God Hears Israel's Groaning

^23 (A)During those many days the king of Egypt died, and the people of Israel ^(B)groaned because of their slavery and cried out for help. ^(C)Their cry for rescue from slavery came up to God. ²⁴ And ^(D)God heard their groaning, and God ^(E)remembered his covenant with ^(F)Abraham, with Isaac, and with Jacob. ²⁵ God ^(G)saw the people of Israel—and God ^(H)knew.

The Burning Bush

3 Now Moses was keeping the flock of his father-in-law, Jethro, the priest of Midian, and he led his flock to the west side of the wilderness and came to Horeb, the ^(I)mountain of God. ^2 (J)And ^(K)the angel of the Lord appeared to him in a flame of fire out of the midst of a bush. He looked, and behold, the bush was burning, yet it was not consumed. ³ And Moses said, “I will turn aside to see this great sight, why the bush is not burned.” ⁴ When the Lord saw that he turned aside to see, ^(L)God called to him ^(M)out of the bush, “Moses, Moses!” And he said, “Here I am.” ⁵ Then he said, “Do not come near; ^(N)take your sandals off your feet, for the place on which you are standing is holy ground.” ⁶ And he said, ^(O)“I am the God of your father, the God of Abraham, the God of Isaac, and the God of Jacob.” And Moses hid his face, for ^(P)he was afraid to look at God.

⁷ Then the Lord said, ^(Q)“I have surely seen the affliction of my people who are in Egypt and have heard their cry because of their ^(R)taskmasters. I know their sufferings, ⁸ and ^(S)I have come down to deliver them out of the hand of the Egyptians and ^(T)to bring them up out of that land to a ^(U)good and broad land, a land ^(V)flowing with milk and honey, to the place of ^(W)the Canaanites, the Hittites, the Amorites, the Perizzites, the Hivites, and the Jebusites. ⁹ And now, behold, ^(X)the cry of the people of Israel has come to me, and I have also seen the ^(Y)oppression with which the Egyptians oppress them. ^10 (Z)Come, I will send you to Pharaoh that you may bring my people, the children of Israel, out of Egypt.” ¹¹ But Moses said to God, ^(AA)“Who am I that I should go to Pharaoh and bring the children of Israel out of Egypt?” ¹² He said, ^(AB)“But I will be with you, and this shall be the sign for you, that I have sent you: when you have brought the people out of Egypt, ^(AC)you shall serve God on this mountain.”

¹³ Then Moses said to God, “If I come to the people of Israel and say to them, ‘The God of your fathers has sent me to you,’ and they ask me, ‘What is his name?’ what shall I say to them?” ¹⁴ God said to Moses, “I am who I am.”^[a] And he said, “Say this to the people of Israel: ^(AD)‘I am has sent me to you.’” ¹⁵ God also said to Moses, “Say this to the people of Israel: ‘The Lord,^[b] the ^(AE)God of your fathers, the God of Abraham, the God of Isaac, and the God of Jacob, has sent me to you.’ This is ^(AF)my name forever, and thus I am to be remembered throughout all generations.

With God We Shall Do Valiantly

A Song. A Psalm of David.

The Way of Love

13 If I speak in the tongues of men and of angels, but have not love, I am a noisy gong or a clanging cymbal. ² And if I have ^(A)prophetic powers, and understand all mysteries and all knowledge, and if I have all faith, ^(B)so as to remove mountains, but have not love, I am nothing. ^3 (C)If I give away all I have, and ^(D)if I deliver up my body to be burned,^[a] but have not love, I gain nothing.

^4 (E)Love is patient and ^(F)kind; love ^(G)does not envy or boast; it ^(H)is not arrogant ⁵ or rude. It ^(I)does not insist on its own way; it ^(J)is not irritable or resentful;^{[b] 6} it ^(K)does not rejoice at wrongdoing, but ^(L)rejoices with the truth. ^7 (M)Love bears all things, believes all things, hopes all things, ^(N)endures all things.

⁸ Love never ends. As for prophecies, they will pass away; as for tongues, they will cease; as for knowledge, it will pass away. ⁹ For ^(O)we know in part and we prophesy in part, ¹⁰ but ^(P)when the perfect comes, the partial will pass away. ¹¹ When I was a child, I spoke like a child, I thought like a child, I reasoned like a child. When I became a man, I gave up childish ways. ¹² For ^(Q)now we see in a mirror dimly, but ^(R)then face to face. Now I know in part; then I shall know fully, even as ^(S)I have been fully known.

¹³ So now faith, hope, and love abide, these three; but the greatest of these is love.

Jesus Heals a Boy with an Unclean Spirit

^14 (A)And when they came to the disciples, they saw a great crowd around them, and scribes arguing with them. ¹⁵ And immediately all the crowd, when they saw him, ^(B)were greatly amazed and ran up to him and greeted him. ¹⁶ And he asked them, “What are you arguing about with them?” ¹⁷ And someone from the crowd answered him, “Teacher, I brought my son to you, for he has ^(C)a spirit that makes him mute. ¹⁸ And whenever it seizes him, it throws him down, and he foams and grinds his teeth and becomes rigid. So I asked your disciples to cast it out, and ^(D)they were not able.” ¹⁹ And he answered them, “O ^(E)faithless generation, ^(F)how long am I to be with you? How long am I to bear with you? Bring him to me.” ²⁰ And they brought the boy to him. And when the spirit saw him, immediately it ^(G)convulsed the boy, and he fell on the ground and rolled about, foaming at the mouth. ²¹ And Jesus asked his father, “How long has this been happening to him?” And he said, “From childhood. ²² And it has often cast him into fire and into water, to destroy him. But ^(H)if you can do anything, have compassion on us and help us.” ²³ And Jesus said to him, ^(I)“‘If you can’! ^(J)All things are possible for one who believes.” ²⁴ Immediately the father of the child cried out^[a] and said, “I believe; ^(K)help my unbelief!” ²⁵ And when Jesus saw that ^(L)a crowd came running together, he rebuked the unclean spirit, saying to it, ^(M)“You mute and deaf spirit, I command you, come out of him and never enter him again.” ²⁶ And after crying out and ^(N)convulsing him terribly, it came out, and the boy was like a corpse, so that most of them said, “He is dead.” ²⁷ But Jesus ^(O)took him by the hand and lifted him up, and he arose. ²⁸ And when he had ^(P)entered the house, his disciples asked him privately, “Why could we not cast it out?” ²⁹ And he said to them, “This kind cannot be driven out by anything but prayer.”^[b]