Revised Common Lectionary (Complementary)

Praise to God for Providing Victory

For the music director. Of David. A psalm. A song.^[a]

God Tests Abraham

22 And it happened that after these things, God tested Abraham. And he said to him, “Abraham!” And he said, “Here I am.” ² And he said, “Take your son, your only child, Isaac, whom you love, and go to the land of Moriah, and offer him there as a burnt offering on one of the mountains where^[a] I will tell you.” ³ And Abraham rose up early in the morning and saddled his donkey. And he took two of his servants with him, and Isaac his son. And he chopped wood for a burnt offering. And he got up and went to the place which God had told him. ⁴ On the third day Abraham lifted up his eyes, and he saw the place at a distance. ⁵ And Abraham said to his servants, “You stay here with the donkey, and I and the boy will go up there. We will worship, then we will return to you.” ⁶ And Abraham took the wood of the burnt offering and placed it on Isaac his son. And he took the fire in his hand and the knife, and the two of them went together. ⁷ And Isaac said to Abraham his father, “My father!” And he said, “Here I am, my son.” And he said, “Here is the fire and the wood, but where is the lamb for a burnt offering?” ⁸ And Abraham said, “God will provide^[b] the lamb for a burnt offering, my son.” And the two of them went together.

⁹ And they came to the place that God had told him. And Abraham built an altar there and arranged the wood. Then he bound Isaac his son and placed him on the altar atop the wood. ¹⁰ And Abraham stretched out his hand and took the knife to slaughter his son. ¹¹ And the angel of Yahweh called to him from heaven and said, “Abraham! Abraham!” And he said, “Here I am.” ¹² And he said, “Do not stretch out your hand against the boy; do not do anything to him. For now I know that you are one who fears^[c] God, since you have not withheld your son, your only child, from me.” ¹³ And Abraham lifted up his eyes and looked. And behold, a ram was caught in the thicket by his horns. And Abraham went and took the ram, and offered it as a burnt offering in place of his son. ¹⁴ And Abraham called the name of that place “Yahweh will provide,”^[d] for which reason^[e] it is said today, “on the mountain of Yahweh it shall be provided.”^[f]

Paul’s Ministry Recognized by the Jerusalem Apostles

2 Then after fourteen years I went up again to Jerusalem with Barnabas, taking along Titus also. ² Now I went up there because of a revelation and laid out to them the gospel that I preach among the Gentiles, but in private to the influential people, lest somehow I was running, or had run, in vain. ³ But not even Titus who was with me, although^[a] he was a Greek, was compelled to be circumcised. ⁴ Now this was because of the false brothers secretly brought in, who slipped in to spy out our freedom that we have in Christ Jesus, in order that they might enslave us, ⁵ to whom not even for an hour did we yield in subjection, in order that the truth of the gospel might remain continually with you. ⁶ But from those who were influential^[b] (whatever they were, it makes no difference to me, God does not show partiality^[c])—for those who were influential added nothing to me. ⁷ But these, when they^[d] saw that I had been entrusted with the gospel to the uncircumcision, just as Peter to the circumcision ⁸ (for the one who was at work through Peter for his apostleship to the circumcision was at work also through me for the Gentiles), ⁹ and when James and Cephas and John—those thought to be pillars—acknowledged the grace given to me, they gave to me and Barnabas the right hand of fellowship, in order that we should go to the Gentiles and they to the circumcision. ¹⁰ They asked only that we should remember the poor, the very thing I was also eager to do.