Professor Horner’s Reading Plan

¹Later, Jesus appeared again to the disciples beside the Sea of Galilee. This is how it happened.

²Several of the disciples were there — Simon Peter, Thomas (nicknamed the Twin), Nathanael from Cana in Galilee, the sons of Zebedee, and two other disciples.

³Simon Peter said, “I’m going fishing.” “We’ll come, too,” they all said. So they went out in the boat, but they caught nothing all night.

⁴At dawn Jesus was standing on the beach, but the disciples couldn’t see who he was.

⁵He called out, “Fellows, have you caught any fish?” “No,” they replied.

⁶Then he said, “Throw out your net on the right-hand side of the boat, and you’ll get some!” So they did, and they couldn’t haul in the net because there were so many fish in it.

⁷Then the disciple Jesus loved said to Peter, “It’s the Lord!” When Simon Peter heard that it was the Lord, he put on his tunic (for he had stripped for work), jumped into the water, and headed to shore.

⁸The others stayed with the boat and pulled the loaded net to the shore, for they were only about a hundred yards from shore.

⁹When they got there, they found breakfast waiting for them — fish cooking over a charcoal fire, and some bread.

¹⁰“Bring some of the fish you’ve just caught,” Jesus said.

¹¹So Simon Peter went aboard and dragged the net to the shore. There were 153 large fish, and yet the net hadn’t torn.

¹²“Now come and have some breakfast!” Jesus said. None of the disciples dared to ask him, “Who are you?” They knew it was the Lord.

¹³Then Jesus served them the bread and the fish.

¹⁴This was the third time Jesus had appeared to his disciples since he had been raised from the dead.

¹⁵After breakfast Jesus asked Simon Peter, “Simon son of John, do you love me more than these? ” “Yes, Lord,” Peter replied, “you know I love you.” “Then feed my lambs,” Jesus told him.

¹⁶Jesus repeated the question: “Simon son of John, do you love me?” “Yes, Lord,” Peter said, “you know I love you.” “Then take care of my sheep,” Jesus said.

¹⁷A third time he asked him, “Simon son of John, do you love me?” Peter was hurt that Jesus asked the question a third time. He said, “Lord, you know everything. You know that I love you.” Jesus said, “Then feed my sheep.

¹⁸“I tell you the truth, when you were young, you were able to do as you liked; you dressed yourself and went wherever you wanted to go. But when you are old, you will stretch out your hands, and others will dress you and take you where you don’t want to go.”

¹⁹Jesus said this to let him know by what kind of death he would glorify God. Then Jesus told him, “Follow me.”

²⁰Peter turned around and saw behind them the disciple Jesus loved — the one who had leaned over to Jesus during supper and asked, “Lord, who will betray you?”

²¹Peter asked Jesus, “What about him, Lord?”

²²Jesus replied, “If I want him to remain alive until I return, what is that to you? As for you, follow me.”

²³So the rumor spread among the community of believers that this disciple wouldn’t die. But that isn’t what Jesus said at all. He only said, “If I want him to remain alive until I return, what is that to you?”

²⁴This disciple is the one who testifies to these events and has recorded them here. And we know that his account of these things is accurate.

²⁵Jesus also did many other things. If they were all written down, I suppose the whole world could not contain the books that would be written.

¹“Then make another altar of acacia wood for burning incense.

²Make it 18 inches square and 36 inches high, with horns at the corners carved from the same piece of wood as the altar itself.

³Overlay the top, sides, and horns of the altar with pure gold, and run a gold molding around the entire altar.

⁴Make two gold rings, and attach them on opposite sides of the altar below the gold molding to hold the carrying poles.

⁵Make the poles of acacia wood and overlay them with gold.

⁶Place the incense altar just outside the inner curtain that shields the Ark of the Covenant, in front of the Ark’s cover — the place of atonement — that covers the tablets inscribed with the terms of the covenant. I will meet with you there.

⁷“Every morning when Aaron maintains the lamps, he must burn fragrant incense on the altar.

⁸And each evening when he lights the lamps, he must again burn incense in the LORD’s presence. This must be done from generation to generation.

⁹Do not offer any unholy incense on this altar, or any burnt offerings, grain offerings, or liquid offerings.

