M’Cheyne Bible Reading Plan
The people prepare for the Passover festival
30 Hezekiah sent a message to all the people of Israel and Judah. He also wrote letters to the tribes of Ephraim and Manasseh. He told them to come to the Lord's temple in Jerusalem. They must come to worship the Lord, Israel's God, at the Passover festival. 2 The king, his officers and all the people who lived in Jerusalem decided to have the Passover festival in the second month.[a] 3 Not enough priests had made themselves clean to serve the Lord. So they could not have the feast at the usual time. Also, all the people had not yet come to Jerusalem. 4 This idea seemed right to the king and to all the people. 5 So they sent a message with the king's command to all the people. They sent the message everywhere in Israel, from Beersheba to Dan. The message told the people to come to Jerusalem for the Passover festival to worship the Lord, Israel's God. Before that, they had not brought all the people together for the festival, as God's law taught them to do.
6 So men took the letters from the king and his officers to all the people in Israel and Judah. The king's command said this:
‘A message to the people of Israel who have escaped from the power of the kings of Assyria. Turn back now to the Lord, the God of Abraham, Isaac and Israel. Then he will turn back to you. 7 Do not be like your parents and your relatives. They turned away from the Lord, the God of their ancestors. That made him so angry that he punished them, as you can see. 8 Do not refuse to obey him, as your parents did. Instead, agree to serve him. Come to his temple. He has made it a holy place for ever. Serve the Lord your God so that he will stop being so angry with you. 9 If you turn back to serve the Lord again, your enemies will be kind to your relatives and to your children. They will let them return here to their homes. The Lord your God is kind and he is ready to forgive you. So if you turn back to him, he will not send you away.’
10 The men took this message to every town among the tribes of Ephraim and Manasseh, and as far as the tribe of Zebulun. But in all those places, people insulted them and they laughed at them. 11 But some people from Asher, Manasseh and Zebulun were not too proud to accept the king's message. They agreed to come to Jerusalem. 12 As for the people of Judah, God caused them to accept the command that the king and his officers had given. They all agreed together to do what the Lord wanted them to do.[b]
13 In the second month of the year, a very large crowd of people came together in Jerusalem. They came there for the Festival of Flat Bread.[c] 14 They removed the altars for false gods that were in Jerusalem. They also removed all the altars where people burned incense. They threw them into the Kidron Valley.
15 On the 14th day of the second month, they killed the lamb for the Passover feast. The priests and the Levites who were not yet clean became ashamed. So they made themselves clean to serve the Lord. Then they could bring burnt offerings to the Lord's temple. 16 They stood in their proper places. God's servant Moses had written in God's law where they should stand. The Levites gave the blood from the sacrifices to the priests. The priests then splashed the blood on the altar. 17 Many of the people had not made themselves properly clean. So they could not kill their lambs for the Passover and offer them to the Lord. The Levites had to kill the lambs for those people instead. 18 Most of the people who came from the tribes of Ephraim, Manasseh, Issachar and Zebulun had not made themselves properly clean. They should not have eaten the Passover meal, because God's law said that was wrong. But they still ate the meal. So Hezekiah prayed for them. He said, ‘Lord you are good. Please forgive everyone 19 who really wants to obey you, the God of their ancestors. If they have not made themselves properly clean to eat this meal, please forgive them.’ 20 The Lord accepted Hezekiah's prayer. He did not punish those people.
21 The Israelites who were in Jerusalem enjoyed the Festival of Flat Bread for seven days. They were very happy. Every day, the Levites and the priests made loud music to praise the Lord.
22 All the Levites understood how they should serve the Lord. So King Hezekiah thanked them. The festival continued for seven days. They offered friendship offerings to the Lord. They thanked the Lord, the God of their ancestors.
23 Then all the people who were there agreed to continue the feast for another seven days. So they did that happily for seven more days. 24 King Hezekiah of Judah gave 1,000 bulls and 7,000 sheep to the people. The leaders also gave them 1,000 bulls and 10,000 sheep. Many more priests also made themselves clean to serve the Lord.
25 Everyone at the festival was very happy. They included all Judah's people, the priests, the Levites and the whole group of people who had come from Israel. There were also foreign people who were living in Israel and in Judah. 26 Everyone enjoyed the festival in Jerusalem. Nothing like this had happened in Jerusalem since the time when David's son Solomon was king of Israel. 27 The priests and the Levites stood up and they asked God to bless the people. Their prayers reached the Lord's home in heaven, and he did what they asked for.
