Revised Common Lectionary (Semicontinuous)

God chooses Samuel

3 The boy Samuel continued to serve the Lord. Eli the priest taught him what to do. In those days, the Lord did not often give his messages to people. He did not often show things to them in visions.

² Eli's eyes had become weak. He could not see very well. One night, he was sleeping in his usual place. ³ The lamp of God was still burning.^[a] Samuel was lying down to sleep near the Covenant Box in the Lord's house. ⁴ Then the Lord called out to Samuel. Samuel answered, ‘Here I am.’ ⁵ Samuel ran to Eli and he said, ‘You called my name. Here I am.’

But Eli said, ‘I did not call your name. Go back and lie down again.’ So Samuel went and he lay down again.

⁶ Again the Lord called out, ‘Samuel’. So Samuel went to Eli and he said, ‘You called my name. Here I am.’

Eli answered, ‘My son, I did not call your name. Go back and lie down again.’

⁷ Samuel did not know the Lord yet. The Lord had not spoken to him before. ⁸ Then the Lord called Samuel's name for the third time. Samuel got up again. He went to Eli and he said, ‘You called my name. Here I am.’

Then Eli realized that it was the Lord who was calling the boy's name. ⁹ So Eli said to Samuel, ‘Go back and lie down again. If he calls your name again, you must say, “Speak, Lord. I am your servant and I am listening.” ’ So Samuel went back and he lay down in his place.

¹⁰ The Lord came and he stood near to Samuel. He called Samuel's name again, as he had done before. He said, ‘Samuel, Samuel’. Samuel said, ‘Speak. I am your servant and I am listening.’^[b]

¹¹ Then the Lord said to Samuel, ‘Listen to me. I am ready to do something great among the Israelite people. When people hear about it, they will shake with fear. ¹² When that day arrives, I will punish Eli and his family in all the ways that I have said. I will start at the beginning and I will continue to the end. ¹³ I have warned Eli that I would punish his family for all time. He knew that his sons were doing very bad things. They were insulting me, God, and Eli did not stop them. ¹⁴ So I made a strong promise and I said, “I will never forgive the sins of Eli's family. No sacrifices or offerings will ever take away those sins.” ’

¹⁵ Samuel lay down again until the morning. Then he opened the doors of the Lord's house. He was afraid to tell Eli about the vision that he had received from God. ¹⁶ But Eli called out to Samuel, ‘Samuel, my son.’ Samuel answered, ‘Here I am.’

¹⁷ Eli asked Samuel, ‘What message did the Lord speak to you? You must not hide it from me. God will certainly punish you if you do not tell me everything that he said to you.’

¹⁸ So Samuel told Eli everything. He did not hide any of God's message. Then Eli said, ‘The Lord. must do what he thinks is right.’

¹⁹ The Lord was with Samuel while he continued to grow up. So every message that Samuel spoke became true. ²⁰ In all Israel, from the north to the south, everyone realized that Samuel was truly the Lord's prophet.^[a]

This is a song that David wrote.

It is for the music leader.

God understands me^[a]

⁵ We do not speak a message about ourselves. We tell people that Jesus Christ is our Lord. Because we belong to Jesus, we have become your servants, not your masters. ⁶ God is the one who said, ‘Let light shine in the dark.’ And he is the one who has caused his light to shine deep inside us. Because of that, we know how great and powerful God is. We see that his power shines brightly in Christ's face.^[a]

⁷ God has given to us the gift to speak his message. But we ourselves are very weak. It is like we are keeping his valuable gift in clay pots. So it is clear that the great power of God's message comes from God himself. It does not come from us. ⁸ We receive trouble all the time, but that does not stop us. We do not always know what to do, but we are not afraid to continue. ⁹ We have many enemies, but we always have friends. People hurt us, but they never destroy us. ¹⁰ As we serve Jesus, we know that we may die as he died. Because of that, our lives show that we live because he is alive. ¹¹ Yes, as we live our lives, death is always very near, because we serve Jesus. As a result, people can see in our weak, human bodies that Jesus is alive. ¹² So death is near to us, even as we live. But as a result, we are bringing God's life to you.

Jesus answers questions about the day of rest

²³ On one Jewish day of rest, Jesus and his disciples were walking through some fields where wheat was growing. While they were walking along, his disciples picked some grains of wheat. ²⁴ Some Pharisees said to Jesus, ‘Look at what your disciples are doing. They should not do that on our day of rest. It is against God's Law.’

²⁵ Jesus replied, ‘You have certainly read about what David did one day.^[a] He and the men who were with him were very hungry. They needed food to eat. ²⁶ David went into the temple. He ate the special bread that was there. He gave some of it to his men to eat as well. This happened during the time that Abiathar was the leader of the priests. It is against God's Law for anyone except the priests to eat that special bread.’

²⁷ Then Jesus said to the Pharisees, ‘God wanted to help people. So he made a day for them when they should rest. He did not make people so that they could keep laws about the day of rest. ²⁸ So you should know that the Son of Man has authority over the laws about the day of rest.’

Jesus makes a man well

3 Another time, Jesus went into the Jewish meeting place. A man was there. His hand was very small and weak, so he could not use it. ² Some Pharisees were watching Jesus carefully. They wanted to find a reason to say that Jesus was doing wrong things. It was the Jewish day of rest. So the Pharisees watched Jesus to see if he would make the man well on this day. ³ Jesus said to the man, ‘Stand here in front of everyone.’

⁴ Then Jesus said to the Pharisees, ‘Is it right for us to do good things on our day of rest? Or should we do bad things? Should we save a person's life? Or should we kill people?’

Nobody said anything.

⁵ Jesus looked round at everybody. He felt angry with them. He also felt sad because they did not want to learn. Then he said to the man, ‘Lift up your hand.’ The man lifted his hand and it became well. He could use it again. ⁶ The Pharisees left the meeting place immediately. They went to meet with some other people who were friends with the ruler, Herod.^[b] The Pharisees talked with them about how they could kill Jesus.