M’Cheyne Bible Reading Plan
5 Thus all the work that Solomon did for the house of the Lord was finished. And Solomon brought in the things that David his father had dedicated: the silver and the gold and all the furnishings in the treasury of the house of God.
The Ark Brought to the Temple(A)
2 Then Solomon assembled the elders of Israel and all the heads of the tribes and the leaders of the houses of the fathers among the sons of Israel to bring up the ark of the covenant of the Lord from the City of David, which is Zion. 3 And all the men of Israel were assembled before the king at the feast, which is the seventh month.[a]
4 All the elders of Israel came, and the Levites carried the ark. 5 Then they brought up the ark, and the tent of meeting, and all the holy vessels that were in the tent. So the Levitical priests brought them up. 6 And King Solomon and all the congregation of Israel, who were assembled with him before the ark, were sacrificing so many sheep and oxen that they could not be counted or numbered.
7 The priests brought the ark of the covenant of the Lord to its place—to the inner sanctuary of the temple, into the Most Holy Place, under the wings of the cherubim. 8 Then the cherubim wings were spread out over the place of the ark so that the cherubim covered the ark and its poles. 9 The poles were extended so that the ends of the poles of the ark were seen in front of the Most Holy Place, but they were not seen outside; and they are still there to this day. 10 In the ark there was nothing except the two tablets that Moses had given at Mount Horeb where the Lord made a covenant with the sons of Israel when they went out from Egypt.
11 When the priests came out from the Most Holy Place—for all the priests who were present had consecrated themselves, without keeping separate divisions— 12 and all the Levitical singers, Asaph, Heman, and Jeduthun, with their sons and relatives, all clothed in fine linen, with cymbals, harps, and lyres, stood to the east of the altar, and with them one hundred and twenty priests who were sounding with trumpets, 13 it happened, when the trumpet players and singers made one sound to praise and give thanks to the Lord, and when they lifted up their voice with the trumpets and cymbals and all the instruments of music and praised the Lord saying,
“For He is good
and His mercy endures forever,”
that the house, the house of the Lord, was filled with a cloud. 14 And the priests were not able to stand in order to serve because of the cloud, for the glory of the Lord had filled the house of God.
6 Then Solomon said, “The Lord has said that He would dwell in the dark cloud. 2 But I have built for You an exalted house, even a habitation where You can continually dwell.”
Solomon’s Speech
3 Then the king turned his face around, and he blessed the entire assembly of Israel while all the assembly of Israel was standing before him. 4 And he said:
“Blessed be the Lord God of Israel who spoke with David my father and fulfilled His promise saying, 5 ‘Since the day that I brought out My people from the land of Egypt, I did not choose any city from among the tribes of Israel to build a house for My name to dwell there, nor did I select a man to be the leader over My people Israel; 6 but I have chosen Jerusalem for My name to dwell there, and I have selected David to be over My people Israel.’
7 “And it was in the heart of David my father to build a house for the name of the Lord God of Israel. 8 But the Lord said to David my father, ‘Whereas it was in your heart to build a house for My name, you did well because of what was in your heart; 9 only you will not be the one to build the house. For your son, who will be born to you, he will build a house for My name.’
10 “The Lord has fulfilled the word that He spoke. For I have risen up in the place of David my father and sit on the throne of Israel, as the Lord spoke, and I will build the house for the name of the Lord God of Israel. 11 And there I have set the ark, in which is the covenant of the Lord that He made with the children of Israel.”
Test the Spirits
4 Beloved, do not believe every spirit, but test the spirits to see whether they are from God, because many false prophets have gone out into the world. 2 This is how you know the Spirit of God: Every spirit that confesses that Jesus Christ has come in the flesh is from God, 3 and every spirit that does not confess that Jesus Christ has come in the flesh is not from God. This is the spirit of the antichrist, which you have heard is coming and is already in the world.
4 You are of God, little children, and have overcome them, because He who is in you is greater than he who is in the world. 5 They are of the world, and therefore they speak from the world, and the world listens to them. 6 We are of God, and whoever knows God listens to us. Whoever is not of God does not listen to us. This is how we know the spirit of truth and the spirit of error.
