The Unseen God — Part Two

How to Overcome Temptation

IHCC Daily Bible Reading Plan - July

Week 1: Being Human in the Age of AI

Two and a Half Acres of Faith

Building Living Bridges

What Do Christians Believe?

A Great Harvest

We're So Blessed: A Fun 5-Day Family Devotional From CAIN

Finding Freedom: With Confidence

The Listener’s Bible®: NIV Edition

New International Version™  (Anglicised), Audio Edition

Holy Bible, New International Version™ (Anglicised), South Asian Audio Edition

<div class="version vid111 iso6393eng" data-vid="111" data-iso6393="eng">
 <div class="book bk2KI">
 <div class="chapter ch9" data-usfm="2KI.9">
 <div class="label">9</div><div class="s1">Jehu Anointed King of Israel</div><div class="p"> 1The prophet Elisha summoned a man from the company of the prophets and said to him, &#8220;Tuck your cloak into your belt, take this flask of olive oil with you and go to Ramoth Gilead. 2When you get there, look for Jehu son of Jehoshaphat, the son of Nimshi. Go to him, get him away from his companions and take him into an inner room. 3Then take the flask and pour the oil on his head and declare, &#8216;This is what the Lord says: I anoint you king over Israel.&#8217; Then open the door and run; don&#8217;t delay!&#8221;</div><div class="p"> 4So the young prophet went to Ramoth Gilead. 5When he arrived, he found the army officers sitting together. &#8220;I have a message for you, commander,&#8221; he said.</div><div class="p">&#8220;For which of us?&#8221; asked Jehu.</div><div class="p">&#8220;For you, commander,&#8221; he replied.</div><div class="p"> 6Jehu got up and went into the house. Then the prophet poured the oil on Jehu&#8217;s head and declared, &#8220;This is what the Lord, the God of Israel, says: &#8216;I anoint you king over the Lord&#8217;s people Israel. 7You are to destroy the house of Ahab your master, and I will avenge the blood of my servants the prophets and the blood of all the Lord&#8217;s servants shed by Jezebel. 8The whole house of Ahab will perish. I will cut off from Ahab every last male in Israel&#8212;slave or free.#9:8 Or Israel&#8212;every ruler or leader 9I will make the house of Ahab like the house of Jeroboam son of Nebat and like the house of Baasha son of Ahijah. 10As for Jezebel, dogs will devour her on the plot of ground at Jezreel, and no one will bury her.&#8217;&#8198;&#8221; Then he opened the door and ran.</div><div class="p"> 11When Jehu went out to his fellow officers, one of them asked him, &#8220;Is everything all right? Why did this maniac come to you?&#8221;</div><div class="p">&#8220;You know the man and the sort of things he says,&#8221; Jehu replied.</div><div class="p"> 12&#8220;That&#8217;s not true!&#8221; they said. &#8220;Tell us.&#8221;</div><div class="p">Jehu said, &#8220;Here is what he told me: &#8216;This is what the Lord says: I anoint you king over Israel.&#8217;&#8198;&#8221;</div><div class="p"> 13They quickly took their cloaks and spread them under him on the bare steps. Then they blew the trumpet and shouted, &#8220;Jehu is king!&#8221;</div><div class="s1">Jehu Kills Joram and Ahaziah</div><div class="p"> 14So Jehu son of Jehoshaphat, the son of Nimshi, conspired against Joram. (Now Joram and all Israel had been defending Ramoth Gilead against Hazael king of Aram, 15but King Joram#9:15 Hebrew Jehoram, a variant of Joram; also in verses 17 and 21-24 had returned to Jezreel to recover from the wounds the Arameans had inflicted on him in the battle with Hazael king of Aram.) Jehu said, &#8220;If you desire to make me king, don&#8217;t let anyone slip out of the city to go and tell the news in Jezreel.&#8221; 16Then he got into his chariot and rode to Jezreel, because Joram was resting there and Ahaziah king of Judah had gone down to see him.</div><div class="p"> 17When the lookout standing on the tower in Jezreel saw Jehu&#8217;s troops approaching, he called out, &#8220;I see some troops coming.&#8221;</div><div class="p">&#8220;Get a horseman,&#8221; Joram ordered. &#8220;Send him to meet them and ask, &#8216;Do you come in peace?&#8217;&#8198;&#8221;</div><div class="p"> 18The horseman rode off to meet Jehu and said, &#8220;This is what the king says: &#8216;Do you come in peace?&#8217;&#8198;&#8221;</div><div class="p">&#8220;What do you have to do with peace?&#8221; Jehu replied. &#8220;Fall in behind me.&#8221;</div><div class="p">The lookout reported, &#8220;The messenger has reached them, but he isn&#8217;t coming back.&#8221;</div><div class="p"> 19So the king sent out a second horseman. When he came to them he said, &#8220;This is what the king says: &#8216;Do you come in peace?