Revised Common Lectionary (Semicontinuous)
Psalm 2[a]
Universal Reign of the Messiah
1 Why do the nations rage
and the peoples devise futile plots?
2 The kings of the earth rise up,
and the princes conspire together
against the Lord
and against his Anointed One:[b]
3 “Let us finally break their shackles
and cast away their chains from us.”
4 The one who is enthroned in heaven laughs;
the Lord mocks their plans.
5 Then he rebukes them in his anger
and terrifies them in his wrath, saying,
6 “I myself have anointed my king
on Zion, my holy mountain.”[c]
7 I will proclaim the decree[d] of the Lord:
He said to me, “You are my son;
this day I have begotten you.”
8 Simply make the request of me,
and I will give you the nations as your inheritance,
and the ends of the earth as your possession.[e]
9 You will rule them with an iron scepter;
you will shatter them like a potter’s vessel.[f]
10 Therefore, O kings, pay heed;
take warning, O rulers of the earth.
11 Serve the Lord with fear, and rejoice before him;
with trembling 12 bow down in homage[g]
lest he become angry
and you perish from the way,
for his wrath can flare up in an instant.
Blessed are all those
who take refuge in him.
Another Account of Moses’ Call.[a] 2 God spoke to Moses and told him, “I am the Lord. 3 I appeared to Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob as God the all-powerful, but I did not reveal my name, the Lord, to them. 4 I established a covenant with them to give them the land of Canaan, that land where they dwelt as aliens.
5 “And now I have heard the groaning of the children of Israel in their bondage to the Egyptians and I have remembered my covenant. 6 Therefore, say to the children of Israel, ‘I am the Lord. I will bring you out from your forced labor to the Egyptians. I will free you from their slavery and liberate you with an outstretched arm[b] and with mighty acts of judgment. 7 I will take you as my people, and I will be your God. You will know that I am the Lord, your God, who will bring you out from your forced labor to the Egyptians. 8 I will bring you into the land that I swore with an oath I would give to Abraham, to Isaac, and to Jacob, and I will give it to you as an inheritance, for I am the Lord.’ ”
9 Moses said these things to the children of Israel, but they did not listen to him, for they were at the limits of their endurance because of their harsh slavery.[c]
A New Kind of Priesthood[a]
Chapter 8
Another Sanctuary.[b] 1 The main point of what we have been saying is this: we have such a high priest. He has taken his seat at the right hand of the throne of the Majesty in heaven, 2 and he is a minister of the sanctuary and of the true tabernacle established by the Lord and not by human beings.
3 Every high priest is appointed to offer gifts and sacrifices, and so it is necessary for this one also to have something to offer. 4 Actually, if he were on earth, he would not be a priest at all, since there are already others who offer gifts according to the Law,[c] 5 although the sanctuary in which they offer worship is only a shadow and a reflection of the heavenly one. This is the reason why, when Moses was about to erect the tabernacle, he was warned, “See to it that you make everything according to the pattern that was shown you on the mountain.”
Another Covenant.[d] 6 But Jesus has now received a ministry that is far superior, for he is the mediator of a far better covenant that has been established on better promises. 7 For if that first covenant had been faultless, there would have been no necessity to establish a second one to replace it.
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