M’Cheyne Bible Reading Plan

Jehoash rules

24 Jehoash^[a] was 7 years old when he became king, and he ruled for forty years in Jerusalem. His mother’s name was Zibiah; she was from Beer-sheba. ² Jehoash did what was right in the Lord’s eyes as long as Jehoiada the priest was alive. ³ Jehoiada had him marry two wives, and Jehoash fathered sons and daughters.

⁴ Sometime later, Jehoash wanted to renovate the Lord’s temple. ⁵ He gathered the priests and the Levites and said, “Go to the cities of Judah and collect the annual tax of silver due from all Israel for the upkeep of God’s temple. Do it right away.”

But the Levites procrastinated. ⁶ So the king summoned the chief priest Jehoiada and asked him, “Why haven’t you required the Levites to bring in from Judah and Jerusalem the tax imposed by the Lord’s servant Moses and the Israelite assembly for the covenant tent?” (⁷ Now wicked Athaliah and her followers had broken into God’s temple and used all the holy objects of the Lord’s temple in their worship of the Baals.) ⁸ So at the king’s command a box was made and placed outside the gate of the Lord’s temple. ⁹ Then a proclamation was issued throughout Judah and Jerusalem requiring the people to bring to the Lord the tax that God’s servant Moses had imposed on Israel in the wilderness. ¹⁰ This so pleased all the leaders and all the people that they gladly dropped their money in the box until it was full. ¹¹ Whenever the box was brought by the Levites to the royal accountants, as soon as they saw that a large amount of money was in the box, the royal scribe and the representative of the high priest would come, empty the box, and return it to its place. This took place day after day, and a large amount of money was collected. ¹² The king and Jehoiada would give it to those in charge of the work on the Lord’s temple who in turn hired masons and carpenters to renovate the Lord’s temple, as well as metalworkers for the iron and bronze to repair the Lord’s temple. ¹³ The workers labored hard, and the restoration progressed smoothly under their control until they had brought God’s temple back to its original state and reinforced it. ¹⁴ As soon as they finished, they brought the remaining money to the king and Jehoiada. They used it to make equipment for the Lord’s temple, including what was used for the service and the entirely burned offerings, pans, and other objects made of gold and silver. As long as Jehoiada lived, the entirely burned offerings were regularly offered in the Lord’s temple.

¹⁵ Jehoiada grew old, and when he reached the age of 130, he died. ¹⁶ He was buried among the kings in David’s City because of his exemplary service to Israel, God, and God’s temple.

¹⁷ After Jehoiada’s death, however, the leaders of Judah came and bowed before the king, and the king listened to them. ¹⁸ They abandoned the temple of the Lord, their ancestors’ God, and worshipped sacred poles^[b] and idols. Anger came upon Judah and Jerusalem as a consequence of their sin, ¹⁹ and though God sent prophets to them to bring them back to the Lord and to warn them, they refused to listen. ²⁰ Then the spirit of God enwrapped Zechariah the son of the priest Jehoiada. Standing before the people, he told them, “This is what God says: Why do you defy the Lord’s commands and keep yourselves from prospering? Because you have abandoned the Lord, he has abandoned you!” ²¹ But the people plotted against Zechariah, and at the king’s command stoned him to death in the courtyard of the Lord’s temple. ²² King Jehoash failed to remember the loyalty that Jehoiada, Zechariah’s father, had shown him and murdered Jehoiada’s son, who cried out as he lay dying, “May the Lord see and seek vengeance!”

²³ That spring the Aramean army marched against Jehoash. They attacked Judah and Jerusalem, destroyed all the people’s leaders, and sent all the loot to the king of Damascus. ²⁴ Although the Aramean forces were relatively small, the Lord handed over to them a very large army, because the people of Judah had abandoned the Lord, their ancestors’ God. Jehoash was justly punished. ²⁵ The Arameans left him badly wounded, but his own officials plotted against him for murdering the son^[c] of the priest Jehoiada. So they killed him in his bed. He died and was buried in David’s City but not in the royal cemetery. ²⁶ Those who plotted against him were the Ammonite Zabad, Shimeath’s son, and the Moabite Jehozabad, Shimrith’s son. ²⁷ The list of Jehoash’s sons, the many prophecies against him, and the account of his restoration of God’s temple are written in the comments on the records of the kings. His son Amaziah succeeded him as king.

