|
Genesis 12:1-9
1 The Lord said to Abram, ‘You must leave your country, your people and your father's home to go to the land I show you. 2 I will make you into a great nation, I will bless you and make you well known and respected. You will become a blessing; 3 I will bless those who bless you, and I will curse whoever curses you; and in you all the families of the earth will be blessed.’
4 So Abram went, as the Lord had told him, and Lot went with him. Abram was 75 years old when he left Kharan. 5 Abram took Sarai his wife and his nephew Lot, all the possessions that they had acquired, and the people who had joined them in Kharan; and they set out to go to the land of Canaan. When they had come to the land of Canaan, 6 Abram passed through the land as far as the site of the oak of Moreh at Shechem. At that time, the Canaanites were in the land.
7 Then the Lord appeared to Abram, and said, ‘I will give this land to your descendants.’ So he built an altar there to the Lord who had appeared to him. 8 From there he moved on to the hill country to the east of Bethel, and pitched his tent with Bethel to the west and Ai to the east. He built an altar there to the Lord and called on the name of the Lord. 9 Abram then journeyed on stage by stage towards the Negeb.
Genesis 15:1-6
1 After these things, the word of the Lord came to Abram in a vision, ‘do not be afraid, Abram, I am your shield. Your reward will be amazingly large.’
2 Abram replied, ‘My Sovereign Lord, what will You do for me, since I will die without a child and my heir may well be Eliezer of Damascus?’ 3 Abram continued, ‘Look, you have not given me my own descendants, so someone of my household will inherit from me.’ 4 Then the Word of the Lord came to him; ‘Such a one will not inherit from you; but a child of your very own will inherit from you.’
5 Then God brought him outside and said, ‘Look up at the sky and count the stars, if you can do this.’ Then he said to him, ‘Your descendants will be like this!’ 6 Abram believed the Lord, and the Lord counted this as his righteousness.
Genesis 28:10-22
10 Jacob left Beer-sheba and set out for Haran. 11 He came across a place marking a boundary at the side of the road and stayed there for the night, because the sun had set. He took some of the boundary stones and placed them around his head and lay down there to sleep. 12 He had a dream in which there was a ladder standing on the earth and with the top reaching into heaven; and the angels of God were climbing up and down on it. 13 And the Lord stood beside him and said, ‘I am the LORD, the God of Abraham your father and the God of Isaac; I will give the land on which you lie to you and to your descendants. 14 Your children will be as plentiful as the dust on the ground, and you will spread out to the west and the east and the north and the south; and all the families of the earth will be blessed in you and in your children. 15 Look, it is I who am with you and will look after you wherever you go, and I will bring you back to this land. I will not leave you until I have done what I have promised you.’
16 Then Jacob woke from his sleep and said, ‘Surely the Lord is in this place, and I did not know it!’ 17 He was afraid, and said, ‘This place is awesome! This is no less than the house of God, and this is the gate of heaven!’ 18 So Jacob got up early in the morning, and he took the stone that he had put under his head and mounted it as a pillar and poured oil over it. 19 He called that place Bethel (meaning ‘house of God’) but the city’s name was previously Luz.
20 Then Jacob made a vow and said, ‘If God will be with me, and will keep watch over me wherever I go, and will give me bread to eat and clothes to wear, 21 so that I return to my father's house in peace, then the Lord shall be my God. 22 And this stone, which I have mounted as a pillar shall be God's house; and out of everything You give me I will certainly give one tenth to you.’
Genesis 33:22-32
22 That night, Jacob got up and took his two wives, his two maidservants, and his eleven sons, and crossed the ford of the Jabbok; 23 He took them and made them cross the stream, and sent over everything he had.
