M’Cheyne Bible Reading Plan
47 Upon their arrival, Joseph went in to see Pharaoh.
“My father and my brothers are here from Canaan,” he reported, “with all their flocks and herds and possessions. They wish to settle in the land of Goshen.”
2 He took five of his brothers with him, and presented them to Pharaoh.
3 Pharaoh asked them, “What is your occupation?”
And they replied, “We are shepherds like our ancestors. 4 We have come to live here in Egypt, for there is no pasture for our flocks in Canaan—the famine is very bitter there. We request permission to live in the land of Goshen.”
5-6 And Pharaoh said to Joseph, “Choose anywhere you like for them to live. Give them the best land of Egypt. The land of Goshen will be fine. And if any of them are capable, put them in charge of my flocks, too.”
7 Then Joseph brought his father Jacob to Pharaoh. And Jacob blessed Pharaoh.
8 “How old are you?” Pharaoh asked him.
9 Jacob replied, “I have lived 130 long, hard years, and I am not nearly as old as many of my ancestors.” 10 Then Jacob blessed Pharaoh again before he left.
11 So Joseph assigned the best land of Egypt—the land of Rameses—to his father and brothers, just as Pharaoh had commanded. 12 And Joseph furnished food to them in accordance with the number of their dependents.
13 The famine became worse and worse, so that all the land of Egypt and Canaan was starving. 14 Joseph collected all the money in Egypt and Canaan in exchange for grain, and he brought the money to Pharaoh’s treasure-houses. 15 When the people were out of money, they came to Joseph crying again for food.
“Our money is gone,” they said, “but give us bread; for why should we die?”
16 “Well then,” Joseph replied, “give me your livestock. I will trade you food in exchange.”
17 So they brought their cattle to Joseph in exchange for food. Soon all the horses, flocks, herds, and donkeys of Egypt were in Pharaoh’s possession.
18 The next year they came again and said, “Our money is gone, and our cattle are yours, and there is nothing left but our bodies and land. 19 Why should we die? Buy us and our land and we will be serfs to Pharaoh. We will trade ourselves for food, then we will live, and the land won’t be abandoned.”
20 So Joseph bought all the land of Egypt for Pharaoh; all the Egyptians sold him their fields because the famine was so severe. And the land became Pharaoh’s. 21 Thus all the people of Egypt became Pharaoh’s serfs. 22 The only land he didn’t buy was that belonging to the priests, for they were assigned food from Pharaoh and didn’t need to sell.
23 Then Joseph said to the people, “See, I have bought you and your land for Pharaoh. Here is grain. Go and sow the land. 24 And when you harvest it, a fifth of everything you get belongs to Pharaoh. Keep four parts for yourselves to be used for next year’s seed, and as food for yourselves and for your households and little ones.”
25 “You have saved our lives,” they said. “We will gladly be the serfs of Pharaoh.”
26 So Joseph made it a law throughout the land of Egypt—and it is still the law—that Pharaoh should have as his tax 20 percent of all the crops except those produced on the land owned by the temples.
27 So Israel lived in the land of Goshen in Egypt, and soon the people of Israel began to prosper, and there was a veritable population explosion among them. 28 Jacob lived seventeen years after his arrival, so that he was 147 years old at the time of his death. 29 As the time drew near for him to die, he called for his son Joseph and said to him, “Swear to me most solemnly that you will honor this, my last request: do not bury me in Egypt. 30 But when I am dead, take me out of Egypt and bury me beside my ancestors.” And Joseph promised. 31 “Swear that you will do it,” Jacob insisted. And Joseph did. Soon afterwards Jacob took to his bed.
1 1-2 Dear friend who loves God:[a]
Several biographies of Christ have already been written using as their source material the reports circulating among us from the early disciples and other eyewitnesses. 3 However, it occurred to me that it would be well to recheck all these accounts from first to last and after thorough investigation to pass this summary on to you,[b] 4 to reassure you of the truth of all you were taught.
5 My story begins with a Jewish priest, Zacharias, who lived when Herod was king of Judea. Zacharias was a member of the Abijah division of the Temple service corps. (His wife, Elizabeth, was, like himself, a member of the priest tribe of the Jews, a descendant of Aaron.) 6 Zacharias and Elizabeth were godly folk, careful to obey all of God’s laws in spirit as well as in letter. 7 But they had no children, for Elizabeth was barren; and now they were both very old.
8-9 One day as Zacharias was going about his work in the Temple—for his division was on duty that week—the honor fell to him by lot[c] to enter the inner sanctuary and burn incense before the Lord. 10 Meanwhile, a great crowd stood outside in the Temple court, praying as they always did during that part of the service when the incense was being burned.
