The Authority of the Son

John 5 ¹⁹So Jesus answered them, "I tell you the truth: the Son can do nothing on his own; he does only what he sees his Father doing. What the Father does, the Son also does. ²⁰For the Father loves the Son and shows him all that he himself is doing. He will show him even greater things to do than this, and you will all be amazed. ²¹Just as the Father raises the dead and gives them life, in the same way the Son gives life to those he wants to. ²²Nor does the Father himself judge anyone. He has given his Son the full right to judge, ²³so that all will honor the Son in the same way as they honor the Father. Whoever does not honor the Son does not honor the Father who sent him.
²⁴"I am telling you the truth: those who hear my words and believe in him who sent me have eternal life. They will not be judged, but have already passed from death to life. ²⁵I am telling you the truth: the time is coming--the time has already come--when the dead will hear the voice of the Son of God, and those who hear it will come to life. ²⁶Just as the Father is himself the source of life, in the same way he has made his Son to be the source of life. ²⁷And he has given the Son the right to judge, because he is the Son of Man. ²⁸Do not be surprised at this; the time is coming when all the dead will hear his voice ²⁹and come out of their graves: those who have done good will rise and live, and those who have done evil will rise and be condemned.

Witnesses to Jesus

³⁰"I can do nothing on my own authority; I judge only as God tells me, so my judgment is right, because I am not trying to do what I want, but only what he who sent me wants.
³¹"If I testify on my own behalf, what I say is not to be accepted as real proof. ³²But there is someone else who testifies on my behalf, and I know that what he says about me is true. ³³John is the one to whom you sent your messengers, and he spoke on behalf of the truth. ³⁴It is not that I must have a human witness; I say this only in order that you may be saved. ³⁵John was like a lamp, burning and shining, and you were willing for a while to enjoy his light. ³⁶But I have a witness on my behalf which is even greater than the witness that John gave: what I do, that is, the deeds my Father gave me to do, these speak on my behalf and show that the Father has sent me. ³⁷And the Father, who sent me, also testifies on my behalf. You have never heard his voice or seen his face, ³⁸and you do not keep his message in your hearts, for you do not believe in the one whom he sent. ³⁹You study the Scriptures, because you think that in them you will find eternal life. And these very Scriptures speak about me! ⁴⁰Yet you are not willing to come to me in order to have life.
⁴¹"I am not looking for human praise. ⁴²But I know what kind of people you are, and I know that you have no love for God in your hearts. ⁴³I have come with my Father's authority, but you have not received me; when, however, someone comes with his own authority, you will receive him. ⁴⁴You like to receive praise from one another, but you do not try to win praise from the one who alone is God; how, then, can you believe me? ⁴⁵Do not think, however, that I am the one who will accuse you to my Father. Moses, in whom you have put your hope, is the very one who will accuse you. ⁴⁶If you had really believed Moses, you would have believed me, because he wrote about me. ⁴⁷But since you do not believe what he wrote, how can you believe what I say?"

David Captures Rabbah
(2 Samuel 12.26 -31)

1 Chronicles 20 The following spring, at the time of the year when kings usually go to war, Joab led out the army and invaded the land of Ammon; King David, however, stayed in Jerusalem. They besieged the city of Rabbah, attacked it, and destroyed it. ²The Ammonite idol Molech had a gold crown which weighed about seventy-five pounds. In it there was a jewel, which David took and put in his own crown. He also took a large amount of loot from the city. ³He took the people of the city and put them to work with saws, iron hoes, and axes. He did the same to the people of all the other towns of Ammon. Then he and his men returned to Jerusalem.

Battles against Philistine Giants
(2 Samuel 21.15 -22)

⁴Later on, war broke out again with the Philistines at Gezer. This was when Sibbecai from Hushah killed a giant named Sippai, and the Philistines were defeated.
⁵There was another battle with the Philistines, and Elhanan son of Jair killed Lahmi, the brother of Goliath from Gath, whose spear had a shaft as thick as the bar on a weaver's loom.
⁶Another battle took place at Gath, where there was a giant with six fingers on each hand and six toes on each foot. He was a descendant of the ancient giants. ⁷He defied the Israelites, and Jonathan, the son of David's brother Shammah, killed him.
⁸These three, who were killed by David and his men, were descendants of the giants at Gath.

David Takes a Census
(2 Samuel 24.1-25)

