Peace of Our Savior Lutheran Church and Preschool - WELS

Exodus 3:1 – 4:17

Moses and the Burning Bush

Exodus 3

¹ Now Moses was shepherding the flock of Jethro, his father-in-law, a priest of Midian, and he led the flock to the far side of the wilderness and came to Horeb, the mountain of God. ² The Angel of the Lord appeared to him in blazing fire from within a bush. Moses saw that the bush was on fire, but the bush was not burning up. ³ So he said, “I will go over and look at this amazing sight—to find out why the bush is not burning up.”

⁴ When the Lord saw that Moses had gone over to take a look, God called to him from the middle of the bush and said, “Moses! Moses!”

Moses said, “I am here.”

⁵ The Lord said, “Do not come any closer. Take your sandals off your feet, for the place where you are standing is holy ground.” ⁶ He then said, “I am the God of your fathers, ^[1] the God of Abraham, the God of Isaac, and the God of Jacob.”

Moses hid his face, because he was afraid to look at God.

⁷ The Lord said, “I have certainly seen the misery of my people in Egypt, and I have heard their cry for help because of their slave drivers. Yes, I am aware of their suffering. ⁸ So I have come down to deliver them from the hand of the Egyptians and to bring them up out of that land to a good and spacious land, to a land flowing with milk and honey, to the place of the Canaanites, the Hittites, the Amorites, the Perizzites, the Hivites, and the Jebusites. ⁹ Now indeed, the Israelites’ cry for help has come to me. Yes, I have seen how the Egyptians are oppressing them. ¹⁰ Come now, I will send you to Pharaoh to bring my people, the Israelites, out of Egypt.”

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

¹² So he said, “I will certainly be with you. This will be the sign to you that I have sent you: When you have brought the people out of Egypt, you will serve God on this mountain.”

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

¹⁴ So God replied to Moses, “I am who I am.” ^[2] He also said, “You will say this to the Israelites: I am has sent me to you.”

¹⁵ God also told Moses, “Say this to the Israelites: ‘The Lord, the God of your fathers—the God of Abraham, the God of Isaac, and the God of Jacob—has sent me to you. This is my name forever, and this is how I am to be remembered from generation to generation.’

¹⁶ “Go, gather the elders of Israel together and tell them: ‘The Lord, the God of your fathers, the God of Abraham, of Isaac, and of Jacob, has appeared to me, saying: I have certainly been paying attention to you and to what they have done to you in Egypt. ¹⁷ So I have said that I will bring you up from the misery in Egypt to the land of the Canaanites, the Hittites, the Amorites, the Perizzites, the Hivites, and the Jebusites, to a land flowing with milk and honey.’

¹⁸ “They will listen to your voice. Then you and the elders of Israel will go to the king of Egypt, and you will say to him, ‘The Lord, the God of the Hebrews, has met with us. Now let us go on a three-day journey into the wilderness so that we may sacrifice to the Lord, our God.’

¹⁹ “But I know that the king of Egypt will not allow you to go unless he is forced to do so by a powerful hand. ²⁰ So I will reach out my hand and strike Egypt with all my wonders which I will do in their midst. Afterward he will let you go.

²¹ “I will give this people favor with the Egyptians so that when you go, you will not go out empty-handed. ²² Each woman is to ask her neighbor, as well as any woman staying in her house, for articles of silver, articles of gold, and clothing. You are to put them on your sons and daughters. In this way you will plunder the Egyptians.”

Moses Is Given Miraculous Signs

Exodus 4

¹ But Moses responded, “What if they do not believe me and do not listen to my voice, but instead they say, ‘The Lord has not appeared to you’?”

² So the Lord said to him, “What is that in your hand?”

He said, “A staff.”

³ He said, “Throw it on the ground.”

Moses threw it on the ground, and it became a snake, so he ran away from it.

⁴ The Lord said to Moses, “Stretch out your hand and take it by the tail.”

He stretched out his hand and took hold of it, and it became a staff in his hand.

⁵ The Lord said, “This sign is being given to you so that the Israelites will believe that the Lord, the God of their fathers, the God of Abraham, the God of Isaac, and the God of Jacob, has appeared to you.”

⁶ The Lord also said to him, “Put your hand inside your cloak.” So he put his hand inside his cloak, and when he took it out, his hand was leprous, ^[3] as white as snow.

⁷ Then the Lord said, “Put your hand back inside your cloak.” So he put his hand inside his cloak again, and when he took it out of his cloak, it was restored like the rest of his flesh.

