Lessons                                                                       Bread of Life                                                           21 August 2021

Isaiah 29:11–19

          ₁₁The vision of all this has become to you like the words of a book that is sealed. When men give it to one who can read, saying, “Read this,” he says, “I cannot, for it is sealed.” ₁₂And when they give the book to one who cannot read, saying, “Read this,” he says, “I cannot read.”

₁₃And the Lord said:

“Because this people draw near with their mouth and honor me with their lips, while their hearts are far from me, and their fear of me is a commandment taught by men,

₁₄therefore, behold, I will again do wonderful things with this people, with wonder upon wonder; and the wisdom of their wise men shall perish, and the discernment of their discerning men shall be hidden.”

₁₅Ah, you who hide deep from the Lord your counsel, whose deeds are in the dark, and who say, “Who sees us? Who knows us?”

₁₆You turn things upside down!

Shall the potter be regarded as the clay, that the thing made should say of its maker, “He did not make me”; or the thing formed say of him who formed it, “He has no understanding”?

₁₇Is it not yet a very little while until Lebanon shall be turned into a fruitful field, and the fruitful field shall be regarded as a forest?

₁₈In that day the deaf shall hear the words of a book, and out of their gloom and darkness the eyes of the blind shall see.

₁₉The meek shall obtain fresh joy in the Lord, and the poor among mankind shall exult in the Holy One of Israel.

Psalm 14

₁The fool says in his heart, “There | is no God.”*

          They are corrupt,

          they do abominable deeds,

          there is none | who does good.

₂The Lord looks down from heaven

on the chil- | dren of man,*

          to see if there are any who understand,

          who seek | after God.

₃They have all turned aside;

together they have be- | come corrupt;*

          there is none who does good,

          not | even one.

₄Have they no knowledge, all the evil- | doers*

          who eat up my people as they eat bread

          and do not call up- | on the Lord?

₅There they are in great | terror,*

          for God is with the generation

          of the | righteous.

₆You would shame the plans | of the poor,*

          but the Lord is his | refuge.

₇Oh, that salvation for Israel would

come out of | Zion!*

          When the Lord restores the fortunes

          of his people,

          let Jacob rejoice, let Israel | be glad.

Ephesians 5:22–33

          ₂₂Wives, submit to your own husbands, as to the Lord. ₂₃For the husband is the head of the wife even as Christ is the head of the church, his body, and is himself its Savior. ₂₄Now as the church submits to Christ, so also wives should submit in everything to their husbands.

          ₂₅Husbands, love your wives, as Christ loved the church and gave himself up for her, ₂₆that he might sanctify her, having cleansed her by the washing of water with the word, ₂₇so that he might present the church to himself in splendor, without spot or wrinkle or any such thing, that she might be holy and without blemish. ₂₈In the same way husbands should love their wives as their own bodies. He who loves his wife loves himself. ₂₉For no one ever hated his own flesh, but nourishes and cherishes it, just as Christ does the church, ₃₀because we are members of his body. ₃₁“Therefore a man shall leave his father and mother and hold fast to his wife, and the two shall become one flesh.” ₃₂This mystery is profound, and I am saying that it refers to Christ and the church. ₃₃However, let each one of you love his wife as himself, and let the wife see that she respects her husband.

Mark 7:1–13

          ₁When the Pharisees gathered to [Jesus], with some of the scribes who had come from Jerusalem, ₂they saw that some of his disciples ate with hands that were defiled, that is, unwashed. ₃(For the Pharisees and all the Jews do not eat unless they wash their hands, holding to the tradition of the elders, ₄and when they come from the marketplace, they do not eat unless they wash. And there are many other traditions that they observe, such as the washing of cups and pots and copper vessels and dining couches.) ₅And the Pharisees and the scribes asked him, “Why do your disciples not walk according to the tradition of the elders, but eat with defiled hands?” ₆And he said to them, “Well did Isaiah prophesy of you hypocrites, as it is written,

“‘This people honors me with their lips,

          but their heart is far from me;

₇in vain do they worship me,

          teaching as doctrines

          the commandments of men.’

₈You leave the commandment of God and hold to the tradition of men.”

          ₉And he said to them, “You have a fine way of rejecting the commandment of God in order to establish your tradition! ₁₀For Moses said, ‘Honor your father and your mother’; and, ‘Whoever reviles father or mother must surely die.’ ₁₁But you say, ‘If a man tells his father or his mother, Whatever you would have gained from me is Corban’ (that is, given to God)— ₁₂then you no longer permit him to do anything for his father or mother, ₁₃thus making void the word of God by your tradition that you have handed down. And many such things you do.”