Revised Common Lectionary (Semicontinuous)

Whisper at the Cave

19 Then Ahab told Jezebel all that Elijah had done and how he had slain all the prophets with the sword. ² Then Jezebel sent a messenger to Elijah saying, “So let the gods do to me and worse if by this time tomorrow I don’t make your life like the life of one of them.” ³ Frightened, he got up and ran for his life. When he came to Beersheba, which belongs to Judah, he left his servant there. ⁴ But he himself went a day’s journey into the wilderness, and came and sat down under a broom bush. He prayed that he might die. “It’s too much!” he said. “Now, Adonai, take my life! For I’m no better than my fathers.”

⁵ Then he lay down and slept under the broom bush. Then behold, an angel touched him, and said to him, “Get up, and eat.” ⁶ So he looked, and to his surprise, there by his head was a cake baked on the hot stones and a jar of water. So he ate and drank, and lay down again. ⁷ Then the angel of Adonai came again a second time, touched him and said. “Get up and eat, because the journey is too much for you.”

⁸ So he arose and ate and drank, and in the strength of that meal forty days and forty nights went to Horeb, the mountain of God.

⁹ When he arrived there at the cave, he spent the night there. Then behold, the word of Adonai came to him, and He said to him, “What are you doing here, Elijah?”

¹⁰ “I have been very zealous for Adonai-Tzva’ot,” he said, “for the children of Israel have forsaken Your covenant, torn down Your altars and slain Your prophets with the sword—and I alone am left, and they are seeking my life, to take it!”^[a]

¹¹ Then He said, “Come out and stand on the mount before Adonai.”^[b] Behold, Adonai was passing by—a great and mighty wind was tearing at the mountains and shattering cliffs before Adonai. But Adonai was not in the wind. After the wind there was an earthquake, but Adonai was not in the earthquake. ¹² After the earthquake a fire, but Adonai was not in the fire. After the fire there was a soft whisper of a voice. ¹³ As soon as Elijah heard it, he wrapped his face in his mantle, went out and stood at the entrance of the cave.

Then all of a sudden, a voice addressed him and said, “What are you doing here, Elijah?”

¹⁴ “I have been very zealous for Adonai-Tzva’ot,” he said, “for the children of Israel have forsaken Your covenant, torn down Your altars, and slain Your prophets with the sword—and I alone am left, and they are seeking to take my life!”

¹⁵ Then Adonai said to him, “Go, return on your way to the wilderness of Damascus, and when you get there, anoint Hazael king over Aram,

My Soul Thirsts for God

Psalm 42

Send Forth Your Light

Psalm 43

²³ Now before faith came, we were being guarded under Torah—bound together until the coming faith would be revealed. ²⁴ Therefore the Torah became our guardian to lead us to Messiah, so that we might be made right based on trusting. ²⁵ But now that faith has come, we are no longer under a guardian. ²⁶ For you are all sons of God through trusting in Messiah Yeshua. ²⁷ For all of you who were immersed in Messiah have clothed yourselves with Messiah. ²⁸ There is neither Jew nor Greek, there is neither slave nor free, there is neither male nor female—for you are all one in Messiah Yeshua. ²⁹ And if you belong to Messiah, then you are Abraham’s seed—heirs according to the promise.

Not Welcome in the Gerasenes

²⁶ They sailed over to the country of the Gerasenes, which is on the opposite side of the Galilee. ²⁷ A demon-plagued man from the town met Yeshua as He was coming out onto the land. The man hadn’t worn any clothing for a long time and was living not in a house but in the tombs.

²⁸ Seeing Yeshua, he cried out and fell down before Yeshua, and with a loud voice said, “What’s between You and me, Yeshua, Ben El Elyon? I’m begging You, do not torment me!” ²⁹ For Yeshua commanded the defiling spirit to come out of the man. For many times it had seized him so that, even though he was restrained and bound with chains and shackles, he would break the chains and be driven by the demons into the desert.

³⁰ Yeshua questioned him, “What is your name?”

“Legion,” he said, for many demons had entered him. ³¹ They kept begging Him not to command them to depart into the abyss. ^{[a] 32} Now a large herd of pigs was feeding on the mountain. The demons urged Yeshua to let them enter these pigs, and He gave them permission. ³³ Then the demons came out of the man and entered into the pigs. The herd rushed down the cliff into the lake and was drowned. ³⁴ But when the herdsmen saw what happened, they ran away and reported it in the town and countryside.

³⁵ People went out to see what had happened. They came to Yeshua and found the man from whom the demons had gone—clothed and in his right mind, sitting at the feet of Yeshua. And they were frightened. ³⁶ Now those who had seen it reported how the demon-plagued man had been restored. ³⁷ And all the people from the region surrounding the Gerasenes asked Yeshua to go away from them because they were overcome by great fear. So He got into a boat and returned.

³⁸ The man from whom the demons had gone out begged to go with Yeshua. But Yeshua sent him away, saying, ³⁹ “Return to your home, and describe all that God has done for you.” So he went away, proclaiming throughout the whole town all that Yeshua had done for him.