M’Cheyne Bible Reading Plan

Ahijah Prophesies Against Jeroboam

14 At that time, Jeroboam’s son Abijah became sick. ² Jeroboam said to his wife, “Please get up and disguise yourself, so that you will not be recognized as the wife of Jeroboam, and go to Shiloh. There you will find Ahijah the prophet, who told me that I would be king over this people. ³ Take ten loaves, cakes, and a jar of honey, and go to him. He will tell you what will happen to our child.” ⁴ Jeroboam’s wife did so and arose and went to Shiloh, to the house of Ahijah.

But Ahijah could not see, for in his old age he had gone blind. ⁵ The Lord said to Ahijah, “The wife of Jeroboam has come to ask you about her son, for he is sick. You shall say thus and thus to her, for when she comes, she will be disguised as another woman.”

⁶ And so when Ahijah heard the sound of her feet as she came in the door, he said, “Come in, wife of Jeroboam. Why do you disguise yourself as another? I have been sent to you with bad news. ⁷ Go tell Jeroboam, ‘Thus says the Lord God of Israel: I raised you up from among the people and made you prince over My people Israel, ⁸ and took the kingdom away from the house of David and gave it you. Yet you have not been as My servant David, who kept My commandments and who followed Me with all his heart to do only that which was right in My eyes, ⁹ but you have sinned more than all who were before you, for you have gone and made other gods and molded images and provoked Me to anger and have cast Me behind your back.

¹⁰ “ ‘Therefore I will bring disaster upon the house of Jeroboam and will cut off from Jeroboam all males, both slave and free in Israel, and will take away the remnant of the house of Jeroboam, as a man takes away refuse until it is all gone. ¹¹ Descendants of Jeroboam who die in the city will be eaten by dogs, and those who die in the field will be eaten by the birds of the air, for the Lord has spoken it.’

¹² “Arise therefore and go to your own house. When your feet enter the city, the child will die. ¹³ All Israel will mourn for him and bury him, for he alone from the house of Jeroboam will come to the grave, because in him there is found some good thing toward the Lord God of Israel.

¹⁴ “Moreover the Lord will raise up a king over Israel who will destroy the house of Jeroboam this day and from now on. ¹⁵ For the Lord will smite Israel, as a reed is shaken in the water, and He will uproot Israel from this good land, which he gave to their fathers, and will scatter them beyond the river, because they have made their Asherah poles, provoking the Lord to anger. ¹⁶ He shall give Israel up because of the sins of Jeroboam who sinned and who led Israel to sin.”

¹⁷ Jeroboam’s wife arose and departed and came to Tirzah. As she arrived at the threshold of the door, the child died, ¹⁸ and they buried him, and all Israel mourned for him, according to the word of the Lord, which He spoke by the hand of His servant Ahijah the prophet.

¹⁹ The rest of the acts of Jeroboam, how he waged war and how he reigned, are written in the book of the chronicles of the kings of Israel. ²⁰ Jeroboam reigned twenty-two years, and then he slept with his fathers, and Nadab, his son, reigned in his stead.

Rehoboam, King of Judah^(A)

²¹ Rehoboam the son of Solomon reigned in Judah. Rehoboam was forty-one years old when he began to reign, and he reigned seventeen years in Jerusalem, the city which the Lord had chosen out of all the tribes of Israel to put His name there. And his mother’s name was Naamah, an Ammonitess.

²² Judah did evil in the sight of the Lord, and the people provoked Him to jealousy with the sins they committed, even worse than their fathers had done. ²³ For they also built high places and images and Asherah poles on every high hill and under every green tree. ²⁴ There were also male cult prostitutes in the land, and they did according to all the abominations of the nations that the Lord cast out before the children of Israel.

²⁵ In the fifth year of King Rehoboam, Shishak king of Egypt came up against Jerusalem. ²⁶ He took away all the treasures of the house of the Lord and the treasures of the king’s house, even all the shields of gold which Solomon had made. ²⁷ King Rehoboam replaced them with bronze shields and committed them to the hands of the chief of the guard who guarded the king’s house. ²⁸ And whenever the king entered the house of the Lord, the guards carried them and brought them back into the guard chamber.

