M’Cheyne Bible Reading Plan

Israel Turns Against Rehoboam

12 Rehoboam went to Shechem, where all the Israelites had gone to make him king. ² Jeroboam son of Nebat was still in Egypt, where he had gone to escape from Solomon. When Jeroboam heard about Rehoboam being made king, he was living in 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 hard as he did. Then we will serve you.”

⁵ Rehoboam answered, “Go away for three days, and then come back to me.” 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 said, “You should be like a servant to them today. If you serve 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, “Those 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 the elders had given him. ¹⁴ He followed the advice of the young men and said to the people, “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. The Lord caused this to happen to 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 new king refused to listen to them, they said to the king,

So 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 of Israel, 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.

²⁰ When all the Israelites heard that Jeroboam had returned, they called him to a meeting and made him king over all Israel. Only the tribe of Judah continued to follow the family of David.

²¹ When Rehoboam arrived in Jerusalem, he gathered one hundred eighty thousand of the best soldiers from the tribes of Judah and Benjamin. As son of Solomon, Rehoboam wanted to fight the people of Israel to take back his kingdom.

²² But God spoke his word to Shemaiah, a man of God, saying, ²³ “Speak to Solomon’s son Rehoboam, the king of Judah, and to all the people of Judah and Benjamin and the rest of the people. Say to them, ²⁴ ‘The Lord says you must not go to war against your brothers, the Israelites. Every one of you should go home, because I made all these things happen.’” So they obeyed the Lord’s command and went home as the Lord had commanded.

²⁵ Then Jeroboam made Shechem in the mountains of Ephraim a very strong city, and he lived there. He also went to the city of Peniel and made it stronger.

Jeroboam Builds Golden Calves

²⁶ Jeroboam said to himself, “The kingdom will probably go back to David’s family. ²⁷ If the people continue going to the Temple of the Lord in Jerusalem to offer sacrifices, they will want to be ruled again by Rehoboam. Then they will kill me and follow Rehoboam king of Judah.”

²⁸ King Jeroboam asked for advice. Then he made two golden calves. “It is too long a journey for you to go to Jerusalem to worship,” he said to the people. “Israel, here are your gods who brought you out of Egypt.” ²⁹ Jeroboam put one golden calf in the city of Bethel and the other in the city of Dan. ³⁰ This became a very great sin, because the people traveled as far as Dan to worship the calf there.

³¹ Jeroboam built temples on the places of worship. He also chose priests from all the people, not just from the tribe of Levi. ³² And he started a new festival on the fifteenth day of the eighth month, just like the festival in Judah. During that time the king offered sacrifices on the altar, along with sacrifices to the calves in Bethel he had made. He also chose priests in Bethel to serve at the places of worship he had made. ³³ So Jeroboam chose his own time for a festival for the Israelites—the fifteenth day of the eighth month. During that time he offered sacrifices on the altar he had built in Bethel. He set up a festival for the Israelites and offered sacrifices on the altar.

The Importance of Christ

3 My brothers and sisters, be full of joy in the Lord. It is no trouble for me to write the same things to you again, and it will help you to be more ready. ² Watch out for those who do evil, who are like dogs, who demand to cut^[a] the body. ³ We are the ones who are truly circumcised. We worship God through his Spirit, and our pride is in Christ Jesus. We do not put trust in ourselves or anything we can do, ⁴ although I might be able to put trust in myself. If anyone thinks he has a reason to trust in himself, he should know that I have greater reason for trusting in myself. ⁵ I was circumcised eight days after my birth. I am from the people of Israel and the tribe of Benjamin. I am a Hebrew, and my parents were Hebrews. I had a strict view of the law, which is why I became a Pharisee. ⁶ I was so enthusiastic I tried to hurt the church. No one could find fault with the way I obeyed the law of Moses. ⁷ Those things were important to me, but now I think they are worth nothing because of Christ. ⁸ Not only those things, but I think that all things are worth nothing compared with the greatness of knowing Christ Jesus my Lord. Because of him, I have lost all those things, and now I know they are worthless trash. This allows me to have Christ ⁹ and to belong to him. Now I am right with God, not because I followed the law, but because I believed in Christ. God uses my faith to make me right with him. ¹⁰ I want to know Christ and the power that raised him from the dead. I want to share in his sufferings and become like him in his death. ¹¹ Then I have hope that I myself will be raised from the dead.

