M’Cheyne Bible Reading Plan
7 As Solomon finished his prayer, fire descended from heaven and consumed the burnt offering and the other sacrifices. At that moment, the glory of the Eternal filled the house.
The presence of God comes down and rests above the seat of mercy on the covenant chest with the winged guardians as His footstool.
2 The Eternal’s glory filled the temple so overwhelmingly that the priests could not enter. 3 When all the Israelites saw the fire and the Eternal’s glory, they fell prostrate before the temple, worshiping and praising the Eternal One.
Israelites: He is good! His loyal love lasts forever!
4-5 Having prayed and worshiped God, the king and all the people made sacrifices to the Eternal and dedicated the temple. King Solomon offered 22,000 oxen and 120,000 sheep.
This is an enormous offering that signifies the importance of the occasion.
6 All of Israel stood, and the priests and the Levites played their instruments to the Eternal One while other priests standing across from them played trumpets. (King David had made these instruments and used them to praise the Eternal, whose love endures forever.) 7 Solomon consecrated the middle of the court in front of the Eternal’s temple by giving burnt offerings and the fat of the peace offerings. The bronze altar was not large enough to hold the burnt offering, the grain offering, and the fat.
8 Solomon and all of Israel (from the border with Hamath in Aram to the river of Egypt) feasted for seven days, celebrating the temple dedication and Succoth, the Festival of Booths. 9 On the eighth day, after the dedication of the altar and the feasting had concluded, the people held a solemn assembly. 10 On the twenty-third day of the seventh month, Solomon sent the people home, rejoicing over the goodness that the Eternal had shown to David, Solomon, and His people Israel.
11 In this way Solomon successfully finished the Eternal’s house and the house of the king so that everything Solomon had in his heart to do for the divine and royal residences he accomplished. 12 The Eternal appeared to Solomon one night.
True God: As promised, I have chosen this temple as the place where My name will dwell and where I will receive sacrifices and prayer. I heard your prayer, and I will honor it.
13 If I close up the heavens and their rain and send any of the disasters you described—drought, locusts, pestilence—to ravish the land and people; 14 and My people (who are known by My name) humbly pray, follow My commandments, and abandon any actions or thoughts that might lead to further sinning, then I shall hear their prayers from My house in heaven, I shall forgive their sins, and I shall save their land from the disasters. 15 Now I will witness with My eyes and hear with My ears the prayers offered in this temple 16 because I have chosen and consecrated this temple as the eternal resting place for My reputation, My eyes, and My heart.
17 If you follow My ways as your father David did, do all that I ask you to do, and follow My laws and commands, 18 then I will establish your royal throne and keep My covenant with your father David: “One of your descendants will always be a king of Israel.”
Just as the Eternal makes a covenant with David, so He will not remove David’s offspring from the Jerusalem throne, as long as David’s sons follow the Lord.
19 If you and the Israelites ignore My ways and disregard My laws, if you serve other gods and worship them, 20 then I will remove you all from My land, the land I gave to you and your ancestors, and I will destroy this temple, which I have consecrated for My reputation, making it a proverb and a byword among the nations. 21 Everyone who passes by this exalted temple will be astonished: “Why has the Eternal destroyed His land and His house?” 22 They will conclude, “He has done this because they abandoned the Eternal, the God of their fathers who brought them from the land of Egypt, and they served other gods and worshiped them. He is the One who has brought this evil upon them.”
1 I, the elder, to you, a lady chosen by God along with her children. I truly love all of you and am confident that all who know the truth share in my love for you. 2 The truth, which lives faithfully within all of us and will be with us for all eternity, is the basis for our abounding love. 3 May grace, mercy, and peace from God the Father and Jesus the Anointed, the Father’s own Son, surround you and be with you always in truth and love.
4 I was so filled with joy to hear stories about your children walking in truth, in the very way the Father called us to live. 5 So now, dear lady, I am asking you to live by the command that we love one another. I’m not writing to you some new commandment; it’s one we received in the beginning from our Lord. 6 Love is defined by our obedience to His commands. This is the same command you have known about from the very beginning; you must live by it. 7 The corrupt world is filled with liars and frauds who deny the reality that Jesus the Anointed has come into the world as a man of flesh and blood. These people are deceivers and antiChrists.[a] 8 Ensure that you do not lose what we have worked for so that you will be fully rewarded.
