Revised Common Lectionary (Complementary)

David wrote this song.

God, please help me

King Balak asks Balaam to help him

22 The Israelites travelled to Moab. They lived in tents at the side of the Jordan River. Jericho city was on the other side of the river.

² The king of Moab at that time was Balak, the son of Zippor. He had seen what the Israelites did to the Amorites. ³ The people in Moab were afraid because there were so many Israelites. All the people in Moab became very afraid of the Israelites.

⁴ So the Moabites said to the leaders of the Midianites, ‘This large group of people will destroy everything round us. They will be like a bull that eats all the grass in a field!’

So Balak, the king of Moab, ⁵ sent men to get Balaam, the son of Beor. Balaam was living near the Euphrates river at Pethor. Balak told the men to say to Balaam, ‘A large group of people has come here from Egypt. They cover all the ground, everywhere. They have put up their tents near our land. ⁶ They are more powerful than I am. Come here and put a curse on them. If you do that, maybe I will win against them. Then I can chase them away from our land. I know that you have the authority to bless people or to curse them.’

⁷ The leaders of Moab and Midian went to find Balaam. They took the money to pay for Balaam's work. When they found him, they told him what Balak had said. ⁸ Balaam said to them, ‘Stay here tonight. I will talk to the Lord. Tomorrow, I will tell you his answer.’ So the Moabite officers stayed with Balaam.

⁹ Then God came to Balaam and he asked, ‘Who are these men who are staying with you?’

¹⁰ Balaam said to God, ‘Zippor's son Balak, the king of Moab, has sent a message to me. ¹¹ He said, “A big group of people has come from Egypt and they cover all the ground. So please come and curse them for me. Then perhaps I will be able to fight them and send them away.” ’

¹² God said to Balaam, ‘Do not agree to go with them. You must not curse those people. They are special people. I have blessed them.’

¹³ The next day, Balaam said to the officers from Moab, ‘Go back to Moab. The Lord told me that I should not go with you.’ ¹⁴ So the officers went back to Moab. They told King Balak that Balaam would not come with them.

¹⁵ Then Balak sent other officers to speak to Balaam. These officers were even more important than the first group, and there were more of them. ¹⁶ They said to Balaam, ‘King Balak says, “Do not let anything stop you from coming to me. ¹⁷ I will certainly make you rich and famous. I will do for you anything that you want. So please come and curse these people for me.” ’

¹⁸ Balaam said to them, ‘No, I will only do what the Lord tells me. I can do no more than that, and no less. Even if Balak gives me his house, all his gold and all his silver, I will only do what the Lord says. ¹⁹ Stay here tonight, as the other men did. I will talk to the Lord and see if he has anything more to tell me.’

²⁰ That night, God said to Balaam, ‘These men have asked you to go with them, so go with them. But only do what I tell you.’

Balaam and his donkey

²¹ In the morning, Balaam prepared his donkey to travel. He went with the officers to Moab.

Paul visits James in Jerusalem

¹⁷ When we arrived in Jerusalem, the believers there were very happy to welcome us. ¹⁸ The next day, we went with Paul to see James. The leaders of the believers were also there. ¹⁹ Paul said, ‘hello’ to them and then he told them everything about his work. God had helped him to do many good things for the Gentiles.

²⁰ After the leaders had listened to Paul, they praised God. Then they said, ‘Brother Paul, you can see the problem. There are now many thousands of Jews who have believed in Jesus. But they also really want to obey the Law of Moses.^{[a] 21} These Jews here have heard about what you teach Jewish people in other countries. They think that you say to them, “You do not need to obey the Law of Moses any longer. You do not need to circumcise your children. You do not need to live in the way that Jewish people usually live.”

²² We need to do something about this problem. These Jewish believers will certainly hear that you are in Jerusalem. ²³ We will tell you what you must do. There are four Jewish men in our group who have made a promise to God. ²⁴ You must go with these men to the temple. There, they will wash to make themselves clean in front of God. Join with them when they do that. Then pay the priest the money for their sacrifices. After that, the men can cut the hair off their heads. When you do that, everyone will understand about you. They will see what you have done. They will know that you yourself obey the Law of Moses. They will know that what they have heard about you is not true. ²⁵ But it is different for the Gentiles who believe in Jesus. We have already sent a letter to them. We wrote, “Do not eat any food that people have given to their idols. Do not eat anything that still has blood in it. If people have strangled an animal to kill it, do not eat its meat. Do not have sex with anyone that you are not married to.” ’

²⁶ So the next day, Paul went with the four men. He joined with them when they washed to make themselves clean in front of God. Then he went into the yard of the temple. He told the priest there when the four men would finish their promise to God. This would be after seven days. After that, each man would give an animal as a sacrifice to God.^[b]