M’Cheyne Bible Reading Plan
16 During the 17th year of the reign of Pekah (Remaliah’s son) as king of Israel, Ahaz (Jotham’s son) inherited the throne in Judah. 2 Ahaz was 20 years old when he inherited the throne, and his reign in Jerusalem lasted 16 years. He did not do what was good in the eyes of the Eternal, his True God, unlike his ancestor, David. 3 He walked the wicked path of Israel’s kings, and he even made his own son go through the fire as a child sacrifice. He did this, modeling the abhorrent practices of nations whom the Eternal had exiled to make way for the Israelites. 4 He also offered sacrifices and burned incense at the high places, on hills, and beneath every green tree.
5 Then Rezin, Aram’s king, and Pekah (Remaliah’s son and king of Israel) approached Jerusalem with one thing in mind—war.
Their goal is to get Judah to join them in an alliance against Assyria. This is known as the Syro-Ephraimite War.
They laid siege to Ahaz but were unsuccessful in defeating him. 6 Rezin, Aram’s king, brought Elath back into Aram’s possession. He drove out the Judeans who lived there. Arameans moved back to Elath and still live there today.
7 Ahaz dispatched messengers to Tiglath-pileser, Assyria’s king.
Ahaz: I am your servant and your son. I need your help now. Please rescue me from the grip of Aram’s king and Israel’s king. They are swarming against me at this very moment.
8 Ahaz then gathered up all the silver and gold in the Eternal’s temple and in the palace treasuries, and he gave it to Assyria’s king as a gift. 9 Assyria’s king received the gift and listened to the message. He responded by attacking and capturing Damascus, the capital of Aram. He exiled the inhabitants of Damascus to Kir, and he killed Rezin.
10 King Ahaz traveled to Damascus to meet with Assyria’s king, Tiglath-pileser. There he laid eyes upon the altar in Damascus so he sent renderings of the altar—its patterns and design—to the priest Urijah.
Ahaz is enamored with the Syrian altar and its design. He wants to build something just like it for the temple, possibly because the bronze altar at the Jerusalem temple is too small (1 Kings 8:64).
11 Urijah the priest then constructed an altar from the plans King Ahaz had sent from Damascus. Urijah made it an exact likeness, and he completed it before Ahaz returned from Damascus.
12 After his return from Damascus, Ahaz saw the new altar Urijah had constructed, walked up to it, and offered 13 burnt offerings, meal offerings, and drink offerings and anointed the altar with blood from the peace offerings as Solomon had done when he dedicated the first bronze altar. 14 He carried the bronze altar from the entryway of the temple to the north side of the new altar, so that it remained before the Eternal One.
Ahaz (to Urijah the priest): 15 Use the new and magnificent altar for both my offerings and the people’s offerings. The morning burnt offering and evening meal offering and the king’s burnt offering and meal offering, as well as the people’s burnt offering and meal offering and drink offerings, can go on the new altar, anointed with the blood of the burnt offering and sacrifice; but the bronze altar is only for me to pray. The people cannot use it ever.
16 Urijah the priest followed all of King Ahaz’s instructions.
17 Then King Ahaz severed the edges of the stands and took out the basins. He removed the basin from the bronze oxen beneath it and set it on a stone platform. 18 He also took out the Sabbath canopy that was constructed in the Eternal One’s temple and the outer entryway for the king because of Assyria’s king. 19 Is not the rest of Ahaz’s story—his actions and lasting legacy—documented in the book of the chronicles of Judah’s kings? 20 Ahaz left this world to sleep with his fathers and was buried with them in the city of David, as was tradition. His son, Hezekiah, then inherited the throne.
2 As to you, Titus: talk to them; give them a good, healthy diet of solid teaching so they will know the right way to live.
2 Here’s what I want you to teach the older men: enjoy everything in moderation, respect yourselves and others, be sensible, and dedicate yourselves to living an unbroken faith demonstrated by your love and perseverance.
3 And here’s what I want you to teach the older women: Be respectful. Steer clear of gossip or drinking too much so that you can teach what is good 4 to young women. Be a positive example, showing them what it is to love their husbands and children, and teaching them to 5 control themselves in every way and to be pure. Train them to manage the household, to be kind, and to be submissive to their husbands, all of which honor the word of God.
