Revised Common Lectionary (Semicontinuous)

God Helps Men in Trouble

107 Give thanks to the Lord for He is good! His loving-kindness lasts forever! ² Let the people who have been saved say so. He has bought them and set them free from the hand of those who hated them. ³ He gathered them from the lands, from east and west, from north and south.

⁴ Some traveled through the desert wastes. They did not find a way to a city where they could live. ⁵ They were hungry and thirsty. Their souls became weak within them. ⁶ Then they cried out to the Lord in their trouble. And He took them out of their suffering. ⁷ He led them by a straight path to a city where they could live.

³³ He changes rivers into a desert and wells of water into a thirsty ground. ³⁴ He changes a land of much fruit into a salt waste because of the sin of those who live in it. ³⁵ He changes a desert into a pool of water and makes water flow out of dry ground. ³⁶ And He makes the hungry go there so they may build a city to live in. ³⁷ They plant seeds in the fields and plant grape-vines and gather much fruit.

God Tells Joshua to Go and Take the Land

1 After the death of the Lord’s servant Moses, the Lord said to Moses’ helper, Joshua the son of Nun, ² “My servant Moses is dead. So you and all these people get up and cross the Jordan River to the land I am giving to the people of Israel. ³ I have given you every place where the bottom of your foot steps, as I promised Moses. ⁴ Your land will be from the desert and from Lebanon as far as the big Euphrates River. It will be all the land of the Hittites to the Great Sea on the west. ⁵ No man will be able to stand against you all the days of your life. I will be with you just as I have been with Moses. I will be faithful to you and will not leave you alone. ⁶ Be strong and have strength of heart. For you will bring the people in to take this land which I promised to their fathers to give them. ⁷ Only be strong and have much strength of heart. Be careful to obey all the Law which My servant Moses told you. Do not turn from it to the right or to the left. Then all will go well with you everywhere you go. ⁸ This book of the Law must not leave your mouth. Think about it day and night, so you may be careful to do all that is written in it. Then all will go well with you. You will receive many good things. ⁹ Have I not told you? Be strong and have strength of heart! Do not be afraid or lose faith. For the Lord your God is with you anywhere you go.”

Joshua Tells the People to Go

¹⁰ Then Joshua told the leaders of the people, ¹¹ “Go among the tents and tell the people, ‘Gather together the things you will need. For within three days you will cross this Jordan to go in to take the land the Lord your God is giving you for your own.’”

¹⁷ You are a Jew and think you are safe because of the Law. You tell others about how you know God. ¹⁸ You know what He wants you to do. You understand how the Law works. You know right from wrong. ¹⁹ You think you can lead a blind man. You think you can give light to those in darkness. ²⁰ You think you can teach foolish people and children about God. You have in the Law the plan of truth and wisdom. ²¹ You teach others. Why do you not teach yourselves? You tell others not to steal. Do you steal? ²² You say that no one should do sex sins. Do you do sex sins? You hate false gods. Do you rob the houses where they are kept? ²³ You are proud of the Law. Do you take honor away from God when you do not obey the Law? ²⁴ The Holy Writings say, “God’s name is hated by the people who are not Jews because of you.” ^(A)

²⁵ Going through the religious act of becoming a Jew is worth something if you obey the Law. If you do not obey the Law, it is worth nothing to you. ²⁶ If a person who is not a Jew and has not gone through the act of becoming a Jew, obeys the Law, God will think of him as a Jew. ²⁷ You Jews have the Law but do not obey it. You have gone through the religious act also. At the same time those who are not Jews obey the Law even if they have not gone through the religious act of becoming a Jew. In this way, these people show you are guilty. ²⁸ A man is not a Jew just because he goes through the religious act of becoming a Jew. ²⁹ The true Jew is one whose heart is right with God. The religious act of becoming a Jew must be done in the heart. That is the work of the Holy Spirit. The Law does not do that kind of work. The true Jew gets his thanks from God, not from men.