Professor Horner’s Reading Plan

¹He looked up and saw the rich dropping their offerings into the temple treasury.

²He also saw a poor widow dropping in two tiny coins.

³“Truly I tell you,” he said. “This poor widow has put in more than all of them.

⁴For all these people have put in gifts out of their surplus, but she out of her poverty has put in all she had to live on.”

⁵As some were talking about the temple, how it was adorned with beautiful stones and gifts dedicated to God, he said,

⁶“These things that you see — the days will come when not one stone will be left on another that will not be thrown down.”

⁷“Teacher,” they asked him, “so when will these things happen? And what will be the sign when these things are about to take place?”

⁸Then he said, “Watch out that you are not deceived. For many will come in my name, saying, ‘I am he,’ and, ‘The time is near.’ Don’t follow them.

⁹When you hear of wars and rebellions, don’t be alarmed. Indeed, it is necessary that these things take place first, but the end won’t come right away.”

¹⁰Then he told them: “Nation will be raised up against nation, and kingdom against kingdom.

¹¹There will be violent earthquakes, and famines and plagues in various places, and there will be terrifying sights and great signs from heaven.

¹²But before all these things, they will lay their hands on you and persecute you. They will hand you over to the synagogues and prisons, and you will be brought before kings and governors because of my name.

¹³This will give you an opportunity to bear witness.

¹⁴Therefore make up your minds not to prepare your defense ahead of time,

¹⁵for I will give you such words and a wisdom that none of your adversaries will be able to resist or contradict.

¹⁶You will even be betrayed by parents, brothers, relatives, and friends. They will kill some of you.

¹⁷You will be hated by everyone because of my name,

¹⁸but not a hair of your head will be lost.

¹⁹By your endurance, gain your lives.

²⁰“When you see Jerusalem surrounded by armies, then recognize that its desolation has come near.

²¹Then those in Judea must flee to the mountains. Those inside the city must leave it, and those who are in the country must not enter it,

²²because these are days of vengeance to fulfill all the things that are written.

²³Woe to pregnant women and nursing mothers in those days, for there will be great distress in the land and wrath against this people.

²⁴They will be killed by the sword and be led captive into all the nations, and Jerusalem will be trampled by the Gentiles until the times of the Gentiles are fulfilled.

²⁵“Then there will be signs in the sun, moon, and stars; and there will be anguish on the earth among nations bewildered by the roaring of the sea and the waves.

²⁶People will faint from fear and expectation of the things that are coming on the world, because the powers of the heavens will be shaken.

²⁷Then they will see the Son of Man coming in a cloud with power and great glory.

²⁸But when these things begin to take place, stand up and lift up your heads, because your redemption is near.”

²⁹Then he told them a parable: “Look at the fig tree, and all the trees.

³⁰As soon as they put out leaves you can see for yourselves and recognize that summer is already near.

³¹In the same way, when you see these things happening, recognize that the kingdom of God is near.

³²Truly I tell you, this generation will certainly not pass away until all things take place.

³³Heaven and earth will pass away, but my words will never pass away.

³⁴“Be on your guard, so that your minds are not dulled from carousing, drunkenness, and worries of life, or that day will come on you unexpectedly

³⁵like a trap. For it will come on all who live on the face of the whole earth.

³⁶But be alert at all times, praying that you may have strength to escape all these things that are going to take place and to stand before the Son of Man.”

³⁷During the day, he was teaching in the temple, but in the evening he would go out and spend the night on what is called the Mount of Olives.

³⁸Then all the people would come early in the morning to hear him in the temple.

¹But the LORD replied to Moses, “Now you will see what I will do to Pharaoh: because of a strong hand he will let them go, and because of a strong hand he will drive them from his land.”

²Then God spoke to Moses, telling him, “I am the LORD.

³I appeared to Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob as God Almighty, but I was not known to them by my name ‘the LORD.’

⁴I also established my covenant with them to give them the land of Canaan, the land they lived in as aliens.

⁵Furthermore, I have heard the groaning of the Israelites, whom the Egyptians are forcing to work as slaves, and I have remembered my covenant.

⁶“Therefore tell the Israelites: I am the LORD, and I will bring you out from the forced labor of the Egyptians and rescue you from slavery to them. I will redeem you with an outstretched arm and great acts of judgment.

