Revised Common Lectionary (Semicontinuous)

(By David.)

A Prayer of Praise

²⁷ and had almost reached the edge of town when Samuel stopped and said, “Tell your servant go on. Stay here with me for a few minutes, and I'll tell you what God has told me.”

Samuel Tells Saul He Will Be King

After the servant had gone, 10 ¹ Samuel took a small jar of olive oil and poured it on Saul's head. Then he kissed^[a] Saul and told him:

The Lord has chosen you to be the leader and ruler of his people.^{[b] 2} When you leave me today, you'll meet two men near Rachel's tomb at Zelzah in the territory of Benjamin. They'll tell you, “The donkeys you've been looking for have been found. Your father has forgotten about them, and now he's worrying about you! He's wondering how he can find you.”

³ Go on from there until you reach the big oak tree at Tabor, where you'll meet three men on their way to worship God at Bethel. One of them will be leading three young goats, another will be carrying three round loaves of bread, and the last one will be carrying a clay jar of wine. ⁴ After they greet you, they'll give you two loaves of bread.

⁵ Next, go to Gibeah,^[c] where the Philistines have an army camp. As you're going into the town, you'll meet a group of prophets coming down from the place of worship. They'll be going along prophesying while others are walking in front of them, playing small harps, small drums, and flutes.

⁶ The Spirit of the Lord will suddenly take control of you.^[d] You'll become a different person and start prophesying right along with them. ⁷ After these things happen, do whatever you think is right! God will help you.

⁸ Then go to Gilgal. I'll come a little later, so wait for me. It may even take a week for me to get there, but when I come, I'll offer sacrifices to please the Lord and to ask for his blessings. I'll also tell you what to do next.

2 ^(A) Fourteen years later I went to Jerusalem with Barnabas. I also took along Titus. ² But I went there because God had told me to go, and I explained the good news I had been preaching to the Gentiles. Then I met privately with the ones who seemed to be the most important leaders. I wanted to make sure my work in the past and my future work would not be for nothing.

³ Titus went to Jerusalem with me. He was a Greek, but still he wasn't forced to be circumcised. ⁴ We went there because of those who pretended to be followers and had sneaked in among us as spies. They had come to take away the freedom Christ Jesus had given us, and they were trying to make us their slaves. ⁵ But we wanted you to have the true message. This is why we didn't give in to them, not even for a second.

^6 (B) Some of them were supposed to be important leaders, but I didn't care who they were. God doesn't have any favorites! None of these so-called special leaders added anything to my message. ⁷ They realized God had sent me with the good news for Gentiles, and he had sent Peter with the same message for Jews. ⁸ God, who had sent Peter on a mission to the Jews, was now using me to preach to the Gentiles.

⁹ James, Peter,^[a] and John realized that God had given me the message about his gift of undeserved grace. And these men are supposed to be the backbone of the church. They even gave Barnabas and me a friendly handshake. This was to show that we would work with Gentiles and that they would work with Jews. ¹⁰ They only asked us to remember the poor, and this was something I had always been eager to do.