Book of Common Prayer
The Lord's Goodness to His People
106 (A)Praise the Lord!
Give thanks to the Lord, because he is good;
his love is eternal.
2 Who can tell all the great things he has done?
Who can praise him enough?
3 Happy are those who obey his commands,
who always do what is right.
4 Remember me, Lord, when you help your people;
include me when you save them.
5 Let me see the prosperity of your people
and share in the happiness of your nation,
in the glad pride of those who belong to you.
6 We have sinned as our ancestors did;
we have been wicked and evil.
7 (B)Our ancestors in Egypt did not understand God's wonderful acts;
they forgot the many times he showed them his love,
and they rebelled against the Almighty[a] at the Red Sea.
8 But he saved them, as he had promised,
in order to show his great power.
9 (C)He gave a command to the Red Sea,
and it dried up;
he led his people across on dry land.
10 He saved them from those who hated them;
he rescued them from their enemies.
11 But the water drowned their enemies;
not one of them was left.
12 (D)Then his people believed his promises
and sang praises to him.
13 But they quickly forgot what he had done
and acted without waiting for his advice.
14 (E)They were filled with craving in the desert
and put God to the test;
15 so he gave them what they asked for,
but also sent a terrible disease among them.
16 (F)There in the desert they were jealous of Moses
and of Aaron, the Lord's holy servant.
17 Then the earth opened up and swallowed Dathan
and buried Abiram and his family;
18 fire came down on their followers
and burned up those wicked people.
19 (G)They made a gold bull-calf at Sinai
and worshiped that idol;
20 they exchanged the glory of God
for the image of an animal that eats grass.
21 They forgot the God who had saved them
by his mighty acts in Egypt.
22 What wonderful things he did there!
What amazing things at the Red Sea!
23 When God said that he would destroy his people,
his chosen servant, Moses, stood up against God
and kept his anger from destroying them.
24 (H)Then they rejected the pleasant land,
because they did not believe God's promise.
25 They stayed in their tents and grumbled
and would not listen to the Lord.
26 So he have them a solemn warning
that he would make them die in the desert
27 (I)and scatter their descendants among the heathen,
letting them die in foreign countries.
28 (J)Then at Peor, God's people joined in the worship of Baal
and ate sacrifices offered to dead gods.
29 They stirred up the Lord's anger by their actions,
and a terrible disease broke out among them.
30 But Phinehas stood up and punished the guilty,
and the plague was stopped.
31 This has been remembered in his favor ever since
and will be for all time to come.
32 (K)At the springs of Meribah the people made the Lord angry,
and Moses was in trouble on their account.
33 They made him so bitter
that he spoke without stopping to think.
34 (L)They did not kill the heathen,
as the Lord had commanded them to do,
35 but they intermarried with them
and adopted their pagan ways.
36 God's people worshiped idols,
and this caused their destruction.
37 (M)They offered their own sons and daughters
as sacrifices to the idols of Canaan.
38 (N)They killed those innocent children,
and the land was defiled by those murders.
39 They made themselves impure by their actions
and were unfaithful to God.
40 (O)So the Lord was angry with his people;
he was disgusted with them.
41 He abandoned them to the power of the heathen,
and their enemies ruled over them.
42 They were oppressed by their enemies
and were in complete subjection to them.
43 Many times the Lord rescued his people,
but they chose to rebel against him
and sank deeper into sin.
44 Yet the Lord heard them when they cried out,
and he took notice of their distress.
45 For their sake he remembered his covenant,
and because of his great love he relented.
46 He made all their oppressors
feel sorry for them.
47 (P)Save us, O Lord our God,
and bring us back from among the nations,
so that we may be thankful
and praise your holy name.
48 Praise the Lord, the God of Israel;
praise him now and forever!
Let everyone say, “Amen!”
Praise the Lord!
The King of Moab Sends for Balaam
22 The Israelites moved on and set up camp in the plains of Moab east of the Jordan and opposite Jericho.
2 When the king of Moab, Balak son of Zippor, heard what the Israelites had done to the Amorites and how many Israelites there were, 3 he and all his people became terrified. 4 The Moabites said to the leaders of the Midianites, “This horde will soon destroy everything around us, like a bull eating the grass in a pasture.” So King Balak 5 (A)sent messengers to summon Balaam son of Beor, who was at Pethor near the Euphrates River in the land of Amaw. They brought him this message from Balak: “I want you to know that a whole nation has come from Egypt; its people are spreading out everywhere and threatening to take over our land. 6 They outnumber us, so please come and put a curse on them for me. Then perhaps we will be able to defeat them and drive them out of the land. I know that when you pronounce a blessing, people are blessed, and when you pronounce a curse, they are placed under a curse.”