9 Any person who drifts away and fails to live in the teachings of the Anointed One, our Liberating King, does not have God. But the person who lives in this teaching will have both the Father and the Son. 10 If any person comes to you with a teaching that does not align with the true message of Jesus, do not welcome that person into your house or greet him as you would a true brother. 11 Anyone who welcomes this person has become a partner in advancing his wicked agenda.
12 I have so much more to tell you, but I would rather meet with you personally than try to capture these sentiments by ink on paper. I hope to come and see you so that our joy will be complete.
13 The children of your chosen sister send you warm greetings.
2 I will take my place at the watchtower.
I will stand at my post and watch.
I will watch and see what He says to me.
I need to think about how I should respond to Him
When He gets back to me with His answer.
Eternal One (to Habakkuk): 2 Write down this vision.
Write it clearly on tablets, so that anyone who reads it may run.
3 For the vision points ahead to a time I have appointed;
it testifies regarding the end, and it will not lie.
Even if there is a delay, wait for it.
It is coming and will come without delay.[a]
4 So I wrote, “Look how pompous he is!
Something is not right in his soul; he is not honest and just.
But the righteous one will live by his faithfulness.”[b]
5 Indeed, wine betrays the proud man who is always restless.
He has a big appetite; it is like the deep, dark pit of the dead.
Like death, he is never satisfied.
He gathers all the nations to himself and collects all the people for his own purposes.
6 Will not all these nations raise up their litany of insults?
Will they not provoke him with their taunts and mockery, saying,
“Woe to him who hoards what is not his!
How long can he profit from extortion and debt?”
7 Will not your creditors suddenly rise up against you?
One day they will wake up and will have had enough.
Indeed, you will be their spoil!
8 Why? Because you have plundered many nations,
now all who remain will come and plunder you—
Because you have made bloody and violent raids over the earth
and ransacked many peoples and their villages.
9 Woe to him who builds his house on such evil profits,
who puts his nest up high, safe for the future, safe from disaster!
10 You don’t realize it, but by cutting down so many peoples,
you have brought shame on your house;
You have sinned against your own soul.
11 For the stone in the wall will cry out against you;
the wooden rafter[c] will answer from the ceiling.
12 Woe to him who builds a city on bloodshed
and who establishes a town by injustice!
13 Look! Is it not because of the Eternal, the Commander of heavenly armies,
that all the people work for is consumed in fire
And that all the nations produce comes to nothing?
14 For as the waters cover the sea,
the whole earth will be filled with the knowledge
That the Eternal is glorious and powerful.
15 Woe to you who gives his neighbors a drink,
who keeps filling their cup with your anger and malice
To intoxicate them so you can uncover their shame
and look at their nakedness!
16 Instead of honor, you are going to have your fill of shame.
Now drink up and expose your own uncircumcised nakedness, your lack of God’s mark.
The cup in the Eternal’s right hand will come around to you,
and disgrace will eclipse your current glory.
17 For the violence done against Lebanon will now overtake you;
the terror you showed the animals in turn will terrorize you.
Because you shed blood and wrought violence in the earth,
you have destroyed cities and all their inhabitants.
18 What use is an idol shaped by its maker?
It is nothing but an image cast in metal; it teaches deception.
For a foolish idol-maker puts faith in his own creation,
a god that cannot speak.
19 Woe to him who says to a block of wood, “Wake up!”
or to a silent stone, “Arise!”
Are inanimate objects your teachers?
Look, it may be covered in gold and silver,
But there is no breath of life inside.
20 But the Eternal One is in His holy temple.
Let all the earth keep silent in His presence.
21 And then He turned His attention from the religious scholars to some wealthy people who were depositing their donations in the offering boxes. 2 A widow, obviously poor, came up and dropped two copper coins in one of the boxes.
