Exodus 15, Luke 18, Job 33, 2 Corinthians 3

Exodus 15,

Then Moses and the Israelites sang this song to the LORD : "I will sing to the LORD, for he is highly exalted. The horse and its rider he has hurled into the sea.
The LORD is my strength and my song; he has become my salvation. He is my God, and I will praise him, my father's God, and I will exalt him.
The LORD is a warrior; the LORD is his name.
Pharaoh's chariots and his army he has hurled into the sea. The best of Pharaoh's officers are drowned in the Red Sea.
The deep waters have covered them; they sank to the depths like a stone.
  
  "Your right hand, O LORD, was majestic in power. Your right hand, O LORD, shattered the enemy.
In the greatness of your majesty you threw down those who opposed you. You unleashed your burning anger; it consumed them like stubble.
By the blast of your nostrils the waters piled up. The surging waters stood firm like a wall; the deep waters congealed in the heart of the sea.
"The enemy boasted, 'I will pursue, I will overtake them. I will divide the spoils; I will gorge myself on them. I will draw my sword and my hand will destroy them.'
But you blew with your breath, and the sea covered them. They sank like lead in the mighty waters.
  
  "Who among the gods is like you, O LORD ? Who is like you-- majestic in holiness, awesome in glory, working wonders?
You stretched out your right hand and the earth swallowed them.
"In your unfailing love you will lead the people you have redeemed. In your strength you will guide them to your holy dwelling.
The nations will hear and tremble; anguish will grip the people of Philistia.
The chiefs of Edom will be terrified, the leaders of Moab will be seized with trembling, the people of Canaan will melt away;
  
  terror and dread will fall upon them. By the power of your arm they will be as still as a stone-- until your people pass by, O LORD, until the people you bought pass by.
You will bring them in and plant them on the mountain of your inheritance-- the place, O LORD, you made for your dwelling, the sanctuary, O Lord, your hands established.
The LORD will reign for ever and ever."
When Pharaoh's horses, chariots and horsemen went into the sea, the LORD brought the waters of the sea back over them, but the Israelites walked through the sea on dry ground.
Then Miriam the prophetess, Aaron's sister, took a tambourine in her hand, and all the women followed her, with tambourines and dancing.
  
  Miriam sang to them: "Sing to the LORD, for he is highly exalted. The horse and its rider he has hurled into the sea."
Then Moses led Israel from the Red Sea and they went into the Desert of Shur. For three days they traveled in the desert without finding water.
When they came to Marah, they could not drink its water because it was bitter. (That is why the place is called Marah. )
So the people grumbled against Moses, saying, "What are we to drink?"
Then Moses cried out to the LORD, and the LORD showed him a piece of wood. He threw it into the water, and the water became sweet. There the LORD made a decree and a law for them, and there he tested them.
  
  He said, "If you listen carefully to the voice of the LORD your God and do what is right in his eyes, if you pay attention to his commands and keep all his decrees, I will not bring on you any of the diseases I brought on the Egyptians, for I am the LORD, who heals you."
Then they came to Elim, where there were twelve springs and seventy palm trees, and they camped there near the water. 

Luke 18,

Then Jesus told his disciples a parable to show them that they should always pray and not give up.
He said: "In a certain town there was a judge who neither feared God nor cared about men.
And there was a widow in that town who kept coming to him with the plea, 'Grant me justice against my adversary.'
"For some time he refused. But finally he said to himself, 'Even though I don't fear God or care about men,
yet because this widow keeps bothering me, I will see that she gets justice, so that she won't eventually wear me out with her coming!' "
  
  And the Lord said, "Listen to what the unjust judge says.
And will not God bring about justice for his chosen ones, who cry out to him day and night? Will he keep putting them off?
I tell you, he will see that they get justice, and quickly. However, when the Son of Man comes, will he find faith on the earth?"
To some who were confident of their own righteousness and looked down on everybody else, Jesus told this parable:
"Two men went up to the temple to pray, one a Pharisee and the other a tax collector.
  
  The Pharisee stood up and prayed about himself: 'God, I thank you that I am not like other men--robbers, evildoers, adulterers--or even like this tax collector.
I fast twice a week and give a tenth of all I get.'
"But the tax collector stood at a distance. He would not even look up to heaven, but beat his breast and said, 'God, have mercy on me, a sinner.'
"I tell you that this man, rather than the other, went home justified before God. For everyone who exalts himself will be humbled, and he who humbles himself will be exalted."
People were also bringing babies to Jesus to have him touch them. When the disciples saw this, they rebuked them.
  
  But Jesus called the children to him and said, "Let the little children come to me, and do not hinder them, for the kingdom of God belongs to such as these.
I tell you the truth, anyone who will not receive the kingdom of God like a little child will never enter it."
A certain ruler asked him, "Good teacher, what must I do to inherit eternal life?"
"Why do you call me good?" Jesus answered. "No one is good--except God alone.
You know the commandments: 'Do not commit adultery, do not murder, do not steal, do not give false testimony, honor your father and mother.'"
  
  "All these I have kept since I was a boy," he said.
When Jesus heard this, he said to him, "You still lack one thing. Sell everything you have and give to the poor, and you will have treasure in heaven. Then come, follow me."
When he heard this, he became very sad, because he was a man of great wealth.
Jesus looked at him and said, "How hard it is for the rich to enter the kingdom of God!
Indeed, it is easier for a camel to go through the eye of a needle than for a rich man to enter the kingdom of God."
  
