M’Cheyne Bible Reading Plan
5 Finally all the work Solomon did for the Temple of the Lord was finished. He brought in everything his father David had set apart for the Temple—all the silver and gold and other articles. And he put everything in the treasuries of God’s Temple.
The Ark Is Brought into the Temple
2 Solomon called for the elders of Israel, the heads of the tribes, and the leaders of the families to come to him in Jerusalem. He wanted them to bring the Ark of the Agreement with the Lord from the older part of the city. 3 So all the Israelites came together with the king during the festival in the seventh month.
4 When all the elders of Israel arrived, the Levites lifted up the Ark. 5 They carried the Ark of the Agreement, the Meeting Tent, and the holy utensils in it; the priests and the Levites brought them up. 6 King Solomon and all the Israelites gathered before the Ark of the Agreement and sacrificed so many sheep and bulls no one could count them.
7 Then the priests put the Ark of the Agreement with the Lord in its place inside the Most Holy Place in the Temple, under the wings of the golden creatures. 8 The wings of these creatures were spread out over the place for the Ark, covering it and its carrying poles. 9 The carrying poles were so long that anyone standing in the Holy Place in front of the Most Holy Place could see the ends of the poles. But no one could see them from outside the Holy Place. The poles are still there today. 10 The only things inside the Ark were two stone tablets[a] that Moses had put in the Ark at Mount Sinai. That was where the Lord made his agreement with the Israelites after they came out of Egypt.
11 Then all the priests left the Holy Place. (All the priests from each group had made themselves ready to serve the Lord.) 12 All the Levite musicians—Asaph, Heman, Jeduthun, and all their sons and relatives—stood on the east side of the altar. They were dressed in white linen and played cymbals, harps, and lyres. With them were one hundred twenty priests who blew trumpets. 13 Those who blew the trumpets and those who sang together sounded like one person as they praised and thanked the Lord. They sang as others played their trumpets, cymbals, and other instruments. They praised the Lord with this song:
“He is good;
his love continues forever.”
Then the Temple of the Lord was filled with a cloud. 14 The priests could not continue their work because of the cloud, because the Lord’s glory filled the Temple of God.
Solomon Speaks to the People
6 Then Solomon said, “The Lord said he would live in the dark cloud. 2 Lord, I have built a wonderful Temple for you—a place for you to live forever.”
3 While all the Israelites were standing there, King Solomon turned to them and blessed them. 4 Then he said, “Praise the Lord, the God of Israel. He has done what he promised to my father David. The Lord said, 5 ‘Since the time I brought my people out of Egypt, I have not chosen a city in any tribe of Israel where a temple will be built for me. I did not choose a man to lead my people Israel. 6 But now I have chosen Jerusalem as the place I am to be worshiped, and I have chosen David to lead my people Israel.’
7 “My father David wanted to build a temple for the Lord, the God of Israel. 8 But the Lord said to my father David, ‘It was good that you wanted to build a temple for me. 9 But you are not the one to build it. Your son, who comes from your own body, is the one who will build my temple.’
10 “Now the Lord has kept his promise. I am the king now in place of David my father. Now I rule Israel as the Lord promised, and I have built the Temple for the Lord, the God of Israel. 11 There I have put the Ark, in which is the Agreement the Lord made with the Israelites.”
Warning Against False Teachers
4 My dear friends, many false prophets have gone out into the world. So do not believe every spirit, but test the spirits to see if they are from God. 2 This is how you can know God’s Spirit: Every spirit who confesses that Jesus Christ came to earth as a human is from God. 3 And every spirit who refuses to say this about Jesus is not from God. It is the spirit of the enemy of Christ, which you have heard is coming, and now he is already in the world.
4 My dear children, you belong to God and have defeated them; because God’s Spirit, who is in you, is greater than the devil, who is in the world. 5 And they belong to the world, so what they say is from the world, and the world listens to them. 6 But we belong to God, and those who know God listen to us. But those who are not from God do not listen to us. That is how we know the Spirit that is true and the spirit that is false.
Love Comes from God
7 Dear friends, we should love each other, because love comes from God. Everyone who loves has become God’s child and knows God. 8 Whoever does not love does not know God, because God is love. 9 This is how God showed his love to us: He sent his one and only Son into the world so that we could have life through him. 10 This is what real love is: It is not our love for God; it is God’s love for us. He sent his Son to die in our place to take away our sins.
