Revised Common Lectionary (Semicontinuous)

Psalm 93

The Lord Rules the World

Joshua Will Follow Moses

31 Moses came and spoke the following words to all Israel. ² He said to them:

“I am now one hundred twenty years old. I can no longer go out and come back.^[a] The Lord has said to me, ‘You will not cross over this Jordan.’

³ “The Lord your God himself will cross over before you. He will destroy those nations before you, and you will take possession of their land. Joshua is the one who will cross over before you, as the Lord promised. ⁴ The Lord will do to them as he did to Sihon and Og, kings of the Amorites, and as he did to their lands when he destroyed them. ⁵ The Lord will hand them over to you, and you are to deal with them according to the whole set of commands that I gave you.

⁶ “Be strong and courageous. Do not be afraid and do not be terrified before them, because the Lord your God is going with you. He will not abandon you and he will not forsake you.”

⁷ Moses called Joshua and said to him in the view of all Israel:

“Be strong and courageous, because you will go with this people into the land that the Lord promised to your fathers with an oath, and you will divide it among them as their possession. ⁸ The Lord himself will go ahead of you. He will be with you. He will not abandon you, and he will not forsake you. Do not be afraid and do not be overwhelmed.”

Reading the Law

⁹ Then Moses wrote down this law, and he gave it to the priests, the sons of Levi who carry the Ark of the Covenant of the Lord, and to all the elders of Israel. ¹⁰ Moses commanded them:

“At the end of seven years, at the appointed time of the year of the release, at the Festival of Shelters, ¹¹ when all Israel comes to appear in the presence of the Lord your God at the place that he will choose, you are to read this law before all Israel in their hearing. ¹² Gather the people—the men, the women, the children, and the alien who resides within your gates—so that they may hear it and learn to fear the Lord your God and to be careful to carry out all the words of this law. ¹³ Their children also, who do not know the law, are to hear it and learn to fear the Lord your God all the time that you live on the land that you are crossing the Jordan to possess.”

¹⁶ “In a little while you are not going to see me anymore, and again in a little while you will see me, because I am going away to the Father.”^[a]

¹⁷ Therefore some of his disciples asked one another, “What does he mean when he tells us, ‘In a little while you are not going to see me, and again in a little while you will see me,’ and ‘Because I am going away to the Father’?” ¹⁸ So they kept asking, “What does he mean by ‘a little while’? We don’t understand what he’s saying.”

¹⁹ Jesus knew that they wanted to ask him about this, so he said to them, “Are you trying to determine with one another what I meant by saying, ‘In a little while you are not going to see me, and again in a little while you will see me’? ²⁰ Amen, Amen, I tell you: You will weep and wail, but the world will rejoice. You will become sorrowful, but your sorrow will turn to joy. ²¹ A woman giving birth has pain, because her time has come. But when she has delivered the child, she no longer remembers the anguish, because of her joy that a person has been born into the world.

²² “So you also have sorrow now. But I will see you again. Your heart will rejoice, and no one will take your joy away from you. ²³ In that day you will not ask me anything. Amen, Amen, I tell you: Whatever you ask the Father in my name, he will give you. ²⁴ Until now you have not asked for anything in my name. Ask, and you will receive, so that your joy may be made complete.