M’Cheyne Bible Reading Plan
Chapter 14
The Lord Condemns Jeroboam.[a]1 It was at that time that Abijah, the son of Jeroboam, fell ill. 2 Jeroboam said to his wife, “Get up and disguise yourself so that they cannot tell that you are Jeroboam’s wife, and then go to Shiloh. Ahijah, the prophet, is there, the one who told me that I would be king over this people. 3 Take ten loaves of bread with you along with some cakes and a jar of honey and go to him. He will tell you what will happen to the child.”
4 Jeroboam’s wife did this. She got up and went to Shiloh and entered the house of Ahijah. Ahijah could no longer see, for his eyes had grown dim because of his age. 5 But the Lord said to Ahijah, “Behold, the wife of Jeroboam is coming to ask something from you concerning her son who is sick. This is what you are to say to her.”
When she arrived, she pretended she was someone else. 6 When Ahijah heard the sound of her feet as she came through the door, he said, “Enter, O wife of Jeroboam. Why do you pretend to be someone else? I have been sent to you with heavy tidings. 7 Go tell Jeroboam, ‘Thus says the Lord, the God of Israel: I have exalted you from among the people, and I have made you the leader over my people Israel. 8 I tore the kingdom away from the house of David and gave it to you. Yet, you have not been like my servant David who observed my commandments and who followed me with all of his heart, doing what is right in my sight. 9 You have done more evil than those who preceded you. You have gone after and made other gods, molten images, enraging me and casting me behind your back. 10 Behold, I will bring evil down upon the house of Jeroboam. I will cut off from Jeroboam everyone who pees against the wall, every bondsman and everyone who is free in Israel. I will wipe out the remnant of the house of Jeroboam as one burns up dung until it is completely consumed. 11 Those who belong to Jeroboam and who die in the city will be eaten by the dogs; those who die in the fields will be eaten by the birds of the air. The Lord has spoken.’
12 “As for you, get up and go home. The moment that your feet enter the city, your child will die. 13 All of Israel will mourn for him and bury him. He is the only one who comes from Jeroboam who will be placed in a grave because he is the only one in the house of Jeroboam in whom the Lord, the God of Israel, has found anything good.
14 “The Lord will raise up a king over Israel for himself who on that day will cut off the house of Jeroboam. What? Even now! 15 The Lord will strike down Israel, just as a reed is shaken in the water. He will uproot Israel from out of this good land that he gave to their fathers. He will scatter them beyond the river because they have made their wooden images, provoking the Lord to anger. 16 He will give up Israel because of the sins of Jeroboam, for he sinned and he caused Israel to sin.”
17 Jeroboam’s wife then got up and left and came to Tirzah. When she arrived at the threshold of the house, the child died. 18 They buried him, and all of Israel mourned for him, according to the word of the Lord that he had spoken through Ahijah the prophet, his servant.
19 The rest of the deeds of Jeroboam, how he made war and how he reigned, are written in the book of the chronicles of the kings of Israel. 20 Jeroboam reigned for twenty-two years, and then he slept with his fathers, and his son Nadab reigned in his stead.
Kings of Israel and Judah
21 Rehoboam’s Reign. Rehoboam, the son of Solomon, reigned in Judah. Rehoboam was forty-one years old when he began to reign, and he reigned for seventeen years in Jerusalem, the city that the Lord had chosen from out of all of the tribes of Israel to place his name. His mother’s name was Naamah, and she was an Ammonite.
22 Judah did what was evil in the sight of the Lord.[b] With the sins that they committed which were worse than what their fathers had done, they provoked the Lord to jealousy. 23 They also set up high places for themselves as well as sacred pillars and Asherah everywhere and under every green tree. 24 There were even male prostitutes in the land. They did every abomination that the nations had done which the Lord had cast out before the Israelites.
25 In the fifth year of King Rehoboam, Shishak, the king of Egypt, attacked Jerusalem. 26 He took away the treasures from the temple of the Lord and the treasures out of the royal palace. He took everything away, including the gold shields that Solomon had made.
27 King Rehoboam made bronze shields to replace them. He entrusted them into the hands of the commanders of the guard who watched over the entrance to the king’s palace. 28 The guards would carry them whenever the king went into the temple of the Lord. Afterwards, they would return them to the guardroom.
29 As for the rest of the deeds of Rehoboam and all that he did, are they not written in the book of the chronicles of the kings of Judah?[c] 30 There was war between Rehoboam and Jeroboam during their entire reigns. 31 Rehoboam slept with his fathers, and he was buried with his fathers in the City of David. His mother’s name was Naamah, and she was an Ammonite. Abijah, his son, then reigned in his stead.
Introduction
Chapter 1
Address. 1 Paul, an apostle of Christ Jesus by the will of God, and Timothy our brother, 2 to the saints[a] and faithful brethren in Christ in Colossae. May God our Father grant you grace and peace.
