Revised Common Lectionary (Complementary)

Israel's Idolatry Is Condemned

57 Good people die, and no one understands or even cares. But when they die, no calamity can hurt them. ² Those who live good lives find peace and rest in death.

³ Come here to be judged, you sinners! You are no better than sorcerers, adulterers, and prostitutes. ⁴ Who are you making fun of? Who are you liars jeering at? ⁵ You worship the fertility gods by having sex under those sacred trees of yours. You offer your children as sacrifices in the rocky caves near stream beds. ⁶ You take smooth stones from there and worship them as gods. You pour out wine as offerings to them and bring them grain offerings. Do you think I am pleased with all this? ⁷ You go to the high mountains to offer sacrifices and have sex. ⁸ You set up your obscene idols just inside your front doors. You forsake me; you take off your clothes and climb in your large beds with your lovers, whom you pay to sleep with you. And there you satisfy your lust. ⁹ You put on your perfumes and ointments and go to worship the god Molech. To find gods to worship, you send messengers far and wide, even to the world of the dead. ¹⁰ You wear yourselves out looking for other gods, but you never give up. You think your obscene idols give you strength, and so you never grow weak.

¹¹ The Lord says, “Who are these gods that make you afraid, so that you tell me lies and forget me completely? Have you stopped honoring me because I have kept silent for so long? ¹² You think that what you do is right, but I will expose your conduct, and your idols will not be able to help you. ¹³ When you cry for help, let those idols of yours save you! A puff of wind will carry them off! But those who trust in me will live in the land and will worship me in my Temple.”

The Law and the Promise

¹⁵ My friends, I am going to use an everyday example: when two people agree on a matter and sign an agreement, no one can break it or add anything to it. ¹⁶ Now, God made his promises to Abraham and to his descendant. The scripture does not use the plural “descendants,” meaning many people, but the singular “descendant,” meaning one person only, namely, Christ. ^17 (A)What I mean is that God made a covenant with Abraham and promised to keep it. The Law, which was given four hundred and thirty years later, cannot break that covenant and cancel God's promise. ^18 (B)For if God's gift depends on the Law, then it no longer depends on his promise. However, it was because of his promise that God gave that gift to Abraham.

¹⁹ What, then, was the purpose of the Law? It was added in order to show what wrongdoing is, and it was meant to last until the coming of Abraham's descendant, to whom the promise was made. The Law was handed down by angels, with a man acting as a go-between. ²⁰ But a go-between is not needed when only one person is involved; and God is one.^[a]

The Purpose of the Law

²¹ Does this mean that the Law is against God's promises? No, not at all! For if human beings had received a law that could bring life, then everyone could be put right with God by obeying it. ²² But the scripture says that the whole world is under the power of sin; and so the gift which is promised on the basis of faith in Jesus Christ is given to those who believe.