1 Then Moses answered, “What if they do not believe me or listen to my voice? For they may say, ‘The Lord has not appeared to you.’”

2 And the Lord asked him, “What is that in your hand?”

“A staff,” he replied.

3“Throw it on the ground,” said the Lord. So Moses threw it on the ground, and it became a snake, and he ran from it.

4“Stretch out your hand and grab it by the tail,” the Lord said to Moses, who reached out his hand and caught the snake, and it turned back into a staff in his hand. 5“This is so that they may 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 Furthermore, the Lord said to Moses, “Put your hand inside your cloak.” So he put his hand inside his cloak, and when he took it out, his hand was leprous, white as snow.

7“Put your hand back inside your cloak,” said the Lord.

So Moses put his hand back inside his cloak, and when he took it out, it was restored, like the rest of his skin.

8 And the Lord said, “If they refuse to believe you or heed the witness of the first sign, they may believe that of the second. 9But if they do not believe even these two signs or listen to your voice, take some water from the Nile and pour it on the dry ground. Then the water you take from the Nile will become blood on the ground.”

10“Please, Lord,” Moses replied, “I have never been eloquent, neither in the past nor since You have spoken to Your servant, for I am slow of speech and tongue.”

11 And the Lord said to him, “Who gave man his mouth? Or who makes the mute or the deaf, the sighted or the blind? Is it not I, the Lord? 12Now go! I will help you as you speak, and I will teach you what to say.”

13 But Moses replied, “Please, Lord, send someone else.”

14 Then the anger of the Lord burned against Moses, and He said, “Is not Aaron the Levite your brother? I know that he can speak well, and he is now on his way to meet you. When he sees you, he will be glad in his heart. 15You are to speak to him and put the words in his mouth. I will help both of you to speak, and I will teach you what to do. 16He will speak to the people for you. He will be your spokesman, and it will be as if you were God to him. 17But take this staff in your hand so you can perform signs with it.”

18 Then Moses went back to his father-in-law Jethro and said to him, “Please let me return to my brothers in Egypt to see if they are still alive.”

“Go in peace,” Jethro replied.

19 Now the Lord had said to Moses in Midian, “Go back to Egypt, for all the men who sought to kill you are dead.” 20So Moses took his wife and sons, put them on a donkey, and headed back to Egypt. And he took the staff of God in his hand.

21 The Lord instructed Moses, “When you go back to Egypt, see that you perform before Pharaoh all the wonders that I have put within your power. But I will harden his heart so that he will not let the people go.

22 Then tell Pharaoh that this is what the Lord says: ‘Israel is My firstborn son, 23and I told you to let My son go so that he may worship Me. But since you have refused to let him go, behold, I will kill your firstborn son!’”

24 Now at a lodging place along the way, the Lord met Moses and was about to kill him. 25But Zipporah took a flint knife, cut off her son’s foreskin, and touched it to Moses’ feet. “Surely you are a bridegroom of blood to me,” she said.

26 So the Lord let him alone. (When she said, “bridegroom of blood,” she was referring to the circumcision.)

27 Meanwhile, the Lord had said to Aaron, “Go and meet Moses in the wilderness.” So he went and met Moses at the mountain of God and kissed him. 28And Moses told Aaron everything the Lord had sent him to say, and all the signs He had commanded him to perform.

29 Then Moses and Aaron went and assembled all the elders of the Israelites, 30and Aaron relayed everything the Lord had said to Moses.

And Moses performed the signs before the people, 31and they believed. And when they heard that the Lord had attended to the Israelites and had seen their affliction, they bowed down and worshiped.

1 After that, Moses and Aaron went to Pharaoh and said, “This is what the Lord, the God of Israel, says: ‘Let My people go, so that they may hold a feast to Me in the wilderness.’”

2 But Pharaoh replied, “Who is the Lord that I should obey His voice and let Israel go? I do not know the Lord, and I will not let Israel go.”

3“The God of the Hebrews has met with us,” they answered. “Please let us go on a three-day journey into the wilderness to sacrifice to the Lord our God, or He may strike us with plagues or with the sword.”

