Book of Common Prayer

To the director: To the tune “Shoshanim.”^[a] A maskil from the Korah family. A love song.

To the director: A song from the Korah family.

A song of praise from the Korah family.

God’s Agreement With Abram

15 After all these things happened, the word of the Lord came to Abram in a vision. God said, “Abram, don’t be afraid. I will defend you and give you a great reward.”

² But Abram said, “Lord God, there is nothing you can give me that will make me happy, because I have no son. My slave Eliezer from Damascus will get everything I own after I die.” ³ Abram said, “You have given me no son, so a slave born in my house will get everything I have.”

⁴ Then the Lord spoke to Abram and said, “That slave will not be the one to get what you have. You will have a son who will get everything you own.”

⁵ Then God led Abram outside and said, “Look at the sky. See the many stars. There are so many you cannot count them. Your family will be like that.”

⁶ Abram believed the Lord, and because of this faith the Lord accepted him as one who has done what is right. ⁷ He said to Abram, “I am the Lord who led you from Ur of Babylonia.^[a] I did this so that I could give you this land. You will own this land.”

⁸ But Abram said, “Lord God, how can I be sure that I will get this land?”

⁹ God said to Abram, “We will make an agreement. Bring me a three-year-old cow, a three-year-old goat, a three-year-old ram, a dove, and a young pigeon.”

¹⁰ Abram brought all these to God. Abram killed these animals and cut each of them into two pieces. Then he laid each half across from the other half. He did not cut the birds into two pieces. ¹¹ Later, large birds flew down to eat the animals, but Abram chased them away.

¹⁷ After the sun went down, it got very dark. The dead animals were still on the ground, each animal cut into two pieces. Then a smoking firepot^[a] and a flaming torch passed between the halves of the dead animals.^[b]

¹⁸ So on that day the Lord made a promise and an agreement with Abram. He said, “I will give this land to your descendants. I will give them the land between the River of Egypt^[c] and the great river Euphrates. ¹⁹ This is the land of the Kenites, Kenizzites, Kadmonites, ²⁰ Hittites, Perizzites, Rephaites, ²¹ Amorites, Canaanites, Girgashites, and Jebusites.”

Worship Under the Old Agreement

9 The first agreement had rules for worship and a place for worship here on earth. ² This place was inside a tent. The first area in the tent was called the Holy Place. In the Holy Place were the lamp and the table with the special bread offered to God. ³ Behind the second curtain was a room called the Most Holy Place. ⁴ In the Most Holy Place was a golden altar for burning incense. And also there was the Box of the Agreement. The Box was covered with gold. Inside this Box was a golden jar of manna and Aaron’s rod—the rod that once grew leaves. Also in the Box were the flat stones with the Ten Commandments of the old agreement on them. ⁵ Above the Box were the Cherub angels that showed God’s glory. These Cherub angels were over the place of mercy.^[a] But we cannot say everything about this now.

⁶ Everything in the tent was made ready in the way I have explained. Then the priests went into the first room every day to do their worship duties. ⁷ But only the high priest could go into the second room, and he went in only once a year. Also, he could never enter that room without taking blood with him. He offered that blood to God for himself and for the sins the people committed without knowing they were sinning.

⁸ The Holy Spirit uses those two separate rooms to teach us that the way into the Most Holy Place^[b] was not open while the first room was still there. ⁹ This is an example for us today. It shows that the gifts and sacrifices the priests offer to God are not able to make the consciences of the worshipers completely clear. ¹⁰ These gifts and sacrifices are only about food and drink and special washings. They are only rules about the body. God gave them for his people to follow until the time of his new way.

Worship Under the New Agreement

¹¹ But Christ has already come to be the high priest. He is the high priest of the good things we now have. But Christ does not serve in a place like the tent that those other priests served in. He serves in a better place. Unlike that tent, this one is perfect. It was not made by anyone here on earth. It does not belong to this world. ¹² Christ entered the Most Holy Place only one time—enough for all time. He entered the Most Holy Place by using his own blood, not the blood of goats or young bulls. He entered there and made us free from sin forever.

¹³ The blood of goats and bulls and the ashes of a cow were sprinkled on those who were no longer pure enough to enter the place of worship. The blood and ashes made them pure again—but only their bodies. ¹⁴ So surely the blood sacrifice of Christ can do much more. Christ offered himself through the eternal Spirit^[c] as a perfect sacrifice to God. His blood will make us completely clean from the evil we have done. It will give us clear consciences so that we can worship the living God.

Jesus Heals a Man at a Pool

5 Later, Jesus went to Jerusalem for a special Jewish festival. ² In Jerusalem there is a pool with five covered porches. In Aramaic it is called Bethzatha.^[a] This pool is near the Sheep Gate. ³ Many sick people were lying on the porches beside the pool. Some of them were blind, some were crippled, and some were paralyzed.^{[b] 4 [c] 5} One of the men lying there had been sick for 38 years. ⁶ Jesus saw him lying there and knew that he had been sick for a very long time. So he asked him, “Do you want to be well?”

⁷ The sick man answered, “Sir, there is no one to help me get into the water when it starts moving. I try to be the first one into the water. But when I try, someone else always goes in before I can.”

⁸ Then Jesus said, “Stand up! Pick up your mat and walk.” ⁹ Immediately the man was well. He picked up his mat and started walking.

The day all this happened was a Sabbath day. ¹⁰ So some Jews said to the man who had been healed, “Today is the Sabbath. It is against our law for you to carry your mat on the Sabbath day.”

¹¹ But he answered, “The man who made me well told me, ‘Pick up your mat and walk.’”

¹² They asked him, “Who is the man who told you to pick up your mat and walk?”

¹³ But the man who had been healed did not know who it was. There were many people there, and Jesus had left.

¹⁴ Later, Jesus found the man at the Temple and said to him, “See, you are well now. But stop sinning or something worse may happen to you!”

¹⁵ Then the man left and went back to the Jews who questioned him. He told them that Jesus was the one who made him well.

¹⁶ Jesus was doing all this on the Sabbath day. So these Jews began trying to make him stop. ¹⁷ But he said to them, “My Father never stops working, and so I work too.”

¹⁸ This made them even more determined to kill him. They thought it was bad enough that he was breaking the law about the Sabbath day. And now he was saying that God is his Father, making himself equal with God!