M’Cheyne Bible Reading Plan

Jeroboam’s Son Dies

14 At that time Jeroboam’s son Abijah became very sick. ² So Jeroboam said to his wife, “Go to Shiloh to see the prophet Ahijah. He is the one who said I would become king of Israel. But dress yourself so people won’t know you are my wife. ³ Take the prophet ten loaves of bread, some cakes, and a jar of honey. Then ask him what will happen to our son, and he will tell you.” ⁴ So the king’s wife did as he said and went to Ahijah’s home in Shiloh.

Now Ahijah was very old and blind. ⁵ The Lord said to him, “Jeroboam’s son is sick, and Jeroboam’s wife is coming to ask you about him. When she arrives, she will pretend to be someone else.” Then the Lord told Ahijah what to say.

⁶ When Ahijah heard her walking to the door, he said, “Come in, wife of Jeroboam. Why are you pretending to be someone else? I have bad news for you. ⁷ Go back and tell Jeroboam that this is what the Lord, the God of Israel, says: ‘Jeroboam, I chose you from among all the people and made you the leader of my people Israel. ⁸ I tore the kingdom away from David’s family, and I gave it to you. But you are not like my servant David, who always obeyed my commands and followed me with all his heart. He did only what I said was right. ⁹ But you have done more evil than anyone who ruled before you. You have quit following me and have made other gods and idols of metal. This has made me very angry, ¹⁰ so I will soon bring disaster to your family. I will kill all the men in your family, both slaves and free men. I will destroy your family as completely as fire burns up manure. ¹¹ Anyone from your family who dies in the city will be eaten by dogs, and those who die in the fields will be eaten by the birds. The Lord has spoken.’”

¹² Then Ahijah said to Jeroboam’s wife, “Go home now. As soon as you enter your city, your son will die, ¹³ and all Israel will be sad for him and bury him. He is the only one of Jeroboam’s family who will be buried, because he is the only one in the king’s family who pleased the Lord, the God of Israel.

¹⁴ “The Lord will put a new king over Israel, who will destroy Jeroboam’s family, and this will happen soon. ¹⁵ Then the Lord will punish Israel, which will be like reeds swaying in the water. The Lord will pull up Israel from this good land, the land he gave their ancestors. He will scatter Israel beyond the Euphrates River, because he is angry with the people. They made the Lord angry when they set up idols to worship Asherah. ¹⁶ Jeroboam sinned, and then he made the people of Israel sin. So the Lord will let the people of Israel be defeated.”

¹⁷ Then Jeroboam’s wife left and returned to Tirzah. As soon as she entered her home, the boy died. ¹⁸ After they buried him, all Israel had a time of sadness for him, just as the Lord had said through his servant, the prophet Ahijah.

¹⁹ Everything else Jeroboam did is written in the book of the history of the kings of Israel. He fought wars and continued to rule the people, ²⁰ serving as king for twenty-two years. Then he died, and his son Nadab became king in his place.

The Death of Rehoboam

²¹ Solomon’s son Rehoboam was forty-one years old when he became king of Judah. His mother was Naamah from Ammon. Rehoboam ruled in Jerusalem for seventeen years. (The Lord had chosen that city from all the land of Israel as the place where he would be worshiped.)

²² The people of Judah did what the Lord said was wrong. Their sins made the Lord very angry, even more angry than he had been at their ancestors. ²³ The people built stone pillars and places to worship gods and Asherah idols on every high hill and under every green tree. ²⁴ There were even male prostitutes in the land. They acted like the people who had lived in the land before the Israelites. They had done many evil things, and God had taken the land away from them.

²⁵ During the fifth year Rehoboam was king, Shishak king of Egypt attacked Jerusalem. ²⁶ He took the treasures from the Temple of the Lord and the king’s palace. He took everything, even the gold shields Solomon had made. ²⁷ So King Rehoboam made bronze shields to put in their place and gave them to the commanders of the guards for the palace gates. ²⁸ Whenever the king went to the Temple of the Lord, the guards carried the shields. Later, they would put them back in the guardroom.