4 But the king of Egypt said to them, “Moses and Aaron, why do you draw the people away from their work? Get back to your labor!” 5Pharaoh also said, “Look, the people of the land are now numerous, and you would be stopping them from their labor.”

6 That same day Pharaoh commanded the taskmasters of the people and their foremen: 7“You shall no longer supply the people with straw for making bricks. They must go and gather their own straw. 8But require of them the same quota of bricks as before; do not reduce it. For they are lazy; that is why they are crying out, ‘Let us go and sacrifice to our God.’ 9Make the work harder on the men so they will be occupied and pay no attention to these lies.”

10 So the taskmasters and foremen of the people went out and said to them, “This is what Pharaoh says: ‘I am no longer giving you straw. 11Go and get your own straw wherever you can find it; but your workload will in no way be reduced.’”

12 So the people scattered all over the land of Egypt to gather stubble for straw. 13The taskmasters kept pressing them, saying, “Fulfill your quota each day, just as you did when straw was provided.”

14 Then the Israelite foremen, whom Pharaoh’s taskmasters had set over the people, were beaten and asked, “Why have you not fulfilled your quota of bricks yesterday or today, as you did before?”

15 So the Israelite foremen went and appealed to Pharaoh: “Why are you treating your servants this way? 16No straw has been given to your servants, yet we are told, ‘Make bricks!’ Look, your servants are being beaten, but the fault is with your own people.”

17“You are slackers!” Pharaoh replied. “Slackers! That is why you keep saying, ‘Let us go and sacrifice to the Lord.’ 18Now get to work. You will be given no straw, yet you must deliver the full quota of bricks.”

19 The Israelite foremen realized they were in trouble when they were told, “You must not reduce your daily quota of bricks.” 20When they left Pharaoh, they confronted Moses and Aaron, who stood waiting to meet them.

21“May the Lord look upon you and judge you,” the foremen said, “for you have made us a stench before Pharaoh and his officials; you have placed in their hand a sword to kill us!”

1 At that time the disciples came to Jesus and asked, “Who then is the greatest in the kingdom of heaven?”

2 Jesus invited a little child to stand among them. 3“Truly I tell you,” He said, “unless you change and become like little children, you will never enter the kingdom of heaven. 4Therefore, whoever humbles himself like this little child is the greatest in the kingdom of heaven. 5And whoever welcomes a little child like this in My name welcomes Me.

6 But if anyone causes one of these little ones who believe in Me to stumble, it would be better for him to have a large millstone hung around his neck and to be drowned in the depths of the sea.

7 Woe to the world for the causes of sin. These stumbling blocks must come, but woe to the man through whom they come!

8 If your hand or your foot causes you to sin, cut it off and throw it away. It is better for you to enter life crippled or lame than to have two hands and two feet and be thrown into the eternal fire. 9And if your eye causes you to sin, gouge it out and throw it away. It is better for you to enter life with one eye than to have two eyes and be thrown into the fire of hell.

10 See that you do not look down on any of these little ones. For I tell you that their angels in heaven always see the face of My Father in heaven.

12 What do you think? If a man has a hundred sheep and one of them goes astray, will he not leave the ninety-nine on the hills and go out to search for the one that is lost? 13And if he finds it, truly I tell you, he rejoices more over that one sheep than over the ninety-nine that did not go astray. 14In the same way, your Father in heaven is not willing that any of these little ones should perish.

15 If your brother sins against you, go and confront him privately. If he listens to you, you have won your brother over. 16But if he will not listen, take one or two others along, so that ‘every matter may be established by the testimony of two or three witnesses.’ 17If he refuses to listen to them, tell it to the church. And if he refuses to listen even to the church, regard him as you would a pagan or a tax collector.

18 Truly I tell you, whatever you bind on earth will be bound in heaven, and whatever you loose on earth will be loosed in heaven.

19 Again, I tell you truly that if two of you on the earth agree about anything you ask for, it will be done for you by My Father in heaven. 20For where two or three gather together in My name, there am I with them.”