⁸ The Lord said, “If they do not believe you or do not respond to the first sign, they might believe because of the second sign. ⁹ If they do not believe even these two signs or listen to your voice, you are to take some water from the Nile and pour it on the dry land. The water which you take from the Nile will become blood on the dry land.”

¹⁰ But Moses said to the Lord, “Please, Lord, I have never been eloquent, either in the past or more recently or even since you started speaking to your servant, for my mouth and tongue are slow and clumsy.” ^[4]

¹¹ So the Lord said to him, “Who made a mouth for people? Or who makes someone mute or deaf, able to see or blind? Is it not I, the Lord? ¹² Now go, and I will be with your mouth, and I will teach you what you will speak.”

¹³ But he said, “Please, Lord, send someone else.”

¹⁴ Then the Lord’s anger burned against Moses, and the Lord said, “What about Aaron, your brother, the Levite? I know that he can speak well. Look, he is already coming out to meet you. He will be very glad to see you. ¹⁵ You will speak to him and put the words into his mouth. I will be with your mouth and with his, and I will teach you what you are to do. ¹⁶ He will speak to the people for you so that it will be as if he were your mouth, and you were God to him. ¹⁷ You will also take this staff in your hand, the one with which you will perform the signs.”

Exodus 1 – 2

The Israelites Oppressed

Exodus 1

¹ These are the names of the sons of Israel who went to Egypt. Each man and his household went with Jacob: ² Reuben, Simeon, Levi, and Judah, ³ Issachar, Zebulun, and Benjamin, ⁴ Dan and Naphtali, Gad and Asher. ⁵ The total number of Jacob’s descendants was seventy people. (Joseph was already in Egypt.)

⁶ Then Joseph died, as did all his brothers and that entire generation. ⁷ However, the Israelites were fruitful, multiplied quickly, increased in number, and became very numerous. So the land was filled with them.

⁸ Then a new king arose over Egypt, who did not know Joseph. ⁹ He said to his people, “Look, the Israelites are more numerous and more powerful than we are. ¹⁰ Let’s come up with a wise plan to prevent them from increasing in number. Otherwise, if war breaks out, they would join with our enemies and fight against us. Then they would leave the land.” ¹¹ So the Egyptians placed taskmasters over them to oppress them with forced labor. The Israelites built Pithom and Rameses as store cities for Pharaoh. ¹² But the more the Egyptians oppressed the Israelites, the more they increased in number, and the more they spread out. The Egyptians were filled with dread because of them. ¹³ So the Egyptians oppressed the Israelites by forcing them to work very hard. ¹⁴ The Egyptians made the Israelites’ lives bitter with hard work, with brick and mortar, and with all kinds of work in the fields. The Egyptians were merciless in the way they imposed work on the Israelites.

¹⁵ The king of Egypt also spoke to the Hebrew midwives. One of them was named Shiphrah and the other Puah. ¹⁶ He said, “When you help the Hebrew women give birth, while they are still on the delivery stool, if you see that the baby is a son, you are to kill him, but if you see that it is a daughter, let her live.” ¹⁷ The midwives, however, feared God, so they did not do what the king of Egypt told them to do, but they let the boys live.

¹⁸ The king of Egypt called for the midwives and said to them, “Why did you do this and let the boys live?”

¹⁹ The midwives said to Pharaoh, “Because the Hebrew women are not like the Egyptian women. They are vigorous, so they give birth before the midwife comes to them.”

²⁰ So God treated the midwives well. The people also increased in number and became very numerous. ²¹ Because the midwives feared God, he gave them families. ²² Pharaoh, however, commanded all his people, “Every son who is born you shall throw into the Nile, but every daughter you shall let live.”

The Birth of Moses

Exodus 2

¹ Now a man from the house of Levi went and took a Levite woman as a wife. ² The woman became pregnant and bore a son. When she saw that he was a special ^[1] child, she hid him for three months. ³ When she was no longer able to hide him, she got a papyrus basket for him and coated it with tar and pitch. She put the child into it and placed it in the reeds along the bank of the Nile. ⁴ His sister stood at a distance to see what would happen to him.

⁵ Pharaoh’s daughter came down to bathe in the Nile, and her attendants were walking along the bank of the Nile. Pharaoh’s daughter saw the basket among the reeds and sent her servant girl to get it. ⁶ She opened it and saw the child. It was a boy, and he was crying. She felt sorry for him and said, “This is one of the Hebrew boys.”

