Bible Readings for July 20, 2021

Let's read the Bible together in the next year. Today our passages are 2 Chronicles 1:1–3:17; Romans 6:1-23; Psalm 16:1-11; and Proverbs 19:20-21. The readings are the Contemporary English Version.  

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2 Chronicles 1-3:17 (Contemporary English Version)

2 Chronicles 1

The LORD Makes Solomon Wise

(1 Kings 3.1-15)

 ¹King Solomon, the son of David, was now in complete control of his kingdom, because the LORD God had blessed him and made him a powerful king.    ^2-5At that time, the sacred tent that Moses the servant of the LORD had made in the desert was still kept at Gibeon, and in front of the tent was the bronze altar that Bezalel ^[a] had made. One day, Solomon told the people of Israel, the army commanders, the officials, and the family leaders, to go with him to the place of worship at Gibeon, even though his father King David had already moved the sacred chest from Kiriath-Jearim to the tent that he had set up for it in Jerusalem. Solomon and the others went to Gibeon to worship the LORD,
   ⁶and there at the bronze altar, Solomon offered a thousand animals as sacrifices to please the LORD. ^[b]
   ⁷God appeared to Solomon that night in a dream and said, "Solomon, ask for anything you want, and I will give it to you."
   ⁸Solomon answered:
   LORD God, you were always loyal to my father David, and now you have made me king of Israel.
   ⁹I am supposed to rule these people, but there are as many of them as there are specks of dust on the ground. So keep the promise you made to my father
   ¹⁰and make me wise. Give me the knowledge I'll need to be the king of this great nation of yours.
   ¹¹God replied:
   Solomon, you could have asked me to make you rich or famous or to let you live a long time. Or you could have asked for your enemies to be destroyed. Instead, you asked for wisdom and knowledge to rule my people.
   ¹²So I will make you wise and intelligent. But I will also make you richer and more famous than any king before or after you.
   ¹³Solomon then left Gibeon and returned to Jerusalem, the capital city of Israel.     

Solomon's Wealth

(1 Kings 10.26-29)

 ¹⁴Solomon had a force of one thousand four hundred chariots and twelve thousand horses that he kept in Jerusalem and other towns.    ¹⁵While Solomon was king of Israel, there was silver and gold everywhere in Jerusalem, and cedar was as common as ordinary sycamore trees in the foothills.
   ^16-17Solomon's merchants bought his horses and chariots in the regions of Musri and Kue. ^[c] They paid about fifteen pounds of silver for a chariot and almost four pounds of silver for a horse. They also sold horses and chariots to the Hittite and Syrian kings.
    

2 Chronicles 2

Solomon Asks Hiram To Help Build the Temple

(1 Kings 5.1-12)

 ¹Solomon decided to build a temple where the LORD would be worshiped, and also to build a palace for himself.    ²He assigned seventy thousand men to carry building supplies and eighty thousand to cut stone from the hills. And he chose three thousand six hundred men to supervise these workers.
   ³Solomon sent the following message to King Hiram of Tyre:
   Years ago, when my father David was building his palace, you supplied him with cedar logs. Now will you send me supplies?
   ⁴I am building a temple where the LORD my God will be worshiped. Sweet-smelling incense will be burned there, and sacred bread will be offered to him. Worshipers will offer sacrifices to the LORD every morning and evening, every Sabbath, and on the first day of each month, as well as during all our religious festivals. These things will be done for all time, just as the LORD has commanded.
   ⁵This will be a great temple, because our God is greater than all other gods.
   ⁶No one can ever build a temple large enough for God--even the heavens are too small a place for him to live in! All I can do is build a place where we can offer sacrifices to him.
   ⁷Send me a worker who can not only carve, but who can work with gold, silver, bronze, and iron, as well as make brightly colored cloth. The person you send will work here in Judah and Jerusalem with the skilled workers that my father has already hired.
   ⁸I know that you have workers who are experts at cutting lumber in Lebanon. So would you please send me some cedar, pine, and juniper logs? My workers will be there to help them,
   ⁹because I'll need a lot of lumber to build such a large and glorious temple.
   ¹⁰I will pay your woodcutters one hundred twenty-five thousand bushels of wheat, the same amount of barley, one hundred fifteen thousand gallons of wine, and that same amount of olive oil.
   ¹¹Hiram sent his answer back to Solomon:
   I know that the LORD must love his people, because he has chosen you to be their king.
   ¹²Praise the LORD God of Israel who made heaven and earth! He has given David a son who isn't only wise and smart, but who has the knowledge to build a temple for the LORD and a palace for himself.
   ¹³I am sending Huram Abi to you. He is very bright.
   ¹⁴His mother was from the Israelite tribe of Dan, and his father was from Tyre. Not only is Huram an expert at working with gold, silver, bronze, iron, stone, and wood, but he can also make colored cloth and fine linen. And he can carve anything if you give him a pattern to follow. He can help your workers and those hired by your father King David.
   ¹⁵Go ahead and send the wheat, barley, olive oil, and wine you promised to pay my workers.
   ¹⁶I will tell them to start cutting down trees in Lebanon. They will cut as many as you need, then tie them together into rafts, and float them down along the coast to Joppa. Your workers can take them to Jerusalem from there.     