God Is Love
7 Beloved, let us love one another, for love is of God, and everyone who loves is born of God and knows God. 8 Anyone who does not love does not know God, for God is love. 9 In this way the love of God was revealed to us, that God sent His only begotten Son into the world, that we might live through Him. 10 In this is love: not that we loved God, but that He loved us and sent His Son to be the atoning sacrifice for our sins. 11 Beloved, if God so loved us, we must also love one another. 12 No one has seen God at any time. If we love one another, God dwells in us, and His love is perfected in us.
13 We know that we live in Him, and He in us, because He has given us His Spirit. 14 And we have seen and testify that the Father sent the Son to be the Savior of the world. 15 Whoever confesses that Jesus is the Son of God, God lives in him, and he in God. 16 And we have come to know and to believe the love that God has for us.
God is love. Whoever lives in love lives in God, and God in him. 17 In this way God’s love is perfected in us, so that we may have boldness on the Day of Judgment, because as He is, so are we in this world. 18 There is no fear in love, but perfect love casts out fear, because fear has to do with punishment. Whoever fears is not perfect in love.
19 We love Him because He first loved us. 20 If anyone says, “I love God,” and hates his brother, he is a liar. For whoever does not love his brother whom he has seen, how can he love God whom he has not seen? 21 We have this commandment from Him: Whoever loves God must also love his brother.
Woe to Nineveh
3 Woe to the bloody city!
It is full of lies
and plunder.
The prey never departs.
2 The noise of the whip
and the noise of the rattling of the wheels,
galloping horses,
and rushing chariots!
3 Horsemen charging
with flashing sword
and glittering spear.
Multitude of slain,
great number of corpses,
dead bodies without end—
they stumble on the corpses—
4 because of the countless harlotries of the seductive harlot,
the mistress of sorceries,
who sells nations through her harlotries
and families through her sorceries.
5 I am against you, says the Lord of Hosts;
I will lift your skirts over your face,
and I will show the nations your nakedness,
and the kingdoms your shame.
6 I will throw filth on you,
and make you vile,
and make you a spectacle.
7 All who look at you will flee from you, and say,
“Nineveh is devastated! Who will lament for her?”
Where shall I seek comforters for you?
8 Are you better than Thebes
that sat by the Nile,
with water around her,
whose rampart was the sea,
and whose wall was the water?
9 Ethiopia and Egypt were her strength, and it was without limit;
Put and Libya were her helpers.
10 Yet she went into exile,
she went into captivity;
her young children were dashed to pieces
at the head of every street;
they cast lots for her honorable men,
and all her great men were bound in chains.
11 You also will be drunk;
you will go into hiding;
you will seek refuge from the enemy.
12 All your fortresses are like fig trees
with first-ripe figs:
If they are shaken,
they fall into the mouth of the eater.
13 Your troops
are women in your midst!
The gates of your land
are wide open to your enemies;
fire has devoured your bars.
14 Draw water for the siege!
Strengthen your forts!
Go into the clay and
tread the mortar!
Take hold of the brick mold!
15 There the fire will devour you,
the sword will cut you off;
it will eat you up like the locust.
Multiply yourselves—like the locust!
Multiply—like the grasshopper!
16 You have multiplied your merchants
more than the stars of heaven.
The locust plunders
and flies away.
17 Your leaders are like grasshoppers,
your commanders like swarms of locusts,
which camp in the hedges on a cold day;
when the sun rises they fly away,
and the place where they are is not known.
18 Your shepherds slumber, O king of Assyria;
Your nobles lie in the dust.
Your people are scattered on the mountains,
and no one gathers them.
19 There is no healing of your injury,
your wound is grievous.
All who hear news about you
clap their hands over you,
for upon whom has not your wickedness
continually passed?
Jesus and Zacchaeus
19 Jesus entered and passed through Jericho. 2 A man was there named Zacchaeus who was a chief tax collector, and he was rich. 3 He tried to see who Jesus was, but was not able from the crowd, because he was little in stature. 4 So he ran ahead and climbed up into a sycamore tree to see Him, for He was to pass that way.
5 When Jesus came to the vicinity, He looked up and saw him, and said to him, “Zacchaeus, hurry and come down, for today I must remain at your house.” 6 So he hurried and came down, and received Him joyfully.
