Bible Readings for July 3, 2021

Let's read the Bible together in the next year. Today our passages are 2 Kings 22:3–23:30; Acts 21:37–22:16; Psalm 1:1-6; and Proverbs 18:11-12. The readings are the Contemporary English Version.  

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2 Kings 22:3-23:30 (Contemporary English Version)

Hilkiah Finds The Book of God's Law

(2 Chronicles 34.8-28)

 ³After Josiah had been king for eighteen years, he told Shaphan, ^[a] one of his highest officials: Go to the LORD's temple ⁴and ask Hilkiah the high priest to collect from the guards all the money that the people have donated. ⁵Have Hilkiah give it to the men supervising the repairs to the temple. They can use some of the money to pay ⁶the workers, and with the rest of it they can buy wood and stone for the repair work. ⁷They are honest, so we won't ask them to keep track of the money.     ⁸While Shaphan was at the temple, Hilkiah handed him a book and said, "Look what I found here in the temple--The Book of God's Law." 
   Shaphan read it, ⁹then went back to Josiah and reported, "Your officials collected the money in the temple and gave it to the men supervising the repairs. ¹⁰But there's something else, Your Majesty. The priest Hilkiah gave me this book." Then Shaphan read it out loud. 
    ¹¹When Josiah heard what was in The Book of God's Law, he tore his clothes in sorrow. ¹²At once he called together Hilkiah, Shaphan, Ahikam son of Shaphan, Achbor son of Micaiah, and his own servant Asaiah. He said, ¹³"The LORD must be furious with me and everyone else in Judah, because our ancestors did not obey the laws written in this book. Go find out what the LORD wants us to do." 
    ¹⁴The five men left right away and went to talk with Huldah the prophet. Her husband was Shallum, ^[b] who was in charge of the king's clothes. Huldah lived in the northern part of Jerusalem, and when they met in her home, ¹⁵she said: You were sent here by King Josiah, and this is what the LORD God of Israel says to him: ¹⁶"Josiah, I am the LORD! And I will see to it that this country and everyone living in it will be destroyed. It will happen just as this book says. ¹⁷The people of Judah have rejected me. They have offered sacrifices to foreign gods and have worshiped their own idols. I cannot stand it any longer. I am furious. 
    ¹⁸"Josiah, listen to what I am going to do. ¹⁹I noticed how sad you were when you read that this country and its people would be completely wiped out. You even tore your clothes in sorrow, and I heard you cry. ²⁰So I will let you die in peace, before I destroy this place." 
   The men left and took Huldah's answer back to Josiah. 
    

2 Kings 23

Josiah Reads The Book of God's Law

(2 Chronicles 34.29-33)

 ¹King Josiah called together the older leaders of Judah and Jerusalem. ²Then he went to the LORD's temple, together with the people of Judah and Jerusalem, the priests, and the prophets. Finally, when everybody was there, he read aloud The Book of God's Law ^[c] that had been found in the temple. ³After Josiah had finished reading, he stood by one of the columns. He asked the people to promise in the LORD's name to faithfully obey the LORD and to follow his commands. The people agreed to do everything written in the book.     

Josiah Follows the Teachings of God's Law

(2 Chronicles 34.3-7)

 ⁴Josiah told Hilkiah the priest, the assistant priests, and the guards at the temple door to go into the temple and bring out the things used to worship Baal, Asherah, and the stars. Josiah had these things burned in Kidron Valley just outside Jerusalem, and he had the ashes carried away to the town of Bethel.     ⁵Josiah also got rid of the pagan priests at the local shrines in Judah and around Jerusalem. These were the men that the kings of Judah had appointed to offer sacrifices to Baal and to the sun, moon, and stars. ⁶Josiah had the sacred pole ^[d] for Asherah brought out of the temple and taken to Kidron Valley, where it was burned. He then had its ashes ground into dust and scattered over the public cemetery there. ⁷He had the buildings torn down where the male prostitutes ^[e] lived next to the temple, and where the women wove sacred robes ^[f] for the idol of Asherah. ⁸In almost every town in Judah, priests had been offering sacrifices to the LORD at local shrines. ^[g] Josiah brought these priests to Jerusalem and had their shrines made unfit for worship--every shrine from Geba just north of Jerusalem to Beersheba in the south. He even tore down the shrine at Beersheba that was just to the left of Joshua Gate, which was named after the highest official of the city. ⁹Those local priests could not serve at the LORD's altar in Jerusalem, but they were allowed to eat sacred bread, ^[h] just like the priests from Jerusalem. ¹⁰Josiah sent some men to Hinnom Valley just outside Jerusalem with orders to make the altar there unfit for worship. That way, people could no longer use it for sacrificing their children to the god Molech. ¹¹He also got rid of the horses that the kings of Judah used in their ceremonies to worship the sun, and he destroyed the chariots along with them. The horses had been kept near the entrance to the LORD's temple, in a courtyard ^[i] close to where an official named Nathan-Melech lived. ¹²Some of the kings of Judah, especially Manasseh, had built altars in the two courts of the temple and in the room that Ahaz had built on the palace roof. Josiah had these altars torn down and smashed to pieces, and he had the pieces thrown into Kidron Valley, just outside Jerusalem. ¹³After that, he closed down the shrines that Solomon had built east of Jerusalem and south of Spoil Hill to honor Astarte the disgusting goddess of Sidon, Chemosh the disgusting god of Moab, and Milcom the disgusting god of Ammon. ^[j] ¹⁴He tore down the stone images of foreign gods and cut down the sacred pole used in the worship of Asherah. Then he had the whole area covered with human bones. ^[k] ¹⁵But Josiah was not finished yet. At Bethel he destroyed the shrine and the altar that Jeroboam son of Nebat had built and that had caused the Israelites to sin. Josiah had the shrine and the Asherah pole burned and ground into dust. ¹⁶As he looked around, he saw graves on the hillside. He had the bones in them dug up and burned on the altar, so that it could no longer be used. This happened just as God's prophet had said when Jeroboam was standing at the altar, celebrating a festival. ^[l] Then Josiah saw the grave of the prophet who had said this would happen ¹⁷and he asked, ^[m] "Whose grave is that?" Some people who lived nearby answered, "It belongs to the prophet from Judah who told what would happen to this altar." 
    ¹⁸Josiah replied, "Then leave it alone. Don't dig up his bones." So they did not disturb his bones or the bones of the old prophet from Israel who had also been buried there. ^[n] ¹⁹Some of the Israelite kings had made the LORD angry by building pagan shrines all over Israel. So Josiah sent troops to destroy these shrines just as he had done to the one in Bethel. ²⁰He killed the priests who served at them and burned their bones on the altars. 
   After all that, Josiah went back to Jerusalem.     