Solomon's Work Force

 ¹⁷Solomon counted all the foreigners who were living in Israel, just as his father David had done when he was king, and the total was 153,600.    ¹⁸He assigned 70,000 of them to carry building supplies and 80,000 of them to cut stone from the hills. He chose 3,600 others to supervise the workers and to make sure the work was completed.
    

2 Chronicles 3

The Temple Is Built

(1 Kings 6.1-38)

 ^1-2Solomon's workers began building the temple in Jerusalem on the second day of the second month, ^[d] four years after Solomon had become king of Israel. It was built on Mount Moriah where the LORD had appeared to David at the threshing place that had belonged to Araunah ^[e] from Jebus.    ³The inside of the temple was ninety feet long and thirty feet wide, according to the older standards. ^[f]
   ⁴Across the front of the temple was a porch thirty feet wide and thirty feet ^[g] high. The inside walls of the porch were covered with pure gold.
   ⁵Solomon had the inside walls of the temple's main room paneled first with pine and then with a layer of gold, and he had them decorated with carvings of palm trees and designs that looked like chains.
   ⁶He used precious stones to decorate the temple, and he used gold imported from Parvaim ^[h]
   ⁷to decorate the ceiling beams, the doors, the door frames, and the walls. Solomon also had the workers carve designs of winged creatures into the walls.
   ⁸The most holy place was thirty feet square, and its walls were covered with almost twenty-five tons of fine gold.
   ⁹More than a pound of gold was used to cover the heads of the nails. The walls of the small storage rooms were also covered with gold. ^[i]
   ¹⁰Solomon had two statues of winged creatures ^[j] made to put in the most holy place, and he covered them with gold.
   ^11-13Each creature had two wings and was fifteen feet from the tip of one wing to the tip of the other wing. Solomon set them next to each other in the most holy place, facing the doorway. Their wings were spread out and reached all the way across the thirty foot room.
   ¹⁴A curtain ^[k] was made of fine linen woven with blue, purple, and red wool, and embroidered with designs of winged creatures.     

The Two Columns

(1 Kings 7.15-22)

 ¹⁵Two columns were made for the entrance to the temple. Each one was fifty-two feet tall and had a cap on top that was seven and a half feet high.    ¹⁶The top of each column was decorated with designs that looked like chains ^[l] and with a hundred carvings of pomegranates. ^[m]
   ¹⁷Solomon had one of the columns placed on the south side of the temple's entrance; it was called Jachin. ^[n] The other one was placed on the north side of the entrance; it was called Boaz. ^[o]
   

Footnotes:

