The First Letter of
JOHN
The Word of Life
1 John 1 We
write to you about the Word of life, which has existed
from the very beginning. We have heard it, and we have
seen it with our eyes; yes, we have seen it, and our
hands have touched it. 2When this life became
visible, we saw it; so we speak of it and tell you about
the eternal life which was with the Father and was made
known to us. 3What we have seen and heard we
announce to you also, so that you will join with us in
the fellowship that we have with the Father and with his
Son Jesus Christ. 4We write this in order that
our joy may be complete.
God Is Light
5Now
the message that we have heard from his Son and announce
is this: God is light, and there is no darkness at all in
him. 6If, then, we say that we have fellowship
with him, yet at the same time live in the darkness, we
are lying both in our words and in our actions. 7But
if we live in the light--just as he is in the light--then
we have fellowship with one another, and the blood of
Jesus, his Son, purifies us from every sin.
8If
we say that we have no sin, we deceive ourselves, and
there is no truth in us. 9But if we confess
our sins to God, he will keep his promise and do what is
right: he will forgive us our sins and purify us from all
our wrongdoing. 10If we say that we have not
sinned, we make a liar out of God, and his word is not
in us.
King Josiah of Judah
(2 Kings 22.1, 2)
2 Chronicles 34
Josiah was eight years old when he became king of Judah,
and he ruled in Jerusalem for thirty-one years. 2He
did what was pleasing to the LORD;
he followed the example of his ancestor King David,
strictly obeying all the laws of God.
Josiah Attacks Pagan Worship
3In
the eighth year that Josiah was king, while he was still
very young, he began to worship the God of his ancestor
King David. Four years later he began to destroy the
pagan places of worship, the symbols of the goddess
Asherah, and all the other idols. 4Under his
direction the altars where Baal was worshiped were
smashed, and the incense altars near them were torn down.
They ground to dust the images of Asherah and all the
other idols and then scattered the dust on the graves of
the people who had sacrificed to them. 5He
burned the bones of the pagan priests on the altars where
they had worshiped. By doing all this, he made Judah and
Jerusalem ritually clean again. 6He did the
same thing in the cities and the devastated areas of
Manasseh, Ephraim, and Simeon, and as far north as
Naphtali. 7Throughout the territory of the
Northern Kingdom he smashed the altars and the symbols of
Asherah, ground the idols to dust, and broke into bits
all the incense altars. Then he returned to Jerusalem.
The Book of the Law Is
Discovered
(2 Kings 22.3-20)
8In
the eighteenth year of his reign, after he had purified
the land and the Temple by ending pagan worship, King
Josiah sent three men to repair the Temple of the LORD God: Shaphan son of Azaliah,
Maaseiah, the governor of Jerusalem, and Joah son of
Joahaz, a high official. 9The money that the
Levite guards had collected in the Temple was turned over
to Hilkiah the High Priest. (It had been collected from
the people of Ephraim and Manasseh and the rest of the
Northern Kingdom, and from the people of Judah, Benjamin,
and Jerusalem.) 10This money was then handed
over to the three men in charge of the Temple repairs,
and they gave it to 11the carpenters and the
builders to buy the stones and the timber used to repair
the buildings that the kings of Judah had allowed to
decay. 12The men who did the work were
thoroughly honest. They were supervised by four Levites:
Jahath and Obadiah of the clan of Merari, and Zechariah
and Meshullam of the clan of Kohath. (The Levites were
all skillful musicians.) 13Other Levites were
in charge of transporting materials and supervising the
workers on various jobs, and others kept records or
served as guards.
14While
the money was being taken out of the storeroom, Hilkiah
found the book of the Law of the LORD,
the Law that God had given to Moses. 15He said
to Shaphan, "I have found the book of the Law here
in the Temple." He gave Shaphan the book, 16and
Shaphan took it to the king. He reported, "We have
done everything that you commanded. 17We have
taken the money that was kept in the Temple and handed it
over to the workers and their supervisors." 18Then
he added, "I have here a book that Hilkiah gave
me." And he read it aloud to the king.
