The Parable of the Tenants in the Vineyard
(Matthew 21.33-46; Luke 20.9-19)

Mark 12 Then Jesus spoke to them in parables: "Once there was a man who planted a vineyard, put a fence around it, dug a hole for the wine press, and built a watchtower. Then he rented the vineyard to tenants and left home on a trip. ²When the time came to gather the grapes, he sent a slave to the tenants to receive from them his share of the harvest. ³The tenants grabbed the slave, beat him, and sent him back without a thing. ⁴Then the owner sent another slave; the tenants beat him over the head and treated him shamefully. ⁵The owner sent another slave, and they killed him; and they treated many others the same way, beating some and killing others. ⁶The only one left to send was the man's own dear son. Last of all, then, he sent his son to the tenants. 'I am sure they will respect my son,' he said. ⁷But those tenants said to one another, 'This is the owner's son. Come on, let's kill him, and his property will be ours!' ⁸So they grabbed the son and killed him and threw his body out of the vineyard.
⁹"What, then, will the owner of the vineyard do?" asked Jesus. "He will come and kill those tenants and turn the vineyard over to others. ¹⁰Surely you have read this scripture?
'The stone which the builders rejected as worthless
turned out to be the most important of all.
¹¹This was done by the Lord;
what a wonderful sight it is!'"
¹²The Jewish leaders tried to arrest Jesus, because they knew that he had told this parable against them. But they were afraid of the crowd, so they left him and went away.

The Question about Paying Taxes
(Matthew 22.15-22; Luke 20.20-26)

¹³Some Pharisees and some members of Herod's party were sent to Jesus to trap him with questions. ¹⁴They came to him and said, "Teacher, we know that you tell the truth, without worrying about what people think. You pay no attention to anyone's status, but teach the truth about God's will for people. Tell us, is it against our Law to pay taxes to the Roman Emperor? Should we pay them or not?"
¹⁵But Jesus saw through their trick and answered, "Why are you trying to trap me? Bring a silver coin, and let me see it."
¹⁶They brought him one, and he asked, "Whose face and name are these?"
"The Emperor's," they answered.
¹⁷So Jesus said, "Well, then, pay to the Emperor what belongs to the Emperor, and pay to God what belongs to God."
And they were amazed at Jesus.

The Question about Rising from Death
(Matthew 22.23-33; Luke 20.27-40)

¹⁸Then some Sadducees, who say that people will not rise from death, came to Jesus and said, ¹⁹"Teacher, Moses wrote this law for us: 'If a man dies and leaves a wife but no children, that man's brother must marry the widow so that they can have children who will be considered the dead man's children.' ²⁰Once there were seven brothers; the oldest got married and died without having children. ²¹Then the second one married the woman, and he also died without having children. The same thing happened to the third brother, ²²and then to the rest: all seven brothers married the woman and died without having children. Last of all, the woman died. ²³Now, when all the dead rise to life on the day of resurrection, whose wife will she be? All seven of them had married her."
²⁴Jesus answered them, "How wrong you are! And do you know why? It is because you don't know the Scriptures or God's power. ²⁵For when the dead rise to life, they will be like the angels in heaven and will not marry. ²⁶Now, as for the dead being raised: haven't you ever read in the Book of Moses the passage about the burning bush? There it is written that God said to Moses, 'I am the God of Abraham, the God of Isaac, and the God of Jacob.' ²⁷He is the God of the living, not of the dead. You are completely wrong!"

Solomon Prays for Wisdom
(2 Chronicles 1.3-12)