6 Encourage the young men in the same way: in every situation, they should learn to control themselves.
7-8 Titus, you have to set a good example for everyone. Go out of your way to do what is right, speak the truth with the weight and authority that come from an honest and pure life. No one can argue with that. Then your enemies will cower in shame because they have nothing bad to say against us.
9 Advise all the servants: Work hard for your masters, and be loyal to them. Strive to please. Don’t be rude or sarcastic. 10 Don’t steal or embezzle your masters’ property. Show them you are trustworthy, and all the credit will go to the teaching of God our Savior.
11 We have cause to celebrate because the grace of God has appeared, offering the gift of salvation to all people. 12 Grace arrives with its own instruction: run away from anything that leads us away from God; abandon the lusts and passions of this world; live life now in this age with awareness and self-control, doing the right thing and keeping yourselves holy. 13 Watch for His return; expect the blessed hope we all will share when our great God and Savior, Jesus the Anointed, appears again. 14 He gave His body for our sakes and will not only break us free from the chains of wickedness, but He will also prepare a community uncorrupted by the world that He would call His own—people who are passionate about doing the right thing.
At times Paul can be unrelenting. As he challenged Timothy in the two letters he addressed to him, Paul also challenges Titus to live the truth he teaches. People are drawn toward God, not through bold arguments, but by passionate godliness. We must be passionate about doing the right thing. Our actions tell the story. Our lives are living parables, shouting the mystery of godliness. Paul tells Titus to be bold, to teach with authority, and not to let anyone belittle him. We get a clear picture of a strong, courageous giant of a man. Titus is sent to the people of Crete—a people short on virtue and long on vice—to fashion a church of loving disciples.
15 So, Titus, tell them all these things. Encourage and teach them with all authority—and rebuke them with the same. You are a man called to serve, so don’t let anyone belittle you.
9 Don’t rejoice, Israel! Don’t shriek in ecstatic joy like the other nations!
You’ve prostituted yourself and been unfaithful to your God.
You eagerly expect that you’ll get your prostitute’s pay at the threshing floors with a rich harvest.
2 Neither the threshing floor nor the oil or winepresses will feed you;
you won’t have any new wine this year.
3 You won’t remain in the Eternal’s land,
and you can count on this:
Ephraim will go back to slavery in Egypt,
but this unclean food he’ll eat in Assyria.
4 Separated from Jerusalem, they won’t be pouring out any libations of wine to the Eternal,
and the sacrifices they make will not please Him.
Whatever they offer will be like mourner’s bread:
whoever eats it will be impure.
Hebrew law prohibits any contact with the dead. In this case the bread is polluted by its proximity to death.
Besides, they’ll need all the bread they’ve got just to stay alive;
they won’t have anything worthy to bring to the Eternal’s temple.
5 What will you do on the appointed day
when you’re supposed to celebrate a feast in honor of the Eternal One?
In Israel’s final years before conquest, the political atmosphere is in turmoil. Kings Zechariah, Shallum, and Pekahiah have been assassinated in political coups, and ambitious men are making alliances with foreign enemies hoping to gain international support for their own factions and solidify their own powers. These attempts at ascension and stability with the help of international alliances voids the one thing that can bring peace to Israel—the people’s covenant with God.
Instead of relying on God, all of Israel’s leaders allow themselves to be consumed in the regional politics. In the early eighth century b.c., Egypt’s power is waning and Assyria is gaining momentum. Israel is the battleground between the empires, so Israel’s kings think they can leverage the nation’s geographical position and gain protection from one empire or the other by paying tributes. Instead, the cities are trampled in successive wars, and Israel’s borders continue to shrink until Samaria is finally overrun by the Assyrians in 722 b.c.
6 Even if they escape destruction, Egypt will be ready to gather them up,
and Memphis will be set to bury them in the city’s massive cemeteries.
All their valuables will be choked out by weeds,
and thornbushes will live in their tents.
7 The days of punishment have come!
The time of retribution is here! Israel will know this!
