Book of Common Prayer
The Lord’s Wonderful Works in Behalf of Israel.
105 O give thanks to the Lord, call upon His name;
Make known His deeds among the people.
2
Sing to Him, sing praises to Him;
Speak of all His wonderful acts and devoutly praise them.
3
Glory in His holy name;
Let the hearts of those who seek and require the Lord [as their most essential need] rejoice.
4
Seek and deeply long for the Lord and His strength [His power, His might];
Seek and deeply long for His face and His presence continually.
5
Remember [with awe and gratitude] the wonderful things which He has done,
His amazing deeds and the judgments uttered by His mouth [on His enemies, as in Egypt],(A)
6
O you offspring of Abraham, His servant,
O you sons of Jacob, His chosen ones!
7
He is the Lord our God;
His judgments are in all the earth.
8
He has remembered His covenant forever,
The word which He commanded and established to a [a]thousand generations,
9
The covenant which He made with Abraham,
And His sworn oath to Isaac,(B)
10
Which He confirmed to Jacob as a statute,
To Israel as an everlasting covenant,
11
Saying, “To you I will give the land of Canaan
As the measured portion of your inheritance.”
12
When there were only a few men in number,
Very few [in fact], and strangers in it;
13
And they wandered from one nation to another,
From one kingdom to another people,
14
He allowed no man to oppress them;
He rebuked kings for their sakes, saying,(C)
15
“Do not touch My anointed ones,
And do My prophets no harm.”(D)
16
And He called for a famine upon the land [of Egypt];
He [b]cut off every source of bread.(E)
17
He sent a man before them,
Joseph, who was sold as a slave.(F)
18
His feet they hurt with shackles;
[c]He was put in chains of iron,
19
Until the time that his word [of prophecy regarding his brothers] came true,
The word of the Lord tested and refined him.
20
The king sent and released him,
The ruler of the peoples [of Egypt], and set him free.
21
He made Joseph lord of his house
And ruler of all his possessions,(G)
22
To imprison his princes at his will,
That he might teach his elders wisdom.
23
Israel also came into Egypt;
Thus Jacob sojourned in the land of Ham.(H)
24
There the Lord greatly increased [the number of] His people,
And made them more powerful than their enemies.
25
He turned the heart [of the Egyptians] to hate His people,
To deal craftily with His servants.
26
He sent Moses His servant,
And Aaron, whom He had chosen.
27
They exhibited His wondrous signs among them,
Great miracles in the land of Ham (Egypt).
28
He sent [thick, oppressive] darkness and made the land dark;
And Moses and Aaron did not rebel against His words.(I)
29
He turned Egypt’s waters into blood
And caused their fish to die.(J)
30
Their land swarmed with frogs,
Even in the chambers of their kings.(K)
31
He spoke, and there came swarms of flies
And gnats in all their territory.(L)
32
He gave them hail for rain,
With flaming fire in their land.(M)
33
He struck their vines also and their fig trees,
And shattered the [ice-laden] trees of their territory.(N)
34
He spoke, and the [migratory] locusts came,
And the young locusts, even without number,(O)
35
And ate up all the vegetation in their land,
And devoured the fruit of their ground.
36
He also struck down all the firstborn in their land,
The first fruits and chief substance of all their strength.(P)
37
He brought the sons of Israel out [of Egypt] with silver and gold,
And among their tribes there was not one who stumbled.(Q)
38
Egypt was glad when they departed,
For the dread and fear of them had fallen on the Egyptians.(R)
39
The Lord spread a cloud as a covering [by day],
And a fire to illumine the night.(S)
40
The Israelites asked, and He brought quail,
And satisfied them with the bread of heaven.(T)
41
He opened the rock and water flowed out;
It ran in the dry places like a river.(U)
42
For He remembered His holy word
To Abraham His servant;(V)
43
He brought out His people with joy,
And His chosen ones with a joyful shout,
44
He gave them the lands of the nations [of Canaan],
So that they would possess the fruits of those peoples’ labor,(W)
45
So that they might observe His precepts
And keep His laws [obediently accepting and honoring and valuing them].
Praise the Lord! (Hallelujah!)
People Affirm Their Covenant with God
24 Then God said to Moses, “Come up to the Lord, you and Aaron, Nadab and Abihu (Aaron’s older sons), and seventy of Israel’s elders, and you shall worship at a [safe] distance. 2 Moses alone shall approach the Lord, but the others shall not come near, nor shall the people come up with him.”
