M’Cheyne Bible Reading Plan
40 1-3 Some time later it so happened that the king of Egypt became angry with both his chief baker and his chief butler, so he jailed them both in the prison where Joseph was, in the castle of Potiphar, the captain of the guard, who was the chief executioner. 4 They remained under arrest there for quite some time, and Potiphar assigned Joseph to wait on them. 5 One night each of them had a dream. 6 The next morning Joseph noticed that they looked dejected and sad.
7 “What in the world is the matter?” he asked.
8 And they replied, “We both had dreams last night, but there is no one here to tell us what they mean.”
“Interpreting dreams is God’s business,” Joseph replied. “Tell me what you saw.”
9-10 The butler told his dream first. “In my dream,” he said, “I saw a vine with three branches that began to bud and blossom, and soon there were clusters of ripe grapes. 11 I was holding Pharaoh’s wine cup in my hand, so I took the grapes and squeezed the juice into it, and gave it to him to drink.”
12 “I know what the dream means,” Joseph said. “The three branches mean three days! 13 Within three days Pharaoh is going to take you out of prison and give you back your job again as his chief butler. 14 And please have some pity on me when you are back in his favor, and mention me to Pharaoh, and ask him to let me out of here. 15 For I was kidnapped from my homeland among the Hebrews, and now this—here I am in jail when I did nothing to deserve it.”
16 When the chief baker saw that the first dream had such a good meaning, he told his dream to Joseph, too.
“In my dream,” he said, “there were three baskets of pastries on my head. 17 In the top basket were all kinds of bakery goods for Pharaoh, but the birds came and ate them.”
18-19 “The three baskets mean three days,” Joseph told him. “Three days from now Pharaoh will take off your head and impale your body on a pole, and the birds will come and pick off your flesh!”
20 Pharaoh’s birthday came three days later, and he held a party for all of his officials and household staff. He sent for his chief butler and chief baker, and they were brought to him from the prison. 21 Then he restored the chief butler to his former position; 22 but he sentenced the chief baker to be impaled, just as Joseph had predicted. 23 Pharaoh’s wine taster, however, promptly forgot all about Joseph, never giving him a thought.
10 Then he left Capernaum[a] and went southward to the Judean borders and into the area east of the Jordan River. And as always there were the crowds; and as usual he taught them.
2 Some Pharisees came and asked him, “Do you permit divorce?” Of course they were trying to trap him.
3 “What did Moses say about divorce?” Jesus asked them.
4 “He said it was all right,” they replied. “He said that all a man has to do is write his wife a letter of dismissal.”
5 “And why did he say that?” Jesus asked. “I’ll tell you why—it was a concession to your hardhearted wickedness. 6-7 But it certainly isn’t God’s way. For from the very first he made man and woman to be joined together permanently in marriage; therefore a man is to leave his father and mother, 8 and he and his wife are united so that they are no longer two, but one. 9 And no man may separate what God has joined together.”
10 Later, when he was alone with his disciples in the house, they brought up the subject again.
11 He told them, “When a man divorces his wife to marry someone else, he commits adultery against her. 12 And if a wife divorces her husband and remarries, she, too, commits adultery.”
13 Once when some mothers[b] were bringing their children to Jesus to bless them, the disciples shooed them away, telling them not to bother him.
14 But when Jesus saw what was happening he was very much displeased with his disciples and said to them, “Let the children come to me, for the Kingdom of God belongs to such as they. Don’t send them away! 15 I tell you as seriously as I know how that anyone who refuses to come to God as a little child will never be allowed into his Kingdom.”
16 Then he took the children into his arms and placed his hands on their heads and he blessed them.
17 As he was starting out on a trip, a man came running to him and knelt down and asked, “Good Teacher, what must I do to get to heaven?”
18 “Why do you call me good?” Jesus asked. “Only God is truly good! 19 But as for your question—you know the commandments: don’t kill, don’t commit adultery, don’t steal, don’t lie, don’t cheat, respect your father and mother.”
20 “Teacher,” the man replied, “I’ve never once[c] broken a single one of those laws.”
21 Jesus felt genuine love for this man as he looked at him. “You lack only one thing,” he told him; “go and sell all you have and give the money to the poor—and you shall have treasure in heaven—and come, follow me.”
