M’Cheyne Bible Reading Plan
The Fall Into Sin
3 Now the serpent was more clever than any wild animal which the Lord God had made. He said to the woman, “Has God really said, ‘You shall not eat from any tree in the garden’?”
2 The woman said to the serpent, “We may eat fruit from the trees of the garden, 3 but not from the fruit of the tree that is in the middle of the garden. God has said, ‘You shall not eat from it. You shall not touch it, or else you will die.’”
4 The serpent said to the woman, “You certainly will not die. 5 In fact, God knows that the day you eat from it, your eyes will be opened, and you will be like God, knowing good and evil.”
6 When the woman saw that the tree was good for food, and that it was appealing to the eyes, and that the tree was desirable to make one wise, she took some of its fruit and ate. She gave some also to her husband, who was with her, and he ate it. 7 The eyes of both of them were opened, and they realized that they were naked. They sewed fig leaves together and made coverings for their waists.[a] 8 They heard the voice of the Lord God, who was walking around in the garden during the cooler part[b] of the day, and the man and his wife hid themselves from the presence of the Lord God among the trees of the garden.
9 The Lord God called to the man and said to him, “Where are you?”
10 The man said, “I heard your voice in the garden, and I was afraid, because I was naked, so I hid myself.”
11 God said, “Who told you that you were naked? Have you eaten from the tree from which I commanded you not to eat?”
12 The man said, “The woman you gave to be with me—she gave me fruit from the tree, and I ate it.”
13 The Lord God said to the woman, “What have you done?”
The woman said, “The serpent deceived me, and I ate.”
14 The Lord God said to the serpent:
Because you have done this,
you are cursed more than all the livestock,
and more than every wild animal.
You shall crawl on your belly,
and you shall eat dust all the days of your life.
15 I will put hostility between you and the woman,
and between your seed and her seed.[c]
He will crush your head,
and you will crush his heel.
16 To the woman he said:
I will greatly increase your pain in childbearing.
With painful labor you will give birth to children.
Your desire will be for your husband,
but[d] he will rule over you.
17 To Adam he said:
Because you listened to your wife’s voice
and ate from the tree about which I commanded you,
“You shall not eat from it,”
the soil is cursed on account of you.
You will eat from it with painful labor all the days of your life.
18 Thorns and thistles will spring up from the ground for you,
but you will eat the crops of the field.
19 By the sweat of your face you will eat bread
until you return to the soil,
for out of it you were taken.
For you are dust,
and to dust you shall return.
20 The man named his wife Eve[e] because she would be the mother of all the living. 21 The Lord God made clothing of animal skins for Adam and for his wife and clothed them.
22 The Lord God said, “Look, the man has become like one of us, knowing good and evil. Now, so that he does not reach out his hand and also take from the Tree of Life and eat and live forever—” 23 the Lord God sent him out from the Garden of Eden to work the soil from which he had been taken. 24 So he drove the man out, and in front of[f] the Garden of Eden he stationed cherubim[g] and a flaming sword, which turned in every direction to guard the way to the Tree of Life.
John the Baptist Prepares the Way
3 In those days, John the Baptist appeared, preaching in the wilderness of Judea and saying, 2 “Repent, because the kingdom of heaven is near!” 3 Yes, this is he of whom this was spoken through the prophet Isaiah:
A voice of one crying out in the wilderness,
“Prepare the way of the Lord. Make his paths straight.”[a]
4 John wore clothing made of camel’s hair, with a leather belt around his waist. His food was locusts and wild honey. 5 Then Jerusalem, all of Judea, and all the region around the Jordan were going out to him. 6 They were baptized by him in the Jordan River as they confessed their sins. 7 But when he saw many of the Pharisees and Sadducees coming for his baptism, he said to them, “You offspring of vipers, who warned you to flee from the coming wrath? 8 Therefore produce fruit in keeping with repentance! 9 Do not think of saying to yourselves, ‘We have Abraham as our father.’ For I tell you that God is able to raise up children for Abraham from these stones. 10 Already the ax is ready to strike[b] the root of the trees. So every tree that does not produce good fruit is cut down and thrown into the fire. 11 I baptize you with water for repentance. But the one who comes after me is mightier than I. I am not worthy to carry his sandals. He will baptize you with the Holy Spirit and fire. 12 His winnowing shovel is in his hand, and he will thoroughly clean out his threshing floor. He will gather his wheat into the barn, but he will burn up the chaff with unquenchable fire.”
John Baptizes Jesus
13 Then Jesus came from Galilee to be baptized by John at the Jordan. 14 But John tried to stop him, saying, “I need to be baptized by you, and yet you come to me?”
15 But Jesus answered him, “Let it be so now, because it is proper for us to fulfill all righteousness.” Then John let him. 16 After Jesus was baptized, he immediately went up out of the water. Suddenly, the heavens were opened for him! He saw the Spirit of God, descending like a dove and landing on him, 17 and a voice out of the heavens said, “This is my Son, whom I love. I am well pleased with him.”
Beginning the Construction of the Second Temple
3 When the seventh month arrived and the Israelites were living in their own cities, the people gathered together in Jerusalem.
