Jesus Is Questioned by the High Priest
(Matthew 26.59-66; Mark 14.55-64; Luke 22.66-71)

John 18 ¹⁹The high priest questioned Jesus about his followers and his teaching. ²⁰But Jesus told him, "I have spoken freely in front of everyone. And I have always taught in our meeting places and in the temple, where all of our people come together. I have not said anything in secret. ²¹Why are you questioning me? Why don't you ask the people who heard me? They know what I have said."
²²As soon as Jesus said this, one of the temple police hit him and said, "That's no way to talk to the high priest!"
²³Jesus answered, "If I have done something wrong, say so. But if not, why did you hit me?" ²⁴Jesus was still tied up, and Annas sent him to Caiaphas the high priest.

Peter Again Denies that He Knows Jesus
(Matthew 26.71-75; Mark 14.69-72; Luke 22.58-62)

²⁵While Simon Peter was standing there warming himself, someone asked him, "Aren't you one of Jesus' followers?"
Again Peter denied it and said, "No, I am not!"
²⁶One of the high priest's servants was there. He was a relative of the servant whose ear Peter had cut off, and he asked, "Didn't I see you in the garden with that man?"
²⁷Once more Peter denied it, and right then a rooster crowed.

Jesus Is Tried by Pilate
(Matthew 27.1, 2, 11-14; Mark 15.1-5; Luke 23.1-5)

²⁸It was early in the morning when Jesus was taken from Caiaphas to the building where the Roman governor stayed. But the crowd waited outside. Any of them who had gone inside would have become unclean and would not be allowed to eat the Passover meal.
²⁹Pilate came out and asked, "What charges are you bringing against this man?"
³⁰They answered, "He is a criminal! That's why we brought him to you."
³¹Pilate told them, "Take him and judge him by your own laws."
The crowd replied, "We are not allowed to put anyone to death." ³²And so what Jesus said about his death would soon come true.
³³Pilate then went back inside. He called Jesus over and asked, "Are you the king of the Jews?"
³⁴Jesus answered, "Are you asking this on your own or did someone tell you about me?"
³⁵"You know I'm not a Jew!" Pilate said. "Your own people and the chief priests brought you to me. What have you done?"
³⁶Jesus answered, "My kingdom doesn't belong to this world. If it did, my followers would have fought to keep me from being handed over to our leaders. No, my kingdom doesn't belong to this world."
³⁷"So you are a king," Pilate replied.
"You are saying that I am a king," Jesus told him. "I was born into this world to tell about the truth. And everyone who belongs to the truth knows my voice."
³⁸Pilate asked Jesus, "What is truth?"

King Jotham of Judah
(2 Kings 15.32-38)

2 Chronicles 27 Jotham was twenty-five years old when he became king of Judah, and he ruled from Jerusalem for sixteen years. Jerushah his mother was the daughter of Zadok.
²Jotham obeyed the LORD and did right. He followed the example of his father Uzziah, except he never burned incense in the temple as his father had done. But the people of Judah kept sinning against the LORD.
³Jotham rebuilt the Upper Gate of the temple and did a lot of work to repair the wall near Mount Ophel. ⁴He built towns in the mountains of Judah and built fortresses and defense towers in the forests.
⁵During his rule he attacked and defeated the Ammonites. Then every year for the next three years, he forced them to pay four tons of silver, sixty thousand bushels of wheat, and sixty thousand bushels of barley.
⁶Jotham remained faithful to the LORD his God and became a very powerful king.
⁷Everything else Jotham did while he was king, including the wars he fought, is written in The History of the Kings of Israel and Judah. ⁸After he had ruled Judah sixteen years, he died at the age of forty-one. ⁹He was buried in Jerusalem, and his son Ahaz became king.

King Ahaz of Judah
(2 Kings 16.1-4)

2 Chronicles 28 Ahaz was twenty years old when he became king of Judah, and he ruled from Jerusalem for sixteen years.
Ahaz was nothing like his ancestor David. Ahaz disobeyed the LORD ²and was as sinful as the kings of Israel. He made idols of the god Baal, ³and he offered sacrifices in Hinnom Valley. Worst of all, Ahaz sacrificed his own sons, which was a disgusting custom of the nations that the LORD had forced out of Israel. ⁴Ahaz offered sacrifices at the local shrines, as well as on every hill and in the shade of large trees.

