M’Cheyne Bible Reading Plan

Solomon builds the temple^[a]

6 Solomon began to build the Lord's temple 480 years after the Israelites had left Egypt. It was in the fourth year that he had ruled Israel as king. He started the work in the month called Ziv, the second month of the year.^[b]

² The temple that King Solomon built for the Lord was 27 metres long. It was 9 metres wide. It was 13.5 metres high. ³ The temple had an entrance room in front of its big hall. The entrance room was as wide as the temple, 9 metres wide. It came 4.5 metres out from the front of the temple itself. ⁴ Solomon made narrow windows near the tops of the temple walls.^{[c] 5} Solomon built rooms around the outside of the temple walls. These rooms continued outside the big hall and the inside room. The side rooms were on three levels.^{[d] 6} The lowest level of rooms was 2.3 metres wide. The middle level was 2.7 metres wide and the top level was 3.2 metres wide. Each floor was built on wooden beams. The beams rested on stones in the temple walls, so that there were no holes that they cut into the walls.

⁷ When they built the temple, they used stones that were the right shape. Workers had already cut the stones at the place where they came from. There was no sound of hammers, axes or any iron tools at the place of the temple. ⁸ The door to the lowest level of rooms on the sides of the temple was on the south side of the temple. Stairs went up to the middle level and to the top level.^[e]

⁹ Solomon finished building the temple. He made the roof with wooden beams and with cedar boards. ¹⁰ He also built the rooms around the sides of the temple. Each room was 2.3 metres high. Cedar beams fixed the rooms to the temple building.

¹¹ Then the Lord gave this message to Solomon:

¹² ‘I will make my home in this temple that you are building. I will do everything for you that I promised to your father David. But you must obey my laws, rules and commands. ¹³ Then I will live among my people, the Israelites. I will never leave them.’

¹⁴ So Solomon finished building the temple. ¹⁵ He used cedar boards to cover the walls on the inside of the temple. The boards went from the floor of the temple up to its ceiling. He covered the floor of the temple with wood from pine trees. ¹⁶ He built a wall across the inside of the temple to make a separate room. That wall was 9 metres from the back wall of the temple. The inside room was the Most Holy Place.^[f] The walls were covered with cedar boards from the floor to the ceiling. ¹⁷ The big hall in front of the Most Holy Place was 18 metres long. ¹⁸ The inside of the temple was covered with boards made of cedar wood. The workers cut pictures of fruits and flowers on the wood. The cedar boards completely covered the stone walls, so you could not see any stone.

¹⁹ Solomon prepared the inside room to be the Most Holy Place where they would put the Lord's Covenant Box. ²⁰ The inside room was 9 metres long, 9 metres wide and 9 metres high. Solomon used pure gold to cover the walls of this room. He also covered the cedar altar with gold. ²¹ Solomon covered all the walls inside the temple with gold. He also hung gold chains across the entrance to the Most Holy Place. He covered everything there with gold. ²² So he covered everything inside the whole temple with gold. That included the altar that was inside the Most Holy Place.

²³ Solomon used olive wood to make models of two cherubs to stand in the Most Holy Place. Each cherub was 4.4 metres tall. ²⁴ The first cherub had two wings that were 2.2 metres long each. So it was 4.4 metres from the end of one wing to the end of the other wing. ²⁵ The second cherub was also 4.4 metres across its wings. The two cherubs were the same size and the same shape. ²⁶ Each cherub was 4.4 metres high. ²⁷ Solomon put the cherubs in the inside room of the temple. Their wings went from one wall of the temple to the other wall. One cherub's wing touched one wall of the temple. One of the other cherub's wings touched the other wall. And their wings touched each other in the middle of the room. ²⁸ Solomon covered the cherubs with gold.

²⁹ Solomon's workers cut pictures in the wood on the walls of the big hall and the inside room. They were pictures of cherubs, palm trees and flowers. ³⁰ They also covered the floors of both the rooms with gold. ³¹ They used olive wood to make doors for the entrance to the Most Holy Place. The doors were fixed to wooden pillars which had five sides. ³² The wooden doors had pictures of cherubs, palm trees and flowers. Solomon covered the pictures of the cherubs and the palm trees with very thin gold. ³³ The doors to the big hall of the temple were fixed to pillars made of olive wood. Those pillars had four sides. ³⁴ Solomon also made two doors from pine wood. Each door had two separate parts that could turn. ³⁵ He cut pictures of cherubs, palm trees and flowers on those doors too. He covered them with gold in the same way.

