Revised Common Lectionary (Semicontinuous)
The sons of Korah wrote this special song for the music leader.
The city of God[a]
46 God is a strong place for us,
where he will keep us safe.
He will always help us
when troubles come.
2 So even when the earth shakes,
we will not be afraid.
And when the mountains fall down
into the deep sea,
we will still not be afraid.
3 If the sea makes dangerous waves,
so that even the mountains shake,
we will never be afraid.
Selah.
4 There is a river that runs into the city of God,
and it brings God's blessing to the people there.
That is the holy place
where the Most High God lives.
5 God is in that city.
Nothing can ever destroy it.
When dawn comes, God will be there to help it.
6 Nations are shouting with anger!
Kingdoms shake and fall.
God calls in a loud voice,
and even the earth melts!
7 The Lord Almighty is there to help us.
The God of Jacob keeps us safe.
Selah.
8 Come and see the great things
that the Lord has done.
He has brought terrible things to the earth!
9 All over the world, he causes wars to finish.
He destroys the soldiers' bows and spears.
He burns their shields in a fire.
10 He says, ‘Be still and quiet!
Understand that I am God.
I rule as king over the nations.
All the world will say that I am great.’
11 The Lord Almighty is there to help us.
The God of Jacob keeps us safe.
Selah.
God makes the earth
1 In the beginning, God made the heavens and the earth. 2 The earth was without shape and it was empty. Deep water covered the earth and everywhere was dark. The Spirit of God moved above the water.[a]
3 God said, ‘There will be light!’
And there was light.
4 God saw that the light was good.
He caused the light and the dark to be separate.
5 God called the light ‘day’. He called the dark ‘night’.
Evening passed and then it was morning.
That was the first day.[b]
6 Then God said, ‘A wide space will appear between the waters. So the waters will be in two separate places.’
7 So God made this wide space. He made the water under the space separate from the water that was above it. What God said happened.
8 God called the wide space ‘sky’.
Evening passed and then it was morning.
That was the second day.
9 God said, ‘The water that is under the sky will come together in one place. Then dry ground will appear.’
And what God said happened.
10 God called the dry ground ‘land’. He called the water that had come together ‘sea’.
God looked at what he had made. He saw that it was good.
11 Then God said, ‘The land will cause plants to grow. There will be plants with their seeds and trees with their fruits. Each kind of plant and tree will have its own seeds and fruits.’
And what God said happened.
12 All kinds of plants and trees began to grow in the ground. The plants made seeds. The trees made fruits with seeds in them. Each plant made its own kind of seeds.
God looked at what he had made. He saw that it was good.
13 Evening passed and then it was morning.
That was the third day.
14 God said, ‘There will be lights all across the sky.[c] They will make the day different from the night. They will show the seasons, days and years. 15 The lights in the sky will give light to the earth.’
And what God said happened.
16 God made two great lights. The brighter light ruled over the day. The less bright light ruled over the night. God also made the stars.
17 God put all these lights in the sky to shine their light on the earth.
18 They were to rule over the day and night. They were to make the time of light separate from the time of dark.
God looked at what he had made. He saw that it was good.
19 Evening passed and then it was morning.
That was the fourth day.
20 God said, ‘The waters will become full with many living things. Birds will appear and fly above the earth, all across the sky.’
21 God made big animals to live in the sea. He made every different kind of living thing that filled the sea. He made every different kind of bird to fly in the sky.
God looked at what he had made. He saw that it was good.
22 God blessed the animals and the birds. He said to them, ‘Give birth to many young ones, so that you grow in number. Fill all the water in the seas. The birds also should become very many, all across the earth.’[d]
23 Evening passed and then it was morning.
That was the fifth day.
24 God said, ‘Different kinds of animals will now appear on the land. There will be farm animals and wild animals. There will also be other small animals that move along the ground. There will be many kinds of animals and each kind will be different.’[e]
And what God said happened.
25 God made the different kinds of wild animals and the different kinds of farm animals. He made all the different kinds of animals that move along the ground.
God looked at what he had made. He saw that it was good.
26 Then God said, ‘We will make humans so that they are very much like us.[f] They will rule over the fish in the sea and over the birds in the sky. They will rule over the farm animals. They will rule over the whole earth and all the animals that move along the ground.’
27 God made humans.
He made them to be like himself.
He made some of them males and some of them females.
28 God blessed them. He said to them, ‘Give birth to children. Grow in number. Fill the earth and rule over it. Rule over the fish in the sea. Rule over the birds in the sky. Rule over every different kind of living animal that moves along the ground.’[g]
29 Then God said, ‘Listen! I now give to you every plant on the earth as your food. I give you every plant that has seeds in it. I give you every tree that has fruit with a seed in it. I give them to you for your food.
30 I give to the animals green plants for their food. It will be food for all the animals on the earth, all the birds in the sky and all the animals that move along the ground. Everything that has life may eat every kind of green plant.’
And what God said happened.
31 God looked at everything that he had made. He saw that it was very good.
Evening passed. And then it was morning.
That was the sixth day.
2 In that way God finished making the heavens and the earth, and everything that was in them.
2 The seventh day came. Then God stopped the work that he had been doing. He had finished his work and he rested on the seventh day.
3 God blessed the seventh day. He made it a special day, because he had finished making everything. He did not work on that day.
God makes a man and a woman
4 This is what happened when God made the heavens and the earth.
When the Lord God made the heavens and the earth,
The Jews and God's Law
17 Do you say that you are a Jew? Maybe you trust in the Law that God gave to Moses. You are proud that you belong to God. 18 You know what God wants people to do. His Law teaches you what is good and right. 19 You are sure that you yourself can teach other people about God. You think that you can be like a guide to blind people. You think that you can be like a light to people who are in the dark. 20 You are sure that you can teach fools and people who do not know very much. You know that God's Law tells you everything about what is true. Because it helps you to know so much, you think that you can be a great teacher!
21 So you teach other people, do you? But do you teach yourself? You tell other people, ‘Do not rob anyone.’ But maybe you yourself rob other people. 22 You say, ‘People must not have sex with anyone who is not their wife or their husband.’ But maybe you yourself have sex in a wrong way. You say that you hate idols. But do you rob places where people worship idols? 23 You are proud that you know God's Law. But you do not obey that Law. As a result, you cause other people to speak against God. 24 This is written in the Bible:
‘Because of you Jews, the Gentiles say bad things against God.’
25 As a Jewish man, you are proud that someone has circumcised you.[a] That is a help to you, if you obey God's Law in your life. But if you do not obey God's Law, then it is worth nothing. You have become like a Gentile that nobody has ever circumcised. 26 But a Gentile may obey what God's Law teaches. Then he has shown that he belongs to God even though nobody has circumcised him. 27 In that way, even Gentiles will show that you who are Jews are wrong. God's Law was written to help you Jews. They circumcised you to show that you belong to God. But if you refuse to obey God's Law, then God will punish you. The Gentiles who do obey God's Law will show that God is right to punish you.
28 Not everyone who seems to be a Jew is really a Jew who belongs to God. God does not accept a man just because someone has circumcised that man's body. 29 No! A true Jew is someone who belongs to God in his spirit. He belongs to God because God's Spirit has changed his life. It is like God has circumcised him in his spirit, not in his body. The rules in God's Law cannot do that work in a person. Other people may not praise a person like that, but God will praise him.
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