M’Cheyne Bible Reading Plan
Chapter 3
Building of the Temple. 1 (A)Then Solomon began to build the house of the Lord in Jerusalem on Mount Moriah,[a] which had been shown to David his father, in the place David had prepared, the threshing floor of Ornan the Jebusite. 2 He began to build in the second month of the fourth year of his reign. 3 These were the specifications laid down by Solomon for building the house of God: the length was sixty cubits according to the old measure, and the width was twenty cubits;(B) 4 the front porch along the width of the house was also twenty cubits, and it was twenty cubits high.[b] He covered its interior with pure gold.(C) 5 The nave he overlaid with cypress wood and overlaid that with fine gold, embossing on it palms and chains.(D) 6 He also covered the house with precious stones for splendor; the gold was from Parvaim. 7 The house, its beams and thresholds, as well as its walls and its doors, he overlaid with gold, and he engraved cherubim upon the walls. 8 He also made the room of the holy of holies. Its length corresponded to the width of the house, twenty cubits, and its width was also twenty cubits. He overlaid it with fine gold to the amount of six hundred talents.(E) 9 The weight of the nails was fifty gold shekels. The upper chambers he likewise overlaid with gold.
10 (F)For the room of the holy of holies he made two cherubim of carved workmanship, which were then covered with gold. 11 The wings of the cherubim spanned twenty cubits: one wing of each cherub, five cubits in length, extended to a wall of the house, while the other wing, also five cubits in length, touched the corresponding wing of the other cherub. 12 The wing of the cherub, five cubits, touched the wall of the house, and the other wing, five cubits, was joined to the wing of the other cherub. 13 The combined wingspread of the two cherubim was thus twenty cubits. They stood upon their own feet, facing toward the nave. 14 He made the veil[c] of violet, purple, crimson, and fine linen, and had cherubim embroidered upon it.(G)
15 (H)In front of the house he set two columns thirty-five cubits high; the capital of each was five cubits. 16 He devised chains in the form of a collar with which he encircled the capitals of the columns, and he made a hundred pomegranates which he set on the chains. 17 He set up the columns to correspond with the nave, one for the right side and the other for the left, and he called the one to the right Jachin and the one to the left Boaz.
Chapter 4
1 Then he made a bronze altar twenty cubits long, twenty cubits wide and ten cubits high.(I) 2 (J)He also made the molten sea. It was made with a circular rim, and measured ten cubits across, five in height, and thirty in circumference. 3 Under the brim a ring of figures of oxen[d] encircled it for ten cubits, all the way around the compass of the sea; there were two rows of oxen cast in one mold with the sea. 4 This rested on twelve oxen, three facing north, three facing west, three facing south, and three facing east, with their haunches all toward the center; upon them was set the sea. 5 It was a handbreadth thick, and its brim resembled that of a cup, being lily-shaped. It had a capacity of three thousand baths.[e]
6 Then he made ten basins for washing, placing five of them to the right and five to the left. In these the victims for the burnt offerings were washed; but the sea was for the priests to wash in.(K)
7 He made the menorahs of gold, ten of them as was prescribed, and placed them in the nave, five to the right and five to the left.(L) 8 He made ten tables and had them set in the nave, five to the right and five to the left; and he made a hundred golden bowls.(M) 9 He made the court of the priests and the great courtyard(N) and the gates of the courtyard; the gates he covered with bronze. 10 The sea he placed off to the southeast from the south side of the house.(O)
11 (P)When Huram had made the pots, shovels, and bowls, he finished all his work for King Solomon in the house of God: 12 two columns; two nodes for the capitals on top of the columns; and two pieces of netting covering the two nodes for the capitals on top of the columns; 13 four hundred pomegranates in double rows on both pieces of netting that covered the two nodes of the capitals on top of the columns. 14 He made the stands, and the basins on the stands; 15 one sea, and the twelve oxen under it; 16 pots, shovels, forks, and all the articles Huram-abi made for King Solomon for the house of the Lord; they were of burnished bronze. 17 The king had them cast in the neighborhood of the Jordan, between Succoth and Zeredah, in thick clay molds. 18 Solomon made all these vessels, so many in number that the weight of the bronze could not be determined.
19 Solomon made all the articles that were for the house of God: the golden altar, the tables on which the showbread lay, 20 the menorahs and their lamps of pure gold which were to burn as prescribed before the inner sanctuary, 21 flowers, lamps, and gold tongs (this was of purest gold), 22 snuffers, bowls, cups, and firepans of pure gold. As for the entrance to the house, its inner doors to the holy of holies, as well as the doors to the nave of the temple, were of gold.
