Book of Common Prayer
Israel’s Failure to Trust God
106 Praise the Lord!
Thank the Lord because he is good.
His love continues forever.
2 No one can tell all the mighty things the Lord has done.
No one can speak all his praise.
3 Happy are those people who are fair,
who do what is right at all times.
4 Lord, remember me when you are kind to your people.
Help me when you save them.
5 Let me see the good things you do for your chosen people.
Let me be happy along with your happy nation.
Let me join your own people in praising you.
6 We have sinned just as our ancestors did.
We have done wrong. We have done evil.
7 Our ancestors in Egypt
did not learn from your miracles.
They did not remember all your kindnesses.
So they turned against you at the Red Sea.
8 But the Lord saved them for his own sake,
to show his great power.
9 He commanded the Red Sea, and it dried up.
He led them through the deep sea as if it were a desert.
10 He saved them from those who hated them.
He saved them from their enemies.
11 And the water covered their enemies.
Not one of them escaped.
12 Then the people believed what the Lord said.
They sang praises to him.
13 But they quickly forgot what he had done.
They did not wait for his advice.
14 They became greedy for food in the desert.
And they tested God there.
15 So he gave them what they wanted.
But he also sent a terrible disease among them.
16 The people in the camp became jealous of Moses
and of Aaron, the holy priest of the Lord.
17 Then the ground opened up and swallowed Dathan.
It closed over Abiram’s group.
18 Then a fire burned among their followers.
Flames burned up the wicked people.
19 The people made a gold calf at Mount Sinai.
They worshiped a metal statue.
20 They exchanged their glorious God
for a statue of a bull, which eats grass.
21 They forgot the God who saved them,
who had done great things in Egypt.
22 He did miracles in Egypt.[a]
He did amazing things by the Red Sea.
23 So God said he would destroy them.
But Moses, his chosen one, stood before him.
He stopped God’s anger from destroying them.
24 Then they refused to go into the beautiful land of Canaan.
They did not believe what God promised.
25 They grumbled in their tents
and did not obey the Lord.
26 So he swore to them
that they would die in the desert.
27 He said their children would be killed by other nations
and that they would be scattered among other countries.
28 They joined in worshiping Baal at Peor.
They ate meat that had been sacrificed to lifeless statues.
29 They made the Lord angry by what they did.
So many people became sick with a terrible disease.
30 But Phinehas prayed to the Lord,
and the disease stopped.
31 The Lord will remember that Phinehas did what was right.
And God will remember this from now on.
32 The people also made the Lord angry at Meribah.
And Moses was in trouble because of them.
33 The people turned against the Spirit of God.
So Moses spoke without stopping to think.
34 The people did not destroy the other nations
as the Lord had told them to do.
35 Instead, they mixed with the other nations.
And they learned their customs.
36 They worshiped other nations’ idols.
And they were trapped by them.
37 They even killed their sons and daughters
as sacrifices to demons.
38 They killed innocent people.
They killed their own sons and daughters
as sacrifices to the idols of Canaan.
So the land was made unholy by their blood.
39 The people became unholy by their sins.
They were unfaithful to God in what they did.
40 So the Lord became angry with his people.
He hated his own children.
41 He let other nations defeat them.
He let their enemies rule over them.
42 Their enemies were cruel to them.
Their enemies kept them under their power.
43 The Lord saved his people many times.
But they continued to turn against him.
So they became even more wicked.
44 But God saw their misery.
He heard their cry.
45 He remembered his agreement with them.
And he felt sorry for them because of his great love.
46 He caused them to be pitied
by those who held them captive.
47 Lord our God, save us.
Bring us back from other nations.
Then we will thank you.
Then we will gladly praise you.
48 Praise the Lord, the God of Israel.
He always was and always will be.
Let all the people say, “Amen!”
Praise the Lord!
Punishment for Judah’s Enemies
3 “In those days and at that time,
I will give Judah and Jerusalem back their riches.
2 I will also gather all the nations together.
I will bring them down into the Valley Where the Lord Judges.
And there I will judge them.
Those nations scattered my own people, Israel.
They forced my people to live in other nations.
They divided up my land.
God Judges the Nations
9 Announce this among the nations:
Prepare for war!
Wake up the soldiers!
Let all the men of war come near and attack.
10 Make your plows into swords.
Make spears from your hooks for trimming trees.
Let the weak say,
“I am strong.”
11 All of you nations, hurry.
Come together in that place.
Lord, send your strong soldiers
to gather the nations.
