The Horrible Thing
(Matthew 24.15-21; Luke 21.20-24)

Mark 13¹⁴Someday you will see that "Horrible Thing" where it should not be. Everyone who reads this must try to understand! If you are living in Judea at that time, run to the mountains. ¹⁵If you are on the roof of your house, don't go inside to get anything. ¹⁶If you are out in the field, don't go back for your coat. ¹⁷It will be an awful time for women who are expecting babies or nursing young children. ¹⁸Pray that it won't happen in winter. ¹⁹This will be the worst time of suffering since God created the world, and nothing this terrible will ever happen again. ²⁰If the Lord doesn't make the time shorter, no one will be left alive. But because of his chosen and special ones, he will make the time shorter.

²¹If someone should say, "Here is the Messiah!" or "There he is!" don't believe it. ²²False messiahs and false prophets will come and work miracles and signs. They will even try to fool God's chosen ones. ²³But be on your guard! That's why I am telling you these things now.

When the Son of Man Appears
(Matthew 24.29-31; Luke 21.25-28)

²⁴In those days, right after that time of suffering,

"The sun will become dark,
and the moon will no longer shine.
²⁵The stars will fall,
and the powers in the sky will be shaken."

²⁶Then the Son of Man will be seen coming in the clouds with great power and glory. ²⁷He will send his angels to gather his chosen ones from all over the earth.

A Lesson from a Fig Tree
(Matthew 24.32-35; Luke 21.29-33)

²⁸Learn a lesson from a fig tree. When its branches sprout and start putting out leaves, you know summer is near. ²⁹So when you see all these things happening, you will know that the time has almost come. ³⁰You can be sure that some of the people of this generation will still be alive when all this happens. ³¹The sky and the earth will not last forever, but my words will.

No One Knows the Day or Time
(Matthew 24.36-44)

³²No one knows the day or the time. The angels in heaven don't know, and the Son himself doesn't know. Only the Father knows. ³³So watch out and be ready! You don't know when the time will come. ³⁴It is like what happens when a man goes away for a while and places his servants in charge of everything. He tells each of them what to do, and he orders the guard to keep alert. ³⁵So be alert! You don't know when the master of the house will come back. It could be in the evening or at midnight or before dawn or in the morning. ³⁶But if he comes suddenly, don't let him find you asleep. ³⁷I tell everyone just what I have told you. Be alert!

Solomon's Palace Is Built

1 Kings 7Solomon's palace took thirteen years to build. ^2-3Forest Hall was the largest room in the palace. It was one hundred fifty feet long, seventy-five feet wide, and forty-five feet high, and was lined with cedar from Lebanon. It had four rows of cedar pillars, fifteen in a row, and they held up forty-five cedar beams. The ceiling was covered with cedar. ⁴Three rows of windows on each side faced each other, ⁵and there were three doors on each side near the front of the hall.
⁶Pillar Hall was seventy-five feet long and forty-five feet wide. A covered porch supported by pillars went all the way across the front of the hall.
⁷Solomon's throne was in Justice Hall, where he judged cases. This hall was completely lined with cedar.
⁸The section of the palace where Solomon lived was behind Justice Hall and looked exactly like it. He had a similar place built for his wife, the daughter of the king of Egypt.
⁹From the foundation all the way to the top, these buildings and the courtyard were made out of the best stones carefully cut to size, then smoothed on every side with saws. ¹⁰The foundation stones were huge, good stones--some of them fifteen feet long and others twelve feet long. ¹¹The cedar beams and other stones that had been cut to size were on top of these foundation stones. ¹²The walls around the palace courtyard were made out of three layers of cut stones with one layer of cedar beams, just like the front porch and the inner courtyard of the temple.

Hiram Makes the Bronze Furnishings
(2 Chronicles 3.15-17; 4.1-10)

