Book of Common Prayer
God’s Love for Israel
105 Give thanks to the Lord and pray to him.
Tell the nations what he has done.
2 Sing to him. Sing praises to him.
Tell about all the wonderful things he has done.
3 Be glad that you are his.
Let those who ask the Lord for help be happy.
4 Depend on the Lord and his strength.
Always go to him for help.
5 Remember the wonderful things he has done.
Remember his miracles and his decisions.
6 You are descendants of his servant Abraham,
the children of Jacob, his chosen people.
7 He is the Lord our God.
His laws are for all the world.
8 He will keep his agreement forever.
He will keep his promises always.
9 He will keep his agreement he made with Abraham.
He will keep the promise he made to Isaac.
10 He made it a law for the people of Jacob.
He made it an agreement with Israel to last forever.
11 The Lord said, “I will give you the land of Canaan.
The promised land will belong to you.”
12 Then God’s people were few in number.
They were strangers in the land.
13 They went from one nation to another.
They went from one kingdom to another.
14 But the Lord did not let anyone hurt them.
He warned kings not to harm them.
15 He said, “Don’t hurt my chosen people.
Don’t harm my prophets.”
16 God ordered a time of hunger in the land.
And he destroyed all the food.
17 Then he sent a man ahead of them.
It was Joseph, who was sold as a slave.
18 They put chains around his feet
and an iron ring around his neck.
19 Then the time he had spoken of came.
The Lord’s words proved that Joseph was right.
20 The king of Egypt sent for Joseph and freed him.
The ruler of the people set him free.
21 He made him the master of his house.
Joseph was in charge of his riches.
22 He could order the princes as he wished.
He taught the older men to be wise.
23 Then his father Israel came to Egypt.
Jacob, also called Israel, lived in Egypt.[a]
24 The Lord made his people grow in number.
He made them stronger than their enemies.
25 And he caused the Egyptians to hate his people.
They made plans against the Lord’s servants.
26 Then he sent his servant Moses,
and Aaron, whom he had chosen.
27 They did many signs among the Egyptians.
They worked miracles in Egypt.
28 The Lord sent darkness and made the land dark.
But the Egyptians turned against what he said.
29 So he changed their water into blood
and made their fish die.
30 Then their country was filled with frogs.
They were even in the bedrooms of their rulers.
31 The Lord spoke, and flies came.
Gnats were everywhere in the country.
32 He made hail fall like rain.
And he sent lightning through their land.
33 He struck down their grapevines and fig trees.
He destroyed every tree in the country.
34 He spoke, and grasshoppers came.
The locusts were too many to count.
35 They ate all the plants in the land.
They ate what the earth produced.
36 The Lord also killed all the firstborn sons in the land,
the oldest son of each family.
37 Then he brought his people out,
and they carried with them silver and gold.
Not one of his people stumbled.
38 The Egyptians were glad when they left
because the Egyptians were afraid of them.
39 The Lord covered them with a cloud
and lit up the night with fire.
40 When they asked, he brought them quail.
He filled them with bread from heaven.
41 God split the rock, and water flowed out.
It ran like a river through the desert.
42 He remembered his holy promise
to his servant Abraham.
43 So God brought his people out with joy.
He brought out his chosen ones with singing.
44 He gave them lands that belonged to other nations.
They received what others had worked for.
45 This was so they would keep his orders
and obey his teachings.
Praise the Lord!
Rules for Priests
2 “Priests, this command is for you. 2 Listen to me. Pay attention to what I say. Honor my name,” says the Lord of heaven’s armies. “If you don’t, I will send a curse on you. I will curse your blessings. I have already cursed them because you don’t pay attention to what I say.
3 “I will punish your descendants. I will smear your faces with the garbage from your feasts. And you will be thrown away with it. 4 Then you will know why I am giving you this command. It is so that my agreement with Levi will continue,” says the Lord of heaven’s armies. 5 “My agreement for priests was with the tribe of Levi. I promised them life and peace. And I gave these to them so they would honor me. They did honor me and fear me. 6 They taught the true teachings. They spoke no lies. With peace and honesty they did what I said they should do. They kept many people from sinning.
7 “A priest should teach what he knows. People should learn the teachings from him because he is the messenger of the Lord of heaven’s armies. 8 But you priests have stopped obeying me. With your teachings you have caused many people to do wrong. You have broken the agreement with the tribe of Levi!” says the Lord of heaven’s armies. 9 “You have not been careful to do what I say. You take sides in court cases. So I have caused you to be hated and disgraced in front of everybody.”