¹⁰“Once a year Aaron must purify the altar by smearing its horns with blood from the offering made to purify the people from their sin. This will be a regular, annual event from generation to generation, for this is the LORD’s most holy altar.”

¹¹Then the LORD said to Moses,

¹²“Whenever you take a census of the people of Israel, each man who is counted must pay a ransom for himself to the LORD. Then no plague will strike the people as you count them.

¹³Each person who is counted must give a small piece of silver as a sacred offering to the LORD. (This payment is half a shekel, based on the sanctuary shekel, which equals twenty gerahs.)

¹⁴All who have reached their twentieth birthday must give this sacred offering to the LORD.

¹⁵When this offering is given to the LORD to purify your lives, making you right with him, the rich must not give more than the specified amount, and the poor must not give less.

¹⁶Receive this ransom money from the Israelites, and use it for the care of the Tabernacle. It will bring the Israelites to the LORD’s attention, and it will purify your lives.”

¹⁷Then the LORD said to Moses,

¹⁸“Make a bronze washbasin with a bronze stand. Place it between the Tabernacle and the altar, and fill it with water.

¹⁹Aaron and his sons will wash their hands and feet there.

²⁰They must wash with water whenever they go into the Tabernacle to appear before the LORD and when they approach the altar to burn up their special gifts to the LORD — or they will die!

²¹They must always wash their hands and feet, or they will die. This is a permanent law for Aaron and his descendants, to be observed from generation to generation.”

²²Then the LORD said to Moses,

²³“Collect choice spices — 12 1⁄2 pounds of pure myrrh, 6 1⁄4 pounds of fragrant cinnamon, 6 1⁄4 pounds of fragrant calamus,

²⁴and 12 1⁄2 pounds of cassia — as measured by the weight of the sanctuary shekel. Also get one gallon of olive oil.

²⁵Like a skilled incense maker, blend these ingredients to make a holy anointing oil.

²⁶Use this sacred oil to anoint the Tabernacle, the Ark of the Covenant,

²⁷the table and all its utensils, the lampstand and all its accessories, the incense altar,

²⁸the altar of burnt offering and all its utensils, and the washbasin with its stand.

²⁹Consecrate them to make them absolutely holy. After this, whatever touches them will also become holy.

³⁰“Anoint Aaron and his sons also, consecrating them to serve me as priests.

³¹And say to the people of Israel, ‘This holy anointing oil is reserved for me from generation to generation.

³²It must never be used to anoint anyone else, and you must never make any blend like it for yourselves. It is holy, and you must treat it as holy.

³³Anyone who makes a blend like it or anoints someone other than a priest will be cut off from the community.’”

³⁴Then the LORD said to Moses, “Gather fragrant spices — resin droplets, mollusk shell, and galbanum — and mix these fragrant spices with pure frankincense, weighed out in equal amounts.

³⁵Using the usual techniques of the incense maker, blend the spices together and sprinkle them with salt to produce a pure and holy incense.

³⁶Grind some of the mixture into a very fine powder and put it in front of the Ark of the Covenant, where I will meet with you in the Tabernacle. You must treat this incense as most holy.

³⁷Never use this formula to make this incense for yourselves. It is reserved for the LORD, and you must treat it as holy.

³⁸Anyone who makes incense like this for personal use will be cut off from the community.”

¹This letter is from Paul, chosen by the will of God to be an apostle of Christ Jesus, and from our brother Timothy. I am writing to God’s church in Corinth and to all of his holy people throughout Greece.

²May God our Father and the Lord Jesus Christ give you grace and peace.

³All praise to God, the Father of our Lord Jesus Christ. God is our merciful Father and the source of all comfort.

⁴He comforts us in all our troubles so that we can comfort others. When they are troubled, we will be able to give them the same comfort God has given us.

⁵For the more we suffer for Christ, the more God will shower us with his comfort through Christ.

⁶Even when we are weighed down with troubles, it is for your comfort and salvation! For when we ourselves are comforted, we will certainly comfort you. Then you can patiently endure the same things we suffer.

⁷We are confident that as you share in our sufferings, you will also share in the comfort God gives us.

⁸We think you ought to know, dear brothers and sisters, about the trouble we went through in the province of Asia. We were crushed and overwhelmed beyond our ability to endure, and we thought we would never live through it.

⁹In fact, we expected to die. But as a result, we stopped relying on ourselves and learned to rely only on God, who raises the dead.

