M’Cheyne Bible Reading Plan
10 All the leaders of Israel came to Shechem for Rehoboam’s coronation. 2-3 Meanwhile, friends of Jeroboam (son of Nebat) sent word to him of Solomon’s death. He was in Egypt at the time, where he had gone to escape from King Solomon. He now quickly returned, and was present at the coronation, and led the people’s demands on Rehoboam:
4 “Your father was a hard master,” they said. “Be easier on us than he was, and we will let you be our king!”
5 Rehoboam told them to return in three days for his decision. 6 He discussed their demand with the old men who had counseled his father Solomon.
“What shall I tell them?” he asked.
7 “If you want to be their king,” they replied, “you will have to give them a favorable reply and treat them with kindness.”
8-9 But he rejected their advice and asked the opinion of the young men who had grown up with him. “What do you fellows think I should do?” he asked. “Shall I be easier on them than my father was?”
10 “No!” they replied. “Tell them, ‘If you think my father was hard on you, just wait and see what I’ll be like!’ Tell them, ‘My little finger is thicker than my father’s loins! 11 I am going to be tougher on you, not easier! My father used whips on you, but I’ll use scorpions!’”
12 So when Jeroboam and the people returned in three days to hear King Rehoboam’s decision, 13 he spoke roughly to them; for he refused the advice of the old men 14 and followed the counsel of the younger ones.
“My father gave you heavy burdens, but I will give you heavier!” he told them. “My father punished you with whips, but I will punish you with scorpions!”
15 So the king turned down the people’s demands. (God caused him to do it in order to fulfill his prediction[a] spoken to Jeroboam by Ahijah the Shilonite.) 16 When the people realized what the king was saying, they turned their backs and deserted him.
“Forget David and his dynasty!” they shouted angrily. “We’ll get someone else to be our king. Let Rehoboam rule his own tribe of Judah! Let’s go home!” So they did.
17 The people of the tribe of Judah, however, remained loyal to Rehoboam. 18 Afterwards, when King Rehoboam sent Hadoram to draft forced labor from the other tribes of Israel, the people stoned him to death. When this news reached King Rehoboam, he jumped into his chariot and fled to Jerusalem. 19 And Israel has refused to be ruled by a descendant of David to this day.
1 This book unveils some of the future activities soon to occur in the life of Jesus Christ.[a] God permitted him to reveal these things to his servant John in a vision; and then an angel was sent from heaven to explain the vision’s meaning. 2 John wrote it all down—the words of God and Jesus Christ and everything he heard and saw.
3 If you read this prophecy aloud to the church, you will receive a special blessing from the Lord. Those who listen to it being read and do what it says will also be blessed. For the time is near when these things will all come true.
4 From: John
To: The seven churches in Turkey.[b]
Dear Friends:
May you have grace and peace from God who is, and was, and is to come; and from the sevenfold Spirit before his throne; 5 and from Jesus Christ who faithfully reveals all truth to us. He was the first to rise from death, to die no more.[c] He is far greater than any king in all the earth. All praise to him who always loves us and who set us free from our sins by pouring out his lifeblood for us. 6 He has gathered us into his Kingdom and made us priests of God his Father. Give to him everlasting glory! He rules forever! Amen!
7 See! He is arriving, surrounded by clouds; and every eye shall see him—yes, and those who pierced him.[d] And the nations will weep in sorrow and in terror when he comes. Yes! Amen! Let it be so!
8 “I am the A and the Z,[e] the Beginning and the Ending of all things,” says God, who is the Lord, the All Powerful One who is, and was, and is coming again!
9 It is I, your brother John, a fellow sufferer for the Lord’s sake, who am writing this letter to you. I, too, have shared the patience Jesus gives, and we shall share his Kingdom!
I was on the island of Patmos, exiled there for preaching the Word of God and for telling what I knew about Jesus Christ. 10 It was the Lord’s Day and I was worshiping, when suddenly I heard a loud voice behind me, a voice that sounded like a trumpet blast, 11 saying, “I am A and Z, the First and Last!” And then I heard him say, “Write down everything you see, and send your letter to the seven churches in Turkey:[f] to the church in Ephesus, the one in Smyrna, and those in Pergamos, Thyatira, Sardis, Philadelphia, and Laodicea.”
