M’Cheyne Bible Reading Plan
Chapter 9
The Lord’s Promise to Solomon.1 When Solomon had completed the construction of the temple of the Lord and the royal palace, Solomon had accomplished all that he desired to do.
2 The Lord appeared to Solomon a second time, as he had appeared to him at Gibeon. 3 The Lord said to him, “I have heard your prayer and your supplication that you made before me, and I have consecrated the temple that you built by establishing my name there forever. My eyes and my heart will always be there. 4 And as for you, if you walk before me as David, your father, walked, in integrity of heart and righteousness, and you do all that I command you, and you observe my statutes and my ordinances, 5 then I will establish your royal throne over Israel forever just as I promised David, your father, when I said, ‘You will not fail to have one who will reign upon the throne of Israel.’
6 “But if your children turn away from me, and they do not follow me nor do they observe my commandments or my statutes that I have set before you, and they go off to serve other gods, and they worship them, 7 then I will cut Israel off from the land that I have given them, and I will reject from my sight this temple that I have consecrated for my name. Israel will become a byword and a laughingstock among all the nations. 8 Although this temple is now exalted, everyone who passes by it will be astonished and will hiss at it, and they will say, ‘Why has the Lord done this to this land and to this temple?’ 9 Then they will answer, ‘Because they abandoned the Lord, their God, who brought their fathers forth from the land of Egypt. They have embraced other gods, and they have worshiped them and served them. This is why the Lord has brought all of these disasters upon them.’ ”
10 Taking Account. At the end of twenty years during which Solomon built two buildings, the temple of the Lord and the royal palace, 11 King Solomon gave twenty towns that were in the land of Galilee to King Hiram, the king of Tyre, who had provided Solomon with all the cedar wood, fir, and gold that he desired. 12 When King Hiram traveled out from Tyre to inspect the towns that Solomon had given him, he was not pleased with them. 13 He said, “What kind of cities have you given me, my brother?” He has called the land Cabul up to the present day. 14 Now Hiram had sent the king one hundred twenty talents of gold.[a]
15 This is an account of the forced labor that King Solomon raised in order to build the temple of the Lord, his own palace, Millo, the walls of Jerusalem, Hazor, Megiddo, and Gezer. 16 (Pharaoh, the king of Egypt, had gone up and captured Gezer. He burned it down and killed the Canaanites who were living there. He gave it as a dowry to his daughter, Solomon’s wife. 17 Solomon then rebuilt Gezer.) He also built lower Beth-horon, 18 Baalath, and Tadmor in the desert, all of which were within his land. 19 Solomon also had storage cities for provisions, cities for his chariots, and cities for his horses. Solomon built whatever he desired in Jerusalem, Lebanon, and all the land that he ruled.
20 All of the people who survived from among the Amorites, the Hittites, the Perizzites, the Hivites, and the Jebusites (for these people were not Israelites), 21 that is, their descendants who remained in the land (for the Israelites had not been able to wipe them out) were conscripted by Solomon to serve as slave labor, as is still true today.
22 Solomon did not reduce the Israelites to slavery. They were his fighting men, his officials, his princes, his captains, the commanders of his chariots, and his charioteers. 23 They were also the chief officials who were in charge of Solomon’s work projects. There were five hundred and fifty of them, and they supervised the men who did the work. 24 After Pharaoh’s daughter came up to the City of David, to the palace that he had built for her, he then built Millo.
25 Three times a year[b] Solomon offered up burnt offerings and peace offerings upon the altar that he had built for the Lord. He also burnt incense on the altar before the Lord, and so he fulfilled his temple duties. 26 King Solomon built ships at Ezion-geber, which is near Elath on the Red Sea in the land of Edom. 27 Hiram sent some of his men who were sailors, seafaring men who knew the sea, to sail with Solomon’s men. 28 They sailed to Ophir[c] and brought back and delivered to King Solomon four hundred and twenty talents of gold.
