Jesus
Is Crucified
(Matthew 27.32-44;
Luke 23.26-43; John 19.17-27)
Mark 15 21On
the way they met a man named Simon, who was coming into
the city from the country, and the soldiers forced him to
carry Jesus' cross. (Simon was from Cyrene and was the
father of Alexander and Rufus.) 22They took
Jesus to a place called Golgotha, which means "The
Place of the Skull." 23There they tried
to give him wine mixed with a drug called myrrh, but
Jesus would not drink it. 24Then they
crucified him and divided his clothes among themselves,
throwing dice to see who would get which piece of
clothing. 25It was nine o'clock in the morning
when they crucified him. 26The notice of the
accusation against him said: "The King of the
Jews." 27They also crucified two bandits
with Jesus, one on his right and the other on his left.
 29People
passing by shook their heads and hurled insults at Jesus:
"Aha! You were going to tear down the Temple and
build it back up in three days! 30Now come
down from the cross and save yourself !"
31In
the same way the chief priests and the teachers of the
Law made fun of Jesus, saying to one another, "He
saved others, but he cannot save himself ! 32Let
us see the Messiah, the king of Israel, come down from
the cross now, and we will believe in him!"
 And
the two who were crucified with Jesus insulted him also.
The Death of Jesus
(Matthew 27.45-56;
Luke 23.44-49; John 19.28-30)
33At
noon the whole country was covered with darkness, which
lasted for three hours. 34At three o'clock
Jesus cried out with a loud shout, "Eloi, Eloi,
lema sabachthani?" which means, "My God, my
God, why did you abandon me?"
35Some
of the people there heard him and said, "Listen, he
is calling for Elijah!" 36One of them ran
up with a sponge, soaked it in cheap wine, and put it on
the end of a stick. Then he held it up to Jesus' lips and
said, "Wait! Let us see if Elijah is coming to bring
him down from the cross!"
37With
a loud cry Jesus died.
38The
curtain hanging in the Temple was torn in two, from top
to bottom. 39The army officer who was standing
there in front of the cross saw how Jesus had died.
"This man was really the Son of God!" he said.
40Some
women were there, looking on from a distance. Among them
were Mary Magdalene, Mary the mother of the younger James
and of Joseph, and Salome. 41They had followed
Jesus while he was in Galilee and had helped him. Many
other women who had come to Jerusalem with him were there
also.
The Burial of Jesus
(Matthew 27.57-61;
Luke 23.50-56; John 19.38-42)
42-43It
was toward evening when Joseph of Arimathea arrived. He
was a respected member of the Council, who was waiting
for the coming of the Kingdom of God. It was Preparation
day (that is, the day before the Sabbath), so Joseph went
boldly into the presence of Pilate and asked him for the
body of Jesus. 44Pilate was surprised to hear
that Jesus was already dead. He called the army officer
and asked him if Jesus had been dead a long time. 45After
hearing the officer's report, Pilate told Joseph he could
have the body. 46Joseph bought a linen sheet,
took the body down, wrapped it in the sheet, and placed
it in a tomb which had been dug out of solid rock. Then
he rolled a large stone across the entrance to the tomb. 47Mary
Magdalene and Mary the mother of Joseph were watching and
saw where the body of Jesus was placed.
Solomon Turns Away
from God
1 Kings 11
Solomon loved many foreign women. Besides the daughter of
the king of Egypt he married Hittite women and women from
Moab, Ammon, Edom, and Sidon. 2He married them
even though the LORD had commanded
the Israelites not to intermarry with these people,
because they would cause the Israelites to give their
loyalty to other gods. 3Solomon married seven
hundred princesses and also had three hundred concubines.
They made him turn away from God, 4and by the
time he was old they had led him into the worship of
foreign gods. He was not faithful to the LORD
his God, as his father David had been. 5He
worshiped Astarte, the goddess of Sidon, and Molech, the
disgusting god of Ammon. 6He sinned against
the LORD and was not true to him as
his father David had been. 7On the mountain
east of Jerusalem he built a place to worship Chemosh,
the disgusting god of Moab, and a place to worship
Molech, the disgusting god of Ammon. 8He also
built places of worship where all his foreign wives could
burn incense and offer sacrifices to their own gods.
9-10Even
though the LORD, the God of Israel,
had appeared to Solomon twice and had commanded him not
to worship foreign gods, Solomon did not obey the LORD but turned away from him. So the LORD was angry with Solomon 11and
said to him, "Because you have deliberately broken
your covenant with me and disobeyed my commands, I
promise that I will take the kingdom away from you and
give it to one of your officials. 12However,
for the sake of your father David I will not do this in
your lifetime, but during the reign of your son. 13And
I will not take the whole kingdom away from him; instead,
I will leave him one tribe for the sake of my servant
David and for the sake of Jerusalem, the city I have made
my own."
Solomon's Enemies
14So
the LORD caused Hadad, of the royal
family of Edom, to turn against Solomon. 15-16Long
before this, when David had conquered Edom, Joab the
commander of his army had gone there to bury the dead. He
and his men remained in Edom six months, and during that
time they killed every male in Edom 17except
Hadad and some of his father's Edomite servants, who
escaped to Egypt. (At that time Hadad was just a child.) 18They
left Midian and went to Paran, where some other men
joined them. Then they traveled to Egypt and went to the
king, who gave Hadad some land and a house and provided
him with food. 19Hadad won the friendship of
the king, and the king gave his sister-in-law, the sister
of Queen Tahpenes, to Hadad in marriage. 20She
bore him a son, Genubath, who was raised by the queen in
the palace, where he lived with the king's sons.
