M’Cheyne Bible Reading Plan
The Birth of Samson
13 Again the children of Israel did evil in the sight of the Lord, so the Lord gave them into the hands of the Philistines for forty years.
2 There was a certain man from Zorah, from the tribe of Dan. His name was Manoah. His wife was infertile and had borne no children. 3 The angel of the Lord appeared to the woman and said to her, “Indeed, you are infertile and have borne no children, yet you will conceive and bear a son. 4 Now be careful, I pray, that you drink no wine or strong drink and that you do not eat anything ritually unclean. 5 For you will conceive and bear a son. No razor may touch his head, for the boy will be a Nazirite to God from the womb. He will begin to save Israel from the hand of the Philistines.”
6 Then the woman went to her husband and said, “A man of God came to me. He looked like a very fearsome angel of God. I did not ask him where he was from, and he did not tell me his name. 7 He said to me, ‘You will conceive and bear a son. So now, do not drink wine or strong drink, and do not eat anything ritually unclean, for the boy will be a Nazirite to God from the womb until the day he dies.’ ”
8 Then Manoah prayed to the Lord, “O my Lord, let the man of God whom You sent come again to us, so that he can teach us what we should do for the boy who will be born.”
9 God listened to the voice of Manoah, and the angel of God came again to the woman. She was sitting in the field; but her husband Manoah was not with her. 10 The woman hurried and ran to tell her husband, “The man who came to me the other day has appeared to me.”
11 So Manoah got up and went after his wife. He came to the man and said to him, “Are you the man who spoke to my wife?”
He said, “I am.”
12 Then Manoah said, “Now may your words come true! What will be the boy’s way of life and his work?”
13 The angel of the Lord said to Manoah, “Your wife must observe everything that I said to her. 14 She must not consume anything that grows on the vine. She must not drink wine or strong drink, and she must not eat anything ritually unclean. She must observe everything that I commanded her.”
15 Manoah said to the angel of the Lord, “Please let us detain you, and let us prepare a young goat for you.”
16 The angel of the Lord said to Manoah, “If I stay, I will not eat your food, but if you want to make an offering to the Lord, you should offer it.” (For Manoah did not know that he was an angel of the Lord.)
17 Manoah said to the angel of the Lord, “What is your name, so that we can honor you when your words come true?”
18 The angel of the Lord said to him, “Why do you ask my name? It is too wonderful.” 19 Manoah took the young goat and the grain offering and offered them to the Lord upon a rock. Then he did a wondrous thing while Manoah and his wife watched. 20 When the flame went up from the altar toward the heavens, the angel of the Lord went up in the flames from the altar. Seeing this, Manoah and his wife fell face down on the ground. 21 The angel of the Lord did not appear again to Manoah and his wife. Then Manoah knew that he was an angel of the Lord.
22 Manoah said to his wife, “We are certainly going to die, for we have seen God.”
23 Yet his wife said to him, “If the Lord wanted to kill us, He would not have taken the burnt offering and grain offering from us. He would not have shown us these things, nor let us hear things such as these at this time.”
24 So the woman bore a son, and she called him Samson. The boy grew, and the Lord blessed him. 25 The Spirit of the Lord began to move upon him at Mahaneh Dan, between Zorah and Eshtaol.
The Uproar in Thessalonica
17 When they had traveled through Amphipolis and Apollonia, they came to Thessalonica, where there was a synagogue of the Jews. 2 According to his custom, Paul went in, and on three Sabbaths he lectured to them from the Scriptures, 3 explaining and proving that the Christ had to suffer and to rise from the dead, and saying, “This Jesus, whom I preach to you, is the Christ.” 4 Some of them were persuaded and joined with Paul and Silas, including a great crowd of devout Greeks and many leading women.
