Revised Common Lectionary (Semicontinuous)
An instruction[a] of Asaph
Remembering God in Times of Trouble
78 Listen, my people, to my instruction.
Hear[b] the words of my mouth.
2 I will tell[c] a parable,
speaking riddles from long ago—
3 things that we have heard and known
and that our ancestors related to us.
4 We will not withhold them from their descendants;
we’ll declare to the next generation the praises of the Lord—
his might and awesome deeds that he has performed.
5 He established a decree in Jacob,
and established the Law in Israel,
that he commanded our ancestors
to reveal to their children
6 in order that the next generation—
children yet to be born—
will know them and
in turn teach them to their children.
7 Then they will put their trust in God
and they will not forget his awesome deeds.
Instead, they will keep his commandments.
8 They will not be like the rebellious generation of their ancestors,
a rebellious generation,
whose heart was not steadfast,
and whose spirits were unfaithful to God.
9 The descendants of Ephraim were sharp shooters with the bow,
but they retreated in the day of battle.
10 They did not keep God’s covenant,
and refused to live by his Law.
11 They have forgotten what he has done,
his awesome deeds that they witnessed.
12 He performed marvelous things
in the presence of their ancestors
in the land of Egypt—
in the fields of Zoan.
13 He divided the sea so that they were able to cross;
he caused the water to stand in a single location.
14 He led them with a cloud during the day,
and during the night with light from the fire.
15 He caused the rocks to split in the wilderness,
and gave them water[d] as from an abundant sea.
16 He brought streams from rock,
causing water to flow like a river.
17 But time and again, they sinned against him,
rebelling against the Most High in the desert.
18 To test God was in their minds,
when they demanded food to satisfy their cravings.[e]
19 They spoke against God by asking,
“Is God able to prepare a feast[f] in the desert?
20 It’s true that[g] Moses[h] struck the rock so that water flowed forth
and torrents of water gushed out,
but is he also able to give bread
or to supply meat for his people?”
21 Therefore, when the Lord heard this, he was angry,
and fire broke out against Jacob.
Moreover, his anger flared against Israel,
22 because they didn’t believe in God
and didn’t trust in his deliverance.
23 Yet he commanded the skies above
and the doors of the heavens to open,
24 so that manna rained down on them for food
and he sent them the grain of heaven.
25 Mortal men[i] ate the food of angels;
he sent provision to them in abundance.
26 He stirred up the east wind in the heavens
and drove the south wind by his might.
27 He caused meat to rain on them like dust
and winged birds as the sand of the sea.
28 He caused these to fall in the middle of the camp
and all around their tents.
29 So they ate and were very satisfied,
because he granted their desire.
30 However, before they had fulfilled their desire,
while their food was still in their mouths,
31 the anger of God flared against them,
and he killed the strongest men
and humbled Israel’s young men.
32 In spite of all of this, they kept on sinning
and didn’t believe in his marvelous deeds.
33 So he made their days end in futility,
and their years with sudden terror.
34 When he struck them, they sought him;
they repented, and eagerly sought God.
35 Then they remembered that God was their rock,
and the Most High God was their deliverer.
36 But they deceived him with their mouths;
they lied to him with their tongues.
37 For their hearts weren’t committed to him,
and they weren’t faithful to his covenant.
38 But he, being merciful, forgave their iniquity
and didn’t destroy them;
He restrained his anger
and didn’t vent all his wrath.
39 For he remembered that they were only flesh,
a passing wind that doesn’t return.
40 How they rebelled against him in the desert,
grieving him in the wilderness!
41 They tested God again and again,
provoking the Holy One of Israel.
42 They did not remember his power—
the day he delivered them from their adversary,
43 when he set his signs in Egypt
and his wonders in the plain of Zoan.
44 He turned their rivers into blood
and made their streams undrinkable.
45 He sent swarms of insects to bite them
and frogs to destroy them.
46 He gave their crops to caterpillars
and what they worked for to locusts.
47 He destroyed their vines with hail
and their sycamore[j] trees with frost.
48 He delivered their beasts to hail
and their livestock to lightning bolts.
