Revised Common Lectionary (Semicontinuous)

The Binding of Isaac

22 Now it was after these things that God tested Abraham. He said to him, “Abraham.”^[a]

“Hineni,” he said.

² Then He said, “Take your son, your only son whom you love^[b]—Isaac—and go to the land of Moriah, and offer him there as a burnt offering on one of the mountains about which I will tell you.”

³ So Abraham got up early in the morning, saddled his donkey and took two of his young men with him, and Isaac his son. He split wood for the burnt offering, and got up and went to the place about which God had told him. ⁴ On the third day, Abraham lifted up his eyes and saw the place from a distance. ⁵ Abraham said to his young men, “Sit yourselves down here with the donkey. As for me and the young man, we’ll go over there, worship and return to you.”

⁶ Then Abraham took the wood for the burnt offering and put it on Isaac his son. In his hand he took the fire and the knife. So the two of them walked on together.

⁷ Then Isaac said to Abraham his father, “My father?”

Then he said, “Here I am, my son.”

He said, “Look. Here’s the fire and the wood. But where’s the lamb for a burnt offering?”

⁸ Abraham said, “God will provide for Himself a lamb for a burnt offering, my son.”

The two of them walked on together. ⁹ Then they came to the place about which God had told him, and Abraham built the altar there, laid out the wood, bound up Isaac his son, and laid him on the altar, on top of the wood. ^{[c] 10} Then Abraham reached out his hand and took the knife to slaughter his son.

¹¹ But the angel of Adonai called to him from heaven and said, “Abraham! Abraham!”

He said, “Hineni!”

¹² Then He said, “Do not reach out your hand against the young man—do nothing to him at all. For now I know that you are one who fears God—you did not withhold your son, your only son, from Me.”

¹³ Then Abraham lifted up his eyes and behold, there was a ram, just caught in the thick bushes by its horns. So Abraham went and took the ram, and offered it up as a burnt offering instead of his son. ¹⁴ Abraham named that place, Adonai Yireh,—as it is said today, “On the mountain, Adonai will provide.”

Trust in His Chesed

Psalm 13

¹² Therefore do not let sin rule in your mortal body so that you obey its desires. ¹³ And do not keep yielding your body parts to sin as tools of wickedness; but yield yourselves to God as those alive from the dead, and your body parts as tools of righteousness to God. ¹⁴ For sin shall not be master over you, for you are not under law but under grace.

¹⁵ What then? Shall we sin because we are not under law but under grace? May it never be! ¹⁶ Do you not know that to whatever you yield yourselves as slaves for obedience, you are slaves to what you obey—whether to sin resulting in death, or to obedience resulting in righteousness? ¹⁷ But thanks be to God that though you were slaves of sin, you wholeheartedly obeyed the form of teaching under which you were placed; ¹⁸ and after you were set free from sin, you became enslaved to righteousness.

¹⁹ I speak in human terms because of the weakness of your flesh. For just as you yielded your body parts as slaves to uncleanness and lawlessness, leading to more lawlessness, so now yield your body parts as slaves to righteousness, resulting in holiness. ²⁰ For when you were slaves of sin, you were free with regard to righteousness. ²¹ So then, what outcome did you have that you are now ashamed of? For the end of those things is death. ²² But now, having been set free from sin and having become enslaved to God, you have your fruit resulting in holiness. And the outcome is eternal life. ²³ For sin’s payment^[a] is death, but God’s gracious gift is eternal life in Messiah Yeshua our Lord.

⁴⁰ “He who receives you receives Me, and he who receives Me receives the One who sent Me. ⁴¹ He who receives a prophet in the name of a prophet shall receive a prophet’s reward, and he who receives a tzaddik in the name of a tzaddik shall receive a tzaddik’s reward. ⁴² And whoever gives to one of these little ones even a cup of cold water in the name of a disciple, amen I tell you, he shall never lose his reward.”