M’Cheyne Bible Reading Plan
15 In the eighteenth year of King Jeroboam son of Nebat, Abijam began to reign over Judah.
2 He reigned three years in Jerusalem. His mother was Maacah (Micaiah) daughter [granddaughter] of Abishalom (Absalom).
3 He walked in all the sins of his father [Rehoboam] before him; and his heart was not blameless with the Lord his God, as the heart of David his father [forefather].
4 Nevertheless, for David’s sake the Lord his God gave him a lamp in Jerusalem, setting up his son after him and establishing Jerusalem,
5 Because David did what was right in the eyes of the Lord and turned not aside from anything that He commanded him all the days of his life, except in the matter of Uriah the Hittite.
6 There was war between [Abijam’s father] Rehoboam and Jeroboam all the days of [Rehoboam’s] life.
7 The rest of the acts of Abijam, and all that he did, are they not written in the Book of the Chronicles of the Kings of Judah? And there was war between Abijam and Jeroboam.
8 Abijam slept with his fathers and they buried him in the City of David. Asa his son reigned in his stead.
9 In the twentieth year of Jeroboam king of Israel, Asa began to reign over Judah.
10 Forty-one years he reigned in Jerusalem. His mother was [also named] Maacah (Micaiah) daughter of Abishalom (Absalom).(A)
11 And Asa did right in the eyes of the Lord, as did David his father [forefather].
12 He put away the sodomites (male cult prostitutes) out of the land and removed all the idols that his fathers [Solomon, Rehoboam, and Abijam] had made or promoted.(B)
13 Also Maacah his mother he removed from being queen mother, because she had an image made for [the goddess] Asherah. Asa destroyed her image, burning it by the brook Kidron.
14 But the high places were not removed. Yet Asa’s heart was blameless with the Lord all his days.
15 He brought the things which his father had dedicated and the things which he himself had dedicated into the house of the Lord—silver, gold, and vessels.
16 There was war between Asa and Baasha king of Israel all their days.
17 Baasha king of Israel went up against Judah and built up Ramah, that he might allow no one to go out or come in to Asa king of Judah.
18 Then Asa took all the silver and gold left in the treasuries of the house of the Lord and of the king’s house and delivered them into the hands of his servants. And King Asa sent them to Ben-hadad son of Tabrimmon, the son of Hezion, king of Syria, who dwelt at Damascus, saying,
19 Let there be a league between me and you, as was between my father and your father. Behold, I am sending you a present of silver and gold; go, break your league with Baasha king of Israel, that he may withdraw from me.
20 So Ben-hadad hearkened to king Asa and sent the commanders of his armies against the cities of Israel, and smote Ijon, Dan, Abel-beth-maacah, and all Chinneroth, with all the land of Naphtali.
21 When Baasha heard of it, he quit building up Ramah and dwelt in Tirzah.
22 Then King Asa made a proclamation to all Judah—none was exempted. They carried away the stones of Ramah and its timber with which Baasha had been building. And King Asa built up with them Geba of Benjamin, and also Mizpah.
23 The rest of all the acts of Asa, all his might, all that he did, and the cities which he built, are they not written in the Book of the Chronicles of the Kings of Judah? But in the time of his old age he was diseased in his feet.
24 Asa slept with his fathers and was buried with them in the city of David his father. Jehoshaphat his son reigned in his stead.
25 Nadab son of Jeroboam began to reign over Israel in the second year of Asa king of Judah, and reigned two years.
26 He did evil in the sight of the Lord and walked in the way of his father and in his sin, with which he made Israel sin.
27 Baasha son of Ahijah of the house of Issachar conspired against Nadab, and Baasha smote him at Gibbethon, which belonged to the Philistines, for Nadab and all Israel were laying siege to Gibbethon.
28 In the third year of Asa king of Judah Baasha slew Nadab and reigned in his stead.
29 As soon as he was king, Baasha killed all the household of Jeroboam. He left to [it] not one who breathed, until he had destroyed it, according to the word of the Lord which He spoke by His servant Ahijah the Shilonite—(C)
30 Because of the sins of Jeroboam which he sinned and by which he made Israel to sin, and because of his provocation of the Lord, the God of Israel, to anger.
