M’Cheyne Bible Reading Plan

Jehoshaphat, King of Judah^[a]

17 Asa’s son Jehoshaphat ruled in his place. He strengthened his position against Israel and ² placed troops in all the fortified cities of Judah. He placed garrisons in the land of Judah and in the cities of Ephraim that his father Asa had captured.

³ The Lord was with Jehoshaphat because he walked in the ways that his father David walked in the beginning. He did not seek the Baals, ⁴ but he sought the God of his father, and he walked in his commandments. He did not follow the example of Israel. ⁵ So the Lord established the kingdom in his hand. All Judah gave tribute to Jehoshaphat. He had abundant riches and honor. ⁶ His heart was bold in the ways of the Lord. Furthermore, he removed the high places and the Asherah poles from Judah.

⁷ In the third year of his reign he sent his officials Ben Hail, Obadiah, Zechariah, Nethanel, and Micaiah to teach in the cities of Judah. ⁸ Along with them he sent these Levites: Shemaiah, Nethaniah, Zebadiah, Asahel, Shemiramoth, Jehonathan, Adonijah, Tobijah, and Tobadonijah, as well as the priests Elishama and Jehoram. ⁹ They taught in Judah. They took the Book of the Law^[b] of the Lord with them and traveled around through all the cities of Judah, teaching among the people.

¹⁰ The fear of the Lord fell upon all the kingdoms of the lands surrounding Judah. They did not wage war against Jehoshaphat. ¹¹ Some of the Philistines brought gifts and silver to Jehoshaphat as tribute. Also the Arabs brought flocks to him: seven thousand seven hundred rams and seven thousand seven hundred male goats.

¹² Jehoshaphat was continually becoming greater and greater. He built fortresses and towns for storehouses in Judah.

¹³ He had large amounts of supplies^[c] in the cities of Judah, and soldiers who were powerful warriors were stationed in Jerusalem. ¹⁴ Their numbers, based on their fathers’ houses, were as follows.

Belonging to Judah, these were the commanders of units of a thousand:

¹⁷ From Benjamin:

¹⁹ These were the men who served the king, in addition to those forces that the king had placed in the fortified cities throughout Judah.

The Vision of the Seven Seals: The First Four Seals

6 And I watched when the Lamb opened the first of the seven seals. And I heard one of the four living creatures say with a voice like thunder, “Come.”^[a]

² And I looked, and there was a white horse, and its rider held a bow. A crown was given to him, and he went out conquering and to conquer.

³ When the Lamb opened the second seal, I heard the second living creature say, “Come.”^{[b] 4} And another horse, a fiery red one, went out. Its rider was given power to take peace away from the earth so that people would slaughter one another. And a great sword was given to him.

⁵ When the Lamb opened the third seal, I heard the third living creature say, “Come.”^[c] And I looked, and there was a black horse. Its rider had a scale in his hand. ⁶ And I heard something like a voice from among the four living creatures say, “A quart^[d] of wheat for a denarius,^[e] and three quarts^[f] of barley for a denarius. And do not dilute^[g] the oil and the wine.”

⁷ When he opened the fourth seal, I heard the voice of the fourth living creature say, “Come.”^{[h] 8} And I looked, and there was a pale green horse. And its rider was named Death, and the Grave^[i] followed closely behind him. They were given power over a quarter of the earth, to kill people with the sword, with famine, with death, and by the wild animals of the earth.

The Fifth Seal: The Souls Under the Altar

⁹ When the Lamb opened the fifth seal, under the incense altar I saw the souls of those who had been slaughtered because of the word of God and because of the testimony they had maintained. ¹⁰ And they called out with a loud voice, saying, “O Lord, holy and true, how long until you judge and exact justice for our blood from those who live on the earth?” ¹¹ A white robe was given to each one of them. And they were told to rest a little longer until their number would be complete, when their fellow servants and their brothers^[j] would be put to death as they were.

The Sixth Seal: The Last Judgment

¹² And I watched when the Lamb opened the sixth seal. There was a great earthquake. The sun became as black as sackcloth made of hair. The entire moon became like blood. ¹³ The stars of the sky fell to the earth as a fig tree drops its unripe figs when it is shaken by a strong wind. ¹⁴ The sky was removed like a scroll being rolled up. Every mountain and island was moved from its place.

¹⁵ The kings of the earth, the nobles, the military leaders, the rich, the powerful, and everyone—slave or free—hid in caves and among the rocks of the mountains. ¹⁶ And they kept saying to the mountains and the rocks, “Fall on us and hide us from the face of him who sits on the throne and from the wrath of the Lamb, ¹⁷ for the great day of their^[k] wrath has come. Who is able to stand?”

The Third Vision: A Man With a Measuring Line

2 Then I looked up, and I saw a man standing there with a measuring line in his hand.^{[a] 2} I asked him, “Where are you going?”

He answered me, “To measure Jerusalem, to determine its width and its length.”

