M’Cheyne Bible Reading Plan

Abijah’s illness

14 At that time, Jeroboam’s son Abijah became sick. ² Jeroboam said to his wife, “Please go with a disguise so no one will recognize you as Jeroboam’s wife. Go to Shiloh where the prophet Ahijah is. He told me I would be king of this people. ³ Take ten loaves of bread, cakes, and a bottle of honey with you. Go to him. He will tell you what will happen to the boy.” ⁴ Jeroboam’s wife did precisely this. She left and went to Shiloh and came to Ahijah’s house. Now Ahijah had become blind in his old age.

⁵ The Lord said to Ahijah, “Look! Jeroboam’s wife has come seeking a word from you about her son. He is sick. Say this and that to her. When she comes, she will be disguised.”

⁶ When Ahijah heard the sound of her feet coming through the doorway, he said, “Come in, Jeroboam’s wife! Why have you disguised yourself? I have hard news for you. ⁷ Tell Jeroboam: This is what the Lord, Israel’s God, says: When I lifted you up from among the people, I appointed you as a leader over my people Israel. ⁸ I tore the kingdom from David’s house and gave it to you. But you haven’t been like my servant David, who kept my commands and followed me with all his heart by doing only what is right in my eyes. ⁹ Instead, you have done more evil than any who were before you. You have made other gods and metal images to anger me. You have turned your back on me. ¹⁰ Therefore, I’m going to bring disaster on Jeroboam’s house! Because of Jeroboam, I will eliminate everyone who urinates on a wall, whether slave or free. Then I will set fire to the house of Jeroboam, as one burns dung until it is gone. ¹¹ Dogs will eat any of Jeroboam’s family who die in town. Birds will eat those who die in the field. The Lord has spoken!

¹² “As for you, get up and go back home. When your feet enter the town, the boy will die. ¹³ All Israel will mourn for him and will bury him. Out of the whole line of Jeroboam, he alone will have a tomb, because only in him did Israel’s God, the Lord, find something good. ¹⁴ For this reason the Lord will raise up a king over Israel who will eliminate the house of Jeroboam. This begins today. What’s that? Even now!^{[a] 15} The Lord will strike Israel so that it shakes like a reed in water. He will uproot Israel from this fertile land that he gave to their ancestors and their offspring, and he will scatter them across the Euphrates River, because they made the Lord angry by making their sacred poles.^{[b] 16} Because of the sins Jeroboam committed, and because he made Israel sin too, God will give Israel up.”

¹⁷ Then Jeroboam’s wife left and went to Tirzah. When she stepped across the threshold of the house, the boy died. ¹⁸ All Israel buried him and mourned him in agreement with the Lord’s word spoken through his servant the prophet Ahijah. ¹⁹ The rest of Jeroboam’s deeds—how he fought and how he ruled—are written in the official records of Israel’s kings. ²⁰ Jeroboam ruled twenty-two years and he lay down with his ancestors. His son Nadab succeeded him as king.

Rehoboam rules Judah

²¹ Rehoboam, Solomon’s son, ruled over Judah. Rehoboam was 41 years old when he became king. He ruled for seventeen years in Jerusalem, the city the Lord chose from among all the tribes of Israel to set his name. Rehoboam’s mother’s name was Naamah from Ammon. ²² Judah did evil in the Lord’s eyes. The sins they committed made the Lord angrier than anything their ancestors had done. ²³ They also built shrines, standing stones, and sacred poles^[c] on top of every high hill and under every green tree. ²⁴ Moreover, the consecrated workers^[d] in the land did detestable things, just like those nations that the Lord had removed among the Israelites.

²⁵ During King Rehoboam’s fifth year, King Shishak of Egypt attacked Jerusalem. ²⁶ He seized the treasures of the Lord’s temple and the royal palace. He took everything, even all the gold shields that Solomon had made. ²⁷ King Rehoboam replaced them with bronze shields and assigned them to the officers of the guard who protected the entrance to the royal palace. ²⁸ Whenever the king entered the Lord’s temple, the guards would carry the shields and then return them to the guardroom. ²⁹ The rest of Rehoboam’s deeds and all that he accomplished, aren’t they written in the official records of Judah’s kings? ³⁰ There was continual warfare between Rehoboam and Jeroboam. ³¹ When Rehoboam died, he was buried with his ancestors in David’s City. His mother’s name was Naamah from Ammon. His son Abijam^[e] succeeded him as king.

Greeting

1 From Paul, an apostle of Christ Jesus by God’s will, and Timothy our brother.

² To the holy and faithful brothers and sisters in Christ in Colossae.

Grace and peace to you from God our Father.

Thanksgiving and prayer for the Colossians

³ We always give thanks to God, the Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, when we pray for you. ⁴ We’ve done this since we heard of your faith in Christ Jesus and your love for all God’s people. ⁵ You have this faith and love because of the hope reserved for you in heaven. You previously heard about this hope through the true message, the good news, ⁶ which has come to you. This message has been bearing fruit and growing among you since the day you heard and truly understood God’s grace, in the same way that it is bearing fruit and growing in the whole world. ⁷ You learned it from Epaphras, who is the fellow slave we love and Christ’s faithful minister for your sake. ⁸ He informed us of your love in the Spirit.

⁹ Because of this, since the day we heard about you, we haven’t stopped praying for you and asking for you to be filled with the knowledge of God’s will, with all wisdom and spiritual understanding. ¹⁰ We’re praying this so that you can live lives that are worthy of the Lord and pleasing to him in every way: by producing fruit in every good work and growing in the knowledge of God; ¹¹ by being strengthened through his glorious might so that you endure everything and have patience; ¹² and by giving thanks with joy to the Father. He made it so you could take part in the inheritance, in light granted to God’s holy people. ¹³ He rescued us from the control of darkness and transferred us into the kingdom of the Son he loves. ¹⁴ He set us free through the Son and forgave our sins.

