Revised Common Lectionary (Complementary)
A song of David.
103 My soul, praise the Lord!
Every part of me, praise his holy name!
2 My soul, praise the Lord
and never forget how kind he is!
3 He forgives all our sins
and heals all our sicknesses.
4 He saves us from the grave,
and he gives us love and compassion.
5 He gives us plenty of good things.
He makes us young again,
like an eagle that grows new feathers.
6 The Lord does what is fair.
He brings justice to all who have been hurt by others.
7 He taught his laws to Moses.
He let Israel see the powerful things he can do.
8 The Lord is kind and merciful.
He is patient and full of love.
A Man Works on the Day of Rest
32 While the Israelites were in the desert, some of them saw a man gathering firewood on the Sabbath day. 33 The people who saw him gathering the wood brought him to Moses and Aaron and the whole community of Israel. 34 They guarded the man carefully because they did not know how they should punish him.
35 Then the Lord said to Moses, “The man must die. All the people must throw stones at him outside the camp.” 36 So the people took him outside the camp and killed him with stones. They did this just as the Lord commanded Moses.
A Way to Remember God’s Commands
37 The Lord said to Moses, 38 “Speak to the Israelites. Tell them this: Tie several pieces of thread together and tie them in the corner of your clothes. Put a piece of blue thread in each one of these tassels. You must wear these things now and forever. 39 You will be able to look at these tassels and remember all the commands that the Lord has given you. Then you will obey the commands. You will not do wrong by forgetting about the commands and doing the things that your own bodies and eyes want. 40 You will remember to obey all my commands. Then you will be God’s special people. 41 I am the Lord your God. I am the one who brought you out of Egypt. I did this to be your God. I am the Lord your God.”
3 Think about Jesus. He patiently endured the angry insults that sinful people were shouting at him. Think about him so that you won’t get discouraged and stop trying.
God Is Like a Father
4 You are struggling against sin, but you have not had to give up your life for the cause. 5 You are children of God, and he speaks words of comfort to you. You have forgotten these words:
“My child, don’t think the Lord’s discipline is worth nothing,
and don’t stop trying when he corrects you.
6 The Lord disciplines everyone he loves;
he punishes everyone he accepts as a child.” (A)
7 So accept sufferings like a father’s discipline. God does these things to you like a father correcting his children. You know that all children are disciplined by their fathers. 8 So, if you never receive the discipline that every child must have, you are not true children and don’t really belong to God. 9 We have all had fathers here on earth who corrected us with discipline. And we respected them. So it is even more important that we accept discipline from the Father of our spirits. If we do this, we will have life. 10 Our fathers on earth disciplined us for a short time in the way they thought was best. But God disciplines us to help us so that we can be holy like him. 11 We don’t enjoy discipline when we get it. It is painful. But later, after we have learned our lesson from it, we will enjoy the peace that comes from doing what is right.
Be Careful How You Live
12 You have become weak, so make yourselves strong again. 13 Live in the right way so that you will be saved and your weakness will not cause you to be lost.
14 Try to live in peace with everyone. And try to keep your lives free from sin. Anyone whose life is not holy will never see the Lord. 15 Be careful that no one fails to get God’s grace. Be careful that no one loses their faith and becomes like a bitter weed growing among you. Someone like that can ruin your whole group. 16 Be careful that no one commits sexual sin. And be careful that no one is like Esau and never thinks about God. As the oldest son, Esau would have inherited everything from his father. But he sold all that for a single meal. 17 You remember that after Esau did this, he wanted to get his father’s blessing. He wanted that blessing so much that he cried. But his father refused to give him the blessing, because Esau could find no way to change what he had done.
Copyright © 2006 by Bible League International