M’Cheyne Bible Reading Plan
12 Then Solomon stood in front of the altar of the Lord, in the presence of the whole assembly of Israel, and spread out his hands.
13 Solomon had made a bronze platform and had placed it in the middle of the courtyard. It was seven and a half feet by seven and a half feet square, and four and a half feet tall. He stood on it. Then he knelt in the presence of the whole assembly of Israel, spread out his hands toward heaven, 14 and said:
O Lord, God of Israel, there is no God like you in the heavens above and on the earth below. You keep the covenant of mercy and faithfulness with your servants who walk before you with all their heart. 15 You have kept the word which you spoke to your servant, my father David. What you have said with your mouth, you have fulfilled with your hand, as can be seen today.
16 Now, Lord God of Israel, guard for your servant, my father David, the promise you made to him when you said, “You will never fail to have a man sitting on the throne of Israel in my presence, if your sons guard their ways by walking in my law just as you have walked before me.”
17 Now, O God of Israel, let the words which you spoke to your servant, my father David, be confirmed.
18 But will God really dwell with man on the earth? Truly, the heavens, even the highest heaven, cannot contain you! How much less this house which I have built! 19 But turn your face toward the prayer of your servant and to his plea for mercy. O Lord my God, listen to the cry and to the prayer that your servant offers before you.
20 Let your eyes be open toward this house day and night, toward the place where you have promised to set your Name and to listen to the prayer that your servant offers toward this place.
21 When you hear your servant’s pleas for mercy and those of your people Israel when they pray toward this place, then hear in your dwelling place in heaven—hear and forgive.
The Petitions[a]
22 If a man sins against his neighbor, and his neighbor places him under an oath, and the oath is presented before your altar in this house, 23 then hear from heaven and take action. Provide justice for your servants by repaying the guilty person and bringing his ways down on his own head, and by declaring the righteous person innocent and dealing with him according to his righteousness.
24 If your people Israel are defeated by their enemies because they sinned against you, and they return to you and praise your Name and pray and seek your favor in this house, 25 then hear in heaven and forgive the sin of your people Israel and bring them back to the land which you gave to them and to their fathers.
26 When the heavens are shut up and there is no rain because they sinned against you, and then they pray toward this place, praise your Name, and turn from their sin because you have humbled them, 27 then hear from heaven and forgive the sin of your servants and your people Israel, for you teach them the good way in which they are to walk. Provide rain upon our land, which you have given to your people as an inheritance.
28 When there is famine in the land, when there is plague, when there is blight or mildew, or locusts or grasshoppers, or when their enemies are in the land besieging their gates, or when any disease or any sickness is present, 29 hear every prayer and every plea for mercy from each individual and from your whole people Israel, because each person knows his own affliction and his own sorrow. When he stretches out his hands toward this house, 30 then hear from heaven, your dwelling place. Forgive and give to each man according to his ways,[b] since you know his heart. You alone know the heart of everyone, 31 so that they fear you and walk in your ways all the days they live on the soil that you gave to our fathers.
32 Also for the foreigner, who is not one of your people Israel, but who comes from a distant land because of your great Name, your mighty hand, and your outstretched arm, and who comes and prays toward this house, 33 for that foreigner, hear in heaven, which is your dwelling place, and do everything for which that foreigner cries out to you, so that all the peoples of the earth may know your Name and fear you, just as your people Israel do, because they know that your Name is proclaimed in this house that I have built.
34 When your people go out for battle against their enemies on whatever way you send them, and they pray to you, facing toward this city which you have chosen and toward the house which I have built for your Name, 35 then from heaven hear their prayer and their plea for mercy, and provide justice for them.
36 When they sin against you (for there is no one who does not sin), and you become angry with them, and you give them up to an enemy, and they are taken captive to a land whether far or near, 37 when they come to their senses in the land to which they were carried, and they repent and plead to you for mercy in the land where they were exiled, and they say, “We have sinned. We have been guilty, and we have done evil,” 38 and they return to you with all their heart and with all their soul in the land where they are exiled, and they pray toward their land which you gave to their fathers, and toward the city which you have chosen, and toward the house which I have built for your Name, 39 then from heaven, from your dwelling place, hear their prayer and their plea for mercy and provide justice for them, and forgive your people, who have sinned against you.
40 Now please, my God, I ask that your eyes will be open and your ears attentive to prayer offered at this place.
41 Now arise, Lord God, to enter your resting place—you and the ark of your power. May your priests, Lord God, be clothed with salvation. May your faithful ones rejoice in goodness. 42 Lord God, you will not turn away the face of your anointed one. Remember the mercy promised to your servant David.
