M’Cheyne Bible Reading Plan

Abijah, King of Judah^(A)

13 In the eighteenth year of King Jeroboam, Abijah became king of Judah. ² He reigned for three years in Judah, and his mother’s name was Micaiah,^[a] the granddaughter of Uriel of Gibeah.

And there was a war between Abijah and Jeroboam. ³ Abijah set the battle in order with an army of valiant men of war, four hundred thousand choice men. Jeroboam also drew up battle lines against him with an army of eight hundred thousand men, mighty men of valor.

⁴ Then Abijah went up to Mount Zemaraim that is in the hills of Ephraim, and he said, “Listen to me, Jeroboam and all Israel! ⁵ Do you all not know that the Lord God of Israel has perpetually given the kingdom of Israel to David, even to him and to his sons with a covenant of salt? ⁶ And Jeroboam the son of Nebat, the servant of Solomon son of David, stood up and rebelled against his lord Rehoboam. ⁷ Then vain, worthless men gathered together around him and defied Rehoboam son of Solomon. And Rehoboam was young and timid in heart and was not strong before them.

⁸ “And now you think that you can withstand before the kingdom of the Lord by the hand of the sons of David. And you all are a great multitude, and with you are the golden calves that Jeroboam has made for you to be gods. ⁹ Have you all not driven out the priests of the Lord, even the Levites and sons of Aaron, and made for yourselves priests from the peoples of other lands? Whoever comes to be dedicated and has in his hand a young bull or seven rams becomes a priest to what is not a god.

¹⁰ “But for us, the Lord is our God, and we have not abandoned Him. And our priests serve the Lord and are sons of Aaron, Levites with their service. ¹¹ They sacrifice burnt offerings to the Lord every morning and evening and put out an incense of spices. They also set the showbread in place on the ritual table and set the golden lampstand with its lamps to burn every evening. For we keep the duty of the Lord our God, but you all have abandoned Him. ¹² God is with us as a leader, and His priests with their battle trumpets to call for battle against you all. O sons of Israel, do not fight against the Lord the God of your fathers because you will not find success.”

¹³ So Jeroboam went around them with an ambush to come from behind them. Those from Israel were in front of Judah, while the ambush was behind them. ¹⁴ Then Judah turned and saw that the battle was both in front of and behind them. Then they cried out to the Lord, and the priests sounded their trumpets. ¹⁵ Then the men from Judah shouted out; and it happened when Judah shouted out, God struck down Jeroboam and all Israel before Abijah and Judah. ¹⁶ The men of Israel fled before Judah, and God gave them into their hand. ¹⁷ Abijah and his people struck them down with a great slaughter, and the slain from Israel who fell that day were five hundred thousand choice men. ¹⁸ So the sons of Israel were subdued at that time, and the people of Judah were strong for they depended on the Lord God of their fathers.

¹⁹ And Abijah chased after Jeroboam and captured cities from him: Bethel, Jeshanah, and Ephron with their surrounding villages. ²⁰ And Jeroboam did not again recover his strength in the days of Abijah, and the Lord struck down Jeroboam, and he died.

²¹ So Abijah grew strong and took fourteen wives and had twenty-two sons and sixteen daughters.

²² And the remainder of the acts of Abijah, both his ways and words, are written in the story of the prophet Iddo.

The Message to Sardis

3 “To the angel of the church in Sardis write:

“He who has the seven Spirits of God and the seven stars says these things: I know your works, that you have a reputation of being alive, but you are dead. ² Be watchful, and strengthen the things which remain but are ready to die, for I have not found your works perfected before God. ³ Remember therefore how you have received and heard; hold fast and repent. Therefore if you will not watch, I will come upon you as a thief, and you will not know what hour I will come upon you.

⁴ “You have a few names even in Sardis who have not soiled their garments. They shall walk with Me in white, for they are worthy. ⁵ He who overcomes shall be clothed in white garments. I will not blot his name out of the Book of Life, but I will confess his name before My Father and before His angels. ⁶ He who has an ear, let him hear what the Spirit says to the churches.

The Message to Philadelphia

⁷ “To the angel of the church in Philadelphia write:

“He who is holy, He who is true, He who has the key of David, He who opens and no one shuts, and shuts and no one opens, says these things: ⁸ I know your works. Look! I have set before you an open door, and no one can shut it. For you have a little strength, and have kept My word, and have not denied My name. ⁹ Listen! I will make them of the synagogue of Satan, who say they are Jews and are not, but lie. Listen! I will make them come and worship before your feet and to know that I have loved you. ¹⁰ Because you have kept My word of patience, I also will keep you from the hour of temptation which shall come upon the entire world, to test those who dwell on the earth.

¹¹ “Look, I am coming quickly. Hold firmly what you have, so that no one may take your crown. ¹² He who overcomes will I make a pillar in the temple of My God, and he shall go out no more. I will write on him the name of My God and the name of the city of My God, the New Jerusalem, which comes down out of heaven from My God, and My own new name. ¹³ He who has an ear, let him hear what the Spirit says to the churches.

The Message to Laodicea

¹⁴ “To the angel of the church of the Laodiceans write:

“The Amen, the Faithful and True Witness, the Beginning of the creation of God, says these things: ¹⁵ I know your works, that you are neither cold nor hot. I wish you were cold or hot. ¹⁶ So then, because you are lukewarm, and neither cold nor hot, I will spit you out of My mouth. ¹⁷ For you say, ‘I am rich, and have stored up goods, and have need of nothing,’ yet do not realize that you are wretched, miserable, poor, blind, and naked. ¹⁸ I counsel you to buy from Me gold refined by fire, that you may be rich, and white garments, that you may be dressed, that the shame of your nakedness may not appear, and anoint your eyes with eye salve, that you may see.

