Bible Readings for June 10, 2020

Let's read the Bible together in the next year. Today our passages are 1 Kings 7:1-51; Acts 7:30-50; Psalm 128:1-6; and Proverbs 16:31-33. The readings are from The Message by Eugene H. Peterson. 

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1 Kings 7:1-51 (The Message)

1 Kings 7

 ^1-5 It took Solomon another thirteen years to finish building his own palace complex. He built the Palace of the Forest of Lebanon a hundred and fifty feet long, seventy-five feet wide, and forty-five feet high. There were four rows of cedar columns supporting forty-five cedar beams, fifteen in each row, and then roofed with cedar. Windows in groupings of three were set high in the walls on either side. All the doors were rectangular and arranged symmetrically.  ⁶ He built a colonnaded courtyard seventy-five feet long and forty-five wide. It had a roofed porch at the front with ample eaves.
 ⁷ He built a court room, the Hall of Justice, where he would decide judicial matters, and paneled it with cedar.
 ⁸ He built his personal residence behind the Hall on a similar plan. Solomon also built another one just like it for Pharaoh's daughter, whom he had married.
 ^9-12 No expense was spared—everything here, inside and out, from foundation to roof was constructed using high-quality stone, accurately cut and shaped and polished. The foundation stones were huge, ranging in size from twelve to fifteen feet, and of the very best quality. The finest stone was used above the foundation, shaped to size and trimmed with cedar. The courtyard was enclosed with a wall made of three layers of stone and topped with cedar timbers, just like the one in the porch of The Temple of God.

^13-14 King Solomon sent to Tyre and asked Hiram (not the king; another Hiram) to come. Hiram's mother was a widow from the tribe of Naphtali. His father was a Tyrian and a master worker in bronze. Hiram was a real artist—he could do anything with bronze. He came to King Solomon and did all the bronze work.
 ^15-22 First he cast two pillars in bronze, each twenty-seven feet tall and eighteen feet in circumference. He then cast two capitals in bronze to set on the pillars; each capital was seven and a half feet high and flared at the top in the shape of a lily. Each capital was dressed with an elaborate filigree of seven braided chains and a double row of two hundred pomegranates, setting the pillars off magnificently. He set the pillars up in the entrance porch to The Temple; the pillar to the south he named Security (Jachin) and the pillar to the north Stability (Boaz). The capitals were in the shape of lilies.
 ^22-24 When the pillars were finished, Hiram's next project was to make the Sea—an immense round basin of cast metal fifteen feet in diameter, seven and a half feet tall, and forty-five feet in circumference. Just under the rim there were two bands of decorative gourds, ten gourds to each foot and a half. The gourds were cast in one piece with the Sea.
 ^25-26 The Sea was set on twelve bulls, three facing north, three facing west, three facing south, and three facing east; the bulls faced outward supporting the Sea on their hindquarters. The Sea was three inches thick and flared at the rim like a cup, or like a lily. It held about 11,500 gallons.
 ^27-33 Hiram also made ten washstands of bronze. Each was six feet square and four and a half feet tall. They were made like this: Panels were fastened to the uprights. Lions, bulls, and cherubim were represented on the panels and uprights. Beveled wreath-work bordered the lions and bulls above and below. Each stand was mounted on four bronze wheels with bronze axles. The uprights were cast with decorative relief work. Each stand held a basin on a circular engraved support a foot and a half deep set on a pedestal two and a quarter feet square. The washstand itself was square. The axles were attached under the stand and the wheels fixed to them. The wheels were twenty-seven inches in diameter; they were designed like chariot wheels. Everything—axles, rims, spokes, and hubs—was of cast metal.
 ^34-37 There was a handle at the four corners of each washstand, the handles cast in one piece with the stand. At the top of the washstand there was a ring about nine inches deep. The uprights and handles were cast with the stand. Everything and every available surface was engraved with cherubim, lions, and palm trees, bordered by arabesques. The washstands were identical, all cast in the same mold.
 ^38-40 He also made ten bronze washbasins, each six feet in diameter with a capacity of 230 gallons, one basin for each of the ten washstands. He arranged five stands on the south side of The Temple and five on the north. The Sea was placed at the southeast corner of The Temple. Hiram then fashioned the various utensils: buckets and shovels and bowls.
 ^40-45 Hiram completed all the work he set out to do for King Solomon on The Temple of God:
   two pillars;
   two capitals on top of the pillars;
   two decorative filigrees for the capitals;
   four hundred pomegranates for the two filigrees
      (a double row of pomegranates for each filigree);
   ten washstands each with its washbasin;
   one Sea;
   twelve bulls under the Sea;
   miscellaneous buckets, shovels, and bowls.
 ^45-47 All these artifacts that Hiram made for King Solomon for The Temple of God were of burnished bronze. He cast them in clay in a foundry on the Jordan plain between Succoth and Zarethan. These artifacts were never weighed—there were far too many! Nobody has any idea how much bronze was used.
 ^48-50 Solomon was also responsible for all the furniture and accessories in The Temple of God:
   the gold Altar;
   the gold Table that held the Bread of the Presence;
   the pure gold candelabras, five to the right and five to the
      left in front of the Inner Sanctuary;
   the gold flowers, lamps, and tongs;
   the pure gold dishes, wick trimmers, sprinkling bowls, ladles, and
      censers;
   the gold sockets for the doors of the Inner Sanctuary, the Holy of
      Holies, used also for the doors of the Main Sanctuary.
 ⁵¹ That completed all the work King Solomon did on The Temple of God. He then brought in the items consecrated by his father David, the silver and the gold and the artifacts. He placed them all in the treasury of God's Temple. 

