3rd Sunday of Elijah

Deuteronomy 7:12-26

Blessing for Obedience

12 “And because you listen to these ordinances, and keep and do them, the Lord your God will keep with you the covenant and the merciful love which he swore to your fathers to keep; ¹³ he will love you, bless you, and multiply you; he will also bless the fruit of your body and the fruit of your ground, your grain and your wine and your oil, the increase of your cattle and the young of your flock, in the land which he swore to your fathers to give you. ¹⁴ You shall be blessed above all peoples; there shall not be male or female barren among you, or among your cattle. ¹⁵ And the Lord will take away from you all sickness; and none of the evil diseases of Egypt, which you knew, will he inflict upon you, but he will lay them upon all who hate you. ¹⁶ And you shall destroy all the peoples that the Lord your God will give over to you, your eye shall not pity them; neither shall you serve their gods, for that would be a snare to you.

17 “If you say in your heart, ‘These nations are greater than I; how can I dispossess them?’ ¹⁸ you shall not be afraid of them, but you shall remember what the Lord your God did to Pharaoh and to all Egypt, ¹⁹ the great trials which your eyes saw, the signs, the wonders, the mighty hand, and the outstretched arm, by which the Lord your God brought you out; so will the Lord your God do to all the peoples of whom you are afraid. ²⁰ Moreover the Lord your God will send hornets among them, until those who are left and hide themselves from you are destroyed. ²¹ You shall not be in dread of them; for the Lord your God is in the midst of you, a great and terrible God. ²² The Lord your God will clear away these nations before you little by little; you may not make an end of them at once, lest the wild beasts grow too numerous for you. ²³ But the Lord your God will give them over to you, and throw them into great confusion, until they are destroyed. ²⁴ And he will give their kings into your hand, and you shall make their name perish from under heaven; not a man shall be able to stand against you, until you have destroyed them. ²⁵ The graven images of their gods you shall burn with fire; you shall not covet the silver or the gold that is on them, or take it for yourselves, lest you be ensnared by it; for it is an abomination to the Lord your God. ²⁶ And you shall not bring an abominable thing into your house, and become accursed like it; you shall utterly detest and abhor it; for it is an accursed thing.

 

Isaiah 32:1-33:6

A Reign of Righteousness and Justice

32 Behold, a king will reign in righteousness,

and princes will rule in justice.

² Each will be like a hiding place from the wind,

a covert from the tempest,

like streams of water in a dry place,

like the shade of a great rock in a weary land.

³ Then the eyes of those who see will not be closed,

and the ears of those who hear will listen.

⁴ The mind of the rash will have good judgment,

and the tongue of the stammerers will speak readily and distinctly.

⁵ The fool will no more be called noble,

nor the knave said to be honorable.

⁶ For the fool speaks folly,

and his mind plots iniquity:

to practice ungodliness,

to utter error concerning the Lord,

to leave the craving of the hungry unsatisfied,

and to deprive the thirsty of drink.

⁷ The knaveries of the knave are evil;

he devises wicked devices

to ruin the poor with lying words,

even when the plea of the needy is right.

⁸ But he who is noble devises noble things,

and by noble things he stands.

⁹ Rise up, you women who are at ease, hear my voice;

you complacent daughters, give ear to my speech.

¹⁰ In little more than a year

you will shudder, you complacent women;

for the vintage will fail,

the fruit harvest will not come.

¹¹ Tremble, you women who are at ease,

shudder, you complacent ones;

strip, and make yourselves bare,

and put sackcloth upon your loins.

¹² Beat upon your breasts for the pleasant fields,

for the fruitful vine,

¹³ for the soil of my people

growing up in thorns and briers;

yes, for all the joyous houses

in the joyful city.

¹⁴ For the palace will be forsaken,

the populous city deserted;

the hill and the watchtower

will become dens for ever,

a joy of wild donkeys,

a pasture of flocks;

¹⁵ until the Spirit is poured upon us from on high,

and the wilderness becomes a fruitful field,

and the fruitful field is deemed a forest.

¹⁶ Then justice will dwell in the wilderness,

and righteousness abide in the fruitful field.

¹⁷ And the effect of righteousness will be peace,

and the result of righteousness, quietness and trust for ever.

¹⁸ My people will abide in a peaceful habitation,

in secure dwellings, and in quiet resting places.

¹⁹ And the forest will utterly go down,

and the city will be utterly laid low.

²⁰ Happy are you who sow beside all waters,

who let the feet of the ox and the donkey range free.

A Prophecy of Deliverance: The Lord, the Majestic King

33 Woe to you, destroyer,

who yourself have not been destroyed;

you treacherous one,

with whom none has dealt treacherously!

