M’Cheyne Bible Reading Plan

13 It was in the eighteenth year of King Yarov‘am that Aviyah began his reign over Y’hudah. ² He ruled three years in Yerushalayim; his mother’s name was Mikhayahu the daughter of Uri’el from Giv‘ah.

There was war between Aviyah and Yarov‘am. ³ Aviyah joined the battle with an army of valiant soldiers, 400,000 select troops; while Yarov‘am took the field against him with 800,000 select troops who were valiant, strong men.

⁴ Aviyah, standing on Mount Z’marayim, in the hills of Efrayim, cried, “Yarov‘am and all Isra’el! Listen to me! ⁵ Don’t you know that Adonai, the God of Isra’el, gave rulership over Isra’el to David forever, to him and his descendants, by a covenant of salt [which is unbreakable]? ⁶ Yet Yarov‘am the son of N’vat, servant to Shlomo the son of David, rose in rebellion against his lord. ⁷ There rallied around him worthless brutes who were too strong for Rechav‘am the son of Shlomo to withstand when he was young and inexperienced. ⁸ Now you expect to withstand the kingdom of Adonai in the hands of the descendants of David. Yes, there are a great number of you, and you have with you the gold calves that Yarov‘am made as gods for you. ⁹ Yes, you drove out the cohanim of Adonai, the descendants of Aharon, and the L’vi’im; and you made yourselves priests as do the peoples in other countries, so that anyone who comes to consecrate himself with a young bull and seven rams can become a priest of those non-gods.

¹⁰ “But we are different. Adonai is our God, and we have not abandoned him. We have cohanim performing the service for Adonai, descendants of Aharon. With the L’vi’im doing their work, ¹¹ they burn to Adonai every morning and evening burnt offerings and sweet incense; they arrange the showbread on the pure table, and they prepare the gold menorah with its lamps to burn every evening. For we observe the order of Adonai our God. But you have abandoned him.

¹² “So look here! God is with us, leading us and his cohanim with the battle trumpets to sound an alarm against you. People of Isra’el! Don’t fight against Adonai, the God of your ancestors; because you will not succeed.”

¹³ But Yarov‘am prepared to ambush them from behind, so that the main body was ahead of Y’hudah, while the ambush was behind them. ¹⁴ Thus when Y’hudah looked back, the battle had to be fought in front of them and behind them.

They cried to Adonai, and the cohanim sounded the trumpets. ¹⁵ Then the men of Y’hudah gave forth a shout, and as the men of Y’hudah shouted, God struck Yarov‘am and all Isra’el before Aviyah and Y’hudah. ¹⁶ The people of Isra’el fled before Y’hudah, and God handed them over to them. ¹⁷ Aviyah and his army inflicted a great slaughter on them — 500,000 of Isra’el’s select soldiers fell dead. ¹⁸ Thus the people of Isra’el were subdued that time, and the people of Y’hudah won the victory, because they relied on Adonai the God of their ancestors. ¹⁹ Aviyah pursued Yarov‘am, taking from him the towns of Beit-El with its villages, Y’shanah with its villages and ‘Efrayin with its villages. ²⁰ Yarov‘am did not recover his strength during the time of Aviyahu. Finally Adonai struck him, and he died. ²¹ But Aviyahu grew strong; he married fourteen wives and became the father of twenty-two sons and sixteen daughters.

²² Other activities of Aviyah, together with his ways of doing things and his sayings, are recorded in the commentary of the prophet ‘Iddo. ^23 (14:1) Aviyah slept with his ancestors, and they buried him in the City of David. Then Asa his son became king in his place; during his time the land was quiet for ten years.

