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

Moses speaks to the people

1 These are the words that Moses spoke to all the Israelites.^[a] They were together in the desert on the east side of the Jordan River. This is in the Jordan Valley near Suph. It is between the towns called Paran, Tophel, Laban, Hazeroth and Dizahab. ² (It is a journey of 11 days from Sinai to Kadesh-Barnea, along the road past Mount Seir.)^{[b] 3} Moses spoke to the Israelites on the first day of the 11th month, in the 40th year of their journey. He told the Israelites the message that the Lord had commanded him to speak.^[c]

⁴ This happened after Moses and the Israelites had won against Sihon, king of the Amorites.^[d] Sihon ruled in Heshbon. They had also won against Og, the king of Bashan, who ruled in Ashtaroth. The Israelites fought against him at Edrei. ⁵ Moses began to speak the Lord's message on the east side of the Jordan River, in Moab's country. This is what he said:

⁶ The Lord our God said to us at Sinai, ‘You have stayed for a long time near this mountain. ⁷ Now you must continue your journey. Go to the hill country of the Amorites and to all the regions near there. Go to the Jordan Valley and the mountains and the low hills in the west. Go to the Negev in the south, and to the Mediterranean coast. Go to the land of Canaan and to Lebanon, even as far as the great Euphrates river. ⁸ Look! I have given you all this land. Go there and take it for yourselves. I, the Lord, promised to give this land to your ancestors, Abraham, Isaac and Jacob, and to their descendants.’

Moses chooses leaders

⁹ At that time I, Moses, said this to you: ‘I cannot lead you and help you by myself. It is too difficult for me to do alone. ¹⁰ The Lord your God has caused you to become very many people. You are as many as the stars in the sky! ¹¹ I pray that the Lord, your ancestors' God, will cause you to become a thousand times as many people. That is how he has promised to bless you. ¹² But I cannot help you with your troubles and arguments all by myself. ¹³ You must choose some wise men who understand what is right. Choose people that you know, from each of your tribes. Then I will give them authority as your leaders.’

¹⁴ You answered me, ‘That is a good idea!’

¹⁵ So I chose men that you knew were wise to be the leaders in your tribes. I gave them authority to rule over you. Some were leaders of groups of 1,000 men. Some led groups of 100 men, or 50 men, or ten men. I also chose other officers for each tribe.

¹⁶ At that time, I said to your leaders, ‘Listen to the arguments between the Israelites that you lead. Decide what is right. Do that when the argument is between two Israelites. Do the same thing when the argument is between an Israelite and a foreign person who lives among you. ¹⁷ When you judge them, do not make any difference between important people and poor people. Listen to all of them in a careful way. Do not be afraid of anyone. God is the one who decides what is right. If it is too difficult for you to decide who is right, bring it to me. I will listen and then I will decide what is right.’

¹⁸ So, at that time, I told you about everything that you should do.

The Jews have not believed in Christ

9 What I am telling you is true. I speak as someone who belongs to Christ. I am not telling lies. God's Holy Spirit rules my thoughts and I am sure that I am right. ² I tell you this: Deep inside myself, I am always very sad and upset because of Israel's people. ³ I belong to the same family as they do. They are my own people. I really want them to believe in Christ too. If it would help them, I would even ask God to curse me. I would ask him to make me separate from Christ.

⁴ They are Israelite people. God chose them to belong to him as his own children. He showed them that he is very great. He made many agreements with them and he gave his Law to them. He showed them how they should worship him. He promised many good things to them. ⁵ It was their ancestors that God chose to make great many years ago.^[a] And Christ himself, as a man, was born to an Israelite family. Christ is God, who rules over all things. We should praise him for ever! This is true! Amen.

⁶ God promised good things to Israel's people. But I am not saying that what God promised did not happen. It is clear that not all of Israel's people are God's true people. ⁷ Not all of them are true descendants of Abraham. God told Abraham, ‘It is only Isaac that I will call the father of your descendants.’

⁸ This means that not all of Abraham's children are really God's children. It is only those children who were born as a result of God's promise. Only they are the people that God calls true descendants. ⁹ This is what God promised to Abraham: ‘At this time next year I will come back. Then Sarah, your wife, will have a son.’^[b]

¹⁰ Remember this too: Later, Isaac's wife, Rebekah, gave birth to twins. Those two sons had the same father, who was our ancestor, Isaac. ¹¹ And God spoke to Rebekah before her sons were born. God spoke before the boys had done anything either good or bad. God did this to show clearly that he himself was choosing one child. He was not choosing someone because of what that person had done. He himself decided who he would choose. ¹² God said to Rebekah, ‘The older son will serve the younger son.’ ¹³ This is written in the Bible: ‘I loved Jacob, but I hated Esau.’^[c]

¹⁴ Because of this, someone might say that God is not fair. No! We should never say that! ¹⁵ Think about this. God said to Moses, ‘I will be kind to whoever I choose to be kind to. I will feel sorry for whoever I choose to feel sorry for.’^{[d] 16} So then, it is God who decides these things. It is not because of what people want. It is not because of what people do. It is because God chooses to be kind.

¹⁷ The Bible tells us what God said to Pharaoh: ‘This is why I caused you to be king of Egypt. My purpose was to show how powerful I am. As a result, people everywhere would know that I am great.’^{[e] 18} So we see this: God is kind to some people and he forgives them. But he causes some people, like Pharaoh, to turn against him. He chooses what he will do with each person.

²⁷ It will be very bad for you, teachers of God's law and Pharisees. You are hypocrites! You are like a grave that has nice white paint on the outside and it looks beautiful. But on the inside it is full of bones and disgusting things. ²⁸ You are the same as that. Other people look at you. They think that you are good and you obey God. But on the inside you are hypocrites. Your minds are full of many bad thoughts.

²⁹ It will be very bad for you, teachers of God's Law and Pharisees. You are hypocrites! You build up the places where people have buried God's prophets. You make the places where they have buried good people to be beautiful. ³⁰ You say, “Our ancestors killed God's prophets long ago. If we had lived at that time, we would not have helped our ancestors to do that.” ³¹ So you are speaking against yourselves. You show that you are the sons of those people who killed God's prophets. ³² Now you must finish the work that your ancestors began to do!

³³ You are like a family of dangerous snakes! You will not be able to run away. God will surely punish you, and he will send you to hell. ³⁴ So listen to this. God says, “I will send prophets to you. I will also send to you people who know many things. And I will send people to teach you what is true. But you will kill some of these people. You will kill some of them on a cross. In the places where you meet to pray, you will hit some of them with whips. They will run from one town to another town, but you will follow them.” ³⁵ Because of all this, God will punish you for all the good people that you and your ancestors have killed. Long ago, Abel was the first of those good people. You also killed Zechariah, the son of Berekiah. He died in the yard of the temple near the altar.^{[a] 36} Yes, I tell you this: God will punish the people who are alive today for all those murders.

³⁷ Jerusalem, Jerusalem! Your people have killed God's prophets. They have thrown stones to kill other people that God has sent to you. Many times, I have wanted to bring all of your people near to me. A female bird covers her babies with her body to make them safe. But you would not let me keep you from danger like that. ³⁸ So listen! Your place will now become like a wilderness where nobody lives. ³⁹ And I tell you this. You will not see me again until the day when you say, “May the Lord God bless the man who comes with his authority!” ’^[b]