M’Cheyne Bible Reading Plan
Israel Turns Against Rehoboam
10 Rehoboam went to Shechem, where all the Israelites had gone to make him king. 2 Jeroboam son of Nebat was in Egypt, where he had gone to escape from King Solomon. When Jeroboam heard about Rehoboam being made king, he returned from Egypt. 3 After the people sent for him, he and the people went to Rehoboam and said to him, 4 “Your father forced us to work very hard. Now, make it easier for us, and don’t make us work as he did. Then we will serve you.”
5 Rehoboam answered, “Come back to me in three days.” So the people left.
6 King Rehoboam asked the elders who had advised Solomon during his lifetime, “How do you think I should answer these people?”
7 They answered, “Be kind to these people. If you please them and give them a kind answer, they will serve you always.”
8 But Rehoboam rejected this advice. Instead, he asked the young men who had grown up with him and who served as his advisers. 9 Rehoboam asked them, “What is your advice? How should we answer these people who said, ‘Don’t make us work as hard as your father did’?”
10 The young men who had grown up with him answered, “The people said to you, ‘Your father forced us to work very hard. Now make our work easier.’ You should tell them, ‘My little finger is bigger than my father’s legs. 11 He forced you to work hard, but I will make you work even harder. My father beat you with whips, but I will beat you with whips that have sharp points.’”
12 Rehoboam had told the people, “Come back to me in three days.” So after three days Jeroboam and all the people returned to Rehoboam. 13 King Rehoboam spoke cruel words to them, because he had rejected the advice of the elders. 14 He followed the advice of the young men and said, “My father forced you to work hard, but I will make you work even harder. My father beat you with whips, but I will beat you with whips that have sharp points.” 15 So the king did not listen to the people. God caused this to happen so that the Lord could keep the promise he had made to Jeroboam son of Nebat through Ahijah, a prophet from Shiloh.
16 When all the Israelites saw that the king refused to listen to them, they said to the king,
“We have no share in David!
We have no part in the son of Jesse!
People of Israel, let’s go to our own homes!
Let David’s son rule his own people.”
So all the Israelites went home. 17 But Rehoboam still ruled over the Israelites who lived in the towns of Judah.
18 Adoniram was in charge of the forced labor. When Rehoboam sent him to the people, they threw stones at him until he died. But King Rehoboam ran to his chariot and escaped to Jerusalem. 19 Since then, Israel has been against the family of David.
John Tells About This Book
1 This is the revelation[a] of Jesus Christ, which God gave to him, to show his servants what must soon happen. And Jesus sent his angel to show it to his servant John, 2 who has told everything he has seen. It is the word of God; it is the message from Jesus Christ. 3 Blessed is the one who reads the words of God’s message, and blessed are the people who hear this message and do what is written in it. The time is near when all of this will happen.
Jesus’ Message to the Churches
4 From John.
To the seven churches in Asia:
Grace and peace to you from the One who is and was and is coming, and from the seven spirits before his throne, 5 and from Jesus Christ. Jesus is the faithful witness, the first among those raised from the dead. He is the ruler of the kings of the earth.
He is the One who loves us, who made us free from our sins with the blood of his death. 6 He made us to be a kingdom of priests who serve God his Father. To Jesus Christ be glory and power forever and ever! Amen.
7 Look, Jesus is coming with the clouds, and everyone will see him, even those who stabbed him. And all peoples of the earth will cry loudly because of him. Yes, this will happen! Amen.
8 The Lord God says, “I am the Alpha and the Omega.[b] I am the One who is and was and is coming. I am the Almighty.”
9 I, John, am your brother. All of us share with Christ in suffering, in the kingdom, and in patience to continue. I was on the island of Patmos,[c] because I had preached the word of God and the message about Jesus. 10 On the Lord’s day I was in the Spirit, and I heard a loud voice behind me that sounded like a trumpet. 11 The voice said, “Write what you see in a book and send it to the seven churches: to Ephesus, Smyrna, Pergamum, Thyatira, Sardis, Philadelphia, and Laodicea.”
