Revised Common Lectionary (Complementary)
A Prayer for Mercy
A song for going up to worship.
130 Lord, I am in great trouble.
So I call out to you for help.
2 Lord, hear my voice.
Listen to my prayer for help.
3 Lord, if you punished people for all their sins,
no one would be left.
4 But you forgive us.
So you are respected.
5 I wait for the Lord to help me.
I trust his word.
6 I wait for the Lord to help me
more than night watchmen wait for the dawn,
more than night watchmen wait for the dawn.
7 People of Israel, put your hope in the Lord
because he is loving
and able to save.
8 He will save Israel
from all their sins.
Ezekiel’s Vision of Living Things
1 It was the thirtieth year, on the fifth day of the fourth month of our captivity. I, Ezekiel, was by the Kebar River in Babylon. I was among the people who had been carried away as captives from the land of Judah. The sky opened, and I saw visions of God.
2 It was the fifth year that King Jehoiachin had been a prisoner. It was on the fifth day of the month. 3 The Lord spoke his word to Ezekiel son of Buzi. This was in the land of the Babylonians by the Kebar River. There he felt the power of the Lord.
8 But you, human being, listen to what I say to you. Don’t turn against me as those people do. Open your mouth and eat what I am giving you.”
9 I looked and saw a hand stretched out to me. A scroll was in the hand. 10 The Lord opened the scroll in front of me. The scroll was written on the front and back. Funeral songs, sad writings and troubles were written on the scroll.
3 Then the Lord said to me, “Human being, eat what you find. Eat this scroll. Then go and speak to the people of Israel.” 2 So I opened my mouth, and the Lord gave me the scroll.
3 The Lord said to me, “Human being, eat this scroll which I am giving you. Fill your stomach with it.” Then I ate it. And it was sweet like honey in my mouth.
The Angel and the Little Scroll
10 Then I saw another powerful angel coming down from heaven. He was dressed in a cloud and had a rainbow around his head. His face was like the sun, and his legs were like poles of fire. 2 The angel was holding a small scroll open in his hand. He put his right foot on the sea and his left foot on the land. 3 He shouted loudly like the roaring of a lion. When he shouted, the voices of seven thunders spoke. 4 The seven thunders spoke, and I started to write. But then I heard a voice from heaven. The voice said, “Do not write what the seven thunders said. Keep these things secret.”
5 Then the angel I saw standing on the sea and on the land raised his right hand to heaven. 6 He made a promise by the power of the One who lives forever and ever. He is the One who made the skies and all that is in them. He made the earth and all that is in it, and he made the sea and all that is in it. The angel said, “There will be no more waiting! 7 In the days when the seventh angel is ready to blow his trumpet, God’s secret plan will be finished. This plan is the Good News God told to his servants, the prophets.”
8 Then I heard the same voice from heaven again. The voice said to me, “Go and take the open scroll that is in the angel’s hand. This is the angel that is standing on the sea and on the land.”
9 So I went to the angel and asked him to give me the little scroll. He said to me, “Take the scroll and eat it. It will be sour in your stomach. But in your mouth it will be sweet as honey.” 10 So I took the little scroll from the angel’s hand and I ate it. In my mouth it tasted sweet as honey. But after I ate it, it was sour in my stomach. 11 Then I was told, “You must prophesy again about many peoples, nations, languages, and kings.”
The Holy Bible, International Children’s Bible® Copyright© 1986, 1988, 1999, 2015 by Thomas Nelson. Used by permission.