Revised Common Lectionary (Complementary)

To the Director: A Davidic Psalm.

A Prayer for Victory

An Offering for the Sanctuary

25 The Lord told Moses, ² “Tell the Israelis to take an offering for me, and you are to accept my offering from every person whose heart moves him to give.^{[a] 3} This is the offering that you are to accept from them: gold, silver, and bronze; ⁴ blue, purple, and scarlet material;^[b] fine linen and goat hair; ⁵ ram skins dyed^[c] red, dolphin^[d] skins, and acacia wood; ⁶ oil for lighting, spices for the anointing oil and for aromatic incense; ⁷ and onyx stones, stones for setting on the ephod and the breast piece.^{[e] 8} Let them make a sanctuary for me so I may live among them. ⁹ This is how you are to make it: according to all that I’m showing you, according to the pattern for the tent and the pattern for all its furnishings.”

The Ark of the Covenant

¹⁰ “They are to make an ark of acacia wood, two and a half cubits^[f] long, one and a half cubits^[g] wide, and one and a half cubits^[h] high. ¹¹ You are to overlay it with pure gold—you are to overlay it inside and outside—and you are to make a gold molding around it. ¹² You are to cast four rings for it and put them on its four feet, two rings on one side of it and two rings on its other side. ¹³ You are to make poles of acacia wood and overlay them with gold. ¹⁴ You are to put the poles into the rings on the sides of the ark with which to carry it.^{[i] 15} The poles are to remain in the rings of the ark and are not to be removed from it. ¹⁶ You are to put the Testimony^[j] that I will give you into the ark.

¹⁷ “You are to make a Mercy Seat^[k] of pure gold, two and a half cubits^[l] long and one and a half cubits^[m] wide. ¹⁸ You are to make two cherubim^[n] of gold; you are to make them of hammered work at the two ends of the Mercy Seat. ¹⁹ Place one cherub at one end and one cherub at the other end. You are to make the cherubim at the two ends of the Mercy Seat, and of one piece with it. ²⁰ The cherubim are to spread their wings upward, covering the Mercy Seat with their wings and facing each other. The faces of the cherubim is to be turned toward the Mercy Seat. ²¹ You are to put the Mercy Seat on top of the ark, and put the Testimony that I’ll give you into the ark. ²² I’ll meet with you there, and I’ll tell you all my commandments^[o] for the Israelis from above the Mercy Seat, from between the two cherubim that are on the Ark of the Testimony.”

Preaching in the Power of God

2 When I came to you, brothers, I didn’t come and tell you about God’s secret^[a] with rhetorical language or wisdom. ² For while I was with you I resolved to know nothing except Jesus the Messiah,^[b] and him crucified. ³ It was in weakness, fear, and great trembling that I came to you. ⁴ My message and my preaching were not accompanied by clever, wise words, but by a display of the Spirit’s power, ⁵ so that your faith would not be based on human wisdom but on God’s power.

God’s Spirit Reveals Everything

⁶ However, when we are among mature people, we do speak a message of^[c] wisdom, but not the wisdom of this world or of the rulers of this world, who are passing off the scene. ⁷ Instead, we speak about God’s wisdom in a hidden secret, which God destined before the world began^[d] for our glory. ⁸ None of the rulers of this world understood it, because if they had, they would not have crucified the Lord of glory. ⁹ But as it is written,

¹⁰ But^[f] God has revealed those things to us by his Spirit. For the Spirit searches everything, even the deep things of God.