The Finding of Moses, Paolo Veronese, c. 1580, Oil on Canvas at the Kunsthistorisches Museum, Vienna

Prime Timers

The Prime Timers were a Bible study group at St. Martin's for eight years. One of the goals of our founder Jackie Rose was to have a weekly web page for the group and all the pages are still online here. The group disbanded but the readings below are being kept up to date.

Lectionary readings

The Readings for Sunday, August 23 are from the Lectionary Year A Proper 16: Track 1: Exodus 1:8-2:10; Psalm 124 or Track 2: Isaiah 51:1-6; Psalm 138 and for both: Romans 12:1-8 and Matthew 16:13-20. The text is from the Bible Study Tools - New International Version.

Track 1:

Exodus 1:8-2:10

⁸ Then a new king, to whom Joseph meant nothing, came to power in Egypt. ⁹ “Look,” he said to his people, “the Israelites have become far too numerous for us. ¹⁰ Come, we must deal shrewdly with them or they will become even more numerous and, if war breaks out, will join our enemies, fight against us and leave the country.” ¹¹ So they put slave masters over them to oppress them with forced labor, and they built Pithom and Rameses as store cities for Pharaoh. ¹² But the more they were oppressed, the more they multiplied and spread; so the Egyptians came to dread the Israelites ¹³ and worked them ruthlessly. ¹⁴ They made their lives bitter with harsh labor in brick and mortar and with all kinds of work in the fields; in all their harsh labor the Egyptians worked them ruthlessly.

¹⁵ The king of Egypt said to the Hebrew midwives, whose names were Shiphrah and Puah, ¹⁶ “When you are helping the Hebrew women during childbirth on the delivery stool, if you see that the baby is a boy, kill him; but if it is a girl, let her live.” ¹⁷ The midwives, however, feared God and did not do what the king of Egypt had told them to do; they let the boys live. ¹⁸ Then the king of Egypt summoned the midwives and asked them, “Why have you done this? Why have you let the boys live?” ¹⁹ The midwives answered Pharaoh, “Hebrew women are not like Egyptian women; they are vigorous and give birth before the midwives arrive.” ²⁰ So God was kind to the midwives and the people increased and became even more numerous. ²¹ And because the midwives feared God, he gave them families of their own. ²² Then Pharaoh gave this order to all his people: “Every Hebrew boy that is born you must throw into the Nile, but let every girl live.”

The Birth of Moses

¹ Now a man of the tribe of Levi married a Levite woman, ² and she became pregnant and gave birth to a son. When she saw that he was a fine child, she hid him for three months. ³ But when she could hide him no longer, she got a papyrus basket for him and coated it with tar and pitch. Then she placed the child in it and put it among the reeds along the bank of the Nile. ⁴ His sister stood at a distance to see what would happen to him.

⁵ Then Pharaoh’s daughter went down to the Nile to bathe, and her attendants were walking along the riverbank. She saw the basket among the reeds and sent her female slave to get it. ⁶ She opened it and saw the baby. He was crying, and she felt sorry for him. “This is one of the Hebrew babies,” she said. ⁷ Then his sister asked Pharaoh’s daughter, “Shall I go and get one of the Hebrew women to nurse the baby for you?” ⁸ “Yes, go,” she answered. So the girl went and got the baby’s mother. ⁹ Pharaoh’s daughter said to her, “Take this baby and nurse him for me, and I will pay you.” So the woman took the baby and nursed him. ¹⁰ When the child grew older, she took him to Pharaoh’s daughter and he became her son. She named him Moses, saying, “I drew him out of the water.”

Psalm 124

¹ If the LORD had not been on our side—
     let Israel say—

² if the LORD had not been on our side
     when people attacked us,

³ they would have swallowed us alive
     when their anger flared against us;

⁴ the flood would have engulfed us,
     the torrent would have swept over us,

⁵ the raging waters
     would have swept us away.

⁶ Praise be to the LORD,
     who has not let us be torn by their teeth.

⁷ We have escaped like a bird from the fowler’s snare;
     the snare has been broken, and we have escaped.

