Revised Common Lectionary (Semicontinuous)

¹¹ Teach me Your way, O Lord. I will walk in Your truth. May my heart fear Your name. ¹² O Lord my God, I will give thanks to You with all my heart. I will bring honor to Your name forever. ¹³ For Your loving-kindness toward me is great. And You have saved my soul from the bottom of the grave.

¹⁴ O God, proud men have come up against me. A group of fighting men want to take my life. And they do not think of You. ¹⁵ But You, O Lord, are a God full of love and pity. You are slow to anger and rich in loving-kindness and truth. ¹⁶ Turn to me, and show me loving-kindness. Give Your strength to Your servant. And save the son of your woman servant. ¹⁷ Give me something special to see of Your favor. Then those who hate me may see it and be ashamed. Because You, O Lord, have helped me and comforted me.

Hagar and Ishmael

16 Now Abram’s wife Sarai had not given birth to any children. She had a woman servant from Egypt whose name was Hagar. ² So Sarai said to Abram, “Now see, the Lord has kept me from having children. Go in to the woman who serves me. It may be that I will get children through her.” Abram listened to what Sarai said. ³ So Abram’s wife Sarai took Hagar the Egyptian, who served her, and gave her to her husband Abram as his wife. That was after Abram had lived ten years in the land of Canaan. ⁴ He went in to Hagar, and she was going to have a child. And when she saw that she was going to have a child, she began to hate Sarai. ⁵ Then Sarai said to Abram, “May the wrong done to me be upon you. I gave the woman who served me into your arms. But when she saw that she was going to have a child, she began to hate me. May the Lord judge who is guilty or not between you and me.” ⁶ But Abram said to Sarai, “See, the woman who serves you is in your power. Do what you want with her.” So Sarai made it hard for Hagar. And Hagar ran away from her.

⁷ The angel of the Lord found Hagar by a well of water in the desert on the way to Shur. ⁸ He said, “Hagar, you who serve Sarai, where have you come from and where are you going?” And she said, “I am running away from Sarai, the one I serve.” ⁹ Then the angel of the Lord said to her, “Return to your boss. Put yourself under her power.” ¹⁰ The angel of the Lord said to her, “I will give you so many people in your family through the years that they will be too many to number.” ¹¹ The angel of the Lord also said to her, “See, you are going to have a child. And you will give birth to a son. You will give him the name Ishmael, because the Lord has heard how you have suffered. ¹² He will be a wild donkey of a man. His hand will be against all people. And the hand of all people will be against him. He will live to the east of all his brothers.” ¹³ So Hagar gave this name to the Lord Who spoke to her, “You are a God Who sees.” For she said, “Have I even stayed alive here after seeing Him?” ¹⁴ So the well was called Beer-lahai-roi. It is between Kadesh and Bered.

¹⁵ Hagar gave birth to Abram’s son. And Abram gave his son who was born of Hagar the name Ishmael.

Words to the Church in Ephesus

2 “Write this to the angel of the church in the city of Ephesus: ‘The One Who holds the seven stars in His right hand and the One Who walks among the seven lights made of gold, says this: ² I know what you have done and how hard you have worked. I know how long you can wait and not give up. I know that you cannot put up with sinful men. I know that you have put men to the test who call themselves missionaries. You have found they are not missionaries but are false. ³ You have waited long and have not given up. You have suffered because of Me. You have kept going on and have not become tired. ⁴ But I have this one thing against you. You do not love Me as you did at first. ⁵ Remember how you once loved Me. Be sorry for your sin and love Me again as you did at first. If you do not, I will come to you and take your light out of its place. I will do this unless you are sorry for your sin and turn from it. ⁶ But you have this: You hate what the Nicolaitans do. I hate what they do also. ⁷ You have ears! Then listen to what the Spirit says to the churches. I will give the fruit of the tree of life in the garden of God to everyone who has power and wins.’