Revised Common Lectionary (Semicontinuous)

Prayer for God to Destroy the Sinful

10 Why do You stand far away, O Lord? Why do You hide Yourself in times of trouble? ² The sinful, in their pride, try to catch the weak. Let them be caught in the plans they have made. ³ The sinful man is proud of the desires of his heart. He praises those who want everything but he speaks against the Lord. ⁴ The sinful man in his pride does not look for God. All his thoughts are that there is no God. ⁵ His ways always go well for him. Your laws are too high for him to see. He laughs at those who hate him. ⁶ He says to himself, “I will not be moved. For all time, I will never have trouble.” ⁷ With his mouth he swears and lies. He makes it hard for other people. Trouble and sin are under his tongue. ⁸ He lies hidden in the towns, waiting to kill those who are not guilty. His eyes are always watching for the weak. ⁹ He lies in wait like a hidden lion. He lies in wait to catch the weak, and they become caught in his net. ¹⁰ The weak are hurt and they fall. They cannot stand under his strength. ¹¹ He says to himself, “God has forgotten. He has hidden His face and will never see it.”

¹² Rise up, O Lord! Lift up Your hand, O God. Do not forget the weak. ¹³ Why does the sinful man turn away from God? He has said to himself, “You will not ask it of me.” ¹⁴ But You have seen it. You look upon trouble and suffering, to take it into Your hands. The suffering man gives himself to You. You are the Helper of the one who has no father. ¹⁵ Break the arm of the bad and sinful man. Find out all his sins until You find no more. ¹⁶ The Lord is King forever and ever. Those who worship false gods will be taken from the land.

¹⁷ O Lord, You have heard the prayers of those who have no pride. You will give strength to their heart, and You will listen to them. ¹⁸ In this way, You will do the right thing for those without a father and those who suffer, so that man who is of the earth will no longer make them afraid.

Israel Must Not Trust in Lying Words

7 This word came to Jeremiah from the Lord, saying, ² “Stand in the gate of the Lord’s house and make this word known: ‘Hear the Word of the Lord, all you men of Judah who go through these gates to worship the Lord!’” ³ The Lord of All, the God of Israel, says, “Change your ways and your works for the better, and I will let you live in this place. ⁴ Do not trust the lies that say, ‘This is the house of the Lord, the house of the Lord, the house of the Lord.’ ⁵ For if you for sure change your ways and what you do for the better, if you are fair as you judge between a man and his neighbor, ⁶ if you do not make it hard for the stranger from another land, or the child whose parents have died, or the woman whose husband has died, and do not kill those who are not guilty in this place, and stop going after other gods, for that will destroy you, ⁷ then I will let you live in this place, in the land that I gave to your fathers forever and ever.

⁸ “See, you are trusting in lies which cannot help you. ⁹ Will you steal, kill, do sex sins, make false promises, give gifts to the false god Baal, and go after other gods that you have not known, ¹⁰ and then come and stand before Me in this house which is called by My name, and say, ‘We are safe and free!’ and still do all these hated sins? ¹¹ Has this house which is called by My name become a place of robbers in your eyes? See, I Myself have seen it,” says the Lord.

¹² “But go now to the place in Shiloh where I first made a place for My name. And see what I did to it because of the sin of My people Israel. ¹³ Now you have done all these things,” says the Lord. “I spoke to you again and again, but you did not hear. I called you but you did not answer. ¹⁴ So as I did to Shiloh, I will do to the house that is called by My name and in which you trust, and to the place that I gave you and your fathers. ¹⁵ I will send you away from My eyes, as I have sent away all your brothers, all the children of Ephraim.

⁷ The Holy Spirit says, “If you hear His voice today, ⁸ do not let your hearts become hard as your early fathers did when they turned against Me. It was at that time in the desert when they put Me to the test. ⁹ Your early fathers tempted Me and tried Me. They saw the work I did for forty years. ¹⁰ For this reason, I was angry with the people of this day. And I said to them, ‘They always think wrong thoughts. They have never understood what I have tried to do for them.’ ¹¹ I was angry with them and said to Myself, ‘They will never go into My rest.’” ^(A)

¹² Christian brothers, be careful that not one of you has a heart so bad that it will not believe and will turn away from the living God. ¹³ Help each other. Speak day after day to each other while it is still today so your heart will not become hard by being fooled by sin. ¹⁴ For we belong to Christ if we keep on trusting Him to the end just as we trusted Him at first. ¹⁵ The Holy Writings say, “If you hear His voice today, do not let your hearts become hard as your early fathers did when they turned against Me.” ^(B)

¹⁶ Who heard God’s voice and turned against Him? Did not all those who were led out of the country of Egypt by Moses? ¹⁷ Who made God angry for forty years? Was it not those people who had sinned in the desert? Was it not those who died and were buried there? ¹⁸ Who did He say could never go into His rest? Was it not those who did not obey Him? ¹⁹ So we can see that they were not able to go into His rest because they did not put their trust in Him.

The Christian’s Rest

4 The same promise of going into God’s rest is still for us. But we should be afraid that some of us may not be able to go in. ² We have heard the Good News even as they did, but it did them no good because it was not mixed with faith. ³ We who have put our trust in God go into His rest. God said this of our early fathers, “I was angry and said, ‘They will not go into My rest.’”^(C) And yet God’s work was finished after He made the world.

God’s Rest

⁴ In the Holy Writings He said this about the seventh day when He made the whole world, “God rested on the seventh day from all He had made.” ^{(D) 5} But God said this about those who turned against Him, “They will not go into My rest.” ^{(E) 6} Those who heard the Good News first did not go into His rest. It was because they had not obeyed Him. But the promise is still good and some are going into His rest. ⁷ God has again set a certain day for people to go into His rest. He says through David many years later as He had said before, “If you hear His voice today, do not let your hearts become hard.” ^(F)

⁸ If Joshua had led those people into God’s rest, He would not have told of another day after that. ⁹ And so God’s people have a complete rest waiting for them. ¹⁰ The man who goes into God’s rest, rests from his own work the same as God rested from His work. ¹¹ Let us do our best to go into that rest or we will be like the people who did not go in.