3 “To the angel of the Messianic Community in Sardis, write: ‘Here is the message from the one who has the sevenfold Spirit of God and the seven stars: “I know what you are doing — you have a reputation for being alive, but in fact you are dead! ² Wake up, and strengthen what remains, before it dies too! For I have found what you are doing incomplete in the sight of my God. ³ So remember what you received and heard, and obey it, and turn from your sin! For if you don’t wake up, I will come like a thief; and you don’t know at what moment I will come upon you. ⁴ Nevertheless, you do have a few people in Sardis who have not soiled their clothes; and they will walk with me, clothed in white, because they are worthy. ⁵ He who wins the victory will, like them, be dressed in white clothing; and I will not blot his name out of the Book of Life; in fact, I will acknowledge him individually before my Father and before his angels. ⁶ Those who have ears, let them hear what the Spirit is saying to the Messianic communities.”’

⁷ “To the angel of the Messianic Community in Philadelphia, write: ‘Here is the message of HaKadosh, the True One, the one who has the key of David, who, if he opens something, no one else can shut it, and if he closes something, no one else can open it.^{[a] 8} “I know what you are doing. Look, I have put in front of you an open door, and no one can shut it. I know that you have but little power, yet you have obeyed my message and have not disowned me. ⁹ Here, I will give you some from the synagogue of the Adversary, those who call themselves Jews but aren’t — on the contrary, they are lying — see, I will cause them to come and prostrate themselves at your feet, and they will know that I have loved you. ¹⁰ Because you did obey my message about persevering, I will keep you from the time of trial coming upon the whole world to put the people living on earth to the test. ¹¹ I am coming soon; hold on to what you have, so that no one will take away your crown. ¹² I will make him who wins the victory a pillar in the Temple of my God, and he will never leave it. Also I will write on him the name of my God and the name of my God’s city, the new Yerushalayim coming down out of heaven from my God, and my own new name. ¹³ Those who have ears, let them hear what the Spirit is saying to the Messianic communities.”’

¹⁴ “To the angel of the Messianic Community in Laodicea, write: ‘Here is the message from the Amen, the faithful and true witness, the Ruler of God’s creation: ¹⁵ “I know what you are doing: you are neither cold nor hot. How I wish you were either one or the other! ¹⁶ So, because you are lukewarm, neither cold nor hot, I will vomit you out of my mouth! ¹⁷ For you keep saying, ‘I am rich, I have gotten rich,^[b] I don’t need a thing!’ You don’t know that you are the one who is wretched, pitiable, poor, blind and naked! ¹⁸ My advice to you is to buy from me gold refined by fire, so that you may be rich; and white clothing, so that you may be dressed and not have to be ashamed of your nakedness; and eyesalve to rub on your eyes, so that you may see. ¹⁹ As for me, I rebuke and discipline everyone I love; so exert yourselves, and turn from your sins! ²⁰ Here, I’m standing at the door, knocking. If someone hears my voice and opens the door, I will come in to him and eat with him, and he will eat with me. ²¹ I will let him who wins the victory sit with me on my throne, just as I myself also won the victory and sat down with my Father on his throne. ²² Those who have ears, let them hear what the Spirit is saying to the Messianic communities.”’”

1 In the second year of Daryavesh the king, on the first day of the sixth month, the following word of Adonai came through Hagai the prophet to Z’rubavel the son of Sh’alti’el, governor of Y’hudah, and to Y’hoshua the son of Y’hotzadak, the cohen hagadol: ² “Here is what Adonai-Tzva’ot says: ‘This people is saying that now isn’t the time — the time hasn’t yet arrived for Adonai’s house to be rebuilt.’”

³ Then this word of Adonai came through Hagai the prophet: ⁴ “So is now the time for you to be living in your own paneled houses, while this house lies in ruins? ⁵ Therefore here is what Adonai-Tzva’ot says:

⁷ “Here is what Adonai-Tzva’ot says: ‘Think about your life! ⁸ Go up into the hills, get wood, and rebuild the house. I will be pleased with that, and then I will be glorified,’ says Adonai. ⁹ ‘You looked for much, but it came to little; and when you brought it home, I blew it away. Why?’ asks Adonai-Tzva’ot. ‘Because my house lies in ruins, while every one of you runs to take care of his own house. ¹⁰ This is why the sky above you has withheld the dew, so that there is none, and the land withholds its yield. ¹¹ In fact, I called for a drought on the land and on the hills, on the grain, the wine and the olive oil, on what the ground brings up, on men, animals and on all that hands produce.’”

