M’Cheyne Bible Reading Plan
The Lord appears again to Solomon
9 Solomon had finished building the Lord's temple and the king's palace. He had built everything that he had wanted to build. 2 Then the Lord appeared to Solomon a second time, as he had appeared to him at Gibeon.[a] 3 The Lord said to Solomon,
‘I have heard your prayer and how you have asked me to help you. I have made this temple that you have built a special place for me. People will worship me there for ever. I will always be there to watch over it.
4 You must continue to serve me honestly and obey me, as your father David did. Do everything that I have commanded you to do. Obey my rules and my laws.
5 If you serve me truly, I will cause one of your descendants to rule over Israel as king for all time. That is what I promised to your father David when I said, “There will always be someone from your family to rule Israel as king.”[b] 6 But if you or your descendants turn away from me, I will punish your people. I will do that if you do not obey the laws and rules that I have given to you. I will do it if you choose to serve and to worship other gods. 7 Then I will remove the Israelite people from the land that I have given to them. I will turn away from this temple that I have made a special place for people to worship me. People from all the other nations will insult the Israelites and they will laugh at them. 8 This temple will became a heap of stones. Everyone who sees it will be very surprised. They will laugh about it! They will ask, “Why has the Lord destroyed this land and this temple?” 9 People will answer, “He has done it because they have turned away from the Lord their God. He brought their ancestors out of Egypt. But they have chosen to worship other gods and to serve them. That is why the Lord has caused this trouble to happen to them.” ’
Other things that Solomon did
10 Solomon was building the Lord's temple and the king's palace for 20 years. 11 After this, he gave 20 towns in Galilee to Hiram, the king of Tyre. Solomon did this because Hiram had given him all that he needed for the work. Hiram had given him cedar wood, pine wood and gold. 12 So Hiram left Tyre and he went to Galilee, to see the towns that Solomon had given to him. But Hiram was not happy with them. 13 He said to Solomon, ‘My friend, you have given me some useless towns!’ Hiram called that region ‘Kabul Land’. It still has that name today.[c] 14 Hiram had sent to King Solomon about 4,000 kilograms of gold.
15 Solomon made people work on the buildings for him. This is how he used them to build the Lord's temple, the king's palace, the Millo and the wall around Jerusalem. They also did work on the towns called Hazor, Megiddo and Gezer. 16 Pharaoh, the king of Egypt, had attacked Gezer and he had taken it. He had destroyed it with fire. He killed the Canaanites who lived there.[d] Then he gave it as a gift to his daughter, when she married Solomon. 17 So Solomon built Gezer again. He also built Lower Beth-Horon, 18 Baalath and Tadmor, which were towns in the wilderness of Judah. 19 Solomon also made strong the cities where he stored things and the cities where he kept his chariots and horses. He built everything that he wanted to build in Jerusalem, in Lebanon and everywhere in his kingdom.
20 Solomon only made people who were not Israelites do the hard work for him. They were Canaanite people who still lived in the land after the Israelites took it for themselves. They were Amorites, Hittites, Perizzites, Hivites and Jebusites. 21 The Israelites had not been able to remove all of these people, so their descendants remained in the land. So Solomon made them do hard work as his slaves. They are still slaves of the Israelites today. 22 But Solomon did not make any of the Israelites do the hard work. Instead, they served him as his soldiers, government officers and army officers. Some of the soldiers drove chariots and some were leaders of the chariot drivers. 23 There were also officers who had authority over the slaves who did the work. There were 550 officers who led the work.
24 Solomon had built a palace for his wife, Pharaoh's daughter. When the palace was ready, she came up from the City of David. After that, Solomon built the Millo.
25 Three times every year Solomon offered burnt offerings and friendship offerings as sacrifices to the Lord. He did this on the altar that he had built for the Lord. With these offerings, he also burned incense to worship the Lord. So the temple became the place to worship the Lord.
26 King Solomon also built ships at Ezion-Geber. This place is near Elath in Edom, on the shore of the Red Sea. 27 Hiram had sailors who knew how to sail ships on the sea. He sent some of these men to work with Solomon's sailors. 28 They sailed to Ophir and they brought back about 14 tons of gold. They gave it to King Solomon.
