M’Cheyne Bible Reading Plan

Abijam (Abijah) Son of Rehoboam, King of Judah

15 In the eighteenth year of King Jeroboam son of Nebat, Abijam^[a] became king over Judah. ² He ruled for three years in Jerusalem. His mother’s name was Ma’akah, granddaughter of Abishalom.^{[b] 3} He walked in all the sins which his father had practiced before him, and his heart was not fully devoted to the Lord as the heart of his grandfather David had been. ⁴ But for the sake of David, the Lord his God gave him a lamp in Jerusalem by raising up his son after him and by making Jerusalem strong. ⁵ He did this because David had done what was right in the eyes of the Lord, and he did not turn from all that the Lord commanded all the days of his life, except in the matter of Uriah the Hittite.

⁶ There was war between Rehoboam and Jeroboam all the days of his life. ⁷ As for the rest of Abijam’s acts and everything he did, are they not written in the annals of the kings of Judah? There was war between Abijam and Jeroboam. ⁸ Abijam rested with his fathers, and they buried him in the City of David. Then his son Asa became king in his place.

Asa Son of Abijam, King of Judah

⁹ In the twentieth year of Jeroboam king of Israel, Asa king of Judah became king. ¹⁰ He ruled for forty-one years in Jerusalem. His grandmother’s^[c] name was Ma’akah granddaughter of Abishalom. ¹¹ Asa did what was right in the eyes of the Lord as his father David had done. ¹² He drove the male shrine prostitutes out of the land, and he removed all the filthy idols which his fathers had made. ¹³ In addition, he also removed his grandmother Ma’akah from being queen mother because she had made an obscene image of Asherah. Asa cut down her obscene image and burned it in the Kidron Valley. ¹⁴ But the high places were not removed. Nevertheless, Asa’s heart was fully committed to the Lord all his days. ¹⁵ He brought silver and gold and vessels and utensils into the House of the Lord as dedicated offerings for himself and his father.

¹⁶ There was war between Asa and Ba’asha king of Israel throughout all their days. ¹⁷ Ba’asha king of Israel attacked Judah, and he fortified Ramah in order to prevent anyone from going out or coming in to Asa king of Judah. ¹⁸ So Asa took all the silver and gold that was left in the treasuries of the House of the Lord and the treasuries of the king’s palace, and he gave them to his officials. Then King Asa sent them to Ben Hadad son of Tabrimmon, the son of Hezion king of Aram, who was living in Damascus. ¹⁹ He said, “There should be a treaty between you and me as there was between my father and your father. Look, I am sending you a gift of silver and gold. Come, break your treaty with Ba’asha king of Israel, so that he will withdraw from me.”

²⁰ Ben Hadad listened to King Asa and sent the commanders of his army against the cities of Israel. They attacked Ijon, Dan, Abel Beth Ma’akah, and all of Kinneret, as well as all the land of Naphtali. ²¹ When Ba’asha heard about this, he stopped fortifying Ramah, and he stayed in Tirzah. ²² Then King Asa summoned all Judah—no one was exempt—and they carried away the stones of Ramah and the timber with which Ba’asha had been building, and King Asa used them to fortify Geba in Benjamin and Mizpah.

(2 Chronicles 16:11–17:1)

²³ As for all the rest of Asa’s acts and all his mighty deeds and everything else he did and the cities he built, are they not written in the annals of the kings of Judah? But in his old age his feet became diseased. ²⁴ Asa rested with his fathers, and they buried him in the City of David. Then his son Jehoshaphat became king in his place.

Nadab Son of Jeroboam, King of Israel

²⁵ Nadab son of Jeroboam became king over Israel in the second year of Asa king of Judah. He ruled over Israel for two years. ²⁶ He did evil in the eyes of the Lord. He walked in the ways of his father and in the sin which he had caused Israel to commit. ²⁷ Ba’asha son of Ahijah from the house of Issachar conspired against him and struck him down in Gibbethon, which belongs to the Philistines. (Nadab and all Israel were laying siege to Gibbethon.) ²⁸ Ba’asha killed him in the third year of Asa king of Judah and became king in his place.

