M’Cheyne Bible Reading Plan

Gifts for the Building of the House of God

29 Then King David said to all the people, “My son Solomon is the one God has chosen. He is still young and has not had much time to know what to do. It is a very big work because this beautiful house is not for man, but for the Lord God. ² I have given all that I have been able to give for the house of my God. I have given the gold for the things of gold, the silver for the things of silver, and the brass for the things of brass. I have given the iron for the things of iron, and the wood for the things of wood. I have given stones of much worth, stones for setting, silver-white stones, and stones of different colors. I have given all kinds of stones of much worth, and many smooth, special white stones. ³ The house of my God means much to me. I have much gold and silver and I give it to the house of my God, together with all I have already given for the holy house. ⁴ I gave gold weighing as much as 3,000 men, of the gold of Ophir. I gave fine silver weighing as much as 7,000 men, to cover the walls of the house. ⁵ I gave gold for the things of gold, and silver for the things of silver for all the work done by the able men. Now who is willing to give himself and be set apart today to the Lord?”

⁶ Then the rulers of the families gave because they wanted to. The leaders of the family groups of Israel, the captains of thousands and of hundreds, and those who watched over the king’s work gave because they wanted to. ⁷ For the work of the house of God, they gave gold weighing as much as 5,000 men, and 10,000 gold pieces. They gave silver weighing as much as 10,000 men. They gave brass weighing as much as 18,000 men, and iron weighing as much as 100,000 men. ⁸ And whoever had stones of much worth gave them to the store-house of the house of the Lord, in the care of Jehiel the Gershonite. ⁹ Then the people were filled with joy because they had been so willing to give. They gave their gift to the Lord with a whole heart. And King David was filled with great joy.

David’s Praise to God

¹⁰ So David praised the Lord in front of all the people. He said, “Honor and thanks be to You, O Lord God of Israel our father, forever and ever. ¹¹ O Lord, You have great power, shining-greatness and strength. Yes, everything in heaven and on earth belongs to You. You are the King, O Lord. And You are honored as head over all. ¹² Both riches and honor come from You. You rule over all. Power and strength are in Your hand. The power is in Your hand to make great and to give strength to all. ¹³ So now, our God, we thank You. We praise Your great and honored name.

¹⁴ “But who am I and who are my people, that we should be able to give so much? For all things come from You. We have given You only what already belongs to You. ¹⁵ We are strangers before You. We are just staying here for a time, as all our fathers did. Our days on the earth are like a shadow, and without hope. ¹⁶ O Lord our God, from Your hand are all these many things that we have given to build You a house for Your holy name. It all belongs to You. ¹⁷ O my God, I know that You test the heart and are pleased with what is right. I have given these things because I have wanted to with a clean heart. And now I have seen with joy how Your people who are here give gifts to You because they want to. ¹⁸ O Lord, the God of Abraham, Isaac and Israel, our fathers, keep this forever in the thoughts of the hearts of Your people. Lead their hearts to You. ¹⁹ Give my son Solomon a perfect heart to keep Your Words and Your Laws and to obey them all. And so let him build the beautiful house I have planned and given for.”

²⁰ Then David said to all the people, “Now praise the Lord your God.” And all the people gave praise to the Lord, the God of their fathers. They bowed low to the ground before the Lord and the king. ²¹ On the next day they killed animals and gave burnt gifts in worship to the Lord.

They gave 1,000 bulls, 1,000 rams and 1,000 lambs, with their drink gifts. They gave many gifts in worship for all Israel. ²² So they ate and drank that day with great joy before the Lord.

They made David’s son Solomon king a second time. They poured oil on him to set him apart as ruler for the Lord. And they set Zadok apart as religious leader. ²³ Then Solomon sat on the throne of the Lord as king instead of his father David. Everything went well for him, and all Israel obeyed him. ²⁴ All the leaders and the powerful men and all the sons of King David promised to be faithful to King Solomon. ²⁵ The Lord brought much honor to Solomon in the eyes of all Israel. He gave him greater power than any king before him in Israel.

