Revised Common Lectionary (Complementary)
What the Lord Demands
A psalm of David.
15 Lord, who may enter your Holy Tent?
Who may live on your holy mountain?
2 Only those who are innocent
and who do what is right.
Such people speak the truth from their hearts
3 and do not tell lies about others.
They do no wrong to their neighbors
and do not gossip.
4 They do not respect hateful people
but honor those who honor the Lord.
They keep their promises to their neighbors,
even when it hurts.
5 They do not charge interest on money they lend
and do not take money to hurt innocent people.
Whoever does all these things will never be destroyed.
15 Then Moses went down the mountain, and in his hands he had the two stone tablets with the Agreement on them. The commands were written on both sides of each stone, front and back. 16 God himself had made the tablets, and God himself had written the commands on the tablets.
17 When Joshua heard the sound of the people shouting, he said to Moses, “It sounds like war down in the camp.”
18 Moses answered:
“It is not a shout of victory;
it is not a cry of defeat.
It is the sound of singing that I hear.”
19 When Moses came close to the camp, he saw the gold calf and the dancing, and he became very angry. He threw down the stone tablets that he was carrying and broke them at the bottom of the mountain. 20 Then he took the calf that the people had made and melted it in the fire. He ground it into powder. Then he threw the powder into the water and forced the Israelites to drink it.
21 Moses said to Aaron, “What did these people do to you? Why did you cause them to do such a terrible sin?”
22 Aaron answered, “Don’t be angry, master. You know that these people are always ready to do wrong. 23 The people said to me, ‘Moses led us out of Egypt, but we don’t know what has happened to him. Make us gods who will lead us.’ 24 So I told the people, ‘Take off your gold jewelry.’ When they gave me the gold, I threw it into the fire and out came this calf!”
25 Moses saw that the people were acting wildly. Aaron had let them get out of control and become fools in front of their enemies. 26 So Moses stood at the entrance to the camp and said, “Let anyone who wants to follow the Lord come to me.” And all the people from the family of Levi gathered around Moses.
27 Then Moses said to them, “The Lord, the God of Israel, says this: ‘Every man must put on his sword and go through the camp from one end to the other. Each man must kill his brother, his friend, and his neighbor.’” 28 The people from the family of Levi obeyed Moses, and that day about three thousand of the Israelites died. 29 Then Moses said, “Today you have been given for service to the Lord. You were willing to kill your own sons and brothers, and God has blessed you for this.”
30 The next day Moses told the people, “You have done a terrible sin. But now I will go up to the Lord. Maybe I can do something so your sins will be removed.” 31 So Moses went back to the Lord and said, “How terribly these people have sinned! They have made for themselves gods from gold. 32 Now, please forgive them of this sin. If you will not, then erase my name from the book in which you have written the names of your people.”
33 But the Lord told Moses, “I will erase from my book the names of the people who sin against me. 34 So now, go. Lead the people where I have told you, and my angel will lead you. When the time comes to punish, I will punish them for their sin.”
35 So the Lord caused terrible things to happen to the people because of what they did with the calf Aaron had made.
True Riches
9 Believers who are poor should take pride that God has made them spiritually rich. 10 Those who are rich should take pride that God has shown them that they are spiritually poor. The rich will die like a wild flower in the grass. 11 The sun rises with burning heat and dries up the plants. The flower falls off, and its beauty is gone. In the same way the rich will die while they are still taking care of business.
Temptation Is Not from God
12 When people are tempted and still continue strong, they should be happy. After they have proved their faith, God will reward them with life forever. God promised this to all those who love him. 13 When people are tempted, they should not say, “God is tempting me.” Evil cannot tempt God, and God himself does not tempt anyone. 14 But people are tempted when their own evil desire leads them away and traps them. 15 This desire leads to sin, and then the sin grows and brings death.
16 My dear brothers and sisters, do not be fooled about this.
The Holy Bible, New Century Version®. Copyright © 2005 by Thomas Nelson, Inc.