Jesus Speaks about His Death

John 12 ²⁷"Now my heart is troubled--and what shall I say? Shall I say, 'Father, do not let this hour come upon me'? But that is why I came--so that I might go through this hour of suffering. ²⁸Father, bring glory to your name!"
Then a voice spoke from heaven, "I have brought glory to it, and I will do so again."
²⁹The crowd standing there heard the voice, and some of them said it was thunder, while others said, "An angel spoke to him!"
³⁰But Jesus said to them, "It was not for my sake that this voice spoke, but for yours. ³¹Now is the time for this world to be judged; now the ruler of this world will be overthrown. ³²When I am lifted up from the earth, I will draw everyone to me." ( ³³In saying this he indicated the kind of death he was going to suffer.)
³⁴The crowd answered, "Our Law tells us that the Messiah will live forever. How, then, can you say that the Son of Man must be lifted up? Who is this Son of Man?"
³⁵Jesus answered, "The light will be among you a little longer. Continue on your way while you have the light, so that the darkness will not come upon you; for the one who walks in the dark does not know where he is going. ³⁶Believe in the light, then, while you have it, so that you will be the people of the light."

The Unbelief of the People

After Jesus said this, he went off and hid himself from them. ³⁷Even though he had performed all these miracles in their presence, they did not believe in him, ³⁸so that what the prophet Isaiah had said might come true:
"Lord, who believed the message we told?
To whom did the Lord reveal his power?"
³⁹And so they were not able to believe, because Isaiah also said,
⁴⁰"God has blinded their eyes
and closed their minds,
so that their eyes would not see,
and their minds would not understand,
and they would not turn to me, says God,
for me to heal them."
⁴¹Isaiah said this because he saw Jesus' glory and spoke about him.
⁴²Even then, many Jewish authorities believed in Jesus; but because of the Pharisees they did not talk about it openly, so as not to be expelled from the synagogue. ⁴³They loved human approval rather than the approval of God.

Judgment by Jesus' Words

⁴⁴Jesus said in a loud voice, "Whoever believes in me believes not only in me but also in him who sent me. ⁴⁵Whoever sees me sees also him who sent me. ⁴⁶I have come into the world as light, so that everyone who believes in me should not remain in the darkness. ⁴⁷If people hear my message and do not obey it, I will not judge them. I came, not to judge the world, but to save it. ⁴⁸Those who reject me and do not accept my message have one who will judge them. The words I have spoken will be their judge on the last day! ⁴⁹This is true, because I have not spoken on my own authority, but the Father who sent me has commanded me what I must say and speak. ⁵⁰And I know that his command brings eternal life. What I say, then, is what the Father has told me to say."

Troubles with Israel
(1 Kings 15.17-22)

2 Chronicles 16 In the thirty-sixth year of the reign of King Asa of Judah, King Baasha of Israel invaded Judah and started to fortify Ramah in order to cut off all traffic in and out of Judah. ²So Asa took silver and gold from the treasuries of the Temple and the palace and sent it to Damascus, to King Benhadad of Syria, with this message: ³"Let us be allies, as our fathers were. This silver and gold is a present for you. Now break your alliance with King Baasha of Israel so that he will have to pull his troops out of my territory."
⁴Benhadad agreed to Asa's proposal and sent his commanding officers and their armies to attack the cities of Israel. They captured Ijon, Dan, Abel Beth Maacah, and all the cities of Naphtali where supplies were stored. ⁵When King Baasha heard what was happening, he stopped fortifying Ramah and abandoned the work. ⁶Then King Asa gathered men from throughout Judah and had them carry off the stones and timbers that Baasha had been using at Ramah, and they used them to fortify the cities of Geba and Mizpah.

The Prophet Hanani

⁷At that time the prophet Hanani went to King Asa and said, "Because you relied on the king of Syria instead of relying on the LORD your God, the army of the king of Israel has escaped from you. ⁸Didn't the Ethiopians and the Libyans have large armies with many chariots and cavalry troops? But because you relied on the LORD, he gave you victory over them. ⁹The LORD keeps close watch over the whole world, to give strength to those whose hearts are loyal to him. You have acted foolishly, and so from now on you will always be at war." ¹⁰This made Asa so angry with the prophet that he had him put in chains. It was at this same time that Asa began treating some of the people cruelly.