Syria and Israel Attack Judah
(2 Kings 16.5, 6)

^5-6Ahaz and the people of Judah sinned and turned away from the LORD, the God their ancestors had worshiped. So the LORD punished them by letting their enemies defeat them.
The king of Syria attacked Judah and took many of its people to Damascus as prisoners. King Pekah of Israel later defeated Judah and killed one hundred twenty thousand of its bravest soldiers in one day. ⁷During that battle, an Israelite soldier named Zichri killed three men from Judah: Maaseiah the king's son; Azrikam, the official in charge of the palace; and Elkanah, the king's second in command. ⁸The Israelite troops captured two hundred thousand women and children and took them back to their capital city of Samaria, along with a large amount of their possessions. They did these things even though the people of Judah were their own relatives.

Oded the Prophet Condemns Israel

⁹Oded lived in Samaria and was one of the LORD's prophets. He met Israel's army on their way back from Judah and said to them:

The LORD God of your ancestors let you defeat Judah's army only because he was angry with them. But you should not have been so cruel! ¹⁰If you make slaves of the people of Judah and Jerusalem, you will be as guilty as they are of sinning against the LORD.

¹¹Send these prisoners back home--they are your own relatives. If you don't, the LORD will punish you in his anger.

¹²About the same time, four of Israel's leaders arrived. They were Azariah son of Johanan, Berechiah son of Meshillemoth, Jehizkiah son of Shallum, and Amasa son of Hadlai. They agreed with Oded that the Israelite troops were wrong, ¹³and they said:

If you bring these prisoners into Samaria, that will be one more thing we've done to sin against the LORD. And he is already angry enough at us.

¹⁴So in front of the leaders and the crowd, the troops handed over their prisoners and the property they had taken from Judah. ¹⁵The four leaders took some of the stolen clothes and gave them to the prisoners who needed something to wear. They later gave them all a new change of clothes and shoes, then fixed them something to eat and drink, and cleaned their wounds with olive oil. They gave donkeys to those who were too weak to walk, and led all of them back to Jericho, the city known for its palm trees. The leaders then returned to Samaria.

Ahaz Asks the King of Assyria for Help
(2 Kings 16.7-9)

^16-18Some time later, the Edomites attacked the eastern part of Judah again and carried away prisoners. And at the same time, the Philistines raided towns in the western foothills and in the Southern Desert. They conquered the towns of Beth-Shemesh, Aijalon, Gederoth, Soco, Timnah, and Gimzo, including the villages around them. Then some of the Philistines went to live in these places.
Ahaz sent a message to King Tiglath Pileser of Assyria and begged for help. ¹⁹But God was punishing Judah with these disasters, because Ahaz had disobeyed him and refused to stop Judah from sinning. ²⁰So Tiglath Pileser came to Judah, but instead of helping, he made things worse. ²¹Ahaz gave him gifts from the LORD's temple and the king's palace, as well as from the homes of Israel's other leaders. The Assyrian king still refused to help Ahaz.

The Final Sin of Ahaz and His Death

²²Even after all these terrible things happened to Ahaz, he sinned against the LORD even worse than before. ²³He said to himself, "The Syrian gods must have helped their kings defeat me. Maybe if I offer sacrifices to those gods, they will help me." That was the sin that finally led to the downfall of Ahaz, as well as to the destruction of Judah.
²⁴Ahaz collected all the furnishings of the temple and smashed them to pieces. Then he locked the doors to the temple and set up altars to foreign gods on every street corner in Jerusalem. ²⁵In every city and town in Judah he built local shrines to worship foreign gods. All of this made the LORD God of his ancestors very angry.
²⁶Everything else Ahaz did while he was king is written in The History of the Kings of Judah and Israel. ²⁷Ahaz died and was buried in Jerusalem, but not in the royal tombs. His son Hezekiah then became king.

Psalm 84
[For the music leader. A psalm for the people of Korah.]
The Joy of Worship

¹LORD God All-Powerful, your temple is so lovely!
²Deep in my heart I long for your temple,
and with all that I am I sing joyful songs to you.

³LORD God All-Powerful, my King and my God,
sparrows find a home near your altars;
swallows build nests there to raise their young.

⁴You bless everyone who lives in your house,
and they sing your praises.
⁵You bless all who depend on you for their strength
and all who deeply desire to visit your temple.
⁶When they reach Dry Valley, springs start flowing,
and the autumn rain fills it with pools of water.
⁷Your people grow stronger,
and you, the God of gods, will be seen in Zion.

⁸LORD God All-Powerful, the God of Jacob,
please answer my prayer!
⁹You are the shield that protects your people,
and I am your chosen one. Won't you smile on me?

¹⁰One day in your temple is better
than a thousand anywhere else.
I would rather serve in your house,
than live in the homes of the wicked.

¹¹Our LORD and our God, you are like the sun
and also like a shield.
You treat us with kindness and with honor,
never denying any good thing to those who live right.

¹²LORD God All-Powerful,
you bless everyone who trusts you.