1Sing to the LORD a new song, for He has done wonders; His right hand and holy arm have gained Him the victory. 2The LORD has proclaimed His salvation and revealed His righteousness to the nations. 3He has remembered His love and faithfulness to the house of Israel; all the ends of the earth have seen the salvation of our God. 4Make a joyful noise to the LORD, all the earth; break forth—let your cry ring out, and sing praises! 5Sing praises to the LORD with the lyre, in melodious song with the harp. 6With trumpets and the blast of the ram’s horn shout for joy before the LORD, the King. 7Let the sea resound, and all that fills it, the world, and all who dwell in it. 8Let the rivers clap their hands, let the mountains sing together for joy 9before the LORD, for He comes to judge the earth. He will judge the world with righteousness and the peoples with equity.
New Testament·John 18:26–40
26One of the high priest’s servants, a relative of the man whose ear Peter had cut off, asked, “Didn’t I see you with Him in the garden?” 27Peter denied it once more, and immediately a rooster crowed. 28Then they led Jesus away from Caiaphas into the Praetorium. By now it was early morning, and the Jews did not enter the Praetorium, to avoid being defiled and unable to eat the Passover. 29So Pilate went out to them and asked, “What accusation are you bringing against this man?” 30“If He were not a criminal,” they replied, “we would not have handed Him over to you.” 31“You take Him and judge Him by your own law,” Pilate told them. “We are not permitted to execute anyone,” the Jews replied. 32This was to fulfill the word that Jesus had spoken to indicate the kind of death He was going to die. 33Pilate went back into the Praetorium, summoned Jesus, and asked Him, “Are You the King of the Jews?” 34“Are you saying this on your own,” Jesus asked, “or did others tell you about Me?” 35“Am I a Jew?” Pilate replied. “Your own people and chief priests handed You over to me. What have You done?” 36Jesus answered, “My kingdom is not of this world; if it were, My servants would fight to prevent My arrest by the Jews. But now My kingdom is not of this realm.” 37“Then You are a king!” Pilate said. “You say that I am a king,” Jesus answered. “For this reason I was born and have come into the world, to testify to the truth. Everyone who belongs to the truth listens to My voice.” 38“What is truth?” Pilate asked. And having said this, he went out again to the Jews and told them, “I find no basis for a charge against Him. 39But it is your custom that I release to you one prisoner at the Passover. So then, do you want me to release to you the King of the Jews?” 40“Not this man,” they shouted, “but Barabbas!” (Now Barabbas was an insurrectionist.)
Old Testament·1 Kings 11
1King Solomon, however, loved many foreign women along with the daughter of Pharaoh—women of Moab, Ammon, Edom, and Sidon, as well as Hittite women. 2These women were from the nations about which the LORD had told the Israelites, “You must not intermarry with them, for surely they will turn your hearts after their gods.” Yet Solomon clung to these women in love. 3He had seven hundred wives of royal birth and three hundred concubines—and his wives turned his heart away. 4For when Solomon grew old, his wives turned his heart after other gods, and he was not wholeheartedly devoted to the LORD his God, as his father David had been. 5Solomon followed Ashtoreth the goddess of the Sidonians and Milcom the abomination of the Ammonites. 6So Solomon did evil in the sight of the LORD; unlike his father David, he did not follow the LORD completely. 7At that time on a hill east of Jerusalem, Solomon built a high place for Chemosh the abomination of Moab and for Molech the abomination of the Ammonites. 8He did the same for all his foreign wives, who burned incense and sacrificed to their gods. 9Now the LORD grew angry with Solomon, because his heart had turned away from the LORD, the God of Israel, who had appeared to him twice. 10Although He had warned Solomon explicitly not to follow other gods, Solomon did not keep the LORD’s command. 11Then the LORD said to Solomon, “Because you have done this and have not kept My covenant and My statutes, which I have commanded you, I will tear the kingdom away from you and give it to your servant. 12Nevertheless, for the sake of your father David, I will not do it during your lifetime; I will tear it out of the hand of your son. 13Yet I will not tear the whole kingdom away from him. I will give one tribe to your son for the sake of My servant David and for the sake of Jerusalem, which I have chosen.” 