¹² Then Z’rubavel the son of Sh’alti’el and Y’hoshua the son of Y’hotzadak, the cohen hagadol, with all the rest of the people, paid attention to what Adonai their God had said and to the words of Hagai the prophet; since Adonai their God had sent him; and the people were filled with fear in the presence of Adonai. ¹³ Hagai the messenger of Adonai conveyed this message of Adonai to the people: “‘I am with you,’ says Adonai.”

¹⁴ Adonai roused the spirit of Z’rubavel the son of Sh’alti’el, governor of Y’hudah, and the spirit of Y’hoshua the son of Y’hotzadak, the cohen hagadol, and the spirits of all the rest of the people; so that they came and began to work on the house of Adonai-Tzva’ot their God. ¹⁵ This was on the twenty-fourth day of the sixth month of the second year of Daryavesh the king.

2 On Tuesday^[a] there was a wedding at Kanah in the Galil; and the mother of Yeshua was there. ² Yeshua too was invited to the wedding, along with his talmidim. ³ The wine ran out, and Yeshua’s mother said to him, “They have no more wine.” ⁴ Yeshua replied, “Mother, why should that concern me? — or you? My time hasn’t come yet.” ⁵ His mother said to the servants, “Do whatever he tells you.” ⁶ Now six stone water-jars were standing there for the Jewish ceremonial washings, each with a capacity of twenty or thirty gallons. ⁷ Yeshua told them, “Fill the jars with water,” and they filled them to the brim. ⁸ He said, “Now draw some out, and take it to the man in charge of the banquet”; and they took it. ⁹ The man in charge tasted the water; it had now turned into wine! He did not know where it had come from, but the servants who had drawn the water knew. So he called the bridegroom ¹⁰ and said to him, “Everyone else serves the good wine first and the poorer wine after people have drunk freely. But you have kept the good wine until now!” ¹¹ This, the first of Yeshua’s miraculous signs, he did at Kanah in the Galil; he manifested his glory, and his talmidim came to trust in him. ¹² Afterwards, he, his mother and brothers, and his talmidim went down to K’far-Nachum and stayed there a few days.

¹³ It was almost time for the festival of Pesach in Y’hudah, so Yeshua went up to Yerushalayim. ¹⁴ In the Temple grounds he found those who were selling cattle, sheep and pigeons, and others who were sitting at tables exchanging money. ¹⁵ He made a whip from cords and drove them all out of the Temple grounds, the sheep and cattle as well. He knocked over the money-changers’ tables, scattering their coins; ¹⁶ and to the pigeon-sellers he said, “Get these things out of here! How dare you turn my Father’s house into a market?” ¹⁷ (His talmidim later recalled that the Tanakh says, “Zeal for your house will devour me.” )^{[b] 18} So the Judeans confronted him by asking him, “What miraculous sign can you show us to prove you have the right to do all this?” ¹⁹ Yeshua answered them, “Destroy this temple, and in three days I will raise it up again.” ²⁰ The Judeans said, “It took 46 years to build this Temple, and you’re going to raise it in three days?” ²¹ But the “temple” he had spoken of was his body. ²² Therefore, when he was raised from the dead, his talmidim remembered that he had said this, and they trusted in the Tanakh and in what Yeshua had said.

²³ Now while Yeshua was in Yerushalayim at the Pesach festival, there were many people who “believed in his name” when they saw the miracles he performed. ²⁴ But he did not commit himself to them, for he knew what people are like — ²⁵ that is, he didn’t need anyone to inform him about a person, because he knew what was in the person’s heart.