One Year Bible.

Shishak Raids Jerusalem

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 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.

Rehoboam’s Reign and Death

¹³Thus King Rehoboam established himself in Jerusalem and reigned. 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.

Righteousness through Faith in Christ

¹Finally, my brothers, rejoice in the Lord. It is no trouble for me to write the same things to you again, and it is a safeguard for you.

²Watch out for those dogs, those workers of evil, those mutilators of the flesh! ³For it is we who are the circumcision, we who worship by the Spirit of God, who glory in Christ Jesus, and who put no confidence in the flesh — ⁴though I myself could have such confidence.

If anyone else thinks he has grounds for confidence in the flesh, I have more: ⁵circumcised on the eighth day, of the people of Israel, of the tribe of Benjamin; a Hebrew of Hebrews; as to the law, a Pharisee; ⁶as to zeal, persecuting the church; as to righteousness in the law, faultless.

⁷But whatever was gain to me I count as loss for the sake of Christ. ⁸More than that, I count all things as loss compared to the surpassing excellence of knowing Christ Jesus my Lord, for whom I have lost all things. I consider them rubbish, that I may gain Christ ⁹and be found in Him, not having my own righteousness from the law, but that which is through faith in Christ, the righteousness from God on the basis of faith.

¹⁰I want to know Christ and the power of His resurrection and the fellowship of His sufferings, being conformed to Him in His death, ¹¹and so, somehow, to attain to the resurrection from the dead.

Pressing on toward the Goal

¹²Not that I have already obtained all this, or have already been made perfect, but I press on to take hold of that for which Christ Jesus took hold of me. ¹³Brothers, I do not consider myself yet to have taken hold of it. But one thing I do: Forgetting what is behind and straining toward what is ahead, ¹⁴I press on toward the goal to win the prize of God’s heavenly calling in Christ Jesus.

¹⁵All of us who are mature should embrace this point of view. And if you think differently about some issue, God will reveal this to you as well. ¹⁶Nevertheless, we must live up to what we have already attained.

Citizenship in Heaven

¹⁷Join one another in following my example, brothers, and carefully observe those who walk according to the pattern we set for you. ¹⁸For as I have often told you before, and now say again even with tears: Many live as enemies of the cross of Christ. ¹⁹Their end is destruction, their god is their belly, and their glory is in their shame. Their minds are set on earthly things.

²⁰But our citizenship is in heaven, and we eagerly await a Savior from there, the Lord Jesus Christ, ²¹who, by the power that enables Him to subject all things to Himself, will transform our lowly bodies to be like His glorious body.

The Death of Lazarus

¹At this time a man named Lazarus was sick. He lived in Bethany, the village of Mary and her sister Martha. ²(Mary, whose brother Lazarus was sick, was to anoint the Lord with perfume and wipe His feet with her hair.) ³So the sisters sent word to Jesus, “Lord, the one You love is sick.”

⁴When Jesus heard this, He said, “This sickness will not end in death. No, it is for the glory of God, so that the Son of God may be glorified through it.”

⁵Now Jesus loved Martha and her sister and Lazarus. ⁶So on hearing that Lazarus was sick, He stayed where He was for two days, ⁷and then He said to the disciples, “Let us go back to Judea.”

⁸“Rabbi,” they replied, “the Jews just tried to stone You, and You are going back there?”

⁹Jesus answered, “Are there not twelve hours of daylight? If anyone walks in the daytime, he will not stumble, because he sees by the light of this world. ¹⁰But if anyone walks at night, he will stumble, because he has no light.”

¹¹After He had said this, He told them, “Our friend Lazarus has fallen asleep, but I am going there to wake him up.”

¹²His disciples replied, “Lord, if he is sleeping, he will get better.” ¹³They thought that Jesus was talking about actual sleep, but He was speaking about the death of Lazarus.

¹⁴So Jesus told them plainly, “Lazarus is dead, ¹⁵and for your sake I am glad I was not there, so that you may believe. But let us go to him.”

¹⁶Then Thomas called Didymus said to his fellow disciples, “Let us also go, so that we may die with Him.”

