The One Year Bible TLB (155 page)
Read The One Year Bible TLB Online
Authors: Tyndale
Get all the advice you can and be wise the rest of your life.
21
Man proposes, but God disposes.
July 21He also made a bronze altar 30 feet long, 30 feet wide, and 15 feet high.
2
Then he forged a huge round tank 15 feet across from rim to rim. The rim stood 7
1
/
2
feet above the floor, and was 45 feet around.
3
The tank was encircled at its base by two rows of gourd designs, cast as part of the tank.
4
The tank stood on twelve metal oxen facing outward; three faced north, three faced west, three faced south, and three faced east.
5
The walls of the tank were five inches thick, flaring out like the cup of a lily. It held 3,000 barrels of water.
6
He also constructed ten vats for water to wash the offerings, five to the right of the huge tank and five to the left. The priests used the tank, and not the vats, for their own washing.
7
Carefully following God’s instructions, he then cast ten gold lampstands and placed them in the Temple, five against each wall;
8
he also built ten tables and placed five against each wall on the right and left. And he molded 100 solid gold bowls.
9
Then he constructed a court for the priests, also the public court, and overlaid the doors of these courts with bronze.
10
The huge tank was in the southeast corner of the outer room of the Temple.
11
Huramabi also made the necessary pots, shovels, and basins for use in connection with the sacrifices.
So at last he completed the work assigned to him by King Solomon:
12-16
The construction of the two pillars,
The two flared capitals on the tops of the pillars,
The two sets of chains on the capitals,
The 400 pomegranates hanging from the two sets of chains on the capitals,
The bases for the vats and the vats themselves,
The huge tank and the twelve oxen under it,
The pots, shovels, and fleshhooks.
This skillful craftsman, Huramabi, made all of the above-mentioned items for King Solomon using polished bronze.
17-18
The king did the casting at the claybanks of the Jordan Valley between Succoth and Zeredah. Great quantities of bronze were used, too heavy to weigh.
19
Solomon commanded that all of the furnishings of the Temple—the utensils, the altar, and the table for the Bread of the Presence must be made of gold;
20
also the lamps and lampstands,
21
the floral decorations, tongs,
22
lamp snuffers, basins, spoons, and firepans—all were made of solid gold. Even the doorway of the Temple, the main door, and the inner doors to the Holy of Holies were overlaid with gold.
5:
1
So the Temple was finally finished. Then Solomon brought in the gifts dedicated to the Lord by his father, King David. They were stored in the Temple treasuries.
2
Solomon now summoned to Jerusalem all of the leaders of Israel—the heads of the tribes and clans—for the ceremony of transferring the Ark from the Tabernacle in the
*
City of David, also known as Zion, to its new home in the Temple.
3
This celebration took place in October at the annual Festival of Tabernacles.
4-5
As the leaders of Israel watched, the Levites lifted the Ark and carried it out of the Tabernacle, along with all the other sacred vessels.
6
King Solomon and the others sacrificed sheep and oxen before the Ark in such numbers that no one tried to keep count!
7-8
Then the priests carried the Ark into the inner room of the Temple—the Holy of Holies—and placed it beneath the wings of the Guardian Angels; their wings spread over the Ark and its carrying poles.
9
These carrying poles were so long that their ends could be seen from the outer room, but not from the outside doorway.
The Ark is still there at the time of this writing.
10
Nothing was in the Ark except the two stone tablets that Moses had put there at Mount Horeb, when the Lord made a covenant with the people of Israel as they were leaving Egypt.
11-12
When the priests had undergone the purification rites for themselves, they all took part in the ceremonies without regard to their normal duties. And how the Levites were praising the Lord as the priests came out of the Holy of Holies! The singers were Asaph, Heman, Jeduthun, and all their sons and brothers, dressed in finespun linen robes and standing at the east side of the altar. The choir was accompanied by 120 priests who were trumpeters, while others played the cymbals, lyres, and harps.
