Book of Common Prayer

QOPH

RESH

SHIN

TAW

A song to sing as we climb.

A happy family

A song to sing as we climb.

A song to sing as we climb.

I have great trouble

⁸ The Lord said to Moses and Aaron, ⁹ ‘Pharaoh will say to you, “Show me a miracle.” Then say to Aaron, “Take your stick and throw it down in front of Pharaoh.” When Aaron does that, his stick will become a snake.’

¹⁰ So Moses and Aaron went to see Pharaoh. They did everything that the Lord had commanded them. Aaron threw down his stick in front of Pharaoh and his officers. And the stick became a snake! ¹¹ Then Pharaoh called for his wise men and his magicians to come to him. The Egyptian magicians did the same thing as Aaron. They used their secret magic to do it. ¹² Each of them threw down his stick and it became a snake. But Aaron's stick ate all their sticks!^{[a] 13} But Pharaoh's mind was hard and he refused to listen to Moses and Aaron. That was what the Lord had said would happen, and it did!

1: Moses changes water into blood

¹⁴ Then the Lord said to Moses, ‘Pharaoh's mind is still hard. He refuses to let the people go. ¹⁵ Go to Pharaoh in the morning when he goes to the river. Wait for him by the edge of the river. Then take in your hand the stick that became a snake. ¹⁶ Then say to Pharaoh, “The Lord, the God of the Israelites, has sent me to you to say, ‘Let my people go, so that they may worship me in the desert.’ But until now, you have not listened to my message. ¹⁷ So this is what the Lord says: In this way, you will know that I am the Lord. Look! I will hit the water in the Nile river with the stick that is in my hand. Then the water will become blood. ¹⁸ The fish in the river will die, and the river will have a very bad smell. Then the Egyptians will not be able to drink the water from the Nile river.” ’

¹⁹ Then the Lord said to Moses, ‘Say to Aaron, “Take your stick. Lift up your hand over the waters of Egypt. Lift your stick up over their rivers and their streams. Lift it up over their lakes and pools of water. Do that so that all the water becomes blood.” There will be blood in every part of Egypt. There will even be blood in their buckets and bowls.’

²⁰ Moses and Aaron obeyed the command of the Lord. Aaron lifted up the stick in front of Pharaoh and his servants. He hit the water in the Nile river with the stick. Then all the water in the river became blood. ²¹ The fish in the river died. The river had such a bad smell that the Egyptians could not drink its water. There was blood in every part of Egypt.

²² But the Egyptian magicians used their magic and they did the same thing. So Pharaoh's mind continued to be hard. He still refused to listen to Moses and Aaron. The Lord had said that this would happen, and it did! ²³ Pharaoh turned away and he went into his house. He did not worry about what had happened. ²⁴ The Egyptians dug holes on the shore of the Nile river to find water to drink. They could not drink the water from the river itself.^[b]

¹⁴ But I thank God! He has won against sin, because of what Christ has done. Christ is our leader and we show that he is the winner. We also help people to know about Christ. That knowledge is like a lovely smell that comes to people everywhere. ¹⁵ When we tell people about Christ, we are like a lovely smell that rises up to God. We are like that among the people that God is saving. We are also like that among the people who are dying because they are far from God. ¹⁶ For the people who are dying, we are like a bad smell that brings a message of death. But for the people that God is saving, we are like a lovely smell that brings a message of new life.

Nobody is really good enough to tell such an important message! ¹⁷ Some people even tell God's message because they want to get a lot of money for themselves. But we are not like them. No, God himself has sent us to do this work. And he sees what we are doing. So we are honest and we speak God's message clearly, as Christ's servants should do.

God's Holy Spirit gives us new life

3 We do not need any more to show that our work is good. Some people need to have letters from other people to say that they do good work. We do not need to show you letters like that. Nor do we need you to write a letter like that for us. ² You yourselves show that we have done good work. You are like a letter that is written on our lives. Everybody can read that letter and they can understand it. ³ It is clear that you are a like a letter that Christ himself has written. We are the people who brought God's message to you. Now people see what God has done in your lives. That is like a letter that they read. But it is not a letter written on paper with ink. It is the Spirit of the living God who wrote it. He did not write it on pieces of stone. Instead, he wrote it deep inside you.^[a]

⁴ We know that these things are true. Because of what Christ has done, we trust God to help us. ⁵ We know that we cannot do this work by ourselves. We never think that. But God makes us able to do it. ⁶ God has made us his servants. So we are able to tell people the message of his new agreement. This new agreement is not about rules. Rules tell people what they must do and they bring death. But God's new agreement comes from his Spirit. And the Spirit brings new life to us, not death.^[b]

Jesus teaches about men who send their wives away

10 Then Jesus left that place and he went to Judea. He went across to the east side of the Jordan River. Crowds of people came to him again. So he taught them, as he usually did.

² Some Pharisees came to Jesus. They wanted to find out how he would answer their question. They asked him, ‘Can a man send his wife away, so that she is no longer his wife? Is it right for him to do that?’

³ Jesus replied with a question: ‘What did Moses say was right for you?’^[a]

⁴ The Pharisees said, ‘Moses said that a man could write a letter to say that he and his wife are no longer married. Then the man can send the woman away.’^[b]

⁵ Jesus said to them, ‘You did not want to obey God. That is why Moses made this rule for you. ⁶ But at the start, when God made the world, he made people male and female. ⁷ That is the reason that a man leaves his father and his mother. Then God joins him and his wife together. ⁸ The man and the woman become like one body. They are not two separate people any longer. They have come together as one person. ⁹ God has put them together to be husband and wife. So nobody should cause them to be separate.’^[c]

¹⁰ When Jesus went into the house, the disciples asked him about these things again. ¹¹ So Jesus said to them, ‘A man must not send his wife away and then marry another woman. If he does that, he has not been faithful to his wife. It is the same as if he had sex with another man's wife. ¹² In the same way, a woman must not leave her husband and then marry another man. She also has done a wrong thing. It is the same as if she had sex with another woman's husband.’

Jesus prays for some children

¹³ People were bringing little children to Jesus. They wanted him to put his hands on each child's head. The disciples told the people that they should not do that. ¹⁴ But when Jesus saw this, he was angry. He said to them, ‘Do not stop the children. Let them come to me. People must become like these children so that God can rule their lives. That is what the kingdom of God is like. ¹⁵ I tell you this: A person must become like a little child for God to rule in his life. If he does not become like a child, he will not come into the kingdom of God.’ ¹⁶ Then Jesus took hold of the children. He put his hands on each of them and he asked God to bless them.