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!
Special Holidays
23 The Lord said to Moses, 2 “Tell the people of Israel: ‘You will announce the Lord’s appointed feasts as holy meetings. These are my special feasts.
The Sabbath
3 “‘There are six days for you to work. But the seventh day will be a special day of rest. It is a day for a holy meeting. You must not do any work. It is a Sabbath to the Lord in all your homes.
The Passover and Unleavened Bread
4 “‘These are the Lord’s appointed feasts. You will announce the holy meetings at the times set for them. 5 The Lord’s Passover is on the fourteenth day of the first month. It begins at twilight. 6 The Feast of Unleavened Bread begins on the fifteenth day of the same month. You will eat bread made without yeast for seven days. 7 On the first day of this feast you will have a holy meeting. On that day you must not do any work. 8 For seven days you will bring an offering made by fire to the Lord. There will be a holy meeting on the seventh day. And on that day you must not do any regular work.’”
The Feast of Harvests
9 The Lord said to Moses, 10 “Tell the people of Israel: ‘You will enter the land I will give you. You will gather its harvest. At that time you must bring the first bundle of grain from your harvest to the priest. 11 The priest will present the bundle before the Lord. Then it will be accepted for you. He will present the bundle on the day after the Sabbath.
12 “‘On the day when you present the bundle of grain, offer a male lamb. It must be one year old. There must be nothing wrong with it. It will be a burnt offering to the Lord. 13 You must also offer a grain offering. It should be four quarts of fine flour mixed with olive oil. It is an offering made by fire to the Lord. Its smell will be pleasing to the Lord. You must also offer a quart of wine as a drink offering. 14 First bring your offering to your God. Until you do this, do not eat the new grain, roasted grain or bread made from the new grain. This law will always continue for people from now on, wherever you live.
The Feast of Pentecost
15 “‘Count seven weeks from the morning after the Sabbath. (This is the Sabbath that you bring the bundle of grain to present as an offering.) 16 On the fiftieth day, you will bring a new grain offering to the Lord. This is the first day after the seventh week. 17 On that day bring two loaves of bread from your homes. That bread will be presented as an offering. Use yeast and four quarts of flour to make those loaves of bread. They will be your gift to the Lord from the first wheat of your harvest.
18 “‘Offer one bull, two male sheep and seven male lambs. The lambs must be one year old. There must be nothing wrong with them. Offer them with their grain offerings and drink offerings. They will be a burnt offering to the Lord. They will be an offering made by fire. And the smell will be pleasing to the Lord. 19 You must also offer one male goat for a sin offering. You must offer two male, one-year-old lambs as a fellowship offering.
20 “‘The priest will present the two lambs as an offering. He will present them with the bread from the first wheat of the harvest. They are holy to the Lord. They will belong to the priest. 21 On that same day you will call a holy meeting. You must not do any work that day. This law will continue for you from now on, wherever you live.
22 “‘You will harvest your crops on your land. But do not harvest all the way to the corners of your field. If grain falls onto the ground, don’t gather it up. Leave it for poor people and foreigners in your country. I am the Lord your God.’”
Evil Things Will Happen
2 Brothers, we have something to say about the coming of our Lord Jesus Christ. We want to talk to you about that time when we will meet together with him. 2 Do not become easily upset in your thinking or afraid if you hear that the day of the Lord has already come. Someone may have said this in a prophecy or in a message. Or you may read it in a letter that someone tells you came from us. 3 Do not let any person fool you in any way. That day of the Lord will not come until the turning away from God happens. And that day will not come until the Man of Evil[a] appears. He belongs to hell. 4 He is against any so-called god or anything that people worship. And the Man of Evil puts himself above anything called God or anything that people worship. And that Man of Evil even goes into God’s Temple and sits there. Then he says that he is God.
5 I told you when I was with you that all this would happen. Do you not remember? 6 And you know what is stopping that Man of Evil now. He is being stopped now so that he will appear at the right time. 7 The secret power of evil is already working in the world now. But there is one who is stopping that power. And he will continue to stop it until he is taken out of the way. 8 Then that Man of Evil will appear. And the Lord Jesus will kill him with the breath that comes from his mouth and will destroy him with the glory of his coming. 9 The Man of Evil will come by the power of Satan. He will have great power, and he will do many different false miracles, signs, and wonders. 10 He will use every kind of evil to trick those who are lost. They are lost because they refused to love the truth. (If they loved the truth, they would be saved.) 11 But they refused to love the truth; so God sends them something powerful that leads them away from the truth. He sends them that power so they will believe something that is not true. 12 So all those who do not believe the truth will be judged guilty. They did not believe the truth, and they enjoyed doing evil.
You Are Chosen for Salvation
13 Brothers, the Lord loves you. God chose you from the beginning[b] to be saved. So we must always thank God for you. You are saved by the Spirit that makes you holy and by your faith in the truth. 14 God used the Good News that we preached to call you to be saved. He called you so that you can share in the glory of our Lord Jesus Christ. 15 So, brothers, stand strong and continue to believe the teachings we gave you. We taught you those things in our speaking and in our letter to you.
16-17 We pray that the Lord Jesus Christ himself and God our Father will comfort you and strengthen you in every good thing you do and say. God loved us. Through his grace he gave us a good hope and comfort that continues forever.
Be Careful About Judging Others
7 “Don’t judge other people, and you will not be judged. 2 You will be judged in the same way that you judge others. And the forgiveness you give to others will be given to you.
3 “Why do you notice the little piece of dust that is in your brother’s eye, but you don’t notice the big piece of wood that is in your own eye? 4 Why do you say to your brother, ‘Let me take that little piece of dust out of your eye’? Look at yourself first! You still have that big piece of wood in your own eye. 5 You are a hypocrite! First, take the wood out of your own eye. Then you will see clearly enough to take the dust out of your brother’s eye.
6 “Don’t give holy things to dogs. Don’t throw your pearls before pigs. Pigs will only trample on them. And the dogs will only turn to attack you.
Ask God for What You Need
7 “Continue to ask, and God will give to you. Continue to search, and you will find. Continue to knock, and the door will open for you. 8 Yes, everyone who continues asking will receive. He who continues searching will find. And he who continues knocking will have the door opened for him.
9 “What would you do if your son asks for bread? Which of you would give him a stone? 10 Or if your son asks for a fish, would you give him a snake? 11 Even though you are bad, you know how to give good gifts to your children. So surely your heavenly Father will give good things to those who ask him.
The Most Important Rule
12 “Do for other people the same things you want them to do for you. This is the meaning of the law of Moses and the teaching of the prophets.
The Holy Bible, International Children’s Bible® Copyright© 1986, 1988, 1999, 2015 by Thomas Nelson. Used by permission.