Professor Horner’s Reading Plan

¹When Jesus had finished saying these things, he departed from Galilee and went to the region of Judea across the Jordan.

²Large crowds followed him, and he healed them there.

³Some Pharisees approached him to test him. They asked, “Is it lawful for a man to divorce his wife on any grounds?”

⁴“Haven’t you read,” he replied, “that he who created them in the beginning made them male and female,”

⁵and he also said, “For this reason a man will leave his father and mother and be joined to his wife, and the two will become one flesh?

⁶So they are no longer two, but one flesh. Therefore, what God has joined together, let no one separate.”

⁷“Why then,” they asked him, “did Moses command us to give divorce papers and to send her away?”

⁸He told them, “Moses permitted you to divorce your wives because of the hardness of your hearts, but it was not like that from the beginning.

⁹I tell you, whoever divorces his wife, except for sexual immorality, and marries another commits adultery.”

¹⁰His disciples said to him, “If the relationship of a man with his wife is like this, it’s better not to marry.”

¹¹He responded, “Not everyone can accept this saying, but only those to whom it has been given.

¹²For there are eunuchs who were born that way from their mother’s womb, there are eunuchs who were made by men, and there are eunuchs who have made themselves that way because of the kingdom of heaven. The one who is able to accept it should accept it.”

¹³Then children were brought to Jesus for him to place his hands on them and pray, but the disciples rebuked them.

¹⁴Jesus said, “Leave the children alone, and don’t try to keep them from coming to me, because the kingdom of heaven belongs to such as these.”

¹⁵After placing his hands on them, he went on from there.

¹⁶Just then someone came up and asked him, “Teacher, what good must I do to have eternal life?”

¹⁷“Why do you ask me about what is good?” he said to him. “There is only one who is good. If you want to enter into life, keep the commandments.”

¹⁸“Which ones?” he asked him. Jesus answered: Do not murder; do not commit adultery; do not steal; do not bear false witness;

¹⁹honor your father and your mother; and love your neighbor as yourself.

²⁰“I have kept all these,” the young man told him. “What do I still lack?”

²¹“If you want to be perfect,” Jesus said to him, “go, sell your belongings and give to the poor, and you will have treasure in heaven. Then come, follow me.”

²²When the young man heard that, he went away grieving, because he had many possessions.

²³Jesus said to his disciples, “Truly I tell you, it will be hard for a rich person to enter the kingdom of heaven.

²⁴Again I tell you, it is easier for a camel to go through the eye of a needle than for a rich person to enter the kingdom of God.”

²⁵When the disciples heard this, they were utterly astonished and asked, “Then who can be saved?”

²⁶Jesus looked at them and said, “With man this is impossible, but with God all things are possible.”

²⁷Then Peter responded to him, “See, we have left everything and followed you. So what will there be for us?”

²⁸Jesus said to them, “Truly I tell you, in the renewal of all things, when the Son of Man sits on his glorious throne, you who have followed me will also sit on twelve thrones, judging the twelve tribes of Israel.

²⁹And everyone who has left houses or brothers or sisters or father or mother or children or fields because of my name will receive a hundred times more and will inherit eternal life.

³⁰But many who are first will be last, and the last first.

¹On the eighth day Moses summoned Aaron, his sons, and the elders of Israel.

²He said to Aaron, “Take a young bull for a sin offering and a ram for a burnt offering, both without blemish, and present them before the LORD.

³And tell the Israelites: Take a male goat for a sin offering; a calf and a lamb, male yearlings without blemish, for a burnt offering;

⁴an ox and a ram for a fellowship offering to sacrifice before the LORD; and a grain offering mixed with oil. For today the LORD is going to appear to you.”

⁵They brought what Moses had commanded to the front of the tent of meeting, and the whole community came forward and stood before the LORD.

⁶Moses said, “This is what the LORD commanded you to do, that the glory of the LORD may appear to you.”

⁷Then Moses said to Aaron, “Approach the altar and sacrifice your sin offering and your burnt offering; make atonement for yourself and the people. Sacrifice the people’s offering and make atonement for them, as the LORD commanded.”

⁸So Aaron approached the altar and slaughtered the calf as a sin offering for himself.

⁹Aaron’s sons brought the blood to him, and he dipped his finger in the blood and applied it to the horns of the altar. He poured out the blood at the base of the altar.

¹⁰He burned the fat, the kidneys, and the fatty lobe of the liver from the sin offering on the altar, as the LORD had commanded Moses.

¹¹He burned the flesh and the hide outside the camp.