13-14
The band and chorus united as one to praise and thank the Lord; their selections were interspersed with trumpet obbligatos, the clashing of cymbals, and the loud playing of other musical instruments—all praising and thanking the Lord. Their theme was “He is so good! His loving-kindness lasts forever!”
And at that moment the glory of the Lord, coming as a bright cloud, filled the Temple so that the priests could not continue their work.
6:
1-2
This is the prayer prayed by Solomon on that occasion:
“The Lord has said that he would live in the thick darkness,
But I have made a Temple for you, O Lord, to live in forever!”
3
Then the king turned around to the people and they stood to receive his blessing:
4
“Blessed be the Lord God of Israel,” he said to them, “the God who talked personally to my father David and has now fulfilled the promise he made to him. For he told him,
5-6
‘I have never before, since bringing my people from the land of Egypt, chosen a city anywhere in Israel as the location of my Temple where my name will be glorified; and never before have I chosen a king for my people Israel. But now I have chosen Jerusalem as that city, and David as that king.’
7
“My father David wanted to build this Temple,
8
but the Lord said not to. It was good to have the desire, the Lord told him,
9
but he was not the one to build it: his son was chosen for that task.
10
And now the Lord has done what he promised, for I have become king in my father’s place, and I have built the Temple for the name of the Lord God of Israel
11
and placed the Ark there. And in the Ark is the Covenant between the Lord and his people Israel.”
Don’t you understand yet, dear Jewish brothers
*
in Christ, that when a person dies the law no longer holds him in its power?
2
Let me illustrate: when a woman marries, the law binds her to her husband as long as he is alive. But if he dies, she is no longer bound to him; the laws of marriage no longer apply to her.
3
Then she can marry someone else if she wants to. That would be wrong while he was alive, but it is perfectly all right after he dies.
4
Your “husband,” your master, used to be the Jewish law; but you “died,” as it were, with Christ on the cross; and since you are “dead,” you are no longer “married to the law,” and it has no more control over you. Then you came back to life again when Christ did and are a new person. And now you are “married,” so to speak, to the one who rose from the dead, so that you can produce good fruit, that is, good deeds for God.
5
When your old nature was still active, sinful desires were at work within you, making you want to do whatever God said not to and producing sinful deeds, the rotting fruit of death.
6
But now you need no longer worry about the Jewish laws and customs
*
because you “died” while in their captivity, and now you can really serve God; not in the old way, mechanically obeying a set of rules, but in the new way, with all of your hearts and minds.
7
Well then, am I suggesting that these laws of God are evil? Of course not! No, the law is not sinful, but it was the law that showed me my sin. I would never have known the sin in my heart—the evil desires that are hidden there—if the law had not said, “You must not have evil desires in your heart.”
8
But sin used this law against evil desires by reminding me that such desires are wrong, and arousing all kinds of forbidden desires within me! Only if there were no laws to break would there be no sinning.
9
That is why I felt fine so long as I did not understand what the law really demanded. But when I learned the truth, I realized that I had broken the law and was a sinner, doomed to die.
10
So as far as I was concerned, the good law which was supposed to show me the way of life resulted instead in my being given the death penalty.
11
Sin fooled me by taking the good laws of God and using them to make me guilty of death.
12
But still, you see, the law itself was wholly right and good.
13
But how can that be? Didn’t the law cause my doom? How then can it be good? No, it was sin, devilish stuff that it is, that used what was good to bring about my condemnation. So you can see how cunning and deadly and damnable it is. For it uses God’s good laws for its own evil purposes.
I am pleading for your help, O Lord; for I have been honest and have done what is right, and you must listen to my earnest cry!
2
Publicly acquit me, Lord, for you are always fair.
3
You have tested me and seen that I am good. You have come even in the night and found nothing amiss and know that I have told the truth.
4
I have followed your commands and have not gone along with cruel and evil men.
5
My feet have not slipped from your paths.
6
Why am I praying like this? Because I know you will answer me, O God! Yes, listen as I pray.
7
Show me your strong love in wonderful ways, O Savior of all those seeking your help against their foes.
