Jan 29th

So they sent a message to Joseph, saying, “Your father commanded before he died, saying,

‘Thus you shall say to Joseph, “Please forgive, I beg you, the transgression of your brothers and their sin, for they dealt evil against you.” ’ So now, please forgive the transgression of the slaves of the God of your father.” And Joseph wept when they spoke to him.

Then his brothers also came and fell down before him and said, “Behold, we are your slaves.”

But Joseph said to them, “Do not be afraid, for am I in God’s place?

As for you, you meant evil against me, but God meant it for good in order to do what has happened on this day, to keep many people alive.

So now, do not be afraid; I will provide for you and your little ones.” And he comforted them and spoke to their heart.

Now Joseph stayed in Egypt, he and his father’s household, and Joseph lived 110 years.

And Joseph saw the third generation of Ephraim’s sons; also the sons of Machir, the son of Manasseh, were born on Joseph’s knees.

And Joseph said to his brothers, “I am about to die, but God will surely take care of you and bring you up from this land to the land which He swore to Abraham, to Isaac, and to Jacob.”

Then Joseph made the sons of Israel swear, saying, “God will surely take care of you, and you shall carry my bones up from here.”

So Joseph died at the age of 110 years; and they embalmed him, and he was placed in a coffin in Egypt.

Now these are the names of the sons of Israel who came to Egypt with Jacob; they came each one with his household:

Reuben, Simeon, Levi, and Judah;

Issachar, Zebulun, and Benjamin;

Dan and Naphtali, Gad and Asher.

And all the persons who came from the loins of Jacob were seventy in number, but Joseph was already in Egypt.

Then Joseph died, and all his brothers and all that generation.

But the sons of Israel were fruitful and increased and multiplied and became exceedingly mighty, so that the land was filled with them.

And a new king arose over Egypt, who did not know Joseph.

And he said to his people, “Behold, the people of the sons of Israel are more and mightier than we.

Come, let us deal wisely with them, lest they multiply and it be in the event of war, that they also join themselves to those who hate us and fight against us and go up from the land.”

So they appointed taskmasters over them to afflict them with hard labors. And they built for Pharaoh storage cities, Pithom and Raamses.

But the more they afflicted them, the more they multiplied and the more they spread out, so that they were in dread of the sons of Israel.

So the Egyptians brutally compelled the sons of Israel to slave labor;

and they made their lives bitter with hard slave labor in mortar and bricks and in all kinds of slave labor in the field, all their slave labor which they brutally compelled them to do.

Then the king of Egypt spoke to the Hebrew midwives, one of whom was named Shiphrah and the other was named Puah;

and he said, “When you are helping the Hebrew women to give birth and see them upon the birthstool, if it is a son, then you shall put him to death; but if it is a daughter, then she shall live.”

But the midwives feared God and did not do as the king of Egypt had spoken to them, but let the boys live.

So the king of Egypt called for the midwives and said to them, “Why have you done this thing, and let the boys live?”

Then the midwives said to Pharaoh, “Because the Hebrew women are not as the Egyptian women; for they are vigorous and give birth before the midwife can come to them.”

So God was good to the midwives, and the people multiplied and became very mighty.

Now it happened that because the midwives feared God, He made households for them.

And Pharaoh commanded all his people, saying, “Every son who is born you are to cast into the Nile, and every daughter you are to keep alive.”

And a man from the house of Levi went and took a daughter of Levi as a wife.

And the woman conceived and bore a son; and she saw that he was beautiful, so she hid him for three months.

But she could not hide him any longer. So she took for him an ark of papyrus reeds and covered it over with tar and pitch. Then she put the child into it and put it among the reeds by the bank of the Nile.

And his sister stood at a distance to know what would be done to him.

And the daughter of Pharaoh came down to bathe at the Nile, with her young women walking alongside the Nile; and she saw the ark among the reeds and sent her maidservant, and she took it to her.

Then she opened it and saw the child. And behold, the boy was crying. And she had pity on him and said, “This is one of the Hebrews’ children.”

Then his sister said to Pharaoh’s daughter, “Shall I go and call a nurse for you from the Hebrew women that she may nurse the child for you?”

And Pharaoh’s daughter said to her, “Go.” So the girl went and called the child’s mother.