12 When I turned to see who was speaking, there behind me were seven candlesticks of gold. 13 And standing among them was one who looked like Jesus, who called himself the Son of Man,[g] wearing a long robe circled with a golden band across his chest. 14 His hair was white as wool or snow,[h] and his eyes penetrated like flames of fire. 15 His feet gleamed like burnished bronze, and his voice thundered like the waves against the shore. 16 He held seven stars in his right hand and a sharp, double-bladed sword in his mouth,[i] and his face shone like the power of the sun in unclouded brilliance.
17-18 When I saw him, I fell at his feet as dead; but he laid his right hand on me and said, “Don’t be afraid! Though I am the First and Last, the Living One who died, who is now alive forevermore, who has the keys of hell and death—don’t be afraid! 19 Write down what you have just seen and what will soon be shown to you. 20 This is the meaning of the seven stars you saw in my right hand and the seven golden candlesticks: The seven stars are the leaders[j] of the seven churches, and the seven candlesticks are the churches themselves.
2 Gather together and pray, you shameless nation, 2 while there still is time—before judgment begins and your opportunity is blown away like chaff; before the fierce anger of the Lord falls and the terrible day of his wrath begins. 3 Beg him to save you, all who are humble—all who have tried to obey.
Walk humbly and do what is right; perhaps even yet the Lord will protect you from his wrath in that day of doom.
4 Gaza, Ashkelon, Ashdod, Ekron—these Philistine cities, too, will be rooted out and left in desolation. 5 And woe to you Philistines[a] living on the coast and in the land of Canaan, for the judgment is against you too. The Lord will destroy you until not one of you is left. 6 The coastland will become a pasture, a place of shepherd camps and folds for sheep.
7 There the little remnant of the tribe of Judah will be pastured. They will lie down to rest in the abandoned houses in Ashkelon. For the Lord God will visit his people in kindness and restore their prosperity again.
8 “I have heard the taunts of the people of Moab and Ammon, mocking my people and invading their land. 9 Therefore as I live,” says the Lord Almighty, God of Israel, “Moab and Ammon will be destroyed like Sodom and Gomorrah and become a place of stinging nettles, salt pits, and eternal desolation; those of my people who are left will plunder and possess them.”
10 They will receive the wages of their pride, for they have scoffed at the people of the Lord Almighty. 11 The Lord will do terrible things to them. He will starve out all those gods of foreign powers, and everyone shall worship him, each in his own land throughout the world.
12 You Ethiopians, too, will be slain by his sword, 13 and so will the lands of the north; he will destroy Assyria and make its great capital Nineveh a desolate wasteland like a wilderness. 14 That once proud city will become a pastureland for sheep. All sorts of wild animals will have their homes in her. Hedgehogs will burrow there; the vultures and the owls will live among the ruins of her palaces, hooting from the gaping windows; the ravens will croak from her doors. All her cedar paneling will lie open to the wind and weather.
15 This is the fate of that vast, prosperous city that lived in such security, that said to herself, “In all the world there is no city as great as I.” But now—see how she has become a place of utter ruins, a place for animals to live! Everyone passing that way will mock or shake his head in disbelief.[b]
24 But very early on Sunday morning they took the ointments to the tomb— 2 and found that the huge stone covering the entrance had been rolled aside. 3 So they went in—but the Lord Jesus’ body was gone.
4 They stood there puzzled, trying to think what could have happened to it. Suddenly two men appeared before them, clothed in shining robes so bright their eyes were dazzled. 5 The women were terrified and bowed low before them.
Then the men asked, “Why are you looking in a tomb for someone who is alive? 6-7 He isn’t here! He has come back to life again! Don’t you remember what he told you back in Galilee—that the Messiah[a] must be betrayed into the power of evil men and be crucified and that he would rise again the third day?”
8 Then they remembered 9 and rushed back to Jerusalem[b] to tell his eleven disciples—and everyone else—what had happened. 10 (The women who went to the tomb were Mary Magdalene and Joanna and Mary the mother of James, and several others.) 11 But the story sounded like a fairy tale to the men—they didn’t believe it.