¹²Then he slaughtered the burnt offering. Aaron’s sons brought him the blood, and he splattered it on all sides of the altar.

¹³They brought him the burnt offering piece by piece, along with the head, and he burned them on the altar.

¹⁴He washed the entrails and the legs and burned them with the burnt offering on the altar.

¹⁵Aaron presented the people’s offering. He took the male goat for the people’s sin offering, slaughtered it, and made a sin offering with it as he did before.

¹⁶He presented the burnt offering and sacrificed it according to the regulation.

¹⁷Next he presented the grain offering, took a handful of it, and burned it on the altar in addition to the morning burnt offering.

¹⁸Finally, he slaughtered the ox and the ram as the people’s fellowship sacrifice. Aaron’s sons brought him the blood, and he splattered it on all sides of the altar.

¹⁹They also brought the fat portions from the ox and the ram — the fat tail, the fat surrounding the entrails, the kidneys, and the fatty lobe of the liver —

²⁰and placed these on the breasts. Aaron burned the fat portions on the altar,

²¹but he presented the breasts and the right thigh as a presentation offering before the LORD, as Moses had commanded.

²²Aaron lifted up his hands toward the people and blessed them. He came down after sacrificing the sin offering, the burnt offering, and the fellowship offering.

²³Moses and Aaron then entered the tent of meeting. When they came out, they blessed the people, and the glory of the LORD appeared to all the people.

²⁴Fire came from the LORD and consumed the burnt offering and the fat portions on the altar. And when all the people saw it, they shouted and fell facedown.

¹Paul, an apostle of Christ Jesus by God’s will: To the faithful saints in Christ Jesus at Ephesus.

²Grace to you and peace from God our Father and the Lord Jesus Christ.

³Blessed is the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, who has blessed us with every spiritual blessing in the heavens in Christ.

⁴For he chose us in him, before the foundation of the world, to be holy and blameless in love before him.

⁵He predestined us to be adopted as sons through Jesus Christ for himself, according to the good pleasure of his will,

⁶to the praise of his glorious grace that he lavished on us in the Beloved One.

⁷In him we have redemption through his blood, the forgiveness of our trespasses, according to the riches of his grace

⁸that he richly poured out on us with all wisdom and understanding.

⁹He made known to us the mystery of his will, according to his good pleasure that he purposed in Christ

¹⁰as a plan for the right time  — to bring everything together in Christ, both things in heaven and things on earth in him.

¹¹In him we have also received an inheritance, because we were predestined according to the plan of the one who works out everything in agreement with the purpose of his will,

¹²so that we who had already put our hope in Christ might bring praise to his glory.

¹³In him you also were sealed with the promised Holy Spirit when you heard the word of truth, the gospel of your salvation, and when you believed.

¹⁴The Holy Spirit is the down payment of our inheritance, until the redemption of the possession, to the praise of his glory.

¹⁵This is why, since I heard about your faith in the Lord Jesus and your love for all the saints,

¹⁶I never stop giving thanks for you as I remember you in my prayers.

¹⁷I pray that the God of our Lord Jesus Christ, the glorious Father, would give you the Spirit of wisdom and revelation in the knowledge of him.

¹⁸I pray that the eyes of your heart may be enlightened so that you may know what is the hope of his calling, what is the wealth of his glorious inheritance in the saints,

¹⁹and what is the immeasurable greatness of his power toward us who believe, according to the mighty working of his strength.

²⁰He exercised this power in Christ by raising him from the dead and seating him at his right hand in the heavens  —

²¹far above every ruler and authority, power and dominion, and every title given, not only in this age but also in the one to come.

²²And he subjected everything under his feet and appointed him as head over everything for the church,

²³which is his body, the fullness of the one who fills all things in every way.

¹What is the source of wars and fights among you? Don’t they come from your passions that wage war within you?

²You desire and do not have. You murder and covet and cannot obtain. You fight and wage war. You do not have because you do not ask.

³You ask and don’t receive because you ask with wrong motives, so that you may spend it on your pleasures.

⁴You adulterous people! Don’t you know that friendship with the world is hostility toward God? So whoever wants to be the friend of the world becomes the enemy of God.

⁵Or do you think it’s without reason that the Scripture says: The spirit he made to dwell in us envies intensely?

⁶But he gives greater grace. Therefore he says: God resists the proud, but gives grace to the humble.

⁷Therefore, submit to God. Resist the devil, and he will flee from you.

⁸Draw near to God, and he will draw near to you. Cleanse your hands, sinners, and purify your hearts, you double-minded.

⁹Be miserable and mourn and weep. Let your laughter be turned to mourning and your joy to gloom.

