Book of Common Prayer

A song for those who go up to Jerusalem to worship the Lord. A psalm of David.

A song for those who go up to Jerusalem to worship the Lord.

A song for those who go up to Jerusalem to worship the Lord. A psalm of David.

A song for those who go up to Jerusalem to worship the Lord.

⁴ Certain things in the Lord’s temple had been made to honor other gods. They were the god named Baal, the female god named Asherah and all the stars in the sky. The king ordered Hilkiah the high priest to remove those things. The king ordered the priests who were next in rank and the men who guarded the doors to help Hilkiah. Josiah took those things that had been in the Lord’s temple and burned them outside Jerusalem. He burned them in the fields in the Kidron Valley. And he took the ashes to Bethel. ⁵ Josiah got rid of the priests who served other gods. The kings of Judah had appointed those priests to burn incense. They burned the incense on the high places of the towns of Judah. And they burned it on the high places around Jerusalem. They burned incense to honor Baal and the sun and moon. They burned it to honor all the stars. ⁶ Josiah removed the Asherah pole from the Lord’s temple. It had been used to worship the female god named Asherah. He took it to the Kidron Valley outside Jerusalem. There he burned it. He ground it into powder. And he scattered it over the graves of the ordinary people. ⁷ He also tore down the rooms where the male temple prostitutes stayed. Those rooms were in the Lord’s temple. Women had made cloth for Asherah in them.

⁸ Josiah brought all the priests from the towns of Judah and destroyed the high places. He destroyed them from Geba all the way to Beersheba. The priests had burned incense on them. Josiah broke down the gate at the entrance of the Gate of Joshua. It was on the left side of Jerusalem’s city gate. Joshua was the city governor. ⁹ The priests of the high places didn’t serve at the Lord’s altar in Jerusalem. In spite of that, they ate with the other priests. All of them ate bread made without yeast.

¹⁰ Josiah destroyed the high place at Topheth in the Valley of Ben Hinnom. He didn’t want anyone to use the high place to sacrifice his son or daughter in the fire to the god named Molek. ¹¹ Josiah removed the statues of horses from the entrance to the Lord’s temple. The kings of Judah had set them apart to honor the sun. The statues were in the courtyard. They were near the room of an official named Nathan-Melek. Josiah burned the chariots that had been set apart to honor the sun.

¹² He pulled down the altars the kings of Judah had set up. They had put them on the palace roof near the upstairs room of Ahaz. Josiah also pulled down the altars Manasseh had built. They were in the two courtyards of the Lord’s temple. Josiah removed the altars from there. He smashed them to pieces. Then he threw the broken pieces into the Kidron Valley. ¹³ The king also destroyed the high places that were east of Jerusalem. They were at the southern end of the Mount of Olives. They were the ones Solomon, the king of Israel, had built. He had built a high place for worshiping Ashtoreth. She was the evil female god of the people of Sidon. Solomon had also built one for worshiping Chemosh. He was the evil god of Moab. And Solomon had built one for worshiping Molek. He was the god of the people of Ammon. The Lord hated that god. ¹⁴ Josiah smashed the sacred stones. He cut down the poles used to worship the female god named Asherah. Then he covered all those places with human bones.

¹⁵ There was an altar at Bethel. It was at the high place made by Jeroboam, the son of Nebat. Jeroboam had caused Israel to commit sin. Even that altar and high place were destroyed by Josiah. He burned the high place. He ground it into powder. He also burned the Asherah pole. ¹⁶ Then Josiah looked around. He saw the tombs on the side of the hill. He had the bones removed from them. And he burned them on the altar to make it “unclean.” That’s what the Lord had said would happen. He had spoken that message through a man of God. The man had announced those things long before they took place.

¹⁷ The king asked, “What’s that stone on the grave over there?”

The people of the city said, “It marks the tomb where the man of God is buried. He came from Judah. He spoke against the altar at Bethel. He announced the very things you have done to it.”