⁷I will take you as my people, and I will be your God. You will know that I am the LORD your God, who brought you out from the forced labor of the Egyptians.

⁸I will bring you to the land that I swore to give to Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob, and I will give it to you as a possession. I am the LORD.”

⁹Moses told this to the Israelites, but they did not listen to him because of their broken spirit and hard labor.

¹⁰Then the LORD spoke to Moses,

¹¹“Go and tell Pharaoh king of Egypt to let the Israelites go from his land.”

¹²But Moses said in the LORD’s presence: “If the Israelites will not listen to me, then how will Pharaoh listen to me, since I am such a poor speaker?”

¹³Then the LORD spoke to Moses and Aaron and gave them commands concerning both the Israelites and Pharaoh king of Egypt to bring the Israelites out of the land of Egypt.

¹⁴These are the heads of their fathers’ families: The sons of Reuben, the firstborn of Israel: Hanoch and Pallu, Hezron and Carmi. These are the clans of Reuben.

¹⁵The sons of Simeon: Jemuel, Jamin, Ohad, Jachin, Zohar, and Shaul, the son of a Canaanite woman. These are the clans of Simeon.

¹⁶These are the names of the sons of Levi according to their family records; Gershon, Kohath, and Merari. Levi lived 137 years.

¹⁷The sons of Gershon: Libni and Shimei, by their clans.

¹⁸The sons of Kohath: Amram, Izhar, Hebron, and Uzziel. Kohath lived 133 years.

¹⁹The sons of Merari: Mahli and Mushi. These are the clans of the Levites according to their family records.

²⁰Amram married his father’s sister Jochebed, and she bore him Aaron and Moses. Amram lived 137 years.

²¹The sons of Izhar: Korah, Nepheg, and Zichri.

²²The sons of Uzziel: Mishael, Elzaphan, and Sithri.

²³Aaron married Elisheba, daughter of Amminadab and sister of Nahshon. She bore him Nadab and Abihu, Eleazar and Ithamar.

²⁴The sons of Korah: Assir, Elkanah, and Abiasaph. These are the clans of the Korahites.

²⁵Aaron’s son Eleazar married one of the daughters of Putiel, and she bore him Phinehas. These are the heads of the Levite families by their clans.

²⁶It was this Aaron and Moses whom the LORD told, “Bring the Israelites out of the land of Egypt according to their military divisions.”

²⁷Moses and Aaron were the ones who spoke to Pharaoh king of Egypt in order to bring the Israelites out of Egypt.

²⁸On the day the LORD spoke to Moses in the land of Egypt,

²⁹he said to him, “I am the LORD; tell Pharaoh king of Egypt everything I am telling you.”

³⁰But Moses replied in the LORD’s presence, “Since I am such a poor speaker, how will Pharaoh listen to me?”

¹I speak the truth in Christ  — I am not lying; my conscience testifies to me through the Holy Spirit  —

²that I have great sorrow and unceasing anguish in my heart.

³For I could wish that I myself were cursed and cut off from Christ for the benefit of my brothers and sisters, my own flesh and blood.

⁴They are Israelites, and to them belong the adoption, the glory, the covenants, the giving of the law, the temple service, and the promises.

⁵The ancestors are theirs, and from them, by physical descent, came the Christ, who is God over all, praised forever. Amen.

⁶Now it is not as though the word of God has failed, because not all who are descended from Israel are Israel.

⁷Neither are all of Abraham’s children his descendants. On the contrary, your offspring will be traced through Isaac.

⁸That is, it is not the children by physical descent who are God’s children, but the children of the promise are considered to be the offspring.

⁹For this is the statement of the promise: At this time I will come, and Sarah will have a son.

¹⁰And not only that, but Rebekah conceived children through one man, our father Isaac.

¹¹For though her sons had not been born yet or done anything good or bad, so that God’s purpose according to election might stand —

¹²not from works but from the one who calls — she was told, The older will serve the younger.

¹³As it is written: I have loved Jacob, but I have hated Esau.

¹⁴What should we say then? Is there injustice with God? Absolutely not!

¹⁵For he tells Moses, I will show mercy to whom I will show mercy, and I will have compassion on whom I will have compassion.

