M’Cheyne Bible Reading Plan
20 At that time, Hezekiah was deathly sick. The prophet Isaiah (Amoz’s son) went to Hezekiah.
Isaiah: This is the Eternal’s message: “This is your last chance to make your final preparations because you are not going to recover; you are going to die.”
2 Then Hezekiah faced the wall and began to pray to the Eternal.
Hezekiah: 3 Eternal One, I beg You to remember that I have lived in faithfulness and given my heart to you and have practiced goodness before Your eyes.
Hezekiah was truly distraught and wept bitterly. 4 Before Isaiah had departed from the middle court, the Eternal’s message came to him.
Eternal One: 5 Go back and tell Hezekiah, the leader of My people, “This is the message of the Eternal One, the God of your ancestor David: ‘I have listened to your prayer and have witnessed the tears falling down your face; therefore I am going to heal you. I want you to go to the Eternal’s temple on the third day. 6 I will add 15 years to your life, and I am also going to save you and your city from Assyria’s king. I will fight on behalf of this city in order to preserve My honor and My servant David’s honor.’”
Isaiah: 7 Fetch a lump of figs.
They placed the figs on the king’s open sore, and he was healed.
Long before the discovery of penicillin and invention of pharmaceuticals, people understand how to use natural remedies readily available. A poultice of figs—and a healthy dose of prayer—successfully heal Hezekiah’s sore. Many other plants have similar healing qualities: wild, poisonous gourds are used in small amounts as purgatives; terebinth resin, frankincense, and myrrh are common antiseptics (even though they are more popular as cosmetics); and mandrake fruit is thought to cure female infertility. While future generations might question the healing properties of plants, they are considered powerful medicines to the people in the ancient Near East.
Hezekiah (to Isaiah): 8 Should I be looking for a sign from the Eternal, a sign that tells me He is going to heal me and that it is time for me to go to the Eternal’s temple on the third day?
Isaiah: 9 Yes, this is the sign the Eternal One will give for you to know He will uphold His promise to you: will the shadow move forward 10 steps or retreat 10 steps?
Hezekiah: 10 It’s nothing special for the shadow to increase 10 steps. May the shadow retreat 10 steps.
11 The prophet Isaiah called out to the Eternal, and He caused the shadow on the stairs to retreat 10 steps down Ahaz’s stairs, which had been designed as a sundial.
12 During that period in time, Berodach-baladan, one son of Baladan, Babylon’s king, heard that Hezekiah was ill, so he sent him a gift and get-well messages. 13 After Hezekiah received the gift and the letters, he gave Berodach-baladan’s messengers a tour of his treasuries and showed them all the silver, gold, spices, oils, armor, and everything else that was in the treasure house. He left nothing out of the tour of his house and province.
Isaiah (to King Hezekiah): 14 What did those men tell you, and where did they come from?
Hezekiah: They came from a faraway land—Babylon.
Isaiah: 15 How much of your house did you show to them? What all did they see?
Hezekiah: They saw everything. I left nothing out of the tour I gave them through my treasuries.
Isaiah: 16 Listen to the Eternal’s message: 17 “A time is near when everything in your house, including everything that your ancestors have contributed until today, will be taken to Babylon. Not one item will remain in your house.” This is the Eternal’s message. 18 “A time is near when your sons, who are yet to be born, will be removed from your land and made to be eunuchs in the Babylonian king’s palace.”
Hezekiah: 19 The Eternal’s message that you relayed to me is good.
(to himself) Is it not good that peace and truth will rule while I still live?
20 Is not the rest of Hezekiah’s story—his power and his construction of the pool and the conduit to provide water for the city—documented in the book of the chronicles of Judah’s kings?[a] 21 Hezekiah left this world to sleep with his fathers. His son, Manasseh, then inherited the throne.
2 That is why we ought to pay even closer attention to the voice that has been speaking so that we will never drift away from it. 2 For if the words of instruction and inspiration brought by heaven’s messengers were valid, and if we live in a universe where sin and disobedience receive their just rewards, 3 then how will we escape destruction if we ignore this great salvation? We heard it first from our Lord Jesus, then from those who passed on His teaching. 4 God also testifies to this truth by signs and wonders and miracles and the gifts of the Holy Spirit lighting on those He chooses.
This letter is punctuated with passages that sound an alarm: danger, both imminent and eternal, is at hand. The real danger is the gentle erosion of rock-solid commitments.
How often it happens! A person makes a decision to follow Jesus. He practically explodes with joy. Then life happens and the invisible forces that shape culture in our world—the idols of consumerism, relativism, and materialism—begin their exacting work to shape us into an image that no longer reflects our Savior. Over and over again, the writer warns us to be careful. Don’t neglect this great salvation. Make sure the anchor holds.
5 Now clearly God didn’t set up the heavenly messengers to bring the final word or to rule over the world that is coming. 6 I have read something somewhere:
I can’t help but wonder why You care about mortals
or choose to love the son of man.
7-8 Though he was born below the heavenly messengers,
You honored the son of man like royalty,
crowning him with glory and honor,
Raising him above all earthly things,
placing everything under his feet.[a]
When God placed everything under the son of man, He didn’t leave out anything. Maybe we don’t see all that happening yet; 9 but what we do see is Jesus, born a little lower than the heavenly messengers, who is now crowned with glory and honor because He willingly suffered and died. And He did that so that through God’s grace, He might taste death on behalf of everyone.
Here is God’s Son: Creator, Sustainer, Great High Priest. Jesus has to take on our feeble flesh and suffer a violent death. He suffers for what we need.
