Revised Common Lectionary (Complementary)

Moses chooses some judges

¹³ The next day, Moses sat down to judge people who had quarrels against each other. From morning until evening, people were coming to him with their quarrels.

¹⁴ Jethro saw all these things that Moses did to help the people. So he said, ‘You are trying to do too much! Why do you sit there alone to judge all these people during the whole day?’

¹⁵ Moses answered Jethro, ‘The people come to me to discover what God says. ¹⁶ When they quarrel, they come to me to decide who is right. I tell them what God's laws and commands teach.’

¹⁷ Jethro replied, ‘The thing that you are doing is not good. ¹⁸ You will become too tired. The people who come to you will also become tired. You cannot do all this work alone. ¹⁹ Now listen to me! I will tell you what I think will help you. God will take care of you. When people have quarrels, you must continue to speak to God on their behalf. ²⁰ You are the person who must teach them God's laws and commands. You must show them how they should live and what they must do.

²¹ But you must also choose some other clever men to help you. They must be honest men who respect God. They must not want to take money from people. Choose these men to be officers with authority over groups of the people. They will be leaders of 1,000 people, or 100 people, or 50 people, or 10 people. ²² They will be able to work as judges for the people, every day. They can decide the small quarrels. But if there is a difficult problem, they must bring it to you. That will make your work easier, because they will help you with the work. ²³ If you agree with my idea, and if God commands you to do it, it will help you. The work will not be too hard for you. And all these people will go home happily.’

²⁴ Moses listened to Jethro and he did everything that Jethro had said.

²⁵ Moses chose wise men from all the Israelites. He made them officers to lead 1,000 people, or 100 people, or 50 people, or 10 people. ²⁶ They worked as judges for the people at all times. If there was a difficult problem, they took it to Moses for him to decide. But they themselves decided the small problems.

²⁷ Then Moses said ‘goodbye’ to his wife's father, Jethro. Jethro returned to his own country.

¹³ The Jewish leaders saw that Peter and John were not afraid of them. They also knew that they were not special people. They had not been to any school.^[a] So the leaders were very surprised about how Peter and John spoke. They understood that Peter and John had been friends with Jesus.

¹⁴ The man who was now well stood in front of the Jewish leaders. They could see that his legs had become strong again. So they could not say anything against Peter and John. ¹⁵ They told Peter and John to go out of the room where the leaders were meeting. Then they talked together to decide what they should do. ¹⁶ ‘What should we do with these men?’ they said. ‘Everyone who lives in Jerusalem knows about this miracle. They know that Peter and John did a great thing for that man. So we cannot say that they did not do it. ¹⁷ But we do not want any more people to know what has happened. So we must say to these men, “You must stop using the name of Jesus. You must stop teaching people about him.” ’^[b]

¹⁸ Then the Jewish leaders told Peter and John to come back into the room. They said to them, ‘You must not use the authority of Jesus to teach people any more. You must not speak about him.’ ¹⁹ Then Peter and John replied to the leaders, ‘What do you think God wants us to do? Should we obey you? Or should we obey God? You decide! ²⁰ We know what is right. We must continue to speak about these things. We must tell people about the things that we have seen and heard.’

²¹ The Jewish leaders were angry. They told Peter and John that they must obey them. Then they let Peter and John go free. All the people there were praising God because of the miracle. So the leaders could not decide how to punish Peter and John. ²² The man who became well because of this miracle was more than 40 years old.

The group of believers pray to God

²³ After the Jewish leaders let them go free, Peter and John went back to the group of believers. They told them what the leaders of the priests and the important Jews had said. ²⁴ The believers listened to what Peter and John told them. Then they all prayed together. They said to God, ‘You are the Lord who rules over everything. You made the sky, the earth and the sea. You also made everything that is in them. ²⁵ Our ancestor, King David, was your servant. You sent your Holy Spirit to him so that he spoke your message. You said through him,^[c]

²⁷ Lord God, it has now happened like that. Herod and Pontius Pilate have met together here in Jerusalem. They met with Israelite people and with people of other nations. Together they made plans to kill your holy servant, Jesus. He is the one that you chose to be your Messiah. ²⁸ But you are powerful. These men did only what you said would happen. You had already decided on these events. ²⁹ Lord God, you know that the Jewish leaders want to punish Peter and John. We are your servants. Please help us not to be afraid. Help us to speak your message to people without fear. ³⁰ Show people that you are strong. Cause sick people to become well. Do other powerful things to show that you are God. It is the authority of your holy servant Jesus that will make these things happen.’

³¹ The believers finished praying. The house where they were meeting together shook. God filled them all with his Holy Spirit. That made them very brave and they spoke God's message clearly to people.