Jesus Prays for His Disciples

John 17 After Jesus finished saying this, he looked up to heaven and said, "Father, the hour has come. Give glory to your Son, so that the Son may give glory to you. ²For you gave him authority over all people, so that he might give eternal life to all those you gave him. ³And eternal life means to know you, the only true God, and to know Jesus Christ, whom you sent. ⁴I have shown your glory on earth; I have finished the work you gave me to do. ⁵Father! Give me glory in your presence now, the same glory I had with you before the world was made.
⁶"I have made you known to those you gave me out of the world. They belonged to you, and you gave them to me. They have obeyed your word, ⁷and now they know that everything you gave me comes from you. ⁸I gave them the message that you gave me, and they received it; they know that it is true that I came from you, and they believe that you sent me.
⁹"I pray for them. I do not pray for the world but for those you gave me, for they belong to you. ¹⁰All I have is yours, and all you have is mine; and my glory is shown through them. ¹¹And now I am coming to you; I am no longer in the world, but they are in the world. Holy Father! Keep them safe by the power of your name, the name you gave me, so that they may be one just as you and I are one. ¹²While I was with them, I kept them safe by the power of your name, the name you gave me. I protected them, and not one of them was lost, except the man who was bound to be lost--so that the scripture might come true. ¹³And now I am coming to you, and I say these things in the world so that they might have my joy in their hearts in all its fullness. ¹⁴I gave them your message, and the world hated them, because they do not belong to the world, just as I do not belong to the world. ¹⁵I do not ask you to take them out of the world, but I do ask you to keep them safe from the Evil One. ¹⁶Just as I do not belong to the world, they do not belong to the world. ¹⁷Dedicate them to yourself by means of the truth; your word is truth. ¹⁸I sent them into the world, just as you sent me into the world. ¹⁹And for their sake I dedicate myself to you, in order that they, too, may be truly dedicated to you.
²⁰"I pray not only for them, but also for those who believe in me because of their message. ²¹I pray that they may all be one. Father! May they be in us, just as you are in me and I am in you. May they be one, so that the world will believe that you sent me. ²²I gave them the same glory you gave me, so that they may be one, just as you and I are one: ²³I in them and you in me, so that they may be completely one, in order that the world may know that you sent me and that you love them as you love me.
²⁴"Father! You have given them to me, and I want them to be with me where I am, so that they may see my glory, the glory you gave me; for you loved me before the world was made. ²⁵Righteous Father! The world does not know you, but I know you, and these know that you sent me. ²⁶I made you known to them, and I will continue to do so, in order that the love you have for me may be in them, and so that I also may be in them."

King Amaziah of Judah
(2 Kings 14.2-6)

2 Chronicles 25 Amaziah became king at the age of twenty-five, and he ruled in Jerusalem for twenty-nine years. His mother was Jehoaddin from Jerusalem. ²He did what was pleasing to the LORD, but did it reluctantly. ³As soon as he was firmly in power, he executed the officials who had murdered his father. ⁴He did not, however, execute their children, but followed what the LORD had commanded in the Law of Moses: "Parents are not to be put to death for crimes committed by their children, and children are not to be put to death for crimes committed by their parents; people are to be put to death only for crimes they themselves have committed."

War against Edom
(2 Kings 14.7)

⁵King Amaziah organized all the men of the tribes of Judah and Benjamin into army units, according to the clans they belonged to, and placed officers in command of units of a thousand and units of a hundred. This included all men twenty years of age or older, 300,000 in all. They were picked troops, ready for battle, skilled in using spears and shields. ⁶In addition, he hired 100,000 soldiers from Israel at a cost of about four tons of silver. ⁷But a prophet went to the king and said to him, "Don't take these Israelite soldiers with you. The LORD is not with these people from the Northern Kingdom. ⁸You may think that they will make you stronger in battle, but it is God who has the power to give victory or defeat, and he will let your enemies defeat you."
⁹Amaziah asked the prophet, "But what about all that silver I have already paid for them?"
The prophet replied, "The LORD can give you back more than that!" ¹⁰So Amaziah sent the hired troops away and told them to go home. At this they went home, bitterly angry with the people of Judah.
¹¹Amaziah summoned up his courage and led his army to Salt Valley. There they fought and killed ten thousand Edomite soldiers ¹²and captured another ten thousand. They took the prisoners to the top of the cliff at the city of Sela and threw them off, so that they were killed on the rocks below.
¹³Meanwhile the Israelite soldiers that Amaziah had not allowed to go into battle with him attacked the Judean cities between Samaria and Beth Horon, killed three thousand men, and captured quantities of loot.
¹⁴When Amaziah returned from defeating the Edomites, he brought their idols back with him, set them up, worshiped them, and burned incense to them. ¹⁵This made the LORD angry, so he sent a prophet to Amaziah. The prophet demanded, "Why have you worshiped foreign gods that could not even save their own people from your power?"
¹⁶"Since when," Amaziah interrupted, "have we made you adviser to the king? Stop talking, or I'll have you killed!"
The prophet stopped, but not before saying, "Now I know that God has decided to destroy you because you have done all this and have ignored my advice."

War against Israel
(2 Kings 14.8 -20)

¹⁷King Amaziah of Judah and his advisers plotted against Israel. He then sent a message to King Jehoash of Israel, who was the son of Jehoahaz and grandson of Jehu, challenging him to fight. ¹⁸Jehoash sent this answer to Amaziah: "Once a thorn bush in the Lebanon Mountains sent a message to a cedar: 'Give your daughter in marriage to my son.' A wild animal passed by and trampled the bush down. ¹⁹Now Amaziah, you boast that you have defeated the Edomites, but I advise you to stay at home. Why stir up trouble that will only bring disaster on you and your people?"
²⁰But Amaziah refused to listen. It was God's will for Amaziah to be defeated, because he had worshiped the Edomite idols. ²¹So King Jehoash of Israel went into battle against King Amaziah of Judah. They met at Beth Shemesh in Judah, ²²the Judean army was defeated, and the soldiers fled to their homes. ²³Jehoash captured Amaziah and took him to Jerusalem. There he tore down the city wall from Ephraim Gate to the Corner Gate, a distance of two hundred yards. ²⁴He took back to Samaria as loot all the gold and silver in the Temple, the Temple equipment guarded by the descendants of Obed Edom, and the palace treasures. He also took hostages with him.
²⁵King Amaziah of Judah outlived King Jehoash of Israel by fifteen years. ²⁶All the other things that Amaziah did from the beginning to the end of his reign are recorded in The History of the Kings of Judah and Israel. ²⁷Ever since the time when he rebelled against the LORD, there had been a plot against him in Jerusalem. Finally he fled to the city of Lachish, but his enemies followed him there and killed him. ²⁸His body was carried to Jerusalem on a horse, and he was buried in the royal tombs in David's City.

God the Supreme Ruler

Psalm 82 God presides in the heavenly council;
in the assembly of the gods he gives his decision:
²"You must stop judging unjustly;
you must no longer be partial to the wicked!
³Defend the rights of the poor and the orphans;
be fair to the needy and the helpless.
⁴Rescue them from the power of evil people.

⁵"How ignorant you are! How stupid!
You are completely corrupt,
and justice has disappeared from the world.
⁶'You are gods,' I said;
'all of you are children of the Most High.'
⁷But you will die like mortals;
your life will end like that of any prince."

⁸Come, O God, and rule the world;
all the nations are yours.