Daily Lectionary

1 Kings 11:42-12:19

⁴² And the time that Solomon reigned in Jerusalem over all Israel was forty years.
⁴³ And Solomon slept with his fathers and was buried in the city of David his father. And Rehoboam his son reigned in his place.
¹ Rehoboam went to Shechem, for all Israel had come to Shechem to make him king.
² And as soon as Jeroboam the son of Nebat heard of it (for he was still in Egypt, where he had fled from King Solomon), then Jeroboam returned from Egypt.
³ And they sent and called him, and Jeroboam and all the assembly of Israel came and said to Rehoboam,
⁴ “Your father made our yoke heavy. Now therefore lighten the hard service of your father and his heavy yoke on us, and we will serve you.”
⁵ He said to them, “Go away for three days, then come again to me.” So the people went away.
⁶ Then King Rehoboam took counsel with the old men, who had stood before Solomon his father while he was yet alive, saying, “How do you advise me to answer this people?”
⁷ And they said to him, “If you will be a servant to this people today and serve them, and speak good words to them when you answer them, then they will be your servants forever.”
⁸ But he abandoned the counsel that the old men gave him and took counsel with the young men who had grown up with him and stood before him.
⁹ And he said to them, “What do you advise that we answer this people who have said to me, ‘Lighten the yoke that your father put on us’?”
¹⁰ And the young men who had grown up with him said to him, “Thus shall you speak to this people who said to you, ‘Your father made our yoke heavy, but you lighten it for us,’ thus shall you say to them, ‘My little finger is thicker than my father’s thighs.
¹¹ And now, whereas my father laid on you a heavy yoke, I will add to your yoke. My father disciplined you with whips, but I will discipline you with scorpions.’”
¹² So Jeroboam and all the people came to Rehoboam the third day, as the king said, “Come to me again the third day.”
¹³ And the king answered the people harshly, and forsaking the counsel that the old men had given him,
¹⁴ he spoke to them according to the counsel of the young men, saying, “My father made your yoke heavy, but I will add to your yoke. My father disciplined you with whips, but I will discipline you with scorpions.”
¹⁵ So the king did not listen to the people, for it was a turn of affairs brought about by the LORD that he might fulfill his word, which the LORD spoke by Ahijah the Shilonite to Jeroboam the son of Nebat.
¹⁶ And when all Israel saw that the king did not listen to them, the people answered the king, “What portion do we have in David? We have no inheritance in the son of Jesse. To your tents, O Israel! Look now to your own house, David.” So Israel went to their tents.
¹⁷ But Rehoboam reigned over the people of Israel who lived in the cities of Judah.
¹⁸ Then King Rehoboam sent Adoram, who was taskmaster over the forced labor, and all Israel stoned him to death with stones. And King Rehoboam hurried to mount his chariot to flee to Jerusalem.
¹⁹ So Israel has been in rebellion against the house of David to this day. (ESV)

2 Corinthians 1:1-22

¹ Paul, an apostle of Christ Jesus by the will of God, and Timothy our brother, To the church of God that is at Corinth, with all the saints who are in the whole of Achaia:
² Grace to you and peace from God our Father and the Lord Jesus Christ.
³ Blessed be the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, the Father of mercies and God of all comfort,
⁴ who comforts us in all our affliction, so that we may be able to comfort those who are in any affliction, with the comfort with which we ourselves are comforted by God.
⁵ For as we share abundantly in Christ’s sufferings, so through Christ we share abundantly in comfort too.
⁶ If we are afflicted, it is for your comfort and salvation; and if we are comforted, it is for your comfort, which you experience when you patiently endure the same sufferings that we suffer.
⁷ Our hope for you is unshaken, for we know that as you share in our sufferings, you will also share in our comfort.
⁸ For we do not want you to be unaware, brothers, of the affliction we experienced in Asia. For we were so utterly burdened beyond our strength that we despaired of life itself.
⁹ Indeed, we felt that we had received the sentence of death. But that was to make us rely not on ourselves but on God who raises the dead.
¹⁰ He delivered us from such a deadly peril, and he will deliver us. On him we have set our hope that he will deliver us again.
¹¹ You also must help us by prayer, so that many will give thanks on our behalf for the blessing granted us through the prayers of many.
¹² For our boast is this, the testimony of our conscience, that we behaved in the world with simplicity and godly sincerity, not by earthly wisdom but by the grace of God, and supremely so toward you.
¹³ For we are not writing to you anything other than what you read and understand and I hope you will fully understand—
¹⁴ just as you did partially understand us—that on the day of our Lord Jesus you will boast of us as we will boast of you.
¹⁵ Because I was sure of this, I wanted to come to you first, so that you might have a second experience of grace.
¹⁶ I wanted to visit you on my way to Macedonia, and to come back to you from Macedonia and have you send me on my way to Judea.
¹⁷ Was I vacillating when I wanted to do this? Do I make my plans according to the flesh, ready to say “Yes, yes” and “No, no” at the same time?
¹⁸ As surely as God is faithful, our word to you has not been Yes and No.
¹⁹ For the Son of God, Jesus Christ, whom we proclaimed among you, Silvanus and Timothy and I, was not Yes and No, but in him it is always Yes.
²⁰ For all the promises of God find their Yes in him. That is why it is through him that we utter our Amen to God for his glory.
²¹ And it is God who establishes us with you in Christ, and has anointed us,
²² and who has also put his seal on us and given us his Spirit in our hearts as a guarantee. (ESV)