Children and parents
6 You who are children, obey your parents. Because you belong to the Lord, that is the right thing to do. 2 God's Law says: ‘Always respect your father and your mother.’ That is the first rule of God's Law that also has a promise. 3 The promise is this: ‘As a result, you will be happy and you will live for a long time on the earth.’[a]
4 Fathers, do not do things that make your children angry. Instead, teach them carefully as they grow up. Help them to understand the message of the Lord, and help them to obey it.
Slaves and masters
5 You who are slaves, obey your human masters. Respect them and be afraid of them. Work well to help them, as if you were working for Christ as your master. 6 Do not do good work only when they can see you. Some people only work to make other people like them. Instead, work well all the time, as slaves who serve Christ. Work in the way that God wants you to work. 7 Be happy to obey your human masters. Remember that you are serving the Lord himself, not just other people. 8 You know that anyone who does some good thing will receive a good gift from the Lord. This will happen whether that person is a slave or a free person.
9 You who are masters, be good to your slaves in the same way. Do not frighten them with punishment. Remember that both you and your slaves have the same Master in heaven. And he is always fair when he judges people, whoever they are.
How God helps us to be strong
10 At the end of my letter, I want to say this to you: Be united with the Lord, so that you are strong. Then his great power will help you. 11 Use all the help that God gives to us. Then you can be like a soldier who fights against the Devil. You must put on the whole armour that God gives to us. The Devil attacks us in clever ways, and we need to be strong. 12 We are not fighting against human enemies. Instead, we are fighting against the rulers and the powerful spirits that have authority over this dark world. We are fighting against the bad spirits who live in the heavens.
13 Because of that, take all the help that God gives, like it is your armour. Then, when the bad time comes, you will be able to stand strongly. You will not fall. After you have finished everything, you will still be standing strongly in your place.
14 So you must stand strongly. This is God's armour that you must wear: God's true message will be like a belt that you tie round your body.[b] Always do what is right. That will be like a metal shirt that you wear to keep your body safe. 15 Be prepared to tell people the good news about peace with God. That will be like shoes on your feet. 16 As well as all that, have faith to trust God. That will be like a shield that you hold in front of you. It will stop the Devil from hurting you with his arrows that burn with fire.[c] 17 Remember that God has saved you from your sins. That will be like a strong hat that keeps your head safe. Also, use God's message to help you. That will be like a sword that God's Spirit puts in your hand.
18 As you stand strongly like that, always pray for God's help. Pray about everything as God's Spirit helps you to pray. For this purpose, watch carefully all the time. Also, continue to pray for all God's people everywhere.
19 Please pray for me, too. Pray that God will give me the right message to speak. Pray that I will not be afraid to tell people about God's good news. Pray that I can explain God's secret to them. 20 God has sent me to tell people the good news on his behalf. And that is why I am now in prison. So pray that I will speak God's message bravely, as I ought to speak it.
Paul finishes his letter
21 My Christian friend, Tychicus, will tell you all the news about me. He works hard as the Lord's servant. He will tell you about what is happening here. Then you will know what I am doing and how I am. 22 That is the reason why I am sending him to you. I want him to tell you what is happening to us here, so that you will feel stronger.
23 I pray that God, the Father, and our Lord Jesus Christ will be good to you who are believers. I pray that you will have peace in your minds. I pray that you will love one another, as you continue to trust Christ. 24 I pray that God will be very kind to everyone who continues to love our Lord Jesus Christ.
39 ‘Son of man, you must tell my message to Gog to warn him. Say to him, “This is what the Almighty Lord says: Listen! I am your enemy, Gog, prince of Meshech and Tubal. 2 I will turn you around and I will pull you along. I will bring you from the far away places in the north to attack the mountains of Israel. 3 Then I will knock your bow out of your left hand. I will cause your arrows to fall out of your right hand. 4 You will fall to the ground on Israel's mountains. You, your soldiers and the people who are with you will all die there. Vultures and wild animals will eat your dead bodies. 5 Your bodies will lie in the fields. I, the Almighty Lord, have said that this will happen.
6 I will send fires to burn in Magog. They will burn the people who live safely in towns on the coast of the sea. Then they will know that I am the Lord.
7 My people, Israel will know that my name is holy. No longer will I let them say bad things about me. And the nations round you will know that I, the Lord am the holy God in Israel. 8 I promise that I will cause this to happen. You can be sure that this day will come, says the Lord God.
I told you that this day would come.
