MATTHEW 9:18- 38
PSALM 11:1- 7
PROVERBS 3:11- 12
So Isaac called for Jacob, blessed him, and said, "Do not marry any of these Canaanite women. 2 Instead, go at once to Paddan- aram, to the house of your grandfather Bethuel, and marry one of your uncle Laban's daughters. 3 May God Almighty bless you and give you many children. And may your descendants become a great assembly of nations! 4 May God pass on to you and your descendants the blessings he promised to Abraham. May you own this land where we now are foreigners, for God gave it to Abraham." 5 So Isaac sent Jacob away, and he went to Paddan- aram to stay with his uncle Laban, his mother's brother, the son of Bethuel the Aramean. 6 Esau heard that his father had blessed Jacob and sent him to Paddan- aram to find a wife, and that he had warned Jacob not to marry a Canaanite woman. 7 He also knew that Jacob had obeyed his parents and gone to Paddan- aram. 8 It was now very clear to Esau that his father despised the local Canaanite women. 9 So he visited his uncle Ishmael's family and married one of Ishmael's daughters, in addition to the wives he already had. His new wife's name was Mahalath. She was the sister of Nebaioth and the daughter of Ishmael, Abraham's son. 10 Meanwhile, Jacob left Beersheba and traveled toward Haran. 11 At sundown he arrived at a good place to set up camp and stopped there for the night. Jacob found a stone for a pillow and lay down to sleep. 12 As he slept, he dreamed of a stairway that reached from earth to heaven. And he saw the angels of God going up and down on it. 13 At the top of the stairway stood the LORD, and he said, "I am the LORD, the God of your grandfather Abraham and the God of your father, Isaac. The ground you are lying on belongs to you. I will give it to you and your descendants. 14 Your descendants will be as numerous as the dust of the earth! They will cover the land from east to west and from north to south. All the families of the earth will be blessed through you and your descendants. *15 What's more, I will be with you, and I will protect you wherever you go. I will someday bring you safely back to this land. I will be with you constantly until I have finished giving you everything I have promised." 16 Then Jacob woke up and said, "Surely the LORD is in this place, and I wasn't even aware of it." 17 He was afraid and said, "What an awesome place this is! It is none other than the house of God-- the gateway to heaven!" 18 The next morning he got up very early. He took the stone he had used as a pillow and set it upright as a memorial pillar. Then he poured olive oil over it. 19 He named the place Bethel-- "house of God"-- though the name of the nearby village was Luz. 20 Then Jacob made this vow:"If God will be with me and protect me on this journey and give me food and clothing, 21 and if he will bring me back safely to my father, then I will make the LORD my God. 22 This memorial pillar will become a place for worshiping God, and I will give God a tenth of everything he gives me." 29:1 JACOB hurried on, finally arriving in the land of the east. 2 He saw in the distance three flocks of sheep lying in an open field beside a well, waiting to be watered. But a heavy stone covered the mouth of the well. 3 It was the custom there to wait for all the flocks to arrive before removing the stone. After watering them, the stone would be rolled back over the mouth of the well. 4 Jacob went over to the shepherds and asked them, "Where do you live?" "At Haran," they said. 5 "Do you know a man there named Laban, the grandson of Nahor?" "Yes, we do," they replied. 6 "How is he?" Jacob asked. "He's well and prosperous. Look, here comes his daughter Rachel with the sheep." 7 "Why don't you water the flocks so they can get back to grazing?" Jacob asked. "They'll be hungry if you stop so early in the day." 8 "We don't roll away the stone and begin the watering until all the flocks and shepherds are here," they replied. 9 As this conversation was going on, Rachel arrived with her father's sheep, for she was a shepherd. 10 And because she was his cousin, the daughter of his mother's brother, and because the sheep were his uncle's, Jacob went over to the well and rolled away the stone and watered his uncle's flock. 11 Then Jacob kissed Rachel, and tears came to his eyes. 12 He explained that he was her cousin on her father's side, her aunt Rebekah's son. So Rachel quickly ran and told her father, Laban. 13 As soon as Laban heard about Jacob's arrival, he rushed out to meet him and greeted him warmly. Laban then brought him home, and Jacob told him his story. 14 "Just think, my very own flesh and blood!" Laban exclaimed. After Jacob had been there about a month, 15 Laban said to him, "You shouldn't work for me without pay just because we are relatives. How much do you want?" 16 Now Laban had two daughters:Leah, who was the oldest, and her younger sister, Rachel. 17 Leah had pretty eyes, but Rachel was beautiful in every way, with a lovely face and shapely figure. 18 Since Jacob was in love with Rachel, he told her father, "I'll work for you seven years if you'll give me Rachel, your younger daughter, as my wife." 19 "Agreed!" Laban replied. "I'd rather give her to you than to someone outside the family." 