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Acts 5-6
Hebrews 8-10
Deuteronomy 1-3
Tuesday, September 15, 2020
The Books of History
II Chronicles 25-28
Psalms 120-121
Proverbs 31
2 Chronicles 25
Amaziah was twenty-five years old when he became king, and he reigned twenty-nine years in Jerusalem. And his mother's name was Jehoaddan of Jerusalem.
He did right in the sight of the LORD, yet not with a whole heart.
Now it came about as soon as the kingdom was firmly in his grasp, that he killed his servants who had slain his father the king.
However, he did not put their children to death, but did as it is written in the law in the book of Moses, which the LORD commanded, saying, " Fathers shall not be put to death for sons, nor sons be put to death for fathers, but each shall be put to death for his own sin.'
Moreover, Amaziah assembled Judah and appointed them according to their fathers' households under commanders of thousands and commanders of hundreds throughout Judah and Benjamin; and he took a census of those from twenty years old and upward and found them to be 300,000 choice men, able to go to war and handle spear and shield.
He hired also 100,000 valiant warriors out of Israel for one hundred talents of silver.
But a man of God came to him saying, "O king, do not let the army of Israel go with you, for the LORD is not with Israel nor with any of the sons of Ephraim.
"But if you do go, do it, be strong for the battle; yet God will bring you down before the enemy, for God has power to help and to bring down.'
Amaziah said to the man of God, "But what shall we do for the hundred talents which I have given to the troops of Israel?' And the man of God answered, " The LORD has much more to give you than this.'
Then Amaziah dismissed them, the troops which came to him from Ephraim, to go home; so their anger burned against Judah and they returned home in fierce anger.
Now Amaziah strengthened himself and led his people forth, and went to the Valley of Salt and struck down 10,000 of the sons of Seir.
The sons of Judah also captured 10,000 alive and brought them to the top of the cliff and threw them down from the top of the cliff, so that they were all dashed to pieces.
But the troops whom Amaziah sent back from going with him to battle, raided the cities of Judah, from Samaria to Beth-horon, and struck down 3,000 of them and plundered much spoil.
Now after Amaziah came from slaughtering the Edomites, he brought the gods of the sons of Seir, set them up as his gods, bowed down before them and burned incense to them.
Then the anger of the LORD burned against Amaziah, and He sent him a prophet who said to him, "Why have you sought the gods of the people who have not delivered their own people from your hand?'
As he was talking with him, the king said to him, "Have we appointed you a royal counselor? Stop! Why should you be struck down?' Then the prophet stopped and said, "I know that God has planned to destroy you, because you have done this and have not listened to my counsel.'
Then Amaziah king of Judah took counsel and sent to Joash the son of Jehoahaz the son of Jehu, the king of Israel, saying, "Come, let us face each other.'
Joash the king of Israel sent to Amaziah king of Judah, saying, " The thorn bush which was in Lebanon sent to the cedar which was in Lebanon, saying, "Give your daughter to my son in marriage.' But there passed by a wild beast that was in Lebanon and trampled the thorn bush.
"You said, "Behold, you have defeated Edom.' And your heart has become proud in boasting. Now stay at home; for why should you provoke trouble so that you, even you, would fall and Judah with you?'
But Amaziah would not listen, for it was from God, that He might deliver them into the hand of Joash because they had sought the gods of Edom.
So Joash king of Israel went up, and he and Amaziah king of Judah faced each other at Beth-shemesh, which belonged to Judah.
Judah was defeated by Israel, and they fled each to his tent.
Then Joash king of Israel captured Amaziah king of Judah, the son of Joash the son of Jehoahaz, at Beth-shemesh, and brought him to Jerusalem and tore down the wall of Jerusalem from the Gate of Ephraim to the Corner Gate, 400 cubits.
He took all the gold and silver and all the utensils which were found in the house of God with Obed-edom, and the treasures of the king's house, the hostages also, and returned to Samaria.
