Professor Horner’s Reading Plan

¹Then Jesus was approached by Pharisees and scribes from Jerusalem, who asked,

²“Why do your disciples break the tradition of the elders? For they don’t wash their hands when they eat.”

³He answered them, “Why do you break God’s commandment because of your tradition?

⁴For God said: Honor your father and your mother; and, Whoever speaks evil of father or mother must be put to death.

⁵But you say, ‘Whoever tells his father or mother, “Whatever benefit you might have received from me is a gift committed to the temple,”

⁶he does not have to honor his father.’ In this way, you have nullified the word of God because of your tradition.

⁷Hypocrites! Isaiah prophesied correctly about you when he said:

⁸ This people honors me with their lips, but their heart is far from me.

⁹ They worship me in vain, teaching as doctrines human commands.”

¹⁰Summoning the crowd, he told them, “Listen and understand:

¹¹It’s not what goes into the mouth that defiles a person, but what comes out of the mouth — this defiles a person.”

¹²Then the disciples came up and told him, “Do you know that the Pharisees took offense when they heard what you said?”

¹³He replied, “Every plant that my heavenly Father didn’t plant will be uprooted.

¹⁴Leave them alone! They are blind guides. And if the blind guide the blind, both will fall into a pit.”

¹⁵Then Peter said, “Explain this parable to us.”

¹⁶“Do you still lack understanding?” he asked.

¹⁷“Don’t you realize that whatever goes into the mouth passes into the stomach and is eliminated?

¹⁸But what comes out of the mouth comes from the heart, and this defiles a person.

¹⁹For from the heart come evil thoughts, murders, adulteries, sexual immoralities, thefts, false testimonies, slander.

²⁰These are the things that defile a person; but eating with unwashed hands does not defile a person.”

²¹When Jesus left there, he withdrew to the area of Tyre and Sidon.

²²Just then a Canaanite woman from that region came and kept crying out, “Have mercy on me, Lord, Son of David! My daughter is severely tormented by a demon.”

²³Jesus did not say a word to her. His disciples approached him and urged him, “Send her away because she’s crying out after us.”

²⁴He replied, “I was sent only to the lost sheep of the house of Israel.”

²⁵But she came, knelt before him, and said, “Lord, help me!”

²⁶He answered, “It isn’t right to take the children’s bread and throw it to the dogs.”

²⁷“Yes, Lord,” she said, “yet even the dogs eat the crumbs that fall from their masters’ table.”

²⁸Then Jesus replied to her, “Woman, your faith is great. Let it be done for you as you want.” And from that moment her daughter was healed.

²⁹Moving on from there, Jesus passed along the Sea of Galilee. He went up on a mountain and sat there,

³⁰and large crowds came to him, including the lame, the blind, the crippled, those unable to speak, and many others. They put them at his feet, and he healed them.

³¹So the crowd was amazed when they saw those unable to speak talking, the crippled restored, the lame walking, and the blind seeing, and they gave glory to the God of Israel.

³²Jesus called his disciples and said, “I have compassion on the crowd, because they’ve already stayed with me three days and have nothing to eat. I don’t want to send them away hungry, otherwise they might collapse on the way.”

³³The disciples said to him, “Where could we get enough bread in this desolate place to feed such a crowd?”

³⁴“How many loaves do you have?” Jesus asked them. “Seven,” they said, “and a few small fish.”

³⁵After commanding the crowd to sit down on the ground,

³⁶he took the seven loaves and the fish, gave thanks, broke them, and gave them to the disciples, and the disciples gave them to the crowds.

³⁷They all ate and were satisfied. They collected the leftover pieces — seven large baskets full.

³⁸Now there were four thousand men who had eaten, besides women and children.

³⁹After dismissing the crowds, he got into the boat and went to the region of Magadan.

¹When mankind began to multiply on the earth and daughters were born to them,

²the sons of God saw that the daughters of mankind were beautiful, and they took any they chose as wives for themselves.

³And the LORD said, “My Spirit will not remain with mankind forever, because they are corrupt. Their days will be 120 years.”

⁴The Nephilim were on the earth both in those days and afterward, when the sons of God came to the daughters of mankind, who bore children to them. They were the powerful men of old, the famous men.

⁵When the LORD saw that human wickedness was widespread on the earth and that every inclination of the human mind was nothing but evil all the time,

⁶the LORD regretted that he had made man on the earth, and he was deeply grieved.

⁷Then the LORD said, “I will wipe mankind, whom I created, off the face of the earth, together with the animals, creatures that crawl, and birds of the sky — for I regret that I made them.”

⁸Noah, however, found favor with the LORD.