¹⁶So then, it does not depend on human will or effort but on God who shows mercy.

¹⁷For the Scripture tells Pharaoh, I raised you up for this reason so that I may display my power in you and that my name may be proclaimed in the whole earth.

¹⁸So then, he has mercy on whom he wants to have mercy and he hardens whom he wants to harden.

¹⁹You will say to me, therefore, “Why then does he still find fault? For who can resist his will?”

²⁰But who are you, a mere man, to talk back to God? Will what is formed say to the one who formed it, “Why did you make me like this?”

²¹Or has the potter no right over the clay, to make from the same lump one piece of pottery for honor and another for dishonor?

²²And what if God, wanting to display his wrath and to make his power known, endured with much patience objects of wrath prepared for destruction?

²³And what if he did this to make known the riches of his glory on objects of mercy that he prepared beforehand for glory  —

²⁴on us, the ones he also called, not only from the Jews but also from the Gentiles?

²⁵As it also says in Hosea, I will call Not My People, My People, and she who is Unloved, Beloved.

²⁶And it will be in the place where they were told, you are not my people, there they will be called sons of the living God.

²⁷But Isaiah cries out concerning Israel, Though the number of Israelites is like the sand of the sea, only the remnant will be saved;

²⁸since the Lord will execute his sentence completely and decisively on the earth.

²⁹And just as Isaiah predicted: If the Lord of Hosts had not left us offspring, we would have become like Sodom, and we would have been made like Gomorrah.

³⁰What should we say then? Gentiles, who did not pursue righteousness, have obtained righteousness — namely the righteousness that comes from faith.

³¹But Israel, pursuing the law of righteousness, has not achieved the righteousness of the law.

³²Why is that? Because they did not pursue it by faith, but as if it were by works. They stumbled over the stumbling stone.

³³As it is written, Look, I am putting a stone in Zion to stumble over and a rock to trip over, and the one who believes on him will not be put to shame.

¹Then I saw in the right hand of the one seated on the throne a scroll with writing on both sides, sealed with seven seals.

²I also saw a mighty angel proclaiming with a loud voice, “Who is worthy to open the scroll and break its seals?”

³But no one in heaven or on earth or under the earth was able to open the scroll or even to look in it.

⁴I wept and wept because no one was found worthy to open the scroll or even to look in it.

⁵Then one of the elders said to me, “Do not weep. Look, the Lion from the tribe of Judah, the Root of David, has conquered so that he is able to open the scroll and its seven seals.”

⁶Then I saw one like a slaughtered lamb standing in the midst of the throne and the four living creatures and among the elders. He had seven horns and seven eyes, which are the seven spirits of God sent into all the earth.

⁷He went and took the scroll out of the right hand of the one seated on the throne.

⁸When he took the scroll, the four living creatures and the twenty-four elders fell down before the Lamb. Each one had a harp and golden bowls filled with incense, which are the prayers of the saints.

⁹And they sang a new song: You are worthy to take the scroll and to open its seals, because you were slaughtered, and you purchased people for God by your blood from every tribe and language and people and nation.

¹⁰You made them a kingdom and priests to our God, and they will reign on the earth.

¹¹Then I looked and heard the voice of many angels around the throne, and also of the living creatures and of the elders. Their number was countless thousands, plus thousands of thousands.

¹²They said with a loud voice, Worthy is the Lamb who was slaughtered to receive power and riches and wisdom and strength and honor and glory and blessing!

¹³I heard every creature in heaven, on earth, under the earth, on the sea, and everything in them say, Blessing and honor and glory and power be to the one seated on the throne, and to the Lamb, forever and ever!

¹⁴The four living creatures said, “Amen,” and the elders fell down and worshiped.

¹In my bed at night I sought the one I love; I sought him, but did not find him.

²I will arise now and go about the city, through the streets and the plazas. I will seek the one I love. I sought him, but did not find him.

³The guards who go about the city found me. I asked them, “Have you seen the one I love?”

⁴I had just passed them when I found the one I love. I held on to him and would not let him go until I brought him to my mother’s house  — to the chamber of the one who conceived me.

⁵Young women of Jerusalem, I charge you by the gazelles and the wild does of the field, do not stir up or awaken love until the appropriate time.

