Formation Journal Reading Plan

7:1 “Isn’t a man forced to labor on earth? Aren’t his days like the days of a hired hand?

7:2 As a servant who earnestly desires the shadow, as a hireling who looks for his wages,

7:3 so am I made to possess months of misery, wearisome nights are appointed to me.

7:4 When I lie down, I say, ‘When shall I arise, and the night be gone?’ I toss and turn until the dawning of the day.

7:5 My flesh is clothed with worms and clods of dust. My skin closes up, and breaks out afresh.

7:6 My days are swifter than a weaver’s shuttle, and are spent without hope.

7:7 Oh remember that my life is a breath. My eye shall no more see good.

7:8 The eye of him who sees me shall see me no more. Your eyes shall be on me, but I shall not be.

7:9 As the cloud is consumed and vanishes away, so he who goes down to Sheol shall come up no more.

7:10 He shall return no more to his house, neither shall his place know him any more.

7:11 “Therefore I will not keep silent. I will speak in the anguish of my spirit. I will complain in the bitterness of my soul.

7:12 Am I a sea, or a sea monster, that you put a guard over me?

7:13 When I say, ‘My bed shall comfort me. My couch shall ease my complaint;’

7:14 then you scare me with dreams, and terrify me through visions:

7:15 so that my soul chooses strangling, death rather than my bones.

7:16 I loathe my life. I don’t want to live forever. Leave me alone, for my days are but a breath.

7:17 What is man, that you should magnify him, that you should set your mind on him,

7:18 that you should visit him every morning, and test him every moment?

7:19 How long will you not look away from me, nor leave me alone until I swallow down my spittle?

7:20 If I have sinned, what do I do to you, you watcher of men? Why have you set me as a mark for you, so that I am a burden to myself?

7:21 Why do you not pardon my disobedience, and take away my iniquity? For now shall I lie down in the dust. You will seek me diligently, but I shall not be.”

8:1 Then Bildad the Shuhite answered,

8:2 “How long will you speak these things? Shall the words of your mouth be a mighty wind?

8:3 Does God pervert justice? Or does the Almighty pervert righteousness?

8:4 If your children have sinned against him, He has delivered them into the hand of their disobedience.

8:5 If you want to seek God diligently, make your supplication to the Almighty.

8:6 If you were pure and upright, surely now he would awaken for you, and make the habitation of your righteousness prosperous.

8:7 Though your beginning was small, yet your latter end would greatly increase.

8:8 “Please inquire of past generations. Find out about the learning of their fathers.

8:9 (For we are but of yesterday, and know nothing, because our days on earth are a shadow.)

8:10 Shall they not teach you, tell you, and utter words out of their heart?

8:11 “Can the papyrus grow up without mire? Can the rushes grow without water?

8:12 While it is yet in its greenness, not cut down, it withers before any other reed.

8:13 So are the paths of all who forget God. The hope of the godless man shall perish,

8:14 Whose confidence shall break apart, Whose trust is a spider’s web.

8:15 He shall lean on his house, but it shall not stand. He shall cling to it, but it shall not endure.

8:16 He is green before the sun. His shoots go forth over his garden.

8:17 His roots are wrapped around the rock pile. He sees the place of stones.

8:18 If he is destroyed from his place, then it shall deny him, saying, ‘I have not seen you.’

8:19 Behold, this is the joy of his way: out of the earth, others shall spring.

8:20 “Behold, God will not cast away a blameless man, neither will he uphold the evildoers.

8:21 He will still fill your mouth with laughter, your lips with shouting.

8:22 Those who hate you shall be clothed with shame. The tent of the wicked shall be no more.”

49:1 For the Chief Musician. A Psalm by the sons of Korah. Hear this, all you peoples. Listen, all you inhabitants of the world,

49:2 both low and high, rich and poor together.

49:3 My mouth will speak words of wisdom. My heart shall utter understanding.

49:4 I will incline my ear to a proverb. I will open my riddle on the harp.

49:5 Why should I fear in the days of evil, when iniquity at my heels surrounds me?

49:6 Those who trust in their wealth, and boast in the multitude of their riches—

49:7 none of them can by any means redeem his brother, nor give God a ransom for him.

49:8 For the redemption of their life is costly, no payment is ever enough,

49:9 That he should live on forever, that he should not see corruption.

1:18 For the word of the cross is foolishness to those who are dying, but to us who are saved it is the power of God.

1:19 For it is written, “I will destroy the wisdom of the wise, I will bring the discernment of the discerning to nothing.”

1:20 Where is the wise? Where is the scribe? Where is the lawyer of this world? Hasn’t God made foolish the wisdom of this world?

1:21 For seeing that in the wisdom of God, the world through its wisdom didn’t know God, it was God’s good pleasure through the foolishness of the preaching to save those who believe.

1:22 For Jews ask for signs, Greeks seek after wisdom,

1:23 but we preach Christ crucified; a stumbling block to Jews, and foolishness to Greeks,

1:24 but to those who are called, both Jews and Greeks, Christ is the power of God and the wisdom of God.

1:25 Because the foolishness of God is wiser than men, and the weakness of God is stronger than men.

1:26 For you see your calling, brothers, that not many are wise according to the flesh, not many mighty, and not many noble;

1:27 but God chose the foolish things of the world that he might put to shame those who are wise. God chose the weak things of the world, that he might put to shame the things that are strong;

1:28 and God chose the lowly things of the world, and the things that are despised, and the things that are not, that he might bring to nothing the things that are:

1:29 that no flesh should boast before God.

1:30 But of him, you are in Christ Jesus, who was made to us wisdom from God, and righteousness and sanctification, and redemption:

1:31 that, according as it is written, “He who boasts, let him boast in the Lord.”

2:1 When I came to you, brothers, I didn’t come with excellence of speech or of wisdom, proclaiming to you the testimony of God.

2:2 For I determined not to know anything among you, except Jesus Christ, and him crucified.

2:3 I was with you in weakness, in fear, and in much trembling.

2:4 My speech and my preaching were not in persuasive words of human wisdom, but in demonstration of the Spirit and of power,

2:5 that your faith wouldn’t stand in the wisdom of men, but in the power of God.