Revised Common Lectionary (Semicontinuous)

God gives promises to David

7 The king was living in his palace. The Lord kept him safe from all his enemies everywhere. ² One day, the king said to Nathan the prophet, ‘I am living in a beautiful palace that is made of cedar wood. But God's Covenant Box still has a tent for its home!’

³ Nathan replied to the king, ‘Do what you think is right. The Lord will help you.’

⁴ But that night the Lord said to Nathan, ⁵ ‘Go and tell my servant David,

“The Lord says this: Do not think that you are the right man to build a house for me to live in. ⁶ From the time that I brought Israel's people out of Egypt until now, I have never lived in a house. While my people moved from place to place, I travelled with them. I lived in a tent as my home. ⁷ I have moved about to many different places with the Israelite people. I chose leaders to take care of Israel's tribes, like shepherds for them. But in all that time, I never said to any of the leaders, ‘You should have built a beautiful house of cedar wood for me.’

⁸ So tell my servant David that the Lord Almighty says this: I took you from the fields where you were taking care of sheep. I took you from there to become the ruler of my people Israel. ⁹ I have been with you everywhere that you have gone. I destroyed all your enemies that were attacking you. Now I will make you famous. Your name will be as great as the names of the earth's greatest men.

¹⁰ I have chosen a place where my people Israel will live. I have put them in that place, where they can be safe. They will not be afraid of trouble from any enemy. Wicked people will not hurt them any more. That happened in the past, ¹¹ from the time that I chose leaders to rule my people Israel. But now I will keep you safe from all your enemies.

I, the Lord, say to you, David: I will give you descendants who will rule as kings after you. That will be the royal house that I build for you! ¹² When you die, people will bury you in the grave of your ancestors. Then I will choose your descendant, one of your own sons, to become king. I will make his kingdom strong. ¹³ He is the man who will build a house for me. People will give honour to my name there. I will cause his descendants to rule as kings for ever. ¹⁴ I will be his father and he will be my son. When he does something wrong, I will punish him, so that he learns to do what is right. I will punish him in the way that human fathers punish their sons.

Christ has brought Jews and Gentiles together

¹¹ So you who were born as Gentiles should remember what you were like before. Jews insulted you because nobody has circumcised you. They themselves are proud that men have circumcised them as God's people. ¹² At that time, you did not know about Christ, God's special Messiah. You did not belong to the nation of Israel's people. You did not know about the good things that God had promised to his people. You were living in this world with nothing good to hope for. You were living without God's help. ¹³ You were far away from God. But now, God has brought you near to himself, because you belong to Christ Jesus. That is possible because of Christ's death on the cross as a sacrifice.

¹⁴ It is Christ himself who has brought peace between Jews and Gentiles. He has brought those two groups together, to be one group. He has destroyed the things that made them separate. As a result, they are no longer enemies. ¹⁵ When his body died on the cross, Christ took away the power of the Jewish laws and rules. In that way, he made the two groups join together as one new group of people. As a result, he caused them to have peace. ¹⁶ As a single group, Christ brought Jews and Gentiles back to God. He stopped them from hating each other. He did this by his death on the cross.

¹⁷ When Christ came, he told people God's good news about peace. He told that message to you Gentiles, who were far away from God. He also told it to us Jews, who were near to God.^{[a] 18} Now we all have received the same Holy Spirit, because of what Christ has done for us. As a result, we can all come near to God the Father.

¹⁹ So now, you Gentiles are not strangers among God's people any more. You belong to the group of God's people that he rules. You belong to God's family, as all God's people do. ²⁰ You are like a house that God is building for himself. God's apostles and his prophets are like the foundation under the house. Jesus Christ is like the most important stone in the house. ²¹ He makes the whole building stand together strongly. In that way, all God's people together become like a special house that belongs to the Lord. ²² Because you belong to Christ, God is building you all together to become his house. That is where God lives by his Spirit.

Jesus gives food to 5,000 men and their families

³⁰ The apostles all came to Jesus. They told him about all the things that they had done. And they told him what they had taught. ³¹ Many people were coming to Jesus and then going away. Jesus and his disciples were too busy even to eat. So Jesus said to them, ‘Come with me to a place where there are no other people. We should be alone together. Then we can rest for a short time.’

³² So they left all the people behind. They went away in a boat together to a quiet place. ³³ But many people saw that they were leaving the town. Those people recognized them. So they ran out from all the towns around there. They went on land and reached the place before Jesus and the disciples. ³⁴ Jesus got out of the boat and he saw a large crowd. He felt sorry for them. He thought to himself, ‘These people are like sheep that have nobody to take care of them.’ So he began to teach them many things.

Jesus makes many sick people well

⁵³ They sailed across the lake. They reached the shore at Gennesaret and they tied the boat there. ⁵⁴ When they got out of the boat, the people recognized Jesus immediately. ⁵⁵ They went to tell everyone who lived in places near there. They brought sick people to Jesus. They carried those people to him on mats. Whenever they knew where Jesus was, they brought sick people to him there. ⁵⁶ Jesus went to villages, towns and farms. Everywhere that he went, they brought sick people to the market places. The sick people asked Jesus for help. They wanted to touch even the edge of his coat. Every sick person who touched him became well.