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Exodus 3

^* Meanwhile Moses was tending the flock of his father-in-law Jethro, the priest of Midian. Leading the flock beyond the wilderness, he came to the mountain of God, Horeb.^*

2There the angel of the LORD^* appeared to him as fire flaming out of a bush.^a When he looked, although the bush was on fire, it was not being consumed.

3So Moses decided, “I must turn aside to look at this remarkable sight. Why does the bush not burn up?”

4When the LORD saw that he had turned aside to look, God called out to him from the bush: Moses! Moses! He answered, “Here I am.”

5God said: Do not come near! Remove your sandals from your feet, for the place where you stand is holy ground.^b

6I am the God of your father,^* he continued, the God of Abraham, the God of Isaac, and the God of Jacob.^c Moses hid his face, for he was afraid to look at God.

The Call and Commission of Moses.

7But the LORD said: I have witnessed the affliction of my people in Egypt and have heard their cry against their taskmasters, so I know well what they are suffering.

8Therefore I have come down^* to rescue them from the power of the Egyptians and lead them up from that land into a good and spacious land, a land flowing with milk and honey, the country of the Canaanites, the Hittites, the Amorites, the Perizzites, the Girgashites, the Hivites and the Jebusites.^d

9Now indeed the outcry of the Israelites has reached me, and I have seen how the Egyptians are oppressing them.

10Now, go! I am sending you to Pharaoh to bring my people, the Israelites, out of Egypt.

11But Moses said to God, “Who am I^* that I should go to Pharaoh and bring the Israelites out of Egypt?”

12God answered: I will be with you; and this will be your sign^* that I have sent you. When you have brought the people out of Egypt, you will serve God at this mountain.

13“But,” said Moses to God, “if I go to the Israelites and say to them, ‘The God of your ancestors has sent me to you,’ and they ask me, ‘What is his name?’ what do I tell them?”

14God replied to Moses: I am who I am.^* Then he added: This is what you will tell the Israelites: I AM has sent me to you.

15God spoke further to Moses: This is what you will say to the Israelites: The LORD, the God of your ancestors, the God of Abraham, the God of Isaac, and the God of Jacob, has sent me to you.

This is my name forever;^e

this is my title for all generations.

16Go and gather the elders of the Israelites, and tell them, The LORD, the God of your ancestors, the God of Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob, has appeared to me and said: I have observed you and what is being done to you in Egypt;

17so I have decided to lead you up out of your affliction in Egypt into the land of the Canaanites, the Hittites, the Amorites, the Perizzites, the Girgashites, the Hivites and the Jebusites, a land flowing with milk and honey.

18They will listen to you. Then you and the elders of Israel will go to the king of Egypt and say to him:^f The LORD, the God of the Hebrews, has come to meet us. So now, let us go a three days’ journey in the wilderness to offer sacrifice to the LORD, our God.

19Yet I know that the king of Egypt will not allow you to go unless his hand is forced.

20So I will stretch out my hand and strike Egypt with all the wondrous deeds I will do in its midst. After that he will let you go.

21^g I will even make the Egyptians so well-disposed toward this people that, when you go, you will not go empty-handed.

22Every woman will ask her neighbor and the resident alien in her house for silver and gold articles^* and for clothing, and you will put them on your sons and daughters. So you will plunder the Egyptians.

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Exodus 4

“But,” objected Moses, “suppose they do not believe me or listen to me? For they may say, ‘The LORD did not appear to you.’”

2The LORD said to him: What is in your hand? “A staff,” he answered.

3God said: Throw it on the ground. So he threw it on the ground and it became a snake,^a and Moses backed away from it.

4Then the LORD said to Moses: Now stretch out your hand and take hold of its tail. So he stretched out his hand and took hold of it, and it became a staff in his hand.

5That is so they will believe that the LORD, the God of their ancestors, the God of Abraham, the God of Isaac, and the God of Jacob, did appear to you.

6Again the LORD said to him: Put your hand into the fold of your garment. So he put his hand into the fold of his garment, and when he drew it out, there was his hand covered with scales, like snowflakes.

7Then God said: Put your hand back into the fold of your garment. So he put his hand back into the fold of his garment, and when he drew it out, there it was again like his own flesh.

