Revised Common Lectionary (Semicontinuous)
23 You who revere the Eternal, praise Him—
descendants of Jacob, worship Him;
be struck with wonder before Him, all you children of Israel.
24 He’s not put off
by the suffering of the suffering one;
He doesn’t pretend He hasn’t seen him;
when he pleaded for help, He listened.
25 You stir my praise in the great assembly;
I will fulfill my vows before those who humble their hearts before Him.
26 Those who are suffering will eat and be nourished;
those who seek Him will praise the Eternal.
May your hearts beat strong forever!
27 Those from the farthest reaches of the earth will remember
and turn back to look for the Eternal;
All the families of the nations
will worship You.
28 The Eternal owns the world;
He exercises His gentle rule over all the nations.
29 All the wealthy of the world will eat and worship;
all those who fall in the dust will bow before Him,
even the life that is headed to the grave.
30 Our children will serve Him;
future generations will hear the story of how the Lord rescued us.
31 They will tell the generations to come
of the righteousness of the Lord,
of what He has done.
16 Despite God’s promise, years went by. Still Abram’s wife Sarai remained childless. But she did have an Egyptian servant girl whose name was Hagar. Sarai had an idea so she approached her husband.
Sarai (to Abram): 2 You can see that the Eternal One has still not allowed me to have any children. Why don’t you sleep with my servant girl? Maybe I could use her as a surrogate and have a child through her!
Sarai’s solution to her problem is not unique. Ancient Near Eastern custom allows for these kinds of arrangements.
Abram listened to Sarai and agreed to follow her plan. 3 After they had lived 10 years in Canaan, Abram’s wife Sarai took her servant girl Hagar, the Egyptian, and gave her to her husband Abram as a wife. 4 So Abram slept with Hagar. It was not long before she conceived. But as soon as she knew she was pregnant with Abram’s child, Hagar’s attitude changed and she became haughty toward Sarai. 5 Sarai would not tolerate her servant looking down on her, so she approached Abram again.
Sarai (to Abram): This is all your fault. I allowed my servant girl to be intimate with you, and as soon as she saw she was pregnant with your child, she started behaving arrogantly and disrespectfully toward me! I have done nothing to deserve this. Let the Eternal One judge who is in the wrong here—you or me!
Abram (to Sarai): 6 Sarai—look, she’s still your servant girl. Do whatever you want with her. She’s under your control.
So Sarai clamped down on Hagar severely, and Hagar ran away.
4 In light of all of this, what should we say about our ancestor Abraham? 2 If Abraham was made right by performing certain works, then he would surely have something to brag about. Right? Not before the Creator God, 3 because as the Scriptures say, “Abraham believed God and trusted in His promises, so God counted it to his favor as righteousness.”[a] 4 Now, when you work a job, do your wages come as a gift or as compensation for your work? It is most certainly not a gift—you are only paid what you have earned. 5 So for the person who does not work, but instead trusts in the One who makes the ungodly right, his faith is counted for him as righteousness.
6 Remember the psalm where David speaks about the benefits that come to the person whom God credits with righteousness apart from works? He said,
7 Blessed are those whose wrongs have been forgiven
and whose sins have been covered.
8 Blessed is the person whose sin the Lord will not take into account.[b]
9 So is this blessing spoken only for the circumcised or for all uncircumcised people too? We remind you what the Scripture has to say: faith was credited to Abraham as righteousness.[c]
10 So when was the credit awarded to Abraham? Was it before or after his circumcision? Well, it certainly wasn’t after—it was before he was circumcised. 11 Eventually he was given circumcision as a sign of his right standing, indicating that he was credited on the basis of the faith he possessed before he was circumcised. It happened this way so that Abraham might become the spiritual father of all those who are not circumcised but are made right through their faith. 12 In the same way, God destined him to be the spiritual father of all those who are circumcised as more than an outward sign, but who walk in our father Abraham’s faithful footsteps—a faith he possessed while he was still uncircumcised.
The Voice Bible Copyright © 2012 Thomas Nelson, Inc. The Voice™ translation © 2012 Ecclesia Bible Society All rights reserved.