31 The rest of Nadab’s acts, and all that he did, are they not written in the Book of the Chronicles of the Kings of Israel?
32 There was war between Asa and Baasha king of Israel all their days.
33 In the third year of Asa king of Judah, Baasha son of Ahijah began his reign of twenty-four years over all Israel in Tirzah.
34 He did evil in the sight of the Lord and walked in the way of Jeroboam and in his sin, with which he made Israel sin.
2 For I want you to know how great is my solicitude for you [how severe an inward struggle I am engaged in for you] and for those [believers] at Laodicea, and for all who [[a]like yourselves] have never seen my face and known me personally.
2 [For my concern is] that their hearts may be [b]braced (comforted, cheered, and encouraged) as they are knit together in love, that they may come to have all the abounding wealth and blessings of assured conviction of understanding, and that they may become progressively [c]more intimately acquainted with and may know more definitely and accurately and thoroughly that mystic secret of God, [which is] Christ (the Anointed One).
3 In Him all the treasures of [divine] wisdom ([d]comprehensive insight into the ways and purposes of God) and [all the riches of spiritual] knowledge and enlightenment are stored up and lie hidden.
4 I say this in order that no one may mislead and delude you by plausible and persuasive and attractive arguments and beguiling speech.
5 For though I am away from you in body, yet I am with you in spirit, delighted at the sight of your [standing shoulder to shoulder in such] orderly array and the firmness and the solid front and steadfastness of your faith in Christ [that [e]leaning of the entire human personality on Him in absolute trust and confidence in His power, wisdom, and goodness].
6 As you have therefore received Christ, [even] Jesus the Lord, [so] walk (regulate your lives and conduct yourselves) in union with and conformity to Him.
7 Have the roots [of your being] firmly and deeply planted [in Him, fixed and founded in Him], being continually built up in Him, becoming increasingly more confirmed and established in the faith, just as you were taught, and abounding and overflowing in it with thanksgiving.
8 See to it that no one carries you off as spoil or makes you yourselves captive by his so-called philosophy and intellectualism and vain deceit (idle fancies and plain nonsense), following human tradition (men’s ideas of the material rather than the spiritual world), just crude notions following the rudimentary and elemental teachings of the universe and disregarding [the teachings of] Christ (the Messiah).
9 For in Him the whole fullness of Deity (the Godhead) continues to dwell in bodily form [giving complete expression of the divine nature].
10 And you [f]are in Him, made full and having come to fullness of life [in Christ you too are filled with the Godhead—Father, Son and Holy Spirit—and reach full spiritual stature]. And He is the Head of all rule and authority [of every angelic principality and power].
11 In Him also you were circumcised with a circumcision not made with hands, but in a [spiritual] circumcision [performed by] Christ by stripping off the body of the flesh (the whole corrupt, carnal nature with its passions and lusts).
12 [Thus [g]you were circumcised when] you were buried with Him in [your] baptism, in which you were also raised with Him [[h]to a new life] through [your] faith in the working of God [[i]as displayed] when He raised Him up from the dead.
13 And you who were dead in trespasses and in the uncircumcision of your flesh (your sensuality, your sinful carnal nature), [God] brought to life together with [Christ], having [freely] forgiven us all our transgressions,
14 Having cancelled and blotted out and wiped away the handwriting of the note (bond) with its legal decrees and demands which was in force and stood against us (hostile to us). This [note with its regulations, decrees, and demands] He set aside and cleared [j]completely out of our way by nailing it to [His] cross.
15 [God] disarmed the principalities and powers that were ranged against us and made a bold display and public example of them, in triumphing over them in Him and in it [the cross].
16 Therefore let no one sit in judgment on you in matters of food and drink, or with regard to a feast day or a New Moon or a Sabbath.
