Revised Common Lectionary (Complementary)

^[a] To the director: A song of David, the Lord’s servant. He sang this song to the Lord when the Lord saved him from Saul and all his other enemies.

³ Samuel told the Israelites, “If you are really coming back to the Lord with all your heart, you must throw away your foreign gods and your idols of Ashtoreth. You must give yourselves fully to the Lord and serve only him. Then he will save you from the Philistines.”

⁴ So the Israelites threw away their statues of Baal and Ashtoreth. The Israelites served only the Lord.

⁵ Samuel said, “All Israel must meet at Mizpah. I will pray to the Lord for you.”

⁶ The Israelites met together at Mizpah. They got water and poured it out before the Lord. In this way they began a time of fasting. They did not eat any food that day, and they confessed their sins. They said, “We have sinned against the Lord.” So Samuel served as a judge of Israel at Mizpah.

⁷ When the Philistines heard that the Israelites were meeting at Mizpah, they went to fight them. The Israelites were frightened when they heard the Philistines were coming ⁸ and said to Samuel, “Don’t stop praying to the Lord our God for us. Ask him to save us from the Philistines.”

⁹ Samuel took a baby lamb and offered it as a whole burnt offering to the Lord. He prayed to the Lord for Israel, and the Lord answered his prayer. ¹⁰ The Philistines came closer and closer to fight the Israelites while Samuel offered the sacrifice. But then, the Lord caused a loud clap of thunder to hit near the Philistines. The thunder scared the Philistines, and they became confused, so the Israelites defeated them in battle. ¹¹ The men of Israel ran out of Mizpah and chased the Philistines all the way to Beth Car. They killed Philistine soldiers all along the way.

Peace Comes to Israel

¹² After this Samuel set up a special stone to help people remember what God did. Samuel put the stone between Mizpah and Shen^[a] and named the stone “Stone of Help.”^[b] Samuel said, “The Lord helped us all the way to this place.”

¹³ The Philistines were defeated and did not enter the land of Israel again. The Lord was against the Philistines during the rest of Samuel’s life.

Let God Be the Judge

2 So do you think that you can judge those other people? You are wrong. You too are guilty of sin. You judge them, but you do the same things they do. So when you judge them, you are really condemning yourself. ² God judges all who do such things, and we know his judgment is right. ³ And since you do the same things as those people you judge, surely you understand that God will punish you too. How could you think you would be able to escape his judgment? ⁴ God has been kind to you. He has been very patient, waiting for you to change. But you think nothing of his kindness. Maybe you don’t understand that God is kind to you so that you will decide to change your lives.

⁵ But you are so stubborn! You refuse to change. So you are making your own punishment greater and greater. You will be punished on the day when God will show his anger. On that day everyone will see how right God is to judge people. ⁶ He will reward or punish everyone for what they have done. ⁷ Some people live for God’s glory, for honor, and for life that cannot be destroyed. They live for those things by always continuing to do good. God will give eternal life to them. ⁸ But others are selfish and refuse to follow truth. They follow evil. God will show his anger and punish them. ⁹ He will give trouble and suffering to everyone who does evil—to the Jews first and also to those who are not Jews. ¹⁰ But he will give glory, honor, and peace to everyone who does good—to the Jews first and also to those who are not Jews. ¹¹ God judges everyone the same. It doesn’t matter who they are.