Revised Common Lectionary (Semicontinuous)
Elijah Flees From Jezebel
19 And Ahab told Jezebel all that Elijah had done and how he had executed all the prophets with the sword. 2 Then Jezebel sent a messenger to Elijah, saying, “So let the gods do to me and more also, if I do not make your life as the life of one of them by tomorrow about this time.”
3 When he saw that she was serious, he arose and ran for his life to Beersheba, which belongs to Judah, and left his servant there. 4 But he went a day’s journey into the wilderness and came and sat down under a juniper tree and asked that he might die, saying, “It is enough! Now, O Lord, take my life, for I am not better than my fathers.”
5 As he lay and slept under the juniper tree, an angel touched him and said to him, “Arise and eat.” 6 He looked, and there was a cake baked on coals and a jar of water at his head. And he ate and drank and then lay down again.
7 The angel of the Lord came again a second time and touched him and said, “Arise and eat, because the journey is too great for you.”
8 He arose and ate and drank and went in the strength of that food forty days and forty nights to Horeb, the mountain of God.
Elijah Hears the Lord
9 He came to a cave and camped there, and the word of the Lord came to him, and He said to him, “Why are you here, Elijah?”
10 And he said, “I have been very zealous for the Lord, Lord of Hosts, for the children of Israel have forsaken Your covenant, thrown down Your altars, and killed Your prophets with the sword, and I alone am left, and they seek to take my life.”
11 He said, “Go and stand on the mountain before the Lord.”
And, behold, the Lord passed by, and a great and strong wind split the mountains and broke in pieces the rocks before the Lord, but the Lord was not in the wind. And after the wind, an earthquake came, but the Lord was not in the earthquake. 12 And after the earthquake, a fire came, but the Lord was not in the fire, and after the fire, a still, small voice. 13 When Elijah heard it, he wrapped his face in his cloak and went out and stood in the entrance to the cave.
And a voice came to him and said, “Why are you here, Elijah?”
14 And he said, “I have been very zealous for the Lord, Lord of Hosts, because the children of Israel have forsaken Your covenant, thrown down Your altars, and killed your prophets with the sword, and I alone am left, and they seek to take my life.”
15 The Lord said to him, “Go, return on the road through the Wilderness of Damascus, and when you arrive, anoint Hazael to be king over Aram.
BOOK TWO
Psalms 42–72
Psalm 42
For the Music Director. A Contemplative Maskil of the sons of Korah.
1 As the deer pants after the water brooks,
so my soul pants after You, O God.
2 My soul thirsts for God, for the living God.
When will I come and appear before God?
3 My tears have been my food
day and night,
while they always say to me,
“Where is your God?”
4 When I remember these things,
I pour out my soul within me.
For I would travel with the throng of people;
I proceeded with them to the house of God,
with the voice of joy and thanks,
with a multitude making a pilgrimage.
5 Why are you cast down, O my soul?
And why are you disquieted in me?
Hope in God,
for I will yet thank Him
for the help of His presence.
6 O my God, my soul is cast down within me;
therefore I will remember You
from the land of Jordan,
and of the Hermon, from the hill of Mizar.
7 Deep calls to deep
at the noise of Your waterfalls;
all Your waves and Your billows
passed over me.
8 Yet the Lord will command His lovingkindness in the daytime,
and in the night His song will be with me,
a prayer to the God of my life.
9 I will say to God, my rock,
“Why have You forgotten me?
Why do I go mourning
because of the oppression of the enemy?”
10 With shattering in my bones,
those harassing me reproach me,
when they say to me every day,
“Where is your God?”
11 Why, my soul, are you cast down?
Why do you groan within me?
Wait for God;
I will yet thank Him,
For He is my deliverance and my God.
Psalm 43
1 Vindicate me, O God,
and plead my cause against an ungodly nation;
deliver me from the deceitful and unjust man.
2 For You are the God of my refuge;
why have You rejected me?
Why do I walk about mourning
because of the oppression of the enemy?
3 Send out Your light and Your truth.
Let them lead me;
let them bring me to Your holy hill,
and to Your dwelling place.
4 Then I will go to the altar of God,
to the God of my joyful gladness;
with the harp I will give thanks to You,
O God, my God.
5 Why are you cast down, O my soul?
And why are you disquieted within me?
Hope in God;
for I will yet give Him thanks,
the salvation of my countenance and my God.
23 But before faith came, we were imprisoned under the law, kept for the faith which was later to be revealed. 24 So the law was our tutor to bring us to Christ, that we might be justified by faith. 25 But now that faith has come, we are no longer under a tutor.
26 You are all sons of God by faith in Christ Jesus. 27 For as many of you as have been baptized into Christ have put on Christ. 28 There is neither Jew nor Greek, there is neither slave nor free, and there is neither male nor female, for you are all one in Christ Jesus. 29 If you are Christ’s, then you are Abraham’s seed, and heirs according to the promise.
The Healing of the Gadarene Demoniac(A)
26 They sailed to the country of the Gadarenes, which is across from Galilee. 27 When He stepped out on land, a man from the city who had demons for a long time met Him. He wore no clothes, nor did he live in a house but in the tombs. 28 When he saw Jesus, he cried out and fell down before Him, and with a loud voice said, “What have You to do with me, Jesus, Son of the Most High God? I plead with You, do not torment me.” 29 For He had commanded the unclean spirit to come out of the man. It often had seized him, and he was kept under guard, bound with chains and shackles. But he broke the shackles and was driven by the demon into the wilderness.
30 Jesus asked him, “What is your name?”
He said, “Legion,” because many demons had entered him. 31 And they begged Him not to command them to go out into the abyss.
32 There was a large herd of swine feeding on the mountain. They begged Him to permit them to enter them, and He permitted them. 33 Then the demons went out of the man and entered the swine, and the herd ran violently down the steep bank into the lake and was drowned.
34 When those who fed them saw what had happened, they fled and reported it in the city and in the country. 35 Then they went out to see what had happened, and came to Jesus, and found the man from whom the demons had departed sitting at the feet of Jesus, clothed, and in his right mind. And they were afraid. 36 Those who had seen it told them how he who had been possessed by demons was healed. 37 Then the whole crowd from the surrounding country of the Gadarenes asked Him to depart from them, for they were seized with great fear. So He went into the boat and returned.
38 Now the man from whom the demons had departed asked Him if he could stay with Him. But Jesus sent him away, saying, 39 “Return to your own house, and tell what great things God has done for you.” So he went his way and proclaimed throughout the whole city what great things Jesus had done for him.
The Holy Bible, Modern English Version. Copyright © 2014 by Military Bible Association. Published and distributed by Charisma House.