The One Year Bible TLB (136 page)
Read The One Year Bible TLB Online
Authors: Tyndale
June 22Ahab’s son Joram began his reign over Israel during the eighteenth year of the reign of King Jehoshaphat
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of Judah; and he reigned twelve years. His capital was Samaria.
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He was a very evil man, but not as wicked as his father and mother had been, for he at least tore down the pillar to Baal that his father had made.
3
Nevertheless he still clung to the great sin of Jeroboam (the son of Nebat), who had led the people of Israel into the worship of idols.
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King Mesha of Moab and his people were sheep ranchers. They paid Israel an annual tribute of 100,000 lambs and the wool of 100,000 rams;
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but after Ahab’s death, the king of Moab rebelled against Israel.
6-8
So King Joram mustered the Israeli army and sent this message to King Jehoshaphat of Judah: “The king of Moab has rebelled against me. Will you help me fight him?”
“Of course I will,” Jehoshaphat replied. “My people and horses are yours to command. What are your battle plans?”
“We’ll attack from the wilderness of Edom,” Joram replied.
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So their two armies, now joined also by troops from Edom, moved along a roundabout route through the wilderness for seven days; but there was no water for the men or their pack animals.
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“Oh, what shall we do?” the king of Israel cried out. “The Lord has brought us here to let the king of Moab defeat us.”
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But Jehoshaphat, the king of Judah, asked, “Isn’t there a prophet of the Lord with us? If so, we can find out what to do!”
“Elisha is here,” one of the king of Israel’s officers replied. Then he added, “He was Elijah’s assistant.”
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“Fine,” Jehoshaphat said. “He’s just the man we want.”
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So the kings of Israel, Judah, and Edom went to consult Elisha.
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“I want no part of you,” Elisha snarled at King Joram of Israel. “Go to the false prophets of your father and mother!”
But King Joram replied, “No! For it is the Lord who has called us here to be destroyed by the king of Moab!”
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“I swear by the Lord God that I wouldn’t bother with you except for the presence of King Jehoshaphat of Judah,” Elisha replied.
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“Now bring me someone to play the lute.” And as the lute was played, the message of the Lord came to Elisha:
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“The Lord says to fill this dry valley with trenches to hold the water he will send.
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You won’t see wind nor rain, but this valley will be filled with water, and you will have plenty for yourselves and for your animals!
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But this is only the beginning, for the Lord will make you victorious over the army of Moab!
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You will conquer the best of their cities—even those that are fortified—and ruin all the good land with stones.”
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And sure enough, the next day at about the time when the morning sacrifice was offered—look! Water! It was flowing from the direction of Edom, and soon there was water everywhere.
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Meanwhile, when the people of Moab heard about the three armies marching against them, they mobilized every man who could fight, old and young, and stationed themselves along their frontier.
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But early the next morning the sun looked red as it shone across the water!
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“Blood!” they exclaimed. “The three armies have attacked and killed each other! Let’s go and collect the loot!”
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But when they arrived at the Israeli camp, the army of Israel rushed out and began killing them; and the army of Moab fled. Then the men of Israel moved forward into the land of Moab, destroying everything as they went.
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They destroyed the cities, threw stones on every good piece of land, stopped up the wells, and felled the fruit trees; finally, only Fort Kir-hareseth was left, but even that finally fell to them.
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When the king of Moab saw that the battle had been lost, he led 700 of his swordsmen in a last desperate attempt to break through to the king of Edom; but he failed.
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Then he took his oldest son, who was to have been the next king, and to the horror of the Israeli army, killed him and sacrificed him as a burnt offering upon the wall. So the army of Israel turned back in disgust to their own land.
4:
1
One day the wife of one of the seminary students came to Elisha to tell him of her husband’s death. He was a man who had loved God, she said. But he had owed some money when he died, and now the creditor was demanding it back. If she didn’t pay, he said he would take her two sons as his slaves.
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“What shall I do?” Elisha asked. “How much food do you have in the house?”
“Nothing at all, except a jar of olive oil,” she replied.
