⁷ These trials will show that your faith is genuine. It is being tested as fire tests and purifies gold—though your faith is far more precious than mere gold. So when your faith remains strong through many trials, it will bring you much praise and glory and honor on the day when Jesus Christ is revealed to the whole world.

³ He will sit like a refiner of silver, burning away the dross. He will purify the Levites, refining them like gold and silver, so that they may once again offer acceptable sacrifices to the Lord.

Suffering for Being a Christian

¹² Dear friends, don’t be surprised at the fiery trials you are going through, as if something strange were happening to you.

⁶ Absalom did this with everyone who came to the king for judgment, and so he stole the hearts of all the people of Israel.

⁷ After four years,^[a] Absalom said to the king, “Let me go to Hebron to offer a sacrifice to the Lord and fulfill a vow I made to him. ⁸ For while your servant was at Geshur in Aram, I promised to sacrifice to the Lord in Hebron^[b] if he would bring me back to Jerusalem.”

⁹ “All right,” the king told him. “Go and fulfill your vow.”

So Absalom went to Hebron. ¹⁰ But while he was there, he sent secret messengers to all the tribes of Israel to stir up a rebellion against the king. “As soon as you hear the ram’s horn,” his message read, “you are to say, ‘Absalom has been crowned king in Hebron.’” ¹¹ He took 200 men from Jerusalem with him as guests, but they knew nothing of his intentions. ¹² While Absalom was offering the sacrifices, he sent for Ahithophel, one of David’s counselors who lived in Giloh. Soon many others also joined Absalom, and the conspiracy gained momentum.

Absalom Reconciled to David

²⁵ Now Absalom was praised as the most handsome man in all Israel. He was flawless from head to foot.