John 11:1-27; 2 Chronicles 10; 2 Chronicles 11; Psalms 75

John 11:1-27

1 Now a man was sick, Lazarus, from Bethany, the village of Mary and her sister Martha.

2 Mary was the one who anointed the Lord with fragrant oil and wiped His feet with her hair, and it was her brother Lazarus who was sick.

3 So the sisters sent a message to Him: "Lord, the one You love is sick."

4 When Jesus heard it, He said, "This sickness will not end in death but is for the glory of God, so that the Son of God may be glorified through it."

5 (Jesus loved Martha, her sister, and Lazarus.)

6 So when He heard that he was sick, He stayed two more days in the place where He was.

7 Then after that, He said to the disciples, "Let's go to Judea again."

8 "Rabbi," the disciples told Him, "just now the Jews tried to stone You, and You're going there again?"

9 "Aren't there 12 hours in a day?" Jesus answered. "If anyone walks during the day, he doesn't stumble, because he sees the light of this world.

10 If anyone walks during the night, he does stumble, because the light is not in him."

11 He said this, and then He told them, "Our friend Lazarus has fallen asleep, but I'm on My way to wake him up."

12 Then the disciples said to Him, "Lord, if he has fallen asleep, he will get well."

13 Jesus, however, was speaking about his death, but they thought He was speaking about natural sleep.

14 So Jesus then told them plainly, "Lazarus has died.

15 I'm glad for you that I wasn't there so that you may believe. But let's go to him."

16 Then Thomas (called "Twin") said to his fellow disciples, "Let's go so that we may die with Him."

17 When Jesus arrived, He found that Lazarus had already been in the tomb four days.

18 Bethany was near Jerusalem (about two miles away).

19 Many of the Jews had come to Martha and Mary to comfort them about their brother.

20 As soon as Martha heard that Jesus was coming, she went to meet Him. But Mary remained seated in the house.

21 Then Martha said to Jesus, "Lord, if You had been here, my brother wouldn't have died.

22 Yet even now I know that whatever You ask from God, God will give You."

23 "Your brother will rise again," Jesus told her.

24 Martha said, "I know that he will rise again in the resurrection at the last day."

25 Jesus said to her, "I am the resurrection and the life. The one who believes in Me, even if he dies, will live.

26 Everyone who lives and believes in Me will never die-ever. Do you believe this?"

27 "Yes, Lord," she told Him, "I believe You are the Messiah, the Son of God, who was to come into the world."

2 Chronicles 10

1 Then Rehoboam went to Shechem, for all Israel had gone to Shechem to make him king.

2 When Jeroboam son of Nebat heard [about it]-for he was in Egypt where he had fled from King Solomon's presence-Jeroboam returned from Egypt.

3 So they summoned him. Then Jeroboam and all Israel came and spoke to Rehoboam:

4 "Your father made our yoke harsh. Therefore, lighten your father's harsh service and the heavy yoke he put on us, and we will serve you."

5 Rehoboam replied, "Return to me in three days." So the people left.

6 Then King Rehoboam consulted with the elders who had served his father Solomon when he was alive, asking, "How do you advise me to respond to this people?"

7 They replied, "If you will be kind to these people and please them by speaking kind words to them, they will be your servants forever."

8 But he rejected the advice of the elders who had advised him and consulted with the young men who had grown up with him, the ones serving him.

9 He asked them, "What message do you advise we send back to this people who said to me, 'Lighten the yoke your father put on us'?"

10 Then the young men who had grown up with him told him, "This is what you should say to the people who said to you, 'Your father made our yoke heavy, but you, make it lighter on us!' This is what you should say to them: 'My little finger is thicker than my father's loins.

11 Now therefore, my father burdened you with a heavy yoke, but I will add to your yoke; my father disciplined you with whips, but I, with barbed whips.' "

12 So Jeroboam and all the people came to Rehoboam on the third day, just as the king had ordered, saying, "Return to me on the third day."

13 Then the king answered them harshly. King Rehoboam rejected the elders' advice

14 and spoke to them according to the young men's advice, saying, "My father made your yoke heavy, but I will add to it; my father disciplined you with whips, but I, with barbed whips."

