John 11 28After
Martha said this, she went and privately said to her
sister Mary, "The Teacher is here, and he wants to
see you." 29As soon as Mary heard this,
she got up and went out to Jesus. 30He was
still outside the village where Martha had gone to meet
him. 31Many people had come to comfort Mary,
and when they saw her quickly leave the house, they
thought she was going out to the tomb to cry. So they
followed her.
 32Mary
went to where Jesus was. Then as soon as she saw him, she
knelt at his feet and said, "Lord, if you had been
here, my brother would not have died."
33When
Jesus saw that Mary and the people with her were crying,
he was terribly upset 34and asked, "Where
have you put his body?"
They
replied, "Lord, come and you will see."
35Jesus
started crying, 36and the people said,
"See how much he loved Lazarus."
37Some
of them said, "He gives sight to the blind. Why
couldn't he have kept Lazarus from dying?"
38Jesus
was still terribly upset. So he went to the tomb, which
was a cave with a stone rolled against the entrance. 39Then
he told the people to roll the stone away. But Martha
said, "Lord, you know that Lazarus has been dead
four days, and there will be a bad smell."
40Jesus
replied, "Didn't I tell you that if you had faith,
you would see the glory of God?"
41After
the stone had been rolled aside, Jesus looked up toward
heaven and prayed, "Father, I thank you for
answering my prayer. 42I know that you always
answer my prayers. But I said this, so that the people
here would believe that you sent me."
43When
Jesus had finished praying, he shouted, "Lazarus,
come out!" 44The man who had been dead
came out. His hands and feet were wrapped with strips of
burial cloth, and a cloth covered his face.
Jesus
then told the people, "Untie him and let him
go." The Plot To Kill
Jesus
(Matthew 26.1-5; Mark 14.1, 2; Luke
22.1, 2)
45Many
of the people who had come to visit Mary saw the things
that Jesus did, and they put their faith in him. 46Others
went to the Pharisees and told what Jesus had done. 47Then
the chief priests and the Pharisees called the council
together and said, "What should we do? This man is
working a lot of miracles. 48If we don't stop
him now, everyone will put their faith in him. Then the
Romans will come and destroy our temple and our
nation."
49One
of the council members was Caiaphas, who was also high
priest that year. He spoke up and said, "You people
don't have any sense at all! 50Don't you know
it is better for one person to die for the people than
for the whole nation to be destroyed?" 51Caiaphas
did not say this on his own. As high priest that year, he
was prophesying that Jesus would die for the nation. 52Yet
Jesus would not die just for the Jewish nation. He would
die to bring together all of God's scattered people. 53From
that day on, the council started making plans to put
Jesus to death.
54Because
of this plot against him, Jesus stopped going around in
public. He went to the town of Ephraim, which was near
the desert, and he stayed there with his disciples.
55It
was almost time for Passover. Many of the Jewish people
who lived out in the country had come to Jerusalem to get
themselves ready for the festival. 56They
looked around for Jesus. Then when they were in the
temple, they asked each other, "You don't think he
will come here for Passover, do you?"
57The
chief priests and the Pharisees told the people to let
them know if any of them saw Jesus. That is how they
hoped to arrest him.
King Shishak of Egypt Invades
Judah
(1 Kings 14.25-28)
2 Chronicles 12 Soon
after Rehoboam had control of his kingdom, he and
everyone in Judah stopped obeying the LORD.
2So in the fifth year of Rehoboam's rule, the
LORD punished them for their
unfaithfulness and allowed King Shishak of Egypt to
invade Judah. 3Shishak attacked with his army
of one thousand two hundred chariots and sixty thousand
cavalry troops, as well as Egyptian soldiers from Libya,
Sukkoth, and Ethiopia. 4He captured every one
of the fortified cities in Judah and then marched to
Jerusalem.
5Rehoboam
and the leaders of Judah had gone to Jerusalem to escape
Shishak's invasion. And while they were there, Shemaiah
the prophet told them, "The LORD
says that because you have disobeyed him, he has now
abandoned you. The LORD will not
help you against Shishak!"
6Rehoboam
and the leaders were sorry for what they had done and
admitted, "The LORD is right.
We have deserted him."
7When
the LORD heard this, he told
Shemaiah:
The people of Judah are truly sorry for
their sins, and so I won't let Shishak completely
destroy them. But because I am still angry, 8he
will conquer and rule them.
Then my people will know what it's like to
serve a foreign king instead of serving me.
9Shishak
attacked Jerusalem and took all the valuable things from
the temple and from the palace, including Solomon's gold
shields.
10Rehoboam
had bronze shields made to replace the gold ones, and he
ordered the guards at the city gates to keep them safe. 11Whenever
Rehoboam went to the LORD's temple,
the guards carried the shields. But they always took them
back to the guardroom as soon as he had finished
worshiping.
