The Offering for Needy Believers

1 Corinthians 16 Now, concerning what you wrote about the money to be raised to help God's people in Judea. You must do what I told the churches in Galatia to do. ²Every Sunday each of you must put aside some money, in proportion to what you have earned, and save it up, so that there will be no need to collect money when I come. ³After I come, I shall give letters of introduction to those you have approved, and send them to take your gift to Jerusalem. ⁴If it seems worthwhile for me to go, then they can go along with me.

Paul's Plans

⁵I shall come to you after I have gone through Macedonia--for I have to go through Macedonia. ⁶I shall probably spend some time with you, perhaps the whole winter, and then you can help me to continue my trip, wherever it is I shall go next. ⁷I want to see you more than just briefly in passing; I hope to spend quite a long time with you, if the Lord allows.
⁸I will stay here in Ephesus until the day of Pentecost. ⁹There is a real opportunity here for great and worthwhile work, even though there are many opponents.
¹⁰If Timothy comes your way, be sure to make him feel welcome among you, because he is working for the Lord, just as I am. ¹¹No one should look down on him, but you must help him continue his trip in peace, so that he will come back to me; for I am expecting him back with the believers.
¹²Now, about brother Apollos. I have often encouraged him to visit you with the other believers, but he is not completely convinced that he should go at this time. When he gets the chance, however, he will go.

Final Words

¹³Be alert, stand firm in the faith, be brave, be strong. ¹⁴Do all your work in love.
¹⁵You know about Stephanas and his family; they are the first Christian converts in Achaia and have given themselves to the service of God's people. I beg you, my friends, ¹⁶to follow the leadership of such people as these, and of anyone else who works and serves with them.
¹⁷I am happy about the coming of Stephanas, Fortunatus, and Achaicus; they have made up for your absence ¹⁸and have cheered me up, just as they cheered you up. Such men as these deserve notice.
¹⁹The churches in the province of Asia send you their greetings; Aquila and Priscilla and the church that meets in their house send warm Christian greetings. ²⁰All the believers here send greetings.
Greet one another with the kiss of peace.
²¹With my own hand I write this: Greetings from Paul.
²²Whoever does not love the Lord--a curse on him!
Marana tha--Our Lord, come!
²³The grace of the Lord Jesus be with you.
²⁴My love be with you all in Christ Jesus.

King Joash of Judah
(2 Chronicles 24.1-16)

2 Kings 12 In the seventh year of the reign of King Jehu of Israel, Joash became king of Judah, and he ruled in Jerusalem for forty years. His mother was Zibiah from the city of Beersheba. ²Throughout his life he did what pleased the LORD, because Jehoiada the priest instructed him. ³However, the pagan places of worship were not destroyed, and the people continued to offer sacrifices and burn incense there.
⁴Joash called the priests and ordered them to save up the money paid in connection with the sacrifices in the Temple, both the dues paid for the regular sacrifices and the money given as freewill gifts. ⁵Each priest was to be responsible for the money brought by those he served, and the money was to be used to repair the Temple, as needed.
⁶But by the twenty-third year of Joash's reign the priests still had not made any repairs in the Temple. ⁷So he called in Jehoiada and the other priests and asked them, "Why aren't you repairing the Temple? From now on you are not to keep the money you receive; you must hand it over, so that the repairs can be made." ⁸The priests agreed to this and also agreed not to make the repairs in the Temple.
⁹Then Jehoiada took a box, made a hole in the lid, and placed the box by the altar, on the right side as one enters the Temple. The priests on duty at the entrance put in the box all the money given by the worshipers. ¹⁰Whenever there was a large amount of money in the box, the royal secretary and the High Priest would come, melt down the silver, and weigh it. ¹¹After recording the exact amount, they would hand the silver over to the men in charge of the work in the Temple, and these would pay the carpenters, the builders, ¹²the masons, and the stone cutters, buy the timber and the stones used in the repairs, and pay all other necessary expenses. ¹³None of the money, however, was used to pay for making silver cups, bowls, trumpets, or tools for tending the lamps, or any other article of silver or of gold. ¹⁴It was all used to pay the workers and to buy the materials used in the repairs. ¹⁵The men in charge of the work were thoroughly honest, so there was no need to require them to account for the funds. ¹⁶The money given for the repayment offerings and for the offerings for sin was not deposited in the box; it belonged to the priests.
¹⁷At that time King Hazael of Syria attacked the city of Gath and conquered it; then he decided to attack Jerusalem. ¹⁸King Joash of Judah took all the offerings that his predecessors Jehoshaphat, Jehoram, and Ahaziah had dedicated to the LORD, added to them his own offerings and all the gold in the treasuries of the Temple and the palace, and sent them all as a gift to King Hazael, who then led his army away from Jerusalem.
¹⁹Everything else that King Joash did is recorded in The History of the Kings of Judah.
^20-21King Joash's officials plotted against him, and two of them, Jozacar son of Shimeath and Jehozabad son of Shomer, killed him at the house built on the land that was filled in on the east side of Jerusalem, on the road that goes down to Silla. Joash was buried in the royal tombs in David's City, and his son Amaziah succeeded him as king.

