M’Cheyne Bible Reading Plan
The Lord Appears to Solomon Again
9 Solomon finished building the Temple of the Lord and his royal palace and everything he wanted to build. 2 Then the Lord appeared to him again just as he had done before, in Gibeon. 3 The Lord said to him: “I have heard your prayer and what you have asked me to do. You built this Temple, and I have made it a holy place. I will be worshiped there forever and will watch over it and protect it always.
4 “But you must serve me as your father David did; he was fair and sincere. You must obey all I have commanded and keep my laws and rules. 5 If you do, I will make your kingdom strong. This is the promise I made to your father David—that someone from his family would always rule Israel.
6 “But you and your children must follow me and obey the laws and commands I have given you. You must not serve or worship other gods. 7 If you do, I will force Israel to leave the land I have given them, and I will leave this Temple that I have made holy. All the nations will make fun of Israel and speak evil about them. 8 If the Temple is destroyed, everyone who passes by will be shocked. They will make fun of you and ask, ‘Why did the Lord do this terrible thing to this land and this Temple?’ 9 People will answer, ‘This happened because they left the Lord their God. This was the God who brought their ancestors out of Egypt, but they decided to follow other gods. They worshiped and served those gods, so the Lord brought all this disaster on them.’”
Solomon’s Other Achievements
10 By the end of twenty years, King Solomon had built two buildings—the Temple of the Lord and the royal palace. 11 At that time King Solomon gave twenty towns in Galilee to Hiram king of Tyre, because Hiram had helped with the buildings. Hiram had given Solomon all the cedar, pine, and gold he wanted. 12 So Hiram traveled from Tyre to see the towns Solomon had given him, but when he saw them, he was not pleased. 13 He asked, “What good are these towns you have given me, my brother?” So he named them the Land of Cabul,[a] and they are still called that today. 14 Hiram had sent Solomon about nine thousand pounds of gold.
15 This is the account of the forced labor Solomon used to build the Temple and the palace. He had them fill in the land and build the wall around Jerusalem. He also had them rebuild the cities of Hazor, Megiddo, and Gezer. 16 (In the past the king of Egypt had attacked and captured Gezer. After burning it, he killed the Canaanites who lived there. Then he gave it as a wedding present to his daughter, who married Solomon. 17 So Solomon rebuilt it.) He also built the cities of Lower Beth Horon 18 and Baalath, as well as Tadmor, which is in the desert. 19 King Solomon also built cities for storing grain and supplies and cities for his chariots and horses. He built whatever he wanted in Jerusalem, Lebanon, and everywhere he ruled.
20 There were other people in the land who were not Israelites—Amorites, Hittites, Perizzites, Hivites, and Jebusites. 21 They were descendants of people that the Israelites had not destroyed. Solomon forced them to work for him as slaves, as is still true today. 22 But Solomon did not make slaves of the Israelites. They were his soldiers, government leaders, officers, captains, chariot commanders, and drivers.
23 These were his most important officers over the work. There were five hundred fifty supervisors over the people who did the work on Solomon’s projects.
24 The daughter of the king of Egypt moved from the old part of Jerusalem to the palace that Solomon had built for her. Then Solomon filled in the surrounding land.
25 Three times each year Solomon offered whole burnt offerings and fellowship offerings on the altar he had built for the Lord. He also burned incense before the Lord. So he finished the work on the Temple.
26 King Solomon also built ships at Ezion Geber, a town near Elath on the shore of the Red Sea, in the land of Edom. 27 Hiram had skilled sailors, so he sent them to serve in these ships with Solomon’s men. 28 The ships sailed to Ophir and brought back about thirty-two thousand pounds of gold to King Solomon.
Children and Parents
6 Children, obey your parents as the Lord wants, because this is the right thing to do. 2 The command says, “Honor your father and mother.”[a] This is the first command that has a promise with it— 3 “Then everything will be well with you, and you will have a long life on the earth.”[b]
4 Fathers, do not make your children angry, but raise them with the training and teaching of the Lord.
Slaves and Masters
5 Slaves, obey your masters here on earth with fear and respect and from a sincere heart, just as you obey Christ. 6 You must do this not only while they are watching you, to please them. With all your heart you must do what God wants as people who are obeying Christ. 7 Do your work with enthusiasm. Work as if you were serving the Lord, not as if you were serving only men and women. 8 Remember that the Lord will give a reward to everyone, slave or free, for doing good.
9 Masters, in the same way, be good to your slaves. Do not threaten them. Remember that the One who is your Master and their Master is in heaven, and he treats everyone alike.
Wear the Full Armor of God
10 Finally, be strong in the Lord and in his great power. 11 Put on the full armor of God so that you can fight against the devil’s evil tricks. 12 Our fight is not against people on earth but against the rulers and authorities and the powers of this world’s darkness, against the spiritual powers of evil in the heavenly world. 13 That is why you need to put on God’s full armor. Then on the day of evil you will be able to stand strong. And when you have finished the whole fight, you will still be standing. 14 So stand strong, with the belt of truth tied around your waist and the protection of right living on your chest. 15 On your feet wear the Good News of peace to help you stand strong. 16 And also use the shield of faith with which you can stop all the burning arrows of the Evil One. 17 Accept God’s salvation as your helmet, and take the sword of the Spirit, which is the word of God. 18 Pray in the Spirit at all times with all kinds of prayers, asking for everything you need. To do this you must always be ready and never give up. Always pray for all God’s people.
19 Also pray for me that when I speak, God will give me words so that I can tell the secret of the Good News without fear. 20 I have been sent to preach this Good News, and I am doing that now, here in prison. Pray that when I preach the Good News I will speak without fear, as I should.
