Revised Common Lectionary (Semicontinuous)
Asaph wrote this special song.
God has been good to his people[a]
78 My people, listen to what I am teaching you.
Listen to the words that I speak.
2 I will tell you something to make you wise.
Then you will understand
things that happened long ago.
3 We have heard about these things
and we know them.
Our ancestors have told them to us,
4 and we will not hide them from our children.
We will tell our children and our grandchildren
why they should praise the Lord.
We will tell them about his strength,
and about the great things that he has done.
5 He gave his laws to Jacob's descendants,
the Israelite people.
He commanded our ancestors
to teach them to their children.
6 Then the children would know about them,
even the children still to be born.
When the time came,
they too would tell their children.
7 Then their family would trust in God.
They would not forget what God had done.
They would obey his commands.
8 So they would not be like their ancestors,
who turned against God.
Those people refused to obey God,
and they did not trust him to be their guide.
9 The soldiers of Ephraim had bows and arrows,
but they ran away when the battle started![b]
10 They did not obey the covenant
that God had made with them.
They refused to obey his laws.
11 They forgot about what he had done for them.
They forgot the miracles that he had shown them.
12 He did miracles for their ancestors to see,
in the region of Egypt that is called Zoan.
13 He cut the sea into two separate parts,
and he led them through it.
He made a path between two walls of water.[c]
14 He showed them the way with a cloud in the day
and with light from a fire all night.[d]
15 He broke rocks into pieces in the wilderness
so that his people had plenty of water.
Springs of water came from deep in the earth.
16 He caused streams to pour from the rocks
so that the waters ran like rivers.[e]
17 But his people continued to do bad things against him.
In the wilderness,
they turned against the Most High God.
18 They decided to test God,
to see what he would do.
They demanded to have the food that they liked best.
19 They spoke against God, and they said,
‘Can God give us food to eat here in the wilderness?
20 Yes, water did come out when he hit the rock.
There were streams of water that poured out like a river.
But can he also give us food to eat?
Can he supply meat for his people?’
21 When the Lord heard this,
he was very angry.
So he sent fire to punish his people.
He became very angry against the Israelites.
22 They did not trust God,
that he had the power to save them.
23 So God commanded the clouds high above
to give food to his people.
He caused the skies to open like a door.
24 He poured down manna like rain,
so that they could eat grain that came from heaven.[f]
25 In that way, people ate the special bread of angels!
God gave them all the food that they could eat.
26 Then God caused a wind to blow from the east.
He used his power to send a south wind too.
27 He caused meat to pour down on them,
like dust from the sky.
The birds covered all the ground
like sand on the shore of the sea.[g]
28 God made the birds fall near the tents
where his people were living.
29 They ate as much as they could eat.
Yes, God gave them what they had demanded!
30-31 But God became very angry with them,
even before they had finished eating.
While the food was still in their mouths,
he killed the strongest men among them.
Many of the best young Israelite men died.
32 Even when this happened,
the people continued to do bad things.
When God had done these miracles,
they still did not trust him to help them.
33 So he made their lives end quickly, like a breath.
They became very afraid.
34 When God killed some of them,
the other people turned to God.
They were sorry and they prayed to him.
35 They remembered that God
was their strong Rock.
They remembered that the Most High God
was their Redeemer.
36 But they deceived him with their words.
What they said to him was lies.
37 They did not really trust him.
They did not obey the covenant
that he had made with them.
38 But God was kind to them,
and he forgave them for their sins.
He did not destroy them.
Many times he was patient,
and he did not become angry with them.
39 He remembered that they were weak and human,
like a wind that blows away and does not return.
40 When the Israelite people were in the wilderness,
they often turned against God.
That caused God to be very sad.
41 Many times they tested God, the Holy One of Israel,
so that he was very upset.
42 They forgot about his great power,
and how he rescued them from their enemies.
43 He did powerful miracles in Egypt,
in the region of Zoan.
44 He caused the Egyptians' rivers to become blood,
so that they could not drink water from them.[h]
45 He sent large numbers of flies to bite them.[i]
He sent frogs that destroyed their land.[j]
46 He caused locusts to eat their crops,
and everything that grew in their fields.[k]
47 He destroyed their vines with hail.
He destroyed their fig trees with frost.
48 He sent hail to kill their cows.
He sent lightning to kill their other animals.[l]
49 He was so angry with them,
that he sent terrible things to punish them.
Great trouble came to them,
like an army of his angels that bring death.
50 Nothing could stop his anger.
He did not save them from death.
