M’Cheyne Bible Reading Plan

7 The Lord said to Noah, “Come into the ark, you and your entire household, for I have seen that you are righteous before me in this generation. ² From every clean animal take with you seven pairs,^[a] a male and his female. From the animals that are not clean, take two, a male and his female. ³ Also from the ⎣clean⎦ birds of the sky take seven and seven, male and female, ⎣and of all the unclean birds, one pair, a male and a female⎦^[b] to keep their offspring alive on the face of the whole earth. ⁴ In seven days I will cause it to rain on the earth for forty days and forty nights. Every living thing that I have made, I will wipe off the face of the earth.”

⁵ Noah did everything that the Lord commanded him.

The Flood

⁶ Noah was six hundred years old when the flood^[c] came, and water covered the earth.

⁷ Noah went into the ark with his sons, his wife, and his sons’ wives, because of the waters of the flood. ⁸ Clean animals, animals that are not clean, birds, and everything that creeps on the ground ⁹ went into the ark with Noah two by two (male and female), just as God had commanded Noah.

¹⁰ After seven days, the waters of the flood came on the earth. ¹¹ In the six hundredth year of Noah’s life, in the second month, on the seventeenth day of the month, on that very day, all the fountains of the great deep burst open, and the floodgates^[d] of the sky were opened. ¹² The rain came down on the earth for forty days and forty nights.

¹³ On that same day Noah, Noah’s sons Shem, Ham, and Japheth, Noah’s wife, and the three wives of his sons along with them entered the ark. ¹⁴ They went in with every animal according to its kind, all the livestock according to their kinds, every creeping thing that creeps on the earth according to its kind, and everything that flies according to its kind, flying birds of every sort. ¹⁵ Pairs of all the animals^[e] that have the breath of life in them went to Noah in the ark. ¹⁶ A male and female of each animal that breathes went in, just as God had commanded Noah. Then the Lord shut Noah in.

¹⁷ The flood kept coming on the earth for forty days. The waters became deeper and lifted up the ark until it floated high above the earth. ¹⁸ The water kept increasing and overwhelmed the earth, and the ark was carried along on the surface of the water. ¹⁹ The water overwhelmed the earth. All the high mountains that were under the entire sky were covered. ²⁰ The waters rose more than twenty feet above the mountains and covered them. ²¹ All living creatures^[f] that moved on the earth perished, including birds, livestock, wild animals, every creeping thing that crawls on the earth, and all mankind. ²² Everything that breathed the breath of life through its nostrils, that is, everything that was on the dry land, died. ²³ Every living thing that was on the face of the earth was wiped out, including mankind, livestock, creeping things, and birds of the sky. They all were wiped off the earth. Only Noah was left, as well as those who were with him in the ark. ²⁴ The waters overwhelmed the earth for one hundred fifty days.

Consider the Beam in Your Own Eye

7 “Stop judging, so that you will not be judged. ² For with whatever standard you judge, you will be judged, and with whatever measure you measure, it will be measured to you. ³ Why do you focus on^[a] the speck that is in your brother’s eye, but do not consider the beam that is in your own eye? ⁴ How will you tell your brother, ‘Let me remove the speck from your eye,’ when, in fact, you have a beam in your own eye? ⁵ Hypocrite! First remove the beam from your own eye, and then you will see clearly to remove the speck from your brother’s eye.

Do Not Throw Your Pearls to Pigs

⁶ “Do not give dogs what is holy, and do not throw your pearls to pigs. If you do, they will trample them under their feet and turn and tear you to pieces.

Keep Praying

⁷ “Keep asking, and it will be given to you. Keep seeking, and you will find. Keep knocking, and it will be opened for you. ⁸ For everyone who asks receives, and everyone who seeks finds, and to the one who knocks, it will be opened. ⁹ Who among you, if his son asks him for bread, would give him a stone? ¹⁰ Or who, if his son asks for a fish, would give him a snake? ¹¹ Then if you know how to give good gifts to your children, even though you are evil, how much more will your Father in heaven give good gifts to those who ask him!

The Golden Rule

¹² “So do for others whatever you want people to do for you, because this is the Law and the Prophets.

The Narrow Gate

¹³ “Enter through the narrow gate, for wide is the gate and broad is the way that leads to destruction, and many are those who enter through it. ¹⁴ How narrow is the gate, and how difficult is the way that leads to life, and there are few who find it.

Watch Out for False Prophets

¹⁵ “Watch out for false prophets. They come to you in sheep’s clothing, but inwardly they are ravenous wolves. ¹⁶ By their fruit you will recognize them. You do not gather grapes from thorn bushes or figs from thistles, do you? ¹⁷ So then, every good tree produces good fruit, but a bad tree produces bad fruit. ¹⁸ A good tree cannot produce bad fruit, and a bad tree cannot produce good fruit. ¹⁹ Every tree that does not produce good fruit is cut down and thrown into the fire. ²⁰ So then, by their fruit you will recognize them. ²¹ Not everyone who says to me, ‘Lord, Lord,’ will enter the kingdom of heaven, but only the one who does the will of my Father in heaven. ²² Many will say to me on that day, ‘Lord, Lord, did we not prophesy in your name and drive out demons in your name and perform many miracles in your name?’ ²³ Then I will tell them plainly, ‘I never knew you. Depart from me, you evildoers.’