When you have ceased to destroy,

you will be destroyed;

and when you have made an end of dealing treacherously,

you will be dealt with treacherously.

² O Lord, be gracious to us; we wait for you.

Be our arm every morning,

our salvation in the time of trouble.

³ At the thunderous noise peoples flee,

at the lifting up of yourself nations are scattered;

⁴ and spoil is gathered as the caterpillar gathers;

as locusts leap, men leap upon it.

⁵ The Lord is exalted, for he dwells on high;

he will fill Zion with justice and righteousness;

⁶ and he will be the stability of your times,

abundance of salvation, wisdom, and knowledge;

the fear of the Lord is his treasure.

 

Philippians 1:12-25

Paul’s Present Circumstances

12 I want you to know, brethren, that what has happened to me has really served to advance the gospel, ¹³ so that it has become known throughout the whole praetorian guard and to all the rest that my imprisonment is for Christ; ¹⁴ and most of the brethren have been made confident in the Lord because of my imprisonment, and are much more bold to speak the word of God without fear.

15 Some indeed preach Christ from envy and rivalry, but others from good will. ¹⁶ The latter do it out of love, knowing that I am put here for the defense of the gospel; ¹⁷ the former proclaim Christ out of partisanship, not sincerely but thinking to afflict me in my imprisonment. ¹⁸ What then? Only that in every way, whether in pretense or in truth, Christ is proclaimed; and in that I rejoice.

To Live Is Christ

19 Yes, and I shall rejoice. For I know that through your prayers and the help of the Spirit of Jesus Christ this will turn out for my deliverance, ²⁰ as it is my eager expectation and hope that I shall not be at all ashamed, but that with full courage now as always Christ will be honored in my body, whether by life or by death. ²¹ For to me to live is Christ, and to die is gain. ²² If it is to be life in the flesh, that means fruitful labor for me. Yet which I shall choose I cannot tell. ²³ I am hard pressed between the two. My desire is to depart and be with Christ, for that is far better. ²⁴ But to remain in the flesh is more necessary on your account. ²⁵ Convinced of this, I know that I shall remain and continue with you all, for your progress and joy in the faith.

 

Matthew 13:24-43

The Parable of Weeds among the Wheat

24 Another parable he put before them, saying, “The kingdom of heaven may be compared to a man who sowed good seed in his field; ²⁵ but while men were sleeping, his enemy came and sowed weeds among the wheat, and went away. ²⁶ So when the plants came up and bore grain, then the weeds appeared also. ²⁷ And the servants of the householder came and said to him, ‘Sir, did you not sow good seed in your field? How then has it weeds?’ ²⁸ He said to them, ‘An enemy has done this.’ The servants said to him, ‘Then do you want us to go and gather them?’ ²⁹ But he said, ‘No; lest in gathering the weeds you root up the wheat along with them. ³⁰ Let both grow together until the harvest; and at harvest time I will tell the reapers, Gather the weeds first and bind them in bundles to be burned, but gather the wheat into my barn.’ ”

The Parable of the Mustard Seed

31 Another parable he put before them, saying, “The kingdom of heaven is like a grain of mustard seed which a man took and sowed in his field; ³² it is the smallest of all seeds, but when it has grown it is the greatest of shrubs and becomes a tree, so that the birds of the air come and make nests in its branches.”

The Parable of the Leaven

33 He told them another parable. “The kingdom of heaven is like leaven which a woman took and hid in three measures of meal, till it was all leavened.”

Why Jesus Speaks in Parables

34 All this Jesus said to the crowds in parables; indeed he said nothing to them without a parable. ³⁵ This was to fulfill what was spoken by the prophet:

“I will open my mouth in parables,

I will utter what has been hidden since the foundation of the world.”

Jesus Explains the Parable of the Weeds

36 Then he left the crowds and went into the house. And his disciples came to him, saying, “Explain to us the parable of the weeds of the field.” ³⁷ He answered, “He who sows the good seed is the Son of man; ³⁸ the field is the world, and the good seed means the sons of the kingdom; the weeds are the sons of the evil one, ³⁹ and the enemy who sowed them is the devil; the harvest is the close of the age, and the reapers are angels. ⁴⁰ Just as the weeds are gathered and burned with fire, so will it be at the close of the age. ⁴¹ The Son of man will send his angels, and they will gather out of his kingdom all causes of sin and all evildoers, ⁴² and throw them into the furnace of fire, where there will be weeping and gnashing of teeth. ⁴³ Then the righteous will shine like the sun in the kingdom of their Father. He who has ears, let him hear.