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First Reading: 1 Kings Chapter 5 and 61 Kings 5
5:1 When Hiram king of Tyre heard that Solomon had been anointed king to succeed
his father David, he sent his envoys to Solomon, because he had always been
on friendly terms with David. 2 Solomon sent back this message to Hiram:
3 "You know that because of the wars waged against my father David from
all sides, he could not build a temple for the Name of the LORD his God until
the LORD put his enemies under his feet. 4 But now the LORD my God has given
me rest on every side, and there is no adversary or disaster. 5 I intend, therefore,
to build a temple for the Name of the LORD my God, as the LORD told my father
David, when he said, 'Your son whom I will put on the throne in your place will
build the temple for my Name.' 6 "So give orders that cedars of Lebanon
be cut for me. My men will work with yours, and I will pay you for your men
whatever wages you set. You know that we have no one so skilled in felling timber
as the Sidonians."
7 When Hiram heard Solomon's message, he was greatly pleased and said, "Praise
be to the LORD today, for he has given David a wise son to rule over this great
nation."
8 So Hiram sent word to Solomon:
"I have received the message you sent me and will do all you want in providing
the cedar and pine logs. 9 My men will haul them down from Lebanon to the sea,
and I will float them in rafts by sea to the place you specify. There I will
separate them and you can take them away. And you are to grant my wish by providing
food for my royal household."
10 In this way Hiram kept Solomon supplied with all the cedar and pine logs
he wanted, 11 and Solomon gave Hiram twenty thousand cors of wheat as food for
his household, in addition to twenty thousand baths of pressed olive oil. Solomon
continued to do this for Hiram year after year. 12 The LORD gave Solomon wisdom,
just as he had promised him. There were peaceful relations between Hiram and
Solomon, and the two of them made a treaty.
13 King Solomon conscripted laborers from all Israel-thirty thousand men. 14
He sent them off to Lebanon in shifts of ten thousand a month, so that they
spent one month in Lebanon and two months at home. Adoniram was in charge of
the forced labor. 15 Solomon had seventy thousand carriers and eighty thousand
stonecutters in the hills, 16 as well as thirty-three hundred foremen who supervised
the project and directed the workmen. 17 At the king's command they removed
from the quarry large blocks of quality stone to provide a foundation of dressed
stone for the temple. 18 The craftsmen of Solomon and Hiram and the men of Gebal
cut and prepared the timber and stone for the building of the temple.
1 Kings 6
6:1 In the four hundred and eightieth year after the Israelites had come out
of Egypt, in the fourth year of Solomon's reign over Israel, in the month of
Ziv, the second month, he began to build the temple of the LORD.
2 The temple that King Solomon built for the LORD was sixty cubits long, twenty
wide and thirty high. 3 The portico at the front of the main hall of the temple
extended the width of the temple, that is twenty cubits, and projected ten cubits
from the front of the temple. 4 He made narrow clerestory windows in the temple.
5 Against the walls of the main hall and inner sanctuary he built a structure
around the building, in which there were side rooms. 6 The lowest floor was
five cubits wide, the middle floor six cubits and the third floor seven. He
made offset ledges around the outside of the temple so that nothing would be
inserted into the temple walls.
7 In building the temple, only blocks dressed at the quarry were used, and no
hammer, chisel or any other iron tool was heard at the temple site while it
was being built.
8 The entrance to the lowest floor was on the south side of the temple; a stairway
led up to the middle level and from there to the third. 9 So he built the temple
and completed it, roofing it with beams and cedar planks. 10 And he built the
side rooms all along the temple. The height of each was five cubits, and they
were attached to the temple by beams of cedar.
11 The word of the LORD came to Solomon: 12 "As for this temple you are
building, if you follow my decrees, carry out my regulations and keep all my
commands and obey them, I will fulfill through you the promise I gave to David
your father. 13 And I will live among the Israelites and will not abandon my
people Israel."
14 So Solomon built the temple and completed it. 15 He lined its interior walls
with cedar boards, paneling them from the floor of the temple to the ceiling,
and covered the floor of the temple with planks of pine. 16 He partitioned off
twenty cubits at the rear of the temple with cedar boards from floor to ceiling
to form within the temple an inner sanctuary, the Most Holy Place. 17 The main
hall in front of this room was forty cubits long. 18 The inside of the temple
was cedar, carved with gourds and open flowers. Everything was cedar; no stone
was to be seen.
19 He prepared the inner sanctuary within the temple to set the ark of the covenant
of the LORD there. 20 The inner sanctuary was twenty cubits long, twenty wide
and twenty high. He overlaid the inside with pure gold, and he also overlaid
the altar of cedar. 21 Solomon covered the inside of the temple with pure gold,
and he extended gold chains across the front of the inner sanctuary, which was
overlaid with gold. 22 So he overlaid the whole interior with gold. He also
overlaid with gold the altar that belonged to the inner sanctuary.
23 In the inner sanctuary he made a pair of cherubim of olive wood, each ten
cubits high. 24 One wing of the first cherub was five cubits long, and the other
wing five cubits-ten cubits from wing tip to wing tip. 25 The second cherub
also measured ten cubits, for the two cherubim were identical in size and shape.
26 The height of each cherub was ten cubits. 27 He placed the cherubim inside
the innermost room of the temple, with their wings spread out. The wing of one
cherub touched one wall, while the wing of the other touched the other wall,
and their wings touched each other in the middle of the room. 28 He overlaid
the cherubim with gold.
