M’Cheyne Bible Reading Plan
The Promise of an Heir
15 After these events the word of the Lord came to Abram in a vision. He said, “Do not be afraid, Abram. I am your shield, your very great reward.”
2 Abram said, “Lord God[a] what can you give me, since I remain childless, and the one who will inherit my estate is Eliezer of Damascus?” 3 Abram also said, “Look, you have given me no offspring, so a servant born in my house will be my heir.”
4 Just then, the word of the Lord came to him. God said, “This man will not be your heir, but instead one who will come out of your own body will be your heir.” 5 The Lord then brought him outside and said, “Now look toward the sky and count the stars, if you are able to count them.” He said to Abram, “This is what your descendants will be like.” 6 Abram believed in[b] the Lord, and the Lord credited it to him as righteousness. 7 He said to him, “I am the Lord, who brought you out of Ur of the Chaldeans to give you this land as a possession.”
8 He said, “Lord God, how will I know that I will possess it?”
9 The Lord said to him, “Bring me a heifer three years old, a female goat three years old, a ram three years old, a turtledove, and a young pigeon.” 10 Abram gathered all of these, divided them in half, and laid the two halves across from each other, but he did not divide the birds in two. 11 Birds of prey came down on the carcasses, but Abram drove them away.
12 When the sun was going down, a deep sleep fell on Abram. Then terrifying, deep darkness fell on him. 13 The Lord said to Abram, “Know this! Your descendants will live as aliens in a land that is not theirs, and they will serve its people, who will afflict them for four hundred years. 14 But I will surely judge the nation that they will serve. Afterward your descendants will come out with great wealth, 15 but you will go to your fathers in peace. You will be buried at a good old age. 16 In the fourth generation your descendants will come here again, because the guilt of the Amorites is not yet full.” 17 Then when the sun had gone down and it was dark, suddenly a smoking oven and a flaming torch passed between the pieces. 18 On that day the Lord made[c] a covenant with Abram. He said, “To your descendants I have given this land from the river of Egypt to the great river, the river Euphrates. 19 I will give you the territory of the Kenites, the Kenizzites, the Kadmonites, 20 the Hittites, the Perizzites, the Rephaites, 21 the Amorites, the Canaanites, the Girgashites, and the Jebusites.”
Recalling the Death of John the Baptist
14 At that time, Herod the tetrarch heard the news about Jesus. 2 He said to his servants, “This is John the Baptist! He has risen from the dead! That is why these powers are working in him.” 3 For Herod had arrested John, bound him, and put him in prison because of Herodias, the wife of his brother Philip. 4 John had been telling him, “It is not lawful for you to have her.” 5 Although Herod wanted to put him to death, he feared the crowd, because they regarded him as a prophet. 6 But when it was Herod’s birthday, the daughter of Herodias danced among them. This pleased Herod. 7 So he promised with an oath to give her whatever she might ask. 8 Prompted by her mother, she said, “Give me here on a platter the head of John the Baptist.”
9 Although this saddened the king, because of his oaths and his dinner guests, he ordered that it be done. 10 He sent the order and had John beheaded in prison. 11 His head was brought on a platter and given to the girl, and she brought it to her mother. 12 John’s disciples came, took the body, and buried it. Then they went and reported this to Jesus.
Jesus Feeds More Than Five Thousand
13 When Jesus heard this, he withdrew from there in a boat to a deserted place to be alone. When the crowds heard this, they followed him on foot from the towns.
14 When Jesus got out of the boat, he saw a large crowd. He had compassion on them and healed their sick. 15 When evening came, his disciples came to him and said, “This is a deserted place and the hour is already late. Send the crowds away, so that they can go into the villages and buy food for themselves.”
16 But Jesus said to them, “They do not need to go away. You give them something to eat.”
17 They told him, “We have here only five loaves and two fish.”
18 “Bring them here to me,” he replied. 19 Then he instructed the people to sit down on the grass. He took the five loaves and the two fish. After looking up to heaven, he blessed them. He broke the loaves and gave them to the disciples. The disciples gave the food to the people. 20 They all ate and were filled. They picked up twelve basketfuls of what was left over from the broken pieces. 21 Those who ate were about five thousand men, not even counting women and children.
