1 Kings 15
1 In the eighteenth year of the reign of Jeroboam son of Nebat, Abijah became king over Judah. 2 He ruled for three years in Jerusalem. His mother was Maacah, the daughter of Abishalom. 3 He followed all the sinful practices of his father before him. He was not wholeheartedly devoted to the Lord his God, as his ancestor David had been. 4 Nevertheless for David’s sake the Lord his God maintained his dynasty in Jerusalem by giving him a son to succeed him and by protecting Jerusalem. 5 He did this because David had done what he approved and had not disregarded any of his commandments his entire lifetime, except for the incident involving Uriah the Hittite. 6 Rehoboam and Jeroboam were continually at war with each other throughout Abijah’s lifetime. 7 The rest of the events of Abijah’s reign, including all his accomplishments, are recorded in the scroll called the Annals of the Kings of Judah. Abijah and Jeroboam had been at war with each other. 8 Abijah passed away and was buried in the City of David. His son Asa replaced him as king.
9 In the twentieth year of Jeroboam’s reign over Israel, Asa became the king of Judah. 10 He ruled for forty-one years in Jerusalem. His grandmother was Maacah daughter of Abishalom. 11 Asa did what the Lord approved as his ancestor David had done. 12 He removed the male cultic prostitutes from the land and got rid of all the disgusting idols his ancestors had made. 13 He also removed Maacah his grandmother from her position as queen mother because she had made a loathsome Asherah pole. Asa cut down her loathsome pole and burned it in the Kidron Valley. 14 The high places were not eliminated, yet Asa was wholeheartedly devoted to the Lord throughout his lifetime. 15 He brought the holy items that he and his father had made into the Lord’s temple, including the silver, gold, and other articles.
16 Now Asa and King Baasha of Israel were continually at war with each other. 17 King Baasha of Israel attacked Judah and established Ramah as a military outpost to prevent anyone from leaving or entering the land of King Asa of Judah. 18 Asa took all the silver and gold that was left in the treasuries of the Lord’s temple and of the royal palace and handed it to his servants. He then told them to deliver it to Ben Hadad son of Tabrimmon, the son of Hezion, king of Syria, ruler in Damascus, along with this message: 19 “I want to make a treaty with you, like the one our fathers made. See, I have sent you silver and gold as a present. Break your treaty with King Baasha of Israel, so he will retreat from my land.” 20 Ben Hadad accepted King Asa’s offer and ordered his army commanders to attack the cities of Israel. They conquered Ijon, Dan, Abel Beth Maacah, and all the territory of Naphtali, including the region of Kinnereth. 21 When Baasha heard the news, he stopped fortifying Ramah and settled down in Tirzah. 22 King Asa ordered all the men of Judah (no exemptions were granted) to carry away the stones and wood that Baasha had used to build Ramah. King Asa used the materials to build up Geba (in Benjamin) and Mizpah.
23 The rest of the events of Asa’s reign, including all his successes and accomplishments, as well as a record of the cities he built, are recorded in the scroll called the Annals of the Kings of Judah. Yet when he was very old he developed a foot disease. 24 Asa passed away and was buried with his ancestors in the city of his ancestor David. His son Jehoshaphat replaced him as king.
25 In the second year of Asa’s reign over Judah, Jeroboam’s son Nadab became the king of Israel; he ruled Israel for two years. 26 He did evil in the sight of the Lord. He followed in his father’s footsteps and encouraged Israel to sin.
27 Baasha son of Ahijah, from the tribe of Issachar, conspired against Nadab and assassinated him in Gibbethon, which was in Philistine territory. This happened while Nadab and all the Israelite army were besieging Gibbethon. 28 Baasha killed him in the third year of Asa’s reign over Judah and replaced him as king. 29 When he became king, he executed Jeroboam’s entire family. He wiped out everyone who breathed, in keeping with the Lord’s message that he had spoken through his servant Ahijah the Shilonite. 30 This happened because of the sins which Jeroboam committed and which he made Israel commit. These sins angered the Lord God of Israel.
31 The rest of the events of Nadab’s reign, including all his accomplishments, are recorded in the scroll called the Annals of the Kings of Israel. 32 Asa and King Baasha of Israel were continually at war with each other.