22 Then the man’s face fell, and he went sadly away, for he was very rich.
23 Jesus watched him go, then turned around and said to his disciples, “It’s almost impossible for the rich to get into the Kingdom of God!”
24 This amazed them. So Jesus said it again: “Dear children, how hard it is for those who trust in riches[d] to enter the Kingdom of God. 25 It is easier for a camel to go through the eye of a needle than for a rich man to enter the Kingdom of God.”
26 The disciples were incredulous! “Then who in the world can be saved, if not a rich man?” they asked.
27 Jesus looked at them intently, then said, “Without God, it is utterly impossible. But with God everything is possible.”
28 Then Peter began to mention all that he and the other disciples had left behind. “We’ve given up everything to follow you,” he said.
29 And Jesus replied, “Let me assure you that no one has ever given up anything—home, brothers, sisters, mother, father, children, or property—for love of me and to tell others the Good News, 30 who won’t be given back, a hundred times over, homes, brothers, sisters, mothers, children, and land—with persecutions!
“All these will be his here on earth, and in the world to come he shall have eternal life. 31 But many people who seem to be important now will be the least important then; and many who are considered least here shall be greatest there.”
32 Now they were on the way to Jerusalem, and Jesus was walking along ahead; and as the disciples were following they were filled with terror and dread.
Taking them aside, Jesus once more began describing all that was going to happen to him when they arrived at Jerusalem.
33 “When we get there,” he told them, “I, the Messiah,[e] will be arrested and taken before the chief priests and the Jewish leaders, who will sentence me to die and hand me over to the Romans to be killed. 34 They will mock me and spit on me and flog me with their whips and kill me; but after three days I will come back to life again.”
35 Then James and John, the sons of Zebedee, came over and spoke to him in a low voice.[f] “Master,” they said, “we want you to do us a favor.”
36 “What is it?” he asked.
37 “We want to sit on the thrones next to yours in your Kingdom,” they said, “one at your right and the other at your left!”
38 But Jesus answered, “You don’t know what you are asking! Are you able to drink from the bitter cup of sorrow I must drink from? Or to be baptized with the baptism of suffering I must be baptized with?”
39 “Oh, yes,” they said, “we are!”
And Jesus said, “You shall indeed drink from my cup and be baptized with my baptism, 40 but I do not have the right to place you on thrones next to mine. Those appointments have already been made.”
41 When the other disciples discovered what James and John had asked, they were very indignant. 42 So Jesus called them to him and said, “As you know, the kings and great men of the earth lord it over the people; 43 but among you it is different. Whoever wants to be great among you must be your servant. 44 And whoever wants to be greatest of all must be the slave of all. 45 For even I, the Messiah,[g] am not here to be served, but to help others, and to give my life as a ransom for many.”
46 And so they reached Jericho. Later, as they left town, a great crowd was following. Now it happened that a blind beggar named Bartimaeus (the son of Timaeus) was sitting beside the road as Jesus was going by.
47 When Bartimaeus heard that Jesus from Nazareth was near, he began to shout out, “Jesus, Son of David, have mercy on me!”
48 “Shut up!” some of the people yelled at him.
But he only shouted the louder, again and again, “O Son of David, have mercy on me!”
49 When Jesus heard him, he stopped there in the road and said, “Tell him to come here.”
So they called the blind man. “You lucky fellow,”[h] they said, “come on, he’s calling you!” 50 Bartimaeus yanked off his old coat and flung it aside, jumped up and came to Jesus.
51 “What do you want me to do for you?” Jesus asked.
“O Teacher,” the blind man said, “I want to see!”
52 And Jesus said to him, “All right, it’s done.[i] Your faith has healed you.”
And instantly the blind man could see and followed Jesus down the road!
6 Job’s reply:
2 “Oh, that my sadness and troubles were weighed. 3 For they are heavier than the sand of a thousand seashores. That is why I spoke so rashly. 4 For the Lord has struck me down with his arrows; he has sent his poisoned arrows deep within my heart. All God’s terrors are arrayed against me. 5-7 When wild donkeys bray, it is because their grass is gone; oxen do not low when they have food; a man complains when there is no salt in his food. And how tasteless is the uncooked white of an egg—my appetite is gone when I look at it; I gag at the thought of eating it!