3 Then Moses came and told the people everything that the Lord had said and all the ordinances. And all the people answered with one voice, “Everything the Lord has said we will do.” 4 Moses wrote down all the words of the Lord. Then he got up early in the morning, and built an altar [for worship] at the foot of the mountain with twelve pillars (memorial stones) representing the twelve tribes of Israel. 5 Then he sent young Israelite men, and they offered burnt offerings and sacrificed young bulls as peace offerings to the Lord. 6 Moses took half of the blood and put it in large basins, and [the other] half of the blood he sprinkled on the altar. 7 Then he took the Book of the Covenant and read it aloud to the people; and they said, “Everything that the Lord has said we will do, and we will be obedient.” 8 So Moses took the blood [which had been placed in the large basins] and sprinkled it on the people, and said, “Behold the blood of the covenant, which the Lord has made with you in accordance with all these words.”(A)
9 Then Moses, Aaron, Nadab, and Abihu, and seventy of the elders of Israel went up [the mountainside], 10 and they saw [a manifestation of] the God of Israel; and under His feet there appeared to be a pavement of sapphire, just as clear as the sky itself.(B) 11 Yet He did not stretch out His hand against the nobles of the Israelites; and they saw [the manifestation of the presence of] God, and ate and drank.(C)
12 Now the Lord said to Moses, “Come up to Me on the mountain and stay there, and I will give you the stone tablets with the law and the commandments which I have written for their instruction.”(D) 13 So Moses [a]arose with Joshua his attendant, and he went up to the mountain of God. 14 And he said to the elders, “Wait here for us until we come back to you. Remember that Aaron and Hur are with you; whoever has a legal matter, let him go to them.” 15 Then Moses went up to the mountain, and the cloud covered the mountain. 16 The glory and brilliance of the Lord rested on Mount Sinai, and the cloud covered it for six days. On the seventh day God called to Moses from the midst of the cloud. 17 In the sight of the Israelites the appearance of the glory and brilliance of the Lord was like consuming fire on the top of the mountain. 18 Moses entered the midst of the cloud and went up the mountain; and he was on the mountain forty days and forty nights.
8 See to it that no one takes you captive through philosophy and empty deception [pseudo-intellectual babble], according to the tradition [and musings] of mere men, following the [a]elementary principles of this world, rather than following [the truth—the teachings of] Christ. 9 For in Him all the fullness of Deity (the Godhead) dwells in bodily form [completely expressing the divine essence of God]. 10 And in Him you have been made complete [achieving spiritual stature through Christ], and He is the head over all rule and authority [of every angelic and earthly power]. 11 In Him you were also circumcised with a circumcision not made with hands, but by the [spiritual] circumcision of Christ in the stripping off of the body of the flesh [the sinful carnal nature], 12 having been buried with Him in baptism and raised with Him [to a new life] through [your] faith in the working of God, [as displayed] when He raised Christ from the dead. 13 When you were dead in your sins and in the uncircumcision of your flesh (worldliness, manner of life), God made you alive together with Christ, having [freely] forgiven us all our sins, 14 having canceled out the [b]certificate of debt consisting of [c]legal demands [which were in force] against us and which were hostile to us. And this certificate He has set aside and completely removed by nailing it to the cross. 15 When He had disarmed the rulers and authorities [those supernatural forces of evil operating against us], He made a public example of them [exhibiting them as captives in His triumphal procession], having triumphed over them through [d]the cross.
16 Therefore let no one judge you in regard to food and drink or in regard to [the observance of] a festival or a new moon or a Sabbath day. 17 Such things are only a shadow of what is to come and they have only symbolic value; but the substance [the reality of what is foreshadowed] belongs to Christ. 18 Let no one defraud you of your prize [your freedom in Christ and your salvation] by insisting on mock humility and the worship of angels, going into detail about visions [he claims] he has seen [to justify his authority], puffed up [in conceit] by his unspiritual mind, 19 and not holding fast to the head [of the body, Jesus Christ], from whom the entire body, supplied and knit together by its joints and ligaments, grows with the growth [that can come only] from God.
20 If you have died with Christ to the [e]elementary principles of the world, why, as if you were still living in the world, do you submit to rules and regulations, such as, 21 “Do not handle [this], do not taste [that], do not [even] touch!”? 22 (these things all perish with use)—in accordance with the commandments and teachings of men.(A) 23 These practices indeed have the appearance [that popularly passes as that] of wisdom in self-made religion and mock humility and severe treatment of the body (asceticism), but are of no value against sinful indulgence [because they do not honor God].
Jesus Begins His Ministry
12 Now when Jesus heard that John [the Baptist] had been arrested and put in prison, He left for Galilee. 13 And leaving Nazareth, He went and settled in Capernaum, which is by the sea, in the country of Zebulun and Naphtali.(A) 14 This was to fulfill what was spoken by the prophet Isaiah:
15
“The land of Zebulun and the land of Naphtali,
By the way of the sea, beyond the Jordan, Galilee [in the district] of the Gentiles—
16
“The people who were sitting (living) in [spiritual] darkness have seen a great Light,
And for those who were sitting (living) in the land and shadow of [spiritual and moral] death,
Upon them a Light has dawned.”(B)
17 From that time Jesus began to preach and say, “[a]Repent [change your inner self—your old way of thinking, regret past sins, live your life in a way that proves repentance; seek God’s purpose for your life], for the kingdom of heaven is at hand.”
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