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“Then borrow many pots and pans from your friends and neighbors!” he instructed.
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“Go into your house with your sons and shut the door behind you. Then pour olive oil from your jar into the pots and pans, setting them aside as they are filled!”
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So she did. Her sons brought the pots and pans to her, and she filled one after another!
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Soon every container was full to the brim!
“Bring me another jar,” she said to her sons.
“There aren’t any more!” they told her. And then the oil stopped flowing!
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When she told the prophet what had happened, he said to her, “Go and sell the oil and pay your debt, and there will be enough money left for you and your sons to live on!”
8
One day Elisha went to Shunem. A prominent woman of the city invited him in to eat, and afterwards, whenever he passed that way, he stopped for dinner.
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She said to her husband, “I’m sure this man who stops in from time to time is a holy prophet.
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Let’s make a little room for him on the roof; we can put in a bed, a table, a chair, and a lamp, and he will have a place to stay whenever he comes by.”
11-12
Once when he was resting in the room he said to his servant Gehazi, “Tell the woman I want to speak to her.”
When she came,
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he said to Gehazi, “Tell her that we appreciate her kindness to us. Now ask her what we can do for her. Does she want me to put in a good word for her to the king or to the general of the army?”
“No,” she replied, “I am perfectly content.”
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“What can we do for her?” he asked Gehazi afterwards.
He suggested, “She doesn’t have a son, and her husband is an old man.”
15-16
“Call her back again,” Elisha told him.
When she returned, he talked to her as she stood in the doorway. “Next year at about this time you shall have a son!”
“O man of God,” she exclaimed, “don’t lie to me like that!”
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But it was true; the woman soon conceived and had a baby boy the following year, just as Elisha had predicted.
While they [Paul and Barnabas] were at Lystra, they came upon a man with crippled feet who had been that way from birth, so he had never walked.
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He was listening as Paul preached, and Paul noticed him and realized he had faith to be healed.
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So Paul called to him, “Stand up!” and the man leaped to his feet and started walking!
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When the listening crowd saw what Paul had done, they shouted (in their local dialect, of course), “These men are gods in human bodies!”
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They decided that Barnabas was the Greek god Jupiter, and that Paul, because he was the chief speaker, was Mercury!
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The local priest of the Temple of Jupiter, located on the outskirts of the city, brought them cartloads of flowers and prepared to sacrifice oxen to them at the city gates before the crowds.
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But when Barnabas and Paul saw what was happening, they ripped at their clothing in dismay and ran out among the people, shouting,
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“Men! What are you doing? We are merely human beings like yourselves! We have come to bring you the Good News that you are invited to turn from the worship of these foolish things and to pray instead to the living God, who made heaven and earth and sea and everything in them.
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In bygone days he permitted the nations to go their own ways,
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but he never left himself without a witness; there were always his reminders—the kind things he did such as sending you rain and good crops and giving you food and gladness.”
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But even so, Paul and Barnabas could scarcely restrain the people from sacrificing to them!
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Yet only a few days later, some Jews arrived from Antioch and Iconium and turned the crowds into a murderous mob that stoned Paul and dragged him out of the city, apparently dead.
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But as the believers stood around him, he got up and went back into the city!
The next day he left with Barnabas for Derbe.
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After preaching the Good News there and making many disciples, they returned again to Lystra, Iconium and Antioch,
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where they helped the believers to grow in love for God and each other. They encouraged them to continue in the faith in spite of all the persecution, reminding them that they must enter into the Kingdom of God through many tribulations.
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Paul and Barnabas also appointed elders in every church and prayed for them with fasting, turning them over to the care of the Lord in whom they trusted.
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Then they traveled back through Pisidia to Pamphylia,
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preached again in Perga, and went on to Attalia.
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Finally they returned by ship to Antioch, where their journey had begun and where they had been committed to God for the work now completed.
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Upon arrival they called together the believers and reported on their trip, telling how God had opened the door of faith to the Gentiles too.
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And they stayed there with the believers at Antioch for a long while.
O Lord, deliver me from evil men. Preserve me from the violent,
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who plot and stir up trouble all day long.