12Rehoboam
turned back to the LORD, and so the
LORD did not let Judah be
completely destroyed, and Judah was prosperous again.
Rehoboam's Rule in Judah
(1 Kings 14.21, 29-31)
13Rehoboam
was forty-one years old when he became king, and he ruled
seventeen years from Jerusalem, the city where the LORD had chosen to be worshiped. His
mother Naamah was from Ammon. Rehoboam was a powerful
king, 14but he still did wrong and refused to
obey the LORD.
15Everything
else Rehoboam did while he was king, including a history
of his family, is written in the records of the two
prophets, Shemaiah and Iddo. During Rehoboam's rule, he
and King Jeroboam of Israel were constantly at war. 16When
Rehoboam died, he was buried beside his ancestors in
Jerusalem, and his son Abijah became king.
King Abijah of Judah
(1 Kings 15.1-8)
2 Chronicles 13 Abijah
became king of Judah in Jeroboam's eighteenth year as
king of Israel, 2and he ruled from Jerusalem
for three years. His mother was Micaiah the daughter of
Uriel from Gibeah.
Some
time later, Abijah and King Jeroboam of Israel went to
war against each other. 3Abijah's army had
four hundred thousand troops, and Jeroboam met him in
battle with eight hundred thousand troops.
4Abijah
went to the top of Mount Zemaraim in the hills of Ephraim
and shouted:
Listen, Jeroboam and all you Israelites! 5The
LORD God of Israel has made a
solemn promise that every king of Israel will be from
David's family. 6But Jeroboam, you were
King Solomon's official, and you rebelled. 7Then
right after Rehoboam became king, you and your bunch
of worthless followers challenged Rehoboam, who was
too young to know how to stop you.
8Now you and your
powerful army think you can stand up to the kingdom
that the LORD has given to
David's descendants. The only gods you have are those
gold statues of calves that Jeroboam made for you. 9You
don't even have descendants of Aaron on your side,
because you forced out the LORD's
priests and Levites. In their place, you appoint
ordinary people to be priests, just as the foreign
nations do. In fact, anyone who brings a bull and
seven rams to the altar can become a priest of your
so-called gods.
10But we have not turned
our backs on the LORD God!
Aaron's own descendants serve as our priests, and the
Levites are their assistants. 11Two times
every day they offer sacrifices and burn incense to
the LORD. They set out the
sacred loaves of bread on a table that has been
purified, and they light the lamps in the gold
lampstand every day at sunset. We follow the commands
of the LORD our God--you have
rejected him! 12That's why God is on our
side and will lead us into battle when the priests
sound the signal on the trumpets. It's no use,
Israelites. You might as well give up. There's no way
you can defeat the LORD, the
God your ancestors worshiped.
13But
while Abijah was talking, Jeroboam had sent some of his
troops to attack Judah's army from behind, while the rest
attacked from the front. 14Judah's army
realized they were trapped, and so they prayed to the LORD. The priests blew the signal on the
trumpet, 15and the troops let out a battle
cry. Then with Abijah leading them into battle, God
defeated Jeroboam and Israel's army. 16The
Israelites ran away, and God helped Judah's soldiers
slaughter 17five hundred thousand enemy
troops. 18Judah's army won because they had
trusted the LORD God of their
ancestors.
19Abijah
kept up his attack on Jeroboam's army and captured the
Israelite towns of Bethel, Jeshanah, and Ephron, as well
as the villages around them.
20Jeroboam
never regained his power during the rest of Abijah's
rule. The LORD punished Jeroboam,
and he died, but Abijah became more powerful.
21Abijah
had a total of fourteen wives, twenty-two sons, and
sixteen daughters. 22Everything Abijah said
and did while he was king is written in the records of
Iddo the prophet.
Psalm 76
[A song and a psalm for the music
leader. Use stringed instruments.]
God Always Wins
1You, our God, are famous in Judah
and honored in Israel.
2Your
home is on Mount Zion in the city of peace.
3There
you destroyed fiery arrows, shields, swords,
and all the other weapons.
4You
are more glorious than the eternal mountains.
5Brave
warriors were robbed of what they had taken,
and now they lie dead, unable to lift an arm.
6God
of Jacob, when you roar,
enemy chariots and horses drop dead in their tracks.
7Our
God, you are fearsome,
and no one can oppose you when you are angry.
8From
heaven you announced your decisions as judge!
And all who live on this earth were terrified and silent
 9 when
you took over as judge,
ready to rescue everyone in need.
10Even
the most angry people will praise you
when you are furious.
11Everyone,
make your promises to the LORD your
God
and do what you promise.
The LORD is fearsome,
and all of his servants should bring him gifts.
12God
destroys the courage of rulers and kings
and makes cowards of them.
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