^13-14Hiram was a skilled bronze worker from the city of Tyre. His father was now dead, but he also had been a bronze worker from Tyre, and his mother was from the tribe of Naphtali.
King Solomon asked Hiram to come to Jerusalem and make the bronze furnishings to use for worship in the LORD's temple, and he agreed to do it.
¹⁵Hiram made two bronze columns twenty-seven feet tall and about six feet across. ¹⁶For the top of each column, he also made a bronze cap seven and a half feet high. ¹⁷The caps were decorated with seven rows of designs that looked like chains, ¹⁸with two rows of designs that looked like pomegranates.
¹⁹The caps for the columns of the porch were six feet high and were shaped like lilies.
²⁰The chain designs on the caps were right above the rounded tops of the two columns, and there were two hundred pomegranates in rows around each cap. ²¹Hiram placed the two columns on each side of the main door of the temple. The column on the south side was called Jachin, and the one on the north was called Boaz.
²²The lily-shaped caps were on top of the columns.
This completed the work on the columns.
²³Hiram also made a large bowl called the Sea. It was seven and a half feet deep, about fifteen feet across, and forty-five feet around. ²⁴Two rows of bronze gourds were around the outer edge of the bowl, ten gourds to every eighteen inches. ²⁵The bowl itself sat on top of twelve bronze bulls with three bulls facing outward in each of four directions. ²⁶The sides of the bowl were four inches thick, and its rim was like a cup that curved outward like flower petals. The bowl held about eleven thousand gallons.
²⁷Hiram made ten movable bronze stands, each one four and a half feet high, six feet long, and six feet wide. ^28-29The sides were made with panels attached to frames decorated with flower designs. The panels themselves were decorated with figures of lions, bulls, and winged creatures. ^30-31Each stand had four bronze wheels and axles and a round frame twenty-seven inches across, held up by four supports eighteen inches high. A small bowl rested in the frame. The supports were decorated with flower designs, and the frame with carvings.
The side panels of the stands were square, ³²and the wheels and axles were underneath them. The wheels were about twenty-seven inches high ³³and looked like chariot wheels. The axles, rims, spokes, and hubs were made out of bronze.
^34-35Around the top of each stand was a nine-inch strip, and there were four braces attached to the corners of each stand. The panels and the supports were attached to the stands, ³⁶and the stands were decorated with flower designs and figures of lions, palm trees, and winged creatures. ³⁷Hiram made the ten bronze stands from the same mold, so they were exactly the same size and shape.
³⁸Hiram also made ten small bronze bowls, one for each stand. The bowls were six feet across and could hold about two hundred thirty gallons.
³⁹He put five stands on the south side of the temple, five stands on the north side, and the large bowl at the southeast corner of the temple.
⁴⁰Hiram made pans for hot ashes, and also shovels and sprinkling bowls.

A List of Everything inside the Temple
(2 Chronicles 4.11--5.1)

This is a list of the bronze items that Hiram made for the LORD's temple: ⁴¹two columns; two bowl-shaped caps for the tops of the columns; two chain designs on the caps; ⁴²four hundred pomegranates for the chain designs; ⁴³ten movable stands; ten small bowls for the stands; ⁴⁴a large bowl; twelve bulls that held up the bowl; ⁴⁵pans for hot ashes, and also shovels and sprinkling bowls.
Hiram made these bronze things for Solomon ⁴⁶near the Jordan River between Succoth and Zarethan by pouring melted bronze into clay molds.
⁴⁷There were so many bronze things that Solomon never bothered to weigh them, and no one ever knew how much bronze was used.
⁴⁸Solomon gave orders to make the following temple furnishings out of gold: the altar; the table that held the sacred loaves of bread; ⁴⁹ten lampstands that went in front of the most holy place; flower designs; lamps and tongs; ⁵⁰cups, lamp snuffers, and small sprinkling bowls; dishes for incense; fire pans; and the hinges for the doors to the most holy place and the main room of the temple.
⁵¹After the LORD's temple was finished, Solomon put into its storage rooms everything that his father David had dedicated to the LORD, including the gold and the silver.

Israel Will Be Punished

Hosea 9 Israel, don't celebrate or make noisy shouts
like other nations.
You have been unfaithful to your God.
Wherever grain is threshed, you behave like prostitutes
because you enjoy the money you receive.
²But you will run short of grain and wine,
³and you will have to leave the land of the LORD.
Some of you will go to Egypt;
others will go to Assyria and eat unclean food.

⁴You won't be able to offer sacrifices of wine
to the LORD.
None of your sacrifices will please him--
they will be unclean like food offered to the dead.
Your food will only be used to satisfy your hunger;
none of it will be brought to the LORD's temple.
⁵You will no longer be able
to celebrate the festival of the LORD.
⁶Even if you escape alive, you will end up in Egypt
and be buried in Memphis.
Your silver treasures will be lost among weeds;
thorns will sprout in your tents.

⁷Israel, the time has come. You will get what you deserve,
and you will know it.
"Prophets are fools," you say.
"And God's messengers are crazy."
Your terrible guilt has filled you with hatred.

⁸Israel, the LORD sent me to look after you.
But you trap his prophets
and flood his temple with your hatred.
⁹You are brutal and corrupt, as were the men of Gibeah.
But God remembers your sin, and you will be punished.

Sin's Terrible Results

¹⁰Israel, when I, the LORD, found you long ago
it was like finding grapes in a barren desert
or tender young figs.
Then you worshiped Baal Peor, that disgusting idol,
and you became as disgusting as the idol you loved.

¹¹And so, Israel, your glory will fly away like birds--
your women will no longer be able to give birth.
¹²Even if you do have children, I will take them all
and leave you to mourn.
I will turn away,
and you will sink down in deep trouble.
¹³Israel, when I first met you,
I thought of you as palm trees growing in fertile ground.
Now you lead your people out, only to be slaughtered.

Hosea's Advice

¹⁴Our LORD, do just one thing for your people--
make their women unable to have children
or to nurse their babies.

The LORD's Judgment on Israel

¹⁵Israel, I first began to hate you
because you did evil at Gilgal.
Now I will chase you out of my house.
No longer will I love you; your leaders betrayed me.
¹⁶Israel, you are a vine with dried-up roots
and fruitless branches.
Even if you had more children and loved them dearly,
I would slaughter them all.