The One Year Bible TLB (134 page)
Read The One Year Bible TLB Online
Authors: Tyndale
Weeping, we sat beside the rivers of Babylon thinking of Jerusalem.
2
We have put away our lyres, hanging them upon the branches of the willow trees,
3-4
for how can we sing? Yet our captors, our tormentors, demand that we sing for them the happy songs of Zion!
5-6
If I forget you, O Jerusalem, let my right hand forget its skill upon the harp. If I fail to love her more than my highest joy, let me never sing again.
7
O Jehovah, do not forget what these Edomites did on that day when the armies of Babylon captured Jerusalem. “Raze her to the ground!” they yelled.
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O Babylon, evil beast, you shall be destroyed. Blessed is the man who destroys you as you have destroyed us.
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Blessed is the man who takes your babies and smashes them against the rocks!
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It is senseless to pay tuition to educate a rebel who has no heart for truth.
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June 20For three years there was no war between Syria and Israel.
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But during the third year, while King Jehoshaphat of Judah was visiting King Ahab of Israel,
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Ahab said to his officials, “Do you realize that the Syrians are still occupying our city of Ramoth-gilead? And we’re sitting here without doing a thing about it!”
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Then he turned to Jehoshaphat and asked him, “Will you send your army with mine to recover Ramoth-gilead?”
And King Jehoshaphat of Judah replied, “Of course! You and I are brothers; my people are yours to command, and my horses are at your service.
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But,” he added, “we should ask the Lord first, to be sure of what he wants us to do.”
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So King Ahab summoned his 400 heathen prophets
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and asked them, “Shall I attack Ramoth-gilead, or not?”
And they all said, “Yes, go ahead, for God will help you conquer it.”
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But Jehoshaphat asked, “Isn’t there a prophet of the Lord here? I’d like to ask him too.”
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“Well, there’s one,” King Ahab replied, “but I hate him, for he never prophesies anything good. He always has something gloomy to say. His name is Micaiah, the son of Imlah.”
“Oh, come now!” Jehoshaphat replied. “Don’t talk like that!”
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So King Ahab called to one of his aides, “Go get Micaiah. Hurry!”
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Meanwhile, all the prophets continued prophesying before the two kings, who were dressed in their royal robes and were sitting on thrones placed on the threshing floor near the city gate.
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One of the prophets, Zedekiah (son of Chenaanah), made some iron horns and declared, “The Lord promises that you will push the Syrians around with these horns until they are destroyed.”
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And all the others agreed. “Go ahead and attack Ramoth-gilead,” they said, “for the Lord will cause you to triumph!”
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The messenger who went to get Micaiah told him what the other prophets were saying and urged him to say the same thing.
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But Micaiah told him, “This I vow, that I will say only what the Lord tells me to!”
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When he arrived, the king asked him, “Micaiah, shall we attack Ramoth-gilead, or not?”
“Why, of course! Go right ahead!” Micaiah told him. “You will have a great victory, for the Lord will cause you to conquer!”
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“How many times must I tell you to speak only what the Lord tells you to?” the king demanded.
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Then Micaiah told him, “I saw all Israel scattered upon the mountains as sheep without a shepherd. And the Lord said, ‘Their king is dead; send them to their homes.’”
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Turning to Jehoshaphat, Ahab complained, “Didn’t I tell you this would happen? He
never
tells me anything good. It’s
always
bad.”
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Then Micaiah said, “Listen to this further word from the Lord. I saw the Lord sitting on his throne, and the armies of heaven stood around him.
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“Then the Lord said, ‘Who will entice Ahab to go and die at Ramoth-gilead?’
“Various suggestions were made,
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until one angel approached the Lord and said, ‘I’ll do it!’
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“‘How?’ the Lord asked.
“And he replied, ‘I will go as a lying spirit in the mouths of all his prophets.’
“And the Lord said, ‘That will do it; you will succeed. Go ahead.’
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“Don’t you see? The Lord has put a lying spirit in the mouths of all these prophets, but the fact of the matter is that the Lord has decreed disaster upon you.”
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Then Zedekiah (son of Chenaanah) walked over and slapped Micaiah on the face.
“When did the Spirit of the Lord leave me and speak to you?” he demanded.
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And Micaiah replied, “You will have the answer to your question when you find yourself hiding in an inner room.”
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Then King Ahab ordered Micaiah’s arrest.
“Take him to Amon, the mayor of the city, and to my son Joash.
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Tell them, ‘The king says to put this fellow in jail and feed him with bread and water—and only enough to keep him alive
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—until I return in peace.’”
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“If you return in peace,” Micaiah replied, “it will prove that the Lord has not spoken through me.” Then he turned to the people standing nearby and said, “Take note of what I’ve said.”
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So King Ahab of Israel and King Jehoshaphat of Judah led their armies to Ramoth-gilead.
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Ahab said to Jehoshaphat, “You wear your royal robes, but I’ll not wear mine!”
So Ahab went into the battle disguised in an ordinary soldier’s uniform.
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For the king of Syria had commanded his thirty-two chariot captains to fight no one except King Ahab himself.
32-33
When they saw King Jehoshaphat in his royal robes, they thought, “That’s the man we’re after.” So they wheeled around to attack him. But when Jehoshaphat shouted out to identify himself,
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they turned back!
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However, someone shot an arrow at random and it struck King Ahab between the joints of his armor.
“Take me out of the battle, for I am badly wounded,” he groaned to his chariot driver.
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The battle became more and more intense as the day wore on, and King Ahab went back in, propped up in his chariot with the blood from his wound running down onto the floorboards. Finally, toward evening, he died.