The seven bowls with the seven last troubles
16 Then I heard a loud voice speak from God's house in heaven. It said to the seven angels, ‘Take your seven bowls that are full of God's anger. Go and pour them out on the earth.’
2 The first angel went and poured out his bowl on the land. As a result, very bad and painful sores appeared on people's skin. Everyone who had the wild animal's mark on them and who worshipped the animal's image had those sores.
3 Then the second angel poured out his bowl on the sea. As a result, the sea became like the blood of a dead person. Everything that was living in the sea then died.
4 Then the third angel poured out his bowl on the rivers and on the springs of water. As a result, all the water became blood.
5 Then I heard the voice of the angel who had authority over the waters. He said to God,
‘Holy One, you are alive now and you always have been alive.
You are right in everything that you decide.
Now you have judged these people.
6 They have killed your people and your prophets.
They have caused your servants to bleed and to die.
So now you have given these bad people blood to drink.
That is what ought to happen to them. It is right.’
7 Then I heard a voice from the altar in heaven. It said,
‘Yes, Lord God, you have all authority.
When you judge people, it is the punishment that they deserve.’
8 Then the fourth angel poured out his bowl on the sun. God gave authority to the sun so that it burned people with fire. 9 The strong heat burned people and it hurt them very much. As a result, they said bad things against God's name, because he had the power to cause these terrible troubles. But they refused to change how they lived. They refused to agree that God is great.
10 Then the fifth angel poured out his bowl on the throne of the wild animal. As a result, the whole kingdom that the wild animal ruled became dark. People were biting their tongues because of their great pain. 11 They cursed the God of heaven because of their pain and because of the sores on their skin. But they did not stop doing bad things.
12 Then the sixth angel poured out his bowl on the great Euphrates river. As a result, the river became dry. This prepared a way for kings from the east to march across it. 13 Then I saw three bad spirits that looked like frogs. One bad spirit came out of the dragon's mouth.[a] Another one came out of the first wild animal's mouth. The third one came out of the false prophet's mouth.[b] 14 Those bad spirits are the spirits of demons. They had the power to do miracles. They went to all the rulers in the whole world, to bring them together to fight in a big war. That war will happen on the great day of God, who has all power and authority.
15 The Lord says: ‘Listen! I will come secretly, like someone who robs people. If you continue to watch carefully, you will be happy. Keep your clothes with you all the time. Then, when I come, you will not be ashamed because you have no clothes.’[c]
16 Then the bad spirits brought the rulers together to fight in the big war. They came to the place that is called Armageddon in the Hebrew language.
17 Then the seventh angel poured out his bowl into the air. A voice spoke loudly from the throne in God's house. The voice said, ‘Now it has happened!’ 18 There was a great storm, with bright lightning and loud noises of thunder. The ground shook with a strong earthquake. The earthquake was stronger than anything that had happened since people first lived on the earth. 19 As a result, the great city of Babylon broke into three parts. When the ground shook, it also destroyed the big cities of other nations in the world. God did not forget the evil things that the people of the great city of Babylon had done. So they had to drink wine from the cup of God's great anger.
20 When the ground shook, every island in the sea disappeared. There were no more mountains anywhere. 21 Strong rain with stones of ice fell from the sky. The stones hit people and caused them great pain. The weight of each stone was about 50 kilograms. The people cursed God because the strong rain and the stones of ice caused them to have such terrible pain.[d]
The Lord will beat the enemies of Jerusalem
12 This is the Lord's message about Israel. The Lord made the skies and the whole wide earth. He makes men and women.
2 ‘I will frighten the enemies that live round Jerusalem. I will frighten them so much that they will run. They will run as fast as they can from Jerusalem and from Judah.
3 There will be a time when all the countries of the earth will be ready to attack Jerusalem. Then I will make Jerusalem like a heavy rock that nobody can move. All those who try to lift it will hurt themselves very badly.
4 On that day,’ says the Lord, ‘I will make every horse very afraid. I will make all the men that ride them crazy. I want to help Judah's people. And so, I will not let the horses of the enemy see any longer.
5 Then the leaders of Judah will say to themselves, “The Lord Almighty, their God, makes the people in Jerusalem strong. And they will help us.”
6 On that day, I will make the leaders of Judah like fire in a forest. I will make them like fire among wheat that the farmer has cut. They will kill all the people from round Jerusalem, but the people in Jerusalem will be safe.