And Amaziah, the son of Joash king of Judah, lived fifteen years after the death of Joash, son of Jehoahaz, king of Israel.
Now the rest of the acts of Amaziah, from first to last, behold, are they not written in the Book of the Kings of Judah and Israel?
From the time that Amaziah turned away from following the LORD they conspired against him in Jerusalem, and he fled to Lachish; but they sent after him to Lachish and killed him there.
Then they brought him on horses and buried him with his fathers in the city of Judah. 26
2 Chronicles 26
And all the people of Judah took Uzziah, who was sixteen years old, and made him king in the place of his father Amaziah.
He built Eloth and restored it to Judah after the king slept with his fathers.
Uzziah was sixteen years old when he became king, and he reigned fifty-two years in Jerusalem; and his mother's name was Jechiliah of Jerusalem.
He did right in the sight of the LORD according to all that his father Amaziah had done.
He continued to seek God in the days of Zechariah, who had understanding through the vision of God; and as long as he sought the LORD, God prospered him.
Now he went out and warred against the Philistines, and broke down the wall of Gath and the wall of Jabneh and the wall of Ashdod; and he built cities in the area of Ashdod and among the Philistines.
God helped him against the Philistines, and against the Arabians who lived in Gur-baal, and the Meunites.
The Ammonites also gave tribute to Uzziah, and his fame extended to the border of Egypt, for he became very strong.
Moreover, Uzziah built towers in Jerusalem at the Corner Gate and at the Valley Gate and at the corner buttress and fortified them.
He built towers in the wilderness and hewed many cisterns, for he had much livestock, both in the lowland and in the plain. He also had plowmen and vinedressers in the hill country and the fertile fields, for he loved the soil.
Moreover, Uzziah had an army ready for battle, which entered combat by divisions according to the number of their muster, prepared by Jeiel the scribe and Maaseiah the official, under the direction of Hananiah, one of the king's officers.
The total number of the heads of the households, of valiant warriors, was 2,600.
Under their direction was an elite army of 307,500, who could wage war with great power, to help the king against the enemy.
Moreover, Uzziah prepared for all the army shields, spears, helmets, body armor, bows and sling stones.
In Jerusalem he made engines of war invented by skillful men to be on the towers and on the corners for the purpose of shooting arrows and great stones. Hence his fame spread afar, for he was marvelously helped until he was strong.
But when he became strong, his heart was so proud that he acted corruptly, and he was unfaithful to the LORD his God, for he entered the temple of the LORD to burn incense on the altar of incense.
Then Azariah the priest entered after him and with him eighty priests of the LORD, valiant men.
They opposed Uzziah the king and said to him, " It is not for you, Uzziah, to burn incense to the LORD, but for the priests, the sons of Aaron who are consecrated to burn incense. Get out of the sanctuary, for you have been unfaithful and will have no honor from the LORD God.'
But Uzziah, with a censer in his hand for burning incense, was enraged; and while he was enraged with the priests, the leprosy broke out on his forehead before the priests in the house of the LORD, beside the altar of incense.
Azariah the chief priest and all the priests looked at him, and behold, he was leprous on his forehead; and they hurried him out of there, and he himself also hastened to get out because the LORD had smitten him.
King Uzziah was a leper to the day of his death; and he lived in a separate house, being a leper, for he was cut off from the house of the LORD. And Jotham his son was over the king's house judging the people of the land.
Now the rest of the acts of Uzziah, first to last, the prophet Isaiah, the son of Amoz, has written.
So Uzziah slept with his fathers, and they buried him with his fathers in the field of the grave which belonged to the kings, for they said, "He is a leper.' And Jotham his son became king in his place. 27
2 Chronicles 27
Jotham was twenty-five years old when he became king, and he reigned sixteen years in Jerusalem. And his mother's name was Jerushah the daughter of Zadok.
He did right in the sight of the LORD, according to all that his father Uzziah had done; however he did not enter the temple of the LORD. But the people continued acting corruptly.
