Revised Common Lectionary (Complementary)
Israel’s Failure to Trust God
106 Praise the Lord!
Thank the Lord because he is good.
His love continues forever.
2 No one can tell all the mighty things the Lord has done.
No one can speak all his praise.
3 Happy are those people who are fair,
who do what is right at all times.
4 Lord, remember me when you are kind to your people.
Help me when you save them.
5 Let me see the good things you do for your chosen people.
Let me be happy along with your happy nation.
Let me join your own people in praising you.
6 We have sinned just as our ancestors did.
We have done wrong. We have done evil.
13 But they quickly forgot what he had done.
They did not wait for his advice.
14 They became greedy for food in the desert.
And they tested God there.
15 So he gave them what they wanted.
But he also sent a terrible disease among them.
16 The people in the camp became jealous of Moses
and of Aaron, the holy priest of the Lord.
17 Then the ground opened up and swallowed Dathan.
It closed over Abiram’s group.
18 Then a fire burned among their followers.
Flames burned up the wicked people.
19 The people made a gold calf at Mount Sinai.
They worshiped a metal statue.
20 They exchanged their glorious God
for a statue of a bull, which eats grass.
21 They forgot the God who saved them,
who had done great things in Egypt.
22 He did miracles in Egypt.[a]
He did amazing things by the Red Sea.
23 So God said he would destroy them.
But Moses, his chosen one, stood before him.
He stopped God’s anger from destroying them.
47 Lord our God, save us.
Bring us back from other nations.
Then we will thank you.
Then we will gladly praise you.
48 Praise the Lord, the God of Israel.
He always was and always will be.
Let all the people say, “Amen!”
Praise the Lord!
21 The Lord was angry with me because of you. He made a strong promise that I would not cross the Jordan River. I could not go into the good land the Lord your God is giving you to own. 22 I will die here in this land. I will not cross the Jordan. But you will soon go across and take that good land. 23 Be careful. Don’t forget the agreement of the Lord your God that he made with you. Don’t make any idols for yourselves. The Lord your God has commanded you not to do that. 24 The Lord your God is a jealous God. He is like a fire that burns things up.
25 You will live in the land a long time. You will have children and grandchildren. Even after that, don’t do evil things. Don’t make any kind of idol. Don’t do what the Lord says is evil. That will make him angry. 26 I will ask heaven and earth to speak against you that day. Then you will quickly be removed from this land. You are crossing the Jordan River to take the land. But you will not live there long after that. You will be completely destroyed. 27 The Lord will scatter you among the other nations. Only a few of you will be left alive. And those few will be in other nations where the Lord will send you. 28 There you will worship gods made by men. They will be made of wood and stone. They cannot see, hear, eat or smell. 29 But even there you can look for the Lord your God. And you will find him if you look. But you must look for him with your whole being. 30 It will be hard when all these things happen to you. But after that you will come back to the Lord your God. You will obey him. 31 The Lord your God is a merciful God. He will not leave you or destroy you. He will not forget the agreement he made with your ancestors. He made that agreement sure with his strong promise.
The Lord Is Great
32 Nothing like this has ever happened before! Look at the past, long before you were even born. Go all the way back to when God made man on the earth. Look from one end of heaven to the other. Nothing like this has ever been heard of! 33 No other people have ever heard God speak from a fire and still lived. But you have. 34 No other god has ever taken for himself one nation out of another. But the Lord your God did this for you in Egypt. He did it right before your own eyes. He did it with tests, signs, miracles, war and great sights. He did it by his great power and strength.
35 He showed you things so you would know that the Lord is God. There is no other God besides him. 36 He spoke to you from heaven to teach you. He showed you his great fire on earth. And you heard him speak from the fire. 37 The Lord loved your ancestors. That is why he chose you, their descendants. He brought you out of Egypt himself by his great strength. 38 He forced nations out of their land ahead of you. And these nations were bigger and stronger than you were. But the Lord brought you into their land and gave it to you to own. And this land is yours today.
39 Know and believe today that the Lord is God. He is God in heaven above and on the earth below. There is no other god! 40 Obey his laws and commands, which I am giving you today. Obey them so that things will go well for you and your children. Then you will live a long time in this land. The Lord your God is giving it to you forever.
9 Then Jesus said to them: “You think you are clever! You ignore the commands of God so that you can follow your own teachings! 10 Moses said, ‘Honor your father and mother.’[a] Then Moses also said, ‘Anyone who says cruel things to his father or mother must be put to death.’[b] 11 But you teach that a person can say to his father or mother, ‘I have something I could use to help you. But I will not use it for you. I will give it to God.’ 12 You are telling that person that he does not have to do anything for his father or mother. 13 So you are teaching that it is not important to do what God said. You think that it is more important to follow your own rules, which you teach people. And you do many things like that.”
14 Jesus called the people to him again. He said, “Every person should listen to me and understand what I am saying. 15 There is nothing a person puts into his body that makes him unclean. A person is made unclean by the things that come out of him. 16 [Let those with ears use them and listen!]”[c]
17 When Jesus left the people and went inside, his followers asked him about this story. 18 Jesus said, “Do you still have trouble understanding? Surely you know that nothing that enters a man from the outside can make him unclean. 19 Food does not go into a person’s mind. Food goes into his stomach. Then that food goes out of his body.” (When Jesus said this, he meant that there is no food that is unclean for people to eat.)
20 And Jesus said, “The things that come out of a man are the things that make him unclean. 21 All these evil things begin inside a person, in the mind: evil thoughts, sexual immorality, stealing, murder, adultery, 22 selfishness, doing bad things to other people, lying, doing sinful things, jealousy, saying bad things about people, pride, and foolish living. 23 All these evil things come from within a person. These things make a person unclean.”
The Holy Bible, International Children’s Bible® Copyright© 1986, 1988, 1999, 2015 by Thomas Nelson. Used by permission.