Revised Common Lectionary (Semicontinuous)

Jacob’s Dream

¹⁰ Jacob left Beersheba and went toward Haran. ¹¹ He came to a certain place and stayed the night there, because the sun had gone down. He took one of the stones there and put it under his head for a pillow. ¹² And he had a dream. He saw steps going up from the earth to heaven. He saw the angels of God going up and down these steps. ¹³ And he saw the Lord standing above them. He said, “I am the Lord, the God of your father Abraham, and the God of Isaac. I will give to you and your children after you the land where you are lying. ¹⁴ They will be like the dust of the earth. You will spread out to the west and the east and the north and the south. Good will come to all the families of the earth because of you and your children. ¹⁵ See, I am with you. I will care for you everywhere you go. And I will bring you again to this land. For I will not leave you until I have done all the things I promised you.” ¹⁶ Then Jacob awoke from his sleep and said, “For sure the Lord is in this place and I did not know it.” ¹⁷ He was afraid and said, “This place is so different! This is none other than the house of God, and this is the gate of heaven.”

¹⁸ So Jacob got up early in the morning. He took the stone he had used as a pillow, and set it up as a pillar. He poured oil on the top of it. ¹⁹ He gave that place the name Bethel. Its name had been Luz before.

God Cares for His People

139 O Lord, You have looked through me and have known me. ² You know when I sit down and when I get up. You understand my thoughts from far away. ³ You look over my path and my lying down. You know all my ways very well. ⁴ Even before I speak a word, O Lord, You know it all. ⁵ You have closed me in from behind and in front. And You have laid Your hand upon me. ⁶ All You know is too great for me. It is too much for me to understand.

⁷ Where can I go from Your Spirit? Or where can I run away from where You are? ⁸ If I go up to heaven, You are there! If I make my bed in the place of the dead, You are there! ⁹ If I take the wings of the morning or live in the farthest part of the sea, ¹⁰ even there Your hand will lead me and Your right hand will hold me. ¹¹ If I say, “For sure the darkness will cover me and the light around me will be night,” ¹² even the darkness is not dark to You. And the night is as bright as the day. Darkness and light are the same to You.

²³ Look through me, O God, and know my heart. Try me and know my thoughts. ²⁴ See if there is any sinful way in me and lead me in the way that lasts forever.

¹² So then, Christian brothers, we are not to do what our sinful old selves want us to do. ¹³ If you do what your sinful old selves want you to do, you will die in sin. But if, through the power of the Holy Spirit, you destroy those actions to which the body can be led, you will have life. ¹⁴ All those who are led by the Holy Spirit are sons of God. ¹⁵ You should not act like people who are owned by someone. They are always afraid. Instead, the Holy Spirit makes us His sons, and we can call to Him, “My Father.” ¹⁶ For the Holy Spirit speaks to us and tells our spirit that we are children of God. ¹⁷ If we are children of God, we will receive everything He has promised us. We will share with Christ all the things God has given to Him. But we must share His suffering if we are to share His shining-greatness.

¹⁸ I am sure that our suffering now cannot be compared to the shining-greatness that He is going to give us. ¹⁹ Everything that has been made in the world is waiting for the day when God will make His sons known. ²⁰ Everything that has been made in the world is weak. It is not that the world wanted it to be that way. God allowed it to be that way. Yet there is hope. ²¹ Everything that has been made in the world will be set free from the power that can destroy. These will become free just as the children of God become free. ²² We know that everything on the earth cries out with pain the same as a woman giving birth to a child. ²³ We also cry inside ourselves, even we who have received the Holy Spirit. The Holy Spirit is the first of God’s gifts to us. We are waiting to become His complete sons when our bodies are made free. ²⁴ We were saved with this hope ahead of us. Now hope means we are waiting for something we do not have. How can a man hope for something he already has? ²⁵ But if we hope for something we do not yet see, we must learn how to wait for it.

The Picture-Story of the Good Seed and the Weed Seed

²⁴ Jesus told them another picture-story. He said, “The holy nation of heaven is like a man who planted good seed in his field. ²⁵ During the night someone who hated him came and planted weed seed with the good seed in his field and went away. ²⁶ When the good seed started to grow and give grain, weeds came up also.

²⁷ “The servants of the man who planted the seed came and said to him, ‘Sir, did you not plant good seed in your field? Why does it have weeds also?’ ²⁸ The man who planted the seed said, ‘Someone who hates me has done this.’ The servants asked him, ‘Should we go and pull the weeds out from among the good grain?’ ²⁹ He said, ‘No, because if you pull out the weeds, the good grain will come up also. ³⁰ Let them grow together until the time to gather the grain. Then I will say to the workmen, “Gather the weeds first and put them together to be burned. Then gather the good grain into my building.”’”

Jesus Tells about the Weed Seed

³⁶ After Jesus sent the people away, He went into the house. His followers came to Him and said, “Tell us what You mean by the picture-story of the weeds in the field.” ³⁷ Jesus said, “He Who plants the good seed is the Son of Man. ³⁸ The field is the world. The good seeds are the children of the holy nation. The weeds are the children of the devil. ³⁹ The devil is the one who got in and planted the weeds. The time to gather is the end of the world. The men who gather are the angels. ⁴⁰ As the weeds are gathered together and burned in the fire, so will it be in the end of the world. ⁴¹ The Son of Man will send His angels. They will gather out of His holy nation all things that cause people to sin and those who do sin. ⁴² They will put them into a stove of fire. There will be loud crying and grinding of teeth. ⁴³ Then the ones right with God will shine as the sun in the holy nation of their Father. You have ears, then listen!”