Read To Me Daily Semester 3ናሙና

2KINGS 13-14:
Yesterday in 2nd Kings we heard of Athaliah's seven year reign over Judah, of how Joash was saved from being killed, and of Jehoida's successful plot to end Athaliah's reign. Joash turned out to be sorta good, but disappointing at the end of his reign. And it is interesting to note that the people who worked on restoring the temple evidently had more integrity than the priests.

PSALM 129:
Today’s poem, Psalm 129, is another Psalm of Ascent and another nationalistic psalm. In this year’s readings, in just a few days we will begin hearing the parts of Israel’s history where this psalm writer could have received the scars on his back. (I like how the GNT shows that the scars on the back might be taken figuratively for the whole race, instead of personally for just the writer. But one just listening to a reading of this chapter will probably not pick up on that detail.) In our time, this psalm gives us permission to pray that the Lord’s enemies do not prosper.

JOHN 13b:
Today we will return to John 13. John spends several chapters in the upper room, and this chapter is the first. We hear the most complete account here about Judas, and only here do we find the story of Jesus washing the disciples' feet. This is another time where we see Jesus consciously acting out a parable for us. And because of that, the interchange between Jesus and Peter is more poignant— although John takes pity on Peter and does not include details of that conversation that are found elsewhere.

Let’s pray.
Our dear Lord, Christ Jesus: Once again in this Gospel, we find that You acted out a parable for us. What you did in washing the disciples’ feet, and the way You did it, have deep spiritual significance for us. You have given us the command to wash one another’s feet. And we rebel like Peter saying, “Nobody’s gonna serve me like that!” And even more often we flat out refuse to take the servant role saying, “That job is beneath me!” We confess to You, Lord, that we are miserable failures in doing this. We have NOT taken up our crosses to follow You! We have NOT left behind our own self-interests! We are rebels who only want to serve You when it makes us look good. We are like the Pharisees who sounded trumpets so that people would notice them giving large donations. So Lord, today, we sincerely repent. Please have mercy on us again. Help us to make some small and practical step today, as we begin all over again to join the few who actually follow your example.