M’Cheyne Bible Reading Plan

Disaster on the House of Jeroboam

14 At that time Abijah son of Jeroboam became sick.^{(A) 2} Jeroboam said to his wife, “Go disguise yourself,^(B) so they won’t know that you’re Jeroboam’s wife, and go to Shiloh.^(C) The prophet Ahijah is there; it was he who told about me becoming king over this people.^{(D) 3} Take with you ten loaves of bread, some cakes, and a jar of honey,^(E) and go to him. He will tell you what will happen to the boy.”

⁴ Jeroboam’s wife did that: she went to Shiloh and arrived at Ahijah’s house. Ahijah could not see; he was blind^[a] due to his age.^{(F) 5} But the Lord had said to Ahijah, “Jeroboam’s wife is coming soon to ask you about her son, for he is sick. You are to say such and such to her. When she arrives, she will be disguised.”^(G)

⁶ When Ahijah heard the sound of her feet entering the door, he said, “Come in, wife of Jeroboam! Why are you disguised?^(H) I have bad news for you. ⁷ Go tell Jeroboam, ‘This is what the Lord God of Israel says: I raised you up from among the people, appointed you ruler over my people Israel, ⁸ tore the kingdom away from the house of David, and gave it to you.^(I) But you were not like my servant David, who kept my commands and followed me with all his heart, doing only what is right in my sight. ⁹ You behaved more wickedly than all who were before you.^(J) In order to anger me, you have proceeded to make for yourself other gods and cast images,^(K) but you have flung me behind your back.^{(L) 10} Because of all this, I am about to bring disaster on the house of Jeroboam:

¹² “As for you, get up and go to your house. When your feet enter the city, the boy will die.^{(O) 13} All Israel will mourn for him and bury him. He alone out of Jeroboam’s house will be given a proper burial because out of the house of Jeroboam something favorable to the Lord God of Israel was found in him.^{(P) 14} The Lord will raise up for himself a king over Israel, who will wipe out the house of Jeroboam.^(Q) This is the day, yes,^[e] even today! ¹⁵ For the Lord will strike Israel so that they will^[f] shake as a reed shakes in water. He will uproot Israel from this good soil that he gave to their ancestors.^(R) He will scatter them beyond the Euphrates^(S) because they made their Asherah poles, angering the Lord.^{(T) 16} He will give up Israel because of Jeroboam’s sins that he committed and caused Israel to commit.”^(U)

¹⁷ Then Jeroboam’s wife got up and left and went to Tirzah.^(V) As she was crossing the threshold of the house, the boy died. ¹⁸ He was buried, and all Israel mourned for him, according to the word of the Lord he had spoken through his servant the prophet Ahijah.^(W)

¹⁹ As for the rest of the events of Jeroboam’s reign, how he waged war^(X) and how he reigned, note that they are written in the Historical Record of Israel’s Kings. ²⁰ The length of Jeroboam’s reign was twenty-two years. He rested with his ancestors, and his son Nadab became king in his place.^(Y)

Judah’s King Rehoboam

²¹ Now Rehoboam, Solomon’s son, reigned in Judah.^(Z) Rehoboam was forty-one years old when he became king; he reigned seventeen years in Jerusalem, the city where the Lord had chosen from all the tribes of Israel to put his name.^(AA) Rehoboam’s mother’s name was Naamah the Ammonite.^(AB)

²² Judah did what was evil in the Lord’s sight.^(AC) They provoked him to jealous anger^(AD) more than all that their ancestors had done with the sins they committed. ²³ They also built for themselves high places,^(AE) sacred pillars,^(AF) and Asherah poles on every high hill and under every green tree; ²⁴ there were even male cult prostitutes in the land.^(AG) They imitated all the detestable practices of the nations the Lord had dispossessed before the Israelites.^(AH)

²⁵ In the fifth year of King Rehoboam, King Shishak of Egypt^(AI) went to war against Jerusalem.^{(AJ) 26} He seized the treasuries of the Lord’s temple and the treasuries of the royal palace. He took everything. He took all the gold shields that Solomon had made.^{(AK) 27} King Rehoboam made bronze shields to replace them and committed them into the care of the captains of the guards^[g](AL) who protected the entrance to the king’s palace. ²⁸ Whenever the king entered the Lord’s temple, the guards would carry the shields, then they would take them back to the armory.^[h](AM)

²⁹ The rest of the events of Rehoboam’s reign,^(AN) along with all his accomplishments, are written about in the Historical Record of Judah’s Kings. ³⁰ There was war between Rehoboam and Jeroboam throughout their reigns.^{(AO) 31} Rehoboam rested with his ancestors and was buried with his ancestors in the city of David. His mother’s name was Naamah the Ammonite.^(AP) His son Abijam^[i](AQ) became king in his place.

