Revival, Reform, and the Peril of Pride

1. In the seventh year, Jehoiada strengthened himself, and took the captains of hundreds, Azariah the son of Jeroham, Ishmael the son of Jehohanan, Azariah the son of Obed, Maaseiah the son of Adaiah, and Elishaphat the son of Zichri, into a covenant with him. 2. They went around in Judah, and gathered the Levites out of all the cities of Judah, and the heads of fathers’ households of Israel, and they came to Jerusalem. 3. All the assembly made a covenant with the king in God’s house. He said to them, “Behold, the king’s son must reign, as Yahweh has spoken concerning the sons of David. 4. This is the thing that you must do. A third part of you, who come in on the Sabbath, of the priests and of the Levites, shall be gatekeepers of the thresholds. 5. A third part shall be at the king’s house; and a third part at the gate of the foundation. All the people will be in the courts of Yahweh’s house. 6. But let no one come into Yahweh’s house, except the priests and those who minister of the Levites. They shall come in, for they are holy, but all the people shall follow Yahweh’s instructions. 7. The Levites shall surround the king, every man with his weapons in his hand. Whoever comes into the house, let him be slain. Be with the king when he comes in, and when he goes out.” 8. So the Levites and all Judah did according to all that Jehoiada the priest commanded: and they each took his men, those who were to come in on the Sabbath; with those who were to go out on the Sabbath; for Jehoiada the priest didn’t dismiss the shift. 9. Jehoiada the priest delivered to the captains of hundreds the spears, and bucklers, and shields, that had been king David’s, which were in God’s house. 10. He set all the people, every man with his weapon in his hand, from the right side of the house to the left side of the house, near the altar and the house, around the king. 11. Then they brought out the king’s son, and put the crown on him, and gave him the testimony, and made him king. Jehoiada and his sons anointed him, and they said, “Long live the king!” 12. When Athaliah heard the noise of the people running and praising the king, she came to the people into Yahweh’s house. 13. Then she looked, and, behold, the king stood by his pillar at the entrance, and the captains and the trumpets by the king. All the people of the land rejoiced, and blew trumpets. The singers also played musical instruments, and led the singing of praise. Then Athaliah tore her clothes, and said, “Treason! treason!” 14. Jehoiada the priest brought out the captains of hundreds who were set over the army, and said to them, “Bring her out between the ranks; and whoever follows her, let him be slain with the sword.” For the priest said, “Don’t kill her in Yahweh’s house.” 15. So they made way for her. She went to the entrance of the horse gate to the king’s house; and they killed her there. 16. Jehoiada made a covenant between himself, all the people, and the king, that they should be Yahweh’s people. 17. All the people went to the house of Baal, broke it down, broke his altars and his images in pieces, and killed Mattan the priest of Baal before the altars. 18. Jehoiada appointed the officers of Yahweh’s house under the hand of the priests the Levites, whom David had distributed in Yahweh’s house, to offer the burnt offerings of Yahweh, as it is written in the law of Moses, with rejoicing and with singing, as David had ordered. 19. He set the gatekeepers at the gates of Yahweh’s house, that no one who was unclean in anything should enter in. 20. He took the captains of hundreds, the nobles, the governors of the people, and all the people of the land, and brought the king down from Yahweh’s house. They came through the upper gate to the king’s house, and set the king on the throne of the kingdom. 21. So all the people of the land rejoiced, and the city was quiet. They had slain Athaliah with the sword. 1. Joash was seven years old when he began to reign, and he reigned forty years in Jerusalem. His mother’s name was Zibiah, of Beersheba. 2. Joash did that which was right in Yahweh’s eyes all the days of Jehoiada the priest. 3. Jehoiada took for him two wives, and he became the father of sons and daughters. 4. After this, Joash intended to restore Yahweh’s house. 