Book of Common Prayer

A Poem by David.

A Prayer by David.

A Song of Ascents.

²³ He said to them, “This is that which Yahweh has spoken, ‘Tomorrow is a solemn rest, a holy Sabbath to Yahweh. Bake that which you want to bake, and boil that which you want to boil; and all that remains over lay up for yourselves to be kept until the morning.’” ²⁴ They laid it up until the morning, as Moses ordered, and it didn’t become foul, and there were no worms in it. ²⁵ Moses said, “Eat that today, for today is a Sabbath to Yahweh. Today you shall not find it in the field. ²⁶ Six days you shall gather it, but on the seventh day is the Sabbath. In it there shall be none.” ²⁷ On the seventh day, some of the people went out to gather, and they found none. ²⁸ Yahweh said to Moses, “How long do you refuse to keep my commandments and my laws? ²⁹ Behold, because Yahweh has given you the Sabbath, therefore he gives you on the sixth day the bread of two days. Everyone stay in his place. Let no one go out of his place on the seventh day.” ³⁰ So the people rested on the seventh day.

³¹ The house of Israel called its name “Manna”,^[a] and it was like coriander seed, white; and its taste was like wafers with honey. ³² Moses said, “This is the thing which Yahweh has commanded, ‘Let an omer-full of it be kept throughout your generations, that they may see the bread with which I fed you in the wilderness, when I brought you out of the land of Egypt.’” ³³ Moses said to Aaron, “Take a pot, and put an omer-full of manna in it, and lay it up before Yahweh, to be kept throughout your generations.” ³⁴ As Yahweh commanded Moses, so Aaron laid it up before the Testimony, to be kept. ³⁵ The children of Israel ate the manna forty years, until they came to an inhabited land. They ate the manna until they came to the borders of the land of Canaan. ³⁶ Now an omer is one tenth of an ephah.^[b]

¹³ Now who will harm you if you become imitators of that which is good? ¹⁴ But even if you should suffer for righteousness’ sake, you are blessed. “Don’t fear what they fear, neither be troubled.”^{(A) 15} But sanctify the Lord God in your hearts. Always be ready to give an answer to everyone who asks you a reason concerning the hope that is in you, with humility and fear, ¹⁶ having a good conscience. Thus, while you are spoken against as evildoers, they may be disappointed who curse your good way of life in Christ. ¹⁷ For it is better, if it is God’s will, that you suffer for doing what is right than for doing evil. ¹⁸ Because Christ also suffered for sins once, the righteous for the unrighteous, that he might bring you to God, being put to death in the flesh, but made alive in the Spirit, ¹⁹ in whom he also went and preached to the spirits in prison, ²⁰ who before were disobedient when God waited patiently in the days of Noah while the ship was being built. In it, few, that is, eight souls, were saved through water. ²¹ This is a symbol of baptism, which now saves you—not the putting away of the filth of the flesh, but the answer of a good conscience toward God—through the resurrection of Jesus Christ, ²² who is at the right hand of God, having gone into heaven, angels and authorities and powers being made subject to him.

4 Therefore, since Christ suffered for us in the flesh, arm yourselves also with the same mind; for he who has suffered in the flesh has ceased from sin, ² that you no longer should live the rest of your time in the flesh for the lusts of men, but for the will of God. ³ For we have spent enough of our past time doing the desire of the Gentiles, and having walked in lewdness, lusts, drunken binges, orgies, carousings, and abominable idolatries. ⁴ They think it is strange that you don’t run with them into the same excess of riot, speaking evil of you. ⁵ They will give account to him who is ready to judge the living and the dead. ⁶ For to this end the Good News was preached even to the dead, that they might be judged indeed as men in the flesh, but live as to God in the spirit.

16 “I have said these things to you so that you wouldn’t be caused to stumble. ² They will put you out of the synagogues. Yes, the time is coming that whoever kills you will think that he offers service to God. ³ They will do these things^[a] because they have not known the Father nor me. ⁴ But I have told you these things so that when the time comes, you may remember that I told you about them. I didn’t tell you these things from the beginning, because I was with you. ⁵ But now I am going to him who sent me, and none of you asks me, ‘Where are you going?’ ⁶ But because I have told you these things, sorrow has filled your heart. ⁷ Nevertheless I tell you the truth: It is to your advantage that I go away; for if I don’t go away, the Counselor won’t come to you. But if I go, I will send him to you. ⁸ When he has come, he will convict the world about sin, about righteousness, and about judgment; ⁹ about sin, because they don’t believe in me; ¹⁰ about righteousness, because I am going to my Father, and you won’t see me any more; ¹¹ about judgment, because the prince of this world has been judged.

¹² “I still have many things to tell you, but you can’t bear them now. ¹³ However, when he, the Spirit of truth, has come, he will guide you into all truth, for he will not speak from himself; but whatever he hears, he will speak. He will declare to you things that are coming. ¹⁴ He will glorify me, for he will take from what is mine and will declare it to you. ¹⁵ All things that the Father has are mine; therefore I said that he takes^[b] of mine and will declare it to you.