Genesis 17
Circumcision: Sign of the Covenant
1 When Abram was ninety-nine years old, the Lord appeared to Abram and said to him, “I am your God; be pleasing before Me and blameless.
2 I will establish My covenant between Me and you, and will multiply you exceedingly.Ӡ
3 Then Abram fell on his face, and God talked with him, saying,
4 “As for Me, behold, My covenant is with you, and you shall be a father of many nations.
5 No longer shall your name be called Abram, but your name shall be Abraham; for I have made you a father of many nations.†
6 I will make you exceedingly fruitful; and I will make nations of you, and kings shall come from you.
7 I will establish My covenant between Me and you and your seed after you in their generations, for an everlasting covenant, to be your God and the God of your seed after you.†
8 Also I will give you and your seed after you the land you are occupying as a sojourner, all the land of Canaan, as an everlasting possession; and I will be their God.”
9 Then God said to Abraham, “As for you, you shall keep My covenant, you and your seed after you throughout their generations.
10 This is the covenant you shall keep, between Me and you and your seed after you throughout their generations: Every male child among you shall be circumcised;†
11 and you shall be circumcised in the flesh of your foreskin. It shall be a sign of the covenant between Me and you.
12 A child of eight days old shall be circumcised by you—every male child throughout your genealogy, he who is born in your house or bought with money from any foreigner not of your seed.
13 He who is born in your house, and he who is bought with your money must be circumcised; and My covenant shall be in your flesh for an everlasting covenant.
14 And the uncircumcised male child, who is not circumcised in the flesh of his foreskin on the eighth day, that soul shall be cut off from his people; for he has broken My covenant.”
15 Then God said to Abraham, “As for Sarai your wife, you shall not call her name Sarai, but Sarah shall be her name.
16 And I will bless her and also give you a son by her; and I will bless him, and he shall become nations; and kings of peoples shall be from him.”
17 Then Abraham fell on his face and laughed, and said in his mind, “Shall a child be born to a man who is one hundred years old, and shall Sarah, who is ninety years old, bear a child?”
18 And Abraham said to God, “Oh, that Ishmael might live before You!”
19 Then God said, “No, Sarah your wife shall bear you a son, and you shall call his name Isaac; and I will establish My covenant with him for an everlasting covenant, and with his seed after him.†
20 As for Ishmael, I have heard you. Behold, I have blessed him and will increase and multiply him exceedingly. He shall beget twelve nations, and I will make him a great nation.
21 But My covenant I will establish with Isaac, whom Sarah shall bear to you at this time next year.”
22 So God finished talking with Abraham and departed from him.
23 So Abraham took Ishmael his son, all who were born in his house, and all who were bought with his money, every male among the men of Abraham’s house, and he circumcised the flesh of their foreskins that very same day, as God said to him.
24 Now Abraham was ninety-nine years old when he was circumcised in the flesh of his foreskin.
25 And Ishmael his son was thirteen years old when he was circumcised in the flesh of his foreskin.
26 That very same day Abraham was circumcised, and his son Ishmael.
27 Also, all the men of his house, born in the house or bought with money from a foreigner, were circumcised with him.
Psalms 19
1 For the End; a psalm by David. †
2 May the Lord hear you in the day of affliction; May the name of the God of Jacob defend you.
3 May He send you help from His holy place, And may He support you from Zion.
4 May He remember every sacrifice of yours, And may your whole burnt offering be honored. (Pause)
5 May He give you according to your heart, May He fulfill all your counsel.
6 We will greatly rejoice in Your salvation, And in the name of our God we will be magnified.
7 Now I know the Lord has saved His anointed; He will hear him from His holy heaven; The salvation of His right hand is mighty.
8 Some glory in chariots, some in horses, But in the name of the Lord our God we shall be magnified.
9 Their feet were tied together; so they fell; But we rose up and were restored.
10 O Lord, save Your King, And hear us in the day we call upon You.
Proverbs of Solomon 3
28 And do not be afraid of intimidation when it comes upon you, Nor of the attack of the ungodly when it comes at you;
29 For the Lord will be over all your ways, And He will plant your feet firmly, that you may not be shaken.
30 Do not withhold doing good to the needy, When you may give a helping hand;
31 Do not say, when you are able to do good, “Come back tomorrow, and I will give you something”; For you do not know what the next day will bring forth.
32 Do not devise evil things against your friend Who dwells beside you and trusts in you.
Matthew 12
The Pharisees’ Hostility
1 At that time Jesus went through the grainfields on the Sabbath. And His disciples were hungry, and began to pluck heads of grain and to eat.†
2 And when the Pharisees saw it, they said to Him, “Look, Your disciples are doing what is not lawful to do on the Sabbath!”
3 But He said to them, “Have you not read what David did when he was hungry, he and those who were with him:†
4 how he entered the house of God and ate the showbread which was not lawful for him to eat, nor for those who were with him, but only for the priests?
5 Or have you not read in the law that on the Sabbath the priests in the temple profane the Sabbath, and are blameless?
6 Yet I say to you that in this place there is One greater than the temple.†
7 But if you had known what this means, ‘ I desire mercy and not sacrifice,’ you would not have condemned the guiltless.
8 For the Son of Man is Lord even of the Sabbath.”
9 Now when He had departed from there, He went into their synagogue.
10 And behold, there was a man who had a withered hand. And they asked Him, saying, “Is it lawful to heal on the Sabbath?”—that they might accuse Him.
11 Then He said to them, “What man is there among you who has one sheep, and if it falls into a pit on the Sabbath, will not lay hold of it and lift it out?
12 Of how much more value then is a man than a sheep? Therefore it is lawful to do good on the Sabbath.”
13 Then He said to the man, “Stretch out your hand.” And he stretched it out, and it was restored as whole as the other.
14 Then the Pharisees went out and plotted against Him, how they might destroy Him.
Isaiah’s Servant of God
15 But when Jesus knew it, He withdrew from there. And great multitudes followed Him, and He healed them all.
16 Yet He warned them not to make Him known,†
17 that it might be fulfilled which was spoken by Isaiah the prophet, saying:
18 “Behold! My Servant whom I have chosen, My Beloved in whom My soul is well pleased! I will put My Spirit upon Him, And He will declare justice to the Gentiles.
19 He will not quarrel nor cry out, Nor will anyone hear His voice in the streets.
20 A bruised reed He will not break, And smoking flax He will not quench, Till He sends forth justice to victory;
21 And in His name Gentiles will trust.” †