⁷ Then his sister said to Pharaoh’s daughter, “Should I go and call a wet nurse from the Hebrew women to nurse the child for you?”

⁸ Pharaoh’s daughter said to her, “Yes, go.”

So the young woman went and called the child’s mother to come. ⁹ Pharaoh’s daughter said to her, “Take this child and nurse him for me, and I will pay you for doing it.”

So the woman took the child and nursed him. ¹⁰ When the child grew up, she brought him to Pharaoh’s daughter, and he became her son. She named him Moses, with the explanation, “Because I drew him up out of the water.” ^[2]

Moses Flees to Midian

¹¹ After some time, when Moses had grown up, he went out to his own people and observed their forced labor. He saw an Egyptian striking a Hebrew, one of his own people. ¹² After he looked this way and that, and he saw that no one was there, he struck down the Egyptian and hid him in the sand.

¹³ The next day when he went out, he came upon two Hebrew men who were fighting. He said to the one in the wrong, “Why were you striking your fellow Hebrew?”

¹⁴ The man said, “Who made you a ruler and a judge over us? Are you planning to kill me just as you killed the Egyptian?”

Moses was afraid and thought, “What I have done has definitely become known.” ¹⁵ When Pharaoh heard what Moses had done, he sought to kill Moses. Moses, however, fled from Pharaoh’s presence and went to live in the land of Midian. There he sat down by a well.

¹⁶ Now a priest of Midian had seven daughters. They came and started drawing water. They filled the troughs to water their father’s flock, ¹⁷ but some shepherds came and drove them away. Moses, however, stood up and helped them. He then watered their flock. ¹⁸ When the daughters came to Reuel, their father, he said, “Why have you returned so early today?”

¹⁹ They said, “An Egyptian man rescued us from the shepherds. He even drew water for us and watered the flock.”

²⁰ Reuel said to his daughters, “Where is he? Why have you left the man there? Invite him to have something to eat.”

²¹ Moses agreed to stay with the man. The man gave his daughter Zipporah to Moses as a wife. ²² She gave birth to a son, and Moses named him Gershom, for he said, “I have become an alien ^[3] living in a foreign land.”

God Hears Israel’s Groaning

²³ After a long time, the king of Egypt died. The Israelites groaned because of their slavery. They cried out, and their cry for help because of their slavery went up to God. ²⁴ So God heard their groaning, and he remembered his covenant with Abraham, with Isaac, and with Jacob. ²⁵ God saw the people of Israel, and God watched over them.

Acts 12:1-24

Acts 12

An Angel Frees Peter

¹ At about that time, King Herod ^[1] laid violent hands on some who belonged to the church, in order to mistreat them. ² He had James, the brother of John, put to death with the sword. ³ When he saw that this pleased the Jews, he proceeded to arrest Peter during the days of Unleavened Bread.

⁴ After arresting Peter, Herod put him in prison and handed him over to four squads of four soldiers each to guard him. Herod intended to bring him before the people for trial after the Passover. ⁵ So Peter was kept in prison, but the church earnestly offered up prayer to God for him.

⁶ The very night before Herod was going to bring him out for trial, Peter was sleeping between two soldiers. He was bound with two chains, while sentries were in front of the door, guarding the prison.

⁷ Suddenly an angel of the Lord stood near him, and a light shone in the cell. The angel woke Peter up by striking him on the side, saying, “Quick, get up!” The chains fell from his wrists.

⁸ Then the angel said to him, “Get dressed and put on your sandals.” So he did so. Then the angel told him, “Put on your cloak and follow me.” ⁹ Peter went out, following the angel, but he did not realize that what the angel was doing was really happening. He thought he was seeing a vision. ¹⁰ When they had passed through the first and second guard posts, they came to the iron gate that leads into the city. It opened all by itself for them. They went outside, walked down one street, and immediately the angel left him.

¹¹ When Peter came to himself, he said, “Now I know for sure that the Lord sent his angel and rescued me from the hand of Herod and from everything the Jewish people were expecting.”

¹² When he realized this, he went to the house of Mary, the mother of John, who is also called Mark. Many had gathered there and were praying. ¹³ When Peter knocked at the entrance gate, a servant girl named Rhoda came to answer. ¹⁴ She recognized Peter’s voice and was so overjoyed, she did not open the gate. Instead she ran in and announced that Peter was standing in front of the gate.

¹⁵ They told her, “You are out of your mind!” But she kept on insisting it was so, and they started saying, “It’s his angel.”

