Revised Common Lectionary (Semicontinuous)

A song to sing as we climb.

Only God can keep me safe^[a]

¹⁴ In future years, you must remember this day as a special day every year. It will be a festival when you worship me, the Lord. You and your descendants must do this every year, for all time. ¹⁵ For seven days, you must eat flat bread that has no yeast in it. On the first day of the Passover festival, you must take all the yeast out of your houses. During those seven days, if anyone eats bread with yeast in it, he will no longer belong to my people, the Israelites.

¹⁶ On the first day of the festival, you must bring together all the people to a special meeting. And you must do the same thing on the seventh day. On these special days, you must not do your usual work. You may prepare the food that you need to eat on those days. That is the only work that you may do.

¹⁷ This will be the Feast of Flat Bread, when you eat bread with no yeast in it. You will remember that I brought you all out of the country of Egypt on this day. You marched out like an army, family by family! That is why you must enjoy this day as a special day, for all time. This is a rule that you must always obey. ¹⁸ In the first month of each year, you must eat bread without yeast in it. Do this from the evening of the 14th day until the evening of the 21st day. ¹⁹ For those seven days, you must not have any yeast in your houses. Whoever eats anything with yeast in it will no longer belong to my people, the Israelites. Everyone must obey these rules, those who live among you as strangers, as well as those who have been born in your land. ²⁰ Eat nothing that has yeast in it. Whatever country you live in, you must eat bread without yeast in it.’

²¹ Then Moses called the leaders of the Israelites to come to him. He said to them, ‘Go immediately and choose a lamb for each of your families. Then kill the animals for the Passover feast. ²² Put the blood into a dish. Then take a branch of hyssop.^[a] Make it wet with the blood that is in the dish. Then put some of the blood on the wood that is round your door. Nobody must go out of the door of his house until the morning. ²³ The Lord will pass through the country and he will kill the Egyptians. But when the Lord sees the blood on the wood round the door, he will pass over that house. He will not let the death angel come into your houses. The Lord will not let him kill you.

²⁴ You must obey these rules always, both you and your descendants, for all time. ²⁵ You will go into the land that the Lord promised to give you. Then you must continue to obey these rules. ²⁶ Your children may say to you, “What does this feast mean?” ²⁷ Then you must say to them, “It is the Lord's Passover sacrifice. The Lord passed over the houses of the Israelites when they were in Egypt. He killed the Egyptians but he saved our families.” ’ Then the people bent their heads down to the ground and they worshipped God.

²⁸ The Israelites did everything that the Lord had commanded Moses and Aaron.

¹¹ My friends, remember that you are really strangers in this world. You do not belong here. So I am telling you not to do the bad things that your bodies may want to do. Those bad things fight against what is good for your soul. ¹² You are living among people who do not know God. So be very careful that you always live in a good way. Sometimes these people may wrongly say that you do bad things. But if you continue to live in a good way, they will see that you really do good things. As a result, on the day when God comes as judge, they will give honour to him.

Obey people who have authority over you

¹³ Obey all people who have authority in this world. Obey them, because you are servants of the Lord Jesus. First of all, obey the king, who rules everyone. ¹⁴ Also obey the officers that serve the king. He has sent them to punish people who do bad things. And they praise people who do good things. ¹⁵ God wants you to do only what is good. Then silly people will not be able to say bad things against you. Those people do not really know what is true.

¹⁶ You are free people. But you are servants of God. So do not think, ‘Because I am free, I can do any bad thing that I want to do.’ ¹⁷ Respect all people. Love the believers as you would love your family. Obey God as your master. Respect the king.