M’Cheyne Bible Reading Plan

Abijam King of Judah

15 Abijam became king of Judah during the eighteenth year Jeroboam son of Nebat was king of Israel. ² Abijam ruled in Jerusalem for three years. His mother was Maacah daughter of Abishalom. ³ He did all the same sins his father before him had done. Abijam was not faithful to the Lord his God as David, his great-grandfather, had been. ⁴ Because the Lord loved David, the Lord gave him a kingdom in Jerusalem and allowed him to have a son to be king after him. The Lord also kept Jerusalem safe. ⁵ David always did what the Lord said was right and obeyed his commands all his life, except the one time when David sinned against Uriah the Hittite.

⁶ There was war between Abijam and Jeroboam during Abijam’s lifetime. ⁷ Everything else Abijam did is written in the book of the history of the kings of Judah. During the time Abijam ruled, there was war between Abijam and Jeroboam. ⁸ Abijam died and was buried in Jerusalem, and his son Asa became king in his place.

Asa King of Judah

⁹ During the twentieth year Jeroboam was king of Israel, Asa became king of Judah. ¹⁰ His grandmother’s name was Maacah, the daughter of Abishalom. Asa ruled in Jerusalem for forty-one years.

¹¹ Asa did what the Lord said was right, as his ancestor David had done. ¹² He forced the male prostitutes at the worship places to leave the country. He also took away the idols that his ancestors had made. ¹³ His grandmother Maacah had made a terrible Asherah idol, so Asa removed her from being queen mother. He cut down that idol and burned it in the Kidron Valley. ¹⁴ The places of worship to gods were not removed. Even so, Asa was faithful to the Lord all his life. ¹⁵ Asa brought into the Temple of the Lord the gifts he and his father had given: gold, silver, and utensils.

¹⁶ There was war between Asa and Baasha king of Israel all the time they were kings. ¹⁷ Baasha attacked Judah, and he made the town of Ramah strong so he could keep people from leaving or entering Judah, Asa’s country.

¹⁸ Asa took the rest of the silver and gold from the treasuries of the Temple of the Lord and his own palace and gave it to his officers. Then he sent them to Ben-Hadad son of Tabrimmon, who was the son of Hezion. Ben-Hadad was the king of Aram and ruled in the city of Damascus. Asa said, ¹⁹ “Let there be a treaty between you and me as there was between my father and your father. I am sending you a gift of silver and gold. Break your treaty with Baasha king of Israel so he will leave my land.”

²⁰ Ben-Hadad agreed with King Asa, so he sent the commanders of his armies to attack the towns of Israel. They defeated the towns of Ijon, Dan, and Abel Beth Maacah, as well as all Galilee and the area of Naphtali. ²¹ When Baasha heard about these attacks, he stopped building up Ramah and returned to Tirzah. ²² Then King Asa gave an order to all the people of Judah; everyone had to help. They carried away all the stones and wood Baasha had been using in Ramah, and they used them to build up Geba and Mizpah in the land of Benjamin.

²³ Everything else Asa did—his victories and the cities he built—is written in the book of the history of the kings of Judah. When he became old, he got a disease in his feet. ²⁴ After Asa died, he was buried with his ancestors in Jerusalem, the city of David, his ancestor. Then Jehoshaphat, Asa’s son, became king in his place.

Nadab King of Israel

²⁵ Nadab son of Jeroboam became king of Israel during the second year Asa was king of Judah. Nadab was king of Israel for two years, ²⁶ and he did what the Lord said was wrong. Jeroboam had led the people of Israel to sin, and Nadab sinned in the same way as his father Jeroboam.

²⁷ Baasha son of Ahijah, from the tribe of Issachar, made plans to kill Nadab. Nadab and all Israel were attacking the Philistine town of Gibbethon, so Baasha killed Nadab there. ²⁸ This happened during Asa’s third year as king of Judah, and Baasha became the next king of Israel.