Jesus Walks on Water
22 Immediately Jesus urged the disciples to get into the boat and to go ahead of him to the other side, while he dismissed the crowd. 23 After he had dismissed the crowd, he went up onto the mountain by himself to pray. When evening came, he was there alone. 24 By then the boat was quite a distance from shore, being pounded by the waves because the wind was against it. 25 In the fourth watch of the night,[a] Jesus came toward them, walking on the sea. 26 When the disciples saw him walking on the sea, they were terrified and cried out in fear, “It’s a ghost!” 27 But Jesus spoke to them at once, saying, “Take heart! It is I! Do not be afraid.”
28 Peter answered him and said, “Lord, if it is you, command me to come to you on the water.”
29 Jesus said, “Come!”
Peter stepped down from the boat, walked on the water, and went toward Jesus. 30 But when he saw the strong wind, he was afraid. As he began to sink, he cried out, “Lord, save me!”
31 Immediately Jesus stretched out his hand, took hold of him, and said to him, “You of little faith, why did you doubt?” 32 When they got into the boat, the wind stopped. 33 Those who were in the boat worshipped him, saying, “Truly you are the Son of God!”
34 When they had crossed over, they came to the shore at Gennesaret. 35 When the men of that place recognized him, they sent word into all the surrounding region. They brought to him all who were sick 36 and begged that they might just touch the fringe of his garment. All who touched it were completely cured.
Opposition and Threats to the Building[a]
4 When Sanballat heard that we were rebuilding the wall, it infuriated him, and he became very angry. He ridiculed the Jews 2 and said in front of his allies[b] and the army of Samaria, “What are those pathetic Jews doing? Will they restore[c] it by themselves? Will they sacrifice? Will they finish in one day? Will they refurbish the stones that came from the piles of rubble that have been burned?”
3 Tobiah the Ammonite was beside him. He said, “Whatever they are building, if even a fox climbed on it, it would break apart the wall made from their stones.”
4 Listen, O our God, because we are an object of contempt. Turn their ridicule back on their own heads. Hand them over as plunder in a land of captivity. 5 Do not cover over their guilt, and may their sin not be blotted out before you, because they have provoked your anger in the presence of the builders.[d]
6 So we built the wall, and the entire wall was completed, up to half its height, because the people were determined to do it.
7 Now when Sanballat, Tobiah, the Arabs, the Ammonites, and the people of Ashdod heard that the repair of Jerusalem’s walls had progressed and the breaches had begun to be filled, they were infuriated. 8 So all of them conspired to come to attack Jerusalem and to throw it into confusion. 9 However, we prayed to our God, and because of the enemies, we posted a guard over the builders day and night.
10 Then the people of Judah said, “The strength of those bearing the burden is failing. There is so much rubble. We will not be able to build the wall!”
11 Then our adversaries said, “They will not know about it or realize what we are doing, until we come among them and kill them and bring the work to a halt.”
12 When the Jews who lived near them came, they repeatedly told us, “No matter which way you turn, they will be upon us.”[e] 13 So I stationed people behind the wall at the lowest places, at its open spots. I stationed the people by clans with their swords, spears, and bows. 14 Then I looked and got up and said to the nobles, the officials, and the rest of the people, “Do not be afraid of them. Remember the Lord, who is great and fearsome. So fight for your brothers, your sons and your daughters, your wives, and your homes.”
15 When our enemies heard that their plan was known to us and that God had frustrated their strategy, all of us returned to the wall, each man to his own work. 16 From that day on, half of the young men who were serving under me were doing the work, and half of them were holding shields, spears, and bows and wearing armor. The officers were stationed behind the whole house of Judah. 17 The people who were building the wall and those who were carrying the materials for building were doing their work with one hand, while the other hand held a weapon. 18 As they built, the builders were armed, each man with his sword on his hip. The man who sounded the ram’s horn was next to me.
