M’Cheyne Bible Reading Plan

Hezekiah, King of Judah^(A)

29 Hezekiah was twenty-five years old when he began to reign, and he was king in Jerusalem for twenty-nine years. The name of his mother was Abijah^[a] the daughter of Zechariah. ² And he did what was correct in the eyes of the Lord just as his father David had done.

Hezekiah Cleanses the Temple

³ And in the first year and first month of his reign he opened the doors of the house of the Lord and restored them. ⁴ He then brought in the priests and Levites and gathered them in the square on the eastern side ⁵ and said to them, “Listen to me, Levites. Consecrate yourselves and consecrate the house of the Lord God of your fathers. And bring out the detestable things from the holy sanctuary. ⁶ For our fathers have acted unfaithfully and have done what is evil in the eyes of the Lord our God, and they have abandoned Him. They have turned their face from the sanctuary of the Lord and have turned their back. ⁷ They also shut the doors of the vestibule and have extinguished the lamps, nor have they burned incense or burnt offerings in the Holy Place to the God of Israel. ⁸ Therefore the wrath of the Lord has come on Judah and Jerusalem for a terror, horror, and scorn as you all can see with your own eyes. ⁹ Observe, our fathers have fallen by the sword, and now our sons, daughters, and wives are in captivity for all this. ¹⁰ Now it is in my heart to make a covenant with the Lord God of Israel so that His burning anger might turn away from us. ¹¹ My people, do not now be negligent for the Lord has chosen you all to stand in His presence, to serve Him, and to be ministers and make sacrifices for Him.”

¹⁵ So they gathered their brothers together and consecrated themselves and entered in as the king commanded by the words of the Lord in order to cleanse the house of the Lord. ¹⁶ Then the priests came into the inner part of the house of the Lord to cleanse it, and they removed everything that they found that was unclean in the main hall of the temple of the Lord to the court. And the Levites took those things and brought them out to the Kidron Valley. ¹⁷ They began to consecrate themselves on the first day of the first month, and on the eighth day of the month they entered the vestibule of the Lord. They consecrated the house of the Lord for eight days. Then on the sixteenth day of the first month they completed the task.

¹⁸ Then they came toward Hezekiah the king and said, “We have cleaned the entire house of the Lord, the altar of burnt offerings and all its utensils, and the table for showbread and all its utensils. ¹⁹ All the vessels that King Ahaz discarded from use during his reign in his treachery we have prepared and consecrated. They are before the altar of the Lord.”

Hezekiah Restores Temple Worship

²⁰ So King Hezekiah got up early and gathered the officials of the city and went up to the house of the Lord. ²¹ And he brought seven bulls, seven rams, seven lambs, and seven male goats for a sin offering for the kingdom, sanctuary, and Judah. Then he commanded the priests, the sons of Aaron, to offer them up on the altar of the Lord. ²² So they slaughtered the bulls, and the priests took their blood and sprinkled it on the altar and then slaughtered the rams and sprinkled their blood on the altar. They did the same for the lambs. ²³ And they brought the male goats for a sin offering before the king and the assembly, and they placed their hands on the goats. ²⁴ And the priests slaughtered them and purified the altar with their blood to provide atoning reconciliation for all Israel because the king said that the burnt offering and sin offering would be for all Israel.

²⁵ And he set the Levites at the house of the Lord with cymbals, harps, and lyres according to the commandment of David, and Gad the seer of the king, and Nathan the prophet. For the commandment came from the Lord through His prophets. ²⁶ So the Levites stood with the instruments of David and the priests with the trumpets.

²⁷ Then Hezekiah gave the command to offer the burnt offering on the altar. When they started the burnt offering, the song of the Lord began also, with the trumpets and the instruments of David, king of Israel. ²⁸ The entire assembly worshipped, the singers sang, and the trumpeters sounded. All of this took place until the burnt offering was finished.

²⁹ When the burnt offering was finished, the king and all those with him bowed down and worshipped. ³⁰ Then Hezekiah the king and the officials ordered the Levites to praise the Lord with the words of David and Asaph the seer. So they praised with gladness and bowed down to worship.

³¹ Then Hezekiah responded, “Now you have dedicated yourselves to the Lord. Come near and bring sacrifices and thank offerings to the house of the Lord.” So the assembly brought sacrifices and thank offerings, and all who had a willing heart brought burnt offerings.

³² The number of the burnt offerings that the assembly brought was seventy bulls, one hundred rams, and two hundred lambs; all these were for a burnt offering to the Lord. ³³ The consecrated animals were six hundred bulls and three thousand sheep. ³⁴ However there were too few priests, and they were not able to skin the burnt offerings. But their brothers the Levites helped them until the work was finished and more priests consecrated themselves, for the Levites were more upright in heart to consecrate themselves than the priests. ³⁵ Also burnt offerings were in abundance with the fat of the peace offerings and the drink offerings for the burnt offerings.

So the service of the house of the Lord was set in order. ³⁶ Then Hezekiah and all the people rejoiced that God had prepared the people, since the events happened suddenly.

The Angels With the Last Plagues

15 I saw another great and marvelous sign in heaven: seven angels having the seven last plagues, for in them the wrath of God is complete. ² And I saw what looked like a sea of glass mixed with fire, and those who have the victory over the beast, over his image and over his mark and over the number of his name, standing on the sea of glass, having harps of God. ³ They sang the song of Moses, the servant of God, and the song of the Lamb, saying:

⁵ After this I looked. And now the temple of the tabernacle of the testimony in heaven was opened. ⁶ The seven angels came out of the temple with the seven plagues. They were clothed in pure, bright linen, having their chests wrapped with golden sashes. ⁷ Then one of the four living creatures gave to the seven angels seven golden bowls full of the wrath of God, who lives forever and ever. ⁸ And the temple was filled with smoke from the glory of God and from His power. No one was able to enter the temple until the seven plagues of the seven angels were completed.

