Revised Common Lectionary (Semicontinuous)

The Lord—Our Helper

121 I will lift up my eyes to the mountains. Where will my help come from? ² My help comes from the Lord, Who made heaven and earth. ³ He will not let your feet go out from under you. He Who watches over you will not sleep. ⁴ Listen, He Who watches over Israel will not close his eyes or sleep.

⁵ The Lord watches over you. The Lord is your safe cover at your right hand. ⁶ The sun will not hurt you during the day and the moon will not hurt you during the night. ⁷ The Lord will keep you from all that is sinful. He will watch over your soul. ⁸ The Lord will watch over your coming and going, now and forever.

¹⁴ “This day will be for you to remember. You must remember it by having a special supper in honor to the Lord. All of you must keep it as a law forever. ¹⁵ Seven days you must eat bread made without yeast. On the first day you must get all the yeast out of your houses. Whoever eats anything with yeast from the first day until the seventh day will be taken away from Israel. ¹⁶ On the first day you must have a holy meeting of the people, and another holy meeting on the seventh day. Do no work at all on these days, except to get ready what every person must eat. You may do only that. ¹⁷ You must have the special supper of bread without yeast. For on this same day I brought your family groups out of the land of Egypt. So all of you must remember this day as a law forever.

¹⁸ “In the first month, from the evening of the fourteenth day until the evening of the twenty-first day, you must eat bread made without yeast. ¹⁹ There must be no yeast found in your houses for seven days. For whoever eats anything with yeast, that person, stranger or born in the land, will be cut off from the people of Israel. ²⁰ Do not eat anything with yeast. You must eat bread made without yeast in all your homes.”

²¹ Then Moses called for all the leaders of Israel. He said to them, “Go and choose lambs for your families, and kill the Passover lamb. ²² Take a small branch and put it in the blood in the pot. Spread some of the blood on the wood pieces on the top and sides of the door. Then none of you go outside the door of his house until morning. ²³ For the Lord will pass through to kill the Egyptians. But when He sees the blood around your door, the Lord will pass over the door. He will not let the one who destroys come into your houses to kill you. ²⁴ You must remember this as a law for you and your children forever. ²⁵ You must remember this special time when you go to the land that the Lord has promised to give you. ²⁶ When your children ask you, ‘What does this special time mean to you?’ ²⁷ you will say, ‘It is a Passover gift to the Lord. Because He passed over the houses of the people of Israel in Egypt. He killed the Egyptians but saved our homes.’” And the people bowed to the ground and worshiped. ²⁸ Then the people of Israel went and did what the Lord had told Moses and Aaron.

¹¹ Dear friends, your real home is not here on earth. You are strangers here. I ask you to keep away from all the sinful desires of the flesh. These things fight to get hold of your soul. ¹² When you are around people who do not know God, be careful how you act. Even if they talk against you as wrong-doers, in the end they will give thanks to God for your good works when Christ comes again.

Obey the Leaders

¹³ Obey the head leader of the country and all other leaders over you. This pleases the Lord. ¹⁴ Obey the men who work for them. God sends them to punish those who do wrong and to show respect to those who do right. ¹⁵ This is what God wants. When you do right, you stop foolish men from saying bad things. ¹⁶ Obey as men who are free but do not use this to cover up sin. Live as servants owned by God at all times. ¹⁷ Show respect to all men. Love the Christians. Honor God with love and fear. Respect the head leader of the country.