Encouraging others Spiritually and Physically: Friday, March 16, 2012

6:30 am Prayer
8:00 am Devotion /Song
Holy Thou Art God

June 15 Reading -1 King 14:1-15:24; Acts 10:1-23; Psalm 133:1-3; Proverbs 17:7-8

AM - Abs, Legs/Back

1 Kings 14-15:24

New Living Translation (NLT)

1 Kings 14

Ahijah’s Prophecy against Jeroboam

¹ At that time Jeroboam’s son Abijah became very sick. ² So Jeroboam told his wife, “Disguise yourself so that no one will recognize you as my wife. Then go to the prophet Ahijah at Shiloh—the man who told me I would become king. ³ Take him a gift of ten loaves of bread, some cakes, and a jar of honey, and ask him what will happen to the boy.” ⁴ So Jeroboam’s wife went to Ahijah’s home at Shiloh. He was an old man now and could no longer see. ⁵ But the LORD had told Ahijah, “Jeroboam’s wife will come here, pretending to be someone else. She will ask you about her son, for he is very sick. Give her the answer I give you.”
⁶ So when Ahijah heard her footsteps at the door, he called out, “Come in, wife of Jeroboam! Why are you pretending to be someone else?” Then he told her, “I have bad news for you. ⁷ Give your husband, Jeroboam, this message from the LORD, the God of Israel: ‘I promoted you from the ranks of the common people and made you ruler over my people Israel. ⁸ I ripped the kingdom away from the family of David and gave it to you. But you have not been like my servant David, who obeyed my commands and followed me with all his heart and always did whatever I wanted. ⁹ You have done more evil than all who lived before you. You have made other gods for yourself and have made me furious with your gold calves. And since you have turned your back on me, ¹⁰ I will bring disaster on your dynasty and will destroy every one of your male descendants, slave and free alike, anywhere in Israel. I will burn up your royal dynasty as one burns up trash until it is all gone. ¹¹ The members of Jeroboam’s family who die in the city will be eaten by dogs, and those who die in the field will be eaten by vultures. I, the LORD, have spoken.’”
¹² Then Ahijah said to Jeroboam’s wife, “Go on home, and when you enter the city, the child will die. ¹³ All Israel will mourn for him and bury him. He is the only member of your family who will have a proper burial, for this child is the only good thing that the LORD, the God of Israel, sees in the entire family of Jeroboam.
¹⁴ “In addition, the LORD will raise up a king over Israel who will destroy the family of Jeroboam. This will happen today, even now! ¹⁵ Then the LORD will shake Israel like a reed whipped about in a stream. He will uproot the people of Israel from this good land that he gave their ancestors and will scatter them beyond the Euphrates River,^[a] for they have angered the LORD with the Asherah poles they have set up for worship. ¹⁶ He will abandon Israel because Jeroboam sinned and made Israel sin along with him.”
¹⁷ So Jeroboam’s wife returned to Tirzah, and the child died just as she walked through the door of her home. ¹⁸ And all Israel buried him and mourned for him, as the LORD had promised through the prophet Ahijah.
¹⁹ The rest of the events in Jeroboam’s reign, including all his wars and how he ruled, are recorded in The Book of the History of the Kings of Israel. ²⁰ Jeroboam reigned in Israel twenty-two years. When Jeroboam died, his son Nadab became the next king.

Rehoboam Rules in Judah

²¹ Meanwhile, Rehoboam son of Solomon was king in Judah. He was forty-one years old when he became king, and he reigned seventeen years in Jerusalem, the city the LORD had chosen from among all the tribes of Israel as the place to honor his name. Rehoboam’s mother was Naamah, an Ammonite woman. ²² During Rehoboam’s reign, the people of Judah did what was evil in the LORD’s sight, provoking his anger with their sin, for it was even worse than that of their ancestors. ²³ For they also built for themselves pagan shrines and set up sacred pillars and Asherah poles on every high hill and under every green tree. ²⁴ There were even male and female shrine prostitutes throughout the land. The people imitated the detestable practices of the pagan nations the LORD had driven from the land ahead of the Israelites.
²⁵ In the fifth year of King Rehoboam’s reign, King Shishak of Egypt came up and attacked Jerusalem. ²⁶ He ransacked the treasuries of the LORD’s Temple and the royal palace; he stole everything, including all the gold shields Solomon had made. ²⁷ King Rehoboam later replaced them with bronze shields as substitutes, and he entrusted them to the care of the commanders of the guard who protected the entrance to the royal palace. ²⁸ Whenever the king went to the Temple of the LORD, the guards would also take the shields and then return them to the guardroom.
²⁹ The rest of the events in Rehoboam’s reign and everything he did are recorded in The Book of the History of the Kings of Judah. ³⁰ There was constant war between Rehoboam and Jeroboam. ³¹ When Rehoboam died, he was buried among his ancestors in the City of David. His mother was Naamah, an Ammonite woman. Then his son Abijam^[b] became the next king.

