M’Cheyne Bible Reading Plan

Solomon Builds the Temple^(A)

6 In the four hundred and eightieth year after the children of Israel came out of the land of Egypt, in the fourth year of Solomon’s reign over Israel, in the month Ziv (which is the second month), he began to build the house of the Lord.

² The house which King Solomon built for the Lord had a length of sixty cubits, a width of twenty cubits, and a height of thirty cubits.^{[a] 3} The porch in front of the temple was twenty cubits^[b] in length, the same as the width of the house, and ten cubits^[c] deep in front of the house. ⁴ He made beveled windows for the house. ⁵ He also built a structure against the wall of the house, running around the walls of the house, both of the temple and of the inner sanctuary, and he made side chambers all around. ⁶ The lowest story was five cubits^[d] broad, the middle one was six cubits^[e] broad, and the third was seven cubits^[f] broad. For around the outside of the house, he made offsets on the wall so that the supporting beams should not be inserted into the walls of the house.

⁷ The house was built of stone prepared at the quarry, so that neither hammer nor axe nor any tool of iron was heard in the house while it was being built.

⁸ The door for the middle chamber was in the right side of the house, and it had winding stairs into the middle chamber and out of the middle into the third. ⁹ So he built the house and finished it and covered it with beams and boards of cedar. ¹⁰ Then he built chambers against the whole house, five cubits high, and they rested on the house with timber of cedar.

¹¹ Now the word of the Lord came to Solomon, saying, ¹² “Concerning this house which you are building, if you will walk in My statutes and execute My judgments and keep all My commandments and walk in them, then I will carry out My word with you, which I spoke to David your father, ¹³ and I will dwell among the people of Israel and will not forsake My people Israel.”

¹⁴ So Solomon built the house and finished it. ¹⁵ He built the interior walls of the house with boards of cedar. From the floor of the house to the ceiling, he covered them on the inside with wood; and he covered the floor of the house with planks of fir. ¹⁶ He lined twenty cubits on the sides of the house, both the floor and the walls, with boards of cedar, and he even lined them within, even the inner sanctuary and the Most Holy Place. ¹⁷ The house, that is, the nave in front of the inner sanctuary, was forty cubits^[g] long. ¹⁸ The cedar of the house within had carvings of gourds and open flowers. All was cedar. There was no stone seen.

¹⁹ He prepared the inner sanctuary in the inner part of the house in order to set there the ark of the covenant of the Lord. ²⁰ The inner sanctuary was twenty cubits long, twenty cubits wide, and twenty cubits high. He overlaid it with pure gold. He also overlaid the altar of cedar. ²¹ So Solomon overlaid the interior of the house with pure gold, and he made a partition with gold chains in front of the inner sanctuary, and he overlaid it with gold. ²² He overlaid the whole house with gold as well as the whole altar that was by the inner sanctuary.

²³ Within the inner sanctuary, he made two cherubim from olive wood, each ten cubits high. ²⁴ One wing of the cherub was five cubits, and the other wing was also five cubits. From the furthest part of the one wing to the furthest part of the other was ten cubits. ²⁵ The other cherub was ten cubits. Both the cherubim were the same shape and size. ²⁶ The height of the one cherub was ten cubits, and so was that of the other cherub. ²⁷ He set the cherubim within the inner sanctuary, and they stretched forth the wings of the cherubim, so that the wing of the one touched the one wall and the wing of the other cherub touched the other wall, and their wings touched one another in the middle of the house. ²⁸ He overlaid the cherubim with gold.

²⁹ He carved all the walls of the house with carved figures of cherubim and palm trees and open flowers both inside and out. ³⁰ He overlaid the floor of the house with gold, both inside and out.

³¹ For the entrance to the inner sanctuary, he made doors of olive wood; the lintel and doorposts were five-sided. ³² The two doors were also made of olive wood. He carved on them cherubim, palm trees, and open flowers, overlaid them with gold, and spread gold upon the cherubim and upon the palm trees. ³³ So also he made for the entrance to the nave four-sided posts of olive wood. ³⁴ The two doors were made from fir tree, with two leaves of each door folding. ³⁵ He carved on them cherubim and palm trees and open flowers and covered them with gold fitted upon the carved work.