&#8217;&#8198;&#8221;</div><div class="p">Jehu replied, &#8220;What do you have to do with peace? Fall in behind me.&#8221;</div><div class="p"> 20The lookout reported, &#8220;He has reached them, but he isn&#8217;t coming back either. The driving is like that of Jehu son of Nimshi&#8212;he drives like a maniac.&#8221;</div><div class="p"> 21&#8220;Hitch up my chariot,&#8221; Joram ordered. And when it was hitched up, Joram king of Israel and Ahaziah king of Judah rode out, each in his own chariot, to meet Jehu. They met him at the plot of ground that had belonged to Naboth the Jezreelite. 22When Joram saw Jehu he asked, &#8220;Have you come in peace, Jehu?&#8221;</div><div class="p">&#8220;How can there be peace,&#8221; Jehu replied, &#8220;as long as all the idolatry and witchcraft of your mother Jezebel abound?&#8221;</div><div class="p"> 23Joram turned about and fled, calling out to Ahaziah, &#8220;Treachery, Ahaziah!&#8221;</div><div class="p"> 24Then Jehu drew his bow and shot Joram between the shoulders. The arrow pierced his heart and he slumped down in his chariot. 25Jehu said to Bidkar, his chariot officer, &#8220;Pick him up and throw him on the field that belonged to Naboth the Jezreelite. Remember how you and I were riding together in chariots behind Ahab his father when the Lord spoke this prophecy against him: 26&#8216;Yesterday I saw the blood of Naboth and the blood of his sons, declares the Lord, and I will surely make you pay for it on this plot of ground, declares the Lord.&#8217;#9:26 See 1 Kings 21:19. Now then, pick him up and throw him on that plot, in accordance with the word of the Lord.&#8221;</div><div class="p"> 27When Ahaziah king of Judah saw what had happened, he fled up the road to Beth Haggan.#9:27 Or fled by way of the garden house Jehu chased him, shouting, &#8220;Kill him too!&#8221; They wounded him in his chariot on the way up to Gur near Ibleam, but he escaped to Megiddo and died there. 28His servants took him by chariot to Jerusalem and buried him with his ancestors in his tomb in the City of David. 29(In the eleventh year of Joram son of Ahab, Ahaziah had become king of Judah.)</div><div class="s1">Jezebel Killed</div><div class="p"> 30Then Jehu went to Jezreel. When Jezebel heard about it, she put on eye makeup, arranged her hair and looked out of a window. 31As Jehu entered the gate, she asked, &#8220;Have you come in peace, you Zimri, you murderer of your master?&#8221;#9:31 Or &#8220;Was there peace for Zimri, who murdered his master?&#8221;</div><div class="p"> 32He looked up at the window and called out, &#8220;Who is on my side? Who?&#8221; Two or three eunuchs looked down at him. 33&#8220;Throw her down!&#8221; Jehu said. So they threw her down, and some of her blood spattered the wall and the horses as they trampled her underfoot.</div><div class="p"> 34Jehu went in and ate and drank. &#8220;Take care of that cursed woman,&#8221; he said, &#8220;and bury her, for she was a king&#8217;s daughter.&#8221; 35But when they went out to bury her, they found nothing except her skull, her feet and her hands. 36They went back and told Jehu, who said, &#8220;This is the word of the Lord that he spoke through his servant Elijah the Tishbite: On the plot of ground at Jezreel dogs will devour Jezebel&#8217;s flesh.#9:36 See 1 Kings 21:23. 37Jezebel&#8217;s body will be like dung on the ground in the plot at Jezreel, so that no one will be able to say, &#8216;This is Jezebel.&#8217;&#8198;&#8221;</div>
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<div class="version vid111 iso6393eng" data-vid="111" data-iso6393="eng">
 <div class="book bk2KI">
 <div class="chapter ch10" data-usfm="2KI.10">
 <div class="label">10</div><div class="s1">Ahab&#8217;s Family Killed</div><div class="p"> 1Now there were in Samaria seventy sons of the house of Ahab. So Jehu wrote letters and sent them to Samaria: to the officials of Jezreel,#10:1 Hebrew; some Septuagint manuscripts and Vulgate of the city to the elders and to the guardians of Ahab&#8217;s children. He said, 2&#8220;You have your master&#8217;s sons with you and you have chariots and horses, a fortified city and weapons. Now as soon as this letter reaches you, 3choose the best and most worthy of your master&#8217;s sons and set him on his father&#8217;s throne. Then fight for your master&#8217;s house.&#8221;</div><div class="p"> 4But they were terrified and said, &#8220;If two kings could not resist him, how can we?&#8221;</div><div class="p"> 5So the palace administrator, the city governor, the elders and the guardians sent this message to Jehu: &#8220;We are your servants and we will do anything you say. We will not appoint anyone as king; you do whatever you think best.