M’Cheyne Bible Reading Plan
The Commission to Build the Dwelling[a]
25 The Lord spoke to Moses. He said, 2 “Speak to the people of Israel[b] so that they gather a special offering[c] for me. From everyone whose heart makes him willing you shall gather the offering for me.”
The Offering for the Dwelling
3 This is the offering which you are to gather from them: gold, silver, and bronze; 4 blue, purple, and scarlet material, fine linen; goats’ hair, 5 rams’ skins dyed red, and hides of sea cows;[d] acacia wood, 6 olive oil for the Light, spices for the anointing oil and for the fragrant incense, 7 onyx stones, and stones to be mounted on the special vest[e] and on the pouch. 8 They are to make a sanctuary for me, so that I may dwell among them. 9 You are to make it exactly according to the design for the Dwelling and the designs for all of its furniture which I will show you.
The Ark of the Covenant
10 They shall make an ark[f] of acacia wood. It is to be forty-five inches long, twenty-seven inches wide, and twenty-seven inches high.[g] 11 Overlay it with pure gold. Overlay it on the inside and the outside, and make a gold border around it. 12 Cast four gold rings for it and place them next to its four feet. Two rings are for one side of it, and two rings for the other side. 13 Make poles of acacia wood and overlay them with gold. 14 Put the poles which are used to carry the ark into the rings on the sides of the ark. 15 The poles are to be placed into the rings on the ark. They are not to be removed from the rings.
16 Put the Testimony, which I am about to give to you, into the ark. 17 Make an atonement seat[h] of pure gold, forty-five inches long and twenty-seven inches wide. 18 Make two cherubim[i] of hammered gold. You are to make them for the two ends of the atonement seat. 19 Make one cherub for one end and one cherub for the other end. The cherubim on its two ends are to form one piece with the atonement seat.[j] 20 The cherubim will spread their wings upward so that they cover the atonement seat with their wings, and they will face each other. The faces of the cherubim are to be looking inward toward the atonement seat. 21 Put the atonement seat on top of the ark, and put the Testimony, which I will give to you, into the ark. 22 There I will meet with you, and from above the atonement seat, from between the two cherubim that are on the Ark of the Testimony, I will communicate to you all the commands that I will give to you for the people of Israel.
The Table
23 You shall make a table of acacia wood, thirty-six inches long, eighteen inches wide, and twenty-seven inches high. 24 Overlay it with pure gold and make a gold border around it.[k] 25 Make a three-inch rim around it. Make a gold border for its rim all the way around it. 26 Make four gold rings for it and fasten the rings to the four corners, above the four legs of the table. 27 The rings shall be close to the border to hold the poles used to carry the table. 28 Make the poles of acacia wood and overlay them with gold, so that the table can be carried with them. 29 You are to make its dishes,[l] its small bowls,[m] its pitchers, and its larger bowls to pour out offerings.[n] Make them of pure gold. 30 You are to set the Bread of the Presence[o] on the table so that it is in front of me at all times.
The Lampstand
31 You shall make a lampstand[p] of pure gold. The lampstand is to be made of hammered metal. Its pedestal, its shaft, its cups, its buds, and its flowers are all to be formed as one piece with the lampstand. 32 There are to be six branches going out from its two sides: Three branches of the lampstand are to go out from one side, and three branches of the lampstand are to go out from the other side. 33 There are to be three cups shaped like almond blossoms with buds and flowers on the first branch, and three cups like almond blossoms with buds and flowers on the branch opposite it. All six branches going out from the lampstand are to be the same. 34 On the lampstand itself make four cups shaped like almond blossoms with buds and flowers. 35 The bud under one pair of branches is to form one piece with the lampstand, and the bud under the second pair of branches is to form one piece with the lampstand, and the bud under the third pair of branches is to form one piece with the lampstand—the same for all six branches going out of the lampstand. 36 Its buds and branches are to be made as one piece with it. All of it will be one hammered piece of pure gold.
37 You shall make seven lamps for it, and these lamps shall be lit to give light to the area in front of the lampstand. 38 Its wick trimmers and its pans[q] are to be made of pure gold. 39 It is to be made of seventy-five pounds[r] of pure gold with all these accessories. 40 See to it that you make them according to their design, which is being shown to you on the mountain.
The Samaritan Woman
4 Jesus[a] found out that the Pharisees had heard he was making and baptizing more disciples than John, 2 though it was not Jesus himself who was baptizing but his disciples. 3 So he left Judea and went back again to Galilee.
4 He had to go through Samaria. 5 So he came to a town in Samaria called Sychar, near the piece of land Jacob gave to his son Joseph. 6 Jacob’s well was there. Then Jesus, being tired from the journey, sat down by the well. It was about the sixth hour.[b]
7 A woman from Samaria came to draw water. Jesus said to her, “Give me a drink.” 8 (His disciples had gone into town to buy food.)
