Revised Common Lectionary (Semicontinuous)

¹⁰⁵ Your words are a flashlight to light the path ahead of me and keep me from stumbling. ¹⁰⁶ I’ve said it once and I’ll say it again and again: I will obey these wonderful laws of yours.

¹⁰⁷ I am close to death at the hands of my enemies; oh, give me back my life again, just as you promised me. ¹⁰⁸ Accept my grateful thanks and teach me your desires. ¹⁰⁹ My life hangs in the balance, but I will not give up obedience to your laws. ¹¹⁰ The wicked have set their traps for me along your path, but I will not turn aside. ¹¹¹ Your laws are my joyous treasure forever. ¹¹² I am determined to obey you until I die.

3 One day as Moses was tending the flock of his father-in-law, Jethro,^[a] the priest of Midian, out at the edge of the desert near Horeb, the mountain of God, ² suddenly the Angel of Jehovah appeared to him as a flame of fire in a bush. When Moses saw that the bush was on fire and that it didn’t burn up, ^3-4 he went over to investigate. Then God called out to him, “Moses! Moses!”

“Who is it?” Moses asked.

⁵ “Don’t come any closer,” God told him. “Take off your shoes, for you are standing on holy ground. ⁶ I am the God of your fathers—the God of Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob.” (Moses covered his face with his hands, for he was afraid to look at God.)

^12-15 He will punish sin wherever it is found. He will punish the heathen when they sin, even though they never had God’s written laws, for down in their hearts they know right from wrong. God’s laws are written within them; their own conscience accuses them, or sometimes excuses them. And God will punish the Jews for sinning because they have his written laws but don’t obey them. They know what is right but don’t do it. After all, salvation is not given to those who know what to do, unless they do it. ¹⁶ The day will surely come when at God’s command Jesus Christ will judge the secret lives of everyone, their inmost thoughts and motives; this is all part of God’s great plan, which I proclaim.