&#8221;</div><div class="p"> 6Then Jehu wrote them a second letter, saying, &#8220;If you are on my side and will obey me, take the heads of your master&#8217;s sons and come to me in Jezreel by this time tomorrow.&#8221;</div><div class="p">Now the royal princes, seventy of them, were with the leading men of the city, who were rearing them. 7When the letter arrived, these men took the princes and slaughtered all seventy of them. They put their heads in baskets and sent them to Jehu in Jezreel. 8When the messenger arrived, he told Jehu, &#8220;They have brought the heads of the princes.&#8221;</div><div class="p">Then Jehu ordered, &#8220;Put them in two piles at the entrance of the city gate until morning.&#8221;</div><div class="p"> 9The next morning Jehu went out. He stood before all the people and said, &#8220;You are innocent. It was I who conspired against my master and killed him, but who killed all these? 10Know, then, that not a word the Lord has spoken against the house of Ahab will fail. The Lord has done what he announced through his servant Elijah.&#8221; 11So Jehu killed everyone in Jezreel who remained of the house of Ahab, as well as all his chief men, his close friends and his priests, leaving him no survivor.</div><div class="p"> 12Jehu then set out and went toward Samaria. At Beth Eked of the Shepherds, 13he met some relatives of Ahaziah king of Judah and asked, &#8220;Who are you?&#8221;</div><div class="p">They said, &#8220;We are relatives of Ahaziah, and we have come down to greet the families of the king and of the queen mother.&#8221;</div><div class="p"> 14&#8220;Take them alive!&#8221; he ordered. So they took them alive and slaughtered them by the well of Beth Eked&#8212;forty-two of them. He left no survivor.</div><div class="p"> 15After he left there, he came upon Jehonadab son of Rekab, who was on his way to meet him. Jehu greeted him and said, &#8220;Are you in accord with me, as I am with you?&#8221;</div><div class="p">&#8220;I am,&#8221; Jehonadab answered.</div><div class="p">&#8220;If so,&#8221; said Jehu, &#8220;give me your hand.&#8221; So he did, and Jehu helped him up into the chariot. 16Jehu said, &#8220;Come with me and see my zeal for the Lord.&#8221; Then he had him ride along in his chariot.</div><div class="p"> 17When Jehu came to Samaria, he killed all who were left there of Ahab&#8217;s family; he destroyed them, according to the word of the Lord spoken to Elijah.</div><div class="s1">Servants of Baal Killed</div><div class="p"> 18Then Jehu brought all the people together and said to them, &#8220;Ahab served Baal a little; Jehu will serve him much. 19Now summon all the prophets of Baal, all his servants and all his priests. See that no one is missing, because I am going to hold a great sacrifice for Baal. Anyone who fails to come will no longer live.&#8221; But Jehu was acting deceptively in order to destroy the servants of Baal.</div><div class="p"> 20Jehu said, &#8220;Call an assembly in honor of Baal.&#8221; So they proclaimed it. 21Then he sent word throughout Israel, and all the servants of Baal came; not one stayed away. They crowded into the temple of Baal until it was full from one end to the other. 22And Jehu said to the keeper of the wardrobe, &#8220;Bring robes for all the servants of Baal.&#8221; So he brought out robes for them.</div><div class="p"> 23Then Jehu and Jehonadab son of Rekab went into the temple of Baal. Jehu said to the servants of Baal, &#8220;Look around and see that no one who serves the Lord is here with you&#8212;only servants of Baal.&#8221; 24So they went in to make sacrifices and burnt offerings. Now Jehu had posted eighty men outside with this warning: &#8220;If one of you lets any of the men I am placing in your hands escape, it will be your life for his life.&#8221;</div><div class="p"> 25As soon as Jehu had finished making the burnt offering, he ordered the guards and officers: &#8220;Go in and kill them; let no one escape.&#8221; So they cut them down with the sword. The guards and officers threw the bodies out and then entered the inner shrine of the temple of Baal. 26They brought the sacred stone out of the temple of Baal and burned it. 27They demolished the sacred stone of Baal and tore down the temple of Baal, and people have used it for a latrine to this day.</div><div class="p"> 28So Jehu destroyed Baal worship in Israel. 29However, he did not turn away from the sins of Jeroboam son of Nebat, which he had caused Israel to commit&#8212;the worship of the golden calves at Bethel and Dan.