M’Cheyne Bible Reading Plan
Asa Attacks Baasha(A)
16 During the thirty-sixth year of Asa’s reign, King Baasha of Israel invaded Judah and interdicted Ramah by building fortifications around it so no one could enter or leave to join King Asa of Judah. 2 But Asa removed some silver and gold from the treasuries of the Lord’s Temple and from his royal palace and sent them to King Ben-hadad of Aram, who lived in Damascus. 3 “Let’s make a treaty between you and me,” he said, “just like the one between my father and your father. Notice that I’ve sent you silver and gold to break your treaty with King Baasha of Israel, so he’ll retreat from his attack[a] on me.”
4 So King Ben-hadad did just what King Asa had asked: he sent his commanding officers to attack the cities of Israel. They conquered Ijon, Dan, Bel-maim, and all of the storage centers in Naphtali. 5 When Baasha learned of the attack, he withdrew from Ramah and stopped his interdiction. 6 Then King Asa brought his entire army of Judah to carry away the building stones and the timber that Baasha had been using to surround Ramah, and he used those materials to fortify Geba and Mizpah.
Asa is Rebuked by Hanani the Seer(B)
7 Right about then, Hanani the seer came to King Asa of Judah and rebuked him. “Because you have put your trust in the king of Aram and have not relied on the Lord your God, the army of the king of Aram has escaped from your control. 8 Weren’t the Ethiopians and the Libyans a vast army with many chariots and cavalry? Yet because you relied on the Lord, he gave them into your control! 9 The Lord’s eyes keep on roaming throughout the earth, looking for those whose hearts completely belong to him, so that he may strongly support them. But because you have acted foolishly in this, from now on you will have wars.” 10 In response, Asa flew into a rage and locked up the seer in stocks in the palace prison[b] because of what Hanani[c] had told him. Asa also tortured some of the people of Israel[d] at that time.
Asa’s Illness and Death(C)
11 Now the accomplishments of Asa from first to last are written in the Book of the Kings of Judah. 12 In the thirty-ninth year of his reign, Asa suffered from a foot disease. Even though he suffered greatly, he never sought the Lord, but instead looked to doctors. 13 As a result, in the forty-first year of his reign, Asa died, as had his ancestors, 14 and he was buried in his own tomb that he had prepared[e] for himself in the City of David. He was laid out on a bier that had been filled with various spices prepared by morticians,[f] and the mourners[g] built a massive bonfire to honor his memory.
The Vision of the Scroll with Seven Seals
5 Then I saw in the right hand of the one who sits on the throne a scroll written on the inside and on the outside, sealed with seven seals. 2 I also saw a powerful angel proclaiming with a loud voice, “Who is worthy to open the scroll and break its seals?” 3 No one in heaven, on earth, or under the earth could open the scroll or look inside it. 4 I began to cry bitterly because no one was found worthy to open the scroll or look inside it.
5 “Stop crying,” one of the elders told me. “Look! The Lion from the tribe of Judah, the Root of David, has conquered. He can open the scroll and its seven seals.”
The Vision of the Lamb Taking the Scroll
6 Then I saw a lamb standing in the middle of the throne, the four living creatures, and the elders. He looked[a] like he had been slaughtered. He had seven horns and seven eyes, which are the seven spirits of God sent into all the earth. 7 He went and took the scroll from the right hand of the one who sits on the throne.
8 When the lamb had taken the scroll, the four living creatures and the twenty-four elders bowed down in front of him. Each held a harp and a gold bowl full of incense, the prayers of the saints. 9 They sang a new song:
“You are worthy to take the scroll and open its seals,
because you were slaughtered.
With your blood you purchased us[b] for God
from every tribe, language, people, and nation.
10 You made us[c] a kingdom and priests for our God,
and they will reign on the earth.”
The Vision of the Song of the Lamb
11 Then I looked, and I heard the voices of many angels, the living creatures, and the elders surrounding the throne. They numbered 10,000’s times 10,000 and thousands times thousands. 12 They sang with a loud voice,
“Worthy is the lamb who was slaughtered
to receive power, wealth, wisdom, strength, honor, glory, and praise!”
13 I heard every creature in heaven, on earth, under the earth, and on the sea, and everything that is in them, saying,
“To the one who sits on the throne and to the lamb
be praise, honor, glory, and power forever and ever!”