1. 2 Chronicles 1:2 Bezalel: Hebrew "Bezalel son of Uri son of Hur."
2. 2 Chronicles 1:6 sacrifices to please the LORD: These sacrifices have traditionally been called "whole burnt offerings," because the whole animal was burned on the altar. A main purpose of such sacrifices was to please the LORD with the smell of the sacrifice, and so in the CEV they are often called "sacrifices to please the LORD."
3. 2 Chronicles 1:16 Musri and Kue: Hebrew "Egypt and Kue." Musri and Kue were regions located in what is today southeast Turkey.
4. 2 Chronicles 3:1 second month: Ziv, the second month of the Hebrew calendar, from about mid-April to mid-May.
5. 2 Chronicles 3:1 Araunah: The Hebrew text has "Ornan," another spelling of the name (see 2 Samuel 24.18-25; 1 Chronicles 21.18--22.1).
6. 2 Chronicles 3:3 according to the older standards: There were possibly two different standards of measurement during Israel's history.
7. 2 Chronicles 3:4 thirty feet: Some manuscripts of two ancient translations; Hebrew "one hundred eighty feet."
8. 2 Chronicles 3:6 Parvaim: An unknown place.
9. 2 Chronicles 3:9 The walls. . . gold: One possible meaning for the difficult Hebrew text.
10. 2 Chronicles 3:10 statues of winged creatures: These were symbols of the LORD's throne on earth (see Exodus 25.18-22).
11. 2 Chronicles 3:14 A curtain: To separate the most holy place from the main room of the temple.
12. 2 Chronicles 3:16 designs that looked like chains: One possible meaning for the difficult Hebrew text.
13. 2 Chronicles 3:16 pomegranates: A pomegranate is a small red fruit that looks like an apple. In ancient times, it was a symbol of life.
14. 2 Chronicles 3:17 Jachin: Or "He (God) makes secure."
15. 2 Chronicles 3:17 Boaz: Or "He (God) is strong."

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Romans 6:1-23 (Contemporary English Version)

Romans 6

Dead to Sin but Alive because of Christ

 ¹What should we say? Should we keep on sinning, so that God's wonderful kindness will show up even better? ²No, we should not! If we are dead to sin, how can we go on sinning? ³Don't you know that all who share in Christ Jesus by being baptized also share in his death? ⁴When we were baptized, we died and were buried with Christ. We were baptized, so that we would live a new life, as Christ was raised to life by the glory of God the Father.     ⁵If we shared in Jesus' death by being baptized, we will be raised to life with him. ⁶We know that the persons we used to be were nailed to the cross with Jesus. This was done, so that our sinful bodies would no longer be the slaves of sin. ⁷We know that sin doesn't have power over dead people.
    ⁸As surely as we died with Christ, we believe we will also live with him. ⁹We know that death no longer has any power over Christ. He died and was raised to life, never again to die. ¹⁰When Christ died, he died for sin once and for all. But now he is alive, and he lives only for God. ¹¹In the same way, you must think of yourselves as dead to the power of sin. But Christ Jesus has given life to you, and you live for God.
    ¹²Don't let sin rule your body. After all, your body is bound to die, so don't obey its desires ¹³or let any part of it become a slave of evil. Give yourselves to God, as people who have been raised from death to life. Make every part of your body a slave that pleases God. ¹⁴Don't let sin keep ruling your lives. You are ruled by God's kindness and not by the Law.     

Slaves Who Do What Pleases God

 ¹⁵What does all this mean? Does it mean we are free to sin, because we are ruled by God's wonderful kindness and not by the Law? Certainly not! ¹⁶Don't you know that you are slaves of anyone you obey? You can be slaves of sin and die, or you can be obedient slaves of God and be acceptable to him. ¹⁷You used to be slaves of sin. But I thank God that with all your heart you obeyed the teaching you received from me. ¹⁸Now you are set free from sin and are slaves who please God.     ¹⁹I am using these everyday examples, because in some ways you are still weak. You used to let the different parts of your body be slaves of your evil thoughts. But now you must make every part of your body serve God, so that you will belong completely to him.
    ²⁰When you were slaves of sin, you didn't have to please God. ²¹But what good did you receive from the things you did? All you have to show for them is your shame, and they lead to death. ²²Now you have been set free from sin, and you are God's slaves. This will make you holy and will lead you to eternal life. ²³Sin pays off with death. But God's gift is eternal life given by Jesus Christ our Lord.

