M’Cheyne Bible Reading Plan
The tradition of firstborn rights in inheritance and genealogy is often the norm in the ancient world, but God sees fit to rearrange customs and alter expectations. In such an important listing of Israel like the book of Chronicles—which marks out in detail the Israelite people all the way to Adam—Jacob’s firstborn Reuben is not mentioned until the third spot! The genealogy starts in chapter 4 with Judah and then moves to Simeon, Reuben, Gad, Manasseh, and Levi.
The prominence of David from Judah’s line goes back to the Genesis stories that told of how Reuben, Simeon, and Levi all committed horrible sins that removed them from royal contention and headship over their brothers, who would later become twelve tribal groups. In a way, everything in Chronicles (from ancestry lists to temple building) is set around King David from Judah and his lineage up to the Babylonian exile, which concludes the book of Chronicles.
3 The great king David fathered 6 sons during his 7½ years reigning in Hebron. Ahinoam the Jezreelitess gave birth to his first son, Amnon. Abigail the Carmelitess birthed his second son, Daniel. 2 Maacah, the daughter of Talmai (king of Geshur) bore his third son, Absalom. His fourth son, Adonijah, was born to Haggith. 3 Abital bore his fifth son, Shephatiah. Ithream was his sixth son, and was born to his wife, Eglah.
4 These were the 6 sons born to him in Hebron during his 7½-year reign there. David then ruled from Jerusalem for 33 years. 5 There, Bath-shua (the daughter of Ammiel) gave him 4 sons: Shimea, Shobab, Nathan, and Solomon; 6-8 and 9 other sons also were born there: Ibhar, Elishama, Eliphelet, Nogah, Nepheg, Japhia, Elishama, Eliada, and Eliphelet. 9 These were David’s sons, in addition to their sister, Tamar, and his concubines’ children.
10 David’s son and successor, Solomon, had 15 generations of descendants: Rehoboam, Abijah, Asa, Jehoshaphat, 11 Joram, Ahaziah, Joash, 12 Amaziah, Azariah, Jotham, 13 Ahaz, Hezekiah, Manasseh, 14 Amon, and Josiah.
15 Josiah’s sons were, in order from the firstborn to the last: Johanan, Jehoiakim, Zedekiah, and Shallum. 16 The sons of Jehoiakim were Jeconiah and Zedekiah. 17 The sons of Jeconiah (who was taken prisoner by Nebuchadnezzar) were Shealtiel, 18 Malchiram, Pedaiah, Shenazzar, Jekamiah, Hoshama, and Nedabiah. 19 The sons of Pedaiah were Zerubbabel and Shimei. Zerubbabel fathered Meshullam and Hananiah, and their sister, Shelomith. 20 He had five other children, Hashubah, Ohel, Berechiah, Hasadiah, and Jushab-hesed. 21 Hananiah fathered Pelatiah and Jeshaiah, the sons of Rephaiah, the sons of Arnan, the sons of Obadiah, and the sons of Shecaniah. 22 Shecaniah had six descendants: his son Shemaiah, and his grandsons Hattush, Igal, Bariah, Neariah, and Shaphat. 23 Neariah fathered three sons: Elioenai, Hizkiah, and Azrikam. 24 Elioenai fathered seven sons: Hodaviah, Eliashib, Pelaiah, Akkub, Johanan, Delaiah, and Anani.
Each tribe is influential in the nation of Israel and has the honor of being descended from the Jews’ ancestor Jacob, but the tribe of Judah has prominence and power. From this tribe comes Israel’s monarchy, even though their forefather Judah was not the oldest son and therefore not the one who would have been expected to father kings. The selection of Judah as the progenitor of kings demonstrates that God is in control of His people even when tradition and convention are contrary to His ways.