9 Then those who live in Israel's towns will go out. They will pick up the weapons and they will burn them. They will burn the small and large shields, the heavy sticks, the throwing sticks and the sharp pointed sticks (swords). They will use them to make their fires. They will have enough wood for seven years of fires. 10 They will not have to go into the fields or forests to find wood. They will take away the things from those who took their things, says the Lord God.
11 They will bury Gog in the valley east of the sea. They will bury Gog and all his armies there. So men will not be able to walk through this valley. They will call it the valley of Hamon Gog (Gog's army).
12 Israel's people will need seven months to bury all the dead bodies. Then the land will be clean. 13 All the people in the country will bury the dead bodies. They will always remember that day, the day that I won the fight. They will give me glory, says the Lord God.
14 They will choose some men to clean the land. They will travel through all the country. Other men will bury the dead bodies that remain on the ground. They will begin to do this at the end of the seven months. 15 The men who walk through the country will find dead men's bones. They will put a sign by each one. Then the men who bury the bodies will bury them in the valley of Hamon Gog. 16 (A town called Hamonah is also there.) That is how they will make the land clean.”
17 Son of man, this is what the Lord God says: Shout to all kinds of birds and wild animals, “Come here from all the country to eat the meal that I have prepared for you. It is a great sacrifice on Israel's mountains. There you will eat meat and you will drink blood. 18 You will eat the meat of great men and you will drink the blood of kings. You will eat them like the fat sheep, cows and animals from Bashan that you eat. 19 At this sacrifice, you will eat so much fat that you cannot eat any more. You will drink so much blood that you become drunk. 20 I will give you horses and their riders to eat. I will give you great men and many kinds of soldiers to eat,” says the Lord God.
21 I will show my glory to all the nations. They will see that I can punish people. And they will know that I decide how and when to punish them. 22 From that time and for all the time after that, Israel's people will know that I am the Lord their God. 23 And the nations will know that I sent Israel's people away from their country. They will know that I punished my people because of their sin. They had not been faithful to me so I turned away from them. I let their enemies take them and kill them with swords. 24 I punished them because they had not kept themselves clean from sin. I hid myself from them because they had done so many evil things.’
25 So this is what the Lord God says. ‘Now I will bring back Jacob (Israel) from the countries where his people are prisoners. I will be kind to all Israel's people. And I will make them see that I am holy. 26 They will forget that they were ashamed. They will forget that they failed to keep their promises to me. That was when they lived in a safe country. In that country, nobody made them afraid. 27 I will bring them back from the lands where their enemies took them. The nations will see what I have done. So all the nations will know that I am holy. 28 Then Israel will know that I am the Lord their God. I sent my people away to far countries. But I will bring them all back to their own country. I will not leave any behind. 29 No longer will I turn away from them. I will pour my Spirit over Israel's people, says the Lord God.’
A prayer of Moses, God's servant.
God lives for ever![a]
90 Lord, from long ago,
you have always been a safe home for us.[b]
2 From before the mountains began,
and before you made the world,
you were already there, as God.
You have no beginning and no end.
3 People return to dust in the ground when they die.
You say, ‘Become dust again, you people.’[c]
4 For you, a thousand years is only a short time.
They pass as quickly as a day for you,
or just a few hours in the night.
5 You cause people's lives to end,
as a dream finishes when you wake up.
People are like grass that appears in the morning.
6 During the morning, it grows well.
By the evening,
it becomes dry and it dies.
7 Your anger destroys us,
and we become very afraid.
8 All our sins are there for you to see.
You even see the sins that we have tried to hide.
9 Your anger gives us trouble all through our lives.
Then our lives end in a short groan.
10 The number of our days make 70 years,
or maybe 80 years if we are strong enough.
But even in the best years of our lives,
we have trouble and pain.
Our lives quickly pass,
and we hurry towards death.
11 Lord, nobody knows all the power of your anger.
It is your anger that causes people to be afraid of you.
12 Teach us to count carefully the days of our short lives.
Then we will be wise in how we live.
13 Lord, return to help us!
How long will you be angry with us?
Please be kind to us, your servants!
14 Show your faithful love to us every morning.
Then we will sing with joy,
and we will be happy for as long as we live.
15 For many years you have sent trouble to us.
Now, please make us happy
for as many years as you have given us pain.
16 Do great things again,
so that we, your servants, see them!
Let our children see that you rule as King!
17 Yes, may the Lord our God bless us.
May everything that we do go well!
Yes, may everything go well!
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