8
Protect me as you would the pupil of your eye; hide me in the shadow of your wings as you hover over me.
9
My enemies encircle me with murder in their eyes.
10
They are pitiless and arrogant. Listen to their boasting.
11
They close in upon me and are ready to throw me to the ground.
12
They are like lions eager to tear me apart, like young lions hiding and waiting their chance.
13-14
Lord, arise and stand against them. Push them back! Come and save me from these men of the world whose only concern is earthly gain—these men whom you have filled with your treasures so that their children and grandchildren are rich and prosperous.
15
But as for me, my contentment is not in wealth but in seeing you and knowing all is well between us. And when I awake in heaven, I will be fully satisfied, for I will see you face-to-face.
Kindness makes a man attractive. And it is better to be poor than dishonest.
23
Reverence for God gives life, happiness, and protection from harm.
July 22As he spoke, Solomon was standing before the people on a platform in the center of the outer court, in front of the altar of the Lord. The platform was made of bronze, 7
1
/
2
feet square and 4
1
/
2
feet high. Now, as all the people watched, he knelt down, reached out his arms toward heaven, and prayed this prayer:
14
“O Lord God of Israel, there is no God like you in all of heaven and earth. You are the God who keeps his kind promises to all those who obey you and who are anxious to do your will.
15
And you have kept your promise to my father David,
*
as is evident today.
16
And now, O God of Israel, carry out your further promise to him that ‘your descendants shall always reign over Israel if they will obey my laws as you have.’
17
Yes, Lord God of Israel, please fulfill this promise too.
18
But will God really live upon the earth with men? Why, even the heaven and the heaven of heavens cannot contain you—how much less this Temple I have built!
19
“How I pray that you will heed my prayers, O Lord my God! Listen to my prayer that I am praying to you now!
20-21
Look down with favor day and night upon this Temple—upon this place where you have said that you would put your name. May you always hear and answer the prayers I will pray to you as I face toward this place. Listen to my prayers and to those of your people Israel when they pray toward this Temple; yes, hear us from heaven, and when you hear, forgive.
22
“Whenever someone commits a crime and is required to swear to his innocence before this altar,
23
then hear from heaven and punish him if he is lying, or else declare him innocent.
24
“If your people Israel are destroyed before their enemies because they have sinned against you, and if they turn to you and call themselves your people, and pray to you here in this Temple,
25
then listen to them from heaven and forgive their sins and give them back this land you gave to their fathers.
26
“When the skies are shut and there is no rain because of our sins, and then we pray toward this Temple and claim you as our God, and turn from our sins because you have punished us,
27
then listen from heaven and forgive the sins of your people, and teach them what is right; and send rain upon this land that you have given to your people as their own property.
28
“If there is a famine in the land, or plagues, or crop disease, or attacks of locusts or caterpillars, or if your people’s enemies are in the land besieging our cities—whatever the trouble is—
29
listen to every individual’s prayer concerning his private sorrow, as well as all the public prayers.
30
Hear from heaven where you live and forgive, and give each one whatever he deserves, for you know the hearts of all mankind.
31
Then they will reverence you forever and will continually walk where you tell them to go.
*
32
“And when foreigners hear of your power, and come from distant lands to worship your great name, and to pray toward this Temple,
33
hear them from heaven where you live, and do what they request of you. Then all the peoples of the earth will hear of your fame and will reverence you, just as your people Israel do; and they too will know that this Temple I have built is truly yours.
34
“If your people go out at your command to fight their enemies, and they pray toward this city of Jerusalem that you have chosen, and this Temple that I have built for your name,
35
then hear their prayers from heaven and give them success.
36
“If they sin against you (and who has never sinned?) and you become angry with them, and you let their enemies defeat them and take them away as captives to some foreign nation near or far;
37-38
and if in that land of exile they turn to you again, and face toward this land you gave their fathers and this city and your Temple I have built, and plead with you with all their hearts to forgive them,
39
then hear from heaven where you live and help them, and forgive your people who have sinned against you.
40
“Yes, O my God, be wide awake and attentive to all the prayers made to you in this place.
