Revised Common Lectionary (Complementary)
An instruction[a] of Asaph
Remembering God in Times of Trouble
78 Listen, my people, to my instruction.
Hear[b] the words of my mouth.
2 I will tell[c] a parable,
speaking riddles from long ago—
3 things that we have heard and known
and that our ancestors related to us.
4 We will not withhold them from their descendants;
we’ll declare to the next generation the praises of the Lord—
his might and awesome deeds that he has performed.
52 Yet he led out his people like sheep,
guiding them like a flock in the desert.
53 He led them to safety so they would not fear.
As for their enemies, the sea covered them.
54 He brought the people[a] to the border of his holy mountain,
which he acquired by his might.
55 He drove out nations before them
and allotted their tribal inheritance,
settling the tribes of Israel in their tents.
56 But they tested the Most High God by rebelling against him,
and they did not obey his statutes.
57 They fell away and were as disloyal as their ancestors.
They became unreliable, like a defective bow;
58 they angered him with their high places
and with their carved images they made him jealous.
59 God heard and became furious,
and he completely rejected Israel.
60 He abandoned the tent at Shiloh,
the tent that he established among mankind.
61 Then he sent his might[b] into captivity
and his glory into the control of the adversary.
62 He delivered his people over to the sword
and was angry with his possession.
63 The young men were consumed by fire,
and the virgins had no marriage celebrations.[c]
64 The priests fell by the sword,
yet their widows couldn’t weep.
65 The Lord awoke as though from sleep,
like a mighty warrior stimulated by wine.
66 He beat back his adversaries,
permanently disgracing them.
67 He rejected the clan[d] of Joseph;
and the tribe of Ephraim he did not choose.
68 But he chose the tribe of Judah,
the mountain of Zion, which he loves.
69 He built his sanctuary, high as the heavens,
like the earth that he established forever.
70 Then he chose his servant David,
whom he took from the sheepfold.
71 He brought him from birthing sheep
to care for Jacob, his people,
Israel, his possession.
72 David[e] shepherded them with a devoted heart,
and led them with skillful hands.
13 Later that evening quail came up and covered the camp, and then in the morning there was a layer of dew around the camp. 14 When the layer of dew evaporated,[a] on the surface of the desert a fine flaky substance, as fine as frost, appeared on the ground. 15 When the Israelis saw it, they asked one another, “What is it?”,[b] because they did not know what it was.
Moses told them, “It’s the food that the Lord has given you to eat. 16 This is what the Lord has commanded: ‘You are to gather from it what each person is to eat,[c] about one omer[d] per person according to the number of your people, and one person is to gather for everyone in his tent.’”
17 The Israelis did this, some gathering much, some little. 18 When they measured it with a vessel the capacity of which was one omer,[e] the one who gathered much did not have an excess, while the one who gathered little did not lack. They gathered exactly what each needed to eat.[f]
19 Then Moses told them, “No one is to leave any of it until morning.” 20 But they did not listen to Moses—some people left part of it until morning, and it produced maggots and smelled bad, so Moses got angry at them. 21 Every morning they gathered it, according to what each needed to eat; and when the sun became hot, it melted.
22 On the sixth day they gathered twice as much bread, about two omers[g] per person. Then all the leaders of the congregation came and reported to Moses, 23 and he told them, “This is what the Lord said: ‘Tomorrow is a Sabbath observance, a holy Sabbath to the Lord. Bake what you want to bake and boil what you want to boil, and put aside whatever remains to be kept for yourselves until morning.’” 24 So they put it away until morning, as Moses commanded, and it did not smell bad, and there were no maggots in it. 25 Moses said, “Eat it today, since today is a Sabbath to the Lord, and today you won’t find it in the field. 26 For six days you are to gather it, but on the seventh day, the Sabbath, there won’t be any.”[h]
God Chose People who are Not Jewish
19 You may ask me, “Then why does God[a] still find fault with anybody?[b] For who can resist his will?” 20 On the contrary, who are you—mere man that you are—to talk back to God? Can an object that was molded say to the one who molded it, “Why did you make me like this?” 21 A potter has the right to do what he wants to with his clay, doesn’t he? He can make something for a special occasion or something for ordinary use from the same lump of clay.
22 Now if God wants to demonstrate his wrath and reveal his power, can’t he be extremely patient with the objects of his wrath that are made for destruction? 23 Can’t he also reveal his glorious riches to the objects of his mercy that he has prepared ahead of time for glory— 24 including us, whom he also called, not only from the Jews but from the gentiles as well? 25 As the Scripture[c] says in Hosea,
“Those who are not my people
I will call my people,
and the one who was not loved
I will call my loved one.[d]
26 In the very place where it was told them,
‘You are not my people,’
they will be called children of the living God.”[e]
27 Isaiah also calls out concerning Israel,
“Although the descendants of Israel
are as numerous as the grains of sand on the seashore,
only a few will be saved.
28 For the Lord[f] will carry out his plan decisively,
bringing it to completion on the earth.”[g]
29 It is just as Isaiah predicted:
“If the Lord of the Heavenly Armies
had not left us some descendants,
we would have become like Sodom
and would have been compared to Gomorrah.”[h]
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