4 Judah’s lineage descended as so: Perez, Hezron, Carmi, Hur, and Shobal. 2 Shobal fathered Reaiah (the father of Jahath and grandfather of Ahumai and Lahad). They were the families of the Zorathites. 3 Etam fathered three sons, Jezreel, Ishma, and Idbash, and their sister, Hazzelelponi. 4 Penuel fathered Gedor, and Ezer fathered Hushah. These are the sons of Hur, who was the firstborn of Ephrathah, who fathered Bethlehem.
5 Ashhur, the leader of Tekoa, had two wives: Helah and Naarah. 6 Naarah gave birth to Ahuzzam, Hepher, Temeni, and Haahashtari. 7 Helah gave birth to Zereth, Izhar, and Ethnan. 8 Koz fathered Anub, Zobebah, and the families of Harum’s son, Aharhel.
9 Jabez, whose name commemorates his mother’s labor pains, was more honorable than his brothers. 10 He asked the God of Israel, “Please bless me and extend my territory. Let Your hand be with me and guard me from harm so I will not experience pain as my mother did.” And God did just that.
11 Shuhah’s brother Chelub fathered Mehir, who fathered Eshton. 12 Eshton fathered Beth-rapha, Paseah, and Tehinnah who fathered Ir-nahash. These are the men of Recah.
13 Kenaz fathered Othniel and Seraiah. Othniel’s sons were Hathath and Meonothai. 14 Meonothai fathered Ophrah. Seraiah’s son was Joab, the father of Ge-harashim, the skilled workers.
15 Caleb (the son of Jephunneh) fathered Iru, Elah, and Naam. Elah’s son was Kenaz. 16 Jehallelel fathered Ziph, Ziphah, Tiria, and Asarel. 17 Ezrah fathered Jether, Mered, Epher, and Jalon. Jether’s wife bore Miriam, Shammai, and Ishbah (the father of Eshtemoa). These are the sons of Bithia (Mered’s wife and Pharaoh’s daughter). 18 His Judahite wife birthed Jered (the father of Gedor), Heber (the father of Soco), and Jekuthiel (the father of Zanoah). 19 Hodiah’s wife (the sister of Naham) gave birth to the fathers of Keilah the Garmite and Eshtemoa the Maacathite. 20 Shimon fathered Amnon, Rinnah, Benhanan, and Tilon. Ishi fathered Zoheth and Ben-zoheth.
21 Judah’s son Shelah fathered Er (the father of Lecah), Laadah (the father of Mareshah), and the families of linen workers at Beth-ashbea, 22 Jokim, the men of Cozeba, Joash, Saraph (who ruled in Moab), and Jashubi-lehem. This record is ancient. 23 They were the potters who lived in Netaim and Gederah, working for the king.
24 The sons of Simeon were Nemuel, Jamin, Jarib, Zerah, and Shaul. 25 Shaul’s lineage descended Shallum, Mibsam, and Mishma, 26 and the sons of Mishma were Hammuel, Zaccur, and Shimei. 27 Shimei fathered 16 sons and 6 daughters, but his brothers did not have many sons and their tribes were not as large as the Judahites. 28 Until David united the tribes into one nation, Shimei’s descendants lived at Beersheba, Moladah, Hazar-shual, 29 Bilhah, Ezem, Tolad, 30 Bethuel, Hormah, Ziklag, 31 Beth-marcaboth, Hazar-susim, Beth-biri, and Shaaraim. These were their cities until David became king. 32 Their five city-states were Etam, Ain, Rimmon, Tochen, and Ashan, 33 near the city of Baal. These were recorded in the genealogy of their villages: 34 Meshobab, Jamlech, Joshah (son of Amaziah), 35 Joel, Jehu (son of Joshibiah, son of Seraiah, son of Asiel), 36 Elioenai, Jaakobah, Jeshohaiah, Asaiah, Adiel, Jesimiel, Benaiah, 37 Ziza (son of Shiphi, son of Allon, son of Jedaiah, son of Shimri, son of Shemaiah).
