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WHAT DOES THE BIBLE SAY TO YOU?
Are you facing a difficult decision?
Solomon loved the LORD, walking in the statutes of his father David; only, he sacrificed
and offered incense at the high places. The king went to Gibeon to sacrifice there, for
that was the principal high place; Solomon used to offer a thousand burnt offerings on
that altar. At Gibeon the LORD appeared to Solomon in a dream by night; and God said,
"Ask what I should give you." And Solomon said, "You have shown great and
steadfast love to your servant my father David, because he walked before you in
faithfulness, in righteousness, and in uprightness of heart toward you; and you have kept
for him this great and steadfast love, and have given him a son to sit on his throne
today. And now, O LORD my God, you have made your servant king in place of my father
David, although I am only a little child; I do not know how to go out or come in. And your
servant is in the midst of the people whom you have chosen, a great people, so numerous
they cannot be numbered or counted. Give your servant therefore an understanding mind to
govern your people, able to discern between good and evil; for who can govern this your
great people?"
It pleased the LORD that Solomon had asked this. God said to him,
"Because you have asked this, and have not asked for yourself long life or riches, or
for the life of your enemies, but have asked for yourself understanding to discern what is
right, I now do according to your word. Indeed I give you a wise and discerning mind; no
one like you has been before you and no one like you shall arise after you. I give you
also what you have not asked, both riches and honor all your life; no other king shall
compare with you. If you will walk in my ways, keeping my statutes and my commandments, as
your father David walked, then I will lengthen your life."
Later, two women who were prostitutes came to the king and stood
before him. The one woman said, "Please, my lord, this woman and I live in the same
house; and I gave birth while she was in the house. Then on the third day after I gave
birth, this woman also gave birth. We were together; there was no one else with us in the
house, only the two of us were in the house. Then this woman's son died in the night,
because she lay on him. She got up in the middle of the night and took my son from beside
me while your servant slept. She laid him at her breast, and laid her dead son at my
breast. When I rose in the morning to nurse my son, I saw that he was dead; but when I
looked at him closely in the morning, clearly it was not the son I had borne." But
the other woman said, "No, the living son is mine, and the dead son is yours."
The first said, "No, the dead son is yours, and the living son is mine." So they
argued before the king.
Then the king said, "The one says, 'This is my son that is
alive, and your son is dead'; while the other says, 'Not so! Your son is dead, and my son
is the living one.'" So the king said, "Bring me a sword," and they brought
a sword before the king. The king said, "Divide the living boy in two; then give half
to the one, and half to the other." But the woman whose son was alive said to the
king — because compassion for her son burned within her — "Please, my lord,
give her the living boy; certainly do not kill him!" The other said, "It shall
be neither mine nor yours; divide it." Then the king responded: "Give the first
woman the living boy; do not kill him. She is his mother." All Israel heard of the
judgment that the king had rendered; and they stood in awe of the king, because they
perceived that the wisdom of God was in him, to execute justice.
1 Kings 3, selected verses
When Mordecai learned all that had been done, Mordecai tore his
clothes and put on sackcloth and ashes, and went through the city, wailing with a loud and
bitter cry; he went up to the entrance of the king's gate, for no one might enter the
king's gate clothed with sackcloth. In every province, wherever the king's command and his
decree came, there was great mourning among the Jews, with fasting and weeping and
lamenting, and most of them lay in sackcloth and ashes.
When Esther's maids and her eunuchs came and told her, the queen
was deeply distressed; she sent garments to clothe Mordecai, so that he might take off his
sackcloth; but he would not accept them. Then Esther called for Hathach, one of the king's
eunuchs, who had been appointed to attend her, and ordered him to go to Mordecai to learn
what was happening and why. Hathach went out to Mordecai in the open square of the city in
front of the king's gate, and Mordecai told him all that had happened to him, and the
exact sum of money that Haman had promised to pay into the king's treasuries for the
destruction of the Jews. Mordecai also gave him a copy of the written decree issued in
Susa for their destruction, that he might show it to Esther, explain it to her, and charge
her to go to the king to make supplication to him and entreat him for her people.
Hathach went and told Esther what Mordecai had said. Then Esther
spoke to Hathach and gave him a message for Mordecai, saying, "All the king's
servants and the people of the king's provinces know that if any man or woman goes to the
king inside the inner court without being called, there is but one law — all alike
are to be put to death. Only if the king holds out the golden scepter to someone, may that
person live. I myself have not been called to come in to the king for thirty
days." When they told Mordecai what Esther had said, Mordecai told them to reply to
Esther, "Do not think that in the king's palace you will escape any more than all the
other Jews. For if you keep silence at such a time as this, relief and deliverance
will rise for the Jews from another quarter, but you and your father's family will perish.
