M’Cheyne Bible Reading Plan

5 ^(A)When King Solomon finished all the work on the Temple, he placed in the Temple storerooms all the things that his father David had dedicated to the Lord—the silver, gold, and other articles.

The Covenant Box Is Brought to the Temple^(B)

^2 (C)Then King Solomon summoned all the leaders of the tribes and clans of Israel to assemble in Jerusalem, in order to take the Lord's Covenant Box from Zion, David's City,^[a] to the Temple. ³ They all assembled at the time of the Festival of Shelters. ⁴ When all the leaders had gathered, then the Levites lifted the Covenant Box ⁵ and carried it to the Temple. The priests and the Levites also moved the Tent of the Lord's presence and all its equipment to the Temple. ⁶ King Solomon and all the people of Israel assembled in front of the Covenant Box and sacrificed a large number of sheep and cattle—too many to count. ⁷ Then the priests carried the Covenant Box of the Lord into the Temple and put it in the Most Holy Place, beneath the winged creatures. ⁸ Their outstretched wings covered the Box and the poles it was carried by. ⁹ The ends of the poles could be seen by anyone standing directly in front of the Most Holy Place, but from nowhere else. (The poles are still there today.) ^10 (D)There was nothing inside the Covenant Box except the two stone tablets which Moses had placed there at Mount Sinai, when the Lord made a covenant with the people of Israel as they were coming from Egypt.

The Glory of the Lord

^11-14 (E)All the priests present, regardless of the group to which they belonged, had consecrated themselves. And all the Levite musicians—Asaph, Heman, and Jeduthun, and the members of their clans—were wearing linen clothing. The Levites stood near the east side of the altar with cymbals and harps, and with them were 120 priests playing trumpets. The singers were accompanied in perfect harmony by trumpets, cymbals, and other instruments, as they praised the Lord singing:

As the priests were leaving the Temple, it was suddenly filled with a cloud shining with the dazzling light of the Lord's presence, and they could not continue the service of worship.

Solomon's Address to the People^(F)

³ All the people of Israel were standing there. The king turned to face them and asked God's blessing on them. ^4 (G)He said, “Praise the Lord God of Israel! He has kept the promise he made to my father David when he said to him, ⁵ ‘From the time I brought my people out of Egypt until now, I did not choose any city in the land of Israel as the place to build a temple where I would be worshiped, and I did not choose anyone to lead my people Israel. ⁶ But now I have chosen Jerusalem as the place where I will be worshiped, and you, David, to rule my people.’”

⁷ And Solomon continued, “My father David planned to build a temple for the worship of the Lord God of Israel, ⁸ but the Lord said to him, ‘You were right in wanting to build a temple for me, ⁹ but you will never build it. It is your son, your own son, who will build my temple.’

¹⁰ “Now the Lord has kept his promise: I have succeeded my father as king of Israel, and I have built a temple for the worship of the Lord God of Israel. ¹¹ I have placed in the Temple the Covenant Box, which contains the stone tablets of the covenant which the Lord made with the people of Israel.”

The True Spirit and the False Spirit

4 My dear friends, do not believe all who claim to have the Spirit, but test them to find out if the spirit they have comes from God. For many false prophets have gone out everywhere. ² This is how you will be able to know whether it is God's Spirit: anyone who acknowledges that Jesus Christ came as a human being has the Spirit who comes from God. ³ But anyone who denies this about Jesus does not have the Spirit from God. The spirit that he has is from the Enemy of Christ; you heard that it would come, and now it is here in the world already.

⁴ But you belong to God, my children, and have defeated the false prophets, because the Spirit who is in you is more powerful than the spirit in those who belong to the world. ⁵ Those false prophets speak about matters of the world, and the world listens to them because they belong to the world. ⁶ But we belong to God. Whoever knows God listens to us; whoever does not belong to God does not listen to us. This, then, is how we can tell the difference between the Spirit of truth and the spirit of error.

