Revised Common Lectionary (Semicontinuous)
God's great glory
12 Moses said to the Lord, ‘You have said to me, “Lead these people to their new land.” But you have not told me who my helper will be on the journey. You have told me, “I know you by your name. I am very pleased with you.” 13 If you are really pleased with me, tell me your thoughts. I want to understand you properly. Then I can continue to please you. Remember that this nation, the Israelites, are your own people.’
14 The Lord replied, ‘I myself will go with you. I will give you rest.’[a]
15 Then Moses said, ‘If you do not agree to go with us, do not let us go anywhere. 16 If you do not go with us, nobody will know that you are pleased with me. Nobody will know that you are pleased with us as your special people. I, and all your people, will be the same as all the other people in the world.’
17 The Lord said to Moses, ‘I will certainly do what you have asked for. This is because I am pleased with you. I know you by your name.’
18 Then Moses said, ‘Please, show me your glory!’
19 The Lord said, ‘I will let you see how great and good I am. I will tell you my name, that I am the Lord. If I choose to be kind to someone, I will be kind to them. If I choose to forgive someone, I will forgive them. 20 But you will never see my face. Nobody can see my face and still be alive.’
21 Then the Lord said, ‘Look! There is a place near to me. You can stand there on a rock. 22 When my glory passes in front of you, I will put you in a hole in the rock. I will cover your eyes with my hand as I pass by there. 23 Then I will remove my hand so that you will see my back. But nobody must ever see my face.’
The Lord is holy![a]
99 The Lord rules as king!
People on earth should shake with fear!
The Lord sits on his throne as king
above the cherubs![b]
The earth itself should shake!
2 The Lord is a great king in Zion.
He rules with power
over all the world's nations.
3 So they should all praise your great name.
It is a name that brings fear!
The Lord is holy!
4 You are a strong king who loves justice.
You have made fair rules,
so that people in Israel do what is right.
5 Praise the Lord our God!
Worship him as king.
He is holy!
6 Moses and Aaron were two of his priests.[c]
Samuel was among those who prayed to him.
They prayed to the Lord
and he answered them.
7 He spoke to them from the pillar of cloud.[d]
They obeyed his rules and his commands.
8 Yes, you answered them, Lord our God.
You forgave the sins of your people.
But when they did wrong things,
you punished them.[e]
9 Praise the Lord our God!
Go and worship him on his holy hill,
because the Lord our God is holy!
Paul says ‘hello’
1 This letter is from Paul, Silas and Timothy.
We are writing to the people of the church in Thessalonica. You belong to God the Father and to the Lord Jesus Christ.
We pray that God will continue to help you. We pray that he will give you peace in your minds.
2 We always thank God for all of you. Every time that we pray, we pray for you. 3 As we pray to our Father God, we remember how you live. You do good things because you believe in Christ. You work hard to help other people because you love them and you love God. You are also strong and patient because you hope strongly in our Lord Jesus Christ.[a]
4 Our Christian friends, God loves you. We know that he has chosen you to belong to him. 5 When we told you God's good news, it was not only words that we spoke to you. God helped us with his power and with the Holy Spirit. As a result, you were sure that our message was true. You also know that we lived among you in a good way. We had come to help you.
6 In your lives also, you copied our example and the example of the Lord Jesus. When you believed our message, people caused you to have a lot of trouble. But God's Holy Spirit helped you to be very happy. 7 As a result, you became an example to all the believers in Macedonia and in Achaia.[b]
8 Because of you, people in many places have clearly heard the message about the Lord. It is not only the people in Macedonia and in Achaia who have heard it. People everywhere now know how you trust God. So, as we travel to different places, we do not need to tell people anything. 9 Those people themselves speak about how you accepted us. They tell us how you stopped worshipping false gods. They know that you now serve the true God who always lives. 10 They also tell us that you are waiting patiently for God's Son to return from heaven. God raised him up after his death on the cross. He is Jesus. He saves us from God's punishment that will come one day.[c]
The Pharisees ask Jesus about taxes
15 After the Pharisees heard this, they thought about what they could do. They wanted to ask Jesus difficult questions. They wanted to make him say something wrong about the Roman ruler. 16 So the Pharisees sent their own disciples to Jesus. They also sent people who were friends of King Herod. They said to Jesus, ‘Teacher, we know that you only say true things. You teach us what God wants us to do. It does not matter to you what other people think. If someone is important, you do not change your answers to make them happy. 17 So tell us your answer to this question: Should we pay our taxes to the Roman ruler, Caesar? Is it right to give that money to him, or not?’
18 Jesus knew that these men wanted to do bad things to him. So he said to them, ‘You are asking that question to cause trouble for me. You are not being honest! 19 Now, show me the coin that you use for the tax.’ So they brought a coin to him. 20 Then Jesus asked them, ‘Whose picture is on this coin? Whose name is on it?’
21 They replied, ‘It is Caesar's picture and Caesar's name.’
Jesus said to them, ‘So you should give to Caesar the things that belong to Caesar. And give to God the things that belong to God.’
22 When they heard Jesus' answer, they were very surprised. So they left him and they went away.
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