M’Cheyne Bible Reading Plan
17 Then his son Jehoshaphat became the king and mobilized for war against Israel. 2 He placed garrisons in all of the fortified cities of Judah, in various other places throughout the country, and in the cities of Ephraim that his father had conquered.
3 The Lord was with Jehoshaphat because he followed in the good footsteps of his father’s early years and did not worship idols. 4 He obeyed the commandments of his father’s God—quite unlike the people across the border in the land of Israel. 5 So the Lord strengthened his position as king of Judah. All the people of Judah cooperated by paying their taxes, so he became very wealthy as well as being very popular. 6 He boldly followed the paths of God—even knocking down the heathen altars on the hills and destroying the Asherim idols.
7-9 In the third year of his reign he began a nationwide religious education program. He sent out top government officials as teachers in all the cities of Judah. These men included Ben-hail, Obadiah, Zechariah, Nethanel, and Micaiah. He also used the Levites for this purpose, including Shemaiah, Nethaniah, Zebadiah, Asahel, Shemiramoth, Jehonathan, Adonijah, Tobijah, and Tobadonijah; also the priests, Elishama and Jehoram. They took copies of The Book of the Law of the Lord to all the cities of Judah to teach the Scriptures to the people.
10 Then the fear of the Lord fell upon all the surrounding kingdoms so that none of them declared war on King Jehoshaphat.
11 Even some of the Philistines brought him presents and annual tribute, and the Arabs donated 7,700 rams and 7,700 male goats. 12 So Jehoshaphat became very strong and built fortresses and supply cities throughout Judah.
13 His public works program was also extensive, and he had a huge army stationed at Jerusalem, his capital. 14-15 Three hundred thousand Judean troops were there under General Adnah. Next in command was Jehohanan with an army of 280,000 men. 16 Next was Amasiah (son of Zichri), a man of unusual piety, with 200,000 troops. 17 Benjamin supplied 200,000 men equipped with bows and shields under the command of Eliada, a great general. 18 His second in command was Jehozabad, with 180,000 trained men. 19 These were the troops in Jerusalem in addition to those placed by the king in the fortified cities throughout the nation.
6 As I watched, the Lamb broke the first seal and began to unroll the scroll. Then one of the four Living Beings, with a voice that sounded like thunder, said, “Come!”
2 I looked, and there in front of me was a white horse. Its rider carried a bow, and a crown was placed upon his head; he rode out to conquer in many battles and win the war.
3 Then he unrolled the scroll to the second seal and broke it open, too. And I heard the second Living Being say, “Come!”
4 This time a red horse rode out. Its rider was given a long sword and the authority to banish peace and bring anarchy to the earth; war and killing broke out everywhere.
5 When he had broken the third seal, I heard the third Living Being say, “Come!” And I saw a black horse, with its rider holding a pair of balances in his hand. 6 And a voice from among the four Living Beings said, “A loaf of bread for $20, or three pounds of barley flour,
7 And when the fourth seal was broken, I heard the fourth Living Being say, “Come!” 8 And now I saw a pale horse, and its rider’s name was Death. And there followed after him another horse whose rider’s name was Hell. They were given control of one-fourth of the earth, to kill with war and famine and disease and wild animals.
9 And when he broke open the fifth seal, I saw an altar, and underneath it all the souls of those who had been martyred for preaching the Word of God and for being faithful in their witnessing. 10 They called loudly to the Lord and said, “O Sovereign Lord, holy and true, how long will it be before you judge the people of the earth for what they’ve done to us? When will you avenge our blood against those living on the earth?” 11 White robes were given to each of them, and they were told to rest a little longer until their other brothers, fellow servants of Jesus, had been martyred on the earth and joined them.
12 I watched as he broke the sixth seal, and there was a vast earthquake; and the sun became dark like black cloth, and the moon was blood-red. 13 Then the stars of heaven appeared to be falling to earth[b]—like green fruit from fig trees buffeted by mighty winds. 14 And the starry heavens disappeared[c] as though rolled up like a scroll and taken away; and every mountain and island shook and shifted. 15 The kings of the earth, and world leaders, and rich men, and high-ranking military officers, and all men great and small, slave and free, hid themselves in the caves and rocks of the mountains, 16 and cried to the mountains to crush them. “Fall on us,” they pleaded, “and hide us from the face of the one sitting on the throne, and from the anger of the Lamb, 17 because the great day of their anger has come, and who can survive it?”
2 When I looked around me again, I saw a man carrying a yardstick in his hand.
2 “Where are you going?” I asked.
“To measure Jerusalem,” he said. “I want to see whether it is big enough for all the people!”
3 Then the angel who was talking to me went over to meet another angel coming toward him.
4 “Go tell this young man,” said the other angel, “that Jerusalem will some day be so full of people that she won’t have room enough for all! Many will live outside the city walls, with all their many cattle—and yet they will be safe. 5 For the Lord himself will be a wall of fire protecting them and all Jerusalem; he will be the glory of the city.
6-7 “Come, flee from the land of the north, from Babylon,” says the Lord to all his exiles there; “I scattered you to the winds, but I will bring you back again. Escape, escape to Zion now!” says the Lord.
8 “The Lord of Glory has sent me[a] against the nations that oppressed you, for he who harms you sticks his finger in Jehovah’s eye!
