Book of Common Prayer
The Unfaithfulness of God’s People
106 Hallelujah!
Give thanks to the Lord,
since he is good,
for his gracious love exists forever.
2 Who can fully describe the mighty acts of the Lord
or proclaim all his praises?
3 How happy are those who enforce justice,
who live righteously all the time.
4 Remember me, Lord,
when you show favor to your people.
Visit us with your deliverance,
5 to witness the prosperity of your chosen ones,
to rejoice in your nation’s joy,
to glory in your inheritance.
6 We have sinned, along with our ancestors;
we have committed iniquity and wickedness.
7 In Egypt, our ancestors neither comprehended your awesome deeds
nor remembered your abundant gracious love.
Instead, they rebelled beside the sea, the Reed[a] Sea.
8 He delivered for the sake of his name,[b]
to make his power known.
9 He shouted at the Reed[c] Sea and it dried up;
and led them through the sea as though through a desert.
10 He delivered them from the power of their foe;
redeeming them from the power of their enemy.
11 The water overwhelmed their enemies,
so that not one of them survived.[d]
12 Then they believed his word
and sung his praise.
13 But they quickly forgot his deeds
and did not wait for his counsel.
14 They were overwhelmed with craving in the wilderness,
so God tested them in the wasteland.
15 God granted them their request,
but sent leanness into their lives.
16 They were envious of Moses in the camp,
and of Aaron, the holy one of the Lord.
17 The earth opened and swallowed Dathan,
closing over Abiram’s clan.
18 Then a fire burned among their company,
a flame that set the wicked ablaze.
19 They fashioned a calf at Horeb
and worshipped a carved image.
20 They exchanged their glory[e]
with the image of a grass-eating bull.
21 They forgot God their Savior,
who performed great things in Egypt—
22 awesome deeds in the land of Ham,[f]
astonishing deeds at the Reed[g] Sea.
23 He would have destroyed them
but for Moses, his chosen one,
who stood in the breach before him
to avert[h] his destructive wrath.
24 They rejected the desirable land,
and they didn’t trust his promise.
25 They murmured in their tents,
and didn’t listen to the voice of the Lord.
26 So he swore an oath concerning them—
that he would cause them to die in the wilderness,
27 to cause their children to perish among the nations
and be scattered among many[i] lands.
28 For they adopted the worship[j] of Baal Peor
and ate sacrifices offered to the dead.
29 They had provoked anger by their deeds,
so that a plague broke out against them.
30 But Phinehas intervened and prayed
so that the plague was restrained.
31 And it was credited to him as a righteous act,
from generation to generation—to eternity.
32 They provoked wrath at the waters of Meribah,
and Moses suffered[k] on account of them.
33 For they rebelled against him,[l]
so that he spoke thoughtlessly with his lips.
34 They never destroyed the people,
as the Lord had commanded them.
35 Instead, they mingled among the nations
and learned their ways.[m]
36 They worshipped[n] their idols,
and this became a trap for them.
37 They sacrificed their sons and daughters to demons.
38 They shed innocent blood—
the blood of their sons and daughters—
whom they sacrificed to the idols of Canaan,
thereby polluting the land with blood.
39 Therefore, they became unclean because of what they did;
they have acted like whores by their evil deeds.
40 The Lord’s anger burned against his people,
so that he despised his own inheritance.
41 He turned them over to domination by nations
where those who hated them ruled over them.
42 Their enemies oppressed them,
so that they were humiliated by their power.
43 He delivered them many times,
but they demonstrated rebellion by their evil plans;
therefore they sunk deep in their sins.
44 Yet when he saw their distress
and heard their cries for help,[o]
45 he remembered his covenant with them,
and so relented
according to the greatness of his gracious love.
46 He caused all their captors to show compassion toward them.
47 Deliver us, Lord our God,
gather us from among the nations
so we may praise your holy name
and rejoice in praising you.
48 Blessed are you, Lord God of Israel,
from eternity to eternity;
Let all the people say, “Amen!”
Hallelujah!
The Coming Judgment of Nations
3 [a]“Look, now! In those very days and at that time,
when I restore prosperity to[b] Judah and Jerusalem,
2 I will gather all nations,
bringing them down to the Valley of Jehoshaphat.
I will set out my case against[c] them there,
on behalf of my people, my heritage Israel,
whom they scattered among the nations,
apportioning my land among themselves.[d]
The Lord’s Call to Judgment
9 “Declare this among the nations:
‘Prepare for war!