⁶Who is this coming up from the wilderness like columns of smoke, scented with myrrh and frankincense from every fragrant powder of the merchant?

⁷Look! Solomon’s bed surrounded by sixty warriors from the mighty men of Israel.

⁸All of them are skilled with swords and trained in warfare. Each has his sword at his side to guard against the terror of the night.

⁹King Solomon made a carriage for himself with wood from Lebanon.

¹⁰He made its posts of silver, its back of gold, and its seat of purple. Its interior is inlaid with love by the young women of Jerusalem.

¹¹Go out, young women of Zion, and gaze at King Solomon, wearing the crown his mother placed on him on the day of his wedding  — the day of his heart’s rejoicing.

¹The LORD reigns! He is robed in majesty; the LORD is robed, enveloped in strength. The world is firmly established; it cannot be shaken.

²Your throne has been established from the beginning; you are from eternity.

³The floods have lifted up, LORD, the floods have lifted up their voice; the floods lift up their pounding waves.

⁴Greater than the roar of a huge torrent — the mighty breakers of the sea — the LORD on high is majestic.

⁵LORD, your testimonies are completely reliable; holiness adorns your house for all the days to come.

¹Like snow in summer and rain at harvest, honor is inappropriate for a fool.

²Like a flitting sparrow or a fluttering swallow, an undeserved curse goes nowhere.

³A whip for the horse, a bridle for the donkey, and a rod for the backs of fools.

⁴Don’t answer a fool according to his foolishness or you’ll be like him yourself.

⁵Answer a fool according to his foolishness or he’ll become wise in his own eyes.

⁶The one who sends a message by a fool’s hand cuts off his own feet and drinks violence.

⁷A proverb in the mouth of a fool is like lame legs that hang limp.

⁸Giving honor to a fool is like binding a stone in a sling.

⁹A proverb in the mouth of a fool is like a stick with thorns, brandished by the hand of a drunkard.

¹⁰The one who hires a fool or who hires those passing by is like an archer who wounds everyone.

¹¹As a dog returns to its vomit, so also a fool repeats his foolishness.

¹²Do you see a person who is wise in his own eyes? There is more hope for a fool than for him.

¹³The slacker says, “There’s a lion in the road — a lion in the public square!”

¹⁴A door turns on its hinges, and a slacker, on his bed.

¹⁵The slacker buries his hand in the bowl; he is too weary to bring it to his mouth!

¹⁶In his own eyes, a slacker is wiser than seven who can answer sensibly.

¹⁷A person who is passing by and meddles in a quarrel that’s not his is like one who grabs a dog by the ears.

¹⁸Like a madman who throws flaming darts and deadly arrows,

¹⁹so is the person who deceives his neighbor and says, “I was only joking!”

²⁰Without wood, fire goes out; without a gossip, conflict dies down.

²¹As charcoal for embers and wood for fire, so is a quarrelsome person for kindling strife.

²²A gossip’s words are like choice food that goes down to one’s innermost being.

²³Smooth lips with an evil heart are like glaze on an earthen vessel.

²⁴A hateful person disguises himself with his speech and harbors deceit within.

²⁵When he speaks graciously, don’t believe him, for there are seven detestable things in his heart.

²⁶Though his hatred is concealed by deception, his evil will be revealed in the assembly.

²⁷The one who digs a pit will fall into it, and whoever rolls a stone — it will come back on him.

²⁸A lying tongue hates those it crushes, and a flattering mouth causes ruin.

¹When Mordecai learned all that had occurred, he tore his clothes, put on sackcloth and ashes, went into the middle of the city, and cried loudly and bitterly.

²He went only as far as the King’s Gate, since the law prohibited anyone wearing sackcloth from entering the King’s Gate.

³There was great mourning among the Jewish people in every province where the king’s command and edict came. They fasted, wept, and lamented, and many lay in sackcloth and ashes.

⁴Esther’s female servants and her eunuchs came and reported the news to her, and the queen was overcome with fear. She sent clothes for Mordecai to wear so that he would take off his sackcloth, but he did not accept them.

⁵Esther summoned Hathach, one of the king’s eunuchs who attended her, and dispatched him to Mordecai to learn what he was doing and why.

⁶So Hathach went out to Mordecai in the city square in front of the King’s Gate.