19 Then I said to the nobles, the officials, and the rest of the people, “There is a lot of work, and it is spread out, and we are separated along the wall—all the people are far away from each other. 20 Wherever you hear the sound of the ram’s horn, gather with us at that spot. Our God will fight for us.”
21 So we continued to work with half of the people holding spears, from the crack of dawn until the stars came out. 22 Also at that time I said to the people, “Let every man and his servant spend the night in Jerusalem. They will serve as a guard for us at night, and in the daytime they will work.”
23 Neither I nor my brothers nor my servants nor the men of the guard who were behind me—none of us took off our clothes. Each man had his weapon in his hand, even when getting a drink of water.[f]
In Iconium
14 The same thing happened in Iconium. Paul and Barnabas entered the Jewish synagogue and spoke in such a way that a great number of both Jews and Greeks believed. 2 But the Jews who refused to believe stirred up the Gentiles and poisoned their minds against the brothers.
3 Paul and Barnabas stayed there a long time, speaking boldly for the Lord, who confirmed the message of his grace by granting them the ability to perform miraculous signs and wonders. 4 But the people of the city were divided. Some sided with the Jews and some with the apostles.
5 When there was a plot by both Gentiles and Jews, together with their rulers, to mistreat and stone them, 6 they found out about it and fled to the Lycaonian cities of Lystra and Derbe and to the surrounding countryside. 7 There they kept on preaching the good news.
In Lystra and Derbe
8 In Lystra there was a man who was sitting down because he had no strength in his feet. He had never walked because he was lame from birth. 9 When he was listening to Paul as he was speaking, Paul looked at him closely and saw that he had faith to be healed. 10 Paul said in a loud voice, “Stand up on your feet!” And the man jumped up and began to walk.
11 When the crowds saw what Paul had done, they raised their voices, saying in the Lycaonian language, “The gods have come down to us in human form.” 12 Barnabas they called Zeus, and Paul they called Hermes, because he was the main speaker. 13 The priest of Zeus, whose temple was just outside the city, brought bulls and garlands to the city gates, because he wanted to offer sacrifices along with the crowds.
14 But when the apostles Paul and Barnabas heard about this, they tore their clothes and rushed into the crowd, shouting, 15 “Men, why are you doing these things? We too are men with the same nature as you. We are preaching the good news to you so that you turn from these worthless things to the living God, who made the heaven, the earth, the sea, and everything in them. 16 In past generations he allowed all the nations to go their own ways. 17 Yet he did not leave himself without testimony of the good he does. He gives you rain from heaven and crops in their seasons. He fills you with food and fills your hearts with gladness.” 18 Even though they said these things, they had a hard time stopping the crowds from sacrificing to them.
19 Then some Jews came from Antioch and Iconium and persuaded the crowds to stone Paul. When they thought he was dead, they dragged him out of the city. 20 But after the disciples had gathered around him, he stood up and went into the city. The next day, he left with Barnabas for Derbe.
The Return to Antioch
21 After they preached the good news in that city and had gathered many disciples, they returned to Lystra, Iconium, and Antioch, 22 strengthening the souls of the disciples and encouraging them to continue in the faith. They told them, “We must go through many troubles on our way to the kingdom of God.” 23 They had elders elected[a] for them in every church, and with prayer and fasting they entrusted them to the Lord, in whom they believed. 24 When they had passed through Pisidia, they came to Pamphylia. 25 When they had spoken the Word in Perga, they went down to Attalia.
26 From there they sailed back to Antioch, where they had been entrusted to the grace of God for the work they had just completed. 27 When they arrived and called the church together, they reported everything God had done with them and how he had opened the door of faith for the Gentiles. 28 Then they stayed there a long time with the disciples.
The Holy Bible, Evangelical Heritage Version®, EHV®, © 2019 Wartburg Project, Inc. All rights reserved.