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Yes, I've heard all that before. But how can a human being win a case against God?
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How can anyone argue with him? He can ask a thousand questions that no one could ever answer.
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God is so wise and powerful; no one can stand up against him.
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Without warning he moves mountains and in anger he destroys them.
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God sends earthquakes and shakes the ground; he rocks the pillars that support the earth.
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He can keep the sun from rising, and the stars from shining at night.
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No one helped God spread out the heavens or trample the sea monster's back.
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God hung the stars in the sky---the Dipper, Orion, the Pleiades, and the stars of the south.
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We cannot understand the great things he does, and to his miracles there is no end.
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God passes by, but I cannot see him.
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He takes what he wants, and no one can stop him; no one dares ask him, "What are you doing?"
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God's anger is constant. He crushed his enemies who helped Rahab, the sea monster, oppose him.
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So how can I find words to answer God?
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Though I am innocent, all I can do is beg for mercy from God my judge.
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Yet even then, if he lets me speak, I can't believe he would listen to me.
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He sends storms to batter and bruise me without any reason at all.
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He won't let me catch my breath; he has filled my life with bitterness.
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Should I try force? Try force on God? Should I take him to court? Could anyone make him go?
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I am innocent and faithful, but my words sound guilty, and everything I say seems to condemn me.
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I am innocent, but I no longer care. I am sick of living. Nothing matters; innocent or guilty, God will destroy us.
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When an innocent person suddenly dies, God laughs.
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God gave the world to the wicked. He made all the judges blind. And if God didn't do it, who did?
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My days race by, not one of them good.
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My life passes like the swiftest boat, as fast as an eagle swooping down on a rabbit.
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If I smile and try to forget my pain, all my suffering comes back to haunt me; I know that God does hold me guilty.
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Since I am held guilty, why should I bother?
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No soap can wash away my sins.
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God throws me into a pit with filth, and even my clothes are ashamed of me.
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If God were human, I could answer him; we could go to court to decide our quarrel.
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But there is no one to step between us--- no one to judge both God and me.
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Stop punishing me, God! Keep your terrors away!
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I am not afraid. I am going to talk because I know my own heart.
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I am tired of living. Listen to my bitter complaint.
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Don't condemn me, God. Tell me! What is the charge against me?
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Is it right for you to be so cruel? To despise what you yourself have made? And then to smile on the schemes of wicked people?
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Do you see things as we do?
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Is your life as short as ours?
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Then why do you track down all my sins and hunt down every fault I have?
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You know that I am not guilty, that no one can save me from you.
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Your hands formed and shaped me, and now those same hands destroy me.
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Remember that you made me from clay; are you going to crush me back to dust?
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You gave my father strength to beget me; you made me grow in my mother's womb.
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You formed my body with bones and sinews and covered the bones with muscles and skin.
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You have given me life and constant love, and your care has kept me alive.
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But now I know that all that time you were secretly planning to harm me.
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You were watching to see if I would sin, so that you could refuse to forgive me.
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As soon as I sin, I'm in trouble with you, but when I do right, I get no credit. I am miserable and covered with shame.
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If I have any success at all, you hunt me down like a lion; to hurt me you even work miracles.
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You always have some witness against me; your anger toward me grows and grows; you always plan some new attack.
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Why, God, did you let me be born? I should have died before anyone saw me.
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To go from the womb straight to the grave would have been as good as never existing.
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Isn't my life almost over? Leave me alone! Let me enjoy the time I have left.
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I am going soon and will never come back--- going to a land that is dark and gloomy,
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a land of darkness, shadows, and confusion, where the light itself is darkness.
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In the church at Antioch there were some prophets and teachers: Barnabas, Simeon (called the Black), Lucius (from Cyrene), Manaen (who had been brought up with Governor Herod ), and Saul.
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While they were serving the Lord and fasting, the Holy Spirit said to them, "Set apart for me Barnabas and Saul, to do the work to which I have called them."
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They fasted and prayed, placed their hands on them, and sent them off.
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Having been sent by the Holy Spirit, Barnabas and Saul went to Seleucia and sailed from there to the island of Cyprus.
