M’Cheyne Bible Reading Plan

Jehu kills Ahab's descendants

10 Ahab had 70 sons who lived in Samaria. So Jehu wrote letters and he sent them to Samaria. He sent them to Jezreel's officers and leaders, as well as to the men who took care of Ahab's sons.^{[a] 2} This was what the letter said:

‘When this letter reaches you, your master's sons will be with you. You also have his chariots and horses in a strong city. And you have weapons. ³ Choose the best person to be king from among your master's sons. Make him your king instead of his father. Then prepare to fight on behalf of your master's family.’

⁴ But the letter made the officers in Samaria very afraid. They said, ‘Even two kings could not win against Jehu. So we can never fight against him and win!’

⁵ So these people sent a message to Jehu:

The message said, ‘We are your servants. We will do anything that you tell us. We will not make anyone king. You must do what you think is right.’

⁶ So Jehu wrote a second letter to them. It said, ‘If you are ready to help me and you will obey me, do this: Bring the heads of your master's sons here to me in Jezreel. Bring them by this time tomorrow.’^[b]

At that time, important leaders of the city were taking care of the king's 70 sons. ⁷ When the letter arrived, these men took hold of the king's sons. They killed all 70 of them. They put their heads in baskets. Then they sent them to Jehu in Jezreel. ⁸ Someone told Jehu, ‘They have brought the heads of the king's sons.’ Then Jehu said, ‘Put them in two heaps at the gate of the city. Leave them there until the morning.’

⁹ The next morning, Jehu went out to the city's gate. He stood there in front of all the people. He said to them, ‘You are not guilty of any murder. I was the one who decided to kill my master, the king. But who killed these descendants of Ahab? It was not my decision! ¹⁰ You must realize this: Every punishment that the Lord said would happen to Ahab's family must happen. The Lord has done what he told his servant Elijah he would do.’

¹¹ After that, Jehu killed everybody in Jezreel who was a descendant of Ahab. He also killed Ahab's officers, his friends and his priests. No descendant of Ahab remained alive.

¹² Jehu left Jezreel and he went towards Samaria. He came to Beth Eked, where shepherds had a camp. ¹³ He met some relatives of Ahaziah, the king of Judah. Jehu asked them, ‘Who are you?’ They said, ‘We are relatives of Ahaziah. We are going to Jezreel to visit the families of the king and his mother.’^{[c] 14} Jehu said to his men, ‘Catch them, but do not kill them!’ So they took hold of them. Then they killed them all near the well at Beth Eked. They killed 42 people, so that none of them remained alive.

¹⁵ When Jehu left Beth Eked, he met Rekab's son Jehonadab. He was coming to meet Jehu. Jehu said, ‘Hello! Do you trust me, as I trust you?’ Jehonadab answered, ‘Yes, I do!’ Jehu replied, ‘Then hold your hand out to me.’ So he did that and Jehu pulled him up into his chariot. ¹⁶ Jehu said, ‘Come with me. You will see that I want to serve the Lord faithfully.’ So Jehonadab rode with Jehu in his chariot. ¹⁷ Jehu arrived in Samaria. He killed all the descendants of Ahab who were still alive in Samaria. The Lord had told Elijah that this would happen.

Jehu removes false prophets

¹⁸ Then Jehu called all the people to come together. He said to them, ‘Ahab served Baal, but he did not do it very well. But I, Jehu, will serve Baal much better! ¹⁹ So tell all the prophets who serve Baal to come here, as well as all Baal's servants and his priests. Make sure that they all come. I want to offer a great sacrifice to Baal. If any of them does not come, I will punish him with death.’

But Jehu was deceiving them. He wanted to kill all Baal's servants. ²⁰ He gave a command, ‘Prepare a special day when we can all worship Baal.’ So Jehu's servants told everybody about it.

