Revised Common Lectionary (Complementary)

Adonai-Nissi

Psalm 20

Parashat Lech Lecha

Abram Obeys the Calling

12 Then Adonai said to Abram,

“Get going out from your land,

and from your relatives,

and from your father’s house,

to the land that I will show you.

² My heart’s desire is to make you into a great nation, to bless you,

to make your name great so that you may be a blessing.

³ My desire is to bless those who bless you,

but whoever curses you I will curse,^[a]

and in you all the families of the earth will be blessed.^[b]

⁴ So Abram went, just as Adonai had spoken to him. Also Lot went with him. (Now Abram was 75 years old when he departed from Haran.) ⁵ Abram took Sarai his wife, and Lot his nephew, and all their possessions that they had acquired, and the people that they acquired in Haran, and they left to go to the land of Canaan, and they entered the land of Canaan. ⁶ Abram passed through the land as far as the place of Shechem, as far as Moreh’s big tree. (The Canaanites were in the land then.)^[c]

⁷ Then Adonai appeared to Abram, and said, “I will give this land to your seed.” So there he built an altar to Adonai, who had appeared to him.

The Faithful See from Afar

11 Now faith is the substance of things hoped for, the evidence of realities not seen. ² For by it the elders received commendation. ³ By faith we understand that the universe was created by the word of God, so that what is seen did not come from anything visible.

⁴ By faith Abel offered God a better sacrifice than Cain. Through faith he was commended as righteous^[a] when God approved of his gifts. And through faith he still speaks, although he is dead.

⁵ By faith Enoch was taken so as not to see death, and he was not found because God took him.^[b] For before he was taken, he was commended as pleasing to God. ⁶ Now without faith it is impossible to please God. For the one who comes to God must believe that He exists and that He is a rewarder of those who seek Him.

⁷ By faith Noah, when warned about events not yet seen, in holy fear prepared an ark for the safety of his household. Through faith he condemned the world and became an heir of the righteousness that comes by faith.

⁸ By faith Abraham obeyed when he was called to go out to a place he was to receive as an inheritance. He went out, not knowing where he was going. ⁹ By faith he migrated to the land of promise as if it were foreign, dwelling in tents with Isaac and Jacob—fellow heirs of the same promise. ¹⁰ For he was waiting for the city that has foundations, whose architect and builder is God.

¹¹ By faith even Sarah herself received ability to conceive^[c] when she was barren and past the age, since she considered the One who had made the promise to be faithful. ¹² So from one—and him as good as dead—were fathered offspring as numerous as the stars of heaven, and as uncountable as the sand on the seashore.^[d]