1 Chronicles 21 Satan wanted to bring trouble on the people of Israel, so he made David decide to take a census. ²David gave orders to Joab and the other officers, "Go through Israel, from one end of the country to the other, and count the people. I want to know how many there are."
³Joab answered, "May the LORD make the people of Israel a hundred times more numerous than they are now! Your Majesty, they are all your servants. Why do you want to do this and make the whole nation guilty?" ⁴But the king made Joab obey the order. Joab went out, traveled through the whole country of Israel, and then returned to Jerusalem. ⁵He reported to King David the total number of men capable of military service: 1,100,000 in Israel and 470,000 in Judah. ⁶Because Joab disapproved of the king's command, he did not take any census of the tribes of Levi and Benjamin.
⁷God was displeased with what had been done, so he punished Israel. ⁸David said to God, "I have committed a terrible sin in doing this! Please forgive me. I have acted foolishly."
⁹Then the LORD said to Gad, David's prophet, ¹⁰"Go and tell David that I am giving him three choices. I will do whichever he chooses."
¹¹Gad went to David, told him what the LORD had said, and asked, "Which is it to be? ¹²Three years of famine? Or three months of running away from the armies of your enemies? Or three days during which the LORD attacks you with his sword and sends an epidemic on your land, using his angel to bring death throughout Israel? What answer shall I give the LORD?"
¹³David replied to Gad, "I am in a desperate situation! But I don't want to be punished by people. Let the LORD himself be the one to punish me, because he is merciful."
¹⁴So the LORD sent an epidemic on the people of Israel, and seventy thousand of them died. ¹⁵Then he sent an angel to destroy Jerusalem, but he changed his mind and said to the angel, "Stop! That's enough!" The angel was standing by the threshing place of Araunah, a Jebusite.
¹⁶David saw the angel standing in midair, holding his sword in his hand, ready to destroy Jerusalem. Then David and the leaders of the people--all of whom were wearing sackcloth--bowed low, with their faces touching the ground. ¹⁷David prayed, "O God, I am the one who did wrong. I am the one who ordered the census. What have these poor people done? LORD, my God, punish me and my family, and spare your people."
¹⁸The angel of the LORD told Gad to command David to go and build an altar to the LORD at Araunah's threshing place. ¹⁹David obeyed the LORD's command and went, as Gad had told him to. ²⁰There at the threshing place Araunah and his four sons were threshing wheat, and when they saw the angel, the sons ran and hid. ²¹As soon as Araunah saw King David approaching, he left the threshing place and bowed low, with his face touching the ground. ²²David said to him, "Sell me your threshing place, so that I can build an altar to the LORD, to stop the epidemic. I'll give you the full price."
²³"Take it, Your Majesty," Araunah said, "and do whatever you wish. Here are these oxen to burn as an offering on the altar, and here are the threshing boards to use as fuel, and wheat to give as an offering. I give it all to you."
²⁴But the king answered, "No, I will pay you the full price. I will not give as an offering to the LORD something that belongs to you, something that costs me nothing." ²⁵And he paid Araunah six hundred gold coins for the threshing place. ²⁶He built an altar to the LORD there and offered burnt offerings and fellowship offerings. He prayed, and the LORD answered him by sending fire from heaven to burn the sacrifices on the altar.
²⁷The LORD told the angel to put his sword away, and the angel obeyed. ²⁸David saw by this that the LORD had answered his prayer, so he offered sacrifices on the altar at Araunah's threshing place. ²⁹The Tent of the LORD's presence which Moses had made in the wilderness, and the altar on which sacrifices were burned were still at the place of worship at Gibeon at this time; ³⁰but David was not able to go there to worship God, because he was afraid of the sword of the LORD's angel.
1 Chronicles 22 So David said, "This is where the Temple of the LORD God will be. Here is the altar where the people of Israel are to offer burnt offerings."

The LORD Promises to Restore Jerusalem

Zechariah 8 The LORD Almighty gave this message to Zechariah: ²"I have longed to help Jerusalem because of my deep love for her people, a love which has made me angry with her enemies. ³I will return to Jerusalem, my holy city, and live there. It will be known as the faithful city, and the hill of the LORD Almighty will be called the sacred hill. ⁴Once again old men and women, so old that they use canes when they walk, will be sitting in the city squares. ⁵And the streets will again be full of boys and girls playing.
⁶"This may seem impossible to those of the nation who are now left, but it's not impossible for me. ⁷I will rescue my people from the lands where they have been taken, ⁸and will bring them back from east and west to live in Jerusalem. They will be my people, and I will be their God, ruling over them faithfully and justly.
⁹"Have courage! You are now hearing the same words the prophets spoke at the time the foundation was being laid for rebuilding my Temple. ¹⁰Before that time no one could afford to hire either men or animals, and no one was safe from enemies. I turned people against one another. ¹¹But now I am treating the survivors of this nation differently. ¹²They will plant their crops in peace. Their vines will bear grapes, the earth will produce crops, and there will be plenty of rain. I will give all these blessings to the people of my nation who survive. ¹³People of Judah and Israel! In the past foreigners have cursed one another by saying, 'May the same disasters fall on you that fell on Judah and Israel!' But I will save you, and then those foreigners will say to one another, 'May you receive the same blessings that came to Judah and Israel!' So have courage and don't be afraid."
¹⁴The LORD Almighty says, "When your ancestors made me angry, I planned disaster for them and did not change my mind, but carried out my plans. ¹⁵But now I am planning to bless the people of Jerusalem and Judah. So don't be afraid. ¹⁶These are the things you should do: Speak the truth to one another. In the courts give real justice--the kind that brings peace. ¹⁷Do not plan ways of harming one another. Do not give false testimony under oath. I hate lying, injustice, and violence."
¹⁸The LORD Almighty gave this message to Zechariah: ¹⁹"The fasts held in the fourth, fifth, seventh, and tenth months will become festivals of joy and gladness for the people of Judah. You must love truth and peace."
²⁰The LORD Almighty says, "The time is coming when people from many cities will come to Jerusalem. ²¹Those from one city will say to those from another, 'We are going to worship the LORD Almighty and pray for his blessing. Come with us!' ²²Many peoples and powerful nations will come to Jerusalem to worship the LORD Almighty and to pray for his blessing. ²³In those days ten foreigners will come to one Jew and say, 'We want to share in your destiny, because we have heard that God is with you.'"