Working Together for God

1 Corinthians 3 My friends, you are acting like the people of this world. That's why I could not speak to you as spiritual people. You are like babies as far as your faith in Christ is concerned. ²So I had to treat you like babies and feed you milk. You could not take solid food, and you still cannot, ³because you are not yet spiritual. You are jealous and argue with each other. This proves that you are not spiritual and that you are acting like the people of this world.
⁴Some of you say that you follow me, and others claim to follow Apollos. Isn't that how ordinary people behave? ⁵Apollos and I are merely servants who helped you to have faith. It was the Lord who made it all happen. ⁶I planted the seeds, Apollos watered them, but God made them sprout and grow. ⁷What matters isn't those who planted or watered, but God who made the plants grow. ⁸The one who plants is just as important as the one who waters. And each one will be paid for what they do. ⁹Apollos and I work together for God, and you are God's garden and God's building.

Only One Foundation

¹⁰God was kind and let me become an expert builder. I laid a foundation on which others have built. But we must each be careful how we build, ¹¹because Christ is the only foundation. ^12-13Whatever we build on that foundation will be tested by fire on the day of judgment. Then everyone will find out if we have used gold, silver, and precious stones, or wood, hay, and straw. ¹⁴We will be rewarded if our building is left standing. ¹⁵But if it is destroyed by the fire, we will lose everything. Yet we ourselves will be saved, like someone escaping from flames.
¹⁶All of you surely know that you are God's temple and that his Spirit lives in you. ¹⁷Together you are God's holy temple, and God will destroy anyone who destroys his temple.
¹⁸Don't fool yourselves! If any of you think you are wise in the things of this world, you will have to become foolish before you can be truly wise. ¹⁹This is because God considers the wisdom of this world to be foolish. It is just as the Scriptures say, "God catches the wise when they try to outsmart him." ²⁰The Scriptures also say, "The Lord knows that the plans made by wise people are useless." ^21-22So stop bragging about what anyone has done. Paul and Apollos and Peter all belong to you. In fact, everything is yours, including the world, life, death, the present, and the future. Everything belongs to you, ²³and you belong to Christ, and Christ belongs to God.

King Baasha of Israel

1 Kings 15³³Baasha son of Ahijah became king of Israel in Asa's third year as king of Judah, and he ruled twenty-four years from Tirzah. ³⁴Baasha also disobeyed the LORD by acting like Jeroboam, who had caused the Israelites to sin.
1 Kings 16The LORD sent Jehu son of Hanani to say to Baasha:

²Nobody knew who you were until I, the LORD, chose you to be the leader of my people Israel. And now you're acting exactly like Jeroboam by causing the Israelites to sin. What you've done has made me so angry ³that I will destroy you and your family, just as I did the family of Jeroboam. ⁴Dogs will eat the bodies of your relatives who die in town, and vultures will eat the bodies of those who die in the country.

^5-7Baasha made the LORD very angry, and that's why the LORD gave Jehu this message for Baasha and his family. Baasha constantly disobeyed the LORD by following Jeroboam's sinful example--but even worse, he killed everyone in Jeroboam's family!
Everything else Baasha did while he was king, including his brave deeds, is written in The History of the Kings of Israel. Baasha died and was buried in Tirzah, and his son Elah became king.

King Elah of Israel

⁸Elah son of Baasha became king of Israel after Asa had been king of Judah for twenty-five years, and he ruled from Tirzah for two years.
⁹Zimri commanded half of Elah's chariots, and he made plans to kill Elah.
One day, Elah was in Tirzah, getting drunk at the home of Arza, his prime minister, ¹⁰when Zimri went there and killed Elah. So Zimri became king in the twenty-seventh year of Asa's rule in Judah.
¹¹As soon as Zimri became king, he killed everyone in Baasha's family. Not one man or boy in his family was left alive--even his close friends were killed. ¹²Baasha's family was completely wiped out, just as the LORD's prophet Jehu had warned. ¹³Baasha and Elah sinned and caused the Israelites to sin, and they made the LORD angry by worshiping idols.
¹⁴Everything else Elah did while he was king is written in The History of the Kings of Israel.

King Zimri of Israel

^15-16Zimri became king of Israel in Asa's twenty-seventh year as king of Judah, but he ruled only seven days from Tirzah.
Israel's army was camped near Gibbethon in Philistia under the command of Omri. The soldiers heard that Zimri had killed Elah, and they made Omri their king that same day. ¹⁷At once, Omri and his army marched to Tirzah and attacked. ¹⁸When Zimri saw that the town was captured, he ran into the strongest part of the palace and killed himself by setting it on fire. ¹⁹Zimri had disobeyed the LORD by following the evil example of Jeroboam, who had caused the Israelites to sin.
²⁰Everything else Zimri did while he was king, including his rebellion against Elah, is written in The History of the Kings of Israel.

