Revised Common Lectionary (Semicontinuous)
God, My Deliverer
116 I love the Lord
because he has heard my prayer for mercy;[a]
2 for he listens to me whenever I call.
12 What will I return to the Lord
for all his benefits to me?
13 I will raise my cup of deliverance
and invoke the Lord’s name.
14 I will fulfill my vows to the Lord
in the presence of all his people.
15 In the sight of the Lord,
the death of his faithful ones is valued.
16 Lord, I am indeed your servant.
I am your servant.
I am the son of your handmaid.
You have released my bonds.
17 I will bring you a thanksgiving offering
and call on the name of the Lord!
18 I will fulfill my vows to the Lord
in the presence of all his people,
19 in the courts of the Lord’s house,
in your midst, Jerusalem.
Hallelujah!
Finding a Bride for Isaac
24 Now Abraham had grown old, was well advanced in age, and the Lord had blessed Abraham in every way. 2 So Abraham instructed his servant, who was the oldest member of his household and in charge of everything he owned, “Make this solemn oath to me[a] 3 as a promise to the Lord, the God of heaven and earth, that you won’t acquire a wife for my son from the Canaanite women among whom I’m living. 4 Instead, you are to go to my country and to my family and acquire a wife for my son Isaac.”
5 “What if the woman doesn’t want to come back with me to this land?” the servant asked. “Shouldn’t I have your son go to the land from which you came?”
6 “Make sure not to take my son there,” Abraham replied. 7 “The Lord God of heaven, who brought me from my father’s house and from my family’s land, who spoke to me and promised me ‘I will give this land to your descendants,’ will send his angel ahead of you, and you are to acquire a wife for my son from there. 8 If the woman isn’t willing to follow you, then you’ll be free from this oath to me. Just don’t take my son back there!” 9 So the servant made a solemn oath[b] to his master Abraham regarding this matter.
35 “This same Moses—whom they rejected by saying, ‘Who made you ruler and judge?’[a]—was the man whom God sent to be both their ruler and deliverer with the help of the angel who had appeared to him in the bush. 36 It was he who led them out, performing wonders and signs in Egypt, at the Red Sea, and in the wilderness for 40 years. 37 It was this Moses who told the Israelis, ‘God will raise up a prophet for you from among your own brothers, just as he did[b] me.’[c] 38 This Moses[d] is the one who was in the assembly in the wilderness with the angel who spoke to him on Mount Sinai and to our ancestors. He received living truths to give to us,[e] 39 but our ancestors refused to obey him. Instead, they rejected him and wished to return to Egypt. 40 They told Aaron, ‘Make gods for us who will lead us. This Moses who led us out of the land of Egypt—we don’t know what happened to him!’[f]
41 “At that time they even made a calf to be their idol, offered a sacrifice to it, and delighted in what they had made with their hands. 42 So God turned away from them and gave them over to worship the heavenly bodies. As it is written in the book of the Prophets:
‘O house of Israel,
you didn’t offer me slaughtered animals and
sacrifices those 40 years in the wilderness, did you?
43 You even took along the tent of Moloch,
the star of your god Rephan,
and the images you made in order to worship them.
So I will take you into exile as far as Babylon.’[g]
Copyright © 1995-2014 by ISV Foundation. ALL RIGHTS RESERVED INTERNATIONALLY. Used by permission of Davidson Press, LLC.