He built the upper gate of the house of the LORD, and he built extensively the wall of Ophel.
Moreover, he built cities in the hill country of Judah, and he built fortresses and towers on the wooded hills.
He fought also with the king of the Ammonites and prevailed over them so that the Ammonites gave him during that year one hundred talents of silver, ten thousand kors of wheat and ten thousand of barley. The Ammonites also paid him this amount in the second and in the third year.
So Jotham became mighty because he ordered his ways before the LORD his God.
Now the rest of the acts of Jotham, even all his wars and his acts, behold, they are written in the Book of the Kings of Israel and Judah.
He was twenty-five years old when he became king, and he reigned sixteen years in Jerusalem.
And Jotham slept with his fathers, and they buried him in the city of David; and Ahaz his son became king in his place. 28
2 Chronicles 28
Ahaz was twenty years old when he became king, and he reigned sixteen years in Jerusalem; and he did not do right in the sight of the LORD as David his father had done.
But he walked in the ways of the kings of Israel; he also made molten images for the Baals.
Moreover, he burned incense in the valley of Ben-hinnom and burned his sons in fire, according to the abominations of the nations whom the LORD had driven out before the sons of Israel.
He sacrificed and burned incense on the high places, on the hills and under every green tree.
Wherefore, the LORD his God delivered him into the hand of the king of Aram; and they defeated him and carried away from him a great number of captives and brought them to Damascus. And he was also delivered into the hand of the king of Israel, who inflicted him with heavy casualties.
For Pekah the son of Remaliah slew in Judah 120,000 in one day, all valiant men, because they had forsaken the LORD God of their fathers.
And Zichri, a mighty man of Ephraim, slew Maaseiah the king's son and Azrikam the ruler of the house and Elkanah the second to the king.
The sons of Israel carried away captive of their brethren 200,000 women, sons and daughters; and they took also a great deal of spoil from them, and brought the spoil to Samaria.
But a prophet of the LORD was there, whose name was Oded; and he went out to meet the army which came to Samaria and said to them, "Behold, because the LORD, the God of your fathers, was angry with Judah, He has delivered them into your hand, and you have slain them in a rage which has even reached heaven.
"Now you are proposing to subjugate for yourselves the people of Judah and Jerusalem for male and female slaves. Surely, do you not have transgressions of your own against the LORD your God?
"Now therefore, listen to me and return the captives whom you captured from your brothers, for the burning anger of the LORD is against you.'
Then some of the heads of the sons of EphraimAzariah the son of Johanan, Berechiah the son of Meshillemoth, Jehizkiah the son of Shallum, and Amasa the son of Hadlaiarose against those who were coming from the battle,
and said to them, "You must not bring the captives in here, for you are proposing to bring upon us guilt against the LORD adding to our sins and our guilt; for our guilt is great so that His burning anger is against Israel.'
So the armed men left the captives and the spoil before the officers and all the assembly.
Then the men who were designated by name arose, took the captives, and they clothed all their naked ones from the spoil; and they gave them clothes and sandals, fed them and gave them drink, anointed them with oil, led all their feeble ones on donkeys, and brought them to Jericho, the city of palm trees, to their brothers; then they returned to Samaria.
At that time King Ahaz sent to the kings of Assyria for help.
For again the Edomites had come and attacked Judah and carried away captives.
The Philistines also had invaded the cities of the lowland and of the Negev of Judah, and had taken Beth-shemesh, Aijalon, Gederoth, and Soco with its villages, Timnah with its villages, and Gimzo with its villages, and they settled there.
For the LORD humbled Judah because of Ahaz king of Israel, for he had brought about a lack of restraint in Judah and was very unfaithful to the LORD.
So Tilgath-pilneser king of Assyria came against him and afflicted him instead of strengthening him.
Although Ahaz took a portion out of the house of the LORD and out of the palace of the king and of the princes, and gave it to the king of Assyria, it did not help him.