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When they arrived at Salamis, they preached the word of God in the synagogues. They had John Mark with them to help in the work.
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They went all the way across the island to Paphos, where they met a certain magician named Bar-Jesus, a Jew who claimed to be a prophet.
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He was a friend of the governor of the island, Sergius Paulus, who was an intelligent man. The governor called Barnabas and Saul before him because he wanted to hear the word of God.
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But they were opposed by the magician Elymas (that is his name in Greek), who tried to turn the governor away from the faith.
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Then Saul---also known as Paul---was filled with the Holy Spirit; he looked straight at the magician
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and said, "You son of the Devil! You are the enemy of everything that is good. You are full of all kinds of evil tricks, and you always keep trying to turn the Lord's truths into lies!
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The Lord's hand will come down on you now; you will be blind and will not see the light of day for a time." At once Elymas felt a dark mist cover his eyes, and he walked around trying to find someone to lead him by the hand.
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When the governor saw what had happened, he believed; for he was greatly amazed at the teaching about the Lord.
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Paul and his companions sailed from Paphos and came to Perga, a city in Pamphylia, where John Mark left them and went back to Jerusalem.
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They went on from Perga and arrived in Antioch in Pisidia, and on the Sabbath they went into the synagogue and sat down.
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After the reading from the Law of Moses and from the writings of the prophets, the officials of the synagogue sent them a message: "Friends, we want you to speak to the people if you have a message of encouragement for them."
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Paul stood up, motioned with his hand, and began to speak: "Fellow Israelites and all Gentiles here who worship God: hear me!
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The God of the people of Israel chose our ancestors and made the people a great nation during the time they lived as foreigners in Egypt. God brought them out of Egypt by his great power,
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and for forty years he endured them in the desert.
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He destroyed seven nations in the land of Canaan and made his people the owners of the land.
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All of this took about 450 years. "After this he gave them judges until the time of the prophet Samuel.
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And when they asked for a king, God gave them Saul son of Kish from the tribe of Benjamin, to be their king for forty years.
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After removing him, God made David their king. This is what God said about him: 'I have found that David son of Jesse is the kind of man I like, a man who will do all I want him to do.'
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It was Jesus, a descendant of David, whom God made the Savior of the people of Israel, as he had promised.
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Before Jesus began his work, John preached to all the people of Israel that they should turn from their sins and be baptized.
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And as John was about to finish his mission, he said to the people, 'Who do you think I am? I am not the one you are waiting for. But listen! He is coming after me, and I am not good enough to take his sandals off his feet.'
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"My fellow Israelites, descendants of Abraham, and all Gentiles here who worship God: it is to us that this message of salvation has been sent!
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For the people who live in Jerusalem and their leaders did not know that he is the Savior, nor did they understand the words of the prophets that are read every Sabbath. Yet they made the prophets' words come true by condemning Jesus.
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And even though they could find no reason to pass the death sentence on him, they asked Pilate to have him put to death.
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And after they had done everything that the Scriptures say about him, they took him down from the cross and placed him in a tomb.
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But God raised him from death,
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and for many days he appeared to those who had traveled with him from Galilee to Jerusalem. They are now witnesses for him to the people of Israel.
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And we are here to bring the Good News to you: what God promised our ancestors he would do, he has now done for us, who are their descendants, by raising Jesus to life. As it is written in the second Psalm, 'You are my Son; today I have become your Father.'
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And this is what God said about raising him from death, never to rot away in the grave: 'I will give you the sacred and sure blessings that I promised to David.'
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As indeed he says in another passage, 'You will not allow your faithful servant to rot in the grave.'
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For David served God's purposes in his own time, and then he died, was buried with his ancestors, and his body rotted in the grave.
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But this did not happen to the one whom God raised from death.
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All of you, my fellow Israelites, are to know for sure that it is through Jesus that the message about forgiveness of sins is preached to you; you are to know that everyone who believes in him is set free from all the sins from which the Law of Moses could not set you free.
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Take care, then, so that what the prophets said may not happen to you:
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'Look, you scoffers! Be astonished and die! For what I am doing today is something that you will not believe, even when someone explains it to you!' "
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As Paul and Barnabas were leaving the synagogue, the people invited them to come back the next Sabbath and tell them more about these things.
