M’Cheyne Bible Reading Plan

Israel Rebels Against Rehoboam^(A)

12 And Rehoboam went to Shechem, for all Israel had gone to Shechem to make him king. ² When Jeroboam the son of Nebat, who was still in Egypt, heard of it (for he had fled from King Solomon and stayed in Egypt), ³ they called and sent for him. And Jeroboam and all the congregation of Israel came and spoke to Rehoboam, saying, ⁴ “Your father made our yoke unbearable. Now, therefore, make the grievous service to your father and the heavy yoke he put upon us lighter, and we will serve you.”

⁵ He said to them, “Depart for three days, and then come back to me.” And the people departed.

⁶ King Rehoboam consulted with the old men who advised his father Solomon while he was still alive and asked, “How do you advise me to answer the people?”

⁷ And they spoke to him, saying, “If you will be a servant to this people this day and will serve them and answer them and speak kind words to them, they will be your servants forever.”

⁸ But he rejected the advice that the old men gave him and consulted with the young men who grew up with him and who stood before him, ⁹ and he said to them, “What advice do you give on how we should answer this people, who have spoken to me saying, ‘Make the yoke your father put on us lighter’?”

¹⁰ And the young men who grew up with him said, “Thus shall you answer this people who said to you, ‘Your father made our yoke heavy, but make it lighter for us’; thus shall you say to them, ‘My little finger will be thicker than my father’s loins! ¹¹ Whereas my father loaded you with a heavy yoke, I will add to your burden. My father chastised you with whips, but I will chastise you with scorpions!’ ”

¹² So Jeroboam and all the people came to Rehoboam on the third day, just as the king had appointed, saying, “Come to me again the third day.” ¹³ The king answered the people roughly and forsook the counsel the old men gave him, ¹⁴ and instead spoke to them following the advice of the young men. He said, “My father made your yoke heavy, and I will add to your burden. My father chastised you with whips, but I will chastise you with scorpions.” ¹⁵ Thus the king did not listen to the people, for the cause was from the Lord, that He might fulfill His saying, which the Lord spoke by Ahijah the Shilonite to Jeroboam the son of Nebat.

¹⁶ So when all Israel saw that the king did not listen to them, the people responded to the king, saying,

So the people of Israel departed to their tents. ¹⁷ But the people of Israel living in the cities of Judah were ruled over by Rehoboam.

¹⁸ Then King Rehoboam sent Adoniram, who was in charge of the forced labor, and all Israel stoned him to death. As a result, King Rehoboam quickly mounted his chariot and fled to Jerusalem. ¹⁹ So Israel rebelled against the house of David, and it remains so even to this day.

²⁰ When all Israel heard that Jeroboam had returned, they sent and called him before the congregation and made him king over all Israel. Only the tribe of Judah followed the house of David.

²¹ When Rehoboam arrived at Jerusalem, he assembled all the house of Judah along with the tribe of Benjamin, a hundred and eighty thousand chosen men who were warriors, to fight against the house of Israel and to bring the kingdom back to Rehoboam the son of Solomon.

²² But the word of God came to Shemaiah the man of God, saying: ²³ Speak to Rehoboam the son of Solomon, king of Judah, and to all the house of Judah and Benjamin and to the remnant of the people, saying, ²⁴ “Thus says the Lord: You shall not go up, nor fight against your brothers the children of Israel. Every man is to return to his house, for this thing is from Me.” They listened therefore to the word of the Lord and turned to depart, according to the word of the Lord.

Jeroboam’s Golden Calves

²⁵ Then Jeroboam built Shechem in Mount Ephraim and lived there and went out from there and built Peniel.

²⁶ Jeroboam said in his heart, “The kingdom will return to the house of David. ²⁷ If this people go up to do sacrifice in the house of the Lord at Jerusalem, then shall the heart of this people turn again to their lord, even to Rehoboam king of Judah, and they shall kill me and go again to Rehoboam king of Judah.”

²⁸ At that point, the king got some advice and made two golden calves and said to the people, “It is too difficult for you to go up to Jerusalem. Here are your gods, O Israel, which brought you up out of the land of Egypt.” ²⁹ He set one in Bethel, and he put the other in Dan. ³⁰ This was a sin, for the people went to worship before the one, even all the way in Dan.

³¹ He also made houses on high places and appointed priests from among all the people who were not Levites. ³² Jeroboam ordained a feast in the eighth month, on the fifteenth day of the month, like the feast in Judah, and he offered sacrifice on the altar. He did this in Bethel, sacrificing to the calves that he had made, and he stationed in Bethel the priests of the high places he had made. ³³ So he made offerings on the altar that he had made in Bethel on the fifteenth day of the eighth month, a holiday he imagined in his own heart, and ordained a feast for the children of Israel, and he sacrificed on the altar and burned incense.