8If they do not believe you or pay attention to the message of the first sign, they should believe the message of the second sign.

9And if they do not believe even these two signs and do not listen to you, take some water from the Nile and pour it on the dry land. The water you take from the Nile will become blood on the dry land.^b

Aaron’s Office as Assistant.

10Moses, however, said to the LORD, “If you please, my Lord, I have never been eloquent, neither in the past nor now that you have spoken to your servant; but I am slow of speech and tongue.”^c

11The LORD said to him: Who gives one person speech? Who makes another mute or deaf, seeing or blind? Is it not I, the LORD?

12Now go, I will assist you in speaking^* and teach you what you are to say.

13But he said, “If you please, my Lord, send someone else!”^*

14Then the LORD became angry with Moses and said: I know there is your brother, Aaron the Levite, who is a good speaker; even now he is on his way to meet you. When he sees you, he will truly be glad.

15You will speak to him and put the words in his mouth. I will assist both you and him in speaking and teach you both what you are to do.

16He will speak to the people for you: he will be your spokesman,^* and you will be as God to him.^d

17Take this staff^* in your hand; with it you are to perform the signs.

Moses’ Return to Egypt.

18After this Moses returned to Jethro^* his father-in-law and said to him, “Let me return to my kindred in Egypt, to see whether they are still living.” Jethro replied to Moses, “Go in peace.”

19Then the LORD said to Moses in Midian: Return to Egypt, for all those who sought your life are dead.

20So Moses took his wife and his sons, mounted them on the donkey, and started back to the land of Egypt. Moses took the staff of God with him.

21The LORD said to Moses: On your return to Egypt, see that you perform before Pharaoh all the wonders I have put in your power. But I will harden his heart^* and he will not let the people go.

22^e So you will say to Pharaoh, Thus says the LORD: Israel is my son, my firstborn.

23I said to you: Let my son go, that he may serve me. Since you refused to let him go, I will kill your son, your firstborn.^f

24^* On the journey, at a place where they spent the night, the LORD came upon Moses and sought to put him to death.

25^g But Zipporah took a piece of flint and cut off her son’s foreskin and, touching his feet,^* she said, “Surely you are a spouse of blood to me.”

26So God let Moses alone. At that time she said, “A spouse of blood,” in regard to the circumcision.

27The LORD said to Aaron: Go into the wilderness to meet Moses. So he went; when meeting him at the mountain of God, he kissed him.

28Moses told Aaron everything the LORD had sent him to say, and all the signs he had commanded him to do.

29Then Moses and Aaron went and gathered all the elders of the Israelites.

30Aaron told them everything the LORD had said to Moses, and he performed the signs before the people.

31The people believed, and when they heard that the LORD had observed the Israelites and had seen their affliction,^* they knelt and bowed down.

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Mark 8 :27 to Mark 9:1

Peter’s Confession About Jesus.^*

27Now Jesus and his disciples set out for the villages of Caesarea Philippi.^h Along the way he asked his disciples, “Who do people say that I am?”

28They said in reply, “John the Baptist, others Elijah, still others one of the prophets.”

29And he asked them, “But who do you say that I am?” Peter said to him in reply, “You are the Messiah.”

30Then he warned them not to tell anyone about him.

The First Prediction of the Passion.

31ⁱ He began to teach them that the Son of Man^* must suffer greatly and be rejected by the elders, the chief priests, and the scribes, and be killed, and rise after three days.

32He spoke this openly. Then Peter took him aside and began to rebuke him.

33At this he turned around and, looking at his disciples, rebuked Peter and said, “Get behind me, Satan. You are thinking not as God does, but as human beings do.”

The Conditions of Discipleship.

34He summoned the crowd with his disciples and said^* to them, “Whoever wishes to come after me must deny himself, take up his cross, and follow me.^j

35For whoever wishes to save his life will lose it, but whoever loses his life for my sake and that of the gospel^* will save it.^k

36What profit is there for one to gain the whole world and forfeit his life?

37What could one give in exchange for his life?

38Whoever is ashamed of me and of my words in this faithless and sinful generation, the Son of Man will be ashamed of when he comes in his Father’s glory with the holy angels.”^l

^{* a} He also said to them, “Amen, I say to you, there are some standing here who will not taste death until they see that the kingdom of God has come in power.”

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