¹⁰Humble yourselves before the Lord, and he will exalt you.

¹¹Don’t criticize one another, brothers and sisters. Anyone who defames or judges a fellow believer defames and judges the law. If you judge the law, you are not a doer of the law but a judge.

¹²There is one lawgiver and judge who is able to save and to destroy. But who are you to judge your neighbor?

¹³Come now, you who say, “Today or tomorrow we will travel to such and such a city and spend a year there and do business and make a profit.”

¹⁴Yet you do not know what tomorrow will bring — what your life will be! For you are like vapor that appears for a little while, then vanishes.

¹⁵Instead, you should say, “If the Lord wills, we will live and do this or that.”

¹⁶But as it is, you boast in your arrogance. All such boasting is evil.

¹⁷So it is sin to know the good and yet not do it.

¹Then the LORD answered Job from the whirlwind. He said:

²Who is this who obscures my counsel with ignorant words?

³Get ready to answer me like a man; when I question you, you will inform me.

⁴Where were you when I established the earth? Tell me, if you have understanding.

⁵Who fixed its dimensions? Certainly you know! Who stretched a measuring line across it?

⁶What supports its foundations? Or who laid its cornerstone

⁷while the morning stars sang together and all the sons of God shouted for joy?

⁸Who enclosed the sea behind doors when it burst from the womb,

⁹when I made the clouds its garment and total darkness its blanket,

¹⁰when I determined its boundaries and put its bars and doors in place,

¹¹when I declared: “You may come this far, but no farther; your proud waves stop here”?

¹²Have you ever in your life commanded the morning or assigned the dawn its place,

¹³so it may seize the edges of the earth and shake the wicked out of it?

¹⁴The earth is changed as clay is by a seal; its hills stand out like the folds of a garment.

¹⁵Light is withheld from the wicked, and the arm raised in violence is broken.

¹⁶Have you traveled to the sources of the sea or walked in the depths of the oceans?

¹⁷Have the gates of death been revealed to you? Have you seen the gates of deep darkness?

¹⁸Have you comprehended the extent of the earth? Tell me, if you know all this.

¹⁹Where is the road to the home of light? Do you know where darkness lives,

²⁰so you can lead it back to its border? Are you familiar with the paths to its home?

²¹Don’t you know? You were already born; you have lived so long!

²²Have you entered the place where the snow is stored? Or have you seen the storehouses of hail,

²³which I hold in reserve for times of trouble, for the day of warfare and battle?

²⁴What road leads to the place where light is dispersed? Where is the source of the east wind that spreads across the earth?

²⁵Who cuts a channel for the flooding rain or clears the way for lightning,

²⁶to bring rain on an uninhabited land, on a desert with no human life,

²⁷to satisfy the parched wasteland and cause the grass to sprout?

²⁸Does the rain have a father? Who fathered the drops of dew?

²⁹Whose womb did the ice come from? Who gave birth to the frost of heaven

³⁰when water becomes as hard as stone, and the surface of the watery depths is frozen?

³¹Can you fasten the chains of the Pleiades or loosen the belt of Orion?

³²Can you bring out the constellations in their season and lead the Bear and her cubs?

³³Do you know the laws of heaven? Can you impose its authority on earth?

³⁴Can you command the clouds so that a flood of water covers you?

³⁵Can you send out lightning bolts, and they go? Do they report to you: “Here we are”?

³⁶Who put wisdom in the heart or gave the mind understanding?

³⁷Who has the wisdom to number the clouds? Or who can tilt the water jars of heaven

³⁸when the dust hardens like cast metal and the clods of dirt stick together?

³⁹Can you hunt prey for a lioness or satisfy the appetite of young lions

⁴⁰when they crouch in their dens and lie in wait within their lairs?

⁴¹Who provides the raven’s food when its young cry out to God and wander about for lack of food?

¹Give thanks to the LORD, for he is good. His faithful love endures forever.

²Give thanks to the God of gods. His faithful love endures forever.

³Give thanks to the Lord of lords. His faithful love endures forever.

⁴He alone does great wonders. His faithful love endures forever.

⁵He made the heavens skillfully. His faithful love endures forever.

⁶He spread the land on the waters. His faithful love endures forever.

⁷He made the great lights: His faithful love endures forever.

⁸the sun to rule by day, His faithful love endures forever.

⁹the moon and stars to rule by night. His faithful love endures forever.

¹⁰He struck the firstborn of the Egyptians His faithful love endures forever.

¹¹and brought Israel out from among them His faithful love endures forever.

¹²with a strong hand and outstretched arm. His faithful love endures forever.

