M’Cheyne Bible Reading Plan

Secession of the Northern Tribes^(A)

12 Rehoboam traveled to Shechem because all of Israel went there to install him as king. ² Nebat’s son Jeroboam heard about it while he was still in Egypt, where he had fled to get away from King Solomon. Jeroboam returned from Egypt ³ after being summoned. When Jeroboam and the entire assembly of Israel arrived, they spoke to Rehoboam, ⁴ “Your father made our burdens unbearable.^[a] Therefore lighten your father’s requirements and his heavy burdens that he placed on us, and we’ll serve you.”

⁵ “Come again in three days,” Rehoboam^[b] told them. So the people left ⁶ while King Rehoboam conferred with his advisors who had worked for his father Solomon during his administration. He asked them, “What is your advice as to how I should respond to these people?”

⁷ They advised him, “If today you are a servant, you will serve this people by answering them and speaking kindly to them. Then they will serve you forever.”

⁸ But Rehoboam^[c] ignored the counsel that his elder advisors had given him. Instead, he consulted the younger men who had grown up with him and who worked for^[d] him. ⁹ As a result, he asked them, “What’s your advice so that we can give an answer to these people who have asked me, ‘Please lighten the burden that your father put on us.’?”

¹⁰ “This is what you should tell these people who asked you ‘Your father made our burden heavy, but you must make it lighter for us!’” the young men who grew up with Rehoboam^[e] replied. “Tell them, ‘My little finger will be thicker than my father’s whole body!^{[f] 11} Not only that, but since my father loaded you down heavily, I’m going to add to that burden. My father disciplined you with whips, but I’m going to discipline you with scorpions!’”

¹² So Jeroboam and all the people went back to Rehoboam on the third day, just as they had been directed when the king said, “Come back again in three days.” ¹³ But the king gave the people a harsh response, because he was ignoring the counsel that his elders had given him. ¹⁴ Instead, Rehoboam^[g] spoke to them along the lines of what the younger men suggested. He told them, “My father burdened you heavily, but I will add to that burden. If my father disciplined you with whips, I’m going to discipline you with scorpions!”

¹⁵ The king would not listen to the people, because the turn of events was from the Lord, to fulfill his prediction that the Lord spoke by means of Ahijah the Shilonite to Nebat’s son Jeroboam. ¹⁶ When all of Israel saw that the king wasn’t listening to them, the people responded to the king’s message, “What’s the point in following David? We have no inheritance in the descendants of Jesse. Let’s go home,^[h] Israel! David, take care of your own household!’ So Israel left for home.^{[i] 17} And so Rehoboam ruled over the Israelis who lived in the cities of Judah.

¹⁸ King Rehoboam sent Hadoram, who was in charge of conscripted labor, but all of Israel stoned him to death, and King Rehoboam had to jump in his chariot and flee back in a hurry to Jerusalem. ¹⁹ That’s how Israel came to be in rebellion against David’s dynasty to this day.

Jeroboam Reigns over Israel^(B)

²⁰ Now when all of Israel heard that Jeroboam had returned, they sent for him and invited him to visit their assembly, where they installed him as king over all of Israel. Nobody (with the sole exception of the tribe of Judah) would align with David’s dynasty. ²¹ As soon as Rehoboam returned to Jerusalem, he assembled 180,000 elite soldiers from the tribes of Judah and Benjamin, intending to attack the dynasty of Israel and restore the kingdom to Solomon’s son Rehoboam. ²² But a message from God came to Shemaiah, a man of God: ²³ “Tell Solomon’s son Rehoboam, king of Judah, all the dynasty of Judah, Benjamin, and the rest of the people, ²⁴ ‘This is what the Lord says: “You are not to fight or even approach your fellow Israelis in battle. Every soldier is to return to his own home, because this development comes from me.”’” So they listened to what the Lord had to say and returned home,^[j] just as the Lord had directed.

Jeroboam’s Idolatry

²⁵ Later on, Jeroboam fortified Shechem in the hill country of Ephraim and lived there. He also expanded from there and built Penuel. ²⁶ Jeroboam was thinking to himself, “The kingdom is about to return to David’s control.^{[k] 27} If these people keep going up to Jerusalem to offer sacrifices to the Lord there, the hearts of these people will return to their lord, King Rehoboam of Judah. Then they’ll kill me and return to Rehoboam, king of Judah!” ²⁸ So the king sought some advice and then built two golden calves and announced, “It’s too difficult for you to travel to Jerusalem. So here are your gods, Israel, who brought you up from the land of Egypt!” ²⁹ He set one of them in Bethel and placed the other one in Dan. ³⁰ Doing this was sinful, because the people traveled as far as Dan to appear before one of their idols.^{[l] 31} Jeroboam^[m] built temples on the high places, and appointed his own priests from the fringe elements of the people who were not descendants of Levi.

³² Jeroboam invented a festival for the fifteenth day of the eighth month similar to the festival that takes place in Judah. He approached the altar that he had set up in Bethel and sacrificed to the calves that he had made, having stationed in Bethel the priests that he had appointed. ³³ Then, on the fifteenth day of the eighth month, he went up to burn incense on the altar that he had set up in Bethel, thus beginning the festival that he had made up out of his own heart for the Israelis.