24 Jacob was left there alone; and a man wrestled with him until daybreak. 25 When he saw that he did not overcome him, he hit him on the side of his hip, and his hip was dislocated as he wrestled with him. 26 Then he said, ‘Let me go, it is day break.’ But he said, ‘I will not let you go unless you bless me.’ 27 So he asked him, ‘What is your name?’ And he replied, ‘Jacob.’ 28 He said, ‘You will not be called Jacob any longer, but Israel, because you have struggled with God and with others, and have overcome.’ 29 Then Jacob asked, ‘Please tell me your name.’ But he said, ‘Why do you ask my name?’ And with that, he blessed him, right there.
30 So Jacob called the place Peniel, saying, ‘This is because I have seen God face to face, and yet I have survived!’ 31 The sun rose on him as he passed Peniel, limping because of his hip. 32 Therefore to this day, the Israelites do not eat the thigh muscle of the hip joint, because Jacob was struck on the hip near the thigh muscle.
Joshua 1:1-9
1 After the death of Moses the servant of the Lord, the Lord said this to Joshua son of Nun, Moses' assistant;
2 ‘My servant Moses is dead. Now, you and all this people, get ready to cross over the Jordan into the land that I am giving to them, to the Israelites. 3 Everywhere that you will place your feet I have given to you, as I promised to Moses. 4 Your territory will be from the wilderness and the Lebanon here as far as the great river (the Euphrates), and all the land of the Hittites as far as the Great Sea in the West. 5 No one will be able to stand against you all the days of your life. As I was with Moses, so I will be with you; I will not leave you or forsake you.
6 ‘Be strong and courageous; for you will put this people in possession of the land that I swore to their ancestors to give them. 7 Only be strong and very courageous, and be careful to do everything according to the law my servant Moses commanded you; do not turn from it to the right hand or to the left, so that you may be successful wherever you go. 8 Do not let this book of the law leave your speech; you will meditate on it day and night, so that you are careful to do everything written in it. Then you will become prosperous, and you will be successful. 9 Have I not commanded you? Be strong and courageous; do not be frightened or discouraged, for the Lord your God is with you wherever you go.’
1 Samuel 16:11-13
11 Samuel said to Jesse, ‘Are all your sons here?’ And he said, ‘There is still one left, the youngest, and he is keeping the sheep.’ Samuel said to Jesse, ‘Send and bring him; for we will not sit down until he comes here.’ 12 He sent and brought him in. He was healthy, had beautiful eyes, and was of striking appearance. The Lord said, ‘Rise and anoint him; this is the one.’ 13 Then Samuel took the horn of oil and anointed him in the presence of his brothers; and the spirit of the Lord came mightily upon David from that day forward. Samuel then set out and went to Ramah.
Exodus 3:1-6
1 As Moses was shepherding the flock of his father-in-law Jethro, the priest of Midian, he drove the flock through the desert and came to Horeb, the mountain of God. 2 The angel of the Lord appeared to him in a flaming fire which came from within a bush. He looked, and remarkably, although bush was burning, it was not consumed by the fire! 3 Moses thought, ‘I must go over to see this incredible sight, and find out why the bush is not reduced to ashes.’ 4 When the Lord saw that he was coming over to look, God called out to him from within the bush, ‘Moses, Moses!’ He answered; ‘Here I am’. 5 God said, ‘Stop coming closer! Take your sandals from off your feet, for the place where you are standing is holy ground.’ 6 He went on; ‘I am the God of your father, the God of Abraham, the God of Isaac, the God of Jacob’. Then Moses hid his face, for he was afraid to look at God.
Exodus 3:7-12
7 Then the Lord said, ‘I have plainly seen the misery of my people who are in Egypt. I have truly heard their cry which has arisen because of their taskmasters. 8 I have come down to rescue them from the hands of the Egyptians, and lead them up out of that country to a good and spacious land, a land flowing with milk and honey, to the country of the Canaanites, the Hittites, the Amorites, the Perizzites, the Hivites, and the Jebusites. 9 Now, indeed, the outcry of the Israelites has come to me, and I have also taken notice of the way the Egyptians are oppressing them. 10 Now, go! I am sending you to Pharaoh to bring my people, the Israelites, out of Egypt. 11 But Moses said to God, ‘Who am I that I should go to Pharaoh and lead the Israelites out of Egypt?’ 12 He said, ‘I will be with you; and this will be a sign for you that it is I who have sent you: when you have brought the people out of Egypt, you will all worship God on this very mountain.’
