M’Cheyne Bible Reading Plan
The Lord Comes to Solomon the Second Time
9 Solomon had finished building the house of the Lord, and the king’s house, and all that he wanted to build. 2 Then the Lord came to Solomon a second time, as He had come to him at Gibeon. 3 The Lord said to him, “I have heard your prayer which you have prayed to Me. I have set apart this house you have built by putting My name there forever. My eyes and My heart will be there always. 4 As for you, walk before Me as your father David walked, with a true heart doing what is right. Do all that I have told you. Obey My Laws. If you do, 5 then I will make the throne of your rule over Israel last forever. It will be just as I promised your father David, saying, ‘You will never be without a man on the throne of Israel.’ 6 But if you or your sons turn away from following Me, and do not keep My Laws which I have given you, and go after other gods and worship them, if you do, 7 then I will cut off Israel from the land I have given them. And I will put away from My eyes the house which I have set apart for My name. Israel will become a word of shame among all peoples. 8 This house will be broken to pieces. Everyone who passes by will be surprised and make a sound of wonder, and say, ‘Why has the Lord done this to this land and to this house?’ 9 And they will say, ‘Because they turned away from the Lord their God, Who brought their fathers out of the land of Egypt. They took in other gods and worshiped them and served them. So the Lord has brought all this trouble upon them.’”
Solomon and Hiram
10 At the end of twenty years, Solomon had built the two houses, the house of the Lord and the king’s house. 11 Hiram king of Tyre had given Solomon all the cedar and cypress trees and gold that he wanted. Then King Solomon gave Hiram twenty cities in the land of Galilee. 12 But when Hiram came out from Tyre to see the cities Solomon had given him, they did not please him. 13 He said, “What are these cities you have given me, my brother?” So they are called the land of Cabul to this day. 14 The gold Hiram sent to the king weighed as much as 120 men.
Other Things Solomon Did
15 Now King Solomon made men work to build the house of the Lord, his own house, the Millo, the wall of Jerusalem, Hazor, Meggido and Gezer. 16 For Pharaoh king of Egypt had gone up and taken Gezer and burned it with fire. He killed the Canaanites who lived in the city, and then gave it as a wedding-gift to his daughter, Solomon’s wife. 17 So Solomon built Gezer again, and the lower part of Beth-horon, 18 and Baalath and Tamar in the desert, in the land of Judah. 19 Solomon built all the store-cities that he had, the cities for his war-wagons, the cities for his horsemen, and all he wanted to build in Jerusalem, in Lebanon, and in all the land under his rule. 20 Now there were people left of the Amorites, the Hittites, the Perizzites, the Hivites and the Jebusites, who were not of the people of Israel. 21 And their children were left after them in the land. The people of Israel were not able to destroy all of them. So Solomon made these people work for him, even to this day. 22 But Solomon did not make the people of Israel work for him. For they were men of war, his servants, his rulers, his captains, his war-wagon drivers, and his horsemen.
23 These were the heads of the captains over Solomon’s work. There were 550 of them who ruled over the people doing the work.
24 But Pharaoh’s daughter went up from the city of David to her own house which Solomon had built for her. Then he built the Millo.
25 Three times a year Solomon gave burnt gifts and peace gifts on the altar he built to the Lord. He burned special perfume on the altar before the Lord. So he finished the house.
26 King Solomon built a group of ships in Ezion-geber, near Eloth on the shore of the Red Sea, in the land of Edom. 27 Hiram sent his servants with the ships, sailors who knew the sea. He sent them with the servants of Solomon. 28 They went to Ophir and brought out gold weighing as much as 420 small men. And they brought it to King Solomon.
How Children Must Live
6 Children, as Christians, obey your parents. This is the right thing to do. 2 Respect your father and mother. This is the first Law given that had a promise. 3 The promise is this: If you respect your father and mother, you will live a long time and your life will be full of many good things.
4 Fathers, do not be too hard on your children so they will become angry. Teach them in their growing years with Christian teaching.
5 You servants who are owned by someone must obey your owners. Work for them as hard as you can. Work for them the same as if you were working for Christ. 6 Do not work hard only when your owner sees you. You would be doing this just to please men. Work as you would work for Christ. Do what God wants you to do with all your heart. 7 Be happy as you work. Do your work as for the Lord, not for men. 8 Remember this, whatever good thing you do, the Lord will pay you for it. It is the same to the Lord if you are a servant owned by someone or if you work for pay.
9 Owners, do the right thing for those who work for you. Stop saying that you are going to be hard on them. Remember that your Owner and their Owner is in heaven. God does not respect one person more than another.
Things God Gives the Christian to Fight With
10 This is the last thing I want to say: Be strong with the Lord’s strength. 11 Put on the things God gives you to fight with. Then you will not fall into the traps of the devil. 12 Our fight is not with people. It is against the leaders and the powers and the spirits of darkness in this world. It is against the demon world that works in the heavens. 13 Because of this, put on all the things God gives you to fight with. Then you will be able to stand in that sinful day. When it is all over, you will still be standing. 14 So stand up and do not be moved. Wear a belt of truth around your body. Wear a piece of iron over your chest which is being right with God. 15 Wear shoes on your feet which are the Good News of peace. 16 Most important of all, you need a covering of faith in front of you. This is to put out the fire-arrows of the devil. 17 The covering for your head is that you have been saved from the punishment of sin. Take the sword of the Spirit which is the Word of God.
How and What to Pray For
18 You must pray at all times as the Holy Spirit leads you to pray. Pray for the things that are needed. You must watch and keep on praying. Remember to pray for all Christians. 19 Pray for me also. Pray that I might open my mouth without fear. Pray that I will use the right words to preach that which is hard to understand in the Good News. 20 This is the reason I was sent out. But now I am in chains for preaching the Good News. I want to keep on speaking for Christ without fear the way I should.