⁹These are the family records of Noah. Noah was a righteous man, blameless among his contemporaries; Noah walked with God.

¹⁰And Noah fathered three sons: Shem, Ham, and Japheth.

¹¹Now the earth was corrupt in God’s sight, and the earth was filled with wickedness.

¹²God saw how corrupt the earth was, for every creature had corrupted its way on the earth.

¹³Then God said to Noah, “I have decided to put an end to every creature, for the earth is filled with wickedness because of them; therefore I am going to destroy them along with the earth.

¹⁴“Make yourself an ark of gopher wood. Make rooms in the ark, and cover it with pitch inside and outside.

¹⁵This is how you are to make it: The ark will be 450 feet long, 75 feet wide, and 45 feet high.

¹⁶You are to make a roof, finishing the sides of the ark to within eighteen inches of the roof. You are to put a door in the side of the ark. Make it with lower, middle, and upper decks.

¹⁷“Understand that I am bringing a flood — floodwaters on the earth to destroy every creature under heaven with the breath of life in it. Everything on earth will perish.

¹⁸But I will establish my covenant with you, and you will enter the ark with your sons, your wife, and your sons’ wives.

¹⁹You are also to bring into the ark two of all the living creatures, male and female, to keep them alive with you.

²⁰Two of everything — from the birds according to their kinds, from the livestock according to their kinds, and from the animals that crawl on the ground according to their kinds — will come to you so that you can keep them alive.

²¹Take with you every kind of food that is eaten; gather it as food for you and for them.”

²²And Noah did this. He did everything that God had commanded him.

¹For we know that if our earthly tent we live in is destroyed, we have a building from God, an eternal dwelling in the heavens, not made with hands.

²Indeed, we groan in this tent, desiring to put on our heavenly dwelling,

³since, when we have taken it off, we will not be found naked.

⁴Indeed, we groan while we are in this tent, burdened as we are, because we do not want to be unclothed but clothed, so that mortality may be swallowed up by life.

⁵Now the one who prepared us for this very purpose is God, who gave us the Spirit as a down payment.

⁶So we are always confident and know that while we are at home in the body we are away from the Lord.

⁷For we walk by faith, not by sight.

⁸In fact, we are confident, and we would prefer to be away from the body and at home with the Lord.

⁹Therefore, whether we are at home or away, we make it our aim to be pleasing to him.

¹⁰For we must all appear before the judgment seat of Christ, so that each may be repaid for what he has done in the body, whether good or evil.

¹¹Therefore, since we know the fear of the Lord, we try to persuade people. What we are is plain to God, and I hope it is also plain to your consciences.

¹²We are not commending ourselves to you again, but giving you an opportunity to be proud of us, so that you may have a reply for those who take pride in outward appearance rather than in the heart.

¹³For if we are out of our mind, it is for God; if we are in our right mind, it is for you.

¹⁴For the love of Christ compels us, since we have reached this conclusion: If one died for all, then all died.

¹⁵And he died for all so that those who live should no longer live for themselves, but for the one who died for them and was raised.

¹⁶From now on, then, we do not know anyone from a worldly perspective. Even if we have known Christ from a worldly perspective, yet now we no longer know him in this way.

¹⁷Therefore, if anyone is in Christ, he is a new creation; the old has passed away, and see, the new has come!

¹⁸Everything is from God, who has reconciled us to himself through Christ and has given us the ministry of reconciliation.

¹⁹That is, in Christ, God was reconciling the world to himself, not counting their trespasses against them, and he has committed the message of reconciliation to us.

²⁰Therefore, we are ambassadors for Christ, since God is making his appeal through us. We plead on Christ’s behalf: “Be reconciled to God.”

²¹He made the one who did not know sin to be sin for us, so that in him we might become the righteousness of God.

¹Then I saw an angel coming down from heaven holding the key to the abyss and a great chain in his hand.

²He seized the dragon, that ancient serpent who is the devil and Satan, and bound him for a thousand years.

³He threw him into the abyss, closed it, and put a seal on it so that he would no longer deceive the nations until the thousand years were completed. After that, he must be released for a short time.

⁴Then I saw thrones, and people seated on them who were given authority to judge. I also saw the souls of those who had been beheaded because of their testimony about Jesus and because of the word of God, who had not worshiped the beast or his image, and who had not accepted the mark on their foreheads or their hands. They came to life and reigned with Christ for a thousand years.

⁵The rest of the dead did not come to life until the thousand years were completed. This is the first resurrection.

⁶Blessed and holy is the one who shares in the first resurrection! The second death has no power over them, but they will be priests of God and of Christ, and they will reign with him for a thousand years.

