Revised Common Lectionary (Complementary)

20 In your day of trouble, may the Lord be with you! May the God of Jacob keep you from all harm. ² May he send you aid from his sanctuary in Zion. ³ May he remember with pleasure the gifts you have given him, your sacrifices and burnt offerings. ⁴ May he grant you your heart’s desire and fulfill all your plans. ⁵ May there be shouts of joy when we hear the news of your victory, flags flying with praise to God for all that he has done for you. May he answer all your prayers!

⁶ “God save the king”—I know he does! He hears me from highest heaven and sends great victories. ⁷ Some nations boast of armies and of weaponry, but our boast is in the Lord our God. ⁸ Those nations will collapse and perish; we will arise to stand firm and sure!

⁹ Give victory to our king, O Lord; oh, hear our prayer.

25 ^1-7 Jehovah said to Moses, “Tell the people of Israel that everyone who wants to may bring me an offering from this list: gold, silver, bronze, blue cloth, purple cloth, scarlet cloth, fine-twined linen, goats’ hair, red-dyed rams’ skins, goatskins, acacia wood, olive oil for the lamps, spices for the anointing oil and for the fragrant incense, onyx stones, stones to be set in the ephod and in the breastplate.

⁸ “For I want the people of Israel to make me a sacred Temple where I can live among them.

⁹ “This home of mine shall be a tent pavilion—a Tabernacle. I will give you a drawing of the construction plan and the details of each furnishing.

¹⁰ “Using acacia wood, make an Ark 3-3/4 feet long, 2-1/4 feet wide, and 2-1/4 feet high. ¹¹ Overlay it inside and outside with pure gold, with a molding of gold all around it. ¹² Cast four rings of gold for it and attach them to the four lower corners, two rings on each side. ^13-14 Make poles from acacia wood overlaid with gold, and fit the poles into the rings at the sides of the Ark to carry it. ¹⁵ These carrying poles shall never be taken from the rings, but are to be left there permanently. ¹⁶ When the Ark is finished, place inside it the tablets of stone I will give you, with the Ten Commandments engraved on them.^[a]

¹⁷ “And make a lid of pure gold, 3-3/4 feet long and 2-1/4 feet wide. This is the place of mercy for your sins.^{[b] 18} Then make two statues of Guardian Angels^[c] using beaten gold, and place them at the two ends of the lid of the Ark. ¹⁹ They shall be one piece with the mercy place, one at each end. ²⁰ The Guardian Angels shall be facing each other, looking down upon the place of mercy, and shall have wings spread out above the gold lid. ²¹ Install the lid upon the Ark, and place within the Ark the tablets of stone I shall give you. ²² And I will meet with you there and talk with you from above the place of mercy between the Guardian Angels; and the Ark will contain the laws of my covenant. There I will tell you my commandments for the people of Israel.

2 Dear brothers, even when I first came to you I didn’t use lofty words and brilliant ideas to tell you God’s message. ² For I decided that I would speak only of Jesus Christ and his death on the cross. ³ I came to you in weakness—timid and trembling. ⁴ And my preaching was very plain, not with a lot of oratory and human wisdom, but the Holy Spirit’s power was in my words, proving to those who heard them that the message was from God. ⁵ I did this because I wanted your faith to stand firmly upon God, not on man’s great ideas.

⁶ Yet when I am among mature Christians I do speak with words of great wisdom, but not the kind that comes from here on earth, and not the kind that appeals to the great men of this world, who are doomed to fall. ⁷ Our words are wise because they are from God, telling of God’s wise plan to bring us into the glories of heaven. This plan was hidden in former times, though it was made for our benefit before the world began. ⁸ But the great men of the world have not understood it; if they had, they never would have crucified the Lord of Glory.

⁹ That is what is meant by the Scriptures which say that no mere man has ever seen, heard, or even imagined what wonderful things God has ready for those who love the Lord. ¹⁰ But we know about these things because God has sent his Spirit to tell us, and his Spirit searches out and shows us all of God’s deepest secrets.