M’Cheyne Bible Reading Plan

A Message for Ahaziah

1 After King Ahab died, Moab broke away from Israel’s rule.

² One day Ahaziah was on the roof of his house in Samaria. He fell down through the wooden bars on top of his house and was badly hurt. He called messengers and told them, “Go to the priests of Baal Zebub, the god of Ekron, and ask them if I will get well from my injuries.”

³ But the Lord’s angel said to Elijah the Tishbite, “King Ahaziah has sent some messengers from Samaria. Go meet those men and ask them, ‘There is a God in Israel, so why are you men going to ask questions of Baal Zebub, the god of Ekron? ⁴ Since you did this, the Lord says, You will not get up from your bed. You will die!’” Then Elijah left.

⁵ When messengers came back to Ahaziah, he asked them, “Why did you come back so soon?”

⁶ The messengers said to Ahaziah, “A man came up to meet us and told us to go back to the king who sent us and tell him what the Lord says: ‘There is a God in Israel, so why did you send messengers to ask questions of Baal Zebub, the god of Ekron? Since you did this, you will not get up from your bed. You will die!’”

⁷ Ahaziah said to the messengers, “What did the man look like who met you and told you this?”

⁸ They answered Ahaziah, “This man was wearing a hairy coat^[a] with a leather belt around his waist.”

Then Ahaziah said, “That was Elijah the Tishbite.”

Ahaziah Calls for Elijah

⁹ Ahaziah sent a captain and 50 men to Elijah. The captain went to Elijah, who was sitting on top of a hill. The captain said to Elijah, “Man of God, the king says, ‘Come down!’”

¹⁰ Elijah answered the captain of 50, “If I am a man of God, let fire come down from heaven and destroy you and your 50 men!”

So fire came down from heaven and destroyed the captain and his 50 men.

¹¹ Ahaziah sent another captain with 50 men to Elijah. He said to Elijah, “Man of God, the king says, ‘Come down quickly!’”

¹² Elijah told the captain and his 50 men, “If I am a man of God, let fire come down from heaven and destroy you and your 50 men!”

Then God’s fire came down from heaven and destroyed the captain and his 50 men.

¹³ Ahaziah sent a third captain with 50 men. The third captain came to Elijah. He fell down on his knees and begged Elijah, saying to him, “Man of God, I ask you, please let my life and the lives of your 50 servants be valuable to you. ¹⁴ Fire came down from heaven and destroyed the first two captains and their 50 men. But now, have mercy and let us live!”

¹⁵ The Lord’s angel said to Elijah, “Go with the captain. Don’t be afraid of him.”

So Elijah went with the captain to see King Ahaziah.

¹⁶ Elijah told Ahaziah, “This is what the Lord says: ‘There is a God in Israel, so why did you send messengers to ask questions of Baal Zebub, the god of Ekron? Since you did this, you will not get up from your bed. You will die!’”

Joram Takes Ahaziah’s Place

¹⁷ Ahaziah died, just as the Lord said through Elijah. Ahaziah did not have a son, so Joram became the new king after Ahaziah. He began to rule during the second year that Jehoram son of Jehoshaphat was the king of Judah.

¹⁸ The other things that Ahaziah did are written in the book, The History of the Kings of Israel.

1 Greetings from Paul, Silas, and Timothy.

To the church of those in Thessalonica, who are in God our Father and the Lord Jesus Christ.

² Grace and peace to you from God the Father and the Lord Jesus Christ.

³ We thank God for you always. And that’s what we should do, because you give us good reason to be thankful: Your faith is growing more and more. And the love that every one of you has for each other is also growing. ⁴ So we tell the other churches of God how proud we are of you. We tell them how you patiently continue to be strong and have faith, even though you are being persecuted and are suffering many troubles.

Paul Tells About God’s Judgment

⁵ This is proof that God is right in his judgment. He wants you to be worthy of his kingdom. Your suffering is for that kingdom. ⁶ God will do what is right. He will punish those who are causing you trouble. ⁷ And he will bring relief to you who are troubled. He will bring it to you and to us when the Lord Jesus comes from heaven for all to see, together with his powerful angels. ⁸ He will come with burning fire to punish those who don’t know God—those who refuse to accept the Good News about our Lord Jesus. ⁹ They will be punished with a destruction that never ends. They will not be allowed to be with the Lord but will be kept away from his great power. ¹⁰ This will happen on the day when the Lord Jesus comes to receive honor with his holy people. He will be admired among all who have believed. And this includes you because you believed what we told you.

¹¹ That is why we always pray for you. We ask our God to help you live the good way he wanted when he chose you. The goodness you have makes you want to do good. And the faith you have makes you work. We pray that with his power God will help you do these things more and more. ¹² Then the name of our Lord Jesus will be honored because of you, and you will be honored because of him. This can happen only by the grace of our God and the Lord Jesus Christ.