38 These were chiefs, and their clans increased rapidly. 39 They sought pastures for their flocks from the gate of Gedor to the east side of its surrounding valley. 40 There they found a rich pasture and abundant, quiet, and peaceful land. The Hamites inhabited the land 41 until the Simeonites attacked them during the reign of Judah’s king Hezekiah. They completely destroyed the tents and the Meunites who lived there. The Simeonites now live in their place, where there is pastureland for the flocks.
42 Five hundred Simeonites went to Mount Seir, led by the sons of Ishi: Pelatiah, Neariah, Rephaiah, and Uzziel. 43 There they killed the remaining Amalekites, and they live on that mountain until this day.
Jeremiah is known as the prophet of the new covenant. Hundreds of years before the birth of Jesus, Jeremiah heard the voice of God and saw what God had planned: a new day. A new law inscribed in the mind and written on the heart. A new and abiding knowledge of God. A new covenant where mercy runs deep and sins are forgiven and forgotten.
This hope of a new heart is found even in the midst of the Mosaic Covenant. Moses foretells the unfaithfulness of the people and also tells them of God’s promise to restore their hearts (Deuteronomy 30:1–10).
9 Even that first covenant had rules and regulations about how to worship and how to set up an earthly sanctuary for God. 2 In the Book of Exodus,[a] we read how the first tent was set aside for worship—we call it the holy place—how inside it they placed an oil lamp, a table, and the bread that was consecrated to God. 3 Behind a second dividing curtain, there was another tent which is called the most holy place. 4 In there they placed the golden incense altar and the golden ark of the covenant. Inside the ark were the golden urn that contained manna (the miraculous food God gave our ancestors in the desert), Aaron’s rod that budded,[b] and the tablets of the covenant that Moses brought down from the mountain. 5 Above the ark were the golden images of heavenly beings[c] of glory who shadowed the mercy seat.
I cannot go into any greater detail about this now. 6 When all is prepared as it is supposed to be, the priests go back and forth daily into the first tent to carry out the duties described in the law. 7 But once a year, the high priest goes alone into that second tent, the most holy place, with blood to offer for himself and the unwitting errors of the people. 8 As long as that first tent is standing, the Holy Spirit shows us, the way into the most holy place has not yet been revealed to us. 9 That first tent symbolizes the present time, when gifts and sacrifices can be offered; but it can’t change the heart and conscience of the worshiper. 10 These gifts and sacrifices deal only with regulations for the body—food and drink and various kinds of ritual cleansings necessary until the time comes to make things truly right.
11 When the Anointed One arrived as High Priest of the good things that are to come, He entered through a greater and more perfect sanctuary that was not part of the earthly creation or made by human hands. 12 He entered once for all time into the most holy place—entering, not with the blood of goats or calves or some other prescribed animal, but offering His own blood and thus obtaining redemption for us for all time. 13 Think about it: if the blood of bulls or of goats, or the sprinkling of ashes from a heifer, restores the defiled to bodily cleanliness and wholeness; 14 then how much more powerful is the blood of the Anointed One, who through the eternal Spirit offered Himself as a spotless sacrifice to God, purifying your conscience from the dead things of the world to the service of the living God?
15 This is why Jesus is the mediator of the new covenant: through His death, He delivered us from the sins that we had built up under the first covenant, and His death has made it possible for all who are called to receive God’s promised inheritance. 16 For whenever there is a testament—a will—the death of the one who made it must be confirmed 17 because a will takes effect only at the death of its maker; it has no validity as long as the maker is still alive. 18 Even the first testament—the first covenant—required blood to be put into action. 19 When Moses had given all the laws of God to the people, he took the blood of calves and of goats, water, hyssop, and scarlet wool; and he sprinkled the scroll and all the people, 20 telling them, “This is the blood of the covenant that God has commanded for us.”[d] 21 In the same way, he also sprinkled blood upon the sanctuary and upon the vessels used in worship. 22 Under the law, it’s almost the case that everything is purified in connection with blood; without the shedding of blood, sin cannot be forgiven.
