M’Cheyne Bible Reading Plan
10 Rechav‘am went to Sh’khem, where all Isra’el had come in order to proclaim him king. 2 When Yarov‘am the son of N’vat heard of it, he returned from Egypt, where he had fled from Shlomo. 3 They sent and summoned him, so Yarov‘am and all Isra’el came and said to Rechav‘am, 4 “Your father laid a harsh yoke on us. But if you will lighten the harsh service we had to render your father and ease his heavy yoke that he put on us, we will serve you.” 5 He said to them, “Come back to me after three days.” So the people left.
6 King Rechav‘am consulted the older men who had been in attendance on Shlomo his father during his lifetime and asked, “What advice would you give me as to how to answer these people?” 7 They said to him, “If you will treat these people kindly, pleasing them and giving them favorable consideration, they will be your servants forever.” 8 But he didn’t take the advice the older men gave him; instead he consulted the young men he had grown up with, who were now his attendants. 9 He said to them, “What advice would you give me, so that we can give an answer to these people who said to me, ‘Lighten the yoke that your father laid on us’?” 10 The young men he had grown up with said to him, “The people who said to you, ‘Your father made our yoke heavy, but you, make it lighter for us’ — here’s the answer you should give them: ‘My little finger is thicker than my father’s waist! 11 Yes, my father burdened you with a heavy yoke, but I will make it heavier! My father controlled you with whips, but I [will control you] with scorpions!’”
12 So Yarov‘am and all the people came to Rechav‘am the third day, as the king had requested by saying, “Come to me again the third day”; 13 and the king answered them harshly. Abandoning the advice of the older men, King Rechav‘am 14 addressed them according to the advice of the young men and said, “I will make your yoke heavy, and I will add to it! My father controlled you with whips, but I will control you with scorpions!” 15 So the king didn’t listen to the people; and that was something God brought about, so that Adonai could fulfill his word, which he had spoken through Achiyah from Shiloh to Yarov‘am the son of N’vat.
16 When all Isra’el [saw] that the king wasn’t listening to them, the people answered the king,
“Do we have any share in David?
We have no heritage in the son of Yishai!
Everyone to your tents, Isra’el!
Care for your own house, David!”
So all Isra’el left for their tents.
17 But as for the people of Isra’el living in the cities of Y’hudah, Rechav‘am ruled over them. 18 King Rechav‘am then sent Hadoram, who was in charge of forced labor; but the people of Isra’el stoned him to death. King Rechav‘am managed to mount his chariot and flee to Yerushalayim. 19 Isra’el has been in rebellion against the dynasty of David to this day.
1 This is the revelation which God gave to Yeshua the Messiah, so that he could show his servants what must happen very soon. He communicated it by sending his angel to his servant Yochanan, 2 who bore witness to the Word of God and to the testimony of Yeshua the Messiah, as much as he saw. 3 Blessed are the reader and hearers of the words of this prophecy, provided they obey the things written in it! For the time is near!
4 From: Yochanan
To: The seven Messianic communities in the province of Asia:
Grace and shalom to you from the One who is, who was and who is coming; from the sevenfold Spirit before his throne; 5 and from Yeshua the Messiah, the faithful witness, the firstborn from the dead and the ruler of the earth’s kings.
To him, the one who loves us, who has freed us from our sins at the cost of his blood, 6 who has caused us to be a kingdom, that is, cohanim for God, his Father — to him be the glory and the rulership forever and ever. Amen.
7 Look! He is coming with the clouds![a]
Every eye will see him,
including those who pierced him;
and all the tribes of the Land will mourn him.[b]
Yes! Amen!
8 “I am the ‘A’ and the ‘Z,’” says Adonai,
God of heaven’s armies,
the One who is, who was and who is coming.
