Revised Common Lectionary (Complementary)
The Lord’s Eternal Love
A Prayer of the afflicted, (A)when he is overwhelmed and pours out his complaint before the Lord.
102 Hear my prayer, O Lord,
And let my cry come to You.
2 (B)Do not hide Your face from me in the day of my trouble;
Incline Your ear to me;
In the day that I call, answer me speedily.
3 For my days [a]are (C)consumed like smoke,
And my bones are burned like a hearth.
4 My heart is stricken and withered like grass,
So that I forget to eat my bread.
5 Because of the sound of my groaning
My bones cling to my [b]skin.
6 I am like a pelican of the wilderness;
I am like an owl of the desert.
7 I lie awake,
And am like a sparrow alone on the housetop.
8 My enemies reproach me all day long;
Those who deride me swear an oath against me.
9 For I have eaten ashes like bread,
And mingled my drink with weeping,
10 Because of Your indignation and Your wrath;
For You have lifted me up and cast me away.
11 My days are like a shadow that lengthens,
And I wither away like grass.
12 But You, O Lord, shall endure forever,
And the remembrance of Your name to all generations.
13 You will arise and have mercy on Zion;
For the time to favor her,
Yes, the set time, has come.
14 For Your servants take pleasure in her stones,
And show favor to her dust.
15 So the [c]nations shall (D)fear the name of the Lord,
And all the kings of the earth Your glory.
16 For the Lord shall build up Zion;
(E)He shall appear in His glory.
17 (F)He shall regard the prayer of the destitute,
And shall not despise their prayer.
The Wilderness Way(A)
17 Then it came to pass, when Pharaoh had let the people go, that God did not lead them by way of the land of the Philistines, although that was near; for God said, “Lest perhaps the people (B)change their minds when they see war, and (C)return to Egypt.” 18 So God (D)led the people around by way of the wilderness of the Red Sea. And the children of Israel went up in orderly ranks out of the land of Egypt.
19 And Moses took the (E)bones of (F)Joseph with him, for he had placed the children of Israel under solemn oath, saying, (G)“God will surely [a]visit you, and you shall carry up my bones from here with you.”
20 So (H)they took their journey from (I)Succoth and camped in Etham at the edge of the wilderness. 21 And (J)the Lord went before them by day in a pillar of cloud to lead the way, and by night in a pillar of fire to give them light, so as to go by day and night. 22 He did not take away the pillar of cloud by day or the pillar of fire by night from before the people.
God Delivers Israel by Moses
17 “But when (A)the time of the promise drew near which God had sworn to Abraham, (B)the people grew and multiplied in Egypt 18 till another king (C)arose who did not know Joseph. 19 This man dealt treacherously with our people, and oppressed our forefathers, (D)making them expose their babies, so that they might not live. 20 (E)At this time Moses was born, and (F)was well pleasing to God; and he was brought up in his father’s house for three months. 21 But (G)when he was set out, (H)Pharaoh’s daughter took him away and brought him up as her own son. 22 And Moses was learned in all the wisdom of the Egyptians, and was (I)mighty in words and deeds.
23 (J)“Now when he was forty years old, it came into his heart to visit his brethren, the children of Israel. 24 And seeing one of them suffer wrong, he defended and avenged him who was oppressed, and struck down the Egyptian. 25 For he supposed that his brethren would have understood that God would deliver them by his hand, but they did not understand. 26 And the next day he appeared to two of them as they were fighting, and tried to reconcile them, saying, ‘Men, you are brethren; why do you wrong one another?’ 27 But he who did his neighbor wrong pushed him away, saying, (K)‘Who made you a ruler and a judge over us? 28 Do you want to kill me as you did the Egyptian yesterday?’ 29 (L)Then, at this saying, Moses fled and became a dweller in the land of Midian, where he (M)had two sons.
30 (N)“And when forty years had passed, an Angel [a]of the Lord appeared to him in a flame of fire in a bush, in the wilderness of Mount Sinai. 31 When Moses saw it, he marveled at the sight; and as he drew near to observe, the voice of the Lord came to him, 32 saying, (O)‘I am the God of your fathers—the God of Abraham, the God of Isaac, and the God of Jacob.’ And Moses trembled and dared not look. 33 (P)‘Then the Lord said to him, “Take your sandals off your feet, for the place where you stand is holy ground. 34 I have surely (Q)seen the oppression of My people who are in Egypt; I have heard their groaning and have come down to deliver them. And now come, I will (R)send you to Egypt.” ’
35 “This Moses whom they rejected, saying, (S)‘Who made you a ruler and a judge?’ is the one God sent to be a ruler and a deliverer (T)by the hand of the Angel who appeared to him in the bush. 36 (U)He brought them out, after he had (V)shown wonders and signs in the land of Egypt, (W)and in the Red Sea, (X)and in the wilderness forty years.
Israel Rebels Against God
37 “This is that Moses who said to the children of Israel, (Y)‘The Lord your God will raise up for you a Prophet like me from your brethren. (Z)Him[b] you shall hear.’
38 (AA)“This is he who was in the [c]congregation in the wilderness with (AB)the Angel who spoke to him on Mount Sinai, and with our fathers, (AC)the one who received the living (AD)oracles[d] to give to us, 39 whom our fathers (AE)would not obey, but rejected. And in their hearts they turned back to Egypt, 40 (AF)saying to Aaron, ‘Make us gods to go before us; as for this Moses who brought us out of the land of Egypt, we do not know what has become of him.’
Scripture taken from the New King James Version®. Copyright © 1982 by Thomas Nelson. Used by permission. All rights reserved.