1 Kings 19:1-4, 8-15a
Elijah Flees from Jezebel
Ahab told Jezebel all that Elijah had done, and how he had killed all the prophets with the sword. Then Jezebel sent a messenger to Elijah, saying, ‘So may the gods do to me, and more also, if I do not make your life like the life of one of them by this time tomorrow.’ Then he was afraid; he got up and fled for his life, and came to Beer-sheba, which belongs to Judah; he left his servant there.
But he himself went a day’s journey into the wilderness, and came and sat down under a solitary broom tree. He asked that he might die: ‘It is enough; now, O Lord, take away my life, for I am no better than my ancestors.’ He got up, and ate and drank; then he went in the strength of that food for forty days and forty nights to Horeb the mount of God. At that place he came to a cave, and spent the night there.
Then the word of the Lord came to him, saying, ‘What are you doing here, Elijah?’ He answered, ‘I have been very zealous for the Lord, the God of hosts; for the Israelites have forsaken your covenant, thrown down your altars, and killed your prophets with the sword. I alone am left, and they are seeking my life, to take it away.’
Elijah Meets God at Horeb
He said, ‘Go out and stand on the mountain before the Lord, for the Lord is about to pass by.’ Now there was a great wind, so strong that it was splitting mountains and breaking rocks in pieces before the Lord, but the Lord was not in the wind; and after the wind an earthquake, but the Lord was not in the earthquake; and after the earthquake a fire, but the Lord was not in the fire; and after the fire a sound of sheer silence. When Elijah heard it, he wrapped his face in his mantle and went out and stood at the entrance of the cave. Then there came a voice to him that said, ‘What are you doing here, Elijah?’ He answered, ‘I have been very zealous for the Lord, the God of hosts; for the Israelites have forsaken your covenant, thrown down your altars, and killed your prophets with the sword. I alone am left, and they are seeking my life, to take it away.’ Then the Lord said to him, ‘Go, return on your way to the wilderness of Damascus; when you arrive, you shall anoint Hazael as king over Aram.
Psalm 42
As a deer longs for the running brooks :
so longs my soul for you, O God.
My soul is thirsty for God, thirsty for the living God :
when shall I come and see his face?
My tears have been my food day and night :
while they ask me all day long ‘Where now is your God?’
As I pour out my soul by myself, I remember this :
how I went to the house of the Mighty One, into the temple of God,
To the shouts and songs of thanksgiving :
a multitude keeping high festival.
Why are you so full of heaviness, my soul :
and why so unquiet within me?
O put your trust in God :
for I will praise him yet, who is my deliverer and my God.
My soul is heavy within me :
therefore I will remember you from the land of Jordan,
from Mizar among the hills of Hermon.
Deep calls to deep in the roar of your waters :
all your waves and breakers have gone over me.
Surely the Lord will grant his loving mercy in the day-time :
and in the night his song will be with me,
a prayer to the God of my life.
I will say to God, my rock, ‘Why have you forgotten me :
why must I go like a mourner because the enemy oppresses me?’
Like a sword through my bones, my enemies have mocked me :
while they ask me all day long ‘Where now is your God?’
Why are you so full of heaviness, my soul :
and why so unquiet within me?
O put your trust in God :
for I will praise him yet, who is my deliverer and my God.
Psalm 43
Give judgement for me, O God,
take up my cause against an ungodly people :
deliver me from deceitful and wicked men.
For you are God my refuge
why have you turned me away? :
why must I go like a mourner because the enemy oppresses me?
O send out your light and your truth, and let them lead me :
let them guide me to your holy hill and to your dwelling.
Then I shall go to the altar of God,
to God my joy and my delight :
and to the harp I shall sing your praises,
O God, my God.
Why are you so full of heaviness, my soul :
and why so unquiet within me?
O put your trust in God :
for I will praise him yet, who is my deliverer and my God.
Galatians 3:23-29
23 Now before faith came, we were imprisoned and guarded under the law until faith would be revealed. 24Therefore the law was our disciplinarian until Christ came, so that we might be justified by faith. 25But now that faith has come, we are no longer subject to a disciplinarian, 26for in Christ Jesus you are all children of God through faith. 27As many of you as were baptized into Christ have clothed yourselves with Christ. 28There is no longer Jew or Greek, there is no longer slave or free, there is no longer male and female; for all of you are one in Christ Jesus. 29And if you belong to Christ, then you are Abraham’s offspring,* heirs according to the promise.
Luke 8:26-39
26And they arrived at the country of the Gadarenes, which is over against Galilee.
27And when he went forth to land, there met him out of the city a certain man, which had devils long time, and ware no clothes, neither abode in any house, but in the tombs.
28When he saw Jesus, he cried out, and fell down before him, and with a loud voice said, What have I to do with thee, Jesus, thou Son of God most high? I beseech thee, torment me not.
29(For he had commanded the unclean spirit to come out of the man. For oftentimes it had caught him: and he was kept bound with chains and in fetters; and he brake the bands, and was driven of the devil into the wilderness.)
30And Jesus asked him, saying, What is thy name? And he said, Legion: because many devils were entered into him.
31And they besought him that he would not command them to go out into the deep.
32And there was there an herd of many swine feeding on the mountain: and they besought him that he would suffer them to enter into them. And he suffered them.
33Then went the devils out of the man, and entered into the swine: and the herd ran violently down a steep place into the lake, and were choked.
34When they that fed them saw what was done, they fled, and went and told it in the city and in the country.
35Then they went out to see what was done; and came to Jesus, and found the man, out of whom the devils were departed, sitting at the feet of Jesus, clothed, and in his right mind: and they were afraid.
36They also which saw it told them by what means he that was possessed of the devils was healed.
37Then the whole multitude of the country of the Gadarenes round about besought him to depart from them; for they were taken with great fear: and he went up into the ship, and returned back again.
38Now the man out of whom the devils were departed besought him that he might be with him: but Jesus sent him away, saying,
39Return to thine own house, and shew how great things God hath done unto thee. And he went his way, and published throughout the whole city how great things Jesus had done unto him.
