Revised Common Lectionary (Semicontinuous)

A Prayer for Help

142 I cry with a loud voice to the Lord. I pray with my voice to the Lord. ² I talk and complain to Him. I tell Him all my trouble. ³ When my spirit had grown weak within me, You knew my path. They have hidden a trap for me in the way where I walk. ⁴ Look to the right and see. For there is no one who thinks about me. There is no place for me to go to be safe. No one cares about my soul.

⁵ I cried out to You, O Lord. I said, “You are my safe place, my share in the land of the living. ⁶ Listen to my cry, for I am brought down. Save me from those who make it hard for me. For they are too strong for me. ⁷ Bring my soul out of prison, so that I may give thanks to Your name. Those who are right and good will gather around me. For You will give much to me.”

¹⁵ “For the day of the Lord is near for all nations. As you have done, it will be done to you. What you do will come back to you on your own head. ¹⁶ Just as you drank on My holy mountain, so all the nations will drink all the time. They will drink and drink, and be as if they had never been.

Israel Will Win

¹⁷ “But on Mount Zion there will be a way to be set free, and it will be holy. The people of Jacob will own what belongs to them. ¹⁸ The people of Jacob will be a fire. The people of Joseph will be burning. But the people of Esau will be like dry grass. They will set them on fire and destroy them. None of the people of Esau will be left alive,” for the Lord has spoken. ¹⁹ People of the Negev will live on Mount Esau. And those in the lower land will live in the land of the Philistines. They will live in the land of Ephraim and Samaria, and Benjamin will own Gilead. ²⁰ The people of Israel who are living among the Canaanites as far as Zarephath, and the people of Jerusalem who are in Sephared, will own the cities of the Negev. ²¹ The men of Jerusalem who fight and win the battle will go up Mount Zion to rule over Mount Esau. And the nation will belong to the Lord.

Why Jesus Used Picture-Stories

¹⁰ The followers of Jesus came to Him and said, “Why do You speak to them in picture-stories?” ¹¹ He said to the followers, “You were given the secrets about the holy nation of heaven. The secrets were not given to the others. ¹² He who has will have more given to him. He will have even more than enough. But he who has little will have even that taken away from him.

¹³ “This is why I speak to them in picture-stories. They have eyes but they do not see. They have ears but they do not hear and they do not understand. ¹⁴ It happened in their lives as Isaiah said it would happen. He said, ‘You hear and hear but do not understand. You look and look but do not see. ¹⁵ The hearts of these people have become fat. They hear very little with their ears. They have closed their eyes. If they did not do this, they would see with their eyes and hear with their ears and understand with their hearts. Then they would be changed in their ways, and I would heal them.’ ^{(A) 16} But how great are your eyes because they see. How great are your ears because they hear. ¹⁷ For sure, I tell you, that many early preachers and men right with God have wanted to see the things you see, but they did not see them. They wanted to hear the things you hear, but they did not hear them.