15 The king did not listen to the people because the turn of events came from God, in order that the Lord might carry out His word that He had spoken through Ahijah the Shilonite to Jeroboam son of Nebat.

16 When all Israel saw that the king had not listened to them, the people answered the king: What portion do we have in David? We have no inheritance in the son of Jesse. Israel, each man to your tent; David, look after your own house now! So all Israel went to their tents.

17 But as for the Israelites living in the cities of Judah, Rehoboam reigned over them.

18 Then King Rehoboam sent Hadoram, who was in charge of the forced labor, but the Israelites stoned him to death. However, King Rehoboam managed to get up into the chariot to flee to Jerusalem.

19 Israel is in rebellion against the house of David until today.

2 Chronicles 11

1 When Rehoboam arrived in Jerusalem, he mobilized the house of Judah and Benjamin-180,000 choice warriors-to fight against Israel to restore the reign to Rehoboam.

2 But the word of the Lord came to Shemaiah, the man of God:

3 "Say to Rehoboam son of Solomon, king of Judah, to all Israel in Judah and Benjamin, and to the rest of the people:

4 'This is what the Lord says: You are not to march up and fight against your brothers. Each of you must return home, for this incident has come from Me.' " So they listened to what the Lord said and turned back from going against Jeroboam.

5 Rehoboam stayed in Jerusalem, and he fortified cities in Judah.

6 He built up Bethlehem, Etam, Tekoa,

7 Beth-zur, Soco, Adullam,

8 Gath, Mareshah, Ziph,

9 Adoraim, Lachish, Azekah,

10 Zorah, Aijalon, and Hebron, which are fortified cities in Judah and in Benjamin.

11 He strengthened their fortifications and put leaders in them with supplies of food, oil, and wine.

12 He also put large shields and spears in each and every city to make them very strong. So Judah and Benjamin were his.

13 The priests and Levites from all their regions throughout Israel took their stand with Rehoboam,

14 for the Levites left their pasturelands and their possessions and went to Judah and Jerusalem, because Jeroboam and his sons refused to let them serve as priests of the Lord.

15 Jeroboam appointed his own priests for the high places, the goat-demons, and the [gold] calves he had made.

16 Those from every tribe of Israel who had determined in their hearts to seek the Lord their God followed the Levites to Jerusalem to sacrifice to the Lord God of their ancestors.

17 So they strengthened the kingdom of Judah and supported Rehoboam son of Solomon for three years, because they walked in the way of David and Solomon for three years.

18 Rehoboam married Mahalath, daughter of David's son Jerimoth and of Abihail daughter of Jesse's son Eliab.

19 She bore him sons: Jeush, Shemariah, and Zaham.

20 After her, he married Maacah daughter of Absalom. She bore him Abijah, Attai, Ziza, and Shelomith.

21 Rehoboam loved Maacah daughter of Absalom more than all his wives and concubines. He acquired 18 wives and 60 concubines and was the father of 28 sons and 60 daughters.

22 Rehoboam appointed Abijah son of Maacah as chief, leader among his brothers, intending to make him king.

23 Rehoboam also showed discernment by dispersing some of his sons to all the regions of Judah and Benjamin and to all the fortified cities. He gave them plenty of provisions and sought many wives for them.

Psalms 75

1 We give thanks to You, God; we give thanks to You, for Your name is near. People tell about Your wonderful works.

2 "When I choose a time, I will judge fairly.

3 When the earth and all its inhabitants shake, I am the One who steadies its pillars. Selah

4 I say to the boastful, 'Do not boast,' and to the wicked, 'Do not lift up your horn.

5 Do not lift up your horn against heaven or speak arrogantly.' "

6 Exaltation does not come from the east, the west, or the desert,

7 for God is the judge: He brings down one and exalts another.

8 For there is a cup in the Lord's hand, full of wine blended with spices, and He pours from it. All the wicked of the earth will drink, draining it to the dregs.

9 As for me, I will tell about Him forever; I will sing praise to the God of Jacob.

10 "I will cut off all the horns of the wicked, but the horns of the righteous will be lifted up."