Genesis 42, Mark 12, Job 8, Romans 12

Genesis 42,

When Jacob learned that there was grain in Egypt, he said to his sons, "Why do you just keep looking at each other?"
He continued, "I have heard that there is grain in Egypt. Go down there and buy some for us, so that we may live and not die."
Then ten of Joseph's brothers went down to buy grain from Egypt.
But Jacob did not send Benjamin, Joseph's brother, with the others, because he was afraid that harm might come to him.
So Israel's sons were among those who went to buy grain, for the famine was in the land of Canaan also.
  
  Now Joseph was the governor of the land, the one who sold grain to all its people. So when Joseph's brothers arrived, they bowed down to him with their faces to the ground.
As soon as Joseph saw his brothers, he recognized them, but he pretended to be a stranger and spoke harshly to them. "Where do you come from?" he asked. "From the land of Canaan," they replied, "to buy food."
Although Joseph recognized his brothers, they did not recognize him.
Then he remembered his dreams about them and said to them, "You are spies! You have come to see where our land is unprotected."
"No, my lord," they answered. "Your servants have come to buy food.
  
  We are all the sons of one man. Your servants are honest men, not spies."
"No!" he said to them. "You have come to see where our land is unprotected."
But they replied, "Your servants were twelve brothers, the sons of one man, who lives in the land of Canaan. The youngest is now with our father, and one is no more."
Joseph said to them, "It is just as I told you: You are spies!
And this is how you will be tested: As surely as Pharaoh lives, you will not leave this place unless your youngest brother comes here.
  
  Send one of your number to get your brother; the rest of you will be kept in prison, so that your words may be tested to see if you are telling the truth. If you are not, then as surely as Pharaoh lives, you are spies!"
And he put them all in custody for three days.
On the third day, Joseph said to them, "Do this and you will live, for I fear God:
If you are honest men, let one of your brothers stay here in prison, while the rest of you go and take grain back for your starving households.
But you must bring your youngest brother to me, so that your words may be verified and that you may not die." This they proceeded to do.
  
  They said to one another, "Surely we are being punished because of our brother. We saw how distressed he was when he pleaded with us for his life, but we would not listen; that's why this distress has come upon us."
Reuben replied, "Didn't I tell you not to sin against the boy? But you wouldn't listen! Now we must give an accounting for his blood."
They did not realize that Joseph could understand them, since he was using an interpreter.
He turned away from them and began to weep, but then turned back and spoke to them again. He had Simeon taken from them and bound before their eyes.
Joseph gave orders to fill their bags with grain, to put each man's silver back in his sack, and to give them provisions for their journey. After this was done for them,
  
  they loaded their grain on their donkeys and left.
At the place where they stopped for the night one of them opened his sack to get feed for his donkey, and he saw his silver in the mouth of his sack.
"My silver has been returned," he said to his brothers. "Here it is in my sack." Their hearts sank and they turned to each other trembling and said, "What is this that God has done to us?"
When they came to their father Jacob in the land of Canaan, they told him all that had happened to them. They said,
"The man who is lord over the land spoke harshly to us and treated us as though we were spying on the land.
  
  But we said to him, 'We are honest men; we are not spies.
We were twelve brothers, sons of one father. One is no more, and the youngest is now with our father in Canaan.'
"Then the man who is lord over the land said to us, 'This is how I will know whether you are honest men: Leave one of your brothers here with me, and take food for your starving households and go.
But bring your youngest brother to me so I will know that you are not spies but honest men. Then I will give your brother back to you, and you can trade in the land.' "
As they were emptying their sacks, there in each man's sack was his pouch of silver! When they and their father saw the money pouches, they were frightened.
  
  Their father Jacob said to them, "You have deprived me of my children. Joseph is no more and Simeon is no more, and now you want to take Benjamin. Everything is against me!"
Then Reuben said to his father, "You may put both of my sons to death if I do not bring him back to you. Entrust him to my care, and I will bring him back."
But Jacob said, "My son will not go down there with you; his brother is dead and he is the only one left. If harm comes to him on the journey you are taking, you will bring my gray head down to the grave in sorrow." 

