M’Cheyne Bible Reading Plan
14 Then the Lord said to Moses, 2 ‘Tell the Israelites that they must turn round. They must go and stay near Pi-Hahiroth, between Migdol and the sea. You must put up your tents beside the sea, across from Baal Zephon. 3 Then Pharaoh will think, “The Israelites are confused. They do not know where they are going. The desert has stopped them.” 4 Then I will cause Pharaoh's mind to become hard again. He will go to catch the Israelites. I will show how great I am when I win against Pharaoh and his whole army. Because of this, the Egyptians will know that I am the Lord.’
The Israelites did what God said.
5 Someone told the king of Egypt that the Israelites had run away. Then Pharaoh and his officers changed their minds about the Israelites. They said, ‘We have done a foolish thing. We have let the Israelites go. We have lost our slaves!’
6 So Pharaoh prepared his chariot and he took his army with him. 7 He took 600 of his best chariots with him., as well as all the other chariots of Egypt. All the chariots had officers to drive them. 8 The Lord caused the mind of Pharaoh, king of Egypt, to be hard. So Pharaoh followed after the Israelites, when they left Egypt without any fear.
9 The Egyptian soldiers followed after the Israelites to catch them. They went with all Pharaoh's horses, chariots and officers. The Egyptian army reached the place where the Israelites had put up their tents. That was beside the sea, near Pi-Hahiroth, across from Baal Zephon.
10 When Pharaoh came nearer, the Israelites looked up. They saw that the Egyptian army had followed them. The Israelites became very afraid. They called loudly to the Lord to help them. 11 They said to Moses, ‘Why have you brought us here, to die in the desert? Surely there were enough places in Egypt to bury dead people! You should never have brought us out of Egypt! 12 We said to you in Egypt, “Leave us alone. Let us work for the Egyptians.” It would have been better for us to be their slaves than to die here in the desert!’
13 Then Moses said to the people, ‘Do not be afraid! Be brave! You will see how the Lord will save you today. Look at the Egyptians over there. You will never see them again! 14 The Lord will fight for you. You will only have to watch.’
15 Then the Lord said to Moses, ‘Do not continue to call to me for help! Tell the Israelites to move on. 16 You yourself must do this: Lift up your stick and hold your hand out over the sea. The water will become two separate parts. Then the Israelites can cross through the middle of the sea on dry ground. 17 This is what I, the Lord, will do: I will cause the minds of the Egyptians to become hard. They will follow the Israelites into the sea to catch them. I will show how great I am when I win against Pharaoh and all his army, his chariots, his horses and their riders. 18 When I do that, the Egyptians will know that I really am the Lord. They will know that I am great.’
19 The angel of God had been leading the army of the Israelites. Now he moved and he went behind them. The pillar of cloud moved and it stood behind the army. 20 It stood between the Egyptian army and the Israelite army. During the whole night, the Egyptians were in the dark, because of the cloud. But the cloud gave light to the Israelites. So the two armies did not come near to each other during the whole night.
21 Then Moses lifted up his hand over the sea. During that whole night, the Lord made a strong wind blow from the east. This caused the sea to become two separate parts. The ground between the water became dry land. 22 So the Israelites walked on the dry ground through the middle of the sea. The water was like a wall on their right side and on their left side.
23 The Egyptians followed the Israelites into the middle of the sea to catch them. All Pharaoh's horses, his chariots and their riders did this. 24 Just before dawn, the Lord looked down from the pillar of cloud with fire in it. He saw the Egyptian army and he made them become confused. 25 He stopped the wheels of their chariots, so that the Egyptians could not drive them properly. So the Egyptians said, ‘Let us run away from the Israelite army! It is the Lord who fights for them against Egypt.’
26 Then the Lord said to Moses, ‘Lift up your hand over the sea. Then the water will return back. The sea will cover the Egyptians, their chariots, their horses and their riders.’ 27 So Moses lifted up his hand over the sea. At dawn, the sea returned to its proper place. The Egyptians tried to run away from the water, but the Lord made them drown in the middle of the sea.
28 The water returned to its proper place. It covered all of Pharaoh's army that had followed the Israelites into the sea. It covered all the chariots, the horses and their riders. Not one of Pharaoh's soldiers was still alive! 29 But the Israelites walked on dry ground through the middle of the sea. The water was like a wall on their right side and on their left side. 30 On that day, the Lord saved the Israelites from the Egyptian army. The Israelites saw the dead bodies of the Egyptians, which lay on the shore.
31 The Israelites saw the great power that the Lord had used against the Egyptians. As a result, they respected the Lord and his power. They trusted the Lord to help them, and they also trusted Moses, his servant.