The Writing on the Wall

5 King Belshazzar gave a big party for 1000 of his officials. The king was drinking wine with them. ² As Belshazzar was drinking his wine, he ordered his servants to bring the gold and silver cups. His grandfather^[a] Nebuchadnezzar had taken these cups from the Temple in Jerusalem. King Belshazzar wanted his royal people, his wives, and his slave women to drink from those cups. ³ So they brought the gold cups that had been taken from the Temple of God in Jerusalem, and the king and his officials, his wives, and his women slaves drank from them. ⁴ As they were drinking, they gave praise to their idol gods, which were only statues made from gold, silver, bronze, iron, wood, and stone.

⁵ Suddenly, a person’s hand appeared and began writing on the wall. The fingers scratched words into the plaster on the wall, near the lampstand in the king’s palace. The king was watching the hand as it wrote.

⁶ King Belshazzar was very afraid. His face became white from fear, and his knees were shaking and knocking together. He could not stand up because his legs were too weak. ⁷ The king called for the men of magic and the Chaldeans to be brought to him. He said to these wise men, “I will give a reward to anyone who can read this writing and explain to me what it means. I will give him purple robes^[b] to wear and will put a gold chain around his neck. I will make him the third highest ruler in the kingdom.”

⁸ So all the king’s wise men came in, but they could not read the writing or understand what it meant. ⁹ King Belshazzar’s officials were confused, and the king became even more afraid and worried. His face was white from fear.

¹⁰ Then the king’s mother came into the place where the party was. She had heard the voices of the king and his royal officials. She said, “King, may you live forever! Don’t be afraid! Don’t let your face be so white with fear! ¹¹ There is a man in your kingdom who has the spirit of the holy gods in him. In the days of your father, this man showed that he could understand secrets. He showed that he was very smart and very wise. He showed that he was like the gods in these things. Your grandfather, King Nebuchadnezzar, put this man in charge of all the wise men. He ruled over all the men of magic and the Chaldeans. ¹² The man I am talking about is named Daniel. The king gave him the name Belteshazzar. He is very smart and he knows many things. He could interpret dreams, explain secrets, and find the answer to very hard problems. Call for Daniel, he will tell you what the writing on the wall means.”

¹³ So they brought Daniel to the king and he asked, “Is your name Daniel, one of the captives my father the king brought here from Judah? ¹⁴ I have heard that the spirit of the gods is in you and that you understand secrets and are very smart and very wise. ¹⁵ The wise men and the men of magic were brought to me to read this writing on the wall. I wanted them to explain to me what it means, but they could not explain it. ¹⁶ I have heard that you are able to explain what things mean, and that you can find the answer to very hard problems. If you can read this writing on the wall and explain to me what it means, this is what I will do for you: I will give you purple robes to wear and will put a gold chain around your neck. Then you will become the third highest ruler in the kingdom.”

¹⁷ Then Daniel answered the king, “King Belshazzar, you can keep your gifts for yourself, or you can give them to someone else. But I will still read the writing on the wall for you and explain what it means.

¹⁸ “King, God Most High made your grandfather Nebuchadnezzar a very great and powerful king and gave him great wealth. ¹⁹ People from many nations and language groups were very afraid of Nebuchadnezzar because God made him a very powerful king. Nebuchadnezzar killed whoever he wanted and let those who pleased him live. If he wanted to make people important, he made them important. If he wanted to bring them down, he brought them down.

²⁰ “But Nebuchadnezzar became proud and stubborn, so his power was taken away from him. He was taken off his royal throne and stripped of his glory. ²¹ Then Nebuchadnezzar was forced to go away from people. His mind became like the mind of an animal. He lived with the wild donkeys and ate grass like an ox. He became wet with dew. These things happened to him until he learned his lesson. He learned that God Most High rules over human kingdoms, and he gives them to whoever he wants.

²² “But Belshazzar, you already knew this. You are Nebuchadnezzar’s grandson,^[c] but still you have not made yourself humble. ²³ No, you did not become humble. Instead, you have turned against the Lord of heaven. You ordered the drinking cups from his Temple to be brought to you. Then you and your royal officials, your wives, and your slave women drank wine from those cups. You gave praise to the gods of silver and gold, of bronze, iron, wood, and stone. They are not really gods; they cannot see or hear or understand anything. But you did not give honor to the God who has the power over your life and everything you do. ²⁴ So because of that, God sent the hand that wrote on the wall. ²⁵ These are the words that were written on the wall:

mene, mene, tekel, uparsin.

²⁶ “This is what these words mean:

²⁹ Then Belshazzar gave an order for Daniel to be dressed in purple clothes. A gold chain was put around his neck, and he was appointed the third highest ruler in the kingdom. ³⁰ That very same night, Belshazzar, king of the Babylonians, was killed. ³¹ A man named Darius the Mede became the new king. Darius was about 62 years old.

A praise song of David.