M’Cheyne Bible Reading Plan

The Passover Celebration

30 King Hezekiah sent messages to all the people of Israel and Judah, and he wrote letters to the people of Ephraim and Manasseh. Hezekiah invited all these people to come to the Temple of the Lord in Jerusalem to celebrate the Passover for the Lord, the God of Israel. ² King Hezekiah, his officers, and all the people in Jerusalem agreed to celebrate the Passover in the second month. ³ They could not celebrate it at the normal time, because not enough priests had made themselves ready to serve the Lord, and the people had not yet gathered in Jerusalem. ⁴ This plan satisfied King Hezekiah and all the people. ⁵ So they made an announcement everywhere in Israel, from Beersheba to Dan,^[a] telling the people to come to Jerusalem to celebrate the Passover for the Lord, the God of Israel. For a long time most of the people had not celebrated the Passover as the law commanded. ⁶ At the king’s command, the messengers took letters from him and his officers all through Israel and Judah. This is what the letters said:

¹⁰ The messengers went to every town in Ephraim and Manasseh, and all the way to Zebulun, but the people laughed at them and made fun of them. ¹¹ But some men from Asher, Manasseh, and Zebulun were sorry for what they had done and went to Jerusalem. ¹² And God united all the people of Judah in obeying King Hezekiah and his officers, because their command had come from the Lord.

¹³ In the second month a large crowd came together in Jerusalem to celebrate the Feast of Unleavened Bread. ¹⁴ The people removed the altars and incense altars to gods in Jerusalem and threw them into the Kidron Valley.

¹⁵ They killed the Passover lamb on the fourteenth day of the second month. The priests and the Levites were ashamed, so they made themselves holy and brought burnt offerings into the Temple of the Lord. ¹⁶ They took their regular places in the Temple as the Teachings of Moses, the man of God, commanded. The Levites gave the blood of the sacrifices to the priests, who sprinkled it on the altar. ¹⁷ Since many people in the crowd had not made themselves holy, the Levites killed the Passover lambs for everyone who was not clean. The Levites made each lamb holy for the Lord. ^18-19 Although many people from Ephraim, Manasseh, Issachar, and Zebulun had not purified themselves for the feast, they ate the Passover even though it was against the law. So Hezekiah prayed for them, saying, “Lord, you are good. You are the Lord, the God of our ancestors. Please forgive all those who try to obey you even if they did not make themselves clean as the rules of the Temple command.” ²⁰ The Lord listened to Hezekiah’s prayer, and he healed the people. ²¹ The Israelites in Jerusalem celebrated the Feast of Unleavened Bread for seven days with great joy to the Lord. The Levites and priests praised the Lord every day with loud music. ²² Hezekiah encouraged all the Levites who showed they understood well how to do their service for the Lord. The people ate the feast for seven days, offered fellowship offerings, and praised the Lord, the God of their ancestors.

²³ Then all the people agreed to stay seven more days, so they celebrated with joy for seven more days. ²⁴ Hezekiah king of Judah gave one thousand bulls and seven thousand sheep to the people. The officers gave one thousand bulls and ten thousand sheep to the people. Many priests made themselves holy. ²⁵ All the people of Judah, the priests, the Levites, those who came from Israel, the foreigners from Israel, and the foreigners living in Judah were very happy. ²⁶ There was much joy in Jerusalem, because there had not been a celebration like this since the time of Solomon son of David and king of Israel. ²⁷ The priests and Levites stood up and blessed the people, and God heard them because their prayer reached heaven, his holy home.

The Bowls of God’s Anger

16 Then I heard a loud voice from the temple saying to the seven angels, “Go and pour out the seven bowls of God’s anger on the earth.”

² The first angel left and poured out his bowl on the land. Then ugly and painful sores came upon all those who had the mark of the beast and who worshiped his idol.

³ The second angel poured out his bowl on the sea, and it became blood like that of a dead man, and every living thing in the sea died.

⁴ The third angel poured out his bowl on the rivers and the springs of water, and they became blood. ⁵ Then I heard the angel of the waters saying:

⁷ And I heard a voice coming from the altar saying:

⁸ The fourth angel poured out his bowl on the sun, and he was given power to burn the people with fire. ⁹ They were burned by the great heat, and they cursed the name of God, who had control over these disasters. But the people refused to change their hearts and lives and give glory to God.

¹⁰ The fifth angel poured out his bowl on the throne of the beast, and darkness covered its kingdom. People gnawed their tongues because of the pain. ¹¹ They also cursed the God of heaven because of their pain and the sores they had, but they refused to change their hearts and turn away from the evil things they did.

¹² The sixth angel poured out his bowl on the great river Euphrates so that the water in the river was dried up to prepare the way for the kings from the east to come. ¹³ Then I saw three evil spirits that looked like frogs coming out of the mouth of the dragon, out of the mouth of the beast, and out of the mouth of the false prophet. ¹⁴ These evil spirits are the spirits of demons, which have power to do miracles. They go out to the kings of the whole world to gather them together for the battle on the great day of God Almighty.

¹⁵ “Listen! I will come as a thief comes! Blessed are those who stay awake and keep their clothes on so that they will not walk around naked and have people see their shame.”

¹⁶ Then the evil spirits gathered the kings together to the place that is called Armageddon in the Hebrew language.

