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Exodus 12

The Passover

    ²This month is to be the first month of the year for you. ³Tell the people of Israel that on the tenth day of this month the head of each family must choose a lamb or a young goat for his family to eat. ^4-5If any family is too small to eat the whole animal, they must share it with their next-door neighbors. Choose either a sheep or a goat, but it must be a one-year-old male that has nothing wrong with it. And it must be large enough for everyone to have some of the meat.

    ⁶Each family must take care of its animal until the evening of the fourteenth day of the month, when the animals are to be killed. ⁷Some of the blood must be put on the two doorposts and above the door of each house where the animals are to be eaten. ⁸That night the animals are to be roasted and eaten, together with bitter herbs and thin bread made without yeast. ⁹Don't eat the meat raw or boiled. The entire animal, including its head, legs, and insides, must be roasted. ¹⁰Eat what you want that night, and the next morning burn whatever is left. ¹¹When you eat the meal, be dressed and ready to travel. Have your sandals on, carry your walking stick in your hand, and eat quickly. This is the Passover Festival in honor of me, your LORD.

    ¹²That same night I will pass through Egypt and kill the first-born son in every family and the first-born male of all animals. I am the LORD, and I will punish the gods of Egypt. ¹³The blood on the houses will show me where you live, and when I see the blood, I will pass over you. Then you won't be bothered by the terrible disasters I will bring on Egypt.

    ¹⁴Remember this day and celebrate it each year as a festival in my honor. ¹⁵For seven days you must eat bread made without yeast. And on the first of these seven days, you must remove all yeast from your homes. If you eat anything made with yeast during this festival, you will no longer be part of Israel. ¹⁶Meet together for worship on the first and seventh days of the festival. The only work you are allowed to do on either of these two days is that of preparing the bread.

    ¹⁷Celebrate this Festival of Thin Bread as a way of remembering the day that I brought your families and tribes out of Egypt. And do this each year. ¹⁸Begin on the evening of the fourteenth day of the first month by eating bread made without yeast. Then continue this celebration until the evening of the twenty-first day. ¹⁹During these seven days no yeast is allowed in anyone's home, whether they are native Israelites or not. If you are caught eating anything made with yeast, you will no longer be part of Israel. ²⁰Stay away from yeast, no matter where you live. No one is allowed to eat anything made with yeast!

    ²¹Moses called the leaders of Israel together and said:

   Each family is to pick out a sheep and kill it for Passover. ²²Make a brush from a few small branches of a hyssop plant and dip the brush in the bowl that has the blood of the animal in it. Then brush some of the blood above the door and on the posts at each side of the door of your house. After this, everyone is to stay inside.

    ²³During that night the LORD will go through the country of Egypt and kill the first-born son in every Egyptian family. He will see where you have put the blood, and he will not come into your house. His angel that brings death will pass over and not kill your first-born sons.

    ^24-25After you have entered the country promised to you by the LORD, you and your children must continue to celebrate Passover each year. ²⁶Your children will ask you, " What are we celebrating?" ²⁷And you will answer, " The Passover animal is killed to honor the LORD. We do these things because on that night long ago the LORD passed over the homes of our people in Egypt. He killed the first-born sons of the Egyptians, but he saved our children from death."

   After Moses finished speaking, the people of Israel knelt down and worshiped the LORD. ²⁸Then they left and did what Moses and Aaron had told them to do.

Death for the First-Born Sons

The People of Israel Escape from Egypt

    ³⁵The Israelites had already done what Moses had told them to do. They had gone to their Egyptian neighbors and asked for gold and silver and for clothes. ³⁶The LORD had made the Egyptians friendly toward the people of Israel, and they gave them whatever they asked for. In this way they carried away the wealth of the Egyptians when they left Egypt.

    ³⁷The Israelites walked from the city of Rameses to the city of Succoth. There were about six hundred thousand of them, not counting women and children. ³⁸Many other people went with them as well, and there were also a lot of sheep, goats, and cattle. ³⁹They left Egypt in such a hurry that they did not have time to prepare any food except the bread dough made without yeast. So they baked it and made thin bread.

    ^40-41The LORD's people left Egypt exactly four hundred thirty years after they had arrived. ⁴²On that night the LORD kept watch for them, and on this same night each year Israel will always keep watch in honor of the LORD.

Instructions for Passover

   No one except Israelites may eat the Passover meal.

    ⁴⁴Your slaves may eat the meal if they have been circumcised, ⁴⁵but no foreigners who work for you are allowed to have any.

    ⁴⁶The entire meal must be eaten inside, and no one may leave the house during the celebration.

   No bones of the Passover lamb may be broken. ⁴⁷And all Israelites must take part in the meal.

    ⁴⁸If anyone who isn't an Israelite wants to celebrate Passover with you, every man and boy in that family must first be circumcised. Then they may join in the meal, just like native Israelites. No uncircumcised man or boy may eat the Passover meal! ⁴⁹This law applies both to native Israelites and to those foreigners who live among you.

    ⁵⁰The Israelites obeyed everything the LORD had commanded Moses and Aaron to tell them. ⁵¹And on that same day the LORD brought Israel's families and tribes out of Egypt.

