Revised Common Lectionary (Semicontinuous)
8 Then a new king arose over Egypt, who did not know Joseph. 9 He said to his people, “Look, the Israelites are more numerous and more powerful than we are. 10 Let’s come up with a wise plan to prevent them from increasing in number. Otherwise, if war breaks out, they would join with our enemies and fight against us. Then they would leave the land.” 11 So the Egyptians placed taskmasters over them to oppress them with forced labor. The Israelites built Pithom and Rameses as store cities for Pharaoh. 12 But the more the Egyptians oppressed the Israelites, the more they increased in number, and the more they spread out. The Egyptians were filled with dread because of them. 13 So the Egyptians oppressed the Israelites by forcing them to work very hard. 14 The Egyptians made the Israelites’ lives bitter with hard work, with brick and mortar, and with all kinds of work in the fields. The Egyptians were merciless in the way they imposed work on the Israelites.
15 The king of Egypt also spoke to the Hebrew midwives. One of them was named Shiphrah and the other Puah. 16 He said, “When you help the Hebrew women give birth, while they are still on the delivery stool, if you see that the baby is a son, you are to kill him, but if you see that it is a daughter, let her live.” 17 The midwives, however, feared God, so they did not do what the king of Egypt told them to do, but they let the boys live.
18 The king of Egypt called for the midwives and said to them, “Why did you do this and let the boys live?”
19 The midwives said to Pharaoh, “Because the Hebrew women are not like the Egyptian women. They are vigorous, so they give birth before the midwife comes to them.”
20 So God treated the midwives well. The people also increased in number and became very numerous. 21 Because the midwives feared God, he gave them families. 22 Pharaoh, however, commanded all his people, “Every son who is born you shall throw into the Nile, but every daughter you shall let live.”
The Birth of Moses
2 Now a man from the house of Levi went and took a Levite woman as a wife. 2 The woman became pregnant and bore a son. When she saw that he was a special[a] child, she hid him for three months. 3 When she was no longer able to hide him, she got a papyrus basket for him and coated it with tar and pitch. She put the child into it and placed it in the reeds along the bank of the Nile. 4 His sister stood at a distance to see what would happen to him.
5 Pharaoh’s daughter came down to bathe in the Nile, and her attendants were walking along the bank of the Nile. Pharaoh’s daughter saw the basket among the reeds and sent her servant girl to get it. 6 She opened it and saw the child. It was a boy, and he was crying. She felt sorry for him and said, “This is one of the Hebrew boys.”
7 Then his sister said to Pharaoh’s daughter, “Should I go and call a wet nurse from the Hebrew women to nurse the child for you?”
8 Pharaoh’s daughter said to her, “Yes, go.”
So the young woman went and called the child’s mother to come. 9 Pharaoh’s daughter said to her, “Take this child and nurse him for me, and I will pay you for doing it.”
So the woman took the child and nursed him. 10 When the child grew up, she brought him to Pharaoh’s daughter, and he became her son. She named him Moses, with the explanation, “Because I drew him up out of the water.”[b]
Psalm 124
The Lord Is on Our Side
Heading
A song of the ascents. By David.
The Lord Is on Our Side
1 Unless it was the Lord who was for us—
let Israel say—
2 unless it was the Lord who was for us
when people[a] rose against us,
3 they would have swallowed us alive
when their anger burned against us.
4 Then the waters would have submerged us.
The torrent would have swept our lives away.
5 Then the wild waters would have swept us away.
6 Blessed be the Lord,
who has not let us be prey for their teeth.
7 We have escaped with our lives
like a bird out of the fowlers’ snare.
The snare has been broken, and we have escaped.
8 Our help is in the name of the Lord,
the Maker of heaven and earth.
Offer Your Bodies to God as Living Sacrifices
12 Therefore I urge you, brothers,[a] by the mercies of God, to offer your bodies as a living sacrifice—holy and pleasing to God—which is your appropriate worship. 2 Also, do not continue to conform to the pattern of this world, but be transformed by the renewal of your mind, so that you test and approve what is the will of God—what is good, pleasing, and perfect.
Humbly Use the Gifts God Gave You
3 So by the grace given to me, I tell everyone among you not to think of yourself more highly than you ought, but think in a way that results in sound judgment, as God distributed a measure of faith to each of you. 4 For we have many members in one body, and not all the members have the same function. 5 In the same way, though we are many, we are one body in Christ, and individually members of one another.
6 We have different gifts, according to the grace God has given us. If the gift is prophecy, do it in complete agreement with the faith.[b] 7 If it is serving, then serve. If it is teaching, then teach. 8 If it is encouraging, then encourage. If it is contributing, be generous. If it is leadership, be diligent. If it is showing mercy, do it cheerfully.
Jesus Is the Christ
13 When Jesus came into the region of Caesarea Philippi, he asked his disciples, “Who do people say the Son of Man is?”
14 They said, “Some say John the Baptist, others say Elijah, and others Jeremiah or one of the prophets.”
15 He said to them, “But you, who do you say that I am?”
16 Simon Peter answered, “You are the Christ, the Son of the living God.”
17 Jesus replied, “Blessed are you, Simon son of Jonah, for flesh and blood did not reveal this to you, but my Father who is in heaven. 18 And I tell you that you are Peter, and on this rock I will build my church, and the gates of hell[a] will not overpower it.[b] 19 I will give you the keys of the kingdom of heaven. Whatever you bind on earth will be[c] bound in heaven, and whatever you loose on earth will be loosed in heaven.” 20 Then he commanded the disciples not to tell anyone that he was the Christ.
The Holy Bible, Evangelical Heritage Version®, EHV®, © 2019 Wartburg Project, Inc. All rights reserved.