M’Cheyne Bible Reading Plan

26 Meanwhile, all the people of Y’hudah had taken ‘Uziyahu at the age of sixteen and made him king in place of his father Amatzyahu. ² He recovered Eilot for Y’hudah and rebuilt it; it was after this that the king [Amatzyahu] slept with his ancestors.

³ ‘Uziyahu was sixteen years old when he began his reign, and he ruled for fifty-two years in Yerushalayim. His mother’s name was Y’kholyahu, from Yerushalayim. ⁴ He did what was right from Adonai’s perspective, following the example of everything his father Amatzyahu had done. ⁵ He consulted God during the lifetime of Z’kharyahu, who understood visions of God; and as long as he consulted Adonai, God gave him success.

⁶ He went out to fight the P’lishtim, breaking down the walls of Gat, Yavneh and Ashdod; and he built cities in the area of Ashdod and among the P’lishtim. ⁷ God helped him against the P’lishtim, against the Arabs living in Gur-Ba‘al, and against the Me‘unim. ⁸ The ‘Amonim brought tribute to ‘Uziyahu, and his fame spread abroad as far as the Egyptian frontier, since he kept growing stronger.

⁹ ‘Uziyahu built towers in Yerushalayim at the Corner Gate, at the Valley Gate and at the Angle, and fortified them. ¹⁰ He built towers in the desert and dug many cisterns, because he had much livestock, likewise in the Sh’felah and the coastal plain. He had farmers and vineyard-workers in the hills and in the fertile lands, because he loved the soil.

¹¹ ‘Uziyahu had a standing army of fit soldiers divided into units according to the census taken by the secretary Ye‘i’el and the officer Ma‘aseiyah, under the direction of Hananyah, one of the king’s officials. ¹² The total number of clan heads over these strong, brave men was 2,600. ¹³ They directed a trained army of 307,500 fighting men, a strong force supporting the king in war against the enemy. ¹⁴ ‘Uziyahu equipped them, the whole army, with shields, spears, helmets, armor, bows and slingstones.

¹⁵ In Yerushalayim he built devices designed by experts for the towers and angles, from which to shoot arrows and lob large stones. His fame spread far and wide, for he was miraculously helped, until he became strong.

¹⁶ But when he was strong, he became arrogant, which caused him to become corrupt, so that he sinned against Adonai his God by going into the temple of Adonai to burn incense on the incense altar. ¹⁷ ‘Azaryahu the cohen went in after him, and with him were eighty of Adonai’s cohanim, brave men. ¹⁸ They stood up to ‘Uziyahu the king; they told him, “It isn’t your job, ‘Uziyahu, to burn incense to Adonai! The job of burning incense belongs to the cohanim, the descendants of Aharon, who have been consecrated. Get out of the sanctuary! You have trespassed, and Adonai, God, will not honor you for this.” ¹⁹ This made ‘Uziyahu angry as he stood there with a censer in his hand ready to burn incense; and in his anger at the cohanim, tzara‘at broke out on his forehead right in front of the cohanim in the house of Adonai beside the altar for incense. ²⁰ ‘Azaryahu the chief cohen and all the cohanim stared at him — there he was, with tzara‘at on his forehead! Quickly they threw him out of there; and indeed, he himself hurried to get out, because Adonai had struck him. ²¹ ‘Uziyahu the king had tzara‘at until his dying day; he lived in a separate house because he had tzara‘at, and was not allowed into the house of Adonai. Meanwhile, Yotam the king’s son ran the king’s household and was regent over the people of the land.

²² Other activities of ‘Uziyahu, from beginning to end, were recorded by Yesha‘yahu the prophet, the son of Amotz. ²³ So ‘Uziyahu slept with his ancestors, and they buried him with his ancestors in the graveyard belonging to the kings, because they said, “He had tzara‘at.” Then Yotam his son took his place as king.

13 and I saw a beast come up out of the sea, with ten horns and seven heads. On its horns were ten royal crowns and on its heads blasphemous names. ² The beast which I saw was like a leopard, but with feet like those of a bear and a mouth like the mouth of a lion. To it the dragon gave its power, its throne and great authority. ³ One of the heads of the beast appeared to have received a fatal wound, but its fatal wound was healed, and the whole earth followed after the beast in amazement. ⁴ They worshipped the dragon, because he had given his authority to the beast; and they worshipped the beast, saying,

⁵ It was given a mouth speaking arrogant blasphemies; and it was given authority to act for forty-two months. ⁶ So it opened its mouth in blasphemies against God to insult his name and his Sh’khinah, and those living in heaven; ⁷ it was allowed to make war on God’s holy people and to defeat them; and it was given authority over every tribe, people, language and nation. ⁸ Everyone living on earth will worship it except those whose names are written in the Book of Life belonging to the Lamb slaughtered before the world was founded. ⁹ Those who have ears, let them hear!

This is when God’s holy people must persevere and trust!

¹¹ Then I saw another beast coming up out of the earth. It had two horns like those of a lamb, but it spoke like a dragon. ¹² It exercises all the authority of the first beast in its presence; and it makes the earth and its inhabitants worship the first beast, the one whose fatal wound had been healed. ¹³ It performs great miracles, even causing fire to come down from heaven onto the earth as people watch. ¹⁴ It deceives the people living on earth by the miracles it is allowed to perform in the presence of the beast, and it tells them to make an image honoring the beast that was struck by the sword but came alive again. ¹⁵ It was allowed to put breath into the image of the beast, so that the image of the beast could even speak; and it was allowed to cause anyone who would not worship the image of the beast to be put to death. ¹⁶ Also it forces everyone — great and small, rich and poor, free and slave — to receive a mark on his right hand or on his forehead ¹⁷ preventing anyone from buying or selling unless he has the mark, that is, the name of the beast or the number of its name. ¹⁸ This is where wisdom is needed; those who understand should count the number of the beast, for it is the number of a person, and its number is 666.