³⁶ Solomon also built a yard around the temple building. The wall around the yard had three rows of special stones, then a row of cedar beams, and so on.

³⁷ They built the foundation of the Lord's temple in the fourth year that Solomon was king. It was in the month called Ziv. ³⁸ They finished building the temple in the 11th year that Solomon was king. It was the eighth month, the month called Bul. So they built the temple in seven years, exactly as the plans showed that it should be.

God has chosen Paul to help the Gentiles

3 That is why I pray for you. I, Paul, am in prison because I serve Christ Jesus. He has sent me to help you Gentiles. ² You must have heard that God has chosen me to do that. He has been very kind to give me this work to help you. ³ God has clearly shown to me his true purpose. That was a secret before, but God has helped me to know it. I have written a few words about this already.^{[a] 4} When you read those words, you will be able to understand. I have come to know God's true message about Christ. ⁵ God did not tell this secret message to the people who lived before us. But now the Holy Spirit has shown it to God's apostles and prophets. ⁶ This is the message of God's good news: Gentiles, as well as Jews, may receive the good things that God has prepared for his children. We may all belong to the same group of God's people, like we are his body. Everyone who is united with Christ Jesus receives the good things that God has promised.

⁷ I tell that good news to other people, because God chose me to serve him in that way. That was God's gift to me, because he is so kind. God uses his great power to help me in that work. ⁸ I am the least important of all God's people. But God has given this special work to me because he is so kind. He has sent me to tell his good news to the Gentiles. Then they know about the many valuable things that Christ has prepared for us.

⁹ I help everyone to know how God makes his purpose happen. God himself created all things, and he has hidden this secret during past times. ¹⁰ But now God wants the people of his church to show everyone how wise he is in every way. He wants the spiritual rulers and everything that has authority in the heavens to know this. ¹¹ This had always been God's purpose, from the beginning of all things. And it was our Lord Christ Jesus who made it happen.

¹² Because we are united with Christ, we can come near to God. We are not afraid to do that. We can be sure that God will accept us, because we trust in Christ. ¹³ So do not become weak or afraid. I am now suffering so that I can help you. So you should be strong, so that God will bless you.

Paul prays for the Christians at Ephesus

¹⁴ Yes, that is why I pray for you. I go down on my knees to pray to God, our Father. ¹⁵ Every family, those in heaven and those on earth, receives its true name from him. ¹⁶ I pray that God will cause you to be strong in your spirits. God has great and valuable things in heaven to help you. I pray that God's Spirit will help you with God's own power. ¹⁷ I pray that Christ will make his home in you, as you believe in him. Then you will know God's love very well. You will be like trees that have roots which go down deep into God's love. That will make you strong. ¹⁸ Then you will understand, with all God's people, how much Christ loves us. That love is very wide and long and high and deep! ¹⁹ Christ's love for us is so great that nobody can ever completely know it. As you understand this more and more, God's own nature will completely fill you.

²⁰ We praise God, who causes his power to work in us. In that way, he is able to do much more than we could ever ask for. He can do much more than we could even think about. ²¹ We want all God's people to know that God is great! Everyone who belongs to his church and who trusts in Christ Jesus should praise him! We should praise him always and for ever. Amen. That is true!

A prophecy to the mountains of Israel

36 The Lord said, ‘Son of man, speak my message to the mountains of Israel. Say to them: “Listen to the Lord's message, you mountains of Israel. ² This is what the Almighty Lord says: Your enemies have laughed at you. They have said, ‘The old mountains now belong to us!’ ”

³ So now prophesy to those mountains. Tell them, “This is what the Almighty Lord says: Your enemies attacked you from every side. They won against you, so that you belonged to other nations. People talked about you and they insulted you.

⁴ Because of this, mountains of Israel, listen to this message from me, the Almighty Lord. I say this to the hills, the mountains and the valleys. I say this to the empty places and the towns that have become heaps of stones where nobody lives. This has caused the nations around you to laugh at you and insult you.

⁵ So this is what the Almighty Lord says: I am very angry with those nations and I will punish them. I am even more angry with the people of Edom because they insulted my people. They were happy to take my land for themselves so that their animals could eat the grass.”

⁶ So prophesy to the hills and mountains of Israel, and to its valleys. Tell them, “This is what the Almighty Lord says: I am very angry because the nations around you have caused you to be ashamed. ⁷ So this is what I, the Almighty Lord, say: I make a strong promise that those nations will soon be ashamed themselves.

