Exodus 23; Exodus 24; Matthew 20:1-16

Exodus 23

1 "Do not spread false rumors, and do not help a guilty person by giving false testimony.

2 Do not follow the majority when they do wrong or when they give testimony that perverts justice.

3 Do not show partiality to a poor person at his trial.

4 "If you happen to see your enemy's cow or donkey running loose, take it back to him.

5 If his donkey has fallen under its load, help him get the donkey to its feet again; don't just walk off.

6 "Do not deny justice to a poor person when he appears in court.

7 Do not make false accusations, and do not put an innocent person to death, for I will condemn anyone who does such an evil thing.

8 Do not accept a bribe, for a bribe makes people blind to what is right and ruins the cause of those who are innocent.

9 "Do not mistreat a foreigner; you know how it feels to be a foreigner, because you were foreigners in Egypt.

10 "For six years plant your land and gather in what it produces.

11 But in the seventh year let it rest, and do not harvest anything that grows on it. The poor may eat what grows there, and the wild animals can have what is left. Do the same with your vineyards and your olive trees.

12 "Work six days a week, but do no work on the seventh day, so that your slaves and the foreigners who work for you and even your animals can rest.

13 "Listen to everything that I, the Lord, have said to you. Do not pray to other gods; do not even mention their names.

14 "Celebrate three festivals a year to honor me

15 In the month of Abib, the month in which you left Egypt, celebrate the Festival of Unleavened Bread in the way that I commanded you. Do not eat any bread made with yeast during the seven days of this festival. Never come to worship me without bringing an offering.

16 "Celebrate the Harvest Festival when you begin to harvest your crops. "Celebrate the Festival of Shelters in the autumn, when you gather the fruit from your vineyards and orchards.

17 Every year at these three festivals all your men must come to worship me, the Lord your God.

18 "Do not offer bread made with yeast when you sacrifice an animal to me. The fat of animals sacrificed to me during these festivals is not to be left until the following morning.

19 "Each year bring to the house of the Lord your God the first grain that you harvest. "Do not cook a young sheep or goat in its mother's milk

20 "I will send an angel ahead of you to protect you as you travel and to bring you to the place which I have prepared.

21 Pay attention to him and obey him. Do not rebel against him, for I have sent him, and he will not pardon such rebellion

22 But if you obey him and do everything I command, I will fight against all your enemies.

23 My angel will go ahead of you and take you into the land of the Amorites, the Hittites, the Perizzites, the Canaanites, the Hivites, and the Jebusites, and I will destroy them.

24 Do not bow down to their gods or worship them, and do not adopt their religious practices. Destroy their gods and break down their sacred stone pillars.

25 If you worship me, the Lord your God, I will bless you with food and water and take away all your sicknesses.

26 In your land no woman will have a miscarriage or be without children. I will give you long lives.

27 "I will make the people who oppose you afraid of me; I will bring confusion among the people against whom you fight, and I will make all your enemies turn and run from you.

28 I will throw your enemies into panic; I will drive out the Hivites, the Canaanites, and the Hittites as you advance.

29 I will not drive them out within a year's time; if I did, the land would become deserted, and the wild animals would be too many for you.

30 Instead, I will drive them out little by little, until there are enough of you to take possession of the land.

31 I will make the borders of your land extend from the Gulf of Aqaba to the Mediterranean Sea and from the desert to the Euphrates River. I will give you power over the inhabitants of the land, and you will drive them out as you advance.

32 Do not make any agreement with them or with their gods.

33 Do not let those people live in your country; if you do, they will make you sin against me. If you worship their gods, it will be a fatal trap for you."

Exodus 24

1 The Lord said to Moses, "Come up the mountain to me, you and Aaron, Nadab, Abihu, and seventy of the leaders of Israel; and while you are still some distance away, bow down in worship.

2 You alone, and none of the others, are to come near me. The people are not even to come up the mountain."

3 Moses went and told the people all the Lord's commands and all the ordinances, and all the people answered together, "We will do everything that the Lord has said."

4 Moses wrote down all the Lord's commands. Early the next morning he built an altar at the foot of the mountain and set up twelve stones, one for each of the twelve tribes of Israel.

5 Then he sent young men, and they burned sacrifices to the Lord and sacrificed some cattle as fellowship offerings.

6 Moses took half of the blood of the animals and put it in bowls; and the other half he threw against the altar.

7 Then he took the book of the covenant, in which the Lord's commands were written, and read it aloud to the people. They said, "We will obey the Lord and do everything that he has commanded."

8 Then Moses took the blood in the bowls and threw it on the people. He said, "This is the blood that seals the covenant which the Lord made with you when he gave all these commands."

9 Moses, Aaron, Nadab, Abihu, and seventy of the leaders of Israel went up the mountain

10 and they saw the God of Israel. Beneath his feet was what looked like a pavement of sapphire, as blue as the sky.

11 God did not harm these leading men of Israel; they saw God, and then they ate and drank together.

12 The Lord said to Moses, "Come up the mountain to me, and while you are here, I will give you two stone tablets which contain all the laws that I have written for the instruction of the people."

13 Moses and his helper Joshua got ready, and Moses began to go up the holy mountain.

14 Moses said to the leaders, "Wait here in the camp for us until we come back. Aaron and Hur are here with you; and so whoever has a dispute to settle can go to them."

15 Moses went up Mount Sinai, and a cloud covered it.

16 The dazzling light of the Lord's presence came down on the mountain. To the Israelites the light looked like a fire burning on top of the mountain. The cloud covered the mountain for six days, and on the seventh day the Lord called to Moses from the cloud.

18 Moses went on up the mountain into the cloud. There he stayed for forty days and nights.

Matthew 20:1-16

1 "The Kingdom of heaven is like this. Once there was a man who went out early in the morning to hire some men to work in his vineyard.

2 He agreed to pay them the regular wage, a silver coin a day, and sent them to work in his vineyard.

3 He went out again to the marketplace at nine o'clock and saw some men standing there doing nothing,

4 so he told them, "You also go and work in the vineyard, and I will pay you a fair wage.'

5 So they went. Then at twelve o'clock and again at three o'clock he did the same thing.

6 It was nearly five o'clock when he went to the marketplace and saw some other men still standing there. "Why are you wasting the whole day here doing nothing?' he asked them.

7 "No one hired us,' they answered. "Well, then, you go and work in the vineyard,' he told them.

8 "When evening came, the owner told his foreman, "Call the workers and pay them their wages, starting with those who were hired last and ending with those who were hired first.'

9 The men who had begun to work at five o'clock were paid a silver coin each.

10 So when the men who were the first to be hired came to be paid, they thought they would get more; but they too were given a silver coin each.

11 They took their money and started grumbling against the employer.

12 "These men who were hired last worked only one hour,' they said, "while we put up with a whole day's work in the hot sun - yet you paid them the same as you paid us!'

13 "Listen, friend,' the owner answered one of them, "I have not cheated you. After all, you agreed to do a day's work for one silver coin.

14 Now take your pay and go home. I want to give this man who was hired last as much as I gave you.

15 Don't I have the right to do as I wish with my own money? Or are you jealous because I am generous?' "

16 And Jesus concluded, "So those who are last will be first, and those who are first will be last."