M’Cheyne Bible Reading Plan
44 When his brothers were ready to leave,[a] Joseph ordered his household manager to fill each of their sacks with as much grain as they could carry—and to put into the mouth of each man’s sack the money he had paid! 2 He was also told to put Joseph’s own silver cup at the top of Benjamin’s sack, along with the grain money. So the household manager did as he was told. 3 The brothers were up at dawn and on their way with their loaded donkeys.
4 But when they were barely out of the city, Joseph said to his household manager, “Chase after them and stop them and ask them why they are acting like this when their benefactor has been so kind to them? 5 Ask them, ‘What do you mean by stealing my lord’s personal silver drinking cup, which he uses for fortune-telling? What a wicked thing you have done!’” 6 So he caught up with them and spoke to them along the lines he had been instructed.
7 “What in the world are you talking about?” they demanded. “What kind of people do you think we are, that you accuse us of such a terrible thing as that? 8 Didn’t we bring back the money we found in the mouth of our sacks? Why would we steal silver or gold from your master’s house? 9 If you find his cup with any one of us, let that one die. And all the rest of us will be slaves forever to your master.”
10 “Fair enough,” the man replied, “except that only the one who stole it will be a slave, and the rest of you can go free.”
11 They quickly took down their sacks from the backs of their donkeys and opened them. 12 He began searching the oldest brother’s sack, going on down the line to the youngest. And the cup was found in Benjamin’s! 13 They ripped their clothing in despair, loaded the donkeys again, and returned to the city. 14 Joseph was still home when Judah and his brothers arrived, and they fell to the ground before him.
15 “What were you trying to do?” Joseph demanded. “Didn’t you know such a man as I would know who stole it?”
16 And Judah said, “Oh, what shall we say to my lord? How can we plead? How can we prove our innocence? God is punishing us for our sins. Sir, we have all returned to be your slaves, both we and he in whose sack the cup was found.”
17 “No,” Joseph said. “Only the man who stole the cup, he shall be my slave. The rest of you can go on home to your father.”
18 Then Judah stepped forward and said, “O sir, let me say just this one word to you. Be patient with me for a moment, for I know you can doom me in an instant, as though you were Pharaoh himself.
19 “Sir, you asked us if we had a father or a brother, 20 and we said, ‘Yes, we have a father, an old man, and a child of his old age, a little one. And his brother is dead, and he alone is left of his mother’s children, and his father loves him very much.’ 21 And you said to us, ‘Bring him here so that I can see him.’ 22 But we said to you, ‘Sir, the lad cannot leave his father, for his father would die.’ 23 But you told us, ‘Don’t come back here unless your youngest brother is with you.’ 24 So we returned to our father and told him what you had said. 25 And when he said, ‘Go back again and buy us a little food,’ 26 we replied, ‘We can’t, unless you let our youngest brother go with us. Only then may we come.’
27 “Then my father said to us, ‘You know that my wife had two sons, 28 and that one of them went away and never returned—doubtless torn to pieces by some wild animal; I have never seen him since. 29 And if you take away his brother from me also, and any harm befalls him, I shall die with sorrow.’ 30 And now, sir, if I go back to my father and the lad is not with us—seeing that our father’s life is bound up in the lad’s life— 31 when he sees that the boy is not with us, our father will die; and we will be responsible for bringing down his gray hairs with sorrow to the grave. 32 Sir, I pledged my father that I would take care of the lad. I told him, ‘If I don’t bring him back to you, I shall bear the blame forever.’ 33 Please sir, let me stay here as a slave instead of the lad, and let the lad return with his brothers. 34 For how shall I return to my father if the lad is not with me? I cannot bear to see what this would do to him.”
14 The Passover observance began two days later—an annual Jewish holiday when no bread made with yeast was eaten. The chief priests and other Jewish leaders were still looking for an opportunity to arrest Jesus secretly and put him to death.
2 “But we can’t do it during the Passover,” they said, “or there will be a riot.”
3 Meanwhile Jesus was in Bethany, at the home of Simon the leper; during supper a woman came in with a beautiful flask of expensive perfume. Then, breaking the seal, she poured it over his head.
