Revised Common Lectionary (Complementary)

20 In your day of trouble, may the Lord be with you! May the God of Jacob keep you from all harm. ² May he send you aid from his sanctuary in Zion. ³ May he remember with pleasure the gifts you have given him, your sacrifices and burnt offerings. ⁴ May he grant you your heart’s desire and fulfill all your plans. ⁵ May there be shouts of joy when we hear the news of your victory, flags flying with praise to God for all that he has done for you. May he answer all your prayers!

⁶ “God save the king”—I know he does! He hears me from highest heaven and sends great victories. ⁷ Some nations boast of armies and of weaponry, but our boast is in the Lord our God. ⁸ Those nations will collapse and perish; we will arise to stand firm and sure!

⁹ Give victory to our king, O Lord; oh, hear our prayer.

12 God had told Abram, “Leave your own country behind you, and your own people, and go to the land I will guide you to. ² If you do, I will cause you to become the father of a great nation; I will bless you and make your name famous, and you will be a blessing to many others.^{[a] 3} I will bless those who bless you and curse those who curse you; and the entire world will be blessed because of you.”^[b]

⁴ So Abram departed as the Lord had instructed him, and Lot went too; Abram was seventy-five years old at that time. ⁵ He took his wife Sarai, his nephew Lot, and all his wealth—the cattle and slaves he had gotten in Haran—and finally arrived in Canaan. ⁶ Traveling through Canaan, they came to a place near Shechem, and set up camp beside the oak at Moreh. (This area was inhabited by Canaanites at that time.)

⁷ Then Jehovah appeared to Abram and said, “I am going to give this land to your descendants.” And Abram built an altar there to commemorate Jehovah’s visit.

11 What is faith? It is the confident assurance that something we want is going to happen. It is the certainty that what we hope for is waiting for us, even though we cannot see it up ahead. ² Men of God in days of old were famous for their faith.

³ By faith—by believing God—we know that the world and the stars—in fact, all things—were made at God’s command; and that they were all made from things that can’t be seen.^[a]

⁴ It was by faith that Abel obeyed God and brought an offering that pleased God more than Cain’s offering did. God accepted Abel and proved it by accepting his gift; and though Abel is long dead, we can still learn lessons from him about trusting God.

⁵ Enoch trusted God too, and that is why God took him away to heaven without dying; suddenly he was gone because God took him. Before this happened God had said^[b] how pleased he was with Enoch. ⁶ You can never please God without faith, without depending on him. Anyone who wants to come to God must believe that there is a God and that he rewards those who sincerely look for him.

⁷ Noah was another who trusted God. When he heard God’s warning about the future, Noah believed him even though there was then no sign of a flood, and wasting no time, he built the ark and saved his family. Noah’s belief in God was in direct contrast to the sin and disbelief of the rest of the world—which refused to obey—and because of his faith he became one of those whom God has accepted.

⁸ Abraham trusted God, and when God told him to leave home and go far away to another land that he promised to give him, Abraham obeyed. Away he went, not even knowing where he was going. ⁹ And even when he reached God’s promised land, he lived in tents like a mere visitor as did Isaac and Jacob, to whom God gave the same promise. ¹⁰ Abraham did this because he was confidently waiting for God to bring him to that strong heavenly city whose designer and builder is God.

¹¹ Sarah, too, had faith, and because of this she was able to become a mother in spite of her old age, for she realized that God, who gave her his promise, would certainly do what he said. ¹² And so a whole nation came from Abraham, who was too old to have even one child—a nation with so many millions of people that, like the stars of the sky and the sand on the ocean shores, there is no way to count them.