M’Cheyne Bible Reading Plan
God Blesses Solomon With Wisdom and Possessions
1 Solomon, the son of David, firmly established his rule over his kingdom. The Lord his God was with him and made him very great. 2 Solomon spoke to all Israel, to the commanders of the units of a thousand and a hundred, to the judges, to all the leaders of all Israel, that is, to all the leading fathers.[a]
3 Solomon and the whole assembly with him went to the high place at Gibeon, because God’s Tent of Meeting, which Moses, the servant of the Lord, had made in the wilderness, was located there.
4 (David had brought up the Ark of God from Kiriath Jearim to the place he had prepared for it, because he had pitched a tent for it in Jerusalem. 5 But the bronze altar, which Bezalel, the son of Uri, the son of Hur, had made, was set up in front of the Tent of the Lord, so that was where Solomon and the assembly sought God.)
6 Solomon went to the bronze altar there in the presence of the Lord at the Tent of Meeting, and he offered a thousand burnt offerings upon the altar.
7 That night God appeared to Solomon and said to him, “Ask for whatever you want me to give to you.”
8 Solomon said to God, “You have shown great mercy and faithfulness[b] to my father David, and you have made me king in his place. 9 Now, Lord God, let your commitment to David my father be fully realized, because you have made me king over a people as numerous as the dust of the earth. 10 Now give me wisdom and knowledge, so that I can come and go[c] before this people, for who is up to the task of judging[d] this great people of yours?”
11 God said to Solomon, “Because this was on your heart, and you did not ask for riches, possessions, and honor, or for the lives of those who hate you, or even for many days of life, and because you have asked for wisdom and knowledge for yourself so that you can judge my people, over whom I have made you king, 12 wisdom and knowledge will be given to you. I will also give you riches, possessions, and honor, the likes of which the kings before you never had, nor will those who come after you.”
Military and Economic Prosperity
13 After Solomon had gone up to the high place in Gibeon, he returned from the Tent of Meeting to Jerusalem, and he ruled as king over Israel.
14 Solomon accumulated chariots and charioteers. He had fourteen hundred chariots and twelve thousand charioteers, and he stationed them in the chariot cities, as well as with the king in Jerusalem. 15 In Jerusalem the king made silver and gold as plentiful as ordinary stones. He made cedar as plentiful as sycamore fig trees in the Shephelah.[e] 16 Solomon’s horses were imported from Egypt and Kue.[f] The king’s dealers bought them from Kue for the market price. 17 They could import a chariot from Egypt for six hundred silver shekels and a horse for one hundred fifty. In the same way these dealers exported chariots to all the kings of the Hittites and Aram.
The Word of Life
1 That which was from the beginning, which we have heard, which we have seen with our eyes, which we have observed and our hands have touched regarding the Word of Life— 2 the life appeared, and we have seen it. We testify and proclaim to you the eternal life, which was with the Father and has appeared to us. 3 We are proclaiming what we have seen and heard also to you, so that you may have fellowship with us. Our fellowship is with the Father and his Son Jesus Christ. 4 We write these things to you so that our[a] joy may be complete.
Walking in the Light
5 This is the message we heard from him and proclaim to you: God is light. In him there is no darkness at all. 6 If we say we have fellowship with him but still walk in darkness, we are lying and do not put the truth into practice. 7 But if we walk in the light, just as he is in the light, we have fellowship with one another, and the blood of Jesus Christ,[b] his Son, cleanses us from all sin. 8 If we say we have no sin, we deceive ourselves, and the truth is not in us. 9 If we confess our sins, he is faithful and just to forgive us our sins and to cleanse us from all unrighteousness. 10 If we say we have not sinned, we make him out to be a liar, and his Word[c] is not in us.
The Prophet’s Lament
7 I am miserable.
I have become like someone gathering summer fruit
when it is time to glean the vineyard.
There is no bunch of grapes to eat,
none of the early figs I crave.
2 The faithful[a] have been carried off from the land.
There is no one upright among mankind.
They all lie in wait for blood.
Each one hunts his brother with a net.
3 Both hands are skilled at evil.
The officials ask for bribes,
and the judges as well.
The important man says what he wants.
Together, they plot it out.
4 The best of them is like a brier bush,
the most upright like a hedge of thorns.
The day for your watchman,
the day for your punishment has come.
Now confusion[b] has come for them.
5 Do not trust a neighbor.
Do not put confidence in a close friend.
Watch what comes out of your mouth,
even when you lie down with the wife you embrace.
6 For a son will declare that his father is a fool.
A daughter will rise up against her mother,
and a daughter-in-law against her mother-in-law.
A man’s enemies are the members of his own household.
7 But as for me, I will keep watching for the Lord.
I will wait for God my Savior.
My God will hear me.
God’s People Will Rise Again
8 Do not rejoice over me, my enemy.
When I fall, I will rise.
When I sit in the darkness, the Lord will be a light for me.
9 Because I have sinned against him, I will bear the Lord’s wrath,
until he pleads my case and obtains a favorable verdict for me.
He will bring me to the light.
I will see his righteousness.
10 Then my enemy will see this and will be covered with shame,
she who said to me, “Where is the Lord your God?”