¹⁰And he did rescue us from mortal danger, and he will rescue us again. We have placed our confidence in him, and he will continue to rescue us.

¹¹And you are helping us by praying for us. Then many people will give thanks because God has graciously answered so many prayers for our safety.

¹²We can say with confidence and a clear conscience that we have lived with a God-given holiness and sincerity in all our dealings. We have depended on God’s grace, not on our own human wisdom. That is how we have conducted ourselves before the world, and especially toward you.

¹³Our letters have been straightforward, and there is nothing written between the lines and nothing you can’t understand. I hope someday you will fully understand us,

¹⁴even if you don’t understand us now. Then on the day when the Lord Jesus returns, you will be proud of us in the same way we are proud of you.

¹⁵Since I was so sure of your understanding and trust, I wanted to give you a double blessing by visiting you twice —

¹⁶first on my way to Macedonia and again when I returned from Macedonia. Then you could send me on my way to Judea.

¹⁷You may be asking why I changed my plan. Do you think I make my plans carelessly? Do you think I am like people of the world who say “Yes” when they really mean “No”?

¹⁸As surely as God is faithful, our word to you does not waver between “Yes” and “No.”

¹⁹For Jesus Christ, the Son of God, does not waver between “Yes” and “No.” He is the one whom Silas, Timothy, and I preached to you, and as God’s ultimate “Yes,” he always does what he says.

²⁰For all of God’s promises have been fulfilled in Christ with a resounding “Yes!” And through Christ, our “Amen” (which means “Yes”) ascends to God for his glory.

²¹It is God who enables us, along with you, to stand firm for Christ. He has commissioned us,

²²and he has identified us as his own by placing the Holy Spirit in our hearts as the first installment that guarantees everything he has promised us.

²³Now I call upon God as my witness that I am telling the truth. The reason I didn’t return to Corinth was to spare you from a severe rebuke.

²⁴But that does not mean we want to dominate you by telling you how to put your faith into practice. We want to work together with you so you will be full of joy, for it is by your own faith that you stand firm.

¹Then Job spoke again:

²“How long will you torture me? How long will you try to crush me with your words?

³You have already insulted me ten times. You should be ashamed of treating me so badly.

⁴Even if I have sinned, that is my concern, not yours.

⁵You think you’re better than I am, using my humiliation as evidence of my sin.

⁶But it is God who has wronged me, capturing me in his net.

⁷“I cry out, ‘Help!’ but no one answers me. I protest, but there is no justice.

⁸God has blocked my way so I cannot move. He has plunged my path into darkness.

⁹He has stripped me of my honor and removed the crown from my head.

¹⁰He has demolished me on every side, and I am finished. He has uprooted my hope like a fallen tree.

¹¹His fury burns against me; he counts me as an enemy.

¹²His troops advance. They build up roads to attack me. They camp all around my tent.

¹³“My relatives stay far away, and my friends have turned against me.

¹⁴My family is gone, and my close friends have forgotten me.

¹⁵My servants and maids consider me a stranger. I am like a foreigner to them.

¹⁶When I call my servant, he doesn’t come; I have to plead with him!

¹⁷My breath is repulsive to my wife. I am rejected by my own family.

¹⁸Even young children despise me. When I stand to speak, they turn their backs on me.

¹⁹My close friends detest me. Those I loved have turned against me.

²⁰I have been reduced to skin and bones and have escaped death by the skin of my teeth.

²¹“Have mercy on me, my friends, have mercy, for the hand of God has struck me.

²²Must you also persecute me, like God does? Haven’t you chewed me up enough?

²³“Oh, that my words could be recorded. Oh, that they could be inscribed on a monument,

²⁴carved with an iron chisel and filled with lead, engraved forever in the rock.

²⁵“But as for me, I know that my Redeemer lives, and he will stand upon the earth at last.

²⁶And after my body has decayed, yet in my body I will see God!

²⁷I will see him for myself. Yes, I will see him with my own eyes. I am overwhelmed at the thought!

²⁸“How dare you go on persecuting me, saying, ‘It’s his own fault’?

²⁹You should fear punishment yourselves, for your attitude deserves punishment. Then you will know that there is indeed a judgment.”

¹Praise the LORD, all you nations. Praise him, all you people of the earth.

