Revised Common Lectionary (Complementary)
Thanksgiving for God’s Deliverance
105 Give thanks to the Lord,
call on his name,
and make his deeds known among the people.
2 Sing to him! Praise him!
Declare all his awesome deeds!
3 Exult in his holy name;
let all[a] those who seek the Lord rejoice!
4 Seek the Lord and his strength;
seek his face continually.
5 Remember his awesome deeds that he has done,
his wonders and the judgments he declared.
6 You descendants of Abraham, his servant,
You children of Jacob, his chosen ones.
7 He is the Lord our God;
his judgments extend to the entire earth.
8 He remembers his eternal covenant—
every promise he made[b] for a thousand generations,
9 like the covenant he made[c] with Abraham,
and his promise to Isaac.
10 He presented it to Jacob as a decree,
to Israel as an everlasting covenant.
11 He said: “I will give Canaan to you
as the allotted portion that is your inheritance.”
37 Then he brought Israel[a] out with silver and gold,
and no one among his tribes stumbled.
38 The Egyptians rejoiced when they left,
because fear of Israel[b] descended on them.
39 He spread out a cloud for a cover,
and fire for light at night.
40 Israel[c] asked, and quail came;
food from heaven satisfied them.
41 He opened a rock, and water gushed out
flowing like a river in the desert.
42 Indeed, he remembered his sacred promise
to his servant Abraham.
43 He led his people out with gladness,
his chosen ones with shouts of joy.
44 He gave to them the land of nations;
they inherited the labor of other[d] people
45 so they might keep his statutes
and observe his laws.
Hallelujah!
The Command to Offer Isaac
22 Sometime later, God tested Abraham. He called out to him, “Abraham!”
“Here I am!” he answered.
2 God[a] said, “Please take your son, your unique son whom you love—Isaac—and go to the land of Moriah. Offer him as a burnt offering there on one of the mountains that I will point out to you.”
3 So Abraham got up early in the morning, saddled his donkey, and took two of his male servants[b] with him, along with his son Isaac. He cut the wood for the burnt offering and set out to go to the place about which God had spoken to him. 4 On the third day he looked ahead and saw the place from a distance.
5 Abraham ordered his two servants,[c] “Both of you are to stay here with the donkey. Now as for the youth and me, we’ll go up there, we’ll worship, and then we’ll return to you.” 6 Then Abraham took the wood for the burnt offering and placed it on his son Isaac. Abraham[d] carried the fire and the knife. And so the two of them went on together.
Abraham Answers Isaac’s Question
7 Isaac addressed his father Abraham: “My father!”
“I’m here, my son,” Abraham replied.
Isaac asked, “The fire and the wood are here, but where’s the lamb for the burnt offering?”
8 Abraham answered, “God will provide[e] himself the lamb for the burnt offering, my son.”
The two of them went on together 9 and came to the place about which God had spoken. Abraham built an altar there, arranged the wood, tied up his son Isaac, and placed him on the altar on top of the wood. 10 Then he stretched out his hand and grabbed the knife to slaughter his son.
The Angel of the Lord Intervenes
11 Just then, an angel of the Lord called out to him from heaven and said, “Abraham! Abraham!”
“Here I am,” he answered.
12 “Don’t lay your hand on the youth!” he said. “Don’t do anything to him, because I’ve just demonstrated[f] that you fear God, since you have not withheld your son, your only unique one, from me.”
13 Then Abraham looked up and behind him to see a ram caught by its horns in the thicket. So Abraham went over, grabbed the ram, and offered it as a burnt offering in place of his son. 14 Abraham named that place, “The Lord Will Provide,”[g] as it is told this day, “On the Lord’s mountain, he will provide.”[h]
15 The angel of the Lord called to Abraham a second time from heaven 16 and said, “I have taken an oath to swear by myself,” declares the Lord, “that since you have carried this out and have not withheld your only unique[i] son, 17 I will certainly bless you and make your descendants as numerous as the stars in heaven and as the sand on the seashore. Your descendants will take possession of the gates[j] of their enemies. 18 Furthermore, through your descendants all the nations of the earth will be blessed,[k] because you have obeyed my command.”
19 After this, Abraham returned to his servants[l] and they set out together for Beer-sheba, where Abraham settled.
The Meaning of Faith
11 Now faith is the assurance that what we hope for will come about[a] and the certainty that what we cannot see exists.[b] 2 By faith our ancestors won approval.
3 By faith we understand that time was created by the word of God, so that what is seen was made from things that are invisible.
13 All these people died having faith. They did not receive the things that were promised, yet they saw them in the distant future and welcomed them, acknowledging that they were strangers and foreigners on earth. 14 For people who say such things make it clear that they are looking for a country of their own. 15 If they had been thinking about what they had left behind, they would have had an opportunity to go back. 16 Instead, they were longing for a better country, that is, a heavenly one. That is why God is not ashamed to be called their God, because he has prepared a city for them.
17 By faith Abraham, when he was tested, offered Isaac—he who had received the promises was about to offer his unique son[a] in sacrifice, 18 about whom it had been said, “It is through Isaac that descendants will be named for you.”[b] 19 Abraham[c] was certain that God could raise the dead, and figuratively speaking, he did get Isaac[d] back in this way.
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