Revised Common Lectionary (Semicontinuous)

77 I cry to the Lord; I call and call to him. Oh, that he would listen. ² I am in deep trouble and I need his help so much. All night long I pray, lifting my hands to heaven, pleading. There can be no joy for me until he acts.

¹¹ I recall the many miracles he did for me so long ago. ¹² Those wonderful deeds are constantly in my thoughts. I cannot stop thinking about them.

¹³ O God, your ways are holy. Where is there any other as mighty as you? ¹⁴ You are the God of miracles and wonders! You still demonstrate your awesome power.

¹⁵ You have redeemed us who are the sons of Jacob and of Joseph by your might. ¹⁶ When the Red Sea saw you, how it feared! It trembled to its depths! ¹⁷ The clouds poured down their rain, the thunder rolled and crackled in the sky. Your lightning flashed. ¹⁸ There was thunder in the whirlwind; the lightning lighted up the world! The earth trembled and shook.

¹⁹ Your road led by a pathway through the sea—a pathway no one knew was there! ²⁰ You led your people along that road like a flock of sheep, with Moses and Aaron as their shepherds.

¹³ Once more the king sent fifty men, but this time the captain fell to his knees before Elijah and pleaded with him, “O man of God, please spare my life and the lives of these, your fifty servants. ¹⁴ Have mercy on us! Don’t destroy us as you did the others.”

¹⁵ Then the Angel of the Lord said to Elijah, “Don’t be afraid. Go with him.” So Elijah went to the king.

¹⁶ “Why did you send messengers to Baal-zebub, the god of Ekron, to ask about your sickness?” Elijah demanded. “Is it because there is no God in Israel to ask? Because you have done this, you shall not leave this bed; you will surely die.”

¹⁷ So Ahaziah died as the Lord had predicted through Elijah, and his brother Joram^[a] became the new king—for Ahaziah did not have a son to succeed him. This occurred in the second year of the reign of King Jehoram (son of Jehoshaphat) of Judah. ¹⁸ The rest of the history of Ahaziah’s reign is recorded in The Annals of the Kings of Israel.

³ There the young prophets of Bethel Seminary came out to meet them and asked Elisha, “Did you know that the Lord is going to take Elijah away from you today?”

“Quiet!” Elisha snapped. “Of course I know it.”

⁴ Then Elijah said to Elisha, “Please stay here in Bethel, for the Lord has sent me to Jericho.”

But Elisha replied again, “I swear to God that I won’t leave you.” So they went on together to Jericho.

⁵ Then the students at Jericho Seminary came to Elisha and asked him, “Do you know that the Lord is going to take away your master today?”

“Will you please be quiet?” he commanded. “Of course I know it!”

²¹ He gave them strict orders not to speak of this to anyone. ²² “For I, the Messiah,^[a] must suffer much,” he said, “and be rejected by the Jewish leaders—the elders, chief priests, and teachers of the Law—and be killed; and three days later I will come back to life again!”

²³ Then he said to all, “Anyone who wants to follow me must put aside his own desires and conveniences and carry his cross with him every day and keep close to me! ²⁴ Whoever loses his life for my sake will save it, but whoever insists on keeping his life will lose it; ²⁵ and what profit is there in gaining the whole world when it means forfeiting one’s self?

²⁶ “When I, the Messiah, come in my glory and in the glory of the Father and the holy angels, I will be ashamed then of all who are ashamed of me and of my words now. ²⁷ But this is the simple truth—some of you who are standing here right now will not die until you have seen the Kingdom of God.”