Ecclesiastes 6:10
New Living Translation
The Future—Determined and Unknown
10 Everything has already been decided. It was known long ago what each person would be. So there’s no use arguing with God about your destiny.
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Job 9:32
New Living Translation
32 “God is not a mortal like me,
so I cannot argue with him or take him to trial.
Isaiah 45:9-10
New Living Translation
9 “What sorrow awaits those who argue with their Creator.
Does a clay pot argue with its maker?
Does the clay dispute with the one who shapes it, saying,
‘Stop, you’re doing it wrong!’
Does the pot exclaim,
‘How clumsy can you be?’
10 How terrible it would be if a newborn baby said to its father,
‘Why was I born?’
or if it said to its mother,
‘Why did you make me this way?’”
Job 40:2
New Living Translation
2 “Do you still want to argue with the Almighty?
You are God’s critic, but do you have the answers?”
Romans 9:19-20
New Living Translation
19 Well then, you might say, “Why does God blame people for not responding? Haven’t they simply done what he makes them do?”
20 No, don’t say that. Who are you, a mere human being, to argue with God? Should the thing that was created say to the one who created it, “Why have you made me like this?”
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Jeremiah 49:19
New Living Translation
19 I will come like a lion from the thickets of the Jordan,
leaping on the sheep in the pasture.
I will chase Edom from its land,
and I will appoint the leader of my choice.
For who is like me, and who can challenge me?
What ruler can oppose my will?”
Ecclesiastes 3:15
New Living Translation
15 What is happening now has happened before, and what will happen in the future has happened before, because God makes the same things happen over and over again.
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Job 33:13
New Living Translation
13 So why are you bringing a charge against him?
Why say he does not respond to people’s complaints?
Genesis 3:17-19
New Living Translation
17 And to the man he said,
“Since you listened to your wife and ate from the tree
whose fruit I commanded you not to eat,
the ground is cursed because of you.
All your life you will struggle to scratch a living from it.
18 It will grow thorns and thistles for you,
though you will eat of its grains.
19 By the sweat of your brow
will you have food to eat
until you return to the ground
from which you were made.
For you were made from dust,
and to dust you will return.”
Ecclesiastes 1:9-11
New Living Translation
9 History merely repeats itself. It has all been done before. Nothing under the sun is truly new. 10 Sometimes people say, “Here is something new!” But actually it is old; nothing is ever truly new. 11 We don’t remember what happened in the past, and in future generations, no one will remember what we are doing now.
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Psalm 82:6-7
New Living Translation
6 I say, ‘You are gods;
you are all children of the Most High.
7 But you will die like mere mortals
and fall like every other ruler.’”
Psalm 39:6
New Living Translation
6 We are merely moving shadows,
and all our busy rushing ends in nothing.
We heap up wealth,
not knowing who will spend it.
Job 14:1-4
New Living Translation
14 “How frail is humanity!
How short is life, how full of trouble!
2 We blossom like a flower and then wither.
Like a passing shadow, we quickly disappear.
3 Must you keep an eye on such a frail creature
and demand an accounting from me?
4 Who can bring purity out of an impure person?
No one!
Job 9:3-4
New Living Translation
3 If someone wanted to take God to court,[a]
would it be possible to answer him even once in a thousand times?
4 For God is so wise and so mighty.
Who has ever challenged him successfully?
Footnotes
- 9:3 Or If God wanted to take someone to court.
Psalm 103:15
New Living Translation
15 Our days on earth are like grass;
like wildflowers, we bloom and die.
Genesis 3:9
New Living Translation
9 Then the Lord God called to the man, “Where are you?”
Read full chapterHoly Bible, New Living Translation, copyright © 1996, 2004, 2015 by Tyndale House Foundation. Used by permission of Tyndale House Publishers, Inc., Carol Stream, Illinois 60188. All rights reserved.