Revised Common Lectionary (Complementary)

Mem.

Laws of the Sanctuary

12 “These are the statutes and judgments (precepts) which you shall be careful to do in the land which the Lord, the God of your fathers, has given you to possess as long as you live on the earth. ² You shall utterly destroy all the places where the nations whom you shall dispossess serve their gods, on the high mountains and the hills and under every green [leafy] tree. ³ You shall tear down their altars and smash their [idolatrous] pillars and burn their ^[a]Asherim in the fire; you shall cut down the carved and sculpted images of their gods and obliterate their name from that place. ⁴ You shall not act like this toward the Lord your God. ⁵ But you shall seek the Lord at the place which the Lord your God will choose out of all your tribes to establish His ^[b]Name there for His dwelling [place], and there you shall come [to worship Him]. ⁶ There you shall bring your burnt offerings, your sacrifices, your tithes, the contribution of your hand, your votive (pledged, vowed) offerings, your freewill (voluntary) offerings, and the firstborn of your herd and of your flock. ⁷ And there you and your households shall eat before the Lord your God, and rejoice in all to which you put your hand, in which the Lord your God has blessed you.

⁸ “You shall not do at all what we are doing here [in the camp] today, every man doing whatever is right in his [own] eyes. ⁹ For you have not yet come to the resting place and to the inheritance which the Lord your God is giving you. ¹⁰ When you cross the Jordan and live in the land which the Lord your God is giving you to inherit, and He gives you rest from all your enemies around you so that you live in security, ¹¹ then it shall come about that the place which the Lord your God will choose for His Name [and Presence] to dwell; there you shall bring everything that I am commanding you: your burnt offerings, your sacrifices, your tithes and the [voluntary] contribution of your hand [as a first gift from the fruits of the ground], and all your choice votive offerings which you vow to the Lord. ¹² And you shall rejoice before the Lord your God, you and your sons and your daughters, and your male and female servants, and the Levite who is within your [city] gates, since he has no portion or inheritance with you.

Words to the Jews

⁴¹ Now the Jews murmured and found fault with Him because He said, “I am the Bread that came down out of heaven.” ⁴² They kept saying, “Is this not Jesus, the son of Joseph, whose father and mother we know? How does He now [have the arrogance to] say, ‘I have come down out of heaven’?” ⁴³ So Jesus answered, “Stop murmuring among yourselves. ⁴⁴ No one can come to Me unless the Father who sent Me draws him [giving him the desire to come to Me]; and I will raise him up [from the dead] on the last day. ⁴⁵ It is written in the prophets, ‘And they will all be taught of God.’ Everyone who has listened to and learned from the Father, comes to Me.^{(A) 46} Not that anyone has seen the Father, except He [who was with the Father and] who is from God; He [alone] has seen the Father. ⁴⁷ I assure you and most solemnly say to you, he who believes [in Me as Savior—whoever adheres to, trusts in, relies on, and has faith in Me—already] has eternal life [that is, now possesses it]. ⁴⁸ I am the Bread of Life [the Living Bread which gives and sustains life]. ⁴⁹ Your fathers ate the manna in the wilderness, and they died. ⁵⁰ This is the Bread that comes down out of heaven, so that one may eat of it and not die. ⁵¹ I am the Living Bread that came down out of heaven. If anyone eats of this Bread [believes in Me, accepts Me as Savior], he will live forever. And the Bread that I will give for the life of the world is My flesh (body).”