M’Cheyne Bible Reading Plan
5 When all of Solomon’s work on the Lord’s temple was finished, he brought the silver, gold, and all the objects his father David had dedicated and put them in the treasuries of God’s temple.
Solomon dedicates the temple
2 Then Solomon assembled Israel’s elders, all the tribal leaders, and the clan chieftains of Israel at Jerusalem to bring up the chest containing the Lord’s covenant from Zion, David’s City. 3 Everyone in Israel assembled before the king in the seventh month,[a] during the festival. 4 When all Israel’s elders had arrived, the Levites picked up the chest. 5 They brought the chest, the meeting tent, and all the holy objects that were in the tent. The priests and[b] the Levites brought them up, 6 while King Solomon and the entire Israelite assembly that had joined him before the chest sacrificed countless sheep and oxen. 7 The priests brought the chest containing the Lord’s covenant to its designated spot beneath the wings of the winged creatures in the inner sanctuary of the temple, the most holy place. 8 The winged creatures spread their wings over the place where the chest rested, covering the chest and its carrying poles. 9 The carrying poles were so long that their tips could be seen from the holy place[c] in front of the inner sanctuary, though they weren’t visible from outside. They are still there today. 10 Nothing was in the chest except the two stone tablets Moses placed there while at Horeb, where the Lord made a covenant with the Israelites after they left Egypt.
11 Then the priests left the holy place. All the priests who were present had sanctified themselves, regardless of their divisions. 12 All the levitical musicians—Asaph, Heman, Jeduthun, and their families and relatives—were dressed in fine linen and stood east of the altar with cymbals, harps, and zithers, along with one hundred twenty priests blowing trumpets. 13 The trumpeters and singers joined together to praise and thank the Lord as one. Accompanied by trumpets, cymbals, and other musical instruments, they began to sing, praising the Lord:
Yes, God is good!
Yes, God’s faithful love lasts forever!
Then a cloud filled the Lord’s temple.[d] 14 The priests were unable to carry out their duties on account of the cloud because the Lord’s glory filled God’s temple.
6 Then Solomon said, “The Lord said that he would live in a dark cloud; 2 but God, I have built you a lofty temple—a place where you can live forever.”
3 The king turned around, and while the entire assembly of Israel was standing there, he blessed them, 4 saying:
Bless the Lord, the God of Israel, who spoke directly to my father David and now has kept his promise: 5 “From the day I brought my people out of the land of Egypt, I haven’t selected a city from any Israelite tribe as a site for the building of a temple for my name. Neither have I chosen anyone as prince over my people Israel. 6 But now I have chosen Jerusalem as a place for my name, and David as prince over my people Israel.”
7 My father David wanted to build a temple for the name of the Lord, Israel’s God. 8 But the Lord said to my father David: “It is very good that you thought to build a temple for my name. Nevertheless, 9 you yourself won’t build that temple. Instead, your very own son will build the temple for my name.” 10 The Lord has kept his promise—I have succeeded my father David on Israel’s throne, just as the Lord said, and I have built the temple for the name of the Lord, Israel’s God. 11 There I’ve placed the chest that contains the covenant that the Lord made with the Israelites.
Testing the spirits
4 Dear friends, don’t believe every spirit. Test the spirits to see if they are from God because many false prophets have gone into the world. 2 This is how you know if a spirit comes from God: every spirit that confesses that Jesus Christ has come as a human[a] is from God, 3 and every spirit that doesn’t confess Jesus is not from God. This is the spirit of the antichrist, which you have heard is coming and is now already in the world. 4 You are from God, little children, and you have defeated these people because the one who is in you is greater than the one who is in the world. 5 They are from the world. So they speak from the world’s point of view and the world listens to them. 6 We are from God. The person who knows God listens to us. Whoever is not from God doesn’t listen to us. This is how we recognize the Spirit of truth and the spirit of error.
Love and God
7 Dear friends, let’s love each other, because love is from God, and everyone who loves is born from God and knows God. 8 The person who doesn’t love does not know God, because God is love. 9 This is how the love of God is revealed to us: God has sent his only Son into the world so that we can live through him. 10 This is love: it is not that we loved God but that he loved us and sent his Son as the sacrifice that deals with our sins.
