1 Kings 14
1 At that time Jeroboam’s son Abijah became sick. 2 Jeroboam told his wife, “Disguise yourself so that people cannot recognize you are Jeroboam’s wife. Then go to Shiloh; Ahijah the prophet, who told me I would rule over this nation, lives there. 3 Take ten loaves of bread, some small cakes, and a container of honey and visit him. He will tell you what will happen to the boy.”
4 Jeroboam’s wife did as she was told. She went to Shiloh and visited Ahijah. Now Ahijah could not see; he had lost his eyesight in his old age. 5 But the Lord had told Ahijah, “Look, Jeroboam’s wife is coming to find out from you what will happen to her son, for he is sick. Tell her such and such. When she comes, she will be in a disguise.” 6 When Ahijah heard the sound of her footsteps as she came through the door, he said, “Come on in, wife of Jeroboam! Why are you pretending to be someone else? I have been commissioned to give you bad news. 7 Go, tell Jeroboam, ‘This is what the Lord God of Israel has said: “I raised you up from among the people and made you ruler over my people Israel. 8 I tore the kingdom away from the Davidic dynasty and gave it to you. But you are not like my servant David, who kept my commandments and followed me wholeheartedly by doing only what I approve. 9 You have sinned more than all who came before you. You went and angered me by making other gods, formed out of metal; you have completely disregarded me. 10 So I am ready to bring disaster on the dynasty of Jeroboam. I will cut off every last male belonging to Jeroboam in Israel, including even the weak and incapacitated. I will burn up the dynasty of Jeroboam, just as one burns manure until it is completely consumed. 11 Dogs will eat the members of your family who die in the city, and the birds of the sky will eat the ones who die in the country.”’ Indeed, the Lord has announced it!
12 “As for you, get up and go home. When you set foot in the city, the boy will die. 13 All Israel will mourn him and bury him. He is the only one in Jeroboam’s family who will receive a decent burial, for he is the only one in whom the Lord God of Israel found anything good. 14 The Lord will raise up a king over Israel who will cut off Jeroboam’s dynasty. It is ready to happen! 15 The Lord will attack Israel, making it like a reed that sways in the water. He will remove Israel from this good land he gave to their ancestors and scatter them beyond the Euphrates River, because they angered the Lord by making Asherah poles. 16 He will hand Israel over to their enemies because of the sins which Jeroboam committed and which he made Israel commit.”
17 So Jeroboam’s wife got up and went back to Tirzah. As she crossed the threshold of the house, the boy died. 18 All Israel buried him and mourned for him, in keeping with the Lord’s message that he had spoken through his servant, the prophet Ahijah.
19 The rest of the events of Jeroboam’s reign, including the details of his battles and rule, are recorded in the scroll called the Annals of the Kings of Israel. 20 Jeroboam ruled for twenty-two years; then he passed away. His son Nadab replaced him as king.
21 Now Rehoboam son of Solomon ruled in Judah. He was forty-one years old when he became king and he ruled for seventeen years in Jerusalem, the city the Lord chose from all the tribes of Israel to be his home. His mother was an Ammonite woman named Naamah.
22 Judah did evil in the sight of the Lord. They made him more jealous by their sins than their ancestors had done. 23 They even built for themselves high places, sacred pillars, and Asherah poles on every high hill and under every green tree. 24 There were also male cultic prostitutes in the land. They committed the same horrible sins as the nations that the Lord had driven out from before the Israelites.
25 In King Rehoboam’s fifth year, King Shishak of Egypt attacked Jerusalem. 26 He took away the treasures of the Lord’s temple and of the royal palace; he took everything, including all the golden shields that Solomon had made. 27 King Rehoboam made bronze shields to replace them and assigned them to the officers of the royal guard who protected the entrance to the royal palace. 28 Whenever the king visited the Lord’s temple, the royal guard carried them and then brought them back to the guardroom.
29 The rest of the events of Rehoboam’s reign, including his accomplishments, are recorded in the scroll called the Annals of the Kings of Judah. 30 Rehoboam and Jeroboam were continually at war with each other. 31 Rehoboam passed away and was buried with his ancestors in the City of David. His mother was an Ammonite named Naamah. His son Abijah replaced him as king.
Colossians 1
1 From Paul, an apostle of Christ Jesus by the will of God, and Timothy our brother, 2 to the saints, the faithful brothers and sisters in Christ, at Colossae. Grace and peace to you from God our Father!