14 Then the four living creatures said, “Amen!”, and the elders bowed down and worshipped.
A Call to Return
1 In the eighth month of the second year[a] of the reign of[b] Darius, this message from the Lord came to Berechiah’s son Zechariah,[c] the grandson of Iddo the prophet: 2 “The Lord was very angry with your ancestors. 3 So tell them, ‘This is what the Lord of the Heavenly Armies says: “Return to me,” declares the Lord of the Heavenly Armies, “and I will return to you.[d] 4 Don’t be like your ancestors, to whom the former prophets proclaimed: ‘This is what the Lord of the Heavenly Armies says: “It’s time to turn from your evil lifestyles[e] and from your evil actions,” ‘but they would neither listen nor pay attention to me,’” declares the Lord.’ 5 “Your ancestors—where are they? And the prophets—do they live forever? 6 But my words and my statutes that I gave as commands to my servants the prophets—did they not overwhelm your ancestors? And they returned to me:[f] ‘The Lord of the Heavenly Armies acted toward us just as he planned to do—in keeping with our lifestyles[g] and in keeping with our actions.’”
The Vision of Horses
7 On the twenty-fourth day of the eleventh month (the month Shebat) in the second year of the reign of[h] Darius, this message from the Lord came to Berechiah’s son Zechariah, the grandson of Iddo the prophet: 8 “I stared into the night, and there was a man mounted on a red horse! The horse[i] was standing among the myrtle trees in a ravine. Behind him there were red, brown,[j] and white horses.”
9 Then I asked, “Who are these, sir?”[k]
The messenger who was talking to me answered, “I will tell you who these are.”
10 The man who stood among the myrtle trees answered, “These are the ones whom the Lord sent out to wander throughout the earth.”
11 Then they reported to the angel of the Lord who stood among the myrtle trees, “We have wandered throughout the earth—and look!—the entire earth is at rest. Everything is quiet and peaceful.”[l]
12 And the angel of the Lord replied, “Lord of the Heavenly Armies, how long will it be until you show mercy to Jerusalem and to the cities of Judah, with whom you have been angry for these past seventy years?”
13 So the Lord answered the angel who was speaking to me with kind and comforting words.
The Lord’s Concern for Zion
14 Then the angel who was speaking to me told me, “Announce this: ‘This is what the Lord of the Heavenly Armies says: “I have a deep concern for Jerusalem, a great concern for Zion. 15 I am deeply angry with the nations who are complacent, with whom I was only a little displeased—but they made things worse!” 16 ‘Therefore this is what the Lord says: “I have returned to Jerusalem with compassionate intentions. My Temple will be rebuilt there,” declares the Lord of the Heavenly Armies, “and the measuring line will be stretched out over Jerusalem.”’”
The Future Prosperity of Zion
17 “Also announce the following: ‘This is what the Lord of the Heavenly Armies says: “My cities will again overflow with prosperity. The Lord will comfort Zion once more and will choose Jerusalem again.”’”
The Vision of Four Horns
18 [m]Then I looked up and saw four horns. 19 I asked the angel who was talking to me, “What are those?”
So he answered me, “Those are the forces[n] that have dispersed Judah, Israel, and Jerusalem.”
The Vision of Four Artisans
20 Then the Lord showed me four artisans.
21 Then I asked, “What have they come to do?”
He answered, “Those horns that dispersed Judah—so that no one could lift up his head—those artisans[o] are coming to disrupt the power[p] of nations, tearing them down now that they’ve come to power and dispersed the land of Judah.”
Jesus Meets a Samaritan Woman
4 Now when Jesus[a] realized that the Pharisees had heard he was making and baptizing more disciples than John— 2 although it was not Jesus who did the baptizing but his disciples— 3 he left Judea and went back to Galilee. 4 Now it was necessary for him to go through Samaria. 5 So he came to a town in Samaria called Sychar, near the piece of land that Jacob had given to his son Joseph. 6 Jacob’s Well was also there, and Jesus, tired out by the journey, sat down by the well. It was about noon.[b]
7 A Samaritan woman came to draw water, and Jesus told her, “Please give me a drink,” 8 since his disciples had gone off into town to buy food.
9 The Samaritan woman asked him, “How can you, a Jew, ask for a drink from me, a Samaritan woman?” Because Jews do not have anything to do with Samaritans.[c]
10 Jesus answered her, “If you knew the gift of God, and who it is who is saying to you, ‘Please give me a drink,’ you would have been the one to ask him, and he would have given you living water.”