5. He gathered together the priests and the Levites, and said to them, “Go out to the cities of Judah, and gather money to repair the house of your God from all Israel from year to year. See that you expedite this matter.” However the Levites didn’t do it right away. 6. The king called for Jehoiada the chief, and said to him, “Why haven’t you required of the Levites to bring in the tax of Moses the servant of Yahweh, and of the assembly of Israel, out of Judah and out of Jerusalem, for the Tent of the Testimony?” 7. For the sons of Athaliah, that wicked woman, had broken up God’s house; and they also gave all the dedicated things of Yahweh’s house to the Baals. 8. So the king commanded, and they made a chest, and set it outside at the gate of Yahweh’s house. 9. They made a proclamation through Judah and Jerusalem, to bring in for Yahweh the tax that Moses the servant of God laid on Israel in the wilderness. 10. All the princes and all the people rejoiced, and brought in, and cast into the chest, until they had filled it. 11. Whenever the chest was brought to the king’s officers by the hand of the Levites, and when they saw that there was much money, the king’s scribe and the chief priest’s officer came and emptied the chest, and took it, and carried it to its place again. Thus they did day by day, and gathered money in abundance. 12. The king and Jehoiada gave it to those who did the work of the service of Yahweh’s house. They hired masons and carpenters to restore Yahweh’s house, and also those who worked iron and brass to repair Yahweh’s house. 13. So the workmen worked, and the work of repairing went forward in their hands. They set up God’s house as it was designed, and strengthened it. 14. When they had finished, they brought the rest of the money before the king and Jehoiada, from which were made vessels for Yahweh’s house, even vessels with which to minister and to offer, including spoons and vessels of gold and silver. They offered burnt offerings in Yahweh’s house continually all the days of Jehoiada. 15. But Jehoiada grew old and was full of days, and he died. He was one hundred thirty years old when he died. 16. They buried him in David’s city among the kings, because he had done good in Israel, and toward God and his house. 17. Now after the death of Jehoiada, the princes of Judah came, and bowed down to the king. Then the king listened to them. 18. They abandoned the house of Yahweh, the God of their fathers, and served the Asherah poles and the idols, so wrath came on Judah and Jerusalem for this their guiltiness. 19. Yet he sent prophets to them, to bring them again to Yahweh, and they testified against them; but they would not listen. 20. The Spirit of God came on Zechariah the son of Jehoiada the priest; and he stood above the people, and said to them, “Thus says God, ‘Why do you disobey Yahweh’s commandments, so that you can’t prosper? Because you have forsaken Yahweh, he has also forsaken you.’” 21. They conspired against him, and stoned him with stones at the commandment of the king in the court of Yahweh’s house. 22. Thus Joash the king didn’t remember the kindness which Jehoiada his father had done to him, but killed his son. When he died, he said, “May Yahweh look at it, and repay it.” 23. At the end of the year, the army of the Syrians came up against him: and they came to Judah and Jerusalem, and destroyed all the princes of the people from among the people, and sent all their plunder to the king of Damascus. 24. For the army of the Syrians came with a small company of men; and Yahweh delivered a very great army into their hand, because they had forsaken Yahweh, the God of their fathers. So they executed judgment on Joash. 25. When they had departed from him (for they left him very sick), his own servants conspired against him for the blood of the sons of Jehoiada the priest, and killed him on his bed, and he died. They buried him in David’s city, but they didn’t bury him in the tombs of the kings. 26. These are those who conspired against him: Zabad the son of Shimeath the Ammonitess and Jehozabad the son of Shimrith the Moabitess. 27. Now concerning his sons, the greatness of the burdens laid on him, and the rebuilding of God’s house, behold, they are written in the commentary of the book of the kings. Amaziah his son reigned in his place. 1. Amaziah was twenty-five years old when he began to reign, and he reigned twenty-nine years in Jerusalem. His mother’s name was Jehoaddan, of Jerusalem. 2. He did that which was right in Yahweh’s eyes, but not with a perfect heart. 