Revised Common Lectionary (Semicontinuous)

The Lord does great things^[a]

²³ At that time, I asked the Lord many times, ²⁴ ‘Almighty Lord, I am your servant. You are showing me how great and how strong you are. There is no other god in heaven or on earth that can do the great things that you do. ²⁵ Please let me go across the Jordan River! I want to see the good land over there. I want to see the beautiful hills and the mountains in Lebanon.’

²⁶ But the Lord was angry with me, because of you. He would not answer my prayer. He said, ‘You have said enough! Do not speak to me about that any more. ²⁷ Go up to the top of Mount Pisgah. Stand there and look all around, to the west, north, south and east. Look carefully at the land, because you will not go across the Jordan River. ²⁸ Now you must tell Joshua what to do. Tell him to be brave and strong. He will lead my people across the river into the land that you see. He will help them to take the land for themselves.’

²⁹ After that, we stayed in the valley near Beth-Peor.

⁶ God promised good things to Israel's people. But I am not saying that what God promised did not happen. It is clear that not all of Israel's people are God's true people. ⁷ Not all of them are true descendants of Abraham. God told Abraham, ‘It is only Isaac that I will call the father of your descendants.’

⁸ This means that not all of Abraham's children are really God's children. It is only those children who were born as a result of God's promise. Only they are the people that God calls true descendants. ⁹ This is what God promised to Abraham: ‘At this time next year I will come back. Then Sarah, your wife, will have a son.’^[a]

¹⁰ Remember this too: Later, Isaac's wife, Rebekah, gave birth to twins. Those two sons had the same father, who was our ancestor, Isaac. ¹¹ And God spoke to Rebekah before her sons were born. God spoke before the boys had done anything either good or bad. God did this to show clearly that he himself was choosing one child. He was not choosing someone because of what that person had done. He himself decided who he would choose. ¹² God said to Rebekah, ‘The older son will serve the younger son.’ ¹³ This is written in the Bible: ‘I loved Jacob, but I hated Esau.’^[b]

¹⁴ Because of this, someone might say that God is not fair. No! We should never say that! ¹⁵ Think about this. God said to Moses, ‘I will be kind to whoever I choose to be kind to. I will feel sorry for whoever I choose to feel sorry for.’^{[c] 16} So then, it is God who decides these things. It is not because of what people want. It is not because of what people do. It is because God chooses to be kind.

¹⁷ The Bible tells us what God said to Pharaoh: ‘This is why I caused you to be king of Egypt. My purpose was to show how powerful I am. As a result, people everywhere would know that I am great.’^{[d] 18} So we see this: God is kind to some people and he forgives them. But he causes some people, like Pharaoh, to turn against him. He chooses what he will do with each person.