Transfiguration to crucifixion…to hope.
This week’s Tier 1 – New Testament scriptures will bring us through most of Mark and 1 Corinthians.
In Tier 2, 2 Kings, we will see the death of Elisha and the many kings coming and going. Jehu becomes king and is God’s instrument to judge Jezebel and Ahab’s household. All kings in Israel continue in the sins of their fathers while Judea has a few good kings. The difference is who seeks the Lord and does what is right versus those who seek idols and do what is evil.
Ecclesiastes finishes in wisdom with all its somber tones of Solomon the preacher.
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GOSPELS
Mark 9 – 14
We begin with Jesus on the Mount of Transfiguration and Peter’s desire to build shelters for Jesus, Elijah, and Moses out of his fear and awkwardness. Once down the mountain, Jesus heals a boy with a mute spirit (whom the disciples failed to heal) who has demon-induced seizures, after his father cries out in faith and asks, “Help my unbelief!” Jesus again predicts his death and resurrection in Chapters 9 and 10. Entering Jerusalem on Palm Sunday, He cleanses the temple and then gives promise of the unlimited possibilities of faith in Chapter 11. In this chapter, He shows that forgiveness is paramount in faith. Several years back, I heard the Spirit say to me in my struggle with faith, “If your faith is not working, try forgiving.” It works! Parables, testing, the temple to be destroyed, the Last Supper, His arrest in the Garden of Gethsemane, and then His facing the Sanhedrin as Peter looks on and three times denies Him. Peter cannot believe he did what Jesus predicted He would, and weeps bitterly.
EPISTLES
1 Corinthians 7 – 15
Principles in marriage begin in Chapter 7. We see the call to be sensitive to conscience, especially those whose consciences are weak. Our call to self-denial and to strive for the Crown. In Chapter 10, we learn about the five sins of Israel that kept them out of the Promised Land and are exhorted to take heed lest we fall. We are to “flee from idolatry” and “regard others’ consciences” as we practice our liberty.
Chapter 11 calls us to “wait for one another” in communion while judging ourselves before taking communion. Chapters 12 and 14 teach about the body and its many members, and the gifts of the Holy Spirit. Chapter 13 shows us the “most excellent way” of love. Chapter 15 is the greatest exposé of the resurrection of the dead and how we will appear, with the final charge to be steadfast, immovable, always abounding in the work of the Lord, knowing that our labor is not in vain in the Lord.
HISTORY
2 Kings 9 – 16
Jehu is anointed as king and moves in such zeal to bring vengeance on the house of Ahab and Jezebel in Chapters 9 and 10. Jehoash becomes king of Judah and is a good king during the life of Jehoiada, the priest, who instructed him while he was hidden during the coup of his grandmother Athaliah. Kings will come and go and in Chapter 13 we witness the death of Elisha and the lost opportunity of King Joash of Israel to destroy Assyria through his placid striking of the arrows under Elisha’s call to take the arrows and “strike the ground.”
In the next three chapters, we witness bad kings in Israel and weak kings in Judah. Remember, we are reading the horizontal view of events, like a newspaper. We will hear many more details of heaven regarding Judah in a couple of weeks when we begin 2 Chronicles.
POETRY
Ecclesiastes 7 – 12
Ecclesiastes finishes with timeless practical wisdom from Solomon regarding life’s challenges, relationship to authority, marriage joy, folly’s cost, and sowing and reaping. Chapter 12 ends with these words: “Let us hear the conclusion of the whole matter: Fear God and keep His commandments, for this is man’s all. For God will bring every work into judgment, including every secret thing, whether good or evil” (Ecclesiastes 12:13, 14).