In chapter 9 we are reminded that what is most real, what is most true, is the unseen reality. The writer tells us that the temple in Jerusalem, the holiest place on earth, was merely a copy or shadow of another place, the heavenly temple. Whatever took place in this shadowy temple could not change the realities of alienation from God, sin, and death.
Every year on the Day of Atonement, the high priest would don his priestly garb and enter the most holy place in the temple. His task was profound, his duty dangerous: he must appear before God carrying the sins of his people. All the sins of Israel were concentrated in him as he carried the blood of the sacrifice into the divine presence. But there was another day, a Day of Atonement unlike any other, when Jesus concentrated in Himself the sins of the world, hanging on a cross not far from the temple’s holiest chamber. Indeed, for a time, He became sin (2 Corinthians 5:21). But unlike the high priest, the crucified and risen Jesus entered the true temple of heaven and was ushered into the divine presence. At that moment, everything changed.
23 Since what was given in the old covenant was the earthly sketch of the heavenly reality, this was sufficient to cleanse the earthly sanctuary; but in heaven, a more perfect sacrifice was needed. 24 The Anointed One did not enter into handcrafted sacred spaces—imperfect copies of heavenly originals—but into heaven itself, where He stands in the presence of God on our behalf. 25 There He does not offer Himself over and over as a sacrifice (as the high priest on earth does when he enters the most holy place each year with blood other than his own) 26 because that would require His repeated suffering since the beginning of the world. No, He has appeared once now, at the end of the age, to put away sin forever by offering Himself as a sacrifice.
27 Just as mortals are appointed to die once and then to experience a judgment, 28 so the Anointed One, our Liberating King, was offered once in death to bear the sins of many and will appear a second time, not to deal again with sin, but to rescue those who eagerly await His return.
We are appalled to hear of horrible atrocities and crimes against humanity. Today we work to put an end to ethnic cleansing and sex trafficking, but these crimes are nothing new. Consider the world Amos occupies: it’s a world where the Philistines, the most technologically advanced people in their region, sell people into slavery; where the Edomites attack their neighbors in hand-to-hand combat and violently end their lives; where Ammonites rip open pregnant women in order to annex a few more acres; and where the Israelites, God’s own covenant people, sell the needy, while both father and son have sexual relationships with the same girl. If we are appalled to hear these stories, imagine how much more God, the Father of all, is angry with those who act in these ways. Since God’s prophet Amos knows His mind, he will not sit idly by and let the poor and right-living suffer.
3 Hear the message that the Eternal has spoken about you, people of Israel—the words He has spoken against the whole family:
Eternal One: I brought you up from Egypt
2 Of all the peoples on the earth,
I knew and chose you for a relationship with Me.
So I will punish you for the wrong you have done.
3 Do two people travel together
if they had to set up a time to meet?
4 Does a lion roar in the forest
if it has not found its prey?
Does a young lion growl in its den
if it has not caught something?
5 Does a bird fall into a trap
if no net has been set for it?
Does a trap snap shut
if nothing has set it off?
6 Does the trumpet sound the alarm in the city
without frightening the people?
Does disaster come to a city
unless the Eternal One has permitted it?
7 The answer to all is the same: No.
The Eternal Lord does nothing
Without revealing His plan to His servants, the prophets.
They are His spokespeople.
8 The lion has roared;
who is not afraid?
The Eternal Lord has been heard;
His prophets can’t help but prophesy.
9 Speak to the fortresses of Ashdod
and to the fortresses in the land of Egypt.
Tell their leaders, “Gather on the hillsides in Samaria
and see what great wrongs are done in Israel;
Witness the acts of oppression done there.
10 Eternal One: Those who fill their fortresses with finery through violence and robbery
have no idea how to do what is right.
Israel has forgotten God’s laws, so of course the people can’t follow them. They have fallen into slavery and oppression.
11 So the Eternal Lord says to Israel,
Eternal One: An enemy will surround and besiege your land.
It will overwhelm your defenses, and your fortresses will be plundered.
