Day 170 reading

Wisdom·Psalms 99–100

¹The LORD reigns; let the nations tremble! He is enthroned above the cherubim; let the earth quake! ²Great is the LORD in Zion; He is exalted above all the peoples. ³Let them praise Your great and awesome name— He is holy! ⁴The mighty King loves justice. You have established equity; You have exercised justice and righteousness in Jacob. ⁵Exalt the LORD our God, and worship at His footstool; He is holy! ⁶Moses and Aaron were among His priests; Samuel was among those who called on His name. They called to the LORD and He answered. ⁷He spoke to them from the pillar of cloud; they kept His decrees and the statutes He gave them. ⁸O LORD our God, You answered them. You were a forgiving God to them, yet an avenger of their misdeeds. ⁹Exalt the LORD our God and worship at His holy mountain, for the LORD our God is holy.

100Make a joyful noise to the LORD, all the earth. ²Serve the LORD with gladness; come into His presence with joyful songs. ³Know that the LORD is God. It is He who made us, and we are His; we are His people, and the sheep of His pasture. ⁴Enter His gates with thanksgiving and His courts with praise; give thanks to Him and bless His name. ⁵For the LORD is good, and His loving devotion endures forever; His faithfulness continues to all generations.

New Testament·John 19:1–29

¹Then Pilate took Jesus and had Him flogged. ²The soldiers twisted together a crown of thorns, set it on His head, and dressed Him in a purple robe. ³And they went up to Him again and again, saying, “Hail, King of the Jews!” and slapping Him in the face. ⁴Once again Pilate came out and said to the Jews, “Look, I am bringing Him out to you to let you know that I find no basis for a charge against Him.” ⁵When Jesus came out wearing the crown of thorns and the purple robe, Pilate said to them, “Here is the man!” ⁶As soon as the chief priests and officers saw Him, they shouted, “Crucify Him! Crucify Him!” “You take Him and crucify Him,” Pilate replied, “for I find no basis for a charge against Him.” ⁷“We have a law,” answered the Jews, “and according to that law He must die, because He declared Himself to be the Son of God.” ⁸When Pilate heard this statement, he was even more afraid, ⁹and he went back into the Praetorium. “Where are You from?” he asked. But Jesus gave no answer. ¹⁰So Pilate said to Him, “Do You refuse to speak to me? Do You not know that I have authority to release You and authority to crucify You?” ¹¹Jesus answered, “You would have no authority over Me if it were not given to you from above. Therefore the one who handed Me over to you is guilty of greater sin.” ¹²From then on, Pilate tried to release Him, but the Jews kept shouting, “If you release this man, you are no friend of Caesar. Anyone who declares himself a king is defying Caesar.” ¹³When Pilate heard these words, he brought Jesus out and sat on the judgment seat at a place called the Stone Pavement, which in Hebrew is Gabbatha. ¹⁴It was the day of Preparation for the Passover, about the sixth hour. And Pilate said to the Jews, “Here is your King!” ¹⁵At this, they shouted, “Away with Him! Away with Him! Crucify Him!” “Shall I crucify your King?” Pilate asked. “We have no king but Caesar,” replied the chief priests. ¹⁶Then Pilate handed Jesus over to be crucified, and the soldiers took Him away. ¹⁷Carrying His own cross, He went out to The Place of the Skull, which in Hebrew is called Golgotha. ¹⁸There they crucified Him, and with Him two others, one on each side, with Jesus in the middle. ¹⁹Pilate also had a notice posted on the cross. It read: JESUS OF NAZARETH, THE KING OF THE JEWS. ²⁰Many of the Jews read this sign, because the place where Jesus was crucified was near the city, and it was written in Hebrew, Latin, and Greek. ²¹So the chief priests of the Jews said to Pilate, “Do not write, ‘The King of the Jews,’ but only that He said, ‘I am the King of the Jews.’” ²²Pilate answered, “What I have written, I have written.” ²³When the soldiers had crucified Jesus, they divided His garments into four parts, one for each soldier, with the tunic remaining. It was seamless, woven in one piece from top to bottom. ²⁴So they said to one another, “Let us not tear it. Instead, let us cast lots to see who will get it.” This was to fulfill the Scripture: “They divided My garments among them, and cast lots for My clothing.” So that is what the soldiers did. ²⁵Near the cross of Jesus stood His mother and her sister, as well as Mary the wife of Clopas and Mary Magdalene. ²⁶When Jesus saw His mother and the disciple whom He loved standing nearby, He said to His mother, “Woman, here is your son.” ²⁷Then He said to the disciple, “Here is your mother.” So from that hour, this disciple took her into his home. ²⁸After this, knowing that everything had now been accomplished, and to fulfill the Scripture, Jesus said, “I am thirsty.” ²⁹A jar of sour wine was sitting there. So they soaked a sponge in the wine, put it on a stalk of hyssop, and lifted it to His mouth.