Baasha King of Israel

²⁹ As soon as Baasha became king, he killed all of Jeroboam’s family, leaving no one in Jeroboam’s family alive. He destroyed them all as the Lord had said would happen through his servant Ahijah from Shiloh. ³⁰ King Jeroboam had sinned very much and had led the people of Israel to sin, so he made the Lord, the God of Israel, very angry.

³¹ Everything else Nadab did is written in the book of the history of the kings of Israel. ³² There was war between Asa king of Judah and Baasha king of Israel all the time they ruled.

³³ Baasha son of Ahijah became king of Israel during Asa’s third year as king of Judah. Baasha ruled in Tirzah for twenty-four years, ³⁴ and he did what the Lord said was wrong. Jeroboam had led the people of Israel to sin, and Baasha sinned in the same way as Jeroboam.

2 I want you to know how hard I work for you, those in Laodicea, and others who have never seen me. ² I want them to be strengthened and joined together with love so that they may be rich in their understanding. This leads to their knowing fully God’s secret, that is, Christ himself. ³ In him all the treasures of wisdom and knowledge are safely kept.

⁴ I say this so that no one can fool you by arguments that seem good, but are false. ⁵ Though I am absent from you in my body, my heart is with you, and I am happy to see your good lives and your strong faith in Christ.

Continue to Live in Christ

⁶ As you received Christ Jesus the Lord, so continue to live in him. ⁷ Keep your roots deep in him and have your lives built on him. Be strong in the faith, just as you were taught, and always be thankful.

⁸ Be sure that no one leads you away with false and empty teaching that is only human, which comes from the ruling spirits of this world, and not from Christ. ⁹ All of God lives fully in Christ (even when Christ was on earth), ¹⁰ and you have a full and true life in Christ, who is ruler over all rulers and powers.

¹¹ Also in Christ you had a different kind of circumcision, a circumcision not done by hands. It was through Christ’s circumcision, that is, his death, that you were made free from the power of your sinful self. ¹² When you were baptized, you were buried with Christ, and you were raised up with him through your faith in God’s power that was shown when he raised Christ from the dead. ¹³ When you were spiritually dead because of your sins and because you were not free from the power of your sinful self, God made you alive with Christ, and he forgave all our sins. ¹⁴ He canceled the debt, which listed all the rules we failed to follow. He took away that record with its rules and nailed it to the cross. ¹⁵ God stripped the spiritual rulers and powers of their authority. With the cross, he won the victory and showed the world that they were powerless.

Don’t Follow People’s Rules

¹⁶ So do not let anyone make rules for you about eating and drinking or about a religious feast, a New Moon Festival, or a Sabbath day. ¹⁷ These things were like a shadow of what was to come. But what is true and real has come and is found in Christ. ¹⁸ Do not let anyone disqualify you by making you humiliate yourself and worship angels. Such people enter into visions, which fill them with foolish pride because of their human way of thinking. ¹⁹ They do not hold tightly to Christ, the head. It is from him that all the parts of the body are cared for and held together. So it grows in the way God wants it to grow.

²⁰ Since you died with Christ and were made free from the ruling spirits of the world, why do you act as if you still belong to this world by following rules like these: ²¹ “Don’t handle this,” “Don’t taste that,” “Don’t even touch that thing”? ²² These rules refer to earthly things that are gone as soon as they are used. They are only human commands and teachings. ²³ They seem to be wise, but they are only part of a human religion. They make people pretend not to be proud and make them punish their bodies, but they do not really control the evil desires of the sinful self.

