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The Coming Ruler of God’s People

⁹ Rejoice greatly, O daughter Zion!
   Shout aloud, O daughter Jerusalem!
Lo, your king comes to you;
   triumphant and victorious is he,
humble and riding on a donkey,
   on a colt, the foal of a donkey.
¹⁰ He^* will cut off the chariot from Ephraim
   and the warhorse from Jerusalem;
and the battle-bow shall be cut off,
   and he shall command peace to the nations;
his dominion shall be from sea to sea,
   and from the River to the ends of the earth.

¹¹ As for you also, because of the blood of my covenant with you,
   I will set your prisoners free from the waterless pit.
¹² Return to your stronghold, O prisoners of hope;
   today I declare that I will restore to you double.

8  The Lord is gracious and merciful, ♦︎
   long-suffering and of great goodness.
9  The Lord is loving to everyone ♦︎
   and his mercy is over all his creatures.
10  All your works praise you, O Lord, ♦︎
   and your faithful servants bless you.
11  They tell of the glory of your kingdom ♦︎
   and speak of your mighty power,
12  To make known to all peoples your mighty acts ♦︎
   and the glorious splendour of your kingdom.
13  Your kingdom is an everlasting kingdom; ♦︎
   your dominion endures throughout all ages.
14  The Lord is sure in all his words ♦︎
   and faithful in all his deeds.

¹⁵I do not understand my own actions. For I do not do what I want, but I do the very thing I hate. ¹⁶Now if I do what I do not want, I agree that the law is good. ¹⁷But in fact it is no longer I that do it, but sin that dwells within me. ¹⁸For I know that nothing good dwells within me, that is, in my flesh. I can will what is right, but I cannot do it. ¹⁹For I do not do the good I want, but the evil I do not want is what I do. ²⁰Now if I do what I do not want, it is no longer I that do it, but sin that dwells within me.

21 So I find it to be a law that when I want to do what is good, evil lies close at hand. ²²For I delight in the law of God in my inmost self, ²³but I see in my members another law at war with the law of my mind, making me captive to the law of sin that dwells in my members. ²⁴Wretched man that I am! Who will rescue me from this body of death? ²⁵Thanks be to God through Jesus Christ our Lord!

So then, with my mind I am a slave to the law of God, but with my flesh I am a slave to the law of sin.

16 ‘But to what will I compare this generation? It is like children sitting in the market-places and calling to one another,
¹⁷ “We played the flute for you, and you did not dance;
   we wailed, and you did not mourn.”
¹⁸For John came neither eating nor drinking, and they say, “He has a demon”; ¹⁹the Son of Man came eating and drinking, and they say, “Look, a glutton and a drunkard, a friend of tax-collectors and sinners!” Yet wisdom is vindicated by her deeds.’^*

Jesus Thanks His Father

25 At that time Jesus said, ‘I thank^* you, Father, Lord of heaven and earth, because you have hidden these things from the wise and the intelligent and have revealed them to infants; ²⁶yes, Father, for such was your gracious will.^{* 27}All things have been handed over to me by my Father; and no one knows the Son except the Father, and no one knows the Father except the Son and anyone to whom the Son chooses to reveal him.

28 ‘Come to me, all you that are weary and are carrying heavy burdens, and I will give you rest. ²⁹Take my yoke upon you, and learn from me; for I am gentle and humble in heart, and you will find rest for your souls. ³⁰For my yoke is easy, and my burden is light.’