Revised Common Lectionary (Complementary)
TETH
65 Lord, you have blessed me, your servant,
as you have promised to do.
66 Teach me to understand what is right,
because I trust your commands.
67 Before you showed me what was right, I made mistakes,
but now I obey your teaching.
68 You are good and you do good things.
So please teach me your laws.
69 Proud people have told many lies against me,
but I love to obey your rules.
70 Those people do not understand anything,
but your Law makes me very happy.
71 When I suffered, it was good for me.
It helped me to learn your commands.
72 The rules that you have taught me are very valuable.
They are more valuable to me
than thousands of pieces of gold and silver.
Rehoboam turns away from the Lord
12 Rehoboam became a strong king who ruled with authority. But after that, he stopped obeying the law of the Lord. All the Israelites did the same thing. 2 They did not serve the Lord in a faithful way. Because of that, King Shishak of Egypt attacked Jerusalem in the fifth year that Rehoboam was king Judah. 3 King Shishak's army had 1,200 chariots and 60,000 soldiers who rode on horses. Many other soldiers came with him from Egypt. They included men from Libya, Sukkoth and Ethiopia. 4 He took power over Judah's strong cities. Then his army marched to attack Jerusalem.
5 The prophet Shemaiah then came to speak to Rehoboam and the leaders of Judah. They had met together in Jerusalem because they were afraid of King Shishak. Shemaiah said to them, ‘The Lord says this: “You have turned away from me. So now I have turned away from you. I will let Shishak take power over you.” ’
6 The leaders of Israel and the king made themselves humble. They said, ‘The Lord is right to do that.’
7 The Lord saw that they had made themselves humble. So he said to Shemaiah, ‘Because they have made themselves humble, I will not destroy them. I will soon rescue them. I will not use Shishak to completely destroy Jerusalem's people. But because I am angry, 8 they will become his servants. Then they will learn what it is like to serve a foreign king instead of me.’
9 King Shishak of Egypt then attacked Jerusalem. He took away the valuable things that were in the Lord's temple and in the king's palace. He took everything for himself. That included the gold shields that King Solomon had made. 10 So Rehoboam used bronze to make other shields instead. He gave them to the officers of his own soldiers. These soldiers stood as guards at the entrance of the king's palace. 11 Every time that the king went to the Lord's temple, the guards carried the shields. After that, they took them back to the guards' room where they stored them.
Rehoboam turns back to the Lord
12 Rehoboam made himself humble. So the Lord did not destroy him. He stopped being angry with Rehoboam. He caused good things to happen in Judah.
7 Remember your leaders, who taught God's message to you. Think about the way in which they have lived and the good things that they have done. They have trusted God, so you should have faith like they have.
8 Jesus Christ is always the same, yesterday, today and for ever. 9 Some people teach all kinds of strange new things.[a] Do not let them lead you away from God's true message. It is good that God is very kind to us. That is what makes us strong inside ourselves. Rules about what foods we should eat do not make us strong like that. Those rules have never helped the people who tried to obey them.
10 Jesus Christ is the sacrifice that saves us. Jewish priests do not have the authority to receive anything from his sacrifice. 11 In the old agreement, the leader of the priests brings the blood from the animal sacrifices into the Most Holy Place. He does that so that God will forgive the sins of the people. But they take the bodies of those animals away from there. They burn them outside the town.[b] 12 In the same way, Jesus also died outside the city.[c] He died as a sacrifice on our behalf. His blood has made his people clean from their sins. 13 Jesus died like that in a place where people insulted him. So we must go out to that place too. We must be ready for people to insult us, as they insulted him. 14 Here on earth, we who are believers do not have a city that will always be our home. But we are waiting for God's city that will come.
15 So we should always praise God, because of what Jesus has done for us. We should say clearly that we trust Jesus. That is like our sacrifice which we offer to God all the time. 16 Remember to be kind to other people. Share with them the things that you have. God is happy with sacrifices like that.
17 Respect your leaders and obey them. They watch over your lives on God's behalf. God will check to see if they have done their work well. So respect them, and then they will be happy as they serve God. Do not say bad things against them, because that will never help you.
18 Pray to God for us. We are sure in our minds that we have done nothing wrong. We always want to do only what is right. 19 The most important thing is this: Pray that I may come back to you soon.
20 I pray that God will help you. He is the one who gives us peace in our minds. He caused our Lord Jesus Christ to become alive again after death. God forgives us because of the blood of Jesus' death on the cross. That is God's new agreement with his people that will be true for ever. Jesus is our great shepherd. He takes care of us like his sheep. 21 I pray that God will give you every good thing that you need to serve him. Then you can do everything that he wants. I pray that God will help us to serve him in a way that will make him happy. He will do that because we belong to Jesus Christ. Jesus is very great, and we should praise him always and for ever! Amen. This is true.
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