Jesus
Weeps
John 11 28After
Martha said this, she went back and called her sister
Mary privately. "The Teacher is here," she told
her, "and is asking for you." 29When
Mary heard this, she got up and hurried out to meet him.
( 30Jesus had not yet arrived in the village,
but was still in the place where Martha had met him.) 31The
people who were in the house with Mary comforting her
followed her when they saw her get up and hurry out. They
thought that she was going to the grave to weep there.
32Mary
arrived where Jesus was, and as soon as she saw him, she
fell at his feet. "Lord," she said, "if
you had been here, my brother would not have died!"
33Jesus
saw her weeping, and he saw how the people with her were
weeping also; his heart was touched, and he was deeply
moved. 34"Where have you buried
him?" he asked them.
"Come
and see, Lord," they answered.
35Jesus
wept. 36"See how much he loved him!"
the people said.
37But
some of them said, "He gave sight to the blind man,
didn't he? Could he not have kept Lazarus from
dying?"
Lazarus Is Brought to Life
38Deeply
moved once more, Jesus went to the tomb, which was a cave
with a stone placed at the entrance. 39"Take
the stone away!" Jesus ordered.
Martha,
the dead man's sister, answered, "There will be a
bad smell, Lord. He has been buried four days!"
40Jesus
said to her, "Didn't I tell you that you would see
God's glory if you believed?" 41They took
the stone away. Jesus looked up and said, "I thank
you, Father, that you listen to me. 42I know
that you always listen to me, but I say this for the sake
of the people here, so that they will believe that you
sent me." 43After he had said this, he
called out in a loud voice, "Lazarus, come
out!" 44He came out, his hands and feet
wrapped in grave cloths, and with a cloth around his
face. "Untie him," Jesus told them, "and
let him go."
The Plot against Jesus
(Matthew 26.1-5; Mark 14.1,
2; Luke 22.1, 2)
45Many
of the people who had come to visit Mary saw what Jesus
did, and they believed in him. 46But some of
them returned to the Pharisees and told them what Jesus
had done. 47So the Pharisees and the chief
priests met with the Council and said, "What shall
we do? Look at all the miracles this man is performing! 48If
we let him go on in this way, everyone will believe in
him, and the Roman authorities will take action and
destroy our Temple and our nation!"
49One
of them, named Caiaphas, who was High Priest that year,
said, "What fools you are! 50Don't you
realize that it is better for you to have one man die for
the people, instead of having the whole nation
destroyed?" 51Actually, he did not say
this of his own accord; rather, as he was High Priest
that year, he was prophesying that Jesus was going to die
for the Jewish people, 52and not only for
them, but also to bring together into one body all the
scattered people of God.
53From
that day on the Jewish authorities made plans to kill
Jesus. 54So Jesus did not travel openly in
Judea, but left and went to a place near the desert, to a
town named Ephraim, where he stayed with the disciples.
55The
time for the Passover Festival was near, and many people
went up from the country to Jerusalem to perform the
ritual of purification before the festival. 56They
were looking for Jesus, and as they gathered in the
Temple, they asked one another, "What do you think?
Surely he will not come to the festival, will he?" 57The
chief priests and the Pharisees had given orders that if
anyone knew where Jesus was, he must report it, so that
they could arrest him.
An Egyptian Invasion
of Judah
(1 Kings 14.25 -28)
2 Chronicles 12 As
soon as Rehoboam had established his authority as king,
he and all his people abandoned the Law of the LORD. 2In the fifth year of
Rehoboam's reign their disloyalty to the LORD
was punished. King Shishak of Egypt attacked Jerusalem 3with
an army of twelve hundred chariots, sixty thousand
cavalry, and more soldiers than could be counted,
including Libyan, Sukkite, and Ethiopian troops. 4He
captured the fortified cities of Judah and advanced as
far as Jerusalem.
5Shemaiah
the prophet went to King Rehoboam and the Judean leaders
who had gathered in Jerusalem to escape Shishak. He said
to them, "This is the LORD's
message to you: 'You have abandoned me, so now I have
abandoned you to Shishak.'"
6The
king and the leaders admitted that they had sinned, and
they said, "What the LORD is
doing is just."
7When
the LORD saw this, he spoke again
to Shemaiah and said to him, "Because they admit
their sin, I will not destroy them. But when Shishak
attacks, they will barely survive. Jerusalem will not
feel the full force of my anger, 8but Shishak
will conquer them, and they will learn the difference
between serving me and serving earthly rulers."
9King
Shishak came to Jerusalem and took the treasures from the
Temple and from the palace. He took everything, including
the gold shields that King Solomon had made. 10To
replace them, Rehoboam made bronze shields and entrusted
them to the officers responsible for guarding the palace
gates. 11Every time the king went to the
Temple, the guards carried the shields and then returned
them to the guardroom. 12Because he submitted
to the LORD, the LORD's
anger did not completely destroy him, and things went
well for Judah.