⁷When the thousand years are completed, Satan will be released from his prison

⁸and will go out to deceive the nations at the four corners of the earth, Gog and Magog, to gather them for battle. Their number is like the sand of the sea.

⁹They came up across the breadth of the earth and surrounded the encampment of the saints, the beloved city. Then fire came down from heaven and consumed them.

¹⁰The devil who deceived them was thrown into the lake of fire and sulfur where the beast and the false prophet are, and they will be tormented day and night forever and ever.

¹¹Then I saw a great white throne and one seated on it. Earth and heaven fled from his presence, and no place was found for them.

¹²I also saw the dead, the great and the small, standing before the throne, and books were opened. Another book was opened, which is the book of life, and the dead were judged according to their works by what was written in the books.

¹³Then the sea gave up the dead that were in it, and death and Hades gave up the dead that were in them; each one was judged according to their works.

¹⁴Death and Hades were thrown into the lake of fire. This is the second death, the lake of fire.

¹⁵And anyone whose name was not found written in the book of life was thrown into the lake of fire.

¹Isn’t each person consigned to forced labor on earth? Are not his days like those of a hired worker?

²Like a slave he longs for shade; like a hired worker he waits for his pay.

³So I have been made to inherit months of futility, and troubled nights have been assigned to me.

⁴When I lie down I think, “When will I get up?” But the evening drags on endlessly, and I toss and turn until dawn.

⁵My flesh is clothed with maggots and encrusted with dirt. My skin forms scabs and then oozes.

⁶My days pass more swiftly than a weaver’s shuttle; they come to an end without hope.

⁷Remember that my life is but a breath. My eye will never again see anything good.

⁸The eye of anyone who looks on me will no longer see me. Your eyes will look for me, but I will be gone.

⁹As a cloud fades away and vanishes, so the one who goes down to Sheol will never rise again.

¹⁰He will never return to his house; his hometown will no longer remember him.

¹¹Therefore I will not restrain my mouth. I will speak in the anguish of my spirit; I will complain in the bitterness of my soul.

¹²Am I the sea or a sea monster, that you keep me under guard?

¹³When I say, “My bed will comfort me, and my couch will ease my complaint,”

¹⁴then you frighten me with dreams, and terrify me with visions,

¹⁵so that I prefer strangling  — death rather than life in this body.

¹⁶I give up! I will not live forever. Leave me alone, for my days are a breath.

¹⁷What is a mere human, that you think so highly of him and pay so much attention to him?

¹⁸You inspect him every morning, and put him to the test every moment.

¹⁹Will you ever look away from me, or leave me alone long enough to swallow?

²⁰If I have sinned, what have I done to you, Watcher of humanity? Why have you made me your target, so that I have become a burden to you?

²¹Why not forgive my sin and pardon my iniquity? For soon I will lie down in the grave. You will eagerly seek me, but I will be gone.

¹Vindicate me, God, and champion my cause against an unfaithful nation; rescue me from the deceitful and unjust person.

²For you are the God of my refuge. Why have you rejected me? Why must I go about in sorrow because of the enemy’s oppression?

³Send your light and your truth; let them lead me. Let them bring me to your holy mountain, to your dwelling place.

⁴Then I will come to the altar of God, to God, my greatest joy. I will praise you with the lyre, God, my God.

⁵Why, my soul, are you so dejected? Why are you in such turmoil? Put your hope in God, for I will still praise him, my Savior and my God.

¹My son, obey my words, and treasure my commands.

²Keep my commands and live, and guard my instructions as you would the pupil of your eye.

³Tie them to your fingers; write them on the tablet of your heart.

⁴Say to wisdom, “You are my sister,” and call understanding your relative.

⁵She will keep you from a forbidden woman, a wayward woman with her flattering talk.

⁶At the window of my house I looked through my lattice.

⁷I saw among the inexperienced, I noticed among the youths, a young man lacking sense.

⁸Crossing the street near her corner, he strolled down the road to her house

⁹at twilight, in the evening, in the dark of the night.

¹⁰A woman came to meet him dressed like a prostitute, having a hidden agenda.

¹¹She is loud and defiant; her feet do not stay at home.

¹²Now in the street, now in the squares, she lurks at every corner.

¹³She grabs him and kisses him; she brazenly says to him,

¹⁴“I’ve made fellowship offerings; today I’ve fulfilled my vows.

¹⁵So I came out to meet you, to search for you, and I’ve found you.

¹⁶I’ve spread coverings on my bed  — richly colored linen from Egypt.

¹⁷I’ve perfumed my bed with myrrh, aloes, and cinnamon.

¹⁸Come, let’s drink deeply of lovemaking until morning. Let’s feast on each other’s love!