Chapter 3
1 [a]See what love the Father has bestowed on us that we may be called the children of God. Yet so we are. The reason the world does not know us is that it did not know him.(A) 2 Beloved, we are God’s children now; what we shall be has not yet been revealed. We do know that when it is revealed[b] we shall be like him, for we shall see him as he is.(B) 3 Everyone who has this hope based on him makes himself pure, as he is pure.(C)
Avoiding Sin. 4 Everyone who commits sin commits lawlessness, for sin is lawlessness.[c] 5 You know that he was revealed to take away sins, and in him there is no sin.(D) 6 No one who remains in him sins; no one who sins has seen him or known him. 7 Children, let no one deceive you. The person who acts in righteousness is righteous, just as he is righteous. 8 Whoever sins belongs to the devil, because the devil has sinned from the beginning. Indeed, the Son of God was revealed to destroy the works of the devil.(E) 9 No one who is begotten by God commits sin, because God’s seed remains in him; he cannot sin because he is begotten by God.[d] 10 In this way, the children of God and the children of the devil are made plain; no one who fails to act in righteousness belongs to God, nor anyone who does not love his brother.
III. Love for One Another
11 [e]For this is the message you have heard from the beginning: we should love one another,(F) 12 unlike Cain who belonged to the evil one and slaughtered his brother. Why did he slaughter him? Because his own works were evil, and those of his brother righteous.(G) 13 Do not be amazed, [then,] brothers, if the world hates you.(H) 14 We know that we have passed from death to life because we love our brothers. Whoever does not love remains in death.(I) 15 Everyone who hates his brother is a murderer, and you know that no murderer has eternal life remaining in him.(J) 16 The way we came to know love was that he laid down his life for us; so we ought to lay down our lives for our brothers.(K) 17 If someone who has worldly means sees a brother in need and refuses him compassion, how can the love of God remain in him?(L) 18 Children, let us love not in word or speech but in deed and truth.(M)
Confidence Before God.[f] 19 [Now] this is how we shall know that we[g] belong to the truth and reassure our hearts before him 20 in whatever our hearts condemn, for God is greater than our hearts and knows everything. 21 Beloved, if [our] hearts do not condemn us, we have confidence in God 22 and receive from him whatever we ask, because we keep his commandments and do what pleases him.(N) 23 And his commandment is this: we should believe in the name of his Son, Jesus Christ, and love one another just as he commanded us.(O) 24 Those who keep his commandments remain in him, and he in them, and the way we know that he remains in us is from the Spirit that he gave us.(P)
Chapter 2
1 At this moment on the mountains
the footsteps of one bearing good news,
of one announcing peace!(A)
Celebrate your feasts, Judah,
fulfill your vows!
For never again will destroyers invade you;[a]
they are completely cut off.
The Attack on Nineveh
2 One who scatters has come up against you;[b]
guard the rampart,
Watch the road, brace yourselves,
marshal all your strength!
3 [c]The Lord will restore the vine of Jacob,
the honor of Israel,
Because ravagers have ravaged them
and ruined their branches.
4 The shields of his warriors are crimsoned,
the soldiers clad in scarlet;
Like fire are the trappings of the chariots
on the day he prepares for war;
the cavalry is agitated!
5 The chariots dash madly through the streets
and wheel in the squares,
Looking like torches,
bolting like lightning.
6 His picked troops are called,
ranks break at their charge;
To the wall they rush,
their screen[d] is set up.
7 The river gates[e] are opened,
the palace is washed away.
8 The mistress is led forth captive,
and her maidservants[f] led away,
Moaning like doves,
beating their breasts.
9 Nineveh is like a pool
whose waters escape;
“Stop! Stop!”
but none turns back.(B)
10 “Plunder the silver, plunder the gold!”
There is no end to the treasure,
to wealth in every precious thing!
11 Emptiness, desolation, waste;
melting hearts and trembling knees,
Churning in every stomach,
every face turning pale!(C)
12 Where is the lionesses’ den,
the young lions’ cave,
Where the lion[g] went in and out,
and the cub, with no one to disturb them?(D)
13 The lion tore apart enough for his cubs,
and strangled for his lionesses;
He filled his lairs with prey,
and his dens with torn flesh.
14 I now come against you—
oracle of the Lord of hosts—
I will consume your chariots in smoke,
and the sword will devour your young lions;
Your preying on the land I will bring to an end,
the cry of your lionesses will be heard no more.