9 A prophecy, the word of Adonai:

12 Six days before Pesach, Yeshua came to Beit-Anyah, where El‘azar lived, the man Yeshua had raised from the dead; ² so they gave a dinner there in his honor. Marta served the meal, and El‘azar was among those at the table with him. ³ Miryam took a whole pint of pure oil of spikenard, which is very expensive, poured it on Yeshua’s feet and wiped his feet with her hair, so that the house was filled with the fragrance of the perfume. ⁴ But one of the talmidim, Y’hudah from K’riot, the one who was about to betray him, said, ⁵ “This perfume is worth a year’s wages! Why wasn’t it sold and the money given to the poor?” ⁶ Now he said this not out of concern for the poor, but because he was a thief — he was in charge of the common purse and used to steal from it. ⁷ Yeshua said, “Leave her alone! She kept this for the day of my burial. ⁸ You always have the poor among you, but you will not always have me.”

⁹ A large crowd of Judeans learned that he was there; and they came not only because of Yeshua, but also so that they could see El‘azar, whom he had raised from the dead. ¹⁰ The head cohanim then decided to do away with El‘azar too, ¹¹ since it was because of him that large numbers of the Judeans were leaving their leaders and putting their trust in Yeshua.

¹² The next day, the large crowd that had come for the festival heard that Yeshua was on his way into Yerushalayim. ¹³ They took palm branches and went out to meet him, shouting,

¹⁶ His talmidim did not understand this at first; but after Yeshua had been glorified, then they remembered that the Tanakh said this about him, and that they had done this for him. ¹⁷ The group that had been with him when he called El‘azar out of the tomb and raised him from the dead had been telling about it. ¹⁸ It was because of this too that the crowd came out to meet him — they had heard that he had performed this miracle. ¹⁹ The P’rushim said to each other, “Look, you’re getting nowhere! Why, the whole world has gone after him!”

²⁰ Among those who went up to worship at the festival were some Greek-speaking Jews. ²¹ They approached Philip, the one from Beit-Tzaidah in the Galil, with a request. “Sir,” they said, “we would like to see Yeshua.” ²² Philip came and told Andrew; then Andrew and Philip went and told Yeshua. ²³ Yeshua gave them this answer: “The time has come for the Son of Man to be glorified. ²⁴ Yes, indeed! I tell you that unless a grain of wheat that falls to the ground dies, it stays just a grain; but if it dies, it produces a big harvest. ²⁵ He who loves his life loses it, but he who hates his life in this world will keep it safe right on into eternal life! ²⁶ If someone is serving me, let him follow me; wherever I am, my servant will be there too. My Father will honor anyone who serves me.

²⁷ “Now I am in turmoil. What can I say — ‘Father, save me from this hour’? No, it was for this very reason that I have come to this hour. I will say this: ²⁸ ‘Father, glorify your name!’” At this a bat-kol came out of heaven, “I have glorified it before, and I will glorify it again!” ²⁹ The crowd standing there and hearing it said that it had thundered; others said, “An angel spoke to him.” ³⁰ Yeshua answered, “This bat-kol did not come for my sake but for yours. ³¹ Now is the time for this world to be judged, now the ruler of this world will be expelled. ³² As for me, when I am lifted up from the earth, I will draw everyone to myself.” ³³ He said this to indicate what kind of death he would die.

³⁴ The crowd answered, “We have learned from the Torah that the Messiah remains forever. How is it that you say the Son of Man has to be ‘lifted up’? Who is this ‘Son of Man’?” ³⁵ Yeshua said to them, “The light will be with you only a little while longer. Walk while you have the light, or the dark will overtake you; he who walks in the dark doesn’t know where he’s going. ³⁶ While you have the light, put your trust in the light, so that you may become people of light.” Yeshua said these things, then went off and kept himself hidden from them.

³⁷ Even though he had performed so many miracles in their presence, they still did not put their trust in him, ³⁸ in order that what Yesha‘yahu the prophet had said might be fulfilled,

³⁹ The reason they could not believe was — as Yesha‘yahu said elsewhere —

⁴¹ (Yesha‘yahu said these things because he saw the Sh’khinah of Yeshua and spoke about him.) ⁴² Nevertheless, many of the leaders did trust in him; but because of the P’rushim they did not say so openly, out of fear of being banned from the synagogue; ⁴³ for they loved praise from other people more than praise from God.

⁴⁴ Yeshua declared publicly, “Those who put their trust in me are trusting not merely in me, but in the One who sent me. ⁴⁵ Also those who see me see the One who sent me. ⁴⁶ I have come as a light into the world, so that everyone who trusts in me might not remain in the dark. ⁴⁷ If anyone hears what I am saying and does not observe it, I don’t judge him; for I did not come to judge the world, but to save the world. ⁴⁸ Those who reject me and don’t accept what I say have a judge — the word which I have spoken will judge them on the Last Day. ⁴⁹ For I have not spoken on my own initiative, but the Father who sent me has given me a command, namely, what to say and how to say it. ⁵⁰ And I know that his command is eternal life. So what I say is simply what the Father has told me to say.”