God Is Love

⁷ Dear friends, let us love one another, because love comes from God. Whoever loves is a child of God and knows God. ⁸ Whoever does not love does not know God, for God is love. ⁹ And God showed his love for us by sending his only Son into the world, so that we might have life through him. ¹⁰ This is what love is: it is not that we have loved God, but that he loved us and sent his Son to be the means by which our sins are forgiven.

¹¹ Dear friends, if this is how God loved us, then we should love one another. ^12 (A)No one has ever seen God, but if we love one another, God lives in union with us, and his love is made perfect in us.

¹³ We are sure that we live in union with God and that he lives in union with us, because he has given us his Spirit. ¹⁴ And we have seen and tell others that the Father sent his Son to be the Savior of the world. ¹⁵ If we declare that Jesus is the Son of God, we live in union with God and God lives in union with us. ¹⁶ And we ourselves know and believe the love which God has for us.

God is love, and those who live in love live in union with God and God lives in union with them. ¹⁷ Love is made perfect in us in order that we may have courage on the Judgment Day; and we will have it because our life in this world is the same as Christ's. ¹⁸ There is no fear in love; perfect love drives out all fear. So then, love has not been made perfect in anyone who is afraid, because fear has to do with punishment.

¹⁹ We love because God first loved us. ²⁰ If we say we love God, but hate others, we are liars. For we cannot love God, whom we have not seen, if we do not love others, whom we have seen. ²¹ The command that Christ has given us is this: whoever loves God must love others also.

⁵ The Lord Almighty says,

⁸ Nineveh, are you any better than Thebes, the capital of Egypt? She too had a river to protect her like a wall—the Nile was her defense. ⁹ She ruled Ethiopia^[b] and Egypt, there was no limit to her power; Libya was her ally. ¹⁰ Yet the people of Thebes were carried off into exile. At every street corner their children were beaten to death. Their leading men were carried off in chains and divided among their captors.

¹¹ Nineveh, you too will fall into a drunken stupor! You too will try to escape from your enemies. ¹² All your fortresses will be like fig trees with ripe figs: shake the trees, and the fruit falls right into your mouth! ¹³ Your soldiers are helpless, and your country stands defenseless before your enemies. Fire will destroy the bars across your gates. ¹⁴ Draw water to prepare for a siege, and strengthen your fortresses! Trample the clay to make bricks, and get the brick molds ready! ¹⁵ No matter what you do, you will still be burned to death or killed in battle. You will be wiped out like crops eaten up by locusts.

You multiplied like locusts! ¹⁶ You produced more merchants than there are stars in the sky! But now they are gone, like locusts that spread their wings and fly away. ¹⁷ Your officials are like a swarm of locusts that stay in the walls on a cold day. But when the sun comes out, they fly away, and no one knows where they have gone!

¹⁸ Emperor of Assyria, your governors are dead, and your noblemen are asleep forever! Your people are scattered on the mountains, and there is no one to bring them home again. ¹⁹ There is no remedy for your injuries, and your wounds cannot be healed. All those who hear the news of your destruction clap their hands for joy. Did anyone escape your endless cruelty?

Jesus and Zacchaeus

19 Jesus went on into Jericho and was passing through. ² There was a chief tax collector there named Zacchaeus, who was rich. ³ He was trying to see who Jesus was, but he was a little man and could not see Jesus because of the crowd. ⁴ So he ran ahead of the crowd and climbed a sycamore tree to see Jesus, who was going to pass that way. ⁵ When Jesus came to that place, he looked up and said to Zacchaeus, “Hurry down, Zacchaeus, because I must stay in your house today.”

⁶ Zacchaeus hurried down and welcomed him with great joy. ⁷ All the people who saw it started grumbling, “This man has gone as a guest to the home of a sinner!”

⁸ Zacchaeus stood up and said to the Lord, “Listen, sir! I will give half my belongings to the poor, and if I have cheated anyone, I will pay back four times as much.”

⁹ Jesus said to him, “Salvation has come to this house today, for this man, also, is a descendant of Abraham. ^10 (A)The Son of Man came to seek and to save the lost.”