²¹ Jehu sent a notice to everyone in Israel. All the servants of Baal came to the meeting. There was nobody who did not come. They all went into the temple of Baal, so that it was completely full of people. ²² Then Jehu said to the man who took care of the special clothes, ‘Bring out the robes for the servants of Baal to wear.’ So the man brought out the robes for them. ²³ Then Jehu and Rekab's son Jehonadab went into the temple of Baal. Jehu said to the servants of Baal, ‘Look around carefully. Be sure that there are no servants of the Lord here with you. There must only be servants of Baal here.’ ²⁴ So they went into the temple to offer sacrifices and burnt offerings. But Jehu had put 80 of his men outside the temple. He had said to them, ‘Do not let any of these men escape. If you let anyone escape, I will punish you with death.’

²⁵ When Jehu had finished offering the sacrifices, he said to the guards and the soldiers, ‘Go into the temple and kill all Baal's servants. Do not let any of them escape.’ So the guards and soldiers used their swords to cut all the people down. They threw the dead bodies out of the temple. Then they went into the inside room of the temple. ²⁶ They took out the stones from the house of Baal and they destroyed them. ²⁷ They broke the special stone pillar of Baal and they destroyed the temple. People still use it as a toilet, even today!

²⁸ That is how Jehu stopped people from worshipping Baal in Israel. ²⁹ But Jehu did not turn away from the sins of Nebat's son, Jeroboam. Jeroboam had caused Israel to worship images of calves. There were still gold calves at Bethel and Dan. ³⁰ The Lord said to Jehu, ‘You have done well. You have done the things that I say are right. You have punished Ahab's family in the way that I wanted. So your descendants will be kings of Israel for four generations.’^{[d] 31} But Jehu was not careful to obey completely the law of the Lord, Israel's God. He did not turn away from the sins of Jeroboam which he had caused Israel to do.

³² In those days, the Lord began to make Israel's land smaller. King Hazael of Syria could attack the Israelites anywhere in their land ³³ east of the Jordan River. He took from them all the land of Gilead. That included the land that belonged to the tribes of Gad, Reuben and Manasseh. Hazael took the land all the way from Aroer, along the Arnon Valley to Gilead and Bashan.

³⁴ The other things that happened while Jehu was king are written in a book. The book is called ‘The history of Israel's kings’. It tells about all the great things that Jehu did. ³⁵ Jehu died and they buried him with his ancestors in Samaria. His son Jehoahaz became king after him. ³⁶ Jehu ruled over Israel as king in Samaria for 28 years.

Paul thanks God for Timothy

1 This letter is from me, Paul. God chose me to be an apostle of Christ Jesus. God sent me to tell people about the true life that he has promised us. We receive this life when we belong to Christ Jesus.

² I am writing to you, Timothy. You are like my own child, and I love you very much.

I pray that God the Father and Christ Jesus our Lord will continue to help you and be kind to you. I pray that they will give you peace in your mind.

³ Like my ancestors, I serve God in a good way, that I know is right. When I pray to God, at night and during the day, I always remember to pray for you. And I thank God for you. ⁴ I remember how you wept when I said ‘goodbye’ to you. I want to see you again very much, so that I may be completely happy. ⁵ I remember how you really believe in Christ. Your grandmother, Lois, and your mother, Eunice, already believed in Christ before you did. Now I am sure that you yourself also really trust him. ⁶ For that reason, I want you to remember the gift that God gave you when I put my hands on you.^[a] Use that gift more and more to serve God well. ⁷ Be strong, because God has given us his Spirit. And his Spirit does not cause us to be afraid. Instead, his Spirit causes us to be powerful to serve God. He helps us to love God and other people. And he helps us to control ourselves properly.

Paul tells Timothy to be a brave teacher for Christ

⁸ So do not be ashamed of the message about our Lord that we tell people. And do not be ashamed of me because I am in a prison. I am a prisoner because I serve Christ. You must understand that you will have trouble because you tell people the good news about Jesus Christ. So be ready to have the same kind of trouble as I have. Let God make you strong when you have trouble. ⁹ God is the one who has saved us. He has chosen us to serve him with good, clean lives. He did not save us because of any good things that we have done. He chose to do it because he is very kind. He decided to do that before time began, because of what Christ Jesus would do for us. ¹⁰ Now Christ Jesus has come to save us, and we have seen how kind God is. Christ has destroyed death's power over us. We have heard the good news that he brought to us. So now we understand about life with God for ever.