4-5 Some of those at the table were indignant among themselves about this “waste,” as they called it.
“Why, she could have sold that perfume for a fortune and given the money to the poor!” they snarled.
6 But Jesus said, “Leave her alone; why berate her for doing a good thing? 7 You always have the poor among you, and they badly need your help, and you can aid them whenever you want to; but I won’t be here much longer.
8 “She has done what she could and has anointed my body ahead of time for burial. 9 And I tell you this in solemn truth, that wherever the Good News is preached throughout the world, this woman’s deed will be remembered and praised.”
10 Then Judas Iscariot, one of his disciples, went to the chief priests to arrange to betray Jesus to them.
11 When the chief priests heard why he had come, they were excited and happy and promised him a reward. So he began looking for the right time and place to betray Jesus.
12 On the first day of the Passover, the day the lambs were sacrificed, his disciples asked him where he wanted to go to eat the traditional Passover supper. 13 He sent two of them into Jerusalem to make the arrangements.
“As you are walking along,” he told them, “you will see a man coming toward you carrying a pot of water. Follow him. 14 At the house he enters, tell the man in charge, ‘Our Master sent us to see the room you have ready for us, where we will eat the Passover supper this evening!’ 15 He will take you upstairs to a large room all set up. Prepare our supper there.”
16 So the two disciples went on ahead into the city and found everything as Jesus had said, and prepared the Passover.
17 In the evening Jesus arrived with the other disciples, 18 and as they were sitting around the table eating, Jesus said, “I solemnly declare that one of you will betray me, one of you who is here eating with me.”
19 A great sadness swept over them, and one by one they asked him, “Am I the one?”
20 He replied, “It is one of you twelve eating with me now. 21 I[a] must die, as the prophets declared long ago; but, oh, the misery ahead for the man by whom I am betrayed. Oh, that he had never been born!”
22 As they were eating, Jesus took bread and asked God’s blessing on it and broke it in pieces and gave it to them and said, “Eat it—this is my body.”
23 Then he took a cup of wine and gave thanks to God for it and gave it to them; and they all drank from it. 24 And he said to them, “This is my blood, poured out for many, sealing the new agreement[b] between God and man. 25 I solemnly declare that I shall never again taste wine until the day I drink a different kind[c] in the Kingdom of God.”
26 Then they sang a hymn and went out to the Mount of Olives.
27 “All of you will desert me,” Jesus told them, “for God has declared through the prophets, ‘I will kill the Shepherd, and the sheep will scatter.’ 28 But after I am raised to life again, I will go to Galilee and meet you there.”
29 Peter said to him, “I will never desert you no matter what the others do!”
30 “Peter,” Jesus said, “before the cock crows a second time tomorrow morning you will deny me three times.”
31 “No!” Peter exploded. “Not even if I have to die with you! I’ll never deny you!” And all the others vowed the same.
32 And now they came to an olive grove called the Garden of Gethsemane, and he instructed his disciples, “Sit here, while I go and pray.”
33 He took Peter, James, and John with him and began to be filled with horror and deepest distress. 34 And he said to them, “My soul is crushed by sorrow to the point of death; stay here and watch with me.”
35 He went on a little farther and fell to the ground and prayed that if it were possible the awful hour awaiting him might never come.[d]
36 “Father, Father,” he said, “everything is possible for you. Take away this cup from me. Yet I want your will, not mine.”
37 Then he returned to the three disciples and found them asleep.
“Simon!” he said. “Asleep? Couldn’t you watch with me even one hour? 38 Watch with me and pray lest the Tempter overpower you. For though the spirit is willing enough, the body is weak.”
39 And he went away again and prayed, repeating his pleadings. 40 Again he returned to them and found them sleeping, for they were very tired. And they didn’t know what to say.
41 The third time when he returned to them he said, “Sleep on; get your rest! But no! The time for sleep has ended! Look! I am[e] betrayed into the hands of wicked men. 42 Come! Get up! We must go! Look! My betrayer is here!”