5 But the Jews who did not believe became jealous and, taking some evil men from the marketplace, gathered a crowd, stirred up the city, and attacked the house of Jason, trying to bring them out to the mob. 6 But when they did not find them, they dragged Jason and some brothers to the city officials, crying out, “These men who have turned the world upside down have come here also, 7 and Jason has received them. They are all acting contrary to the decrees of Caesar, saying that there is another king, Jesus.” 8 They troubled the crowd and the city officials when they heard these things. 9 When they had taken a bail payment from Jason and the rest, they released them.
The Apostles in Berea
10 The brothers immediately sent Paul and Silas away by night to Berea. When they arrived, they went into the synagogue of the Jews. 11 These were more noble than those in Thessalonica, for they received the word with all eagerness, daily examining the Scriptures, to find out if these things were so. 12 Therefore many of them believed, including honorable Greek women and many Greek men.
13 But when the Jews of Thessalonica learned that the word of God was preached by Paul at Berea, they came there also, stirring up the crowds. 14 The brothers immediately sent Paul away to the sea. But Silas and Timothy remained there. 15 Those who escorted Paul brought him to Athens and departed with instructions for Silas and Timothy to come to him quickly.
Paul in Athens
16 While Paul waited for them in Athens, his spirit was provoked within him as he saw that the city was full of idols. 17 Therefore he disputed in the synagogue with the Jews and the devout persons, and in the marketplace daily with those who happened to there. 18 Then some of the Epicurean and Stoic philosophers encountered him. And some said, “What will this babbler say?” Others said, “He seems to be a proclaimer of foreign gods,” because he preached Jesus and the resurrection to them. 19 They took hold of him and led him to the Areopagus, saying, “May we know what this new doctrine is of which you speak? 20 For you are bringing strange things to our ears. Therefore we want to know what these things mean.” 21 For all the Athenians and foreigners who lived there spent their time in nothing else, but either telling or hearing something new.
22 Then Paul stood in the middle of the Areopagus, and said: “Men of Athens, I perceive that in all things you are very religious. 23 For as I passed by and looked up at your objects of worship, I found an altar with this inscription:
TO THE UNKNOWN GOD.
Whom you therefore unknowingly worship, Him I proclaim to you.
24 “God who made the world and all things in it, being Lord of heaven and earth, does not live in temples made by hands. 25 Nor is He served by men’s hands, as though He needed anything, since He gives all men life and breath and all things. 26 He has made from one blood every nation of men to live on the entire face of the earth, having appointed fixed times and the boundaries of their habitation, 27 that they should seek the Lord so perhaps they might reach for Him and find Him, though He is not far from each one of us. 28 ‘For in Him we live and move and have our being.’ As some of your own poets have said, ‘We are His offspring.’
29 “Therefore since we are the offspring of God, we ought not to suppose that the Deity is like gold or silver or stone or an engraved work of art or an image of the reflection of man. 30 God overlooked the times of ignorance, but now He commands all men everywhere to repent. 31 For He has appointed a day on which He will judge the world in righteousness by a Man whom He has appointed, having given assurance of this to all men by raising Him from the dead.”
32 When they heard of the resurrection of the dead, some scoffed. But others said, “We will hear you again concerning this matter.” 33 So Paul departed from them. 34 However, some men joined him and believed. Among them were Dionysius the Areopagite, and a woman named Damaris, and others with them.
Jeremiah Threatened With Death
26 In the beginning of the reign of Jehoiakim the son of Josiah, king of Judah, this word came from the Lord, saying: 2 Thus says the Lord: Stand in the court of the house of the Lord, and speak to all the cities of Judah who come to worship in the house of the Lord all the words that I command you to speak to them. Do not diminish a word. 3 Perhaps they will listen and turn every man from his evil way, that I may repent of the calamity which I purpose to do to them because of the evil of their deeds. 4 You will say to them: Thus says the Lord: If you will not listen to Me, to walk in My law which I have set before you, 5 to listen to the words of My servants the prophets, whom I sent to you, both rising up early and sending them, but you have not listened, 6 then I will make this house like Shiloh and will make this city a curse to all the nations of the earth.