1 Kings 15

Abijam Rules in Judah

¹ Abijam^[c] began to rule over Judah in the eighteenth year of Jeroboam’s reign in Israel. ² He reigned in Jerusalem three years. His mother was Maacah, the daughter of Absalom.^[d] ³ He committed the same sins as his father before him, and he was not faithful to the LORD his God, as his ancestor David had been. ⁴ But for David’s sake, the LORD his God allowed his descendants to continue ruling, shining like a lamp, and he gave Abijam a son to rule after him in Jerusalem. ⁵ For David had done what was pleasing in the LORD’s sight and had obeyed the LORD’s commands throughout his life, except in the affair concerning Uriah the Hittite.
⁶ There was war between Abijam and Jeroboam^[e] throughout Abijam’s reign. ⁷ The rest of the events in Abijam’s reign and everything he did are recorded in The Book of the History of the Kings of Judah. There was constant war between Abijam and Jeroboam. ⁸ When Abijam died, he was buried in the City of David. Then his son Asa became the next king.

Asa Rules in Judah

⁹ Asa began to rule over Judah in the twentieth year of Jeroboam’s reign in Israel. ¹⁰ He reigned in Jerusalem forty-one years. His grandmother^[f] was Maacah, the daughter of Absalom. ¹¹ Asa did what was pleasing in the LORD’s sight, as his ancestor David had done. ¹² He banished the male and female shrine prostitutes from the land and got rid of all the idols^[g] his ancestors had made. ¹³ He even deposed his grandmother Maacah from her position as queen mother because she had made an obscene Asherah pole. He cut down her obscene pole and burned it in the Kidron Valley. ¹⁴ Although the pagan shrines were not removed, Asa’s heart remained completely faithful to the LORD throughout his life. ¹⁵ He brought into the Temple of the LORD the silver and gold and the various items that he and his father had dedicated.
¹⁶ There was constant war between King Asa of Judah and King Baasha of Israel. ¹⁷ King Baasha of Israel invaded Judah and fortified Ramah in order to prevent anyone from entering or leaving King Asa’s territory in Judah.
¹⁸ Asa responded by removing all the silver and gold that was left in the treasuries of the Temple of the LORD and the royal palace. He sent it with some of his officials to Ben-hadad son of Tabrimmon, son of Hezion, the king of Aram, who was ruling in Damascus, along with this message:
¹⁹ “Let there be a treaty^[h] between you and me like the one between your father and my father. See, I am sending you a gift of silver and gold. Break your treaty with King Baasha of Israel so that he will leave me alone.”
²⁰ Ben-hadad agreed to King Asa’s request and sent the commanders of his army to attack the towns of Israel. They conquered the towns of Ijon, Dan, Abel-beth-maacah, and all Kinnereth, and all the land of Naphtali. ²¹ As soon as Baasha of Israel heard what was happening, he abandoned his project of fortifying Ramah and withdrew to Tirzah. ²² Then King Asa sent an order throughout Judah, requiring that everyone, without exception, help to carry away the building stones and timbers that Baasha had been using to fortify Ramah. Asa used these materials to fortify the town of Geba in Benjamin and the town of Mizpah.
²³ The rest of the events in Asa’s reign—the extent of his power, everything he did, and the names of the cities he built—are recorded in The Book of the History of the Kings of Judah. In his old age his feet became diseased. ²⁴ When Asa died, he was buried with his ancestors in the City of David.
Then Jehoshaphat, Asa’s son, became the next king.

