Bible Readings - July 18, 2025

Reading 1

Exodus 11:10—12:14

Although Moses and Aaron performed various wonders

in Pharaoh's presence,

the LORD made Pharaoh obstinate,

and he would not let the children of Israel leave his land.

The LORD said to Moses and Aaron in the land of Egypt,

"This month shall stand at the head of your calendar;

you shall reckon it the first month of the year.

Tell the whole community of Israel: On the tenth of this month

every one of your families must procure for itself a lamb,

one apiece for each household.

If a family is too small for a whole lamb,

it shall join the nearest household in procuring one

and shall share in the lamb

in proportion to the number of persons who partake of it.

The lamb must be a year-old male and without blemish.

You may take it from either the sheep or the goats.

You shall keep it until the fourteenth day of this month, and then,

with the whole assembly of Israel present,

it shall be slaughtered during the evening twilight.

They shall take some of its blood

and apply it to the two doorposts and the lintel

of every house in which they partake of the lamb.

That same night they shall eat its roasted flesh

with unleavened bread and bitter herbs.

It shall not be eaten raw or boiled, but roasted whole,

with its head and shanks and inner organs.

None of it must be kept beyond the next morning;

whatever is left over in the morning shall be burned up.

"This is how you are to eat it:

with your loins girt, sandals on your feet and your staff in hand,

you shall eat like those who are in flight.

It is the Passover of the LORD.

For on this same night I will go through Egypt,

striking down every first born of the land, both man and beast,

and executing judgment on all the gods of Egypt—I, the LORD!

But the blood will mark the houses where you are.

Seeing the blood, I will pass over you;

thus, when I strike the land of Egypt,

no destructive blow will come upon you.

"This day shall be a memorial feast for you,

which all your generations shall celebrate

with pilgrimage to the LORD, as a perpetual institution."

Psalm 116:12-13, 15, 16bc, 17-18

How shall I make a return to the LORD

for all the good he has done for me?

The cup of salvation I will take up,

and I will call upon the name of the LORD.

Precious in the eyes of the LORD

is the death of his faithful ones.

I am your servant, the son of your handmaid;

you have loosed my bonds.

To you will I offer sacrifice of thanksgiving,

and I will call upon the name of the LORD.

My vows to the LORD I will pay

in the presence of all his people.

John 10:27

My sheep hear my voice; I know them, and they follow me.

Gospel

Matthew 12:1-8

At that time Jesus was going through a field of grain on the sabbath.

His disciples were hungry

and began to pick the heads of grain and eat them.

When the Pharisees saw this, they said to him,

"See, your disciples are doing what is unlawful to do on the sabbath."

He said to them, "Have you not read what David did

when he and his companions were hungry,

how he went into the house of God and ate the bread of offering,

which neither he nor his companions

but only the priests could lawfully eat?

Or have you not read in the law that on the sabbath

the priests serving in the temple violate the sabbath

and are innocent?

I say to you, something greater than the temple is here.

If you knew what this meant, I desire mercy, not sacrifice,

you would not have condemned these innocent men.

For the Son of Man is Lord of the sabbath."