The Holy Spirit Is Promised

John 14 ¹⁵Jesus said to his disciples:

If you love me, you will do as I command. ¹⁶Then I will ask the Father to send you the Holy Spirit who will help you and always be with you. ¹⁷The Spirit will show you what is true. The people of this world cannot accept the Spirit, because they don't see or know him. But you know the Spirit, who is with you and will keep on living in you.

¹⁸I won't leave you like orphans. I will come back to you. ¹⁹In a little while the people of this world won't be able to see me, but you will see me. And because I live, you will live. ²⁰Then you will know that I am one with the Father. You will know that you are one with me, and I am one with you. ²¹If you love me, you will do what I have said, and my Father will love you. I will also love you and show you what I am like.

²²The other Judas, not Judas Iscariot, then spoke up and asked, "Lord, what do you mean by saying that you will show us what you are like, but you will not show the people of this world?"
²³Jesus replied:

If anyone loves me, they will obey me. Then my Father will love them, and we will come to them and live in them. ²⁴But anyone who doesn't love me, won't obey me. What they have heard me say doesn't really come from me, but from the Father who sent me.

²⁵I have told you these things while I am still with you. ²⁶But the Holy Spirit will come and help you, because the Father will send the Spirit to take my place. The Spirit will teach you everything and will remind you of what I said while I was with you.

²⁷I give you peace, the kind of peace that only I can give. It isn't like the peace that this world can give. So don't be worried or afraid.

²⁸You have already heard me say that I am going and that I will also come back to you. If you really love me, you should be glad that I am going back to the Father, because he is greater than I am.

²⁹I am telling you this before I leave, so that when it does happen, you will have faith in me. ³⁰I cannot speak with you much longer, because the ruler of this world is coming. But he has no power over me. ³¹I obey my Father, so that everyone in the world might know that I love him.

It is time for us to go now.

King Jehoram of Judah
(2 Kings 8.16-24)

2 Chronicles 21 ²King Jehoshaphat had seven sons: Jehoram, Azariah, Jehiel, Zechariah, Azariah, Michael, and Shephatiah. ³Jehoshaphat gave each of them silver and gold, as well as other valuable gifts. He also put them in charge of the fortified cities in Judah, but he had chosen his oldest son Jehoram to succeed him as king.
⁴After Jehoram had taken control of Judah, he had his brothers killed, as well as some of the nation's leaders. ⁵He was thirty-two years old when he became king, and he ruled eight years from Jerusalem.
⁶Jehoram married Ahab's daughter and followed the sinful example of Ahab's family and the other kings of Israel. He disobeyed the LORD by doing wrong, ⁷but because the LORD had made a solemn promise to King David that someone from his family would always rule in Judah, he refused to wipe out David's descendants.
⁸While Jehoram was king, the people of Edom rebelled and chose their own king. ⁹Jehoram, his officers, and his cavalry marched to Edom, where the Edomite army surrounded them. He escaped during the night, ¹⁰but Judah was never able to regain control of Edom. Even the town of Libnah rebelled at that time.
Those things happened because Jehoram had turned away from the LORD, the God his ancestors had worshiped. ¹¹Jehoram even built local shrines in the hills of Judah and let the people sin against the LORD by worshiping foreign gods.
¹²One day, Jehoram received a letter from Elijah the prophet that said:

I have a message for you from the LORD God your ancestor David worshiped. He knows that you have not followed the example of Jehoshaphat your father or Asa your grandfather. ¹³Instead you have acted like those sinful kings of Israel and have encouraged the people of Judah to stop worshiping the LORD, just as Ahab and his descendants did. You even murdered your own brothers, who were better men than you.

¹⁴Because you have done these terrible things, the LORD will severely punish the people in your kingdom, including your own family, and he will destroy everything you own. ¹⁵You will be struck with a painful stomach disease and suffer until you die.