</div><div class="p"> 30The Lord said to Jehu, &#8220;Because you have done well in accomplishing what is right in my eyes and have done to the house of Ahab all I had in mind to do, your descendants will sit on the throne of Israel to the fourth generation.&#8221; 31Yet Jehu was not careful to keep the law of the Lord, the God of Israel, with all his heart. He did not turn away from the sins of Jeroboam, which he had caused Israel to commit.</div><div class="p"> 32In those days the Lord began to reduce the size of Israel. Hazael overpowered the Israelites throughout their territory 33east of the Jordan in all the land of Gilead (the region of Gad, Reuben and Manasseh), from Aroer by the Arnon Gorge through Gilead to Bashan.</div><div class="p"> 34As for the other events of Jehu&#8217;s reign, all he did, and all his achievements, are they not written in the book of the annals of the kings of Israel?</div><div class="p"> 35Jehu rested with his ancestors and was buried in Samaria. And Jehoahaz his son succeeded him as king. 36The time that Jehu reigned over Israel in Samaria was twenty-eight years.</div>
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<div class="version vid111 iso6393eng" data-vid="111" data-iso6393="eng">
 <div class="book bk2CO">
 <div class="chapter ch8" data-usfm="2CO.8">
 <div class="label">8</div><div class="s1">The Collection for the Lord&#8217;s People</div><div class="p"> 1And now, brothers and sisters, we want you to know about the grace that God has given the Macedonian churches. 2In the midst of a very severe trial, their overflowing joy and their extreme poverty welled up in rich generosity. 3For I testify that they gave as much as they were able, and even beyond their ability. Entirely on their own, 4they urgently pleaded with us for the privilege of sharing in this service to the Lord&#8217;s people. 5And they exceeded our expectations: They gave themselves first of all to the Lord, and then by the will of God also to us. 6So we urged Titus, just as he had earlier made a beginning, to bring also to completion this act of grace on your part. 7But since you excel in everything&#8212;in faith, in speech, in knowledge, in complete earnestness and in the love we have kindled in you#8:7 Some manuscripts and in your love for us&#8212;see that you also excel in this grace of giving.</div><div class="p"> 8I am not commanding you, but I want to test the sincerity of your love by comparing it with the earnestness of others. 9For you know the grace of our Lord Jesus Christ, that though he was rich, yet for your sake he became poor, so that you through his poverty might become rich.</div><div class="p"> 10And here is my judgment about what is best for you in this matter. Last year you were the first not only to give but also to have the desire to do so. 11Now finish the work, so that your eager willingness to do it may be matched by your completion of it, according to your means. 12For if the willingness is there, the gift is acceptable according to what one has, not according to what one does not have.</div><div class="p"> 13Our desire is not that others might be relieved while you are hard pressed, but that there might be equality. 14At the present time your plenty will supply what they need, so that in turn their plenty will supply what you need. The goal is equality, 15as it is written: &#8220;The one who gathered much did not have too much, and the one who gathered little did not have too little.&#8221;#8:15 Exodus 16:18</div><div class="s1">Titus Sent to Receive the Collection</div><div class="p"> 16Thanks be to God, who put into the heart of Titus the same concern I have for you. 17For Titus not only welcomed our appeal, but he is coming to you with much enthusiasm and on his own initiative. 18And we are sending along with him the brother who is praised by all the churches for his service to the gospel. 19What is more, he was chosen by the churches to accompany us as we carry the offering, which we administer in order to honor the Lord himself and to show our eagerness to help. 20We want to avoid any criticism of the way we administer this liberal gift. 21For we are taking pains to do what is right, not only in the eyes of the Lord but also in the eyes of man.</div><div class="p"> 22In addition, we are sending with them our brother who has often proved to us in many ways that he is zealous, and now even more so because of his great confidence in you. 23As for Titus, he is my partner and co-worker among you; as for our brothers, they are representatives of the churches and an honor to Christ. 24Therefore show these men the proof of your love and the reason for our pride in you, so that the churches can see it.</div>
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