Jesus and the Samaritan Woman

John 4 The Pharisees heard that Jesus was winning and baptizing more disciples than John. ( ²Actually, Jesus himself did not baptize anyone; only his disciples did.) ³So when Jesus heard what was being said, he left Judea and went back to Galilee; ⁴on his way there he had to go through Samaria.
⁵In Samaria he came to a town named Sychar, which was not far from the field that Jacob had given to his son Joseph. ⁶Jacob's well was there, and Jesus, tired out by the trip, sat down by the well. It was about noon.
⁷A Samaritan woman came to draw some water, and Jesus said to her, "Give me a drink of water." ( ⁸His disciples had gone into town to buy food.)
⁹The woman answered, "You are a Jew, and I am a Samaritan--so how can you ask me for a drink?" (Jews will not use the same cups and bowls that Samaritans use.)
¹⁰Jesus answered, "If you only knew what God gives and who it is that is asking you for a drink, you would ask him, and he would give you life-giving water."
¹¹"Sir," the woman said, "you don't have a bucket, and the well is deep. Where would you get that life-giving water? ¹²It was our ancestor Jacob who gave us this well; he and his children and his flocks all drank from it. You don't claim to be greater than Jacob, do you?"
¹³Jesus answered, "Those who drink this water will get thirsty again, ¹⁴but those who drink the water that I will give them will never be thirsty again. The water that I will give them will become in them a spring which will provide them with life-giving water and give them eternal life."
¹⁵"Sir," the woman said, "give me that water! Then I will never be thirsty again, nor will I have to come here to draw water."
¹⁶"Go and call your husband," Jesus told her, "and come back."
¹⁷"I don't have a husband," she answered.
Jesus replied, "You are right when you say you don't have a husband. ¹⁸You have been married to five men, and the man you live with now is not really your husband. You have told me the truth."
¹⁹"I see you are a prophet, sir," the woman said. ²⁰"My Samaritan ancestors worshiped God on this mountain, but you Jews say that Jerusalem is the place where we should worship God."
²¹Jesus said to her, "Believe me, woman, the time will come when people will not worship the Father either on this mountain or in Jerusalem. ²²You Samaritans do not really know whom you worship; but we Jews know whom we worship, because it is from the Jews that salvation comes. ²³But the time is coming and is already here, when by the power of God's Spirit people will worship the Father as he really is, offering him the true worship that he wants. ²⁴God is Spirit, and only by the power of his Spirit can people worship him as he really is."
²⁵The woman said to him, "I know that the Messiah will come, and when he comes, he will tell us everything."
²⁶Jesus answered, "I am he, I who am talking with you."

Getting Ready to Move the Covenant Box

1 Chronicles 15 For his own use, David built houses in David's City. He also prepared a place for God's Covenant Box and put up a tent for it. ²Then he said, "Only Levites should carry the Covenant Box, because they are the ones the LORD chose to carry it and to serve him forever." ³So David summoned all the people of Israel to Jerusalem in order to bring the Covenant Box to the place he had prepared for it. ⁴Next he sent for the descendants of Aaron and for the Levites. ⁵From the Levite clan of Kohath came Uriel, in charge of 120 members of his clan; ⁶from the clan of Merari came Asaiah, in charge of 220; ⁷from the clan of Gershon, Joel, in charge of 130; ⁸from the clan of Elizaphan, Shemaiah, in charge of 200; ⁹from the clan of Hebron, Eliel, in charge of 80; ¹⁰and from the clan of Uzziel, Amminadab, in charge of 112.
¹¹David called in the priests Zadok and Abiathar and the six Levites, Uriel, Asaiah, Joel, Shemaiah, Eliel, and Amminadab. ¹²He said to the Levites, "You are the leaders of the Levite clans. Purify yourselves and your fellow Levites, so that you can bring the Covenant Box of the LORD God of Israel to the place I have prepared for it. ¹³Because you were not there to carry it the first time, the LORD our God punished us for not worshiping him as we should have done."
¹⁴Then the priests and the Levites purified themselves in order to move the Covenant Box of the LORD God of Israel. ¹⁵The Levites carried it on poles on their shoulders, as the LORD had commanded through Moses.
¹⁶David commanded the leaders of the Levites to assign various Levites to sing and to play joyful music on harps and cymbals. ^17-21From the clans of singers they chose the following men to play the brass cymbals: Heman son of Joel, his relative Asaph son of Berechiah, and Ethan son of Kushaiah, of the clan of Merari. To assist them they chose the following Levites to play the high-pitched harps: Zechariah, Jaaziel, Shemiramoth, Jehiel, Unni, Eliab, Maaseiah, and Benaiah.
To play the low-pitched harps they chose the following Levites: Mattithiah, Eliphelehu, Mikneiah, Azaziah, and the Temple guards, Obed Edom and Jeiel.
²²Because of his skill in music Chenaniah was chosen to be in charge of the levitical musicians. ^23-24Berechiah and Elkanah, along with Obed Edom and Jehiah, were chosen as guards for the Covenant Box. The priests Shebaniah, Joshaphat, Nethanel, Amasai, Zechariah, Benaiah, and Eliezer were chosen to blow trumpets in front of the Covenant Box.