Jesus Comforts Martha and Mary

¹⁷When Jesus arrived, He found that Lazarus had already spent four days in the tomb. ¹⁸Now Bethany was near Jerusalem, a little less than two miles away, ¹⁹and many of the Jews had come to Martha and Mary to console them in the loss of their brother. ²⁰So when Martha heard that Jesus was coming, she went out to meet Him, but Mary stayed at home.

²¹Martha said to Jesus, “Lord, if You had been here, my brother would not have died. ²²But even now I know that God will give You whatever You ask of Him.”

²³“Your brother will rise again,” Jesus told her.

²⁴Martha replied, “I know that he will rise again in the resurrection at the last day.”

²⁵Jesus said to her, “I am the resurrection and the life. Whoever believes in Me will live, even though he dies. ²⁶And everyone who lives and believes in Me will never die. Do you believe this?”

²⁷“Yes, Lord,” she answered, “I believe that You are the Christ, the Son of God, who was to come into the world.”

²⁸After Martha had said this, she went back and called her sister Mary aside to tell her, “The Teacher is here and is asking for you.” ²⁹And when Mary heard this, she got up quickly and went to Him.

³⁰Now Jesus had not yet entered the village, but was still at the place where Martha had met Him. ³¹When the Jews who were in the house consoling Mary saw how quickly she got up and went out, they followed her, supposing she was going to the tomb to mourn there. ³²When Mary came to Jesus and saw Him, she fell at His feet and said, “Lord, if You had been here, my brother would not have died.”

³³When Jesus saw her weeping, and the Jews who had come with her also weeping, He was deeply moved in spirit and troubled. ³⁴“Where have you put him?” He asked.

“Come and see, Lord,” they answered.

³⁵Jesus wept.

³⁶Then the Jews said, “See how He loved him!”

³⁷But some of them asked, “Could not this man who opened the eyes of the blind also have kept Lazarus from dying?”

Jesus Raises Lazarus

³⁸Jesus, once again deeply moved, came to the tomb. It was a cave with a stone laid across the entrance. ³⁹“Take away the stone,” Jesus said.

“Lord, by now he stinks,” said Martha, the sister of the dead man. “It has already been four days.”

⁴⁰Jesus replied, “Did I not tell you that if you believed, you would see the glory of God?”

⁴¹So they took away the stone. Then Jesus lifted His eyes upward and said, “Father, I thank You that You have heard Me. ⁴²I knew that You always hear Me, but I say this for the benefit of the people standing here, so they may believe that You sent Me.”

⁴³After Jesus had said this, He called out in a loud voice, “Lazarus, come out!”

⁴⁴The man who had been dead came out with his hands and feet bound in strips of linen, and his face wrapped in a cloth.

“Unwrap him and let him go,” Jesus told them.

The Plot to Kill Jesus

⁴⁵Therefore many of the Jews who had come to Mary, and had seen what Jesus did, believed in Him. ⁴⁶But some of them went to the Pharisees and told them what Jesus had done.

⁴⁷Then the chief priests and Pharisees convened the Sanhedrin and said, “What are we to do? This man is performing many signs. ⁴⁸If we let Him go on like this, everyone will believe in Him, and then the Romans will come and take away both our place and our nation.”

⁴⁹But one of them, named Caiaphas, who was high priest that year, said to them, “You know nothing at all! ⁵⁰You do not realize that it is better for you that one man die for the people than that the whole nation perish.”

⁵¹Caiaphas did not say this on his own. Instead, as high priest that year, he was prophesying that Jesus would die for the nation, ⁵²and not only for the nation, but also for the scattered children of God, to gather them together into one.

⁵³So from that day on they plotted to kill Him. ⁵⁴As a result, Jesus no longer went about publicly among the Jews, but He withdrew to a town called Ephraim in an area near the wilderness. And He stayed there with the disciples.

⁵⁵Now the Jewish Passover was near, and many people went up from the country to Jerusalem to purify themselves before the Passover. ⁵⁶They kept looking for Jesus and asking one another as they stood in the temple courts, “What do you think? Will He come to the feast at all?” ⁵⁷But the chief priests and Pharisees had given orders that anyone who knew where He was must report it, so that they could arrest Him.