¹³He divided the Red Sea His faithful love endures forever.

¹⁴and led Israel through, His faithful love endures forever.

¹⁵but hurled Pharaoh and his army into the Red Sea. His faithful love endures forever.

¹⁶He led his people in the wilderness. His faithful love endures forever.

¹⁷He struck down great kings His faithful love endures forever.

¹⁸and slaughtered famous kings — His faithful love endures forever.

¹⁹Sihon king of the Amorites His faithful love endures forever.

²⁰and Og king of Bashan — His faithful love endures forever.

²¹and gave their land as an inheritance, His faithful love endures forever.

²²an inheritance to Israel his servant. His faithful love endures forever.

²³He remembered us in our humiliation His faithful love endures forever.

²⁴and rescued us from our foes. His faithful love endures forever.

²⁵He gives food to every creature. His faithful love endures forever.

²⁶Give thanks to the God of heaven! His faithful love endures forever.

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.

¹The Israelites again did what was evil in the LORD’s sight, so the LORD handed them over to the Philistines forty years.

²There was a certain man from Zorah, from the family of Dan, whose name was Manoah; his wife was unable to conceive and had no children.

³The angel of the LORD appeared to the woman and said to her, “It is true that you are unable to conceive and have no children, but you will conceive and give birth to a son.

⁴Now please be careful not to drink wine or beer, or to eat anything unclean;

⁵for indeed, you will conceive and give birth to a son. You must never cut his hair, because the boy will be a Nazirite to God from birth, and he will begin to save Israel from the power of the Philistines.”

⁶Then the woman went and told her husband, “A man of God came to me. He looked like the awe-inspiring angel of God. I didn’t ask him where he came from, and he didn’t tell me his name.

⁷He said to me, ‘You will conceive and give birth to a son. Therefore, do not drink wine or beer, and do not eat anything unclean, because the boy will be a Nazirite to God from birth until the day of his death.’”

⁸Manoah prayed to the LORD and said, “Please, Lord, let the man of God you sent come again to us and teach us what we should do for the boy who will be born.”

⁹God listened to Manoah, and the angel of God came again to the woman. She was sitting in the field, and her husband Manoah was not with her.

¹⁰The woman ran quickly to her husband and told him, “The man who came to me the other day has just come back!”

¹¹So Manoah got up and followed his wife. When he came to the man, he asked, “Are you the man who spoke to my wife?” “I am,” he said.

¹²Then Manoah asked, “When your words come true, what will be the boy’s responsibilities and work?”

¹³The angel of the LORD answered Manoah, “Your wife needs to do everything I told her.

¹⁴She must not eat anything that comes from the grapevine or drink wine or beer. And she must not eat anything unclean. Your wife must do everything I have commanded her.”

¹⁵“Please stay here,” Manoah told him, “and we will prepare a young goat for you.”

¹⁶The angel of the LORD said to him, “If I stay, I won’t eat your food. But if you want to prepare a burnt offering, offer it to the LORD.” (Manoah did not know he was the angel of the LORD.)

¹⁷Then Manoah said to him, “What is your name, so that we may honor you when your words come true?”

¹⁸“Why do you ask my name,” the angel of the LORD asked him, “since it is beyond understanding.”

¹⁹Manoah took a young goat and a grain offering and offered them on a rock to the LORD, who did something miraculous while Manoah and his wife were watching.

²⁰When the flame went up from the altar to the sky, the angel of the LORD went up in its flame. When Manoah and his wife saw this, they fell facedown on the ground.

²¹The angel of the LORD did not appear again to Manoah and his wife. Then Manoah realized that it was the angel of the LORD.

²²“We’re certainly going to die,” he said to his wife, “because we have seen God!”

²³But his wife said to him, “If the LORD had intended to kill us, he wouldn’t have accepted the burnt offering and the grain offering from us, and he would not have shown us all these things or spoken to us like this.”

²⁴So the woman gave birth to a son and named him Samson. The boy grew, and the LORD blessed him.

²⁵Then the Spirit of the LORD began to stir him in the Camp of Dan, between Zorah and Eshtaol.

¹In the fourteenth year of King Hezekiah, King Sennacherib of Assyria attacked all the fortified cities of Judah and captured them.

²Then the king of Assyria sent his royal spokesman, along with a massive army, from Lachish to King Hezekiah at Jerusalem. The Assyrian stood near the conduit of the upper pool, by the road to the Launderer’s Field.

³Eliakim son of Hilkiah, who was in charge of the palace, Shebna the court secretary, and Joah son of Asaph, the court historian, came out to him.