¹⁹My husband isn’t home; he went on a long journey.

²⁰He took a bag of silver with him and will come home at the time of the full moon.”

²¹She seduces him with her persistent pleading; she lures with her flattering talk.

²²He follows her impulsively like an ox going to the slaughter, like a deer bounding toward a trap

²³until an arrow pierces its liver, like a bird darting into a snare  — he doesn’t know it will cost him his life.

²⁴Now, sons, listen to me, and pay attention to the words from my mouth.

²⁵Don’t let your heart turn aside to her ways; don’t stray onto her paths.

²⁶For she has brought many down to death; her victims are countless.

²⁷Her house is the road to Sheol, descending to the chambers of death.

¹In the eighteenth year of Israel’s King Jeroboam, Abijah became king over Judah,

²and he reigned three years in Jerusalem. His mother’s name was Micaiah daughter of Uriel; she was from Gibeah. There was war between Abijah and Jeroboam.

³Abijah set his army of warriors in order with four hundred thousand fit young men. Jeroboam arranged his mighty army of eight hundred thousand fit young men in battle formation against him.

⁴Then Abijah stood on Mount Zemaraim, which is in the hill country of Ephraim, and said, “Jeroboam and all Israel, hear me.

⁵Don’t you know that the LORD God of Israel gave the kingship over Israel to David and his descendants forever by a covenant of salt?

⁶But Jeroboam son of Nebat, a servant of Solomon son of David, rose up and rebelled against his lord.

⁷Then worthless and wicked men gathered around him to resist Rehoboam son of Solomon when Rehoboam was young, inexperienced, and unable to assert himself against them.

⁸“And now you are saying you can assert yourselves against the LORD’s kingdom, which is in the hand of one of David’s sons. You are a vast number and have with you the golden calves that Jeroboam made for you as gods.

⁹Didn’t you banish the priests of the LORD, the descendants of Aaron and the Levites, and make your own priests like the peoples of other lands do? Whoever comes to ordain himself with a young bull and seven rams may become a priest of what are not gods.

¹⁰“But as for us, the LORD is our God. We have not abandoned him; the priests ministering to the LORD are descendants of Aaron, and the Levites serve at their tasks.

¹¹They offer a burnt offering and fragrant incense to the LORD every morning and every evening, and they set the rows of the Bread of the Presence on the ceremonially clean table. They light the lamps of the gold lampstand every evening. We are carrying out the requirements of the LORD our God, while you have abandoned him.

¹²Look, God and his priests are with us at our head. The trumpets are ready to sound the charge against you. Israelites, don’t fight against the LORD God of your ancestors, for you will not succeed.”

¹³Now Jeroboam had sent an ambush around to advance from behind them. So they were in front of Judah, and the ambush was behind them.

¹⁴Judah turned and discovered that the battle was in front of them and behind them, so they cried out to the LORD. Then the priests blew the trumpets,

¹⁵and the men of Judah raised the battle cry. When the men of Judah raised the battle cry, God routed Jeroboam and all Israel before Abijah and Judah.

¹⁶So the Israelites fled before Judah, and God handed them over to them.

¹⁷Then Abijah and his people struck them with a mighty blow, and five hundred thousand fit young men of Israel were killed.

¹⁸The Israelites were subdued at that time. The Judahites succeeded because they depended on the LORD, the God of their ancestors.

¹⁹Abijah pursued Jeroboam and captured some cities from him: Bethel, Jeshanah, and Ephron, along with their surrounding villages.

²⁰Jeroboam no longer retained his power during Abijah’s reign; ultimately, the LORD struck him and he died.

²¹However, Abijah grew strong, acquired fourteen wives, and fathered twenty-two sons and sixteen daughters.

²²The rest of the events of Abijah’s reign, along with his ways and his sayings, are written in the Writing of the Prophet Iddo.

¹Israel is a lush vine; it yields fruit for itself. The more his fruit increased, the more he increased the altars. The better his land produced, the better they made the sacred pillars.

²Their hearts are devious; now they must bear their guilt. The LORD will break down their altars and demolish their sacred pillars.

³In fact, they are now saying, “We have no king! For we do not fear the LORD. What can a king do for us?”

⁴They speak mere words, taking false oaths while making covenants. So lawsuits break out like poisonous weeds in the furrows of a field.

⁵The residents of Samaria will have anxiety over the calf of Beth-aven. Indeed, its idolatrous priests rejoiced over it; the people will mourn over it, over its glory. It will certainly go into exile.

⁶The calf itself will be taken to Assyria as an offering to the great king. Ephraim will experience shame; Israel will be ashamed of its counsel.

