M’Cheyne Bible Reading Plan
Locust attack
9 Then the fifth angel blew his trumpet. I saw a star falling from heaven to earth, and it was given the key to the shaft which leads down to the Abyss. 2 The shaft of the Abyss was opened, and smoke came out of the pit like the smoke from a great furnace. The sun and the air became dark with the smoke from the pit. 3 Then, out of that smoke, there appeared locusts on the earth, and they were given authority like the authority of scorpions on the earth. 4 They were told not to harm the grass on the earth, nor any plant or tree, but only those people who did not have the seal of God on their foreheads. 5 They were given instructions not to kill them, but to torture them for five months, and their torture was like the torture inflicted by the sting of a scorpion. 6 In those days people will look for death, and won’t find it. They will long to die, and death will run away from them.
7 In appearance, the locusts looked like horses prepared for battle. They had what seemed to be crowns of gold on their heads, and their faces were like human faces. 8 They had hair like women’s hair, and their teeth were like lions’ teeth. 9 They had breastplates like iron breastplates, and the sound of their wings was like the noise of many horse-drawn chariots charging into battle. 10 They have tails like scorpions’ tails, and stings as well, and their tails have the power to harm people for five months. 11 They have as their king the angel of the Abyss, whose name in Hebrew is Abaddon, and whose name in Greek is Apollyon.
12 The first Woe has come and gone. The next two Woes are on the way after this.
The fiery riders
13 Then the sixth angel blew his trumpet. I heard a lone voice from the four horns of the golden altar in God’s presence, 14 addressing the sixth angel, who had the trumpet.
“Release the four angels,” said the voice, “the ones who are tied up by the Great River, the Euphrates.” 15 So the four angels were released. They had been prepared for this hour, day, month and year, so that they would kill a third of the human race. 16 The number of the troops and horsemen was two hundred million. (I heard the number.) 17 As I looked, this is how the horses and their riders appeared. They had breastplates made of fire, sapphire and sulfur. Their heads were like lions’ heads, and fire, smoke and brimstone came out of their mouths. 18 One-third of the human race was killed by these three plagues, by the fire, smoke and sulfur that came out of their mouths. 19 The power of the horses, you see, is in their mouths and their tails, since their tails are like serpents with heads. That is how they do their damage.
20 All the other people, the ones who had not been killed in these plagues, did not repent of the things they had made. They did not stop worshiping demons—idols made of gold, silver, bronze, stone and wood, which cannot see, hear or walk. 21 Nor did they repent of their murders, or their magic, or their fornication, or their stealing.
8 and Jesus went to the Mount of Olives. 2 In the morning he went back to the Temple. All the people came to him, and he sat down and taught them.
3 The scribes and Pharisees brought a woman who had been caught out in adultery. They stood her out in the middle.
4 “Teacher,” they said to him. “This woman was caught in the very act of adultery. 5 In the law, Moses commanded us to stone people like this. What do you say?”
6 They said this to test him, so that they could frame a charge against him.
Jesus squatted down and wrote with his finger on the ground. 7 When they went on pressing the question, he got up and said to them, “Whichever of you is without sin should throw the first stone at her.”
8 And once again he squatted down and wrote on the ground.
9 When they heard that, they went off one by one, beginning with the oldest. Jesus was left alone, with the woman still standing there.
10 Jesus looked up.
“Where are they, woman?” he asked. “Hasn’t anybody condemned you?”
11 “Nobody, sir,” she replied.
“Well, then,” said Jesus, “I don’t condemn you either! Off you go—and from now on don’t sin again!”
The light of the world
12 Jesus spoke to them again.
“I am the light of the world,” he said. “People who follow me won’t go around in the dark; they’ll have the light of life!”
13 “You’re giving evidence in your own case!” said the Pharisees. “Your evidence is false!”
14 “Even if I do give evidence about myself,” replied Jesus to them, “my evidence is true, because I know where I came from and where I’m going to. But you don’t know where I come from or where I’m going to. 15 You are judging in merely human terms; I don’t judge anyone. 16 But even if I do judge, my judgment is true, because I’m not a lone voice; I have on my side the father who sent me. 17 It is written in your law that the evidence of two people is true. 18 I’m giving evidence about myself, and the father who sent me is giving evidence about me.”
19 “Where is your father?” they said to him.
“You don’t know me,” replied Jesus, “and you don’t know my father! If you had known me, you would have known my father as well.”
20 He said all this in the treasury, while he was teaching in the Temple. Nobody arrested him, though, because his time hadn’t yet come.