8-9 “Oh, that God would grant the thing I long for most—to die beneath his hand and be freed from his painful grip. 10 This, at least, gives me comfort despite all the pain—that I have not denied the words of the holy God. 11 Oh, why does my strength sustain me? How can I be patient till I die? 12 Am I unfeeling, like stone? Is my flesh made of brass? 13 For I am utterly helpless, without any hope.
14 “One should be kind to a fainting friend, but you have accused me without the slightest fear of God. 15-18 My brother, you have proved as unreliable as a brook; it floods when there is ice and snow, but in hot weather, disappears. The caravans turn aside to be refreshed, but there is nothing there to drink, and so they perish. 19-21 When caravans from Tema and from Sheba stop for water there, their hopes are dashed. And so my hopes in you are dashed—you turn away from me in terror and refuse to help. 22 But why? Have I ever asked you for one slightest thing? Have I begged you for a present? 23 Have I ever asked your help? 24 All I want is a reasonable answer—then I will keep quiet. Tell me, what have I done wrong?
25-26 “It is wonderful to speak the truth, but your criticisms are not based on fact. Are you going to condemn me just because I impulsively cried out in desperation? 27 That would be like injuring a helpless orphan, or selling a friend. 28 Look at me! Would I lie to your face? 29 Stop assuming my guilt, for I am righteous. Don’t be so unjust. 30 Don’t I know the difference between right and wrong? Would I not admit it if I had sinned?
10 Dear brothers, the longing of my heart and my prayer is that the Jewish people might be saved. 2 I know what enthusiasm they have for the honor of God, but it is misdirected zeal. 3 For they don’t understand that Christ has died to make them right with God. Instead they are trying to make themselves good enough to gain God’s favor by keeping the Jewish laws and customs, but that is not God’s way of salvation. 4 They don’t understand that Christ gives to those who trust in him everything they are trying to get by keeping his laws. He ends all of that.
5 For Moses wrote that if a person could be perfectly good and hold out against temptation all his life and never sin once, only then could he be pardoned and saved. 6 But the salvation that comes through faith says, “You don’t need to search the heavens to find Christ and bring him down to help you,” and, 7 “You don’t need to go among the dead to bring Christ back to life again.”
8 For salvation that comes from trusting Christ—which is what we preach—is already within easy reach of each of us; in fact, it is as near as our own hearts and mouths. 9 For if you tell others with your own mouth that Jesus Christ is your Lord and believe in your own heart that God has raised him from the dead, you will be saved. 10 For it is by believing in his heart that a man becomes right with God; and with his mouth he tells others of his faith, confirming his salvation.[a]
11 For the Scriptures tell us that no one who believes in Christ will ever be disappointed. 12 Jew and Gentile are the same in this respect: they all have the same Lord who generously gives his riches to all those who ask him for them. 13 Anyone who calls upon the name of the Lord will be saved.
14 But how shall they ask him to save them unless they believe in him? And how can they believe in him if they have never heard about him? And how can they hear about him unless someone tells them? 15 And how will anyone go and tell them unless someone sends him? That is what the Scriptures are talking about when they say, “How beautiful are the feet of those who preach the Gospel of peace with God and bring glad tidings of good things.”[b] In other words, how welcome are those who come preaching God’s Good News!
16 But not everyone who hears the Good News has welcomed it, for Isaiah the prophet said, “Lord, who has believed me when I told them?”[c] 17 Yet faith comes from listening to this Good News—the Good News about Christ.
18 But what about the Jews? Have they heard God’s Word? Yes, for it has gone wherever they are; the Good News has been told to the ends of the earth. 19 And did they understand that God would give his salvation to others if they refused to take it[d]? Yes, for even back in the time of Moses, God had said that he would make his people jealous and try to wake them up by giving his salvation to the foolish heathen nations. 20 And later on Isaiah said boldly that God would be found by people who weren’t even looking for him.[e] 21 In the meantime, he keeps on reaching out his hands to the Jews, but they keep arguing[f] and refusing to come.
The Living Bible copyright © 1971 by Tyndale House Foundation. Used by permission of Tyndale House Publishers Inc., Carol Stream, Illinois 60188. All rights reserved.