¹⁶ Meanwhile, Peter kept on knocking. When they opened the door and saw him, they were astonished. ¹⁷ Peter motioned to them with his hand to be silent and described to them how the Lord had brought him out of prison. He said, “Tell these things to James and to the brothers.” Then he left and went on to another place.

¹⁸ At daybreak, there was no small commotion among the soldiers about what had become of Peter. ¹⁹ After Herod searched for him and did not find him, he questioned the guards and ordered that they be executed.

Herod’s Death

Then Herod went down from Judea to Caesarea and stayed there. ²⁰ Herod was very angry with the people of Tyre and Sidon. They joined together and approached him after they had won over Blastus, the king’s personal assistant. They asked for peace because their country depended on the king’s country for food.

²¹ On the appointed day Herod, dressed in his royal robes and seated on his throne, delivered a public address to them. ²² The crowd shouted, “It’s the voice of a god and not of a man!” ²³ Immediately an angel of the Lord struck him down because he did not give the glory to God. He was eaten by worms and died.

²⁴ But the word of God continued to grow and increase.

Acts 11:19-30

Acts 11

The Church in Antioch

¹⁹ Now those who had been scattered by the persecution that took place at the time of Stephen traveled as far as Phoenicia, Cyprus, and Antioch, speaking the word to no one except Jews. ²⁰ But there were some men from Cyprus and Cyrene who came to Antioch and also began to speak to the Greeks, preaching the good news about the Lord Jesus. ²¹ The Lord’s hand was with them, and a large number of people believed and turned to the Lord.

²² A report about this reached the ears of the church in Jerusalem, and they sent Barnabas to go on to ^[1] Antioch. ²³ When he arrived and saw God’s grace, he was glad and encouraged them all to remain true to the Lord with devoted hearts. ²⁴ He was a good man who was full of the Holy Spirit and faith, and a large number of people were added to the Lord.

²⁵ Then Barnabas went to Tarsus to look for Saul. ²⁶ When he found him, he brought him to Antioch. So for a whole year they met with the church and taught a large number of people. It was in Antioch that the disciples were first called Christians.

The Church in Antioch Sends Relief to Jerusalem

²⁷ In those days some prophets came down from Jerusalem to Antioch. ²⁸ One of them, named Agabus, stood up and indicated by the Spirit that there was going to be a severe famine all over the known world. This took place during the time of Claudius. ²⁹ Each of the disciples, according to his ability, decided to send relief to the brothers ^[2] who lived in Judea. ³⁰ They did this, sending it to the elders by means of Barnabas and Saul.

Acts 11:1-18

Acts 11

Peter Defends His Actions

¹ The apostles and brothers throughout Judea heard that the Gentiles had also received the word of God. ² When Peter went up to Jerusalem, those who insisted on circumcision criticized him, ³ saying, “You went to visit men who were uncircumcised and ate with them!”

⁴ So Peter began to explain everything to them, point by point. He said, ⁵ “I was in the city of Joppa praying, and in a trance I saw a vision in which an object like a large sheet was let down from heaven by its four corners. It came right to me. ⁶ When I inspected it very carefully, I saw four-footed animals of the earth, wild beasts, reptiles, and birds of the air. ⁷ I also heard a voice telling me, ‘Get up, Peter! Kill and eat!’

⁸ “But I replied, ‘Certainly not, Lord, for nothing impure or unclean has ever entered my mouth.’

⁹ “A voice spoke from heaven a second time: ‘What God has made clean, you must not continue to call unclean.’ ¹⁰ This happened three times, and then everything was pulled up into heaven again.

¹¹ “At that very moment, three men who had been sent to me from Caesarea arrived at the house where we were. ¹² The Spirit told me to go with them without any hesitation. These six brothers also accompanied me, and we entered the man’s house. ¹³ He told us how he saw an angel standing in his house and saying, ‘Send to Joppa and call for Simon, the one called Peter. ¹⁴ He will speak words to you by which you and all your household will be saved.’

¹⁵ “As I began to speak, the Holy Spirit came down on them, just as he came down on us at the beginning. ¹⁶ Then I remembered how the Lord had said, ‘John baptized with water, but you will be baptized with the Holy Spirit.’ ^{[1] 17} So if God gave them the same gift as he gave us when we believed in the Lord Jesus Christ, who was I to try to stand in God’s way?”

¹⁸ When they heard these things, they had no further objections, and they praised God, saying, “So then, God has granted repentance that results in life also to the Gentiles!”