Now in the time of his distress this same King Ahaz became yet more unfaithful to the LORD.
For he sacrificed to the gods of Damascus which had defeated him, and said, " Because the gods of the kings of Aram helped them, I will sacrifice to them that they may help me.' But they became the downfall of him and all Israel.
Moreover, when Ahaz gathered together the utensils of the house of God, he cut the utensils of the house of God in pieces; and he closed the doors of the house of the LORD and made altars for himself in every corner of Jerusalem.
In every city of Judah he made high places to burn incense to other gods, and provoked the LORD, the God of his fathers, to anger.
Now the rest of his acts and all his ways, from first to last, behold, they are written in the Book of the Kings of Judah and Israel.
So Ahaz slept with his fathers, and they buried him in the city, in Jerusalem, for they did not bring him into the tombs of the kings of Israel; and Hezekiah his son reigned in his place. 29
Scripture taken from the New American Standard Bible�, Copyright � The Lockman Foundation 1960, 1962, 1963, 1968, 1971, 1972, 1973, 1975, 1977, 1995. Used by permission.
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Note: This novel was WINNER of the Center for Fiction's First Novel Prize, 2017.
"You must admit we are different from other creatures. Can you name another that would stand as we do, one before the other, willing to kill – or be killed – for something that is not food or property or even temporary dominance? For ideas as inconstant as principle or justice or love? Is this what makes us so wretchedly human? Dare we call it a soul? – Mikhail Bulgakov
Julie Lekstrom Himes, with Mikhail and Margarita, has created an enthralling book which pays honor to Mikhail Bulgakov and his most famous novel, The Master and Margarita, which Bulgakov began writing in the late 1920s, a time of upheaval, coups, and the Russian Civil War. By that time, Bulgakov, a physician, novelist, and playwright had already run afoul of the state censors for his plays, and many of them were not allowed to be performed. Eventually, he was blacklisted. In desperation, he sent a personal letter to Josef Stalin requesting permission to emigrate, but Stalin surprised him – by answering his letter and praising his talents. Some of his work was then reinstated and saved, though the satire was removed from it by the censors, making it irrelevant. By the time he began writing The Master and Margarita in 1928, the literary situation had become so tense that Bulgakov ultimately destroyed the first manuscript of it for safety reasons, then rewrote it in secret. After his death in 1940, his wife protected the second, secret manuscript by hiding it until 1966, when she published it for the first time, to great acclaim.
In Julie Lekstrom Himes's novel, Mikhail and Margarita, Bulgakov himself is a main character, one with whom the author obviously empathizes. Himes, who is also a physician and writer, has traveled in Russia, has spent a year doing research for this book, and has devoted seven years to writing it. The resulting novel, remarkable in its ability to bring author Mikhail Bulgakov and the period fully to life for the reader, recreates Bulgakov's "thoughts" so effectively that the reader feels as if the author has inserted actual autobiographical commentary. The book, the story of a romantic love triangle, opens in 1933, at a private meeting of writers in their union hall where they sometimes meet privately to read and discuss their work. Poet Osip Mandelstam, a long-time friend and sometime mentor for Bulgakov, attends this meeting, accompanied by young Margarita Nikoveyeva, with whom he is apparently having an affair. Bulgakov, whose own wife has left him, is also attracted to Margarita. Later that night Mandelstam is taken in for questioning, his apartment searched and his work confiscated. No one is sure what will happen to him – or to his friends.
Within hours, Margarita contacts Bulgakov to report that her apartment is being watched, and Bulgakov, returning to his own apartment, finds his books and prints all over the floor and his apartment in shambles. Before long, he and Margarita become aware of the ubiquitous presence of Ilya Ivanovich, a Russian official, and the basis of the novel's plot begins: Ilya Ivanovich is also attracted to Margarita, and he has all the power of the regime at his disposal as he attempts the conquest of Margarita. Wherever Bulgakov and Margarita go, Ivanovich is not far behind, and as the novel progresses, Bulgakov observes the relationship of love and power: "Love is no different than any other relationship. At its core, it seems to be more about power." Margarita disagrees.