³⁶ He built the inner court with three rows of hewed stone and a row of cedar beams.

³⁷ In the fourth year, in the month Ziv, the foundation of the house of the Lord was laid, ³⁸ and in the eleventh year, in the month Bul (which is the eighth month), the house was completely finished. All the details and plans were met. So he took seven years to build it.

Paul’s Ministry to the Gentiles

3 For this reason I, Paul, am the prisoner of Jesus Christ for you Gentiles.

² You may have heard of the administration of the grace of God which was given me for you, ³ how by revelation He made known to me the mystery, as I have written briefly already, ⁴ by which, when you read it, you may understand my knowledge of the mystery of Christ, ⁵ which in other generations was not made known to the sons of men, as it is now revealed to His holy apostles and prophets by the Spirit, ⁶ how the Gentiles are fellow heirs, and fellow members, and partakers of the promise in Christ by the gospel.

⁷ Of this I was made a minister, according to the gift of the grace of God given to me by the effective working of His power. ⁸ To me, the very least of all saints, this grace was given, to preach to the Gentiles the incomprehensible riches of Christ, ⁹ and to reveal for all people what is the fellowship of the mystery, which from the beginning of the ages has been hidden in God, who created all things through Jesus Christ, ¹⁰ so that now the manifold wisdom of God might be made known by the church to the principalities and powers in the heavenly places, ¹¹ according to the eternal purpose which He completed in Christ Jesus our Lord, ¹² in whom we have boldness and confident access through faith in Him. ¹³ Therefore I ask you not to lose heart at my tribulations for you, which is your glory.

To Know the Love of Christ

¹⁴ For this reason I bow my knees to the Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, ¹⁵ from whom the whole family in heaven and earth is named, ¹⁶ that He would give you, according to the riches of His glory, power to be strengthened by His Spirit in the inner man, ¹⁷ and that Christ may dwell in your hearts through faith; that you, being rooted and grounded in love, ¹⁸ may be able to comprehend with all saints what is the breadth and length and depth and height, ¹⁹ and to know the love of Christ which surpasses knowledge; that you may be filled with all the fullness of God.

²⁰ Now to Him who is able to do exceedingly abundantly beyond all that we ask or imagine, according to the power that works in us, ²¹ to Him be the glory in the church and in Christ Jesus throughout all generations, forever and ever. Amen.

A Prophecy to the Mountains of Israel

36 As for you, son of man, prophesy to the mountains of Israel and say: O mountains of Israel, hear the word of the Lord. ² Thus says the Lord God: Because the enemy has said against you, “Aha! Even the ancient high places are our possession,” ³ therefore, prophesy and say: Thus says the Lord God: For good reason they have made you desolate and swallowed you up on every side so that you might become a possession to the rest of the nations, and you have been taken up on the lips of talkers and are an infamy of the people. ⁴ Therefore, O mountains of Israel, hear the word of the Lord God: Thus says the Lord God to the mountains and to the hills, to the rivers and to the valleys, to the desolate wastes and to the cities that are forsaken, which became a prey and derision to the rest of the nations that are all around; ⁵ therefore thus says the Lord God: Surely in the fire of My jealousy I have spoken against the rest of the nations and against all Edom, who have arrogated My land into their possession with the joy of all their hearts and with a spiteful soul, to cast it out for a prey. ⁶ Prophesy therefore concerning the land of Israel and say to the mountains and to the hills, to the rivers and to the valleys: Thus says the Lord God: I have spoken in My jealousy and in My fury, because you have borne the shame of the nations. ⁷ Therefore, thus says the Lord God: I have lifted up My hand that surely the nations who are about you shall themselves bear their invectives.

