At Bethany
(Matthew 26.6-13; Mark 14.3-9)

John 12 Six days before Passover Jesus went back to Bethany, where he had raised Lazarus from death. ²A meal had been prepared for Jesus. Martha was doing the serving, and Lazarus himself was there.
³Mary took a very expensive bottle of perfume and poured it on Jesus' feet. She wiped them with her hair, and the sweet smell of the perfume filled the house.
⁴A disciple named Judas Iscariot was there. He was the one who was going to betray Jesus, and he asked, ⁵"Why wasn't this perfume sold for three hundred silver coins and the money given to the poor?" ⁶Judas did not really care about the poor. He asked this because he carried the moneybag and sometimes would steal from it.
⁷Jesus replied, "Leave her alone! She has kept this perfume for the day of my burial. ⁸You will always have the poor with you, but you won't always have me."

A Plot To Kill Lazarus

⁹A lot of people came when they heard that Jesus was there. They also wanted to see Lazarus, because Jesus had raised him from death. ¹⁰So the chief priests made plans to kill Lazarus. ¹¹He was the reason that many of the people were turning from them and putting their faith in Jesus.

Jesus Enters Jerusalem
(Matthew 21.1-11; Mark 11.1-11; Luke 19.28-40)

¹²The next day a large crowd was in Jerusalem for Passover. When they heard that Jesus was coming for the festival, ¹³they took palm branches and went out to greet him. They shouted,
"Hooray!
God bless the one who comes in the name of the Lord!
God bless the King of Israel!"
¹⁴Jesus found a donkey and rode on it, just as the Scriptures say,
¹⁵"People of Jerusalem, don't be afraid!
Your King is now coming,
and he is riding on a donkey."
¹⁶At first, Jesus' disciples did not understand. But after he had been given his glory, they remembered all this. Everything had happened exactly as the Scriptures said it would.
^17-18A crowd had come to meet Jesus because they had seen him call Lazarus out of the tomb. They kept talking about him and this miracle. ¹⁹But the Pharisees said to each other, "There is nothing that can be done! Everyone in the world is following Jesus."

Some Greeks Want To Meet Jesus

²⁰Some Greeks had gone to Jerusalem to worship during Passover. ²¹Philip from Bethsaida in Galilee was there too. So they went to him and said, "Sir, we would like to meet Jesus." ²²Philip told Andrew. Then the two of them went to Jesus and told him.

King Asa of Judah

2 Chronicles 14 Abijah died and was buried in Jerusalem. Then his son Asa became king, and Judah had ten years of peace.
²Asa obeyed the LORD his God and did right. ³He destroyed the local shrines and the altars to foreign gods. He smashed the stone images of gods and cut down the sacred poles used in worshiping the goddess Asherah. ⁴Then he told everyone in Judah to worship the LORD God, just as their ancestors had done, and to obey his laws and teachings. ⁵He destroyed every local shrine and incense altar in Judah.
⁶The LORD blessed Judah with peace while Asa was king, and so during that time, Asa fortified many of the towns. ⁷He said to the people, "Let's build walls and defense towers for these towns, and put in gates that can be locked with bars. This land still belongs to us, because we have obeyed the LORD our God. He has given us peace from all our enemies." The people did everything Asa had suggested.
⁸Asa had a large army of brave soldiers: Three hundred thousand of them were from the tribe of Judah and were armed with shields and spears; two hundred eighty thousand were from Benjamin and were armed with bows and arrows.

Judah Defeats Ethiopia's Army

⁹Zerah from Ethiopia led an army of a million soldiers and three hundred chariots to the town of Mareshah in Judah. ¹⁰Asa met him there, and the two armies prepared for battle in Zephathah Valley.
¹¹Asa prayed:

LORD God, only you can help a powerless army defeat a stronger one. So we depend on you to help us. We will fight against this powerful army to honor your name, and we know that you won't be defeated. You are the LORD our God.

¹²The LORD helped Asa and his army defeat the Ethiopians. The enemy soldiers ran away, ¹³but Asa and his troops chased them as far as Gerar. It was a total defeat--the Ethiopians could not even fight back!
The soldiers from Judah took everything that had belonged to the Ethiopians. ¹⁴The people who lived in the villages around Gerar learned what had happened and were afraid of the LORD. So Judah's army easily defeated them and carried off everything of value that they wanted from these towns. ¹⁵They also attacked the camps where the shepherds lived and took a lot of sheep, goats, and camels. Then they went back to Jerusalem.

