Book of Common Prayer
106 Praise the Lord!
Give thanks to the Lord because he is good!
His faithful love will last forever!
2 No one can describe how great the Lord really is.
No one can praise him enough.
3 Those who obey his commands are happy.
They do good things all the time.
4 Lord, remember me when you show kindness to your people.
Remember to save me too!
5 Let me share in the good things
that you do for your chosen people.
Let me rejoice with your nation.
Let me join with your people in praise.
6 We sinned just as our ancestors did.
We were wrong; we did bad things!
7 Lord, our ancestors learned nothing
from the miracles you did in Egypt.
They forgot your kindness at the Red Sea
and rebelled against you.
8 But the Lord saved our ancestors for the honor of his name.
He saved them to show his great power.
9 He gave the command, and the Red Sea became dry.
He led them through the deep sea on land as dry as the desert.
10 He saved our ancestors
and rescued them from their enemies.
11 He covered their enemies with the sea.
Not one of them escaped!
12 Then our ancestors believed what he had said.
They sang praises to him.
13 But they quickly forgot about what he did.
They did not listen to his advice.
14 They became hungry in the desert,
and they tested him in the wilderness.
15 He gave them what they asked for,
but he also gave them a terrible disease.
16 The people became jealous of Moses.
They became jealous of Aaron, the Lord’s holy priest.
17 The ground opened up and swallowed Dathan.
Then the ground closed up and covered Abiram’s group.
18 Then a fire burned that mob of people.
It burned those wicked people.
19 The people made a golden calf at Mount Horeb.
They worshiped a statue!
20 They traded their glorious God
for a statue of a grass-eating bull!
21 They forgot all about God, the one who saved them,
the one who did the miracles in Egypt.
22 He did amazing things there in Ham’s country[a]!
He did awesome things at the Red Sea!
23 God wanted to destroy those people,
but Moses, the leader he chose, stood in the way.
God was very angry, but Moses begged him to stop,
so God did not destroy the people.[b]
24 But then they refused to go into the wonderful land of Canaan.
They did not believe that God would help them defeat the people there.
25 Our ancestors complained in their tents
and refused to obey the Lord.
26 So he swore that they would die
in the desert.
27 He promised to scatter them among the nations
and to let other people defeat their descendants.
28 At Baal Peor they joined in worshiping Baal
and ate sacrifices to honor the dead.[c]
29 The Lord became angry with his people,
so he made them sick.
30 But Phinehas prayed[d] to God,
and God stopped the sickness.
31 He considered what Phinehas did a good work,
and it will be remembered forever and ever.
32 At Meribah the people made the Lord angry
and created trouble for Moses.
33 They upset Moses,
and he spoke without stopping to think.
34 The Lord told the people to destroy the other nations living in Canaan.
But the Israelites did not obey him.
35 They mixed with the other people
and did what those people were doing.
36 They began worshiping the false gods those people worshiped.
And their idols became a trap.
37 They even offered their own children
as sacrifices to demons.
38 They killed their innocent sons and daughters
and offered them to the false gods of Canaan.
So the land was polluted with the sin of murder.
39 They were unfaithful to him,
and they became dirty with the sins of other nations.
40 So the Lord became angry with his people.
He rejected those who belonged to him.
41 He gave his people to other nations
and let their enemies rule over them.
42 Their enemies controlled them
and made life hard for them.
43 He saved his people many times,
but they turned against him and did what they wanted to do.
His people did many bad things.
44 But whenever they were in trouble,
he listened to their prayers.
45 He always remembered his agreement,
and because of his faithful love, he comforted them.
46 Other nations took them as prisoners,
but the Lord caused them to be kind to his people.
47 Lord our God, save us!
Bring us back together from those nations.
Then we will give thanks to your holy name
and joyfully praise you.
48 Praise the Lord, the God of Israel!
He always was and will always be worthy of praise.
Let all the people say, “Amen!”
Praise the Lord!
Balaam and the King of Moab
22 Then the Israelites traveled to the Jordan Valley in Moab. They camped near the Jordan River across from Jericho.
2-3 Balak son of Zippor saw everything the Israelites had done to the Amorites. The king of Moab was very frightened of the Israelites because there were so many of them. He was very afraid.
4 The king of Moab said to the leaders of Midian, “This large group of people will destroy everything around us, the way an ox eats all the grass in a field.”
Balak son of Zippor was the king of Moab at this time. 5 He sent some men to Balaam son of Beor. Balaam was at Pethor, near the Euphrates River. This was where Balaam’s people lived.[a] This was Balak’s message:
“A new nation of people has come out of Egypt. There are so many people that they cover all the land. They have camped next to me. 6 Come and help me. These people are too powerful for me. I know that you have great power. If you bless people, good things happen to them. And if you curse people, bad things happen to them. So come and curse these people. Maybe then I will be able to defeat them and force them to leave my country.”