⁸ But you, O mountains of Israel, you shall shoot forth your branches and yield your fruit for My people Israel. For they shall come soon. ⁹ For I am for you, and I will turn to you, and you shall be tilled and sown. ¹⁰ And I will multiply men upon you, all the house of Israel, all of it. And the cities shall be inhabited, and the waste places shall be built. ¹¹ And I will multiply man and beast upon you. And they shall increase and bring forth fruit. And I will settle you as you were before and do better to you than at the beginning. Thus you shall know that I am the Lord. ¹² Indeed, I will cause men to walk upon you, My people Israel, and they shall possess you, and you shall be their inheritance, and you shall no longer bereave them of children.

¹³ Thus says the Lord God: Because they say to you, “You are a devourer of men and have bereaved your nation of children,” ¹⁴ therefore you shall devour men no more or bereave your nation of children anymore, says the Lord God. ¹⁵ Nor will I cause men to hear in you the invectives of the nations anymore, nor shall you bear the reproach of the peoples anymore, nor shall you cause your nation to fall anymore, says the Lord God.

The Restoration of Israel

¹⁶ Moreover the word of the Lord came to me, saying: ¹⁷ Son of man, when the house of Israel lived in their own land, they defiled it by their ways and their deeds. Their way was before Me as the uncleanness of a woman in her impurity. ¹⁸ Therefore I poured My fury upon them for the blood that they had shed upon the land and for their idols with which they had polluted it. ¹⁹ And I scattered them among the nations, and they were dispersed throughout the countries. According to their ways and according to their deeds, I judged them. ²⁰ When they entered the nations, where they went, they profaned My holy name, because they said of them, “These are the people of the Lord and have gone out of His land.” ²¹ But I had pity for My holy name, which the house of Israel had profaned among the nations where they went.

²² Therefore say to the house of Israel, Thus says the Lord God: I do not do this for your sake, O house of Israel, but for My holy name’s sake which you have profaned among the nations where you went. ²³ I will vindicate the sanctity of My great name which was profaned among the nations, which you have profaned in their midst. Then the nations shall know that I am the Lord, says the Lord God, when I shall be sanctified among you before their eyes.

²⁴ For I will take you from among the nations and gather you out of all countries and will bring you into your own land. ²⁵ Then I will sprinkle clean water upon you, and you shall be clean. From all your filthiness and from all your idols, I will cleanse you. ²⁶ Also, I will give you a new heart, and a new spirit I will put within you. And I will take away the stony heart out of your flesh, and I will give you a heart of flesh. ²⁷ I will put My Spirit within you and cause you to walk in My statutes, and you will keep My judgments and do them. ²⁸ You will dwell in the land that I gave to your fathers. And you will be My people, and I will be your God. ²⁹ I will also save you from all your uncleanness. And I will call for the grain and increase it and lay no famine upon you. ³⁰ I will multiply the fruit of the tree and the increase of the field so that you shall receive no more reproach of famine among the nations. ³¹ Then you shall remember your evil ways and your deeds that were not good, and shall loathe yourselves in your own sight for your iniquities and your abominations. ³² Not for your sake am I doing this, says the Lord God, let it be known to you. Be ashamed and humiliated for your ways, O house of Israel!

³³ Thus says the Lord God: On the day that I cleanse you from all your iniquities, I will cause you to dwell in the cities, and the waste places shall be built. ³⁴ The desolate land shall be tilled, whereas it lay desolate in the sight of all who pass by. ³⁵ They shall say, “This land that was desolate has become like the garden of Eden. And the waste and desolate and ruined cities have become fenced and inhabited.” ³⁶ Then the nations that are left all around you shall know that I the Lord have built the ruined places and planted that which was desolate. I the Lord have spoken it, and I will do it.

³⁷ Thus says the Lord God: This also I will let the house of Israel ask Me to do for them: I will increase their men like a flock. ³⁸ As the flock for sacrifices, as the flock of Jerusalem in her solemn feasts, so shall the waste cities be filled with flocks of men. Then they shall know that I am the Lord.

Psalm 86

A Prayer of David.