⁷Mordecai told him everything that had happened as well as the exact amount of money Haman had promised to pay the royal treasury for the slaughter of the Jews.

⁸Mordecai also gave him a copy of the written decree issued in Susa ordering their destruction, so that Hathach might show it to Esther, explain it to her, and command her to approach the king, implore his favor, and plead with him personally for her people.

⁹Hathach came and repeated Mordecai’s response to Esther.

¹⁰Esther spoke to Hathach and commanded him to tell Mordecai,

¹¹“All the royal officials and the people of the royal provinces know that one law applies to every man or woman who approaches the king in the inner courtyard and who has not been summoned — the death penalty —  unless the king extends the gold scepter, allowing that person to live. I have not been summoned to appear before the king for the last thirty days.”

¹²Esther’s response was reported to Mordecai.

¹³Mordecai told the messenger to reply to Esther, “Don’t think that you will escape the fate of all the Jews because you are in the king’s palace.

¹⁴If you keep silent at this time, relief and deliverance will come to the Jewish people from another place, but you and your father’s family will be destroyed. Who knows, perhaps you have come to your royal position for such a time as this.”

¹⁵Esther sent this reply to Mordecai:

¹⁶“Go and assemble all the Jews who can be found in Susa and fast for me. Don’t eat or drink for three days, night or day. I and my female servants will also fast in the same way. After that, I will go to the king even if it is against the law. If I perish, I perish.”

¹⁷So Mordecai went and did everything Esther had commanded him.

¹Open your gates, Lebanon, and fire will consume your cedars.

²Wail, cypress, for the cedar has fallen; the glorious trees are destroyed! Wail, oaks of Bashan, for the stately forest has fallen!

³Listen to the wail of the shepherds, for their glory is destroyed. Listen to the roar of young lions, for the thickets of the Jordan are destroyed.

⁴The LORD my God says this: “Shepherd the flock intended for slaughter.

⁵Those who buy them slaughter them but are not punished. Those who sell them say: Blessed be the LORD because I have become rich! Even their own shepherds have no compassion for them.

⁶Indeed, I will no longer have compassion on the inhabitants of the land” — this is the LORD’s declaration. “Instead, I will turn everyone over to his neighbor and his king. They will devastate the land, and I will not rescue it from their hand.”

⁷So I shepherded the flock intended for slaughter, the oppressed of the flock. I took two staffs, calling one Favor and the other Union, and I shepherded the flock.

⁸In one month I got rid of three shepherds. I became impatient with them, and they also detested me.

⁹Then I said, “I will no longer shepherd you. Let what is dying die, and let what is perishing perish; let the rest devour each other’s flesh.”

¹⁰Next I took my staff called Favor and cut it in two, annulling the covenant I had made with all the peoples.

¹¹It was annulled on that day, and so the oppressed of the flock who were watching me knew that it was the word of the LORD.

¹²Then I said to them, “If it seems right to you, give me my wages; but if not, keep them.” So they weighed my wages, thirty pieces of silver.

¹³“Throw it to the potter,” the LORD said to me — this magnificent price I was valued by them. So I took the thirty pieces of silver and threw it into the house of the LORD, to the potter.

¹⁴Then I cut in two my second staff, Union, annulling the brotherhood between Judah and Israel.

¹⁵The LORD also said to me: “Take the equipment of a foolish shepherd.

¹⁶I am about to raise up a shepherd in the land who will not care for those who are perishing, and he will not seek the lost or heal the broken. He will not sustain the healthy, but he will devour the flesh of the fat sheep and tear off their hooves.

¹⁷Woe to the worthless shepherd who deserts the flock! May a sword strike his arm and his right eye! May his arm wither away and his right eye go completely blind!”

¹While Apollos was in Corinth, Paul traveled through the interior regions and came to Ephesus. He found some disciples

²and asked them, “Did you receive the Holy Spirit when you believed?” “No,” they told him, “we haven’t even heard that there is a Holy Spirit.”

³“Into what then were you baptized?” he asked them. “Into John’s baptism,” they replied.

⁴Paul said, “John baptized with a baptism of repentance, telling the people that they should believe in the one who would come after him, that is, in Jesus.”

⁵When they heard this, they were baptized into the name of the Lord Jesus.

