M’Cheyne Bible Reading Plan
21 Manasseh was 12 years old when he inherited the throne. His reign in Jerusalem lasted 55 years. His mother was Hephzibah. 2 He committed evil in the Eternal’s eyes, like the abhorrent practices of those nations driven out by the Eternal before the Israelites settled in Canaan. 3 Manasseh reconstructed the high places his father, Hezekiah, had demolished. He constructed altars for Baal and crafted a sacred pole, just as Ahab the former king of Israel had done. He offered his praise to all the gods of the skies and was in service to them.
4 He constructed altars in the Eternal’s temple to foreign, pagan gods. This was the temple the Eternal had spoken of when He said, “My name will dwell in Jerusalem.” 5 He contaminated the temple by constructing altars for all the gods of the skies in both the courts in the Eternal’s temple.
6 He forced his son to go through the fire as a burnt offering, and he was trained in the dark arts of witchcraft and fortune-telling. He practiced them both. He consulted necromancers and clairvoyants. He committed many wicked acts in the Eternal’s eyes, which caused Him to boil in anger.
7 He placed a carved image of the goddess Asherah in the Eternal’s temple. It was the very temple that the Eternal had spoken of to David and to Solomon, saying, “My name will dwell in this temple in Jerusalem forever. I have handpicked it from all of Israel’s tribes. 8 If the Israelites will honor the commands and laws I have given them through Moses, then I will no longer force them to be apart from the land I promised to their ancestors. They will live peacefully within the promised land.”
9 But the Israelites kept their ears and hearts closed to the message of the Lord; and Manasseh caused them to live even more sinful lives than the wicked nations, whom the Eternal annihilated before them, had committed. 10 The Eternal One delivered His message through His servants, the prophets.
Prophets: 11 Manasseh, Judah’s king, has committed even worse atrocities than the Amorites had committed before his time, and he also inspired wickedness throughout Judah because of his idols; 12 therefore, this is the message of the Eternal One, Israel’s God: “Observe! I am going to infect Jerusalem and Judah with disaster. The ears of anyone who hears the sounds of this catastrophe will tingle! 13 I will judge the uprightness of Jerusalem by the same plumb line that I used in Samaria and by the same level I used for Ahab’s house. I will clean Jerusalem in the same manner that one cleans a dirty dish. I will wipe off the grime and flip the dish over and wipe off the underside of it as well. 14 I am going to relinquish what is left of My inheritance to the possession of their adversaries. They will be like stolen goods and booty for all their adversaries. 15 This will take place because of all the wickedness they have committed before Me and because of the anger they have caused to boil within Me since the day their ancestors were delivered by Me from Egypt until this very day.”
16 Manasseh killed countless innocent people and filled Jerusalem with their blood. And this is in addition to causing Judah to live sinful lives and committing evil in the Eternal’s eyes.
According to tradition, one of those innocent people is the prophet Isaiah. Manasseh and Isaiah have a tumultuous relation ship from the start, when Hezekiah invited Isaiah to the court to meet his sons. Isaiah prophesied then that Manasseh would be evil. After Manasseh becomes king, Isaiah tells him the temple will be destroyed. Infuriated, the king orders Isaiah’s arrest. Isaiah flees into the hills where he hides inside a cedar tree. But Manasseh’s men find him—when they are cutting the tree in half. This legend is attested to by the writer of the Letter to the Hebrews (11:37–38).
17 Is not the rest of Manasseh’s story—his wickedness and sin—documented in the book of the chronicles of Judah’s kings? 18 Manasseh left this world to sleep with his fathers and was laid to rest in his own garden, the garden of Uzza. His son, Amon, then inherited the throne.
19 Amon was 22 years old when he became king. His reign in Jerusalem lasted two years. His mother was Meshullemeth (daughter of Haruz from Jotbah). 20 He committed much wickedness in the Eternal’s eyes just as his father, Manasseh, did. 21 He walked the wicked path of his father, and he served and worshiped the same gods his father had served. 22 Amon was corrupt and abandoned the Eternal One, the God of his ancestors. He did not walk on the Eternal’s path.
23 Amon’s servants plotted behind his back and murdered him in his own house. 24 Then the people of the land slaughtered those who had plotted in secret against King Amon, and they gave the throne to Amon’s son, Josiah.
25 Is not the rest of Amon’s story—his actions and lasting legacy—documented in the book of the chronicles of Judah’s kings? 26 Amon was laid to rest in the garden of Uzza with his father. His son, Josiah, then inherited the throne.
3 So all of you who are holy partners in a heavenly calling, let’s turn our attention to Jesus, the Emissary of God and High Priest, who brought us the faith we profess; 2 and compare Him to Moses, who also brought words from God. Both of them were faithful to their missions, to the One who called them. 3 But we value Jesus more than Moses, in the same way that we value a builder more than the house he builds. 4 Every house is built by someone, but the builder of all things is God. 5 Moses brought healing and redemption to his people as a faithful servant in God’s house, and he was a witness to the things that would be spoken later. 6 But Jesus the Anointed was faithful as a Son of that house. (We become that house, if we’re able to hold on to the confident hope we have in God until the end.)
For the first-century Jewish-Christian audience, Moses is the rescuer of Hebrew slaves out of bondage in Egypt—the receiver of God’s law and the covenant. They remember how he shepherded the children of Israel safely through the desert for 40 years and led them to the brink of the promised land. He was indeed a remarkable man. Yet what Jesus has accomplished for everyone—not just the Jews—is on a totally different level. Moses was indeed faithful to God and accomplished a great deal as God’s servant. Jesus, too, is faithful to God, but He has accomplished what Moses could not because He is God’s very own Son.