7 So the priests and the prophets and all the people heard Jeremiah speaking these words in the house of the Lord. 8 And when Jeremiah had made an end of speaking all that the Lord had commanded him to speak to all the people, the priests and the prophets and all the people took hold of him, saying, “You shall surely die. 9 Why have you prophesied in the name of the Lord, saying, ‘This house shall be like Shiloh, and this city shall be desolate without an inhabitant’?” And all the people were gathered against Jeremiah in the house of the Lord.
10 When the officials of Judah heard these things, then they came up from the king’s house to the house of the Lord and sat down in the entry of the New Gate of the house of the Lord. 11 Then the priests and the prophets spoke to the officials and to all the people, saying, “This man deserves to die! For he has prophesied against this city, as you have heard with your ears.”
12 Then Jeremiah spoke to all the officials and to all the people, saying, “The Lord sent me to prophesy against this house and against this city all the words that you have heard. 13 Therefore now amend your ways and your deeds, and obey the voice of the Lord your God; and the Lord will repent of the disaster that He has pronounced against you. 14 As for me, here I am in your hand. Do with me as seems good and right to you. 15 But know for certain that if you put me to death, you will surely bring innocent blood upon yourselves and upon this city and upon the inhabitants. For truly the Lord has sent me to you to speak all these words in your ears.”
Jeremiah Spared From Death
16 Then the officials and all the people said to the priests and to the prophets, “This man is not worthy of death. For he has spoken to us in the name of the Lord our God.”
17 Then certain of the elders of the land rose up and spoke to all the assembly of the people, saying: 18 “Micah of Moresheth prophesied in the days of Hezekiah king of Judah, and spoke to all the people of Judah, saying, ‘Thus says the Lord of Hosts:
Zion shall be plowed like a field,
and Jerusalem shall become heaps,
and the mountain of the house as the high places of a forest.’
19 Did Hezekiah king of Judah and all Judah put him to death? Did he not fear the Lord and entreat the Lord, and the Lord relented of the disaster which He had pronounced against them? Thus we might procure great evil against ourselves.”
20 There was also a man that prophesied in the name of the Lord, Uriah the son of Shemaiah of Kiriath Jearim, who prophesied against this city and against this land according to all the words of Jeremiah. 21 And when Jehoiakim the king, with all his mighty men and all the officials, heard his words, the king sought to put him to death. But when Uriah heard it, he was afraid and fled and went into Egypt. 22 And Jehoiakim the king sent men into Egypt: namely, Elnathan the son of Akbor and certain men with him into Egypt. 23 They brought Uriah out of Egypt and led him to Jehoiakim the king, who slew him with the sword and cast his dead body into the graves of the common people.
24 Nevertheless the hand of Ahikam the son of Shaphan was with Jeremiah, with the result that he was not given into the hands of the people to put him to death.
The Parable of the Vineyard and the Vinedressers(A)
12 He began to speak to them in parables. “A man planted a vineyard, and set a hedge around it, and dug a pit for the winepress, and built a tower, and rented it to vinedressers, and went to a far country. 2 At harvest time he sent a servant to the vinedressers to receive from them some of the fruit of the vineyard. 3 But they seized him and beat him and sent him away empty-handed. 4 Then he sent another servant to them. They threw stones at him, and wounded him in the head, and sent him away shamefully handled. 5 Still he sent another, and they killed him. And there were many others. Some they beat, and some they killed.
6 “Having yet his one well-beloved son, he sent him last to them, saying, ‘They will revere my son.’
7 “But those vinedressers said among themselves, ‘This is the heir. Come, let us kill him, and the inheritance will be ours.’ 8 So they took him and killed him and threw him out of the vineyard.
9 “What then will the owner of the vineyard do? He will come and kill the vinedressers and give the vineyard to others. 10 Have you not read this Scripture:
‘The stone which the builders rejected
has become the cornerstone.
11 This was the Lord’s doing,
and it is marvelous in our eyes’[a]?”
12 Then they tried to seize Him, but feared the people, for they knew that He had spoken the parable against them. So they left Him and went their way.