9 “I will smash them with my fist and their slaves will be their rulers! Then you will know it was the Lord Almighty who sent me. 10 Sing, Jerusalem, and rejoice! For I have come to live among you,” says the Lord. 11-12 “At that time many nations will be converted to the Lord, and they too shall be my people; I will live among them all. Then you will know it was the Lord Almighty who sent me to you. And Judah shall be the Lord’s inheritance in the Holy Land, for God shall once more choose to bless Jerusalem.
13 “Be silent, all mankind, before the Lord, for he has come to earth from heaven, from his holy home.”
5 Afterwards Jesus returned to Jerusalem for one of the Jewish religious holidays. 2 Inside the city, near the Sheep Gate, was Bethesda Pool, with five covered platforms or porches surrounding it. 3 Crowds of sick folks—lame, blind, or with paralyzed limbs—lay on the platforms (waiting for a certain movement of the water, 4 for an angel of the Lord came from time to time and disturbed the water, and the first person to step down into it afterwards was healed).[a]
5 One of the men lying there had been sick for thirty-eight years. 6 When Jesus saw him and knew how long he had been ill, he asked him, “Would you like to get well?”
7 “I can’t,” the sick man said, “for I have no one to help me into the pool at the movement of the water. While I am trying to get there, someone else always gets in ahead of me.”
8 Jesus told him, “Stand up, roll up your sleeping mat and go on home!”
9 Instantly, the man was healed! He rolled up the mat and began walking!
But it was on the Sabbath when this miracle was done. 10 So the Jewish leaders objected. They said to the man who was cured, “You can’t work on the Sabbath! It’s illegal to carry that sleeping mat!”
11 “The man who healed me told me to,” was his reply.
12 “Who said such a thing as that?” they demanded.
13 The man didn’t know, and Jesus had disappeared into the crowd. 14 But afterwards Jesus found him in the Temple and told him, “Now you are well; don’t sin as you did before,[b] or something even worse may happen to you.”
15 Then the man went to find the Jewish leaders and told them it was Jesus who had healed him.
16 So they began harassing Jesus as a Sabbath breaker.
17 But Jesus replied, “My Father constantly does good, and I’m following his example.”[c]
18 Then the Jewish leaders were all the more eager to kill him because in addition to disobeying their Sabbath laws, he had spoken of God as his Father, thereby making himself equal with God.
19 Jesus replied, “The Son can do nothing by himself. He does only what he sees the Father doing, and in the same way. 20 For the Father loves the Son, and tells him everything he is doing; and the Son will do far more awesome miracles than this man’s healing. 21 He will even raise from the dead anyone he wants to, just as the Father does. 22 And the Father leaves all judgment of sin to his Son, 23 so that everyone will honor the Son, just as they honor the Father. But if you refuse to honor God’s Son, whom he sent to you, then you are certainly not honoring the Father.
24 “I say emphatically that anyone who listens to my message and believes in God who sent me has eternal life, and will never be damned for his sins, but has already passed out of death into life.
25 “And I solemnly declare that the time is coming, in fact, it is here, when the dead shall hear my voice—the voice of the Son of God—and those who listen shall live. 26 The Father has life in himself, and has granted his Son to have life in himself, 27 and to judge the sins of all mankind because he is the Son of Man. 28 Don’t be so surprised! Indeed the time is coming when all the dead in their graves shall hear the voice of God’s Son, 29 and shall rise again—those who have done good, to eternal life; and those who have continued in evil, to judgment.
30 “But I pass no judgment without consulting the Father. I judge as I am told. And my judgment is absolutely fair and just, for it is according to the will of God who sent me and is not merely my own.
31 “When I make claims about myself they aren’t believed, 32-33 but someone else, yes, John the Baptist,[d] is making these claims for me too. You have gone out to listen to his preaching, and I can assure you that all he says about me is true! 34 But the truest witness I have is not from a man, though I have reminded you about John’s witness so that you will believe in me and be saved. 35 John shone brightly for a while, and you benefited and rejoiced, 36 but I have a greater witness than John. I refer to the miracles I do; these have been assigned me by the Father, and they prove that the Father has sent me. 37 And the Father himself has also testified about me, though not appearing to you personally, or speaking to you directly. 38 But you are not listening to him, for you refuse to believe me—the one sent to you with God’s message.
39 “You search the Scriptures, for you believe they give you eternal life. And the Scriptures point to me! 40 Yet you won’t come to me so that I can give you this life eternal!
41-42 “Your approval or disapproval means nothing to me, for as I know so well, you don’t have God’s love within you. 43 I know, because I have come to you representing my Father and you refuse to welcome me, though you readily enough receive those who aren’t sent from him, but represent only themselves! 44 No wonder you can’t believe! For you gladly honor each other, but you don’t care about the honor that comes from the only God!
45 “Yet it is not I who will accuse you of this to the Father—Moses will! Moses, on whose laws you set your hopes of heaven. 46 For you have refused to believe Moses. He wrote about me, but you refuse to believe him, so you refuse to believe in me. 47 And since you don’t believe what he wrote, no wonder you don’t believe me either.”
The Living Bible copyright © 1971 by Tyndale House Foundation. Used by permission of Tyndale House Publishers Inc., Carol Stream, Illinois 60188. All rights reserved.