Ba’asha Son of Ahijah, King of Israel

²⁹ When Ba’asha became king, he struck down the whole house of Jeroboam, until it was exterminated according to the word of the Lord, which he had spoken through his servant Ahijah from Shiloh. For Jeroboam’s house he did not spare anyone who breathed, ³⁰ because of the sins which Jeroboam committed and which he caused Israel to commit when he provoked the Lord, the God of Israel, to anger.

³¹ As for the rest of Nadab’s acts and everything he did, are they not written in the annals of the kings of Israel? ³² There was war between Asa and Ba’asha king of Israel all their days. ³³ In the third year of Asa king of Judah, Ba’asha son of Ahijah became king over all Israel in Tirzah and reigned for twenty-four years. ³⁴ He did evil in the eyes of the Lord by walking in the way of Jeroboam and in the sins that Jeroboam had caused Israel to commit.

2 Indeed, I want you to know how much I am struggling for you and for those in Laodicea, and for all those who have not seen me personally. ² I am doing this so that their hearts may be encouraged as they are brought together in love, and into all the wealth of assurance that understanding brings, into the knowledge of the mystery of God, which is Christ.^{[a] 3} All the treasures of wisdom and knowledge are hidden in him.

⁴ I say this so that no one deceives you with persuasive speech that sounds reasonable. ⁵ For though I am absent bodily, I am with you in spirit, rejoicing to see your orderliness and the firmness of your faith in Christ.

The Fullness That Is Ours in Christ

⁶ Therefore, just as you received Christ Jesus as Lord, continue to walk in him, ⁷ by being rooted and built up in him, and strengthened in the faith just as you were taught, while you overflow in faith^[b] with thanksgiving.

⁸ See to it that no one takes you captive through philosophy and empty deceit, which are in accord with human tradition, namely, the basic principles of the world, but not in accord with Christ. ⁹ For all the fullness of God’s being dwells bodily in Christ. ¹⁰ And you have been brought to fullness in him. Christ is the head over every ruler and authority. ¹¹ You were also circumcised in him, with a circumcision not done by human hands, in the putting off of the body of flesh,^[c] in the circumcision of Christ, ¹² when you were buried with Christ in baptism. And in baptism you were also raised with him through the faith worked by the God who raised Christ from the dead.

¹³ Even when you were dead in your trespasses and the uncircumcision of your flesh, God made you alive with Christ by forgiving us all our trespasses. ¹⁴ God erased the record of our debt brought against us by his legal demands. This record stood against us, but he took it away by nailing it to the cross. ¹⁵ After disarming the rulers and authorities, he made a public display of them by triumphing over them in Christ.

Paul Addresses the False Teaching

¹⁶ Therefore, do not let anyone judge you in regard to food or drink, or in regard to a festival or a New Moon or a Sabbath day. ¹⁷ These are a shadow of the things that were coming, but the body belongs to Christ. ¹⁸ Do not let anyone who enjoys false humility and the worship of angels tell you that you are disqualified from the prize. This person goes into detail about what he has seen.^[d] He is puffed up for no reason by the attitude of his sinful flesh. ¹⁹ He does not hold on to the head, from whom the whole body grows with the growth that comes from God as it is supported and held together by its sinews and ligaments.

Human Traditions Do Not Restrain the Flesh

²⁰ If you died with Christ to the basic principles of the world, why do you submit to its rules, as if you were still living in the world? ²¹ “Do not touch!” “Do not taste!” “Do not handle!” ²² All of these rules end in destruction when they are used, because they are in accord with human commands and teachings. ²³ While such rules have the appearance of wisdom with self-chosen religion, which consists of humiliation and severe treatment of the body, they have no value at all in checking the self-indulgence of the sinful flesh.

Property for the Lord,
for the Priests, and for the Prince

45 When you cast lots to divide the land as an inheritance, you are to devote a contribution to the Lord, a holy area of the land. Its length is to be twenty-five thousand cubits and its width twenty thousand cubits.^[a] Its entire area will be holy.

² Within this area, a square five hundred by five hundred cubits^[b] is to be set aside for the sanctuary. There is also to be an open area of fifty cubits all around it.

³ From this measured area, you are to measure off a separate area which has a length of twenty-five thousand cubits and a width of ten thousand cubits. The sanctuary, the most holy place, will be in it. ⁴ It is to be a holy area of the land.^[c] It will be for the priests, the ministers of the sanctuary, who draw near to serve the Lord. It will be a place for their houses, as well as a holy place for the sanctuary.

