M’Cheyne Bible Reading Plan
12 Solomon stood before the Lord’s altar in front of the entire Israelite assembly and spread out his hands. 13 Now Solomon had made a bronze platform seven and a half feet long, seven and a half feet wide, and four and a half feet high, and he set it in the middle of the enclosure. He stood on it. Then, kneeling before the whole assembly of Israel and spreading his hands toward the sky, 14 he said:
Lord God of Israel, there is no god like you in heaven or on the earth. You keep the covenant and show loyalty to your servants who walk before you with all their heart. 15 This is the covenant you kept with your servant David my father, which you promised him. Today you have fulfilled what you promised.
16 So now, Lord God of Israel, keep what you promised my father David your servant when you said to him, “You will never fail to have a successor sitting on Israel’s throne as long as your descendants carefully walk according to my Instruction, just as you have walked before me.” 17 So now, Lord God of Israel, may your promise to your servant David come true.
18 But how could God possibly live on earth with people? If heaven, even the highest heaven, can’t contain you, how can this temple that I have built contain you? 19 Lord, my God, listen to your servant’s prayer and request, and hear the cry and prayer that I your servant pray to you. 20 Constantly watch over this temple, the place where you promised to put your name, and listen to the prayer your servant is praying concerning this place. 21 Listen to the request of your servant and your people Israel when they pray concerning this place. Listen from your heavenly dwelling place, and when you hear, forgive!
22 If someone wrongs another and must take a solemn pledge asserting his innocence before your altar in this temple, 23 then listen from heaven, act, and decide which of your servants is right. Condemn the guilty party, repaying them for their conduct, but justify the innocent person, repaying them for their righteousness.
24 If your people Israel are defeated by an enemy because they have sinned against you, but then they change their hearts, give thanks to your name, and ask for mercy in your presence at this temple, 25 then listen from heaven and forgive the sin of your people Israel. Return them to the land you gave to them and their ancestors.
26 When the sky holds back its rain because Israel has sinned against you, but they then pray concerning this place, give thanks to your name, and turn away from their sin because you have punished them for it,[a] 27 then listen from heaven and forgive the sin of your servants, your people Israel. Teach them the best way for them to follow, and send rain on your land that you gave to your people as an inheritance.
28 Whenever there is a famine or plague in the land, or whenever there is blight, mildew, locusts, or grasshoppers, or whenever someone’s enemies attack them in their cities, or any plague or illness comes, 29 whatever prayer or petition is made by any individual or by all of your people Israel—because people will recognize their own pain and suffering and spread out their hands toward this temple— 30 then listen from heaven where you live. Forgive, act, and repay each person according to all their conduct because you know their hearts. You alone know the human heart! 31 Do this that they may revere you by following your ways all the days they live on the fertile land that you gave to our ancestors.
32 Listen also to the foreigner who isn’t from your people Israel, but who comes from a distant country because of your great reputation, your great power, and your outstretched arm. When they come and pray toward this temple, 33 then listen from heaven where you live, and do everything the foreigner asks. Do this so that all the people of the earth may know your reputation and revere you, as your people Israel do, and recognize that this temple I have built bears your name.
34 When your people go to war against their enemies, wherever you may send them, and they pray to you toward this city that you have chosen and concerning this temple that I have built for your name, 35 then listen from heaven to their prayer and request and do what is right for them.
36 When they sin against you, for there is no one who doesn’t sin, and you become angry with them and hand them over to an enemy who takes them away as prisoners to enemy territory, whether distant or nearby, 37 if they change their heart in whatever land they are held captive, turning back and begging for your mercy,[b] saying, “We have sinned, we have done wrong, and we have acted wickedly!” 38 and if they return to you with all their heart and all their being in the enemy territory where they’ve been taken captive, and pray concerning their land, which you gave to their ancestors, concerning the city you have chosen, and concerning this temple I have built for your name, 39 then listen to their prayer and request from your heavenly dwelling place. Do what is right for them, and forgive your people who have sinned against you.
40 Now, my God, may your eyes be open and your ears attentive to the prayers of this place. 41 And now go, Lord God, to your resting place, you and your mighty chest. May your priests, Lord God, be clothed with salvation; may those loyal to you rejoice in what is good. 42 Lord God, don’t reject your anointed one.[c] Remember your faithful loyalty to your servant David.