Final Greetings
21 I am sending to you Tychicus, our brother whom we love and a faithful servant of the Lord’s work. He will tell you everything that is happening with me. Then you will know how I am and what I am doing. 22 I am sending him to you for this reason—so that you will know how we are, and he can encourage you.
23 Peace and love with faith to you brothers and sisters from God the Father and the Lord Jesus Christ. 24 Grace to all of you who love our Lord Jesus Christ with love that never ends.
The Death of Gog and His Army
39 “Human, prophesy against Gog and say, ‘This is what the Lord God says: I am against you, Gog, chief ruler of Meshech and Tubal. 2 I will turn you around and lead you. I will bring you from the far north and send you to attack the mountains of Israel. 3 I will knock your bow out of your left hand and throw down your arrows from your right hand. 4 You, all your troops, and the nations with you will fall dead on the mountains of Israel. I will let you be food for every bird that eats meat and for every wild animal. 5 You will lie fallen on the ground, because I have spoken, says the Lord God. 6 I will send fire on Magog and those who live in safety on the coastlands. Then they will know that I am the Lord.
7 “‘I will make myself known among my people Israel, and I will not let myself be dishonored anymore. Then the nations will know that I am the Lord, the Holy One in Israel. 8 It is coming! It will happen, says the Lord God. The time I talked about is coming.
9 “‘Then those who live in the cities of Israel will come out and make fires with the enemy’s weapons. They will burn them, both large and small shields, bows and arrows, war clubs, and spears. They will use the weapons to burn in their fires for seven years. 10 They will not need to take wood from the field or chop firewood from the forests, because they will make fires with the weapons. In this way they will take the treasures of those who took their treasures; they will take the loot of those who took their loot, says the Lord God.
11 “‘At that time I will give Gog a burial place in Israel, in the Valley of the Travelers, east of the Dead Sea. It will block the road for travelers. Gog and all his army will be buried there, so people will call it The Valley of Gog’s Army.
12 “‘The people of Israel will be burying them for seven months to make the land clean again. 13 All the people in the land will bury them, and they will be honored on the day of my victory, says the Lord God.
14 “‘The people of Israel will choose men to work through the land to make it clean. Along with others, they will bury Gog’s soldiers still lying dead on the ground. After the seven months are finished, they will still search. 15 As they go through the land, anyone who sees a human bone is to put a marker by it. The sign will stay there until the gravediggers bury the bone in The Valley of Gog’s Army. 16 A city will be there named Hamonah. So they will make the land clean again.’
17 “Human, this is what the Lord God says: Speak to every kind of bird and wild animal: ‘Come together, come! Come together from all around to my sacrifice, a great sacrifice which I will prepare for you on the mountains of Israel. Eat flesh and drink blood! 18 You are to eat the flesh of the mighty and drink the blood of the rulers of the earth as if they were fat animals from Bashan: male sheep, lambs, goats, and bulls. 19 You are to eat and drink from my sacrifice which I have prepared for you, eating fat until you are full and drinking blood until you are drunk. 20 At my table you are to eat until you are full of horses and riders, mighty men and all kinds of soldiers,’ says the Lord God.
21 “I will show my glory among the nations. All the nations will see my power when I punish them. 22 From that time onward the people of Israel will know that I am the Lord their God. 23 The nations will know Israel was taken away captive because they turned against me. So I turned away from them and handed them over to their enemies until all of them died in war. 24 Because of their uncleanness and their sins, I punished them and turned away from them.
25 “So this is what the Lord God says: Now I will bring the people of Jacob back from captivity, and I will have mercy on the whole nation of Israel. I will not let them dishonor me. 26 The people will forget their shame and how they rejected me when they live again in safety on their own land with no one to make them afraid. 27 I will bring the people back from other lands and gather them from the lands of their enemies. So I will use my people to show many nations that I am holy. 28 Then my people will know that I am the Lord their God, because I sent them into captivity among the nations, but then I brought them back to their own land, leaving no one behind. 29 I will not turn away from them anymore, because I will put my Spirit into the people of Israel, says the Lord God.”
God Is Eternal, and We Are Not
A prayer of Moses, the man of God.
90 Lord, you have been our home
since the beginning.
2 Before the mountains were born
and before you created the earth and the world,
you are God.
You have always been, and you will always be.
3 You turn people back into dust.
You say, “Go back into dust, human beings.”
4 To you, a thousand years
is like the passing of a day,
or like a few hours in the night.
5 While people sleep, you take their lives.
They are like grass that grows up in the morning.
6 In the morning they are fresh and new,
but by evening they dry up and die.
7 We are destroyed by your anger;
we are terrified by your hot anger.
8 You have put the evil we have done right in front of you;
you clearly see our secret sins.
9 All our days pass while you are angry.
Our years end with a moan.
10 Our lifetime is seventy years
or, if we are strong, eighty years.
But the years are full of hard work and pain.
They pass quickly, and then we are gone.
11 Who knows the full power of your anger?
Your anger is as great as our fear of you should be.
12 Teach us how short our lives really are
so that we may be wise.
13 Lord, how long before you return
and show kindness to your servants?
14 Fill us with your love every morning.
Then we will sing and rejoice all our lives.
15 We have seen years of trouble.
Now give us as much joy as you gave us sorrow.
16 Show your servants the wonderful things you do;
show your greatness to their children.
17 Lord our God, treat us well.
Give us success in what we do;
yes, give us success in what we do.
The Holy Bible, New Century Version®. Copyright © 2005 by Thomas Nelson, Inc.