Soon Bulgakov receives a summons to go to Lubyanka Prison for an "interview," and as he waits in an office, he begins to see the delay as a symbolic event: the woman who directs him to a seat ignores him. He finds himself kicking at a dead moth on the floor and soon discovers that the office clock is broken. He is finally acknowledged by a higher officer who escorts him down long corridors into the bowels of the facility. "They came to a painting, hung between two doors, and here the officer stopped. He held out his arm like a docent. This was a Vereshchagin. Truly, he said. He smiled. In this place." The painting is dominated by the outstretched wings of vultures, long shadows, a secluded glen, and a powerful tiger. "Between the animal's arms lay the corpse of a man. Its head and shoulders were in the tiger's embrace; the creature's open mouth was poised above him. To the side, other vultures waited; some beat their wings; their eagerness at odds with the languorous gestures of the beast." The painting's title? "Cannibal." The officer comments on the "strange nobility" of the victim, how honorable is "one's life culminating in the provision of sustenance to the beast." Bulgakov disagrees. For him the man looks "more like a willing lover, since there is no protest, no scuffle, no thrashing of limbs – the disagreement with the officer epitomizing the struggle within the country at that historical moment. Soon Ilya Ivanovich enters, and Bulgakov sees him for what he is, a "predator breathing…its life force exceed[ing] that of a dozen men."
The novel develops at an extraordinary pace from here on, both thematically and dramatically. The three members of the love triangle operate on different levels involving different aspects of society, and arrests and threats of arrest keep the reader on tenterhooks. Stories of horrific tortures involving people the reader knows make the reader long for a swift conclusion, but the elegance of the overall thematic concept and its development through these characters keep the reader energized, more than repulsed. The author credits the reader with the ability to draw his/her own conclusions based on the facts presented and on information revealed in dialogue, a refreshing change from authors who overwrite their narratives with miniscule detail. Occasionally, she also shifts briefly and without warning to an earlier time and place in order to put an event into larger context, which some readers will find disconcerting, and occasionally, the point of view of that inserted passage is difficult to determine, with the references for some pronouns unclear. (Who is the "he" of the passage, for example?).
Exciting, but serious, well developed, and consummately literary, the novel is written in a style which seems appropriate, given what is known of Bulgakov's own life and personality. Margarita is a more complex character than expected, and Ilya Ivanovich, while devious, seems less intelligent than expected. That said, the conclusion, a true "grande finale," is unforgettable – a reconciling of people, events, and themes on a dramatic scale, filled with surprises. And when a mysterious old man materializes at Patriarch's Ponds in Moscow to speak to Bulgakov, few readers of The Master and Margarita will be surprised. One of the outstanding books of the year, high on my Favorites list.
Photos, in order: The author's photo appears on http://www.defliterary.com
Patriarch Ponds, in Moscow, appear throughout the action. This photo by Elisa Rolle, shows the Skating Ring building. https://en.wikipedia.org
Vereshchagin (1842 – 1904)'s painting once hung in the Summer Palace of Prince Orlov. It is entitled "Cannibal." Many of his works were banned during his lifetime. https://www.pinterest.com/
Stalin's 1933, 12-cylinder Packard, was a favorite, with which he liked to tinker. On one occasion, an artist he asked to help him met a terrible fate. https://myntransportblog.files.wordpress.com
The Irkutsk train depot plays a role in the last part of the novel. http://expatspost.com/

subset: commoncrawl


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Musicals, comedies, concerts, and more are the focus of Derby Dinner Playhouse's 2012-13 season.
Annie finds her way from a New York City orphanage to Derby Dinner Playhouse beginning July 3.
Annie closes out Music Theatre Louisville's season.
The creation of the Declaration of Independence was easy compared to getting everyone to agree on it. Music Theatre Louisville presents its opening show of the summer season with 1776.