Revised Common Lectionary (Semicontinuous)

Hide Not Your Face from Me

Psalm 143

¹⁸ Now when the child was grown, one day he went out to his father among the reapers. ¹⁹ Then he said to his father, “My head, my head!” So he said to his servant, “Carry him to his mother.” ²⁰ So he picked him up and brought him to his mother. The child sat on her lap until noon, and then died. ²¹ She then went up and laid him on the bed of the man of God, shut the door on him and went out. ²² Then she called to her husband, and said, “Please send me one of the servants and one of the donkeys that I may run to the man of God and come back.”

²³ But he said, “Why are you going to him today? It is neither New Moon nor Shabbat.”

But she said, “It will be well.”

²⁴ Then she saddled the donkey and said to her servant, “Move on! Don’t slow down riding unless I tell you.”

²⁵ So she set out and came near the man of God at Mount Carmel. Upon seeing her from a distance, the man of God said to his servant Gehazi, “Look! There’s the Shunammite. ²⁶ Please, run now to meet her and ask her: ‘Is it well with you? Is it well with your husband? Is it well with the boy?’”

She answered, “It is well.” ²⁷ But when she arrived at the mountain, up to the man of God, she caught hold of his feet.

Then Gehazi stepped forward to push her away, but the man of God said, “Leave her alone, for her soul is bitter within her, yet Adonai has hid it from me and has not told me.”

²⁸ “Did I ask my lord for a son?” she said. “Didn’t I say, ‘Don’t deceive me’?”

²⁹ Then he said to Gehazi, “Gird up your loins and take my staff in your hand and go. If you meet anyone, don’t greet him. Or if anyone greets you, don’t answer him; and lay my staff on the face of the child.”

³⁰ But the mother of the child said, “As Adonai lives and as you live, I won’t leave you.” So he arose and followed her. ³¹ Gehazi passed on ahead of them and laid the staff on the face of the child, but there was no sound or response. So he returned to meet him and told him, saying, “The boy has not awakened.”

³² When Elisha entered the house, there was the child, dead and laying on his bed. ³³ So he entered and shut the door behind the two of them and prayed to Adonai. ³⁴ Then he got up and lay on the child, and put his mouth on his mouth and his eyes on his eyes and his hands on his hands, and he stretched himself upon him. So the flesh of the child became warm. ³⁵ Then he stepped down and walked in the house to and fro, and then he got up on the bed and stretched himself on him. The child sneezed seven times, then the child opened his eyes. ³⁶ He then called Gehazi and said, “Call the Shunammite.”

So he called her. When she came in to him, he said, “Pick up your son.” ³⁷ She came, fell at his feet and bowed down to the ground. Then she picked up her son and went out.

Destined for Wrath, Saved by Grace

2 You were dead in your trespasses and sins. ² At that time, you walked in the way of this world, in conformity to the ruler of the domain of the air—the ruler of the spirit who is now operating in the sons of disobedience. ³ We too all lived among them in the cravings of our flesh, indulging the desires of the flesh and the mind. By nature we were children of wrath, just like the others. ⁴ But God was rich in mercy,^[a] because of His great love with which He loved us. ⁵ Even when we were dead in our trespasses, He made us alive together with Messiah. (By grace you have been saved!) ⁶ And He raised us up with Him and seated us with Him in the heavenly places in Messiah Yeshua— ⁷ to show in the olam ha-ba the measureless richness of His grace in kindness toward us in Messiah Yeshua.

⁸ For by grace you have been saved through faith. And this is not from yourselves—it is the gift of God. ⁹ It is not based on deeds, so that no one may boast. ¹⁰ For we are His workmanship—created in Messiah Yeshua for good deeds, which God prepared beforehand so we might walk in them.