Book of Common Prayer

God is good, so thank him^[a]

This is a song that David wrote to praise God.

An alphabet of praise^[a]

Samuel anoints Saul

10 Then Samuel took a jar of oil and he poured the oil on Saul's head. He kissed Saul. He said:

‘The Lord has anointed you as the leader of his people.^[a] You will rule over them and you will rescue them from the power of their enemies. This is how you will know that the Lord has chosen you to be the leader of the Israelite people:

² After you leave me today, you will meet two men at Zelzah on the border of Benjamin's land. They will be near the grave where Rachel is buried. The men will say to you, “Someone has found the donkeys that you were looking for. Your father is no longer thinking about his donkeys. Now he is upset because he does not know where you are. He continues to ask, ‘What can I do about my son?’ ”

³ After you leave there, you will reach the big tree at Tabor. Three men will meet you there. They are going to Bethel to worship God there. One of the men will have three young goats with him. One of them will have three loaves of bread. The third man will have a bag full of wine. ⁴ They will say “hello” to you and they will offer you two loaves of bread. You must accept the bread. ⁵ Then you must go to God's special hill at Gibeah. Some Philistine soldiers have their camp there. When you reach the town, you will meet a group of prophets. They will be coming down from the hill where people worship God. They will be making music with their harps, tambourines, flutes and lyres. They will be prophesying as they go along. ⁶ Then the Lord's Spirit will come to you with power. You will start to prophesy too. You will change to become like a different person. ⁷ After you see these things happen, you must do whatever seems right to you. God will be with you.

⁸ You must go to Gilgal and then I will come there. I will join with you there to offer burnt offerings and peace offerings to God. You must wait for seven days until I come. When I arrive at Gilgal, I will tell you what you should do.’

⁹ Saul turned away to leave Samuel. At that moment, God gave Saul a new nature. Everything that Samuel had said to Saul happened that day. ¹⁰ When Saul and his servant arrived at Gibeah, a group of prophets met them. God's Spirit came on Saul with power. He started to prophesy as the prophets were doing. ¹¹ People who already knew Saul could not understand what was happening. When they saw him prophesying along with the prophets, they asked each other, ‘What has happened to this son of Kish? Has Saul himself become a prophet?’

¹² A man who lived in Gibeah asked, ‘Do you know who is the father of all these prophets?’ Because of what happened, it became a proverb to say, ‘Has Saul himself become a prophet?’ ¹³ When Saul had finished prophesying, he went up to the hill where people worship God.

¹⁴ When Saul's uncle saw Saul and his servant, he asked them, ‘Where have you been?’ Saul said, ‘We went to look for the donkeys. We could not find them so we went to visit Samuel.’

¹⁵ Saul's uncle said, ‘What did Samuel say to you?’

¹⁶ Saul replied, ‘He told us that someone had found the donkeys.’ But Saul did not tell his uncle that Samuel had said that he would become the king.

¹³ God promised to Abraham, and to his descendants, that the world would belong to them one day.^[a] God did not promise that because Abraham obeyed any rules. God promised it because Abraham believed in him. That is why God accepted Abraham as right with him. ¹⁴ People cannot get what God promised because they obey rules. If they could get it like that, then faith in God would be worth nothing. And what God promised would be worth nothing. ¹⁵ The rules in Moses' Law say that God will punish people who do not obey those rules. But without any rules, there is nothing for people to obey.

¹⁶ So God gives us his promise as a gift, because he is very kind. We receive it when we trust him. If we believe in God like Abraham did, then God accepts us. That is God's promise to all of Abraham's family. If we believe in God, we can call Abraham our ancestor. We can all receive what God has promised. It is not only for those who have Moses' Law to obey. ¹⁷ In the Bible, God said to Abraham, ‘I have chosen you to become the ancestor of many different people.’^[b] That is what God himself promises, because Abraham believed in him. God is the one who causes dead people to become alive again. He speaks about things that are not yet there as if they were already there.

¹⁸ Abraham continued to trust God. He hoped to receive what God had promised. He continued to hope even when he had no good reason to hope. That is why he became the ancestor of many different people. It happened just like God had said: ‘You will have very many descendants.’^[c]

¹⁹ Abraham was about 100 years old. His body was already so old that it was nearly dead. His wife, Sarah, was unable to have children. Abraham understood all that, but he did not stop trusting God. ²⁰ He never stopped believing what God had promised. Instead, he believed in God more strongly. He trusted God's great power. ²¹ Abraham was sure that God was able to do what he had promised to do. ²² So we see that it is true: Because Abraham believed God, God accepted Abraham as right with him.^[d]

²³ Think about those words, ‘God accepted him as right.’ They are not only speaking about Abraham. ²⁴ They are written in the Bible to help us too. If we believe in God, he will accept us as right with him. God raised our Lord Jesus, so that he became alive again after his death. ²⁵ God let people kill Jesus on the cross because of the wrong things that we have done. Then God raised Jesus from death, to show that he would accept us as right with him.

²³ Then Jesus returned to the yard of the temple. While he was teaching the people there, the leaders of the priests and important Jews went to him. They asked him, ‘What authority do you have to do these things? Tell us. Who gave you the authority to do them?’

²⁴ Jesus replied, ‘I also will ask you one question. If you tell me the answer, then I will answer your question. I will tell you what authority I have to do these things. ²⁵ John baptized people. Did God give him the authority to do this? Or did men tell him to do it?’ Then the Jewish leaders talked to each other about Jesus' question. They said, ‘We could say that God gave John his authority. But if we say that, Jesus will say to us, “Then you should have believed John.” ²⁶ But we do not want to say that only men gave John his authority. All the people think that John was a prophet from God. We are afraid that the crowd might attack us.’

²⁷ So the Jewish leaders answered Jesus: ‘We do not know who gave John his authority.’

Jesus said to them, ‘You will not answer my question. So I will not tell you what authority I have to do these things.’

Jesus tells a story about two sons

²⁸ Jesus said to the Jewish leaders, ‘Tell me what you think about this story. A man had two sons. He went to the older son and said, “Son, go and work in my field today.”

²⁹ The older son replied, “I do not want to go and work there today.” But after he had said that, he did go and work in the field.

³⁰ The man went to his other son and he said the same thing to him. The second son replied, “Yes, father, I will go.” But then he did not go to work in the field.

³¹ Tell me, which of the man's sons did what his father wanted?’

The Jewish leaders replied, ‘The older son did what his father wanted.’

Jesus said to them, ‘I tell you this: The men who take taxes from people are going into the kingdom of God before you. It is the same with prostitutes. They also are going into the kingdom of God before you. ³² John the Baptist came to show you the right way to live. You did not believe him. But the men who take taxes did believe him. Prostitutes also believed him. Even after you saw this, you did not believe him. You did not change the way that you live.’