M’Cheyne Bible Reading Plan

David Assembles His Commanders

28 And ^(A)David assembled at Jerusalem all the commanders of Israel, the commanders of the tribes, and the commanders of the divisions that ministered to the king, and the commanders of thousands, and the commanders of hundreds, and the commanders over all the property and livestock belonging to the king and his sons, with the officials and ^(B)the mighty men, even all the mighty men of valor. ² Then King David rose to his feet and said, “Listen to me, my brothers and my people; I ^(C)had it within my heart to build a house of rest for the ark of the covenant of Yahweh and for ^(D)the footstool of the feet of our God. So I had made preparations to build it. ³ But God said to me, ‘^(E)You shall not build a house for My name because you are a man of war and have shed blood.’ ⁴ Yet, Yahweh, the God of Israel, ^(F)chose me from all the house of my father to be king over Israel ^(G)forever. For ^(H)He has chosen Judah to be a ruler; and ^(I)in the house of Judah, my father’s house, and among the sons of my father He took pleasure in me to make me king over all Israel. ^5 (J)Now of all my sons (for Yahweh has given me many sons), ^(K)He has chosen my son Solomon to sit on the throne of the kingdom of Yahweh over Israel. ⁶ And He said to me, ‘Your son ^(L)Solomon is the one who shall build My house and My courts; for I have chosen him to be a son to Me, and I will be a father to him. ⁷ And I will establish his kingdom forever ^(M)if he will be strong to do My commandments and My judgments, as ^[a]is done now.’ ⁸ So now, in the sight of all Israel, the assembly of Yahweh, and in the hearing of our God, keep and seek after all the commandments of Yahweh your God so that you may possess the good land and cause your sons after you to inherit it forever.

⁹ “As for you, my son Solomon, know the God of your father, and ^(N)serve Him with ^[b]a whole heart and a delighted soul; ^(O)for Yahweh searches all hearts, and understands every intent of the thoughts. ^(P)If you seek Him, He will be found; but if you forsake Him, He will reject you forever. ¹⁰ See now, for Yahweh has chosen you to build a house for the sanctuary; ^(Q)be strong and act.”

¹¹ Then David gave to his son Solomon ^(R)the pattern of ^(S)the porch of the temple, its buildings, its storehouses, its upper rooms, its inner rooms, and ^(T)the room for the mercy seat; ¹² and the pattern of all that he had in ^[c]mind, for the courts of the house of Yahweh, and for all the surrounding chambers, for ^(U)the treasuries of the house of God, and for the treasuries of the holy things; ¹³ also for ^(V)the divisions of the priests and ^(W)the Levites and for all the work of the service of the house of Yahweh and for all the utensils of service in the house of Yahweh; ¹⁴ for the golden utensils, the weight of gold for all utensils for every kind of service; for the silver utensils, the weight of silver for all utensils for every kind of service; ¹⁵ and the weight of gold for the ^(X)golden lampstands and their golden lamps, with the weight of each lampstand and its lamps; and the weight of silver for the silver lampstands, with the weight of each lampstand and its lamps according to the service of each lampstand; ¹⁶ and the gold by weight for the tables of showbread, for each table; and silver for the silver tables; ¹⁷ and the flesh hooks, the bowls, and the jars of pure gold; and for the golden bowls with the weight for each bowl; and for the silver bowls with the weight for each bowl; ¹⁸ and for ^(Y)the altar of incense refined gold by weight; and gold for the pattern of the chariot, even ^(Z)the cherubim that spread out their wings and covered the ark of the covenant of Yahweh.

¹⁹ “All this,” said David, “has been granted to me as insight in writing by the hand of Yahweh, ^(AA)all the ^[d]details of this pattern.”

²⁰ Then David said to his son Solomon, “^(AB)Be strong and courageous, and act; do not fear nor be dismayed, for Yahweh God, my God, is with you. ^(AC)He will not fail you nor forsake you until all the work for the service of the house of Yahweh is completed. ²¹ Now behold, ^(AD)there are the divisions of the priests and the Levites for all the service of the house of God, and ^(AE)every willing man with wisdom will be with you in all the work for all the service. The officials also and all the people will be entirely at your command.”

