Revised Common Lectionary (Semicontinuous)
15 Then Laban said to Jacob, ‘You should not work for me for nothing because you are my relative. Tell me what I should pay you.’ 16 Laban had two daughters. The name of the older daughter was Leah. The name of the younger daughter was Rachel. 17 Leah had weak eyes. But Rachel's face and her body were beautiful. 18 Jacob loved Rachel. He said to Laban, ‘I will work for you for seven years. In return, I want to marry your younger daughter, Rachel.’ 19 Laban said, ‘It is better for you to marry her than another man. Stay here with me.’
20 Jacob worked for seven years to have Rachel as his wife. But the years passed very quickly because Jacob loved Rachel very much. Seven years seemed like only a few days to Jacob.
Jacob marries Leah and Rachel
21 After seven years, Jacob said to Laban, ‘Give me my wife. My time to work for you is finished and I want to marry her.’ 22 Laban called all the people in that place to come together. He prepared a big meal for them to eat. 23 When evening came, Laban took his daughter Leah and he gave her to Jacob. Jacob slept that night with her as his wife. 24 Laban gave his female servant to Leah to be her servant. Her name was Zilpah.
25 When morning came, Jacob saw that he had slept with Leah! He said to Laban, ‘You have done a very bad thing to me! I worked for you to get Rachel as my wife. Why have you deceived me?’ 26 Laban replied, ‘In our land, we do not give the younger daughter to a man first. We let the older daughter marry first. 27 So finish this week of Leah's marriage. Then we will give you Rachel to marry too. But you must work for another seven years.’[a]
28 So Jacob did what Laban said. He finished the marriage week with Leah. Then Laban gave Rachel to Jacob to be his wife.
God takes care of his people[a]
105 Thank the Lord!
Make his name famous!
Tell people in all the nations
what he has done.
2 Sing songs and make music
to praise him!
Tell people about the miracles that he has done.
3 Boast about his holy name.[b]
Everybody who wants to worship the Lord
should be very happy!
4 Ask the Lord to help you.
Ask him to give you strength.
Always try to be near him
and worship him.
5 Remember the great things that he has done.
Remember his miracles,
and the commands that he has spoken.[c]
6 Remember that you are descendants of God's servant, Abraham.
You are Jacob's descendants,
and God has chosen you to be his people.
7 He is the Lord, our God.
He rules the whole earth with justice.
8 He will always remember the covenant
that he made with us.
He made that promise to continue for ever.
9 That is the promise that he made to Abraham,
and that he also made to Isaac.
10 He repeated it to Jacob as a law.
It was a covenant with Israel's people
that would continue for ever.[d]
11 He promised Jacob,
‘I will give to you the land of Canaan.
It will belong to you,
and to your descendants.’
45 Then God's people could obey his commands
and his laws.
Hallelujah! Praise the Lord!
A song to sing as we climb.
A happy family
128 If people respect the Lord
and they obey his commands,
God has blessed them!
2 You will eat the food that you have worked hard to grow.
You will have everything that you need.
You will be happy!
3 Your wife will be like a vine that grows in your home,
and it gives many grapes.
Your children will sit around your table,
like the branches of an olive tree that are around you.[a]
4 Yes, if a man respects the Lord,
that is how God blesses him.
5 The Lord rules from Zion,
and I pray that he will bless you.[b]
Then you will see that Jerusalem is a good place to live in
for as long as you live.
6 I pray that you will live to see your grandchildren.
May Israel have peace!
26 God's Spirit also helps us to do this. Because we are weak, we do not know how we ought to pray. But God's Spirit himself prays for us. He cries to God on our behalf in a way that nobody could say with words. 27 God sees deep inside us, and he knows our thoughts. He understands what is in the mind of his Spirit. When the Holy Spirit prays on behalf of God's people, he prays as God wants him to pray.