⁶And when Paul had laid his hands on them, the Holy Spirit came on them, and they began to speak in other tongues and to prophesy.

⁷Now there were about twelve men in all.

⁸Paul entered the synagogue and spoke boldly over a period of three months, arguing and persuading them about the kingdom of God.

⁹But when some became hardened and would not believe, slandering the Way in front of the crowd, he withdrew from them, taking the disciples, and conducted discussions every day in the lecture hall of Tyrannus.

¹⁰This went on for two years, so that all the residents of Asia, both Jews and Greeks, heard the word of the Lord.

¹¹God was performing extraordinary miracles by Paul’s hands,

¹²so that even facecloths or aprons that had touched his skin were brought to the sick, and the diseases left them, and the evil spirits came out of them.

¹³Now some of the itinerant Jewish exorcists also attempted to pronounce the name of the Lord Jesus over those who had evil spirits, saying, “I command you by the Jesus that Paul preaches!”

¹⁴Seven sons of Sceva, a Jewish high priest, were doing this.

¹⁵The evil spirit answered them, “I know Jesus, and I recognize Paul — but who are you?”

¹⁶Then the man who had the evil spirit jumped on them, overpowered them all, and prevailed against them, so that they ran out of that house naked and wounded.

¹⁷When this became known to everyone who lived in Ephesus, both Jews and Greeks, they became afraid, and the name of the Lord Jesus was held in high esteem.

¹⁸And many who had become believers came confessing and disclosing their practices,

¹⁹while many of those who had practiced magic collected their books and burned them in front of everyone. So they calculated their value and found it to be fifty thousand pieces of silver.

²⁰In this way the word of the Lord flourished and prevailed.

²¹After these events, Paul resolved by the Spirit to pass through Macedonia and Achaia and go to Jerusalem. “After I’ve been there,” he said, “It is necessary for me to see Rome as well.”

²²After sending to Macedonia two of those who assisted him, Timothy and Erastus, he himself stayed in Asia for a while.

²³About that time there was a major disturbance about the Way.

²⁴For a person named Demetrius, a silversmith who made silver shrines of Artemis, provided a great deal of business for the craftsmen.

²⁵When he had assembled them, as well as the workers engaged in this type of business, he said: “Men, you know that our prosperity is derived from this business.

²⁶You see and hear that not only in Ephesus, but in almost all of Asia, this man Paul has persuaded and misled a considerable number of people by saying that gods made by hand are not gods.

²⁷Not only do we run a risk that our business may be discredited, but also that the temple of the great goddess Artemis may be despised and her magnificence come to the verge of ruin — the very one all of Asia and the world worship.”

²⁸When they had heard this, they were filled with rage and began to cry out, “Great is Artemis of the Ephesians!”

²⁹So the city was filled with confusion, and they rushed all together into the amphitheater, dragging along Gaius and Aristarchus, Macedonians who were Paul’s traveling companions.

³⁰Although Paul wanted to go in before the people, the disciples did not let him.

³¹Even some of the provincial officials of Asia, who were his friends, sent word to him, pleading with him not to venture into the amphitheater.

³²Some were shouting one thing and some another, because the assembly was in confusion, and most of them did not know why they had come together.

³³Some Jews in the crowd gave instructions to Alexander after they pushed him to the front. Motioning with his hand, Alexander wanted to make his defense to the people.

³⁴But when they recognized that he was a Jew, they all shouted in unison for about two hours: “Great is Artemis of the Ephesians!”

³⁵When the city clerk had calmed the crowd down, he said, “People of Ephesus! What person is there who doesn’t know that the city of the Ephesians is the temple guardian of the great Artemis, and of the image that fell from heaven?

³⁶Therefore, since these things are undeniable, you must keep calm and not do anything rash.

³⁷For you have brought these men here who are not temple robbers or blasphemers of our goddess.

³⁸So if Demetrius and the craftsmen who are with him have a case against anyone, the courts are in session, and there are proconsuls. Let them bring charges against one another.

³⁹But if you seek anything further, it must be decided in a legal assembly.

⁴⁰In fact, we run a risk of being charged with rioting for what happened today, since there is no justification that we can give as a reason for this disturbance.”

⁴¹After saying this, he dismissed the assembly.