Revised Common Lectionary (Complementary)

Into Your Hand I Commit My Spirit

For the choir director. A Psalm of David.

God Calls Moses at the Burning Bush

3 Now Moses was pasturing the flock of ^(A)Jethro his father-in-law, the priest of Midian; and he led the flock to the ^[a]west side of the wilderness and came to ^(B)Horeb, the ^(C)mountain of God. ^2 (D)And the angel of ^[b]Yahweh appeared to him in a blazing fire from the midst of the ^(E)bush; and he looked, and behold, the bush was burning with fire, yet the bush was not consumed. ³ So Moses said, “^[c](F)I must turn aside now and see this ^[d]marvelous sight. Why is the bush not burned up?” ⁴ And Yahweh saw that he turned aside to look, so ^(G)God called to him from the midst of the bush and said, “Moses, Moses!” And he said, “Here I am.” ⁵ Then He said, “Do not come near here. ^(H)Remove your sandals from your feet, for the place on which you are standing is holy ground.” ⁶ He said also, “^(I)I am the God of your father, the God of Abraham, the God of Isaac, and the God of Jacob.” ^(J)Then Moses hid his face, for he was ^(K)afraid to look at God.

⁷ And Yahweh said, “I have surely ^(L)seen the affliction of My people who are in Egypt, and I have heard their cry because of their taskmasters, for I know their sufferings. ⁸ So I have come down ^(M)to deliver them from the hand of the Egyptians and to bring them up from that land to a ^(N)good and spacious land, to a land flowing with milk and honey, to the place of ^(O)the Canaanite and the Hittite and the Amorite and the Perizzite and the Hivite and the Jebusite. ⁹ So now, behold, ^(P)the cry of the sons of Israel has come to Me; and I have also seen the oppression with which the Egyptians are oppressing them. ¹⁰ So now, come and I will send you to Pharaoh, ^(Q)and so you shall bring My people, the sons of Israel, out of Egypt.” ¹¹ But Moses said to God, “^(R)Who am I, that I should go to Pharaoh, and that I should bring the sons of Israel out of Egypt?” ¹² And He said, “Certainly ^(S)I will be with you, and this shall be the sign to you that it is I who have sent you: ^(T)when you have brought the people out of Egypt, ^(U)you shall ^[e]serve God at this mountain.”

Stephen’s Defense

7 And the high priest said, “Are these things so?”

² And he said, “Hear me, ^(A)brothers and fathers! ^(B)The God of glory ^(C)appeared to our father Abraham when he was in Mesopotamia, before he lived in ^[a]Haran, ³ and said to him, ‘^(D)Leave your country and your relatives, and come into the land that I will show you.’ ^4 (E)Then he left the land of the Chaldeans and settled in ^[b]Haran. ^(F)From there, after his father died, God had him move to this country in which you are now living. ⁵ But He gave him no inheritance in it, not even a foot of ground, and ^(G)He promised that He would give it to him as a possession, and to his seed after him, even when he had no child. ⁶ But ^(H)God spoke in this way, that his seed would be sojourners in a foreign land, and that they would ^[c]be enslaved and mistreated for four hundred years. ⁷ ‘And I Myself will judge the nation to which they will be enslaved,’ said God, ‘and ^(I)after that they will come out and ^[d]serve Me in this place.’ ⁸ And He ^(J)gave him ^[e]the covenant of circumcision; and so ^(K)Abraham was the father of Isaac, and circumcised him on the eighth day; and ^(L)Isaac was the father of Jacob, and ^(M)Jacob of the twelve ^(N)patriarchs.

⁹ “And the patriarchs, ^(O)becoming jealous of Joseph, sold him into Egypt. Yet God was with him, ¹⁰ and rescued him from all his afflictions, and ^(P)granted him favor and wisdom in the sight of Pharaoh, king of Egypt, and he appointed him governor over Egypt and all his household.

¹¹ “Now ^(Q)a famine came over all Egypt and Canaan, and great affliction with it, and our fathers ^[f]could find no food. ¹² But ^(R)when Jacob heard that there was grain in Egypt, he sent our fathers there the first time. ¹³ And on the second visit ^(S)Joseph ^[g]made himself known to his brothers, and ^(T)Joseph’s family was disclosed to Pharaoh. ¹⁴ Then ^(U)Joseph sent word and invited Jacob his father and all his relatives to come to him, ^(V)seventy-five ^[h](W)persons in all. ¹⁵ And ^(X)Jacob went down to Egypt and there he and our fathers died. ¹⁶ And from there they were removed to ^[i](Y)Shechem and placed in the tomb which Abraham had purchased for a sum of money from the sons of ^[j]Hamor in ^[k]Shechem.