49 He inflicted his burning anger,
wrath, indignation, and distress,
sending destroying angels among them.
50 He blazed a path for his anger;
he did not stop short from killing them,
but handed them over to pestilence.
51 He struck every firstborn in Egypt,
the first fruits of their manhood in the tents of Ham.
52 Yet he led out his people like sheep,
guiding them like a flock in the desert.
53 He led them to safety so they would not fear.
As for their enemies, the sea covered them.
54 He brought the people[k] to the border of his holy mountain,
which he acquired by his might.
55 He drove out nations before them
and allotted their tribal inheritance,
settling the tribes of Israel in their tents.
56 But they tested the Most High God by rebelling against him,
and they did not obey his statutes.
57 They fell away and were as disloyal as their ancestors.
They became unreliable, like a defective bow;
58 they angered him with their high places
and with their carved images they made him jealous.
59 God heard and became furious,
and he completely rejected Israel.
60 He abandoned the tent at Shiloh,
the tent that he established among mankind.
61 Then he sent his might[l] into captivity
and his glory into the control of the adversary.
62 He delivered his people over to the sword
and was angry with his possession.
63 The young men were consumed by fire,
and the virgins had no marriage celebrations.[m]
64 The priests fell by the sword,
yet their widows couldn’t weep.
65 The Lord awoke as though from sleep,
like a mighty warrior stimulated by wine.
66 He beat back his adversaries,
permanently disgracing them.
67 He rejected the clan[n] of Joseph;
and the tribe of Ephraim he did not choose.
68 But he chose the tribe of Judah,
the mountain of Zion, which he loves.
69 He built his sanctuary, high as the heavens,
like the earth that he established forever.
70 Then he chose his servant David,
whom he took from the sheepfold.
71 He brought him from birthing sheep
to care for Jacob, his people,
Israel, his possession.
72 David[o] shepherded them with a devoted heart,
and led them with skillful hands.
25 So Joshua made a covenant with the people that day, making statutes and ordinances in Shechem. 26 He[a] wrote these words in the Book of the Law of God, took a large stone, moved it under the shade of[b] the oak tree that was near the sanctuary of the Lord, 27 and then[c] told all of the people, “Look! This stone will testify for us, because it has heard everything that the Lord has spoken to us. So it will stand as a witness against you in the event that you deny your God.” 28 Then Joshua dismissed the people, and each man returned[d] to his territorial inheritance.
The Death of Joshua(A)
29 Some time later, Joshua servant of the Lord died at the age of 110 years, and 30 they buried him in his territorial inheritance at Timnath-serah in the mountainous region[e] of Ephraim, north of Mount Gaash. 31 Israel served the Lord for the entire lifetimes of Joshua and of the officials who outlived Joshua, that is, the ones who had personally known everything that the Lord had done for Israel. 32 They also buried the bones of Joseph, which the Israelis brought up from Egypt, in the parcel of ground at Shechem that Jacob had purchased from the descendants of Shechem’s father Hamor, for 100 pieces of silver. It became part of the inheritance of the descendants of Joseph.
The Death of Eleazar the Priest
33 Later, Aaron’s son Eleazar also died, and they buried him at Gibeah, which belonged to his son Phinehas, and which had been given to him in the mountainous region[f] of Ephraim.
20 Brothers, stop being[a] childish in your thinking. Be like infants with respect to evil, but think like adults. 21 In the Law it is written,
“By means of foreign languages
and through the mouths of foreigners
I will speak to this people,
but even then they will not listen to me,”[b]
declares the Lord.
22 Foreign languages, then, are meant to be a sign, not for believers, but for unbelievers, while prophecy is meant, not for unbelievers, but for believers. 23 Now if the whole church gathers in the same place and everyone is speaking in foreign languages, when uneducated people or unbelievers come in, they will say that you are out of your mind, won’t they? 24 But if everyone is prophesying, when an unbeliever or an uneducated person comes in he will be convicted and examined by everything that’s happening.[c] 25 His secret, inner heart will become known, and so he will bow down to the ground and worship God, declaring, “God is truly among you!”
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