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Their words sting like poisonous snakes.
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Keep me out of their power. Preserve me from their violence, for they are plotting against me.
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These proud men have set a trap to catch me, a noose to yank me up and leave me dangling in the air; they wait in ambush with a net to throw over and hold me helpless in its meshes.
6-8
O Jehovah, my Lord and Savior, my God and my shield—hear me as I pray! Don’t let these wicked men succeed; don’t let them prosper and be proud.
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Let their plots boomerang! Let them be destroyed by the very evil they have planned for me.
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Let burning coals fall down upon their heads, or throw them into the fire or into deep pits from which they can’t escape.
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Don’t let liars prosper here in our land; quickly punish them.
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But the Lord will surely help those they persecute; he will maintain the rights of the poor.
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Surely the godly are thanking you, for they shall live in your presence.
A cheerful heart does good like medicine, but a broken spirit makes one sick.
June 23One day when her child was older, he went out to visit his father, who was working with the reapers.
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He complained about a headache and soon was moaning in pain. His father said to one of the servants, “Carry him home to his mother.”
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So he took him home, and his mother held him on her lap; but around noontime he died.
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She carried him up to the bed of the prophet and shut the door;
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then she sent a message to her husband: “Send one of the servants and a donkey so that I can hurry to the prophet and come right back.”
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“Why today?” he asked. “This isn’t a religious holiday.”
But she said, “It’s important. I must go.”
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So she saddled the donkey and said to the servant, “Hurry! Don’t slow down for my comfort unless I tell you to.”
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As she approached Mount Carmel, Elisha saw her in the distance and said to Gehazi, “Look, that woman from Shunem is coming.
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Run and meet her and ask her what the trouble is. See if her husband is all right and if the child is well.”
“Yes,” she told Gehazi, “everything is fine.”
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But when she came to Elisha at the mountain she fell to the ground before him and caught hold of his feet. Gehazi began to push her away, but the prophet said, “Leave her alone; something is deeply troubling her and the Lord hasn’t told me what it is.”
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Then she said, “It was you who said I’d have a son. And I begged you not to lie to me!”
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Then he said to Gehazi, “Quick, take my staff! Don’t talk to anyone along the way. Hurry! Lay the staff upon the child’s face.”
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But the boy’s mother said, “I swear to God that I won’t go home without you.” So Elisha returned with her.
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Gehazi went on ahead and laid the staff upon the child’s face, but nothing happened. There was no sign of life. He returned to meet Elisha and told him, “The child is still dead.”
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When Elisha arrived, the child was indeed dead, lying there upon the prophet’s bed.
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He went in and shut the door behind him and prayed to the Lord.
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Then he lay upon the child’s body, placing his mouth upon the child’s mouth, and his eyes upon the child’s eyes, and his hands upon the child’s hands. And the child’s body began to grow warm again!
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Then the prophet went down and walked back and forth in the house a few times; returning upstairs, he stretched himself again upon the child. This time the little boy sneezed seven times and opened his eyes!
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Then the prophet summoned Gehazi. “Call her!” he said. And when she came in, he said, “Here’s your son!”
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She fell to the floor at his feet and then picked up her son and went out.
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Elisha now returned to Gilgal, but there was a famine in the land. One day as he was teaching the young prophets, he said to Gehazi, “Make some stew for supper for these men.”
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One of the young men went out into the field to gather vegetables and came back with some wild gourds. He shredded them and put them into a kettle without realizing that they were poisonous.
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But after the men had eaten a bite or two they cried out, “Oh, sir, there’s poison in this stew!”
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“Bring me some meal,” Elisha said. He threw it into the kettle and said, “Now it’s all right! Go ahead and eat!” And then it didn’t harm them.
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One day a man from Baal-shalishah brought Elisha a sack of fresh corn
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and twenty individual loaves of barley bread made from the first grain of his harvest. Elisha told Gehazi to use it to feed the young prophets.
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“What?” Gehazi exclaimed. “Feed one hundred men with only this?”
