Then Abram fell on his face; and God said to him, ‘As for me, this is my covenant with you: You shall be the ancestor of a multitude of nations. No longer shall your name be Abram, but your name shall be Abraham; for I have made you the ancestor of a multitude of nations. I will make you exceedingly…
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Nebuchadnezzar said, ‘Blessed be the God of Shadrach, Meshach, and Abednego, who has sent his angel and delivered his servants who trusted in him. They disobeyed the king’s command and yielded up their bodies rather than serve and worship any god except their own God.’ From Daniel 3:14-20, 24-25, 28, NRSV The names of Shadrach,…
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So Moses prayed for the people. And the Lord said to Moses, ‘Make a poisonous serpent, and set it on a pole; and everyone who is bitten shall look at it and live.’ So Moses made a serpent of bronze, and put it upon a pole; and whenever a serpent bit someone, that person would look at the serpent…
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Taking his stand among them he said, “Are you such fools, O Israelites, as to condemn a daughter of Israel without examination and without learning the facts?” From Daniel 13:1-9, 15-17, 19-30,33-62, NRSV Today’s reading tells the intriguing tale of a crime committed by two elders against a Hebrew woman called Susanna. This beautiful young…
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Do not remember the former things, or consider the things of old.I am about to do a new thing; now it springs forth, do you not perceive it?I will make a way in the wilderness and rivers in the desert. From Isaiah 43:16-21, NRSV In today’s reading, we hear words of prophecy that were written…
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And I did not know it was against me that they devised schemes, saying,‘Let us destroy the tree with its fruit, let us cut him off from the land of the living, so that his name will no longer be remembered!’ But you, O Lord of hosts, who judge righteously, who try the heart and the mind,…
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Let us see if his words are true,and let us test what will happen at the end of his life;for if the righteous man is God’s child, he will help him,and will deliver him from the hand of his adversaries.Let us test him with insult and torture,so that we may find out how gentle he…
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The Lord said to Moses, ‘I have seen this people, how stiff-necked they are. Now let me alone, so that my wrath may burn hot against them and I may consume them; and of you I will make a great nation.’ From Exodus 32:7-14, NRSV This exchange which took place between God and Moses on Mount…
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Sing for joy, O heavens, and exult, O earth; break forth, O mountains, into singing!For the Lord has comforted his people, and will have compassion on his suffering ones. But Zion said, ‘The Lord has forsaken me, my Lord has forgotten me.’Can a woman forget her nursing-child, or show no compassion for the child of her womb?Even these may forget, yet I…
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He said to me, ‘This water flows towards the eastern region and goes down into the Arabah; and when it enters the sea, the sea of stagnant waters, the water will become fresh. Wherever the river goes, every living creature that swarms will live, and there will be very many fish, once these waters reach…
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