19When
the king heard the book being read, he tore his clothes
in dismay 20and gave the following order to
Hilkiah, to Ahikam son of Shaphan, to Abdon son of
Micaiah, to Shaphan, the court secretary, and to Asaiah,
the king's attendant: 21"Go and consult
the LORD for me and for the people
who still remain in Israel and Judah. Find out about the
teachings of this book. The LORD is
angry with us because our ancestors have not obeyed the
word of the LORD and have not done
what this book says must be done."
22At
the king's command, Hilkiah and the others went to
consult a woman named Huldah, a prophet who lived in the
newer part of Jerusalem. (Her husband Shallum, the son of
Tikvah and grandson of Harhas, was in charge of the
Temple robes.) They described to her what had happened, 23and
she told them to go back to the king and give him 24the
following message from the LORD:
"I am going to punish Jerusalem and all its people
with the curses written in the book that was read to the
king. 25They have rejected me and have offered
sacrifices to other gods, and so have stirred up my anger
by all they have done. My anger is aroused against
Jerusalem, and it will not die down. 26As for
the king himself, this is what I, the LORD
God of Israel, say: You listened to what is written in
the book, 27and you repented and humbled
yourself before me, tearing your clothes and weeping,
when you heard how I threatened to punish Jerusalem and
its people. I have heard your prayer, 28and
the punishment which I am going to bring on Jerusalem
will not come until after your death. I will let you die
in peace."
The
men returned to King Josiah with this message.
Josiah Makes a Covenant
to Obey the LORD
(2 Kings 23.1-20)
29King
Josiah summoned all the leaders of Judah and Jerusalem, 30and
together they went to the Temple, accompanied by the
priests and the Levites and all the rest of the people,
rich and poor alike. Before them all the king read aloud
the whole book of the covenant, which had been found in
the Temple. 31He stood by the royal column and
made a covenant with the LORD to
obey him, to keep his laws and commands with all his
heart and soul, and to put into practice the demands
attached to the covenant, as written in the book. 32He
made the people of Benjamin and everyone else present in
Jerusalem promise to keep the covenant. And so the people
of Jerusalem obeyed the requirements of the covenant they
had made with the God of their ancestors. 33King
Josiah destroyed all the disgusting idols that were in
the territory belonging to the people of Israel, and as
long as he lived, he required the people to serve the LORD, the God of their ancestors.
God's Promise to David
Psalm 89 19In
a vision long ago you said to your faithful servants,
"I
have given help to a famous soldier;
I
have given the throne to one I chose from the people.
20I
have made my servant David king
by
anointing him with holy oil.
21My
strength will always be with him,
my
power will make him strong.
22His
enemies will never succeed against him;
the
wicked will not defeat him.
23I will
crush his foes
and
kill everyone who hates him.
24I will
love him and be loyal to him;
I
will make him always victorious.
25I will
extend his kingdom
from
the Mediterranean to the Euphrates River.
26He
will say to me,
'You
are my father and my God;
you
are my protector and savior.'
27I
will make him my first-born son,
the
greatest of all kings.
28I will
always keep my promise to him,
and
my covenant with him will last forever.
29His
dynasty will be as permanent as the sky;
a
descendant of his will always be king.
30"But
if his descendants disobey my law
and
do not live according to my commands,
31if
they disregard my instructions
and
do not keep my commandments,
32then
I will punish them for their sins;
I
will make them suffer for their wrongs.
33But
I will not stop loving David
or
fail to keep my promise to him.
34I will
not break my covenant with him
or
take back even one promise I made him.
35"Once
and for all I have promised by my holy name:
I
will never lie to David.
36He
will always have descendants,
and
I will watch over his kingdom as long as the sun shines.
37It
will be as permanent as the moon,
that
faithful witness in the sky."
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