M’Cheyne Bible Reading Plan
12 Rehoboam traveled to Shechem, a border city between Ephraim and Manasseh, because the entire community of Israel had gathered there to install him as the new king. 2 Jeroboam (Nebat’s son) received word of this while he was living in Egypt, hiding from King Solomon. 3 Then the people of the northern tribes called for Jeroboam, and with him the entire community of Israel spoke to Solomon’s son, Rehoboam.
Jeroboam and Israel: 4 During your father’s time, he weighed us down with heavy workloads and caused us much suffering. We have come here to ask you to lighten the load your father laid upon us. If you do so, we will be your willing servants.
Rehoboam: 5 Go away for three days, then come back to me. I need to think this over.
The people left.
6 King Rehoboam then went to talk with the elders who had been in the service of his father, Solomon, when he was alive. He asked for their advice on this matter.
Rehoboam (to the elders): I have come here for your wisdom. What guidance do you have for me? What should I say to these people who are asking me to lighten their workload?
Elders: 7 Serve your people today; do exactly as they ask, and offer them kind words and encouragement. If you serve them in this way today, then they will be devoted to you and will serve you forever.
8 But Rehoboam ignored the advice of the elders. Instead he went to consult his childhood friends—the young men with whom he had grown up and who served him.
Rehoboam: 9 What guidance do you have for me? What should I say to these people who have made this request to me: “Lighten our load, the one your father has placed upon us”?
Young Men: 10 When you meet again with these people who have made this request to you: “Your father weighed us down with heavy workloads and caused us much suffering. We ask you to lighten the load your father laid upon us,” speak firmly: “You think my father was hard on you? My little finger is more potent than my father’s loins! 11 My father weighed you down with a heavy load, but I will make your load even heavier. My father used whips to command you, and you thought that was harsh. I will use a scourge with the sting of scorpions.
12 Jeroboam and all the people of Israel came back to meet with Rehoboam after they had been away for three days. They did this because Rehoboam had given them this instruction: “Go away for three days, then come back to me.” 13 So Rehoboam spoke to the people in a tyrannical tone and completely ignored the advice of the experienced elders. 14 Rehoboam instead heeded the advice of the young men with whom he had grown up.
Rehoboam: My father weighed you down with a heavy load, but I will make your load even heavier. My father used whips to command you, and you thought that was harsh. I will use a scourge with the sting of scorpions.
15 After King Rehoboam had finished speaking to Jeroboam and the Israelites, the king did not listen to them as the Eternal intended. Thus Rehoboam fulfilled the promise the Eternal One gave through the prophet, Ahijah the Shilonite, to Jeroboam (Nebat’s son). 16 The people of Israel realized the king had not listened to them.
Israelites: What lot of David’s belongs to us?
We have no inheritance in Jesse’s son;
Go back to your tents, Israel!
Take care of your own house, David! There is no good news for us!
The Israelites left and went back to their homes. 17 But Rehoboam ruled over all the Israelites who lived in the cities that were a part of Judah. 18 Rehoboam sent Adoram (commander over the forced workers) to compel the Israelites to end their rebellion, but the entire community of Israel killed him with stones. Afraid for his life, King Rehoboam quickly got into his chariot to run back to Jerusalem. 19 Israel has been in conflict with David’s house ever since.
20 Now when the entire community of Israel received word that Jeroboam had returned, they invited him to the assembly where they made him king over the entire Kingdom of Israel. Only the tribe of Judah was still devoted to David’s house.
21 When Rehoboam arrived in Jerusalem, he gathered together the tribes of Judah and Benjamin. There were 180,000 handpicked warriors gathered together in a plot to battle against Israel in order to get the kingdom back under the rule of Rehoboam, Solomon’s son. 22 But the word of the True God visited Shemaiah, the man of God.
Eternal One: 23 Go talk to Rehoboam, Solomon’s son, who is now Judah’s king. Give Rehoboam, the house of Judah, the tribe of Benjamin, and all the people 24 this message of the Eternal: “Do not wage war against your brothers, the Israelites. Every warrior should put down his sword and spear without further delay and return to his home. This change in power is from Me.”
They honored the message of warning from the Eternal, returned to their homes, and did exactly as He had instructed them to do.
25 In Israel Jeroboam fortified Shechem in the hilly land of Ephraim. He lived there for a time, then he took on another project and fortified Penuel.
Jeroboam (in his heart): 26 It is possible that the kingdom might return to the house of David. 27 If these people make sacrifices in the Eternal’s temple in Jerusalem, then their hearts will go back to their lord, even to Rehoboam, Judah’s king. They will surely execute me and go back to Rehoboam, Judah’s king.
28 The king sought out advice and then cast two calves out of gold.
Jeroboam (to Israel): It’s too difficult for you to travel all the way to Jerusalem to make your sacrifices. These are your gods, Israel, who led you out of Egypt.