The End of Asa's Reign
(1 Kings 15.23, 24)

¹¹All the events of Asa's reign from beginning to end are recorded in The History of the Kings of Judah and Israel. ¹²In the thirty-ninth year that Asa was king, he was crippled by a severe foot disease; but even then he did not turn to the LORD for help, but to doctors. ¹³Two years later he died ¹⁴and was buried in the rock tomb which he had carved out for himself in David's City. They used spices and perfumed oils to prepare his body for burial, and they built a huge bonfire to mourn his death.

Jehoshaphat Becomes King

2 Chronicles 17 Jehoshaphat succeeded his father Asa as king and strengthened his position against Israel. ²He stationed troops in the fortified cities of Judah, in the Judean countryside, and in the cities which Asa had captured in the territory of Ephraim. ³The LORD blessed Jehoshaphat because he followed the example of his father's early life and did not worship Baal. ⁴He served his father's God, obeyed God's commands, and did not act the way the kings of Israel did. ⁵The LORD gave Jehoshaphat firm control over the kingdom of Judah, and all the people brought him gifts, so that he became wealthy and highly honored. ⁶He took pride in serving the LORD and destroyed all the pagan places of worship and the symbols of the goddess Asherah in Judah.
⁷In the third year of his reign he sent out the following officials to teach in the cities of Judah: Benhail, Obadiah, Zechariah, Nethanel, and Micaiah. ⁸They were accompanied by nine Levites and two priests. The Levites were Shemaiah, Nethaniah, Zebadiah, Asahel, Shemiramoth, Jehonathan, Adonijah, Tobijah, and Tobadonijah; and the priests were Elishama and Jehoram. ⁹They took the book of the Law of the LORD and went through all the towns of Judah, teaching it to the people.

Jehoshaphat's Greatness

¹⁰The LORD made all the surrounding kingdoms afraid to go to war against King Jehoshaphat. ¹¹Some of the Philistines brought Jehoshaphat a large amount of silver and other gifts, and some Arabs brought him 7,700 sheep and 7,700 goats. ¹²So Jehoshaphat continued to grow more and more powerful. Throughout Judah he built fortifications and cities, ¹³where supplies were stored in huge amounts.
In Jerusalem he stationed outstanding officers, ¹⁴according to their clans. Adnah was the commander of the troops from the clans of Judah, and he had 300,000 soldiers under him. ¹⁵Second in rank was Jehohanan, with 280,000 soldiers, ¹⁶and third was Amasiah son of Zichri, with 200,000. (Amasiah had volunteered to serve the LORD.) ¹⁷The commander of the troops from the clans of Benjamin was Eliada, an outstanding soldier, in command of 200,000 men armed with shields and bows. ¹⁸His second in command was Jehozabad with 180,000 men, well-equipped for battle. ¹⁹These soldiers served the king in Jerusalem, and in addition he stationed others in the other fortified cities of Judah.

God and His People

Psalm 78 Listen, my people, to my teaching,
and pay attention to what I say.
²I am going to use wise sayings
and explain mysteries from the past,
³things we have heard and known,
things that our ancestors told us.
⁴We will not keep them from our children;
we will tell the next generation
about the LORD's power and his great deeds
and the wonderful things he has done.

⁵He gave laws to the people of Israel
and commandments to the descendants of Jacob.
He instructed our ancestors
to teach his laws to their children,
⁶so that the next generation might learn them
and in turn should tell their children.
⁷In this way they also will put their trust in God
and not forget what he has done,
but always obey his commandments.
⁸They will not be like their ancestors,
a rebellious and disobedient people,
whose trust in God was never firm
and who did not remain faithful to him.

⁹The Ephraimites, armed with bows and arrows,
ran away on the day of battle.
¹⁰They did not keep their covenant with God;
they refused to obey his law.
¹¹They forgot what he had done,
the miracles they had seen him perform.
¹²While their ancestors watched, God performed miracles
in the plain of Zoan in the land of Egypt.
¹³He divided the sea and took them through it;
he made the waters stand like walls.
¹⁴By day he led them with a cloud
and all night long with the light of a fire.
¹⁵He split rocks open in the desert
and gave them water from the depths.
¹⁶He caused a stream to come out of the rock
and made water flow like a river.

¹⁷But they continued to sin against God,
and in the desert they rebelled against the Most High.
¹⁸They deliberately put God to the test
by demanding the food they wanted.
¹⁹They spoke against God and said,
"Can God supply food in the desert?
²⁰It is true that he struck the rock,
and water flowed out in a torrent;
but can he also provide us with bread
and give his people meat?"