Old Testament·1 Kings 12–13

¹Then Rehoboam went to Shechem, for all Israel had gone there to make him king. ²When Jeroboam son of Nebat heard about this, he was still in Egypt where he had fled from King Solomon and had been living ever since. ³So they sent for Jeroboam, and he and the whole assembly of Israel came to Rehoboam and said, ⁴“Your father put a heavy yoke on us. But now you should lighten the burden of your father’s service and the heavy yoke he put on us, and we will serve you.” ⁵Rehoboam answered, “Go away for three days and then return to me.” So the people departed. ⁶Then King Rehoboam consulted with the elders who had served his father Solomon during his lifetime. “How do you advise me to respond to these people?” he asked. ⁷They replied, “If you will be a servant to these people and serve them this day, and if you will respond by speaking kind words to them, they will be your servants forever.” ⁸But Rehoboam rejected the advice of the elders; instead, he consulted the young men who had grown up with him and served him. ⁹He asked them, “What message do you advise that we send back to these people who have spoken to me, saying, ‘Lighten the yoke your father put on us’?” ¹⁰The young men who had grown up with him replied, “This is how you should answer these people who said to you, ‘Your father made our yoke heavy, but you should make it lighter.’ This is what you should tell them: ‘My little finger is thicker than my father’s waist! ¹¹Whereas my father burdened you with a heavy yoke, I will add to your yoke. Whereas my father scourged you with whips, I will scourge you with scorpions.’” ¹²After three days, Jeroboam and all the people returned to Rehoboam, since the king had said, “Come back to me on the third day.” ¹³And the king answered the people harshly. He rejected the advice of the elders ¹⁴and spoke to them as the young men had advised, saying, “Whereas my father made your yoke heavy, I will add to your yoke. Whereas my father scourged you with whips, I will scourge you with scorpions.” ¹⁵So the king did not listen to the people, and indeed this turn of events was from the LORD, to fulfill the word He had spoken to Jeroboam son of Nebat through Ahijah the Shilonite. ¹⁶When all Israel saw that the king had refused to listen to them, they answered the king: “What portion do we have in David, and what inheritance in the son of Jesse? To your tents, O Israel! Look now to your own house, O David!” So the Israelites went home, ¹⁷but Rehoboam still reigned over the Israelites living in the cities of Judah. ¹⁸Then King Rehoboam sent out Adoram, who was in charge of the forced labor, but all Israel stoned him to death. And King Rehoboam mounted his chariot in haste and escaped to Jerusalem. ¹⁹So to this day Israel has been in rebellion against the house of David. ²⁰When all Israel heard that Jeroboam had returned, they summoned him to the assembly and made him king over all Israel. Only the tribe of Judah followed the house of David. ²¹And when Rehoboam arrived in Jerusalem, he mobilized the whole house of Judah and the tribe of Benjamin—180,000 chosen warriors—to fight against the house of Israel and restore the kingdom to Rehoboam son of Solomon. ²²But the word of God came to Shemaiah the man of God: ²³“Tell Rehoboam son of Solomon king of Judah, all the house of Judah and Benjamin, and the rest of the people ²⁴that this is what the LORD says: ‘You are not to go up and fight against your brothers, the Israelites. Each of you must return home, for this word is from Me.’” So they listened to the word of the LORD and turned back according to the word of the LORD. ²⁵Then Jeroboam built Shechem in the hill country of Ephraim and lived there. And from there he went out and built Penuel. ²⁶Jeroboam said in his heart, “Now the kingdom might revert to the house of David. ²⁷If these people go up to offer sacrifices in the house of the LORD at Jerusalem, their hearts will return to their lord, Rehoboam king of Judah; then they will kill me and return to Rehoboam king of Judah.” ²⁸After seeking advice, the king made two golden calves and said to the people, “Going up to Jerusalem is too much for you. Here, O Israel, are your gods, who brought you up out of the land of Egypt.” ²⁹One calf he set up in Bethel, and the other in Dan. ³⁰And this thing became a sin; the people walked as far as Dan to worship before one of the calves. ³¹Jeroboam also built shrines on the high places and appointed from every class of people priests who were not Levites. ³²And Jeroboam ordained a feast on the fifteenth day of the eighth month, like the feast that was in Judah, and he offered sacrifices on the altar; he made this offering in Bethel to sacrifice to the calves he had set up, and he installed priests in Bethel for the high places he had set up. ³³On the fifteenth day of the eighth month, a month of his own choosing, Jeroboam offered sacrifices on the altar he had set up in Bethel. So he ordained a feast for the Israelites, offered sacrifices on the altar, and burned incense.

