M’Cheyne Bible Reading Plan

David Numbers Israel and Judah

24 Again the anger of the Lord burned against Israel. He moved David against them, saying, “Go, number Israel and Judah.” ² So the king said to Joab the captain of the army who was with him, “Go through all the families of Israel, from Dan to Beersheba. Number the people, so I may know how many there are.” ³ But Joab said to the king, “May the Lord your God add to the people a hundred times as many as they are. And may it be while the eyes of my lord the king still see. But why does my lord the king find this thing pleasing?” ⁴ But the king’s word was stronger than Joab and the captains of the army. So Joab and the army leaders went out from the king to number the people of Israel. ⁵ They crossed the Jordan and stopped at Aroer, on the south side of the city in the center of the valley of Gad. And they went on to Jazer. ⁶ Then they came to Gilead, and to the land of Tahtimhodshi. They came to Dan-jaan and around to Sidon. ⁷ They came to the strong place of Tyre and to all the cities of the Hivites and the Canaanites. And they went out to the south of Judah, to Beersheba. ⁸ When they had gone through the whole land, they came to Jerusalem. They had traveled nine months and twenty days. ⁹ And Joab gave the number of the people to the king. There were 800,000 strong men in Israel who used the sword, and 500,000 men of Judah.

David’s Sin

¹⁰ David’s heart troubled him after he had numbered the people. So he said to the Lord, “I have sinned. But now I beg you, O Lord. Take away the sin of Your servant, for I have acted like a fool.” ¹¹ When David got up in the morning, the word of the Lord came to Gad, the one who spoke for God to David. The Lord said, ¹² “Go and tell David, ‘This is what the Lord says: “I give you three things to choose from. Choose one of them, that I may do it to you.”’” ¹³ So Gad came to David and told him, and said, “Will you have seven years without food in your land? Or will you run from those who hate you for three months, while they come after you? Or will there be disease in your land for three days? Now think about it. Decide what answer I should return to Him Who sent me.” ¹⁴ David said to Gad, “I am in much trouble. Let us fall into the hand of the Lord, for His loving-kindness is great. But do not let me fall into the hand of man.”

¹⁵ So the Lord sent a disease upon Israel from the morning until the time given. And 70,000 men died, from Dan to Beersheba. ¹⁶ The angel put out his hand to destroy Jerusalem. But the Lord had pity on them because of their trouble. He said to the angel who destroyed the people, “It is enough! Do no more!” The angel of the Lord was by the grain-floor of Araunah the Jebusite. ¹⁷ When David saw the angel who was killing the people, he said to the Lord, “See, it is I who have sinned. It is I who have done wrong. But these sheep, what have they done? I beg You, let Your hand be against me and my father’s family.”

¹⁸ Then Gad came to David and said, “Go up and build an altar to the Lord on the grain-floor of Araunah the Jebusite.” ¹⁹ So David went up at Gad’s word, just as the Lord had told him. ²⁰ Araunah looked, and saw the king and his servants crossing over toward him. And he went out and put his face to the ground in front of the king. ²¹ Araunah said, “Why has my lord the king come to his servant?” David answered, “To buy the grain-floor from you, to build an altar to the Lord. Then the disease may be kept away from the people.” ²² Araunah said to David, “Let my lord the king take whatever is good in his eyes, and make a gift of it. Look, there are the bulls for the burnt gift. The tools for cleaning the grain, and the cross-pieces the bulls wear to pull loads, can be used for the wood. ²³ Araunah gives all this to the king.” And Araunah said, “May the Lord your God be pleased with your gift.” ²⁴ But the king said to Araunah, “No, I will buy it from you for a price. I will not give burnt gifts to the Lord my God which I do not pay for.” So David bought the grain-floor and the bulls for fifty pieces of silver. ²⁵ And David built an altar there to the Lord. He gave burnt gifts and peace gifts. So the Lord listened to the prayers for the land, and stopped the disease in Israel.

