Revised Common Lectionary (Semicontinuous)
Hannah praises the Lord
2 Hannah prayed and she said,
‘I am very happy when I think about what the Lord has done.
The Lord has made me very strong.
I can laugh at my enemies because you, Lord, have saved me.
That makes me very happy.
2 Nobody else is holy like the Lord.
There is no other God except you, our God.
You are the only Rock where we can be safe.[a]
3 Do not boast or speak proud words!
The Lord is a God who knows everything.
He judges everything that people do.
4 The weapons of brave soldiers may break.
But weak people who fall become strong again.
5 People who had plenty of food to eat have to work for it now.
But the people who were hungry have enough food now.
Women who could not have any children have now given birth to seven children.
But those who had many children are now alone.
6 The Lord gives both life and death.
He sends some people to their graves,
and he raises other people up.
7 The Lord makes some people poor
and he makes other people rich.
He causes some people to be important
and he puts other people low down.
8 He raises up weak people from the ground.
He lifts poor people up out of the dirt.
He makes them become friends of princes.
He puts them in places of honour.
The deep places of the earth belong to the Lord.
He built the world on a strong foundation.
9 He takes care of his faithful people.
But he puts wicked people in a dark place where they can do nothing.
It is not a person's own strength that makes him great.
10 The Lord will destroy his enemies.
He will shout against them from heaven like loud thunder.
The Lord will judge everyone on earth.
He will make his king strong.
He will give power to the king that he has chosen to rule.’
Abraham's sons
21 The Lord was kind to Sarah. He did what he had promised to do for her. 2 Sarah became pregnant. She gave birth to a son for Abraham when he was very old. This happened at the time when God had said that it would.[a]
3 Abraham called his son ‘Isaac’. This is the son that Sarah gave birth to. 4 When Isaac was eight days old, Abraham circumcised him. That is what God had told him to do.[b]
5 Abraham was 100 years old when his son, Isaac, was born. 6 Sarah said, ‘Now God has made me laugh. Everyone who hears about what has happened will be happy with me.’ 7 She also said, ‘Abraham would never have thought that I would feed a child at my breasts. But I have given birth to a son for him, even when he is old.’
8 The child grew stronger, and he began to eat food. On that day, Abraham prepared a big party meal.
9 Then Sarah saw that Ishmael was laughing at Isaac. (Ishmael was the son of Abraham and Hagar, the Egyptian servant.) 10 So Sarah said to Abraham, ‘Send that slave woman and her son away from here. Ishmael must never receive any of our family's things. Everything must belong to my own son, Isaac.’
11 This made Abraham very sad, because Ishmael was his own son.
12 God said to Abraham, ‘Do not be upset about Ishmael or about Hagar. Do whatever Sarah tells you. Your family's descendants will come through Isaac, not Ishmael. 13 But, because Ishmael is also your son, I will make his descendants become a great nation of people too.’
14 Abraham woke up early the next morning. He took some food and some water in a bottle that was made from animal skin. He gave them to Hagar and he put them on her shoulders. Then he sent Hagar away, with their son, Ishmael.
She went and she travelled round the wilderness of Beersheba.[c] 15 After they had drunk all the water, Hagar put her son in the shade under a bush. 16 She herself went and sat down about 100 metres away from him. She thought, ‘I cannot watch the boy die.’ As she sat there, she began to cry.
17 Ishmael was crying and God heard him. The angel of God spoke to Hagar from heaven. He said, ‘What is the trouble, Hagar? Do not be afraid. God has heard the boy while he is crying there. 18 Go over to him and lift him up. Take hold of his hand and help him to stand. I will make him become a great nation of people.’[d]
19 Then God helped Hagar to see clearly. She saw a well with water in it. She went to the well and she filled the bottle with water. She gave the boy some water to drink.
20 God took care of Ishmael while he grew up. The boy lived in the desert. He became a hunter of wild animals. 21 He lived in the Paran wilderness. Hagar, his mother, found an Egyptian wife for him to marry.
A picture of Hagar and Sarah
21 I say this to you people who want God's Law to have authority over you. Think carefully about what that Law really says. 22 The Bible says that Abraham had two sons. The mother of one of them was a slave. The mother of the other son was a free woman. 23 Hagar was a slave. Her son was born as a result of what Abraham himself decided. But Abraham's wife, Sarah, gave birth to the other son. That son was born as a result of what God had promised to Abraham.[a]
24 These two women are like pictures of two agreements that God made with his people. Hagar is like the agreement that God made on Sinai mountain.[b] That agreement causes people to become slaves. 25 Hagar is like a picture of Sinai mountain in Arabia.[c] Also, she is like the city of Jerusalem here on earth now, because that city and its people are slaves under the authority of God's Law.
26 But Abraham's wife, Sarah, is a picture of the new Jerusalem that is above. Sarah was a free person, not a slave, and she is like our mother. 27 It says in the Bible:
‘Be happy, you woman who could not have any children!
You have never known the pain of a child's birth.
But now shout loudly because you are so happy!
Yes, be happy, because the lonely woman now has more children
than the woman who has a husband.’[d]
28 You, my Christian friends, are like Sarah's son, Isaac. Like him, you became God's children as a result of God's promise. 29 Isaac was born because of God's Spirit. The son who was born in the human way gave much trouble to Isaac at that time. You who are believers receive the same kind of trouble now. 30 But this is what it says in the Bible: ‘Send away the woman who is a slave and her son. That woman's son will never receive anything from his father. The son of the free woman will receive all those good things.’[e] 31 So then, my Christian friends, we are not children of the woman who is a slave. No, we are children of the free woman.
We should live as free people
5 Christ has made us free so that we can be really free! So be strong and do not turn back. Do not let yourselves become slaves to the Jewish rules again.
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