3 We always give thanks to God, the Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, when we pray for you, 4 since we heard about your faith in Christ Jesus and the love that you have for all the saints. 5 Your faith and love have arisen from the hope laid up for you in heaven, which you have heard about in the message of truth, the gospel 6 that has come to you. Just as in the entire world this gospel is bearing fruit and growing, so it has also been bearing fruit and growing among you from the first day you heard it and understood the grace of God in truth. 7 You learned the gospel from Epaphras, our dear fellow slave—a faithful minister of Christ on our behalf— 8 who also told us of your love in the Spirit.
9 For this reason we also, from the day we heard about you, have not ceased praying for you and asking God to fill you with the knowledge of his will in all spiritual wisdom and understanding, 10 so that you may live worthily of the Lord and please him in all respects—bearing fruit in every good deed, growing in the knowledge of God, 11 being strengthened with all power according to his glorious might for the display of all patience and steadfastness, joyfully 12 giving thanks to the Father who has qualified you to share in the saints’ inheritance in the light. 13 He delivered us from the power of darkness and transferred us to the kingdom of the Son he loves, 14 in whom we have redemption, the forgiveness of sins.
15 He is the image of the invisible God, the firstborn over all creation,
16 for all things in heaven and on earth were created in him—all things, whether visible or invisible, whether thrones or dominions, whether principalities or powers—all things were created through him and for him.
17 He himself is before all things and all things are held together in him.
18 He is the head of the body, the church, as well as the beginning, the firstborn from the dead, so that he himself may become first in all things.
19 For God was pleased to have all his fullness dwell in the Son
20 and through him to reconcile all things to himself by making peace through the blood of his cross—through him, whether things on earth or things in heaven.
21 And you were at one time strangers and enemies in your minds as expressed through your evil deeds, 22 but now he has reconciled you by his physical body through death to present you holy, without blemish, and blameless before him— 23 if indeed you remain in the faith, established and firm, without shifting from the hope of the gospel that you heard. This gospel has also been preached in all creation under heaven, and I, Paul, have become its servant.
24 Now I rejoice in my sufferings for you, and I fill up in my physical body—for the sake of his body, the church—what is lacking in the sufferings of Christ. 25 I became a servant of the church according to the stewardship from God—given to me for you—in order to complete the word of God, 26 that is, the mystery that has been kept hidden from ages and generations, but has now been revealed to his saints. 27 God wanted to make known to them the glorious riches of this mystery among the Gentiles, which is Christ in you, the hope of glory. 28 We proclaim him by instructing and teaching all people with all wisdom so that we may present every person mature in Christ. 29 Toward this goal I also labor, struggling according to his power that powerfully works in me.
Ezekiel 44
1 Then he brought me back by way of the outer gate of the sanctuary that faces east, but it was shut. 2 The Lord said to me: “This gate will be shut; it will not be opened, and no one will enter by it. For the Lord, the God of Israel, has entered by it; therefore it will remain shut. 3 Only the prince may sit in it to eat a sacrificial meal before the Lord; he will enter by way of the porch of the gate and will go out by the same way.”
4 Then he brought me by way of the north gate to the front of the temple. As I watched, I noticed the glory of the Lord filling the Lord’s temple, and I threw myself face down. 5 The Lord said to me: “Son of man, pay attention, watch closely, and listen carefully to everything I tell you concerning all the statutes of the Lord’s house and all its laws. Pay attention to the entrances to the temple with all the exits of the sanctuary. 6 Say to the rebellious, to the house of Israel, ‘This is what the Sovereign Lord says: Enough of all your abominable practices, O house of Israel! 7 When you bring foreigners, those uncircumcised in heart and in flesh, into my sanctuary, you desecrate it—even my house—when you offer my food, the fat and the blood. You have broken my covenant by all your abominable practices. 8 You have not kept charge of my holy things, but you have assigned foreigners to keep charge of my sanctuary for you. 9 This is what the Sovereign Lord says: No foreigner who is uncircumcised in heart and flesh among all the foreigners who are among the people of Israel will enter into my sanctuary.
