Revised Common Lectionary (Semicontinuous)

²³ You who fear the Lord, give Him praise. All you children of Jacob, honor Him. Fear Him, all you children of Israel. ²⁴ For He has not turned away from the suffering of the one in pain or trouble. He has not hidden His face from him. But He has heard his cry for help.

²⁵ My praise will be from You in the big meeting of worship. I will keep my promises to Him in front of those who fear Him. ²⁶ Those who suffer will eat and have enough. Those who look for the Lord will praise Him. May your heart live forever! ²⁷ All the ends of the earth will remember and turn to the Lord. All the families of the nations will worship before Him. ²⁸ For the holy nation is the Lord’s, and He rules over the nations. ²⁹ All the proud ones of the earth will eat and worship. All who go down to the dust will fall to their knees before Him, even he who cannot keep his soul alive. ³⁰ Future children will serve Him. They will tell of the Lord to their children. ³¹ They will come and tell about His saving power to a people yet to be born. For He has done it.

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.

4 What about Abraham, our early father? What did he learn? ² If Abraham was made right with God by what he did, he would have had something to be proud of. But he could not be proud before God. ³ The Holy Writings say, “Abraham put his trust in God and that made him right with God.” ^{(A) 4} If a man works, his pay is not a gift. It is something he has earned. ⁵ If a man has not worked to be saved, but has put his trust in God Who saves men from the punishment of their sins, that man is made right with God because of his trust in God. ⁶ David tells of this. He spoke of how happy the man is who puts his trust in God without working to be saved from the punishment of sin. ⁷ “Those people are happy whose sinful acts are forgiven and whose sins are covered. ⁸ Those people are happy whose sins the Lord will not remember.” ^(B)

⁹ Is this happiness given to the Jews only? Or is it given also to the people who are not Jews? We say again, “Abraham put his trust in God and that made him right with God.” ^{(C) 10} When did this happen? Was it before or after Abraham went through the religious act of becoming a Jew? It was before. ¹¹ He went through the religious act after he had put his trust in God. That religious act proved that his trust in God made him right with God even before he went through the religious act of becoming a Jew. In that way, it made him the early father of all those who believe. It showed that those who did not go through the religious act of becoming a Jew could be right with God. ¹² He is also the early father of all those who have gone through the religious act of becoming a Jew. It is not because they went through the act. It is because they put their trust in God the same as Abraham did before he went through the religious act of becoming a Jew.