you ask
me such questions? No human being
could answer them.”
7 Then he said, “What if I had
asked you how many dwelling
places there are at the bottom of the
sea? How many rivers flow into the
waters beneath the earth? How
many rivers are there above the
dome of the sky? Where are the
exits from the world of the dead?
Where are the entrances to note Paradise?
8 If I had asked you these questions,
you might have answered, ‘I
have never gone down into the waters
beneath the earth, and I have
not yet entered the world of the
dead. I have never gone up to
heaven.’
9 But all I have asked you
about is fire, wind, and the day that
has just passed—things that you
have experienced. Yet you have given
me no answer.
10 You can't even
understand things that you have
been familiar with since you were a
child.
11 How then can your little
mind understand the ways of God
Most High? Can a man already worn
down by this corrupt world understand
the ways of the incorruptible
God?”
11 When I heard this, I fell face
downward on the ground note
12 and said
to him, “It would have been better if
we had never been born than to have
to live in a world of sin and suffering
without understanding why things
happen as they do.”
13 The angel Uriel answered, “I
once went into the woods and heard
the trees plotting together.
14 They
were saying, ‘Let's go to war against
the sea and push it back, so that we
may have more room.’
15 But the
waves of the sea also plotted together
and said, ‘Let's conquer the
woods and extend our territory.’
16 But all the plotting of the trees
was useless because fire came and
destroyed them.
17 And the plotting
of the sea was just as useless because
the sand stood firm and
blocked its advance.
18 Now, if you
were the judge and had to decide between
them, which would you pronounce
right?”
19 I replied, “They were both
wrong, because trees belong on the
land, and waves belong in the sea.”
20 “You have given the right answer,”
he said. “So why can't you
see the answer to your own problems?
21 For just as trees have their
place on land, and waves have their
place in the sea, so the people of this
world can understand only what
goes on in this world, and only heavenly
beings can understand what
goes on in heaven.” note
-- --
The End of the Age
22 “Please tell me, sir,” I asked,
“why then was I given the ability to
understand anything?
23 I am not interested
in asking questions about
what goes on in the heavens; I am
only concerned about things that go
on around us. Why has God allowed
Israel to be disgraced by foreign nations?
Why has he let the nation he
loves be handed over to the power of
godless nations? Why do the Law
and the covenant that were given to
our ancestors mean nothing any
more?
24 Why do we die as quickly
as insects? Why is our life shorter
than a breath? Why does God think
us unworthy of his mercy?
25 Why
doesn't God do something to help
his own people? These are the questions
that I want to ask.”
26 Uriel answered, “If you live long
enough, you will be surprised at
what you will see, because this age
is rapidly passing away.
27 This age
is so full of misery and imperfection
that it cannot hold all the blessings
that God has promised the righteous
in the time to come.
28 The evil about
which you have asked me has already
been planted, but the time for
its harvesting has not yet arrived.
29 This evil must be harvested, and
this world where it was planted
must be removed, before the new
age where the good is to be planted
can appear.
30 At the beginning of
time one grain of evil seed was sown
in the heart of Adam. See how much
wickedness it has already produced!
Think of how much more it will produce
before it is cut down and
threshed out at Judgment Day. note
31 You can see for yourself what a
big crop this one evil seed has produced.
32 How terrible will be the
harvest on Judgment Day when
these countless heads of grain are
threshed out!”
33 Then I asked, “How long do we
have to wait before this happens?
Why are our lives so short and so
full of misery?”
34 Uriel answered, “Don't be in a
greater hurry than God Most High!
You are thinking only of yourself,
but God has to be concerned about
everybody. note
35 Your questions are
the same ones asked by the souls of
the righteous dead in the places
where God is keeping them waiting:
‘How long must we wait here? When
will the day of judgment come,
when we will get our reward?’
36 The
archangel Jeremiel answers them, ‘It
will happen as soon as the complete
number of those who have suffered
as you have are here. For God has
weighed this age, note
37 measured the
years, and numbered the days. Nothing
will be changed until time has
run its predetermined course.’”
38 “But, sir,” I replied, “all of us
here on earth are such wicked sinners.
39 Is it possible that because of
our sin the righteous dead are having
to wait for their reward?”
40 His answer was, “Can a pregnant
woman keep her child from
being born after her nine months are
up?”
41 “No, sir, she cannot,” I answered.
41 And he continued, “In the world of
the dead, the place where God has
stored the souls is like a womb.
42 It
is as eager to return the souls entrusted
to it from the beginning of
the world as a woman is to end her
labor pains.
43 When that happens,
you will have the answer to all your
questions.”
44 “Please, sir,” I asked, “if you
think I am able to understand it, can
you
45 tell me one more thing? Is the
time that is still to come longer than
the past that has already gone by?
46 I know how long the past has
been, but I don't know the future.”
47 “Come here and stand at my
right,” he commanded, “and I will
show you a vision and explain its
meaning.”
48 So I stood by him and
looked, and I saw a blazing fire pass
by in front of me, and when it was
gone, I saw that smoke was still
there.
49 Then a rain cloud passed by
in front of me, bringing a heavy
-- --
downpour of rain; and when the
downpour was over, there was still a
light rain.
50 “Think about this,” said
Uriel. “Just as the downpour was
greater than the light rain that followed
it and the fire was greater
than the smoke left behind, in the
same way the time that has passed
is much longer than the time to
come. The time that is left is like the
light rain and the smoke.”
The Signs of the End
51 “Please tell me,” I asked, “do
you think I will live until that time?
If not, who will be alive when it happens?”
52 He answered, “I can tell you
some of the signs of the end, if that
is what you are asking about; but I
am not here to tell you how long you
will live, and in any case, I don't
know.
Good News [1976], GOOD NEWS BIBLE WITH DEUTEROCANONICALS / APOCRYPHA Today's English Version (AMERICAN BIBLE SOCIETY, New York) [word count] [B15000].
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