Who knows? Perhaps you have come to royal dignity for just such a time as this."
Then Esther said in reply to Mordecai, "Go, gather all the Jews to be found in
Susa, and hold a fast on my behalf, and neither eat nor drink for three days, night or
day. I and my maids will also fast as you do. After that I will go to the king, though it
is against the law; and if I perish, I perish." Mordecai then went away and did
everything as Esther had ordered him.
On the third day Esther put on her royal robes and stood in the
inner court of the king's palace, opposite the king's hall. The king was sitting on his
royal throne inside the palace opposite the entrance to the palace. As soon as the king
saw Queen Esther standing in the court, she won his favor and he held out to her the
golden scepter that was in his hand. Then Esther approached and touched the top of the
scepter. The king said to her, "What is it, Queen Esther? What is your request?
It shall be given you, even to the half of my kingdom." Then Esther said,
"If it pleases the king, let the king and Haman come today to a banquet that I have
prepared for the king." Then the king said, "Bring Haman quickly, so that we may
do as Esther desires." So the king and Haman came to the banquet that Esther had
prepared. While they were drinking wine, the king said to Esther, "What is your
petition? It shall be granted you. And what is your request? Even to the half of my
kingdom, it shall be fulfilled." Then Esther said, "This is my petition and
request: If I have won the king's favor, and if it pleases the king to grant my petition
and fulfill my request, let the king and Haman come tomorrow to the banquet that I will
prepare for them, and then I will do as the king has said." ...
On that night the king could not sleep, and he gave orders to
bring the book of records, the annals, and they were read to the king. It was found
written how Mordecai had told about Bigthana and Teresh, two of the king's eunuchs, who
guarded the threshold, and who had conspired to assassinate King Ahasuerus. Then the king
said, "What honor or distinction has been bestowed on Mordecai for this?" The
king's servants who attended him said, "Nothing has been done for him." The king
said, "Who is in the court?" Now Haman had just entered the outer court of
the king's palace to speak to the king about having Mordecai hanged on the gallows that he
had prepared for him. So the king's servants told him, "Haman is there,
standing in the court." The king said, "Let him come in." So Haman
came in, and the king said to him, "What shall be done for the man whom the king
wishes to honor?" Haman said to himself, "Whom would the king wish to
honor more than me?" So Haman said to the king, "For the man whom the king
wishes to honor, let royal robes be brought, which the king has worn, and a horse that the
king has ridden, with a royal crown on its head. Let the robes and the horse be handed
over to one of the king's most noble officials; let him robe the man whom the king wishes
to honor, and let him conduct the man on horseback through the open square of the city,
proclaiming before him: 'Thus shall it be done for the man whom the king wishes to
honor.'" Then the king said to Haman, "Quickly, take the robes and the
horse, as you have said, and do so to the Jew Mordecai who sits at the king's gate.
Leave out nothing that you have mentioned." So Haman took the robes and the horse and
robed Mordecai and led him riding through the open square of the city, proclaiming,
"Thus shall it be done for the man whom the king wishes to honor."
Then Mordecai returned to the king's gate, but Haman hurried to
his house, mourning and with his head covered. When Haman told his wife Zeresh and all his
friends everything that had happened to him, his advisers and his wife Zeresh said to him,
"If Mordecai, before whom your downfall has begun, is of the Jewish people, you will
not prevail against him, but will surely fall before him."
While they were still talking with him, the king's eunuchs
arrived and hurried Haman off to the banquet that Esther had prepared.
So the king and Haman went in to feast with Queen Esther.
On the second day, as they were drinking wine, the king again said to Esther, "What
is your petition, Queen Esther? It shall be granted you. And what is your
request? Even to the half of my kingdom, it shall be fulfilled." Then Queen
Esther answered, "If I have won your favor, O king, and if it pleases the king, let
my life be given me — that is my petition — and the lives of my people —
that is my request. For we have been sold, I and my people, to be destroyed, to be
killed, and to be annihilated. If we had been sold merely as slaves, men and women, I
would have held my peace; but no enemy can compensate for this damage to the king."
Then King Ahasuerus said to Queen Esther, "Who is he, and where is he, who has
presumed to do this?" Esther said, "A foe and enemy, this wicked
Haman!" Then Haman was terrified before the king and the queen. The king rose
from the feast in wrath and went into the palace garden, but Haman stayed to beg his life
from Queen Esther, for he saw that the king had determined to destroy him. When the king
returned from the palace garden to the banquet hall, Haman had thrown himself on the couch
where Esther was reclining; and the king said, "Will he even assault the queen in my
presence, in my own house?" As the words left the mouth of the king, they covered
Haman's face. Then Harbona, one of the eunuchs in attendance on the king, said,
"Look, the very gallows that Haman has prepared for Mordecai, whose word saved the
king, stands at Haman's house, fifty cubits high." And the king said, "Hang him
on that." So they hanged Haman on the gallows that he had prepared for Mordecai. Then
the anger of the king abated.