10 “‘But the Levites who went far from me, straying off from me after their idols when Israel went astray, will be responsible for their sin. 11 Yet they will be ministers in my sanctuary, having oversight at the gates of the temple, and serving the temple. They will slaughter the burnt offerings and the sacrifices for the people, and they will stand before them to minister to them. 12 Because they used to minister to them before their idols and became a sinful obstacle to the house of Israel, consequently I have made a vow concerning them, declares the Sovereign Lord, that they will be responsible for their sin. 13 They will not come near me to serve me as priest, nor will they come near any of my holy things, the things that are most sacred. They will bear the shame of the abominable deeds they have committed. 14 Yet I will appoint them to keep charge of the temple, all its service, and all that will be done in it.
15 “‘But the Levitical priests, the descendants of Zadok who kept the charge of my sanctuary when the people of Israel went astray from me, will approach me to minister to me; they will stand before me to offer me the fat and the blood, declares the Sovereign Lord. 16 They will enter my sanctuary and approach my table to minister to me; they will keep my charge.
17 “‘When they enter the gates of the inner court, they must wear linen garments; they must not have any wool on them when they minister in the inner gates of the court and in the temple. 18 Linen turbans will be on their heads and linen undergarments will be around their waists; they must not bind themselves with anything that causes sweat. 19 When they go out to the outer court to the people, they must remove the garments they were ministering in and place them in the holy chambers; they must put on other garments so that they will not transmit holiness to the people with their garments.
20 “‘They must not shave their heads nor let their hair grow long; they must only trim their heads. 21 No priest may drink wine when he enters the inner court. 22 They must not marry a widow or a divorcee, but they may marry a virgin from the house of Israel or a widow who is a priest’s widow. 23 Moreover, they will teach my people the difference between the holy and the common and show them how to distinguish between the ceremonially unclean and the clean.
24 “‘In a controversy they will act as judges; they will judge according to my ordinances. They will keep my laws and my statutes regarding all my appointed festivals and will observe my Sabbaths.
25 “‘They must not come near a dead person or they will be defiled; however, for father, mother, son, daughter, brother, or unmarried sister, they may defile themselves. 26 After a priest has become ceremonially clean, they must count off a period of seven days for him. 27 On the day he enters the sanctuary into the inner court to serve in the sanctuary, he must offer his sin offering, declares the Sovereign Lord.
28 “‘This will be their inheritance: I am their inheritance, and you must give them no property in Israel; I am their property. 29 They may eat the grain offering, the sin offering, and the guilt offering, and every devoted thing in Israel will be theirs. 30 The first of all the firstfruits and all contributions of any kind will be for the priests; you will also give to the priest the first portion of your dough, so that a blessing may rest on your house. 31 The priests will not eat any bird or animal that has died a natural death or was torn to pieces by a wild animal.
Psalms 97-98
1 The Lord reigns.
Let the earth be happy.
Let the many coastlands rejoice.
2 Dark clouds surround him;
equity and justice are the foundation of his throne.
3 Fire goes before him;
on every side it burns up his enemies.
4 His lightning bolts light up the world;
the earth sees and trembles.
5 The mountains melt like wax before the Lord,
before the Lord of the whole earth.
6 The sky declares his justice,
and all the nations see his splendor.
7 All who worship idols are ashamed,
those who boast about worthless idols.
All the gods bow down before him.
8 Zion hears and rejoices,
the towns of Judah are happy,
because of your judgments, O Lord.
9 For you, O Lord, are the Most High over the whole earth;
you are elevated high above all gods.
10 You who love the Lord, hate evil!
He protects the lives of his faithful followers;
he delivers them from the power of the wicked.
11 The godly bask in the light;
the morally upright experience joy.
12 You godly ones, rejoice in the Lord.
Give thanks to his holy name.
1 Sing to the Lord a new song,
for he performs amazing deeds.
His right hand and his mighty arm
accomplish deliverance.
2 The Lord demonstrates his power to deliver;
in the sight of the nations he reveals his justice.
3 He remains loyal and faithful to the family of Israel.
All the ends of the earth see our God deliver us.
4 Shout out praises to the Lord, all the earth.
Break out in a joyful shout and sing!
5 Sing to the Lord accompanied by a harp,
accompanied by a harp and the sound of music.
6 With trumpets and the blaring of the ram’s horn,
shout out praises before the king, the Lord.
7 Let the sea and everything in it shout,
along with the world and those who live in it.
8 Let the rivers clap their hands!
Let the mountains sing in unison
9 before the Lord.
For he comes to judge the earth.
He judges the world fairly,
and the nations in a just manner.
