Book of Common Prayer
Thanksgiving for God’s Deliverance
105 Give thanks to the Lord,
call on his name,
and make his deeds known among the people.
2 Sing to him! Praise him!
Declare all his awesome deeds!
3 Exult in his holy name;
let all[a] those who seek the Lord rejoice!
4 Seek the Lord and his strength;
seek his face continually.
5 Remember his awesome deeds that he has done,
his wonders and the judgments he declared.
6 You descendants of Abraham, his servant,
You children of Jacob, his chosen ones.
7 He is the Lord our God;
his judgments extend to the entire earth.
8 He remembers his eternal covenant—
every promise he made[b] for a thousand generations,
9 like the covenant he made[c] with Abraham,
and his promise to Isaac.
10 He presented it to Jacob as a decree,
to Israel as an everlasting covenant.
11 He said: “I will give Canaan to you
as the allotted portion that is your inheritance.”
12 When the Hebrews[d] were few in number—so very few—
and were sojourners in it,
13 they wandered from nation to nation,
from one kingdom to another.[e]
14 He did not allow anyone to oppress them,
or any kings to reprove them.
15 “Don’t touch my anointed
or hurt my prophets!”
16 He declared a famine on the land;
destroying the entire food supply.[f]
17 He sent a man before them—
Joseph, who had been sold as a slave.
18 They bound his feet with fetters
and placed an iron collar on his neck,[g]
19 until the time his prediction came true,
as the word of the Lord refined him.
20 He sent a king who released him,
a ruler of people who set him free.
21 He made him the master over his household,
the manager of all his possessions—
22 to discipline his rulers at will
and make his elders wise.
23 Then Israel came to Egypt;
indeed, Jacob lived in the land of Ham.[h]
24 He caused his people to multiply greatly;
and be more numerous than their enemies.
25 He caused them[i] to hate his people
and to deceive his servants.
26 He sent his servant Moses, along with Aaron,
whom he had chosen.
27 They performed his signs among them,
his wonders in the land of Ham.[j]
28 He sent darkness, and it became dark.
Did they not rebel against[k] his words?
29 He turned their water into blood,
so that the fish died.
30 Their land swarmed with frogs
even to the chambers of their kings.
31 He spoke,
and a swarm of insects invaded their land.[l]
32 He sent hail instead of rain,
and lightning throughout their land.
33 It destroyed their vines and their figs,
breaking trees throughout their country.[m]
34 Then he commanded the locust to come—
grasshoppers without number.
35 They consumed every green plant in their land,
and devoured the fruit of their soil.
36 He struck down every firstborn in their land,
the first fruits of all their progeny.
37 Then he brought Israel[n] out with silver and gold,
and no one among his tribes stumbled.
38 The Egyptians rejoiced when they left,
because fear of Israel[o] descended on them.
39 He spread out a cloud for a cover,
and fire for light at night.
40 Israel[p] asked, and quail came;
food from heaven satisfied them.
41 He opened a rock, and water gushed out
flowing like a river in the desert.
42 Indeed, he remembered his sacred promise
to his servant Abraham.
43 He led his people out with gladness,
his chosen ones with shouts of joy.
44 He gave to them the land of nations;
they inherited the labor of other[q] people
45 so they might keep his statutes
and observe his laws.
Hallelujah!
28 Then Rab-shakeh stood up and cried out loud, “Listen to what the great king, the king of Assyria has to say. 29 This is what the king says:
‘Don’t let Hezekiah deceive you, because he will prove to be unable to deliver you from my control.[a] 30 And don’t let Hezekiah make you trust in the Lord by telling you, “The Lord will certainly deliver us and this city will not be handed over to the king of Assyria.” 31 Don’t listen to Hezekiah, because this is what the king of Assyria says: “Make peace with me and come out to me! Each of you will eat from his own vine. Each will eat from his own fig tree. And each of you will drink water from his own cistern 32 until I come and take you away to a land like your own land, one overflowing with grain and new wine, a land filled with bread and vineyards, with olive trees and honey, so you may live and not die.”
‘But don’t listen to Hezekiah when he misleads you by saying, “The Lord will deliver us!” 33 Has any of the gods of the nations delivered his land from control by[b] the king of Assyria? 34 Where are the gods of Hamath and Arpad? Where are the gods of Sephar-vaim, of Hena, and Ivvah? Have they delivered Samaria from my control?[c] 35 Who among all the gods of these lands has delivered their land from my control[d], so that the Lord should deliver Jerusalem from me?’”[e]
36 But the people remained silent and did not answer with even so much as a word, because the king’s order was, “Don’t answer him.”
37 But Hilkiah’s son Eliakim, who managed the household, Shebna the scribe, and Asaph’s son Joah the recorder came back to Hezekiah with their clothes torn[f] and told him what Rab-shakeh had said.
The Rights of an Apostle
9 I am free, am I not? I am an apostle, am I not? I have seen Jesus our Lord, haven’t I? You are the result of[a] my work in the Lord, aren’t you? 2 If I am not an apostle to other people, surely I am one to you, for you are the evidence of my apostolic authority from the Lord.
3 This is my defense to those who would examine me: 4 We have the right to earn our food,[b] don’t we? 5 We have the right to take a believing wife with us like the other apostles, the Lord’s brothers, and Cephas,[c] don’t we? 6 Or is it only Barnabas and I who have to keep on working for a living? 7 Who ever goes to war at his own expense? Who plants a vineyard and does not eat any of its grapes? Or who takes care of a flock and does not drink any of its milk? 8 I am not saying this on human authority, am I? The Law says the same thing, doesn’t it? 9 For in the Law of Moses it is written, “You must not muzzle an ox while it is treading out the grain.”[d] God is not only concerned about oxen, is he? 10 Isn’t he really speaking for our benefit? Yes, this was written for our benefit, because the one who plows should plow in hope, and the one who threshes should thresh in hope of sharing in the crop. 11 If we have sown spiritual seed among you, is it too much if we reap material benefits from you? 12 If others enjoy this right over you, don’t we have a stronger claim? But we did not use this right. On the contrary, we tolerate everything in order not to put an obstacle in the way of the gospel of the Messiah.[e]
13 You know that those who work in the Temple get their food from the Temple and that those who serve at the altar get their share of its offerings, don’t you? 14 In the same way, the Lord has ordered that those who proclaim the gospel should make their living from the gospel.
15 But I have not used any of these rights, and I’m not writing this so that they may be applied in my case. I would rather die than let anyone deprive me of my reason for[f] boasting.
22 Many will say to me on that day, ‘Lord, Lord, we prophesied in your name, drove out demons in your name, and performed many miracles in your name, didn’t we?’ 23 Then I will tell them plainly, ‘I never knew you. Get away from me, you who practice evil!’”[a]
The Two Foundations(A)
24 “Therefore, everyone who listens to these messages[b] of mine and puts them into practice is like a wise man who built his house on a rock. 25 The rain fell, the floods came, and the winds blew and beat against that house, but it did not collapse because its foundation was on the rock.
26 “Everyone who keeps on hearing these messages[c] of mine and never puts them into practice is like a foolish man who built his house on sand. 27 The rain fell, the floods came, the winds blew and battered that house, and it collapsed—and its collapse was total.”
28 When Jesus had finished saying all these things,[d] the crowds were utterly amazed at his teaching, 29 because he was teaching them like a person who had authority, and not like their scribes.
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