King Jehoahaz of Israel

2 Kings 13 In the twenty-third year of the reign of Joash son of Ahaziah as king of Judah, Jehoahaz son of Jehu became king of Israel, and he ruled in Samaria for seventeen years. ²Like King Jeroboam before him, he sinned against the LORD and led Israel into sin; he never gave up his evil ways. ³So the LORD was angry with Israel, and he allowed King Hazael of Syria and his son Benhadad to defeat Israel time after time. ⁴Then Jehoahaz prayed to the LORD, and the LORD, seeing how harshly the king of Syria was oppressing the Israelites, answered his prayer. ⁵The LORD sent Israel a leader, who freed them from the Syrians, and so the Israelites lived in peace, as before. ⁶But they still did not give up the sins into which King Jeroboam had led Israel, but kept on committing them; and the image of the goddess Asherah remained in Samaria.
⁷Jehoahaz had no armed forces left except fifty cavalry troops, ten chariots, and ten thousand foot soldiers, because the king of Syria had destroyed the rest, trampling them down like dust.
⁸Everything else that Jehoahaz did and all his brave deeds are recorded in The History of the Kings of Israel. ⁹He died and was buried in Samaria, and his son Jehoash succeeded him as king.

King Jehoash of Israel

¹⁰In the thirty-seventh year of the reign of King Joash of Judah, Jehoash son of Jehoahaz became king of Israel, and he ruled in Samaria for sixteen years. ¹¹He too sinned against the LORD and followed the evil example of King Jeroboam, who had led Israel into sin. ¹²Everything else that Jehoash did, including his bravery in the war against King Amaziah of Judah, is recorded in The History of the Kings of Israel. ¹³Jehoash died and was buried in the royal tombs in Samaria, and his son Jeroboam II succeeded him as king.

The Death of Elisha

¹⁴The prophet Elisha was sick with a fatal disease, and as he lay dying, King Jehoash of Israel went to visit him. "My father, my father!" he exclaimed as he wept. "You have been the mighty defender of Israel!"
¹⁵"Get a bow and some arrows," Elisha ordered him. Jehoash got them, ¹⁶and Elisha told him to get ready to shoot. The king did so, and Elisha placed his hands on the king's hands. ¹⁷Then, following the prophet's instructions, the king opened the window that faced toward Syria. "Shoot the arrow!" Elisha ordered. As soon as the king shot the arrow, the prophet exclaimed, "You are the LORD's arrow, with which he will win victory over Syria. You will fight the Syrians in Aphek until you defeat them."
¹⁸Then Elisha told the king to take the other arrows and strike the ground with them. The king struck the ground three times, and then stopped. ¹⁹This made Elisha angry, and he said to the king, "You should have struck five or six times, and then you would have won complete victory over the Syrians; but now you will defeat them only three times."
²⁰Elisha died and was buried.
Every year bands of Moabites used to invade the land of Israel. ²¹One time during a funeral, one of those bands was seen, and the people threw the corpse into Elisha's tomb and ran off. As soon as the body came into contact with Elisha's bones, the man came back to life and stood up.

War between Israel and Syria

²²King Hazael of Syria oppressed the Israelites during all of Jehoahaz' reign, ²³but the LORD was kind and merciful to them. He would not let them be destroyed, but helped them because of his covenant with Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob. He has never forgotten his people.
²⁴At the death of King Hazael of Syria his son Benhadad became king. ²⁵Then King Jehoash of Israel defeated Benhadad three times and recaptured the cities that had been taken by Benhadad during the reign of Jehoahaz, the father of Jehoash.

Micah Denounces Israel's Leaders

Micah 3 Listen, you rulers of Israel! You are supposed to be concerned about justice, ²yet you hate what is good and you love what is evil. You skin my people alive and tear the flesh off their bones. ³You eat my people up. You strip off their skin, break their bones, and chop them up like meat for the pot. ⁴The time is coming when you will cry out to the LORD, but he will not answer you. He will not listen to your prayers, for you have done evil.
⁵My people are deceived by prophets who promise peace to those who pay them, but threaten war for those who don't. To these prophets the LORD says, ⁶"Prophets, your day is almost over; the sun is going down on you. Because you mislead my people, you will have no more prophetic visions, and you will not be able to predict anything." ⁷Those who predict the future will be disgraced by their failure. They will all be humiliated because God does not answer them.
⁸But as for me, the LORD fills me with his spirit and power, and gives me a sense of justice and the courage to tell the people of Israel what their sins are. ⁹Listen to me, you rulers of Israel, you that hate justice and turn right into wrong. ¹⁰You are building God's city, Jerusalem, on a foundation of murder and injustice. ¹¹The city's rulers govern for bribes, the priests interpret the Law for pay, the prophets give their revelations for money--and they all claim that the LORD is with them. "No harm will come to us," they say. "The LORD is with us."
¹²And so, because of you, Zion will be plowed like a field, Jerusalem will become a pile of ruins, and the Temple hill will become a forest.