⁷Samaria’s king will disappear like foam on the surface of the water.

⁸The high places of Aven, the sin of Israel, will be destroyed; thorns and thistles will grow over their altars. They will say to the mountains, “Cover us!” and to the hills, “Fall on us!”

⁹Israel, you have sinned since the days of Gibeah; they have taken their stand there. Will not war against the unjust overtake them in Gibeah?

¹⁰I will discipline them at my discretion; nations will be gathered against them to put them in bondage for their double iniquity.

¹¹Ephraim is a well-trained calf that loves to thresh, but I will place a yoke on her fine neck. I will harness Ephraim; Judah will plow; Jacob will do the final plowing.

¹²Sow righteousness for yourselves and reap faithful love; break up your unplowed ground. It is time to seek the LORD until he comes and sends righteousness on you like the rain.

¹³You have plowed wickedness and reaped injustice; you have eaten the fruit of lies. Because you have trusted in your own way and in your large number of soldiers,

¹⁴the roar of battle will rise against your people, and all your fortifications will be demolished in a day of war, like Shalman’s destruction of Beth-arbel. Mothers will be dashed to pieces along with their children.

¹⁵So it will be done to you, Bethel, because of your extreme evil. At dawn the king of Israel will be totally destroyed.

¹Three days after Festus arrived in the province, he went up to Jerusalem from Caesarea.

²The chief priests and the leaders of the Jews presented their case against Paul to him; and they appealed,

³asking for a favor against Paul, that Festus summon him to Jerusalem. They were, in fact, preparing an ambush along the road to kill him.

⁴Festus, however, answered that Paul should be kept at Caesarea, and that he himself was about to go there shortly.

⁵“Therefore,” he said, “let those of you who have authority go down with me and accuse him, if he has done anything wrong.”

⁶When he had spent not more than eight or ten days among them, he went down to Caesarea. The next day, seated at the tribunal, he commanded Paul to be brought in.

⁷When he arrived, the Jews who had come down from Jerusalem stood around him and brought many serious charges that they were not able to prove.

⁸Then Paul made his defense: “Neither against the Jewish law, nor against the temple, nor against Caesar have I sinned in any way.”

⁹But Festus, wanting to do the Jews a favor, replied to Paul, “Are you willing to go up to Jerusalem to be tried before me there on these charges?”

¹⁰Paul replied: “I am standing at Caesar’s tribunal, where I ought to be tried. I have done no wrong to the Jews, as even you yourself know very well.

¹¹If then I did anything wrong and am deserving of death, I am not trying to escape death; but if there is nothing to what these men accuse me of, no one can give me up to them. I appeal to Caesar!”

¹²Then after Festus conferred with his council, he replied, “You have appealed to Caesar; to Caesar you will go.”

¹³Several days later, King Agrippa and Bernice arrived in Caesarea and paid a courtesy call on Festus.

¹⁴Since they were staying there several days, Festus presented Paul’s case to the king, saying, “There’s a man who was left as a prisoner by Felix.

¹⁵When I was in Jerusalem, the chief priests and the elders of the Jews presented their case and asked that he be condemned.

¹⁶I answered them that it is not the Roman custom to give someone up before the accused faces the accusers and has an opportunity for a defense against the charges.

¹⁷So when they had assembled here, I did not delay. The next day I took my seat at the tribunal and ordered the man to be brought in.

¹⁸The accusers stood up but brought no charge against him of the evils I was expecting.

¹⁹Instead they had some disagreements with him about their own religion and about a certain Jesus, a dead man Paul claimed to be alive.

²⁰Since I was at a loss in a dispute over such things, I asked him if he wanted to go to Jerusalem and be tried there regarding these matters.

²¹But when Paul appealed to be held for trial by the Emperor, I ordered him to be kept in custody until I could send him to Caesar.”

²²Agrippa said to Festus, “I would like to hear the man myself.” “Tomorrow you will hear him,” he replied.

²³So the next day, Agrippa and Bernice came with great pomp and entered the auditorium with the military commanders and prominent men of the city. When Festus gave the command, Paul was brought in.

²⁴Then Festus said: “King Agrippa and all men present with us, you see this man. The whole Jewish community has appealed to me concerning him, both in Jerusalem and here, shouting that he should not live any longer.

²⁵I found that he had not done anything deserving of death, but when he himself appealed to the Emperor, I decided to send him.

²⁶I have nothing definite to write to my lord about him. Therefore, I have brought him before all of you, and especially before you, King Agrippa, so that after this examination is over, I may have something to write.

²⁷For it seems unreasonable to me to send a prisoner without indicating the charges against him.”