21When
the news reached Hadad in Egypt that David had died and
that Joab the commander of the army was dead, Hadad said
to the king, "Let me go back to my own
country."
22"Why?"
the king asked. "Have I failed to give you
something? Is that why you want to go back home?"
"Just
let me go," Hadad answered the king. And he went
back to his country.
As
king of Edom, Hadad was an evil, bitter enemy of Israel.
23God
also caused Rezon son of Eliada to turn against Solomon.
Rezon had fled from his master, King Hadadezer of Zobah, 24and
had become the leader of a gang of outlaws. (This
happened after David had defeated Hadadezer and had
slaughtered his Syrian allies.) Rezon and his gang went
and lived in Damascus, where his followers made him king
of Syria. 25He was an enemy of Israel during
the lifetime of Solomon.
God's Promise to Jeroboam
26Another
man who turned against King Solomon was one of his
officials, Jeroboam son of Nebat, from Zeredah in
Ephraim. His mother was a widow named Zeruah. 27This
is the story of the revolt.
Solomon
was filling in the land on the east side of Jerusalem and
repairing the city walls. 28Jeroboam was an
able young man, and when Solomon noticed how hard he
worked, he put him in charge of all the forced labor in
the territory of the tribes of Manasseh and Ephraim. 29One
day, as Jeroboam was traveling from Jerusalem, the
prophet Ahijah from Shiloh met him alone on the road in
the open country. 30Ahijah took off the new
robe he was wearing, tore it into twelve pieces, 31and
said to Jeroboam, "Take ten pieces for yourself,
because the LORD, the God of
Israel, says to you, 'I am going to take the kingdom away
from Solomon, and I will give you ten tribes. 32Solomon
will keep one tribe for the sake of my servant David and
for the sake of Jerusalem, the city I have chosen to be
my own from the whole land of Israel. 33I am
going to do this because Solomon has rejected me and has
worshiped foreign gods: Astarte, the goddess of Sidon;
Chemosh, the god of Moab; and Molech, the god of Ammon.
Solomon has disobeyed me; he has done wrong and has not
kept my laws and commands as his father David did. 34But
I will not take the whole kingdom away from Solomon, and
I will keep him in power as long as he lives. This I will
do for the sake of my servant David, whom I chose and who
obeyed my laws and commands. 35I will
take the kingdom away from Solomon's son and will give
you ten tribes, 36but I will let Solomon's son
keep one tribe, so that I will always have a descendant
of my servant David ruling in Jerusalem, the city I have
chosen as the place where I am worshiped. 37Jeroboam,
I will make you king of Israel, and you will rule over
all the territory that you want. 38If you obey
me completely, live by my laws, and win my approval by
doing what I command, as my servant David did, I will
always be with you. I will make you king of Israel and
will make sure that your descendants rule after you, just
as I have done for David. 39Because of
Solomon's sin I will punish the descendants of David, but
not for all time.'"
40And
so Solomon tried to kill Jeroboam, but he escaped to King
Shishak of Egypt and stayed there until Solomon's death.
The Death of Solomon
(2 Chronicles 9.29 -31)
41Everything
else that Solomon did, his career, and his wisdom, are
all recorded in The History of Solomon. 42He
was king in Jerusalem over all Israel for forty years. 43He
died and was buried in David's City, and his son Rehoboam
succeeded him as king.
Final Judgment on Israel
Hosea 13 In the
past, when the tribe of Ephraim spoke, the other tribes
of Israel were afraid; they looked up to Ephraim. But the
people sinned by worshiping Baal, and for this they will
die. 2They still keep on sinning by making
metal images to worship--idols of silver, designed by
human minds, made by human hands. And then they say,
"Offer sacrifices to them!" How can anyone kiss
those idols--idols in the shape of bulls! 3And
so these people will disappear like morning mist, like
the dew that vanishes early in the day. They will be like
chaff which the wind blows from the threshing place, like
smoke from a chimney.
4The
LORD says, "I am the LORD your God, who led you out of Egypt.
You have no God but me. I alone am your savior. 5I
took care of you in a dry, desert land. 6But
when you entered the good land, you became full and
satisfied, and then you grew proud and forgot me. 7So
I will attack you like a lion. Like a leopard I will lie
in wait along your path. 8I will attack
you like a bear that has lost her cubs, and I will tear
you open. Like a lion I will devour you on the spot, and
will tear you to pieces like a wild animal.
9"I
will destroy you, people of Israel! Then who can help
you? 10You asked for a king and for leaders,
but how can they save the nation? 11In my
anger I have given you kings, and in my fury I have taken
them away.
12"Israel's
sin and guilt are on record, and the records are safely
stored away. 13Israel has a chance to live,
but is too foolish to take it--like a child about to be
born, who refuses to come out of the womb. 14I
will not save this people from the world of the dead or
rescue them from the power of death. Bring on your
plagues, death! Bring on your destruction, world of the
dead! I will no longer have pity for this people. 15Even
though Israel flourishes like weeds, I will send a hot
east wind from the desert, and it will dry up their
springs and wells. It will take away everything of value.
16Samaria must be punished for rebelling
against me. Her people will die in war; babies will be
dashed to the ground, and pregnant women will be ripped
open."
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