43 And immediately, while he was still speaking, Judas (one of his disciples) arrived with a mob equipped with swords and clubs, sent out by the chief priests and other Jewish leaders.
44 Judas had told them, “You will know which one to arrest when I go over and greet[f] him. Then you can take him easily.” 45 So as soon as they arrived he walked up to Jesus. “Master!” he exclaimed, and embraced him with a great show of friendliness. 46 Then the mob arrested Jesus and held him fast. 47 But someone[g] pulled a sword and slashed at the high priest’s servant, cutting off his ear.
48 Jesus asked them, “Am I some dangerous robber, that you come like this, armed to the teeth to capture me? 49 Why didn’t you arrest me in the Temple? I was there teaching every day. But these things are happening to fulfill the prophecies about me.”
50 Meanwhile, all his disciples had fled. 51-52 There was, however, a young man following along behind, clothed only in a linen nightshirt.[h] When the mob tried to grab him, he escaped, though his clothes were torn off in the process, so that he ran away completely naked.
53 Jesus was led to the high priest’s home where all of the chief priests and other Jewish leaders soon gathered. 54 Peter followed far behind and then slipped inside the gates of the high priest’s residence and crouched beside a fire among the servants.
55 Inside, the chief priests and the whole Jewish Supreme Court were trying to find something against Jesus that would be sufficient to condemn him to death. But their efforts were in vain. 56 Many false witnesses volunteered, but they contradicted each other.
57 Finally some men stood up to lie about him and said, 58 “We heard him say, ‘I will destroy this Temple made with human hands and in three days I will build another, made without human hands!’” 59 But even then they didn’t get their stories straight!
60 Then the high priest stood up before the Court and asked Jesus, “Do you refuse to answer this charge? What do you have to say for yourself?”
61 To this Jesus made no reply.
Then the high priest asked him. “Are you the Messiah, the Son of God?”
62 Jesus said, “I am, and you will see me[i] sitting at the right hand of God, and returning to earth in the clouds of heaven.”
63-64 Then the high priest tore at his clothes and said, “What more do we need? Why wait for witnesses? You have heard his blasphemy. What is your verdict?” And the vote for the death sentence was unanimous.
65 Then some of them began to spit at him, and they blindfolded him and began to hammer his face with their fists.
“Who hit you that time, you prophet?” they jeered. And even the bailiffs were using their fists on him as they led him away.
66-67 Meanwhile Peter was below in the courtyard. One of the maids who worked for the high priest noticed Peter warming himself at the fire.
She looked at him closely and then announced, “You were with Jesus, the Nazarene.”
68 Peter denied it. “I don’t know what you’re talking about!” he said, and walked over to the edge of the courtyard.
Just then, a rooster crowed.[j]
69 The maid saw him standing there and began telling the others, “There he is! There’s that disciple of Jesus!”
70 Peter denied it again.
A little later others standing around the fire began saying to Peter, “You are, too, one of them, for you are from Galilee!”
71 He began to curse and swear. “I don’t even know this fellow you are talking about,” he said.
72 And immediately the rooster crowed the second time. Suddenly Jesus’ words flashed through Peter’s mind: “Before the cock crows twice, you will deny me three times.” And he began to cry.
10 “I am weary of living. Let me complain freely. I will speak in my sorrow and bitterness. 2 I will say to God, ‘Don’t just condemn me—tell me why you are doing it. 3 Does it really seem right to you to oppress and despise me, a man you have made; and to send joy and prosperity to the wicked? 4-7 Are you unjust[a] like men? Is your life so short that you must hound me for sins you know full well I’ve not committed? Is it because you know no one can save me from your hand?
8 “‘You have made me, and yet you destroy me. 9 Oh, please remember that I’m made of dust—will you change me back again to dust so soon? 10 You have already poured me from bottle to bottle like milk and curdled me like cheese. 11 You gave me skin and flesh and knit together bones and sinews. 12 You gave me life and were so kind and loving to me, and I was preserved by your care.
