1 Kings 12; 1 Kings 13; Luke 22:1-30

1 Rehoboam went to Shechem where all Israel had come to make him king.

2 When Jeroboam, Nebat's son, heard the news, he returned from Egypt where he had fled from King Solomon.

3 The people sent and called for Jeroboam, who along with the entire Israelite assembly went and said to Rehoboam,

4 "Your father made our workload very hard for us. If you will lessen the demands your father made of us and lighten the heavy workload he demanded from us, then we will serve you."

5 He answered them, "Come back in three days." So the people left.

6 King Rehoboam consulted the elders who had served his father Solomon when he was alive. "What do you advise?" Rehoboam asked. "How should I respond to these people?"

7 "If you will be a servant to this people by answering them and speaking good words today," they replied, "then they will be your servants forever."

8 But Rehoboam ignored the advice the elders gave him and instead sought the counsel of the young advisors who had grown up with him and now served him.

9 "What do you advise?" he asked them. "How should we respond to these people who have said to me, ‘Lighten the workload your father demanded of us'?"

10 The young people who had grown up with him said to him, "This people said to you, ‘Your father made our workload heavy; lighten it for us!' Now this is what you should say to them: ‘My baby finger is thicker than my father's entire waist!

11 So if my father made your workload heavy, I'll make it even heavier! If my father disciplined you with whips, I'll do it with scorpions!'"

12 Jeroboam and all the people returned to Rehoboam on the third day, just as the king had specified when he said, "Come back to me in three days."

13 The king then answered the people harshly. He ignored the elders' advice

14 and instead followed the young people's advice. He said, "My father made your workload heavy, but I'll make it even heavier! My father disciplined you with whips, but I'll do it with scorpions!"

15 The king didn't listen to the people because this turn of events came from the LORD so that he might keep the promise he delivered through Ahijah from Shiloh concerning Jeroboam, Nebat's son.

16 When all Israel saw that the king wouldn't listen to them, the people answered the king: "Why should we care about David? We have no stake in Jesse's son! Go back to your homes, Israel! You better look after your own house now, David!" Then the Israelites went back to their homes,

17 and Rehoboam ruled over only the Israelites who lived in the cities of Judah.

18 When King Rehoboam sent Adoram to them (he was the leader of the work gang), all Israel stoned him to death. King Rehoboam quickly got into his chariot and fled to Jerusalem.

19 Israel has been in rebellion against the house of David to this day.

20 When all Israel heard that Jeroboam had returned, they sent for him. They called him to the assembly and crowned him king of all Israel. Nothing was left to the house of David except the tribe of Judah.

21 When Rehoboam arrived at Jerusalem, he assembled the whole house of Judah and the tribe of Benjamin—one hundred eighty thousand select warriors—to fight against the house of Israel and restore the kingdom for Rehoboam, Solomon's son.

22 But God's word came to Shemaiah the man of God,

23 "Tell Judah's King Rehoboam, Solomon's son, and all the house of Judah and Benjamin, and the rest of the people,

24 ‘This is what the LORD says: Don't make war against your relatives the Israelites. Go home, every one of you, because this is my plan.'" When they heard the LORD's words, they went back home, just as the LORD had said.

25 Jeroboam fortified Shechem at Mount Ephraim and lived there. From there he also fortified Penuel.

26 Jeroboam thought to himself, The kingdom is in danger of reverting to the house of David.

27 If these people continue to sacrifice at the LORD's temple in Jerusalem, they will again become loyal to their master Rehoboam, Judah's king, and they will kill me so they can return to Judah's King Rehoboam.

28 So the king asked for advice and then made two gold calves. He said to the people, "It's too far for you to go all the way up to Jerusalem. Look, Israel! Here are your gods who brought you out from the land of Egypt."

29 He put one calf in Bethel, and the other he placed in Dan.

30 This act was sinful. The people went to worship before the one calf at Bethel and before the other one as far as Dan.

31 Jeroboam made shrines on the high places and appointed priests from all sorts of people, but none were Levites.

32 Jeroboam set a date for a celebration on the fifteenth day of the eighth month. It was just like the celebration in Judah. He sacrificed on the altar. At Bethel he sacrificed to the calves he had made. There also he installed the priests for the shrines he had made.

33 On the fifteenth day of the eighth month—the time he alone had decided—Jeroboam went up to the altar he had built in Bethel. He made a celebration for the Israelites and offered sacrifices on the altar by burning them up.

1 A man of God came from Judah by God's command to Bethel. Jeroboam was standing at the altar burning incense.

2 By the LORD's word, the man of God cried out to the altar: "Altar! Altar! The LORD says this: Look! A son will be born to the house of David. His name will be Josiah. He will sacrifice on you, Altar, the very priests of the shrines who offer incense on you. They will burn human bones on you."

3 At that time the man of God gave a sign: "This is the sign that the LORD mentioned: ‘Look! The altar will be broken apart, and its ashes will spill out.'"

4 When the king heard the word of the man of God and how he cried out to the altar at Bethel, Jeroboam stretched his hand from the altar and said, "Seize him!" But the hand that Jeroboam stretched out against the man of God grew stiff. Jeroboam wasn't able to bend it back to himself.

5 The altar broke apart, and the ashes spilled out from the altar, just like the sign that the man of God gave by the LORD's word.

6 The king said to the man of God, "Plead before the LORD your God and pray for me so that I can bend my hand back again." So the man of God pleaded before the LORD, and the king's hand returned to normal and was like it used to be.

7 The king spoke to the man of God: "Come with me to the palace and refresh yourself. Let me give you a gift."

8 The man of God said to the king, "Even if you gave me half your palace, I wouldn't go with you, nor would I eat food or drink water in this place.

