Revised Common Lectionary (Complementary)

The Passover Instituted^(A)

12 Now the Lord spoke to Moses and Aaron in the land of Egypt, saying: ² This month shall be the beginning of months to you. It shall be the first month of the year to you. ³ Speak to all the congregation of Israel, saying: On the tenth day of this month every man shall take a lamb, according to the house of their fathers, a lamb for a household. ⁴ And if the household be too little for the lamb, let him and his neighbor next to his house take it according to the number of the persons; according to what each man shall eat, divide the lamb. ⁵ Your lamb shall be without blemish, a male of the first year. You shall take it out from the sheep, or from the goats. ⁶ You shall keep it up until the fourteenth day of the same month, and then the whole assembly of the congregation of Israel shall kill it in the evening. ⁷ They shall take some of the blood and put it on the two side posts and on the upper doorpost of the houses in which they shall eat it. ⁸ They shall eat the flesh on that night, roasted with fire, and they shall eat it with unleavened bread and bitter herbs. ⁹ Do not eat it raw, nor boiled at all with water, but roasted with fire, its head with its legs and its entrails. ¹⁰ And you shall let nothing of it remain until the morning, but that of it which remains until the morning you shall burn with fire. ¹¹ In this way shall you eat it: with your waist girded, your sandals on your feet, and your staff in your hand. So you shall eat it in haste. It is the Lord’s Passover.

¹² For I will pass through the land of Egypt this night and will smite all the firstborn in the land of Egypt, both man and beast, and against all the gods of Egypt I will execute judgment. I am the Lord. ¹³ The blood shall be to you for a sign on the houses where you are. And when I see the blood, I will pass over you, and the plague shall not be upon you to destroy you when I smite the land of Egypt.

²¹ Then Moses called for all the elders of Israel and said to them, “Draw out and take for yourselves a lamb according to your families and kill the Passover lamb. ²² You shall take a bunch of hyssop, and dip it in the blood that is in the basin, and apply the lintel and the two side posts with the blood that is in the basin, and none of you shall go out from the door of his house until the morning. ²³ For the Lord will pass through to kill the Egyptians. And when He sees the blood upon the lintel and on the two side posts, the Lord will pass over the door and will not permit the destroyer to come to your houses to kill you.

²⁴ “And you shall observe this thing as an ordinance to you and to your sons forever. ²⁵ When you enter the land which the Lord will give you, according as He has promised, that you shall observe this service. ²⁶ And when your children shall say to you, ‘What does this service mean to you?’ ²⁷ that you shall say, ‘It is the sacrifice of the Lord’s Passover, who passed over the houses of the children of Israel in Egypt, when He smote the Egyptians, and delivered our households.’ ” And the people bowed down and worshipped. ²⁸ Then the children of Israel went and did so. Just as the Lord had commanded Moses and Aaron, so they did.

Philip and the Ethiopian Eunuch

²⁶ Now an angel of the Lord said to Philip, “Rise up and go toward the south on the way that goes down from Jerusalem to Gaza.” This is desert. ²⁷ So he rose up and went. And there was a man of Ethiopia, a eunuch of great authority under Candace, queen of the Ethiopians, who was in command of her entire treasury. He had come to Jerusalem to worship. ²⁸ He was returning, sitting in his chariot and reading the book of Isaiah the prophet. ²⁹ The Spirit said to Philip, “Go to this chariot and stay with it.”

³⁰ Then Philip ran to him, and heard him read the book of Isaiah the prophet, and said, “Do you understand what you are reading?”

³¹ He said, “How can I, unless someone guides me?” So he invited Philip to come up and sit with him.

³² The passage of Scripture which he was reading was this:

³⁴ The eunuch said to Philip, “I ask you, of whom does the prophet speak, of himself or of someone else?” ³⁵ Then Philip spoke, beginning with the same Scripture, and preached Jesus to him.

³⁶ As they went on their way, they came to some water. And the eunuch said, “Look, here is water. What hinders me from being baptized?” ³⁷ Philip said, “If you believe with all your heart, you may.” He answered, “I believe that Jesus Christ is the Son of God.” ³⁸ And he commanded the chariot to halt. Then both Philip and the eunuch went down into the water, and he baptized him. ³⁹ When they came up out of the water, the Spirit of the Lord took Philip away. And the eunuch saw him no more, and he went his way rejoicing. ⁴⁰ But Philip was found at Azotus. And passing through, he preached the gospel in all the cities until he came to Caesarea.