¹¹ That is the same good news that God has chosen me to tell to people. He has sent me as his apostle to teach his message to people. ¹² That is why I have these troubles. But I am not ashamed to be in prison. I have believed in Christ and I know him well. I know that I can trust him to keep his message safe. God has given me the authority to speak that message to people at this time.^[b] Christ has the power to keep it safe until that great day when he comes back.^[c]

¹³ You have heard me tell you about God's true message. Let those words be an example to you, so that you also teach what is true. Do this because you belong to Christ Jesus. Continue to trust him and to love his people. ¹⁴ God has given you his good message to keep safe. God's Holy Spirit, who lives in us, will help you to keep it safe.

Onesiphorus

¹⁵ You know that almost all the believers in Asia region have turned against me. They include Phygelus and Hermogenes.^[d]

¹⁶ But Onesiphorus has stayed to help me. I pray that the Lord will be kind to his family. He often came to help me not to be sad. I am in prison, but he was not ashamed to help me. ¹⁷ When he came here to Rome, he looked carefully for me until he found me. ¹⁸ I pray that the Lord will be kind to Onesiphorus on that great day when he judges people.^[e] You know very well how much Onesiphorus helped me in Ephesus.

2 Then you will tell your brothers, ‘Ammi: you are my people.’ You will tell your sisters, ‘Ruhamah: he loves you.’

The Lord warns the Israelites

² My children, warn your mother!^[a] She is no longer my wife. I am not her husband. Tell her that she must stop living like a prostitute. She must stop having sex with other men instead of me. ³ If she does not return to me, I will remove all her clothes. She will have nothing to wear, like the day when she was born. She will be ashamed. Her life will be useless and empty, like a dry land that has no water. Then I will leave her to die because she has no water to drink. ⁴ I will not show love to her children, because she became pregnant with them as a prostitute. ⁵ Yes, their mother has lived as a prostitute. She became pregnant because she had sex with other men instead of with her husband. She should be ashamed. She herself said, ‘I will go and sleep with my lovers. They give me food and water. They give me wool, linen, olive oil and wine.’^[b]

⁶ So I will stop her living like that. I will put thorn bushes around her, like a wall. Then she will not be able to go anywhere that she likes. ⁷ She will run after her lovers, but she will not catch them. She will look for them, but she will not find them. Then she will say, ‘Now I will return to my husband, as before. Life was better for me then than it is now.’

⁸ She did not realize that I was the one who gave her everything that she needed. I gave her grain, wine and olive oil. I even gave her lots of silver and gold. But she used my gifts to worship Baal instead of me. ⁹ So now I will take back the grain and the new wine that I gave her at harvest time. I will take away the wool and the linen. She will have no clothes to cover her bare body. ¹⁰ I will remove her clothes for all her lovers to see her as she really is. Nobody will be able to rescue her from my power.

¹¹ I will stop the festivals that she enjoys each year. I will stop her feasts at the times of a new moon and on Sabbath days. I will stop all her parties.^{[c] 12} I will destroy her vines and her fig trees. She said that those were the things that her lovers paid to her. But I will make her gardens become like a forest. Only wild animals will eat the fruit from those trees. ¹³ I will punish her because she burned incense to the idols of Baal. I will punish her because she made herself beautiful with jewels when she went to sleep with her lovers. I will punish her because she did those things but she forgot about me.

That is what the Lord says.

The Lord still loves his people

¹⁴ But listen! One day, I will speak kind words to her. I will lead her into the wilderness. I will tell her that I love her.^{[d] 15} There, I will give her the vineyards that she had before. I will change Trouble Valley into a place where there is hope.^[e] She will be happy with me there, as she was when she was young. That was the time when she came out of Egypt.^[f]

¹⁶ The Lord says this: When that happens, you will call me, ‘My husband’. You will never again call me, ‘Baal, my master’. ¹⁷ I will never again let you speak the names of the idols of Baal.

¹⁸ At that time, I will make a promise that nothing will hurt my people. I will make an agreement with the wild animals, with the birds in the fields and with the animals that move along the ground. I will remove from their land all the weapons that soldiers use to fight wars. I will destroy their swords and their bows and arrows. I will allow my people to live safely in peace.

²¹ The Lord says this:

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