9 I, Yochanan, am a brother of yours and a fellow-sharer in the suffering, kingship and perseverance that come from being united with Yeshua. I had been exiled to the island called Patmos for having proclaimed the message of God and borne witness to Yeshua. 10 I came to be, in the Spirit, on the Day of the Lord; and I heard behind me a loud voice, like a trumpet, 11 saying, “Write down what you see on a scroll, and send it to the seven Messianic communities — Ephesus, Smyrna, Pergamum, Thyatira, Sardis, Philadelphia and Laodicea!” 12 I turned around to see who was speaking to me; and when I had turned, I saw seven gold menorahs; 13 and among the menorahs was someone like a Son of Man, wearing a robe down to his feet and a gold band around his chest.[c] 14 His head and hair were as white as snow-white wool, his eyes like a fiery flame, 15 his feet like burnished brass refined in a furnace, and his voice like the sound of rushing waters.[d] 16 In his right hand he held seven stars, out of his mouth went a sharp double-edged sword, and his face was like the sun shining in full strength.
17 When I saw him, I fell down at his feet like a dead man. He placed his right hand upon me and said, “Don’t be afraid! I am the First and the Last, 18 the Living One. I was dead, but look! — I am alive forever and ever! And I hold the keys to Death and Sh’ol. 19 So write down what you see, both what is now, and what will happen afterwards. 20 Here is the secret meaning of the seven stars you saw in my right hand, and of the seven gold menorahs: the seven stars are the angels of the seven Messianic communities, and the seven menorahs are the seven Messianic communities.
2 Gather together, gather yourselves,
nation devoid of shame;
2 before the decree takes effect,
and the day comes when one passes like chaff;
before Adonai’s fierce anger
comes on you,
before the day of Adonai’s anger
comes on you.
3 Seek Adonai, all you humble in the land,
you who exercise his justice;
seek righteousness, seek humility —
you might be hidden
on the day of Adonai’s anger.
4 For ‘Azah will be abandoned,
Ashkelon will be desolate,
they will evacuate Ashdod at noon,
and ‘Ekron will be uprooted.
5 Woe to the inhabitants of the seacoast,
the nation of the K’reti!
The word of Adonai is against you,
Kena‘an, land of the P’lishtim:
“I will destroy you; no one will be left.”
6 The seacoast will be reduced to pastures,
meadows for shepherds, pens for sheep;
7 and the coast will belong to the remnant
of the house of Y’hudah.
They will pasture their flocks there
and in the evening lie down
in the houses of Ashkelon.
For Adonai their God will remember them
and restore their fortunes.
8 “I have heard the insults of Mo’av
and the taunts of the people of ‘Amon,
how they reviled my people
and boasted of expanding their territory.
9 Therefore, as I live,” says Adonai-Tzva’ot,
the God of Isra’el,
“Mo’av will become like S’dom
and the people of ‘Amon like ‘Amora,
a land covered with nettles and salt pits,
desolate forever.
The remnant of my people will plunder them,
the survivors in my nation will inherit them.”
10 This is what they will earn for their pride,
for having reviled and boasted against
the people of Adonai-Tzva’ot.
11 Adonai will be fearsome against them,
for he will make all the earth’s gods waste away.
Then all the coasts and islands of the nations
will worship him, each from its place.
12 “You too, Ethiopians,
will be put to death by my sword.”
13 He will stretch out his hand against the north;
he will destroy Ashur;
he will make Ninveh desolate,
as dry as the desert.
14 Herds will lie down in it,
and all kinds of wild animals too —
jackdaws and owls will roost on her columns,
voices screeching in the windows,
desolation on the doorsteps,
for its cedarwork is stripped bare.
15 This is the city, once so joyful,
whose people felt themselves secure,
who used to say to herself,
“I am [the greatest]! I have no rival.”
What a ruin she has become —
a place for wild animals to lie down!
Everyone passing by her
hisses and shakes his fist!
24 but the next day, while it was still very early, they took the spices they had prepared, went to the tomb, 2 and found the stone rolled away from the tomb! 3 On entering, they discovered that the body of the Lord Yeshua was gone! 4 They were standing there, not knowing what to think about it, when suddenly two men in dazzlingly bright clothing stood next to them. 5 Terror-stricken, they bowed down with their faces to the ground. The two men said to them, “Why are you looking for the living among the dead? 6 He is not here; he has been raised. Remember how he told you while he was still in the Galil, 7 ‘The Son of Man must be delivered into the hands of sinful men and be executed on a stake as a criminal, but on the third day be raised again’?” 8 Then they remembered his words; 9 and, returning from the tomb, they told everything to the Eleven and to all the rest. 10 The women who told the emissaries these things were Miryam of Magdala, Yochanah, Miryam the mother of Ya‘akov, and the others in their circle.
