Officers Sent To Arrest Jesus

John 7 ³²When the Pharisees heard the crowd arguing about Jesus, they got together with the chief priests and sent some temple police to arrest him. ³³But Jesus told them, "I will be with you a little while longer, and then I will return to the one who sent me. ³⁴You will look for me, but you won't find me. You cannot go where I am going."
³⁵The people asked each other, "Where can he go to keep us from finding him? Is he going to some foreign country where our people live? Is he going there to teach the Greeks? ³⁶What did he mean by saying that we will look for him, but won't find him? Why can't we go where he is going?"

Streams of Life-Giving Water

³⁷On the last and most important day of the festival, Jesus stood up and shouted, "If you are thirsty, come to me and drink! ³⁸Have faith in me, and you will have life-giving water flowing from deep inside you, just as the Scriptures say." ³⁹Jesus was talking about the Holy Spirit, who would be given to everyone that had faith in him. The Spirit had not yet been given to anyone, since Jesus had not yet been given his full glory.

The People Take Sides

⁴⁰When the crowd heard Jesus say this, some of them said, "He must be the Prophet!" ⁴¹Others said, "He is the Messiah!" Others even said, "Can the Messiah come from Galilee? ⁴²The Scriptures say that the Messiah will come from the family of King David. Doesn't this mean that he will be born in David's hometown of Bethlehem?" ⁴³The people started taking sides against each other because of Jesus. ⁴⁴Some of them wanted to arrest him, but no one laid a hand on him.

The Leaders Refuse To Have Faith in Jesus

⁴⁵When the temple police returned to the chief priests and Pharisees, they were asked, "Why didn't you bring Jesus here?"
⁴⁶They answered, "No one has ever spoken like that man!"
⁴⁷The Pharisees said to them, "Have you also been fooled? ⁴⁸Not one of the chief priests or the Pharisees has faith in him. ⁴⁹And these people who don't know the Law are under God's curse anyway."
⁵⁰Nicodemus was there at the time. He was a member of the council, and was the same one who had earlier come to see Jesus. He said, ⁵¹"Our Law doesn't let us condemn people before we hear what they have to say. We cannot judge them before we know what they have done."
⁵²Then they said, "Nicodemus, you must be from Galilee! Read the Scriptures, and you will find that no prophet is to come from Galilee."

Gifts for Building the Temple

1 Chronicles 29 David told the crowd:

God chose my son Solomon to build the temple, but Solomon is young and has no experience. This is not just any building--this is the temple for the LORD God! ²That's why I have done my best to get everything Solomon will need to build it--gold, silver, bronze, iron, wood, onyx, turquoise, colored gems, all kinds of precious stones, and marble.

³Besides doing all that, I have promised to give part of my own gold and silver as a way of showing my love for God's temple. ⁴Almost one hundred twenty tons of my finest gold and over two hundred fifty tons of my silver will be used to decorate its walls ⁵and to make the gold and silver objects. Now, who else will show their dedication to the LORD by giving gifts for building his temple?

⁶After David finished speaking, the family leaders, the tribal leaders, the army commanders, and the government officials voluntarily gave gifts ⁷for the temple. These gifts included almost two hundred tons of gold, three hundred eighty tons of silver, almost seven hundred tons of bronze, and three thousand seven hundred fifty tons of iron. ⁸Everyone who owned precious stones also donated them to the temple treasury, where Jehiel from the Levite clan of Gershon guarded them.
⁹David and the people were very happy that so much had been given to the LORD, and they all celebrated.

David Praises the LORD

¹⁰Then, in front of everyone, David sang praises to the LORD:

I praise you forever, LORD! You are the God our ancestor Jacob worshiped. ¹¹Your power is great, and your glory is seen everywhere in heaven and on earth. You are king of the entire world, ¹²and you rule with strength and power. You make people rich and powerful and famous. ¹³We thank you, our God, and praise you.

¹⁴But why should we be happy that we have given you these gifts? They belong to you, and we have only given back what is already yours. ¹⁵We are only foreigners living here on earth for a while, just as our ancestors were. And we will soon be gone, like a shadow that suddenly disappears.

¹⁶Our LORD God, we have brought all these things for building a temple to honor you. They belong to you, and you gave them to us. ¹⁷But we are happy, because everyone has voluntarily given you these things. You know what is in everyone's heart, and you are pleased when people are honest. ¹⁸Always make us eager to give, and help us be faithful to you, just as our ancestors Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob faithfully worshiped you. ¹⁹And give Solomon the desire to completely obey your laws and teachings, and the desire to build the temple for which I have provided these gifts.

²⁰David then said to the people, "Now it's your turn to praise the LORD, the God your ancestors worshiped!" So everyone praised the LORD, and they bowed down to honor him and David their king.

Solomon Is Crowned King

²¹The next day, the Israelites slaughtered a thousand bulls, a thousand rams, and a thousand lambs, and they offered them as sacrifices to please the LORD, along with offerings of wine. ²²The people were very happy, and they ate and drank there at the LORD's altar.
That same day, Solomon was crowned king. The people celebrated and poured olive oil on Solomon's head to show that he would be their next king. They also poured oil on Zadok's head to show that he was their priest.
²³So Solomon became king after David his father. Solomon was successful, and everyone in Israel obeyed him. ²⁴Every official and every soldier, as well as all of David's other sons, were loyal to him. ²⁵The LORD made Solomon a great king, and the whole nation was amazed at how famous he was. In fact, no other king of Israel was as great as Solomon.

David Dies

²⁶David the son of Jesse was king of Israel ²⁷for forty years. He ruled from Hebron for seven years and from Jerusalem for thirty-three years. ²⁸David was rich and respected and lived to be an old man. Then he died, and his son Solomon became king.
²⁹Everything David did while he was king is included in the history written by the prophets Samuel, Nathan, and Gad. ³⁰They wrote about his powerful rule and about the things that happened not only to him, but also to Israel and the other nations.

Getting Rid of Idols and False Prophets

Zechariah 13 In the future there will be a fountain, where David's descendants and the people of Jerusalem can wash away their sin and guilt.
²The LORD All-Powerful says:

When that time comes, I will get rid of every idol in the country, and they will be forgotten forever. I will also do away with their prophets and those evil spirits that control them. ³If any such prophets ever appear again, their own parents must warn them that they will die for telling lies in my name--the name of the LORD. If those prophets don't stop speaking, their parents must then kill them with a sword.

⁴Those prophets will be ashamed of their so-called visions, and they won't deceive anyone by dressing like a true prophet. ⁵Instead, they will say, "I'm no prophet. I've been a farmer all my life."

⁶And if any of them are asked why they are wounded, they will answer, "It happened at the house of some friends."

A Wounded Shepherd and Scattered Sheep

⁷The LORD All-Powerful said:
My sword, wake up! Attack my shepherd and friend.
Strike down the shepherd! Scatter the little sheep,
and I will destroy them.
⁸Nowhere in the land will more than a third of them
be left alive.
⁹Then I will purify them and put them to the test,
just as gold and silver are purified and tested.
They will pray in my name, and I will answer them.
I will say, "You are my people,"
and they will reply, "You, LORD, are our God!"