Revised Common Lectionary (Complementary)

God Puts Down the Proud and Lifts Up Those Who Are Right with Himself

75 We give thanks to You, O God. We give thanks that Your name is near. Men tell about the great things You have done. ² You say, “When the right time has come, I will be right and fair in deciding who is guilty or not. ³ When the earth and all its people shake, it is I Who will hold it together. ⁴ I said to the proud, ‘Do not speak with pride.’ And I said to the sinful, ‘Do not lift up the horn. ⁵ Do not lift your horn up high. Do not speak in your pride.’”

⁶ For honor does not come from the east or the west or from the desert. ⁷ But God is the One Who decides. He puts down one and brings respect to another. ⁸ For there is a cup in the Lord’s hand. It is full of strong wine that is well mixed. He pours out from it, and all the sinful people of the earth must drink all of it.

⁹ But as for me, I will tell of it forever. I will sing praises to the God of Jacob. ¹⁰ He will cut off all the horns of the sinful. But the horns of those who are right with God will be lifted up.

Jerusalem’s Sin

3 It is bad for her who does not obey and is unclean, the city who makes it hard for the people! ² She does not listen to anyone and will not be taught. She did not trust in the Lord. She does not come near to her God. ³ Her leaders are lions that make a loud noise. Her judges are wolves at evening. They leave nothing for the morning. ⁴ Her men who tell what is going to happen in the future are proud and cannot be trusted. Her religious leaders have made the holy place unclean. They have turned in anger against the Law. ⁵ The Lord within her is right and good. He will be fair and do nothing wrong. Every morning He brings to light what is fair. Every new day He is faithful. But the one who does wrong knows no shame. ⁶ “I have cut off nations. Their towers are destroyed. I have laid waste their streets so that no one walks in them. Their cities are laid waste, and no one lives in them. ⁷ I said, ‘For sure you will honor Me with fear and receive teaching.’ Then her place would not be destroyed and she would not be punished as I had planned. But they were quick to make all their works sinful.

⁸ “So wait for Me,” says the Lord, “for the day when I stand up to speak. I have decided to gather nations together to pour My burning anger upon them. All the earth will be destroyed by the fire of My jealous anger. ⁹ Then I will make the lips of the people pure. And all of them will call on the name of the Lord, to serve Him shoulder to shoulder. ¹⁰ Those who worship Me and have been driven away will bring My gifts in worship from the other side of the rivers of Ethiopia. ¹¹ On that day you will not be put to shame because of all the works you have done against Me. For then I will take away all your people who find joy in their pride. And you will never be proud again on My holy mountain. ¹² But I will leave among you people who are not proud, and they will be safe in the name of the Lord. ¹³ The people of Israel who are left will do no wrong and tell no lies. A lying tongue will not be found in their mouths. They will eat and lie down with no one to make them afraid.”

²¹ Listen! If you want to be under the Law, why do you not listen to what it says? ²² The Holy Writings say that Abraham had two sons. One was born from a woman servant (Hagar) who was owned by someone. She had to do what she was told. The other son was born from a woman (Sarah) who was free to work and live as she desired. ^{(A) 23} The son born from the woman servant who was owned by someone was like any other birth. The son born from the free woman was different. That son had been promised by God. ²⁴ Think of it like this: These two women show God’s two ways of working with His people. The children born from Hagar are under the Law given on Mount Sinai. They will be servants who are owned by someone and will always be told what to do! ²⁵ Hagar is known as Mount Sinai in the country of Arabia. She is as Jerusalem is today, because she and her children are not free to do what they want to do. ²⁶ But the Jerusalem of heaven is the free woman, and she is our mother. ²⁷ The Holy Writings say, “Woman, be happy, you who have had no children. Cry for joy, you who have never had the pains of having a child, for you will have many children. Yes, you will have more children than the one who has a husband.” ^{(B) 28} Christian brothers, we are like Isaac. We are the children God promised. ²⁹ At that time the son born as other children are born made it hard for the son born by the Holy Spirit. It is the same way now. ³⁰ But what do the Holy Writings say? They say, “Put the woman servant who is owned by someone and her son out of your home. The son of that woman servant will never get any of the riches of the family. It will all be given to the son of the free woman.” ^{(C) 31} Christian brothers, we are not children of the woman servant who was owned by someone (Hagar). We are children of the free woman (Sarah).

Christ Made Us Free

5 Christ made us free. Stay that way. Do not get chained all over again in the Law and its kind of religious worship.