M’Cheyne Bible Reading Plan
Cities of Refuge
19 When the Lord your God has cut down the nations whose land the Lord your God is giving you, and you have taken possession of their land and settled in their cities and houses, 2 set aside three cities within the land that the Lord your God is giving you to possess. 3 Prepare roads[a] for yourselves, and divide the land that the Lord your God is giving you as an inheritance into three parts, so that anyone who has killed a person will be able to flee to one of these cities.
4 Now this is an example of a person who has killed someone who may flee there and live: someone who has struck down his friend unintentionally, without being hateful toward him beforehand. 5 For instance, someone goes with his friend into the forest to cut down trees, and when his hand swings the ax to cut down the tree, the iron ax head slips off the wooden handle and strikes his friend, who then dies—that person may flee to one of these cities and live.
6 Otherwise, the avenger of blood might pursue the one who has killed someone, because the avenger is hot with anger. Then because of the long distance to the city of refuge, the avenger may overtake the man and strike him down fatally. His death would not be just, because he had not been hateful toward the other one beforehand. 7 Therefore I am commanding you this: Set aside for yourselves three cities.
8 When the Lord your God expands your territory, as he swore to your fathers, and he gives you the entire land that he promised to give your fathers, 9 if you carefully keep this whole set of commands that I am commanding you today, by loving the Lord your God and by walking in his ways always, then add for yourselves three more cities in addition to these three. 10 Then innocent blood will not be poured out within your land that the Lord your God is giving you as an inheritance, nor will you be guilty of bloodshed.
11 But if there is a person who is hateful toward another, and he lies in ambush for him and springs up on him and strikes him so he dies, and the killer flees to one of the cities of God, 12 then the elders of his home city are to send for him and take him from there. They are to hand him over to the avenger of blood, and he is to be put to death.
13 Your eye is not to look with compassion on him. You are to purge the blood of the innocent person from Israel so that it may go well for you.
Miscellaneous Laws
14 Do not move your neighbor’s boundary marker, which the first generation of occupants set up as a boundary for your inherited property in the land that the Lord your God is giving you to possess.
15 A single witness does not have legal standing to convict a person of any guilt or sin in connection with any wrongful action he may have committed. A case is to have standing only on the testimony of two or three witnesses.
16 If a malicious witness rises up against a person to testify against him about a legal offense, 17 and if the two people involved in the dispute stand before the Lord and before the priests and the judges who preside at that time, 18 the judges are to investigate diligently. If the person is a dishonest witness because he has falsely accused his brother, 19 then you are to do to him just as he had plotted to do to his brother. So you will purge the evil from among you. 20 The rest of the people will hear, and they will fear, and they will not do an evil thing like this among you again. 21 Your eye is not to look with compassion. The principle is life for life, eye for eye, tooth for tooth, hand for hand, foot for foot.
Psalm 106
Israel Forgets
Introduction
1 Praise the Lord.[a]
Give thanks to the Lord,
for he is good,
for his mercy endures forever.
2 Who can tell about the mighty deeds of the Lord?
Who can cause all his praise to be heard?
3 Blessed are those who defend justice,
who do what is right all the time.
4 Remember me, O Lord,
when you show favor to your people.
Visit me with your salvation,
5 so that I may experience the good that belongs to your chosen ones,
so that I may rejoice in the joy of your nation,
so that I may join in praise with the people that belongs to you.
Rebellion in Egypt
6 We have sinned along with our fathers.
We have become guilty. We have acted wickedly.
7 Our fathers in Egypt did not reflect on your wonders.
They did not remember your abundant mercies,
so they rebelled beside the sea, by the Red Sea.
God’s Grace
8 Nevertheless, he saved them for his name’s sake,
to make his might known.
9 Then he rebuked the Red Sea, and it dried up.
He caused them to go through the deep sea as if it were a desert.
10 He saved them from the hand of the one who hated them.
He redeemed them from the hand of the enemy.