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Acts 7:30-50 (The Message)

 ^30-32"Forty years later, in the wilderness of Mount Sinai, an angel appeared to him in the guise of flames of a burning bush. Moses, not believing his eyes, went up to take a closer look. He heard God's voice: 'I am the God of your fathers, the God of Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob.' Frightened nearly out of his skin, Moses shut his eyes and turned away.
 ^33-34"God said, 'Kneel and pray. You are in a holy place, on holy ground. I've seen the agony of my people in Egypt. I've heard their groans. I've come to help them. So get yourself ready; I'm sending you back to Egypt.'
 ^35-39"This is the same Moses whom they earlier rejected, saying, 'Who put you in charge of us?' This is the Moses that God, using the angel flaming in the burning bush, sent back as ruler and redeemer. He led them out of their slavery. He did wonderful things, setting up God-signs all through Egypt, down at the Red Sea, and out in the wilderness for forty years. This is the Moses who said to his congregation, 'God will raise up a prophet just like me from your descendants.' This is the Moses who stood between the angel speaking at Sinai and your fathers assembled in the wilderness and took the life-giving words given to him and handed them over to us, words our fathers would have nothing to do with.
 ^39-41"They craved the old Egyptian ways, whining to Aaron, 'Make us gods we can see and follow. This Moses who got us out here miles from nowhere—who knows what's happened to him!' That was the time when they made a calf-idol, brought sacrifices to it, and congratulated each other on the wonderful religious program they had put together.
 ^42-43"God wasn't at all pleased; but he let them do it their way, worship every new god that came down the pike—and live with the consequences, consequences described by the prophet Amos:

   Did you bring me offerings of animals and grains
      those forty wilderness years, O Israel?
   Hardly. You were too busy building shrines
      to war gods, to sex goddesses,
   Worshiping them with all your might.
      That's why I put you in exile in Babylon.
 ^44-47"And all this time our ancestors had a tent shrine for true worship, made to the exact specifications God provided Moses. They had it with them as they followed Joshua, when God cleared the land of pagans, and still had it right down to the time of David. David asked God for a permanent place for worship. But Solomon built it.
 ^48-50"Yet that doesn't mean that Most High God lives in a building made by carpenters and masons. The prophet Isaiah put it well when he wrote,

   "Heaven is my throne room;
      I rest my feet on earth.
   So what kind of house
      will you build me?" says God.
   "Where I can get away and relax?
      It's already built, and I built it." 

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Psalm 128:1-6 (The Message)

Psalm 128

A Pilgrim Song

 ^1-2 All you who fear God, how blessed you are! how happily you walk on his smooth straight road!
   You worked hard and deserve all you've got coming.
      Enjoy the blessing! Revel in the goodness!

 ^3-4 Your wife will bear children as a vine bears grapes,
      your household lush as a vineyard,
   The children around your table
      as fresh and promising as young olive shoots.
   Stand in awe of God's Yes.
      Oh, how he blesses the one who fears God!

 ^5-6 Enjoy the good life in Jerusalem
      every day of your life.
   And enjoy your grandchildren.
      Peace to Israel! 

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Proverbs 16:31-33 (The Message)

 ³¹ Gray hair is a mark of distinction,
   the award for a God-loyal life.

 ³² Moderation is better than muscle,
   self-control better than political power.

 ³³ Make your motions and cast your votes,
   but God has the final say. 

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Verse of the Day

“Put up with each other, and forgive anyone who does you wrong, just as Christ has forgiven you.” - Colossians 3:13 

Today's passage is from the Contemporary English Version.

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Quote for the Day

Canadian-American writer, Saul Bellow wrote, “Everybody needs his memories. They keep the wolf of insignificance from the door.”

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A Joke for Today

A couples happy married life almost went on the rocks because of the presence in the household of old Aunt Emma.

For seventeen long years she lived with them, always crotchety, always demanding.

Finally the old girl passed away.

On the way back from the cemetery, the husband confessed to his wife, "Darling, if I didn't love you so much, I don't think I would have put up with having your Aunt Emma in the house all those years."

His wife looked at him aghast... "My Aunt Emma?" she cried, "I thought she was your Aunt Emma!"