Daily Lectionary

1 Kings 9:1-9; 10:1-13

¹ As soon as Solomon had finished building the house of the LORD and the king’s house and all that Solomon desired to build,
² the LORD appeared to Solomon a second time, as he had appeared to him at Gibeon.
³ And the LORD said to him, “I have heard your prayer and your plea, which you have made before me. I have consecrated this house that you have built, by putting my name there forever. My eyes and my heart will be there for all time.
⁴ And as for you, if you will walk before me, as David your father walked, with integrity of heart and uprightness, doing according to all that I have commanded you, and keeping my statutes and my rules,
⁵ then I will establish your royal throne over Israel forever, as I promised David your father, saying, ‘You shall not lack a man on the throne of Israel.’
⁶ But if you turn aside from following me, you or your children, and do not keep my commandments and my statutes that I have set before you, but go and serve other gods and worship them,
⁷ then I will cut off Israel from the land that I have given them, and the house that I have consecrated for my name I will cast out of my sight, and Israel will become a proverb and a byword among all peoples.
⁸ And this house will become a heap of ruins. Everyone passing by it will be astonished and will hiss, and they will say, ‘Why has the LORD done thus to this land and to this house?’
⁹ Then they will say, ‘Because they abandoned the LORD their God who brought their fathers out of the land of Egypt and laid hold on other gods and worshiped them and served them. Therefore the LORD has brought all this disaster on them.’”

¹ Now when the queen of Sheba heard of the fame of Solomon concerning the name of the LORD, she came to test him with hard questions.
² She came to Jerusalem with a very great retinue, with camels bearing spices and very much gold and precious stones. And when she came to Solomon, she told him all that was on her mind.
³ And Solomon answered all her questions; there was nothing hidden from the king that he could not explain to her.
⁴ And when the queen of Sheba had seen all the wisdom of Solomon, the house that he had built,
⁵ the food of his table, the seating of his officials, and the attendance of his servants, their clothing, his cupbearers, and his burnt offerings that he offered at the house of the LORD, there was no more breath in her.
⁶ And she said to the king, “The report was true that I heard in my own land of your words and of your wisdom,
⁷ but I did not believe the reports until I came and my own eyes had seen it. And behold, the half was not told me. Your wisdom and prosperity surpass the report that I heard.
⁸ Happy are your men! Happy are your servants, who continually stand before you and hear your wisdom!
⁹ Blessed be the LORD your God, who has delighted in you and set you on the throne of Israel! Because the LORD loved Israel forever, he has made you king, that you may execute justice and righteousness.”
¹⁰ Then she gave the king 120 talents of gold, and a very great quantity of spices and precious stones. Never again came such an abundance of spices as these that the queen of Sheba gave to King Solomon.
¹¹ Moreover, the fleet of Hiram, which brought gold from Ophir, brought from Ophir a very great amount of almug wood and precious stones.
¹² And the king made of the almug wood supports for the house of the LORD and for the king’s house, also lyres and harps for the singers. No such almug wood has come or been seen to this day.
¹³ And King Solomon gave to the queen of Sheba all that she desired, whatever she asked besides what was given her by the bounty of King Solomon. So she turned and went back to her own land with her servants. (ESV)

1 Corinthians 15:35-58

³⁵ But someone will ask, “How are the dead raised? With what kind of body do they come?”
³⁶ You foolish person! What you sow does not come to life unless it dies.
³⁷ And what you sow is not the body that is to be, but a bare kernel, perhaps of wheat or of some other grain.
³⁸ But God gives it a body as he has chosen, and to each kind of seed its own body.
³⁹ For not all flesh is the same, but there is one kind for humans, another for animals, another for birds, and another for fish.
⁴⁰ There are heavenly bodies and earthly bodies, but the glory of the heavenly is of one kind, and the glory of the earthly is of another.
⁴¹ There is one glory of the sun, and another glory of the moon, and another glory of the stars; for star differs from star in glory.
⁴² So is it with the resurrection of the dead. What is sown is perishable; what is raised is imperishable.
⁴³ It is sown in dishonor; it is raised in glory. It is sown in weakness; it is raised in power.
⁴⁴ It is sown a natural body; it is raised a spiritual body. If there is a natural body, there is also a spiritual body.
⁴⁵ Thus it is written, “The first man Adam became a living being”; the last Adam became a life-giving spirit.
⁴⁶ But it is not the spiritual that is first but the natural, and then the spiritual.
⁴⁷ The first man was from the earth, a man of dust; the second man is from heaven.
⁴⁸ As was the man of dust, so also are those who are of the dust, and as is the man of heaven, so also are those who are of heaven.
⁴⁹ Just as we have borne the image of the man of dust, we shall also bear the image of the man of heaven.
⁵⁰ I tell you this, brothers: flesh and blood cannot inherit the kingdom of God, nor does the perishable inherit the imperishable.
⁵¹ Behold! I tell you a mystery. We shall not all sleep, but we shall all be changed,
⁵² in a moment, in the twinkling of an eye, at the last trumpet. For the trumpet will sound, and the dead will be raised imperishable, and we shall be changed.
⁵³ For this perishable body must put on the imperishable, and this mortal body must put on immortality.
⁵⁴ When the perishable puts on the imperishable, and the mortal puts on immortality, then shall come to pass the saying that is written: “Death is swallowed up in victory.”
⁵⁵ “O death, where is your victory? O death, where is your sting?”
⁵⁶ The sting of death is sin, and the power of sin is the law.
⁵⁷ But thanks be to God, who gives us the victory through our Lord Jesus Christ.
⁵⁸ Therefore, my beloved brothers, be steadfast, immovable, always abounding in the work of the Lord, knowing that in the Lord your labor is not in vain. (ESV)