Revised Common Lectionary (Semicontinuous)
Zayin
Remembering What God Has Said
49 Remember what you said[a] to your servant,
by which you caused me to hope.
50 This is what comforts me in my troubles:
that what you say revives me.
51 Even though the arrogant utterly deride me,
I do not turn away from your instruction.[b]
52 I have remembered your ancient ordinances, Lord,
and I take comfort in them.
53 I burn with indignation because of the wicked
who forsake your instruction.[c]
54 Your statutes are my songs,
no matter where I make my home.[d]
55 In the night I remember your name, Lord,
and keep your instruction.[e]
56 I have made it my personal responsibility
to keep your precepts.
Moses Recalls God’s Warnings
22 “The Lord declared these commands in a loud voice to your entire assembly on the mountain from out of the fire[a] and dark clouds,[b] and nothing more was added. He inscribed them on two tablets of stone and gave them to me. 23 When you heard the voice from the darkness while the mountain was blazing, all the leaders and elders of your tribes came to me and said: 24 ‘The Lord our God truly has displayed his glory and power, for we heard him[c] from out of the fire today. We have witnessed how God spoke to human beings, yet they lived. 25 Now therefore, why should we die? This great fire will consume us. If we continue to listen to the voice of the Lord our God any longer, we’ll die. 26 For what mortal man[d] has heard the voice of the living God speaking out of the fire like we did, and lived? 27 As for you, go near and listen to everything that the Lord our God will say to you, then repeat it[e] to us, and we’ll listen and obey.’
28 “The Lord heard what you said. He told me: ‘I’ve heard what this people said. Everything they said was good. 29 If only they would commit[f] to fear me and keep all my commands, then it will go well with them and their children forever. 30 Go and tell them to return to their tents, 31 but you stand here with me and I’ll speak to you all the commands, decrees, and laws that you must teach them to observe in the land that I’m giving you to possess. 32 You must be careful to do what the Lord your God commanded you, turning neither to the left nor to the right. 33 You are to walk in every pathway that the Lord your God commanded you, so that life[g] may go well for you, and so that you will prolong your days in the land that you will possess.’”
The Covenant of Love
6 “Now these are the commands, decrees, and ordinances that the Lord commanded me[h] to teach you. Obey them in the land you are entering to possess, 2 so that you, your children, and your grandchildren may fear the Lord your God. Keep all his decrees and commandments that I’m giving you every day of your life, so you may live a long time. 3 Listen, Israel! Be careful to obey, so that life[i] may go well for you and that you may increase greatly. Just as the Lord God of your ancestors told you, you’ll have a land flowing with milk and honey.
17 Therefore, if anyone is in the Messiah,[a] he is a new creation. Old things have disappeared, and—look!—all things have become new!
18 All of this comes from God, who has reconciled us to himself through the Messiah[b] and has given us the ministry of reconciliation, 19 for through the Messiah,[c] God was reconciling the world to himself by not counting their sins against them. He has committed his message of reconciliation to us. 20 Therefore, we are the Messiah’s[d] representatives, as though God were pleading through us. We plead on the Messiah’s[e] behalf: “Be reconciled to God!” 21 God[f] made the one who did not know sin to be sin for us, so that God’s righteousness would be produced in us.[g]
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