11 Dear friends, if God loved us this way, we also ought to love each other. 12 No one has ever seen God. If we love each other, God remains in us and his love is made perfect in us. 13 This is how we know we remain in him and he remains in us, because he has given us a measure of his Spirit. 14 We have seen and testify that the Father has sent the Son to be the savior of the world. 15 If any of us confess that Jesus is God’s Son, God remains in us and we remain in God. 16 We have known and have believed the love that God has for us.
God is love, and those who remain in love remain in God and God remains in them. 17 This is how love has been perfected in us, so that we can have confidence on the Judgment Day, because we are exactly the same as God is in this world. 18 There is no fear in love, but perfect love drives out fear, because fear expects punishment. The person who is afraid has not been made perfect in love. 19 We love because God first loved us. 20 Those who say, “I love God” and hate their brothers or sisters are liars. After all, those who don’t love their brothers or sisters whom they have seen can hardly love God whom they have not seen! 21 This commandment we have from him: Those who claim to love God ought to love their brother and sister also.
3 Doom, city of bloodshed—all deceit,
full of plunder: prey cannot get away.
2 Cracking whip and rumbling wheel,
galloping horse and careening chariot!
3 Charging cavalry, flashing sword, and glittering spear;
countless slain, masses of corpses,
endless dead bodies—they stumble over their dead bodies!
4 Because of the many whorings of the whore,
the lovely graces of the mistress of sorceries,
the one who sells nations by means of her whorings
and peoples by means of her sorceries:
5 Look! I am against you, proclaims
the Lord of heavenly forces.
I will lift your skirts over your face;
I will show nations your nakedness
and kingdoms your dishonor.
6 I will throw disgusting things at you;
I will treat you with contempt and make you a spectacle.
7 Then all who look at you will recoil from you and say,
“Nineveh has been devastated!
Who will lament for her?”
Where could I possibly seek comforters for you?
8 Are you better than Thebes,
situated by the Nile, waters surrounding her,
whose fortress is sea and whose city wall is waters?
9 Cush[a] and Egypt constituted her strength, without limit;
Put and the Libyans were her[b] help.
10 Yet even she was destined for exile;
she went into captivity.
Indeed, her infants were dashed to pieces at the head of every street.
They cast lots for her officials;
all of her powerful citizens were bound in chains.
11 Yes, even you will become drunk;
you will have to hide!
Even you will have to seek refuge from the enemy!
12 All your fortifications are fig trees with ripe fruit;
when the trees are shaken, the fruit falls into the mouth of the eater.
13 Look, your people are women in your midst.
The gates of your land have been flung wide open to your enemies.
Fire consumes the bars of your gates.
14 Draw water for yourself to prepare for siege!
Strengthen your fortifications!
Tread the clay, trample the mortar, grab the brick mold!
15 Fire will consume you there;
the sword will cut you down;
like the locust it will consume you.
Multiply like the locust; multiply like the grasshopper!
16 You boasted more traders than the heavens have stars.
The locust sheds its skin and flies away.
17 Your guards are like grasshoppers,
your marshals like swarms of cicadas
that encamp on stone fences on a chilly day;
when the sun rises, they take flight;
no one knows where they have gone.
18 Your shepherds have fallen asleep, king of Assyria!
Your officials are lying down.
Your people are scattered across the mountains;
there is no one to gather them.
19 There is no remedy for your injury;
your wound is grievous.
All who hear the news about you clap their hands over you.
Who has not suffered from your continual cruelty?
A rich tax collector
19 Jesus entered Jericho and was passing through town. 2 A man there named Zacchaeus, a ruler among tax collectors, was rich. 3 He was trying to see who Jesus was, but, being a short man, he couldn’t because of the crowd. 4 So he ran ahead and climbed up a sycamore tree so he could see Jesus, who was about to pass that way. 5 When Jesus came to that spot, he looked up and said, “Zacchaeus, come down at once. I must stay in your home today.” 6 So Zacchaeus came down at once, happy to welcome Jesus.