¹⁸ “Leave it alone,” Josiah said. “Don’t let anyone touch his bones.” So they spared his bones. They also spared the bones of the prophet who had come from the northern kingdom of Israel.

¹⁹ Josiah did in the rest of the northern kingdom the same things he had done at Bethel. He removed all the small temples at the high places. He made them “unclean.” The kings of Israel had built them in the towns of the northern kingdom. The people in those towns had made the Lord very angry. ²⁰ Josiah killed all the priests of those high places on the altars. He burned human bones on the altars. Then he went back to Jerusalem.

²¹ The king gave an order to all the people. He said, “Celebrate the Passover Feast to honor the Lord your God. Do what is written in this Book of the Covenant.” ²² A Passover Feast like that one had not been held for a long time. There hadn’t been any like it in the days of the judges who led Israel. And there hadn’t been any like it during the whole time the kings of Israel and Judah were ruling. ²³ King Josiah celebrated the Passover Feast in Jerusalem to honor the Lord. It was in the 18th year of his rule.

²⁴ And that’s not all. Josiah got rid of those who got messages from people who had died. He got rid of those who talked to the spirits of people who had died. He got rid of the statues of family gods and the statues of other gods. He got rid of everything else the Lord hates that was in Judah and Jerusalem. He did it to carry out what the law required. That law was written in the book that Hilkiah the priest had found in the Lord’s temple. ²⁵ There was no king like Josiah either before him or after him. None of them turned to the Lord as he did. He obeyed the Lord with all his heart and all his soul. He obeyed him with all his strength. He did everything the Law of Moses required.

Gifts of the Holy Spirit

12 Brothers and sisters, I want you to know about the gifts of the Holy Spirit. ² You know that at one time you were unbelievers. You were somehow drawn away to worship statues of gods that couldn’t even speak. ³ So I want you to know that no one who is speaking with the help of God’s Spirit says, “May Jesus be cursed.” And without the help of the Holy Spirit no one can say, “Jesus is Lord.”

⁴ There are different kinds of gifts. But they are all given to believers by the same Spirit. ⁵ There are different ways to serve. But they all come from the same Lord. ⁶ There are different ways the Spirit works. But the same God is working in all these ways and in all people.

⁷ The Holy Spirit is given to each of us in a special way. That is for the good of all. ⁸ To some people the Spirit gives a message of wisdom. To others the same Spirit gives a message of knowledge. ⁹ To others the same Spirit gives faith. To others that one Spirit gives gifts of healing. ¹⁰ To others he gives the power to do miracles. To others he gives the ability to prophesy. To others he gives the ability to tell the spirits apart. To others he gives the ability to speak in different kinds of languages they had not known before. And to still others he gives the ability to explain what was said in those languages. ¹¹ All the gifts are produced by one and the same Spirit. He gives gifts to each person, just as he decides.

Jesus Heals a Dead Girl and a Suffering Woman

¹⁸ While Jesus was saying this, a synagogue leader came. He got down on his knees in front of Jesus. He said, “My daughter has just died. But come and place your hand on her. Then she will live again.” ¹⁹ Jesus got up and went with him. So did his disciples.

²⁰ Just then a woman came up behind Jesus. She had a sickness that made her bleed. It had lasted for 12 years. She touched the edge of his clothes. ²¹ She thought, “I only need to touch his clothes. Then I will be healed.”

²² Jesus turned and saw her. “Dear woman, don’t give up hope,” he said. “Your faith has healed you.” The woman was healed at that moment.

²³ When Jesus entered the synagogue leader’s house, he saw the noisy crowd and people playing flutes. ²⁴ He said, “Go away. The girl is not dead. She is sleeping.” But they laughed at him. ²⁵ After the crowd had been sent outside, Jesus went in. He took the girl by the hand, and she got up. ²⁶ News about what Jesus had done spread all over that area.