2 Then Jeshua son of Jozadak with his fellow priests along with Zerubbabel son of Shealtiel with his colleagues[a] arose and built the altar of the God of Israel in order to offer burnt offerings upon it, as it is written in the Law of Moses, the man of God. 3 They set the altar on its foundations, although they were in terror of the peoples of the lands. They offered burnt offerings to the Lord upon it—burnt offerings in the evening and in the morning.
4 They observed the Festival of Shelters,[b] according to the written directions, and they offered the daily burnt offerings in the number specified for each day of the festival. 5 After this, they offered the regular burnt offerings, those for the new moons, those for all the appointed assemblies of the Lord, and the offerings for everyone who was bringing a voluntary contribution to offer to the Lord. 6 From the first day of the seventh month, they began to offer burnt offerings, although the foundation of the temple of the Lord had not yet been laid.
7 They gave money to the stonemasons and craftsmen, and they gave food, drink, and olive oil to the Sidonians and Tyrians to pay them for bringing cedar logs from Lebanon to the seaport at Joppa, according to the authorization that had been given to them by Cyrus king of Persia.
8 In the second year after their arrival at the house of God at Jerusalem, in the second month, Zerubbabel son of Shealtiel, Jeshua son of Jozadak, along with the rest of their colleagues, the priests and the Levites, and everyone who returned from the captivity to Jerusalem began the work.
They appointed Levites who were twenty years old and older to supervise the work on the house for the Lord. 9 Jeshua together with his sons and brothers and Kadmiel with his sons (they were descendants of Judah[c]) assumed supervision over those working on the house for God. (The Levites who were descendants of Henadad, along with their sons and brothers, also supervised.)
10 When the builders laid the foundation of the temple of the Lord, the priests, dressed in their robes, stood by with trumpets, and the Levites, the descendants of Asaph, stood by with cymbals to praise the Lord as prescribed by David king of Israel. 11 They sang antiphonally to praise and thank the Lord:
Truly, he is good, because his mercy toward Israel endures forever.
All the people shouted loud praise to the Lord when the foundation of the House of the Lord was laid. 12 However, when many of the older priests, Levites, and heads of families, who had seen the first house, saw this house being founded, they wept loudly, although many also raised their voices in a shout of joy. 13 The people could not distinguish the sound of the joyful cry from the sound of the people weeping, because the people were shouting loudly, and the sound could be heard far away.
Peter Heals a Lame Man
3 Peter and John were going up to the temple at the ninth hour,[a] an hour of prayer. 2 A certain man who was lame from birth was carried there every day and placed at the temple gate, which is called Beautiful, so that he could beg for donations from those entering the temple. 3 When he saw Peter and John about to enter the temple, he asked them for a donation.
4 Peter looked directly at him, as did John. Peter said, “Look at us.” 5 So the man paid close attention to them, expecting to receive something from them.
6 But Peter said, “Silver and gold I do not have, but what I have I will give you. In the name of Jesus Christ the Nazarene, get up and walk!” 7 Peter took him by the right hand and raised him up, and immediately the man’s feet and ankles were made strong. 8 Jumping up, he stood and began to walk. He entered the temple courts with them, walking, jumping, and praising God.
9 All the people saw him walking and praising God. 10 They recognized him as the one who used to sit begging for money at the Beautiful Gate of the temple, and they were filled with wonder and amazement at what had happened to him. 11 While the man held on to Peter and John, all the people came running toward them in utter amazement in the area called Solomon’s Colonnade.
12 When Peter saw this, he addressed the people: “Men of Israel, why are you amazed at this? Why are you staring at us, as if by our own power or godliness we have made this man walk? 13 The God of Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob,[b] the God of our fathers, glorified his servant Jesus, whom you handed over and disowned in the presence of Pilate, though he had decided to release him. 14 You disowned the Holy and Righteous One and asked to have a murderer given to you. 15 You killed the Author[c] of Life, whom God raised from the dead. We are witnesses of this. 16 And on the basis of faith in his name, it is the name of Jesus that has strengthened this man, whom you see and know. This faith that comes through Jesus has given him this perfect health in the presence of all of you.
17 “Now brothers,[d] I know that you acted in ignorance, just like your leaders. 18 But in this way God fulfilled what he had foretold through the mouth of all the prophets: that his Christ would suffer. 19 Therefore repent and return to have your sins wiped out, 20 so that refreshing times may come from the presence of the Lord and that he may send Jesus, the Christ appointed for you. 21 He must receive heaven[e] until the times when everything will be restored, as God spoke through the mouth of his holy prophets long ago.
22 “Moses said to the fathers:[f]
The Lord your[g] God will raise up for you a Prophet from your brothers who is like me. Listen to everything he tells you. 23 And this is what will happen: Every person who does not listen to that Prophet will be completely cut off from the people.[h]
24 “Also, all the prophets from Samuel on, as many as have spoken, have talked about these days. 25 You are the sons of the prophets and of the covenant that God made with our[i] fathers when he said to Abraham:
In your seed[j] all the families of the earth will be blessed.[k]
26 “God raised up his Servant and sent him to you first, to bless you by turning every one of you away from your wicked ways.”
The Holy Bible, Evangelical Heritage Version®, EHV®, © 2019 Wartburg Project, Inc. All rights reserved.