Revised Common Lectionary (Complementary)
95 Come, let us sing praise to the Lord!
Let us shout praises to the Rock who saves us.
2 Come and worship him with songs of thanks.[a]
Let us sing happy songs of praise to him.
3 For the Lord is a great God,
the great King ruling over all the other “gods.”
4 The deepest caves and the highest mountains belong to him.
5 The ocean is his—he created it.
He made the dry land with his own hands.
6 Come, let us bow down and worship him!
Let us kneel before the Lord who made us.
7 He is our God,
and we are the people he cares for,
his sheep that walk by his side.
Listen to his voice today:
8 “Don’t be stubborn, as you were at Meribah,
as you were at Massah[b] in the desert.
9 Your ancestors doubted and tested me,
even after they saw what I could do!
10 I was angry with them for 40 years.
I said, ‘They are not faithful to me.
They refuse to do what I say.’
11 So in my anger I made this vow:
‘They will never enter my land of rest.’”
9 Then Moses said to Aaron, “Tell the whole community of Israelites to come together before the Lord, because he has heard their complaints.”
10 So Aaron spoke to all the Israelites. While he was talking, the people turned and looked into the desert. And they saw the Glory of the Lord appear in a cloud.
11 The Lord said to Moses, 12 “I have heard the complaints of the Israelites. So tell them, ‘Tonight you will eat meat. And in the morning you will have all the bread you want. Then you will know you can trust the Lord, your God.’”
13 That evening, flocks of quail came and filled the camp, and in the morning dew lay on the ground all around it. 14 After the dew was gone, something like thin flakes of frost was on the ground. 15 When the Israelites saw it, they asked each other, “What is that?” because they did not know what it was. So Moses told them, “This is the food the Lord is giving you to eat. 16 The Lord says, ‘Each of you should gather what you need, a basket[a] of manna for everyone in your family.’”
17 So that is what the Israelites did. Some people gathered a large amount, some people gathered a little. 18 But when they measured what they had gathered, there was no shortage and there was none left over. Everyone gathered just what they needed.
19 Moses told them, “Don’t save that food to eat the next day.” 20 But some of the people did not obey Moses. They saved their food for the next day. But worms got into the food and it began to stink. Moses was angry with the people who did this.
21 Every morning the people gathered as much food as they could eat, but by noon[b] the food melted and was gone.
One in Christ
11 You were not born as Jews. You are the people the Jews call “uncircumcised.[a]” Those Jews who call you “uncircumcised” call themselves “circumcised.” (Their circumcision is only something they themselves do to their bodies.) 12 Remember that in the past you were without Christ. You were not citizens of Israel, and you did not know about the agreements[b] with the promises that God made to his people. You had no hope, and you did not know God. 13 Yes, at one time you were far away from God, but now in Christ Jesus, you are brought near to him. You are brought near to God through the blood sacrifice of Christ.
14 Christ is the reason we are now at peace. He made us Jews and you who are not Jews one people. We were separated by a wall of hate that stood between us, but Christ broke down that wall. By giving his own body, 15 Christ ended the law with its many commands and rules. His purpose was to make the two groups become one in him. By doing this he would make peace. 16 Through the cross Christ ended the hate between the two groups. And after they became one body, he wanted to bring them both back to God. He did this with his death on the cross. 17 Christ came and brought the message of peace to you non-Jews who were far away from God. And he brought that message of peace to those who were near to God. 18 Yes, through Christ we all have the right to come to the Father in one Spirit.
19 So now you non-Jewish people are not visitors or strangers, but you are citizens together with God’s holy people. You belong to God’s family. 20 You believers are like a building that God owns. That building was built on the foundation that the apostles and prophets prepared. Christ Jesus himself is the most important stone[c] in that building. 21 The whole building is joined together in Christ, and he makes it grow and become a holy temple[d] in the Lord. 22 And in Christ you are being built together with his other people. You are being made into a place where God lives through the Spirit.
Copyright © 2006 by Bible League International