Revised Common Lectionary (Semicontinuous)

⁴ Then all the leaders of Israel met together, went to Samuel in Ramah, ^5 (A)and said to him, “Look, you are getting old and your sons don't follow your example. So then, appoint a king to rule over us, so that we will have a king, as other countries have.” ⁶ Samuel was displeased with their request for a king; so he prayed to the Lord, ⁷ and the Lord said, “Listen to everything the people say to you. You are not the one they have rejected; I am the one they have rejected as their king. ⁸ Ever since I brought them out of Egypt, they have turned away from me and worshiped other gods; and now they are doing to you what they have always done to me. ⁹ So then, listen to them, but give them strict warnings and explain how their kings will treat them.”

¹⁰ Samuel told the people who were asking him for a king everything that the Lord had said to him. ¹¹ “This is how your king will treat you,” Samuel explained. “He will make soldiers of your sons; some of them will serve in his war chariots, others in his cavalry, and others will run before his chariots.

¹² He will make some of them officers in charge of a thousand men, and others in charge of fifty men. Your sons will have to plow his fields, harvest his crops, and make his weapons and the equipment for his chariots. ¹³ Your daughters will have to make perfumes for him and work as his cooks and his bakers. ¹⁴ He will take your best fields, vineyards, and olive groves, and give them to his officials. ¹⁵ He will take a tenth of your grain and of your grapes for his court officers and other officials.

¹⁶ He will take your servants and your best cattle^[a] and donkeys, and make them work for him. ¹⁷ He will take a tenth of your flocks. And you yourselves will become his slaves. ¹⁸ When that time comes, you will complain bitterly because of your king, whom you yourselves chose, but the Lord will not listen to your complaints.”

¹⁹ The people paid no attention to Samuel, but said, “No! We want a king, ²⁰ so that we will be like other nations, with our own king to rule us and to lead us out to war and to fight our battles.”

¹⁴ And Samuel said to them, “Let us all go to Gilgal and once more proclaim Saul as our king.” ¹⁵ So they all went to Gilgal, and there at the holy place they proclaimed Saul king. They offered fellowship sacrifices, and Saul and all the people of Israel celebrated the event.

A Prayer of Thanksgiving^[a]

^13 (A)The scripture says, “I spoke because I believed.” In the same spirit of faith we also speak because we believe. ¹⁴ We know that God, who raised the Lord Jesus to life, will also raise us up with Jesus and take us, together with you, into his presence. ¹⁵ All this is for your sake; and as God's grace reaches more and more people, they will offer to the glory of God more prayers of thanksgiving.

Living by Faith

¹⁶ For this reason we never become discouraged. Even though our physical being is gradually decaying, yet our spiritual being is renewed day after day. ¹⁷ And this small and temporary trouble we suffer will bring us a tremendous and eternal glory, much greater than the trouble. ¹⁸ For we fix our attention, not on things that are seen, but on things that are unseen. What can be seen lasts only for a time, but what cannot be seen lasts forever.

5 ^(B)For we know that when this tent we live in—our body here on earth—is torn down, God will have a house in heaven for us to live in, a home he himself has made, which will last forever.

Jesus and Beelzebul^(A)

²⁰ Then Jesus went home. Again such a large crowd gathered that Jesus and his disciples had no time to eat. ²¹ When his family heard about it, they set out to take charge of him, because people were saying, “He's gone mad!”

^22 (B)Some teachers of the Law who had come from Jerusalem were saying, “He has Beelzebul in him! It is the chief of the demons who gives him the power to drive them out.”

²³ So Jesus called them to him and spoke to them in parables: “How can Satan drive out Satan? ²⁴ If a country divides itself into groups which fight each other, that country will fall apart. ²⁵ If a family divides itself into groups which fight each other, that family will fall apart. ²⁶ So if Satan's kingdom divides into groups, it cannot last, but will fall apart and come to an end.

²⁷ “No one can break into a strong man's house and take away his belongings unless he first ties up the strong man; then he can plunder his house.

²⁸ “I assure you that people can be forgiven all their sins and all the evil things they may say.^{[a] 29 (C)}But whoever says evil things against the Holy Spirit will never be forgiven, because he has committed an eternal sin.” (³⁰ Jesus said this because some people were saying, “He has an evil spirit in him.”)

Jesus' Mother and Brothers^(D)

³¹ Then Jesus' mother and brothers arrived. They stood outside the house and sent in a message, asking for him. ³² A crowd was sitting around Jesus, and they said to him, “Look, your mother and your brothers and sisters are outside, and they want you.”

³³ Jesus answered, “Who is my mother? Who are my brothers?” ³⁴ He looked at the people sitting around him and said, “Look! Here are my mother and my brothers! ³⁵ Whoever does what God wants is my brother, my sister, my mother.”