Revised Common Lectionary (Semicontinuous)

³ Jacob sent messengers on ahead to Esau, who lived in the land of Seir, also known as Edom. ⁴ Jacob told them to say to Esau, “Master, I am your servant! I have lived with Laban all this time, ⁵ and now I own cattle, donkeys, and sheep, as well as many slaves. Master, I am sending these messengers in the hope that you will be kind to me.”

⁶ When the messengers returned, they told Jacob, “We went to your brother Esau, and now he is heading this way with 400 men.”

⁷ Jacob was so frightened that he divided his people, sheep, cattle, and camels into two groups. ⁸ He thought, “If Esau attacks one group, perhaps the other can escape.”

⁹ Then Jacob prayed:

You, Lord, are the God who was worshiped by my grandfather Abraham and by my father Isaac. You told me to return home to my family, and you promised to be with me and make me successful. ¹⁰ I don't deserve all the good things you have done for me, your servant. When I first crossed the Jordan, I had only my walking stick, but now I have two large groups of people and animals. ¹¹ Please rescue me from my brother. I am afraid he will come and attack not only me, but my wives and children as well. ^12 (A) But you have promised that I would be a success and that someday it will be as hard to count my descendants as it is to count the grains of sand along the seashore.

¹³ After Jacob had spent the night there, he chose some animals as gifts for Esau: ^14-15 200 female goats and 20 males, 200 female sheep and 20 males, 30 female camels with their young, 40 cows and 10 bulls, and 20 female donkeys and 10 males.

¹⁶ Jacob put servants in charge of each herd and told them, “Go ahead of me and keep a space between each herd.” ¹⁷ Then he said to the servant in charge of the first herd, “When Esau meets you, he will ask whose servant you are. He will want to know where you are going and who owns those animals in front of you. ¹⁸ So tell him, ‘They belong to your servant Jacob, who is coming this way. He is sending them as a gift to his master Esau.’ ”

¹⁹ Jacob also told the men in charge of the second and third herds and those who followed to say the same thing when they met Esau. ²⁰ And Jacob told them to be sure to say that he was right behind them. Jacob hoped the gifts would make Esau friendly, so Esau would be glad to see him when they met. ²¹ Jacob's men took the gifts on ahead of him, but he spent the night in camp.

¹² God's people must learn to endure. They must also obey his commands and have faith in Jesus.

¹³ Then I heard a voice from heaven say, “Put this in writing. From now on, the Lord will bless everyone who has faith in him when they die.”

The Spirit answered, “Yes, they will rest from their hard work, and they will be rewarded for what they have done.”

The Earth Is Harvested

^14 (A) I looked and saw a bright cloud, and someone who seemed to be the Son of Man^[a] was sitting on the cloud. He wore a gold crown on his head and held a sharp sickle^[b] in his hand. ^15 (B) An angel came out of the temple and shouted, “Start cutting with your sickle! Harvest season is here, and all crops on earth are ripe.” ¹⁶ The one on the cloud swung his sickle and harvested the crops.

¹⁷ Another angel with a sharp sickle then came out of the temple in heaven. ¹⁸ After this, an angel with power over fire came from the altar and shouted to the angel who had the sickle. He said, “All grapes on earth are ripe! Harvest them with your sharp sickle.” ¹⁹ The angel swung his sickle on earth and cut off its grapes. He threw them into a pit^[c] where they were trampled on as a sign of God's anger. ^20 (C) The pit was outside the city, and when the grapes were mashed, blood flowed out. The blood turned into a river that was about 300 kilometers long and almost deep enough to cover a horse.