Revised Common Lectionary (Semicontinuous)

The Joy of Obeying

128 Happy are all who honor the Lord with fear, and who walk in His ways. ² For you will eat the fruit of your hands. You will be happy and it will be well with you. ³ Your wife will be like a vine with much fruit within your house. Your children will be like olive plants around your table. ⁴ This is the good that will come to the man who honors the Lord with fear.

⁵ May the Lord do good things for you from Zion. And may you see good come to Jerusalem all the days of your life. ⁶ Yes, may you see your children’s children. Peace be upon Israel.

The Brass Snake

⁴ Then they traveled from Mount Hor by the way of the Red Sea, to go around the land of Edom. And the people wanted to give up because of the long way. ⁵ They spoke against God and Moses, saying, “Why have you brought us up out of Egypt to die in the desert? For there is no food and no water. And we hate this bad food.” ⁶ Then the Lord sent snakes with a bite of poison among the people. They bit the people, so that many people of Israel died. ⁷ So the people came to Moses and said, “We have sinned, because we have spoken against the Lord and you. Pray to the Lord, that He will take away the snakes from us.” So Moses prayed for the people. ⁸ The Lord said to Moses, “Make a special snake and put it up on a long piece of wood. Everyone who is bitten will live when he looks at it.” ⁹ So Moses made a brass snake and put it up on the long piece of wood. If a snake bit any man, he would live when he looked at the brass snake.

Jesus Was Greater Than Moses

3 Christian brothers, you have been chosen and set apart by God. So let us think about Jesus. He is the One God sent and He is the Religious Leader of our Christian faith. ² Jesus was faithful in God’s house just as Moses was faithful in all of God’s house. ³ The man who builds a house gets more honor than the house. That is why Jesus gets more honor than Moses. ⁴ Every house is built by someone. And God is the One Who has built everything. ⁵ Moses was a faithful servant owned by God in God’s house. He spoke of the things that would be told about later on. ⁶ But Christ was faithful as a Son Who is Head of God’s house. We are of God’s house if we keep our trust in the Lord until the end. This is our hope.