41
And now, O Lord God, arise and enter this resting place of yours where the Ark of your strength has been placed. Let your priests, O Lord God, be clothed with salvation, and let your people rejoice in your kind deeds.
42
O Lord God, do not ignore me—do not turn your face away from me, your anointed one. Oh, remember your love for David and your kindness to him.”
7:
1-2
As Solomon finished praying, fire flashed down from heaven and burned up the sacrifices! And the glory of the Lord filled the Temple, so that the priests couldn’t enter!
3
All the people had been watching, and now they fell flat on the pavement and worshiped and thanked the Lord.
“How good he is!” they exclaimed. “He is always so loving and kind.”
4-5
Then the king and all the people dedicated the Temple by sacrificing burnt offerings to the Lord. King Solomon’s contribution for this purpose was 22,000 oxen and 120,000 sheep.
6
The priests were standing at their posts of duty, and the Levites were playing their thanksgiving song, “His Loving-Kindness Is Forever,” using the musical instruments King David himself had made and had used to praise the Lord. Then, when the priests blew the trumpets, all the people stood again.
7
Solomon consecrated the inner court of the Temple for use that day as a place of sacrifice because there were too many sacrifices for the bronze altar to accommodate.
8
For the next seven days they celebrated the Tabernacle Festival, with large crowds coming in from all over Israel; they arrived from as far away as Hamath at one end of the country to the brook of Egypt at the other.
9
A final religious service was held on the eighth day.
10
Then on October 7 he sent the people home, joyful and happy because the Lord had been so good to David and Solomon and to his people Israel.
11
So Solomon finished building the Temple as well as his own palace. He completed what he had planned to do.
12
One night the Lord appeared to Solomon and told him, “I have heard your prayer and have chosen this Temple as the place where I want you to sacrifice to me.
13
If I shut up the heavens so that there is no rain, or if I command the locust swarms to eat up all of your crops, or if I send an epidemic among you,
14
then if my people will humble themselves and pray, and search for me, and turn from their wicked ways, I will hear them from heaven and forgive their sins and heal their land.
15
I will listen, wide awake, to every prayer made in this place.
16
For I have chosen this Temple and sanctified it to be my home forever; my eyes and my heart shall always be here.
17
“As for yourself, if you follow me as your father David did,
18
then I will see to it that you and your descendants will always be the kings of Israel;
19
but if you don’t follow me, if you refuse the laws I have given you and worship idols,
20
then I will destroy my people from this land of mine that I have given them, and this Temple shall be destroyed even though I have sanctified it for myself. Instead, I will make it a public horror and disgrace.
21
Instead of its being famous, all who pass by will be incredulous.
“‘Why has the Lord done such a terrible thing to this land and to this Temple?’ they will ask.
22
“And the answer will be, ‘Because his people abandoned the Lord God of their fathers, the God who brought them out of the land of Egypt, and they worshiped other gods instead. That is why he has done all this to them.’”
8:
1
It was now twenty years since Solomon had become king, and the great building projects of the Lord’s Temple and his own royal palace were completed.
2
He now turned his energies to rebuilding the cities that King Hiram of Tyre had given to him, and he relocated some of the people of Israel into them.
3
It was at this time, too, that Solomon fought against the city of Hamath-zobah and conquered it.
4
He built Tadmor in the desert and built cities in Hamath as supply centers.
5
He fortified the cities of upper Beth-horon and lower Beth-horon, both being supply centers, building their walls and installing barred gates.
6
He also built Baalath and other supply centers at this time and constructed cities where his chariots and horses were kept. He built to his heart’s desire in Jerusalem and Lebanon and throughout the entire realm.
7-8
He began the practice that still continues of conscripting as slave laborers the Hittites, Amorites, Perizzites, Hivites, and Jebusites—the descendants of those nations that the Israelis had not completely wiped out.
9
However, he didn’t make slaves of any of the Israeli citizens, but used them as soldiers, officers, charioteers, and cavalrymen;
10
also, 250 of them were government officials who administered all public affairs.
