Book of Common Prayer

The first exodus

10 I don’t want you to be ignorant, my brothers and sisters, that our fathers were all under the cloud and all went through the sea. ² They were all baptized into Moses in the cloud and in the sea. ³ They all ate the same spiritual food ⁴ and drank the same spiritual drink. They drank, you see, from the spiritual rock that followed them, and the rock was the Messiah. ⁵ But God wasn’t pleased with most of them, as you can tell by the fact that he laid them low in the desert.

Don’t make the same mistake again!

⁶ Now these things were patterns for us, so that we should not start to crave for wicked things as they did. ⁷ Nor should we commit idolatry, as some of them did—as the Bible says, “The people sat down to eat and drink, and got up to play.” ⁸ Nor should we become immoral, like some of them became immoral, and twenty-three thousand fell on a single day. ⁹ Nor should we put the Messiah to the test, as some of them put him to the test, and were destroyed by serpents. ¹⁰ Nor should we grumble, as some of them grumbled and were destroyed by the destroyer.

¹¹ Now these things happened to them as a pattern, and they were written for our instruction, since it’s upon us that the ends of the ages have now come. ¹² As a result, anyone who reckons they are standing upright should watch out in case they fall over. ¹³ Every test that comes upon you is normal for human beings. But God is faithful: he won’t let you be tested beyond your ability. Along with the testing, he will provide the way of escape, so that you can bear it.

¹⁸ When Jesus saw the crowd all around him, he told them to go across to the other side of the lake. ¹⁹ A scribe came up and spoke to him.

“Teacher,” he said, “I will follow you wherever you go!”

²⁰ “Foxes have their dens,” replied Jesus, “and the birds in the sky have their nests. But the son of man has nowhere he can lay his head.”

²¹ “Master,” said another of his disciples, “let me first go and see to my father’s funeral.”

²² “Follow me!” replied Jesus. “And leave the dead to bury their own dead.”

The calming of the storm

²³ So Jesus got into the boat, and his disciples followed him. ²⁴ All of a sudden a great storm blew up on the sea, so that the boat was being swamped by the waves. Jesus, however, was asleep. ²⁵ They came and woke him up.

“Help! Master! Rescue us!” they shouted. “We’re done for!”

²⁶ “Why are you so scared, you little-faith lot?” he replied.

Then he got up and told the wind and the sea to behave themselves, and there was a great calm. ²⁷ They were all astonished.

“What sort of man is this,” they said, “that the winds and the sea do what he says?”