11 The woman[d] told him, “Sir, you don’t have a bucket, and the well is deep. Where are you going to get this living water? 12 You’re not greater than our ancestor Jacob, who gave us the well and drank from it, along with his sons and his flocks, are you?”
13 Jesus answered her, “Everyone who drinks this water will become thirsty again. 14 But whoever drinks the water that I will give him will never become thirsty again. The water that I will give him will become a well of water for him, springing up to eternal life.”
15 The woman told him, “Sir, give me this water, so that I won’t get thirsty or have to keep coming here to draw water.”
16 He told her, “Go and call your husband, and come back here.”
17 The woman answered him, “I don’t have a husband.”
Jesus told her, “You are quite right in saying, ‘I don’t have a husband,’ 18 because you have had five husbands, and the man you have now is not your husband. What you have said is true.”
19 The woman told him, “Sir, I see that you are a prophet! 20 Our ancestors worshipped on this mountain. But you Jews[e] say that the place where people should worship is in Jerusalem.”
21 Jesus told her, “Believe me, dear lady,[f] the hour is coming when you Samaritans[g] will worship the Father neither on this mountain nor in Jerusalem. 22 You don’t know what you’re worshiping. We Jews[h] know what we’re worshiping, because salvation comes from the Jews. 23 Yet the time is coming, and is now here, when true worshipers will worship the Father in spirit[i] and truth. Indeed, the Father is looking for people like that to worship him. 24 God is spirit,[j] and those who worship him must worship in spirit[k] and truth.”
25 The woman told him, “I know that the Anointed One[l] is coming, who is being called ‘the Messiah’.[m] When that person comes, he will explain everything.”
26 “I AM,” Jesus replied, “the one who is speaking to you.”
27 At this point his disciples arrived, and they were astonished that he was talking to a woman. Yet no one said, “What do you want from her?”[n] or, “Why are you talking to her?” 28 Then the woman left her water jar and went back to town. She told people, 29 “Come, see a man who told me everything I’ve ever done! Could he possibly be the Messiah?”[o] 30 The people[p] left the town and started on their way to him.
31 Meanwhile, the disciples were urging him, “Rabbi,[q] have something to eat.”
32 But he told them, “I have food to eat that you know nothing about.”
33 So the disciples began to say to one another, “No one has brought him anything to eat, have they?”
34 Jesus told them, “My food is doing the will of the one who sent me and completing his work. 35 You say, don’t you, ‘In four more months the harvest will begin?’ Look, I tell you, open your eyes and observe that the fields are ready[r] for harvesting now! 36 The one who harvests is already receiving his wages and gathering a crop for eternal life, so that the one who sows and the one who harvests may rejoice together. 37 In this respect the saying is true: ‘One person sows, and another person harvests.’[s] 38 I have sent you to harvest what you have not worked for. Others have worked, and you have adopted their work as your own.”
39 Now many of the Samaritans of that town believed in Jesus[t] because the woman had testified, “He told me everything I’ve ever done.”
40 So when the Samaritans came to Jesus,[u] they asked him to stay with them, and he stayed there for two days. 41 And many more believed because of what he said. 42 They kept telling the woman, “It is no longer because of what you said that we believe, because now we have heard him ourselves, and we know that he really is the Savior of the world.”
Jesus Heals an Official’s Son(A)
43 Two days later, Jesus[v] left for Galilee from there, 44 since Jesus himself had testified that a prophet has no honor in his own country. 45 When he arrived in Galilee, the Galileans welcomed him because they had seen everything that he had done in Jerusalem during the festival and because they, too, had gone to the festival. 46 So Jesus[w] returned to Cana in Galilee, where he had turned the water into wine. Meanwhile, in Capernaum there was a government official whose son was ill. 47 When this man heard that Jesus had come from Judea to Galilee, he went to him and asked him repeatedly to come down and heal his son, because he was about to die.
48 Jesus told him, “Unless you people[x] see signs and wonders, you will never believe.”
49 The official told him, “Sir,[y] please come down before my little boy dies.”
50 Jesus told him, “Go home. Your son will live.” The man believed what Jesus told him and started back home.
51 While he was on his way, his servants met him and told him that his child[z] was alive. 52 So he asked them at what hour he had begun to recover, and they told him, “The fever left him yesterday at one o’clock in the afternoon.”[aa]
53 Then the father realized that this was the very hour when Jesus had told him, “Your son will live.” So he himself believed, along with his whole family.
54 Now this was the second sign that Jesus did after coming from Judea to Galilee.
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