Asa Destroys the Idols in Judah

2 Chronicles 15 Some time later, God spoke to Azariah son of Oded. ²At once, Azariah went to Asa and said:

Listen to me, King Asa and you people of Judah and Benjamin. The LORD will be with you and help you, as long as you obey and worship him. But if you disobey him, he will desert you.

³For a long time, the people of Israel did not worship the true God or listen to priests who could teach them about God. They refused to obey God's Law. ⁴But whenever trouble came, Israel turned back to the LORD their God and worshiped him.

⁵There was so much confusion in those days that it wasn't safe to go anywhere in Israel. ⁶Nations were destroying each other, and cities were wiping out other cities, because God was causing trouble and unrest everywhere.

⁷So you must be brave. Don't give up! God will honor you for obeying him.

⁸As soon as Asa heard what Azariah the prophet said, he gave orders for all the idols in Judah and Benjamin to be destroyed, including those in the towns he had captured in the territory of Ephraim. He also repaired the LORD's altar that was in front of the temple porch.
⁹Asa called together the people from Judah and Benjamin, as well as the people from the territories of Ephraim, West Manasseh, and Simeon who were living in Judah. Many of these people were now loyal to Asa, because they had seen that the LORD was with him.
¹⁰In the third month of the fifteenth year of Asa's rule, they all met in Jerusalem. ¹¹That same day, they took seven hundred bulls and seven thousand sheep and goats from what they had brought back from Gerar and sacrificed them as offerings to the LORD. ¹²They made a solemn promise to faithfully worship the LORD God their ancestors had worshiped, ¹³and to put to death anyone who refused to obey him. ¹⁴The crowd solemnly agreed to keep their promise to the LORD, then they celebrated by shouting and blowing trumpets and horns. ¹⁵Everyone was happy because they had made this solemn promise, and in return, the LORD blessed them with peace from all their enemies.
¹⁶Asa's grandmother Maacah had made a disgusting idol of the goddess Asherah, so he cut it down, crushed it, and burned it in Kidron Valley. Then he removed Maacah from her position as queen mother. ¹⁷As long as Asa lived, he was faithful to the LORD, even though he did not destroy the local shrines in Israel. ¹⁸He placed in the temple all the silver and gold objects that he and his father had dedicated to God.
¹⁹There was peace in Judah until the thirty-fifth year of Asa's rule.

Psalm 77
[A psalm by Asaph for Jeduthun, the music leader.]
In Times of Trouble God Is with His People

¹I pray to you, Lord God, and I beg you to listen.
²In days filled with trouble, I search for you.
And at night I tirelessly lift my hands in prayer,
refusing comfort.
³When I think of you, I feel restless and weak.

⁴Because of you, Lord God, I can't sleep.
I am restless and can't even talk.
⁵I think of times gone by, of those years long ago.
⁶Each night my mind is flooded with questions:
⁷"Have you rejected me forever?
Won't you be kind again?
⁸Is this the end of your love and your promises?
⁹Have you forgotten how to have pity?
Do you refuse to show mercy because of your anger?"
¹⁰Then I said, "God Most High, what hurts me most
is that you no longer help us with your mighty arm."

¹¹Our LORD, I will remember the things you have done,
your miracles of long ago.
¹²I will think about each one of your mighty deeds.
¹³Everything you do is right,
and no other god compares with you.
¹⁴You alone work miracles,
and you have let nations see your mighty power.
¹⁵With your own arm you rescued your people,
the descendants of Jacob and Joseph.

¹⁶The ocean looked at you, God,
and it trembled deep down with fear.
¹⁷Water flowed from the clouds. Thunder was heard above
as your arrows of lightning flashed about.
¹⁸Your thunder roared like chariot wheels.
The world was made bright by lightning,
and all the earth trembled.

¹⁹You walked through the water of the mighty sea,
but your footprints were never seen.
²⁰You guided your people like a flock of sheep,
and you chose Moses and Aaron to be their leaders.