Jesus: 3 I’m telling you the truth, this poor widow has made a bigger contribution than all of those rich fellows. 4 They’re just giving from their surplus, but she is giving from her poverty—she’s giving all she has to give.
5 Some people were impressed with the temple’s opulence—the precious stones and expensive decorations—but Jesus countered their observations.
Jesus: 6 Go ahead, look around, and be impressed; but days are coming when one stone will not be left standing on another. Everything here will be demolished.
Crowd: 7 When will this happen, Teacher? What signs will tell us this is about to occur?
Jesus: 8 Be careful. It’s easy to be deceived. Many people will come claiming to have My authority. They’ll shout, “I’m the One!” or “The time is now!” Don’t take a step in their direction. 9 You’ll hear about wars and conflicts, but don’t be frightened at all because these things must surely come, although they don’t signify the immediate coming of the end. 10 You can count on this: nation will attack nation, and kingdom will make war on kingdom. 11 There will be disturbances around the world—from great earthquakes to famines to epidemics. Terrifying things will happen, and there will be shocking signs from heaven. 12 But before any of this happens, they will capture you and persecute you. They’ll send you to synagogues for trial and to prisons for punishment; you’ll stand before kings and government officials for the sake of My name. 13 This will be your opportunity—your opportunity to tell your story. 14 Make up your mind in advance not to plan your strategy for answering their questions, 15 for when the time comes, I will give you the words to say—wise words—which none of your adversaries will be able to answer or argue against. 16 Your own parents, brothers, relatives, and friends will turn on you and turn you in. Some of you will be killed, 17 and all of you will be hated by everyone for the sake of My name.
18 But whatever happens, not a single hair of your heads will be harmed. 19 By enduring all of these things, you will find not loss but gain—not death but authentic life.
20 Here’s how you will know that the destruction of Jerusalem and her temple is imminent: Jerusalem will be surrounded by armies. 21 When that happens, there’s only one thing to do: if you’re in Judea, flee to the mountains; and if you’re inside the city, escape; and if you’re outside the city, stay there—don’t enter— 22 because the time has come for the promised judgment to fall. 23 How sad it will be for all the pregnant women, for all the nursing mothers in those days! All the land of Israel and all her people will feel the distress, the anger, falling on them like rain. 24 The sword will cut some down, the outsider nations will take others captive, and this holy city, this Jerusalem, will be trampled upon by the outsiders until their times are fulfilled.
25 There will be earth-shattering events—the heavens themselves will seem to be shaken with signs in the sun, in the moon, and in the stars. And across the earth the outsider nations will feel powerless and terrified in the face of a roaring flood of fear and foreboding, crashing like tidal waves upon them. 26 “What’s happening to the world?” people will wonder. The cosmic order will be destabilized. 27 And then, at that point, they will see the Son of Man coming in a cloud with power and blazing glory. 28 So when the troubles begin, don’t be afraid. Look up—raise your head high, because the truth is that your liberation is fast approaching.
29 (continuing with a parable) Look over there at that fig tree—and all the trees surrounding it. 30 When the leaves break out of their buds, nobody has to tell you that summer is approaching; it’s obvious to you. 31 It’s the same in the larger scheme of things. When you see all these things happening, you can be confident that the kingdom of God is approaching. 32 I’m telling you the truth: this generation will not pass from the scene before everything I’m telling you has occurred. 33 Heaven and earth will cease to exist before My words ever fail.
34 So be careful. Guard your hearts. They can be made heavy with moral laxity, with drunkenness, with the hassles of daily life. Then the day I’ve been telling you about might catch you unaware and trap you. 35 Because it’s coming—nobody on earth will escape it. 36 So you have to stay alert, praying that you’ll be able to escape the coming trials so you can stand tall in the presence of the Son of Man.
37-38 Through this whole period of time, He taught in the temple each day. People would arrive at the temple early in the morning to listen. Then, at day’s end, He would leave the city and sleep on Mount Olivet.
The Voice Bible Copyright © 2012 Thomas Nelson, Inc. The Voice™ translation © 2012 Ecclesia Bible Society All rights reserved.