Revised Common Lectionary (Semicontinuous)
114 Long ago when the Israelis escaped from Egypt, from that land of foreign tongue, 2 then the lands of Judah and of Israel became God’s new home and kingdom.
3 The Red Sea saw them coming and quickly broke apart before them. The Jordan River opened up a path for them to cross. 4 The mountains skipped like rams, the little hills like lambs! 5 What’s wrong, Red Sea, that made you cut yourself in two? What happened, Jordan River, to your waters? Why were they held back? 6 Why, mountains, did you skip like rams? Why, little hills, like lambs?
7 Tremble, O earth, at the presence of the Lord, the God of Jacob. 8 For he caused gushing streams to burst from flinty rock.
36 Then Gideon said to God, “If you are really going to use me to save Israel as you promised, 37 prove it to me in this way: I’ll put some wool on the threshing floor tonight, and if, in the morning, the fleece is wet and the ground is dry, I will know you are going to help me!”
38 And it happened just that way! When he got up the next morning, he pressed the fleece together and wrung out a whole bowlful of water!
39 Then Gideon said to the Lord, “Please don’t be angry with me, but let me make one more test: this time let the fleece remain dry while the ground around it is wet!”
40 So the Lord did as he asked; that night the fleece stayed dry, but the ground was covered with dew!
12 But tell me this! Since you believe what we preach, that Christ rose from the dead, why are some of you saying that dead people will never come back to life again? 13 For if there is no resurrection of the dead, then Christ must still be dead. 14 And if he is still dead, then all our preaching is useless and your trust in God is empty, worthless, hopeless; 15 and we apostles are all liars because we have said that God raised Christ from the grave, and of course that isn’t true if the dead do not come back to life again. 16 If they don’t, then Christ is still dead, 17 and you are very foolish to keep on trusting God to save you, and you are still under condemnation for your sins; 18 in that case, all Christians who have died are lost! 19 And if being a Christian is of value to us only now in this life, we are the most miserable of creatures.
20 But the fact is that Christ did actually rise from the dead and has become the first of millions[a] who will come back to life again someday.
The Living Bible copyright © 1971 by Tyndale House Foundation. Used by permission of Tyndale House Publishers Inc., Carol Stream, Illinois 60188. All rights reserved.