Chapter 18
The Parable of the Persistent Widow. 1 [a]Then he told them a parable about the necessity for them to pray always without becoming weary.(A) He said, 2 “There was a judge in a certain town who neither feared God nor respected any human being. 3 And a widow in that town used to come to him and say, ‘Render a just decision for me against my adversary.’ 4 For a long time the judge was unwilling, but eventually he thought, ‘While it is true that I neither fear God nor respect any human being, 5 [b](B)because this widow keeps bothering me I shall deliver a just decision for her lest she finally come and strike me.’” 6 The Lord said, “Pay attention to what the dishonest judge says. 7 Will not God then secure the rights of his chosen ones who call out to him day and night? Will he be slow to answer them? 8 I tell you, he will see to it that justice is done for them speedily. But when the Son of Man comes, will he find faith on earth?”
The Parable of the Pharisee and the Tax Collector. 9 He then addressed this parable to those who were convinced of their own righteousness and despised everyone else.(C) 10 “Two people went up to the temple area to pray; one was a Pharisee and the other was a tax collector. 11 The Pharisee took up his position and spoke this prayer to himself, ‘O God, I thank you that I am not like the rest of humanity—greedy, dishonest, adulterous—or even like this tax collector. 12 I fast twice a week, and I pay tithes on my whole income.’(D) 13 But the tax collector stood off at a distance and would not even raise his eyes to heaven but beat his breast and prayed, ‘O God, be merciful to me a sinner.’(E) 14 I tell you, the latter went home justified, not the former; for everyone who exalts himself will be humbled, and the one who humbles himself will be exalted.”(F)
Saying on Children and the Kingdom. 15 [c]People were bringing even infants to him that he might touch them,[d] and when the disciples saw this, they rebuked them.(G) 16 Jesus, however, called the children to himself and said, “Let the children come to me and do not prevent them; for the kingdom of God belongs to such as these. 17 Amen, I say to you, whoever does not accept the kingdom of God like a child will not enter it.”(H)
The Rich Official. 18 (I)An official asked him this question, “Good teacher, what must I do to inherit eternal life?”(J) 19 Jesus answered him, “Why do you call me good? No one is good but God alone. 20 You know the commandments, ‘You shall not commit adultery; you shall not kill; you shall not steal; you shall not bear false witness; honor your father and your mother.’”(K) 21 And he replied, “All of these I have observed from my youth.” 22 [e](L)When Jesus heard this he said to him, “There is still one thing left for you: sell all that you have and distribute it to the poor, and you will have a treasure in heaven. Then come, follow me.” 23 But when he heard this he became quite sad, for he was very rich.
On Riches and Renunciation. 24 Jesus looked at him [now sad] and said, “How hard it is for those who have wealth to enter the kingdom of God! 25 For it is easier for a camel to pass through the eye of a needle than for a rich person to enter the kingdom of God.” 26 Those who heard this said, “Then who can be saved?” 27 And he said, “What is impossible for human beings is possible for God.”(M) 28 Then Peter said, “We have given up our possessions and followed you.” 29 (N)He said to them, “Amen, I say to you, there is no one who has given up house or wife or brothers or parents or children for the sake of the kingdom of God 30 who will not receive [back] an overabundant return in this present age and eternal life in the age to come.”
The Third Prediction of the Passion.(O) 31 [f]Then he took the Twelve aside and said to them, “Behold, we are going up to Jerusalem and everything written by the prophets about the Son of Man will be fulfilled.[g] 32 (P)He will be handed over to the Gentiles and he will be mocked and insulted and spat upon; 33 and after they have scourged him they will kill him, but on the third day he will rise.” 34 But they understood nothing of this; the word remained hidden from them and they failed to comprehend what he said.(Q)
The Healing of the Blind Beggar.(R) 35 Now as he approached Jericho a blind man was sitting by the roadside begging, 36 and hearing a crowd going by, he inquired what was happening. 37 They told him, “Jesus of Nazareth is passing by.” 38 (S)He shouted, “Jesus, Son of David,[h] have pity on me!” 39 The people walking in front rebuked him, telling him to be silent, but he kept calling out all the more, “Son of David, have pity on me!” 40 Then Jesus stopped and ordered that he be brought to him; and when he came near, Jesus asked him, 41 “What do you want me to do for you?” He replied, “Lord, please let me see.”(T) 42 Jesus told him, “Have sight; your faith has saved you.”(U) 43 He immediately received his sight and followed him, giving glory to God. When they saw this, all the people gave praise to God.
Scripture texts, prefaces, introductions, footnotes and cross references used in this work are taken from the New American Bible, revised edition © 2010, 1991, 1986, 1970 Confraternity of Christian Doctrine, Inc., Washington, DC All Rights Reserved. No part of this work may be reproduced or transmitted in any form or by any means, electronic or mechanical, including photocopying, recording, or by any information storage and retrieval system, without permission in writing from the copyright owner.