7 Listen now, to the voice of the Holy Spirit through what the psalmist wrote:
Today, if you listen to His voice,
8 Don’t harden your hearts the way they did
in the bitter uprising at Meribah
9 Where your ancestors tested Me
though they had seen My marvelous power.
10 For the 40 years they traveled on
to the land that I had promised them,
That generation broke My heart.
Grieving and angry, I said, “Their hearts are unfaithful;
they don’t know what I want from them.”
11 That is why I swore in anger
they would never enter salvation’s rest.[a]
12 Brothers and sisters, pay close attention so you won’t develop an evil and unbelieving heart that causes you to abandon the living God. 13 Encourage each other every day—for as long as we can still say “today”—so none of you let the deceitfulness of sin harden your hearts. 14 For we have become partners with the Anointed One—if we can just hold on to our confidence until the end.
15 Look at the lines from the psalm again:
Today, if you listen to His voice,
Don’t harden your hearts the way they did
in the bitter uprising at Meribah.
16 Now who, exactly, was God talking to then? Who heard and rebelled? Wasn’t it all of those whom Moses led out of Egypt? 17 And who made God angry for an entire generation? Wasn’t it those who sinned against Him, those whose bodies are still buried in the wilderness, the site of that uprising? 18 It was those disobedient ones who God swore would never enter into salvation’s rest. 19 And we can see that they couldn’t enter because they did not believe.
14 Return, Israel, to the Eternal, your True God.
You’ve stumbled because of your wickedness.
2 Think about what to say, and come back to the Eternal One.
Say to Him, “Forgive all our sins, and take us back again.
Bring us into Your good grace so we can offer You praise and sacrifice,
the fruit of our lips.
3 We admit that Assyria can’t save us, nor can riding horses and chariots into battle.
We’ll never again say to idols made with our own hands, ‘You’re our gods!’
We know You’re merciful because You take care of orphans.”
4 Eternal One: I’ll heal their apostate hearts so they won’t turn away from Me again;
I’ll love them freely because I won’t be angry with them anymore.
5 I’ll be like dew that waters Israel. She’ll blossom like the lily.
She’ll put down roots like the stable cedars of Lebanon;
6 She’ll send out shoots until her beauty is like the olive tree
and her fragrance like the cedars of Lebanon.
7 The people will return from exile and sit in My shade once again;
they’ll flourish like grain; they’ll send out shoots like the vine.
And their fame will be like the wine of Lebanon.
8 Ephraim, what do I have in common with deaf and blind idols?
I’m the One who responds to your pleas and cares for you.
I’m like a flourishing juniper tree; I provide life year-round.
9 The wise will understand these things;
the perceptive will know them.
For everything the Eternal One does is right,
and the righteous follow His ways.
But those who turn against Him will stumble along His path.
Psalm 139
For the worship leader. A song of David.
1 O Eternal One, You have explored my heart and know exactly who I am;
2 You even know the small details like when I take a seat and when I stand up again.
Even when I am far away, You know what I’m thinking.
3 You observe my wanderings and my sleeping, my waking and my dreaming,
and You know everything I do in more detail than even I know.
4 You know what I’m going to say long before I say it.
It is true, Eternal One, that You know everything and everyone.
5 You have surrounded me on every side, behind me and before me,
and You have placed Your hand gently on my shoulder.
6 It is the most amazing feeling to know how deeply You know me, inside and out;
the realization of it is so great that I cannot comprehend it.
7 Can I go anywhere apart from Your Spirit?
Is there anywhere I can go to escape Your watchful presence?
8 If I go up into heaven, You are there.
If I make my bed in the realm of the dead, You are there.
9 If I ride on the wings of morning,
if I make my home in the most isolated part of the ocean,
10 Even then You will be there to guide me;
Your right hand will embrace me, for You are always there.
11 Even if I am afraid and think to myself, “There is no doubt that the darkness will swallow me,
the light around me will soon be turned to night,”
12 You can see in the dark, for it is not dark to Your eyes.
For You the night is just as bright as the day.
Darkness and light are the same to Your eyes.
13 For You shaped me, inside and out.
You knitted me together in my mother’s womb long before I took my first breath.
14 I will offer You my grateful heart, for I am Your unique creation, filled with wonder and awe.
You have approached even the smallest details with excellence;
Your works are wonderful;
I carry this knowledge deep within my soul.
15 You see all things; nothing about me was hidden from You
As I took shape in secret,
carefully crafted in the heart of the earth before I was born from its womb.
16 You see all things;
You saw me growing, changing in my mother’s womb;
Every detail of my life was already written in Your book;
You established the length of my life before I ever tasted the sweetness of it.
17 Your thoughts and plans are treasures to me, O God! I cherish each and every one of them!
How grand in scope! How many in number!
18 If I could count each one of them, they would be more than all the grains of sand on earth. Their number is inconceivable!
Even when I wake up, I am still near to You.
19 I wish You would destroy all the wicked, O God.
So keep away from me, those who are thirsty for blood!
20 For they say such horrible things about You,
and those who are against You abuse Your good name.
21 Is it not true that I hate all who hate You, Eternal One?
Is it not true that I despise all who come against You?
22 Deep hatred boils within me toward them;
I am Your friend, and they are my enemies.
23 Explore me, O God, and know the real me. Dig deeply and discover who I am.
Put me to the test and watch how I handle the strain.
24 Examine me to see if there is an evil bone in me,
and guide me down Your path forever.
The Voice Bible Copyright © 2012 Thomas Nelson, Inc. The Voice™ translation © 2012 Ecclesia Bible Society All rights reserved.