¹⁹ “Those whom I love, I rebuke and discipline. Therefore be zealous and repent. ²⁰ Listen! I stand at the door and knock. If anyone hears My voice and opens the door, I will come in and dine with him, and he with Me.

²¹ “To him who overcomes will I grant to sit with Me on My throne, as I also overcame and sat down with My Father on His throne. ²² He who has an ear, let him hear what the Spirit says to the churches.”

God’s Command to Rebuild the Temple

1 In the second year of King Darius, in the sixth month, on the first day of the month, the word of the Lord came by Haggai the prophet to Zerubbabel the son of Shealtiel, governor of Judah, and to Joshua the son of Jehozadak, the high priest, saying,

² Thus says the Lord of Hosts: These people say, The time has not yet come to rebuild the house of the Lord.

³ Then the word of the Lord came by Haggai the prophet, saying: ⁴ Is it time for you yourselves to live in paneled houses, while this house lies in ruins?

⁵ Now, therefore, thus says the Lord of Hosts: Consider your ways. ⁶ You have sown much, and harvested little. You eat, but you do not have enough; you drink, but you are not filled with drink; you clothe yourselves, but no one is warm; and he who earns wages earns wages to put them into a bag with holes.

⁷ Thus says the Lord of Hosts: Consider your ways. ⁸ Go up to the mountain and bring wood and rebuild the house, that I may take pleasure in it and be glorified, says the Lord. ⁹ You looked for much, and it came to little; and when you brought it home, I blew it away. Why? says the Lord of Hosts. Because of My house that lies in ruins while each of you runs to his own house. ¹⁰ Therefore the heavens above you have withheld the dew, and the earth has withheld its crops. ¹¹ I called for a drought on the land and the mountains, on the grain, on the new wine, on the oil, on what the ground brings forth, on men, on livestock, and on all the labor of your hands.

The People Obey God’s Command

¹² Then Zerubbabel the son of Shealtiel, and Joshua the son of Jehozadak, the high priest, with all the remnant of the people, obeyed the voice of the Lord their God, and the words of Haggai the prophet, as the Lord their God had sent him. And the people feared the Lord.

¹³ Then Haggai, the messenger of the Lord, spoke the message of the Lord to the people, saying: I am with you, says the Lord. ¹⁴ And the Lord stirred up the spirit of Zerubbabel the son of Shealtiel, governor of Judah, and the spirit of Joshua the son of Jehozadak, the high priest, and the spirit of all the remnant of the people. And they came and worked on the house of the Lord of Hosts their God, ¹⁵ on the twenty-fourth day of the sixth month, in the second year of King Darius.

The Wedding at Cana

2 On the third day there was a wedding in Cana of Galilee. The mother of Jesus was there. ² Both Jesus and His disciples were invited to the wedding. ³ When the wine ran out, the mother of Jesus said to Him, “They have no wine.”

⁴ Jesus said to her, “Woman, what does this have to do with Me? My hour has not yet come.”

⁵ His mother said to the servants, “Whatever He says to you, do it.”

⁶ Six water pots made of stone were sitting there, used for ceremonial cleansing by the Jews, containing twenty to thirty gallons^[a] each.

⁷ Jesus said to them, “Fill the water pots with water.” And they filled them up to the brim.

⁸ Then He said to them, “Now draw some out, and take it to the master of the feast.”

And they took it. ⁹ When the master of the feast tasted the water that had been turned into wine, and did not know where it came from (though the servants who drew the water knew), the master of the feast called the bridegroom, ¹⁰ and he said to him, “Every man serves the good wine first, and after men have drunk freely, then the poor wine is served. But you have kept the good wine until now.”

¹¹ This, the first of His signs, Jesus did in Cana of Galilee, and He revealed His glory, and His disciples believed in Him.

¹² After this He, and His mother, and His brothers, and His disciples went down to Capernaum. They remained there a few days.

The Cleansing of the Temple^(A)

¹³ The Passover of the Jews was at hand, and Jesus went up to Jerusalem. ¹⁴ In the temple He found those who were selling oxen and sheep and doves, and the moneychangers sitting there. ¹⁵ When He had made a whip of cords, He drove them all out of the temple, with the sheep and oxen. He poured out the changers’ money and overturned the tables. ¹⁶ He said to those who sold doves, “Take these things away! Do not make My Father’s house a house of merchandise!” ¹⁷ His disciples remembered that it was written, “Zeal for Your house will consume Me.”^[b]

¹⁸ Then the Jews said to Him, “What sign do You show us, seeing that You do these things?”

¹⁹ Jesus answered them, “Destroy this temple, and in three days I will raise it up.”

²⁰ Then the Jews said, “It has taken forty-six years to build this temple, and will You raise it up in three days?” ²¹ But He was speaking concerning the temple of His body. ²² Therefore, when He was raised from the dead, His disciples remembered that He had said this to them. And they believed the Scripture and the word which Jesus had spoken.

Jesus Knows All Men

²³ Now when He was in Jerusalem at the Passover Feast, many believed in His name when they saw the signs which He did. ²⁴ But Jesus did not entrust Himself to them, because He knew all men, ²⁵ and did not need anyone to bear witness of man, for He knew what was in man.