²⁹ Everything else King Rehoboam did is written in the book of the history of the kings of Judah. ³⁰ There was war between Rehoboam and Jeroboam the whole time. ³¹ Rehoboam, son of Naamah from Ammon, died and was buried with his ancestors in Jerusalem, and his son Abijam^[a] became king in his place.

1 From Paul, an apostle of Christ Jesus. I am an apostle because that is what God wanted. Also from Timothy, our brother.

² To the holy and faithful brothers and sisters in Christ that live in Colossae:

Grace and peace to you from God our Father.^[a]

³ In our prayers for you we always thank God, the Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, ⁴ because we have heard about the faith you have in Christ Jesus and the love you have for all of God’s people. ⁵ You have this faith and love because of your hope, and what you hope for is kept safe for you in heaven. You learned about this hope when you heard the message about the truth, the Good News ⁶ that was told to you. Everywhere in the world that Good News is bringing blessings and is growing. This has happened with you, too, since you heard the Good News and understood the truth about the grace of God. ⁷ You learned about God’s grace from Epaphras, whom we love. He works together with us and is a faithful servant of Christ for us.^{[b] 8} He also told us about the love you have from the Holy Spirit.

⁹ Because of this, since the day we heard about you, we have continued praying for you, asking God that you will know fully what he wants. We pray that you will also have great wisdom and understanding in spiritual things ¹⁰ so that you will live the kind of life that honors and pleases the Lord in every way. You will produce fruit in every good work and grow in the knowledge of God. ¹¹ God will strengthen you with his own great power so that you will not give up when troubles come, but you will be patient. ¹² And you will joyfully give thanks to the Father who has made you^[c] able to have a share in all that he has prepared for his people in the kingdom of light. ¹³ God has freed us from the power of darkness, and he brought us into the kingdom of his dear Son. ¹⁴ The Son paid for our sins,^[d] and in him we have forgiveness.

The Importance of Christ

¹⁵ No one can see God, but Jesus Christ is exactly like him. He ranks higher than everything that has been made. ¹⁶ Through his power all things were made—things in heaven and on earth, things seen and unseen, all powers, authorities, lords, and rulers. All things were made through Christ and for Christ. ¹⁷ He was there before anything was made, and all things continue because of him. ¹⁸ He is the head of the body, which is the church. Everything comes from him. He is the first one who was raised from the dead. So in all things Jesus has first place. ¹⁹ God was pleased for all of himself to live in Christ. ²⁰ And through Christ, God has brought all things back to himself again—things on earth and things in heaven. God made peace through the blood of Christ’s death on the cross.

²¹ At one time you were separated from God. You were his enemies in your minds, and the evil things you did were against God. ²² But now God has made you his friends again. He did this through Christ’s death in the body so that he might bring you into God’s presence as people who are holy, with no wrong, and with nothing of which God can judge you guilty. ²³ This will happen if you continue strong and sure in your faith. You must not be moved away from the hope brought to you by the Good News that you heard. That same Good News has been told to everyone in the world, and I, Paul, help in preaching that Good News.

Paul’s Work for the Church

²⁴ I am happy in my sufferings for you. There are things that Christ must still suffer through his body, the church. I am accepting, in my body, my part of these things that must be suffered. ²⁵ I became a servant of the church because God gave me a special work to do that helps you, and that work is to tell fully the message of God. ²⁶ This message is the secret that was hidden from everyone since the beginning of time, but now it is made known to God’s holy people. ²⁷ God decided to let his people know this rich and glorious secret which he has for all people. This secret is Christ himself, who is in you. He is our only hope for glory. ²⁸ So we continue to preach Christ to each person, using all wisdom to warn and to teach everyone, in order to bring each one into God’s presence as a mature person in Christ. ²⁹ To do this, I work and struggle, using Christ’s great strength that works so powerfully in me.

The Outer East Gate

44 Then the man brought me back to the outer east gateway of the Temple area, but the gate was shut. ² The Lord said to me, “This gate will stay shut; it will not be opened. No one may enter through it, because the Lord God of Israel has entered through it. So it must stay shut. ³ Only the ruler himself may sit in the gateway to eat a meal in the presence of the Lord. He must enter through the porch of the gateway and go out the same way.”