But Elisha said, “Go ahead, for the Lord says there will be plenty for all, and some will even be left over!”
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And sure enough, there was, just as the Lord had said!
5:
1
The king of Syria had high admiration for Naaman, the commander-in-chief of his army, for he had led his troops to many glorious victories. So he was a great hero, but he was a leper.
2
Bands of Syrians had invaded the land of Israel, and among their captives was a little girl who had been given to Naaman’s wife as a maid.
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One day the little girl said to her mistress, “I wish my master would go to see the prophet in Samaria. He would heal him of his leprosy!”
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Naaman told the king what the little girl had said.
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“Go and visit the prophet,” the king told him. “I will send a letter of introduction for you to carry to the king of Israel.”
So Naaman started out, taking gifts of $20,000 in silver, $60,000 in gold, and ten suits of clothing.
6
The letter to the king of Israel said: “The man bringing this letter is my servant Naaman; I want you to heal him of his leprosy.”
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When the king of Israel read it, he tore his clothes and said, “This man sends me a leper to heal! Am I God, that I can kill and give life? He is only trying to get an excuse to invade us again.”
8
But when Elisha the prophet heard about the king of Israel’s plight, he sent this message to him: “Why are you so upset? Send Naaman to me, and he will learn that there is a true prophet of God here in Israel.”
9
So Naaman arrived with his horses and chariots and stood at the door of Elisha’s home.
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Elisha sent a messenger out to tell him to go and wash in the Jordan River seven times and he would be healed of every trace of his leprosy!
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But Naaman was angry and stalked away.
“Look,” he said, “I thought at least he would come out and talk to me! I expected him to wave his hand over the leprosy and call upon the name of the Lord his God and heal me!
12
Aren’t the Abana River and Pharpar River of Damascus better than all the rivers of Israel put together? If it’s rivers I need, I’ll wash at home and get rid of my leprosy.” So he went away in a rage.
13
But his officers tried to reason with him and said, “If the prophet had told you to do some great thing, wouldn’t you have done it? So you should certainly obey him when he says simply to go and wash and be cured!”
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So Naaman went down to the Jordan River and dipped himself seven times, as the prophet had told him to. And his flesh became as healthy as a little child’s, and he was healed!
15
Then he and his entire party went back to find the prophet; they stood humbly before him and Naaman said, “I know at last that there is no God in all the world except in Israel; now please accept my gifts.”
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But Elisha replied, “I swear by Jehovah my God that I will not accept them.”
Naaman urged him to take them, but he absolutely refused.
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“Well,” Naaman said, “all right. But please give me two muleloads of earth to take back with me, for from now on I will never again offer any burnt offerings or sacrifices to any other god except the Lord.
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18
However, may the Lord pardon me this one thing—when my master the king goes into the temple of the god Rimmon to worship there and leans on my arm, may the Lord pardon me when I bow too.”
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“All right,” Elisha said. So Naaman started home again.
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But Gehazi, Elisha’s servant, said to himself, “My master shouldn’t have let this fellow get away without taking his gifts. I will chase after him and get something from him.”
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So Gehazi caught up with him. When Naaman saw him coming, he jumped down from his chariot and ran to meet him.
“Is everything all right?” he asked.
22
“Yes,” he said, “but my master has sent me to tell you that two young prophets from the hills of Ephraim have just arrived, and he would like $2,000 in silver and two suits to give to them.”
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“Take $4,000,” Naaman insisted. He gave him two expensive robes, tied up the money in two bags, and gave them to two of his servants to carry back with Gehazi.
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But when they arrived at the hill where Elisha lived,
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Gehazi took the bags from the servants and sent the men back. Then he hid the money in his house.
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When he went in to his master, Elisha asked him, “Where have you been, Gehazi?”
“I haven’t been anywhere,” he replied.
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But Elisha asked him, “Don’t you realize that I was there in thought when Naaman stepped down from his chariot to meet you? Is this the time to receive money and clothing and olive farms and vineyards and sheep and oxen and servants?
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Because you have done this, Naaman’s leprosy shall be upon you and upon your children and your children’s children forever.”