29 On the walls all around the temple, in both the inner and outer rooms, he
carved cherubim, palm trees and open flowers. 30 He also covered the floors
of both the inner and outer rooms of the temple with gold.
31 For the entrance of the inner sanctuary he made doors of olive wood with
five-sided jambs. 32 And on the two olive wood doors he carved cherubim, palm
trees and open flowers, and overlaid the cherubim and palm trees with beaten
gold. 33 In the same way he made four-sided jambs of olive wood for the entrance
to the main hall. 34 He also made two pine doors, each having two leaves that
turned in sockets. 35 He carved cherubim, palm trees and open flowers on them
and overlaid them with gold hammered evenly over the carvings.
36 And he built the inner courtyard of three courses of dressed stone and one
course of trimmed cedar beams.
37 The foundation of the temple of the LORD was laid in the fourth year, in
the month of Ziv. 38 In the eleventh year in the month of Bul, the eighth month,
the temple was finished in all its details according to its specifications.
He had spent seven years building it.
Second Reading: John Chapter 9
John 9
9:1 As he went along, he saw a man blind from birth. 2 His disciples asked
him, "Rabbi, who sinned, this man or his parents, that he was born blind?"
3 "Neither this man nor his parents sinned," said Jesus, "but
this happened so that the work of God might be displayed in his life. 4 As long
as it is day, we must do the work of him who sent me. Night is coming, when
no one can work. 5 While I am in the world, I am the light of the world."
6 Having said this, he spit on the ground, made some mud with the saliva, and
put it on the man's eyes. 7 "Go," he told him, "wash in the Pool
of Siloam" (this word means Sent). So the man went and washed, and came
home seeing.
8 His neighbors and those who had formerly seen him begging asked, "Isn't
this the same man who used to sit and beg?" 9 Some claimed that he was.
Others said, "No, he only looks like him."
But he himself insisted, "I am the man."
10 "How then were your eyes opened?" they demanded.
11 He replied, "The man they call Jesus made some mud and put it on my
eyes. He told me to go to Siloam and wash. So I went and washed, and then I
could see."
12 "Where is this man?" they asked him.
"I don't know," he said.
13 They brought to the Pharisees the man who had been blind. 14 Now the day
on which Jesus had made the mud and opened the man's eyes was a Sabbath. 15
Therefore the Pharisees also asked him how he had received his sight. "He
put mud on my eyes," the man replied, "and I washed, and now I see."
16 Some of the Pharisees said, "This man is not from God, for he does not
keep the Sabbath."
But others asked, "How can a sinner do such miraculous signs?" So
they were divided.
17 Finally they turned again to the blind man, "What have you to say about
him? It was your eyes he opened."
The man replied, "He is a prophet."
18 The Jews still did not believe that he had been blind and had received his
sight until they sent for the man's parents. 19 "Is this your son?"
they asked. "Is this the one you say was born blind? How is it that now
he can see?"
20 "We know he is our son," the parents answered, "and we know
he was born blind. 21 But how he can see now, or who opened his eyes, we don't
know. Ask him. He is of age; he will speak for himself." 22 His parents
said this because they were afraid of the Jews, for already the Jews had decided
that anyone who acknowledged that Jesus was the Christ would be put out of the
synagogue. 23 That was why his parents said, "He is of age; ask him."
24 A second time they summoned the man who had been blind. "Give glory
to God," they said. "We know this man is a sinner."
25 He replied, "Whether he is a sinner or not, I don't know. One thing
I do know. I was blind but now I see!"
26 Then they asked him, "What did he do to you? How did he open your eyes?"
27 He answered, "I have told you already and you did not listen. Why do
you want to hear it again? Do you want to become his disciples, too?"
28 Then they hurled insults at him and said, "You are this fellow's disciple!
We are disciples of Moses! 29 We know that God spoke to Moses, but as for this
fellow, we don't even know where he comes from."
30 The man answered, "Now that is remarkable! You don't know where he comes
from, yet he opened my eyes. 31 We know that God does not listen to sinners.
He listens to the godly man who does his will. 32 Nobody has ever heard of opening
the eyes of a man born blind. 33 If this man were not from God, he could do
nothing."
34 To this they replied, "You were steeped in sin at birth; how dare you
lecture us!" And they threw him out.
35 Jesus heard that they had thrown him out, and when he found him, he said,
"Do you believe in the Son of Man?"
36 "Who is he, sir?" the man asked. "Tell me so that I may believe
in him."
37 Jesus said, "You have now seen him; in fact, he is the one speaking
with you."
38 Then the man said, "Lord, I believe," and he worshiped him.
39 Jesus said, "For judgment I have come into this world, so that the blind
will see and those who see will become blind."
40 Some Pharisees who were with him heard him say this and asked, "What?
Are we blind too?"
41 Jesus said, "If you were blind, you would not be guilty of sin; but
now that you claim you can see, your guilt remains.
Bible Background
BOOKS OF THE BIBLE
I KINGS
Part 2 of 2
After Solomon died, Rehoboam his son became king. However, the people were weary of the burdens of a wealthy king and under the influence of Jeroboam, son of Nebat, the ten northern tribes rebelled. From this time forward there were two kingdoms: the northern and the southern. The kings of the southern tribes (Judah and Benjamin) followed the lineage of David. Some of these kings were faithful to God. The kings of the northern kingdom from the beginning were wicked and unfaithful. Jeroboam set up idols in Dan and Bethel (either ends of his kingdom) so that the people would not be tempted to go down to Judah and Jerusalem where the Temple of God was.
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