11 Then the waters covered their foes.
Not one of them remained.
12 Then they believed his words. They sang his praise.
Rebellions in the Wilderness
13 They quickly forgot his deeds.
They did not wait for his plan.
14 Because they were filled with craving in the wilderness,
they challenged God in the wasteland.
15 So he gave them what they asked for,
but he made them sick so they wasted away.
16 Then they grew jealous of Moses in the camp
and of Aaron, who was holy to the Lord.
17 The earth opened up and swallowed Dathan,
and it closed over the followers of Abiram.
18 Then fire burned up their followers.
Flames consumed the wicked.
19 They made a calf at Horeb,
and they bowed down to a thing cast from metal.
20 So they exchanged their Glory for a model of an ox that eats grass.
21 They forgot the God who saved them
by doing great things in Egypt,
22 wonders in the land of Ham,
awesome deeds beside the Red Sea.
God’s Grace
23 So he said he would destroy them.
But Moses, his chosen one, stood between God and the people
to turn aside his wrath, so it did not destroy them.
More Rebellions in the Wilderness
24 Then they refused the pleasant land.
They did not believe his word.
25 They grumbled in their tents.
They did not listen to the voice of the Lord.
26 So he lifted up his hand and swore to them
that he would make them fall in the wilderness,
27 and make their descendants fall among the nations,
and he would scatter them throughout the lands.
28 Then they yoked themselves to the Baal of Peor,
and they ate sacrifices offered to dead gods.
29 They provoked the Lord by their actions,
and a plague broke out among them.
30 But Phinehas stood up and interceded for them,
and the plague was restrained.
31 So this was credited to him as righteousness
for generation after generation, to eternity.
32 Again by the waters of Meribah they provoked the Lord,
and trouble came on Moses because of them.
33 Because they rebelled against his Spirit,[b]
Moses spoke recklessly with his lips.
Rebellion Continues in the Land
34 They did not destroy the peoples
as the Lord had commanded them,
35 but they mixed with the nations,
and they learned to do what the nations did.
36 They also served their idols,
and the idols became a snare for them.
37 They also sacrificed their sons and daughters to demons.
38 They shed innocent blood,
the blood of their sons and daughters,
whom they sacrificed to the idols of Canaan.
So the land was polluted by their children’s blood,
39 and they made themselves unclean by what they did.
They prostituted themselves by their actions.
The Judgment
40 Therefore the Lord burned with anger against his people,
and he loathed the people who belonged to him.
41 So he handed them over to the nations,
and those who hated them ruled over them.
42 Then their enemies oppressed them,
and they had to submit to their power.
43 Many times he delivered them,
but they deliberately rebelled,
and they sank down in their guilt.
God’s Grace
44 But he looked on them in their distress when he heard their outcry.
45 So for their sake he remembered his covenant.
Because of his great mercy, he changed his course.
46 Then he caused all their captors to have pity on them.
Closing Prayer
47 Save us, O Lord our God, and gather us from the nations,
so that we may give thanks to your holy name and praise you confidently.
Closing Doxology
48 Blessed be the Lord, the God of Israel, from eternity to eternity,
and all the people say, “Amen!”
Praise the Lord.
Judgment Against the Idols of Babylon
46
Bel bows down. Nebo stoops.
Babylon’s idols are a heavy load, carried by animals and cattle.
They are dead weight for the tired animals that carry them.
2 The animals stoop. They bow down together.
They are not able to save their burdensome load.
They go into captivity.
3 Listen to me, O house of Jacob,
all of you who are left from the house of Israel,
you who have been carried from birth,
you who have been lifted up from before you were born.
4 Until your old age, I am he,
and until you have gray hair, I myself will hold you up.
I myself made you, and I myself will lift you up.
I myself will hold you up, and I will rescue you.
5 Whom can you set beside me as if we were equal?
Whom can you compare to me as if we were alike?
