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JUNE 12
The chief priests answered, “We have no JESUS OF NAZARETH,
king but Caesar!” THE KING OF THE JEWS.
16 Then he delivered Him to them to be cru-
cified. Then they took Jesus and led Him 20 Then many of the Jews read this title, for the
away. place where Jesus was crucified was near the
17 And He, bearing His cross, went out to a city; and it was written in Hebrew, Greek, and
place called the Place of a Skull, which is called Latin.
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in Hebrew, Golgotha, where they crucified 21 Therefore the chief priests of the Jews said
Him, and two others with Him, one on either to Pilate, “Do not write, ‘The King of the Jews,’
side, and Jesus in the center. Now Pilate but, ‘He said, “I am the King of the Jews.” ’ ”
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wrote a title and put it on the cross. And the 22 Pilate answered, “What I have written, I
writing was: have written.”
DAY 11: Describe the abuse that Christ endured during the trial?
In John 19:1, it says that “Pilate took Jesus and scourged Him.” Pilate appears to have flogged
Jesus as a strategy to set Him free (vv. 4–6). He was hoping that the Jews would be appeased by this
action and that sympathy for Jesus’ suffering would result in their desire that He be released (Luke
23:13–16).Scourging was a horribly cruel act in which the victim was stripped,tied to a post and beat-
en by several torturers,i.e.,soldiers who alternated when exhausted.For victims who were not Roman
citizens, the preferred instrument was a short wooden handle to which several leather thongs were
attached. Each leather thong had pieces of bones or metal on the end.The beatings were so savage
that sometimes victims died. The body could be torn or lacerated to such an extent that muscles,
veins,or bones were exposed.Such flogging often preceded execution in order to weaken and dehu-
manize the victim (Is.53:5).Apparently,however,Pilate intended this to create sympathy for Jesus.
Then there was the “crown of thorns” (v. 2).This crown was made from the long spikes (up to
12 inches) of a date palm formed into an imitation of the radiating crowns which oriental kings
wore.The long thorns would have cut deeply into Jesus’head,adding to the pain and bleeding.The
use of the “purple robe” represented royalty. The robe probably was a military cloak flung around
Jesus’shoulders, intended to mock His claim to be King of the Jews.
Pilate declared to the people,“I find no fault in Him”(v. 4), and when he brought Jesus out, he
cried,“Behold the Man!” (v. 5). Pilate dramatically presented Jesus after His torturous treatment by
the soldiers.Jesus would have been swollen,bruised,and bleeding.Pilate displayed Jesus as a beat-
en and pathetic figure,hoping to gain the people’s choice of Jesus for release.Pilate’s phrase is filled
with sarcasm since he was attempting to impress upon the Jewish authorities that Jesus was not
the dangerous man that they had made Him out to be.

made a covenant with them and took an oath
JUNE 12 from them in the house of the LORD, and
showed them the king’s son. Then he com-
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manded them, saying, “This is what you shall
do: One-third of you who come on duty on the
2 Kings 11:1–13:25
Sabbath shall be keeping watch over the
When Athaliah the mother of Ahaziah saw king’s house, one-third shall be at the gate of
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11 that her son was dead, she arose and Sur, and one-third at the gate behind the
destroyed all the royal heirs. But Jehosheba, escorts. You shall keep the watch of the
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the daughter of King Joram, sister of Ahaziah, house, lest it be broken down. The two con-
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took Joash the son of Ahaziah, and stole him tingents of you who go off duty on the Sabbath
away from among the king’s sons who were shall keep the watch of the house of the LORD
being murdered; and they hid him and his for the king. But you shall surround the king
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nurse in the bedroom, from Athaliah, so that he on all sides, every man with his weapons in his
was not killed. So he was hidden with her in hand; and whoever comes within range, let
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the house of the LORD for six years, while him be put to death. You are to be with the
Athaliah reigned over the land. king as he goes out and as he comes in.”
In the seventh year Jehoiada sent and So the captains of the hundreds did accord-
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brought the captains of hundreds—of the ing to all that Jehoiada the priest commanded.
bodyguards and the escorts—and brought Each of them took his men who were to be on
them into the house of the LORD to him. And he duty on the Sabbath, with those who were
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