²⁹ Now the rest of the acts of Rehoboam and all that he did, are they not written in the book of the chronicles of the kings of Judah? ³⁰ There was war between Rehoboam and Jeroboam all their days. ³¹ Rehoboam slept with his fathers and was buried with his fathers in the City of David. And his mother’s name was Naamah, an Ammonitess. And Abijah his son reigned in his stead.

Salutation

1 Paul, an apostle of Jesus Christ, by the will of God, and Timothy our brother,

² To the saints and faithful brothers in Christ who are at Colosse:

Grace to you and peace from God our Father and the Lord Jesus Christ.

Thankfulness for the Colossians

³ We give thanks to God and the Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, praying always for you. ⁴ For we heard of your faith in Christ Jesus and your love for all the saints, ⁵ because of the hope which is laid up for you in heaven, of which you have already heard in the word of the truth of the gospel, ⁶ which has come to you, as it has in all the world, and brings forth fruit, as it has also in you, since the day you heard it and knew the grace of God in truth. ⁷ And you also learned of Epaphras, our dear fellow servant, who is a faithful minister of Christ for you, ⁸ who also declared to us your love in the Spirit.

The Person and Work of Christ

⁹ For this reason we also, since the day we heard it, do not cease to pray for you and to ask that you may be filled with the knowledge of His will in all wisdom and spiritual understanding; ¹⁰ that you may walk in a manner worthy of the Lord, pleasing to all, being fruitful in every good work, and increasing in the knowledge of God, ¹¹ strengthened with all might according to His glorious power, enduring everything with perseverance and patience joyfully, ¹² giving thanks to the Father, who has enabled us to be partakers in the inheritance of the saints in light. ¹³ He has delivered us from the power of darkness and has transferred us into the kingdom of His dear Son, ¹⁴ in whom we have redemption through His blood, the forgiveness of sins.

¹⁵ He is the image of the invisible God and the firstborn of every creature. ¹⁶ For by Him all things were created that are in heaven and that are in earth, visible and invisible, whether they are thrones, or dominions, or principalities, or powers. All things were created by Him and for Him. ¹⁷ He is before all things, and in Him all things hold together. ¹⁸ He is the head of the body, the church. He is the beginning, the firstborn from the dead, so that in all things He may have the preeminence. ¹⁹ For it pleased the Father that in Him all fullness should dwell, ²⁰ and to reconcile all things to Himself by Him, having made peace through the blood of His cross, by Him, I say—whether they are things in earth, or things in heaven.

²¹ And you, who were formerly alienated and enemies in your mind by wicked works, yet now He has reconciled ²² in the body of His flesh through death, to present you holy and blameless and above reproach in His sight, ²³ if you continue in the faith, grounded and settled, and are not removed from the hope of the gospel, which you have heard, and which was preached to every creature which is under heaven, and of which I, Paul, have become a servant.

Paul’s Ministry to the Church

²⁴ Now I rejoice in my sufferings for your sake and fill up in my flesh that which is lacking in the afflictions of Christ, for the sake of His body, which is the church. ²⁵ I have been made a servant of it according to the commission of God, which has been given to me for you, to fulfill the word of God, ²⁶ even the mystery which has been hidden from past ages and generations, but now is revealed to His saints. ²⁷ To them God would make known what is the glorious riches of this mystery among the nations. It is Christ in you, the hope of glory, ²⁸ whom we preach, warning everyone and teaching everyone in all wisdom, so that we may present them perfect in Christ Jesus. ²⁹ In this I labor, striving according to His power, which effectively works in me.

The East Gate for the Prince

44 Then he brought me back to the gate of the outer sanctuary, which faces east. And it was shut. ² Then the Lord said to me: This gate shall be shut; it shall not be opened, and no man shall enter by it. Because the Lord, the God of Israel, has entered by it, therefore it shall be shut. ³ As for the prince, he shall sit in it as prince to eat bread before the Lord. He shall enter by the way of the vestibule of the gate and shall go out by the same way.

⁴ Then he brought me by the way of the north gate before the temple. And I looked, and the glory of the Lord filled the house of the Lord, and I fell upon my face.