14Then the LORD raised up against Solomon an adversary, Hadad the Edomite, from the royal line of Edom. 15Earlier, when David was in Edom, Joab the commander of the army had gone to bury the dead and had struck down every male in Edom. 16Joab and all Israel had stayed there six months, until he had killed every male in Edom. 17But Hadad, still just a young boy, had fled to Egypt, along with some Edomites who were servants of his father. 18Hadad and his men set out from Midian and went to Paran. They took men from Paran with them and went to Egypt, to Pharaoh king of Egypt, who gave Hadad a house and land and provided him with food. 19There Hadad found such great favor in the sight of Pharaoh that he gave to him in marriage the sister of Queen Tahpenes, his own wife. 20And the sister of Tahpenes bore Hadad a son named Genubath. Tahpenes herself weaned him in Pharaoh’s palace, and Genubath lived there among the sons of Pharaoh. 21When Hadad heard in Egypt that David had rested with his fathers and that Joab, the commander of the army, was dead, he said to Pharaoh, “Let me go, that I may return to my own country.” 22But Pharaoh asked him, “What have you lacked here with me that you suddenly want to go back to your own country?” “Nothing,” Hadad replied, “but please let me go.” 23And God raised up against Solomon another adversary, Rezon the son of Eliada, who had fled from his master, Hadadezer king of Zobah, 24and had gathered men to himself. When David killed the Zobaites, Rezon captained a band of raiders and went to Damascus, where they settled and gained control. 25Rezon was Israel’s enemy throughout the days of Solomon, adding to the trouble caused by Hadad. So Rezon ruled over Aram with hostility toward Israel. 26Now Jeroboam son of Nebat was an Ephraimite from Zeredah whose mother was a widow named Zeruah. Jeroboam was a servant of Solomon, but he rebelled against the king, 27and this is the account of his rebellion against the king. Solomon had built the supporting terraces and repaired the gap in the wall of the city of his father David. 28Now Jeroboam was a mighty man of valor. So when Solomon noticed that the young man was industrious, he put him in charge of the whole labor force of the house of Joseph. 29During that time, the prophet Ahijah the Shilonite met Jeroboam on the road as he was going out of Jerusalem. Now Ahijah had wrapped himself in a new cloak, and the two of them were alone in the open field. 30And Ahijah took hold of the new cloak he was wearing, tore it into twelve pieces, 31and said to Jeroboam, “Take ten pieces for yourself, for this is what the LORD, the God of Israel, says: ‘Behold, I will tear the kingdom out of the hand of Solomon, and I will give you ten tribes. 32But one tribe will remain for the sake of My servant David and for the sake of Jerusalem, the city I have chosen out of all the tribes of Israel. 33For they have forsaken Me to worship Ashtoreth the goddess of the Sidonians, Chemosh the god of the Moabites, and Milcom the god of the Ammonites. They have not walked in My ways, nor done what is right in My eyes, nor kept My statutes and judgments, as Solomon’s father David did. 34Nevertheless, I will not take the whole kingdom out of Solomon’s hand, because I have made him ruler all the days of his life for the sake of David My servant, whom I chose because he kept My commandments and statutes. 35But I will take ten tribes of the kingdom from the hand of his son and give them to you. 36I will give one tribe to his son, so that My servant David will always have a lamp before Me in Jerusalem, the city where I chose to put My Name. 37But as for you, I will take you, and you shall reign over all that your heart desires, and you will be king over Israel. 38If you listen to all that I command you, walk in My ways, and do what is right in My sight in order to keep My statutes and commandments as My servant David did, then I will be with you. I will build you a lasting dynasty just as I built for David, and I will give Israel to you. 39Because of this, I will humble David’s descendants—but not forever.’” 40Solomon therefore sought to kill Jeroboam. But Jeroboam arose and fled to Egypt, to Shishak king of Egypt, where he remained until the death of Solomon. 41As for the rest of the acts of Solomon—all that he did, as well as his wisdom—are they not written in the Book of the Acts of Solomon? 42Thus the time that Solomon reigned in Jerusalem over all Israel was forty years. 43And Solomon rested with his fathers and was buried in the city of his father David. And his son Rehoboam reigned in his place.
Reflect
How does this reading point you to the good news of the gospel?