Book of Common Prayer
God’s Love for Israel
105 Give thanks to the Lord and pray to him.
Tell the nations what he has done.
2 Sing to him; sing praises to him.
Tell about all his miracles.
3 Be glad that you are his;
let those who seek the Lord be happy.
4 Depend on the Lord and his strength;
always go to him for help.
5 Remember the miracles he has done;
remember his wonders and his decisions.
6 You are descendants of his servant Abraham,
the children of Jacob, his chosen people.
7 He is the Lord our God.
His laws are for all the world.
8 He will keep his agreement forever;
he will keep his promises always.
9 He will keep the agreement he made with Abraham
and the promise he made to Isaac.
10 He made it a law for the people of Jacob;
he made it an agreement with Israel to last forever.
11 The Lord said, “I will give you the land of Canaan,
and it will belong to you.”
12 Then God’s people were few in number.
They were strangers in the land.
13 They went from one nation to another,
from one kingdom to another.
14 But the Lord did not let anyone hurt them;
he warned kings not to harm them.
15 He said, “Don’t touch my chosen people,
and don’t harm my prophets.”
16 God ordered a time of hunger in the land,
and he destroyed all the food.
17 Then he sent a man ahead of them—
Joseph, who was sold as a slave.
18 They put chains around his feet
and an iron ring around his neck.
19 Then the time he had spoken of came,
and the Lord’s words proved that Joseph was right.
20 The king of Egypt sent for Joseph and freed him;
the ruler of the people set him free.
21 He made him the master of his house;
Joseph was in charge of his riches.
22 He could order the princes as he wished.
He taught the older men to be wise.
23 Then his father Israel came to Egypt;
Jacob[a] lived in Egypt.[b]
24 The Lord made his people grow in number,
and he made them stronger than their enemies.
25 He caused the Egyptians to hate his people
and to make plans against his servants.
26 Then he sent his servant Moses,
and Aaron, whom he had chosen.
27 They did many signs among the Egyptians
and worked wonders in Egypt.
28 The Lord sent darkness and made the land dark,
but the Egyptians turned against what he said.
29 So he changed their water into blood
and made their fish die.
30 Then their country was filled with frogs,
even in the bedrooms of their rulers.
31 The Lord spoke and flies came,
and gnats were everywhere in the country.
32 He made hail fall like rain
and sent lightning through their land.
33 He struck down their grapevines and fig trees,
and he destroyed every tree in the country.
34 He spoke and grasshoppers came;
the locusts were too many to count.
35 They ate all the plants in the land
and everything the earth produced.
36 The Lord also killed all the firstborn sons in the land,
the oldest son of each family.
37 Then he brought his people out,
and they carried with them silver and gold.
Not one of his people stumbled.
38 The Egyptians were glad when they left,
because the Egyptians were afraid of them.
39 The Lord covered them with a cloud
and lit up the night with fire.
40 When they asked, he brought them quail
and filled them with bread from heaven.
41 God split the rock, and water flowed out;
it ran like a river through the desert.
42 He remembered his holy promise
to his servant Abraham.
43 So God brought his people out with joy,
his chosen ones with singing.
44 He gave them lands of other nations,
so they received what others had worked for.
45 This was so they would keep his orders
and obey his teachings.
Praise the Lord!
All People Will Learn About God
65 The Lord says, “I made myself known to people who were not looking for me.
I was found by those who were not asking me for help.
I said, ‘Here I am. Here I am,’
to a nation that was not praying to me.
2 All day long I stood ready to accept
people who turned against me,
but the way they continue to live is not good;
they do anything they want to do.
3 Right in front of me
they continue to do things that make me angry.
They offer sacrifices to their gods in their gardens,
and they burn incense on altars of brick.
4 They sit among the graves
and spend their nights waiting to get messages from the dead.
They eat the meat of pigs,
and their pots are full of soup made from meat that is wrong to eat.
5 But they tell others, ‘Stay away, and don’t come near me.
I am too holy for you.’
These people are like smoke in my nose.
Like a fire that burns all the time, they continue to make me angry.
6 “Look, it is written here before me.
I will not be quiet; instead, I will repay you in full.
I will punish you for what you have done.
7 I will punish you for your sins and your ancestors’ sins,”
says the Lord.
“They burned incense to gods on the mountains
and shamed me on those hills.
So I will punish them as they should be punished
for what they did.”