36-37
Just as the sun was going down the cry ran through his troops. “It’s all over—return home! The king is dead!”
And his body was taken to Samaria and buried there.
38
When his chariot and armor were washed beside the pool of Samaria, where the prostitutes bathed, dogs came and licked the king’s blood just as the Lord had said would happen.
39
The rest of Ahab’s history—including the story of the ivory palace and the cities he built—is written in
The Annals of the Kings of Israel.
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So Ahab was buried among his ancestors, and Ahaziah, his son, became the new king of Israel.
41
Meanwhile, over in Judah, Jehoshaphat the son of Asa had become king during the fourth year of the reign of King Ahab of Israel.
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Jehoshaphat was thirty-five years old when he ascended the throne, and he reigned in Jerusalem for twenty-five years. His mother was Azubah, the daughter of Shilhi.
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He did as his father Asa had done, obeying the Lord in all but one thing: he did not destroy the shrines on the hills, so the people sacrificed and burned incense there.
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He also made peace with Ahab, the king of Israel.
45
The rest of the deeds of Jehoshaphat and his heroic achievements and his wars are described in
The Annals of the Kings of Judah.
46
He also closed all the houses of male prostitution that still continued from the days of his father Asa.
47
(There was no king in Edom at that time, only a deputy.)
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King Jehoshaphat built great freighters to sail to Ophir for gold; but they never arrived, for they were wrecked at Ezion-geber.
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Ahaziah, King Ahab’s son and successor, had proposed to Jehoshaphat that his men go, too, but Jehoshaphat had refused the offer.
50
When King Jehoshaphat died he was buried with his ancestors in Jerusalem, the city of his forefather David; and his son Jehoram took the throne.
51
It was during the seventeenth year of the reign of King Jehoshaphat of Judah that Ahaziah, Ahab’s son, began to reign over Israel in Samaria; and he reigned two years.
52-53
But he was not a good king, for he followed in the footsteps of his father and mother and of Jeroboam, who had led Israel into the sin of worshiping idols. So Ahaziah made the Lord God of Israel very angry.
So Paul stood, waved a greeting to them
*
and began. “Men of Israel,” he said, “and all others here who reverence God, let me begin my remarks with a bit of history.
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“The God of this nation Israel chose our ancestors and honored them in Egypt by gloriously leading them out of their slavery.
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And he nursed them through forty years of wandering around in the wilderness.
19-20
Then he destroyed seven nations in Canaan and gave Israel their land as an inheritance. Judges ruled for about four hundred and fifty years and were followed by Samuel the prophet.
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“Then the people begged for a king, and God gave them Saul (son of Kish), a man of the tribe of Benjamin, who reigned for forty years.
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But God removed him and replaced him with David as king, a man about whom God said, ‘David (son of Jesse) is a man after my own heart, for he will obey me.’
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And it is one of King David’s descendants, Jesus, who is God’s promised Savior of Israel!
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“But before he came, John the Baptist preached the need for everyone in Israel to turn from sin to God.
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As John was finishing his work he asked, ‘Do you think I am the Messiah? No! But he is coming soon—and in comparison with him, I am utterly worthless.’
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“Brothers—you sons of Abraham, and also all of you Gentiles here who reverence God—this salvation is for all of us!
27
The Jews in Jerusalem and their leaders fulfilled prophecy by killing Jesus; for they didn’t recognize him or realize that he is the one the prophets had written about, though they heard the prophets’ words read every Sabbath.
28
They found no just cause to execute him, but asked Pilate to have him killed anyway.
29
When they had fulfilled all the prophecies concerning his death, he was taken from the cross and placed in a tomb.
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“But God brought him back to life again!
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And he was seen many times during the next few days by the men who had accompanied him to Jerusalem from Galilee—these men have constantly testified to this in public witness.
32-33
“And now Barnabas and I are here to bring you this Good News—that God’s promise to our ancestors has come true in our own time, in that God brought Jesus back to life again. This is what the second Psalm is talking about when it says concerning Jesus, ‘Today I have honored you as my Son.’
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34
“For God had promised to bring him back to life again, no more to die. This is stated in the Scripture that says, ‘I will do for you the wonderful thing I promised David.’
35
In another Psalm he explained more fully, saying, ‘God will not let his Holy One decay.’
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This was not a reference to David, for after David had served his generation according to the will of God, he died and was buried, and his body decayed.
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No, it was a reference to another
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—someone God brought back to life, whose body was not touched at all by the ravages of death.
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“Brothers! Listen! In this man Jesus there is forgiveness for your sins!
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Everyone who trusts in him is freed from all guilt and declared righteous—something the Jewish law could never do.
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Oh, be careful! Don’t let the prophets’ words apply to you. For they said,
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‘Look and perish, you despisers of the truth,
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for I am doing something in your day—something that you won’t believe when you hear it announced.’”
Lord, with all my heart I thank you. I will sing your praises before the armies of angels.
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2
I face your Temple as I worship, giving thanks to you for all your loving-kindness and your faithfulness, for your promises are backed by all the honor of your name.
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3
When I pray, you answer me and encourage me by giving me the strength I need.
4
Every king in all the earth shall give you thanks, O Lord, for all of them shall hear your voice.
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Yes, they shall sing about Jehovah’s glorious ways, for his glory is very great.
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Yet though he is so great, he respects the humble, but proud men must keep their distance.
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Though I am surrounded by troubles, you will bring me safely through them. You will clench your fist against my angry enemies! Your power will save me.
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The Lord will work out his plans for my life—for your loving-kindness, Lord, continues forever. Don’t abandon me—for you made me.