⁸ Our help is in the name of the LORD,
     the Maker of heaven and earth.

or Track 2:

Isaiah 51:1-6

¹ “Listen to me, you who pursue righteousness
     and who seek the LORD:

Look to the rock from which you were cut
     and to the quarry from which you were hewn;

² look to Abraham, your father,
     and to Sarah, who gave you birth.

When I called him he was only one man,
     and I blessed him and made him many.

³ The LORD will surely comfort Zion
      and will look with compassion on all her ruins;

he will make her deserts like Eden,
     her wastelands like the garden of the LORD.

Joy and gladness will be found in her,
     thanksgiving and the sound of singing.

⁴ “Listen to me, my people;
     hear me, my nation:

Instruction will go out from me;
     my justice will become a light to the nations.

⁵ My righteousness draws near speedily,
     my salvation is on the way,
     and my arm will bring justice to the nations.

The islands will look to me
     and wait in hope for my arm.

⁶ Lift up your eyes to the heavens,
     look at the earth beneath;

the heavens will vanish like smoke,
     the earth will wear out like a garment
     and its inhabitants die like flies.

But my salvation will last forever,
     my righteousness will never fail.

Psalm 138

¹ I will praise you, LORD, with all my heart;
     before the “gods” I will sing your praise.

² I will bow down toward your holy temple
     and will praise your name
     for your unfailing love and your faithfulness,

for you have so exalted your solemn decree
     that it surpasses your fame.

³ When I called, you answered me;
     you greatly emboldened me.

⁴ May all the kings of the earth praise you, LORD,
     when they hear what you have decreed.

⁵ May they sing of the ways of the LORD,
     for the glory of the LORD is great.

⁶ Though the LORD is exalted, he looks kindly on the lowly;
     though lofty, he sees them from afar.

⁷ Though I walk in the midst of trouble, you preserve my life.
     You stretch out your hand against the anger of my foes;
     with your right hand you save me.

⁸ The LORD will vindicate me;
     your love, LORD, endures forever—
     do not abandon the works of your hands.

and for both:

Romans 12:1-8

¹ Therefore, I urge you, brothers and sisters, in view of God’s mercy, to offer your bodies as a living sacrifice, holy and pleasing to God—this is your true and proper worship. ² Do not conform to the pattern of this world, but be transformed by the renewing of your mind. Then you will be able to test and approve what God’s will is—his good, pleasing and perfect will.

³ For by the grace given me I say to every one of you: Do not think of yourself more highly than you ought, but rather think of yourself with sober judgment, in accordance with the faith God has distributed to each of you. ⁴ For just as each of us has one body with many members, and these members do not all have the same function, ⁵ so in Christ we, though many, form one body, and each member belongs to all the others. ⁶ We have different gifts, according to the grace given to each of us. If your gift is prophesying, then prophesy in accordance with your faith; ⁷ if it is serving, then serve; if it is teaching, then teach; ⁸ if it is to encourage, then give encouragement; if it is giving, then give generously; if it is to lead, do it diligently; if it is to show mercy, do it cheerfully.

Matthew 16:13-20

¹³ When Jesus came to the region of Caesarea Philippi, he asked his disciples, “Who do people say the Son of Man is?” ¹⁴ They replied, “Some say John the Baptist; others say Elijah; and still others, Jeremiah or one of the prophets.” ¹⁵ “But what about you?” he asked. “Who do you say I am?” ¹⁶ Simon Peter answered, “You are the Messiah, the Son of the living God.” ¹⁷ Jesus replied, “Blessed are you, Simon son of Jonah, for this was not revealed to you by flesh and blood, but by my Father in heaven. ¹⁸ And I tell you that you are Peter, and on this rock I will build my church, and the gates of Hades will not overcome it. ¹⁹ I will give you the keys of the kingdom of heaven; whatever you bind on earth will bebound in heaven, and whatever you loose on earth will beloosed in heaven.” ²⁰ Then he ordered his disciples not to tell anyone that he was the Messiah.

Thanks to Bible Study Tools for today's text.