Day 212 reading

Wisdom·Psalm 118:23–29

²³This is from the LORD, and it is marvelous in our eyes. ²⁴This is the day that the LORD has made; we will rejoice and be glad in it. ²⁵O LORD, save us, we pray. We beseech You, O LORD, cause us to prosper! ²⁶Blessed is he who comes in the name of the LORD. From the house of the LORD we bless you. ²⁷The LORD is God; He has made His light to shine upon us. Bind the festal sacrifice with cords to the horns of the altar. ²⁸You are my God, and I will give You thanks. You are my God, and I will exalt You. ²⁹Give thanks to the LORD, for He is good; His loving devotion endures forever.

New Testament·Acts 23:15–35

¹⁵Now then, you and the Sanhedrin petition the commander to bring him down to you on the pretext of examining his case more carefully. We are ready to kill him on the way.” ¹⁶But when the son of Paul’s sister heard about the plot, he went into the barracks and told Paul. ¹⁷Then Paul called one of the centurions and said, “Take this young man to the commander; he has something to tell him.” ¹⁸So the centurion took him to the commander and said, “Paul the prisoner sent and asked me to bring this young man to you. He has something to tell you.” ¹⁹The commander took the young man by the hand, drew him aside, and asked, “What do you need to tell me?” ²⁰He answered, “The Jews have agreed to ask you to bring Paul to the Sanhedrin tomorrow on the pretext of acquiring more information about him. ²¹Do not let them persuade you, because more than forty men are waiting to ambush him. They have bound themselves with an oath not to eat or drink until they have killed him; they are ready now, awaiting your consent.” ²²So the commander dismissed the young man and instructed him, “Do not tell anyone that you have reported this to me.” ²³Then he called two of his centurions and said, “Prepare two hundred soldiers, seventy horsemen, and two hundred spearmen to go to Caesarea in the third hour of the night. ²⁴Provide mounts for Paul to take him safely to Governor Felix.” ²⁵And he wrote the following letter: ²⁶Claudius Lysias, To His Excellency, Governor Felix: Greetings. ²⁷This man was seized by the Jews, and they were about to kill him when I came with my troops to rescue him. For I had learned that he is a Roman citizen, ²⁸and since I wanted to understand their charges against him, I brought him down to their Sanhedrin. ²⁹I found that the accusation involved questions about their own law, but there was no charge worthy of death or imprisonment. ³⁰When I was informed that there was a plot against the man, I sent him to you at once. I also instructed his accusers to present their case against him before you. ³¹So the soldiers followed their orders and brought Paul by night to Antipatris. ³²The next day they returned to the barracks and let the horsemen go on with him. ³³When the horsemen arrived in Caesarea, they delivered the letter to the governor and presented Paul to him. ³⁴The governor read the letter and asked what province Paul was from. Learning that he was from Cilicia, ³⁵he said, “I will hear your case when your accusers arrive.” Then he ordered that Paul be kept under guard in Herod’s Praetorium.

Old Testament·2 Chronicles 12–13

¹After Rehoboam had established his sovereignty and royal power, he and all Israel with him forsook the Law of the LORD. ²In the fifth year of Rehoboam’s reign, because they had been unfaithful to the LORD, Shishak king of Egypt came up and attacked Jerusalem ³with 1,200 chariots, 60,000 horsemen, and countless troops who came with him out of Egypt—Libyans, Sukkites, and Cushites. ⁴He captured the fortified cities of Judah and came as far as Jerusalem. ⁵Then Shemaiah the prophet came to Rehoboam and the leaders of Judah who had gathered at Jerusalem because of Shishak, and he said to them, “This is what the LORD says: ‘You have forsaken Me; therefore, I have forsaken you into the hand of Shishak.’” ⁶So the leaders of Israel and the king humbled themselves and said, “The LORD is righteous.” ⁷When the LORD saw that they had humbled themselves, the word of the LORD came to Shemaiah, saying, “They have humbled themselves; I will not destroy them, but will soon grant them deliverance. My wrath will not be poured out on Jerusalem through Shishak. ⁸Nevertheless, they will become his servants, so that they may learn the difference between serving Me and serving the kings of other lands.” ⁹So King Shishak of Egypt attacked Jerusalem and seized the treasures of the house of the LORD and of the royal palace. He took everything, including the gold shields that Solomon had made. ¹⁰Then King Rehoboam made bronze shields in their place and committed them to the care of the captains of the guard on duty at the entrance to the royal palace. ¹¹And whenever the king entered the house of the LORD, the guards would go with him, bearing the shields, and later they would return them to the guardroom. ¹²Because Rehoboam humbled himself, the anger of the LORD turned away from him, and He did not destroy him completely. Indeed, conditions were good in Judah. ¹³Thus King Rehoboam established himself in Jerusalem. He was forty-one years old when he became king, and he reigned seventeen years in Jerusalem, the city the LORD had chosen from all the tribes of Israel in which to put His Name. His mother’s name was Naamah the Ammonite. ¹⁴And Rehoboam did evil because he did not set his heart to seek the LORD. ¹⁵Now the acts of Rehoboam, from first to last, are they not written in the records of Shemaiah the Prophet and of Iddo the Seer concerning the genealogies? There was war between Rehoboam and Jeroboam throughout their days. ¹⁶And Rehoboam rested with his fathers and was buried in the City of David. And his son Abijah reigned in his place.

