Day 35 reading

Wisdom·Psalm 25:1–12

¹To You, O LORD, I lift up my soul; ²in You, my God, I trust. Do not let me be put to shame; do not let my enemies exult over me. ³Surely none who wait for You will be put to shame; but those who are faithless without cause will be disgraced. ⁴Show me Your ways, O LORD; teach me Your paths. ⁵Guide me in Your truth and teach me, for You are the God of my salvation; all day long I wait for You. ⁶Remember, O LORD, Your compassion and loving devotion, for they are from age to age. ⁷Remember not the sins of my youth, nor my rebellious acts; remember me according to Your loving devotion, because of Your goodness, O LORD. ⁸Good and upright is the LORD; therefore He shows sinners the way. ⁹He guides the humble in what is right and teaches them His way. ¹⁰All the LORD’s ways are loving and faithful to those who keep His covenant and His decrees. ¹¹For the sake of Your name, O LORD, forgive my iniquity, for it is great. ¹²Who is the man who fears the LORD? He will instruct him in the path chosen for him.

New Testament·Matthew 22:15–36

¹⁵Then the Pharisees went out and conspired to trap Jesus in His words. ¹⁶They sent their disciples to Him along with the Herodians. “Teacher,” they said, “we know that You are honest and that You teach the way of God in accordance with the truth. You seek favor from no one, because You pay no attention to external appearance. ¹⁷So tell us what You think: Is it lawful to pay taxes to Caesar or not?” ¹⁸But Jesus knew their evil intent and said, “You hypocrites, why are you testing Me? ¹⁹Show Me the coin used for the tax.” And they brought Him a denarius. ²⁰“Whose image is this,” He asked, “and whose inscription?” ²¹“Caesar’s,” they answered. So Jesus told them, “Give to Caesar what is Caesar’s, and to God what is God’s.” ²²And when they heard this, they were amazed. So they left Him and went away. ²³That same day the Sadducees, who say there is no resurrection, came to Jesus and questioned Him. ²⁴“Teacher,” they said, “Moses declared that if a man dies without having children, his brother is to marry the widow and raise up offspring for him. ²⁵Now there were seven brothers among us. The first one married and died without having children. So he left his wife to his brother. ²⁶The same thing happened to the second and third brothers, down to the seventh. ²⁷And last of all, the woman died. ²⁸In the resurrection, then, whose wife will she be of the seven? For all of them were married to her.” ²⁹Jesus answered, “You are mistaken because you do not know the Scriptures or the power of God. ³⁰In the resurrection, people will neither marry nor be given in marriage. Instead, they will be like the angels in heaven. ³¹But concerning the resurrection of the dead, have you not read what God said to you: ³²‘I am the God of Abraham, the God of Isaac, and the God of Jacob’? He is not the God of the dead, but of the living.” ³³When the crowds heard this, they were astonished at His teaching. ³⁴And when the Pharisees heard that Jesus had silenced the Sadducees, they themselves gathered together. ³⁵One of them, an expert in the law, tested Him with a question: ³⁶“Teacher, which commandment is the greatest in the Law?”

