Revised Common Lectionary (Semicontinuous)

Confess, Return and Learn

Psalm 32

Twelve Memorial Stones

4 Now when all the nation had finished crossing over the Jordan, Adonai spoke to Joshua saying: ² “Take for yourself twelve men from the people, one man from each tribe, ³ and command them saying, ‘Take for yourselves twelve stones from the middle of the Jordan, from the place where the feet of the kohanim are standing firm, and carry them over with you, and deposit them at the place where you will lodge tonight.”

⁴ Then Joshua called the twelve men whom he had appointed from Bnei-Yisrael, one man from each tribe. ⁵ Joshua said to them, “Cross over before the ark of Adonai your God into the middle of the Jordan. Each of you, lift up a stone on his shoulder, for the number of the tribes of Bnei-Yisrael. ⁶ Let this be a sign among you. When your children ask later saying, ‘What do these stones mean to you?’ ⁷ then you will say to them: ‘Because the waters of the Jordan were cut off before the ark of the covenant of Adonai—when it crossed the Jordan—the waters of the Jordan were cut off.’ So these stones will be a reminder to Bnei-Yisrael forever.”

⁸ So Bnei-Yisrael did so, as Joshua commanded. They lifted twelve stones from the middle of the Jordan, just as Adonai had said to Joshua, for the number of the tribes of Bnei-Yisrael. Then they carried them over with them to the lodging place and put them down there. ⁹ Joshua also set up twelve stones in the middle of the Jordan, at the spot where the feet of the kohanim carrying the ark of the covenant were standing—they are there to this day.

¹⁰ The kohanim who carried the ark remained standing in the middle of the Jordan until everything that Adonai had commanded Joshua to speak to the people was completed, according to all that Moses had commanded Joshua. The people hurried across, ¹¹ and when all the people had finished crossing over, the ark of Adonai and the kohanim crossed over in the presence of the people. ¹² Also the children of Reuben, the children of Gad and the half-tribe of Manasseh crossed over armed ahead of Bnei-Yisrael, just as Moses had said to them— ¹³ about 40,000 equipped for war crossed over before Adonai for battle to the plains of Jericho.

¹⁶ Therefore we do not lose heart. Though our outward man is decaying, yet our inward man is renewed day by day. ^{[a] 17} For our trouble, light and momentary, is producing for us an eternal weight of glory far beyond all comparison, ¹⁸ as we look not at what can be seen but at what cannot be seen. For what can be seen is temporary, but what cannot be seen is eternal.

Earthly Tents, Eternal Dwellings

5 For we know that if the tent, our earthly home, is torn down, we have a building from God—a home not made with human hands, eternal in the heavens. ² For in this we groan, longing to be clothed with our heavenly dwelling— ³ if indeed, after we have put it on, we will not be found naked. ⁴ For we groan while we are in this tent—burdened because we don’t want to be unclothed but to be clothed, so that what is mortal may be swallowed up by life. ⁵ Now the One who prepared us for this very purpose is God, who gave us the Ruach as a pledge.