12 Just as the shepherd rescues two legs or the tip of an ear from the hungry lion, that is the kind of rescue the wealthy people of God dwelling in Samaria will see: only a small piece of fabric from their luxurious linens and furnishings will remain.[a]
13 Listen to what I am saying, and testify against Jacob’s house.
The Eternal Lord, the Commander of heavenly armies, says,
14 Eternal One: On the day I punish Israel for its wrongdoing,
I will also fall upon the altars of Bethel, that center of cultic worship,
Where the horns of the altar will be hacked off
and topple to the ground, making their illegal sacrifice impossible.
15 I will demolish the winter house of the rich and the summer house as well;
their palaces decorated with ivory will be torn down,
And their fine mansions will be laid low.
So says the Eternal One.
Psalm 146
1 Praise the Eternal!
Praise the Eternal, O my soul;
2 I will praise the Eternal for as long as I live.
I will sing praises to my God as long as breath fills my lungs and blood flows through my veins.
3 Do not put your trust in the rulers of this world—kings and princes.
Do not expect any rescue from mortal men.
4 As soon as their breath leaves them, they return to the earth;
on that day, all of them perish—their dreams, their plans, and their memories.
5 Blessed are those whose help comes from the God of Jacob,
whose hope is centered in the Eternal their God—
6 Who created the heavens, the earth,
the seas, and all that lives within them;
Who stays true and remains faithful forever;
7 Who works justice for those who are pressed down by the world,
providing food for those who are hungry.
The Eternal frees those who are imprisoned;
8 He makes the blind see.
He lifts up those whose backs are bent in labor;
He cherishes those who do what is right.
9 The Eternal looks after those who journey in a land not their own;
He takes care of the orphan and the widow,
but He frustrates the wicked along their way.
10 The Eternal will reign today, tomorrow, and forever.
People of Zion, your God will rule forever over all generations.
Praise the Eternal!
Psalm 147
1 Praise the Eternal!
It is good to sing praises to our God,
for praise is beautiful and pleasant.
2 The Eternal, Architect of earth, is building Jerusalem,
finding the lost, gathering Israel’s outcasts.
3 He binds their wounds,
heals the sorrows of their hearts.
4 He counts all the stars within His hands,
carefully fixing their number
and giving them names.
5 Our Lord is great. Nothing is impossible with His overwhelming power.
He is loving, compassionate, and wise beyond all measure.
6 The Eternal will lift up the lowly
but throw down the wicked to the earth.
Psalm 147 is a postexilic hymn of praise to God as Creator and Sustainer. It celebrates the rebuilding of the walls and gates that protect Jerusalem. God secures the city, grants peace to the border towns, and controls the elements.
7 Open your mouths with thanks!
Sing praises to the Eternal!
Strum the harp in unending praise to our God
8 Who blankets the heavens with clouds,
sends rain to water the thirsty earth,
and pulls up each blade of grass upon the mountainside.
9 He opens His hands to feed all the animals
and scatters seed to nestlings when they cry.
10 He takes no pleasure in the raw strength of horses;
He finds no joy in the speed of the sprinter.
11 But the Eternal does take pleasure in those who worship Him,
those who invest hope in His unfailing love.
12 O Jerusalem, praise the Eternal!
O Zion, praise your God!
13 For His divine power reinforces your city gates,
blesses your children in the womb.
14 He establishes peace within your borders,
fills your markets with hearty golden wheat.
15 His command ripples across the earth;
His word runs out on swift feet.
16 He blankets the earth in wooly snow,
scattering frost like ashes over the land.
17 He throws down hail like stones falling from a mountain.
Can any withstand His wintry blast?
18 But He dispatches His word, and the thaw begins;
at His command, the spring winds blow, gently stirring the waters back to life.
19 He brings Jacob in on His plan, declaring His word—
His statutes and His teachings to Israel.
20 He has not treated any other nation in such a way;
they live unaware of His commands.
Praise the Eternal!
The Voice Bible Copyright © 2012 Thomas Nelson, Inc. The Voice™ translation © 2012 Ecclesia Bible Society All rights reserved.