M’Cheyne Bible Reading Plan

The Outside of the Temple Is Completed

6 Solomon's workers started building the temple during Ziv,^[a] the second month of the year. It had been 4 years since Solomon became king of Israel, and 480 years since the people of Israel left Egypt.

² The inside of the Lord's temple was 27 meters long, 9 meters wide, and 13.5 meters high. ³ A four-and-a-half-meter porch went all the way across the front of the temple. ⁴ The windows were narrow on the outside but wide on the inside.

^5-6 Along the sides and back of the temple, there were three levels of storage rooms. The rooms on the bottom level were just over two meters wide, the rooms on the middle level were over two and a half meters wide, and those on the top level were just over three meters wide. There were ledges on the outside of the temple that supported the beams of the storage rooms, so that nothing was built into the temple walls.

⁷ Solomon did not want the noise of hammers and axes to be heard at the place where the temple was being built. So he gave orders for the workers to shape the blocks of stone at the quarry.

⁸ The entrance to the bottom storage rooms was on the south side of the building, and stairs to the other rooms were also there. ⁹ The roof of the temple was made out of beams and cedar boards.

The workers finished building the outside of the temple. ¹⁰ Storage rooms just over two meters high were all around the temple, and they were attached to the temple by cedar beams.

¹¹ The Lord told Solomon:

^12-13 If you obey my commands and do what I say, I will keep the promise I made to your father David. I will live among my people Israel in this temple you are building, and I will not desert them.

¹⁴ So Solomon's workers finished building the temple.

The Inside of the Temple Is Furnished

(2 Chronicles 3.8-14)

¹⁵ The floor of the temple was made out of pine, and the walls were lined with cedar from floor to ceiling.^[b]

^16 (A) The most holy place was in the back of the temple, and it was nine meters square. Cedar boards standing from floor to ceiling^[c] separated it from the rest of the temple. ¹⁷ The temple's main room was 18 meters long, and it was in front of the most holy place.

¹⁸ The inside walls were lined with cedar to hide the stones, and the cedar was decorated with carvings of gourds and flowers.

¹⁹ The sacred chest was kept in the most holy place. ^20-22 (B) This room was nine meters long, nine meters wide, and nine meters high, and it was lined with pure gold. There were also gold chains across the front of the most holy place. The inside of the temple, as well as the cedar altar in the most holy place, was covered with gold.

^23 (C) Solomon had two statues of winged creatures^[d] made from olive wood to put in the most holy place. Each creature was four and a half meters tall ^24-26 and four and a half meters across. They had two wings, and the wings were just over two meters long. ²⁷ Solomon put them next to each other in the most holy place. Their wings were spread out and reached across the room. ²⁸ The creatures were also covered with gold.

²⁹ The walls of the two rooms were decorated with carvings of palm trees, flowers, and winged creatures. ³⁰ Even the floor was covered with gold.

^31-32 The two doors to the most holy place were made out of olive wood and were decorated with carvings of palm trees, flowers, and winged creatures. The doors and the carvings were covered with gold. The door frame came to a point at the top.

^33-34 The two doors to the main room of the temple were made out of pine, and each one had two sections^[e] so they could fold open. The door frame was shaped like a rectangle and was made out of olive wood. ³⁵ The doors were covered with gold and were decorated with carvings of palm trees, flowers, and winged creatures.

³⁶ The inner courtyard of the temple had walls made out of three layers of cut stones with one layer of cedar beams.

³⁷ Work began on the temple during Ziv,^[f] the second month of the year, four years after Solomon became king of Israel. ³⁸ Seven years later the workers finished building it during Bul,^[g] the eighth month of the year. It was built exactly as it had been planned.

Paul's Mission to the Gentiles

3 Christ Jesus made me his prisoner, so I could help you Gentiles. ² You have surely heard about God's gift of undeserved grace in choosing me to help you. ³ In fact, this letter tells you a little about how God has shown me his mysterious ways. ^4 (A) As you read the letter, you will also find out how well I really do understand the mystery about Christ. ⁵ No one knew about this mystery until God's Spirit told it to his holy apostles and prophets. ⁶ And the mystery is this: Because of Christ Jesus, the good news has given the Gentiles a share in the promises God gave to the Jews. God has also let the Gentiles be part of the same body.

⁷ God treated me with kindness. His power worked in me, and it became my job to spread the good news. ⁸ I am the least important of all God's people. But God was kind and chose me to tell the Gentiles that because of Christ there are blessings that cannot be measured. ^9 (B) God, who created everything, wanted me to help everyone understand the mysterious plan that had always been hidden in his mind. ¹⁰ Then God would use the church to show the powers and authorities in the spiritual world that he has many different kinds of wisdom.

¹¹ God did this according to his eternal plan. And he was able to do what he had planned because of all Christ Jesus our Lord had done. ¹² Christ now gives us courage and confidence, so we can come to God by faith. ¹³ This is why you should not be discouraged when I suffer for you. After all, it will bring honor to you.