3. Now when the kingdom was established to him, he killed his servants who had killed his father the king. 4. But he didn’t put their children to death, but did according to that which is written in the law in the book of Moses, as Yahweh commanded, saying, “The fathers shall not die for the children, neither shall the children die for the fathers; but every man shall die for his own sin.” 5. Moreover Amaziah gathered Judah together, and ordered them according to their fathers’ houses, under captains of thousands and captains of hundreds, even all Judah and Benjamin. He counted them from twenty years old and upward, and found that there were three hundred thousand chosen men, able to go out to war, who could handle spear and shield. 6. He also hired one hundred thousand mighty men of valor out of Israel for one hundred talents of silver. 7. A man of God came to him, saying, “O king, don’t let the army of Israel go with you, for Yahweh is not with Israel, with all the children of Ephraim. 8. But if you will go, take action, and be strong for the battle. God will overthrow you before the enemy; for God has power to help, and to overthrow.” 9. Amaziah said to the man of God, “But what shall we do for the hundred talents which I have given to the army of Israel?” The man of God answered, “Yahweh is able to give you much more than this.” 10. Then Amaziah separated them, the army that had come to him out of Ephraim, to go home again. Therefore their anger was greatly kindled against Judah, and they returned home in fierce anger. 11. Amaziah took courage, and led his people out, and went to the Valley of Salt, and struck ten thousand of the children of Seir. 12. The children of Judah carried away ten thousand alive, and brought them to the top of the rock, and threw them down from the top of the rock, so that they all were broken in pieces. 13. But the men of the army whom Amaziah sent back, that they should not go with him to battle, fell on the cities of Judah, from Samaria even to Beth Horon, and struck of them three thousand, and took much plunder. 14. Now after Amaziah had come from the slaughter of the Edomites, he brought the gods of the children of Seir, and set them up to be his gods, and bowed down himself before them, and burned incense to them. 15. Therefore Yahweh’s anger burned against Amaziah, and he sent to him a prophet, who said to him, “Why have you sought after the gods of the people, which have not delivered their own people out of your hand?” 16. As he talked with him, the king said to him, “Have we made you one of the king’s counselors? Stop! Why should you be struck down?” Then the prophet stopped, and said, “I know that God has determined to destroy you, because you have done this, and have not listened to my counsel.” 17. Then Amaziah king of Judah consulted his advisers, and sent to Joash, the son of Jehoahaz the son of Jehu, king of Israel, saying, “Come, let us look one another in the face.” 18. Joash king of Israel sent to Amaziah king of Judah, saying, “The thistle that was in Lebanon sent to the cedar that was in Lebanon, saying, ‘Give your daughter to my son as his wife. Then a wild animal that was in Lebanon passed by, and trampled down the thistle. 19. You say to yourself that you have struck Edom; and your heart lifts you up to boast. Now stay at home. Why should you meddle with trouble, that you should fall, even you, and Judah with you?’” 20. But Amaziah would not listen; for it was of God, that he might deliver them into the hand of their enemies, because they had sought after the gods of Edom. 21. So Joash king of Israel went up, and he and Amaziah king of Judah looked one another in the face at Beth Shemesh, which belongs to Judah. 22. Judah was defeated by Israel; and they every man fled to his tent. 23. Joash king of Israel took Amaziah king of Judah, the son of Joash the son of Jehoahaz, at Beth Shemesh, and brought him to Jerusalem, and broke down the wall of Jerusalem from the gate of Ephraim to the corner gate, four hundred cubits. 24. He took all the gold and silver, and all the vessels that were found in God’s house with Obed-Edom, and the treasures of the king’s house, the hostages also, and returned to Samaria. 25. Amaziah the son of Joash king of Judah lived for fifteen years after the death of Joash son of Jehoahaz king of Israel. 26. Now the rest of the acts of Amaziah, first and last, behold, aren’t they written in the book of the kings of Judah and Israel? 27. Now from the time that Amaziah turned away from following Yahweh, they made a conspiracy against him in Jerusalem. He fled to Lachish, but they sent after him to Lachish, and killed him there. 28. They brought him on horses, and buried him with his fathers in the City of Judah.

