Revised Common Lectionary (Semicontinuous)

³⁴ Then Samuel left Gilgal and he went to his home in Ramah. Saul went to his home in Gibeah. ³⁵ Until Samuel died, he never saw Saul again. Samuel was very sad about Saul. But the Lord was sorry that he had chosen Saul to be king of Israel.

Samuel anoints David as king

16 The Lord said to Samuel, ‘Stop being sad about Saul. I have decided that he will no longer be the king of Israel. Fill your horn with olive oil and go.^[a] I am sending you to a man whose name is Jesse. He lives in Bethlehem. I have chosen one of his sons to become king.’

² Samuel said, ‘If I go to do that, people will tell Saul about it. Then he will kill me.’

The Lord said, ‘Take a calf with you. Tell the people that you have come to offer a sacrifice to the Lord. ³ Then ask Jesse to come to the sacrifice. I will show you what to do after that. I will show you the person that you must anoint with the oil.’

⁴ Samuel obeyed the Lord. He went to Bethlehem. The leaders of the town went to meet Samuel, but they were very afraid. They asked him, ‘Have you come to visit us as a friend?’

⁵ Samuel replied, ‘Yes. I do not bring any trouble. I have come to offer a sacrifice to the Lord. Make yourselves clean. Then come to the sacrifice with me.’

Samuel made Jesse and his sons clean to worship the Lord. Then he took them with him to the sacrifice.

⁶ When they arrived, Samuel saw Jesse's son Eliab. Samuel thought, ‘I am sure that the Lord has chosen this man to be king.’

⁷ But the Lord said to Samuel, ‘Do not look at how handsome or how tall Eliab is. I have not chosen him. The Lord does not look at people in the way that people do. People look at the face and body of a person. But the Lord sees what they are like inside.’

⁸ Then Jesse called his son Abinadab. Jesse caused him to stand in front of Samuel. But Samuel said, ‘The Lord has not chosen this man either.’

⁹ Jesse caused his son Shammah to stand in front of Samuel. But Samuel said, ‘The Lord has not chosen this man.’

¹⁰ Jesse caused seven of his sons to stand in front of Samuel. But Samuel said to Jesse, ‘The Lord has not chosen any of these men.’

¹¹ Samuel asked Jesse, ‘Are those all of your sons?’

Jesse answered, ‘I have one more son. He is the youngest. He is taking care of my sheep.’

Samuel said, ‘Send someone to bring him here. We cannot continue to offer the sacrifice until he arrives.’

¹² So Jesse told his men to bring his youngest son for Samuel to see. This young man was handsome and strong and he had beautiful eyes.

The Lord said to Samuel, ‘I have chosen this man. Now anoint him as king.’

¹³ Samuel took the horn that was full of olive oil. He poured the oil over David's head to anoint him. Samuel did this in front of David's brothers. From that moment, the Spirit of the Lord came on David with great power.

Then Samuel returned to his home in Ramah.

This is a song that David wrote for the music leader.

We trust God to help us^[a]

⁶ Because God's Spirit is with us, we continue to be brave. While we still live here on earth, we know that we are not yet at home with the Lord. ⁷ As we live here, we have to trust God. We do not yet see the things that belong to heaven. ⁸ We are brave because we trust God. We would like to go away from our body here on earth. Then we would go to be at home with the Lord. And that would be better! ⁹ But all the time we want to please the Lord. We want to do that while we are still at home in our body here on earth. We also want to please him when we go away from these bodies. ¹⁰ Because all of us must go and stand in front of Christ as our judge. He will decide about the things that we have done during our lives here on earth. Whether we have done good things or bad things, we will receive what is right for us.

God makes us new people in Christ

¹¹ We know that the Lord will judge us, so we are careful to obey him. Because of that, we tell God's message to people. We want them to believe in God. And God himself knows that we try to do what is right. I hope that you know that also, when you think about it.

¹² We are not trying again to make you think that our work is good. But we do want to give you the chance to be proud of us. Then you will be able to show the false teachers that they are wrong. They are proud about what they look like on the outside. They do not think about what they are really like inside themselves. ¹³ To some people, we may seem to be crazy. That is because we want to serve God. But if we seem to be wise, that is to help you.

¹⁴ Whatever we do, we do it because Christ loves us. We know that one man, Christ, died on behalf of all people. So we also know that all of us died with him. ¹⁵ He died on behalf of all people. So, while we live, we no longer live to please ourselves. Instead, we live to please Christ. He is the one that died on our behalf. He is the one that God raised up, to live again.

¹⁶ So that changes how we think about people. We no longer use human ideas to think what they are like. At one time, we thought about Christ as humans think. But now we think about him very differently! ¹⁷ When anyone belongs to Christ, they become a new person. Their old way of life has gone. Their new life has begun!

Jesus tells a story about seeds

²⁶ Then Jesus said, ‘I will tell you a story about the kingdom of God. It is like this: A man throws seeds in his field. ²⁷ Then he sleeps each night and he wakes up each day. The seeds start to grow into plants. They continue to grow. The man does not know how this happens. ²⁸ The soil causes the plants to grow. The leaves of the plant grow first. Then the flowers appear. Then the plant makes new seeds. ²⁹ When the new seeds have completely grown, the man will cut down the plants. It is time for him to take the seeds to use for food.’

Jesus tells a story about a very small seed

³⁰ Jesus said, ‘I will tell you another story about the kingdom of God. This story shows what the kingdom of God is like. ³¹ It is like this: A man takes a seed of the plant called mustard. He plants it in the soil. It is smaller than any other seed that people plant in the soil. ³² But when it starts to grow, it becomes bigger than the largest bush. It will have big branches. Then the birds will come and they will live there. They will build their nests in the shade of the branches.’

³³ Jesus taught God's message to the people. He used many stories like these. He told the people as much as they could understand. ³⁴ He always used stories to teach the people. Then he explained everything to his own disciples when he was alone with them.