Revised Common Lectionary (Complementary)

This is a psalm to say ‘thank you’.

Thank you, God!^[a]

Aaron will speak on Moses' behalf

²⁸ When the Lord spoke to Moses in the country of Egypt, ²⁹ he said, ‘I am the Lord. Tell Pharaoh, king of Egypt, everything that I say to you.’ ³⁰ But Moses said, ‘You know that I do not speak well. Pharaoh will not listen to me.’

7 Then the Lord said to Moses, ‘Look, I have made you like God to Pharaoh. Your brother Aaron will speak on your behalf, like your prophet.^{[a] 2} You must say everything that I command you to say. Your brother Aaron must tell Pharaoh to let the Israelites go out of his country.

³ But I will make Pharaoh's mind become hard. I will do many miracles in Egypt that show my power. ⁴ But Pharaoh will still refuse to listen to you. Then I will show my authority and I will punish the Egyptians. I will bring my people, the Israelites, out of Egypt like an army. ⁵ Then the Egyptians will know that I am the Lord. I will show my great strength in Egypt and I will lead the Israelites out from there.’

Aaron's stick becomes a snake

⁶ Moses and Aaron obeyed all the commands of the Lord. ⁷ Moses was 80 years old and Aaron was 83 years old when they spoke to Pharaoh.

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!^{[b] 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!

Jesus speaks to Pharisees and to some teachers of God's Law

7 A group of Pharisees and some teachers of God's Law came from Jerusalem to talk with Jesus. ² They had been watching Jesus' disciples. Some of the disciples did not wash their hands before they ate a meal. That is to say, they did not wash them in the right way. ³ (The Pharisees and all the Jews do not eat food until they have washed their hands carefully. They do this because of what their leaders taught them. ⁴ When they come from the market place, they always wash themselves carefully. Unless they do this, they do not eat anything. Their leaders also gave them rules about how they should wash cups, pots and metal bowls.)

⁵ The Pharisees and the teachers of God's Law said to Jesus, ‘Your disciples do not obey the things that our leaders taught many years ago. Your disciples have not washed their hands in the right way. They are eating their food with unclean hands. That is not right.’

⁶ Jesus said to them, ‘You are hypocrites! What God's prophet Isaiah wrote about you long ago is true:

⁸ Jesus then said, ‘You have stopped obeying God. Instead you obey the ideas that men teach.’

⁹ He said to them, ‘You refuse to obey God's rules, because then you can keep your own ideas! ¹⁰ For example, Moses wrote, “You must love your father and your mother. You must obey them.” He also said, “You must kill anyone who curses his father or his mother.”^{[b] 11} But you teach that a person may say to his father or to his mother, “I would have given gifts to help you. But I cannot do that, because I have given them to God instead.” ¹² If he says that, you let him do nothing to help his father or his mother. ¹³ This shows that you have not obeyed what God says is right. Instead, you have obeyed the ideas that you received from your leaders many years ago. And you do many other things like that.’