Esther 4-7
O LORD, you have searched me and known me.
You know when I sit down and when I rise up;
you discern my thoughts from far away.
You search out my path and my lying down,
and are acquainted with all my ways.
Even before a word is on my tongue,
O LORD, you know it completely.
You hem me in, behind and before,
and lay your hand upon me.
Such knowledge is too wonderful for me;
it is so high that I cannot attain it.
Where can I go from your spirit?
Or where can I flee from your presence?
If I ascend to heaven, you are there;
if I make my bed in Sheol, you are there.
If I take the wings of the morning
and settle at the farthest limits of the sea,
even there your hand shall lead me,
and your right hand shall hold me fast.
If I say, "Surely the darkness shall cover me,
and the light around me become night,"
even the darkness is not dark to you;
the night is as bright as the day,
for darkness is as light to you.
For it was you who formed my inward parts;
you knit me together in my mother's womb.
I praise you, for I am fearfully and wonderfully made.
Wonderful are your works;
that I know very well.
My frame was not hidden from you,
when I was being made in secret,
intricately woven in the depths of the earth.
Your eyes beheld my unformed substance.
In your book were written
all the days that were formed for me,
when none of them as yet existed.
How weighty to me are your thoughts, O God!
How vast is the sum of them!
I try to count them — they are more than the sand;
I come to the end — I am still with you.
O that you would kill the wicked, O God,
and that the bloodthirsty would depart from me —
those who speak of you maliciously,
and lift themselves up against you for evil!
Do I not hate those who hate you, O LORD?
And do I not loathe those who rise up against you?
I hate them with perfect hatred;
I count them my enemies.
Search me, O God, and know my heart;
test me and know my thoughts.
See if there is any wicked way in me,
and lead me in the way everlasting.
Psalm 139
Then Daniel responded with prudence and discretion to Arioch, the
king's chief executioner, who had gone out to execute the wise men of Babylon; he asked
Arioch, the royal official, "Why is the decree of the king so urgent?" Arioch
then explained the matter to Daniel. So Daniel went in and requested that the king give
him time and he would tell the king the interpretation.
Then Daniel went to his home and informed his companions,
Hananiah, Mishael, and Azariah, and told them to seek mercy from the God of heaven
concerning this mystery, so that Daniel and his companions with the rest of the wise men
of Babylon might not perish. Then the mystery was revealed to Daniel in a vision of the
night, and Daniel blessed the God of heaven.
Daniel said:
"Blessed be the name of God from age to age,
for wisdom and power are his.
He changes times and seasons,
deposes kings and sets up kings;
he gives wisdom to the wise
and knowledge to those who have understanding.
He reveals deep and hidden things;
he knows what is in the darkness,
and light dwells with him.
To you, O God of my ancestors,
I give thanks and praise,
for you have given me wisdom and power,
and have now revealed to me what we asked of you,
for you have revealed to us what the king ordered."
Daniel 2:14-23
Jesus went to the Mount of Olives. Early in
the morning he came again to the temple. All the people came to him and he sat down
and began to teach them. The scribes and the Pharisees brought a woman who had been
caught in adultery; and making her stand before all of them, they said to him,
"Teacher, this woman was caught in the very act of committing adultery. Now in
the law Moses commanded us to stone such women. Now what do you say?" They said
this to test him, so that they might have some charge to bring against him. Jesus
bent down and wrote with his finger on the ground. When they kept on questioning
him, he straightened up and said to them, "Let anyone among you who is without sin be
the first to throw a stone at her." And once again he bent down and wrote on
the ground. When they heard it, they went away, one by one, beginning with the
elders; and Jesus was left alone with the woman standing before him. Jesus
straightened up and said to her, "Woman, where are they? Has no one condemned
you?" She said, "No one, sir." And Jesus said, "Neither do
I condemn you. Go your way, and from now on do not sin again.
John 8:1-11
As God's chosen ones, holy and beloved, clothe yourselves with
compassion, kindness, humility, meekness, and patience. Bear with one another and, if
anyone has a complaint against another, forgive each other; just as the Lord has forgiven
you, so you also must forgive. Above all, clothe yourselves with love, which binds
everything together in perfect harmony. And let the peace of Christ rule in your hearts,
to which indeed you were called in the one body. And be thankful. Let the word of Christ
dwell in you richly; teach and admonish one another in all wisdom; and with gratitude in
your hearts sing psalms, hymns, and spiritual songs to God. And whatever you do, in word
or deed, do everything in the name of the Lord Jesus, giving thanks to God the Father
through him.
Colossians 3:12-17
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