The Rise of False Prophets

2 But ^(A)false prophets also arose among the people, just as there will also be ^(B)false teachers ^(C)among you, who will ^(D)secretly introduce ^(E)destructive heresies, even ^(F)denying the ^(G)Master who ^(H)bought them, bringing swift destruction upon themselves. ² And many will follow their ^(I)sensuality, and because of them ^(J)the way of the truth will be ^(K)maligned. ³ And in their ^(L)greed they will ^(M)exploit you with ^(N)false words, ^(O)their judgment from long ago is not idle, and their destruction is not asleep.

⁴ For ^(P)if God did not spare angels who sinned, but cast them into the ^[a]pit and ^(Q)delivered them to chains of darkness, being kept for judgment; ⁵ and did not spare ^(R)the ancient world, but preserved ^(S)Noah, a ^[b]preacher of righteousness, with seven others, when He brought a ^(T)flood upon the world of the ungodly; ⁶ and if He ^(U)condemned the cities of Sodom and Gomorrah to destruction by reducing them to ashes, having made them an ^(V)example to those who would ^(W)live ungodly lives thereafter; ⁷ and if He ^(X)rescued righteous Lot, oppressed by the ^(Y)sensual conduct of ^(Z)unprincipled men ⁸ (for by what he saw and heard that ^(AA)righteous man, while living among them, felt his righteous soul tormented day after day by their lawless deeds), ^9 (AB)then the Lord knows how to rescue the godly from ^[c]trial, and to keep the unrighteous under punishment for the ^(AC)day of judgment, ¹⁰ and especially those who ^(AD)go after the flesh in its corrupt lust and ^(AE)despise authority.

Daring, ^(AF)self-willed, they do not tremble when they ^(AG)blaspheme ^[d]glorious ones, ^11 (AH)whereas angels who are greater in strength and power do not bring a reviling judgment against them before the Lord. ¹² But ^(AI)these, like unreasoning animals, ^(AJ)born as creatures of instinct to be captured and killed, blaspheming where they have no knowledge, will in ^[e]the destruction of those creatures also be destroyed, ¹³ suffering unrighteousness as ^(AK)the wages of their unrighteousness, considering it a pleasure to ^(AL)revel in the ^(AM)daytime—they are stains and blemishes, ^(AN)reveling in their ^[f]deceptions, as they ^(AO)feast with you, ¹⁴ having eyes full of adultery and unceasing sin, ^(AP)enticing ^(AQ)unstable souls, having a heart trained in ^(AR)greed—they are ^(AS)accursed children. ¹⁵ Forsaking ^(AT)the right way, they have gone astray, having followed ^(AU)the way of Balaam, the son of Beor, who loved ^(AV)the wages of unrighteousness, ¹⁶ but he received a rebuke for his own lawlessness, ^(AW)for a mute donkey, speaking out with a voice of a man, restrained the madness of the prophet.

¹⁷ These are ^(AX)springs without water and mists driven by a storm, ^(AY)for whom the ^[g]black darkness has been kept. ¹⁸ For speaking out ^(AZ)arrogant words of ^(BA)vanity, they ^(BB)entice by ^(BC)sensual lusts of the flesh, those who barely ^(BD)escape from the ones who conducted themselves in error, ¹⁹ promising them freedom while they themselves are slaves of corruption; for ^(BE)by what a man is overcome, by this he is enslaved. ²⁰ For if they are overcome, having both ^(BF)escaped the defilements of the world by ^(BG)the knowledge of the ^(BH)Lord and Savior Jesus Christ and having again been ^(BI)entangled in them, then ^(BJ)the last state has become worse for them than the first. ^21 (BK)For it would be better for them not to have known the way of righteousness, than having known it, to turn away from ^(BL)the holy commandment ^(BM)handed on to them. ²² The ^[h]message of the true proverb has happened to them, “^(BN)A dog returns to its own vomit,” and, “A sow, after washing, returns to wallowing in the mire.”