12 “Wake up, nations.
Come to the Valley Where the Lord Judges.
There I will sit to judge
all the nations on every side.
13 Cut them down like grain
because the harvest is ripe with sin.
Come, walk on them as you would walk on grapes,
because the winepress is full.
The barrels are full of their sins and spilling over.
These people are so evil!”
14 There are many people
in the Valley of Decision.[a]
The Lord’s day of judging is near
in the Valley of Decision.
15 The sun and the moon will become dark.
The stars will stop shining.
16 The Lord will roar like a lion from Jerusalem.
His loud voice will sound like a growl from Jerusalem.
And the sky and the earth will shake.
But the Lord will be a safe place for his people.
He will be a strong place of safety for the people of Israel.
17 “Then you will know that I am the Lord your God.
I stay in my holy Mount Zion.
Jerusalem will become holy.
Strangers will never take over that city again.
Encouragement for Suffering Christians
1 From Peter, an apostle of Jesus Christ.
To God’s chosen people who are away from their homes. You are scattered all around Pontus, Galatia, Cappadocia, Asia, and Bithynia. 2 God the Father planned long ago to choose you by making you his holy people. Making you holy is the Spirit’s work. God wanted you to obey him and to be made clean by the blood of the death of Jesus Christ. Grace and peace be yours more and more.
A Living Hope
3 Praise be to the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ. God has great mercy, and because of his mercy he gave us a new life. He gave us a living hope because Jesus Christ rose from death. 4 Now we hope for the blessings God has for his children. These blessings are kept for you in heaven. They cannot be destroyed or be spoiled or lose their beauty. 5 God’s power protects you through your faith, and it keeps you safe until your salvation comes. That salvation is ready to be given to you at the end of time. 6 This makes you very happy. But now for a short time different kinds of troubles may make you sad. 7 These troubles come to prove that your faith is pure. This purity of faith is worth more than gold. Gold can be proved to be pure by fire, but gold can be destroyed. But the purity of your faith will bring you praise and glory and honor when Jesus Christ comes again. 8 You have not seen Christ, but still you love him. You cannot see him now, but you believe in him. You are filled with a joy that cannot be explained. And that joy is full of glory. 9 Your faith has a goal, to save your souls. And you are receiving that goal—your salvation.
10 The prophets searched carefully and tried to learn about this salvation. They spoke about the grace that was coming to you. 11 The Spirit of Christ was in the prophets. And the Spirit was telling about the sufferings that would happen to Christ and about the glory that would come after those sufferings. The prophets tried to learn about what the Spirit was showing them. They tried to learn when those things would happen and what the world would be like at that time. 12 It was shown to them that their service was not for themselves. It was for you. They were serving you when they told about the truths you have now heard. The men who preached the Good News to you told you those things. They did it with the help of the Holy Spirit that was sent from heaven. These are truths that even the angels want very much to know about.
Jesus Teaches About Divorce
19 After Jesus said all these things, he left Galilee. He went into the area of Judea on the other side of the Jordan River. 2 Large crowds followed Jesus, and he healed them there.
3 Some Pharisees came to Jesus and tried to trick him. They asked, “Is it right for a man to divorce his wife for any reason he chooses?”
4 Jesus answered, “Surely you have read in the Scriptures: When God made the world, ‘he made them male and female.’[a] 5 And God said, ‘So a man will leave his father and mother and be united with his wife. And the two people will become one body.’[b] 6 So the two are not two, but one. God joined the two people together. No person should separate them.”
7 The Pharisees asked, “Why then did Moses give a command for a man to divorce his wife by giving her divorce papers?”
8 Jesus answered, “Moses allowed you to divorce your wives because you refused to accept God’s teaching. But divorce was not allowed in the beginning. 9 I tell you that anyone who divorces his wife and marries another woman is guilty of adultery.[c] The only reason for a man to divorce and marry again is if his first wife has been unfaithful to him.”
10 The followers said to him, “If that is the only reason a man can divorce his wife, then it is better not to marry.”
11 Jesus answered, “Not everyone can accept this truth about marriage. But God has made some able to accept it. 12 There are different reasons why some men cannot marry. Some men were born without the ability to become fathers. Others were made that way later in life by other people. And other men have given up marriage because of the kingdom of heaven. But the person who can marry should accept this teaching about marriage.”[d]
The Holy Bible, International Children’s Bible® Copyright© 1986, 1988, 1999, 2015 by Thomas Nelson. Used by permission.