11-12 Zacharias was in the sanctuary when suddenly an angel appeared, standing to the right of the altar of incense! Zacharias was startled and terrified.
13 But the angel said, “Don’t be afraid, Zacharias! For I have come to tell you that God has heard your prayer, and your wife, Elizabeth, will bear you a son! And you are to name him John. 14 You will both have great joy and gladness at his birth, and many will rejoice with you. 15 For he will be one of the Lord’s great men. He must never touch wine or hard liquor—and he will be filled with the Holy Spirit, even from before his birth! 16 And he will persuade many a Jew to turn to the Lord his God. 17 He will be a man of rugged[d] spirit and power like Elijah, the prophet of old; and he will precede the coming of the Messiah, preparing the people for his arrival. He will soften adult hearts to become like little children’s, and will change disobedient minds to the wisdom of faith.”
18 Zacharias said to the angel, “But this is impossible! I’m an old man now, and my wife is also well along in years.”
19 Then the angel said, “I am Gabriel! I stand in the very presence of God. It was he who sent me to you with this good news! 20 And now, because you haven’t believed me, you are to be stricken silent, unable to speak until the child is born. For my words will certainly come true at the proper time.”
21 Meanwhile the crowds outside were waiting for Zacharias to appear and wondered why he was taking so long. 22 When he finally came out, he couldn’t speak to them, and they realized from his gestures that he must have seen a vision in the Temple. 23 He stayed on at the Temple for the remaining days of his Temple duties and then returned home. 24 Soon afterwards Elizabeth his wife became pregnant and went into seclusion for five months.
25 “How kind the Lord is,” she exclaimed, “to take away my disgrace of having no children!”
26 The following month God sent the angel Gabriel to Nazareth, a village in Galilee, 27 to a virgin, Mary, engaged to be married to a man named Joseph, a descendant of King David.
28 Gabriel appeared to her and said, “Congratulations, favored lady! The Lord is with you!”[e]
29 Confused and disturbed, Mary tried to think what the angel could mean.
30 “Don’t be frightened, Mary,” the angel told her, “for God has decided to wonderfully bless you! 31 Very soon now, you will become pregnant and have a baby boy, and you are to name him ‘Jesus.’ 32 He shall be very great and shall be called the Son of God. And the Lord God shall give him the throne of his ancestor David. 33 And he shall reign over Israel forever; his Kingdom shall never end!”
34 Mary asked the angel, “But how can I have a baby? I am a virgin.”
35 The angel replied, “The Holy Spirit shall come upon you, and the power of God shall overshadow you; so the baby born to you will be utterly holy—the Son of God. 36 Furthermore, six months ago your Aunt[f] Elizabeth—‘the barren one,’ they called her—became pregnant in her old age! 37 For every promise from God shall surely come true.”
38 Mary said, “I am the Lord’s servant, and I am willing to do whatever he wants. May everything you said come true.” And then the angel disappeared.
13 “Look, I have seen many instances such as you describe. I understand what you are saying. 2 I know as much as you do. I’m not stupid. 3 Oh, how I long to speak directly to the Almighty. I want to talk this over with God himself. 4 For you are misinterpreting the whole thing. You are doctors who don’t know what they are doing. 5 Oh, please be quiet! That would be your highest wisdom.
6 “Listen to me now, to my reasons for what I think and to my pleadings.
7 “Must you go on ‘speaking for God’ when he never once has said the things that you are putting in his mouth? 8 Does God want your help if you are going to twist the truth for him? 9 Be careful that he doesn’t find out what you are doing! Or do you think you can fool God as well as men? 10 No, you will be in serious trouble with him if you use lies to try to help him out. 11 Doesn’t his majesty strike terror to your heart? How can you do this thing? 12 These tremendous statements you have made have about as much value as ashes. Your defense of God is as fragile as a clay vase!
13 “Be silent now and leave me alone, that I may speak—and I am willing to face the consequences. 14 Yes, I will take my life in my hand and say what I really think. 15 God may kill me for saying this—in fact, I expect him to. Nevertheless, I am going to argue my case with him.[a] 16 This at least will be in my favor, that I am not godless, to be rejected instantly from his presence. 17 Listen closely to what I am about to say. Hear me out.
18 “This is my case: I know that I am righteous. 19 Who can argue with me over this? If you could prove me wrong, I would stop defending myself and die.