King Omri of Israel

²¹After Zimri died, some of the Israelites wanted Tibni son of Ginath to be king, but others wanted Omri. ²²Omri's followers were stronger than Tibni's, so Tibni was killed, and Omri became king of Israel ²³in the thirty-first year of Asa's rule in Judah.
Omri ruled Israel for twelve years. The first six years he ruled from Tirzah, ²⁴then he bought the hill of Samaria from Shemer for about one hundred fifty pounds of silver. He built a town there and named it Samaria, after Shemer who had owned the hill.
²⁵Omri did more evil things than any king before him. ²⁶He acted just like Jeroboam and made the LORD God of Israel angry by causing the Israelites to sin and to worship idols.
²⁷Everything else Omri did while he was king, including his brave deeds, is written in The History of the Kings of Israel. ²⁸Omri died and was buried in Samaria, and his son Ahab became king.

King Ahab of Israel

²⁹Ahab son of Omri became king of Israel in the thirty-eighth year of Asa's rule in Judah, and he ruled twenty-two years from Samaria.
³⁰Ahab did more things to disobey the LORD than any king before him. ³¹He acted just like Jeroboam. Even worse, he married Jezebel the daughter of King Ethbaal of Sidon and started worshiping Baal. ³²Ahab built an altar and temple for Baal in Samaria ³³and set up a sacred pole for worshiping the goddess Asherah. Ahab did more to make the LORD God of Israel angry than any king of Israel before him.
³⁴While Ahab was king, a man from Bethel named Hiel rebuilt the town of Jericho. But while Hiel was laying the foundation for the town wall, his oldest son Abiram died. And while he was finishing the gates, his youngest son Segub died. This happened just as the LORD had told Joshua to say many years ago.

The LORD Will Judge the Nations

Joel 3 At that time I, the LORD, will make Judah and Jerusalem prosperous again. ²Then in Judgment Valley I will bring together the nations that scattered my people Israel everywhere in the world, and I will bring charges against those nations. They divided up my land ³and gambled to see who would get my people; they sold boys and girls to pay for prostitutes and wine.
⁴You people of Tyre and Sidon and you Philistines, why are you doing this? Are you trying to get even with me? I'll strike back before you know what's happened. ⁵You've taken my prized possessions, including my silver and gold, and carried them off to your temples. ⁶You have dragged the people of Judah and Jerusalem from their land and sold them to the Greeks.
⁷But I'll make the people of Judah determined to come home, and what happened to them will happen to you. ⁸I'll hand over your sons and daughters to the people of Judah, and they will sell them to the Sabeans, who live far away. I, the LORD, have spoken!

Judgment in Judgment Valley

⁹Say to the nations:
"Get ready for war! Be eager to fight.
Line up for battle and prepare to attack.
¹⁰Make swords out of plows and spears out of garden tools.
Strengthen every weakling."

¹¹Hurry, all you nations! Come quickly.
Ask the LORD to bring his warriors along.
¹²You must come now to Judgment Valley,
where the LORD will judge the surrounding nations.

¹³They are a field of ripe crops.
Bring in the harvest!
They are grapes piled high.
Start trampling them now!
If our enemy's sins were wine, every jar would overflow.
¹⁴Crowds fill Decision Valley.
The judgment day of the LORD will soon be here--
¹⁵no light from the sun or moon, and stars no longer shine.
¹⁶From the heart of Jerusalem the LORD roars like a lion,
shaking the earth and sky.
But the LORD is a fortress,
a place of safety for his people Israel.

God Will Bless His People

¹⁷I am the LORD your God.
And you will know I live on Zion, my sacred hill,
because Jerusalem will be sacred,
untouched by foreign troops.
¹⁸On that day, fruitful vineyards will cover the mountains.
And your cattle and goats that graze on the hills
will produce a lot of milk.
Streams in Judah will never run dry;
a stream from my house will flow in Acacia Valley.

¹⁹Egypt and Edom were cruel and brutal to Judah,
without a reason.
Now their countries will become a barren desert,
²⁰but Judah and Jerusalem will always have people.
²¹I, the LORD, live on Mount Zion.
I will punish the guilty and defend the innocent.