17 Such [things] are only the shadow of things that are to come, and they have only a symbolic value. But the reality (the substance, the solid fact of what is foreshadowed, the body of it) belongs to Christ.
18 Let no one defraud you by acting as an umpire and declaring you unworthy and disqualifying you for the prize, insisting on self-abasement and worship of angels, taking his stand on visions [he claims] he has seen, vainly puffed up by his sensuous notions and inflated by his unspiritual thoughts and fleshly conceit,
19 And not holding fast to the Head, from Whom the entire body, supplied and knit together by means of its joints and ligaments, grows with a growth that is from God.
20 If then you have died with Christ to material ways of looking at things and have escaped from the world’s crude and elemental notions and teachings of externalism, why do you live as if you still belong to the world? [Why do you submit to rules and regulations?—such as]
21 Do not handle [this], Do not taste [that], Do not even touch [them],
22 Referring to things all of which perish with being used. To do this is to follow human precepts and doctrines.(A)
23 Such [practices] have indeed the outward appearance [that popularly passes] for wisdom, in promoting self-imposed rigor of devotion and delight in self-humiliation and severity of discipline of the body, but they are of no value in checking the indulgence of the flesh (the lower nature). [Instead, they do not honor God but serve only to indulge the flesh.]
45 Moreover, when you shall divide the land by apportioned and assigned lots for inheritance, you shall set apart as an offering to the Lord a portion of the land to be used for holy purposes. The length shall be 25,000 [a]cubits, and the breadth 20,000. It shall be holy (set apart and consecrated to sacred use) in its every area.(A)
2 Of this there shall belong to the sanctuary a square plot 500 by 500, and 50 cubits for the open space around it.
3 And in this sacred section you shall measure off a portion 25,000 [b]cubits in length and 10,000 cubits in breadth. And in it shall be the sanctuary which is most holy.
4 It is a holy portion of the land; it shall be for the priests, the ministers of the sanctuary, who come near to minister to the Lord; and it shall be a place for their houses and a holy place (set apart as sacred) for the sanctuary.
5 And another portion of land, 25,000 cubits long and 10,000 cubits wide, shall also be for the Levites, the ministers of the temple, and they shall possess it as a place in which to live.
6 And you shall appoint for the possession of the city an area of 5,000 cubits wide and 25,000 cubits long, along beside the portion set aside as a holy section. It shall belong to the whole house of Israel.
7 And to the prince shall belong the land on the one side and on the other side of the portion set aside as a holy section and the property of the city, in front of the holy section and the property of the city, from the west side westward and from the east side eastward; and the length shall be answerable to that of one of the tribal portions and parallel to it from the western boundary to the eastern boundary of the land.
8 It shall be for the prince—his possession in Israel. And My princes shall no more oppress My people, but they shall give the rest of the land to the house of Israel according to their tribes.
9 Thus says the Lord God: That is enough for you, O princes of Israel! Stop the violence and plundering and oppression [that you did when you were given no property], and do justice and righteousness, and take away your exactions and cease your evictions of My people, says the Lord God.
10 You shall have just weights on your scales and just measures—both a just ephah measure and a just bath measure.
11 The ephah and the bath measures shall both be the same size, the bath containing one tenth of a homer and the ephah one tenth of a homer; the standard measure shall be the homer.
12 And the shekel shall be twenty gerahs; twenty shekels and twenty-five shekels and fifteen shekels shall be your maneh.
13 This is the offering which you shall make: a sixth of an ephah from each homer of wheat and a sixth of an ephah from each homer of barley.
14 And as to the set portion of oil, you shall offer the tenth part of a bath of oil out of each cor, which is a homer of ten baths, for ten baths make [both a cor and] a homer.
15 And [you shall offer] one lamb out of every flock of two hundred, out of the well-watered pastures of Israel and from all the families of Israel, to provide for a meal offering and for a burnt offering and for peace offerings, to make atonement for those who brought them, says the Lord God.