Hymn about Christ’s work

²¹ Once you were alienated from God and you were enemies with him in your minds, which was shown by your evil actions. ²² But now he has reconciled you by his physical body through death, to present you before God as a people who are holy, faultless, and without blame. ²³ But you need to remain well established and rooted in faith and not shift away from the hope given in the good news that you heard. This message has been preached throughout all creation under heaven. And I, Paul, became a servant of this good news.

Paul’s service for the church

²⁴ Now I’m happy to be suffering for you. I’m completing what is missing from Christ’s sufferings with my own body. I’m doing this for the sake of his body, which is the church. ²⁵ I became a servant of the church by God’s commission, which was given to me for you, in order to complete God’s word. ²⁶ I’m completing it with a secret plan^[c] that has been hidden for ages and generations but which has now been revealed to his holy people. ²⁷ God wanted to make the glorious riches of this secret plan^[d] known among the Gentiles, which is Christ living in you, the hope of glory. ²⁸ This is what we preach as we warn and teach every person with all wisdom so that we might present each one mature in Christ. ²⁹ I work hard and struggle for this goal with his energy, which works in me powerfully.

The closed gate

44 He brought me back to the outer sanctuary gate that faces east. It was closed. ² The Lord said to me, This gate remains closed. It shouldn’t be opened. No one should come in through it because the Lord, Israel’s God, has entered through it. It will remain closed. ³ As for the prince, he may sit in it to eat bread in the Lord’s presence. He may come in and go out by way of the gate’s porch.

Foreigners, Levites, Zadokites

⁴ Then he brought me by way of the north gate to the front of the temple. I looked, and suddenly the Lord’s glory filled the Lord’s temple, and I fell on my face. ⁵ Then the Lord said to me: Human one, pay close attention! Use your eyes and ears and listen to all that I say to you concerning the regulations of the Lord’s temple and all its instructions. Pay close attention to the access to the temple through all the sanctuary portals.^{[a] 6} Speak to the rebels, to the house of Israel, The Lord God proclaims: Enough of your detestable practices, house of Israel! ⁷ You made my temple unclean because you brought into my sanctuary foreigners who were physically and spiritually uncircumcised. When you offered my food of fat and blood to me, you^[b] broke my covenant with all your detestable practices. ⁸ You didn’t keep charge of my holy things. On the contrary, you appointed them^[c] to keep charge in my sanctuary for you.

⁹ The Lord God proclaims: Foreigners who are spiritually and physically uncircumcised must not enter my sanctuary; that is, all foreigners among the Israelites. ¹⁰ But the Levites, who went far from me when Israel went astray, who went astray from me after their idols, will bear their guilt. ¹¹ They will keep charge in my sanctuary, and they will oversee the temple gates and keep charge of the temple. They will slaughter the entirely burned offerings and the sacrifices for the people, and they will stand before them to minister to them. ¹² Because they ministered to them before their idols, they brought about the downfall of the house of Israel. For that reason I made a solemn pledge against them—this is what the Lord God says—and they will bear their guilt. ¹³ They won’t approach me to officiate for me as priests or approach any of my holy things or the most holy place. Though they will bear their humiliation and the consequences of their detestable practices, ¹⁴ I will appoint them to keep charge of the temple, all its work, and all that is done in it.

¹⁵ As for the priests of the levitical family of Zadok who did keep charge of my sanctuary when the Israelites strayed away from me, they will draw near to me to serve me. They will stand in my presence to present fat and blood to me. This is what the Lord God says. ¹⁶ They will come into my sanctuary, and they will approach my table to minister to me. They will keep my charge. ¹⁷ When they come through the gates to the inner courtyard, they will wear linen garments. They won’t wear any wool when they minister at the gates of the inner courtyard or in the temple. ¹⁸ They will have linen turbans on their heads and linen undergarments around their waists. They won’t wear anything that makes them sweat. ¹⁹ When they go out to the outer courtyard to the people, they will remove the garments in which they were ministering. They will lay them aside in the holy chambers and wear other clothing. They must not transfer holiness to the people through their clothing. ²⁰ They must neither shave their heads nor let their hair grow long, but they will trim the hair on their heads. ²¹ None of the priests should drink wine when they come into the inner courtyard. ²² They must not marry widows or divorced women, but only Israelite virgins. Priests may, however, marry the widows of other priests. ²³ They must teach my people the difference between the holy and the ordinary, and show them the difference between clean and unclean. ²⁴ They must execute judgments according to my case laws in cases of civil conflict. They must observe my instructions and my regulations regarding all my festivals. They must keep my sabbaths holy. ²⁵ In order to avoid uncleanness, they must not approach the dead. They may, however, become unclean for their father or mother, son or daughter, brother or unmarried sister. ²⁶ Once the priest is clean again, he must count off seven days. ²⁷ On the day that he comes into the holy place, the inner courtyard, to minister in the holy place, he will present his purification offering. This is what the Lord God says. ²⁸ As for their inheritance, I am their inheritance. They won’t be given family property in Israel; I am their family property. ²⁹ They will eat the grain offerings, the purification offerings, and the compensation offerings. Every dedicated thing in Israel belongs to them. ³⁰ The best of the early produce of every kind, and every contribution, all of them, belong to the priests. You will give the best of your bread dough to the priest so that a blessing may come to rest on your household. ³¹ The priests must not eat any bird or animal that dies naturally or is torn apart by prey.

Psalm 97

Psalm 98

A psalm.