M’Cheyne Bible Reading Plan
34 Josiah was only eight years old when he became king. He reigned thirty-one years in Jerusalem. 2 His was a good reign, as he carefully followed the good example of his ancestor King David. 3 For when he was sixteen years old, in the eighth year of his reign, he began to search for the God of his ancestor David; and four years later he began to clean up Judah and Jerusalem, destroying the heathen altars and the shameful idols on the hills. 4 He went out personally to watch as the altars of Baal were knocked apart, the obelisks above the altars chopped down, and the shameful idols ground into dust and scattered over the graves of those who had sacrificed to them. 5 Then he burned the bones of the heathen priests upon their own altars, feeling that this action would clear the people of Judah and Jerusalem from the guilt of their sin of idol worship.
6 Then he went to the cities of Manasseh, Ephraim, and Simeon, even to distant Naphtali, and did the same thing there. 7 He broke down the heathen altars, ground to powder the shameful idols, and chopped down the obelisks. He did this everywhere throughout the whole land of Israel before returning to Jerusalem.
8 During the eighteenth year of his reign, after he had purged the land and cleaned up the situation at the Temple, he appointed Shaphan (son of Azaliah) and Maaseiah, governor of Jerusalem, and Joah (son of Joahaz), the city treasurer, to repair the Temple. 9 They set up a collection system for gifts for the Temple. The money was collected at the Temple gates by the Levites on guard duty there. Gifts were brought by the people coming from Manasseh, Ephraim, and other parts of the remnant of Israel, as well as from the people of Jerusalem. The money was taken to Hilkiah the High Priest for accounting, 10-11 and then used by the Levites to pay the carpenters and stonemasons and to purchase building materials—stone building blocks, timber, lumber, and beams. He now rebuilt what earlier kings of Judah had torn down.
12 The workmen were energetic under the leadership of Jahath and Obadiah, Levites of the subclan of Merari. Zechariah and Meshullam, of the subclan of Kohath, were the building superintendents. The Levites who were skilled musicians played background music while the work progressed. 13 Other Levites superintended the unskilled laborers who carried in the materials to the workmen. Still others assisted as accountants, supervisors, and carriers.
14 One day when Hilkiah the High Priest was at the Temple recording the money collected at the gates, he found an old scroll that turned out to be the laws of God as given to Moses!
15-16 “Look!” Hilkiah exclaimed to Shaphan, the king’s secretary. “See what I have found in the Temple! These are the laws of God!” Hilkiah gave the scroll to Shaphan, and Shaphan took it to the king, along with his report that there was good progress being made in the reconstruction of the Temple.
17 “The money chests have been opened and counted, and the money has been put into the hand of the overseers and workmen,” he said to the king.
18 Then he mentioned the scroll and how Hilkiah had discovered it. So he read it to the king. 19 When the king heard what these laws required of God’s people, he ripped his clothing in despair 20 and summoned Hilkiah, Ahikam (son of Shaphan), Abdon (son of Micah), Shaphan the treasurer, and Asaiah, the king’s personal aide.
21 “Go to the Temple and plead with the Lord for me!” the king told them. “Pray for all the remnant of Israel and Judah! For this scroll says that the reason the Lord’s great anger has been poured out upon us is that our ancestors have not obeyed these laws that are written here.”
22 So the men went to Huldah the prophetess, the wife of Shallum (son of Tokhath, son of Hasrah). (Shallum was the king’s tailor, living in the second ward.) When they told her of the king’s trouble, 23 she replied, “The Lord God of Israel says, Tell the man who sent you,
24 “‘Yes, the Lord will destroy this city and its people. All the curses written in the scroll will come true. 25 For my people have forsaken me and have worshiped heathen gods, and I am very angry with them for their deeds. Therefore, my unquenchable wrath is poured out upon this place.’
26 “But the Lord also says this to the king of Judah who sent you to ask me about this: Tell him, the Lord God of Israel says, 27 ‘Because you are sorry and have humbled yourself before God when you heard my words against this city and its people, and have ripped your clothing in despair and wept before me—I have heard you, says the Lord, 28 and I will not send the promised evil upon this city and its people until after your death.’” So they brought back to the king this word from the Lord. 29 Then the king summoned all the elders of Judah and Jerusalem, 30 and the priests and Levites and all the people great and small, to accompany him to the Temple. There the king read the scroll to them—the covenant of God that was found in the Temple. 31 As the king stood before them, he made a pledge to the Lord to follow his commandments with all his heart and soul and to do what was written in the scroll. 32 And he required everyone in Jerusalem and Benjamin to subscribe to this pact with God, and all of them did.
33 So Josiah removed all idols from the areas occupied by the Jews and required all of them to worship Jehovah their God. And throughout the remainder of his lifetime they continued serving Jehovah, the God of their ancestors.
