Revised Common Lectionary (Complementary)
6 Return to the Lord and you will live. If you do not do that, he will come like fire to punish you. He will completely destroy Joseph's descendants. Bethel and all its people will burn. Nobody will be able to stop the fire. 7 You people change what is right and true to make lies. You are not fair or honest.
10 ‘You Israelites hate honest judges. You laugh at anyone who speaks the truth. 11 You cheat poor people so that they pay too much tax. You take away their food for yourselves. Because of that, you will not live in the beautiful houses that you have built for yourselves. You will not drink wine from the vines that you have planted.
12 I, the Lord, know all the wrong things that you have done. They are very many and they are very bad. You are cruel to good people. You take bribes to tell lies. Sometimes a person gives money to you to make you tell lies. As a result, poor people do not receive justice. 13 This is such an evil time that clever people say nothing. That is how they keep themselves safe.’
14 You say that the Lord God Almighty is with you. Stop doing evil things. Do good things, so that you will live. Then the Lord God Almighty will really be with you, as you say. 15 Hate evil things and love good things. When you judge people, be fair and honest. Then maybe the Lord God Almighty will be kind to those of his people who still remain, Joseph's descendants.
12 Teach us to count carefully the days of our short lives.
Then we will be wise in how we live.
13 Lord, return to help us!
How long will you be angry with us?
Please be kind to us, your servants!
14 Show your faithful love to us every morning.
Then we will sing with joy,
and we will be happy for as long as we live.
15 For many years you have sent trouble to us.
Now, please make us happy
for as many years as you have given us pain.
16 Do great things again,
so that we, your servants, see them!
Let our children see that you rule as King!
17 Yes, may the Lord our God bless us.
May everything that we do go well!
Yes, may everything go well!
12 So be careful! God's message to us is alive and powerful. It is like a sword that has two sharp edges. Even more than a sword, God's message goes very deep into us. It cuts between our soul and our spirit. It is like a sharp knife that can cut deep into our body between our bones. God's message shows what we are really thinking. It shows what we really want. 13 There is nothing in the whole world that can hide from God. He sees everything clearly and he knows everything. We will have to explain to him everything that we have done during our lives.
Jesus is our great priest
14 Jesus, the Son of God, helps us as God's most important priest. He is our great priest who has gone up into heaven. We say that we believe in him. So we must continue to show people that we trust him. 15 Jesus, our great priest understands us. He knows how weak we are. He knows that we sometimes want to do wrong things. The Devil tried to make him do all those same kinds of wrong things. But Jesus never did anything wrong. 16 So we should come near to God and we should not be afraid. God is our King. We can ask him to help us when we need help. We know that he will forgive us and he will be kind to us in whatever way we need.[a]
Jesus meets a rich man
17 While Jesus was starting on his journey, a man ran to him. He went down on his knees in front of Jesus. He said to Jesus, ‘Good teacher, what must I do so that I can live with God for ever?’
18 Jesus said to him, ‘Why do you say that I am good? Only God is good. Nobody else. 19 You know God's rules:
“Do not kill anyone.
Do not have sex with anyone who is not your wife.
Do not rob anyone.
Do not say things that are not true about people.
Do not take things that are not yours.
Love your father and your mother, and obey them.” ’
20 ‘Teacher,’ the man replied, ‘I have obeyed all these laws since I was a young man.’
21 Jesus looked at the man and Jesus loved him. Jesus said to him, ‘There is still just one thing that you must do. Go now. Sell everything that you have. Then give the money to poor people. If you do that, you will have many valuable things in heaven. Then come back and be my disciple.’
22 When the man heard that, his face became sad. He was a very rich man. Because of that, he went away and he was very sad.
23 Jesus looked round and he said to his disciples, ‘It is very difficult for rich people to let God rule in their lives.’
24 They were very surprised about Jesus' words. Jesus spoke again to them: ‘My friends, it is very difficult for anyone to let God rule in their life. 25 The hole in a needle is very small. A camel cannot go through it! But it is even more difficult than that for a rich person to let God rule in their life.’
26 Then Jesus' disciples were even more surprised. They said to each other, ‘So perhaps God will not save anyone!’
27 Jesus looked at them and he replied, ‘For people, it really is impossible. But God can do it. God can do everything.’
28 Peter said to Jesus, ‘Look! We have left everything that we had. Now we are your disciples.’
29 Jesus said, ‘I tell you this: Some people have left their homes. Or they may have left their brothers or sisters. Or they may have left their mother or their father. Or they may have left their children or their fields. They have done that because of me. And they have done it because of God's good news. 30 Now, in this world, God will give those people many more things than they have left behind, even 100 times more! Yes, they will receive houses and brothers and sisters. They will receive mothers and children and fields. As well as all this, people will be against them. But in the future world, they will live for ever with God. 31 But many people who are very important now will not be important then. And people who are not important now will become very important then.’
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