9 The Samaritan woman said to him, “How is it that you, a Jew, ask for a drink from me, a Samaritan woman?” (For Jews do not associate with Samaritans.)
10 Jesus answered her, “If you knew the gift of God and who it is that is saying to you, ‘Give me a drink,’ you would have asked him, and he would have given you living water.”
11 “Sir,” she said, “you don’t even have a bucket, and the well is deep. So where do you get this living water? 12 You are not greater than our father Jacob, are you? He gave us this well and drank from it himself, as did his sons and his animals.”
13 Jesus answered her, “Everyone who drinks this water will be thirsty again, 14 but whoever drinks the water I will give him will never be thirsty ever again. Rather, the water I will give him will become in him a spring of water, bubbling up to eternal life.”
15 “Sir, give me this water,” the woman said to him, “so I won’t get thirsty and have to keep coming here to draw water.”
16 Jesus told her, “Go, call your husband, and come back here.”
17 “I have no husband,” the woman answered.
Jesus said to her, “You are right when you say, ‘I have no husband.’ 18 In fact, you have had five husbands, and the man you have now is not your husband. What you have said is true.”
19 “Sir,” the woman replied, “I see that you are a prophet. 20 Our fathers worshipped on this mountain, but you Jews insist that the place where we must worship is in Jerusalem.”
21 Jesus said to her, “Believe me, woman, a time is coming when you will not worship the Father on this mountain or in Jerusalem. 22 You Samaritans worship what you do not know. We worship what we do know, because salvation is from the Jews. 23 But a time is coming and now is here when the real worshippers will worship the Father in spirit and in truth, for those are the kind of worshippers the Father seeks. 24 God is spirit, and those who worship him must worship in spirit and in truth.”
25 The woman said to him, “I know that Messiah is coming” (the one called Christ). “When he comes, he will explain everything to us.”
26 Jesus said to her, “I, the one speaking to you, am he.”
27 Just then his disciples returned and were surprised that he was talking to a woman. Yet no one asked, “What do you want?” or “Why are you talking to her?”
28 Then the woman left her water jar and went back into town. She said to the people, 29 “Come, see the man who told me everything I ever did. Could this be the Christ?” 30 They left the town and came to him.
31 Meanwhile, the disciples kept urging him, “Rabbi, eat.”
32 But Jesus said to them, “I have food to eat that you do not know about.”
33 Then the disciples said to each other, “Did anyone bring him something to eat?”
34 Jesus told them, “My food is to do the will of him who sent me and to finish his work. 35 Do you not say, ‘Four more months and the harvest will be here’? Pay attention to what I am telling you. Open your eyes and look at the fields, because they are already[c] ripe for harvest. 36 The reaper is getting paid and is gathering grain for eternal life, so that the sower and the reaper may rejoice together. 37 Indeed in this case the saying is true, ‘One sows, and another reaps.’ 38 I sent you to reap a harvest for which you did no hard work. Others have done the hard work, and you have benefitted from their labor.”
39 Many Samaritans from that town believed in him because of the woman’s testimony: “He told me everything I ever did.” 40 So when the Samaritans came to him, they asked him to stay with them. And he stayed there two days. 41 Many more believed because of his message. 42 They told the woman, “We no longer believe because of what you said. Now we have heard for ourselves. And we know that this really is the Savior of the world.”
Jesus Heals an Officer’s Son
43 After two days, Jesus left for Galilee. 44 Now Jesus himself had testified that a prophet is not honored in his own country.
45 When he came to Galilee, the Galileans welcomed him. They had seen all the things he did at the Festival in Jerusalem, because they also had gone to the Festival.
46 Jesus came again to Cana in Galilee, where he had turned the water into wine.
In Capernaum, there was a certain royal official whose son was sick. 47 When this man heard that Jesus had come from Judea into Galilee, he went to him and begged him to come down and heal his son, because his son was about to die.
48 Jesus told him, “Unless you people see miraculous signs and wonders, you certainly will not believe.”
49 The royal official said to him, “Lord, come down before my little boy dies.”
50 “Go,” Jesus told him, “your son is going to live.”
The man believed this word that Jesus spoke to him and left.
51 Already as he was going down, his servants met him with the news that his boy was going to live. 52 So he asked them what time his son got better. They told him, “Yesterday at the seventh hour[d] the fever left him.” 53 Then the father realized that was the exact time when Jesus had told him, “Your son is going to live.” And he himself and his whole household believed.