11 Dear friends, if God loved us that much we also should love each other. 12 No one has ever seen God, but if we love each other, God lives in us, and his love is made perfect in us.
13 We know that we live in God and he lives in us, because he gave us his Spirit. 14 We have seen and can testify that the Father sent his Son to be the Savior of the world. 15 Whoever confesses that Jesus is the Son of God has God living inside, and that person lives in God. 16 And so we know the love that God has for us, and we trust that love.
God is love. Those who live in love live in God, and God lives in them. 17 This is how love is made perfect in us: that we can be without fear on the day God judges us, because in this world we are like him. 18 Where God’s love is, there is no fear, because God’s perfect love drives out fear. It is punishment that makes a person fear, so love is not made perfect in the person who fears.
19 We love because God first loved us. 20 If people say, “I love God,” but hate their brothers or sisters, they are liars. Those who do not love their brothers and sisters, whom they have seen, cannot love God, whom they have never seen. 21 And God gave us this command: Those who love God must also love their brothers and sisters.
It Will Be Terrible for Nineveh
3 How terrible it will be for the city that has killed so many.
It is full of lies
and goods stolen from other countries.
It is always killing somebody.
2 Hear the sound of whips
and the noise of the wheels.
Hear horses galloping
and chariots bouncing along!
3 Horses are charging,
swords are shining,
spears are gleaming!
Many are dead;
their bodies are piled up—
too many to count.
People stumble over the dead bodies.
4 The city was like a prostitute;
she was charming and a lover of magic.
She made nations slaves with her prostitution
and her witchcraft.
5 “I am against you, Nineveh,” says the Lord All-Powerful.
“I will pull your dress up over your face
and show the nations your nakedness
and the kingdoms your shame.
6 I will throw filthy garbage on you
and make a fool of you.
I will make people stare at you.
7 Everyone who sees you will run away and say,
‘Nineveh is in ruins. Who will cry for her?’
Nineveh, where will I find anyone to comfort you?”
8 You are no better than Thebes,[a]
who sits by the Nile River
with water all around her.
The river was her defense;
the waters were like a wall around her.
9 Cush and Egypt gave her endless strength;
Put and Libya supported her.
10 But Thebes was captured
and went into captivity.
Her small children were beaten to death
at every street corner.
Lots were thrown for her important men,
and all of her leaders were put in chains.
11 Nineveh, you will be drunk, too.
You will hide;
you will look for a place safe from the enemy.
12 All your defenses are like fig trees with ripe fruit.
When the tree is shaken, the figs fall into the mouth of the eater.
13 Look at your soldiers.
They are all women!
The gates of your land
are wide open for your enemies;
fire has burned the bars of your gates.
14 Get enough water before the long war begins.
Make your defenses strong!
Get mud,
mix clay,
make bricks!
15 There the fire will burn you up.
The sword will kill you;
like grasshoppers eating crops, the battle will completely destroy you.
Grow in number like hopping locusts;
grow in number like swarming locusts!
16 Your traders are more than the stars in the sky,
but like locusts, they strip the land and then fly away.
17 Your guards are like locusts.
Your officers are like swarms of locusts
that hang on the walls on a cold day.
When the sun comes up, they fly away,
and no one knows where they have gone.
18 King of Assyria, your rulers are asleep;
your important men lie down to rest.
Your people have been scattered on the mountains,
and there is no one to bring them back.
19 Nothing can heal your wound;
your injury will not heal.
Everyone who hears about you applauds,
because everyone has felt your endless cruelty.
Zacchaeus Meets Jesus
19 Jesus was going through the city of Jericho. 2 A man was there named Zacchaeus, who was a very important tax collector, and he was wealthy. 3 He wanted to see who Jesus was, but he was not able because he was too short to see above the crowd. 4 He ran ahead to a place where Jesus would come, and he climbed a sycamore tree so he could see him. 5 When Jesus came to that place, he looked up and said to him, “Zacchaeus, hurry and come down! I must stay at your house today.”
6 Zacchaeus came down quickly and welcomed him gladly. 7 All the people saw this and began to complain, “Jesus is staying with a sinner!”