The Land Is Divided

45 “‘When you divide the land for the Israelite tribes by throwing lots, you must give a part of the land to belong to the Lord. It will be about seven miles long and about six miles wide; all of this land will be holy. ² From this land, an area eight hundred seventy-five feet square will be for the Temple. There will be an open space around the Temple that is eighty-seven and one-half feet wide. ³ In the holy area you will measure a part about seven miles long and three miles wide, and in it will be the Most Holy Place. ⁴ This holy part of the land will be for the priests who serve in the Temple, who come near to the Lord to serve him. It will be a place for the priests’ houses and for the Temple. ⁵ Another area about seven miles long and more than three miles wide will be for the Levites, who serve in the Temple area. It will belong to them so they will have cities in which to live.

⁶ “‘You must give the city an area that is about one and one-half miles wide and about seven miles long, along the side of the holy area. It will belong to all the people of Israel.

⁷ “‘The ruler will have land on both sides of the holy area and the city. On the west of the holy area, his land will reach to the Mediterranean Sea. On the east of the holy area, his land will reach to the eastern border. It will be as long as the land given to each tribe. ⁸ Only this land will be the ruler’s property in Israel. So my rulers will not be cruel to my people anymore, but they will let each tribe in the nation of Israel have its share of the land.

⁹ “‘This is what the Lord God says: You have gone far enough, you rulers of Israel! Stop being cruel and hurting people, and do what is right and fair. Stop forcing my people out of their homes, says the Lord God. ¹⁰ You must have honest scales, an honest dry measurement and an honest liquid measurement. ¹¹ The dry measure and the liquid measure will be the same: The liquid measure will always be a tenth of a homer,^[a] and the ephah will always be a tenth of a homer. The measurement they follow will be the homer. ¹² The shekel^[b] will be worth twenty gerahs, and a mina will be worth sixty shekels.

Offerings and Holy Days

¹³ “‘This is the gift you should offer: a sixth of an ephah from every homer of wheat, and a sixth of an ephah from every homer of barley. ¹⁴ The amount of oil you are to offer is a tenth of a bath from each cor. (Ten baths make a homer and also make a cor.) ¹⁵ You should give one sheep from each flock of two hundred from the watering places of Israel. All these are to be offered for the grain offerings, burnt offerings, and fellowship offerings to remove sins so you will belong to God, says the Lord God. ¹⁶ All people in the land will give this special offering to the ruler of Israel. ¹⁷ It will be the ruler’s responsibility to supply the burnt offerings, grain offerings, and drink offerings. These offerings will be given at the feasts, at the New Moons, on the Sabbaths, and at all the other feasts of Israel. The ruler will supply the sin offerings, grain offerings, and fellowship offerings to pay for the sins of Israel.

¹⁸ “‘This is what the Lord God says: On the first day of the first month take a young bull that has nothing wrong with it. Use it to make the Temple pure and ready for God’s service. ¹⁹ The priest will take some of the blood from this sin offering and put it on the doorposts of the Temple, on the four corners of the ledge of the altar, and on the posts of the gate to the inner courtyard. ²⁰ You will do the same thing on the seventh day of the month for anyone who has sinned by accident or without knowing it. This is how you make the Temple pure and ready for God’s service.

Passover Feast Offerings

²¹ “‘On the fourteenth day of the first month you will celebrate the Feast of Passover. It will be a feast of seven days when you eat bread made without yeast. ²² On that day the ruler must offer a bull for himself and for all the people of the land as a sin offering. ²³ During the seven days of the feast he must offer seven bulls and seven male sheep that have nothing wrong with them. They will be burnt offerings to the Lord, which the ruler will offer every day of the seven days of the feast. He must also offer a male goat every day as a sin offering. ²⁴ The ruler must give as a grain offering one-half bushel for each bull and one-half bushel for each sheep. He must give a gallon of olive oil for each half bushel.

²⁵ “‘Beginning on the fifteenth day of the seventh month, when you celebrate the Feast of Shelters, the ruler will supply the same things for seven days: the sin offerings, burnt offerings, grain offerings, and the olive oil.

The Lord, the Fair and Holy King

A Call to Praise the Lord

A psalm of thanks.

A Promise to Rule Well

A psalm of David.