Exodus 13

Dedication of the First-Born

The Festival of Thin Bread

   Remember this day in the month of Abib. ^[c] It is the day when the LORD's mighty power rescued you from Egypt, where you were slaves. Do not eat anything made with yeast. ⁵The LORD promised your ancestors that he would bring you into the land of the Canaanites, Hittites, Amorites, Hivites, and Jebusites. It is a land rich with milk and honey. Each year during the month of Abib, celebrate these events in the following way: ⁶For seven days you are to eat bread made without yeast, and on the seventh day you are to celebrate a festival in honor of the LORD. ⁷During those seven days, you must not eat anything made with yeast or even have yeast anywhere near your homes. ⁸Then on the seventh day you must explain to your children that you do this because the LORD brought you out of Egypt.

    ⁹This celebration will be like wearing a sign on your hand or on your forehead, because then you will pass on to others the teaching of the LORD, whose mighty power brought you out of Egypt. ¹⁰Celebrate this festival each year at the same time.

    ¹¹The LORD will give you the land of the Canaanites, just as he promised you and your ancestors. ¹²From then on, you must give him every first-born son from your families and every first-born male from your animals, because these belong to him. ¹³You can save the life of a first-born donkey ^[d] by sacrificing a lamb; if you don't, you must break the donkey's neck. You must save every first-born son. ¹⁴In the future your children will ask what this ceremony means. Explain it to them by saying, " The LORD used his mighty power to rescue us from slavery in Egypt. ¹⁵The king ^[e] stubbornly refused to set us free, so the LORD killed the first-born male of every animal and the first-born son of every Egyptian family. This is why we sacrifice to the LORD every first-born male of every animal and save every first-born son." ¹⁶This ceremony will serve the same purpose as a sign on your hand or on your forehead to tell how the LORD's mighty power rescued us from Egypt.

The LORD Leads His People

    ¹⁹Moses had them take along the bones of Joseph, whose dying words had been, " God will come to your rescue, and when he does, be sure to take along my bones."

    ²⁰The people of Israel left Succoth and camped at Etham at the border of Egypt near the desert. ^21-22During the day the LORD went ahead of his people in a thick cloud, and during the night he went ahead of them in a flaming fire. That way the LORD could lead them at all times, whether day or night.

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Matthew 16

A Demand for a Sign from Heaven

(Mark 8.11-13; Luke 12.54-56)

   If the sky is red in the evening, you say the weather will be good. ³But if the sky is red and gloomy in the morning, you say it is going to rain. You can tell what the weather will be like by looking at the sky. But you don't understand what is happening now. ^{[a] 4}You want a sign because you are evil and won't believe! But the only sign you will be given is what happened to Jonah. ^[b] Then Jesus left.

The Yeast of the Pharisees and Sadducees

(Mark 8.14-21)

    ⁸Jesus knew what they were thinking and said:

   You surely don't have much faith! Why are you talking about not having any bread? ⁹Don't you understand? Have you forgotten about the five thousand people and all those baskets of leftovers from just five loaves of bread? ¹⁰And what about the four thousand people and all those baskets of leftovers from only seven loaves of bread? ¹¹Don't you know by now that I am not talking to you about bread? Watch out for the yeast of the Pharisees and Sadducees!

    ¹²Finally, the disciples understood that Jesus wasn't talking about the yeast used to make bread, but about the teaching of the Pharisees and Sadducees.

Who Is Jesus?

(Mark 8.27-30; Luke 9.18-21)

    ¹⁴The disciples answered, "Some people say you are John the Baptist or maybe Elijah ^[d] or Jeremiah or some other prophet." ¹⁵Then Jesus asked them, "But who do you say I am?"

    ¹⁶Simon Peter spoke up, "You are the Messiah, the Son of the living God."

    ¹⁷Jesus told him:

   Simon, son of Jonah, you are blessed! You didn't discover this on your own. It was shown to you by my Father in heaven. ¹⁸So I will call you Peter, which means "a rock." On this rock I will build my church, and death itself will not have any power over it. ¹⁹I will give you the keys to the kingdom of heaven, and God in heaven will allow whatever you allow on earth. But he will not allow anything that you don't allow.

    ²⁰Jesus told his disciples not to tell anyone that he was the Messiah.

Jesus Speaks about His Suffering and Death

(Mark 8.31--9.1; Luke 9.22-27)

    ²²Peter took Jesus aside and told him to stop talking like that. He said, "God would never let this happen to you, Lord!"

    ²³Jesus turned to Peter and said, "Satan, get away from me! You're in my way because you think like everyone else and not like God."

    ²⁴Then Jesus said to his disciples:

   If any of you want to be my followers, you must forget about yourself. You must take up your cross and follow me. ²⁵If you want to save your life, ^[e] you will destroy it. But if you give up your life for me, you will find it. ²⁶What will you gain, if you own the whole world but destroy yourself? What would you give to get back your soul? ²⁷The Son of Man will soon come in the glory of his Father and with his angels to reward all people for what they have done. ²⁸I promise you that some of those standing here will not die before they see the Son of Man coming with his kingdom.