17 Jesus said to his disciples, ‘Some bad things in this world will make other people do wrong things. You can be sure about that. But God will punish anyone who makes these bad things happen. 2 These other people may not seem to be important.[a] But you must not make them do wrong things. Do not do that! It would be better if someone tied a big stone round your neck, and then he threw you into the sea.[b]
3 Be careful how you live. If your Christian brother does something wrong, speak to him. Tell him that he has done a bad thing. He may say, “I am sorry for what I did. I will not do it again.” If he says that, you must forgive him. 4 Your brother may do a bad thing to you seven times in one day. He may turn to you each time and say, “I am sorry for what I did. I will not do it again.” If he does that, you must forgive him every time.’
5 The apostles said to the Lord Jesus, ‘Help us to believe more and more in God.’
6 The Lord replied, ‘You may believe in God only a very little bit, like a very small seed. Even if you only believe that little bit, you could say to this tree, “Pull yourself out of the ground and plant yourself in the sea.” Then the tree would obey you.
7 Think about this. You may have a servant that is ploughing your land. Or you may have a servant that is taking care of your sheep. When he comes in from his work in the evening, you would not say to him, “Sit down and eat.” 8 No, you would not say that. You would say to your servant, “Prepare my meal for me. Dress yourself properly and bring the food to me. I will eat and drink first. You can eat when I have finished.” 9 Servants should do what their masters tell them to do. When they do that, their masters do not need to thank them. 10 It is the same with you. The Master tells you what you should do. So when you have done all of it, you should say, “We are not special servants. We have only done what we should do.” ’
Ten men that had a bad disease of the skin
11 On his journey to Jerusalem, Jesus was travelling along the border between Samaria and Galilee. 12 When he was going into a village, ten men came towards him. These men had a bad disease of the skin. They stopped and stood a long way away from Jesus. 13 They shouted, ‘Jesus, Master, please be kind to us.’
14 Jesus saw them and said to them, ‘Go and show yourselves to the priests.’
While they were going on their way, they became well again. 15 One of these ten men saw that Jesus had made him well. He turned back and he praised God in a loud voice. 16 He went down on his knees in front of Jesus and thanked him. This man was from Samaria.
17 Then Jesus said, ‘I made ten men well again, didn't I? There should be another nine men somewhere! 18 But only this one man came back to thank God. And he is a foreign man from Samaria!’
19 Then Jesus spoke to the man. ‘Stand up and go on your way. You believed in me, so now you are really well.’
Jesus talks about the time when God will rule
20 Then some Pharisees asked Jesus a question. ‘When will the kingdom of God begin here?’
Jesus replied, ‘When God begins to rule here, people will not see it with their eyes. 21 Nobody will say, “Look everyone! God is ruling here,” or “Look! God is ruling over there.” No, it is not like that. God is already ruling in the lives of his people.’
22 Jesus said to his disciples, ‘The time will come when you will very much want to see me, the Son of Man, return to the earth. But you will not see that day. 23 People may say to you, “Look, there he is!” or “Here he is!” But do not go out with them to look. 24 When lightning shines, it quickly makes the whole of the sky light from one side to the other. It will be like that on the day when the Son of Man returns.[c] 25 But before this happens, the people of today will refuse to accept me. And I will feel much pain.
26 Remember what happened when Noah was alive.[d] It will be like that at the time when the Son of Man returns to the earth. 27 In Noah's time, people were eating their meals every day. Men and women continued to marry. They continued to do all this until the day when Noah went into his boat. Then it rained for a long time and there was deep water everywhere. The water killed all the people.
28 The same kind of thing happened when Lot was alive.[e] People in the city of Sodom were eating their meals every day. They were buying and selling things. They were planting their seeds and they were building their houses. 29 But one day Lot went away from Sodom. On that same day, God caused it to rain fire and burning stones from the sky. This killed all the people in Sodom.
30 It will happen quickly like that, on the day when I, the Son of Man, show myself clearly. 31 On that day, a person who is up on the roof of his house must not go back down into the house. He must not get his things that are inside the house to take with him. In the same way, people that are working outside in their fields must not go back to their homes. 32 Remember what happened to Lot's wife.[f]
33 Whoever wants to keep his own life safe will lose it. But whoever gives his life to serve me will have true life. 34 I tell you this. At that time, two men will be sleeping in one bed. God will take one of them away but he will leave the other man behind. 35-36 Two women will be preparing food together in the same place. God will take one of them away but he will leave the other one behind.’