10 It only makes sense that God, by whom and for whom everything exists, would choose to bring many of us to His side by using suffering to perfect Jesus, the founder of our faith, the pioneer of our salvation. 11 As I will show you, it’s important that the One who brings us to God and those who are brought to God become one, since we are all from one Father. This is why Jesus was not ashamed to call us His family, 12 saying, in the words of the psalmist,
I will speak Your Name to My brothers and sisters
when I praise You in the midst of the community.[b]
13 And in the words of Isaiah,
I will wait for the Eternal One.[c]
And again,
Look, here I am with the children God has given Me.[d]
14 Since we, the children, are all creatures of flesh and blood, Jesus took on flesh and blood, so that by dying He could destroy the one who held power over death—the devil— 15 and destroy the fear of death that has always held people captive.
16 So notice—His concern here is not for the welfare of the heavenly messengers, but for the children of Abraham. 17 He had to become as human as His sisters and brothers so that when the time came, He could become a merciful and faithful high priest of God, called to reconcile a sinful people. 18 Since He has also been tested by suffering, He can help us when we are tested.
13 When Ephraim spoke, people trembled
because he was powerful in Israel.
But he was guilty of worshiping another divine master[a]
and was sentenced to death.
2 Even now they keep on sinning; they cast metal idols for themselves,
shaping silver to fashion wretched images.
These idols are all skillfully crafted by humans.
People say, “Offer your human sacrifices to them, and kiss these calf-idols.”
3 God will destroy them for this, and they’ll be like fog in the morning,
like dew evaporating at sunrise, like the chaff blown from the threshing floor,
Like the smoke that drifts out of a window.
4 Eternal One: I’m the Eternal One.
I’ve been your God ever since you left Egypt.
You are supposed to be exclusively loyal to Me.
No other god can be your liberator.
5 It was I who established the relationship with you in the wilderness,
I who looked after you in that parched and weary land.
6 When I fed them, they were satisfied,
but when satisfied, they filled with pride and then forgot Me.
7 So I’ll be like a lion to them,
like a panther stalking the roadside.
8 I’ll meet them like a bear who’s lost her cubs;
I’ll rip open their chests.
I’ll devour them as if I’m a lion,
and I’ll tear them apart as if I’m a wild animal.
9 This is why you’re going to be destroyed, Israel:
you’re against Me, against the One who’s helping you!
10 Where is your king now?
Let’s see if he comes to save you and all your cities.
Where are your leaders, the ones of whom you demanded,
“Give me a king and princes!”?
11 I gave you a king, even though you made Me angry by asking for one,
and in My rage, I decided to take him away!
12 Ephraim’s guilt has been wrapped up;
his sin has been hidden.
13 The labor pains of his mother are coming for him, but he is unwise;
he does not move from the birth canal.
14 Should I deliver them from the power of the grave?
Should I rescue them from death’s cold grip?
Hey, Death! Where is your big win?
Hey, Grave! What happened to your sting?[b]
I’ll look the other way and not show them any pity.
15 Though Israel, among his brothers, is like a plant that flourishes in the wetlands,
an east wind will come—a dry desert wind sent by Me—
And the waters will dry up. His spring will run dry.
All the treasures in his storehouse will be plundered.
16 Because of her guilt and her rebellion against her God,
Samaria will be punished: her people will be cut down by the sword;
Her children will be dashed to pieces; her pregnant women will be torn open.
Psalm 137
Psalm 137 is a lament written either during or shortly after the exile. It provides a vivid image of what life in exile must have been like.
1 By the rivers of Babylon,
we sat and wept
when we thought of Zion, our home, so far away.
2 On the branches of the willow trees,
we hung our harps and hid our hearts from the enemy.
3 And the men that surrounded us
made demands that we clap our hands and sing—
Songs of joy from days gone by,
songs from Zion, our home.
Such cruel men taunted us—haunted our memories.
4 How could we sing a song about the Eternal
in a land so foreign, while still tormented, brokenhearted, homesick?
Please don’t make us sing this song.
5-6 O Jerusalem, even still, don’t escape my memory.
I treasure you and your songs, even as I hide my harp from the enemy.
And if I can’t remember,
may I never sing a song again—
may my hands never play well again—
For what use would it be if I don’t remember Jerusalem
as my source of joy?
7 Remember, Eternal One, how the Edomites, our brothers, the descendants of Esau,
stood by and watched as Jerusalem fell.
Gloating, they said, “Destroy it;
tear it down to the ground,” when Jerusalem was being demolished.
8 O daughter of Babylon, you are destined for destruction!
Happy are those who pay you back for how you treated us
so you will no longer walk so proud.
9 Happy are those who dash your children against the rocks
so you will know how it feels.
Psalm 138
A song of David.
1 To You, Lord, I give my whole heart, a heart filled with praise, for I am grateful;
before the gods, my heart sings praises to You and You alone.
2 I bow before You, looking to Your holy temple,
and praise Your name, for Your unfailing love and Your truth;
for You have placed Your name and Your word over all things and all times.
3 On the day I needed You, I called, and You responded
and infused my soul with strength.
4 May all the kings of the earth praise You, O Eternal One,
because they have heard the words You have spoken.
5 They will marvel at the Eternal’s ways, and they will sing,
for great is the glory of the Eternal.
6 Although He is greatest of all, He is attentive to the needy
and keeps His distance from the proud and pompous.
7 Whenever I walk into trouble,
You are there to bring me out.
You hold out Your hand
to protect me against the wrath of my enemies,
and hold me safely in Your right hand.
8 The Eternal will finish what He started in me.
Your faithful love, O Eternal One, lasts forever;
do not give up on what Your hands have made.
The Voice Bible Copyright © 2012 Thomas Nelson, Inc. The Voice™ translation © 2012 Ecclesia Bible Society All rights reserved.