20 Then I saw an angel come down from heaven with the key to the bottomless pit and a heavy chain in his hand. 2 He seized the Dragon—that old Serpent, the devil, Satan—and bound him in chains for a thousand years, 3 and threw him into the bottomless pit, which he then shut and locked so that he could not fool the nations anymore until the thousand years were finished. Afterwards he would be released again for a little while.
4 Then I saw thrones, and sitting on them were those who had been given the right to judge. And I saw the souls of those who had been beheaded for their testimony about Jesus, for proclaiming the Word of God, and who had not worshiped the Creature or his statue, nor accepted his mark on their foreheads or their hands. They had come to life again and now they reigned with Christ for a thousand years.
5 This is the First Resurrection. (The rest of the dead did not come back to life until the thousand years had ended.) 6 Blessed and holy are those who share in the First Resurrection. For them the Second Death holds no terrors, for they will be priests of God and of Christ, and shall reign with him a thousand years.
7 When the thousand years end, Satan will be let out of his prison. 8 He will go out to deceive the nations of the world and gather them together, with Gog and Magog, for battle—a mighty host, numberless as sand along the shore. 9 They will go up across the broad plain of the earth and surround God’s people and the beloved city of Jerusalem[a] on every side. But fire from God in heaven will flash down on the attacking armies and consume them.
10 Then the devil who had betrayed them will again[b] be thrown into the Lake of Fire burning with sulphur where the Creature and False Prophet are, and they will be tormented day and night forever and ever.
11 And I saw a great white throne and the one who sat upon it, from whose face the earth and sky fled away, but they found no place to hide.[c] 12 I saw the dead, great and small, standing before God; and The Books were opened, including the Book of Life. And the dead were judged according to the things written in The Books, each according to the deeds he had done. 13 The oceans surrendered the bodies buried in them; and the earth and the underworld gave up the dead in them. Each was judged according to his deeds. 14 And Death and Hell were thrown into the Lake of Fire. This is the Second Death—the Lake of Fire. 15 And if anyone’s name was not found recorded in the Book of Life, he was thrown into the Lake of Fire.
2 1-2 Listen, you priests, to this warning from the Lord Almighty:
“If you don’t change your ways and give glory to my name, then I will send terrible punishment upon you, and instead of giving you blessings as I would like to, I will turn on you with curses. Indeed, I have cursed you already because you haven’t taken seriously the things that are most important to me.
3 “Take note that I will rebuke your children; I will spread on your faces the manure of these animals you offer me and throw you out like dung. 4 Then at last you will know it was I who sent you this warning to return to the laws I gave your father Levi,” says the Lord Almighty. 5 “The purpose of these laws was to give him life and peace, to be a means of showing his respect and awe for me by keeping them. 6 He passed on to the people all the truth he got from me. He did not lie or cheat; he walked with me, living a good and righteous life, and turned many from their lives of sin.
7 “Priests’ lips should flow with the knowledge of God so the people will learn God’s laws. The priests are the messengers of the Lord Almighty, and men should come to them for guidance. 8 But not to you! For you have left God’s paths. Your ‘guidance’ has caused many to stumble in sin. You have distorted the covenant of Levi and made it into a grotesque parody,” says the Lord Almighty. 9 “Therefore, I have made you contemptible in the eyes of all the people; for you have not obeyed me, but you let your favorites break the law without rebuke.”
10 We are children of the same father, Abraham, all created by the same God. And yet we are faithless to each other, violating the covenant of our fathers! 11 In Judah, in Israel, and in Jerusalem, there is treachery, for the men of Judah have defiled God’s holy and beloved Temple by marrying heathen women who worship idols. 12 May the Lord cut off from his covenant every last man, whether priest or layman, who has done this thing!
13 Yet you cover the altar with your tears because the Lord doesn’t pay attention to your offerings anymore, and you receive no blessing from him. 14 “Why has God abandoned us?” you cry. I’ll tell you why; it is because the Lord has seen your treachery in divorcing your wives who have been faithful to you through the years, the companions you promised to care for and keep. 15 You were united to your wife by the Lord. In God’s wise plan, when you married, the two of you became one person in his sight. And what does he want? Godly children from your union. Therefore, guard your passions! Keep faith with the wife of your youth.
16 For the Lord, the God of Israel, says he hates divorce and cruel men. Therefore, control your passions—let there be no divorcing of your wives.
17 You have wearied the Lord with your words.
“Wearied him?” you ask in fake surprise. “How have we wearied him?”
By saying that evil is good, that it pleases the Lord! Or by saying that God won’t punish us—he doesn’t care.
