Jul 5, 2026
2KINGS 13-14:
Yesterday we heard of Athaliah's seven year
reign over Judah, of how Joash was saved from being killed, and of
Jehoida's successful plot to end Athaliah's reign. Joash turned out
to be sorta good, but disappointing at the end of his reign. And it
is interesting to note that the people who worked on restoring the
temple evidently had more integrity than the priests.
PSALM 129:
This is another Psalm of Ascent and another
nationalistic psalm. In this year’s readings, in just a few days we
will begin hearing the parts of Israel’s history where this psalm
writer could have received the scars on his back. (I like how the
GNT shows that the scars on the back might be taken figuratively
for the whole race, instead of personally for just the writer. But
one just listening to a reading of this chapter will probably not
pick up on that detail.) In our time, this psalm gives us
permission to pray that the Lord’s enemies do not
prosper.
JOHN 13b:
John spends several chapters in the upper room,
and this is the first. We hear the most complete account here about
Judas, and only here do we find the story of Jesus washing the
disciple's feet. This is another time where we see Jesus
consciously acting out a parable for us. And because of that event,
the interchange with Peter is more poignant, although John takes
pity on Peter and does not include details of that conversation
that are found elsewhere.
NLT Translation
notes:
John 13:2
It was time for supper, and the devil had already prompted Judas[,
0>>//son of Simon Iscariot,] to betray Jesus. [Judas was the
son of (a man named) Simon from the village
Carioth.]
|8 “No,” Peter
protested, “you will never ever wash my
feet!”
Jesus replied,
“[PET: If I don't wash your feet, you're no longer My
follower.///Unless I wash you, you won’t belong to
me.]”
12 After washing
their feet, he put on his robe again and sat down and asked, “Do
you understand what I was [showing
you//doing]?
17 [You
ought to wash each other’s feet.] Now that you know these things,
God will bless you for doing them.
[Repeating the thing Jesus wants them to do
makes the last sentence more understandable. “Doing them” does not
mean taking slaves or sending messages.]
26 Jesus responded, “It is the one to whom I
give the bread I dip in the bowl.” And when he had dipped it, he
gave it to Judas, son of Simon[, the man from Carioth//
Iscariot].
31 As soon as
Judas left the room, Jesus said, “The time has come for [Me] the
Son of Man to enter into [my/his] glory, and God will be glorified
because of [Me/him].
32
And since [my Father, God,/God] receives glory because of [Me,
his/the] Son,i he
will soon [also] give glory to [Me/the Son].
36 [0/Simon] Peter asked, “Lord, where are you
going?”
And Jesus
replied, “You can’t go with me now, but you will follow me
later.”
Unless otherwise indicated, all Scripture quotations are taken from the Holy Bible, New Living Translation, copyright © 1996, 2004, 2015 by Tyndale House Foundation. Used by permission of Tyndale House Publishers, Carol Stream, Illinois 60188. All rights reserved.