1 Kings 3 Solomon made an alliance with the king of Egypt by marrying his daughter. He brought her to live in David's City until he had finished building his palace, the Temple, and the wall around Jerusalem. ²A temple had not yet been built for the LORD, and so the people were still offering sacrifices at many different altars. ³Solomon loved the LORD and followed the instructions of his father David, but he also slaughtered animals and offered them as sacrifices on various altars.
⁴On one occasion he went to Gibeon to offer sacrifices because that was where the most famous altar was. He had offered hundreds of burnt offerings there in the past. ⁵That night the LORD appeared to him in a dream and asked him, "What would you like me to give you?"
⁶Solomon answered, "You always showed great love for my father David, your servant, and he was good, loyal, and honest in his relation with you. And you have continued to show him your great and constant love by giving him a son who today rules in his place. ⁷O LORD God, you have let me succeed my father as king, even though I am very young and don't know how to rule. ⁸Here I am among the people you have chosen to be your own, a people who are so many that they cannot be counted. ⁹So give me the wisdom I need to rule your people with justice and to know the difference between good and evil. Otherwise, how would I ever be able to rule this great people of yours?"
¹⁰The Lord was pleased that Solomon had asked for this, ¹¹and so he said to him, "Because you have asked for the wisdom to rule justly, instead of long life for yourself or riches or the death of your enemies, ¹²I will do what you have asked. I will give you more wisdom and understanding than anyone has ever had before or will ever have again. ¹³I will also give you what you have not asked for: all your life you will have wealth and honor, more than that of any other king. ¹⁴And if you obey me and keep my laws and commands, as your father David did, I will give you a long life."
¹⁵Solomon woke up and realized that God had spoken to him in the dream. Then he went to Jerusalem and stood in front of the LORD's Covenant Box and offered burnt offerings and fellowship offerings to the LORD. After that he gave a feast for all his officials.

Solomon Judges a Difficult Case

¹⁶One day two prostitutes came and presented themselves before King Solomon. ¹⁷One of them said, "Your Majesty, this woman and I live in the same house, and I gave birth to a baby boy at home while she was there. ¹⁸Two days after my child was born, she also gave birth to a baby boy. Only the two of us were there in the house--no one else was present. ¹⁹Then one night she accidentally rolled over on her baby and smothered it. ²⁰She got up during the night, took my son from my side while I was asleep, and carried him to her bed; then she put the dead child in my bed. ²¹The next morning, when I woke up and was going to nurse my baby, I saw that it was dead. I looked at it more closely and saw that it was not my child."
²²But the other woman said, "No! The living child is mine, and the dead one is yours!"
The first woman answered back, "No! The dead child is yours, and the living one is mine!"
And so they argued before the king.
²³Then King Solomon said, "Each of you claims that the living child is hers and that the dead child belongs to the other one." ²⁴He sent for a sword, and when it was brought, ²⁵he said, "Cut the living child in two and give each woman half of it."
²⁶The real mother, her heart full of love for her son, said to the king, "Please, Your Majesty, don't kill the child! Give it to her!"
But the other woman said, "Don't give it to either of us; go on and cut it in two."
²⁷Then Solomon said, "Don't kill the child! Give it to the first woman--she is its real mother."
²⁸When the people of Israel heard of Solomon's decision, they were all filled with deep respect for him, because they knew then that God had given him the wisdom to settle disputes fairly.

The People's Insincere Repentance

Hosea 6 The people say, "Let's return to the LORD! He has hurt us, but he will be sure to heal us; he has wounded us, but he will bandage our wounds, won't he? ²In two or three days he will revive us, and we will live in his presence. ³Let us try to know the LORD. He will come to us as surely as the day dawns, as surely as the spring rains fall upon the earth."
⁴But the LORD says, "Israel and Judah, what am I going to do with you? Your love for me disappears as quickly as morning mist; it is like dew, that vanishes early in the day. ⁵That is why I have sent my prophets to you with my message of judgment and destruction. What I want from you is plain and clear: ⁶I want your constant love, not your animal sacrifices. I would rather have my people know me than burn offerings to me.
⁷"But as soon as they entered the land at Adam, they broke the covenant I had made with them. ⁸Gilead is a city full of evil people and murderers. ⁹The priests are like a gang of robbers who wait in ambush for someone. Even on the road to the holy place at Shechem they commit murder. And they do all this evil deliberately! ¹⁰I have seen a horrible thing in Israel: my people have defiled themselves by worshiping idols.
¹¹"And as for you, people of Judah, I have set a time to punish you also for what you are doing.
Hosea 7 "Whenever I want to heal my people Israel and make them prosperous again, all I can see is their wickedness and the evil they do. They cheat one another; they break into houses and steal; they rob people in the streets. ²It never enters their heads that I will remember all this evil; but their sins surround them, and I cannot avoid seeing them."