5 Everyone who believes that Jesus is the Christ has been born from God. Whoever loves someone who is a parent loves the child born to the parent. 2 This is how we know that we love the children of God: when we love God and keep God’s commandments. 3 This is the love of God: we keep God’s commandments. God’s commandments are not difficult, 4 because everyone who is born from God defeats the world. And this is the victory that has defeated the world: our faith. 5 Who defeats the world? Isn’t it the one who believes that Jesus is God’s Son?
Testimony about Jesus
6 This is the one who came by water and blood: Jesus Christ. Not by water only but by water and blood. And the Spirit is the one who testifies, because the Spirit is the truth. 7 The three are testifying— 8 the Spirit, the water, and the blood—and the three are united in agreement. 9 If we receive human testimony, God’s testimony is greater, because this is what God testified: he has testified about his Son. 10 The one who believes in God’s Son has the testimony within; the one who doesn’t believe God has made God a liar, because that one has not believed the testimony that God gave about his Son. 11 And this is the testimony: God gave eternal life to us, and this life is in his Son. 12 The one who has the Son has life. The one who doesn’t have God’s Son does not have life.
Confidence in prayer
13 I write these things to you who believe in the name of God’s Son so that you can know that you have eternal life. 14 This is the confidence that we have in our relationship with God: If we ask for anything in agreement with his will, he listens to us. 15 If we know that he listens to whatever we ask, we know that we have received what we asked from him. 16 If anyone sees a brother or sister committing a sin that does not result in death, they should pray, and God will give life to them—that is, to those who commit sins that don’t result in death. There is a sin that results in death—I’m not saying that you should pray about that. 17 Every unrighteous action is sin, but there is a sin that does not result in death.
Be on guard
18 We know that everyone born from God does not sin, but the ones born from God guard themselves,[a] and the evil one cannot touch them. 19 We know we are from God, and the whole world lies in the power of the evil one. 20 We know that God’s Son has come and has given us understanding to know the one who is true. We are in the one who is true by being in his Son, Jesus Christ. This is the true God and eternal life. 21 Little children, guard yourselves from idols!
1 The oracle that Habakkuk the prophet saw.
The prophet complains
2 Lord, how long will I call for help and you not listen?
I cry out to you, “Violence!”
but you don’t deliver us.
3 Why do you show me injustice and look at anguish
so that devastation and violence are before me?
There is strife, and conflict abounds.
4 The Instruction is ineffective.
Justice does not endure
because the wicked surround the righteous.
Justice becomes warped.
The Lord responds
5 Look among the nations and watch!
Be astonished and stare
because something is happening in your days
that you wouldn’t believe even if told.
6 I am about to rouse the Chaldeans,
that bitter and impetuous nation,
which travels throughout the earth to possess dwelling places it does not own.
7 The Chaldean is dreadful and fearful.
He makes his own justice and dignity.[a]
8 His horses are faster than leopards;
they are quicker than wolves of the evening.
His horsemen charge forward;
his horsemen come from far away.
They fly in to devour, swiftly, like an eagle.[b]
9 They come for violence,
the horde with all their faces set toward the desert.[c]
He takes captives like sand.
10 He makes fun of kings;
rulers are ridiculous to him.
He laughs at every fortress,
then he piles up dirt and takes it.
11 He passes through like the wind and invades;
but he will be held guilty,
the one whose strength is his god.
The prophet questions the Lord
12 Lord, aren’t you ancient, my God, my holy one?
Don’t let us die.[d]
Lord, you put the Chaldean here for judgment.
Rock, you established him as a rebuke.
13 Your eyes are too pure to look on evil;
you are unable to look at disaster.
Why would you look at the treacherous
or keep silent when the wicked swallows one who is more righteous?
14 You made humans like the fish of the sea,
like creeping things with no one to rule over them.
15 The Chaldean brings all of them up with a fishhook.
He drags them away with a net;
he collects them in his fishing net,
then he rejoices and celebrates.
16 Therefore, he sacrifices to his net;
he burns incense to his fishing nets,
because due to them his portion grows fat
and his food becomes luxurious.
17 Should he continue to empty his net
and continue to slay nations without sparing them?
Controversy over authority
20 On one of the days when Jesus was teaching the people in the temple and proclaiming the good news, the chief priests, legal experts, and elders approached him. 2 They said, “Tell us: What kind of authority do you have for doing these things? Who gave you this authority?”