33 In the third year of Asa’s reign over Judah, Baasha son of Ahijah became king over all Israel in Tirzah; he ruled for twenty-four years. 34 He did evil in the sight of the Lord; he followed in Jeroboam’s footsteps and encouraged Israel to sin.
Colossians 2
1 For I want you to know how great a struggle I have for you, and for those in Laodicea, and for those who have not met me face to face. 2 My goal is that their hearts, having been knit together in love, may be encouraged, and that they may have all the riches that assurance brings in their understanding of the knowledge of the mystery of God, namely, Christ, 3 in whom are hidden all the treasures of wisdom and knowledge. 4 I say this so that no one will deceive you through arguments that sound reasonable. 5 For though I am absent from you in body, I am present with you in spirit, rejoicing to see your morale and the firmness of your faith in Christ.
6 Therefore, just as you received Christ Jesus as Lord, continue to live your lives in him, 7 rooted and built up in him and firm in your faith just as you were taught, and overflowing with thankfulness. 8 Be careful not to allow anyone to captivate you through an empty, deceitful philosophy that is according to human traditions and the elemental spirits of the world, and not according to Christ. 9 For in him all the fullness of deity lives in bodily form, 10 and you have been filled in him, who is the head over every ruler and authority. 11 In him you also were circumcised—not, however, with a circumcision performed by human hands, but by the removal of the fleshly body, that is, through the circumcision done by Christ. 12 Having been buried with him in baptism, you also have been raised with him through your faith in the power of God who raised him from the dead. 13 And even though you were dead in your transgressions and in the uncircumcision of your flesh, he nevertheless made you alive with him, having forgiven all your transgressions. 14 He has destroyed what was against us, a certificate of indebtedness expressed in decrees opposed to us. He has taken it away by nailing it to the cross. 15 Disarming the rulers and authorities, he has made a public disgrace of them, triumphing over them by the cross.
16 Therefore do not let anyone judge you with respect to food or drink, or in the matter of a feast, new moon, or Sabbath days— 17 these are only the shadow of the things to come, but the reality is Christ! 18 Let no one who delights in false humility and the worship of angels pass judgment on you. That person goes on at great lengths about what he has supposedly seen, but he is puffed up with empty notions by his fleshly mind. 19 He has not held fast to the head from whom the whole body, supported and knit together through its ligaments and sinews, grows with a growth that is from God.
20 If you have died with Christ to the elemental spirits of the world, why do you submit to them as though you lived in the world? 21 “Do not handle! Do not taste! Do not touch!” 22 These are all destined to perish with use, founded as they are on human commands and teachings. 23 Even though they have the appearance of wisdom with their self-imposed worship and humility achieved by an unsparing treatment of the body—a wisdom with no true value—they in reality result in fleshly indulgence.
Ezekiel 45
1 “‘When you allot the land as an inheritance, you will offer an allotment to the Lord, a holy portion from the land; the length will be 8¼ miles and the width 3⅓ miles. This entire area will be holy. 2 Of this area a square 875 feet by 875 feet will be designated for the sanctuary, with 87½ feet set aside for its open space round about. 3 From this measured area you will measure a length of 8¼ miles and a width of 3⅓ miles; in it will be the sanctuary, the Most Holy Place. 4 It will be a holy portion of the land; it will be for the priests, the ministers of the sanctuary who approach the Lord to minister to him. It will be a place for their houses and a holy place for the sanctuary. 5 An area 8¼ miles in length and 3⅓ miles in width will be for the Levites, who minister at the temple, as the place for the cities in which they will live.
6 “‘Alongside the portion set apart as the holy allotment, you will allot for the city an area 1⅔ miles wide and 8¼ miles long; it will be for the whole house of Israel.
7 “‘For the prince there will be land on both sides of the holy allotment and the allotted city, on the west side and on the east side; it will be comparable in length to one of the portions, from the west border to the east border 8 of the land. This will be his property in Israel. My princes will no longer oppress my people, but the land will be allotted to the house of Israel according to their tribes.