Summary of Rehoboam's
Reign
13Rehoboam
ruled in Jerusalem and increased his power as king. He
was forty-one years old when he became king, and he ruled
for seventeen years in Jerusalem, the city which the LORD had chosen from all the territory of
Israel as the place where he was to be worshiped.
Rehoboam's mother was Naamah, from the land of Ammon. 14He
did what was evil, because he did not try to find the LORD's will.
15Rehoboam's
acts from beginning to end and his family records are
found in The History of Shemaiah the Prophet and The
History of Iddo the Prophet. Rehoboam and Jeroboam
were constantly at war with each other. 16Rehoboam
died and was buried in the royal tombs in David's City
and his son Abijah succeeded him as king.
Abijah's War
with Jeroboam
(1 Kings 15.1-8)
2 Chronicles 13 In
the eighteenth year of the reign of King Jeroboam of
Israel, Abijah became king of Judah, 2and he
ruled three years in Jerusalem. His mother was Micaiah
daughter of Uriel, from the city of Gibeah.
War
broke out between Abijah and Jeroboam. 3Abijah
raised an army of 400,000 soldiers, and Jeroboam opposed
him with an army of 800,000.
4The
armies met in the hill country of Ephraim. King Abijah
went up Mount Zemaraim and called out to Jeroboam and the
Israelites: "Listen to me!" he said. 5"Don't
you know that the LORD, the God of
Israel, made an unbreakable covenant with David, giving
him and his descendants kingship over Israel forever? 6Jeroboam
son of Nebat rebelled against Solomon, his king. 7Later
he gathered together a group of worthless scoundrels, and
they forced their will on Rehoboam son of Solomon, who
was too young and inexperienced to resist them. 8Now
you propose to fight against the royal authority that the
LORD gave to David's descendants.
You have a huge army and have with you the gold
bull-calves that Jeroboam made to be your gods. 9You
drove out the LORD's priests, the
descendants of Aaron, and you drove out the Levites. In
their place you appointed priests in the same way that
other nations do. Anybody who comes along with a bull or
seven sheep can get himself consecrated as a priest of
those so-called gods of yours.
10"But
we still serve the LORD our God and
have not abandoned him. Priests descended from Aaron
perform their duties, and Levites assist them. 11Every
morning and every evening they offer him incense and
animal sacrifices burned whole. They present the
offerings of bread on a table that is ritually clean, and
every evening they light the lamps on the gold lampstand.
We do what the LORD has commanded,
but you have abandoned him. 12God himself is
our leader and his priests are here with trumpets, ready
to blow them and call us to battle against you. People of
Israel, don't fight against the LORD,
the God of your ancestors! You can't win!"
13Meanwhile
Jeroboam had sent some of his troops to ambush the Judean
army from the rear, while the rest faced them from the
front. 14The Judeans looked around and saw
that they were surrounded. They cried to the LORD for help, and the priests blew the
trumpets. 15The Judeans gave a loud shout, and
led by Abijah, they attacked; God defeated Jeroboam and
the Israelite army. 16The Israelites fled from
the Judeans, and God let the Judeans overpower them. 17Abijah
and his army dealt the Israelites a crushing defeat--half
a million of Israel's best soldiers were killed. 18And
so the people of Judah were victorious over Israel,
because they relied on the LORD,
the God of their ancestors.
19Abijah
pursued Jeroboam's army and occupied some of his cities:
Bethel, Jeshanah, and Ephron, and the villages near each
of these cities. 20Jeroboam never regained his
power during Abijah's reign. Finally the LORD
struck him down, and he died.
21Abijah,
however, grew more powerful. He had fourteen wives and
fathered twenty-two sons and sixteen daughters. 22The
rest of the history of Abijah, what he said and what he
did, is written in The History of Iddo the Prophet.
God the Victor
Psalm 76 God
is known in Judah;
his
name is honored in Israel.
2He
has his home in Jerusalem;
he
lives on Mount Zion.
3There
he broke the arrows of the enemy,
their
shields and swords, yes, all their weapons.
4How
glorious you are, O God!
How
majestic, as you return from the mountains
where
you defeated your foes.
5Their
brave soldiers have been stripped of all they had
and
now are sleeping the sleep of death;
all
their strength and skill was useless.
6When
you threatened them, O God of Jacob,
the
horses and their riders fell dead.
7But
you, LORD, are feared by all.
No
one can stand in your presence
when
you are angry.
8You
made your judgment known from heaven;
the
world was afraid and kept silent,
9when
you rose up to pronounce judgment,
to
save all the oppressed on earth.
10Human
anger only results in more praise for you;
those
who survive the wars will keep your festivals.
11Give
the LORD your God what you
promised him;
bring
gifts to him, all you nearby nations.
God
makes everyone fear him;
12 he
humbles proud princes
and
terrifies great kings.
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