Revised Common Lectionary (Semicontinuous)

The Passover Lamb

12 Now Adonai spoke to Moses and Aaron in the land of Egypt saying, ² “This month will mark the beginning of months for you; it is to be the first month of the year for you. ³ Tell all the congregation of Israel that on the tenth day of this month, each man is to take a lamb for his family one lamb for the household. ⁴ But if the household is too small for a lamb, then he and his nearest neighbor are to take one according to the number of the people. According to each person eating, you are to make your count for the lamb. ⁵ Your lamb is to be without blemish, a year old male.^[a] You may take it from the sheep or from the goats. ⁶ You must watch over it until the fourteenth day of the same month. Then the whole assembly of the congregation of Israel is to slaughter it at twilight. ^{[b] 7} They are to take the blood and put it on the two doorposts and on the crossbeam of the houses where they will eat it. ⁸ They are to eat the meat that night, roasted over a fire. With matzot and bitter herbs^[c] they are to eat it. ⁹ Do not eat any of it raw or boiled with water, but only roasted with fire—its head with its legs and its innards. ¹⁰ So let nothing of it remain until the morning. Whatever remains until the morning you are to burn with fire. ¹¹ Also you are to eat it this way: with your loins girded, your shoes on your feet and your staff in your hand. You are to eat it in haste. It is Adonai’s Passover.

¹² “For I will go through the land of Egypt on that night and strike down every firstborn, both men and animals, and I will execute judgments against all the gods of Egypt. I am Adonai. ¹³ The blood will be a sign for you on the houses where you are.^[d] When I see the blood, I will pass over you. So there will be no plague among you to destroy you when I strike the land of Egypt.

¹⁴ “This day is to be a memorial for you.^[e] You are to keep it as a feast to Adonai. Throughout your generations you are to keep it as an eternal ordinance.

Praise with Singing and Dancing

Psalm 149

⁸ Owe no one anything except to love one another, for the one who loves another has fulfilled the Torah. ⁹ For the commandments—“You shall not commit adultery, you shall not murder, you shall not steal, you shall not covet,”^[a] and any other commandment—are summed up in this word: “You shall love your neighbor as yourself.” ^{[b] 10} Love does no harm to a neighbor; therefore love is the fullness of the Torah.

¹¹ Besides this, you know the time—that it is already the hour for you to awaken from sleep; for now our salvation is nearer than when we first came to trust. ¹² The night is almost gone and the day is near, so let us put off the works of darkness and put on the armor of light. ¹³ Let us walk properly as in the day—not in carousing and drunkenness, not in sexual promiscuity and sensuality, not in strife and envy. ¹⁴ Instead, put on the Lord Messiah Yeshua, and stop making provision for the flesh—for its cravings.

Restoring a Lost Brother

¹⁵ “Now if your brother sins against you, go and show him his fault while you’re with him alone. If he listens to you, you have won your brother. ¹⁶ But if he does not listen, take with you one or two more, so that ‘by the mouth of two or three witnesses every word may stand.’ ^{[a] 17} But if he refuses to listen to them, tell it to Messiah’s community. And if he refuses to listen even to Messiah’s community, let him be to you as a pagan and a tax collector.

¹⁸ “Amen, I tell you, whatever you forbid on earth will have been forbidden in heaven and what you permit on earth will have been permitted in heaven. ¹⁹ Again I say to you, that if two of you agree on earth about anything they may ask, it shall be done for them by My Father in heaven. ²⁰ For where two or three are gathered together in My name, there I am in their midst.”