PSALMS
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Psalms 81 & 82

Psalms 81: 1 to 8
All the worship we can render to the LORD is beneath His excellences, and our obligations to Him, especially in our redemption from sin and wrath. What GOD had done on Israel’s behalf, was kept in remembrance by public solemnities. To make a deliverance appear more gracious, more glorious, it is good to observe all that makes the trouble we are delivered from appear more grievous. We ought never to forget the base and ruinous drudgery to which satan, our oppressor, brought us. But when, in distress of conscience, we are led to cry for deliverance, the LORD answers our prayers, and sets us at liberty. Convictions of sin, and trials by affliction, prove His regard to His people. If the Jews, on their solemn feast-days, were thus to call to mind their redemption out of Egypt, much more ought we, on the Christian Sabbath, to call to mind a more glorious redemption, wrought out for us by our LORD JESUS CHRIST, from worse bondage.

OLD TESTAMENT
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2 Kings 12: 1 – 21

2 Kings 12: 1
Jehoash.
As long as Jehoida the high priest was his counsellor, Jehoash served the LORD. However, after Jehoiada’s death, Jehoash forsook the LORD and began to serve idols. He multiplied his sin by murdering Jehoida’s son Zachariah, who had condemned him for forsaking the LORD. In just recompense Jehoash was killed by his own servants for this murder. Joash began well as king but ended in spiritual ruin.

NEW TESTAMENT
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Mark 12: 35 – 44

Mark 12: 40
Devour widows’ houses.
Some of the Jewish religious leaders took advantage of unsuspecting and lonely widows’. They would seek and receive offerings from them, exploiting the widows’ willingness to help those whom the widows believed to be men of GOD. By manipulation these leaders persuaded the widows to give more than they could afford, while they themselves lived in luxury on these misguided offerings.