Revised Common Lectionary (Semicontinuous)

God Watches Over His People

124 “If the Lord had not been on our side,” let Israel say, ² “If the Lord had not been on our side when men came against us, ³ they would have eaten us up alive. Because their anger burned against us. ⁴ The waters would have covered us. The river would have passed over our soul. ⁵ The angry waters would have passed over our soul.”

⁶ Honor and thanks be to the Lord! He has not let us be torn by their teeth. ⁷ We have become free like a bird out of a trap. The net is broken and now we are free. ⁸ Our help is in the name of the Lord, Who made heaven and earth.

The Flood Ends

8 But God remembered Noah and all the wild animals and all the cattle that were with him in the large boat. Then God made a wind blow over the earth until the water went down. ² Also the wells of water under the earth and the windows of the heavens were shut. And it stopped raining. ³ The water kept moving away from the earth. At the end of 150 days the water was less. ⁴ And in the seventh month, on the seventeenth day of the month, the large boat came to rest on Mount Ararat. ⁵ The water kept on going down until the tenth month. In the tenth month, on the first day of the month, the tops of the mountains could be seen.

⁶ At the end of forty days, Noah opened the window of the large boat which he had made. ⁷ Then he sent out a raven, and it flew here and there until the water was dried up from the earth. ⁸ Then he sent out a dove, to see if the water was gone from the ground. ⁹ But the dove found no place to set her foot, so she returned to him in the boat. For the water was still over the earth. So Noah put out his hand and took her, and brought her into the boat with him. ¹⁰ He waited another seven days, and sent the dove from the boat again. ¹¹ The dove returned to him in the evening. In her mouth was an olive leaf that had just been picked. So Noah knew that the water had gone from the earth. ¹² Then he waited another seven days, and sent out the dove. But she did not return to him again.

¹³ In the year 601, in the first month, on the first day of the month, the water was dried up from the earth. Then Noah took the covering off the large boat, and looked out and saw that the earth was dry. ¹⁴ In the second month, on the twenty-seventh day of the month, the ground was dry. ¹⁵ Then God said to Noah, ¹⁶ “Go out of the boat, you and your wife and your sons and your sons’ wives with you. ¹⁷ Bring out with you every living thing of all flesh that is with you, birds and animals and everything that moves on the earth. So they may give birth and become many upon the earth.” ¹⁸ So Noah went out with his sons and his wife and his sons’ wives. ¹⁹ Every animal, every bird, everything that moves on the earth, went out of the large boat by their families.

6 What does this mean? Are we to keep on sinning so that God will give us more of His loving-favor? ² No, not at all! We are dead to sin. How then can we keep on living in sin? ³ All of us were baptized to show we belong to Christ. We were baptized first of all to show His death. ⁴ We were buried in baptism as Christ was buried in death. As Christ was raised from the dead by the great power of God, so we will have new life also. ⁵ If we have become one with Christ in His death, we will be one with Him in being raised from the dead to new life.

⁶ We know that our old life, our old sinful self, was nailed to the cross with Christ. And so the power of sin that held us was destroyed. Sin is no longer our boss. ⁷ When a man is dead, he is free from the power of sin. ⁸ And if we have died with Christ, we believe we will live with Him also. ⁹ We know that Christ was raised from the dead. He will never die again. Death has no more power over Him. ¹⁰ He died once but now lives. He died to break the power of sin, and the life He now lives is for God. ¹¹ You must do the same thing! Think of yourselves as dead to the power of sin. But now you have new life because of Jesus Christ our Lord. You are living this new life for God.