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Psalm 16:1-11 (Contemporary English Version)

Psalm 16

(A special psalm by David.)

The Best Choice

 ¹Protect me, LORD God!    I run to you for safety,
    ²and I have said,
   "Only you are my Lord!
   Every good thing I have
   is a gift from you."
    ³Your people are wonderful,
   and they make me happy, ^[a] ⁴but worshipers of other gods
   will have much sorrow. ^[b] I refuse to offer sacrifices
   of blood to those gods
   or worship in their name.
    ⁵You, LORD, are all I want!
   You are my choice,
   and you keep me safe.
    ⁶You make my life pleasant,
   and my future is bright.
    ⁷I praise you, LORD,
   for being my guide.
   Even in the darkest night,
   your teachings fill my mind.
    ⁸I will always look to you,
   as you stand beside me
   and protect me from fear.
    ⁹With all my heart,
   I will celebrate,
   and I can safely rest.
    ¹⁰I am your chosen one.
   You won't leave me in the grave
   or let my body decay.
    ¹¹You have shown me
   the path to life,
   and you make me glad
   by being near to me.
   Sitting at your right side, ^[c] I will always be joyful.
    

Footnotes:

1. Psalm 16:3 Your people. . . happy: Or " I was happy worshiping gods I thought were powerful."
2. Psalm 16:4 but. . . sorrow: One possible meaning for the difficult Hebrew text.
3. Psalm 16:11 right side: The place of power and honor.

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Proverbs 19:20-21 (Contemporary English Version)

²⁰Pay attention to advice
   and accept correction,
   so you can live sensibly.
    ²¹We may make a lot of plans,
   but the LORD will do
   what he has decided. 

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Thought for the Day

 

“But if we live in the light, as God does, we share in life with each other. And the blood of his Son Jesus washes all our sins away.” (1 John 1:7 -  Contemporary English Version) Because we've chosen to live in the light, we know that we've been called to love one another just as we've been loved. And thanks to the blood of Christ, we now have the freedom and insight to do it.

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Quote for the Day

New Zealand mountaineer, explorer, and philanthropist, Edmund Hillary wrote, “Life's a bit like mountaineering - never look down.”

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A Joke for Today

Signs of Irony...

Maternity Clothes Shop:

We Are Open On Labor Day

Non-smoking area:

If We See You Smoking, We Will Assume You Are On Fire And Take Appropriate Action

On Maternity Room Door:

Push,Push,Push

Optometrist's Office:

If You Don't See What You're Looking For,You've Come To The Right Place

Scientist's Door:

Gone Fission

Taxidermist Window:

We Really Know Our Stuff

Podiatrist's Window:

Time Wounds All Heels

Butcher's Window:

Let Me Meat Your Needs

Car Dealership:

The Best Way To Get Back On Your Feet - Miss a Car Payment

Muffler Shop:

No Appointment Necessary. We'll Hear You Coming

Hotel:

Help! We Need Inn - Experienced People

Veterinarian's Waiting Room:

Be Back In 5 Minutes. Sit! Stay!

Music Teacher's Door:

Out Chopin

At the Electric Company:

We Would Be Delighted If You Send In Your Bill. However, If You Don't, You Will Be.

Garbage Truck:

We've Got What It Takes To Take What You've Got

Computer Store:

Out For a Quick Byte

Restaurant Window:

Don't Stand There and Be Hungry, Come In And Get Fed Up

Bowling Alley:

Please Be Quiet. We Need To Hear A Pin Drop.

Music Library:

Bach In A Minuet

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A Prayer Request

As Christians, we can offer specific daily prayers for our community, nation and world. Below is the need that we're laying before God today.

That leaders put aside their pride and ambition for the good of their country.