⁴ Then the man brought me through the outer north gate to the front of the Temple. As I looked, I saw the glory of the Lord filling the Temple of the Lord, and I bowed facedown on the ground.

⁵ The Lord said to me, “Human, pay attention. Use your eyes to see, and your ears to hear. See and hear everything I tell you about all the rules and teachings of the Temple of the Lord. Pay attention to the entrance to the Temple and to all the exits from the Temple area. ⁶ Then speak to those who refuse to obey. Say to the people of Israel, ‘This is what the Lord God says: Stop doing all your acts that I hate, Israel! ⁷ You brought foreigners into my Holy Place who were not circumcised in the flesh and had not given themselves to serving me. You dishonored my Temple when you offered me food, fat, and blood. You broke my agreement by all the things you did that I hate. ⁸ You did not take care of my holy things yourselves but put foreigners in charge of my Temple. ⁹ This is what the Lord God says: Foreigners who are not circumcised in flesh and who do not give themselves to serving me may not enter my Temple. Not even a foreigner living among the people of Israel may enter.

¹⁰ “‘But the Levites who stopped obeying me when Israel left me and who followed their idols must be punished for their sin. ¹¹ These Levites are to be servants in my Holy Place. They may guard the gates of the Temple and serve in the Temple area. They may kill the animals for the burnt offering and the sacrifices for the people. They may stand before the people to serve them. ¹² But these Levites helped the people worship their idols and caused the people of Israel to fall, so I make this promise: They will be punished for their sin, says the Lord God. ¹³ They will not come near me to serve as priests, nor will they come near any of my holy things or the most holy offerings. But they will be made ashamed of the things they did that I hate. ¹⁴ I will put them in charge of taking care of the Temple area, all the work that must be done in it.

¹⁵ “‘But the priests who are Levites and descendants of Zadok took care of my Holy Place when Israel left me, so they may come near to serve me. They may stand in my presence to offer me the fat and blood of the animals they sacrifice, says the Lord God. ¹⁶ They are the only ones who may enter my Holy Place. Only they may come near my table to serve me and take care of the things I gave them to do.

¹⁷ “‘When they enter the gates of the inner courtyard, they must wear linen robes. They must not wear wool to serve at the gates of the inner courtyard or in the Temple. ¹⁸ They will wear linen turbans on their heads and linen underclothes. They will not wear anything that makes them perspire. ¹⁹ When they go out into the outer courtyard to the people, they must take off their serving clothes before they go. They must leave these clothes in the holy rooms and put on other clothes. Then they will not let their holy clothes hurt the people.

²⁰ “‘They must not shave their heads or let their hair grow long but must keep the hair of their heads trimmed. ²¹ None of the priests may drink wine when they enter the inner courtyard. ²² The priests must not marry widows or divorced women. They may marry only virgins from the people of Israel or widows of priests. ²³ They must teach my people the difference between what is holy and what is not holy. They must help my people know what is unclean and what is clean.

²⁴ “‘In court they will act as judges. When they judge, they will follow my teachings. They must obey my laws and my rules at all my special feasts and keep my Sabbaths holy.

²⁵ “‘They must not go near a dead person, making themselves unclean. But they are allowed to make themselves unclean if the dead person is their father, mother, son, daughter, brother, or a sister who has not married. ²⁶ After a priest has been made clean again, he must wait seven days. ²⁷ Then he may go into the inner courtyard to serve in the Temple, but he must offer a sin offering for himself, says the Lord God.

²⁸ “‘These are the rules about the priests and their property: They will have me instead of property. You will not give them any land to own in Israel; I am what they will own. ²⁹ They will eat the grain offerings, sin offerings, and penalty offerings. Everything Israel gives to me will be theirs. ³⁰ The best fruits of all the first harvests and all the special gifts offered to me will belong to the priests. You will also give to the priests the first part of your grain that you grind and so bring a blessing on your family. ³¹ The priests must not eat any bird or animal that died a natural death or one that has been torn by wild animals.

A Hymn About the Lord’s Power

The Lord of Power and Justice

A psalm.