From below or from above
21 So Jesus spoke to them once more.
“I am going away,” he said. “You will look for me, and you will die in your sin. You can’t come where I’m going.”
22 “Is he going to kill himself?” asked the Judaeans. “Is that what he means when he says we can’t come where he’s going?”
23 “You come from below,” Jesus said to them, “but I come from above. You are from this world, I am not from this world. 24 I told you that you would die in your sins; you see, that’s what will happen to you if you don’t believe that I am the one.”
25 “Who are you?” they asked.
“What I’ve been telling you from the beginning,” replied Jesus. 26 “There are plenty of things I could say about you, yes, and against you too! But the one who sent me is true, and I tell the world what I heard from him.”
27 They didn’t understand that he was talking about the father.
28 So Jesus said to them, “When you’ve lifted up the son of man, then you will know that I’m the one, and that I never act on my own initiative; I say exactly what the father taught me. 29 And the one who sent me is with me. He hasn’t left me alone, because I always do what pleases him.”
The truth will make you free
30 As Jesus said all this, several people believed in him.
31 So Jesus spoke to the Judaeans who had believed in him.
“If you remain in my word,” he said, “you will truly be my disciples. 32 You will know the truth, and the truth will make you free.”
33 “We are Abraham’s descendants!” they replied. “We’ve never been anyone’s slaves! How can you say that ‘you’ll become free’?”
34 “I’m telling you the solemn truth,” Jesus replied. “Everyone who commits sin is a slave of sin. 35 The slave doesn’t live in the house forever; the son lives there forever. 36 So, you see, if the son makes you free, you will be truly free.”
Children of Abraham—or of the devil
37 “I know you’re Abraham’s descendants,” Jesus went on. “But you’re trying to kill me, because my word doesn’t find a place among you. 38 I am speaking of what I have seen with the father; and you, too, are doing what you heard from your father.”
39 “Abraham is our father!” they replied.
“If you really were Abraham’s children,” replied Jesus, “you would do what Abraham did! 40 But now you’re trying to kill me—me, a man who has told you the truth which I heard from God! That’s not what Abraham did. 41 You’re doing the works of your father.”
“There wasn’t anything immoral about the way we were born!” they replied. “We’ve got one father, and that’s God!”
42 “If God really was your father,” replied Jesus, “you would love me, because I came from God, and here I am. I didn’t come on my own initiative, you see, but he sent me. 43 Why don’t you understand what I’m saying? It can only be because you can’t hear my word. 44 You are from your father—the devil! And you’re eager to get on with what he wants. He was a murderer from the beginning, and he’s never remained in the truth, because there is no truth in him. When he tells lies, he speaks what comes naturally to him, because he is a liar—in fact, he’s the father of lies! 45 But because I speak the truth, you don’t believe me. 46 Which of you can bring a charge of sin against me? If I speak the truth, why don’t you believe me? 47 The one who is from God speaks God’s words. That’s why you don’t listen, because you’re not from God.”
Before Abraham, “I Am”
48 This was the Judaeans’ response to Jesus.
“Haven’t we been right all along,” they said, “in saying you’re a Samaritan, and that you’ve got a demon inside you?”
49 “I haven’t got a demon!” replied Jesus. “I am honoring my father, and you are dishonoring me. 50 I’m not looking for my own glory; there is one who is looking after that, and he will be the judge. 51 I’m telling you the solemn truth: anyone who keeps my word will never, ever see death.”
52 “Now we know that you really have got a demon!” replied the Judaeans. “Look here: Abraham died! So did the prophets! And here are you, saying, ‘Anyone who keeps my word will never, ever taste death.’ 53 You’re not suggesting, are you, that you’re greater than our father Abraham? He died, and so did the prophets! Who are you making yourself out to be?”
54 “If I do give myself glory,” replied Jesus, “my glory is nothing. My father is the one who brings me glory—the one you say is ‘our God’; 55 and you don’t know him! I know him, though. If I were to say I didn’t know him, I would be a liar like you. But I do know him, and I keep his word. 56 Your father Abraham celebrated the fact that he would see my day. He saw it and was delighted.”
57 “You’re not yet fifty years old!” responded the Judaeans. “Have you seen Abraham?”
58 “I’m telling you the solemn truth,” replied Jesus. “Before Abraham existed, I Am.”
59 So they picked up stones to throw at him. But Jesus hid, and left the Temple.
Scripture quotations from The New Testament for Everyone are copyright © Nicholas Thomas Wright 2011, 2018, 2019.