Josiah and the People of Judah Celebrate Passover

(2 Chronicles 35.1-19)

 ²¹Josiah told the people of Judah, "Celebrate Passover in honor of the LORD your God, just as it says in The Book of God's Law." ^[o] ²²This festival had not been celebrated in this way since kings ruled Israel and Judah. ²³But in Josiah's eighteenth year as king of Judah, everyone came to Jerusalem to celebrate Passover.     

The LORD Is Still Angry at the People of Judah

 ²⁴Josiah got rid of every disgusting person and thing in Judah and Jerusalem--including magicians, fortunetellers, and idols. He did his best to obey every law written in the book that the priest Hilkiah found in the LORD's temple. ²⁵No other king before or after Josiah tried as hard as he did to obey the Law of Moses.     ²⁶But the LORD was still furious with the people of Judah because Manasseh had done so many things to make him angry. ²⁷The LORD said, "I will desert the people of Judah, just as I deserted the people of Israel. I will reject Jerusalem, even though I chose it to be mine. And I will abandon this temple built to honor me."     

Josiah Dies in Battle

(2 Chronicles 35.20--36.1)

 ²⁸Everything else Josiah did while he was king is written in The History of the Kings of Judah. ²⁹During Josiah's rule, King Neco of Egypt led his army north to the Euphrates River to help the king of Assyria. Josiah led his troops north to fight Neco, but when they met in battle at Megiddo, Josiah was killed. ^[p] ³⁰A few of Josiah's servants put his body in a chariot and took it back to Jerusalem, where they buried it in his own tomb. Then the people of Judah found his son Jehoahaz and poured olive oil on his head to show that he was their new king. 

Footnotes:

1. 2 Kings 22:3 Shaphan: Hebrew "Shaphan son of Azaliah son of Meshullam."
2. 2 Kings 22:14 Shallum: Hebrew "Shallum son of Tikvah son of Harhas."
3. 2 Kings 23:2 The Book of God's Law: The Hebrew text has "The Book of God's Agreement," which is the same as "The Book of God's Law" in 22.8,11. In traditional translations this is called "The Book of the Covenant."
4. 2 Kings 23:6 sacred pole: See the note at 13.6,7.
5. 2 Kings 23:7 male prostitutes: Young men or boys sometimes served as prostitutes in the worship of Canaanite gods, but the LORD had forbidden the people of Israel and Judah to worship in this way (see Deuteronomy 23.17,18).
6. 2 Kings 23:7 sacred robes: Or "coverings."
7. 2 Kings 23:8 local shrines: See the note at 12.3.
8. 2 Kings 23:9 sacred bread: The Hebrew text has "thin bread," which may be either the pieces of thin bread made without yeast to be eaten during the Passover Festival (see verses 21-23) or the baked flour used in sacrifices to give thanks to the LORD (see Leviticus 2.4,5).
9. 2 Kings 23:11 in a courtyard: One possible meaning for the difficult Hebrew text.
10. 2 Kings 23:13 the shrines. . . Ammon: See 1 Kings 11.5-7.
11. 2 Kings 23:14 Then he. . . human bones: This made the whole area unfit for the worship of any god.
12. 2 Kings 23:16 just. . . festival: See 1 Kings 13.1,2.
13. 2 Kings 23:17 said when Jeroboam. . . asked: One ancient translation; Hebrew "said. 17 Then Josiah asked."
14. 2 Kings 23:18 old prophet. . . there: See 1 Kings 13.11-32.
15. 2 Kings 23:21 The Book of God's Law: See the note at verse 2.
16. 2 Kings 23:29 killed: At this time, King Neco of Egypt (609-595 B.C.) was fighting on the side of the Assyrians. He marched north to fight the Babylonian army and help Assyria keep control of its land. Since Josiah considered Assyria an enemy, he set out to stop Neco and the Egyptian troops.

