Revised Common Lectionary (Semicontinuous)

⁸ Then the Lord said to Elijah, ⁹ “Go to Zarephath in Sidon and stay there. There is a widow there that I commanded to take care of you.”

¹⁰ So Elijah went to Zarephath. He went to the town gate and saw a woman there gathering wood for a fire. She was a widow. Elijah said to her, “Would you bring me a small cup of water to drink?” ¹¹ As she was going to get the water, Elijah said, “Bring me a piece of bread too, please.”

¹² The woman answered, “I promise you, before the Lord your God, that I have nothing but a handful of flour in a jar and a little bit of olive oil in a jug. I came here to gather a few pieces of wood for a fire to cook our last meal. My son and I will eat it and then die from hunger.”

¹³ Elijah said to the woman, “Don’t worry. Go home and cook your food as you said. But first make a small piece of bread from the flour that you have and bring it to me. Then cook some for yourself and your son. ¹⁴ The Lord, the God of Israel, says, ‘That jar of flour will never be empty and the jug will always have oil in it. This will continue until the day the Lord sends rain to the land.’”

¹⁵ So the woman went home and did what Elijah told her to do. And Elijah, the woman, and her son had enough food for a long time. ¹⁶ The jar of flour and the jug of oil were never empty. This happened just as the Lord said through Elijah.

¹⁷ Some time later the woman’s son became sick. He became worse and worse until he stopped breathing. ¹⁸ Then the woman said to Elijah, “You are a man of God. Can you help me? Or did you come here only to remind me of my sins and to make my son die?”

¹⁹ Elijah said to her, “Give me your son.” He took the boy from her and carried him upstairs. He laid him on the bed in the room where he was staying. ²⁰ Then Elijah cried out to the Lord. He said, “Lord my God, this widow is letting me stay in her house. Will you do this bad thing to her? Will you cause her son to die?” ²¹ Then Elijah lay on top of the boy three times. He prayed, “Lord my God, let this boy live again!”

²² The Lord answered Elijah’s prayer. The boy began breathing again and was alive. ²³ Elijah carried the boy downstairs, gave him to his mother, and said, “Look, your son is alive!”

²⁴ The woman answered, “Now I know that you really are a man from God. I know that the Lord really speaks through you!”

Paul’s Authority Is From God

¹¹ Brothers and sisters, I want you to know that the Good News message I told you was not made up by anyone. ¹² I did not get my message from any other human. The Good News is not something I learned from other people. Jesus Christ himself gave it to me. He showed me the Good News that I should tell people.

¹³ You have heard about my past life in the Jewish religion. I persecuted the church of God very much. I tried to destroy his people. ¹⁴ I was becoming a leader in the Jewish religion. I did better than most other Jews my own age. I tried harder than anyone else to follow the traditions we got from our ancestors.

¹⁵ But God had special plans for me even before I was born. So he chose me through his grace. ¹⁶ It pleased him to let me see and know his Son so that I could tell the Good News about him to the non-Jewish people. I immediately prepared to do this work without asking for advice or help from anyone. ¹⁷ I did not go to Jerusalem to see those who were apostles before I was. But, without waiting, I went away to Arabia. Later, I went back to the city of Damascus.

¹⁸ Three years later I went to Jerusalem to meet Peter.^[a] I stayed with him 15 days. ¹⁹ I met no other apostles—only James, the brother of the Lord. ²⁰ God knows there is nothing untrue in any of this. ²¹ Later, I went to the areas of Syria and Cilicia.

²² No one in any of Christ’s churches in Judea had ever met me before. ²³ They had only heard this about me: “This man was persecuting us. But now he is telling people about the same faith that he once tried to destroy.” ²⁴ These believers praised God because of me.

Jesus Brings a Woman’s Son Back to Life

¹¹ The next day Jesus and his followers went to a town called Nain. A big crowd was traveling with them. ¹² When Jesus came near the town gate, he saw some people carrying a dead body. It was the only son of a woman who was a widow. Walking with her were many other people from the town. ¹³ When the Lord saw the woman, he felt very sorry for her and said, “Don’t cry.” ¹⁴ He walked to the open coffin and touched it. The men who were carrying the coffin stopped. Jesus spoke to the dead son: “Young man, I tell you, get up!” ¹⁵ Then the boy sat up and began to talk, and Jesus gave him back to his mother.

¹⁶ Everyone was filled with fear. They began praising God and said, “A great prophet is here with us!” and “God is taking care of his people.”

¹⁷ This news about Jesus spread all over Judea and to all the other places around there.