Wake up your elite forces!
Let all the soldiers draw near!
Call them up!
10 Beat your plow blades into swords,
and your pruning knives into spears!
Let the frail say, “I am strong!”
11 Hurry and come, all you gentiles!
Gather yourselves together!’”
“Lord, cause your mighty army[a] to come down.
12 “Let the nations be awakened
and come to the Valley of Jehoshaphat;
because I will sit to judge all the surrounding nations.
13 Put in the sickle,
because the harvest is ripe.
Come and go down,
because the winepress is full.
The wine vats are overflowing,
because their evil is great!
14 “Multitudes, multitudes
in the Valley of Judgment!
For the Day of the Lord is near
in the Valley of Judgment!
15 The sun and moon will grow dark,
and the stars will stop shining.
16 “The Lord will roar from Zion,
and shout from Jerusalem.
The heavens and the earth will shake,
but the Lord will be the refuge of his people,
and the strength of the people of Israel.”
God’s Blessings on His People
17 “And truly you will know that I am the Lord your God,
dwelling in Zion, my holy mountain.
Then Jerusalem will be holy,
and no foreigners will invade her again.
Greetings
1 From:[a] Peter, an apostle of Jesus, the Messiah.[b]
To: The exiles of the Dispersion[c] in Pontus, Galatia, Cappadocia, Asia, and Bithynia, 2 the people chosen according to the foreknowledge of God the Father through the sanctifying action of the Spirit to be obedient to Jesus, the Messiah,[d] and to be sprinkled with his blood.
May grace and peace be yours in abundance!
Our Hope and Joy are in the Messiah
3 Blessed be the God and Father of our Lord Jesus, the Messiah![e] Because of his great mercy he has granted us a new birth, resulting in an immortal hope through the resurrection of Jesus, the Messiah,[f] from the dead 4 and to an inheritance kept in heaven for you that can’t be destroyed, corrupted, or changed. 5 Through faith you are being protected by God’s power for a salvation that is ready to be revealed at the end of this era. 6 You greatly rejoice in this, even though you have to suffer various kinds of trials for a little while, 7 so that your genuine faith, which is more valuable than gold that perishes when tested by fire, may result in praise, glory, and honor when Jesus, the Messiah,[g] is revealed.
8 Though you have not seen[h] him, you love him. And even though you do not see him now, you believe in him and rejoice with an indescribable and glorious joy, 9 because you are receiving the goal of your faith, the salvation of your souls.
10 Even the prophets, who prophesied about the grace that was to be yours, carefully researched and investigated this salvation. 11 They tried to find out what era or specific time the Spirit of the Messiah[i] in them kept referring to when he predicted the sufferings of the Messiah[j] and the glories that would follow. 12 It was revealed to them that they were not serving themselves but you in regard to the things that have now been announced to you by those who brought you the good news through the Holy Spirit sent from heaven. These are things that even the angels desire to look into.
Teaching about Divorce(A)
19 When Jesus had finished saying these things,[a] he left Galilee and went to the territory of Judea on the other side[b] of the Jordan. 2 Large crowds followed him, and he healed them there.
3 Some Pharisees came to him in order to test him. They asked, “Is it lawful for a man[c] to divorce his wife for any reason?”
4 He answered them, “Haven’t you read that the one who made[d] them at the beginning ‘made them male and female’[e] 5 and said, ‘That is why a man will leave his father and mother and be united with his wife, and the two will become one flesh’?[f] 6 So they are no longer two, but one flesh. Therefore, what God has joined together, man must never separate.”
7 They asked him, “Why, then, did Moses order us ‘to give a certificate of divorce and divorce her’?”[g]
8 He told them, “It was because of your hardness of heart that Moses allowed you to divorce your wives. But from the beginning it was not this way. 9 I tell you that whoever divorces his wife, except for sexual immorality, and marries another woman commits adultery.”[h]
10 His disciples asked him, “If that is the relationship of a man with his wife, it’s not worth getting married!”
11 “Not everyone can accept this saying,” he replied, “except those to whom celibacy[i] has been granted, 12 because some men are celibate from birth,[j] while some are celibate because they have been made that way by others. Still others are celibate because they have made themselves that way for the sake of the kingdom from[k] heaven. Let anyone accept this who can.”
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