Faith, Love, and Obedience
5 Everyone who believes that Jesus is the Christ has been born of God, and everyone who loves the God who has given birth[a] also loves one who has been born of him. 2 This is how we know that we love the children of God: when we love God and keep his commands. 3 In fact, this is love for God: that we keep his commands. And his commands are not burdensome, 4 because everyone who has been born of God overcomes the world. This is the victory that has overcome the world: our faith. 5 Who is the one who overcomes the world? Only the one who believes that Jesus is the Son of God.
6 This is the one who came by water and blood: Jesus Christ. He did not come by the water alone but by the water and by the blood. The Spirit is the one who testifies, because the Spirit is the truth. 7 In fact, there are three that testify:[b] 8 the Spirit, the water, and the blood, and these three are one.
9 If we accept the testimony of people, God’s testimony is even greater, because it is the testimony that God gave about his Son. 10 The one who believes in the Son of God has this testimony in him, but the one who does not believe has made God out to be a liar, because he has not believed in the testimony that God gave about his Son. 11 This is the testimony: God has given us eternal life, and this life is in his Son. 12 The one who has the Son has life. The one who does not have the Son of God does not have life. 13 I have written these things to you who believe in the name of the Son of God so that you may know that you have eternal life.
14 This is the confidence that we have before him: that if we ask anything according to his will, he hears us. 15 And if we know that he hears us—whatever we ask—we also know that we receive the things we have asked from him.
16 If anyone sees his brother committing a sin that does not result in death, he will ask, and God will give life—to those who commit sin that does not result in death. There is sin that results in death; I am not saying that he should ask about that. 17 All unrighteousness is sin, but there is sin that does not result in death.
18 We know that anyone who has been born of God does not go on sinning. But the one who was born of God protects him,[c] and the Evil One cannot take hold of him. 19 We know that we are from God and that the whole world lies in the grip of the Evil One. 20 We know that the Son of God has come and has given us understanding so that we may know him who is true. And we are in him who is true, in his Son, Jesus Christ. He is the true God and eternal life.
21 Dear children, guard yourselves from idols.
1 The threatening oracle which the prophet Habakkuk saw.
Habakkuk’s Question
2 How long, Lord, must I cry for help, but you do not listen?
I call out to you, “Violence!” but you do not save!
3 Why do you cause me to see injustice?
Why do you overlook misery?
Devastation and violence confront me.
There is strife, and tensions rise.
4 For this reason the law has become powerless.[a]
Justice is never carried out.
In fact, the wicked overwhelm the righteous
so that justice is perverted.
The Lord Answers
5 Look at the nations and pay attention! Be completely dumbfounded, because I will do something in your lifetime that you will not believe, even though you are warned ahead of time. 6 Watch, I am raising up the Chaldeans,[b] that savage, reckless nation. They will sweep across the whole width of the earth, seizing lands and homes that do not belong to them. 7 They are frightening and terrifying. They invent their own standard of justice and their own values. 8 Their horses are quicker than leopards and fiercer than wolves that prowl at night. Their war horses come galloping. Their war horses come from far away. They fly like vultures[c] swooping down to devour. 9 All of them come to commit violence. Their hordes blow by like the desert wind[d] and sweep up prisoners like sand. 10 They mock kings, and rulers are subjected to scorn. They laugh at every fortified city. They heap up siege ramps and capture cities. 11 But then the wind blows and passes over them,[e] and they will bear their guilt—these men whose own strength is their god.
Habakkuk Replies
12 Are you not from ancient times, O Lord?
My God, my Holy One, you will not die.[f]
Lord, you have made them your instrument of judgment.
You, our Rock, have established them as your instrument of discipline.[g]
13 You whose eyes are too pure to tolerate evil,
you who are not able to condone wrongdoing,
why do you put up with treacherous people?
Why do you keep silent when the wicked swallow up those who are more righteous than they are?
14 You treat people like fish in the sea,
like creeping creatures that have no ruler.
15 The wicked man[h] pulls them all up on a fishhook.
He hauls them in with a net.
He gathers them with his dragnet and is very happy about it.
16 Therefore he offers sacrifices to his nets
and burns incense to his dragnet,
because, through these, his catch is large,
and his food is plentiful.
17 Will he empty one net after another
and continue to destroy nations without sparing any?
Jesus’ Authority Is Questioned
20 One day, as Jesus was teaching the people in the temple courts and preaching the good news, the chief priests and experts in the law came to him with the elders. 2 They asked him, “Tell us by what authority you are doing these things. Or who is the one who gave you this authority?”