Continuing Toward Our Goal

¹² I do not mean that I am already as God wants me to be. I have not yet reached that goal, but I continue trying to reach it and to make it mine. Christ wants me to do that, which is the reason he made me his. ¹³ Brothers and sisters, I know that I have not yet reached that goal, but there is one thing I always do. Forgetting the past and straining toward what is ahead, ¹⁴ I keep trying to reach the goal and get the prize for which God called me through Christ to the life above.

¹⁵ All of us who are spiritually mature should think this way, too. And if there are things you do not agree with, God will make them clear to you. ¹⁶ But we should continue following the truth we already have.

¹⁷ Brothers and sisters, all of you should try to follow my example and to copy those who live the way we showed you. ¹⁸ Many people live like enemies of the cross of Christ. I have often told you about them, and it makes me cry to tell you about them now. ¹⁹ In the end, they will be destroyed. They do whatever their bodies want, they are proud of their shameful acts, and they think only about earthly things. ²⁰ But our homeland is in heaven, and we are waiting for our Savior, the Lord Jesus Christ, to come from heaven. ²¹ By his power to rule all things, he will change our humble bodies and make them like his own glorious body.

The Priests’ Rooms

42 Then the man led me north out into the outer courtyard and to the rooms across from the private area and the building. ² These rooms on the north side were one hundred seventy-five feet long and eighty-seven and one-half feet wide. ³ There was thirty-five feet of the inner courtyard between them and the Temple. On the other side, they faced the stone pavement of the outer courtyard. The rooms were built in three stories like steps and had balconies. ⁴ There was a path on the north side of the rooms, which was seventeen and one-half feet wide and one hundred seventy-five feet long. Doors led into the rooms from this path. ⁵ The top rooms were narrower, because the balconies took more space from them. The rooms on the first and second stories of the building were wider. ⁶ The rooms were on three stories. They did not have pillars like the pillars of the courtyards. So the top rooms were farther back than those on the first and second stories. ⁷ There was a wall outside parallel to the rooms and to the outer courtyard. It ran in front of the rooms for eighty-seven and one-half feet. ⁸ The row of rooms along the outer courtyard was eighty-seven and one-half feet long, and the rooms that faced the Temple were about one hundred seventy-five feet long. ⁹ The lower rooms had an entrance on the east side so a person could enter them from the outer courtyard, ¹⁰ at the start of the wall beside the courtyard.

There were rooms on the south side, which were across from the private area and the building. ¹¹ These rooms had a path in front of them. They were like the rooms on the north with the same length and width and the same doors. ¹² The doors of the south rooms were like the doors of the north rooms. There was an entrance at the open end of a path beside the wall, so a person could enter at the east end.

¹³ The man said to me, “The north and south rooms across from the private area are holy rooms. There the priests who go near the Lord will eat the most holy offerings. There they will put the most holy offerings: the grain offerings, sin offerings, and the penalty offerings, because the place is holy. ¹⁴ The priests who enter the Holy Place must leave their serving clothes there before they go into the outer courtyard, because these clothes are holy. After they put on other clothes, they may go to the part of the Temple area which is for the people.”

Outside the Temple Area

¹⁵ When the man finished measuring inside the Temple area, he brought me out through the east gateway. He measured the area all around. ¹⁶ The man measured the east side with the measuring stick; it was eight hundred seventy-five feet by the measuring stick. ¹⁷ He measured the north side; it was eight hundred seventy-five feet by the measuring stick. ¹⁸ He measured the south side; it was eight hundred seventy-five feet by the measuring stick. ¹⁹ He went around to the west side; it measured eight hundred seventy-five feet by the measuring stick. ²⁰ So he measured the Temple area on all four sides. The Temple area had a wall all around it that was eight hundred seventy-five feet long and eight hundred seventy-five feet wide. It separated what was holy from that which was not holy.

God Will Pay Back His Enemies