11 But the emissaries didn’t believe them; in fact, they thought that what they said was utter nonsense! 12 However, Kefa got up and ran to the tomb. Stooping down, he saw only the burial cloths and went home wondering what had happened.
13 That same day, two of them were going toward a village about seven miles from Yerushalayim called Amma’us, 14 and they were talking with each other about all the things that had happened. 15 As they talked and discussed, Yeshua himself came up and walked along with them, 16 but something kept them from recognizing him. 17 He asked them, “What are you talking about with each other as you walk along?” They stopped short, their faces downcast; 18 and one of them, named Cleopas, answered him, “Are you the only person staying in Yerushalayim that doesn’t know the things that have been going on there the last few days?” 19 “What things?” he asked them. They said to him, “The things about Yeshua from Natzeret. He was a prophet and proved it by the things he did and said before God and all the people. 20 Our head cohanim and our leaders handed him over, so that he could be sentenced to death and executed on a stake as a criminal. 21 And we had hoped that he would be the one to liberate Isra’el! Besides all that, today is the third day since these things happened; 22 and this morning, some of the women astounded us. They were at the tomb early 23 and couldn’t find his body, so they came back; but they also reported that they had seen a vision of angels who say he’s alive! 24 Some of our friends went to the tomb and found it exactly as the women had said, but they didn’t see him.”
25 He said to them, “Foolish people! So unwilling to put your trust in everything the prophets spoke! 26 Didn’t the Messiah have to die like this before entering his glory?” 27 Then, starting with Moshe and all the prophets, he explained to them the things that can be found throughout the Tanakh concerning himself.
28 They approached the village where they were going. He made as if he were going on farther; 29 but they held him back, saying, “Stay with us, for it’s almost evening, and it’s getting dark.” So he went in to stay with them. 30 As he was reclining with them at the table, he took the matzah, made the b’rakhah, broke it and handed it to them. 31 Then their eyes were opened, and they recognized him. But he became invisible to them. 32 They said to each other, “Didn’t our hearts burn inside us as he spoke to us on the road, opening up the Tanakh to us?”
33 They got up at once, returned to Yerushalayim and found the Eleven gathered together with their friends, 34 saying, “It’s true! The Lord has risen! Shim‘on saw him!” 35 Then the two told what had happened on the road and how he had become known to them in the breaking of the matzah.
36 They were still talking about it when — there he was, standing among them! 37 Startled and terrified, they thought they were seeing a ghost. 38 But he said to them, “Why are you so upset? Why are these doubts welling up inside you? 39 Look at my hands and my feet — it is I, myself! Touch me and see — a ghost doesn’t have flesh and bones, as you can see I do.” 40 As he said this, he showed them his hands and feet. 41 While they were still unable to believe it for joy and stood there dumbfounded, he said to them, “Have you something here to eat?” 42 They gave him a piece of broiled fish, 43 which he took and ate in their presence.
44 Yeshua said to them, “This is what I meant when I was still with you and told you that everything written about me in the Torah of Moshe, the Prophets and the Psalms had to be fulfilled.” 45 Then he opened their minds, so that they could understand the Tanakh, 46 telling them, “Here is what it says: the Messiah is to suffer and to rise from the dead on the third day; 47 and in his name repentance leading to forgiveness of sins is to be proclaimed to people from all nations, starting with Yerushalayim. 48 You are witnesses of these things. 49 Now I am sending forth upon you what my Father promised, so stay here in the city until you have been equipped with power from above.”
50 He led them out toward Beit-Anyah; then, raising his hands, he said a b’rakhah over them; 51 and as he was blessing them, he withdrew from them and was carried up into heaven. 52 They bowed in worship to him, then returned to Yerushalayim, overflowing with joy. 53 And they spent all their time in the Temple courts, praising God.
Copyright © 1998 by David H. Stern. All rights reserved.