The Promise of the Holy Spirit

John 14 ¹⁵"If you love me, you will obey my commandments. ¹⁶I will ask the Father, and he will give you another Helper, who will stay with you forever. ¹⁷He is the Spirit, who reveals the truth about God. The world cannot receive him, because it cannot see him or know him. But you know him, because he remains with you and is in you.
¹⁸"When I go, you will not be left all alone; I will come back to you. ¹⁹In a little while the world will see me no more, but you will see me; and because I live, you also will live. ²⁰When that day comes, you will know that I am in my Father and that you are in me, just as I am in you.
²¹"Those who accept my commandments and obey them are the ones who love me. My Father will love those who love me; I too will love them and reveal myself to them."
²²Judas (not Judas Iscariot) said, "Lord, how can it be that you will reveal yourself to us and not to the world?"
²³Jesus answered him, "Those who love me will obey my teaching. My Father will love them, and my Father and I will come to them and live with them. ²⁴Those who do not love me do not obey my teaching. And the teaching you have heard is not mine, but comes from the Father, who sent me.
²⁵"I have told you this while I am still with you. ²⁶The Helper, the Holy Spirit, whom the Father will send in my name, will teach you everything and make you remember all that I have told you.
²⁷"Peace is what I leave with you; it is my own peace that I give you. I do not give it as the world does. Do not be worried and upset; do not be afraid. ²⁸You heard me say to you, 'I am leaving, but I will come back to you.' If you loved me, you would be glad that I am going to the Father; for he is greater than I. ²⁹I have told you this now before it all happens, so that when it does happen, you will believe. ³⁰I cannot talk with you much longer, because the ruler of this world is coming. He has no power over me, ³¹but the world must know that I love the Father; that is why I do everything as he commands me.
"Come, let us go from this place.

King Jehoram of Judah
(2 Kings 8.17-24)

2 Chronicles 21 ²Jehoram son of King Jehoshaphat of Judah had six brothers: Azariah, Jehiel, Zechariah, Azariahu, Michael, and Shephatiah. ³Their father gave them large amounts of gold, silver, and other valuable possessions, and placed each one in charge of one of the fortified cities of Judah. But because Jehoram was the oldest, Jehoshaphat made him his successor. ⁴When Jehoram was in firm control of the kingdom, he had all his brothers killed, and also some Israelite officials.
⁵Jehoram became king at the age of thirty-two, and he ruled in Jerusalem for eight years. ⁶He followed the wicked example of King Ahab and the other kings of Israel, because he had married one of Ahab's daughters. He sinned against the LORD, ⁷but the LORD was not willing to destroy the dynasty of David, because he had made a covenant with David and promised that his descendants would always continue to rule.
⁸During Jehoram's reign Edom revolted against Judah and became an independent kingdom. ⁹So Jehoram and his officers set out with chariots and invaded Edom. There the Edomite army surrounded them, but during the night they managed to break out and escape. ¹⁰Edom has been independent of Judah ever since. During this same period the city of Libnah also revolted, because Jehoram had abandoned the LORD, the God of his ancestors. ¹¹He even built pagan places of worship in the Judean highlands and led the people of Judah and Jerusalem to sin against the LORD.
¹²The prophet Elijah sent Jehoram a letter, which read as follows: "The LORD, the God of your ancestor David, condemns you, because you did not follow the example of your father, King Jehoshaphat, or that of your grandfather, King Asa. ¹³Instead, you have followed the example of the kings of Israel and have led the people of Judah and Jerusalem into being unfaithful to God, just as Ahab and his successors led Israel into unfaithfulness. You even murdered your brothers, who were better men than you are. ¹⁴As a result, the LORD will severely punish your people, your children, and your wives, and will destroy your possessions. ¹⁵You yourself will suffer a painful intestinal disease that will grow worse day by day."
¹⁶Some Philistines and Arabs lived near where some Ethiopians had settled along the coast. The LORD caused them to go to war against Jehoram. ¹⁷They invaded Judah, looted the royal palace, and carried off as prisoners all the king's wives and sons except Ahaziah, his youngest son.
¹⁸Then after all this, the LORD brought on the king a painful disease of the intestines. ¹⁹For almost two years it grew steadily worse until finally the king died in agony. His subjects did not light a bonfire in mourning for him as had been done for his ancestors.
²⁰Jehoram had become king at the age of thirty-two and had ruled in Jerusalem for eight years. Nobody was sorry when he died. They buried him in David's City, but not in the royal tombs.