9 “‘This is what the Sovereign Lord says: Enough, you princes of Israel! Put away violence and destruction and do what is just and right. Put an end to your evictions of my people, declares the Sovereign Lord. 10 You must use just balances, a just dry measure (an ephah), and a just liquid measure (a bath). 11 The dry and liquid measures will be the same: The bath will contain a tenth of a homer, and the ephah a tenth of a homer; the homer will be the standard measure. 12 The shekel will be twenty gerahs. Sixty shekels will be a mina for you.
13 “‘This is the offering you must offer: a sixth of an ephah from a homer of wheat, a sixth of an ephah from a homer of barley, 14 and as the prescribed portion of olive oil, one-tenth of a bath from each cor (which is ten baths or a homer, for ten baths make a homer); 15 and one sheep from each flock of 200, from the watered places of Israel, for a grain offering, burnt offering, and peace offering, to make atonement for them, declares the Sovereign Lord. 16 All the people of the land will contribute to this offering for the prince of Israel. 17 It will be the duty of the prince to provide the burnt offerings, the grain offering, and the drink offering at festivals, on the new moons and Sabbaths, at all the appointed feasts of the house of Israel; he will provide the sin offering, the grain offering, the burnt offering, and the peace offerings to make atonement for the house of Israel.
18 “‘This is what the Sovereign Lord says: In the first month, on the first day of the month, you must take an unblemished young bull and purify the sanctuary. 19 The priest will take some of the blood of the sin offering and place it on the doorpost of the temple, on the four corners of the ledge of the altar, and on the doorpost of the gate of the inner court. 20 This is what you must do on the seventh day of the month for anyone who sins inadvertently or through ignorance; so you will make atonement for the temple.
21 “‘In the first month, on the fourteenth day of the month, you will celebrate the Passover, and for the seven days of the festival bread made without yeast will be eaten. 22 On that day the prince will provide for himself and for all the people of the land a bull for a sin offering. 23 And during the seven days of the feast he will provide as a burnt offering to the Lord seven bulls and seven rams, all without blemish, on each of the seven days, and a male goat daily for a sin offering. 24 He will provide as a grain offering an ephah for each bull, an ephah for each ram, and a gallon of olive oil for each ephah of grain. 25 In the seventh month, on the fifteenth day of the month, at the feast, he will make the same provisions for the sin offering, burnt offering, and grain offering, and for the olive oil, for the seven days.
Psalms 99-101
1 The Lord reigns!
The nations tremble.
He sits enthroned above the cherubim;
the earth shakes.
2 The Lord is elevated in Zion;
he is exalted over all the nations.
3 Let them praise your great and awesome name.
He is holy!
4 The king is strong;
he loves justice.
You ensure that legal decisions will be made fairly;
you promote justice and equity in Jacob.
5 Praise the Lord our God.
Worship before his footstool.
He is holy!
6 Moses and Aaron were among his priests;
Samuel was one of those who prayed to him.
They prayed to the Lord and he answered them.
7 He spoke to them from a pillar of cloud;
they obeyed his regulations and the ordinance he gave them.
8 O Lord our God, you answered them.
They found you to be a forgiving God,
but also one who punished their sinful deeds.
9 Praise the Lord our God!
Worship on his holy hill,
for the Lord our God is holy.
1 Shout out praises to the Lord, all the earth!
2 Worship the Lord with joy.
Enter his presence with joyful singing.
3 Acknowledge that the Lord is God.
He made us and we belong to him,
we are his people, the sheep of his pasture.
4 Enter his gates with thanksgiving,
and his courts with praise.
Give him thanks.
Praise his name.
5 For the Lord is good.
His loyal love endures,
and he is faithful through all generations.
1 I will sing about loyalty and justice.
To you, O Lord, I will sing praises.
2 I will walk in the way of integrity.
When will you come to me?
I will conduct my business with integrity in the midst of my palace.
3 I will not even consider doing what is dishonest.
I hate doing evil;
I will have no part of it.
4 I will have nothing to do with a perverse person;
I will not permit evil.
5 I will destroy anyone who slanders his neighbor in secret.
I will not tolerate anyone who has a haughty demeanor and an arrogant attitude.
6 I will favor the honest people of the land,
and allow them to live with me.
Those who walk in the way of integrity will attend me.
7 Deceitful people will not live in my palace.
Liars will not be welcome in my presence.
8 Each morning I will destroy all the wicked people in the land,
and remove all evildoers from the city of the Lord.