⁵ Also an area twenty-five thousand cubits long and ten thousand cubits wide will be set aside for the Levites, the servants of the temple, as their possession, to provide them with cities to live in.^[d][e]

⁶ As the city’s property, you are to assign an area five thousand cubits wide and twenty-five thousand cubits long^[f] along one side of the holy contribution.^[g] It will belong to the whole house of Israel.

⁷ For the prince, an area is to be set aside on both sides of the holy contribution and of the area for the city. It will run alongside the holy contribution and alongside the city’s property. On the west side of the city, it will extend west along the tribal boundaries to the western boundary of the land, and on the east side, it will extend eastward in the same way. ⁸ This land is to be the prince’s property in Israel, so that my princes will no longer oppress my people but will allot the land to the house of Israel according to their tribes.

⁹ This is what the Lord God says. You have done enough, you princes of Israel! Remove violence and mayhem, and practice justice and righteousness. Remove the burden from my people that you caused by evicting them from their land, declares the Lord God.

¹⁰ You must have honest scales, an honest ephah, and an honest bath.^{[h] 11} The ephah and the bath are to follow one uniform standard. The bath will hold one tenth of a homer, and the ephah will hold one tenth of a homer. The standard is to be based on the homer. ¹² The shekel is to be twenty gerahs. Twenty shekels, twenty-five shekels, and fifteen shekels will be the weight of your mina.^[i]

Offerings and Festivals

¹³ This is the special contribution you should dedicate: Take one sixth of an ephah from each homer of wheat, and take one sixth of an ephah from each homer of barley.^{[j] 14} The prescribed portion of oil (the bath is the standard measure for the oil) is one tenth of a bath from each kor.^[k] Ten baths make a kor, and ten baths are a homer.

¹⁵ Furthermore, one sheep shall be given from every flock, that is, from every two hundred sheep that comprise a flock from the well-watered land of Israel. These are for the grain offerings, the burnt offerings, and the fellowship offerings, to make atonement for them, declares the Lord God. ¹⁶ All the people of the land are to contribute to this offering for the prince in Israel.

¹⁷ The prince then is responsible for the burnt offerings, the grain offerings, and the drink offerings on the festivals, on the New Moons, and on the Sabbaths, that is, on all the appointed festivals for the house of Israel. He himself will provide the sin offering, the grain offering, the burnt offering, and the fellowship offering, to make atonement on behalf of the house of Israel.

¹⁸ This is what the Lord God says. In the first month, on the first day of the month, you are to take a young bull without blemish and purify the sanctuary. ¹⁹ The priest is to take some of the blood of the sin offering and put it on the doorpost of the temple, on the four corners of the ledge of the altar, and on the post of the gate of the inner courtyard. ²⁰ You are to do so also on the seventh day of the month, for the sake of anyone who sins inadvertently or in ignorance, and so you shall make atonement for the temple.

²¹ In the first month, on the fourteenth day of the month, you shall hold the Passover. During the festival, consisting of a week of seven days, unleavened bread must be eaten. ²² On that day the prince is to provide, on behalf of himself and all the people of the land, a bull for a sin offering. ²³ On the seven days of the festival he is to provide a burnt offering for the Lord: seven bulls and seven rams without blemish for each day of the seven days, as well as a male goat for a sin offering for each day. ²⁴ As a grain offering he is to provide an ephah for each bull and an ephah for each ram, and a hin of oil for each ephah.

²⁵ In the seventh month, at the festival starting on the fifteenth day of the month, he is to provide for seven days according to these same instructions, in regard to the sin offering, the burnt offering, the grain offering, and the oil.

Psalm 99

The Holy One Rules in Israel

Admonition to the Nations

Refrain

He is holy!

Assurance to Israel

Refrain

He is holy!

Examples From History

Concluding Refrain

Psalm 100

He Rules His People

Heading
A psalm for giving thanks.

Know That the Lord Is God

Psalm 101

The Good Ruler

Heading
By David. A psalm.

The Righteousness of the Lord

The Righteousness of the King

Righteousness in His Court