13-14 “‘Yet all the time your real motive in making me was to destroy me if I sinned, and to refuse to forgive my iniquity. 15 Just the slightest wickedness, and I am done for. And if I’m good, that doesn’t count. I am filled with frustration. 16 If I start to get up off the ground, you leap upon me like a lion and quickly finish me off. 17 Again and again you witness against me and pour out an ever-increasing volume of wrath upon me and bring fresh armies against me.
18 “‘Why then did you even let me be born? Why didn’t you let me die at birth? 19 Then I would have been spared this miserable existence. I would have gone directly from the womb to the grave. 20-21 Can’t you see how little time I have left? Oh, leave me alone that I may have a little moment of comfort before I leave for the land of darkness and the shadow of death, never to return— 22 a land as dark as midnight, a land of the shadow of death where only confusion reigns and where the brightest light is dark as midnight.’”
14 Give a warm welcome to any brother who wants to join you, even though his faith is weak. Don’t criticize him for having different ideas from yours about what is right and wrong.[a] 2 For instance, don’t argue with him about whether or not to eat meat that has been offered to idols. You may believe there is no harm in this, but the faith of others is weaker; they think it is wrong and will go without any meat at all and eat vegetables rather than eat that kind of meat. 3 Those who think it is all right to eat such meat must not look down on those who won’t. And if you are one of those who won’t, don’t find fault with those who do. For God has accepted them to be his children. 4 They are God’s servants, not yours. They are responsible to him, not to you. Let him tell them whether they are right or wrong. And God is able to make them do as they should.
5 Some think that Christians should observe the Jewish holidays as special days to worship God, but others say it is wrong and foolish to go to all that trouble, for every day alike belongs to God. On questions of this kind everyone must decide for himself. 6 If you have special days for worshiping the Lord, you are trying to honor him; you are doing a good thing. So is the person who eats meat that has been offered to idols; he is thankful to the Lord for it; he is doing right. And the person who won’t touch such meat, he, too, is anxious to please the Lord, and is thankful. 7 We are not our own bosses to live or die as we ourselves might choose. 8 Living or dying we follow the Lord. Either way we are his. 9 Christ died and rose again for this very purpose, so that he can be our Lord both while we live and when we die.
10 You have no right to criticize your brother or look down on him. Remember, each of us will stand personally before the Judgment Seat of God. 11 For it is written, “As I live,” says the Lord, “every knee shall bow to me and every tongue confess to God.” 12 Yes, each of us will give an account of himself to God.
13 So don’t criticize each other anymore. Try instead to live in such a way that you will never make your brother stumble by letting him see you doing something he thinks is wrong.
14 As for myself, I am perfectly sure on the authority of the Lord Jesus that there is nothing really wrong with eating meat that has been offered to idols. But if someone believes it is wrong, then he shouldn’t do it because for him it is wrong. 15 And if your brother is bothered by what you eat, you are not acting in love if you go ahead and eat it. Don’t let your eating ruin someone for whom Christ died. 16 Don’t do anything that will cause criticism against yourself even though you know that what you do is right.
17 For, after all, the important thing for us as Christians is not what we eat or drink but stirring up goodness and peace and joy from the Holy Spirit. 18 If you let Christ be Lord in these affairs, God will be glad; and so will others. 19 In this way aim for harmony in the church, and try to build each other up.
20 Don’t undo the work of God for a chunk of meat. Remember, there is nothing wrong with the meat, but it is wrong to eat it if it makes another stumble. 21 The right thing to do is to quit eating meat or drinking wine or doing anything else that offends your brother or makes him sin. 22 You may know that there is nothing wrong with what you do, even from God’s point of view, but keep it to yourself; don’t flaunt your faith in front of others who might be hurt by it. In this situation, happy is the man who does not sin by doing what he knows is right. 23 But anyone who believes that something he wants to do is wrong shouldn’t do it. He sins if he does, for he thinks it is wrong, and so for him it is wrong. Anything that is done apart from what he feels is right is sin.
The Living Bible copyright © 1971 by Tyndale House Foundation. Used by permission of Tyndale House Publishers Inc., Carol Stream, Illinois 60188. All rights reserved.