Christ's Love for Us

¹⁴ I kneel in prayer to the Father. ¹⁵ All beings in heaven and on earth receive their life from him.^{[a] 16} God is wonderful and glorious. I pray that his Spirit will make you become strong followers ¹⁷ and that Christ will live in your hearts because of your faith. Stand firm and be deeply rooted in his love. ^18 (C) I pray that you and all God's people will understand what is called wide or long or high or deep.^{[b] 19} I want you to know all about Christ's love, although it is too wonderful to be measured. Then your lives will be filled with all that God is.

^20-21 I pray that Christ Jesus and the church will forever bring praise to God. His power at work in us can do far more than we dare ask or imagine. Amen.

A Message for Israel's Mountains

36 The Lord said:

Ezekiel, son of man, tell the mountains of Israel ² that I, the Lord God, am saying:

Your enemies sneered and said that you mountains belonged to them. ³ They ruined and crushed you from every side, and foreign nations captured and made fun of you. ⁴ So all you mountains and hills, streams and valleys, listen to what I will do. Your towns may now lie in ruins, and nations may laugh and insult you. ⁵ But in my fierce anger, I will turn against those nations, and especially the Edomites, because they laughed at you the loudest and took over your pasturelands. ⁶ You have suffered long enough, and, I, the Lord God, am very angry! Nations have insulted you, ⁷ so I will now insult and disgrace them. That is my solemn promise.

⁸ Trees will grow on you mountains of Israel and produce fruit for my people, because they will soon come home. ⁹ I will take care of you by plowing your soil and planting crops on your fertile slopes. ¹⁰ The people of Israel will return and rebuild your ruined towns and live in them. ¹¹ Children will be born, and animals will give birth to their young. You will no longer be deserted as you are now, but you will be covered with people and treated better than ever. Then you will know that I am the Lord.

¹² I will bring my people Israel home, and they will live on you mountains, because you belong to them, and your fertile slopes will never again let them starve. ¹³ It's true that you have been accused of not producing enough food and of letting your people starve. ^14-15 But I, the Lord, promise that you won't hear other nations laugh and sneer at you ever again. From now on, you will always produce plenty of food for your people. I, the Lord God, have spoken.

The Lord Will Be Honored

¹⁶ The Lord said:

¹⁷ Ezekiel, son of man, when the people of Israel were living in their own country, they made the land unclean by the way they behaved, just as a woman's monthly period makes her unclean. ¹⁸ They committed murders and worshiped idols, which made the land even worse. So in my anger, I punished my people ¹⁹ and scattered them throughout the nations, just as they deserved. ²⁰ Wherever they went, my name was disgraced, because foreigners insulted my people by saying I had forced them out of their own land.

²¹ I care what those foreigners think of me, ²² so tell the Israelites that I am saying:

You have disgraced my holy name among the nations where you now live. So you don't deserve what I'm going to do for you. I will lead you home to bring honor to my name ²³ and to show foreign nations that I am holy. Then they will know that I am the Lord God. I have spoken.

²⁴ I will gather you from the foreign nations and bring you home. ²⁵ I will sprinkle you with clean water, and you will be clean and acceptable to me. I will wash away everything that makes you unclean, and I will remove your disgusting idols. ^26 (A) I will take away your stubborn heart and give you a new heart and a desire to be faithful. You will have only pure thoughts, ²⁷ because I will put my Spirit in you and make you eager to obey my laws and teachings. ²⁸ You will once again live in the land I gave your ancestors; you will be my people, and I will be your God.

²⁹ I will protect you from anything that makes you unclean. Your fields will overflow with grain, and no one will starve. ³⁰ Your trees will be filled with fruit, and crops will grow in your fields, so that you will never again feel ashamed for not having enough food. ³¹ You will remember your evil ways and hate yourselves for what you've done. ³² People of Israel, I'm not doing these things for your sake. You sinned against me, and you must suffer shame and disgrace for what you have done. I, the Lord God, have spoken.

³³ After I have made you clean, I will let you rebuild your ruined towns and let you live in them. ³⁴ Your land will be plowed again, and nobody will be able to see that it was once barren. ³⁵ Instead, they will say that it looks as beautiful as the garden of Eden. They won't see towns lying in ruins, but they will see your strong cities filled with people. ³⁶ Then the nearby nations that survive will know that I am the one who rebuilt the ruined places and replanted the barren fields. I, the Lord, make this promise.

³⁷ I will once again answer your prayers, and I will let your nation grow until you are like a large flock of sheep. ³⁸ The towns that now lie in ruins will be filled with people, just as Jerusalem was once filled with sheep to be offered as sacrifices during a festival. Then you will know that I am the Lord.

(A prayer by David.)

A Prayer for Help