13Suddenly, as Jeroboam was standing beside the altar to burn incense, there came a man of God from Judah to Bethel by the word of the LORD. ²And he cried out against the altar by the word of the LORD, “O altar, O altar, this is what the LORD says: ‘A son named Josiah will be born to the house of David, and upon you he will sacrifice the priests of the high places who burn incense upon you, and human bones will be burned upon you.’” ³That day the man of God gave a sign, saying, “The LORD has spoken this sign: ‘Surely the altar will be split apart, and the ashes upon it will be poured out.’” ⁴Now when King Jeroboam, who was at the altar in Bethel, heard the word that the man of God had cried out against it, he stretched out his hand and said, “Seize him!” But the hand he stretched out toward him withered, so that he could not pull it back. ⁵And the altar was split apart, and the ashes poured out, according to the sign that the man of God had given by the word of the LORD. ⁶Then the king responded to the man of God, “Intercede with the LORD your God and pray that my hand may be restored.” So the man of God interceded with the LORD, and the king’s hand was restored to him as it was before. ⁷Then the king said to the man of God, “Come home with me and refresh yourself, and I will give you a reward.” ⁸But the man of God replied, “If you were to give me half your possessions, I still would not go with you, nor would I eat bread or drink water in this place. ⁹For this is what I was commanded by the word of the LORD: ‘You must not eat bread or drink water or return by the way you came.’” ¹⁰So the man of God went another way and did not return by the way he had come to Bethel. ¹¹Now a certain old prophet was living in Bethel, and his sons came and told him all the deeds that the man of God had done that day in Bethel. They also told their father the words that the man had spoken to the king. ¹²“Which way did he go?” their father asked. And his sons showed him the way taken by the man of God, who had come from Judah. ¹³So the prophet said to his sons, “Saddle the donkey for me.” Then they saddled the donkey for him, and he mounted it ¹⁴and went after the man of God. He found him sitting under an oak tree and asked, “Are you the man of God who came from Judah?” “I am,” he replied. ¹⁵So the prophet said to the man of God, “Come home with me and eat some bread.” ¹⁶But the man replied, “I cannot return with you or eat bread or drink water with you in this place. ¹⁷For I have been told by the word of the LORD: ‘You must not eat bread or drink water there or return by the way you came.’” ¹⁸Then the prophet replied, “I too am a prophet like you, and an angel spoke to me by the word of the LORD, saying, ‘Bring him back with you to your house, so that he may eat bread and drink water.’” The old prophet was lying to him, ¹⁹but the man of God went back with him, ate bread in his house, and drank water. ²⁰While they were sitting at the table, the word of the LORD came to the prophet who had brought him back, ²¹and the prophet cried out to the man of God who had come from Judah, “This is what the LORD says: ‘Because you have defied the word of the LORD and have not kept the commandment that the LORD your God gave you, ²²but you went back and ate bread and drank water in the place where He told you not to do so, your body shall never reach the tomb of your fathers.’” ²³And after the man of God had finished eating and drinking, the old prophet who had brought him back saddled the donkey for him. ²⁴As he went on his way, a lion met him on the road and killed him, and his body was left lying in the road, with the donkey and the lion standing beside it. ²⁵And there were men passing by who saw the body lying in the road with the lion standing beside it, and they went and reported this in the city where the old prophet lived. ²⁶When the prophet who had brought him back from his journey heard this, he said, “It is the man of God who disobeyed the command of the LORD. Therefore the LORD has delivered him to the lion, and it has mauled him and killed him, according to the word that the LORD had spoken to him.” ²⁷Then the old prophet instructed his sons, “Saddle the donkey for me.” So they saddled it, ²⁸and he went and found the body lying in the road, with the donkey and the lion standing beside it. The lion had not eaten the body or mauled the donkey. ²⁹So the old prophet lifted up the body of the man of God, laid it on the donkey, and brought it back to his own city to mourn for him and bury him. ³⁰Then he laid the body in his own tomb, and they lamented over him, “Oh, my brother!” ³¹After he had buried him, the prophet said to his sons, “When I die, you must bury me in the tomb where the man of God is buried. Lay my bones beside his bones, ³²for the message that he cried out by the word of the LORD against the altar in Bethel and against all the shrines on the high places in the cities of Samaria will surely come to pass.” ³³Even after these events, Jeroboam did not repent of his evil ways, but again he appointed priests for the high places from every class of people. He ordained anyone who desired to be a priest of the high places. ³⁴And this was the sin of the house of Jeroboam that led to its extermination and destruction from the face of the earth.