The Ruler Will Come from Bethlehem

Jesus Heals on the Sabbath

14 And it happened that when He went into the house of one of the ^[a]leaders of the Pharisees on the Sabbath to eat bread, ^(A)they were watching Him closely. ² And behold, in front of Him was a man suffering from dropsy. ³ And Jesus answered and spoke to the ^(B)scholars of the Law and Pharisees, saying, “^(C)Is it lawful to heal on the Sabbath, or not?” ⁴ But they were silent. And He took hold of him, healed him, and sent him away. ⁵ And He said to them, “^[b](D)Which one of you will have a son or an ox fall into a well, and will not immediately pull him out on a Sabbath day?” ^6 (E)And they could make no reply to this.

Parable of the Wedding Feast

⁷ And He was telling a parable to the invited guests when He noticed how ^(F)they were picking out the places of honor at the table, saying to them, ⁸ “When you are invited by someone to a wedding feast, ^(G)do not recline at the place of honor, lest someone more highly regarded than you be invited by him, ⁹ and he who invited you both will come and say to you, ‘Give your place to this man,’ and then ^(H)in shame you ^[c]proceed to occupy the last place. ¹⁰ But when you are invited, go and recline at the last place, so that when the one who has invited you comes, he may say to you, ‘Friend, ^(I)move up higher’; then you will have honor in the sight of all who recline at the table with you. ^11 (J)For everyone who exalts himself will be humbled, and he who humbles himself will be exalted.”

¹² And He also went on to say to the one who had invited Him, “When you give a luncheon or a dinner, do not invite your friends or your brothers or your relatives or rich neighbors, lest they also invite you in return and that will be your repayment. ¹³ But when you give a ^[d]reception, invite the poor, the crippled, the lame, the blind, ¹⁴ and you will be blessed, since they ^[e]do not have the means to repay you; for it will be repaid to you at ^(K)the resurrection of the righteous.”

¹⁵ But when one of those who were reclining at the table with Him heard this, he said to Him, “^(L)Blessed is everyone who will eat bread in the kingdom of God!”

Parable of the Dinner

¹⁶ And He said to him, “^(M)A man was giving a big dinner, and he invited many. ¹⁷ And at the dinner hour he sent his slave to say to those who had been invited, ‘Come, for everything is ready now.’ ¹⁸ But they all alike began to make excuses. The first one said to him, ‘I have bought a ^[f]piece of land and I need to go out and look at it. I ask you, consider me excused.’ ¹⁹ And another one said, ‘I have bought five yoke of oxen, and I am going to try them out. I ask you, consider me excused.’ ²⁰ And another one said, ‘^(N)I have married a wife, and for that reason I cannot come.’ ²¹ And when the slave came back, he reported these things to his master. Then the head of the household became angry and said to his slave, ‘Go out at once into the streets and lanes of the city and bring in here the poor and crippled and blind and lame.’ ²² And the slave said, ‘Master, what you commanded has been done, and still there is room.’ ²³ And the master said to the slave, ‘Go out into the highways and along the ^[g]fences, and compel them to come in, so that my house may be filled. ²⁴ For I tell you, none of those men who were invited shall taste of my dinner.’”

The Cost of Discipleship

²⁵ Now many crowds were going along with Him, and He turned and said to them, ²⁶ “^(O)If anyone comes to Me, and does not ^[h]hate his own father and mother and wife and children and brothers and sisters, yes, and even his own life, he cannot be My disciple. ²⁷ Whoever does not ^(P)carry his own cross and come after Me cannot be My disciple. ²⁸ For which one of you, when he wants to build a tower, does not first sit down and calculate the cost to see if he has enough to complete it? ²⁹ Lest, when he has laid a foundation and is not able to finish, all who observe it begin to ridicule him, ³⁰ saying, ‘This man began to build and was not able to finish.’ ³¹ Or what king, when he sets out to meet another king in battle, will not first sit down and ^(Q)consider whether he is strong enough with ten thousand men to encounter the one coming against him with twenty thousand? ³² Or else, while the other is still far away, he sends ^[i]a delegation and asks for terms of peace. ³³ So then, none of you can be My disciple who ^(R)does not give up all his own possessions.

³⁴ “Therefore, salt is good, but ^(S)if even salt has become tasteless, with what will it be seasoned? ³⁵ It is useless either for the soil or for the manure pile; it is thrown out. ^(T)He who has ears to hear, ^[j]let him hear.”