Saturday, March 27, 2021

 2 Chronicles 10

¹Rehoboam went to Shechem, for all the Israelites had gone there to make him king. ²When Jeroboam son of Nebat heard this (he was in Egypt, where he had fled from King Solomon), he returned from Egypt. ³So they sent for Jeroboam, and he and all Israel went to Rehoboam and said to him: ⁴"Your father put a heavy yoke on us, but now lighten the harsh labor and the heavy yoke he put on us, and we will serve you."

⁵Rehoboam answered, "Come back to me in three days." So the people went away.

⁶Then King Rehoboam consulted the elders who had served his father Solomon during his lifetime. "How would you advise me to answer these people?" he asked.

⁷They replied, "If you will be kind to these people and please them and give them a favorable answer, they will always be your servants."

⁸But Rehoboam rejected the advice the elders gave him and consulted the young men who had grown up with him and were serving him. ⁹He asked them, "What is your advice? How should we answer these people who say to me, 'Lighten the yoke your father put on us'?"

¹⁰The young men who had grown up with him replied, "Tell the people who have said to you, 'Your father put a heavy yoke on us, but make our yoke lighter'--tell them, 'My little finger is thicker than my father's waist. ¹¹My father laid on you a heavy yoke; I will make it even heavier. My father scourged you with whips; I will scourge you with scorpions.'"

¹²Three days later Jeroboam and all the people returned to Rehoboam, as the king had said, "Come back to me in three days." ¹³The king answered them harshly. Rejecting the advice of the elders, ¹⁴he followed the advice of the young men and said, "My father made your yoke heavy; I will make it even heavier. My father scourged you with whips; I will scourge you with scorpions." ¹⁵So the king did not listen to the people, for this turn of events was from God, to fulfill the word the LORD had spoken to Jeroboam son of Nebat through Ahijah the Shilonite.

¹⁶When all Israel saw that the king refused to listen to them, they answered the king:

"What share do we have in David, what part in Jesse's son? To your tents, O Israel! Look after your own house, O David!"

So all the Israelites went home. ¹⁷But as for the Israelites who were living in the towns of Judah, Rehoboam still ruled over them.

¹⁸King Rehoboam sent out Adoniram, who was in charge of forced labor, but the Israelites stoned him to death. King Rehoboam, however, managed to get into his chariot and escape to Jerusalem. ¹⁹So Israel has been in rebellion against the house of David to this day.

 

 

Psalm 81

¹For the director of music. According to [gittith.] Of Asaph. Sing for joy to God our strength; shout aloud to the God of Jacob! ²Begin the music, strike the tambourine, play the melodious harp and lyre. ³Sound the ram's horn at the New Moon, and when the moon is full, on the day of our Feast; ⁴this is a decree for Israel, an ordinance of the God of Jacob. ⁵He established it as a statute for Joseph when he went out against Egypt, where we heard a language we did not understand. ⁶He says, "I removed the burden from their shoulders; their hands were set free from the basket. ⁷In your distress you called and I rescued you, I answered you out of a thundercloud; I tested you at the waters of Meribah. [Selah] ⁸"Hear, O my people, and I will warn you-- if you would but listen to me, O Israel! ⁹You shall have no foreign god among you; you shall not bow down to an alien god. ¹⁰I am the LORD your God, who brought you up out of Egypt. Open wide your mouth and I will fill it. ¹¹"But my people would not listen to me; Israel would not submit to me. ¹²So I gave them over to their stubborn hearts to follow their own devices. ¹³"If my people would but listen to me, if Israel would follow my ways, ¹⁴how quickly would I subdue their enemies and turn my hand against their foes! ¹⁵Those who hate the LORD would cringe before him, and their punishment would last forever. ¹⁶But you would be fed with the finest of wheat; with honey from the rock I would satisfy you."

 

 

Luke 8:9–18

⁹His disciples asked him what this parable meant. ¹⁰He said, "The knowledge of the secrets of the kingdom of God has been given to you, but to others I speak in parables, so that,

" 'though seeing, they may not see; though hearing, they may not understand.'

¹¹"This is the meaning of the parable: The seed is the word of God. ¹²Those along the path are the ones who hear, and then the devil comes and takes away the word from their hearts, so that they may not believe and be saved. ¹³Those on the rock are the ones who receive the word with joy when they hear it, but they have no root. They believe for a while, but in the time of testing they fall away. ¹⁴The seed that fell among thorns stands for those who hear, but as they go on their way they are choked by life's worries, riches and pleasures, and they do not mature. ¹⁵But the seed on good soil stands for those with a noble and good heart, who hear the word, retain it, and by persevering produce a crop.

¹⁶"No one lights a lamp and hides it in a jar or puts it under a bed. Instead, he puts it on a stand, so that those who come in can see the light. ¹⁷For there is nothing hidden that will not be disclosed, and nothing concealed that will not be known or brought out into the open. ¹⁸Therefore consider carefully how you listen. Whoever has will be given more; whoever does not have, even what he thinks he has will be taken from him."