6 People pour out gold from a purse
and weigh out silver on a scale.
They hire a smith,
and he makes the metal into a god.
They bow down to it. They even worship it.
7 They lift it up. They carry it on their shoulders.
They set it up in its place, but it just stands there.
It cannot move from its place.
Even when someone cries out to it, it does not answer.
It cannot save him from his distress.
8 Remember this, and stand firm.
You rebels, take this to heart!
9 Remember the former[a] things that took place long ago,
for I am God, and there is no other.
I am God, and there is no one like me.
10 I am the one who announces the final outcome already in the beginning.
I announce ahead of time things that have not yet been done.
I am the one who says, “My plan will stand,
and I will do everything I want to do.”
11 I am the one who calls a bird of prey from the east.
I call the man who fulfills my plan from a faraway land.
Yes, I have spoken. I will certainly bring it to pass.
I have formed a plan, and I will certainly carry it out.
12 Listen to me, you who have stubborn hearts,
you who are far from righteousness.
13 I will bring my righteousness near. It will not be far away.
I will bring my salvation near. It will not be delayed.
I will set up salvation in Zion,
and I will show my splendor to Israel.
The First Five Bowls
16 I heard a loud voice from the temple say to the seven angels, “Go and pour out the seven bowls of God’s wrath on the earth.”
2 The first angel went and poured out his bowl on the earth, and horrible and painful sores came on the people who had the mark of the beast and who worshipped his image.
3 The second angel poured out his bowl on the sea, and it became blood like that of a dead man, and every living creature in the sea died.
4 The third angel poured out his bowl on the rivers and the springs of water, and they[a] turned into blood. 5 And I heard the angel of the waters say:
You are righteous, the one who is and who was, the Holy One,[b]
because you have made these judgments.
6 Because they poured out the blood of saints and prophets,
you have given them blood to drink.
They deserve it.
7 And I heard the incense altar, saying,[c] “Yes, Lord God Almighty, true and just are your judgments.”
8 The fourth angel poured out his bowl on the sun, and it was allowed to burn people with fire. 9 People were scorched by the fierce heat. Then they blasphemed the name of God, who had authority over these plagues, but they did not repent and give him praise.
10 The fifth angel poured out his bowl on the throne of the beast. The beast’s kingdom was darkened. People gnawed their tongues in their torment. 11 They blasphemed the God of heaven because of their torments and their sores. But they did not repent of their deeds.
The Sixth Bowl: The Battle of Armageddon
12 The sixth angel poured out his bowl on the great river, the Euphrates. Its water was dried up to prepare the way for the kings coming from the east. 13 I saw three unclean spirits, like frogs, which came out of the mouth of the dragon, out of the mouth of the beast, and out of the mouth of the false prophet. 14 They are, in fact, miracle-working, demonic spirits, which go out to the kings of the whole earth[d] to bring them together for the battle on the great day of the Almighty God.
15 “Look: I am coming like a thief. Blessed is the one who stays awake and keeps his clothes on, so that he does not walk around naked and his shame is not seen.”
16 Then they brought them together to the place that in Hebrew is called Armageddon.
The Seventh Bowl: The End of the World
17 The seventh angel poured out his bowl on the air. And a loud voice came out of the temple[e] from the throne, saying, “It is done.” 18 There were flashes of lightning, rumblings, and crashes of thunder. There was also a great earthquake of a kind that has not occurred since mankind has been[f] on the earth.
19 And the great city split into three parts, and the cities of the nations collapsed. Babylon the Great was remembered by God, and he gave her the wine cup filled with his fierce wrath. 20 Every island vanished, and the mountains could no longer be found. 21 Massive hailstones, about one hundred pounds each, fell on people from the sky. And the people blasphemed God because of the plague of hail, because the plague was so severe.
The Holy Bible, Evangelical Heritage Version®, EHV®, © 2019 Wartburg Project, Inc. All rights reserved.