12 I turned to see who was talking to me. When I turned, I saw seven golden lampstands 13 and someone among the lampstands who was “like a Son of Man.”[d] He was dressed in a long robe and had a gold band around his chest. 14 His head and hair were white like wool, as white as snow, and his eyes were like flames of fire. 15 His feet were like bronze that glows hot in a furnace, and his voice was like the noise of flooding water. 16 He held seven stars in his right hand, and a sharp double-edged sword came out of his mouth. He looked like the sun shining at its brightest time.
17 When I saw him, I fell down at his feet like a dead man. He put his right hand on me and said, “Do not be afraid. I am the First and the Last. 18 I am the One who lives; I was dead, but look, I am alive forever and ever! And I hold the keys to death and to the place of the dead. 19 So write the things you see, what is now and what will happen later. 20 Here is the secret of the seven stars that you saw in my right hand and the seven golden lampstands: The seven lampstands are the seven churches, and the seven stars are the angels of the seven churches.
The Lord Asks People to Change
2 Gather together, gather,
you unwanted people.
2 Do it before it’s too late,
before you are blown away like chaff,
before the Lord’s terrible anger reaches you,
before the day of the Lord’s anger comes to you.
3 Come to the Lord, all you who are not proud,
who obey his laws.
Do what is right. Learn to be humble.
Maybe you will escape
on the day the Lord shows his anger.
Philistia Will Be Punished
4 No one will be left in the city of Gaza,
and the city of Ashkelon will be destroyed.
Ashdod will be empty by noon,
and the people of Ekron will be chased away.
5 How terrible it will be for you who live by the Mediterranean Sea,
you Philistines!
The word of the Lord is against you,
Canaan, land of the Philistines.
“I will destroy you
so that no one will be left.”
6 The land by the Mediterranean Sea, in which you live,
will become pastures, fields for shepherds, and pens for sheep.
7 It will belong to the descendants of Judah who are left alive.
There they will let their sheep eat grass.
At night they will sleep
in the houses of Ashkelon.
The Lord their God will pay attention to them
and will make their life good again.
Moab and Ammon Will Be Punished
8 “I have heard the insults of the country of Moab
and the threats of the people of Ammon.
They have insulted my people
and have taken their land.”
9 So the Lord All-Powerful, the God of Israel, says,
“As surely as I live,
Moab will be destroyed like Sodom,
and Ammon will be destroyed like Gomorrah[a]—
a heap of weeds, a pit of salt,
and a ruin forever.
Those of my people who are left alive will take whatever they want from them;
those who are left from my nation will take their land.”
10 This is what Moab and Ammon get for being proud,
because they insulted and made fun of the people of the Lord All-Powerful.
11 The Lord will frighten them,
because he will destroy all the gods of the earth.
Then everyone in faraway places
will worship him wherever they are.
Cush and Assyria Will Be Destroyed
12 “You Cushites also
will be killed by my sword.”
13 Then the Lord will turn against the north
and destroy Assyria.
He will make Nineveh
a ruin as dry as a desert.
14 Flocks and herds will lie down there,
and all wild animals.
The owls and crows will sit
on the stone pillars.
The owl will hoot through the windows,
trash will be in the doorways,
and the wooden boards of the buildings will be gone.
15 This is the happy and safe city
that thinks there is no one else as strong as it is.
But what a ruin it will be,
a place where wild animals live.
All those who pass by will make fun
and shake their fists.
Jesus Rises from the Dead
24 Very early on the first day of the week, at dawn, the women came to the tomb, bringing the spices they had prepared. 2 They found the stone rolled away from the entrance of the tomb, 3 but when they went in, they did not find the body of the Lord Jesus. 4 While they were wondering about this, two men in shining clothes suddenly stood beside them. 5 The women were very afraid and bowed their heads to the ground. The men said to them, “Why are you looking for a living person in this place for the dead? 6 He is not here; he has risen from the dead. Do you remember what he told you in Galilee? 7 He said the Son of Man must be handed over to sinful people, be crucified, and rise from the dead on the third day.” 8 Then the women remembered what Jesus had said.
