Revised Common Lectionary (Complementary)

This is a special song that Ethan the Ezrahite wrote.

God's special love^[a]

¹⁴ The Lord also says, “A time will soon come when I do good things for the nations of Israel and Judah. I will do what I have promised to do for them. ¹⁵ At that time, I will cause a descendant of David to be born. He will be righteous. He will grow like a branch on the tree of David's family. He will do what is right and fair in the land.^{[a] 16} When he rules, the people of Judah will be safe. Jerusalem's people will live in peace. People will give this name to the city: ‘The Lord is our righteous Saviour.’ ”

¹⁷ The Lord says, “One of David's descendants will always rule as king over the nation of Israel. ¹⁸ There will always be priests who are descendants of Levi. They will serve me in my temple. They will always be there to offer burnt offerings, grain offerings and other sacrifices to me.” ’

¹⁹ The Lord also said this to Jeremiah: ²⁰ ‘I, the Lord, say to you, “The day and the night will always come at their proper times. I have made that agreement with them, and nobody can stop it. ²¹ In the same way, nobody can stop the covenant that I have made with my servant David, and with the Levites. I promise you that there will always be a descendant of King David who rules as king. I also promise that there will always be descendants of Levi to serve me as priests. ²² I promise that my servant David will always have many descendants. There will also be very many Levites to serve me as priests. You will not be able to count them. They will be more than the stars in the sky and more than the sand on the shore of the sea.” ’

²³ The Lord also said to Jeremiah, ²⁴ ‘Some people are saying, “The Lord chose the two nations of Israel and Judah to be his special people. But now he has turned away from them.” You have heard people say those things. They do not think that my people will ever be a nation again. ²⁵ But I promise you this: Nobody can stop the agreement that I have made with the day and the night. I have also commanded the earth and the sky to obey certain laws. ²⁶ In the same way, I will never change my promise to the descendants of Jacob and to my servant David. I will always choose one of David's descendants to rule over the descendants of Abraham, Isaac and Jacob.^[b] I will bring them back to their own land. I will be kind to them and forgive them.’

Be a good servant

⁴¹ Peter asked Jesus, ‘Master, are you only telling this story to us, your disciples? Or is this story for everyone to hear?’

⁴² Jesus replied, ‘Be a wise servant. Be someone that the master can trust. The master will choose a man like that. He will say to him, “I want you to rule my house and the other servants. Give them the food that they need at the right time.” ⁴³ That servant will be very happy when his master comes home. His master will see that he has done everything well. ⁴⁴ Let me tell you what will happen. The master will give that servant authority to rule over everything in his house. ⁴⁵ But another servant might say to himself, “My master is very late. He will not come yet.” Then he begins to hit the other servants, both the men and the women. He eats too much, and he drinks too much. He even becomes drunk. ⁴⁶ Then the master of that servant will come home and he will surprise the servant. He did not think that his master would come home on that day or at that time. Then the master will punish that servant a lot. He will put the servant with those people that do not obey him.

⁴⁷ A servant may know what his master wants him to do. Then he should prepare himself and do that. If he does not, his master will punish him very much. He will hit him a lot. ⁴⁸ But another servant perhaps does not know what his master wants him to do. So he does wrong things. The master will punish him because he did those wrong things. But he will not hit him as much. If God gives a lot to somebody, he will want a lot back in return. And God will want much more from the person to whom he has given authority over much more.