Sons of God

4 Let me say this another way. A young child who will get all the riches of his family is not different from a servant who is owned by the family. And yet the young child owns everything. ² While he is young, he is cared for by men his father trusts. These men tell the child what he can and cannot do. The child cannot do what he wants to do until he has become a certain age. ³ We were as children also held by the Law. We obeyed the Law in our religious worship. ⁴ But at the right time, God sent His Son. A woman gave birth to Him under the Law. ⁵ This all happened so He could buy with His blood and make free all those who were held by the Law. Then we might become the sons of God. ⁶ Because you are the sons of God, He has sent the Spirit of His Son into our hearts. The Spirit cries, “Father!” ⁷ So now you are no longer a servant who is owned by someone. You are a son. If you are a son, then you will receive what God has promised through Christ.

⁸ During the time when you did not know God, you worshiped false gods. ⁹ But now that you know God, or should I say that you are known by God, why do you turn back again to the weak old Law? Why do you want to do those religious acts of worship that will keep you from being free? Why do you want to be held under the power of the Law again? ¹⁰ You do special things on certain days and months and years and times of the year. ¹¹ I am afraid my work with you was wasted.

Living by the Law or Being Free

¹² I ask you, Christian brothers, stay free from the Law as I am. Even if I am a Jew, I became free from the Law, just as you who are not Jews. You did no wrong to me. ¹³ You know I preached the Good News to you the first time because of my sickness. ¹⁴ Even though I was hard to look at because of my sickness, you did not turn away from me. You took me in as an angel from God. You took me in as you would have taken in Christ Jesus Himself. ¹⁵ What has become of the happiness you once had? You would have taken out your own eyes if you could have and given them to me. ¹⁶ Do you hate me because I have told you the truth? ¹⁷ Those false teachers are trying to turn your eyes toward them. They do not want you to follow my teaching. What they are doing is not good. ¹⁸ It is good when people help you if they do not hope to get something from it. They should help you all the time, not only when I am with you. ¹⁹ My children, I am suffering birth pain for you again. I will suffer until Christ’s life is in your life. ²⁰ I wish I could be with you now. I wish I could speak to you in a more gentle voice, but I am troubled about you.

²¹ Listen! If you want to be under the Law, why do you not listen to what it says? ²² The Holy Writings say that Abraham had two sons. One was born from a woman servant (Hagar) who was owned by someone. She had to do what she was told. The other son was born from a woman (Sarah) who was free to work and live as she desired. ^{(A) 23} The son born from the woman servant who was owned by someone was like any other birth. The son born from the free woman was different. That son had been promised by God. ²⁴ Think of it like this: These two women show God’s two ways of working with His people. The children born from Hagar are under the Law given on Mount Sinai. They will be servants who are owned by someone and will always be told what to do! ²⁵ Hagar is known as Mount Sinai in the country of Arabia. She is as Jerusalem is today, because she and her children are not free to do what they want to do. ²⁶ But the Jerusalem of heaven is the free woman, and she is our mother. ²⁷ The Holy Writings say, “Woman, be happy, you who have had no children. Cry for joy, you who have never had the pains of having a child, for you will have many children. Yes, you will have more children than the one who has a husband.” ^{(B) 28} Christian brothers, we are like Isaac. We are the children God promised. ²⁹ At that time the son born as other children are born made it hard for the son born by the Holy Spirit. It is the same way now. ³⁰ But what do the Holy Writings say? They say, “Put the woman servant who is owned by someone and her son out of your home. The son of that woman servant will never get any of the riches of the family. It will all be given to the son of the free woman.” ^{(C) 31} Christian brothers, we are not children of the woman servant who was owned by someone (Hagar). We are children of the free woman (Sarah).

