M’Cheyne Bible Reading Plan
5 All the work which Solomon carried out for the House of the Lord was completed, so Solomon brought the things his father David had dedicated, namely, the silver, the gold, and all the vessels and utensils, and put them into the treasuries of the House of God.
The Ark Is Placed in the Temple
2 Then Solomon assembled the elders of Israel and all the heads of the tribes, the leading fathers[a] of the people of Israel, in Jerusalem, in order to bring up the Ark of the Covenant of the Lord from the City of David, that is, from Zion. 3 All the men of Israel gathered in the presence of the king at the festival that takes place during the seventh month.[b] 4 Then when all the elders of Israel had come, the priests, who were Levites,[c] lifted up the Ark. 5 They brought the Ark, the Tent of Meeting, and all the holy vessels which were in the tent. The priests and Levites[d] brought them up.
6 King Solomon and the whole congregation of Israel that had gathered with him in front of the Ark were sacrificing sheep and oxen, too many to be counted or numbered.
7 The priests brought the Ark of the Covenant of the Lord to its place in the inner sanctuary of the House, that is, to the Most Holy Place, and they placed it under the wings of the cherubim. 8 The cherubim were spreading their wings over the place for the Ark, so that the cherubim covered the Ark and its poles from above. 9 The poles were so long that the ends of the poles could be seen from the Holy Place[e] in front of the inner sanctuary, but they could not be seen from outside. They are there to this day.
10 There was nothing in the Ark except the two tablets which Moses placed there at Horeb, where the Lord had made a covenant with the people of Israel when they came out of Egypt.
11 The priests then came out from the Holy Place. (All the priests who were present had consecrated themselves. They did not remain separated by their divisions.)
12 The levitical musicians, the divisions of Asaph, Heman, and Jeduthun, including their sons and their relatives, were standing east of the altar. They were clothed in fine linen and had their cymbals, harps, and lyres with them. With them there were also one hundred twenty priests who blew trumpets.
13 The trumpeters and the singers joined together as one to praise and give thanks to the Lord. As they raised their voices to praise the Lord, accompanied by trumpets, cymbals, and other musical instruments, they sang:
Truly, he is good, because his mercy endures forever.
Then the sanctuary of the House of the Lord was filled with a cloud. 14 The priests were not able to take their positions to minister because of the presence of the cloud, because the Glory of the Lord had filled the House of God.
Solomon’s Speech and Prayer of Dedication
6 Then Solomon said, “The Lord has said that he dwells in thick darkness, 2 but I have truly built a majestic house for you, a place for you to dwell in forever.”
3 Then the king turned and blessed the whole assembly of Israel, while the whole assembly of Israel was standing there. 4 Then Solomon said:
Blessed be the Lord, the God of Israel.
What he said with his mouth to my father David,
he has fulfilled with his hands.
5 The Lord said, “From the day I brought my people out from the land of Egypt, I did not choose a city from all the tribes of Israel to build a house for my Name to be there. I did not choose a man to be ruler over my people Israel. 6 But now I have chosen Jerusalem as the place where my Name will be, and I have chosen David to be over my people Israel.”
7 It was on my father David’s heart to build a house for the Name of the Lord, the God of Israel. 8 However, the Lord said to my father David, “That it was on your heart to build a house for my Name was a good thing to have on your heart, 9 but you will not build the house. Your son, who will come from your own body, will build the house for my Name.”
10 So the Lord kept his word which he had spoken, and I arose in the place of my father David. Now I am seated on the throne of Israel just as the Lord said. I have built this house for the Name of the Lord, the God of Israel. 11 There I have placed the Ark, which contains the covenant of the Lord, which he made with the people of Israel.
Test the Spirits
4 Dear friends, do not believe every spirit, but test the spirits to see if they are from God, for many false prophets have gone out into the world. 2 This is how you can recognize the Spirit of God: Every spirit who confesses that Jesus Christ has come in the flesh is from God, 3 and every spirit who does not confess Jesus[a] is not from God. This is the spirit of the Antichrist, which you have heard is coming and is already in the world. 4 You are from God, dear children, and you have overcome the false prophets,[b] because the one in you is greater than the one in the world. 5 They are from the world. That is why they speak from a worldly perspective and the world listens to them. 6 We are from God. The one who knows God listens to us, but whoever is not from God does not listen to us. That is how we can distinguish 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. Everyone who loves has been born of God and knows God. 8 The one who does not love has not known God, because God is love. 9 This is how God’s love for us was revealed: God has sent his only-begotten Son into the world so that we may live through him. 10 This is love: not that we have loved God, but that he loved us and sent his Son to be the atoning sacrifice for our sins. 11 Dear friends, if God loved us so much, we also should love one another.