1. Paul, called to be an apostle of Jesus Christ through the will of God, and our brother Sosthenes, 2. to the assembly of God which is at Corinth; those who are sanctified in Christ Jesus, called to be saints, with all who call on the name of our Lord Jesus Christ in every place, both theirs and ours: 3. Grace to you and peace from God our Father and the Lord Jesus Christ. 4. I always thank my God concerning you, for the grace of God which was given you in Christ Jesus; 5. that in everything you were enriched in him, in all speech and all knowledge; 6. even as the testimony of Christ was confirmed in you: 7. so that you come behind in no gift; waiting for the revelation of our Lord Jesus Christ; 8. who will also confirm you until the end, blameless in the day of our Lord Jesus Christ. 9. God is faithful, through whom you were called into the fellowship of his Son, Jesus Christ, our Lord. 10. Now I beg you, brothers, through the name of our Lord, Jesus Christ, that you all speak the same thing, and that there be no divisions among you, but that you be perfected together in the same mind and in the same judgment. 11. For it has been reported to me concerning you, my brothers, by those who are from Chloe’s household, that there are contentions among you. 12. Now I mean this, that each one of you says, “I follow Paul,” “I follow Apollos,” “I follow Cephas,” and, “I follow Christ.” 13. Is Christ divided? Was Paul crucified for you? Or were you baptized into the name of Paul? 14. I thank God that I baptized none of you, except Crispus and Gaius, 15. so that no one should say that I had baptized you into my own name. 16. (I also baptized the household of Stephanas; besides them, I don’t know whether I baptized any other.) 17. For Christ sent me not to baptize, but to preach the Good News—not in wisdom of words, so that the cross of Christ wouldn’t be made void. 18. For the word of the cross is foolishness to those who are dying, but to us who are saved it is the power of God. 19. For it is written, “I will destroy the wisdom of the wise, I will bring the discernment of the discerning to nothing.” 20. Where is the wise? Where is the scribe? Where is the lawyer of this world? Hasn’t God made foolish the wisdom of this world? 21. For seeing that in the wisdom of God, the world through its wisdom didn’t know God, it was God’s good pleasure through the foolishness of the preaching to save those who believe. 22. For Jews ask for signs, Greeks seek after wisdom, 23. but we preach Christ crucified; a stumbling block to Jews, and foolishness to Greeks, 24. but to those who are called, both Jews and Greeks, Christ is the power of God and the wisdom of God. 25. Because the foolishness of God is wiser than men, and the weakness of God is stronger than men. 26. For you see your calling, brothers, that not many are wise according to the flesh, not many mighty, and not many noble; 27. but God chose the foolish things of the world that he might put to shame those who are wise. God chose the weak things of the world, that he might put to shame the things that are strong; 28. and God chose the lowly things of the world, and the things that are despised, and the things that are not, that he might bring to nothing the things that are: 29. that no flesh should boast before God. 30. Because of him, you are in Christ Jesus, who was made to us wisdom from God, and righteousness and sanctification, and redemption: 31. that, according as it is written, “He who boasts, let him boast in the Lord.” 1. When I came to you, brothers, I didn’t come with excellence of speech or of wisdom, proclaiming to you the testimony of God. 2. For I determined not to know anything among you, except Jesus Christ, and him crucified. 3. I was with you in weakness, in fear, and in much trembling. 4. My speech and my preaching were not in persuasive words of human wisdom, but in demonstration of the Spirit and of power, 5. that your faith wouldn’t stand in the wisdom of men, but in the power of God. 6. We speak wisdom, however, among those who are full grown; yet a wisdom not of this world, nor of the rulers of this world, who are coming to nothing. 7. But we speak God’s wisdom in a mystery, the wisdom that has been hidden, which God foreordained before the worlds for our glory, 8. which none of the rulers of this world has known. For had they known it, they wouldn’t have crucified the Lord of glory. 9. But as it is written, “Things which an eye didn’t see, and an ear didn’t hear, which didn’t enter into the heart of man, these God has prepared for those who love him.” 10. But to us, God revealed them through the Spirit. For the Spirit searches all things, yes, the deep things of God. 11. For who among men knows the things of a man, except the spirit of the man, which is in him? Even so, no one knows the things of God, except God’s Spirit. 12. But we received, not the spirit of the world, but the Spirit which is from God, that we might know the things that were freely given to us by God. 13. Which things also we speak, not in words which man’s wisdom teaches, but which the Holy Spirit teaches, comparing spiritual things with spiritual things. 14. Now the natural man doesn’t receive the things of God’s Spirit, for they are foolishness to him, and he can’t know them, because they are spiritually discerned. 15. But he who is spiritual discerns all things, and he himself is judged by no one. 16. “For who has known the mind of the Lord, that he should instruct him?” But we have Christ’s mind. 1. Brothers, I couldn’t speak to you as to spiritual, but as to fleshly, as to babies in Christ. 