¹⁷ The seventh angel poured out his bowl into the air. Then a loud voice came out of the temple from the throne, saying, “It is finished!” ¹⁸ Then there were flashes of lightning, noises, thunder, and a big earthquake—the worst earthquake that has ever happened since people have been on earth. ¹⁹ The great city split into three parts, and the cities of the nations were destroyed. And God remembered the sins of Babylon the Great, so he gave that city the cup filled with the wine of his terrible anger. ²⁰ Then every island ran away, and mountains disappeared. ²¹ Giant hailstones, each weighing about a hundred pounds, fell from the sky upon people. People cursed God for the disaster of the hail, because this disaster was so terrible.

Jerusalem Will Be Saved

12 This message is the word of the Lord to Israel. This is what the Lord says, who stretched out the skies, and laid the foundations of the earth, and put the human spirit within: ² “I will make Jerusalem like a cup of poison to the nations around her. They will come and attack Jerusalem and Judah. ³ One day all the nations on earth will come together to attack Jerusalem, but I will make it like a heavy rock; anyone who tries to move it will get hurt. ⁴ At that time I will confuse every horse and cause its rider to go crazy,” says the Lord. “I will watch over Judah, but I will blind all the horses of the enemies. ⁵ Then the leaders of Judah will say to themselves, ‘The people of Jerusalem are strong, because the Lord All-Powerful is their God.’

⁶ “At that time I will make the leaders of Judah like a fire burning a stack of wood or like a fire burning straw. They will destroy all the people around them left and right. But the people of Jerusalem will remain safe.

⁷ “The Lord will save the homes of Judah first so that the honor given to David’s family and to the people of Jerusalem won’t be greater than the honor given to Judah. ⁸ At that time the Lord will protect the people in Jerusalem. Then even the weakest of them will be strong like David. And the family of David will be like God, like an angel of the Lord in front of them. ⁹ At that time I will go to destroy all the nations that attack Jerusalem.

Crying for the One They Stabbed

¹⁰ “I will pour out on David’s family and the people in Jerusalem a spirit of kindness and mercy. They will look at me, the one they have stabbed, and they will cry like someone crying over the death of an only child. They will be as sad as someone who has lost a firstborn son. ¹¹ At that time there will be much crying in Jerusalem, like the crying for Hadad Rimmon in the plain of Megiddo. ¹² The land will cry, each family by itself: the family of David by itself and their wives by themselves, the family of Nathan by itself and their wives by themselves, ¹³ the family of Levi by itself and their wives by themselves, the family of Shimei by itself and their wives by themselves, ¹⁴ and all the rest of the families by themselves and their wives by themselves.

13 “At that time a fountain will be open for David’s descendants and for the people of Jerusalem to cleanse them of their sin and uncleanness.”

Jesus Is Like a Vine

15 “I am the true vine; my Father is the gardener. ² He cuts off every branch of mine that does not produce fruit. And he trims and cleans every branch that produces fruit so that it will produce even more fruit. ³ You are already clean because of the words I have spoken to you. ⁴ Remain in me, and I will remain in you. A branch cannot produce fruit alone but must remain in the vine. In the same way, you cannot produce fruit alone but must remain in me.

⁵ “I am the vine, and you are the branches. If any remain in me and I remain in them, they produce much fruit. But without me they can do nothing. ⁶ If any do not remain in me, they are like a branch that is thrown away and then dies. People pick up dead branches, throw them into the fire, and burn them. ⁷ If you remain in me and follow my teachings, you can ask anything you want, and it will be given to you. ⁸ You should produce much fruit and show that you are my followers, which brings glory to my Father. ⁹ I loved you as the Father loved me. Now remain in my love. ¹⁰ I have obeyed my Father’s commands, and I remain in his love. In the same way, if you obey my commands, you will remain in my love. ¹¹ I have told you these things so that you can have the same joy I have and so that your joy will be the fullest possible joy.

¹² “This is my command: Love each other as I have loved you. ¹³ The greatest love a person can show is to die for his friends. ¹⁴ You are my friends if you do what I command you. ¹⁵ I no longer call you servants, because a servant does not know what his master is doing. But I call you friends, because I have made known to you everything I heard from my Father. ¹⁶ You did not choose me; I chose you. And I gave you this work: to go and produce fruit, fruit that will last. Then the Father will give you anything you ask for in my name. ¹⁷ This is my command: Love each other.

Jesus Warns His Followers

¹⁸ “If the world hates you, remember that it hated me first. ¹⁹ If you belonged to the world, it would love you as it loves its own. But I have chosen you out of the world, so you don’t belong to it. That is why the world hates you. ²⁰ Remember what I told you: A servant is not greater than his master. If people did wrong to me, they will do wrong to you, too. And if they obeyed my teaching, they will obey yours, too. ²¹ They will do all this to you on account of me, because they do not know the One who sent me. ²² If I had not come and spoken to them, they would not be guilty of sin, but now they have no excuse for their sin. ²³ Whoever hates me also hates my Father. ²⁴ I did works among them that no one else has ever done. If I had not done these works, they would not be guilty of sin. But now they have seen what I have done, and yet they have hated both me and my Father. ²⁵ But this happened so that what is written in their law would be true: ‘They hated me for no reason.’^[a]

²⁶ “I will send you the Helper^[b] from the Father; he is the Spirit of truth who comes from the Father. When he comes, he will tell about me, ²⁷ and you also must tell people about me, because you have been with me from the beginning.