12 However, Peter ran to the tomb to look. Stooping, he peered in and saw the empty linen wrappings; and then he went back home again, wondering what had happened.
13 That same day, Sunday, two of Jesus’ followers were walking to the village of Emmaus, seven miles out of Jerusalem. 14 As they walked along they were talking of Jesus’ death, 15 when suddenly Jesus himself came along and joined them and began walking beside them. 16 But they didn’t recognize him, for God kept them from it.
17 “You seem to be in a deep discussion about something,” he said. “What are you so concerned about?” They stopped short, sadness written across their faces. 18 And one of them, Cleopas, replied, “You must be the only person in Jerusalem who hasn’t heard about the terrible things that happened there last week.”[c]
19 “What things?” Jesus asked.
“The things that happened to Jesus, the Man from Nazareth,” they said. “He was a Prophet who did incredible miracles and was a mighty Teacher, highly regarded by both God and man. 20 But the chief priests and our religious leaders arrested him and handed him over to the Roman government to be condemned to death, and they crucified him. 21 We had thought he was the glorious Messiah and that he had come to rescue Israel.
“And now, besides all this—which happened three days ago— 22-23 some women from our group of his followers were at his tomb early this morning and came back with an amazing report that his body was missing, and that they had seen some angels there who told them Jesus is alive! 24 Some of our men ran out to see, and sure enough, Jesus’ body was gone, just as the women had said.”
25 Then Jesus said to them, “You are such foolish, foolish people! You find it so hard to believe all that the prophets wrote in the Scriptures! 26 Wasn’t it clearly predicted by the prophets that the Messiah would have to suffer all these things before entering his time of glory?”
27 Then Jesus quoted them passage after passage from the writings of the prophets, beginning with the book of Genesis and going right on through the Scriptures, explaining what the passages meant and what they said about himself.
28 By this time they were nearing Emmaus and the end of their journey. Jesus would have gone on, 29 but they begged him to stay the night with them, as it was getting late. So he went home with them. 30 As they sat down to eat, he asked God’s blessing on the food and then took a small loaf of bread and broke it and was passing it over to them, 31 when suddenly—it was as though their eyes were opened—they recognized him! And at that moment he disappeared!
32 They began telling each other how their hearts had felt strangely warm as he talked with them and explained the Scriptures during the walk down the road. 33-34 Within the hour they were on their way back to Jerusalem, where the eleven disciples and the other followers of Jesus greeted them with these words, “The Lord has really risen! He appeared to Peter!”
35 Then the two from Emmaus told their story of how Jesus had appeared to them as they were walking along the road and how they had recognized him as he was breaking the bread.
36 And just as they were telling about it, Jesus himself was suddenly standing there among them, and greeted them. 37 But the whole group was terribly frightened, thinking they were seeing a ghost!
38 “Why are you frightened?” he asked. “Why do you doubt that it is really I? 39 Look at my hands! Look at my feet! You can see that it is I, myself! Touch me and make sure that I am not a ghost! For ghosts don’t have bodies, as you see that I do!” 40 As he spoke, he held out his hands for them to see the marks of the nails,[d] and showed them the wounds in his feet.
41 Still they stood there undecided, filled with joy and doubt.
Then he asked them, “Do you have anything here to eat?”
42 They gave him a piece of broiled fish, 43 and he ate it as they watched!
44 Then he said, “When I was with you before, don’t you remember my telling you that everything written about me by Moses and the prophets and in the Psalms must all come true?” 45 Then he opened their minds to understand at last these many Scriptures! 46 And he said, “Yes, it was written long ago that the Messiah must suffer and die and rise again from the dead on the third day; 47
49 “And now I will send the Holy Spirit[e] upon you, just as my Father promised. Don’t begin telling others yet—stay here in the city until the Holy Spirit comes and fills you with power from heaven.”
50 Then Jesus led them out along the road to Bethany,[f] and lifting his hands to heaven, he blessed them, 51 and then began rising into the sky, and went on to heaven. 52 And they worshiped him, and returned to Jerusalem filled with mighty joy, 53 and were continually in the Temple, praising God.
The Living Bible copyright © 1971 by Tyndale House Foundation. Used by permission of Tyndale House Publishers Inc., Carol Stream, Illinois 60188. All rights reserved.