Book of Common Prayer
The Unfaithfulness of God’s People
106 Hallelujah!
Give thanks to the Lord,
since he is good,
for his gracious love exists forever.
2 Who can fully describe the mighty acts of the Lord
or proclaim all his praises?
3 How happy are those who enforce justice,
who live righteously all the time.
4 Remember me, Lord,
when you show favor to your people.
Visit us with your deliverance,
5 to witness the prosperity of your chosen ones,
to rejoice in your nation’s joy,
to glory in your inheritance.
6 We have sinned, along with our ancestors;
we have committed iniquity and wickedness.
7 In Egypt, our ancestors neither comprehended your awesome deeds
nor remembered your abundant gracious love.
Instead, they rebelled beside the sea, the Reed[a] Sea.
8 He delivered for the sake of his name,[b]
to make his power known.
9 He shouted at the Reed[c] Sea and it dried up;
and led them through the sea as though through a desert.
10 He delivered them from the power of their foe;
redeeming them from the power of their enemy.
11 The water overwhelmed their enemies,
so that not one of them survived.[d]
12 Then they believed his word
and sung his praise.
13 But they quickly forgot his deeds
and did not wait for his counsel.
14 They were overwhelmed with craving in the wilderness,
so God tested them in the wasteland.
15 God granted them their request,
but sent leanness into their lives.
16 They were envious of Moses in the camp,
and of Aaron, the holy one of the Lord.
17 The earth opened and swallowed Dathan,
closing over Abiram’s clan.
18 Then a fire burned among their company,
a flame that set the wicked ablaze.
19 They fashioned a calf at Horeb
and worshipped a carved image.
20 They exchanged their glory[e]
with the image of a grass-eating bull.
21 They forgot God their Savior,
who performed great things in Egypt—
22 awesome deeds in the land of Ham,[f]
astonishing deeds at the Reed[g] Sea.
23 He would have destroyed them
but for Moses, his chosen one,
who stood in the breach before him
to avert[h] his destructive wrath.
24 They rejected the desirable land,
and they didn’t trust his promise.
25 They murmured in their tents,
and didn’t listen to the voice of the Lord.
26 So he swore an oath concerning them—
that he would cause them to die in the wilderness,
27 to cause their children to perish among the nations
and be scattered among many[i] lands.
28 For they adopted the worship[j] of Baal Peor
and ate sacrifices offered to the dead.
29 They had provoked anger by their deeds,
so that a plague broke out against them.
30 But Phinehas intervened and prayed
so that the plague was restrained.
31 And it was credited to him as a righteous act,
from generation to generation—to eternity.
32 They provoked wrath at the waters of Meribah,
and Moses suffered[k] on account of them.
33 For they rebelled against him,[l]
so that he spoke thoughtlessly with his lips.
34 They never destroyed the people,
as the Lord had commanded them.
35 Instead, they mingled among the nations
and learned their ways.[m]
36 They worshipped[n] their idols,
and this became a trap for them.
37 They sacrificed their sons and daughters to demons.
38 They shed innocent blood—
the blood of their sons and daughters—
whom they sacrificed to the idols of Canaan,
thereby polluting the land with blood.
39 Therefore, they became unclean because of what they did;
they have acted like whores by their evil deeds.
40 The Lord’s anger burned against his people,
so that he despised his own inheritance.
41 He turned them over to domination by nations
where those who hated them ruled over them.
42 Their enemies oppressed them,
so that they were humiliated by their power.
43 He delivered them many times,
but they demonstrated rebellion by their evil plans;
therefore they sunk deep in their sins.
44 Yet when he saw their distress
and heard their cries for help,[o]
45 he remembered his covenant with them,
and so relented
according to the greatness of his gracious love.
46 He caused all their captors to show compassion toward them.
47 Deliver us, Lord our God,
gather us from among the nations
so we may praise your holy name
and rejoice in praising you.
48 Blessed are you, Lord God of Israel,
from eternity to eternity;
Let all the people say, “Amen!”
Hallelujah!
Micah’s Descent into Idolatry
17 A man named Micah lived in the mountainous region[a] of the territory of[b] Ephraim. 2 He told his mother, “Do you remember[c] those 1,100 silver coins that were stolen from you and about which you uttered a curse when I could hear it? Well, I have the silver. I took it.”
So she replied, “May my son be blessed by the Lord.”
3 Her son gave back the 1,100 silver coins to his mother, and she said, “I’m totally giving this silver—from my hand to the Lord—so my son can make a carved image and a cast image. So I’m returning it to you.”