37 Jesus' disciples asked him, ‘Where will this happen?’ Jesus replied, ‘If a dead body is lying somewhere, vultures will come together in that place.’[g]
Elihu now speaks to Job[a]
32 Job would not agree that he had done anything that was wrong. So his three friends refused to argue with him any more. 2 Another man was also there. His name was Elihu, Barakel's son. Barakel was a descendant of Buz. He belonged to Ram's clan.
Elihu became very angry with Job. He was angry because Job continued to say that he was not guilty. Job said that God was wrong to punish him. 3 Elihu was also angry with Job's three friends. They had not been able to find an answer to Job's problem. But they still said that Job was guilty. 4 Elihu had waited for Job's three friends to speak before he spoke to Job himself. He waited because he was younger than them. 5 But he became angry when Job's three friends had nothing more to say. So he finally decided to speak.
6 Barakel's son, Elihu, said this:
‘I am young and you are old.
So I was afraid to tell you what I was thinking.
7 I thought, “Older men should speak.
They have lived for many years and they should share their wisdom.”
8 But it is a person's spirit that helps them to understand things.
Almighty God has to put his breath into them.
9 Not all old people are wise.
Old people do not always understand what is right.
10 So I say, “Listen to me.
I too will explain what I know.”
11 Yes, I waited for you all to speak.
I listened to your wise thoughts,
as you tried to find the right words to say.
12 I listened carefully to you,
as you argued with Job.
But none of you could show Job that he was wrong.
None of you was able to answer his problems.
13 So do not say, “We are wise.”
Do not say, “God must show Job that he is wrong.
People cannot do that.”
14 Job was not speaking to me about his problems.
So I will not answer him in the way that you did.
15 Now they are upset!
They have no more answers to give.
There is nothing more that they can say.
16 I have waited for them,
and now they say nothing.
They stand there and they have no more answers.
17 So now I will say what I think.
I, too, will tell you what I know.
18 There are many things that I want to say.
The spirit inside me causes me to speak.
19 I cannot keep quiet any longer!
I am like a bag that is full of new wine.
I am ready to break so that everything pours out!
20 So I have to speak or I will become ill.
I must open my mouth and reply to you.
21 I will be fair in what I say.
I will not give honour to anyone to get their help.
22 I am too honest to do that.
If I am not fair,
God, my Maker, would quickly remove me.’
2 Because of that, I decided not to visit you again at that time. I did not want to make you sad. 2 You are the only people who can make me happy. So, if I make you sad, there will be nobody to make me happy. 3 That is why I did not visit you. I wrote that letter to you instead. You are the people who should make me happy. I did not want you to make me sad when I visited you. I felt sure about all of you. I knew that, if I was happy, then all of you would be happy too.
4 When I wrote that letter, I was very sad and upset. I cried a lot. I did not want to make you sad. Instead, I wanted you to know that I love you very much.
5 Someone among you has done things that have made other people sad. That person has made me sad. But really he has made all of you much more sad than me. I do not want to say more about this than is necessary. 6 Most of you have agreed to punish him. That should be enough. 7 Now, you should forgive him. You should comfort him. If you do not do that, he may become too sad. He may not be able to think properly. 8 So I tell you this: Please show him that you really do love him.
9 When I wrote that letter to you, I wanted to know what you would do. I wanted to see if you would do everything that I told you. 10 When you forgive anyone, I also forgive that person. Whatever bad thing somebody has done, I have Christ's authority to forgive them. And I do it to help you. 11 We do not want Satan to win against us. He is very clever. We know how he likes to cause us to have trouble.
The good news about Christ
12 I went to Troas city to tell people the good news about Christ.[a] When I arrived there, I discovered that the Lord had already prepared people to listen. 13 But I was not happy in my thoughts because I could not find my friend Titus there. So I said ‘goodbye’ to those people and I travelled on to Macedonia.
14 But I thank God! He has won against sin, because of what Christ has done. Christ is our leader and we show that he is the winner. We also help people to know about Christ. That knowledge is like a lovely smell that comes to people everywhere. 15 When we tell people about Christ, we are like a lovely smell that rises up to God. We are like that among the people that God is saving. We are also like that among the people who are dying because they are far from God. 16 For the people who are dying, we are like a bad smell that brings a message of death. But for the people that God is saving, we are like a lovely smell that brings a message of new life.
Nobody is really good enough to tell such an important message! 17 Some people even tell God's message because they want to get a lot of money for themselves. But we are not like them. No, God himself has sent us to do this work. And he sees what we are doing. So we are honest and we speak God's message clearly, as Christ's servants should do.
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