7 So the Moabite and Midianite leaders took with them the payment for the curse, went to Balaam, and gave him Balak's message. 8 Balaam said to them, “Spend the night here, and tomorrow I will report to you whatever the Lord tells me.” So the Moabite leaders stayed with Balaam.
9 God came to Balaam and asked, “Who are these people that are staying with you?”
10 He answered, “King Balak of Moab has sent them to tell me 11 that a people who came from Egypt has spread out over the whole land. He wants me to curse them for him, so that he can fight them and drive them out.”
12 God said to Balaam, “Do not go with them, and do not put a curse on the people of Israel, because they have my blessing.”
13 The next morning Balaam went to Balak's messengers and said, “Go back home; the Lord has refused to let me go with you.” 14 So they returned to Balak and told him that Balaam had refused to come with them.
15 Then Balak sent a larger number of leaders, who were more important than the first. 16 They went to Balaam and gave him this message from Balak: “Please don't let anything prevent you from coming to me! 17 I will reward you richly and do anything you say. Please come and curse these people for me.”
18 But Balaam answered, “Even if Balak gave me all the silver and gold in his palace, I could not disobey the command of the Lord my God in even the smallest matter. 19 But please spend the night, as the others did, so that I may learn whether or not the Lord has something else to tell me.”
20 That night God came to Balaam and said, “If these men have come to ask you to go with them, get ready and go, but do only what I tell you.” 21 So the next morning Balaam saddled his donkey and went with the Moabite leaders.
12 Sin must no longer rule in your mortal bodies, so that you obey the desires of your natural self. 13 Nor must you surrender any part of yourselves to sin to be used for wicked purposes. Instead, give yourselves to God, as those who have been brought from death to life, and surrender your whole being to him to be used for righteous purposes. 14 Sin must not be your master; for you do not live under law but under God's grace.
Slaves of Righteousness
15 What, then? Shall we sin, because we are not under law but under God's grace? By no means! 16 Surely you know that when you surrender yourselves as slaves to obey someone, you are in fact the slaves of the master you obey—either of sin, which results in death, or of obedience, which results in being put right with God. 17 But thanks be to God! For though at one time you were slaves to sin, you have obeyed with all your heart the truths found in the teaching you received. 18 You were set free from sin and became the slaves of righteousness. 19 (I use everyday language because of the weakness of your natural selves.) At one time you surrendered yourselves entirely as slaves to impurity and wickedness for wicked purposes. In the same way you must now surrender yourselves entirely as slaves of righteousness for holy purposes.
20 When you were the slaves of sin, you were free from righteousness. 21 What did you gain from doing the things that you are now ashamed of? The result of those things is death! 22 But now you have been set free from sin and are the slaves of God. Your gain is a life fully dedicated to him, and the result is eternal life. 23 For sin pays its wage—death; but God's free gift is eternal life in union with Christ Jesus our Lord.
Jesus Goes to the Temple(A)
12 Jesus went into the Temple and drove out all those who were buying and selling there. He overturned the tables of the moneychangers and the stools of those who sold pigeons, 13 (B)and said to them, “It is written in the Scriptures that God said, ‘My Temple will be called a house of prayer.’ But you are making it a hideout for thieves!”
14 The blind and the crippled came to him in the Temple, and he healed them. 15 The chief priests and the teachers of the Law became angry when they saw the wonderful things he was doing and the children shouting in the Temple, “Praise to David's Son!” 16 (C)So they asked Jesus, “Do you hear what they are saying?”
“Indeed I do,” answered Jesus. “Haven't you ever read this scripture? ‘You have trained children and babies to offer perfect praise.’”
17 Jesus left them and went out of the city to Bethany, where he spent the night.
Jesus Curses the Fig Tree(D)
18 On his way back to the city early next morning, Jesus was hungry. 19 He saw a fig tree by the side of the road and went to it, but found nothing on it except leaves. So he said to the tree, “You will never again bear fruit!” At once the fig tree dried up.
20 The disciples saw this and were astounded. “How did the fig tree dry up so quickly?” they asked.
21 (E)Jesus answered, “I assure you that if you believe and do not doubt, you will be able to do what I have done to this fig tree. And not only this, but you will even be able to say to this hill, ‘Get up and throw yourself in the sea,’ and it will. 22 If you believe, you will receive whatever you ask for in prayer.”
Good News Translation® (Today’s English Version, Second Edition) © 1992 American Bible Society. All rights reserved. For more information about GNT, visit www.bibles.com and www.gnt.bible.