Two Kinds of Shepherds

⁴ Thus says the Lord my God: Shepherd the flock of slaughter. ⁵ The ones who buy them then slaughter them and have no guilt, and those who sell them say, “Blessed is the Lord because I am rich.” Their own shepherds do not take pity on them. ⁶ For I will no longer have pity on those who dwell in the land, says the Lord. But I will cause each of them to fall into the hands of his neighbor, even into the hands of his king. They will crush the land, and I will not deliver any from their hands.

⁷ So I shepherded the flock that was for slaughter, even the afflicted of the flock. And I took for myself two staffs. One I called Favor and the other I gave the name Union. So I pastured the flock. ⁸ I destroyed the three shepherds in the span of one month.

For my soul was impatient with them, and their souls detested me. ⁹ Then I said, “I will not shepherd you. What is to die, let it die. What is to be destroyed, let it be destroyed. Let those who are left devour each other’s flesh.”

¹⁰ I took the staff named Favor and cut it into pieces, to break the covenant that I made with all the peoples. ¹¹ So it was broken that day, and the afflicted of the flock were watching me and knew that this was the word of the Lord.

¹² Then I said to them, “If this is good in your eyes, then give my wages to me, but if not, then keep it.” They weighed my wages at thirty pieces of silver.

¹³ Then the Lord said to me, “Throw it to the potter, the splendid price by which I was valued by them.” So I took the thirty silver pieces and threw them to the house of the Lord to the potter.

¹⁴ Then I cut up the second staff, Union, to break the brotherhood between Judah and Israel.

¹⁵ Then the Lord said to me: Take for yourself again the vessels carried by a foolish shepherd. ¹⁶ I am raising up a shepherd in the land who will not care for those who are perishing, nor seek the young, nor heal the broken, nor feed those who are standing still. But he will eat the flesh of the fat and tear their hoofs in pieces.

Jesus the Way to the Father

14 “Let not your heart be troubled. You believe in God. Believe also in Me. ² In My Father’s house are many dwelling places. If it were not so, I would have told you. I am going to prepare a place for you. ³ And if I go and prepare a place for you, I will come again and receive you to Myself, that where I am, you may be also. ⁴ You know where I am going, and you know the way.”

⁵ Thomas said to Him, “Lord, we do not know where You are going. How can we know the way?”

⁶ Jesus said to him, “I am the way, the truth, and the life. No one comes to the Father except through Me. ⁷ If you had known Me, you would have known My Father also. From now on you do know Him and have seen Him.”

⁸ Philip said to Him, “Lord, show us the Father, and that is sufficient for us.”

⁹ Jesus said to him, “Have I been with you such a long time, and yet you have not known Me, Philip? He who has seen Me has seen the Father. So how can you say, ‘Show us the Father’? ¹⁰ Do you not believe that I am in the Father and the Father is in Me? The words that I say to you I do not speak on My own authority. But the Father who lives in Me does the works. ¹¹ Believe Me that I am in the Father, and the Father is in Me. Or else believe Me on account of the works themselves. ¹² Truly, truly I say to you, he who believes in Me will do the works that I do also. And he will do greater works than these, because I am going to My Father. ¹³ I will do whatever you ask in My name, that the Father may be glorified in the Son. ¹⁴ If you ask anything in My name, I will do it.

The Promise of the Spirit

¹⁵ “If you love Me, keep My commandments. ¹⁶ I will pray the Father, and He will give you another Counselor, that He may be with you forever: ¹⁷ the Spirit of truth, whom the world cannot receive, for it does not see Him, neither does it know Him. But you know Him, for He lives with you, and will be in you. ¹⁸ I will not leave you fatherless. I will come to you. ¹⁹ Yet a little while and the world will see Me no more. But you will see Me. Because I live, you will live also. ²⁰ On that day you will know that I am in My Father, and you are in Me, and I am in you. ²¹ He who has My commandments and keeps them is the one who loves Me. And he who loves Me will be loved by My Father. And I will love him and will reveal Myself to him.”

²² Then Judas (not Iscariot) said to Him, “Lord, how is it that You will reveal Yourself to us, but not to the world?”

²³ Jesus answered him, “If a man loves Me, he will keep My word. My Father will love him, and We will come to him, and make Our home with him. ²⁴ He who does not love Me does not keep My words. The word which you hear is not Mine, but the Father’s who sent Me.

²⁵ “I have spoken these things to you while I am still with you. ²⁶ But the Counselor, the Holy Spirit, whom the Father will send in My name, will teach you everything and remind you of all that I told you. ²⁷ Peace I leave with you. My peace I give to you. Not as the world gives do I give to you. Let not your heart be troubled, neither let it be afraid.

²⁸ “You have heard Me say to you, ‘I am going away and am returning to you.’ If you loved Me, you would rejoice because I said, ‘I am going to the Father,’ for My Father is greater than I. ²⁹ Now I have told you before it happens so that, when it happens, you may believe. ³⁰ After this I will not speak much with you, for the ruler of this world is coming. He has no power over Me. ³¹ But I do as the Father has commanded Me so that the world may know that I love the Father.

“Rise, let us go from here.