3 He replied, “I have a question for you. Tell me: 4 Was John’s baptism of heavenly or of human origin?”
5 They discussed among themselves, “If we say, ‘It’s of heavenly origin,’ he’ll say, ‘Why didn’t you believe him?’ 6 But if we say, ‘It’s of human origin,’ all the people will stone us to death because they are convinced that John was a prophet.” 7 They answered that they didn’t know where it came from.
8 Then Jesus replied, “Neither will I tell you what kind of authority I have to do these things.”
Parable of the tenant farmers
9 Jesus told the people this parable: “A certain man planted a vineyard, rented it to tenant farmers, and went on a trip for a long time. 10 When it was time, he sent a servant to collect from the tenants his share of the fruit of the vineyard. But the tenants sent him away, beaten and empty-handed. 11 The man sent another servant. But they beat him, treated him disgracefully, and sent him away empty-handed as well. 12 He sent a third servant. They wounded this servant and threw him out. 13 The owner of the vineyard said, ‘What should I do? I’ll send my son, whom I love dearly. Perhaps they will respect him.’ 14 But when they saw him, they said to each other, ‘This is the heir. Let’s kill him so the inheritance will be ours.’ 15 They threw him out of the vineyard and killed him. What will the owner of the vineyard do to them? 16 He will come and destroy those tenants and give the vineyard to others.”
When the people heard this, they said, “May this never happen!”
17 Staring at them, Jesus said, “Then what is the meaning of this text of scripture: The stone that the builders rejected has become the cornerstone?[a] 18 Everyone who falls on that stone will be crushed. And the stone will crush the person it falls on.” 19 The legal experts and chief priests wanted to arrest him right then because they knew he had told this parable against them. But they feared the people.
An attempt to trap Jesus
20 The legal experts and chief priests were watching Jesus closely and sent spies who pretended to be sincere. They wanted to trap him in his words so they could hand him over to the jurisdiction and authority of the governor. 21 They asked him, “Teacher, we know that you are correct in what you say and teach. You don’t show favoritism but teach God’s way as it really is. 22 Does the Law allow people to pay taxes to Caesar or not?”
23 Since Jesus recognized their deception, he said to them, 24 “Show me a coin.[b] Whose image and inscription does it have on it?”
“Caesar’s,” they replied.
25 He said to them, “Give to Caesar what belongs to Caesar and to God what belongs to God.” 26 They couldn’t trap him in his words in front of the people. Astonished by his answer, they were speechless.
Question about the resurrection
27 Some Sadducees, who deny that there’s a resurrection, came to Jesus and asked, 28 “Teacher, Moses wrote for us that if a man’s brother dies leaving a widow but no children, the brother must marry the widow and raise up children for his brother.[c] 29 Now there were seven brothers. The first man married a woman and then died childless. 30 The second 31 and then the third brother married her. Eventually all seven married her, and they all died without leaving any children. 32 Finally, the woman died too. 33 In the resurrection, whose wife will she be? All seven were married to her.”
34 Jesus said to them, “People who belong to this age marry and are given in marriage. 35 But those who are considered worthy to participate in that age, that is, in the age of the resurrection from the dead, won’t marry nor will they be given in marriage. 36 They can no longer die, because they are like angels and are God’s children since they share in the resurrection. 37 Even Moses demonstrated that the dead are raised—in the passage about the burning bush, when he speaks of the Lord as the God of Abraham, the God of Isaac, and the God of Jacob.[d] 38 He isn’t the God of the dead but of the living. To him they are all alive.”
39 Some of the legal experts responded, “Teacher, you have answered well.” 40 No one dared to ask him anything else.
41 Jesus said to them, “Why do they say that the Christ is David’s son? 42 David himself says in the scroll of Psalms, The Lord said to my lord, ‘Sit at my right side 43 until I make your enemies a footstool for your feet.’[e] 44 Since David calls him ‘Lord,’ how can he be David’s son?”
Jesus condemns the legal experts
45 In the presence of all the people, Jesus said to his disciples, 46 “Watch out for the legal experts. They like to walk around in long robes. They love being greeted with honor in the markets. They long for the places of honor in the synagogues and at banquets. 47 They are the ones who cheat widows out of their homes, and to show off they say long prayers. They will be judged most harshly.”
Copyright © 2011 by Common English Bible