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Acts 21:37-22:16 (Contemporary English Version)

Paul Speaks to the Crowd

 ³⁷When Paul was about to be taken into the fortress, he asked the commander, "Can I say something to you?"    "How do you know Greek?" the commander asked. ³⁸"Aren't you that Egyptian who started a riot not long ago and led four thousand terrorists into the desert?" 
    ³⁹"No!" Paul replied. "I am a Jew from Tarsus, an important city in Cilicia. Please let me speak to the crowd." 
    ⁴⁰The commander told him he could speak, so Paul stood on the steps and motioned to the people. When they were quiet, he spoke to them in Aramaic: 
    

Acts 22

 ¹"My friends and leaders of our nation, listen as I explain what happened!" ²When the crowd heard Paul speak to them in Aramaic, they became even quieter. Then Paul said:     ³I am a Jew, born and raised in the city of Tarsus in Cilicia. I was a student of Gamaliel and was taught to follow every single law of our ancestors. In fact, I was just as eager to obey God as any of you are today. 
    ⁴I made trouble for everyone who followed the Lord's Way, ^[a] and I even had some of them killed. I had others arrested and put in jail. I didn't care if they were men or women. ⁵The high priest and all the council members can tell you that this is true. They even gave me letters to the Jewish leaders in Damascus, so that I could arrest people there and bring them to Jerusalem to be punished. ⁶One day about noon I was getting close to Damascus, when a bright light from heaven suddenly flashed around me. ⁷I fell to the ground and heard a voice asking, "Saul, Saul, why are you so cruel to me?" 
    ⁸"Who are you?" I answered. 
   The Lord replied, "I am Jesus from Nazareth! I am the one you are so cruel to." ⁹The men who were traveling with me saw the light, but did not hear the voice. 
    ¹⁰I asked, "Lord, what do you want me to do?" 
   Then he told me, "Get up and go to Damascus. When you get there, you will be told what to do." ¹¹The light had been so bright that I couldn't see. And the other men had to lead me by the hand to Damascus. 
    ¹²In that city there was a man named Ananias, who faithfully obeyed the Law of Moses and was well liked by all the Jewish people living there. ¹³He came to me and said, "Saul, my friend, you can now see again!" 
   At once I could see. ¹⁴Then Ananias told me, "The God that our ancestors worshiped has chosen you to know what he wants done. He has chosen you to see the One Who Obeys God ^[b] and to hear his voice. ¹⁵You must tell everyone what you have seen and heard. ¹⁶What are you waiting for? Get up! Be baptized, and wash away your sins by praying to the Lord." 

Footnotes:

1. Acts 22:4 followed the Lord's Way: See the note at 9.2.
2. Acts 22:14 One Who Obeys God: See the note at 7.52.

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Psalm 1:1-6 (Contemporary English Version)

Psalm 1

BOOK I

(Psalms 1-41)

The Way to Happiness

 ¹God blesses those people    who refuse evil advice 
   and won't follow sinners 
   or join in sneering at God. 
    ²Instead, the Law of the LORD 
   makes them happy, 
   and they think about it 
   day and night. 
    ³They are like trees 
   growing beside a stream, 
   trees that produce 
   fruit in season 
   and always have leaves. 
   Those people succeed 
   in everything they do. 
    ⁴That isn't true of those 
   who are evil, 
   because they are like straw 
   blown by the wind. 
    ⁵Sinners won't have an excuse 
   on the day of judgment, 
   and they won't have a place 
   with the people of God. 
    ⁶The LORD protects everyone 
   who follows him, 
   but the wicked follow a road 
   that leads to ruin.

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Proverbs 18:11-12 (Contemporary English Version)

¹¹the rich think their money 
   is a wall of protection. 
    ¹²Pride leads to destruction; 
   humility leads to honor. 

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Thought for the Day

 

“Doing right brings honor to a nation, but sin brings disgrace.” (Proverbs 14:34 - Contemporary English Version) According to God's Word, our nation won't be judged by our success in promoting our national interests nor on our ability to protect what we have. He'll judge us based on whether or not we choose to do what is godly and right. Our future will rest on the choice we make.

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Quote for the Day

Polish-American independent scholar who developed a field called general semantics, Alfred Korzybski wrote, “God may forgive your sins, but your nervous system won't.”

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A Joke for Today

My dentist was voted "Dentist Of The Year"....

He didn't get a trophy, they just gave him a little plaque.

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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 those in the media and government would report facts accurately and without any bias.