My eyes will see her as she is being trampled like mud in the streets.
11 It will be a day to rebuild city walls.
On that day your boundary will be extended.
12 On that day people will come to you
from the lands of Assyria and the cities of Egypt,
from Egypt even to the River Euphrates,
from sea to sea and mountain to mountain.
13 The land will be laid waste because of its inhabitants,
as a result of the fruit of their deeds.
14 Shepherd your people with your staff,
the flock that is your inheritance,
the flock which dwells by itself in a forest,
in the middle of fertile pastureland.
Let them graze in Bashan and Gilead as in days of old.
The Lord’s Response
15 As I did in the days you came out from the land of Egypt,
I will show you wonderful miracles.
The People’s Praise
16 The nations will see and be ashamed of their lack of strength.
They will place their hand over their mouth.
Their ears will be deaf.
17 They will lick up dust like a snake,
like the things that creep on the earth.
They will come from their hiding places, shaking with fear.
They will come trembling to the Lord our God,
and they will be afraid in your presence.
18 Who is a God like you, who forgives guilt,
and who passes over the rebellion of the survivors from his inheritance?
He does not hold onto his anger forever.
He delights in showing mercy.
19 He will have compassion on us again.
He will overcome our guilty deeds.
You will throw all their sins into the depths of the sea.
20 You will give truth to Jacob and mercy to Abraham,
as you swore to our fathers from days of old.
The Shrewd Manager
16 Jesus also said to his disciples, “There was a rich man who had a manager who was accused of wasting his possessions. 2 The rich man called him in and said to him, ‘What is this that I hear about you? Give an account of your management, because you can no longer be manager.’
3 “The manager said to himself, ‘What will I do, since my master is taking away the management position from me? I am not strong enough to dig. I am ashamed to beg. 4 I know what I will do, so that when I am removed from my position as manager, people will receive me into their houses.’
5 “He called each one of his master’s debtors to him. He asked the first, ‘How much do you owe my master?’ 6 He said, ‘Six hundred gallons[a] of olive oil.’ He said to him, ‘Take your bill, sit down quickly, and write three hundred.’ 7 Then he said to another, ‘How much do you owe?’ And he said, ‘Six hundred bushels[b] of wheat.’ He said to him, ‘Take your bill and write four hundred and eighty.’
8 “The master commended the dishonest manager because he had acted shrewdly. For the children[c] of this world are more shrewd in dealing with their own generation[d] than the children of the light are. 9 I tell you, make friends for yourselves with unrighteous mammon,[e] so that when it runs out, they will welcome you into the eternal dwellings. 10 The person who is faithful with very little is also faithful with much. And the person who is unrighteous with very little is also unrighteous with much. 11 So if you have not been faithful with unrighteous mammon, who will entrust you with what is really valuable? 12 If you have not been faithful with what belongs to someone else, who will give you something to be your own? 13 No servant can serve two masters. Indeed, either he will hate the one and love the other, or he will be devoted to the one and despise the other. You cannot serve both God and mammon.”
14 The Pharisees, who loved money, also heard all these things and sneered at him. 15 He said to them, “You are the ones who justify yourselves in the sight of people, but God knows your hearts. In fact, what is highly regarded among people is an abomination in God’s sight. 16 The Law and the Prophets were until John. Since that time the good news of the kingdom of God is proclaimed, and everyone is trying to force his way into it.[f]
17 “It is easier for heaven and earth to pass away than for even one part of a letter in the Law to fail. 18 Anyone who divorces his wife and marries another is committing adultery, and the man who marries a woman divorced from her husband is committing adultery.
The Rich Man and Poor Lazarus
19 “There was a rich man who was dressed in purple and fine linen, living in luxury every day. 20 A beggar named Lazarus had been laid at his gate. Lazarus was covered with sores and 21 longed to be fed with what fell from the rich man’s table. Besides this, the dogs also came and licked his sores. 22 Eventually the beggar died, and the angels carried him to Abraham’s side. The rich man also died and was buried. 23 In hell,[g] where he was in torment, he lifted up his eyes and saw Abraham far away and Lazarus at his side. 24 He called out and said, ‘Father Abraham, have mercy on me! Send Lazarus to dip the tip of his finger in water and cool my tongue, because I am in misery in this flame.’
25 “But Abraham said, ‘Son, remember that in your lifetime you received your good things, and Lazarus received bad things. But now he is comforted here, and you are in misery. 26 Besides all this, a great chasm has been set in place between us and you, so that those who want to cross from here to you cannot, nor can anyone cross over from there to us.’
27 “He said, ‘Then I beg you, father, send him to my father’s home, 28 because I have five brothers—to warn them, so that they will not also come to this place of torment.’
29 “Abraham said, ‘They have Moses and the Prophets. Let them listen to them.’
30 “‘No, father Abraham,’ he said, ‘but if someone from the dead goes to them, they will repent.’
31 “Abraham replied to him, ‘If they do not listen to Moses and the Prophets, they will not be convinced even if someone rises from the dead.’”
The Holy Bible, Evangelical Heritage Version®, EHV®, © 2019 Wartburg Project, Inc. All rights reserved.