Wise and Foolish Builders

²⁴ “Everyone who hears these words of mine and does them will be like a wise man who built his house on bedrock. ²⁵ The rain came down, the rivers rose, and the winds blew and beat against that house. But it did not fall, because it was founded on bedrock. ²⁶ Everyone who hears these words of mine but does not do them will be like a foolish man who built his house on sand. ²⁷ The rain came down, the rivers rose, and the winds blew and beat against that house, and it fell—it was completely destroyed.”

²⁸ When Jesus finished speaking these words, the crowds were amazed at his teaching, ²⁹ because he taught them as one who had authority, and not like their experts in the law.

Ezra and His Mission

7 After these things,^[a] during the reign of King Artaxerxes of Persia, Ezra the son of Seraiah, the son of Azariah, the son of Hilkiah, ² the son of Shallum, the son of Zadok, the son of Ahitub, ³ the son of Amariah, the son of Azariah, the son of Meraioth, ⁴ the son of Zerahiah, the son of Uzzi, the son of Bukki, ⁵ the son of Abishua, the son of Phinehas, the son of Eleazar, the son of Aaron, the high priest— ⁶ this Ezra came up from Babylon.

Now he was a scribe skilled in the Law of Moses, which the Lord, the God of Israel, had given to them. The king granted him his entire request, because the hand of the Lord his God was resting upon him. ⁷ Some of the Israelites and some of the priests, Levites, singers, gatekeepers, and temple servants went up to Jerusalem in the seventh year of King Artaxerxes. ⁸ Ezra came to Jerusalem in the fifth month (it was during the king’s seventh year). ⁹ On the first day of the first month, he began the ascent from Babylon. On the first day of the fifth month he came to Jerusalem. The good hand of his God was resting upon him, ¹⁰ because Ezra had set his heart to seek the Law of the Lord and to obey it, and to teach the statutes and ordinances in Israel.

Authorization for Ezra’s Mission

¹¹ This is a copy of the document that King Artaxerxes gave to Ezra the priest and scribe, who was a scribe of the words of the commands of the Lord and of his statutes for Israel:

²⁷ Blessed be the Lord, the God of my fathers, who put this desire into the heart of the king—to glorify the House of the Lord, which is in Jerusalem! ²⁸ He extended favor to me before the king, his advisors, and all of the king’s powerful officers. I was encouraged, since the hand of the Lord my God was resting on me. So I gathered the leaders of Israel to go up with me.

Stephen Defends Himself

7 Then the high priest asked, “Are these things true?”

² Stephen said, “Gentlemen, brothers and fathers, listen! The God of glory appeared to our father Abraham when he was in Mesopotamia, before he lived in Haran. ³ God said to him, ‘Leave your land and your relatives and come to the land that I will show you.’^[a]

⁴ “Then he left the land of the Chaldeans and settled in Haran. After his father died, God had him move from there to this land where you are now living.

⁵ “He gave him no inheritance in this land, not even enough to set his foot on. But God promised to give it as a possession to him and to his descendants^[b] after him,^[c] even though Abraham still had no child. ⁶ God revealed that his descendants^[d] would live as strangers in a foreign country, and that they would be enslaved and mistreated for four hundred years. ⁷ God added, ‘I will judge the nation that they will serve as slaves, and after that they will leave there and serve me in this place.’^[e]

⁸ “Then he gave Abraham the covenant of circumcision. So Abraham became the father of Isaac and circumcised him on the eighth day. Isaac became the father of Jacob, and Jacob became the father of the twelve patriarchs.

Stephen Defends Himself

⁹ “The patriarchs, filled with envy, sold Joseph into Egypt, but God was with him. ¹⁰ God rescued him from all his troubles and granted him favor and wisdom before Pharaoh, king of Egypt. And Pharaoh made him governor over Egypt and over his whole palace.

¹¹ “A famine came over all of Egypt and Canaan, causing great suffering, and our fathers found no food. ¹² But when Jacob heard that there was grain in Egypt, he sent our fathers on their first visit. ¹³ On their second visit, Joseph made himself known to his brothers, and Joseph’s family became known to Pharaoh. ¹⁴ Then Joseph sent word and invited his father Jacob and all his relatives to come to him, seventy-five people in all. ¹⁵ Jacob went down to Egypt, and there he died, he and our fathers. ¹⁶ Their bodies were brought back to Shechem and laid in the tomb that Abraham had bought for a sum of silver from the sons of Hamor in Shechem.