16 All the people of the land shall give this offering for the prince in Israel.
17 And it shall be the prince’s part to furnish [from the contributions of the people] the burnt offerings, meal offerings, and drink offerings at the feasts and on the New Moons and on the Sabbaths, at all the appointed feasts of the house of Israel. He shall prepare and make the sin offering, the meal offering, the burnt offering, and the peace offerings to make atonement for, bringing forgiveness and reconciliation to, the house of Israel.
18 Thus says the Lord God: In the first [month], on the first [day] of the month, you shall take a young bull without blemish and you shall cleanse the sanctuary.
19 And the priest shall take some of the blood of the sin offering and put it upon the doorposts of the temple and upon the four corners of the ledge of the altar and upon the posts of the gate of the inner court.
20 You shall do this on the seventh day of the month for everyone who has sinned through error or ignorance and for him who is simple-minded. So shall you make atonement for the temple.
21 In the first month on the fourteenth day of the [month]; you shall have the Passover, a feast of seven days; unleavened bread shall be eaten.
22 Upon that day the prince shall prepare for himself and for all the people of the land a bullock for a sin offering.
23 And for the seven days of the feast he shall prepare a burnt offering to the Lord, seven bullocks and seven rams without blemish daily for the seven days, and a he-goat daily for a sin offering.
24 And he shall prepare as a meal offering to be offered with each bullock an ephah of meal, an ephah for each ram, and a hin of oil for each ephah of meal.
25 In the seventh [month], on the fifteenth day of the month, he shall make the same provision and preparation for the seven days of the feast, for sin offerings, burnt offerings, bloodless or meal offerings, and for the oil.
Psalm 99
1 The Lord reigns, let the peoples tremble [with reverential fear]! He sits [enthroned] above the cherubim, let the earth quake!
2 The Lord is great in Zion, and He is high above all the peoples.
3 Let them confess and praise Your great name, awesome and reverence inspiring! It is holy, and holy is He!(A)
4 The strength of the king who loves righteousness and equity You establish in uprightness; You execute justice and righteousness in Jacob (Israel).
5 Extol the Lord our God and worship at His footstool! Holy is He!
6 Moses and Aaron were among His priests, and Samuel was among those who called upon His name; they called upon the Lord, and He answered them.
7 He spoke to them in the pillar of cloud; they kept His testimonies and the statutes that He gave them.(B)
8 You answered them, O Lord our God; You were a forgiving God to them, although avenging their evildoing and wicked practices.
9 Extol the Lord our God and worship at His holy hill, for the Lord our God is holy!
Psalm 100
A Psalm of thanksgiving and for the thank offering.
1 Make a joyful noise to the Lord, all you lands!
2 Serve the Lord with gladness! Come before His presence with singing!
3 Know (perceive, recognize, and understand with approval) that the Lord is God! It is He Who has made us, not we ourselves [and we are His]! We are His people and the sheep of His pasture.(C)
4 Enter into His gates with thanksgiving and a thank offering and into His courts with praise! Be thankful and say so to Him, bless and affectionately praise His name!
5 For the Lord is good; His mercy and loving-kindness are everlasting, His faithfulness and truth endure to all generations.
Psalm 101
A Psalm of David.
1 I will sing of mercy and loving-kindness and justice; to You, O Lord, will I sing.
2 I will behave myself wisely and give heed to the blameless way—O when will You come to me? I will walk within my house in integrity and with a blameless heart.
3 I will set no base or wicked thing before my eyes. I hate the work of them who turn aside [from the right path]; it shall not grasp hold of me.
4 A perverse heart shall depart from me; I will know no evil person or thing.
5 Whoso privily slanders his neighbor, him will I cut off [from me]; he who has a haughty look and a proud and arrogant heart I cannot and I will not tolerate.
6 My eyes shall [look with favor] upon the faithful of the land, that they may dwell with me; he who walks blamelessly, he shall minister to me.
7 He who works deceit shall not dwell in my house; he who tells lies shall not continue in my presence.
8 Morning after morning I will root up all the wicked in the land, that I may eliminate all the evildoers from the city of the Lord.
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