He let bad disease kill them.
51 He killed all the firstborn sons in Egypt.
The strongest men of Ham's descendants died.[m]
52 But God led his own people safely out of Egypt.
But took them through the wilderness,
like a shepherd leads his sheep.[n]
53 They were safe with him as their guide,
and they were not afraid.
But their enemies drowned in the sea.[o]
54 He brought his people to the edge of his holy land.
It was land with the mountain
that he had taken with his power.[p]
55 He chased away the nations that were living there.
He gave to each tribe their own piece of land,
so that Israel's tribes could live there.[q]
56 But the Israelites continued to test the Most High God,
and they turned against him.
They did not obey his commands.[r]
57 They turned away from him and they deceived him,
as their ancestors had done.
They were useless,
like a bow that would not shoot straight!
58 The places where they worshipped their idols
made God very angry.
59 God heard what they were doing,
and he became very angry.
He turned against the Israelite people.
60 He went away from his home at Shiloh.
That was the tent where he lived among people.[s]
61 He let Israel's enemies take away the Covenant Box,
that showed his power and his glory.[t]
62 He was so angry with his own people,
he let their enemies kill them in battle.
63 Fire killed their young men in war.
There was nobody for the young women to marry.
64 Their priests died in battle.
Their widows had no chance to weep.
65 Then the Lord woke up,
like someone had woken him from sleep.
He shouted loudly,
like a soldier who has drunk a lot of wine.
66 He chased his enemies away.
He caused them to be ashamed for ever.
67 He chose not to live among Joseph's descendants.
He did not choose the tribe of Ephraim.
68 Instead, he chose the tribe of Judah.
He chose Mount Zion,
the place which he loves.
69 There he built a temple for himself,
to be like his home in heaven.
He made it to be strong, like the earth itself,
so that it would always be there.
70 Also, he chose his servant, David.
He took David away from the fields,
71 so that he no longer took care of his father's sheep.
He became like a shepherd,
to lead his people, Jacob's descendants.
He ruled the people that belonged to God,
the Israelite people.[u]
72 David took care of them with an honest heart.
He was wise in the way that he led them.
25 That same day, Joshua made an agreement for the people to accept. There at Shechem, he made a list of rules and laws for them to obey. 26 Joshua wrote these things in the Book of God's Law. Then he took a big stone. He stood it there under the oak tree that was near the Lord's holy place.
27 Joshua said to all the people, ‘Look at this stone! It has heard everything that the Lord has said to us today! It will speak against you if you fail to obey your God!’[a]
28 Then Joshua sent the people away. They went to the parts of the land that now belonged to each of them.
Joshua dies
29 After this, the Lord's servant, Joshua, son of Nun, died at the age of 110. 30 The Israelites buried him in his own land that was at Timnah Serah. That was in the hill country of Ephraim, north of Mount Gaash.
31 The people of Israel continued to serve the Lord while Joshua and the old men were still alive. Joshua and those men had seen everything that the Lord had done to help Israel.
32 The Israelites had brought Joseph's bones up from Egypt, to bury him at Shechem.[b] This land was in the field that Jacob had bought from the sons of Hamor, Shechem's father. Jacob had paid them 100 pieces of silver for the land. Now the land belonged to Joseph's descendants.
33 Aaron's son, Eleazar, also died. The people buried him at Gibeah, in the hill country of Ephraim. That land had been given to Eleazar's son Phinehas.
20 My Christian friends, do not continue to think like children think. Instead, think properly like men and women should think. The only way you should be like babies is to keep away from evil things. 21 This is written in the Bible:
‘I will send strangers to speak to my people.
They will speak my message to them in strange languages.
But even when I do this, my people will not listen to me.’
That is what the Lord God has said.[a]
22 So the gift to speak in different languages is like a sign. It shows God's power to people who do not believe in him. It is not a sign to help believers. But the gift to speak clear messages from God shows his power to believers. It is not a sign for those people who do not believe.
23 Think about what happens when the whole church meets together. Perhaps some people come in who do not believe in God. Or perhaps they have not learned much about God. If all of you are speaking in strange languages, those visitors would not understand. They would say that you are all crazy! 24 But if all of you are speaking clear messages from God, a visitor will understand you. He may not believe in God. He may not have learned much about God. But he will hear God's message. He will understand that he has done wrong things. He will know that God will judge him. He will learn this from what all of you are saying. 25 The visitor's secret thoughts will become clear. As a result, he will bend down to the ground and he will worship God. He will say, ‘God is really here among you!’
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