The True Righteousness

3 Finally, my brothers, rejoice in the Lord. To write the same things to you is no trouble to me, and it is reassuring for you. ² Watch out for dogs, watch out for evil workers, watch out for those who practice mutilation. ³ For we are the circumcision who worship God in the Spirit, and boast in Christ Jesus, and place no trust in the flesh, ⁴ though I also have confidence in the flesh.

If any other man thinks that he has reason to trust in the flesh, I have more: ⁵ I was circumcised the eighth day, of the stock of Israel, of the tribe of Benjamin, and a Hebrew of Hebrews; as concerning the law, a Pharisee; ⁶ concerning zeal, persecuting the church; and concerning the righteousness which is in the law, blameless.

⁷ But what things were gain to me, I have counted these things to be loss for the sake of Christ. ⁸ Yes, certainly, I count everything as loss for the excellence of the knowledge of Christ Jesus my Lord, for whom I have forfeited the loss of all things and count them as rubbish that I may gain Christ, ⁹ and be found in Him, not having my own righteousness which is from the law, but that which is through faith in Christ,^[a] the righteousness which is of God on the basis of faith, ¹⁰ to know Him, and the power of His resurrection, and the fellowship of His sufferings, being conformed to His death, ¹¹ if somehow I might make it to the resurrection of the dead.

Pressing Toward the Mark

¹² Not that I have already attained or have already been perfected, but I follow after it so that I may lay hold of that for which I was seized by Christ Jesus. ¹³ Brothers, I do not count myself to have attained, but this one thing I do, forgetting those things which are behind and reaching forward to those things which are ahead, ¹⁴ I press toward the goal to the prize of the high calling of God in Christ Jesus.

¹⁵ Therefore let those of us who are mature be thus minded. And if you think differently in any way, God will reveal even this to you. ¹⁶ Nevertheless, according to what we have already attained, let us walk by the same rule, let us be of the same mind.

¹⁷ Brothers, become fellow imitators with me and observe those who walk according to our example. ¹⁸ For many are walking in such a way that they are the enemies of the cross of Christ. I have told you of them often and tell you again, even weeping. ¹⁹ Their destination is destruction, their god is their appetite, their glory is in their shame, their minds are set on earthly things. ²⁰ But our citizenship is in heaven, from where also we await for our Savior, the Lord Jesus Christ, ²¹ who will transform our body of humiliation, so that it may be conformed to His glorious body, according to the working of His power even to subdue all things to Himself.

The Chambers for the Priests

42 Then he brought me out into the outer court, toward the north; and he brought me into the chamber that was opposite the separate yard and which was opposite the building on the north. ² Before the length of a hundred cubits was the north door, and the width was fifty cubits.^{[a] 3} Opposite the twenty cubits^[b] that belonged to the inner court, and opposite the pavement that belonged to the outer court, was gallery against gallery in three stories. ⁴ In front of the chambers was a passage on the inner side, ten cubits wide and one hundred cubits^[c] deep; and their doors faced north. ⁵ Now the upper chambers were shorter. For the galleries were higher than these, than the lower and the middle ones of the building. ⁶ For they were in three stories, but had no pillars as the pillars of the courts. Therefore the building was set back more than the lowest and the middle ones from the ground. ⁷ And a wall that was outside was parallel to the chambers, toward the outer court, opposite the chambers; its length was fifty cubits. ⁸ For the length of the chambers that were in the outer court was fifty cubits. And the length of those before the temple was a hundred cubits. ⁹ From under these chambers was the entrance on the east side as one goes into them from the outer court.

¹⁰ The chambers were in the thickness of the wall of the court toward the east, opposite the separate yard and opposite the building, ¹¹ with a passage in front of them; they were like the appearance of the chambers which were toward the north, of the same length and width. And all their exits and arrangements were according to plan. ¹² Corresponding to the doors of the chambers that were facing south was a door at the head of the passage way, the passage way directly in front of the wall toward the east.

¹³ Then he said to me, “The north chambers and the south chambers, which are before the separate place, are the holy chambers where the priests who approach the Lord shall eat the most holy offerings. There they shall lay the most holy offerings—the grain offering, the sin offering, and the guilt offering—for the place is holy. ¹⁴ When the priests enter it, then they shall not go out of the holy place into the outer court, but there they shall lay their garments in which they minister, for they are holy. And they shall put on other garments, and shall approach those things which are for the people.”

¹⁵ Now when he had made an end of measuring the inner temple, he brought me out by the gate that faces east, and measured it all around. ¹⁶ He measured the east side with the measuring reed, five hundred cubits^[d] with the measuring reed all around. ¹⁷ He measured the north side with the measuring reed round about, five hundred reeds. ¹⁸ He measured the south side with the measuring reed, five hundred reeds. ¹⁹ He turned about to the west side and measured five hundred reeds with the measuring reed. ²⁰ He measured it by the four sides. It had a wall all around, five hundred reeds long and five hundred wide,^[e] to make a separation between the sanctuary and the profane place.

Psalm 94