A Community Pervaded by the Gospel.[b] 3 In all our prayers for you we always give thanks to God, the Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, 4 because we have heard of your faith in Christ Jesus and of the love that you have for all the saints 5 because of the hope that is stored up for you in heaven. You had learned of this hope through the word of truth, the gospel,[c] 6 that has come down to you.
Just as it is bearing fruit and growing throughout the entire world, so it has been bearing fruit among you, ever since the day when you heard it and came to understand the grace of God in truth. 7 You learned this from Epaphras,[d] our beloved fellow servant and a faithful minister of Christ on your behalf. 8 He was also the one who made known to us your love in the Spirit.
9 That is why, ever since the day we first heard about it, we have not ceased to pray for you and to ask that you may be filled with the knowledge of God’s will through all spiritual wisdom and understanding. 10 And we ask this so that you may live in a manner worthy of the Lord and become fully pleasing to him, bearing fruit in every good work and continuing to grow in the knowledge of God.
11 May you be fortified with the strength that comes from his glorious power, and may you be granted patience and endurance, while joyfully 12 giving thanks to the Father who has enabled you to share in the inheritance of the saints in light.[e] 13 He has rescued us from the power of darkness and brought us into the kingdom of his beloved Son, 14 in whom we have redemption, the forgiveness of sins.
The Supremacy of Christ
In Christ, through Him, and for Him[f]
15 He is the image of the invisible God,
the firstborn of all creation.
16 For in him were created all things
in heaven and on earth,
whether visible or invisible,
whether thrones or dominions or rulers or powers—
all things were created through him and for him.
17 He exists before all things,
and in him all things hold together.
18 He is the head of the body,
that is, the Church.
He is the beginning,
the firstborn from the dead,
so that in every way
he should be supreme.
19 For in him
it pleased God
to make all fullness dwell,[g]
20 and through him
to reconcile all things for him,
whether on earth or in heaven,
by making peace through his blood of the cross.
21 Christ among the Gentiles.[h]You yourselves were once alienated and hostile in your intent because of your evil deeds. 22 But now, through Christ’s death in his body of flesh, God has reconciled you to himself so that you may stand holy, blameless, and irreproachable in his presence.
23 However, you must persevere in the faith, firmly grounded and steadfast in your belief, and never allowing yourselves to drift away from the hope of the gospel that you accepted and that has now been proclaimed to every creature under heaven, the gospel of which I, Paul, have become a servant.
24 Christ’s Suffering in His People. I find great joy at present in suffering for you, and in my own body I am completing the sufferings that still must be undergone by Christ for the sake of his body, the Church.[i] 25 I was made a minister of that Church, with the commission given to me by God to make fully known to you the word of God, 26 the mystery that has been hidden throughout the ages and from past generations but that now has been revealed to his saints.
27 To these God chose to make known how rich is the priceless glory that this mystery brings to the Gentiles—Christ in you, your hope of glory.[j] 28 It is he whom we proclaim, admonishing and instructing everyone in all wisdom so that we may present everyone to Christ in a state of perfection. 29 For this I labor and struggle with all his energy working within me mightily.
Chapter 44
The Shut Gate. 1 Then he brought me back to the outer gate of the sanctuary that faces east, but it was shut. 2 The Lord said to me: This gate will remain closed. It shall not be opened, and no one may enter through it. 3 Only the prince himself may sit inside the gate to eat his meal in the presence of the Lord. He must enter by way of the vestibule of the gate, and he must depart by the same way.
The New Law
Admittance to the Temple. 4 Then he brought me by way of the north gate to the front of the temple. And when I looked, I beheld the glory of the Lord filling the Lord’s temple, and I fell upon my face. 5 Then he said to me: Son of man, pay attention, look carefully, and listen closely to everything that I will tell you in regard to all the ordinances of the temple of the Lord and all its laws. Also, mark carefully those who are admitted to the temple and those who are to be excluded from the sanctuary.
6 Say to the rebels of the house of Israel: Thus says the Lord God: I have endured enough of these abominable practices in which you engage, O house of Israel. 7 You have allowed foreigners, uncircumcised in heart and body, to enter my sanctuary and profane it when you offer to me my food, the fat and the blood. Thus, you have broken my covenant with all of your loathsome practices.
8 Instead of taking charge of my sacred offerings, you have assigned foreigners to serve me in my sanctuary in your place. 9 Thus says the Lord God: No foreigner, uncircumcised in heart and flesh, shall be permitted to enter my sanctuary, not even those foreigners who dwell among the Israelites.
10 Levites. But as for the Levites who abandoned me when Israel strayed far from me by following its idols, they must suffer the consequences for their iniquity. 11 They may be permitted to serve as ministers in my sanctuary, with the responsibility of guarding the gates of the temple and serving in the temple. They may be allowed to slaughter the burnt offerings and the sacrifices for the people as well as attending to the needs of the people and serving them.