Warning against Pride

3 So then,^[a] my brothers, keep on rejoicing in the Lord. It is no trouble for me to write the same things to you; indeed, it is for your safety.

² Beware of the dogs! Beware of the evil workers! Beware of the mutilators!^{[b] 3} For it is we who are the circumcision^[c]—we who worship in the Spirit of God^[d] and find our joy in the Messiah^[e] Jesus. We have not placed any confidence in the flesh, ⁴ although I could have confidence in the flesh. If anyone thinks he can place confidence in the flesh, I have more reason to think so.^{[f] 5} Having been circumcised on the eighth day, I am of the nation of Israel, from the tribe of Benjamin, a Hebrew of Hebrews. As far as the Law is concerned, I was a Pharisee. ⁶ As for my zeal, I was a persecutor of the church. As far as righteousness in the Law is concerned, I was blameless.

⁷ But whatever things were assets to me, these I now consider a loss for the sake of the Messiah.^{[g] 8} What is more, I continue to consider all these things to be a loss for the sake of what is far more valuable, knowing the Messiah^[h] Jesus, my Lord. It is because of him that I have experienced the loss of all those things. Indeed, I consider them rubbish^[i] in order to gain the Messiah^{[j] 9} and be found in him, not having a righteousness of my own that comes from the Law, but one that comes through the faithfulness^[k] of the Messiah,^[l] the righteousness that comes from God and that depends on faith. ¹⁰ I want to know the Messiah^[m]—what his resurrection power is like and what it means to share in his sufferings by becoming like him in his death, ¹¹ though I hope to experience the resurrection from the dead.

Pursuing the Goal

¹² It’s not that I have already reached this goal or have already become perfect. But I keep pursuing it, hoping somehow to embrace it just as I have been embraced by the Messiah^[n] Jesus. ¹³ Brothers, I do not consider myself to have embraced it yet.^[o] But this one thing I do: Forgetting what lies behind and straining forward to what lies ahead, ¹⁴ I keep pursuing the goal to win the prize^[p] of God’s heavenly call in the Messiah^[q] Jesus.

¹⁵ Therefore, those of us who are mature^[r] should think this way. And if you think differently about anything, God will show you how to think.^{[s] 16} However, we should live up to what we have achieved so far.

True and False Teachers

¹⁷ Join together in imitating me, brothers, and pay close attention to those who live by the example we have set for you.^{[t] 18} For I have often told you, and now tell you even with tears, that many live as enemies of the cross of the Messiah.^{[u] 19} Their destiny is destruction, their god is their belly, and their glory is in their shame. Their minds are set on worldly things.

²⁰ Our citizenship, however, is in heaven, and it is from there that we eagerly wait for a Savior, the Lord Jesus, the Messiah.^{[v] 21} He will change our unassuming bodies and make them like his glorious body through the power that enables him to bring everything under his authority.

The Vision of the Outer Court

42 Then he brought me to the outer, north-facing courtyard into the chamber that stood opposite the structure that was facing north. ² It stood 100 cubits^[a] long and 50 cubits^[b] wide, with a door in the middle.^{[c] 3} Opposite the 20 cubits^[d] wide inner court, and opposite the paved area that comprised the outer court, there were three stories of galleries that faced each other. ⁴ In front of the chambers there was an inner walkway ten cubits wide and 100 cubits^[e] wide, the openings to which were on the^[f] north. ⁵ The upper chambers were narrower, since the galleries required more space than did the lower and middle portions of the building. ⁶ The three part structure had no columns, unlike the courts, which is why the upper chambers were offset from the ground upward, more so than the lower and middle chambers.

⁷ The outer wall by the side of the chambers toward the outer court and facing the chambers was 50 cubits^[g] long. ⁸ While the chambers in the outer court were 50 cubits^[h] in length, the chambers facing the Temple were 100 cubits^[i] long. ⁹ Below these chambers, as one might enter from the outer court, was the east side entrance. ¹⁰ There were chambers built into the thick part of the wall of the court facing the east; that is, facing the separate area toward the front of the building, ¹¹ with a passageway in front of them, similar in appearance to the chambers that were on the north, proportional to their length and width, with all of their exits according to their arrangements and doorways. ¹² Corresponding to the chamber doorways facing the south was an opening at the beginning of the passage; that is, the passage in front of the corresponding part of the wall facing east as one might enter.

The Place for Holy Things

¹³ Then he told me, “The north and south chamber, which are opposite the courtyard, are consecrated areas where the priests who approach the Lord will eat consecrated offerings and lay the consecrated grain offerings, sin offerings, and guilt offerings, because the area is holy. ¹⁴ When the priest enters, they will not enter the outer court from the sanctuary without having removed their garments worn during their time of ministry, because they are holy. They will put on different clothes, and then they will approach the area reserved for the people.”

¹⁵ After he had finished measuring the inner temple, he brought me out through the east-facing gate and measured it all around. ¹⁶ He measured the east side at 500 reeds,^[j] according to the length of the measuring stick, ¹⁷ the north side at 500 reeds, according to the length of the measuring stick, ¹⁸ the south side at 500 reeds, according to the length of the measuring stick, ¹⁹ and the west side at 500 reeds, according to the length of the measuring stick. ²⁰ He measured a wall that encompassed all four sides, 500 hundred long and 500 wide, dividing between the sacred and common areas.

God Avenges His Own