²For his unfailing love for us is powerful; the LORD’s faithfulness endures forever. Praise the LORD!

¹Better to be poor and honest than to be dishonest and a fool.

²Enthusiasm without knowledge is no good; haste makes mistakes.

³People ruin their lives by their own foolishness and then are angry at the LORD.

⁴Wealth makes many “friends”; poverty drives them all away.

⁵A false witness will not go unpunished, nor will a liar escape.

⁶Many seek favors from a ruler; everyone is the friend of a person who gives gifts!

⁷The relatives of the poor despise them; how much more will their friends avoid them! Though the poor plead with them, their friends are gone.

⁸To acquire wisdom is to love yourself; people who cherish understanding will prosper.

⁹A false witness will not go unpunished, and a liar will be destroyed.

¹⁰It isn’t right for a fool to live in luxury or for a slave to rule over princes!

¹¹Sensible people control their temper; they earn respect by overlooking wrongs.

¹²The king’s anger is like a lion’s roar, but his favor is like dew on the grass.

¹³A foolish child is a calamity to a father; a quarrelsome wife is as annoying as constant dripping.

¹⁴Fathers can give their sons an inheritance of houses and wealth, but only the LORD can give an understanding wife.

¹⁵Lazy people sleep soundly, but idleness leaves them hungry.

¹⁶Keep the commandments and keep your life; despising them leads to death.

¹⁷If you help the poor, you are lending to the LORD — and he will repay you!

¹⁸Discipline your children while there is hope. Otherwise you will ruin their lives.

¹⁹Hot-tempered people must pay the penalty. If you rescue them once, you will have to do it again.

²⁰Get all the advice and instruction you can, so you will be wise the rest of your life.

²¹You can make many plans, but the LORD’s purpose will prevail.

²²Loyalty makes a person attractive. It is better to be poor than dishonest.

²³Fear of the LORD leads to life, bringing security and protection from harm.

²⁴Lazy people take food in their hand but don’t even lift it to their mouth.

²⁵If you punish a mocker, the simpleminded will learn a lesson; if you correct the wise, they will be all the wiser.

²⁶Children who mistreat their father or chase away their mother are an embarrassment and a public disgrace.

²⁷If you stop listening to instruction, my child, you will turn your back on knowledge.

²⁸A corrupt witness makes a mockery of justice; the mouth of the wicked gulps down evil.

²⁹Punishment is made for mockers, and the backs of fools are made to be beaten.

¹Now that the land was under Israelite control, the entire community of Israel gathered at Shiloh and set up the Tabernacle.

²But there remained seven tribes who had not yet been allotted their grants of land.

³Then Joshua asked them, “How long are you going to wait before taking possession of the remaining land the LORD, the God of your ancestors, has given to you?

⁴Select three men from each tribe, and I will send them out to explore the land and map it out. They will then return to me with a written report of their proposed divisions of their new homeland.

⁵Let them divide the land into seven sections, excluding Judah’s territory in the south and Joseph’s territory in the north.

⁶And when you record the seven divisions of the land and bring them to me, I will cast sacred lots in the presence of the LORD our God to assign land to each tribe.

⁷“The Levites, however, will not receive any allotment of land. Their role as priests of the LORD is their allotment. And the tribes of Gad, Reuben, and the half-tribe of Manasseh won’t receive any more land, for they have already received their grant of land, which Moses, the servant of the LORD, gave them on the east side of the Jordan River.”

⁸As the men started on their way to map out the land, Joshua commanded them, “Go and explore the land and write a description of it. Then return to me, and I will assign the land to the tribes by casting sacred lots here in the presence of the LORD at Shiloh.”

⁹The men did as they were told and mapped the entire territory into seven sections, listing the towns in each section. They made a written record and then returned to Joshua in the camp at Shiloh.

¹⁰And there at Shiloh, Joshua cast sacred lots in the presence of the LORD to determine which tribe should have each section.

¹¹The first allotment of land went to the clans of the tribe of Benjamin. It lay between the territory assigned to the tribes of Judah and Joseph.

¹²The northern boundary of Benjamin’s land began at the Jordan River, went north of the slope of Jericho, then west through the hill country and the wilderness of Beth-aven.

¹³From there the boundary went south to Luz (that is, Bethel) and proceeded down to Ataroth-addar on the hill that lies south of Lower Beth-horon.