Judah Was Not Loyal to God
10 We all have the same father. The same God made us. So why do people break their promises to each other? They don’t respect the agreement that our ancestors made with God. 11 The people of Judah have broken their promises. They have done something God hates in Israel and Jerusalem. The people of Judah did not respect the Temple that the Lord loves. The men of Judah married the women who worship foreign gods. 12 The man who does this might bring offerings to the Lord of heaven’s armies. But the Lord will still separate him from the community of Israel.
13 This is another thing you do. You cover the Lord’s altar with your tears. You cry and moan because the Lord does not accept your offerings. He is not pleased with what you bring. 14 You ask, “Why?” It is because the Lord sees how you treated the wife you married when you were young. You broke your promise with her. She was your partner. You promised yourself to her. 15 God made husbands and wives to become one body and one spirit for his purpose. This is so they would have children who are true to God. So be careful. Do not break your promise with the wife you married when you were young.
16 The Lord God of Israel says, “I hate divorce. And I hate people who do cruel things as easily as they put on clothes,” says the Lord of heaven’s armies. So be careful. And do not break your trust.
Let God Plan Your Life
13 Some of you say, “Today or tomorrow we will go to some city. We will stay there a year, do business, and make money.” 14 But you do not know what will happen tomorrow! Your life is like a mist. You can see it for a short time, but then it goes away. 15 So you should say, “If the Lord wants, we will live and do this or that.” 16 But now you are proud and you brag. All of this bragging is wrong. 17 And when a person knows the right thing to do, but does not do it, then he is sinning.
A Warning to the Rich
5 You rich people, listen! Cry and be very sad because of the trouble that will come to you. 2 Your riches will rot, and your clothes will be eaten by moths. 3 Your gold and silver will rust, and rust will be a proof that you were wrong. It will eat your bodies like fire. You saved your treasure for the last days. 4 Men worked in your fields, but you did not pay them. They harvested your crops and are crying out against you. Now the Lord of heaven’s armies has heard their cries. 5 Your life on earth was full of rich living. You pleased yourselves with everything you wanted. You made yourselves fat, like an animal ready to be killed. 6 You showed no mercy to the innocent man. You murdered him. He cannot stand against you.
God’s Kingdom Is Within You
20 Some of the Pharisees asked Jesus, “When will the kingdom of God come?”
Jesus answered, “God’s kingdom is coming, but not in a way that you will be able to see with your eyes. 21 People will not say, ‘Look, God’s kingdom is here!’ or, ‘There it is!’ No, God’s kingdom is within you.”
22 Then Jesus said to his followers, “The time will come when you will want very much to see one of the days of the Son of Man. But you will not be able to see it. 23 People will say to you, ‘Look, there he is!’ or, ‘Look, here he is!’ Stay where you are; don’t go away and search.
When Jesus Comes Again
24 “The Son of Man will come again. On the day he comes he will shine like lightning, which flashes across the sky and lights it up from one side to the other. 25 But first, the Son of Man must suffer many things and be rejected by the people of this time. 26 When the Son of Man comes again, it will be as it was when Noah lived. 27 In the time of Noah, people were eating, drinking, and getting married even on the day when Noah entered the boat. Then the flood came and killed all the people. 28 It will be the same as during the time of Lot. Those people were eating, drinking, buying, selling, planting, and building. 29 They were doing these things even on the day Lot left Sodom.[a] Then fire and sulfur rained down from the sky and killed them all. 30 This is exactly how it will be when the Son of Man comes again.
31 “On that day, if a man is on his roof, he will not have time to go inside and get his things. If a man is in the field, he cannot go back home. 32 Remember what happened to Lot’s wife?[b] 33 Whoever tries to keep his life will give up true life. But whoever gives up his life will have true life. 34 At the time when I come again, there may be two people sleeping in one bed. One will be taken and the other will be left. 35 There may be two women grinding grain together. One will be taken and the other will be left. 36 [Two men will be in the same field. One man will be taken, but the other man will be left behind.]”[c]
37 The followers asked Jesus, “Where will this be, Lord?”
Jesus answered, “People can always find a dead body by looking for the vultures.”
The Holy Bible, International Children’s Bible® Copyright© 1986, 1988, 1999, 2015 by Thomas Nelson. Used by permission.