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First Reading: Genesis Chapter 17 and 18Genesis 17
17:1 When Abram was ninety-nine years old, the LORD appeared to him and said,
"I am God Almighty; walk before me and be blameless. 2 I will confirm my
covenant between me and you and will greatly increase your numbers."
3 Abram fell facedown, and God said to him, 4 "As for me, this is my covenant
with you: You will be the father of many nations. 5 No longer will you be called
Abram; your name will be Abraham, for I have made you a father of many nations.
6 I will make you very fruitful; I will make nations of you, and kings will
come from you. 7 I will establish my covenant as an everlasting covenant between
me and you and your descendants after you for the generations to come, to be
your God and the God of your descendants after you. 8 The whole land of Canaan,
where you are now an alien, I will give as an everlasting possession to you
and your descendants after you; and I will be their God."
9 Then God said to Abraham, "As for you, you must keep my covenant, you
and your descendants after you for the generations to come. 10 This is my covenant
with you and your descendants after you, the covenant you are to keep: Every
male among you shall be circumcised. 11 You are to undergo circumcision, and
it will be the sign of the covenant between me and you. 12 For the generations
to come every male among you who is eight days old must be circumcised, including
those born in your household or bought with money from a foreigner those
who are not your offspring. 13 Whether born in your household or bought with
your money, they must be circumcised. My covenant in your flesh is to be an
everlasting covenant. 14 Any uncircumcised male, who has not been circumcised
in the flesh, will be cut off from his people; he has broken my covenant."
15 God also said to Abraham, "As for Sarai your wife, you are no longer
to call her Sarai; her name will be Sarah. 16 I will bless her and will surely
give you a son by her. I will bless her so that she will be the mother of nations;
kings of peoples will come from her."
17 Abraham fell facedown; he laughed and said to himself, "Will a son be
born to a man a hundred years old? Will Sarah bear a child at the age of ninety?"
18 And Abraham said to God, "If only Ishmael might live under your blessing!"
19 Then God said, "Yes, but your wife Sarah will bear you a son, and you
will call him Isaac. I will establish my covenant with him as an everlasting
covenant for his descendants after him. 20 And as for Ishmael, I have heard
you: I will surely bless him; I will make him fruitful and will greatly increase
his numbers. He will be the father of twelve rulers, and I will make him into
a great nation. 21 But my covenant I will establish with Isaac, whom Sarah will
bear to you by this time next year." 22 When he had finished speaking with
Abraham, God went up from him.
23 On that very day Abraham took his son Ishmael and all those born in his household
or bought with his money, every male in his household, and circumcised them,
as God told him. 24 Abraham was ninety-nine years old when he was circumcised,
25 and his son Ishmael was thirteen; 26 Abraham and his son Ishmael were both
circumcised on that same day. 27 And every male in Abraham's household, including
those born in his household or bought from a foreigner, was circumcised with
him.
Genesis 18
18:1 The LORD appeared to Abraham near the great trees of Mamre while he was
sitting at the entrance to his tent in the heat of the day. 2 Abraham looked
up and saw three men standing nearby. When he saw them, he hurried from the
entrance of his tent to meet them and bowed low to the ground.
3 He said, "If I have found favor in your eyes, my lord, do not pass your
servant by. 4 Let a little water be brought, and then you may all wash your
feet and rest under this tree. 5 Let me get you something to eat, so you can
be refreshed and then go on your way now that you have come to your servant."
"Very well," they answered, "do as you say."
6 So Abraham hurried into the tent to Sarah. "Quick," he said, "get
three seahs of fine flour and knead it and bake some bread."
7 Then he ran to the herd and selected a choice, tender calf and gave it to
a servant, who hurried to prepare it. 8 He then brought some curds and milk
and the calf that had been prepared, and set these before them. While they ate,
he stood near them under a tree.
9 "Where is your wife Sarah?" they asked him.
"There, in the tent," he said.
10 Then the LORD said, "I will surely return to you about this time next
year, and Sarah your wife will have a son."
Now Sarah was listening at the entrance to the tent, which was behind him. 11
Abraham and Sarah were already old and well advanced in years, and Sarah was
past the age of childbearing. 12 So Sarah laughed to herself as she thought,
"After I am worn out and my master is old, will I now have this pleasure?"
13 Then the LORD said to Abraham, "Why did Sarah laugh and say, 'Will I
really have a child, now that I am old?' 14 Is anything too hard for the LORD?
I will return to you at the appointed time next year and Sarah will have a son."
15 Sarah was afraid, so she lied and said, "I did not laugh."
But he said, "Yes, you did laugh."
16 When the men got up to leave, they looked down toward Sodom, and Abraham
walked along with them to see them on their way. 17 Then the LORD said, "Shall
I hide from Abraham what I am about to do? 18 Abraham will surely become a great
and powerful nation, and all nations on earth will be blessed through him. 19
For I have chosen him, so that he will direct his children and his household
after him to keep the way of the LORD by doing what is right and just, so that
the LORD will bring about for Abraham what he has promised him."
20 Then the LORD said, "The outcry against Sodom and Gomorrah is so great
and their sin so grievous 21 that I will go down and see if what they have done
is as bad as the outcry that has reached me. If not, I will know."
22 The men turned away and went toward Sodom, but Abraham remained standing
before the LORD. 23 Then Abraham approached him and said: "Will you sweep
away the righteous with the wicked? 24 What if there are fifty righteous people
in the city? Will you really sweep it away and not spare the place for the sake
of the fifty righteous people in it? 25 Far be it from you to do such a thing
to kill the righteous with the wicked, treating the righteous and the
wicked alike. Far be it from you! Will not the Judge of all the earth do right?"