¹⁴The boundary then made a turn and swung south along the western edge of the hill facing Beth-horon, ending at the village of Kiriath-baal (that is, Kiriath-jearim), a town belonging to the tribe of Judah. This was the western boundary.

¹⁵The southern boundary began at the outskirts of Kiriath-jearim. From that western point it ran to the spring at the waters of Nephtoah,

¹⁶and down to the base of the mountain beside the valley of Ben-Hinnom, at the northern end of the valley of Rephaim. From there it went down the valley of Hinnom, crossing south of the slope where the Jebusites lived, and continued down to En-rogel.

¹⁷From En-rogel the boundary proceeded in a northerly direction and came to En-shemesh and on to Geliloth (which is across from the slopes of Adummim). Then it went down to the Stone of Bohan. (Bohan was Reuben’s son.)

¹⁸From there it passed along the north side of the slope overlooking the Jordan Valley. The border then went down into the valley,

¹⁹ran past the north slope of Beth-hoglah, and ended at the north bay of the Dead Sea, which is the southern end of the Jordan River. This was the southern boundary.

²⁰The eastern boundary was the Jordan River. These were the boundaries of the homeland allocated to the clans of the tribe of Benjamin.

²¹These were the towns given to the clans of the tribe of Benjamin. Jericho, Beth-hoglah, Emek-keziz,

²²Beth-arabah, Zemaraim, Bethel,

²³Avvim, Parah, Ophrah,

²⁴Kephar-ammoni, Ophni, and Geba — twelve towns with their surrounding villages.

²⁵Also Gibeon, Ramah, Beeroth,

²⁶Mizpah, Kephirah, Mozah,

²⁷Rekem, Irpeel, Taralah,

²⁸Zela, Haeleph, the Jebusite town (that is, Jerusalem), Gibeah, and Kiriath-jearim — fourteen towns with their surrounding villages. This was the homeland allocated to the clans of the tribe of Benjamin.

¹This message came to me concerning Damascus: “Look, the city of Damascus will disappear! It will become a heap of ruins.

²The towns of Aroer will be deserted. Flocks will graze in the streets and lie down undisturbed, with no one to chase them away.

³The fortified towns of Israel will also be destroyed, and the royal power of Damascus will end. All that remains of Syria will share the fate of Israel’s departed glory,” declares the LORD of Heaven’s Armies.

⁴“In that day Israel’s glory will grow dim; its robust body will waste away.

⁵The whole land will look like a grainfield after the harvesters have gathered the grain. It will be desolate, like the fields in the valley of Rephaim after the harvest.

⁶Only a few of its people will be left, like stray olives left on a tree after the harvest. Only two or three remain in the highest branches, four or five scattered here and there on the limbs,” declares the LORD, the God of Israel.

⁷Then at last the people will look to their Creator and turn their eyes to the Holy One of Israel.

⁸They will no longer look to their idols for help or worship what their own hands have made. They will never again bow down to their Asherah poles or worship at the pagan shrines they have built.

⁹Their largest cities will be like a deserted forest, like the land the Hivites and Amorites abandoned when the Israelites came here so long ago. It will be utterly desolate.

¹⁰Why? Because you have turned from the God who can save you. You have forgotten the Rock who can hide you. So you may plant the finest grapevines and import the most expensive seedlings.

¹¹They may sprout on the day you set them out; yes, they may blossom on the very morning you plant them, but you will never pick any grapes from them. Your only harvest will be a load of grief and unrelieved pain.

¹²Listen! The armies of many nations roar like the roaring of the sea. Hear the thunder of the mighty forces as they rush forward like thundering waves.

¹³But though they thunder like breakers on a beach, God will silence them, and they will run away. They will flee like chaff scattered by the wind, like a tumbleweed whirling before a storm.

¹⁴In the evening Israel waits in terror, but by dawn its enemies are dead. This is the just reward of those who plunder us, a fitting end for those who destroy us.

¹While Paul and Barnabas were at Antioch of Syria, some men from Judea arrived and began to teach the believers : “Unless you are circumcised as required by the law of Moses, you cannot be saved.”

²Paul and Barnabas disagreed with them, arguing vehemently. Finally, the church decided to send Paul and Barnabas to Jerusalem, accompanied by some local believers, to talk to the apostles and elders about this question.