8 But Zacchaeus stood and said to the Lord, “I will give half of my possessions to the poor. And if I have cheated anyone, I will pay back four times more.”
9 Jesus said to him, “Salvation has come to this house today, because this man also belongs to the family of Abraham. 10 The Son of Man came to find lost people and save them.”
A Story About Three Servants
11 As the people were listening to this, Jesus told them a story because he was near Jerusalem and they thought God’s kingdom would appear immediately. 12 He said: “A very important man went to a country far away to be made a king and then to return home. 13 So he called ten of his servants and gave a coin[a] to each servant. He said, ‘Do business with this money until I get back.’ 14 But the people in the kingdom hated the man. So they sent a group to follow him and say, ‘We don’t want this man to be our king.’
15 “But the man became king. When he returned home, he said, ‘Call those servants who have my money so I can know how much they earned with it.’
16 “The first servant came and said, ‘Sir, I earned ten coins with the one you gave me.’ 17 The king said to the servant, ‘Excellent! You are a good servant. Since I can trust you with small things, I will let you rule over ten of my cities.’
18 “The second servant said, ‘Sir, I earned five coins with your one.’ 19 The king said to this servant, ‘You can rule over five cities.’
20 “Then another servant came in and said to the king, ‘Sir, here is your coin which I wrapped in a piece of cloth and hid. 21 I was afraid of you, because you are a hard man. You even take money that you didn’t earn and gather food that you didn’t plant.’ 22 Then the king said to the servant, ‘I will condemn you by your own words, you evil servant. You knew that I am a hard man, taking money that I didn’t earn and gathering food that I didn’t plant. 23 Why then didn’t you put my money in the bank? Then when I came back, my money would have earned some interest.’
24 “The king said to the men who were standing by, ‘Take the coin away from this servant and give it to the servant who earned ten coins.’ 25 They said, ‘But sir, that servant already has ten coins.’ 26 The king said, ‘Those who have will be given more, but those who do not have anything will have everything taken away from them. 27 Now where are my enemies who didn’t want me to be king? Bring them here and kill them before me.’”
Jesus Enters Jerusalem as a King
28 After Jesus said this, he went on toward Jerusalem. 29 As Jesus came near Bethphage and Bethany, towns near the hill called the Mount of Olives, he sent out two of his followers. 30 He said, “Go to the town you can see there. When you enter it, you will find a colt tied there, which no one has ever ridden. Untie it and bring it here to me. 31 If anyone asks you why you are untying it, say that the Master needs it.”
32 The two followers went into town and found the colt just as Jesus had told them. 33 As they were untying it, its owners came out and asked the followers, “Why are you untying our colt?”
34 The followers answered, “The Master needs it.” 35 So they brought it to Jesus, threw their coats on the colt’s back, and put Jesus on it. 36 As Jesus rode toward Jerusalem, others spread their coats on the road before him.
37 As he was coming close to Jerusalem, on the way down the Mount of Olives, the whole crowd of followers began joyfully shouting praise to God for all the miracles they had seen. 38 They said,
“God bless the king who comes in the name of the Lord! Psalm 118:26
There is peace in heaven and glory to God!”
39 Some of the Pharisees in the crowd said to Jesus, “Teacher, tell your followers not to say these things.”
40 But Jesus answered, “I tell you, if my followers didn’t say these things, then the stones would cry out.”
Jesus Cries for Jerusalem
41 As Jesus came near Jerusalem, he saw the city and cried for it, 42 saying, “I wish you knew today what would bring you peace. But now it is hidden from you. 43 The time is coming when your enemies will build a wall around you and will hold you in on all sides. 44 They will destroy you and all your people, and not one stone will be left on another. All this will happen because you did not recognize the time when God came to save you.”
Jesus Goes to the Temple
45 Jesus went into the Temple and began to throw out the people who were selling things there. 46 He said, “It is written in the Scriptures, ‘My Temple will be a house for prayer.’[b] But you have changed it into a ‘hideout for robbers’!”[c]
47 Jesus taught in the Temple every day. The leading priests, the experts on the law, and some of the leaders of the people wanted to kill Jesus. 48 But they did not know how they could do it, because all the people were listening closely to him.
The Holy Bible, New Century Version®. Copyright © 2005 by Thomas Nelson, Inc.