7 Everyone who saw this grumbled, saying, “He has gone to be the guest of a sinner.”
8 Zacchaeus stopped and said to the Lord, “Look, Lord, I give half of my possessions to the poor. And if I have cheated anyone, I repay them four times as much.”
9 Jesus said to him, “Today, salvation has come to this household because he too is a son of Abraham. 10 The Human One[a] came to seek and save the lost.”
Faithful service
11 As they listened to this, Jesus told them another parable because he was near Jerusalem and they thought God’s kingdom would appear right away. 12 He said, “A certain man who was born into royalty went to a distant land to receive his kingdom and then return. 13 He called together ten servants and gave each of them money worth four months’ wages.[b] He said, ‘Do business with this until I return.’ 14 His citizens hated him, so they sent a representative after him who said, ‘We don’t want this man to be our king.’ 15 After receiving his kingdom, he returned and called the servants to whom he had given the money to find out how much they had earned. 16 The first servant came forward and said, ‘Your money has earned a return of one thousand percent.’ 17 The king replied, ‘Excellent! You are a good servant. Because you have been faithful in a small matter, you will have authority over ten cities.’
18 “The second servant came and said, ‘Master, your money has made a return of five hundred percent.’ 19 To this one, the king said, ‘You will have authority over five cities.’
20 “Another servant came and said, ‘Master, here is your money. I wrapped it up in a scarf for safekeeping. 21 I was afraid of you because you are a stern man. You withdraw what you haven’t deposited and you harvest what you haven’t planted.’ 22 The king replied, ‘I will judge you by the words of your own mouth, you worthless servant! You knew, did you, that I’m a stern man, withdrawing what I didn’t deposit, and harvesting what I didn’t plant? 23 Why then didn’t you put my money in the bank? Then when I arrived, at least I could have gotten it back with interest.’
24 “He said to his attendants, ‘Take his money and give it to the one who has ten times as much.’ 25 ‘But Master,’ they said, ‘he already has ten times as much!’ 26 He replied, ‘I say to you that everyone who has will be given more, but from those who have nothing, even what they have will be taken away. 27 As for my enemies who don’t want me as their king, bring them here and slaughter them before me.’”
28 After Jesus said this, he continued on ahead, going up to Jerusalem.
Procession into Jerusalem
29 As Jesus came to Bethphage and Bethany on the Mount of Olives, he gave two disciples a task. 30 He said, “Go into the village over there. When you enter it, you will find tied up there a colt that no one has ever ridden. Untie it and bring it here. 31 If anyone asks, ‘Why are you untying it?’ just say, ‘Its master needs it.’” 32 Those who had been sent found it exactly as he had said.
33 As they were untying the colt, its owners said to them, “Why are you untying the colt?”
34 They replied, “Its master needs it.” 35 They brought it to Jesus, threw their clothes on the colt, and lifted Jesus onto it. 36 As Jesus rode along, they spread their clothes on the road.
37 As Jesus approached the road leading down from the Mount of Olives, the whole throng of his disciples began rejoicing. They praised God with a loud voice because of all the mighty things they had seen. 38 They said,
“Blessings on the king who comes in the name of the Lord.
Peace in heaven and glory in the highest heavens.”
39 Some of the Pharisees from the crowd said to Jesus, “Teacher, scold your disciples! Tell them to stop!”
40 He answered, “I tell you, if they were silent, the stones would shout.”
Jesus predicts Jerusalem’s destruction
41 As Jesus came to the city and observed it, he wept over it. 42 He said, “If only you knew on this of all days the things that lead to peace. But now they are hidden from your eyes. 43 The time will come when your enemies will build fortifications around you, encircle you, and attack you from all sides. 44 They will crush you completely, you and the people within you. They won’t leave one stone on top of another within you, because you didn’t recognize the time of your gracious visit from God.”
Jesus clears the temple
45 When Jesus entered the temple, he threw out those who were selling things there. 46 He said to them, “It’s written, My house will be a house of prayer, but you have made it a hideout for crooks.”[c]
47 Jesus was teaching daily in the temple. The chief priests, the legal experts, and the foremost leaders among the people were seeking to kill him. 48 However, they couldn’t find a way to do it because all the people were enthralled with what they heard.
Copyright © 2011 by Common English Bible