Egypt Is Like a Cedar Tree

31 On the first day of the third month in the eleventh year, the Word of the Lord came to me saying, ² “Son of man, say to Pharaoh king of Egypt and to his people, ‘Who can be compared with you in greatness? ³ Look at Assyria, once a cedar in Lebanon with beautiful branches and many leaves. It was very high, and its top was among the heavy branches. ⁴ The waters made it grow, and the water under the ground made it grow high. Its rivers flowed all around its base, and spread water to all the trees of the field. ⁵ So it was higher than all the trees of the field. And it grew many long and spreading branches because it had so much water. ⁶ All the birds of the air made their nests in its branches. And under its branches all the animals of the field gave birth. All great nations lived in its shadow. ⁷ It was beautiful in its greatness with its spreading branches, for its roots went down to much water. ⁸ The cedars in God’s garden could not compare with it. The fir trees and the chestnut trees could not compare with its branches. No tree in God’s garden was like it in beauty. ⁹ I made it beautiful with its many branches. And all the trees that were in Eden were jealous of it.

¹⁰ ‘So the Lord God says, “Because it has grown high with its top among the heavy branches, its heart has become proud, ¹¹ I will give it over to a powerful ruler of the nations, and he will punish it. Because of its sin, I will drive it out. ¹² Rulers from other nations will cut it down and leave it. Its branches will fall on the mountains and in all the valleys. Its spreading branches will be broken in all the deep valleys of the land. All the people of the earth will go away from its shadow and leave it. ¹³ All the birds of the air will live on its broken pieces. And all the animals of the field will be on its fallen branches. ¹⁴ This will be so that no trees by the water will grow high with their tops among the heavy branches. No trees that drink water will ever grow so high. For they have all been given over to death. They will go to the earth below, among men who die and go down to the grave.”

¹⁵ ‘The Lord God says, “When it goes down to the place of the dead, I will make the waters under the ground cover it in sorrow. I will stop its rivers of water and fill Lebanon with sorrow over it. All the trees of the field will waste away because of it. ¹⁶ I will make the nations shake in fear at the sound of its fall when I send it to the place of the dead with those who go down to the grave. Then all the well-watered trees of Eden, the best of Lebanon, will be comforted in the earth below. ¹⁷ And those who lived under its shadow among the nations will go down to the place of the dead with it, to those who were killed by the sword.

¹⁸ “Which of the trees of Eden can be compared with you in beauty and greatness? Yet you will be brought down with the trees of Eden to the earth below. You will lie among the sinful, with those who were killed by the sword. This is Pharaoh and all his people!”’ says the Lord God.”

A Prayer for Jerusalem

79 O God, the nations have come into the land of Your people. They have made Your holy house dirty. They have crushed the walls and buildings of Jerusalem. ² They have given the dead bodies of Your servants to the birds of the heavens for food. The flesh of those who belong to You has been given to the wild animals of the earth. ³ They have poured out their blood like water all around Jerusalem. And there was no one to bury them. ⁴ We have become a shame to our neighbors. Those around us laugh at and make fun of us. ⁵ How long, O Lord? Will You be angry forever? Will Your jealousy burn like fire? ⁶ Pour out Your anger on the nations that do not know You, and on the nations that do not call on Your name. ⁷ For they have destroyed Jacob. They have laid waste the place where he lived.

⁸ Do not hold the sins of our fathers against us. Let Your loving-pity come fast to meet us. For we are in much need. ⁹ O God Who saves us, help us for the honor of Your name. Take us out of trouble and forgive our sins, for the honor of Your name. ¹⁰ Why should the nations say, “Where is their God?” Make it known among the nations, in front of our eyes, that You punish for the blood that has poured from Your servants. ¹¹ Hear the cries of those in prison. By the greatness of Your power, save those who are being sent to death. ¹² And return to our neighbors seven times the shame that they have brought You, O Lord. ¹³ Then we Your people, the sheep of Your field, will give thanks to You forever. We will tell of Your praise to all the people of all times.