The law is good, then, and the trouble is not there but with
me
because I am sold into slavery with Sin as my owner.
15
I don’t understand myself at all, for I really want to do what is right, but I can’t. I do what I don’t want to—what I hate.
16
I know perfectly well that what I am doing is wrong, and my bad conscience proves that I agree with these laws I am breaking.
17
But I can’t help myself because I’m no longer doing it. It is sin inside me that is stronger than I am that makes me do these evil things.
18
I know I am rotten through and through so far as my old sinful nature is concerned. No matter which way I turn I can’t make myself do right. I want to but I can’t.
19
When I want to do good, I don’t; and when I try not to do wrong, I do it anyway.
20
Now if I am doing what I don’t want to, it is plain where the trouble is: sin still has me in its evil grasp.
21
It seems to be a fact of life that when I want to do what is right, I inevitably do what is wrong.
22
I love to do God’s will so far as my new nature is concerned;
23-25
but there is something else deep within me, in my lower nature, that is at war with my mind and wins the fight and makes me a slave to the sin that is still within me. In my mind I want to be God’s willing servant, but instead I find myself still enslaved to sin.
So you see how it is: my new life tells me to do right, but the old nature that is still inside me loves to sin. Oh, what a terrible predicament I’m in! Who will free me from my slavery to this deadly lower nature? Thank God! It has been done
*
by Jesus Christ our Lord. He has set me free.
8:
1
So there is now no condemnation awaiting those who belong to Christ Jesus.
2
For the power of the life-giving Spirit—and this power is mine through Christ Jesus—has freed me from the vicious circle of sin and death.
3
We aren’t saved from sin’s grasp by knowing the commandments of God because we can’t and don’t keep them, but God put into effect a different plan to save us. He sent his own Son in a human body like ours—except that ours are sinful—and destroyed sin’s control over us by giving himself as a sacrifice for our sins.
4
So now we can obey God’s laws if we follow after the Holy Spirit and no longer obey the old evil nature within us.
5
Those who let themselves be controlled by their lower natures live only to please themselves, but those who follow after the Holy Spirit find themselves doing those things that please God.
6
Following after the Holy Spirit leads to life and peace, but following after the old nature leads to death
7
because the old sinful nature within us is against God. It never did obey God’s laws and it never will.
8
That’s why those who are still under the control of their old sinful selves, bent on following their old evil desires, can never please God.
This song of David was written at a time when the Lord had delivered him from his many enemies, including Saul.
Lord, how I love you! For you have done such tremendous things for me.
2
The Lord is my fort where I can enter and be safe; no one can follow me in and slay me. He is a rugged mountain where I hide; he is my Savior, a rock where none can reach me, and a tower of safety. He is my shield. He is like the strong horn of a mighty fighting bull.
3
All I need to do is cry to him—oh, praise the Lord—and I am saved from all my enemies!
4
Death bound me with chains, and the floods of ungodliness mounted a massive attack against me.
5
Trapped and helpless, I struggled against the ropes that drew me on to death.
6
In my distress I screamed to the Lord for his help. And he heard me from heaven;
*
my cry reached his ears.
7
Then the earth rocked and reeled, and mountains shook and trembled. How they quaked! For he was angry.
8
Fierce flames leaped from his mouth, setting fire to the earth;
*
smoke blew from his nostrils.
9
He bent the heavens down and came to my defense;
*
thick darkness was beneath his feet.
10
Mounted on a mighty angel,
*
he sped swiftly to my aid with wings of wind.
11
He enshrouded himself with darkness, veiling his approach with dense clouds dark as murky waters.
12
Suddenly the brilliance of his presence broke through the clouds with lightning
*
and a mighty storm of hail.
13
The Lord thundered in the heavens; the God above all gods has spoken—oh, the hailstones; oh, the fire!
14
He flashed his fearful arrows of lightning and routed all my enemies. See how they run!
15
Then at your command, O Lord, the sea receded from the shore. At the blast of your breath the depths were laid bare.