9 This is what God commanded me by the LORD's word: Don't eat food! Don't drink water! Don't return by the way you came!"

10 So the man of God went by a different way. He didn't return by the way he came to Bethel.

11 Now there was an old prophet living in Bethel. His sons came and told him everything that the man of God had done that day at Bethel. They also told their father the words that he spoke to the king.

12 "Which way did he go?" their father asked them. His sons had seen the way the man of God went when he came from Judah.

13 The old prophet said to his sons, "Saddle my donkey." So they saddled his donkey, and he got on it.

14 He went after the man of God and found him sitting underneath a terebinth tree. He said to him, "Are you the man of God who came from Judah?" "I am," he replied.

15 The old prophet then said to him, "Come home with me and eat some food."

16 But the man of God answered, "I can't return or go with you, and I can't eat food or drink water with you in this place

17 because of the message that came to me from the LORD's word: Don't eat food! Don't drink water! Don't return by the way you came!"

18 The old prophet said to the man of God, "I'm also a prophet like you. A messenger spoke to me with the LORD's word, ‘Bring him back with you to your house so that he may eat food and drink water.'" But the old prophet was lying to him.

19 So the man of God went back with the old prophet. He ate food in his home and drank water.

20 Then as they were sitting at the table, the LORD's word came to the prophet who had brought him back.

21 He cried out to the man of God who had come from Judah: “The LORD says this: You rebelled against the LORD's word! You didn't keep the command that the LORD your God gave you!

22 You came back and ate food and drank water in this place. "But he had commanded you: ‘Don't eat food! Don't drink water!' Now your body won't go to the grave of your ancestors."

23 After he ate food and drank, the old prophet saddled the donkey for the prophet he had brought back.

24 The man of God departed, and a lion found him on the road and killed him. His body was thrown down on the road. The donkey stood beside it, and the lion also stood beside the body.

25 Some people were traveling nearby, and they discovered the body thrown down on the road and the lion standing beside it. They entered the town where the old prophet lived and were talking about it.

26 The prophet who brought the man of God back from the road overheard. He thought: That's the man of God who rebelled against the LORD's command. The LORD has given him to that lion that tore him apart, killing him in agreement with the LORD's word that was spoken to him.

27 The old prophet told his sons, "Saddle the donkey." They did so,

28 and he went and found the body thrown down on the road. The donkey and the lion were still standing beside the body. The lion hadn't eaten the body, nor had it torn the donkey apart.

29 The prophet lifted the body of the man of God and put it on the donkey. He brought it back, arriving in the old prophet's town to mourn and bury the man of God.

30 He placed the body in his own grave, and they mourned over him, "Oh, my brother!"

31 After the old prophet buried him, he said to his sons, "When I die, bury me in the grave where the man of God is. Put my bones beside his bones.

32 The message he gave by the LORD's word concerning the altar of Bethel and all the shrines in the towns of Samaria will most certainly come true."

33 Even after this happened, Jeroboam didn't change his evil ways. Instead, he continued to appoint all sorts of people as priests of the shrines. Anyone who wanted to be a priest Jeroboam made a priest for the shrines.

34 In this way the house of Jeroboam acted sinfully, leading to its downfall and elimination from the earth.

1 The Festival of Unleavened Bread, which is called Passover, was approaching.

2 The chief priests and the legal experts were looking for a way to kill Jesus, because they were afraid of the people.

3 Then Satan entered Judas, called Iscariot, who was one of the Twelve.

4 He went out and discussed with the chief priests and the officers of the temple guard how he could hand Jesus over to them.

5 They were delighted and arranged payment for him.

6 He agreed and began looking for an opportunity to hand Jesus over to them—a time when the crowds would be absent.

7 The Day of Unleavened Bread arrived, when the Passover had to be sacrificed.

8 Jesus sent Peter and John with this task: "Go and prepare for us to eat the Passover meal."

9 They said to him, "Where do you want us to prepare it?"

10 Jesus replied, "When you go into the city, a man carrying a water jar will meet you. Follow him to the house he enters.

11 Say to the owner of the house, ‘The teacher says to you, Where is the guestroom where I can eat the Passover meal with my disciples? '

12 He will show you a large upstairs room, already furnished. Make preparations there."

13 They went and found everything just as he had told them, and they prepared the Passover meal.

14 When the time came, Jesus took his place at the table, and the apostles joined him.

15 He said to them, "I have earnestly desired to eat this Passover with you before I suffer.

16 I tell you, I won't eat it until it is fulfilled in God's kingdom."

17 After taking a cup and giving thanks, he said, "Take this and share it among yourselves.

18 I tell you that from now on I won't drink from the fruit of the vine until God's kingdom has come."

19 After taking the bread and giving thanks, he broke it and gave it to them, saying, "This is my body, which is given for you. Do this in remembrance of me."

20 In the same way, he took the cup after the meal and said, “This cup is the new covenant by my blood, which is poured out for you.

21 "But look! My betrayer is with me; his hand is on this table.

22 The Human One goes just as it has been determined. But how terrible it is for that person who betrays him."

23 They began to argue among themselves about which of them it could possibly be who would do this.

24 An argument broke out among the disciples over which one of them should be regarded as the greatest.

25 But Jesus said to them, “The kings of the Gentiles rule over their subjects, and those in authority over them are called ‘friends of the people.'

26 But that's not the way it will be with you. Instead, the greatest among you must become like a person of lower status and the leader like a servant.

27 So which one is greater, the one who is seated at the table or the one who serves at the table? Isn't it the one who is seated at the table? But I am among you as one who serves.

28 “You are the ones who have continued with me in my trials.

29 And I confer royal power on you just as my Father granted royal power to me.

30 Thus you will eat and drink at my table in my kingdom, and you will sit on thrones overseeing the twelve tribes of Israel.