Two witnesses

11 Then I was given a measuring rod, which was like a pole. And I was told, “Get up and measure God’s temple, the altar, and those who worship there. ² But don’t measure the court outside the temple. Leave that out, because it has been given to the nations, and they will trample the holy city underfoot for forty-two months.

³ “And I will allow my two witnesses to prophesy for one thousand two hundred sixty days, wearing mourning clothes. ⁴ These are the two olive trees and the two lampstands that stand before the Lord of the earth. ⁵ If anyone wants to hurt them, fire comes out of their mouth and burns up their enemies. So if anyone wants to hurt them, they have to be killed in this way. ⁶ They have the power to close up the sky so that no rain will fall for as long as they prophesy. They also have power over the waters, to turn them into blood, and to strike the earth with any plague, as often as they wish.

⁷ “When they have finished their witnessing, the beast that comes up from the abyss will make war on them, gain victory over them, and kill them. ⁸ Their dead bodies will lie on the street of the great city that is spiritually called Sodom and Egypt, where also their Lord was crucified. ⁹ And for three and a half days, members of the peoples, tribes, languages, and nations will look at their dead bodies, but they won’t let their dead bodies be put in a tomb. ¹⁰ Those who live on earth will rejoice over them. They will celebrate and give each other gifts, because these two prophets had brought such pain to those who live on earth.

¹¹ “But after three and a half days, the breath of life from God entered them, and they stood on their feet. Great fear came over those who saw them. ¹² Then they heard a loud voice from heaven say to them, ‘Come up here.’ And they went up to heaven in a cloud, while their enemies watched them. ¹³ At that hour there was a great earthquake, and a tenth of the city fell. Seven thousand people were killed by the earthquake, and the rest were afraid and gave glory to the God of heaven.”

¹⁴ The second horror is over. The third horror is coming soon.

Seventh trumpet

¹⁵ Then the seventh angel blew his trumpet, and there were loud voices in heaven saying,

¹⁶ Then the twenty-four elders, who were seated on their thrones before God, fell on their faces and worshipped God. ¹⁷ They said,

¹⁹ Then God’s temple in heaven was opened, and the chest containing his covenant appeared in his temple. There were lightning, voices, thunder, an earthquake, and large hail.

Answering the Bethel delegation

7 In the fourth year of Darius the king, the Lord’s word came to Zechariah on the fourth day of the ninth month, Kislev.^{[a] 2} The people of^[b] Bethel sent Sharezer and Regem-Melech,^[c] along with his men, to seek the Lord’s favor, ³ saying to the priests who were in the house of the Lord of heavenly forces and to the prophets: “Should I weep in the fifth month and abstain as I have done for a number of years?”

⁴ Then the word of the Lord of heavenly forces came to me: ⁵ Say to all the land’s people and to the priests: When you fasted and lamented in the fifth month and the seventh month for these past seventy years, did you fast for me? ⁶ When you ate and drank, weren’t you the ones eating and drinking? ⁷ Weren’t these the words that the Lord proclaimed through the former prophets when Jerusalem was dwelling quietly along with the surrounding cities, and when the arid southern plain and the western foothills were inhabited?

Make just and faithful decisions; show kindness and compassion to each other! ¹⁰ Don’t oppress the widow, the orphan, the stranger, and the poor; don’t plan evil against each other! ¹¹ But they refused to pay attention. They turned a cold shoulder and stopped listening.

¹² They steeled their hearts against hearing the Instruction and the words that the Lord of heavenly forces sent by his spirit through the earlier prophets. As a result, the Lord of heavenly forces became enraged.

¹³ So just as he called and they didn’t listen, when they called, I didn’t listen, says the Lord of heavenly forces. ¹⁴ I scattered them throughout the nations whom they didn’t know. The land was devastated behind them, with no one leaving or returning. They turned a delightful land into a wasteland.

