Revised Common Lectionary (Complementary)

The 70 Older Leaders

⁴ The foreigners who had joined the Israelites began wanting other things to eat. Soon all the Israelites began complaining again. The people said, “We want to eat meat! ⁵ We remember the fish we ate in Egypt. That fish cost us nothing. We also had good vegetables like cucumbers, melons, chives, onions, and garlic. ⁶ But now we have lost our strength. We never eat anything—only this manna!”

¹⁰ Moses heard the people complaining. People from every family were sitting by their tents and complaining. The Lord became very angry, and this made Moses very upset. ¹¹ He asked the Lord, “Why did you bring this trouble on me? I am your servant. What did I do wrong? What did I do to upset you? Why did you give me responsibility over all these people? ¹² You know that I am not the father of all these people. You know that I did not give birth to them. But I must take care of them, like a nurse carrying a baby in her arms. Why do you force me to do this? Why do you force me to carry them to the land that you promised to our fathers? ¹³ I don’t have enough meat for all these people! And they continue complaining to me. They say, ‘Give us meat to eat!’ ¹⁴ I cannot take care of all these people alone. The burden is too heavy for me. ¹⁵ If you plan to continue giving me their troubles, kill me now. If you accept me as your servant, let me die now. Then I will be finished with all my troubles!”

¹⁶ The Lord said to Moses, “Bring to me 70 of the elders of Israel. These men are the leaders among the people. Bring them to the Meeting Tent. Let them stand there with you.

²⁴ So Moses went out to speak with the people. He told them what the Lord said. Then he gathered 70 of the elders together and told them to stand around the Tent. ²⁵ Then the Lord came down in the cloud and spoke to Moses. He put on the 70 elders some of the same Spirit that was on Moses. After the Spirit came down on them, they began to prophesy.^[a] But that was the only time they ever did this.

²⁶ Two of the elders, Eldad and Medad, did not go out to the Tent. Their names were on the list of elders, but they stayed in camp. But the Spirit also came on them, and they began prophesying in camp. ²⁷ A young man ran and told Moses. The man said, “Eldad and Medad are prophesying in camp.”

²⁸ Joshua son of Nun said to Moses, “Moses, sir, you must stop them!” (Joshua had been Moses’ helper since Joshua was a boy.)

²⁹ But Moses answered, “Are you afraid the people will think that I am not the leader now? I wish that all the Lord’s people were able to prophesy. I wish that the Lord would put his Spirit on all of them!”

The Power of Prayer

¹³ Are you having troubles? You should pray. Are you happy? You should sing. ¹⁴ Are you sick? Ask the elders of the church to come and rub oil on you^[a] in the name of the Lord and pray for you. ¹⁵ If such a prayer is offered in faith, it will heal anyone who is sick. The Lord will heal them. And if they have sinned, he will forgive them.

¹⁶ So always tell each other the wrong things you have done. Then pray for each other. Do this so that God can heal you. Anyone who lives the way God wants can pray, and great things will happen. ¹⁷ Elijah was a person just like us. He prayed that it would not rain. And it did not rain on the land for three and a half years! ¹⁸ Then Elijah prayed that it would rain. And the rain came down from the sky, and the land grew crops again.

Helping People When They Sin

¹⁹ My brothers and sisters, if anyone wanders away from the truth and someone helps that person come back, ²⁰ remember this: Anyone who brings a sinner back from the wrong way will save that person from eternal death and cause many sins to be forgiven.

Whoever Is Not Against Us Is For Us^(A)

³⁸ Then John said, “Teacher, we saw a man using your name to force demons out of someone. He is not one of us. So we told him to stop, because he does not belong to our group.”

³⁹ Jesus said, “Don’t stop him. Whoever uses my name to do powerful things will not soon say bad things about me. ⁴⁰ Whoever is not against us is with us. ⁴¹ I can assure you that anyone who helps you by giving you a drink of water because you belong to the Messiah will definitely get a reward.

Jesus Warns About Causes of Sin^(B)

⁴² “If one of these little children believes in me, and someone causes that child to sin, it will be very bad for that person. It would be better for them to have a millstone tied around their neck and be drowned in the sea. ⁴³ If your hand makes you sin, cut it off. It is better for you to lose part of your body and have eternal life than to have two hands and go to hell. There the fire never stops. ^{44 [a] 45} If your foot makes you sin, cut it off. It is better for you to lose part of your body and have eternal life than to have two feet and be thrown into hell. ^{46 [b] 47} If your eye makes you sin, take it out. It is better for you to have only one eye and enter God’s kingdom than to have two eyes and be thrown into hell. ⁴⁸ The worms that eat the people in hell never die. The fire there is never stopped.

⁴⁹ “Everyone will be salted with fire.^[c]

⁵⁰ “Salt is good. But if it loses its salty taste, you can’t make it good again. So, don’t lose that good quality of salt you have. And live in peace with each other.”