Greeting

1 Paul, an apostle of Christ Jesus by God’s will,^(A) and Timothy^(B) our brother:

² To the saints in Christ at Colossae, who are faithful brothers and sisters.

Grace to you and peace from God our Father.^[a]

Thanksgiving

³ We always thank God, the Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, when we pray for you, ⁴ for we have heard of your faith in Christ Jesus and of the love you have for all the saints ⁵ because of the hope reserved for you in heaven. You have already heard about this hope in the word of truth,^(C) the gospel ⁶ that has come to you. It is bearing fruit^(D) and growing all over the world,^(E) just as it has among you since the day you heard it and came to truly appreciate^(F) God’s grace.^{[b](G) 7} You learned this from Epaphras,^(H) our dearly loved fellow servant. He is a faithful minister of Christ^(I) on your^[c] behalf, ⁸ and he has told us about your love in the Spirit.^(J)

Prayer for Spiritual Growth

⁹ For this reason also, since the day we heard this, we haven’t stopped praying for you. We are asking^(K) that you may be filled with the knowledge^(L) of his will^(M) in all wisdom and spiritual understanding,^{[d] 10} so that you may walk worthy of the Lord, fully pleasing to him: bearing fruit in every good work^(N) and growing in the knowledge of God,^{(O) 11} being strengthened^(P) with all power,^(Q) according to his glorious^(R) might, so that you may have great endurance and patience, joyfully ¹² giving thanks to the Father, who has enabled you^[e] to share in the saints’ inheritance in the light.^{(S) 13} He has rescued^(T) us from the domain of darkness and transferred us into the kingdom^(U) of the Son^(V) he loves.^{(W) 14} In him we have redemption,^[f] the forgiveness of sins.

The Centrality of Christ

²¹ Once you were alienated and hostile in your minds as expressed in your evil actions. ²² But now he has reconciled you by his physical body through his death,^(AK) to present you holy, faultless,^(AL) and blameless before him^(AM)— ²³ if indeed you remain grounded and steadfast in the faith^(AN) and are not shifted away from the hope^(AO) of the gospel that you heard. This gospel has been proclaimed in all creation^(AP) under heaven,^(AQ) and I, Paul,^(AR) have become a servant of it.

Paul’s Ministry

²⁴ Now I rejoice in my sufferings^(AS) for you, and I am completing in my flesh what is lacking in Christ’s afflictions for his body,^(AT) that is, the church. ²⁵ I have become its servant, according to God’s commission that was given to me for you, to make the word of God fully known, ²⁶ the mystery hidden for ages and generations but now revealed to his saints. ²⁷ God wanted to make known among the Gentiles the glorious wealth of this mystery, which is Christ^(AU) in you, the hope^(AV) of glory. ²⁸ We proclaim him, warning and teaching everyone with all wisdom, so that we may present everyone mature in Christ. ²⁹ I labor for this, striving^(AW) with his strength that works powerfully in me.^(AX)

The Prince’s Privilege

44 The man then brought me back toward the sanctuary’s outer gate that faced east, and it was closed. ² The Lord said to me, “This gate will remain closed. It will not be opened, and no one will enter through it, because the Lord, the God of Israel, has entered through it.^(A) Therefore it will remain closed. ³ The prince himself will sit in the gate to eat a meal before the Lord.^(B) He is to enter by way of the portico^(C) of the gate and go out the same way.”

⁴ Then the man brought me by way of the north gate to the front of the temple. I looked, and the glory of the Lord filled his temple.^(D) And I fell facedown.^{(E) 5} The Lord said to me, “Son of man, pay attention;^(F) look with your eyes and listen with your ears to everything I tell you about all the statutes and laws of the Lord’s temple.^(G) Take careful note of the entrance of the temple along with all the exits of the sanctuary.