Exodus 3:13-15
13 Moses said to God, ‘If I go to the Israelites and say to them, “The God of your fathers has sent me to you,” and they say to me, “What is His name?” what shall I tell them?’ 14 God said to Moses, ‘I AM THE ONE WHO IS.’ He then said ‘This is what you will tell the Israelites: “I AM has sent me to you.”’ 15 God also said to Moses, ‘Say this to the people of Israel, “The LORD, the God of your ancestors, the God of Abraham, the God of Isaac and the God of Jacob, has sent me to you.” This is my name forever, and this is how I am to be known for all time.’
Isaiah 6:1-8
1 In the year that King Uzziah died I saw the Lord sitting upon a throne, raised and exulted; and the hem of his robe filled the temple. 2 Seraphs took their stance above Him. Each one had six wings; with two he covered his face, with two he covered his feet, and with two he flew. 3 And each one called to another and said: ‘Holy, holy, holy is the Lord of hosts; everything in all the earth is His glory!’
4 At the sound of this cry, the foundations of the thresholds shook and the house was filled with smoke. 5 Then I said: ‘Woe is me! I am ruined; for I am a man of unclean lips, and I live among a people of unclean lips; for my eyes have seen the King, the Lord of hosts!’
6 Then one of the seraphim flew to me with a burning coal in his hand that he had taken from the altar with tongs. 7 And he touched my mouth with it and said: ‘Look, this has touched your lips! Your guilt has gone, and your sin has been atoned!’
8 Then I heard the voice of the Lord saying, ‘Whom shall I send, and who will go for us?’ So I said, ‘Here am I! Send me.’
Isaiah 6:9-13
9 He said, ‘Go, and tell this people:
‘Listen so that you hear,
but do not understand;
Look so that you see,
but do not perceive.’
10 Make the heart of this people unreceptive,
dull their ears, and cover their eyes;
lest they see with their eyes,
and hear with their ears;
then understand for themselves,
and turn to receive its healing.’
11 Then I said, ‘How long, O Lord?’ And he said:
‘Until cities lie ruined
without inhabitants,
the houses lack people,
and the land is completely laid waste.’
12 When the Lord abandons the people,
and in the midst of the land
the greater part will be desolate.
13 If there is but a tenth part remaining in it
and it turns, it will be burned.
like a terebinth or an oak,
which leaves a stump when it is felled:
The Holy Seed is the stump.’
Jonah 2:1-10
1 Then Jonah prayed to the Lord his God from inside the belly of the fish,
2 ‘I called to the Lord in my distress,
and He answered me;
from the depths of the grave I cried out,
and You heard my voice.
3 You threw me into the deep,
into the heart of the seas,
and the flood surrounded me;
Your waves and breakers rolled over me.
4 Then I thought,
'I have been banished out of your sight;
will I look on Your holy temple again?'
5 The waters closed in around me;
the deep surrounded me;
seaweeds were entangling
around my head.
6 I sank down to the base of the mountains,
to the land whose bars
were closing in on me forever:
but You brought my life up from the Pit,
O Lord my God.
7 As my life was ebbing away,
I remembered the Lord,
and my prayer came before You,
in Your holy temple.
8 Those who hold on to their worthless vanity
lose their covenant with the Lord.
9 But I will worship you
with a voice of thanksgiving,
and I will repay the vows I have made.
Deliverance belongs to the Lord!’
10 Then the Lord commanded the fish to spew Jonah out onto the dry land.
|