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!
11 My son, do not reject the Lord’s discipline,
and do not despise his correction,
12 because the Lord corrects the person he loves,
just as a father corrects[a] the son he delights in.[b]
Wisdom More Valuable than Riches
13 How joyful is the man who finds wisdom,
and the man who gains understanding,
14 because her profit is better than the profit of silver,
and her yield than fine gold.
15 She is more precious than rubies,
and nothing you desire compares with her.
16 Long life is in her right hand,
and in her left are riches and honor.
17 Her ways are pleasant ways,
and all her paths are peaceful.
18 She is a tree of life for those who embrace her,
and whoever clutches her tightly will be joyful.
19 By wisdom the Lord laid the earth’s foundations,
and by understanding he set the heavens in place.
20 By his knowledge the depths broke open,
and the clouds drip with dew.
18 Little children, we must stop expressing love merely by our words and manner of speech; we must love[a] also in action[b] and in truth. 19 This is how we will know that we belong to the truth and how we will be able to keep ourselves[c] strong in his presence.
20 If our hearts condemn us, God is greater than our hearts and knows everything. 21 Dear friends, if our hearts do not condemn us, we have confidence in the presence of God. 22 Whatever we request we receive from him, because we keep his commandments and do what pleases him. 23 And this is his commandment: to believe in the name of his Son, Jesus the Messiah,[d] and to love one another as he commanded us. 24 The person who keeps his commandments abides in God,[e] and God abides in him.[f] This is how we can be sure that he remains in us: he has given us his Spirit.
Test What People Say
4 Dear friends, stop believing[g] every spirit. Instead, test the spirits to see whether they are from God, because many false prophets have gone out into the world.
2 This is how you can recognize God’s Spirit: Every spirit who acknowledges that Jesus the Messiah[h] has become human—and remains so—is from God. 3 But every spirit who does not acknowledge Jesus is not from God. This is the spirit of the antichrist. You have heard that he is coming, and now he is already in the world. 4 Little children, you belong to God and have overcome them, because the one who is in you is greater than the one who is in the world. 5 These people belong to the world. That is why they speak from the world’s perspective,[i] and the world listens to them. 6 We belong to God. The person who knows God listens to us. Whoever does not belong to God does not listen to us. This is how we know the Spirit of truth and the spirit of deceit.
Jesus the Resurrection and the Life
17 When Jesus arrived, he found that Lazarus[a] had already been in the tomb for four days. 18 Now Bethany was near Jerusalem, about fifteen stadia[b] away, 19 and many of the Jews had come to Martha and Mary to console them about their brother. 20 As soon as Martha heard that Jesus was coming, she went and met him, while Mary stayed at home.
21 Martha told Jesus, “Lord, if you had been here, my brother would not have died. 22 But even now I know that whatever you ask of God, he[c] will give it to you.”
23 Jesus told her, “Your brother will rise again.”
24 Martha told him, “I know that he will rise again in the resurrection on the last day.”
25 Jesus told her, “I am the resurrection and the life.[d] The person who believes in me, even though he dies, will live. 26 Indeed, everyone who lives and believes in me will never die. Do you believe that?”
27 “Yes, Lord,” she told him. “I believe that you are the Messiah,[e] the Son of God, the one who was to come into the world.”
28 When she had said this, she went away and called her sister Mary and told her privately, “The Teacher is here and is calling for you!”
29 As soon as Mary[f] heard this, she got up quickly and went to him.
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