Old Testament·Exodus 12:26–13:22

²⁶When your children ask you, ‘What does this service mean to you?’ ²⁷you are to reply, ‘It is the Passover sacrifice to the LORD, who passed over the houses of the Israelites in Egypt when He struck down the Egyptians and spared our homes.’” Then the people bowed down and worshiped. ²⁸And the Israelites went and did just what the LORD had commanded Moses and Aaron. ²⁹Now at midnight the LORD struck down every firstborn male in the land of Egypt, from the firstborn of Pharaoh, who sat on his throne, to the firstborn of the prisoner in the dungeon, as well as all the firstborn among the livestock. ³⁰During the night Pharaoh got up—he and all his officials and all the Egyptians—and there was loud wailing in Egypt; for there was no house without someone dead. ³¹Then Pharaoh summoned Moses and Aaron by night and said, “Get up, leave my people, both you and the Israelites! Go, worship the LORD as you have requested. ³²Take your flocks and herds as well, just as you have said, and depart! And bless me also.” ³³And in order to send them out of the land quickly, the Egyptians urged the people on. “For otherwise,” they said, “we are all going to die!” ³⁴So the people took their dough before it was leavened, carrying it on their shoulders in kneading bowls wrapped in clothing. ³⁵Furthermore, the Israelites acted on Moses’ word and asked the Egyptians for articles of silver and gold, and for clothing. ³⁶And the LORD gave the people such favor in the sight of the Egyptians that they granted their request. In this way they plundered the Egyptians. ³⁷The Israelites journeyed from Rameses to Succoth with about 600,000 men on foot, besides women and children. ³⁸And a mixed multitude also went up with them, along with great droves of livestock, both flocks and herds. ³⁹Since their dough had no leaven, the people baked what they had brought out of Egypt into unleavened loaves. For when they had been driven out of Egypt, they could not delay and had not prepared any provisions for themselves. ⁴⁰Now the duration of the Israelites’ stay in Egypt was 430 years. ⁴¹At the end of the 430 years, to the very day, all the LORD’s divisions went out of the land of Egypt. ⁴²Because the LORD kept a vigil that night to bring them out of the land of Egypt, this same night is to be a vigil to the LORD, to be observed by all the Israelites for the generations to come. ⁴³And the LORD said to Moses and Aaron, “This is the statute of the Passover: No foreigner is to eat of it. ⁴⁴But any slave who has been purchased may eat of it, after you have circumcised him. ⁴⁵A temporary resident or hired hand shall not eat the Passover. ⁴⁶It must be eaten inside one house. You are not to take any of the meat outside the house, and you may not break any of the bones. ⁴⁷The whole congregation of Israel must celebrate it. ⁴⁸If a foreigner resides with you and wants to celebrate the LORD’s Passover, all the males in the household must be circumcised; then he may come near to celebrate it, and he shall be like a native of the land. But no uncircumcised man may eat of it. ⁴⁹The same law shall apply to both the native and the foreigner who resides among you.” ⁵⁰Then all the Israelites did this—they did just as the LORD had commanded Moses and Aaron. ⁵¹And on that very day the LORD brought the Israelites out of the land of Egypt by their divisions.

13Then the LORD said to Moses, ²“Consecrate to Me every firstborn male. The firstborn from every womb among the Israelites belongs to Me, both of man and beast.” ³So Moses told the people, “Remember this day, the day you came out of Egypt, out of the house of slavery; for the LORD brought you out of it by the strength of His hand. And nothing leavened shall be eaten. ⁴Today, in the month of Abib, you are leaving. ⁵And when the LORD brings you into the land of the Canaanites, Hittites, Amorites, Hivites, and Jebusites—the land He swore to your fathers that He would give you, a land flowing with milk and honey—you shall keep this service in this month. ⁶For seven days you are to eat unleavened bread, and on the seventh day there shall be a feast to the LORD. ⁷Unleavened bread shall be eaten during those seven days. Nothing leavened may be found among you, nor shall leaven be found anywhere within your borders. ⁸And on that day you are to explain to your son, ‘This is because of what the LORD did for me when I came out of Egypt.’ ⁹It shall be a sign for you on your hand and a reminder on your forehead that the Law of the LORD is to be on your lips. For with a mighty hand the LORD brought you out of Egypt. ¹⁰Therefore you shall keep this statute at the appointed time year after year. ¹¹And after the LORD brings you into the land of the Canaanites and gives it to you, as He swore to you and your fathers, ¹²you are to present to the LORD the firstborn male of every womb. All the firstborn males of your livestock belong to the LORD. ¹³You must redeem every firstborn donkey with a lamb, and if you do not redeem it, you are to break its neck. And every firstborn of your sons you must redeem. ¹⁴In the future, when your son asks you, ‘What does this mean?’ you are to tell him, ‘With a mighty hand the LORD brought us out of Egypt, out of the house of slavery. ¹⁵And when Pharaoh stubbornly refused to let us go, the LORD killed every firstborn in the land of Egypt, both of man and beast. This is why I sacrifice to the LORD the firstborn male of every womb, but I redeem all the firstborn of my sons.’ ¹⁶So it shall serve as a sign on your hand and a symbol on your forehead, for with a mighty hand the LORD brought us out of Egypt.” ¹⁷When Pharaoh let the people go, God did not lead them along the road through the land of the Philistines, though it was shorter. For God said, “If the people face war, they might change their minds and return to Egypt.” ¹⁸So God led the people around by the way of the wilderness toward the Red Sea. And the Israelites left the land of Egypt arrayed for battle. ¹⁹Moses took the bones of Joseph with him because Joseph had made the sons of Israel swear a solemn oath when he said, “God will surely attend to you, and then you must carry my bones with you from this place.” ²⁰They set out from Succoth and camped at Etham on the edge of the wilderness. ²¹And the LORD went before them in a pillar of cloud to guide their way by day, and in a pillar of fire to give them light by night, so that they could travel by day or night. ²²Neither the pillar of cloud by day nor the pillar of fire by night left its place before the people.