13In the eighteenth year of Jeroboam’s reign, Abijah became king of Judah, ²and he reigned in Jerusalem three years. His mother’s name was Micaiah daughter of Uriel; she was from Gibeah. And there was war between Abijah and Jeroboam. ³Abijah went into battle with an army of 400,000 chosen men, while Jeroboam drew up in formation against him with 800,000 chosen and mighty men of valor. ⁴Then Abijah stood on Mount Zemaraim in the hill country of Ephraim and said, “Hear me, O Jeroboam and all Israel! ⁵Do you not know that the LORD, the God of Israel, has given the kingship of Israel to David and his descendants forever by a covenant of salt? ⁶Yet Jeroboam son of Nebat, a servant of Solomon son of David, rose up and rebelled against his master. ⁷Then worthless and wicked men gathered around him to resist Rehoboam son of Solomon when he was young, inexperienced, and unable to resist them. ⁸And now you think you can resist the kingdom of the LORD, which is in the hands of David’s descendants. You are indeed a vast army, and you have with you the golden calves that Jeroboam made for you as gods. ⁹But did you not drive out the priests of the LORD, the sons of Aaron, and the Levites? And did you not make priests for yourselves as do the peoples of other lands? Now whoever comes to consecrate himself with a young bull and seven rams can become a priest of things that are not gods. ¹⁰But as for us, the LORD is our God. We have not forsaken Him; the priests who minister to the LORD are sons of Aaron, and the Levites attend to their duties. ¹¹Every morning and every evening they present burnt offerings and fragrant incense to the LORD. They set out the rows of showbread on the ceremonially clean table, and every evening they light the lamps of the gold lampstand. We are carrying out the requirements of the LORD our God, while you have forsaken Him. ¹²Now behold, God Himself is with us as our head, and His priests with their trumpets sound the battle call against you. O children of Israel, do not fight against the LORD, the God of your fathers, for you will not succeed.” ¹³Now Jeroboam had sent troops around to ambush from the rear, so that while he was in front of Judah, the ambush was behind them. ¹⁴When Judah turned and discovered that the battle was both before and behind them, they cried out to the LORD. Then the priests blew the trumpets, ¹⁵and the men of Judah raised the battle cry. And when they raised the cry, God routed Jeroboam and all Israel before Abijah and Judah. ¹⁶So the Israelites fled before Judah, and God delivered them into their hands. ¹⁷Then Abijah and his people struck them with a mighty blow, and 500,000 chosen men of Israel fell slain. ¹⁸Thus the Israelites were subdued at that time, and the men of Judah prevailed because they relied on the LORD, the God of their fathers. ¹⁹Abijah pursued Jeroboam and captured some cities from him: Bethel, Jeshanah, and Ephron, along with their villages. ²⁰Jeroboam did not again recover his power during the days of Abijah, and the LORD struck him down and he died. ²¹But Abijah grew strong, married fourteen wives, and became the father of twenty-two sons and sixteen daughters. ²²Now the rest of the acts of Abijah, along with his ways and his words, are written in the Treatise of the Prophet Iddo.