12 No one has ever seen God. If we love one another, God remains in us and his love has been brought to its goal in us. 13 This is how we know that we remain in him and he in us: He has given us of his Spirit. 14 We have seen and testify that the Father has sent his Son to be the Savior of the world. 15 If anyone confesses that Jesus is the Son of God, God remains in him and he in God. 16 We also have come to know and trust the love that God has for us.
God is love. Whoever remains in love remains in God and God in him. 17 In this way his love has been brought to its goal among us, so that we may have confidence on the day of judgment, because in this world we are just like Jesus.[c] 18 There is no fear in love, but complete love drives out fear, because fear has to do with punishment. The one who continues to be afraid has not been brought to the goal in love.
19 We love[d] because he first loved us. 20 If anyone says, “I love God,” but hates his brother, he is a liar. For how can anyone who does not love his brother, whom he has seen,[e] love God, whom he has not seen? 21 This then is the command we have from him: The one who loves God should also love his brother.
Woe to Nineveh
3 Woe to the city of bloodshed! She is full of lies. She is filled with plunder. She is never without victims.
2 The crack of a whip! The clatter of wheels! Galloping horses and bouncing chariots! 3 Horsemen charging! Glittering swords! Flashing spears! Many wounded! Piles of carcasses! There is no end to the corpses—so many that people stumble over them.
4 All this is because of the many promiscuous deeds of the prostitute, a beautiful and pleasing mistress of all kinds of sorcery,[a] who sells nations into slavery with her promiscuity and clans of people with her sorcery.
5 Beware! I am against you, declares the Lord of Armies. I will strip off your clothes! I will expose your nakedness to the nations and your shame to the kingdoms. 6 I will pelt you with filth.[b] I will treat you with contempt. I will make you a public spectacle. 7 Everyone who sees you will turn away from you in disgust and say, “Nineveh has been devastated! Who will express grief for her? Where can I find someone to comfort you?”
8 Are you better[c] than Thebes?[d] She was located on the banks of the Nile. The waters surrounded her. Her strength was the sea, and her walls were the water. 9 Cush and Egypt had limitless strength. Put and the Libyans were among her allies. 10 Yet even she went into exile. Even her infants were smashed to pieces on every street corner. They cast lots to win her dignitaries. All her great men were bound with chains.
11 You too will be drunk and will hide yourself. You too will seek refuge from the enemy.
12 All your fortifications will be like fig trees with ripe fruit. If they are shaken, their figs will fall right into the mouth of the one who eats them. 13 Look! The troops among you are women in the face of your enemies.[e] The gates of your land will be wide open. Fire will consume the bars of your gates.
14 Draw water to prepare yourselves for a siege! Strengthen your fortifications! Trample the mud and tread the clay! Make mud bricks to strengthen your walls!
15 There the fire will consume you. There the sword will cut you down. It will devour you as a swarm of grasshoppers would, even if you heap up your numbers like swarms of grasshoppers and locusts. 16 You have increased your merchants so that they are more than the stars of heaven! But they are like grasshoppers, which spread out and fly away. 17 Your courtiers are like locusts. Your field marshals are like swarming locusts! They camp in the walls on a cold day. Yet when the sun rises, they fly away, and no one knows where they are.
18 King of Assyria, your shepherds are drowsy! Your powerful men slumber! Your people are scattered on the mountains, and there are none left to gather together.[f]
19 There is no healing for your wound. Your injury is fatal! All who hear what has happened to you will clap their hands for joy, for no one ever escaped your endless cruelty!
Zacchaeus
19 Jesus entered Jericho and was passing through. 2 A man named Zacchaeus was there. He was a chief tax collector, and he was rich. 3 He was trying to see who Jesus was, but since he was short, he could not see because of the crowd. 4 He ran on ahead and climbed up into a sycamore tree to see Jesus, because he was about to pass by that way. 5 When Jesus came to the place, he looked up and said to him, “Zacchaeus, hurry and come down, for I must stay at your house today.” 6 He came down quickly and welcomed Jesus joyfully. 7 When the people saw it, they were all grumbling because he went to be a guest of a sinful man.