26 The LORD said, "If I find fifty righteous people in the city of Sodom,
I will spare the whole place for their sake."
27 Then Abraham spoke up again: "Now that I have been so bold as to speak
to the Lord, though I am nothing but dust and ashes, 28 what if the number of
the righteous is five less than fifty? Will you destroy the whole city because
of five people?"
"If I find forty-five there," he said, "I will not destroy it."
29 Once again he spoke to him, "What if only forty are found there?"
He said, "For the sake of forty, I will not do it."
30 Then he said, "May the Lord not be angry, but let me speak. What if
only thirty can be found there?"
He answered, "I will not do it if I find thirty there."
31 Abraham said, "Now that I have been so bold as to speak to the Lord,
what if only twenty can be found there?"
He said, "For the sake of twenty, I will not destroy it."
32 Then he said, "May the Lord not be angry, but let me speak just once
more. What if only ten can be found there?"
He answered, "For the sake of ten, I will not destroy it."
33 When the LORD had finished speaking with Abraham, he left, and Abraham returned
home.
Matthew 8
8:1 When he came down from the mountainside, large crowds followed him. 2 A
man with leprosy came and knelt before him and said, "Lord, if you are
willing, you can make me clean."
3 Jesus reached out his hand and touched the man. "I am willing,"
he said. "Be clean!" Immediately he was cured of his leprosy. 4 Then
Jesus said to him, "See that you don't tell anyone. But go, show yourself
to the priest and offer the gift Moses commanded, as a testimony to them."
5 When Jesus had entered Capernaum, a centurion came to him, asking for help.
6 "Lord," he said, "my servant lies at home paralyzed and in
terrible suffering."
7 Jesus said to him, "I will go and heal him."
8 The centurion replied, "Lord, I do not deserve to have you come under
my roof. But just say the word, and my servant will be healed. 9 For I myself
am a man under authority, with soldiers under me. I tell this one, 'Go,' and
he goes; and that one, 'Come,' and he comes. I say to my servant, 'Do this,'
and he does it."
10 When Jesus heard this, he was astonished and said to those following him,
"I tell you the truth, I have not found anyone in Israel with such great
faith. 11 I say to you that many will come from the east and the west, and will
take their places at the feast with Abraham, Isaac and Jacob in the kingdom
of heaven. 12 But the subjects of the kingdom will be thrown outside, into the
darkness, where there will be weeping and gnashing of teeth."
13 Then Jesus said to the centurion, "Go! It will be done just as you believed
it would." And his servant was healed at that very hour.
14 When Jesus came into Peter's house, he saw Peter's mother-in-law lying in
bed with a fever. 15 He touched her hand and the fever left her, and she got
up and began to wait on him.
16 When evening came, many who were demon-possessed were brought to him, and
he drove out the spirits with a word and healed all the sick. 17 This was to
fulfill what was spoken through the prophet Isaiah:
"He took up our infirmities and carried our diseases."
18 When Jesus saw the crowd around him, he gave orders to cross to the other
side of the lake. 19 Then a teacher of the law came to him and said, "Teacher,
I will follow you wherever you go."
20 Jesus replied, "Foxes have holes and birds of the air have nests, but
the Son of Man has no place to lay his head."
21 Another disciple said to him, "Lord, first let me go and bury my father."
22 But Jesus told him, "Follow me, and let the dead bury their own dead."
23 Then he got into the boat and his disciples followed him. 24 Without warning,
a furious storm came up on the lake, so that the waves swept over the boat.
But Jesus was sleeping. 25 The disciples went and woke him, saying, "Lord,
save us! We're going to drown!"
26 He replied, "You of little faith, why are you so afraid?" Then
he got up and rebuked the winds and the waves, and it was completely calm.
27 The men were amazed and asked, "What kind of man is this? Even the winds
and the waves obey him!"
28 When he arrived at the other side in the region of the Gadarenes, two demon-possessed
men coming from the tombs met him. They were so violent that no one could pass
that way. 29 "What do you want with us, Son of God?" they shouted.
"Have you come here to torture us before the appointed time?"
30 Some distance from them a large herd of pigs was feeding. 31 The demons begged
Jesus, "If you drive us out, send us into the herd of pigs."
32 He said to them, "Go!" So they came out and went into the pigs,
and the whole herd rushed down the steep bank into the lake and died in the
water. 33 Those tending the pigs ran off, went into the town and reported all
this, including what had happened to the demon-possessed men. 34 Then the whole
town went out to meet Jesus. And when they saw him, they pleaded with him to
leave their region.
BIBLE SUPERSTARS
NOAH
Part 1 of 2
Noah is truly a Bible Superstar. Surrounded by people who the Bible describes as inclined only to evil all the time, Noah is found to be righteous and blameless. God gives him a strange and unusual command--to build a great ship on dry ground to save himself and his family and the animals of God's creation from a coming flood. Chapters 6 through 9 of Genesis tell the story of Noah's faith and obedience in building the ark according to God's specifications. In the New Testament in the book of Hebrews, the writer testifies to the faith of Noah:
"By faith Noah, when warned about things not yet seen, in holy fear built an ark to save his family. By his faith he condemned the world and became heir of the righteousness that comes by faith." Hebrews 11:7.
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