Revised Common Lectionary (Complementary)

⁷ Then Adonai said to Moses, “Go down! For your people, whom you brought up out of the land of Egypt, have become debased. ⁸ They quickly turned aside from the path that I commanded for them. They have made a molten calf, worshipped it, and sacrificed to it, and said, ‘This is your god, O Israel, that brought you up out of the land of Egypt.’”

⁹ Adonai said to Moses, “I have seen this people, and behold, it is a stiff-necked people. ¹⁰ Now therefore, leave Me alone, so My wrath may burn hot against them, and so I may consume them—and make from you a great nation!”

¹¹ Then Moses sought Adonai his God and said, “Adonai, why should Your wrath burn hot against Your people, whom You have brought forth out of the land of Egypt with great power and with a mighty hand? ¹² Why should the Egyptians say, ‘He brought them out to do evil, to slay them in the mountains, and to annihilate them from the face of the earth?’ Turn from Your fierce wrath, and relent from this destruction against Your people. ¹³ Remember Abraham, Isaac and Israel, Your servants, to whom You swore by Your own self, and said to them, ‘I will multiply your seed as the stars of heaven, and all this land that I have spoken of I will give to your offspring, and they will inherit it forever.’”

¹⁴ So Adonai relented from the destruction that He said He would do to His people.

Create in Me a Clean Heart

Psalm 51

Mercy to the Worst of Sinners

¹² I thank Messiah Yeshua our Lord, who has strengthened me, because He considered me faithful, appointing me to service— ¹³ even though I was formerly a blasphemer, a persecutor, and a violent man. Yet I was shown mercy because I had acted ignorantly in unbelief, ¹⁴ and the grace of our Lord overflowed with the faith and love that are in Messiah Yeshua. ¹⁵ Trustworthy is the saying and deserving of complete acceptance: “Messiah Yeshua came into the world to save sinners”—of whom I am foremost. ¹⁶ Yet for this reason I was shown mercy—so that in me as the foremost, Messiah Yeshua might demonstrate His complete patience, as an example for those about to put their trust in Him for eternal life. ¹⁷ Now to the King eternal, immortal, invisible, the only God,^[a] be honor and glory forever and ever. Amen.

15 Now all the tax collectors and sinners were drawing near to hear Yeshua. ² The Pharisees and the Torah scholars began to complain, saying, ‘This man welcomes sinners and eats with them.” ³ So He told this parable to them, saying, ⁴ “Which man among you, if he has a hundred sheep and loses one of them, will not leave the ninety-nine in the wilderness and go after the lost one until he finds it? ⁵ When he has found it, he puts it on his shoulders, rejoicing. ⁶ And when he comes home, he calls together his friends and neighbors and says, ‘Rejoice with me, for I’ve found my sheep that was lost!’ ⁷ I tell you, in the same way there will be more joy in heaven over one repenting sinner than over the ninety-nine righteous people who have no need of repentance.”

⁸ “Or which woman, if she has ten silver coins and loses one coin,^[a] does not light a lamp, sweep the house, and search thoroughly until she finds it? ⁹ When she has found it, she calls together her friends and neighbors, saying, ‘Rejoice with me, for I’ve found the coin I had lost!’ ¹⁰ In the same way, I tell you, there is joy in the presence of the angels of God over one sinner who repents.”