Footnotes:

1 Kings 14:15 Hebrew the river.
1 Kings 14:31 Also known as Abijah.
1 Kings 15:1 Also known as Abijah.
1 Kings 15:2 Hebrew Abishalom (also in 15:10), a variant spelling of Absalom; compare 2 Chr 11:20.
1 Kings 15:6 As in a few Hebrew and Greek manuscripts; most Hebrew manuscripts read between Rehoboam and Jeroboam.
1 Kings 15:10 Or The queen mother; Hebrew reads His mother (also in 15:13); compare 15:2.
1 Kings 15:12 The Hebrew term (literally round things) probably alludes to dung.
1 Kings 15:19 As in Greek version; Hebrew reads There is a treaty.

Show Commentary

New Living Translation (NLT)Holy Bible. New Living Translation copyright© 1996, 2004, 2007 by Tyndale House Foundation. Used by permission of Tyndale House Publishers Inc., Carol Stream, Illinois 60188. All rights reserved.

1 Kings 14-15:24X

BackX

Add parallel

Show resources

Show Commentary

Acts 10:1-23

New Living Translation (NLT)

Acts 10

Cornelius Calls for Peter

¹ In Caesarea there lived a Roman army officer^[a] named Cornelius, who was a captain of the Italian Regiment. ² He was a devout, God-fearing man, as was everyone in his household. He gave generously to the poor and prayed regularly to God. ³ One afternoon about three o’clock, he had a vision in which he saw an angel of God coming toward him. “Cornelius!” the angel said. ⁴ Cornelius stared at him in terror. “What is it, sir?” he asked the angel.
And the angel replied, “Your prayers and gifts to the poor have been received by God as an offering! ⁵ Now send some men to Joppa, and summon a man named Simon Peter. ⁶ He is staying with Simon, a tanner who lives near the seashore.”
⁷ As soon as the angel was gone, Cornelius called two of his household servants and a devout soldier, one of his personal attendants. ⁸ He told them what had happened and sent them off to Joppa.

Peter Visits Cornelius

⁹ The next day as Cornelius’s messengers were nearing the town, Peter went up on the flat roof to pray. It was about noon, ¹⁰ and he was hungry. But while a meal was being prepared, he fell into a trance. ¹¹ He saw the sky open, and something like a large sheet was let down by its four corners. ¹² In the sheet were all sorts of animals, reptiles, and birds. ¹³ Then a voice said to him, “Get up, Peter; kill and eat them.” ¹⁴ “No, Lord,” Peter declared. “I have never eaten anything that our Jewish laws have declared impure and unclean.^[b]”
¹⁵ But the voice spoke again: “Do not call something unclean if God has made it clean.” ¹⁶ The same vision was repeated three times. Then the sheet was suddenly pulled up to heaven.
¹⁷ Peter was very perplexed. What could the vision mean? Just then the men sent by Cornelius found Simon’s house. Standing outside the gate, ¹⁸ they asked if a man named Simon Peter was staying there.
¹⁹ Meanwhile, as Peter was puzzling over the vision, the Holy Spirit said to him, “Three men have come looking for you. ²⁰ Get up, go downstairs, and go with them without hesitation. Don’t worry, for I have sent them.”
²¹ So Peter went down and said, “I’m the man you are looking for. Why have you come?”
²² They said, “We were sent by Cornelius, a Roman officer. He is a devout and God-fearing man, well respected by all the Jews. A holy angel instructed him to summon you to his house so that he can hear your message.” ²³ So Peter invited the men to stay for the night. The next day he went with them, accompanied by some of the brothers from Joppa.

Footnotes:

Acts 10:1 Greek a centurion; similarly in 10:22.
Acts 10:14 Greek anything common and unclean.

Acts 10:1-23X

Add parallel

Psalm 133:1-3

New Living Translation (NLT)

Psalm 133

    A song for pilgrims ascending to Jerusalem. A psalm of David. ¹ How wonderful and pleasant it is
      when brothers live together in harmony!
² For harmony is as precious as the anointing oil
      that was poured over Aaron’s head,
      that ran down his beard
      and onto the border of his robe.
³ Harmony is as refreshing as the dew from Mount Hermon
      that falls on the mountains of Zion.
   And there the LORD has pronounced his blessing,
      even life everlasting.