Mark 12,

He then began to speak to them in parables: "A man planted a vineyard. He put a wall around it, dug a pit for the winepress and built a watchtower. Then he rented the vineyard to some farmers and went away on a journey.
At harvest time he sent a servant to the tenants to collect from them some of the fruit of the vineyard.
But they seized him, beat him and sent him away empty-handed.
Then he sent another servant to them; they struck this man on the head and treated him shamefully.
He sent still another, and that one they killed. He sent many others; some of them they beat, others they killed.
  
  "He had one left to send, a son, whom he loved. He sent him last of all, saying, 'They will respect my son.'
"But the tenants said to one another, 'This is the heir. Come, let's kill him, and the inheritance will be ours.'
So they took him and killed him, and threw him out of the vineyard.
"What then will the owner of the vineyard do? He will come and kill those tenants and give the vineyard to others.
Haven't you read this scripture: " 'The stone the builders rejected has become the capstone;
  
  the Lord has done this, and it is marvelous in our eyes'?"
Then they looked for a way to arrest him because they knew he had spoken the parable against them. But they were afraid of the crowd; so they left him and went away.
Later they sent some of the Pharisees and Herodians to Jesus to catch him in his words.
They came to him and said, "Teacher, we know you are a man of integrity. You aren't swayed by men, because you pay no attention to who they are; but you teach the way of God in accordance with the truth. Is it right to pay taxes to Caesar or not?
Should we pay or shouldn't we?" But Jesus knew their hypocrisy. "Why are you trying to trap me?" he asked. "Bring me a denarius and let me look at it."
  
  They brought the coin, and he asked them, "Whose portrait is this? And whose inscription?" "Caesar's," they replied.
Then Jesus said to them, "Give to Caesar what is Caesar's and to God what is God's." And they were amazed at him.
Then the Sadducees, who say there is no resurrection, came to him with a question.
"Teacher," they said, "Moses wrote for us that if a man's brother dies and leaves a wife but no children, the man must marry the widow and have children for his brother.
Now there were seven brothers. The first one married and died without leaving any children.
  
  The second one married the widow, but he also died, leaving no child. It was the same with the third.
In fact, none of the seven left any children. Last of all, the woman died too.
At the resurrection whose wife will she be, since the seven were married to her?"
Jesus replied, "Are you not in error because you do not know the Scriptures or the power of God?
When the dead rise, they will neither marry nor be given in marriage; they will be like the angels in heaven.
  
  Now about the dead rising--have you not read in the book of Moses, in the account of the bush, how God said to him, 'I am the God of Abraham, the God of Isaac, and the God of Jacob'?
He is not the God of the dead, but of the living. You are badly mistaken!"
One of the teachers of the law came and heard them debating. Noticing that Jesus had given them a good answer, he asked him, "Of all the commandments, which is the most important?"
"The most important one," answered Jesus, "is this: 'Hear, O Israel, the Lord our God, the Lord is one.
Love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your mind and with all your strength.'
  
  The second is this: 'Love your neighbor as yourself.'There is no commandment greater than these."
"Well said, teacher," the man replied. "You are right in saying that God is one and there is no other but him.
To love him with all your heart, with all your understanding and with all your strength, and to love your neighbor as yourself is more important than all burnt offerings and sacrifices."
When Jesus saw that he had answered wisely, he said to him, "You are not far from the kingdom of God." And from then on no one dared ask him any more questions.
While Jesus was teaching in the temple courts, he asked, "How is it that the teachers of the law say that the Christ is the son of David?
  
  David himself, speaking by the Holy Spirit, declared: " 'The Lord said to my Lord: "Sit at my right hand until I put your enemies under your feet." '
David himself calls him 'Lord.' How then can he be his son?" The large crowd listened to him with delight.
As he taught, Jesus said, "Watch out for the teachers of the law. They like to walk around in flowing robes and be greeted in the marketplaces,
and have the most important seats in the synagogues and the places of honor at banquets.
They devour widows' houses and for a show make lengthy prayers. Such men will be punished most severely."
  