7 When they saw it, they all murmured, saying, “He has gone to be the guest of a man who is a sinner.”
8 But Zacchaeus stood and said to the Lord, “Look, Lord, I give half of my possessions to the poor. And if I have taken anything from anyone by false accusation, I will repay him four times as much.”
9 Jesus said to him, “Today salvation has come to this house, because he also is a son of Abraham. 10 For the Son of Man has come to seek and to save that which was lost.”
The Parable of the Ten Pounds(A)
11 As they heard these things, He continued and told them a parable, because He was near Jerusalem and because they thought the kingdom of God would immediately appear. 12 Therefore He said, “A nobleman went to a distant country to receive a kingdom and to return. 13 So he called his ten servants and entrusted to them ten pounds[a] and said to them, ‘Trade until I come.’
14 “But his citizens hated him and sent a delegation after him, saying, ‘We do not want this man to reign over us.’
15 “When he returned, having received the kingdom, he summoned these servants, to whom he had entrusted the money, that he might know what everyone gained by trading.
16 “The first came, saying, ‘Master, your pound has made ten pounds more.’
17 “He said to him, ‘Well done, good servant! Because you have been faithful in very little, take authority over ten cities.’
18 “The second came, saying, ‘Master, your pound has made five pounds more.’
19 “He said in like manner to him, ‘You, take authority over five cities.’
20 “Then another came, saying, ‘Master, look, here is your pound, which I have kept put away in a napkin. 21 For I feared you, because you are an exacting man. You collect what you did not deposit, and reap what you did not sow.’
22 “He said to him, ‘Out of your own mouth will I judge you, you wicked servant. You knew that I was an exacting man, collecting what I did not deposit and reaping what I did not sow. 23 Why then did you not deposit my money in the bank, so that at my coming I might have collected it with interest?’
24 “Then he said to those who stood by, ‘Take the pound from him and give it to him who has ten pounds.’
25 “They said to him, ‘Master, he has ten pounds.’
26 “ ‘I tell you that to everyone who has will be given. But from him who has not, even what he has will be taken away from him. 27 But as for those enemies of mine, who would not let me reign over them, bring them here and slay them before me.’ ”
The Triumphant Entry in Jerusalem(B)
28 When He had said this, He went before them, ascending up to Jerusalem. 29 When He came near to Bethphage and Bethany, at the mountain called the Mount of Olives, He sent two of His disciples, 30 saying, “Go over into the village opposite you, where, as you enter, you will find a colt tied, on which no one has ever yet sat. Untie it and bring it here. 31 If anyone asks you, ‘Why are you untying it?’ you shall say to him, ‘Because the Lord has need of it.’ ”
32 Those who were sent went and found it just as He had told them. 33 As they were untying the colt, its owners said to them, “Why are you untying the colt?”
34 They said, “The Lord has need of it.”
35 They brought it to Jesus. And they threw their garments on the colt, and they set Jesus on it. 36 As He went, they spread their clothes in the street.
37 When He was coming near the descent of the Mount of Olives, the whole crowd of the disciples began to rejoice and praise God with loud voices for all the mighty works that they had seen, 38 saying:
‘Blessed is the King who comes in the name of the Lord!’[b]
Peace in heaven and glory in the highest!”
39 Some of the Pharisees from the crowd said to Him, “Teacher, rebuke Your disciples.”
40 He answered them, “I tell you, if these should be silent, the stones would immediately cry out.”
41 When He came near, He beheld the city and wept over it, 42 saying, “If you, even you, had known even today what things would bring you peace! But now they are hidden from your eyes. 43 For the days will come upon you when your enemies will build an embankment around you and surround you, and press you in on every side. 44 They will dash you, and your children within you, to the ground. They will not leave one stone upon another within you, because you did not know the time of your visitation.”
The Cleansing of the Temple(C)
45 Then He entered the temple and began to drive out those who sold and bought in it, 46 saying to them, “It is written, ‘My house will be a house of prayer,’[c] but you have made it ‘a den of thieves.’[d]”
47 He taught daily in the temple. But the chief priests, the scribes, and the leaders of the people tried to kill Him. 48 Yet they could not find a way to do it, for all the people were very attentive to hear Him.
The Holy Bible, Modern English Version. Copyright © 2014 by Military Bible Association. Published and distributed by Charisma House.