¹⁶The LORD later caused the Philistines and the Arabs who lived near the Ethiopians to become angry at Jehoram. ¹⁷They invaded Judah and stole the royal property from the palace, and they led Jehoram's wives and sons away as prisoners. The only one left behind was Ahaziah, his youngest son.
¹⁸After this happened, the LORD struck Jehoram with an incurable stomach disease. ¹⁹About two years later, Jehoram died in terrible pain. No bonfire was built to honor him, even though the people had done this for his ancestors.
²⁰Jehoram was thirty-two years old when he became king, and he ruled eight years from Jerusalem. He died, and no one even felt sad. He was buried in Jerusalem, but not in the royal tombs.

King Ahaziah of Judah
(2 Kings 8.25-29; 9.21, 27, 28)

2 Chronicles 22 Earlier, when the Arabs led a raid against Judah, they killed all of Jehoram's sons, except Ahaziah, the youngest one. So the people of Jerusalem crowned him their king. ²He was twenty-two years old at the time, and he ruled only one year from Jerusalem.
Ahaziah's mother was Athaliah, a granddaughter of King Omri of Israel, ³and she encouraged her son to sin against the LORD. He followed the evil example of King Ahab and his descendants. ⁴In fact, after his father's death, Ahaziah sinned against the LORD by appointing some of Ahab's relatives to be his advisors.
Their advice led to his downfall. ⁵He listened to them and went with King Joram of Israel to attack King Hazael and the Syrian troops at Ramoth in Gilead. Joram was wounded in that battle, ⁶and he went to the town of Jezreel to recover. And Ahaziah later went there to visit him. ⁷It was during that visit that God had Ahaziah put to death.
When Ahaziah arrived at Jezreel, he and Joram went to meet with Jehu grandson of Nimshi. The LORD had already told Jehu to kill every male in Ahab's family, ⁸and while Jehu was doing that, he saw some of Judah's leaders and Ahaziah's nephews who had come with Ahaziah. Jehu killed them on the spot, ⁹then gave orders to find Ahaziah. Jehu's officers found him hiding in Samaria. They brought Ahaziah to Jehu, who immediately put him to death. They buried Ahaziah only because they respected Jehoshaphat his grandfather, who had done his best to obey the LORD.
There was no one from Ahaziah's family left to become king of Judah.

Queen Athaliah of Judah
(2 Kings 11.1-3)

¹⁰As soon as Athaliah heard that her son King Ahaziah was dead, she decided to kill any relative who could possibly become king. She would have done just that, ¹¹but Jehosheba rescued Joash son of Ahaziah just as the others were about to be murdered. Jehosheba, who was Jehoram's daughter and Ahaziah's half sister, was married to Jehoiada the priest. So she was able to hide her nephew Joash and his personal servant in a bedroom in the LORD's temple where he was safe from Athaliah. ¹²Joash hid in the temple with them for six years while Athaliah ruled as queen of Judah.

Psalm 79
[A psalm by Asaph.]
Have Pity on Jerusalem

¹Our God, foreign nations have taken your land,
disgraced your temple, and left Jerusalem in ruins.
²They have fed the bodies of your servants
to flesh-eating birds;
your loyal people are food for savage animals.
³All Jerusalem is covered with their blood,
and there is no one left to bury them.
⁴Every nation around us sneers and makes fun.

⁵Our LORD, will you keep on being angry?
Will your angry feelings keep flaming up like fire?
⁶Get angry with those nations that don't know you
and won't worship you!
⁷They have gobbled down Jacob's descendants
and left the land in ruins.

⁸Don't make us pay for the sins of our ancestors.
Have pity and come quickly! We are completely helpless.
⁹Our God, you keep us safe. Now help us! Rescue us.
Forgive our sins and bring honor to yourself.

¹⁰Why should nations ask us, "Where is your God?"
Let us and the other nations see you take revenge
for your servants who died a violent death.

¹¹Listen to the prisoners groan!
Let your mighty power save all who are sentenced to die.
¹²Each of those nations sneered at you, our Lord.
Now let others sneer at them, seven times as much.
¹³Then we, your people, will always thank you.
We are like sheep with you as our shepherd,
and all generations will hear us praise you.