  Jesus sat down opposite the place where the offerings were put and watched the crowd putting their money into the temple treasury. Many rich people threw in large amounts.
But a poor widow came and put in two very small copper coins,worth only a fraction of a penny.
Calling his disciples to him, Jesus said, "I tell you the truth, this poor widow has put more into the treasury than all the others.
They all gave out of their wealth; but she, out of her poverty, put in everything--all she had to live on." 

Job 8,

Then Bildad the Shuhite replied:
"How long will you say such things? Your words are a blustering wind.
Does God pervert justice? Does the Almighty pervert what is right?
When your children sinned against him, he gave them over to the penalty of their sin.
But if you will look to God and plead with the Almighty,
  
  if you are pure and upright, even now he will rouse himself on your behalf and restore you to your rightful place.
Your beginnings will seem humble, so prosperous will your future be.
"Ask the former generations and find out what their fathers learned,
for we were born only yesterday and know nothing, and our days on earth are but a shadow.
Will they not instruct you and tell you? Will they not bring forth words from their understanding?
  
  Can papyrus grow tall where there is no marsh? Can reeds thrive without water?
While still growing and uncut, they wither more quickly than grass.
Such is the destiny of all who forget God; so perishes the hope of the godless.
What he trusts in is fragile ; what he relies on is a spider's web.
He leans on his web, but it gives way; he clings to it, but it does not hold.
  
  He is like a well-watered plant in the sunshine, spreading its shoots over the garden;
it entwines its roots around a pile of rocks and looks for a place among the stones.
But when it is torn from its spot, that place disowns it and says, 'I never saw you.'
Surely its life withers away, and from the soil other plants grow.
"Surely God does not reject a blameless man or strengthen the hands of evildoers.
  
  He will yet fill your mouth with laughter and your lips with shouts of joy.
Your enemies will be clothed in shame, and the tents of the wicked will be no more." 

Romans 12

Therefore, I urge you, brothers, in view of God's mercy, to offer your bodies as living sacrifices, holy and pleasing to God--this is your spiritual act of worship.
Do not conform any longer to the pattern of this world, but be transformed by the renewing of your mind. Then you will be able to test and approve what God's will is--his good, pleasing and perfect will.
For by the grace given me I say to every one of you: Do not think of yourself more highly than you ought, but rather think of yourself with sober judgment, in accordance with the measure of faith God has given you.
Just as each of us has one body with many members, and these members do not all have the same function,
so in Christ we who are many form one body, and each member belongs to all the others.
  
  We have different gifts, according to the grace given us. If a man's gift is prophesying, let him use it in proportion to hisfaith.
If it is serving, let him serve; if it is teaching, let him teach;
if it is encouraging, let him encourage; if it is contributing to the needs of others, let him give generously; if it is leadership, let him govern diligently; if it is showing mercy, let him do it cheerfully.
Love must be sincere. Hate what is evil; cling to what is good.
Be devoted to one another in brotherly love. Honor one another above yourselves.
  
  Never be lacking in zeal, but keep your spiritual fervor, serving the Lord.
Be joyful in hope, patient in affliction, faithful in prayer.
Share with God's people who are in need. Practice hospitality.
Bless those who persecute you; bless and do not curse.
Rejoice with those who rejoice; mourn with those who mourn.
  
  Live in harmony with one another. Do not be proud, but be willing to associate with people of low position. Do not be conceited.
Do not repay anyone evil for evil. Be careful to do what is right in the eyes of everybody.
If it is possible, as far as it depends on you, live at peace with everyone.
Do not take revenge, my friends, but leave room for God's wrath, for it is written: "It is mine to avenge; I will repay,"says the Lord.
On the contrary: "If your enemy is hungry, feed him; if he is thirsty, give him something to drink. In doing this, you will heap burning coals on his head."
  
  Do not be overcome by evil, but overcome evil with good.