But because you are so hostile and sinful, you say about me,
“The prophet is a fool! The man of the Spirit is raving mad!”
8 The prophet stands watch over Ephraim along with God,[a]
but birds’ traps are set all along his paths;
Even in the temple of his God they show their hostility.
9 They’ve become deeply depraved, as in the days of Gibeah.
God won’t overlook their wickedness; He’ll punish them for their sins.
10 Eternal One: When I discovered Israel, he was a rare find,
like grapes in the wilderness, like early figs on a young fig tree.
I met your ancestors;
when they came to Baal-peor,
They dedicated themselves through their worship to an object of shame,
and they became as detestable as the thing they loved.
11 Ephraim’s glory will fly away like a bird:
no offspring, no gestation, no conception!
12 And even if they do have children,
I’ll take every single one of them away.
It will be sorrowful for them when I abandon them!
13 There was a time when I saw Ephraim like Tyre,
a pleasant palm planted in a lovely meadow,
But now Ephraim must bring out her children to be slaughtered.[b]
14 Give them, Eternal One—what should I ask You to give them?
Give them a miscarrying womb and dried-up breasts!
15 Eternal One: In Gilgal My hatred grew for them
because of all their evil that was there.
I will force them out of My temple because of the depths of their wickedness.
I won’t love them anymore; all of their leaders have rebelled against Me!
16 Ephraim has been cut down; their root has dried up,
and they won’t bear any fruit.
And even if they do bear children,
I’ll kill those precious ones they carried.
17 My God will reject them because they haven’t listened to Him.
They’ll be drifters and fugitives among the nations.
Psalm 126
A song for those journeying to worship.
1 Remember when the Eternal brought back the exiles to Zion?
It was as if we were dreaming—
2 Our mouths were filled with laughter;
our tongues were spilling over into song.
The word went out across the prairies and deserts,
across the hills, over the oceans wide, from nation to nation:
“The Eternal has done remarkable things for them.”
3 We shook our heads. All of us were stunned—the Eternal has done remarkable things for us.
We were beyond happy, beyond joyful.
4 And now, Eternal One, some are held captive and poor.
Release them, and restore our fortunes
as the dry riverbeds of the South spring to life when the rains come at last.
5 Those who walk the fields to sow, casting their seed in tears,
will one day tread those same long rows, amazed by what’s appeared.
6 Those who weep as they walk
and plant with sighs
Will return singing with joy,
when they bring home the harvest.
Psalm 127
A song of Solomon for those journeying to worship.
Psalm 127 is attributed to Solomon, underscoring the futility of human endeavor apart from God. It is similar in tone and theme to other wisdom literature.
1 Unless the Eternal builds the house,
those who labor to raise it will have worked for nothing.
Unless the Eternal stands watch over the city,
those who guard it have wasted their time.
2 God provides for His own.
It is pointless to get up early,
work hard, and go to bed late
Anxiously laboring for food to eat;
for God provides for those He loves, even while they are sleeping.
3 Know this: children are a gift from the Eternal;
the fruit of the womb is His reward.
4 Your sons born in your youth are a protection,
like arrows in the hand of a warrior.
5 Happy is the man who has
his quiver full, for they will help and protect him when he is old.
He will not be humiliated when he is accused at the gate,
for his sons will stand with him against his enemies.
Psalm 128
A song for those journeying to worship.
1 Those who stand in awe of the Eternal—
who follow wherever He leads, committed in their hearts—experience His blessings!
2 God will use your hard work to provide you food.
You will prosper in your labor, and it will go well for you.
3 Your wife will be like a healthy vine producing plenty of fruit,
a spring of life in your home.
Your children will be like young olive shoots;
you will watch them bud and bloom around your table.
4 Such are the blessings the Eternal lavishes
on those who stand in awe of Him!
5 May the Eternal continue to pour out His love on you,
showering down blessings from His holy mountain, Zion.
May you see Jerusalem prosper
all your days.
6 May you have the privilege of seeing your grandchildren as they grow.
May peace flourish in Israel!
The Voice Bible Copyright © 2012 Thomas Nelson, Inc. The Voice™ translation © 2012 Ecclesia Bible Society All rights reserved.