Moving the Covenant Box to Jerusalem
(2 Samuel 6.12-22)

²⁵So King David, the leaders of Israel, and the military commanders went to the house of Obed Edom to get the Covenant Box, and they had a great celebration. ²⁶They sacrificed seven bulls and seven sheep, to make sure that God would help the Levites who were carrying the Covenant Box. ²⁷David was wearing a robe made of the finest linen, and so were the musicians, Chenaniah their leader, and the Levites who carried the Box. David also wore a linen ephod. ²⁸So all the Israelites accompanied the Covenant Box up to Jerusalem with shouts of joy, the sound of trumpets, horns, and cymbals, and the music of harps.
²⁹As the Box was being brought into the city, Michal, Saul's daughter, looked out of the window and saw King David dancing and leaping for joy, and she was disgusted with him.
1 Chronicles 16 They took the Covenant Box to the tent which David had prepared for it and put it inside. Then they offered sacrifices and fellowship offerings to God. ²After David had finished offering the sacrifices, he blessed the people in the name of the LORD ³and distributed food to them all. He gave each man and woman in Israel a loaf of bread, a piece of roasted meat, and some raisins.
⁴David appointed some of the Levites to lead the worship of the LORD, the God of Israel, in front of the Covenant Box, by singing and praising him. ⁵Asaph was appointed leader, with Zechariah as his assistant. Jeiel, Shemiramoth, Jehiel, Mattithiah, Eliab, Benaiah, Obed Edom, and Jeiel were to play harps. Asaph was to sound the cymbals, ⁶and two priests, Benaiah and Jahaziel, were to blow trumpets regularly in front of the Covenant Box. ⁷It was then that David first gave Asaph and the other Levites the responsibility for singing praises to the LORD.

The Vision of the Lampstand

Zechariah 4 The angel who had been speaking to me came again and roused me as if I had been sleeping. ²"What do you see?" he asked.
"A lampstand made of gold," I answered. "At the top is a bowl for the oil. On the lampstand are seven lamps, each one with places for seven wicks. ³There are two olive trees beside the lampstand, one on each side of it." ⁴Then I asked the angel, "What do these things stand for, sir?"
⁵"Don't you know?" he asked me.
"No, I don't, sir," I replied.
^10bThe angel said to me, "The seven lamps are the seven eyes of the LORD, which see all over the earth."
¹¹Then I asked him, "What do the two olive trees on either side of the lampstand mean? ¹²And what is the meaning of the two olive branches beside the two gold pipes from which the olive oil pours?"
¹³He asked me, "Don't you know?"
"No, I don't, sir," I answered.
¹⁴Then he said, "These are the two men whom God has chosen and anointed to serve him, the Lord of the whole earth."

God's Promise to Zerubbabel

⁶The angel told me to give Zerubbabel this message from the LORD: "You will succeed, not by military might or by your own strength, but by my spirit. ⁷Obstacles as great as mountains will disappear before you. You will rebuild the Temple, and as you put the last stone in place, the people will shout, 'Beautiful, beautiful!'"
⁸Another message came to me from the LORD. ⁹He said, "Zerubbabel has laid the foundation of the Temple, and he will finish the building. When this happens, my people will know that it is I who sent you to them. ^10aThey are disappointed because so little progress is being made. But they will see Zerubbabel continuing to build the Temple, and they will be glad."