12 However, because they used to minister to them in front of their idols and thereby caused the house of Israel to fall into a state of sin, therefore, I have sworn an oath against them, says the Lord God, that they shall be punished for their iniquity. 13 They may never again be permitted to approach me in order to serve as priests, nor will they be allowed to come near any of my holy things or my most sacred offerings. Rather, they must bear the shame of their abominable deeds. 14 However, I will assign them the responsibility of service to the temple and for all the work that has to be done in it.
15 Priests. As for the Levitical priests, the descendants of Zadok, who continued to fulfill faithfully their responsibility for caring for my sanctuary when the Israelites strayed far from me, they shall draw near me in order to minister to me, and they will stand in my presence to offer me the fat and the blood, says the Lord God. 16 They are the ones who will enter my sanctuary, the ones who will approach my table to minister to me and serve me.
17 Whenever they approach the gates of the inner court, the priests are to wear linen vestments. They must not wear any garment of wool when they minister at the gates of the inner court or inside the temple. 18 They are to have linen turbans on their heads and linen undergarments on their loins, and they may not wear anything that might cause them to perspire.
19 Before they go out to the people in the outer court, they are to remove the clothes in which they have been performing their ministry, and they are then to put on other garments so that they will not communicate holiness to the people with their garments.
20 Priests are not permitted to shave their heads or to let their hair grow long. Rather, they must keep their hair carefully trimmed, 21 nor are they allowed to drink wine on the day they are to enter the inner court.
22 Priests may not marry either widows or divorced women, but only virgins of the race of Israel. However, they may marry women who are the widows of priests. 23 They shall teach my people to distinguish between the sacred and the profane, and they shall make known to them the difference between what is clean and what is unclean.
24 In any dispute, the priests are to serve as judges, and they shall render their decisions according to my decrees. They must observe my laws and my statutes for all of my appointed feasts, and they shall keep my Sabbaths holy.
25 Priests may not make themselves unclean by coming near a dead person. However, if the deceased is a father or mother, son or daughter, brother or unmarried sister, then they are permitted to defile themselves. 26 After such a priest has been purified, he must wait a further seven days. 27 On the day that he enters the inner court of the sanctuary to minister in the sanctuary, he shall offer a sin offering for himself, says the Lord God.
28 Priests will have no inheritance. I, myself, will be their inheritance. You will not give them any possession in Israel. I, myself, am their possession. 29 They will eat the grain offering, the sin offering, and the guilt offering. Everything in Israel that is dedicated by vow to God will be theirs.
30 The best of all the firstfruits of every kind and the best of all your offerings of every kind shall belong to the priests. Likewise, you shall give to the priests the best of your dough so that a blessing may rest upon your house. 31 In addition, the priests must not eat the flesh of a bird or animal that has died a natural death or been killed by a wild animal.
Psalm 97[a]
Divine King and Universal Judge
1 The Lord is King;[b] let the earth exult;
let the distant isles rejoice.
2 [c]Clouds and darkness[d] surround him;
righteousness and justice are the foundation of his throne.
3 Fire[e] precedes him,
consuming his enemies on every side.
4 His flashes of lightnwing illumine the world;
the earth sees this and trembles.
5 The mountains melt like wax before the Lord,
before the Lord of all the earth.
6 The heavens proclaim his righteousness,[f]
and all the nations behold his glory.
7 All who worship images are put to shame,
those who boast of their worthless idols;
bow down before him, all you gods.[g]
8 Zion hears and rejoices,
and the cities[h] of Judah exult
because of your judgments, O Lord.
9 For you, O Lord, are the Most High over all the earth;
you are exalted far above all gods.
10 [i]Let those who love the Lord hate evil,
for he protects the souls of his faithful ones
and rescues them from the hand of the wicked.
11 [j]Light dawns for the righteous,
and joy for the upright in heart.
12 Rejoice in the Lord, you who are righteous,
and give thanks to his holy name.
Psalm 98[k]
Praise of the Lord, King and Judge
1 A psalm.
Sing to the Lord a new song,[l]
for he has accomplished marvelous deeds.
His right hand and his holy arm
have made him victorious.
2 The Lord has made known his salvation;
he has manifested his righteousness for all the nations to see.[m]
3 He has remembered his kindness[n] and his fidelity
to the house of Israel.
The farthest ends of the earth have witnessed
the salvation of our God.
4 Sing joyfully to the Lord, all the earth;
raise your voices in songs of praise.
5 Sing praise to the Lord with the harp,
with the harp and melodious singing.
6 With trumpets and the sound of the horn
sing joyfully to the King, the Lord.[o]
7 [p]Let the sea resound and everything in it,
the world[q] and all its inhabitants.
8 Let the rivers clap their hands
and the mountains shout for joy.
9 Let them sing before the Lord, who is coming,
coming to judge the earth.
He will judge the world with justice
and the nations with fairness.[r]
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