20 “O God, there are two things I beg you not to do to me; only then will I be able to face you. 21 Don’t abandon me. And don’t terrify me with your awesome presence. 22 Call to me to come—how quickly I will answer! Or let me speak to you, and you reply. 23 Tell me, what have I done wrong? Help me! Point out my sin to me. 24 Why do you turn away from me? Why hand me over to my enemy? 25 Would you blame a leaf that is blown about by the wind? Will you chase dry, useless straws?
26 “You write bitter things against me and bring up all the follies of my youth. 27-28 You send me to prison and shut me in on every side. I am like a fallen, rotten tree, like a moth-eaten coat.
1 From: Paul, chosen by God to be Jesus Christ’s missionary, and from brother Sosthenes.
2 To: The Christians in Corinth, invited by God to be his people and made acceptable to him by Christ Jesus.[a] And to: All Christians everywhere—whoever calls upon the name of Jesus Christ, our Lord and theirs.
3 May God our Father and the Lord Jesus Christ give you all of his blessings, and great peace of heart and mind.
4 I can never stop thanking God for all the wonderful gifts he has given you, now that you are Christ’s: 5 he has enriched your whole life. He has helped you speak out for him and has given you a full understanding of the truth; 6 what I told you Christ could do for you has happened! 7 Now you have every grace and blessing; every spiritual gift and power for doing his will are yours during this time of waiting for the return of our Lord Jesus Christ. 8 And he guarantees right up to the end that you will be counted free from all sin and guilt on that day when he returns. 9 God will surely do this for you, for he always does just what he says, and he is the one who invited you into this wonderful friendship with his Son, even Christ our Lord.
10 But, dear brothers, I beg you in the name of the Lord Jesus Christ to stop arguing among yourselves. Let there be real harmony so that there won’t be splits in the church. I plead with you to be of one mind, united in thought and purpose. 11 For some of those who live at Chloe’s house have told me of your arguments and quarrels, dear brothers. 12 Some of you are saying, “I am a follower of Paul”; and others say that they are for Apollos or for Peter; and some that they alone are the true followers of Christ. 13 And so, in effect, you have broken Christ into many pieces.
But did I, Paul, die for your sins? Were any of you baptized in my name? 14 I am so thankful now that I didn’t baptize any of you except Crispus and Gaius. 15 For now no one can think that I have been trying to start something new, beginning a “Church of Paul.” 16 Oh, yes, and I baptized the family of Stephanas. I don’t remember ever baptizing anyone else. 17 For Christ didn’t send me to baptize, but to preach the Gospel; and even my preaching sounds poor, for I do not fill my sermons with profound words and high-sounding ideas, for fear of diluting the mighty power there is in the simple message of the cross of Christ.
18 I know very well how foolish it sounds to those who are lost,[b] when they hear that Jesus died to save them. But we who are saved recognize this message as the very power of God. 19 For God says, “I will destroy all human plans of salvation no matter how wise they seem to be, and ignore the best ideas of men, even the most brilliant of them.”
20 So what about these wise men, these scholars, these brilliant debaters of this world’s great affairs? God has made them all look foolish and shown their wisdom to be useless nonsense. 21 For God in his wisdom saw to it that the world would never find God through human brilliance, and then he stepped in and saved all those who believed his message, which the world calls foolish and silly. 22 It seems foolish to the Jews because they want a sign from heaven as proof that what is preached is true; and it is foolish to the Gentiles because they believe only what agrees with their philosophy and seems wise to them. 23 So when we preach about Christ dying to save them, the Jews are offended and the Gentiles say it’s all nonsense. 24 But God has opened the eyes of those called to salvation, both Jews and Gentiles, to see that Christ is the mighty power of God to save them; Christ himself is the center of God’s wise plan for their salvation. 25 This so-called “foolish” plan of God is far wiser than the wisest plan of the wisest man, and God in his weakness—Christ dying on the cross—is far stronger than any man.
26 Notice among yourselves, dear brothers, that few of you who follow Christ have big names or power or wealth. 27 Instead, God has deliberately chosen to use ideas the world considers foolish and of little worth in order to shame those people considered by the world as wise and great. 28 He has chosen a plan despised by the world, counted as nothing at all, and used it to bring down to nothing those the world considers great, 29 so that no one anywhere can ever brag in the presence of God.
30 For it is from God alone that you have your life through Christ Jesus. He showed us God’s plan of salvation; he was the one who made us acceptable to God; he made us pure and holy[c] and gave himself to purchase our salvation. 31 As it says in the Scriptures, “If anyone is going to boast, let him boast only of what the Lord has done.”
The Living Bible copyright © 1971 by Tyndale House Foundation. Used by permission of Tyndale House Publishers Inc., Carol Stream, Illinois 60188. All rights reserved.