⁴The royal spokesman said to them, “Tell Hezekiah: The great king, the king of Assyria, says this: What are you relying on?

⁵You think mere words are strategy and strength for war. Who are you now relying on that you have rebelled against me?

⁶Look, you are relying on Egypt, that splintered reed of a staff that will pierce the hand of anyone who grabs it and leans on it. This is how Pharaoh king of Egypt is to all who rely on him.

⁷Suppose you say to me, ‘We rely on the LORD our God.’ Isn’t he the one whose high places and altars Hezekiah has removed, saying to Judah and Jerusalem, ‘You are to worship at this altar’?

⁸“Now make a deal with my master, the king of Assyria. I’ll give you two thousand horses if you’re able to supply riders for them!

⁹How then can you drive back a single officer among the least of my master’s servants? How can you rely on Egypt for chariots and horsemen?

¹⁰Have I attacked this land to destroy it without the LORD’s approval? The LORD said to me, ‘Attack this land and destroy it.’”

¹¹Then Eliakim, Shebna, and Joah said to the royal spokesman, “Please speak to your servants in Aramaic, since we understand it. Don’t speak to us in Hebrew within earshot of the people who are on the wall.”

¹²But the royal spokesman replied, “Has my master sent me to speak these words to your master and to you, and not to the men who are sitting on the wall, who are destined with you to eat their own excrement and drink their own urine?”

¹³Then the royal spokesman stood and called out loudly in Hebrew: Listen to the words of the great king, the king of Assyria!

¹⁴This is what the king says: “Don’t let Hezekiah deceive you, for he cannot rescue you.

¹⁵Don’t let Hezekiah persuade you to rely on the LORD, saying, ‘The LORD will certainly rescue us! This city will not be handed over to the king of Assyria.’”

¹⁶Don’t listen to Hezekiah, for this is what the king of Assyria says: “Make peace with me and surrender to me. Then every one of you may eat from his own vine and his own fig tree and drink water from his own cistern

¹⁷until I come and take you away to a land like your own land — a land of grain and new wine, a land of bread and vineyards.

¹⁸Beware that Hezekiah does not mislead you by saying, ‘The LORD will rescue us.’ Has any one of the gods of the nations rescued his land from the power of the king of Assyria?

¹⁹Where are the gods of Hamath and Arpad? Where are the gods of Sepharvaim? Have they rescued Samaria from my power?

²⁰Who among all the gods of these lands ever rescued his land from my power? So will the LORD rescue Jerusalem from my power?”

²¹But they kept silent; they didn’t say anything, for the king’s command was, “Don’t answer him.”

²²Then Eliakim son of Hilkiah, who was in charge of the palace, Shebna the court secretary, and Joah son of Asaph, the court historian, came to Hezekiah with their clothes torn and reported to him the words of the royal spokesman.

¹In those days, as the disciples were increasing in number, there arose a complaint by the Hellenistic Jews against the Hebraic Jews that their widows were being overlooked in the daily distribution.

²The Twelve summoned the whole company of the disciples and said, “It would not be right for us to give up preaching the word of God to wait on tables.

³Brothers and sisters, select from among you seven men of good reputation, full of the Spirit and wisdom, whom we can appoint to this duty.

⁴But we will devote ourselves to prayer and to the ministry of the word.”

⁵This proposal pleased the whole company. So they chose Stephen, a man full of faith and the Holy Spirit, and Philip, Prochorus, Nicanor, Timon, Parmenas, and Nicolaus, a convert from Antioch.

⁶They had them stand before the apostles, who prayed and laid their hands on them.

⁷So the word of God spread, the disciples in Jerusalem increased greatly in number, and a large group of priests became obedient to the faith.

⁸Now Stephen, full of grace and power, was performing great wonders and signs among the people.

⁹Opposition arose, however, from some members of the Freedmen’s Synagogue, composed of both Cyrenians and Alexandrians, and some from Cilicia and Asia, and they began to argue with Stephen.

¹⁰But they were unable to stand up against his wisdom and the Spirit by whom he was speaking.

¹¹Then they secretly persuaded some men to say, “We heard him speaking blasphemous words against Moses and God.”

¹²They stirred up the people, the elders, and the scribes; so they came, seized him, and took him to the Sanhedrin.

¹³They also presented false witnesses who said, “This man never stops speaking against this holy place and the law.

¹⁴For we heard him say that this Jesus of Nazareth will destroy this place and change the customs that Moses handed down to us.”

¹⁵And all who were sitting in the Sanhedrin looked intently at him and saw that his face was like the face of an angel.