The Question of Paying Taxes(B)
13 They sent to Him some of the Pharisees and some of the Herodians to trap Him in His words. 14 When they came to Him, they said, “Teacher, we know that You are true and swayed by no man. For You do not regard the person of men, but truthfully teach the way of God. Is it lawful to pay taxes to Caesar, or not? 15 Should we pay, or should we not pay?”
But He, knowing their hypocrisy, said to them, “Why test Me? Bring Me a denarius that I may see it.” 16 They brought it, and He said to them, “Whose image and inscription is this?”
They said to Him, “Caesar’s.”
17 Then Jesus answered them, “Render to Caesar the things that are Caesar’s, and to God the things that are God’s.”
And they were amazed at Him.
The Question About the Resurrection(C)
18 Then the Sadducees, who say there is no resurrection, came to Him, saying, 19 “Teacher, Moses wrote for us that if a man’s brother dies and leaves his wife behind, but leaves no children, that man must take the wife and raise up children for his brother.[b] 20 Now there were seven brothers. The first took a wife, and when he died, he left no children. 21 The second took her and died, leaving no children, and the third likewise. 22 The seven had her and left no children. Last of all, the woman died too. 23 In the resurrection, when they rise, whose wife will she be? For the seven had her as wife.”
24 Jesus answered them, “Do you not err, because you know neither the Scriptures nor the power of God? 25 When they rise from the dead, they neither marry nor are given in marriage, but are like angels in heaven. 26 Now concerning the dead rising, have you not read in the book of Moses, in the account about the bush, how God spoke to him, saying, ‘I am the God of Abraham and the God of Isaac and the God of Jacob’[c]? 27 He is not the God of the dead, but the God of the living. You therefore do greatly err.”
The Great Commandment(D)
28 One of the scribes came and heard them reasoning together. Perceiving that Jesus had answered them well, he asked Him, “Which is the first commandment of all?”
29 Jesus answered him, “The first of all the commandments is, ‘Hear, O Israel, the Lord our God is one Lord. 30 You shall love the Lord your God with all your heart, and with all your soul, and with all your mind, and with all your strength.’[d] This is the first commandment. 31 The second is this: ‘You shall love your neighbor as yourself.’[e] There is no other commandment greater than these.”
32 The scribe said to Him, “Well said, Teacher. You have spoken the truth, that there is one God and there is no other but Him. 33 To love Him with all the heart, and with all the understanding, and with all the soul, and with all the strength, and to love one’s neighbor as oneself, is more than all burnt offerings and sacrifices.”
34 When Jesus saw that he answered wisely, He said to him, “You are not far from the kingdom of God.” After that, no one dared to ask Him any question.
The Question About David’s Son(E)
35 While Jesus taught in the temple, He said, “How can the scribes say that Christ is the Son of David? 36 David himself, speaking by the Holy Spirit, declared:
‘The Lord said to my Lord,
“Sit at My right hand,
until I put Your enemies
under Your feet.” ’[f]
37 David himself calls Him ‘Lord.’ How then is He his Son?”
And the large crowd heard him gladly.
The Denouncing of the Scribes(F)
38 He said to them in His teaching, “Beware of the scribes, who love to go about in long robes and love greetings in the marketplaces, 39 and the prominent seats in the synagogues, and the places of honor at banquets, 40 who devour widows’ houses and for a pretense make long prayers. They will receive greater condemnation.”
The Widow’s Offering(G)
41 Jesus sat opposite the treasury and saw how the people put money into the treasury. Many who were rich put in much. 42 But a certain poor widow came and put in two mites, which make a farthing.[g]
43 He called His disciples to Him and said to them, “Truly I say to you, this poor widow has put in more than all those who are contributing to the treasury. 44 They all contributed out of their abundance. But she, out of her poverty, put in all that she had, her entire livelihood.”
The Holy Bible, Modern English Version. Copyright © 2014 by Military Bible Association. Published and distributed by Charisma House.