8 Zacchaeus stood up and said to the Lord, “Look, Lord, I am going to give half of my possessions to the poor. And if I have cheated anyone out of anything, I will pay back four times as much.”
9 Jesus said to him, “Today, salvation has come to this house, because he too is a son of Abraham. 10 For the Son of Man came to seek and to save the lost.”
Parable of the Ten Minas
11 As they were listening to these things, Jesus went on to tell a parable, because he was near Jerusalem, and the people thought that the kingdom of God was going to appear at once. 12 So he said, “A man of noble birth traveled to a distant country to receive a kingdom for himself and then to return. 13 He called ten of his servants and gave them ten minas.[a] ‘Conduct business until I return,’ he said to them.
14 “But his subjects hated him and sent a delegation after him, saying, ‘We do not want this man to be king over us.’
15 “When he returned after receiving the kingdom, he summoned the servants to whom he had given the money. He wanted to find out what they had gained by conducting business.
16 “The first one came to him and said, ‘Master, your mina has earned ten more minas.’
17 “He said to him, ‘Well done, good servant! Because you were faithful in a very small matter, you will have authority over ten cities.’
18 “The second one came and said, ‘Master, your mina has produced five more minas.’
19 “So he said to him, ‘You will be over five cities.’
20 “And another one came and said, ‘Master, here is your mina that I laid away in a piece of cloth. 21 For I was afraid of you, since you are a demanding man. You take what you did not deposit and reap what you did not sow.’
22 “He said to him, ‘You wicked servant, I will judge you with your own words! You knew that I am a demanding man, taking what I did not deposit and reaping what I did not sow. 23 Then why did you not put my money in the bank? Then, when I returned, I could have collected it with interest!’
24 “He said to those standing there, ‘Take the mina away from him and give it to the one who has the ten minas.’
25 “But they said to him, ‘Master, he already has ten minas!’
26 “‘I tell you that to everyone who has, more will be given, but from the one who does not have, even what he has will be taken away. 27 Now as for those enemies of mine who did not want me to be king over them, bring them here and kill them in front of me.’”
Jesus’ Triumphal Entry Into Jerusalem
28 After Jesus had said these things, he went on ahead, going up to Jerusalem. 29 As he came near to Bethphage and Bethany, at the place called the Mount of Olives, he sent two of his disciples ahead, 30 saying, “Go to the village ahead of you. When you enter it, you will find a colt tied, on which no one has ever sat. Untie it and bring it here. 31 And if anyone asks you, ‘Why are you untying it?’ you will say this: ‘The Lord needs it.’”
32 Those who were sent ahead went and found things just as he had told them. 33 As they were untying the colt, its owners said to them, “Why are you untying the colt?”
34 They said, “The Lord needs it.”
35 Then they brought the colt to Jesus. They threw their robes on the colt and set Jesus on it. 36 As he went along, people spread their robes on the road. 37 As he was approaching the slope of the Mount of Olives, the whole crowd of disciples began to praise God joyfully, with a loud voice, for all the miracles they had seen, 38 saying, “Blessed is the King who comes in the name of the Lord![b] Peace in heaven and glory in the highest!”
39 Some of the Pharisees from the crowd said to him, “Teacher, rebuke your disciples!”
40 He replied, “I tell you, if these people would be silent, the stones would cry out.”
41 As he came near, he saw the city and wept over it. 42 He said, “If you, yes you, had only known on this day[c] the things that would bring peace to you. But now, it is hidden from your eyes. 43 In fact, the days will come upon you when your enemies will build an embankment against you, surround you, and hem you in on every side. 44 Within your walls, they will dash you and your children to the ground. And within your walls, they will not leave one stone on top of another, because you did not recognize the time when God came to help you.”[d]
Jesus Cleanses His Father’s House
45 Jesus entered the temple courts and began to drive out those who were selling[e] things there. 46 He told them, “It is written, ‘My house will be a house of prayer,’[f] but you have made it a ‘den of robbers’!”[g]
47 Every day he was teaching in the temple courts, but the chief priests, the experts in the law, and the leaders of the people continued to look for a way to put him to death. 48 They could not find any way to do it, because all the people were clinging to him and listening.
The Holy Bible, Evangelical Heritage Version®, EHV®, © 2019 Wartburg Project, Inc. All rights reserved.