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

2 Chronicles 22 Some Arabs had led a raid and killed all of King Jehoram's sons except Ahaziah, the youngest. So now the people of Jerusalem made Ahaziah king as his father's successor. ^2-3Ahaziah became king at the age of twenty-two, and he ruled in Jerusalem for one year. Ahaziah also followed the example of King Ahab's family, since his mother Athaliah--the daughter of King Ahab and granddaughter of King Omri of Israel--gave him advice that led him into evil. ⁴He sinned against the LORD, because after his father's death other members of King Ahab's family became his advisers, and they led to his downfall. ⁵Following their advice, he joined King Joram of Israel in a war against King Hazael of Syria. The armies clashed at Ramoth in Gilead, and Joram was wounded in battle. ⁶He returned to the city of Jezreel to recover from his wounds, and Ahaziah went there to visit him.
⁷God used this visit to Joram to bring about Ahaziah's downfall. While Ahaziah was there, he and Joram were confronted by a man named Jehu son of Nimshi, whom the LORD had chosen to destroy the dynasty of Ahab. ⁸As Jehu was carrying out God's sentence on the dynasty, he came across a group made up of Judean leaders and of Ahaziah's nephews that had accompanied Ahaziah on his visit. Jehu killed them all. ⁹A search was made for Ahaziah, and he was found hiding in Samaria. They took him to Jehu and put him to death. But they did bury his body out of respect for his grandfather King Jehoshaphat, who had done all he could to serve the LORD.
No member of Ahaziah's family was left who could rule the kingdom.

Queen Athaliah of Judah
(2 Kings 11.1-3)

¹⁰As soon as King Ahaziah's mother Athaliah learned of her son's murder, she gave orders for all the members of the royal family of Judah to be killed. ¹¹Ahaziah had a half sister, Jehosheba, who was married to a priest named Jehoiada. She secretly rescued one of Ahaziah's sons, Joash, took him away from the other princes who were about to be murdered and hid him and a nurse in a bedroom at the Temple. By keeping him hidden, she saved him from death at the hands of Athaliah. ¹²For six years he remained there in hiding, while Athaliah ruled as queen.

A Prayer for the Nation's Deliverance

Psalm 79 O God, the heathen have invaded your land. They have desecrated your holy Temple
and left Jerusalem in ruins.
²They left the bodies of your people for the vultures,
the bodies of your servants for wild animals to eat.
³They shed your people's blood like water;
blood flowed like water all through Jerusalem,
and no one was left to bury the dead.
⁴The surrounding nations insult us;
they laugh at us and mock us.

⁵LORD, will you be angry with us forever?
Will your anger continue to burn like fire?
⁶Turn your anger on the nations that do not worship you,
on the people who do not pray to you.
⁷For they have killed your people;
they have ruined your country.

⁸Do not punish us for the sins of our ancestors.
Have mercy on us now;
we have lost all hope.
⁹Help us, O God, and save us;
rescue us and forgive our sins
for the sake of your own honor.
¹⁰Why should the nations ask us,
"Where is your God?"
Let us see you punish the nations
for shedding the blood of your servants.

¹¹Listen to the groans of the prisoners,
and by your great power free those who are condemned to die.
¹²Lord, pay the other nations back seven times
for all the insults they have hurled at you.
¹³Then we, your people, the sheep of your flock,
will thank you forever
and praise you for all time to come.