  Those who heard this asked, "Who then can be saved?"
Jesus replied, "What is impossible with men is possible with God."
Peter said to him, "We have left all we had to follow you!"
"I tell you the truth," Jesus said to them, "no one who has left home or wife or brothers or parents or children for the sake of the kingdom of God
will fail to receive many times as much in this age and, in the age to come, eternal life."
  
  Jesus took the Twelve aside and told them, "We are going up to Jerusalem, and everything that is written by the prophets about the Son of Man will be fulfilled.
He will be handed over to the Gentiles. They will mock him, insult him, spit on him, flog him and kill him.
On the third day he will rise again."
The disciples did not understand any of this. Its meaning was hidden from them, and they did not know what he was talking about.
As Jesus approached Jericho, a blind man was sitting by the roadside begging.
  
  When he heard the crowd going by, he asked what was happening.
They told him, "Jesus of Nazareth is passing by."
He called out, "Jesus, Son of David, have mercy on me!"
Those who led the way rebuked him and told him to be quiet, but he shouted all the more, "Son of David, have mercy on me!"
Jesus stopped and ordered the man to be brought to him. When he came near, Jesus asked him,
  
  "What do you want me to do for you?" "Lord, I want to see," he replied.
Jesus said to him, "Receive your sight; your faith has healed you."
Immediately he received his sight and followed Jesus, praising God. When all the people saw it, they also praised God. 

Job 33,

"But now, Job, listen to my words; pay attention to everything I say.
I am about to open my mouth; my words are on the tip of my tongue.
My words come from an upright heart; my lips sincerely speak what I know.
The Spirit of God has made me; the breath of the Almighty gives me life.
Answer me then, if you can; prepare yourself and confront me.
  
  I am just like you before God; I too have been taken from clay.
No fear of me should alarm you, nor should my hand be heavy upon you.
"But you have said in my hearing-- I heard the very words-
'I am pure and without sin; I am clean and free from guilt.
Yet God has found fault with me; he considers me his enemy.
  
  He fastens my feet in shackles; he keeps close watch on all my paths.'
"But I tell you, in this you are not right, for God is greater than man.
Why do you complain to him that he answers none of man's words ?
For God does speak--now one way, now another-- though man may not perceive it.
In a dream, in a vision of the night, when deep sleep falls on men as they slumber in their beds,
  
  he may speak in their ears and terrify them with warnings,
to turn man from wrongdoing and keep him from pride,
to preserve his soul from the pit, his life from perishing by the sword.
Or a man may be chastened on a bed of pain with constant distress in his bones,
so that his very being finds food repulsive and his soul loathes the choicest meal.
  
  His flesh wastes away to nothing, and his bones, once hidden, now stick out.
His soul draws near to the pit, and his life to the messengers of death.
"Yet if there is an angel on his side as a mediator, one out of a thousand, to tell a man what is right for him,
to be gracious to him and say, 'Spare him from going down to the pit ; I have found a ransom for him'-
then his flesh is renewed like a child's; it is restored as in the days of his youth.
  
  He prays to God and finds favor with him, he sees God's face and shouts for joy; he is restored by God to his righteous state.
Then he comes to men and says, 'I sinned, and perverted what was right, but I did not get what I deserved.
He redeemed my soul from going down to the pit, and I will live to enjoy the light.'
"God does all these things to a man-- twice, even three times-
to turn back his soul from the pit, that the light of life may shine on him.
  
  "Pay attention, Job, and listen to me; be silent, and I will speak.
If you have anything to say, answer me; speak up, for I want you to be cleared.
But if not, then listen to me; be silent, and I will teach you wisdom."
 

2 Corinthians 3

Are we beginning to commend ourselves again? Or do we need, like some people, letters of recommendation to you or from you?
You yourselves are our letter, written on our hearts, known and read by everybody.
You show that you are a letter from Christ, the result of our ministry, written not with ink but with the Spirit of the living God, not on tablets of stone but on tablets of human hearts.
Such confidence as this is ours through Christ before God.
Not that we are competent in ourselves to claim anything for ourselves, but our competence comes from God.
  
  He has made us competent as ministers of a new covenant--not of the letter but of the Spirit; for the letter kills, but the Spirit gives life.
Now if the ministry that brought death, which was engraved in letters on stone, came with glory, so that the Israelites could not look steadily at the face of Moses because of its glory, fading though it was,
will not the ministry of the Spirit be even more glorious?
If the ministry that condemns men is glorious, how much more glorious is the ministry that brings righteousness!
For what was glorious has no glory now in comparison with the surpassing glory.
  
  And if what was fading away came with glory, how much greater is the glory of that which lasts!
Therefore, since we have such a hope, we are very bold.
We are not like Moses, who would put a veil over his face to keep the Israelites from gazing at it while the radiance was fading away.
But their minds were made dull, for to this day the same veil remains when the old covenant is read. It has not been removed, because only in Christ is it taken away.
Even to this day when Moses is read, a veil covers their hearts.
  
  But whenever anyone turns to the Lord, the veil is taken away.
Now the Lord is the Spirit, and where the Spirit of the Lord is, there is freedom.
And we, who with unveiled faces all reflect the Lord's glory, are being transformed into his likeness with ever-increasing glory, which comes from the Lord, who is the Spirit.