And Gehazi walked from the room a leper, his skin as white as snow.
While Paul and Barnabas were at Antioch, some men from Judea arrived and began to teach the believers that unless they adhered to the ancient Jewish custom of circumcision, they could not be saved.
2
Paul and Barnabas argued and discussed this with them at length, and finally the believers sent them to Jerusalem, accompanied by some local men, to talk to the apostles and elders there about this question.
3
After the entire congregation had escorted them out of the city, the delegates went on to Jerusalem, stopping along the way in the cities of Phoenicia and Samaria to visit the believers, telling them—much to everyone’s joy—that the Gentiles, too, were being converted.
4
Arriving in Jerusalem, they met with the church leaders—all the apostles and elders were present—and Paul and Barnabas reported on what God had been doing through their ministry.
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But then some of the men who had been Pharisees before their conversion stood to their feet and declared that all Gentile converts must be circumcised and required to follow all the Jewish customs and ceremonies.
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So the apostles and church elders set a further meeting to decide this question.
7
At the meeting, after long discussion, Peter stood and addressed them as follows: “Brothers, you all know that God chose me from among you long ago to preach the Good News to the Gentiles so that they also could believe.
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God, who knows men’s hearts, confirmed the fact that he accepts Gentiles by giving them the Holy Spirit, just as he gave him to us.
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He made no distinction between them and us, for he cleansed their lives through faith, just as he did ours.
10
And now are you going to correct God by burdening the Gentiles with a yoke that neither we nor our fathers were able to bear?
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Don’t you believe that all are saved the same way, by the free gift of the Lord Jesus?”
12
There was no further discussion, and everyone now listened as Barnabas and Paul told about the miracles God had done through them among the Gentiles.
13
When they had finished, James took the floor. “Brothers,” he said, “listen to me.
14
Peter has told you about the time God first visited the Gentiles to take from them a people to bring honor to his name.
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And this fact of Gentile conversion agrees with what the prophets predicted. For instance, listen to this passage from the prophet Amos:
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16
‘Afterwards’ (says the Lord),
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‘I will return and renew the broken contract with David,
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so that Gentiles, too, will find the Lord—all those marked with my name.’
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That is what the Lord says, who reveals his plans made from the beginning.
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“And so my judgment is that we should not insist that the Gentiles who turn to God must obey our Jewish laws,
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except that we should write to them to refrain from eating meat sacrificed to idols, from all fornication, and also from eating unbled meat of strangled animals.
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For these things have been preached against in Jewish synagogues in every city on every Sabbath for many generations.”
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Then the apostles and elders and the whole congregation voted to send delegates to Antioch with Paul and Barnabas, to report on this decision. The men chosen were two of the church leaders—Judas (also called Barsabbas) and Silas.
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This is the letter they took along with them:
“From:
The apostles, elders and brothers at Jerusalem.
“To:
The Gentile brothers in Antioch, Syria and Cilicia. Greetings!
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“We understand that some believers from here have upset you and questioned your salvation,
*
but they had no such instructions from us.
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So it seemed wise to us, having unanimously agreed on our decision, to send to you these two official representatives, along with our beloved Barnabas and Paul.
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These men—Judas and Silas, who have risked their lives for the sake of our Lord Jesus Christ—will confirm orally what we have decided concerning your question.
27-29
“For it seemed good to the Holy Spirit and to us to lay no greater burden of Jewish laws on you than to abstain from eating food offered to idols and from unbled meat of strangled animals,
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and, of course, from fornication. If you do this, it is enough. Farewell.”
30
The four messengers went at once to Antioch, where they called a general meeting of the Christians and gave them the letter.
31
And there was great joy throughout the church that day as they read it.
32
Then Judas and Silas, both being gifted speakers,
*
preached long sermons to the believers, strengthening their faith.
33
They stayed several days,
*
and then Judas and Silas returned to Jerusalem taking greetings and appreciation to those who had sent them.
34-35
Paul and Barnabas stayed on at Antioch to assist several others who were preaching and teaching there.