3 He answered them, “I will also ask you one question. Tell me: 4 the baptism of John—was it from heaven or from men?”
5 They discussed it with one another, saying, “If we say, ‘From heaven,’ he will say, ‘Why did you not believe him?’ 6 But if we say, ‘From men,’ all the people will stone us, for they are convinced that John was a prophet.” 7 So they answered that they did not know where it was from.
8 Jesus said to them, “Neither am I going to tell you by what authority I am doing these things.”
The Parable of the Wicked Tenants
9 He began to tell the people this parable: “A man planted a vineyard, leased it to some tenant farmers, and went away on a journey for a long time. 10 When it was the right time, he sent a servant to the tenants to collect his share of the fruit of the vineyard. But the tenant farmers beat the servant and sent him away empty-handed. 11 The man went ahead and sent yet another servant, but they also beat him, treated him shamefully, and sent him away empty-handed. 12 He then sent yet a third. They also wounded him and threw him out. 13 The owner of the vineyard said, ‘What should I do? I will send my son, whom I love. Perhaps they will respect him.’
14 “But when the tenant farmers saw him, they talked it over with one another. They said, ‘This is the heir. Let’s kill him, so that the inheritance will be ours.’ 15 They threw him out of the vineyard and killed him. So what will the owner of the vineyard do to them? 16 He will come and destroy those tenant farmers and give the vineyard to others.”
When they heard this, they said, “May it never be!”
17 But he looked at them and said, “Then what about this that is written:
The stone that the builders rejected has become the cornerstone?[a]
18 “Everyone who falls on that stone will be broken to pieces, and it will crush the one on whom it falls.”
19 That very hour the chief priests and the experts in the law began looking for a way to lay hands on him, because they knew he had spoken this parable against them. But they were afraid of the people.
Paying Taxes to Caesar
20 They watched him carefully and sent spies, who pretended to be sincere, so that they could trap Jesus in something he said, and then deliver him up to the power and authority of the governor. 21 They questioned him, “Teacher, we know that you say and teach what is right and show no partiality to anyone, but you teach the way of God on the basis of the truth. 22 Is it right for us to pay taxes to Caesar or not?”
23 But he was aware of their deceit and said to them, 24 “Show me a denarius.[b] Whose image and inscription are on it?”
“Caesar’s,” they answered.
25 He said to them, “Then give to Caesar the things that are Caesar’s, and to God the things that are God’s.”
26 They were not able to trap him in what he said in the presence of the people. They were amazed at his answer and became silent.
The God of the Living
27 Some of the Sadducees (who say there is no resurrection) came to him. 28 They asked him a question, “Teacher, Moses wrote for us that if a man’s brother dies leaving a wife but no children, his brother should take the wife and raise up children for his brother.[c] 29 So there were seven brothers. The first took a wife and died childless. 30 The second took her as a wife,[d] 31 and so did the third, and in the same way the seven died and left no children. 32 Finally the woman died too. 33 So in the resurrection, whose wife will she be? For the seven had her as a wife.”
34 Jesus said to them, “The people of this age marry and are given in marriage. 35 But those who are considered worthy to experience that age and the resurrection from the dead neither marry nor are given in marriage. 36 In fact, they cannot die any more, for they are like the angels. They are sons of God, because they are sons of the resurrection.
37 “Even Moses showed in the account about the burning bush that the dead are raised, when he called the Lord: ‘The God of Abraham, the God of Isaac, and the God of Jacob.’[e] 38 He is not the God of the dead, but of the living, for all are alive to him.”
39 Some of the experts in the law answered, “Teacher, you have spoken well.” 40 Then they no longer dared to ask him anything.
David’s Son and David’s Lord
41 Jesus said to them, “How is it that they say that the Christ is David’s son? 42 David himself says in the book of Psalms:
The Lord said to my Lord,
“Sit at my right hand, 43 until I make your enemies
a footstool under your feet.”[f]
44 “So David calls him ‘Lord.’ Then how is he his son?”
Beware
45 While all the people were listening, Jesus said to his disciples, 46 “Beware of the experts in the law, who like to walk around in long robes and love greetings in the marketplaces, the best seats in the synagogues, and the places of honor at banquets. 47 They devour widows’ houses and offer long prayers to look good. They will receive greater condemnation.”
The Holy Bible, Evangelical Heritage Version®, EHV®, © 2019 Wartburg Project, Inc. All rights reserved.