Chapter 6
Christ and the Members of the Household[a]
Children and Parents. Children, obey your parents in the Lord, for it is only right that you should do so. 2 “Honor your father and your mother.” This is the first commandment that is connected with a promise: 3 “that it may go well with you and that you may have a long life on earth.”4 Fathers, do not provoke your children to anger, but bring them up in the discipline and instruction of the Lord.
Slaves and Masters. 5 Slaves, be constant in your unwavering obedience to your earthly masters with fear and trembling and with the same heartfelt sincerity that you show to Christ. 6 Do this not just when they are watching you, as if you only had to please human beings, but as slaves of Christ, wholeheartedly carrying out the will of God. 7 Do your work willingly, as for the Lord and not for human beings, 8 knowing that whatever good we may do, whether as slaves or as free men, we will be repaid by the Lord.
9 And masters, treat your slaves fairly. Stop threatening them. Remember that both of you have the same Master in heaven, and he shows no favoritism.
The Christian Warfare[b]
10 Put On the Armor of God. Finally, find your strength in the Lord and in his mighty power. 11 Put on the armor of God so that you will be able to stand firm against the deceit of the devil. 12 For we are not struggling against flesh and blood, but against the principalities, the powers, and the cosmic rulers of this present darkness, and against the spirits of evil in the heavens.
13 Therefore, put on the armor of God, so that you will be able to hold fast on the evil day and to hold your ground with all your strength. 14 Stand firm, then, with the belt of truth fastened around your waist, with the breastplate of righteousness clothing you, 15 and with your feet shod in zeal to proclaim the gospel of peace.
16 In all circumstances, hold in your hand the shield of faith with which you will be able to quench all the flaming arrows of the evil one. 17 And take the helmet of salvation as well as the sword of the Spirit, which is the word of God.
18 Be Vigilant in Prayer. In all of your prayers and entreaties, pray always in the Spirit. To that end, keep alert and always persevere in supplication for all the saints. 19 Pray also for me, so that whenever I open my mouth, I may be given the proper words to make known with boldness the mystery of the gospel, 20 for which I am an ambassador in chains. Pray that I may proclaim it fearlessly, as is my duty.
Conclusion[c]
21 A Personal Message. So that you may know how I am and what I am doing, Tychicus, my beloved brother and a faithful minister in the Lord, will keep you informed. 22 I am sending him to you for this specific purpose, so that you will know how we are and that your hearts may be encouraged.
23 Final Greeting. May God the Father and the Lord Jesus Christ grant peace and love with faith to all the brethren.
24 Grace be with all who love our Lord Jesus Christ with undying devotion.
Chapter 39
Third Prophecy against Gog. 1 Son of man, prophesy against Gog and say: Thus says the Lord God: Behold, I am coming against you, Gog, chief prince of Meshech and Tubal. 2 I will turn you around and drive you forward. I will lead you from the most remote recesses of the north and bring you to the mountains of Israel.
3 Then I will strike the bow from your left hand and cause your arrows to drop from your right hand. 4 You will fall upon the mountains of Israel, you and all your troops as well as the nations that are with you. I will give you as food to birds of prey of every kind and to the wild beasts.
5 You will fall in the open field, for I have spoken, declares the Lord God. 6 I will send fire on Magog and upon those who live undisturbed in the coastlands. Then they will know that I am the Lord.
7 I will make my holy name known among my people Israel, and I will not allow my holy name to be profaned. Thus the nations will know that I am the Lord, the Holy One in Israel. 8 All this will happen. All this will take place, says the Lord God. This is the day about which I have spoken.
9 Then those who dwell in the towns of Israel will go forth and set fire to the weapons to provide themselves with fuel—bucklers and shields, bows and arrows, clubs and spears—and they will make fires of them for seven years. 10 They will have no need to bring in wood from the fields or cut down any trees in the forests, inasmuch as they will use their weapons to make fires. They will despoil those who despoiled them and plunder those who plundered them, says the Lord God.
11 On that day I will give to Gog a well-known place in Israel for his grave, the Valley of Abarim east of the sea, a valley that is inaccessible to travelers. There Gog and all his horde will be buried. It will be called the Valley of Hamon-gog. 12 The house of Israel will spend seven months burying them in order to purify the land.