³ At that moment, when the angel who was speaking with me was about to leave, another angel came to meet him and ⁴ said, “Run and tell this young man that Jerusalem will be inhabited as a city without walls because of the large number of people and livestock in it. ⁵ For I myself will be a wall of fire around it, declares the Lord, and I will be the glory within it.”

Healing at the Pool

5 After this, there was a Jewish festival, and Jesus went up to Jerusalem.

² Near the Sheep Gate in Jerusalem there is a pool, called Bethesda^[a] in Aramaic,^[b] which has five colonnades. ³ Within these lay a large number of sick people—blind, lame, or paralyzed—who were waiting for the movement of the water. ⁴ For an angel would go down at certain times into the pool and stir up the water. Whoever stepped in first after the stirring of the water was healed of whatever disease he had.^{[c] 5} One man was there who had been sick for thirty-eight years. ⁶ When Jesus saw him lying there and knew he had already been sick a long time, he asked him, “Do you want to get well?”

⁷ “Sir,” the sick man answered, “I have no one to put me into the pool when the water is stirred up. While I’m going, someone else goes down ahead of me.”

⁸ Jesus said to him, “Get up! Pick up your mat and walk.” ⁹ Instantly the man was healed. He picked up his mat and walked.

That day was the Sabbath. ¹⁰ So the Jews told the man who had been healed, “This is the Sabbath! You are not permitted to carry your mat.”

¹¹ He answered them, “The one who made me well told me, ‘Pick up your mat and walk.’”

¹² Then they asked him, “Who is the man who told you, ‘Pick it up and walk’?” ¹³ But the man who was healed did not know who it was, for Jesus had slipped away into the crowd that was there.

¹⁴ Later Jesus found him in the temple and said to him, “Look, you are well now. Do not sin anymore so that nothing worse happens to you.”

¹⁵ The man went back and reported to the Jews that it was Jesus who made him well.

God’s Son

¹⁶ So the Jews began to persecute Jesus, because he was doing these things on the Sabbath. ¹⁷ But Jesus answered them, “My Father is working right up to the present time, and I am working too.”

¹⁸ This is why the Jews tried all the more to kill him, because he was not merely breaking the Sabbath, but was even calling God his own Father, making himself equal with God.

¹⁹ Jesus answered them directly, “Amen, Amen, I tell you: The Son can do nothing on his own, but only what he sees the Father doing. Indeed, the Son does exactly what the Father does. ²⁰ For the Father loves the Son and shows him everything he is doing. And he will show him even greater works than these so that you will be amazed. ²¹ For just as the Father raises the dead and gives them life, so also the Son gives life to those he wishes.

²² “In fact, the Father judges no one, but has entrusted all judgment to the Son, ²³ so that all should honor the Son just as they honor the Father. Whoever does not honor the Son does not honor the Father who sent him. ²⁴ Amen, Amen, I tell you: Anyone who hears my word and believes him who sent me has eternal life. He is not going to come into judgment but has crossed over from death to life.

²⁵ “Amen, Amen, I tell you: A time is coming and is here now when the dead will hear the voice of the Son of God, and those who listen will live. ²⁶ For just as the Father has life in himself, so also he has granted the Son to have life in himself. ²⁷ And he has given him authority to execute judgment, because he is the Son of Man.

²⁸ “Do not be amazed at this, for a time is coming when all who are in their graves will hear his voice ²⁹ and will come out. Those who have done good will rise to live, but those who have practiced evil will rise to be condemned. ³⁰ I can do nothing at all on my own. I judge only as I hear. And my judgment is just, for I do not seek my own will, but the will of him who sent me.

³¹ “If I were to testify about myself, my testimony would not be valid. ³² There is another who testifies about me, and I know that his testimony about me is valid. ³³ You sent to John, and he has testified to the truth. ³⁴ The testimony I receive is not from man, but I am saying these things so that you may be saved. ³⁵ John was a lamp that was shining brightly, and for a while you wanted to enjoy his light. ³⁶ But I have testimony greater than John’s. For the works that the Father gave me to carry out, the very works that I am doing, these testify about me that the Father has sent me. ³⁷ The Father who sent me—he is the one who has testified about me. You have never heard his voice or seen his form. ³⁸ And you do not have his word remaining in you, because you do not believe the one he sent. ³⁹ You search the Scriptures because you think you have eternal life in them. They testify about me! ⁴⁰ And yet you do not want to come to me in order to have life.

⁴¹ “I do not accept honor from people. ⁴² But I know you. I know that you do not have the love of God within you. ⁴³ I have come in my Father’s name, yet you do not accept me. If someone else comes in his own name, you will accept him. ⁴⁴ How can you believe while you continue to accept glory from one another and you do not seek the glory that comes from the only God?

⁴⁵ “Do not think that I will accuse you to the Father. The one who accuses you is Moses, on whom you have set your hope. ⁴⁶ For if you believed Moses, you would believe me, because he wrote about me. ⁴⁷ But if you do not believe his writings, how will you believe what I say?”