The Parable of the Gold Coins^(B)

¹¹ While the people were listening to this, Jesus continued and told them a parable. He was now almost at Jerusalem, and they supposed that the Kingdom of God was just about to appear. ¹² So he said, “There was once a man of high rank who was going to a country far away to be made king, after which he planned to come back home. ¹³ Before he left, he called his ten servants and gave them each a gold coin and told them, ‘See what you can earn with this while I am gone.’ ¹⁴ Now, his own people hated him, and so they sent messengers after him to say, ‘We don't want this man to be our king.’

¹⁵ “The man was made king and came back. At once he ordered his servants to appear before him, in order to find out how much they had earned. ¹⁶ The first one came and said, ‘Sir, I have earned ten gold coins with the one you gave me.’ ¹⁷ ‘Well done,’ he said; ‘you are a good servant! Since you were faithful in small matters, I will put you in charge of ten cities.’ ¹⁸ The second servant came and said, ‘Sir, I have earned five gold coins with the one you gave me.’ ¹⁹ To this one he said, ‘You will be in charge of five cities.’ ²⁰ Another servant came and said, ‘Sir, here is your gold coin; I kept it hidden in a handkerchief. ²¹ I was afraid of you, because you are a hard man. You take what is not yours and reap what you did not plant.’ ²² He said to him, ‘You bad servant! I will use your own words to condemn you! You know that I am a hard man, taking what is not mine and reaping what I have not planted. ²³ Well, then, why didn't you put my money in the bank? Then I would have received it back with interest when I returned.’ ²⁴ Then he said to those who were standing there, ‘Take the gold coin away from him and give it to the servant who has ten coins.’ ²⁵ But they said to him, ‘Sir, he already has ten coins!’ ^26 (C)‘I tell you,’ he replied, ‘that to those who have something, even more will be given; but those who have nothing, even the little that they have will be taken away from them. ^27 (D)Now, as for those enemies of mine who did not want me to be their king, bring them here and kill them in my presence!’”

The Triumphant Approach to Jerusalem^(E)

²⁸ After Jesus said this, he went on in front of them toward Jerusalem. ²⁹ As he came near Bethphage and Bethany at the Mount of Olives, he sent two disciples ahead ³⁰ with these instructions: “Go to the village there ahead of you; as you go in, you will find a colt tied up that has never been ridden. Untie it and bring it here. ³¹ If someone asks you why you are untying it, tell him that the Master^[a] needs it.”

³² They went on their way and found everything just as Jesus had told them. ³³ As they were untying the colt, its owners said to them, “Why are you untying it?”

³⁴ “The Master needs it,” they answered, ³⁵ and they took the colt to Jesus. Then they threw their cloaks over the animal and helped Jesus get on. ³⁶ As he rode on, people spread their cloaks on the road.

³⁷ When he came near Jerusalem, at the place where the road went down the Mount of Olives, the large crowd of his disciples began to thank God and praise him in loud voices for all the great things that they had seen: ^38 (F)“God bless the king who comes in the name of the Lord! Peace in heaven and glory to God!”

³⁹ Then some of the Pharisees in the crowd spoke to Jesus. “Teacher,” they said, “command your disciples to be quiet!”

⁴⁰ Jesus answered, “I tell you that if they keep quiet, the stones themselves will start shouting.”

Jesus Weeps over Jerusalem

⁴¹ He came closer to the city, and when he saw it, he wept over it, ⁴² saying, “If you only knew today what is needed for peace! But now you cannot see it! ⁴³ The time will come when your enemies will surround you with barricades, blockade you, and close in on you from every side. ⁴⁴ They will completely destroy you and the people within your walls; not a single stone will they leave in its place, because you did not recognize the time when God came to save you!”

Jesus Goes to the Temple^(G)

⁴⁵ Then Jesus went into the Temple and began to drive out the merchants, ^46 (H)saying to them, “It is written in the Scriptures that God said, ‘My Temple will be a house of prayer.’ But you have turned it into a hideout for thieves!”

^47 (I)Every day Jesus taught in the Temple. The chief priests, the teachers of the Law, and the leaders of the people wanted to kill him, ⁴⁸ but they could not find a way to do it, because all the people kept listening to him, not wanting to miss a single word.