⁵ The Lord said to me: Son of man, mark well, and see with your eyes and hear with your ears all that I say to you concerning all the ordinances of the house of the Lord and all its laws. And mark well those who may enter the house, with all exits of the sanctuary. ⁶ You shall say to the rebellious, even to the house of Israel, Thus says the Lord God: O house of Israel, let all your abominations suffice; ⁷ you brought foreigners into My sanctuary, uncircumcised in heart and uncircumcised in flesh, to be in My sanctuary to pollute it, even My house, when you offered My food, the fat and the blood. For they have broken My covenant because of all your abominations. ⁸ You have not kept the charge of My holy things. But you have set foreigners to keep charge of My sanctuary. ⁹ Thus says the Lord God: No foreigner, uncircumcised in heart nor uncircumcised in flesh, shall enter into My sanctuary, of any foreigner who is among the sons of Israel.

Laws for the Priests

¹⁰ But the Levites who have gone far from Me when Israel went astray, who went astray away from Me after their idols, they shall bear the punishment of their iniquity. ¹¹ Yet they shall be ministers in My sanctuary, having charge at the gates of the house and ministering to the house. They shall slay the burnt offering and the sacrifice for the people, and they shall stand before them to minister to them. ¹² Because they ministered to them before their idols and caused the house of Israel to fall into iniquity, therefore I have lifted up My hand against them, says the Lord God, that they shall bear the punishment of their iniquity. ¹³ They shall not come near to Me to do the office of a priest to Me, nor to come near to any of My holy things in the Most Holy Place. But they shall bear their shame and their abominations which they have committed. ¹⁴ But I will make them keepers of the charge of the temple for all its service and for all that shall be done in it.

¹⁵ But the Levitical priests, the sons of Zadok, who kept the charge of My sanctuary when the sons of Israel went astray from Me, they shall come near to Me to minister to Me, and they shall stand before Me to offer to Me the fat and the blood, says the Lord God. ¹⁶ They shall enter My sanctuary, and they shall come near to My table to minister to Me, and they shall keep My charge.

¹⁷ It shall come to pass that when they enter at the gates of the inner court, they shall be clothed with linen garments. And no wool shall come upon them while they minister in the gates of the inner court, and within. ¹⁸ They shall have linen turbans on their heads and shall have linen breeches on their loins. They shall not gird themselves with anything that causes sweat. ¹⁹ When they go out into the outer court, even into the outer court to the people, they shall put off their garments in which they ministered and lay them in the holy chambers, and they shall put on other garments. And they shall not sanctify the people with their garments.

²⁰ Nor shall they shave their heads, nor suffer their locks to grow long. They shall only trim the hair of their heads. ²¹ Nor shall any priest drink wine when they enter the inner court. ²² Nor shall they take for their wives a widow, nor her who has been put away. But they shall take maidens of the seed of the house of Israel, or a widow who had a priest before. ²³ They shall teach My people the difference between the holy and profane, and cause them to discern between the unclean and the clean.

²⁴ In controversy they shall stand in judgment. And they shall judge it according to My judgments. And they shall keep My laws and My statutes in all My assemblies. And they shall hallow My Sabbaths.

²⁵ They shall not go to a dead person to defile themselves. But for father, or for mother, or for son, or for daughter, for brother, or for sister that has had no husband, they may defile themselves. ²⁶ After he is cleansed, they shall reckon to him seven days. ²⁷ In the day that he goes into the sanctuary, to the inner court, to minister in the sanctuary, he shall offer his sin offering, says the Lord God.

²⁸ It shall be to them for an inheritance. I am their inheritance. And you shall give them no possession in Israel. I am their possession. ²⁹ They shall eat the grain offering and the sin offering and the guilt offering. And every dedicated thing in Israel shall be theirs. ³⁰ The first of all the first fruits of all things and every oblation of all of every sort of your oblations shall be the priest’s. You shall also give to the priest the first of your dough to cause a blessing to rest in your house. ³¹ The priests shall not eat any bird or beast that has died naturally or was torn to pieces.

Psalm 97

Psalm 98

A Psalm.