7 The Lord will save the homes of the people from Judah first. So David's family and the people who live in Jerusalem will not be greater than the people from Judah.[a]
8 On that day, the Lord will save the people who live in Jerusalem. Even sick people will be as strong as King David was. The family of David will lead the people from Jerusalem like the angel of the Lord. God himself will go before them.
9 On that day, I will destroy all the countries that fight against Israel.
They will weep for the man that they killed
10 I will cause the family of David and the people in Jerusalem to think seriously about me. Then they will know that I am kind to them. And they will want to pray to me. They will look at me whom they pierced (made holes in). They will weep about him as those that weep after the death of their only son. They will cry aloud as if their only son was dead.
11 On that day, people will weep loudly in Jerusalem. It will be like when they were weeping about Hadad-Rimmon in the fields of Megiddo.[b]
12 All the people will weep. Each family will weep by itself. The family of King David will weep by itself. And their wives will weep by themselves. The family of Nathan will weep by itself. And their wives will weep by themselves.
13 The family of Levi will weep by itself. And their wives will weep by themselves. The family of Shimei will weep by itself. And their wives will weep by themselves.
14 And all the families that have not died will weep by themselves. And their wives will weep by themselves.’
The Lord takes away the sin of the people
13 ‘On that day, water will start to pour from a fountain for King David's descendants and Jerusalem's people. It will make them clean from their sins and the dirty things that they have done.’
The branches must stay in the vine
15 Jesus said, ‘I am the true vine, and my Father is the gardener.[a] 2 Some branches that are part of me may have no fruit on them. My Father completely removes all those branches. But other branches do have fruit. My Father cuts all those branches to make them better. Then they will be good and make more fruit. 3 The words that I have spoken to you have made you good already. 4 Continue to live in me, and I will continue to live in you. A branch cannot make fruit by itself. It can make fruit only if it continues to be part of the vine. You are like that. You cannot make fruit unless you continue to live in me.[b]
5 I am the vine, and you are the branches. You must continue to live in me and I must continue to live in you. Only if you do that will you make plenty of fruit. That is because you can do nothing without me. 6 If anyone does not remain in me, that person is like a dead branch. The gardener will throw that branch away and it will die. People throw all those dead branches into the fire so that they burn. 7 You must remain in me, and my teaching must remain in you. Then you may ask for anything that you want. God will do it for you. 8 If you make plenty of fruit, that will give honour to my Father. You will show that you are truly my disciples.
9 I have loved you in the same way that the Father has loved me. Continue to live in a way that shows my love. 10 If you obey what I have told you, you will be living in my love. In the same way, I have obeyed what my Father has told me to do. In that way, I live in his love. 11 I want you to be completely happy, in the same way that I myself am happy. That is why I have told you these things.
12 This is the rule that I give to you: You must love each other, in the same way that I have loved you. 13 A person really loves his friends if he dies so that they can live. Nobody could love anyone more than that. 14 And you are my friends, if you obey my message. 15 A servant does not know what his master is doing. So I do not call you servants any more. No, I call you my friends. This is because I have told you everything that I have heard from my Father. 16 You did not choose me, but I chose you. I chose you to go and to make plenty of fruit. That kind of fruit will continue always. For that reason, the Father will help you with anything that you ask him. If you ask him in my name, he will do it for you.[c] 17 This is what I tell you to do: You must love each other.’
People will hate the disciples
18 ‘The people who belong to this world may hate you. But remember this: They hated me before they hated you. 19 If you belonged to this world, this world's people would love you. They would love you because you would belong with them. But I chose you so that you would be separate from this world's people. You do not belong with them, so they hate you. 20 Remember what I told you: “No servant is more important than his master is.” If they have caused trouble for me, they will also cause trouble for you. But if they have obeyed my message, they will also obey your message. 21 They will do all these things to you because you belong to me. They will do them because they do not know the one who sent me.
22 I have come and I have spoken my message to them. If I had not done that, they would not have been guilty of their sin. But now they cannot say, “We have not done anything wrong.” 23 Anyone who hates me also hates my Father. 24 When I was with them, I did many great things. Nobody else ever did things like that. If I had not done those great things among them, they would not have known what is wrong. But they have seen what I did. As a result, they have hated me, and they have hated my Father too. 25 Their book of God's Law says, “They hated me without any good reason.”[d] What that book already said long ago had to happen.
26 When I return to my Father, I will send the Helper to you. The Helper is God's Spirit who speaks only true things. He comes to you from the Father. I will send him to you and he will speak true things about me. 27 You also must speak to people about me, because you have been with me from the beginning.’
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