Revised Common Lectionary (Semicontinuous)
Psalm 99
99 The Lord rules—
the nations shake!
He sits enthroned on the winged heavenly creatures—
the earth quakes!
2 The Lord is great in Zion;
he is exalted over all the nations.
3 Let them thank your great and awesome name.
He is holy!
4 Strong king[a] who loves justice,
you are the one who established what is fair.
You worked justice and righteousness in Jacob.
5 Magnify the Lord, our God!
Bow low at his footstool!
He is holy!
6 Moses and Aaron were among his priests,
Samuel too among those who called on his name.
They cried out to the Lord, and he himself answered them—
7 he spoke to them from a pillar of cloud.
They kept the laws and the rules God gave to them.
8 Lord our God, you answered them.
To them you were a God who forgives
but also the one who avenged their wrong deeds.
9 Magnify the Lord our God!
Bow low at his holy mountain
because the Lord our God is holy!
The priests’ initiation
9 On the eighth day, Moses called for Aaron, Aaron’s sons, and Israel’s elders. 2 He said to Aaron, “Take a young bull from the herd as a purification offering and a ram as an entirely burned offering, both flawless animals, and bring them before the Lord. 3 Then tell the Israelites, ‘Take a male goat as a purification offering; a young bull and a sheep—both one-year-old flawless animals—as an entirely burned offering; 4 an ox and a ram as a well-being sacrifice before the Lord; and a grain offering mixed with oil, because today the Lord will appear to you.’”
5 They brought what Moses had commanded to the front of the meeting tent. Then the whole community came forward and stood before the Lord. 6 Moses said, “The Lord has ordered you to do this so that the Lord’s glorious presence will appear to you.” 7 Moses said to Aaron, “Come up to the altar and perform your purification offering and your entirely burned offering, making reconciliation for yourself and the people. Then perform the people’s offering in order to make reconciliation for them, just as the Lord commanded.”
8 Aaron went to the altar and slaughtered the young bull for his purification offering. 9 Then Aaron’s sons presented the blood to him, and he dipped his finger into the blood and put it on the altar’s horns. He poured the rest of the blood out at the altar’s base. 10 He completely burned on the altar the fat, kidneys, and lobe of the liver from the purification offering, just as the Lord commanded Moses. 11 But he burned the flesh and hide with fire outside the camp.
22 Aaron then raised his hands toward the people and blessed them. After performing the purification offering, the entirely burned offering, and the well-being sacrifice, he came down. 23 Moses and Aaron then entered the meeting tent. When they came out, they blessed the people, and the Lord’s glorious presence appeared to all the people. 24 Fire flew out from before the Lord and devoured the entirely burned offering and the fat pieces on the altar. All the people saw it. They shouted for joy and fell facedown.
4 Therefore, since Christ suffered as a human, you should also arm yourselves with his way of thinking. This is because whoever suffers is finished with sin. 2 As a result, they don’t live the rest of their human lives in ways determined by human desires but in ways determined by God’s will. 3 You have wasted enough time doing what unbelievers desire—living in their unrestrained immorality and lust, their drunkenness and excessive feasting and wild parties, and their forbidden worship of idols. 4 They think it’s strange that you don’t join in these activities with the same flood of unrestrained wickedness. So they slander you. 5 They will have to reckon with the one who is ready to judge the living and the dead. 6 Indeed, this is the reason the good news was also preached to the dead. This happened so that, although they were judged as humans according to human standards, they could live by the Spirit according to divine standards.
Copyright © 2011 by Common English Bible