20 So Jacob spent the next seven years working to pay for Rachel. But his love for her was so strong that it seemed to him but a few days. 21 Finally, the time came for him to marry her. "I have fulfilled my contract," Jacob said to Laban. "Now give me my wife so we can be married." 22 So Laban invited everyone in the neighborhood to celebrate with Jacob at a wedding feast. 23 That night, when it was dark, Laban took Leah to Jacob, and he slept with her. 24 And Laban gave Leah a servant, Zilpah, to be her maid. 25 But when Jacob woke up in the morning-- it was Leah! "What sort of trick is this?" Jacob raged at Laban. "I worked seven years for Rachel. What do you mean by this trickery?" 26 "It's not our custom to marry off a younger daughter ahead of the firstborn," Laban replied. 27 "Wait until the bridal week is over, and you can have Rachel, too-- that is, if you promise to work another seven years for me." 28 So Jacob agreed to work seven more years. A week after Jacob had married Leah, Laban gave him Rachel, too. 29 And Laban gave Rachel a servant, Bilhah, to be her maid. 30 So Jacob slept with Rachel, too, and he loved her more than Leah. He then stayed and worked the additional seven years. 31 But because Leah was unloved, the LORD let her have a child, while Rachel was childless. 32 So Leah became pregnant and had a son. She named him Reuben, for she said, "The LORD has noticed my misery, and now my husband will love me." 33 She soon became pregnant again and had another son. She named him Simeon, for she said, "The LORD heard that I was unloved and has given me another son." 34 Again she became pregnant and had a son. She named him Levi, for she said, "Surely now my husband will feel affection for me, since I have given him three sons!" 35 Once again she became pregnant and had a son. She named him Judah, for she said, "Now I will praise the LORD!" And then she stopped having children.
As Jesus was saying this, the leader of a synagogue came and knelt down before him. "My daughter has just died," he said, "but you can bring her back to life again if you just come and lay your hand upon her." 19 As Jesus and the disciples were going to the official's home, 20 a woman who had had a hemorrhage for twelve years came up behind him. She touched the fringe of his robe, 21 for she thought, "If I can just touch his robe, I will be healed." 22 Jesus turned around and said to her, "Daughter, be encouraged! Your faith has made you well." And the woman was healed at that moment. 23 When Jesus arrived at the official's home, he noticed the noisy crowds and heard the funeral music. 24 He said, "Go away, for the girl isn't dead; she's only asleep." But the crowd laughed at him. 25 When the crowd was finally outside, Jesus went in and took the girl by the hand, and she stood up! 26 The report of this miracle swept through the entire countryside. 27 After Jesus left the girl's home, two blind men followed along behind him, shouting, "Son of David, have mercy on us!" 28 They went right into the house where he was staying, and Jesus asked them, "Do you believe I can make you see?" "Yes, Lord," they told him, "we do." 29 Then he touched their eyes and said, "Because of your faith, it will happen." 30 And suddenly they could see! Jesus sternly warned them, "Don't tell anyone about this." 31 But instead, they spread his fame all over the region. 32 When they left, some people brought to him a man who couldn't speak because he was possessed by a demon. 33 So Jesus cast out the demon, and instantly the man could talk. The crowds marveled. "Nothing like this has ever happened in Israel!" they exclaimed. 34 But the Pharisees said, "He can cast out demons because he is empowered by the prince of demons." 35 Jesus traveled through all the cities and villages of that area, teaching in the synagogues and announcing the Good News about the Kingdom. And wherever he went, he healed people of every sort of disease and illness. 36 He felt great pity for the crowds that came, because their problems were so great and they didn't know where to go for help. They were like sheep without a shepherd. 37 He said to his disciples, "The harvest is so great, but the workers are so few. 38 So pray to the Lord who is in charge of the harvest; ask him to send out more workers for his fields."
For the choir director:A psalm of David.
1 I trust in the LORD for protection.
So why do you say to me,
"Fly to the mountains for safety!
2 The wicked are stringing their bows
and setting their arrows in the bowstrings.
They shoot from the shadows at those who do right.
3 The foundations of law and order have collapsed.
What can the righteous do?"
4 But the LORD is in his holy Temple;
the LORD still rules from heaven.
He watches everything closely,
examining everyone on earth.
5 The LORD examines both the righteous and the wicked.
He hates everyone who loves violence.
6 He rains down blazing coals on the wicked,
punishing them with burning sulfur and scorching winds.
7 For the LORD is righteous, and he loves justice.
Those who do what is right will see his face.
My child, don't ignore it when the LORD disciplines you, and don't be discouraged when he corrects you. For the LORD corrects those he loves, just as a father corrects a child in whom he delights
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