Revised Common Lectionary (Complementary)
21 But You, O God, the Lord, be kind to me because of Your name. Take me out of trouble because Your loving-kindness is good. 22 For I am in trouble and in need. And my heart is hurt within me. 23 I am passing like an evening shadow. I am shaken off like a locust. 24 My knees are weak from going without food. And my body has lost all its fat. 25 Others laugh at me. They look at me and shake their heads.
26 Help me, O Lord my God! Save me by Your loving-kindness. 27 Let them know that this is Your hand and that You, O Lord, have done it. 28 Let them hope that bad things will happen. But You make good things happen. Let them be ashamed when they rise up against me. But let Your servant be full of joy. 29 Let those who speak against me be dressed with shame. Let them cover themselves with shame as with a coat. 30 I will give thanks to the Lord in a loud voice. I will praise Him among many people. 31 For He stands at the right hand of the one in need to save him from those who judge his soul.
Israel Fights against God
20 On the tenth day of the fifth month in the seventh year, some of the leaders of Israel came to ask the Lord’s will, and they sat down in front of me. 2 The Word of the Lord came to me saying, 3 “Son of man, speak to the leaders of Israel. Tell them, ‘The Lord God says, “Have you come to ask My will? As I live,” says the Lord God, “I will not let you ask me anything.”’ 4 Will you judge them, son of man? Will you judge them? Make known to them the sinful things their fathers did. 5 Tell them, ‘The Lord God says, “On the day I chose Israel, I raised My hand and made a promise to the children of the family of Jacob and made Myself known to them in the land of Egypt. I made a promise to them, saying, ‘I am the Lord your God.’ 6 On that day I promised to bring them out of the land of Egypt to a land I had chosen for them, a land flowing with milk and honey, the most beautiful of all lands. 7 I said to them, ‘Each of you get rid of the sinful things you have looked upon. Do not make yourselves sinful with the false gods of Egypt. I am the Lord your God.’ 8 But they turned against Me and would not listen to Me. They did not get rid of the sinful things they had looked upon. And they did not turn away from the false gods of Egypt.
“Then I said that I would be angry with them. I would send My anger against them in the land of Egypt. 9 But I acted for the good of My name. I did what would keep My name clean in the eyes of the nations they lived among, in whose eyes I made Myself known to them by bringing My people out of Egypt. 10 So I led them out of the land of Egypt and brought them into the desert. 11 I gave them My Laws and made known to them My Words, which bring life to anyone who obeys them. 12 I gave them My Days of Rest to be something special to see between Me and them, so they would know that I am the Lord Who makes them holy. 13 But the people of Israel turned against Me in the desert. They did not obey My Laws, and they turned away from My Words which bring life to anyone who obeys them. They made My Days of Rest very sinful. Then I said that I would be angry with them in the desert and destroy them. 14 But I acted for the good of My name. I did what would keep My name clean in the eyes of the nations who saw Me bring them out of Egypt. 15 So I promised them in the desert that I would not bring them into the land I had given them, the land flowing with milk and honey, the most beautiful of all lands. 16 This was because they turned away from My Laws and did not obey My Words. They did not keep My Days of Rest holy, for they followed after their false gods with all their heart. 17 Yet I looked on them with pity and did not destroy them. I did not make an end of them in the desert.
7 The Holy Spirit says, “If you hear His voice today, 8 do not let your hearts become hard as your early fathers did when they turned against Me. It was at that time in the desert when they put Me to the test. 9 Your early fathers tempted Me and tried Me. They saw the work I did for forty years. 10 For this reason, I was angry with the people of this day. And I said to them, ‘They always think wrong thoughts. They have never understood what I have tried to do for them.’ 11 I was angry with them and said to Myself, ‘They will never go into My rest.’” (A)
12 Christian brothers, be careful that not one of you has a heart so bad that it will not believe and will turn away from the living God. 13 Help each other. Speak day after day to each other while it is still today so your heart will not become hard by being fooled by sin. 14 For we belong to Christ if we keep on trusting Him to the end just as we trusted Him at first. 15 The Holy Writings say, “If you hear His voice today, do not let your hearts become hard as your early fathers did when they turned against Me.” (B)
16 Who heard God’s voice and turned against Him? Did not all those who were led out of the country of Egypt by Moses? 17 Who made God angry for forty years? Was it not those people who had sinned in the desert? Was it not those who died and were buried there? 18 Who did He say could never go into His rest? Was it not those who did not obey Him? 19 So we can see that they were not able to go into His rest because they did not put their trust in Him.
The Christian’s Rest
4 The same promise of going into God’s rest is still for us. But we should be afraid that some of us may not be able to go in. 2 We have heard the Good News even as they did, but it did them no good because it was not mixed with faith. 3 We who have put our trust in God go into His rest. God said this of our early fathers, “I was angry and said, ‘They will not go into My rest.’”(C) And yet God’s work was finished after He made the world.
God’s Rest
4 In the Holy Writings He said this about the seventh day when He made the whole world, “God rested on the seventh day from all He had made.” (D) 5 But God said this about those who turned against Him, “They will not go into My rest.” (E) 6 Those who heard the Good News first did not go into His rest. It was because they had not obeyed Him. But the promise is still good and some are going into His rest. 7 God has again set a certain day for people to go into His rest. He says through David many years later as He had said before, “If you hear His voice today, do not let your hearts become hard.” (F)
8 If Joshua had led those people into God’s rest, He would not have told of another day after that. 9 And so God’s people have a complete rest waiting for them. 10 The man who goes into God’s rest, rests from his own work the same as God rested from His work. 11 Let us do our best to go into that rest or we will be like the people who did not go in.
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