⁸ But I say this to you mountains of Israel. Trees will grow on you again and crops will provide much food for my people. My people will soon come home. ⁹ I am your friend and I will take care of you. Men will plough your ground and they will plant seeds in it. ¹⁰ I will cause more and more Israelite people to live on you, and in all the land. They will live in the towns and they will repair the broken buildings. ¹¹ I will make more and more people and animals live on you. They will give birth to many young ones, so that they grow in number. I will cause many people to live on you, as they did a long time ago. I will help you with more good things than you had when you first became a land for my people. Then you will know that I am the Lord. ¹² I will cause my people, the Israelites, to walk on you. You will belong to them as the place where they and their descendants live. You will never again cause their children to die.

¹³ This is what the Almighty Lord says: People are saying to you, Israel's land, ‘You destroy people. You take away the nation's children.’ ¹⁴ So now I, the Almighty Lord, tell you this: You will no longer destroy people or take away the nation's children. ¹⁵ People from other nations will no longer insult you or laugh at you. You will no longer cause your nation to suffer. That is what the Almighty Lord says.” ’

¹⁶ The Lord gave this message to me: ¹⁷ ‘Son of man, Israel's people made their own land unclean when they lived there. They lived in a bad way and they did bad things. It made them unclean, like a woman when she bleeds each month. ¹⁸ So I punished them with my great anger. I punished them because they murdered people on their land. And they made the land unclean with idols that they worshipped. ¹⁹ I sent them to live among people of other nations in foreign countries. I punished them as they deserved for the bad things that they did.

²⁰ But among the nations where they went, they continued to bring shame to my holy name. People said, “These are the Lord's people, but they had to leave the land that he gave to them.” ²¹ I wanted them to give honour to my holy name. Instead, Israel's people brought me shame among the nations where they went.

²² So you must say to Israel's people, “This is what the Almighty Lord says: I will help you, Israel's people. But it is not because you deserve it. I will do it so that people give honour to my holy name. You brought me shame among the nations where you went. ²³ Now I will show them that my name is great and holy. You brought shame to my name. But I will help you so that the nations can see that I am great. When I do that, they will know that I am the Lord. That is what I, the Almighty Lord, say.

²⁴ I will take you out from the nations and all the foreign countries where you have been living. I will bring you back to your own land. ²⁵ You will become pure, as if I splash you with clean water. I will remove all the things that make you unclean. I will take away the idols that you worship. ²⁶ I will give you new thoughts. I will put a new spirit in you. You will no longer refuse to obey me. Instead, you will want to please me. ²⁷ I will put my Spirit in you, so that you obey my commands. You will be careful to obey my laws.

²⁸ At that time, you will live in the land that I gave to your ancestors. You will be my people and I will be your God. ²⁹ I will save you from all the things that made you unclean. I will cause the land to give you plenty of grain to eat. You will no longer have any famines. ³⁰ The trees will provide plenty of fruit. And crops will grow well in the fields. Other nations will no longer make you feel ashamed because you have no food to eat. ³¹ Then you will remember the evil way that you lived. You will remember the bad things that you did. You will be ashamed of yourselves because of the sins and the disgusting things that you did. ³² I want you to know that I am not doing this because you deserve it. You should be ashamed, Israel's people. You should feel sorry for the things that you have done. That is what the Almighty Lord says.

³³ This is what the Almighty Lord says: At that time, I will make you clean from all your sins. When I do that, I will send you back to live in your towns. You will build your houses again that had become heaps of stones. ³⁴ You will plough the empty land again to provide food. People who travel there will no longer think that the land is useless. ³⁵ They will say, ‘This land was like a desert, but now it is like the Garden of Eden.^[a] People now live in the cities that had become heaps of stones. The cities now have strong walls.’ ³⁶ Then the nations that still live around you will see what has happened. They will know that I, the Lord, have mended the broken cities. They will know that I have planted crops again in the fields that were empty. I, the Lord, have said this, and I will do it!”

^37-38 This is what the Almighty Lord says: I will listen to what Israel's people are asking me to do for them. I will allow them to grow in number, like a big crowd of sheep. They will be as many as the sheep that people brought to Jerusalem as offerings at a festival. I will fill the broken cities with crowds of people, as many as those sheep. Then they will know that I am the Lord.’

David's prayer.

A prayer for help