³The church sent the delegates to Jerusalem, and they stopped along the way in Phoenicia and Samaria to visit the believers. They told them — much to everyone’s joy — that the Gentiles, too, were being converted.

⁴When they arrived in Jerusalem, Barnabas and Paul were welcomed by the whole church, including the apostles and elders. They reported everything God had done through them.

⁵But then some of the believers who belonged to the sect of the Pharisees stood up and insisted, “The Gentile converts must be circumcised and required to follow the law of Moses.”

⁶So the apostles and elders met together to resolve this issue.

⁷At the meeting, after a long discussion, Peter stood and addressed them as follows: “Brothers, you all know that God chose me from among you some time ago to preach to the Gentiles so that they could hear the Good News and believe.

⁸God knows people’s hearts, and he confirmed that he accepts Gentiles by giving them the Holy Spirit, just as he did to us.

⁹He made no distinction between us and them, for he cleansed their hearts through faith.

¹⁰So why are you now challenging God by burdening the Gentile believers with a yoke that neither we nor our ancestors were able to bear?

¹¹We believe that we are all saved the same way, by the undeserved grace of the Lord Jesus.”

¹²Everyone listened quietly as Barnabas and Paul told about the miraculous signs and wonders God had done through them among the Gentiles.

¹³When they had finished, James stood and said, “Brothers, listen to me.

¹⁴Peter has told you about the time God first visited the Gentiles to take from them a people for himself.

¹⁵And this conversion of Gentiles is exactly what the prophets predicted. As it is written:

¹⁶‘Afterward I will return and restore the fallen house of David. I will rebuild its ruins and restore it,

¹⁷so that the rest of humanity might seek the LORD, including the Gentiles — all those I have called to be mine. The LORD has spoken —

¹⁸he who made these things known so long ago.’

¹⁹“And so my judgment is that we should not make it difficult for the Gentiles who are turning to God.

²⁰Instead, we should write and tell them to abstain from eating food offered to idols, from sexual immorality, from eating the meat of strangled animals, and from consuming blood.

²¹For these laws of Moses have been preached in Jewish synagogues in every city on every Sabbath for many generations.”

²²Then the apostles and elders together with the whole church in Jerusalem chose delegates, and they sent them to Antioch of Syria with Paul and Barnabas to report on this decision. The men chosen were two of the church leaders — Judas (also called Barsabbas) and Silas.

²³This is the letter they took with them: “This letter is from the apostles and elders, your brothers in Jerusalem. It is written to the Gentile believers in Antioch, Syria, and Cilicia. Greetings!

²⁴“We understand that some men from here have troubled you and upset you with their teaching, but we did not send them!

²⁵So we decided, having come to complete agreement, to send you official representatives, along with our beloved Barnabas and Paul,

²⁶who have risked their lives for the name of our Lord Jesus Christ.

²⁷We are sending Judas and Silas to confirm what we have decided concerning your question.

²⁸“For it seemed good to the Holy Spirit and to us to lay no greater burden on you than these few requirements:

²⁹You must abstain from eating food offered to idols, from consuming blood or the meat of strangled animals, and from sexual immorality. If you do this, you will do well. Farewell.”

³⁰The messengers went at once to Antioch, where they called a general meeting of the believers and delivered the letter.

³¹And there was great joy throughout the church that day as they read this encouraging message.

³²Then Judas and Silas, both being prophets, spoke at length to the believers, encouraging and strengthening their faith.

³³They stayed for a while, and then the believers sent them back to the church in Jerusalem with a blessing of peace.

³⁴

³⁵Paul and Barnabas stayed in Antioch. They and many others taught and preached the word of the Lord there.

³⁶After some time Paul said to Barnabas, “Let’s go back and visit each city where we previously preached the word of the Lord, to see how the new believers are doing.”

³⁷Barnabas agreed and wanted to take along John Mark.

³⁸But Paul disagreed strongly, since John Mark had deserted them in Pamphylia and had not continued with them in their work.

³⁹Their disagreement was so sharp that they separated. Barnabas took John Mark with him and sailed for Cyprus.

⁴⁰Paul chose Silas, and as he left, the believers entrusted him to the Lord’s gracious care.

⁴¹Then he traveled throughout Syria and Cilicia, strengthening the churches there.