29 Jeroboam placed one of the golden calves in Bethel and the other in Dan. 30 This was a horribly wicked sin. People even traveled with the golden calf in a religious procession when it was placed in Dan. 31 Jeroboam constructed temples on high places, and he appointed men to be priests who were not descendants of Levi.
32 Jeroboam instituted a festival on the fifteenth day of the eighth month. It was similar to the Feast of Booths that is celebrated in the seventh month in Judah.[a] He then approached the altar in Bethel and offered sacrifices to the golden calves he had crafted. While he was doing this, he instructed the priests of the country’s high places to serve in Bethel. 33 Jeroboam then approached the altar in Bethel on the fifteenth day of the eighth month to make sacrifices according to a plan he had devised. There, he instituted this festival for all the Israelites. Then he approached the altar and burned incense.
3 It is time that I wrap up these thoughts to you, my brothers and sisters. Rejoice in the Lord! (I don’t mind writing these things over and over to you, as I know it keeps you safe.)
2 Watch out for the dogs—wicked workers who run in packs looking for someone to maul with their false circumcision.
Circumcision has become a flash point for the early church. Some are teaching that non-Jews have to become Jews to follow Jesus completely, including circumcision, dietary regulations, keeping weekly and annual holy days, and other Jewish practices. Since the time of Abraham, circumcision has been the mark of the covenant with Abraham’s spiritual children. Things are changing: outsiders, non-Jews, are entering into the new covenant.
Do they enter by faith alone, or is it faith plus following God’s law for Israel? Paul’s answer is clear: it is faith alone that makes Jews and outsiders right with God. So he cautions the Philippians to watch out for those who would chastise them into a false circumcision. Real followers of Jesus know that salvation doesn’t come from the blade of a knife but from His cross.
3 We are the true circumcision—those who worship God in Spirit and make our boast in Jesus the Anointed, the Liberating King—so we do not rely on what we have accomplished in the flesh.
4 If any try to throw around their pedigrees to you, remember my résumé—which is more impressive than theirs. 5 I was circumcised on the eighth day—as the law prescribes—born of the nation of Israel, descended from the tribe of Benjamin. I am a Hebrew born of Hebrews; I have observed the law according to the strict piety of the Pharisees, separate from those embracing a less rigorous kind of Judaism. 6 Zealous? Yes. I ruthlessly pursued and persecuted the church. And when it comes to the righteousness required by the law, my record is spotless.
7 But whatever I used to count as my greatest accomplishments, I’ve written them off as a loss because of the Anointed One. 8 And more so, I now realize that all I gained and thought was important was nothing but yesterday’s garbage compared to knowing the Anointed Jesus my Lord. For Him I have thrown everything aside—it’s nothing but a pile of waste—so that I may gain Him. 9 When it counts, I want to be found belonging to Him, not clinging to my own righteousness based on law, but actively relying on the faithfulness of the Anointed One. This is true righteousness, supplied by God, acquired by faith. 10 I want to know Him inside and out. I want to experience the power of His resurrection and join in His suffering, shaped by His death, 11 so that I may arrive safely at the resurrection from the dead.
The crucified and risen Jesus is the model that Paul desires to embody by walking deep in His pathway of death and life—suffering and resurrection.
12 I’m not there yet, nor have I become perfect; but I am charging on to gain anything and everything the Anointed One, Jesus, has in store for me—and nothing will stand in my way because He has grabbed me and won’t let me go. 13 Brothers and sisters, as I said, I know I have not arrived; but there’s one thing I am doing: I’m leaving my old life behind, putting everything on the line for this mission. 14 I am sprinting toward the only goal that counts: to cross the line, to win the prize, and to hear God’s call to resurrection life found exclusively in Jesus the Anointed. 15 All of us who are mature ought to think the same way about these matters. If you have a different attitude, then God will reveal this to you as well. 16 For now, let’s hold on to what we have been shown and keep in step with these teachings.
17 Imitate me, brothers and sisters, and look around to those already following the example we have set. 18 I have warned you before (and now say again through my tears) that we have many enemies—people who reject the cross of the Anointed. 19 They are ruled by their bellies, their glory comes by shame, and their minds are fixed on the things of this world. They are doomed. 20 But we are citizens of heaven, exiles on earth waiting eagerly for a Liberator, our Lord Jesus the Anointed, to come and 21 transform these humble, earthly bodies into the form of His glorious body by the same power that brings all things under His control.
Ezekiel’s descriptions of the Jerusalem temple are often difficult to comprehend. Since Jerusalem’s temple was completely destroyed, archaeology is helpful in reconstructing Ezekiel’s description of it. In Northern Syria lie the ruins of a temple at ‘Ain Dara‘ that closely resemble the biblical descriptions of God’s temple. It, too, had three rooms, winged beings guarding the holiest place, and an eastern gate through which a deity entered. But what might be the most helpful parallel between it and Jerusalem’s temple are its windows. Carved into the stone are false windows, each with three successively smaller window frames—the largest frame on the outside and the smallest on the inside. Apparently this architectural detail was popular in ornate Near Eastern buildings during the first millennium b.c., especially in temples, and it sheds light on Ezekiel’s obscure description.
