Revised Common Lectionary (Complementary)

This is a special song that David wrote.

Tell God about your sins^[a]

Elijah runs away

19 King Ahab told Jezebel about everything that Elijah had done. He told her how Elijah had killed all Baal's prophets with a sword. ² So Jezebel sent someone with this message to Elijah: ‘By this time tomorrow, I will make sure that you are dead, the same as Baal's prophets! If I do not do that, I pray that the gods will kill me instead.’

³ Elijah became very afraid. He ran away to save his life. He arrived at Beersheba in Judah.^[a] He left his servant there. ⁴ Then Elijah went into the desert by himself. He travelled for about a day. He found a small tree there and he sat down under it. He prayed that he might die. He said, ‘Lord, I have had enough trouble! Take my life from me. It is no better for me here than to be with my dead ancestors.’ ⁵ Then he lay down under the tree and he slept. Suddenly, an angel came and touched him. The angel said, ‘Get up and eat something.’ ⁶ When Elijah looked, he saw some bread near his head. Someone had baked it on a fire. There was also a jar of water. So he ate the bread and he drank the water. Then he lay down again to sleep. ⁷ The angel of the Lord came back a second time. He touched Elijah and he said, ‘Get up and eat more food. Then you will be strong enough to go on a long journey.’ ⁸ So Elijah got up. He ate the food and he drank the water. The meal made him strong enough to travel for 40 days and 40 nights. He travelled to Sinai, the mountain of God.^[b]

¹⁰ It was right that God should bring Jesus back to heaven as king. All things belong to God, and he causes all things to continue. God wanted many people to become his children. He wanted them to live with him in heaven. Jesus made this possible because he died with much pain as a sacrifice. ¹¹ Jesus is the one who makes people clean in front of God. Jesus himself and all the people that he makes clean have the same Father. So Jesus is not ashamed to call all those people his brothers and sisters. ¹² He says this to God:

¹³ He also says this:

¹⁴ So, those people who become God's children are human. They have human bodies. Because of that, Jesus himself became human like us. In that way, when he died he was able to destroy the Devil. It is the Devil who has power over death. ¹⁵ Before, we were like slaves all our lives because we were afraid of death. But now, Jesus' death makes us free. ¹⁶ It is clear that Jesus did not come to help the angels. He came to help people who are from Abraham's family.^[c]

¹⁷ Because of that, it was necessary for Jesus to become completely like us, his brothers and sisters. He had to become God's servant on our behalf, like God's most important priest. In that way, he could serve God well and be kind to us. He died as a sacrifice so that God could forgive us for our sins. ¹⁸ While Jesus lived on earth, the Devil tried to make him do wrong things. This caused Jesus to have much pain and trouble. But because of that, he can now help us not to do wrong things.