Book of Common Prayer

The Word of God

ALEPH^[a]

BETH

GIMEL

This is a song that David wrote for the music leader.

A prayer for help

This is a song that David wrote for the music leader.

A prayer for help^[b]

This is a song that David wrote for the music leader.

God rules the world

Solomon asks for wisdom

3 Solomon made an agreement with Pharaoh, who was the king of Egypt.^[a] Solomon married Pharaoh's daughter. He brought her to live in the City of David.^[b] She lived there until Solomon could finish building his own house, the Lord's temple, and the wall around Jerusalem.

² Because there was not yet a temple where people could give honour to the Lord, they offered sacrifices at altars in other places.

³ Solomon loved the Lord and he obeyed the rules of his father David. But he offered sacrifices and he burned incense at altars in country places.^{[c] 4} The king went to Gibeon to offer sacrifices there.^[d] That was the place where the most important altar was. Solomon offered burnt offerings a thousand times on the altar there. ⁵ One night in Gibeon, the Lord showed himself to Solomon in a dream. God said, ‘Ask me to give you whatever you want.’

⁶ Solomon answered, ‘You always showed your faithful love to your servant, my father David. He served you faithfully as a good, honest man. You have continued to show your faithful love to him even now. You have given him a son to rule as king on his throne. ⁷ Lord my God, I am only a young man. I have not learned how to rule well. But you have now made me become king, as my father David was king.^{[e] 8} I am here as your servant to lead the people that you have chosen for yourself. It is a great nation and it has too many people to count. ⁹ So please give me a wise mind that understands things well. Then I will be able to rule your people properly. I will know the difference between right things and wrong things. I will only be able to rule this great nation of your people if you do that for me.’

¹⁰ The Lord God was pleased that Solomon had asked for this. ^11-12 So God said to him, ‘You have not asked me to give you a long life, or to make you very rich. You have not asked me to punish your enemies with death. Instead you have asked for a wise mind so that you can rule well. Because of that, I will give you what you have asked for. Yes, I now give to you a wise mind that understands things well. You will be wiser than anyone who has already lived and wiser than anyone who will live after you.

¹³ I will give you even more than this. I will make you rich and famous, even though you did not ask for that. As long as you live, there will be no other king who is greater than you. ¹⁴ And if you serve me faithfully, I will also give you a long life. But you must obey my rules and my commands, as your father David did.’

¹⁵ Then Solomon woke up. He realized that it was a dream. He returned to Jerusalem and he stood in front of the Lord's Covenant Box. He offered burnt offerings and peace offerings to God there. Then he gave a feast for all his officers.

⁹ We remained there for many days. By then it had become dangerous to continue the journey. It was already after the Day of Atonement.^[a]

So Paul spoke to the army officer and to the sailors. ¹⁰ He said, ‘Friends, I understand that now our journey will be dangerous. The ship may break in pieces. You may lose the things that the ship is carrying. All of us may even die.’ ¹¹ But the army officer did not believe what Paul said. Instead, he decided to do what the owner of the ship and the captain said.^[b]

¹² This port was not a good place for a ship to remain during the winter. Most of the men on the ship wanted to continue the journey. They wanted to sail as far as Phoenix, if they could get there. They could stay there for the winter. Phoenix was a port on the island called Crete. It was open to the sea both to the south-west and to the north-west.^[c]

The ship is in a storm

¹³ The wind began to blow from the south, but it was not strong. So the sailors thought, ‘Now we can do what we wanted to do. We can sail to Phoenix.’ So they pulled up the ship's anchor and left the port. Then we sailed as near as we could to the coast of Crete.

¹⁴ But soon a very strong wind began to blow. This wind blew from the north-east and it blew strongly across the island. ¹⁵ The storm hit the ship very powerfully. It was not possible for the sailors to sail the ship straight into the wind. So they did not try to do that any more. Instead, they let the wind blow the ship along. ¹⁶ After that, we passed the south end of a small island called Cauda. Here we found a place where the wind did not blow so strongly. The sailors lifted the ship's small boat out of the water to make it safe. ¹⁷ They tied it on the ship with ropes. Then they tied some more ropes under the ship so that it would not break in pieces. The men were afraid of what might happen. There were some places along the coast of Libya where the water was not very deep. The ship might hit one of these places and then it might break. So they took the ship's largest sail down. Then they let the wind blow the ship along. ¹⁸ The strong storm continued to blow against the ship. The ship was carrying many things. So the next day, the sailors threw some of these things into the sea. ¹⁹ The day after that, they took hold of the sails and ropes and they threw them into the sea. ²⁰ For many days, we did not see the sun or any stars.^[d] The storm continued to blow strongly. So then we thought, ‘It is not possible for us to remain alive.’

²¹ The men on the ship had not eaten any food for a long time. So Paul stood in front of them and he said, ‘Men, you should have listened to me! We should not have sailed away from Crete. If we had not left there, the ship and everything on it would still be safe. ²² Now I ask you, please be brave. The storm will completely destroy the ship, but not one of you will die. ²³ Last night one of God's angels spoke to me. I am a servant of God and I belong to him. He sent his angel to come to me. ²⁴ The angel said, “Paul, do not be afraid. You must go to Rome and Caesar will judge you there. Because of you, God will be kind to all the people on the ship with you. None of them will die.” ²⁵ Because of the angel's message, I say to you, “Be brave, my friends!” I trust God. I know that everything will happen in the way that the angel told me. ²⁶ But the wind will blow the ship so that we hit an island.’

The Jewish leaders want to kill Jesus

14 It was now two days before the Passover festival. It was the time when Jews eat flat bread which has no yeast in it.^[a] The leaders of the priests and the teachers of God's Law wanted to kill Jesus. But they wanted to take hold of him secretly. So they tried to decide how they could do that. ² They said to each other, ‘We do not want to do it during the festival. If we do that, the people will be angry. Then they may fight against us.’

A woman pours special oil on Jesus' head

³ Then Jesus went to Bethany, and he visited Simon at his house. At one time, Simon had had a bad disease of the skin. While Jesus was eating a meal there, a woman came into the house. She brought a small stone jar that contained expensive oil with a very nice smell. They used nard to make it. The woman broke the jar to open it. Then she poured the oil over Jesus' head.^[b]

⁴ But some people became angry. They said to each other, ‘This woman should not have wasted the oil. ⁵ She could have sold it and she could have given the money to poor people. She could have sold it for more than 300 coins. A man would have to work for a year to get that much money.’ So they spoke angrily to the woman.

⁶ But Jesus said, ‘Do not speak to her like that! Do not cause trouble for her. She has done a good thing to me. ⁷ You will always have poor people with you. You can help them at any time that you want. But you will not always have me with you. ⁸ This woman did what she was able to do. She poured oil over my body. So now, my body will be ready for people to bury me. ⁹ I tell you this: Everywhere in the world, people will speak about God's good news. At the same time, they will also tell people about the good thing that this woman has done. And so they will remember her.’

Judas agrees to help the leaders of the priests

¹⁰ Then Judas Iscariot went to the leaders of the priests. He said that he would help them to catch Jesus. (Judas was one of Jesus' 12 apostles.) ¹¹ The leaders of the priests were very happy about this. They promised to give Judas some money. Then Judas waited for the right moment to help them to take hold of Jesus.