¹⁷ “As the time approached that God spoke about in the promise he had made^[f] to Abraham, the people increased and multiplied in Egypt. ¹⁸ This continued until another king who knew nothing about Joseph became ruler of Egypt. ¹⁹ He took advantage of our people in a cunning way, and he mistreated our fathers by forcing them to get rid of their babies so that they would not survive.^[g]

Stephen Defends Himself

²⁰ “At that time, Moses was born, and he was favored by God. For three months he was cared for in his father’s house. ²¹ After he was placed outside,^[h] Pharaoh’s daughter took him in and brought him up as her own son. ²² Moses was educated in all the wisdom of the Egyptians, and he was powerful in his words and actions.

²³ “But when he was forty years old, it entered his mind to visit his brothers, the sons of Israel. ²⁴ When he saw one of them being mistreated, he defended him and avenged the oppressed man by striking down the Egyptian. ²⁵ He thought that his brothers would understand that God was giving them deliverance by his hand, but they did not understand. ²⁶ The next day, he came across two of them while they were fighting, and he tried to reconcile them. He said, ‘Men, you are brothers. Why are you harming each other?’ ²⁷ But the one who was harming his neighbor pushed him away, saying, ‘Who made you a ruler and a judge over us? ²⁸ Do you want to kill me the same way you killed the Egyptian yesterday?’^{[i] 29} At this remark, Moses fled and lived as an exile in the land of Midian, where he became the father of two sons.

³⁰ “After forty years had passed, an angel of the Lord^[j] appeared to him in the wilderness of Mount Sinai, in the flames of a burning bush. ³¹ When Moses saw it, he was amazed at the sight. As he went closer to look, the voice of the Lord said, ³² ‘I am the God of your fathers, the God of Abraham, the God of Isaac, and the God of^[k] Jacob.’^[l] Moses trembled and did not dare to look. ³³ Then the Lord said to him, ‘Take your sandals off your feet, because the place where you are standing is holy ground. ³⁴ I have certainly seen the oppression of my people in Egypt, and I have heard their groaning. I have come down to rescue them. Now come, I will send you to Egypt.’^[m]

³⁵ “This is the same Moses they had rejected by saying, ‘Who made you a ruler and judge?’ This is the one whom God sent to be a ruler and deliverer with the help of the angel who appeared to him in the bush. ³⁶ This is the one who led the people out, as he performed wonders and miraculous signs in Egypt, at the Red Sea, and in the wilderness for forty years. ³⁷ This is the Moses who said to the people of Israel, ‘God^[n] will raise up for you a prophet like me from among your brothers.’^{[o] 38} This is the one who was in the assembly in the wilderness with the angel who spoke to him on Mount Sinai and with our fathers. He received living messages to give to us, ³⁹ but our fathers refused to obey him. Instead they pushed him away and turned back, in their hearts, to Egypt. ⁴⁰ They told Aaron, ‘Make gods for us who will go before us. As for this Moses who led us out of the land of Egypt—we do not know what has happened to him.’^{[p] 41} That was the time when they made a calf, offered a sacrifice to the idol, and were taking delight in the works of their hands.

⁴² “But God turned away and gave them over to the worship of the heavenly bodies, as it is written in the book of the prophets:

Stephen Defends Himself

⁴⁴ “Our fathers had the Tent of the Testimony in the wilderness. It was just like the model Moses had seen, just as he who spoke to Moses directed him to make it. ⁴⁵ After our fathers received it from him, they brought it in with Joshua when they took possession of the land from the nations God drove out before our fathers. It was here until the days of David. ⁴⁶ He found favor in the presence of God and asked that he might obtain a dwelling place for the God of Jacob.^{[r] 47} But it was Solomon who built a house for him.

⁴⁸ “However, the Most High does not live in houses made by human hands, just as the prophet says:

Stephen Condemns the Jewish Rulers

⁵¹ “You stiff-necked people, with uncircumcised hearts and ears! You always resist the Holy Spirit! You are doing just what your fathers did. ⁵² Which of the prophets did your fathers not persecute? They killed those who prophesied the coming of the Righteous One, and now you have become his betrayers and murderers— ⁵³ you who received the law as transmitted by angels, but did not keep it.”

The Stoning of Stephen

⁵⁴ When they heard these things, they were furious and gnashed their teeth at him. ⁵⁵ But Stephen, full of the Holy Spirit, gazed up into heaven and saw the glory of God and Jesus standing at the right hand of God. ⁵⁶ He said, “Look, I see heaven opened, and the Son of Man standing at the right hand of God.”

⁵⁷ But they screamed at the top of their voices, covered their ears, and rushed at him with one purpose in mind. ⁵⁸ They threw him out of the city and stoned him. The witnesses laid their cloaks at the feet of a young man named Saul.

⁵⁹ While they were stoning Stephen, he called out, “Lord Jesus, receive my spirit!” ⁶⁰ Then he fell to his knees and cried out in a loud voice, “Lord, do not hold this sin against them.” After he said this, he fell asleep.