9 The women left the tomb and told all these things to the eleven apostles and the other followers. 10 It was Mary Magdalene, Joanna, Mary the mother of James, and some other women who told the apostles everything that had happened at the tomb. 11 But they did not believe the women, because it sounded like nonsense. 12 But Peter got up and ran to the tomb. Bending down and looking in, he saw only the cloth that Jesus’ body had been wrapped in. Peter went away to his home, wondering about what had happened.
Jesus on the Road to Emmaus
13 That same day two of Jesus’ followers were going to a town named Emmaus, about seven miles from Jerusalem. 14 They were talking about everything that had happened. 15 While they were talking and discussing, Jesus himself came near and began walking with them, 16 but they were kept from recognizing him. 17 Then he said, “What are these things you are talking about while you walk?”
The two followers stopped, looking very sad. 18 The one named Cleopas answered, “Are you the only visitor in Jerusalem who does not know what just happened there?”
19 Jesus said to them, “What are you talking about?”
They said, “About Jesus of Nazareth. He was a prophet who said and did many powerful things before God and all the people. 20 Our leaders and the leading priests handed him over to be sentenced to death, and they crucified him. 21 But we were hoping that he would free Israel. Besides this, it is now the third day since this happened. 22 And today some women among us amazed us. Early this morning they went to the tomb, 23 but they did not find his body there. They came and told us that they had seen a vision of angels who said that Jesus was alive! 24 So some of our group went to the tomb, too. They found it just as the women said, but they did not see Jesus.”
25 Then Jesus said to them, “You are foolish and slow to believe everything the prophets said. 26 They said that the Christ must suffer these things before he enters his glory.” 27 Then starting with what Moses and all the prophets had said about him, Jesus began to explain everything that had been written about himself in the Scriptures.
28 They came near the town of Emmaus, and Jesus acted as if he were going farther. 29 But they begged him, “Stay with us, because it is late; it is almost night.” So he went in to stay with them.
30 When Jesus was at the table with them, he took some bread, gave thanks, divided it, and gave it to them. 31 And then, they were allowed to recognize Jesus. But when they saw who he was, he disappeared. 32 They said to each other, “It felt like a fire burning in us when Jesus talked to us on the road and explained the Scriptures to us.”
33 So the two followers got up at once and went back to Jerusalem. There they found the eleven apostles and others gathered. 34 They were saying, “The Lord really has risen from the dead! He showed himself to Simon.”
35 Then the two followers told what had happened on the road and how they recognized Jesus when he divided the bread.
Jesus Appears to His Followers
36 While the two followers were telling this, Jesus himself stood right in the middle of them and said, “Peace be with you.”
37 They were fearful and terrified and thought they were seeing a ghost. 38 But Jesus said, “Why are you troubled? Why do you doubt what you see? 39 Look at my hands and my feet. It is I myself! Touch me and see, because a ghost does not have a living body as you see I have.”
40 After Jesus said this, he showed them his hands and feet. 41 While they still could not believe it because they were amazed and happy, Jesus said to them, “Do you have any food here?” 42 They gave him a piece of broiled fish. 43 While the followers watched, Jesus took the fish and ate it.
44 He said to them, “Remember when I was with you before? I said that everything written about me must happen—everything in the law of Moses, the books of the prophets, and the Psalms.”
45 Then Jesus opened their minds so they could understand the Scriptures. 46 He said to them, “It is written that the Christ would suffer and rise from the dead on the third day 47 and that a change of hearts and lives and forgiveness of sins would be preached in his name to all nations, starting at Jerusalem. 48 You are witnesses of these things. 49 I will send you what my Father has promised, but you must stay in Jerusalem until you have received that power from heaven.”
Jesus Goes Back to Heaven
50 Jesus led his followers as far as Bethany, and he raised his hands and blessed them. 51 While he was blessing them, he was separated from them and carried into heaven. 52 They worshiped him and returned to Jerusalem very happy. 53 They stayed in the Temple all the time, praising God.
The Holy Bible, New Century Version®. Copyright © 2005 by Thomas Nelson, Inc.