Then Pharaoh’s daughter said to her, “Take this child away and nurse him for me, and I will give you your wages.” So the woman took the child and nursed him.

And the child grew, and she brought him to Pharaoh’s daughter, and he became her son. And she named him Moses and said, “Because I drew him out of the water.”

Now it happened in those days, that Moses had grown up. And he went out to his brothers and looked on their hard labors. And he saw an Egyptian striking a Hebrew, one of his brothers.

So he turned this way and that, and he saw that there was no one around. So he struck down the Egyptian and hid him in the sand.

Then he went out the next day, and behold, two Hebrews were struggling with each other; and he said to the wicked one, “Why are you striking your companion?”

But he said, “Who made you a ruler or a judge over us? Are you intending to kill me as you killed the Egyptian?” Then Moses was afraid and said, “Surely the matter has become known.”

And Pharaoh heard of this matter, so he sought to kill Moses. But Moses fled from the presence of Pharaoh and settled in the land of Midian, and he sat down by a well.

Now the priest of Midian had seven daughters; and they came and drew water and filled the troughs to give water to their father’s flock to drink.

Then the shepherds came and drove them away, but Moses rose up and saved them and gave water to their flock to drink.

Then they came to Reuel their father, and he said, “Why have you come back so soon today?”

So they said, “An Egyptian delivered us from the hand of the shepherds, and he actually even drew the water for us and gave water to the flock to drink.”

And he said to his daughters, “Where is he then? Why is it that you have left the man behind? Call him so that he may eat bread.”

And Moses was willing to settle down with the man, and he gave his daughter Zipporah to Moses.

Then she gave birth to a son, and he named him Gershom, for he said, “I have been a sojourner in a foreign land.”

Now in the morning, when He was returning to the city, He became hungry.

And seeing a lone fig tree by the road, He came to it and found nothing on it except leaves only; and He *said to it, “No longer shall there ever be any fruit from you.” And at once the fig tree withered.

And seeing this, the disciples marveled, saying, “How did the fig tree wither all at once?”

And Jesus answered and said to them, “Truly I say to you, if you have faith and do not doubt, you will not only do what was done to the fig tree, but even if you say to this mountain, ‘Be taken up and cast into the sea,’ it will happen.

And when He entered the temple, the chief priests and the elders of the people came to Him while He was teaching, and said, “By what authority are You doing these things, and who gave You this authority?”

And Jesus answered and said to them, “I will also ask you one thing, which if you tell Me, I will also tell you by what authority I do these things.

The baptism of John was from what source, from heaven or from men?” And they began reasoning among themselves, saying, “If we say, ‘From heaven,’ He will say to us, ‘Then why did you not believe him?’

But if we say, ‘From men,’ we fear the crowd; for they all regard John as a prophet.”

And they answered Jesus and said, “We do not know.” He also said to them, “Neither will I tell you by what authority I do these things.

“But what do you think? A man had two sons, and he came to the first and said, ‘Son, go work today in the vineyard.’

And he answered and said, ‘I will not’; but afterward he regretted it and went.

And the man came to the second and said the same thing; and he answered and said, ‘I will, sir’; but he did not go.

Which of the two did the will of his father?” They *said, “The first.” Jesus *said to them, “Truly I say to you that the tax collectors and prostitutes will get into the kingdom of God before you.

“Listen to another parable. There was a landowner who planted a vineyard and put a wall around it and dug a wine press in it, and built a tower, and rented it out to vine-growers and went on a journey.

Now when the harvest time approached, he sent his slaves to the vine-growers to receive his fruit.

And the vine-growers took his slaves and beat one, and killed another, and stoned a third.

Again he sent another group of slaves larger than the first; and they did the same thing to them.

But afterward he sent his son to them, saying, ‘They will respect my son.’

But when the vine-growers saw the son, they said among themselves, ‘This is the heir; come, let us kill him and seize his inheritance.’

And they took him, and threw him out of the vineyard and killed him.

Therefore when the owner of the vineyard comes, what will he do to those vine-growers?”

They *said to Him, “He will bring those wretches to a wretched end, and will rent out the vineyard to other vine-growers who will pay him the proceeds at the proper seasons.”