8 This is what the Lord says:
“When there is juice left in the grapes,
people do not destroy them,
because they know there is good left in them.
So I will do the same thing to my servants—
I will not completely destroy them.
9 I will leave some of the children of Jacob,
and some of the people of Judah will receive my mountain.
I will choose the people who will live there;
my servants will live there.
10 Then the Plain of Sharon will be a field for flocks,
and the Valley of Achor will be a place for herds to rest.
They will be for the people who want to follow me.
11 “But as for you who left the Lord,
who forgot about my holy mountain,
who worship the god Luck,
who hold religious feasts for the god Fate,
12 I decide your fate, and I will punish you with my sword.
You will all be killed,
because I called you, but you refused to answer.
I spoke to you, but you wouldn’t listen.
You did the things I said were evil
and chose to do things that displease me.”
A Warning About False Teachers
4 Now the Holy Spirit clearly says that in the later times some people will stop believing the faith. They will follow spirits that lie and teachings of demons. 2 Such teachings come from the false words of liars whose consciences are destroyed as if by a hot iron. 3 They forbid people to marry and tell them not to eat certain foods which God created to be eaten with thanks by people who believe and know the truth. 4 Everything God made is good, and nothing should be refused if it is accepted with thanks, 5 because it is made holy by what God has said and by prayer.
Be a Good Servant of Christ
6 By telling these things to the brothers and sisters, you will be a good servant of Christ Jesus. You will be made strong by the words of the faith and the good teaching which you have been following. 7 But do not follow foolish stories that disagree with God’s truth, but train yourself to serve God. 8 Training your body helps you in some ways, but serving God helps you in every way by bringing you blessings in this life and in the future life, too. 9 What I say is true, and you should fully accept it. 10 This is why we work and struggle:[a] We hope in the living God who is the Savior of all people, especially of those who believe.
11 Command and teach these things. 12 Do not let anyone treat you as if you are unimportant because you are young. Instead, be an example to the believers with your words, your actions, your love, your faith, and your pure life. 13 Until I come, continue to read the Scriptures to the people, strengthen them, and teach them. 14 Use the gift you have, which was given to you through prophecy when the group of elders laid their hands on[b] you. 15 Continue to do those things; give your life to doing them so your progress may be seen by everyone. 16 Be careful in your life and in your teaching. If you continue to live and teach rightly, you will save both yourself and those who listen to you.
Is It Right to Pay Taxes or Not?
13 Later, the Jewish leaders sent some Pharisees and Herodians[a] to Jesus to trap him in saying something wrong. 14 They came to him and said, “Teacher, we know that you are an honest man. You are not afraid of what other people think about you, because you pay no attention to who they are. And you teach the truth about God’s way. Tell us: Is it right to pay taxes to Caesar or not? 15 Should we pay them, or not?”
But knowing what these men were really trying to do, Jesus said to them, “Why are you trying to trap me? Bring me a coin to look at.” 16 They gave Jesus a coin, and he asked, “Whose image and name are on the coin?”
They answered, “Caesar’s.”
17 Then Jesus said to them, “Give to Caesar the things that are Caesar’s, and give to God the things that are God’s.” The men were amazed at what Jesus said.
Some Sadducees Try to Trick Jesus
18 Then some Sadducees came to Jesus and asked him a question. (Sadducees believed that people would not rise from the dead.) 19 They said, “Teacher, Moses wrote that if a man’s brother dies, leaving a wife but no children, then that man must marry the widow and have children for his brother. 20 Once there were seven brothers. The first brother married and died, leaving no children. 21 So the second brother married the widow, but he also died and had no children. The same thing happened with the third brother. 22 All seven brothers married her and died, and none of the brothers had any children. Finally the woman died too. 23 Since all seven brothers had married her, when people rise from the dead, whose wife will she be?”
24 Jesus answered, “Why don’t you understand? Don’t you know what the Scriptures say, and don’t you know about the power of God? 25 When people rise from the dead, they will not marry, nor will they be given to someone to marry. They will be like the angels in heaven. 26 Surely you have read what God said about people rising from the dead. In the book in which Moses wrote about the burning bush,[b] it says that God told Moses, ‘I am the God of Abraham, the God of Isaac, and the God of Jacob.’[c] 27 God is the God of the living, not the dead. You Sadducees are wrong!”
The Holy Bible, New Century Version®. Copyright © 2005 by Thomas Nelson, Inc.