2. I fed you with milk, not with meat; for you weren’t yet ready. Indeed, not even now are you ready, 3. for you are still fleshly. For insofar as there is jealousy, strife, and factions among you, aren’t you fleshly, and don’t you walk in the ways of men? 4. For when one says, “I follow Paul,” and another, “I follow Apollos,” aren’t you fleshly? 5. Who then is Apollos, and who is Paul, but servants through whom you believed; and each as the Lord gave to him? 6. I planted. Apollos watered. But God gave the increase. 7. So then neither he who plants is anything, nor he who waters, but God who gives the increase. 8. Now he who plants and he who waters are the same, but each will receive his own reward according to his own labor. 9. For we are God’s fellow workers. You are God’s farming, God’s building. 10. According to the grace of God which was given to me, as a wise master builder I laid a foundation, and another builds on it. But let each man be careful how he builds on it. 11. For no one can lay any other foundation than that which has been laid, which is Jesus Christ. 12. But if anyone builds on the foundation with gold, silver, costly stones, wood, hay, or stubble; 13. each man’s work will be revealed. For the Day will declare it, because it is revealed in fire; and the fire itself will test what sort of work each man’s work is. 14. If any man’s work remains which he built on it, he will receive a reward. 15. If any man’s work is burned, he will suffer loss, but he himself will be saved, but as through fire. 16. Don’t you know that you are a temple of God, and that God’s Spirit lives in you? 17. If anyone destroys God’s temple, God will destroy him; for God’s temple is holy, which you are. 18. Let no one deceive himself. If anyone thinks that he is wise among you in this world, let him become a fool, that he may become wise. 19. For the wisdom of this world is foolishness with God. For it is written, “He has taken the wise in their craftiness.” 20. And again, “The Lord knows the reasoning of the wise, that it is worthless.” 21. Therefore let no one boast in men. For all things are yours, 22. whether Paul, or Apollos, or Cephas, or the world, or life, or death, or things present, or things to come. All are yours, 23. and you are Christ’s, and Christ is God’s. 1. So let a man think of us as Christ’s servants, and stewards of God’s mysteries. 2. Here, moreover, it is required of stewards, that they be found faithful. 3. But with me it is a very small thing that I should be judged by you, or by man’s judgment. Yes, I don’t judge my own self. 4. For I know nothing against myself. Yet I am not justified by this, but he who judges me is the Lord. 5. Therefore judge nothing before the time, until the Lord comes, who will both bring to light the hidden things of darkness, and reveal the counsels of the hearts. Then each man will get his praise from God. 6. Now these things, brothers, I have in a figure transferred to myself and Apollos for your sakes, that in us you might learn not to think beyond the things which are written, that none of you be puffed up against one another. 7. For who makes you different? And what do you have that you didn’t receive? But if you did receive it, why do you boast as if you had not received it? 8. You are already filled. You have already become rich. You have come to reign without us. Yes, and I wish that you did reign, that we also might reign with you. 9. For, I think that God has displayed us, the apostles, last of all, like men sentenced to death. For we are made a spectacle to the world, both to angels and men. 10. We are fools for Christ’s sake, but you are wise in Christ. We are weak, but you are strong. You have honor, but we have dishonor. 11. Even to this present hour we hunger, thirst, are naked, are beaten, and have no certain dwelling place. 12. We toil, working with our own hands. When people curse us, we bless. Being persecuted, we endure. 13. Being defamed, we entreat. We are made as the filth of the world, the dirt wiped off by all, even until now. 14. I don’t write these things to shame you, but to admonish you as my beloved children. 15. For though you have ten thousand tutors in Christ, you don’t have many fathers. For in Christ Jesus, I became your father through the Good News. 16. I beg you therefore, be imitators of me. 17. Because of this I have sent Timothy to you, who is my beloved and faithful child in the Lord, who will remind you of my ways which are in Christ, even as I teach everywhere in every assembly. 18. Now some are puffed up, as though I were not coming to you. 19. But I will come to you shortly, if the Lord is willing. And I will know, not the word of those who are puffed up, but the power. 20. For God’s Kingdom is not in word, but in power. 21. What do you want? Shall I come to you with a rod, or in love and a spirit of gentleness?

1. If it had not been Yahweh who was on our side, let Israel now say, 2. if it had not been Yahweh who was on our side, when men rose up against us; 3. then they would have swallowed us up alive, when their wrath was kindled against us; 4. then the waters would have overwhelmed us, the stream would have gone over our soul; 5. then the proud waters would have gone over our soul. 6. Blessed be Yahweh, who has not given us as a prey to their teeth. 7. Our soul has escaped like a bird out of the fowler’s snare. The snare is broken, and we have escaped. 8. Our help is in Yahweh’s name, who made heaven and earth.