²⁶ So David the son of Jesse ruled over all Israel. ²⁷ And he ruled over Israel for forty years. He ruled in Hebron seven years, and in Jerusalem thirty-three years. ²⁸ Then he died as an old man. He had lived many years, had many riches and much honor. And his son Solomon ruled in his place. ²⁹ The acts of King David, from first to last, are written in the books of Samuel, Nathan, and Gad, the men of God. ³⁰ They tell of all his rule, his power, and of the things which happened to him, to Israel, and to all the nations of the lands.

The World Will Be Destroyed

3 Dear friends, this is the second letter I have written to you. In both of them I have tried to get you to remember some things. ² You should remember the words that were spoken before by the holy early preachers. Do not forget the teaching of the Lord, the One Who saves. This was given to you by your missionaries.

³ First of all, I want you to know that in the last days men will laugh at the truth. They will follow their own sinful desires. ⁴ They will say, “He promised to come again. Where is He? Since our early fathers died, everything is the same from the beginning of the world.” ⁵ But they want to forget that God spoke and the heavens were made long ago. The earth was made out of water and water was all around it. ⁶ Long ago the earth was covered with water and it was destroyed. ⁷ But the heaven we see now and the earth we live on now have been kept by His word. They will be kept until they are to be destroyed by fire. They will be kept until the day men stand before God and sinners will be destroyed.

⁸ Dear friends, remember this one thing, with the Lord one day is as 1,000 years, and 1,000 years are as one day. ⁹ The Lord is not slow about keeping His promise as some people think. He is waiting for you. The Lord does not want any person to be punished forever. He wants all people to be sorry for their sins and turn from them. ¹⁰ The day of the Lord will come as a robber comes. The heavens will pass away with a loud noise. The sun and moon and stars will burn up. The earth and all that is in it will be burned up.

¹¹ Since all these things are to be destroyed in this way, you should think about the kind of life you are living. It should be holy and God-like. ¹² You should look for the day of God to come. You should do what you can to make it come soon. At that time the heavens will be destroyed by fire. And the sun and moon and stars will melt away with much heat. ¹³ We are looking for what God has promised, which are new heavens and a new earth. Only what is right and good will be there.

¹⁴ Dear friends, since you are waiting for these things to happen, do all you can to be found by Him in peace. Be clean and free from sin. ¹⁵ You can be sure the long waiting of our Lord is part of His plan to save men from the punishment of sin. God gave our dear brother Paul the wisdom to write about this also. ¹⁶ He wrote about these things in all of his writings. Some of these things are hard to understand. People who do not have much understanding and some who are not strong in the faith change the meaning of his letters. They do this to the other parts of the Holy Writings also. They are destroying themselves as they do this.

¹⁷ And so, dear friends, now that you know this, watch so you will not be led away by the mistakes of these sinful people. Do not be moved by them. ¹⁸ Grow in the loving-favor that Christ gives you. Learn to know our Lord Jesus Christ better. He is the One Who saves. May He have all the shining-greatness now and forever. Let it be so.

The Lord Speaks against Israel

6 Listen to what the Lord says: “Stand up and make your cause known in front of the mountains. Let the hills hear your voice. ² Listen to the Lord’s cause, you mountains and bases of the earth that last forever. The Lord has something against His people, and will speak against Israel. ³ My people, what have I done to you? How have I made it hard for you? Answer Me. ⁴ I brought you out of the land of Egypt. I took you out of the land where you were servants. And I sent Moses, Aaron and Miriam to lead you. ⁵ My people, remember what Balak king of Moab said, and what Balaam son of Beor answered him. Remember what happened from Shittim to Gilgal, so that you may know the good things the Lord has done.”

What the Lord Wants

⁶ What should I bring to the Lord when I bow down before the God on high? Should I come to Him with burnt gifts, with calves a year old? ⁷ Will the Lord be pleased with thousands of rams, or with 10,000 rivers of oil? Should I give my first-born to pay for not obeying? Should I give the fruit of my body for the sin of my soul? ⁸ O man, He has told you what is good. What does the Lord ask of you but to do what is fair and to love kindness, and to walk without pride with your God?