42 Then the man whose appearance was like bronze took me north into the outer courtyard. He brought me to the chambers that were opposite the open area around the temple and opposite the outside wall on the northern end. 2 This building with its north-facing door was 175 feet long and 87½ feet wide. 3 Facing a 35-foot-wide section of the inner court and facing the paved area of the outer court were rows of chambers 3 stories high. 4 An interior passageway ran in front of each chamber. It was 17½ feet wide and ran the entire length of the gallery, 175 feet. The doors faced north. 5 All the upper chambers were narrower because the galleries took up more space than they did on the first and second levels. 6 There were no columns for the chambers on the third level—no columns like the ones in the courtyards—so the chambers on the third level were set back further than the chambers on the first and second levels. 7 The wall behind the chambers ran parallel to them and the outer courtyard for a distance of 87½ feet. 8 On the side next to the outer courtyard, the row of chambers was 87½ feet long. On the side nearest to the sanctuary it was 175 feet long. 9 The chambers on the first level could be entered from the east when coming in from the outer courtyard.
These chambers on the wall surrounding the inner courtyard are where the priests prepare themselves for their sacred duties.
10 There were rows of chambers on the south[a] side of the temple, just like on the north, separating the inner and outer courtyards. 11 There was a walkway in front of them. These chambers were exactly like the chambers on the northern side—same measurements and architecture. 12 In front of each walkway in the south chambers was a doorway near the wall that could be entered from the east when coming in from the outer courtyard.
The Man (to Ezekiel): 13 The north and south chambers that face the courtyard around the temple are sacred, set apart for the priests who come near to the Eternal to eat the holiest of offerings. In those sacred chambers, the priests store the holiest of offerings—grain offerings, sin offerings, and guilt offerings. 14 As soon as the priests enter into the sacred areas, they can’t leave and go into the outer courtyard until they first take off their holy clothes in which they have ministered to the Lord. These ministerial clothes are sacred. They must put on other clothes before they go anywhere other people are allowed to be, because their priestly garments can’t come into contact with anything impure.
15 When the man completed taking measurements inside the temple, he took me out through the lower eastern gate and began measuring around the temple complex. 16 He took his measuring reed and measured the entire east side. It was 875 feet long. 17-19 He measured the north, south, and west sides; and they, too, were each 875 feet long. 20 He measured the temple complex on all four sides. The wall around it formed a square 875 feet by 875 feet. It served to separate the sacred from the common.
Psalm 94
1 O Eternal God of vengeance,
O God who sets things right, shine upon us.
2 Rise, O Judge who presides over the earth,
and pronounce Your sentence upon the proud.
Give them what they deserve!
3 How long, O Eternal One, how long
will the guilty revel in their prosperity?
4 Arrogance pours from their mouths;
all these troublemakers brag of their exploits.
5 They have broken Your people to pieces, O Eternal One,
and brought ruin to Your future generations.
6 They slay a widow, kill a newcomer,
and murder an orphan.
7 Then they say, “The Eternal can’t see what we’re up to;
the God of Jacob’s people pays no attention to us.”
8 Think, brainless people;
stupid people, when will you get it?
9 Does the God who set the ear in its place not hear?
Does the God who made the eye not see?
10 Does the God who teaches the nations
and guides humanity to knowledge,
not exercise just correction?
11 The Eternal knows the highest thoughts of the wise,
and they are worthless.[a]
12 How fortunate are those You discipline, O Eternal One,
those You train by Your divine law;
13 You relieve them in times of distress,
until a grave is dug for evildoers.
14 The Eternal will not abandon His people;
He will not turn away from those He redeemed
15 Because justice is coming for those who do what is right
and all the good-hearted will pursue it.
16 Who will back me up when evildoers come against me?
Who is willing to take my side against the wicked?
17 If the Eternal had not come to my rescue,
my soul would have descended to the land where death silences every voice.
18 When I said, “My foot is slipping!”
Your unfailing love, O Eternal One, held me up.
19 When anxiety overtakes me and worries are many,
Your comfort lightens my soul.
20 Can wicked tyrants be Your allies?
Will You align with rulers who create havoc with unjust decrees?
21 They have joined forces against the life of the just-living, the right-seeking,
and have sentenced the innocent to death.
22 But the Eternal has been my citadel;
my God, a sure safe haven.
23 He will fold their wickedness back upon them,
and because they are malicious, He will silence them.
The Eternal, our True God, will scatter them.
The Voice Bible Copyright © 2012 Thomas Nelson, Inc. The Voice™ translation © 2012 Ecclesia Bible Society All rights reserved.