13 All the people of the land will bury them, thus gaining renown for doing so on the day that I reveal my glory, says the Lord God. 14 Some men will be designated for the assignment to pass through the land and bury any travelers who remain lying on the ground, so as to purify it. They will begin their search at the end of seven months.
15 As these searchers go through the country, if anyone sees a human bone, he must put up a marker beside it until the gravediggers have buried it in the Valley of Hamon-gog. 16 (A city named Hamonah is there also.) Thus the land will be purified.
17 As for you, son of man, the Lord God says this: Say to the wild birds of every kind and to all the wild animals: Assemble and come together. Gather from all sides for the sacrificial feast I am preparing for you, a magnificent sacrificial feast on the mountains of Israel. 18 You will consume the flesh of the mighty, and you will drink the blood of the princes of the earth—of rams, lambs, goats, and bulls, all of them fatlings of Bashan.
19 At the sacrificial feast I am preparing for you, you will eat fat until you are filled and drink blood until you are drunk. 20 At my table you will be filled with horses and riders, with warriors and soldiers of every kind, says the Lord God.
21 Israel’s Reunion.[a] I will display my glory among the nations, and all the nations will see the punishment that I inflict and the hand that I lay upon them. 22 From that day forward, the house of Israel will know that I am the Lord, their God.
23 Furthermore, the nations will know that the people of the house of Israel were exiled because of their iniquity, inasmuch as they dealt treacherously with me. Therefore, I hid my face from them and handed them over to their enemies, so that they all fell by the sword. 24 I dealt with them according to their uncleanness and their offenses, and I hid my face from them.
25 Therefore, thus says the Lord God: Now I will restore the fortunes of Jacob and have mercy on the whole house of Israel, and I will be jealous for my holy name. 26 They will forget their disgrace and all the acts of infidelity they committed against me when they will live in security in their land, with no one to make them afraid.
27 When I have brought them back from the peoples and gathered them from the lands of their enemies, I will display through them my holiness in the sight of many nations. 28 Then they will know that I am the Lord, their God, because, having sent them into exile among the nations, I then reunited them into their own land and left none of them behind. 29 Never again will I hide my face from them, for I will pour out my Spirit upon the house of Israel, says the Lord God.
Book IV—Psalms 90–106[a]
Psalm 90[b]
Prayer To Use Time Wisely
1 A prayer of Moses, the man of God.[c]
Lord, you have been our refuge
from generation to generation.
2 Before the mountains were brought forth
or the earth and the world came into existence,
from everlasting to everlasting you are God.
3 You turn men back to dust,
saying, “Return,[d] you children of men.”
4 For to you a thousand years
are like a yesterday that has passed
or one of the watches of the night.[e]
5 You snatch them away like a dream;
they are like the grass of the field,[f]
6 which at dawn flourishes and is green
but by nightfall is withered and dry.
7 [g]We have been brought low by your anger
and overwhelmed with terror by your wrath.
8 You have not forgotten our iniquities;
our secret sins are clearly visible in your sight.
9 All our days pass away under your wrath;
our years are consumed like a sigh.
10 The span of our life numbers seventy years,
or perhaps eighty, if we have enough strength.
Most of them are marked by toil and emptiness;[h]
they pass swiftly, and then we fly away.
11 [i]Who understands the might of your anger
and rightly fears the power of your wrath?
12 Teach us to comprehend how few our days are
so that our hearts may be filled with wisdom.
13 Return,[j] O Lord. How long must we wait?
Show compassion to your servants.
14 Fill us with your kindness in the morning[k]
so that we may exult and be glad all our days.
15 Grant us joy for as many days as you have afflicted us
and for as many years as we have known misfortune.
16 Manifest your works to your servants
and your glory to their children.
17 May the favor[l] of the Lord, our God, rest upon us.
And may the work of our hands prosper—
indeed, may the work of our hands prosper.
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