Book of Common Prayer

God is good, so thank him^[a]

This is a song that David wrote to praise God.

An alphabet of praise^[a]

¹⁹ At that time, there will be an altar in the middle of Egypt's land, where people will worship the Lord. There will also be a tall stone for the Lord at Egypt's border. ²⁰ Those two things will be signs to tell everyone in Egypt about the Lord Almighty. Because of those signs, the Egyptians will remember that the Lord is powerful. When their enemies are cruel to them, they will call out to the Lord for help. Then he will send a strong saviour to rescue them. ²¹ The Lord will cause the Egyptians to know him. They will agree to serve him. They will worship the Lord with sacrifices and offerings. They will make promises to the Lord, and they will do what they have promised to do. ²² The Lord himself will punish the Egyptians. But after that, they will turn to the Lord. He will answer their prayers, and he will make them well again.

²³ At that time, there will be a road from Egypt to Assyria. People from Assyria will travel to Egypt and Egyptians will travel to Assyria. Egyptians and Assyrians will worship together.

²⁴ At that time, Israel will join Egypt and Assyria as a third important nation. They will bring blessing to the whole world. ²⁵ The Lord Almighty will bless them all. He will say, ‘I will bless Egypt, who are now my people. I will bless Assyria, the people that I have made. And I will bless Israel, the people that I have chosen to belong to me.’

⁵ It is God himself who helps us to be patient and strong. So I pray that he will help you to agree with each other and to be friends. That is how Christ Jesus wants you to live. ⁶ As a result, all of you will praise God together with the same thoughts. You will all agree that God, the Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, is very great.

Christ saves both Jews and Gentiles

⁷ Christ has accepted you, so you must accept each other. In that way you will be praising God. ⁸ Remember this: Christ became a servant of the Jews so that they could understand God's true message. He showed them that God has now done what he promised to their ancestors.^{[a] 9} The Gentiles also praise God because he has been kind to them. This is written in the Bible:

¹⁰ It says also in the Bible:

¹¹ It also says this:

¹² God's prophet Isaiah says this:

¹³ God is the one who causes us to hope for good things. I pray that God will bless you very much. I pray that he will cause you to be happy and to have peace in your minds. He will do this because you believe in him. As a result, God's Holy Spirit will make you strong with his power, so that you hope even more certainly.

Jesus tells a story about 10 servants

¹¹ While the people were still listening, Jesus told them a story. He did this because the people had wrong thoughts. He was now getting near to Jerusalem. So the people with him were thinking that God would begin to rule his people immediately.

¹² Jesus said to them, ‘An important man left his home and he travelled a long way to another country. There he would receive authority to rule his own country. After that, he would return home and he would be king. ¹³ Before he left, he asked ten of his servants to come to him. He gave each of them ten pounds of silver.^[a] “Use this money to get more money for me while I am away,” he said.^[b]

¹⁴ But the people who were living in his country did not like the man. So they sent some of their people to the foreign country with a message. They said, “We do not want this man to rule over us.”

¹⁵ Then the man returned home and he was now their king. He asked those ten servants to come to him. He had given them each some money. Now he wanted to know how much more money they had now. They should have bought things with it and then they should have sold those things again for more money.

¹⁶ The first servant came to him and said, “Master, your money has made ten more pounds for you.” ¹⁷ The king was happy and said to his servant, “You have done well. You are a good servant that I can trust. You have used a small amount of money well. So now you will rule over ten cities.”

¹⁸ The second servant came and said, “Master, your money has made five more pounds.” ¹⁹ The king replied, “You will rule over five cities.”

²⁰ Then another servant came. He said, “Master, here is your money. I put it away in a piece of cloth to keep it safe. ²¹ I did this because I was afraid of you. You tell people what they should do all the time. You take things that you did not work for. You take food from fields where you did not plant any seed.”

²² The king replied, “You are a very bad servant! I will use your own words to show you that you have done the wrong thing. You say that I tell people what they should do all the time. That I take things that I did not work for. That I take food from fields where I did not plant any seed. Did you know all that about me? ²³ Then you should have put my money into the bank. When I came home, I would have received my money back, with extra money.”

²⁴ Some other servants were standing near to their master. He said to them, “Take the money from this bad servant. Give it to the servant that has ten pounds.” ²⁵ “But, master,” they replied, “that servant has ten pounds already.”

²⁶ “Let me tell you this,” the king said. “Some people have received good things. They will all receive more. Some other people have nothing. Those people will lose even the little bit that they do have. ²⁷ Now I must punish these other people that did not want me to rule over them. Bring them here and kill them in front of me.” ’^[c]