28 We know that God works to help those people who love him. He uses everything that happens to them to bring something good. He does this for those people that he has chosen to serve him. 29 God already had those people in his thoughts from the beginning. He decided that they should become like his Son. So then, his Son would have many younger brothers and sisters. 30 God had already chosen those people to be his children. Because of that, he called them to come to him. He accepted those people as right with himself. And those that he accepted, he also caused them to become great.
God loves us very much
31 So, because of all the things that God does for us, we can say this: If God is working on our behalf, nobody can really do anything against us. 32 God did not even keep his own Son safe. Instead, he gave his Son to die on behalf of all of us. So certainly, God will continue to be kind to us. As well as his Son, he will give to us all things that we need. 33 Nobody can say that God's people are guilty. God himself has accepted us as right with him. 34 So nobody can say that God should still punish us. Nobody can say that, because Christ Jesus himself died on our behalf. And God raised him so that he became alive again after his death. Now Christ is sitting at God's right side in heaven.[a] He himself is praying to God on our behalf.
35 Christ will always continue to love us. Nothing can stop that! We may have troubles. Things may make us sad or afraid. People may do bad things to us. We may have no food or no clothes. There may be great danger. People may even try to kill us. But none of these things can stop Christ from loving us. 36 As it says in the Bible:
‘Because we are your people, God,
people try to kill us all the time.
They think that we are like sheep,
and we are ready to be killed.’[b]
37 Because God loves us, none of these troubles can ever beat us. He makes us win against them. 38-39 I am sure of this. Nothing can stop God from loving us. Death cannot do that. Life cannot do that. Angels cannot do that, nor can demons do that. Nothing that happens to us now, or that will happen in a future time can do that. No powerful spirits can do that. Nothing that is high above the world can do that, nor anything that is deep down below the ground. Nothing else in the whole universe can stop God from loving us. Because of our Lord Christ Jesus, we know how much God loves us.
Jesus tells a story about a small seed
31 Jesus told the people another story. He said, ‘I will tell you again what the kingdom of heaven is like. It is like a very small seed of the plant called mustard. A man took this seed and he planted it in his field. 32 It is the smallest seed that there is. But when it starts to grow, it will become bigger than the largest bush. It will become a tree. The wild birds will come and they will build their nests among the branches of that tree.’
Jesus tells a story about yeast
33 Jesus told the people another story. He said, ‘The kingdom of heaven is also like this. It is like how yeast works. A woman took the yeast and she mixed it into three large bowls of flour. Then the yeast went through all the flour so that it grew big.’[a]
Jesus tells a story about a man who found valuable things in the ground
44 ‘I can tell you again what the kingdom of heaven is like,’ Jesus said. ‘The kingdom of heaven is like some valuable things that a man buried in a field. Another man found it, but then he covered it over again with dirt. The second man was very happy and he went away. He sold everything that he had. Then he went and bought the field with the valuable things in it.’[a]
Jesus tells a story about some valuable stones
45 ‘I will tell you again what the kingdom of heaven is like,’ Jesus said. ‘A trader looks for beautiful stones that he can buy. 46 One day he found a very valuable stone that someone wanted to sell. So he went away and he sold everything that he had. Then he went and he bought that very valuable stone.’
47 Jesus also said, ‘I can tell you again what the kingdom of heaven is like. Some men had nets to catch fish in. They threw their nets into the lake and they caught many different kinds of fish. 48 When the net was full of fish, the men pulled it up onto the shore. Then they sat down. Some of the fish were good to eat, and they put these fish into baskets. Some of the fish were not good to eat, and they threw these fish away. 49 This is what will happen when the world's time comes to an end. God will send his angels. They will put wicked people in one place. And they will put God's righteous people in a separate place. 50 The angels will throw the wicked people into the great fire. There those people will weep and they will bite their teeth together.’[b]
51 Then Jesus asked his disciples, ‘Have you understood all these things?’ They replied, ‘Yes, we have.’
52 Jesus said to them, ‘Some teachers of God's Law have now learned about the kingdom of heaven. These men are like the master of a house who takes things out of the room where he keeps them. Some of the valuable things he brings out are new and some of them are old.’
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