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After the people had left the meeting, Paul and Barnabas were followed by many Jews and by many Gentiles who had been converted to Judaism. The apostles spoke to them and encouraged them to keep on living in the grace of God.
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The next Sabbath nearly everyone in the town came to hear the word of the Lord.
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When the Jews saw the crowds, they were filled with jealousy; they disputed what Paul was saying and insulted him.
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But Paul and Barnabas spoke out even more boldly: "It was necessary that the word of God should be spoken first to you. But since you reject it and do not consider yourselves worthy of eternal life, we will leave you and go to the Gentiles.
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For this is the commandment that the Lord has given us: 'I have made you a light for the Gentiles, so that all the world may be saved.' "
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When the Gentiles heard this, they were glad and praised the Lord's message; and those who had been chosen for eternal life became believers.
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The word of the Lord spread everywhere in that region.
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But the Jews stirred up the leading men of the city and the Gentile women of high social standing who worshiped God. They started a persecution against Paul and Barnabas and threw them out of their region.
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The apostles shook the dust off their feet in protest against them and went on to Iconium.
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The believers in Antioch were full of joy and the Holy Spirit.
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The same thing happened in Iconium: Paul and Barnabas went to the synagogue and spoke in such a way that a great number of Jews and Gentiles became believers.
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But the Jews who would not believe stirred up the Gentiles and turned them against the believers.
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The apostles stayed there for a long time, speaking boldly about the Lord, who proved that their message about his grace was true by giving them the power to perform miracles and wonders.
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The people of the city were divided: some were for the Jews, others for the apostles.
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Then some Gentiles and Jews, together with their leaders, decided to mistreat the apostles and stone them.
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When the apostles learned about it, they fled to the cities of Lystra and Derbe in Lycaonia and to the surrounding territory.
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There they preached the Good News.
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In Lystra there was a crippled man who had been lame from birth and had never been able to walk.
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He sat there and listened to Paul's words. Paul saw that he believed and could be healed, so he looked straight at him
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and said in a loud voice, "Stand up straight on your feet!" The man jumped up and started walking around.
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When the crowds saw what Paul had done, they started shouting in their own Lycaonian language, "The gods have become like men and have come down to us!"
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They gave Barnabas the name Zeus, and Paul the name Hermes, because he was the chief speaker.
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The priest of the god Zeus, whose temple stood just outside the town, brought bulls and flowers to the gate, for he and the crowds wanted to offer sacrifice to the apostles.
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When Barnabas and Paul heard what they were about to do, they tore their clothes and ran into the middle of the crowd, shouting,
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"Why are you doing this? We ourselves are only human beings like you! We are here to announce the Good News, to turn you away from these worthless things to the living God, who made heaven, earth, sea, and all that is in them.
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In the past he allowed all people to go their own way.
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But he has always given evidence of his existence by the good things he does: he gives you rain from heaven and crops at the right times; he gives you food and fills your hearts with happiness."
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Even with these words the apostles could hardly keep the crowd from offering a sacrifice to them.
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Some Jews came from Antioch in Pisidia and from Iconium; they won the crowds over to their side, stoned Paul and dragged him out of the town, thinking that he was dead.
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But when the believers gathered around him, he got up and went back into the town. The next day he and Barnabas went to Derbe.
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Paul and Barnabas preached the Good News in Derbe and won many disciples. Then they went back to Lystra, to Iconium, and on to Antioch in Pisidia.
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They strengthened the believers and encouraged them to remain true to the faith. "We must pass through many troubles to enter the Kingdom of God," they taught.
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In each church they appointed elders, and with prayers and fasting they commended them to the Lord, in whom they had put their trust.
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After going through the territory of Pisidia, they came to Pamphylia.
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There they preached the message in Perga and then went to Attalia,
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and from there they sailed back to Antioch, the place where they had been commended to the care of God's grace for the work they had now completed.
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When they arrived in Antioch, they gathered the people of the church together and told them about all that God had done with them and how he had opened the way for the Gentiles to believe.
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And they stayed a long time there with the believers.