10 ¹ I assure you that whoever doesn’t enter into the sheep pen through the gate but climbs over the wall is a thief and an outlaw. ² The one who enters through the gate is the shepherd of the sheep. ³ The guard at the gate opens the gate for him, and the sheep listen to his voice. He calls his own sheep by name and leads them out. ⁴ Whenever he has gathered all of his sheep, he goes before them and they follow him, because they know his voice. ⁵ They won’t follow a stranger but will run away because they don’t know the stranger’s voice.” ⁶ Those who heard Jesus use this analogy didn’t understand what he was saying.

I am the gate

⁷ So Jesus spoke again, “I assure you that I am the gate of the sheep. ⁸ All who came before me were thieves and outlaws, but the sheep didn’t listen to them. ⁹ I am the gate. Whoever enters through me will be saved. They will come in and go out and find pasture. ¹⁰ The thief enters only to steal, kill, and destroy. I came so that they could have life—indeed, so that they could live life to the fullest.

I am the good shepherd

¹¹ “I am the good shepherd. The good shepherd lays down his life for the sheep. ¹² When the hired hand sees the wolf coming, he leaves the sheep and runs away. That’s because he isn’t the shepherd; the sheep aren’t really his. So the wolf attacks the sheep and scatters them. ¹³ He’s only a hired hand and the sheep don’t matter to him.

¹⁴ “I am the good shepherd. I know my own sheep and they know me, ¹⁵ just as the Father knows me and I know the Father. I give up my life for the sheep. ¹⁶ I have other sheep that don’t belong to this sheep pen. I must lead them too. They will listen to my voice and there will be one flock, with one shepherd.

¹⁷ “This is why the Father loves me: I give up my life so that I can take it up again. ¹⁸ No one takes it from me, but I give it up because I want to. I have the right to give it up, and I have the right to take it up again. I received this commandment from my Father.”

¹⁹ There was another division among the Jews because of Jesus’ words. ²⁰ Many of them said, “He has a demon and has lost his mind. Why listen to him?” ²¹ Others said, “These aren’t the words of someone who has a demon. Can a demon heal the eyes of people who are blind?”

Jesus at the Festival of Dedication

²² The time came for the Festival of Dedication^[a] in Jerusalem. It was winter, ²³ and Jesus was in the temple, walking in the covered porch named for Solomon. ²⁴ The Jewish opposition circled around him and asked, “How long will you test our patience? If you are the Christ, tell us plainly.”

²⁵ Jesus answered, “I have told you, but you don’t believe. The works I do in my Father’s name testify about me, ²⁶ but you don’t believe because you don’t belong to my sheep. ²⁷ My sheep listen to my voice. I know them and they follow me. ²⁸ I give them eternal life. They will never die, and no one will snatch them from my hand. ²⁹ My Father, who has given them to me, is greater than all, and no one is able to snatch them from my Father’s hand. ³⁰ I and the Father are one.”

³¹ Again the Jewish opposition picked up stones in order to stone him. ³² Jesus responded, “I have shown you many good works from the Father. For which of those works do you stone me?”

³³ The Jewish opposition answered, “We don’t stone you for a good work but for insulting God. You are human, yet you make yourself out to be God.”

³⁴ Jesus replied, “Isn’t it written in your Law, I have said, you are gods?^{[b] 35} Scripture calls those to whom God’s word came gods, and scripture can’t be abolished. ³⁶ So how can you say that the one whom the Father has made holy and sent into the world insults God because he said, ‘I am God’s Son’? ³⁷ If I don’t do the works of my Father, don’t believe me. ³⁸ But if I do them, and you don’t believe me, believe the works so that you can know and recognize that the Father is in me and I am in the Father.” ³⁹ Again, they wanted to arrest him, but he escaped from them.

Jesus at the Jordan

⁴⁰ Jesus went back across the Jordan to the place where John had baptized at first, and he stayed there. ⁴¹ Many people came to him. “John didn’t do any miraculous signs,” they said, “but everything John said about this man was true.” ⁴² Many believed in Jesus there.