The Levites’ Duties and Privileges

⁶ “Say to the rebellious people,^(H) the house of Israel, ‘This is what the Lord God says: I have had enough^(I) of all your detestable practices, house of Israel. ⁷ When you brought in foreigners,^(J) uncircumcised in both heart and flesh,^(K) to occupy my sanctuary, you defiled my temple while you offered my food—the fat and the blood. You^[a] broke my covenant by all your detestable practices. ⁸ You have not kept charge of my holy things^(L) but have appointed others to keep charge of my sanctuary for you.’

⁹ “This is what the Lord God says: No foreigner, uncircumcised in heart and flesh, may enter my sanctuary, not even a foreigner who is among the Israelites. ¹⁰ Surely the Levites who wandered away from me when Israel went astray, and who strayed from me after their idols,^(M) will bear the consequences of their iniquity.^{(N) 11} Yet they will occupy my sanctuary, serving as guards at the temple gates^(O) and ministering at the temple. They will slaughter the burnt offerings^(P) and other sacrifices for the people and will stand before them to serve them.^{(Q) 12} Because they ministered to the house of Israel before their idols and became a sinful stumbling block to them, therefore I swore an oath^[b] against them”^(R)—this is the declaration of the Lord God—“that they would bear the consequences of their iniquity. ¹³ They must not approach me to serve me as priests^(S) or come near any of my holy things or the most holy things. They will bear their disgrace and the consequences of the detestable acts they committed. ¹⁴ Yet I will make them responsible for the duties of the temple^(T)—for all its work and everything done in it.

The Priests’ Duties and Privileges

¹⁵ “But the Levitical priests descended from Zadok,^(U) who kept charge of my sanctuary when the Israelites went astray from me, will approach me to serve me. They will stand before me to offer me fat and blood.” This is the declaration of the Lord God. ¹⁶ “They are the ones who may enter my sanctuary^(V) and approach my table to serve me.^(W) They will keep my mandate. ¹⁷ When they enter the gates of the inner court they are to wear linen garments;^(X) they must not have on them anything made of wool when they minister at the gates of the inner court and within it. ¹⁸ They are to wear linen turbans on their heads and linen undergarments around their waists.^(Y) They are not to put on anything that makes them sweat. ¹⁹ Before they go out to the outer court,^[c] to the people, they must take off the clothes they have been ministering in, leave them in the holy chambers, and dress in other clothes^(Z) so that they do not transmit holiness to the people through their clothes.^(AA)

²⁰ “They may not shave their heads^(AB) or let their hair grow long,^(AC) but are to carefully trim their hair. ²¹ No priest may drink wine before he enters the inner court.^{(AD) 22} He is not to marry a widow or a divorced woman, but may marry only a virgin from the offspring of the house of Israel,^(AE) or a widow who is the widow of a priest. ²³ They are to teach my people the difference between the holy and the common, and explain to them the difference between the clean and the unclean.^(AF)

²⁴ “In a dispute, they will officiate as judges and decide the case according to my ordinances.^(AG) They are to observe my laws and statutes regarding all my appointed festivals, and keep my Sabbaths holy.^{(AH) 25} A priest may not come near a dead person so that he becomes defiled.^(AI) However, he may defile himself for a father, a mother, a son, a daughter, a brother, or an unmarried sister. ²⁶ After he is cleansed, he is to count off seven days for himself.^{(AJ) 27} On the day he goes into the sanctuary, into the inner court^(AK) to minister in the sanctuary, he is to present his sin offering.” This is the declaration of the Lord God.

²⁸ “This will be their inheritance: I am their inheritance.^(AL) You are to give them no possession in Israel: I am their possession. ²⁹ They will eat the grain offering, the sin offering,^(AM) and the guilt offering. Everything in Israel that is permanently dedicated to the Lord will belong to them.^{(AN) 30} The best of all the firstfruits of every kind and contribution of every kind from all your gifts will belong to the priests.^(AO) You are to give your first batch of dough to the priest^(AP) so that a blessing may rest on your homes.^{(AQ) 31} The priests may not eat any bird or animal that died naturally or was mauled by wild beasts.^(AR)

Psalm 97

The Majestic King

Psalm 98

Praise the King

A psalm.