54 This was the second miraculous sign Jesus did after he came from Judea into Galilee.
The Superscription
1 The proverbs of Solomon, son of David, king of Israel.
The Purpose of Proverbs
2 To learn wisdom and discipline,
to understand sayings[a] that give insight,[b]
3 to acquire discipline to act sensibly,
to acquire righteousness, justice, and fairness,
4 to give good judgment[c] to the inexperienced,
to give a young man knowledge and foresight.
5 A wise person should listen, and he will increase learning.
A person with understanding should obtain guidance
6 so he will understand proverbs, puzzling statements,[d]
and the thought-provoking words of the wise.
7 The fear of the Lord is the beginning of[e] knowledge,
but stubborn fools despise wisdom and discipline.
Solomon’s Speeches About Wisdom
First Address to a Son:
Avoid the Company of Sinners
8 Listen, my son, to your father’s discipline,
and do not forsake your mother’s teaching,
9 because they are a garland of grace for your head.
They are jewelry for your neck.
10 My son, if sinners lure you,
do not go along with them.
11 If they say,
“Come with us.
Let’s lie in wait to shed blood.
Let’s hide and ambush an innocent person for no reason.
12 We will swallow them alive like the grave.
We will swallow them whole
like those who go down to the pit.
13 We will find all kinds of wealth and treasure.
We will fill our houses with loot.
14 Cast your lot with us.
We will all share one bag of money.”
15 My son, do not walk along the road with them.
Do not set foot on their path,
16 because their feet run to do evil,
and they hurry to shed blood.
17 How useless to spread a net in the sight of any bird!
18 Yet they set up an ambush for their own blood.
They hide in ambush to take their own lives.
19 This is where the path leads for everyone
who is greedy for stolen property:
It takes away the life of those who possess it.
First Poem About Wisdom: Wisdom Calls but Many Refuse
20 Wisdom calls out loudly in the street.
In the public squares she raises her voice.
21 At the noisy street corners she calls out.
At the entrances to the city gates she speaks her words:
22 “How long will you gullible[f] people love being gullible?
How long will scoffers delight in their scoffing?
How long will fools hate knowledge?
23 If you respond to my warning,
I will pour out my spirit for you.
I will make my words known to you.
24 Because I called, but you refused to listen,
because I stretched out my hand, but no one paid attention,
25 because you ignored all my advice,
and you did not accept my warning,
26 therefore I will laugh at your calamity.
I will jeer when terror strikes you,
27 when terror strikes you like a violent storm,
when calamity strikes you like a windstorm,
when trouble and distress come upon you.
28 Then they will call to me, but I will not answer.
They will look for me, but they will not find me,
29 because they hated knowledge,
and they did not choose the fear of the Lord.
30 They would not accept my advice,
and they despised all my warnings.
31 So they will eat the fruit of their own way,
and they will be stuffed with their own schemes.
32 Therefore the wandering ways[g] of the gullible kill them,
and the complacency of fools destroys them.
33 But whoever listens to me will live in safety.
He will be secure, without fear of evil.”
13 This is the third time I am coming to you. “Every matter must be established by the testimony[a] of two or three witnesses.”[b] 2 I have said this before, and before I arrive I am saying it again—as I did when I was present the second time, even though I am now absent—to those who sinned earlier and to all the rest: When I arrive, I will not spare you. 3 I say this because you are seeking proof that Christ (who is not weak toward you, but is powerful in you) is speaking in me. 4 To be sure, he was crucified as a result of weakness, yet he lives as a result of God’s power. Certainly, we are also weak in him, but we will live with him for your benefit, as a result of God’s power.
5 Examine yourselves to see if you are in the faith. Test yourselves. Or do you not know this about yourselves: that Jesus Christ is in you—unless perhaps you fail the test? 6 But I hope that you will recognize that we are not failing the test.
7 We pray to God that you may not do anything evil, not so that we may appear to have passed the test, but so that you may do what is good, even if we may seem like those who are failing to pass the test. 8 To be sure, we can do nothing against the truth, but only for the truth. 9 Yes, we rejoice whenever we are weak and you are strong. And we are praying for your complete restoration. 10 It is for this reason that I am writing these things while I am still absent, so that, when I am present, I may not have to deal harshly with you, using the authority that the Lord gave me for building up and not for tearing down.
Farewell
11 Finally, brothers,[c] rejoice. Set things in order. Be encouraged. Agree with one another. Be at peace. And the God of love and peace will be with you.
12 Greet one another with a holy kiss. 13 All the saints greet you.
14 The grace of the Lord Jesus Christ, and the love of God, and the fellowship of the Holy Spirit be with you all.
The Holy Bible, Evangelical Heritage Version®, EHV®, © 2019 Wartburg Project, Inc. All rights reserved.