21 Tychicus will tell you how I am getting along. He is a much-loved brother and a faithful preacher. 22 I have sent him to you because I want him to tell you about us. He will comfort you. 23 May all the Christian brothers have peace and love with faith from God the Father and the Lord Jesus Christ. 24 May God give loving-favor to all who love our Lord Jesus Christ with a love that never gets weak.
Gog’s Armies Are Destroyed
39 “Son of man, speak against Gog, and tell him, ‘The Lord God says, “I am against you, O Gog, leader of Rosh, Meshech, and Tubal. 2 I will turn you around and drive you on. I will bring you from the farthest parts of the north and lead you against the mountains of Israel. 3 I will knock your bow out of your left hand, and knock your arrows out of your right hand. 4 You will fall dead on the mountains of Israel, you and all your army and the nations who are with you. I will feed you to every kind of meat-eating bird and wild animal of the field. 5 You will fall dead in the open field, for I have spoken,” says the Lord God. 6 “I will send fire upon Magog and upon those who think they are safe in the islands. Then they will know that I am the Lord.
7 “I will make My holy name known among My people Israel. I will not let My holy name be made unclean any more. And the nations will know that I am the Lord, the Holy One in Israel. 8 It is coming, and it will be done,” says the Lord God. “This is the day I have spoken of.
9 “Then those who live in the cities of Israel will go out and make fires to burn up the objects of war. They will burn battle-coverings, bows and arrows, heavy sticks, and spears. For seven years they will use them to make fires. 10 They will not take wood from the field or from among the trees to burn. For they will make fires with the objects of war. And they will rob those who robbed them,” says the Lord God.
Gog Is Buried
11 “On that day I will give Gog a place in Israel for burying his dead. It will be the valley of those who travel east of the sea. And it will close that road to travelers, for Gog and all his people will be buried there. They will call it the Valley of Hamon-Gog. 12 It will take the people of Israel seven months to bury the dead and make the land clean again. 13 All the people of the land will bury them, and they will be honored for this on the day that I show My greatness,” says the Lord God. 14 “At the end of seven months, they will choose men to pass through the land to look for bodies that may be left on the ground. And the bodies will be buried to make the land clean. 15 Those who pass through and see a man’s bone will set up something to mark the place, until it is buried in the Valley of Hamon-Gog. 16 (There will be a city called Hamonah there also.) And so they will make the land clean.”’”
17 “Son of man, the Lord God says, ‘Speak to every kind of bird and to every wild animal of the field. Say to them, “Gather together and come. Come together from every side to the special supper I have made for you. Much food has been killed for you on the mountains of Israel. You will eat flesh and drink blood. 18 You will eat the flesh of powerful men, and drink the blood of the leaders of the earth. It will be as if they were rams, lambs, goats, and bulls, all of them fat animals of Bashan. 19 You will eat fat until you are filled, and drink blood until you are drunk, at the special supper I have killed and made ready for you. 20 You will be filled at My table with horses and horsemen, with powerful men and all the men of war,” says the Lord God.
The Land Is Given Back to Israel
21 “I will show My greatness among the nations. All the nations will see how I have punished Israel and My hand which I have laid on them. 22 Then the people of Israel will know that I am the Lord their God from that day on. 23 The nations will know that the people of Israel were taken from their land because of their sin, because they were not faithful to Me. So I hid My face from them and gave them over to those who hated them, and they died in battle. 24 I punished them because they were unclean and sinful, and I hid My face from them.”’”
25 So the Lord God says, “Now I will return the people of Jacob to their land and show loving-kindness to all the people of Israel. And I will be jealous for My holy name. 26 They will forget their shame and how unfaithful they were to Me, when they live in peace on their own land with no one to make them afraid. 27 I will bring them back from the nations and gather them from the lands of those who hate them. In this way I will show the many nations that I am holy. 28 Then they will know that I am the Lord their God, because I sent them away into the other nations and then gathered them again to their own land. And I will not leave any of them there any longer. 29 I will not hide My face from them again, for I will pour out My Spirit on the people of Israel,” says the Lord God.
God Is Forever—Man’s Short Life
90 Lord, You have been the place of comfort for all people of all time. 2 Before the mountains were born, before You gave birth to the earth and the world, forever and ever, You are God.
3 You change man into dust again, and say, “Return, O children of men.” 4 For a thousand years in Your eyes are like yesterday when it passes by, or like the hours of the night. 5 You carry men away as with a flood. They fall asleep. In the morning they are like the new grass that grows. 6 It grows well in the morning, but dries up and dies by evening.
7 For we are burned up by Your anger. By Your anger we are troubled and afraid. 8 You have set our wrong-doing before You, our secret sins in the light of Your face. 9 For all our days pass away in Your anger. We finish our years with a quiet cry. 10 The days of our life are seventy years, or eighty if we have the strength. Yet the best of them are only hard work and sorrow. For they are soon gone and we fly away. 11 Who understands the power of Your anger? Your anger is as great as the fear that we should have for You. 12 Teach us to understand how many days we have. Then we will have a heart of wisdom to give You.
13 Return, O Lord. How long will it be? Have pity upon those who work for You. 14 Fill us in the morning with Your loving-kindness. Let us sing for joy and be glad all our days. 15 Make us glad for as many days as You have made us suffer, and for the years we have seen trouble. 16 Let Your work be shown to Your servants. And let Your wonderful greatness be shown to their children. 17 Let the favor of the Lord our God be upon us. And make the work of our hands stand strong. Yes, make the work of our hands stand strong.
Copyright © 1969, 2003 by Barbour Publishing, Inc.