4 When he had returned the silver to his mother, his mother took 200 of the silver coins and handed them over to a silversmith. He crafted them into a carved image and into a cast image, and they were set up[d] in Micah’s house. 5 This man Micah had his own shrine,[e] had crafted his own ephod and some household idols,[f] and had installed one of his sons as a priest.
6 Back in those days, Israel didn’t yet have a king, so each person did whatever seemed right in his own opinion.
7 A young male descendant of Levi happened to be visiting there from Bethlehem in the territory of[g] Judah. 8 The man had left his city Bethlehem in Judah to live wherever he could. As he traveled along, he eventually arrived at Micah’s house in the mountainous region[h] of Ephraim, looking for work.
9 Micah asked him, “Where did you come from?”
He replied, “I’m a descendant of Levi from Bethlehem in Judah, and I’m going to stay temporarily wherever I can find a place.”[i]
10 So Micah replied, “Come live with me! You can be a spiritual father[j] to me, as well as a priest. I’ll pay you ten silver coins a year, plus a priestly uniform[k] and an income.” So the descendant of Levi moved in. 11 The descendant of Levi agreed to live with the man, and the young man became like one of the family.[l] 12 Micah set up the descendant of Levi in ministry, and the young man became his priest while he lived in Micah’s house. 13 As for Micah, he kept saying, “Now I know the Lord will make me rich, because I have a descendant of Levi for a priest!”
44 “Our ancestors had the Tent of Testimony[a] in the wilderness constructed,[b] just as the one who spoke to Moses directed him to make it according to the pattern he had seen. 45 Our ancestors brought it here with Joshua when they replaced the nations that God drove out in front of our ancestors, and it was here until the time of David. 46 He found favor with God and asked to design a dwelling for the house[c] of Jacob, 47 but it was Solomon who built a house for him. 48 However, the Most High does not live in buildings made by human[d] hands. As the prophet says,
49 “‘Heaven is my throne,
and the earth is my footstool.
What kind of house can you build for me,’ declares the Lord,[e]
“or what place is there in which I can rest?
50 It was my hand that made all these things, wasn’t it?’”[f]
51 “You stubborn people with uncircumcised hearts and ears! You are always opposing the Holy Spirit, just as your ancestors used to do. 52 Which of the prophets did your ancestors fail to persecute? They killed those who predicted the coming of the Righteous One, and now you have become his betrayers and murderers. 53 You received the Law as ordained by angels, and yet you haven’t obeyed it!”
Stephen is Stoned to Death
54 While they were listening to these things, they became more and more furious and began to grind their teeth at him. 55 But Stephen,[g] filled with the Holy Spirit, looked straight into heaven and saw the glory of God and Jesus standing at the right hand of God. 56 He said, “Look! I see the heavens opened and the Son of Man standing at the right hand of God!”
57 But they shouted out loud, stopped listening, and together they all rushed at him, 58 ran him outside of the city, and began to stone him to death. Meanwhile, the witnesses laid their coats at the feet of a young man named Saul. 59 As they continued to stone Stephen, he kept praying, “Lord Jesus, receive my spirit!” 60 Then he knelt down and cried out with a loud voice, “Lord, don’t hold this sin against them!” After he had said this, he died.[h]
The Church is Scattered
8 Now Saul heartily approved of putting Stephen[i] to death. That day a severe persecution broke out against the church in Jerusalem, and everyone except for the apostles was scattered throughout the countryside of Judea and Samaria.
The Authority of the Son
19 Jesus told them, “Truly, I tell all of you[a] emphatically, the Son can do nothing on his own accord, but only what he sees the Father doing, What the Father does, the Son does likewise. 20 The Father loves the Son and shows him everything he is doing, and he will show him even greater actions than these, so that you may be amazed. 21 Just as the Father raises the dead and gives them life, so also the Son gives life to those he chooses. 22 The Father judges no one, but has given all authority to judge to the Son, 23 so that everyone may honor the Son as they honor the Father. Whoever does not honor the Son does not honor the Father who sent him.
24 “Truly, I tell all of you[b] emphatically, whoever hears what I say and believes in the one who sent me has eternal life and will not be judged, but has passed from death to life. 25 Truly, I tell all of you[c] emphatically, the time approaches, and is now here, when the dead will hear the voice of the Son of God, and those who hear it will live. 26 Just as the Father has life in himself, so also he has granted the Son to have life in himself, 27 and he has given him authority to judge, because he is the Son of Man. 28 Don’t be amazed at this, because the time is approaching when everyone in their graves will hear the Son of Man’s[d] voice 29 and will come out—those who have done what is good to the resurrection that leads to[e] life, and those who have practiced what is evil to the resurrection that ends in[f] condemnation.[g]
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