19 Then Pilate laid open Jesus’ back with a leaded whip, 2 and the soldiers made a crown of thorns and placed it on his head and robed him in royal purple. 3 “Hail, ‘King of the Jews’!” they mocked, and struck him with their fists.
4 Pilate went outside again and said to the Jews, “I am going to bring him out to you now, but understand clearly that I find him not guilty.”
5 Then Jesus came out wearing the crown of thorns and the purple robe. And Pilate said, “Behold the man!”
6 At sight of him the chief priests and Jewish officials began yelling, “Crucify! Crucify!”
“You crucify him,” Pilate said. “I find him not guilty.”
7 They replied, “By our laws he ought to die because he called himself the Son of God.”
8 When Pilate heard this, he was more frightened than ever. 9 He took Jesus back into the palace again and asked him, “Where are you from?” but Jesus gave no answer.
10 “You won’t talk to me?” Pilate demanded. “Don’t you realize that I have the power to release you or to crucify you?”
11 Then Jesus said, “You would have no power at all over me unless it were given to you from above. So those[a] who brought me to you have the greater sin.”
12 Then Pilate tried to release him, but the Jewish leaders told him, “If you release this man, you are no friend of Caesar’s. Anyone who declares himself a king is a rebel against Caesar.”
13 At these words Pilate brought Jesus out to them again and sat down at the judgment bench on the stone-paved platform.[b] 14 It was now about noon of the day before Passover.
And Pilate said to the Jews, “Here is your king!”
15 “Away with him,” they yelled. “Away with him—crucify him!”
“What? Crucify your king?” Pilate asked.
“We have no king but Caesar,” the chief priests shouted back.
16 Then Pilate gave Jesus to them to be crucified.
17 So they had him at last, and he was taken out of the city, carrying his cross to the place known as “The Skull,” in Hebrew, “Golgotha.” 18 There they crucified him and two others with him, one on either side, with Jesus between them. 19 And Pilate posted a sign over him reading, “Jesus of Nazareth, the King of the Jews.” 20 The place where Jesus was crucified was near the city; and the signboard was written in Hebrew, Latin, and Greek, so that many people read it.
21 Then the chief priests said to Pilate, “Change it from ‘The King of the Jews’ to ‘He said, I am King of the Jews.’”
22 Pilate replied, “What I have written, I have written. It stays exactly as it is.”
23-24 When the soldiers had crucified Jesus, they put his garments into four piles, one for each of them. But they said, “Let’s not tear up his robe,” for it was seamless. “Let’s throw dice to see who gets it.” This fulfilled the Scripture that says,
“They divided my clothes among them and cast lots for my robe.”[c]
25 So that is what they did.
Standing near the cross were Jesus’ mother, Mary, his aunt, the wife of Cleopas, and Mary Magdalene. 26 When Jesus saw his mother standing there beside me, his close friend,[d] he said to her, “He is your son.”
27 And to me[e] he said, “She is your mother!” And from then on I took her into my home.
28 Jesus knew that everything was now finished, and to fulfill the Scriptures said, “I’m thirsty.” 29 A jar of sour wine was sitting there, so a sponge was soaked in it and put on a hyssop branch and held up to his lips.
30 When Jesus had tasted[f] it, he said, “It is finished,” and bowed his head and dismissed his spirit.
31 The Jewish leaders didn’t want the victims hanging there the next day, which was the Sabbath (and a very special Sabbath at that, for it was the Passover), so they asked Pilate to order the legs of the men broken to hasten death; then their bodies could be taken down. 32 So the soldiers came and broke the legs of the two men crucified with Jesus; 33 but when they came to him, they saw that he was dead already, so they didn’t break his. 34 However, one of the soldiers pierced his side with a spear, and blood and water flowed out. 35 I saw all this myself and have given an accurate report so that you also can believe.[g] 36-37 The soldiers did this in fulfillment of the Scripture that says, “Not one of his bones shall be broken,” and, “They shall look on him whom they pierced.”
38 Afterwards Joseph of Arimathea, who had been a secret disciple of Jesus for fear of the Jewish leaders, boldly asked Pilate for permission to take Jesus’ body down; and Pilate told him to go ahead. So he came and took it away. 39 Nicodemus, the man who had come to Jesus at night,[h] came too, bringing a hundred pounds of embalming ointment made from myrrh and aloes. 40 Together they wrapped Jesus’ body in a long linen cloth saturated with the spices, as is the Jewish custom of burial. 41 The place of crucifixion was near a grove of trees,[i] where there was a new tomb, never used before. 42 And so, because of the need for haste before the Sabbath, and because the tomb was close at hand, they laid him there.
The Living Bible copyright © 1971 by Tyndale House Foundation. Used by permission of Tyndale House Publishers Inc., Carol Stream, Illinois 60188. All rights reserved.