Israel Is Punished

⁹ The voice of the Lord is calling to the city, and it is wise to fear Your name: “Listen, O family of Judah, you who are gathered in the city. ¹⁰ O sinful house, can I forget the riches you got by wrong-doing? You lied about the weight of things, which I hate. ¹¹ Can I make a man not guilty who lies and has false weights in his bag? ¹² The rich men of the city have hurt many people. Her people are liars. Their tongues in their mouths speak false words. ¹³ So I have begun to punish you, to destroy you because of your sins. ¹⁴ You will eat, but you will not be filled. Your stomachs will still be empty. You will store up, but save nothing. And what you save I will give to the sword. ¹⁵ You will plant, but you will not gather. You will crush the olive, but you will not pour oil on yourself. You will crush the grapes, but you will not drink wine. ¹⁶ You have kept the laws of Omri and all the works of the people of Ahab. You have followed their ways. So I will give you up to be destroyed, and your people will be made fun of. You, My people, will be put to shame.”

The Picture-Story of the Lost Sheep

15 All the tax-gatherers and sinners were coming to hear Jesus. ² The proud religious law-keepers and the teachers of the Law began to speak against Him. They said, “This man receives sinners and eats with them.”

³ Then Jesus told them a picture-story, saying, ⁴ “What if one of you had one hundred sheep and you lost one of them? Would you not leave the ninety-nine in the country and go back and look for the one which was lost until you find it? ⁵ When you find it, you are happy as you carry it back on your shoulders. ⁶ Then you would go to your house and call your friends and neighbors. You would say to them, ‘Be happy with me because I have found my sheep that was lost.’ ⁷ I tell you, there will be more joy in heaven because of one sinner who is sorry for his sins and turns from them, than for ninety-nine people right with God who do not have sins to be sorry for.

The Picture-Story of the Lost Piece of Money

⁸ “What if a woman has ten silver pieces of money and loses one of them? Does she not light a lamp and sweep the floor and look until she finds it? ⁹ When she finds it, she calls her friends and neighbors together. She says to them, ‘Be happy with me. I have found the piece of money I had lost.’ ¹⁰ I tell you, it is the same way among the angels of God. If one sinner is sorry for his sins and turns from them, the angels are very happy.”

The Picture-Story of the Foolish Son Who Spent All His Money

¹¹ And Jesus said, “There was a man who had two sons. ¹² The younger son said to his father, ‘Father, let me have the part of the family riches that will be coming to me.’ Then the father divided all that he owned between his two sons. ¹³ Soon after that the younger son took all that had been given to him and went to another country far away. There he spent all he had on wild and foolish living. ¹⁴ When all his money was spent, he was hungry. There was no food in the land. ¹⁵ He went to work for a man in this far away country. His work was to feed pigs. ¹⁶ He was so hungry he was ready to eat the outside part of the ears of the corn the pigs ate because no one gave him anything.

¹⁷ “He began to think about what he had done. He said to himself, ‘My father pays many men who work for him. They have all the food they want and more than enough. I am about dead because I am so hungry. ¹⁸ I will get up and go to my father. I will say to him, “Father, I have sinned against heaven and against you. ¹⁹ I am not good enough to be called your son. But may I be as one of the workmen you pay to work?”’

²⁰ “The son got up and went to his father. While he was yet a long way off, his father saw him. The father was full of loving-pity for him. He ran and threw his arms around him and kissed him. ²¹ The son said to him, ‘Father, I have sinned against heaven and against you. I am not good enough to be called your son.’ ²² But the father said to the workmen he owned, ‘Hurry! Get the best coat and put it on him. Put a ring on his hand and shoes on his feet. ²³ Bring the calf that is fat and kill it. Let us eat and be glad. ²⁴ For my son was dead and now he is alive again. He was lost and now he is found. Let us eat and have a good time.’

²⁵ “The older son was out in the field. As he was coming near the house, he heard music and dancing. ²⁶ He called one of the servants and asked what was happening. ²⁷ The servant answered, ‘Your brother has come back and your father has killed the fat calf. Your brother is in the house and is well.’ ²⁸ The older brother was angry and would not go into the house. His father went outside and asked him to come in. ²⁹ The older son said to his father, ‘All these many years I have served you. I have always obeyed what you said. But you never gave me a young goat so I could have a supper and a good time with my friends. ³⁰ But as soon as this son of yours came back, you killed the fat calf. And yet he wasted your money with bad women.’

³¹ “The father said to him, ‘My son, you are with me all the time. All that I have is yours. ³² It is right and good that we should have a good time and be glad. Your brother was dead and now he is alive again. He was lost and now he is found.’”