7 The leaders of Moab and Midian left. They went to talk to Balaam. They carried with them money to pay him for his service.[b] Then they told him what Balak had said.
8 Balaam said to them, “Stay here for the night. I will talk to the Lord and tell you the answer he gives me.” So the leaders of Moab stayed there with Balaam that night.
9 God came to Balaam and asked, “Who are these men with you?”
10 Balaam said to God, “The king of Moab, Balak son of Zippor, sent them to give me a message. 11 This is the message: A new nation of people has come out of Egypt. There are so many people that they cover the land. So come and curse these people. Then maybe I will be able to fight them and force them to leave my land.”
12 But God said to Balaam, “Don’t go with them. You must not curse those people. They are my people.”
13 The next morning Balaam got up and said to leaders from Balak, “Go back to your own country. The Lord will not let me go with you.”
14 So the leaders of Moab went back to Balak and told him this. They said, “Balaam refused to come with us.”
15 So Balak sent other leaders to Balaam. This time he sent many more than the first time. And these leaders were much more important than the first ones he sent. 16 They went to Balaam and said, “This is what Balak son of Zippor says to you: Please don’t let anything stop you from coming. 17 I will pay you very much,[c] and I will do whatever you ask. Come and curse these people for me.”
18 Balaam gave Balak’s officials his answer. He said, “I must obey the Lord my God. I cannot do anything, great or small, against his command. Even if King Balak gives me his beautiful home filled with silver and gold, I will not do anything against the Lord’s command. 19 But you can stay here tonight like the other men did, and during the night I will learn what the Lord wants to tell me.”
20 That night, God came to Balaam. God said, “These men have come again to ask you to go with them. So you can go with them. But do only what I tell you to do.”
Balaam and His Donkey
21 The next morning, Balaam got up, put a saddle on his donkey, and went with the Moabite leaders.
12 But don’t let sin control your life here on earth. You must not be ruled by the things your sinful self makes you want to do. 13 Don’t offer the parts of your body to serve sin. Don’t use your bodies to do evil, but offer yourselves to God, as people who have died and now live. Offer the parts of your body to God to be used for doing good. 14 Sin will not be your master, because you are not under law. You now live under God’s grace.
Slaves of Goodness
15 So what should we do? Should we sin because we are under grace and not under law? Certainly not! 16 Surely you know that you become the slaves of whatever you give yourselves to. Anything or anyone you follow will be your master. You can follow sin, or you can obey God. Following sin brings spiritual death, but obeying God makes you right with him. 17 In the past you were slaves to sin—sin controlled you. But thank God, you fully obeyed what you were taught. 18 You were made free from sin, and now you are slaves to what is right. 19 I use this example from everyday life because you need help in understanding spiritual truths. In the past you offered the parts of your body to be slaves to your immoral and sinful thoughts. The result was that you lived only for sin. In the same way, you must now offer yourselves to be slaves to what is right. Then you will live only for God.
20 In the past you were slaves to sin, and you did not even think about doing right. 21 You did evil things, and now you are ashamed of what you did. Did those things help you? No, they only brought death. 22 But now you are free from sin. You have become slaves of God, and the result is that you live only for God. This will bring you eternal life. 23 When people sin, they earn what sin pays—death. But God gives his people a free gift—eternal life in Christ Jesus our Lord.
Jesus Goes to the Temple(A)
12 Jesus went into the Temple area. He threw out all those who were selling and buying things there. He turned over the tables that belonged to those who were exchanging different kinds of money. And he turned over the benches of those who were selling doves. 13 Jesus said to them, “The Scriptures say, ‘My Temple will be called a house of prayer.’[a] But you are changing it into a ‘hiding place for thieves.’[b]”
14 Some blind people and some who were crippled came to Jesus in the Temple area. Jesus healed them. 15 The leading priests and the teachers of the law saw the wonderful things he was doing. And they saw the children praising him in the Temple area. The children were shouting, “Praise to the Son of David.” All this made the priests and the teachers of the law angry.
16 They asked Jesus, “Do you hear what these children are saying?”
He answered, “Yes. The Scriptures say, ‘You have taught children and babies to give praise.’[c] Have you not read that Scripture?”
17 Then Jesus left them and went out of the city to Bethany, where he spent the night.
Jesus Shows the Power of Faith(B)
18 Early the next morning, Jesus was going back to the city. He was very hungry. 19 He saw a fig tree beside the road and went to get a fig from it. But there were no figs on the tree. There were only leaves. So Jesus said to the tree, “You will never again produce fruit!” The tree immediately dried up and died.
20 When the followers saw this, they were very surprised. They asked, “How did the fig tree dry up and die so quickly?”
21 Jesus answered, “The truth is, if you have faith and no doubts, you will be able to do the same as I did to this tree. And you will be able to do more. You will be able to say to this mountain, ‘Go, mountain, fall into the sea.’ And if you have faith, it will happen. 22 If you believe, you will get anything you ask for in prayer.”
Copyright © 2006 by Bible League International