M’Cheyne Bible Reading Plan

God’s Agreement with David

17 Now when David lived in his house, he said to Nathan the special preacher, “See, I am living in a house of cedar wood. But the special box with the Law of the Lord is under a tent.” ² Nathan said to David, “Do all that is in your heart. For God is with you.” ³ But that same night the Word of the Lord came to Nathan, saying, ⁴ “Go and tell My servant David, ‘This is what the Lord says. “You will not build a house for Me to live in. ⁵ For I have not lived in a house since the day I brought up Israel to this day. But I have gone from tent to tent and from one place to another to live. ⁶ In all the places I have gone with all Israel, have I said a word to any of the judges of Israel about this? Have I said to anyone whom I told to watch over My people, ‘Why have you not built a house of cedar wood for Me?’”’ ⁷ So now say to My servant David, ‘The Lord of All says, “I took you from the field, from following the sheep, to be leader over My people Israel. ⁸ I have been with you in every place you have gone. I have destroyed in front of you all those who hate you. And I will make your name to be known like the name of the great ones of the earth. ⁹ I will choose a place for My people Israel, and will plant them. So they will live in their own place and not be moved again. Never again will they be under the power of sinful men, as they were before, ¹⁰ from the time that I told judges to rule My people Israel. I will put under your power all those who hate you. And I say to you that the Lord will build a house for you. ¹¹ When your days are over, the time will come when you must go to be with your fathers. But then I will put into power one of your sons after you. I will make him king. ¹² He will build a house for Me. And I will make his throne last forever. ¹³ I will be his father, and he will be My son. I will not take My loving-kindness away from him, as I took it from him who was before you. ¹⁴ But I will put him over My house and in My nation forever. And his throne will last forever.”’” ¹⁵ Nathan told David all these words from all this special dream.

David’s Prayer of Thanks

¹⁶ Then King David went in and sat before the Lord, and said, “Who am I, O God? What is my house, that You have brought me this far? ¹⁷ This was a small thing in Your eyes, O God. You have spoken of Your servant’s house for a long time to come. You have thought of me as if I were an important man, O Lord God. ¹⁸ What more can David say to You about the honor given to Your servant? For You know Your servant. ¹⁹ You have made all this greatness, O Lord. You have made known all these great things, for Your servant, and by Your own heart. ²⁰ O Lord, there is no one like You. There is no God other than You, by all that we have heard with our ears. ²¹ What other nation on earth is like Your people Israel? God went to free them to be His people. You made Yourself a name by great things which filled people with fear. You drove out the nations before Your people, whom You set free from Egypt. ²² You made Your people Israel to be Your people forever. And You, O Lord, became their God. ²³ Now, O Lord, let the Word that You have spoken about Your servant and his house be made sure forever. Do as You have said. ²⁴ Let Your name be made sure and honored forever, saying, ‘The Lord of All, the God of Israel, is Israel’s God. And the house of Your servant David is made to last before You.’ ²⁵ For You, O my God, have made it known to Your servant that You will build a house for him. So Your servant has found strength of heart to pray to You. ²⁶ And now, O Lord, You are God. You have promised this good thing to Your servant. ²⁷ Now it has pleased You to bring good to the house of Your servant. May it last forever before You. For when You bring good to something, O Lord, good is with it forever.”

4 What starts wars and fights among you? Is it not because you want many things and are fighting to have them? ² You want something you do not have, so you kill. You want something but cannot get it, so you fight for it. You do not get things because you do not ask for them. ³ Or if you do ask, you do not receive because your reasons for asking are wrong. You want these things only to please yourselves.

⁴ You are as wives and husbands who are not faithful in marriage and do sex sins. Do you not know that to love the sinful things of the world and to be a friend to them is to be against God? Yes, I say it again, if you are a friend of the world, you are against God. ⁵ Do you think the Holy Writings mean nothing when they said, “The Holy Spirit Whom God has given to live in us has a strong desire for us to be faithful to Him”?

⁶ But He gives us more loving-favor. For the Holy Writings say, “God works against the proud but gives loving-favor to those who have no pride.” ^{(A) 7} So give yourselves to God. Stand against the devil and he will run away from you. ⁸ Come close to God and He will come close to you. Wash your hands, you sinners. Clean up your hearts, you who want to follow the sinful ways of the world and God at the same time. ⁹ Be sorry for your sins and cry because of them. Be sad and do not laugh. Let your joy be turned to sorrow. ¹⁰ Let yourself be brought low before the Lord. Then He will lift you up and help you.

Do Not Talk Against Each Other

¹¹ Christian brothers, do not talk against anyone or speak bad things about each other. If a person says bad things about his brother, he is speaking against him. And he will be speaking against God’s Law. If you say the Law is wrong, and do not obey it, you are saying you are better than the Law. ¹² Only God can say what is right or wrong. He made the Law. He can save or put to death. How can we say if our brother is right or wrong?

¹³ Listen! You who say, “Today or tomorrow we will go to this city and stay a year and make money.” ¹⁴ You do not know about tomorrow. What is your life? It is like fog. You see it and soon it is gone. ¹⁵ What you should say is, “If the Lord wants us to, we will live and do this or that.” ¹⁶ But instead you are proud. You talk loud and big about yourselves. All such pride is sin. ¹⁷ If you know what is right to do but you do not do it, you sin.

Jonah Does Not Obey the Lord

1 The Word of the Lord came to Jonah the son of Amittai, saying, ² “Get up and go to the large city of Nineveh, and preach against it. For their sin has come up before Me.” ³ But Jonah ran away from the Lord going toward Tarshish. He went down to Joppa and found a ship which was going to Tarshish. Jonah paid money, and got on the ship to go with them, to get away from the Lord.

⁴ Then the Lord sent a powerful wind upon the sea, and there was such a big storm that the ship was about to break up. ⁵ The sailors became afraid, and every man cried to his god. They threw the things that were in the ship into the sea so that it would not be so heavy. But Jonah had gone below in the ship and had lain down and fallen asleep. ⁶ So the captain went to him and said, “How can you sleep? Get up and call on your god. It may be that your god will care about us, and we will not die.” ⁷ Then the sailors said to each other, “Come, let us draw names so we can find out who is to blame for this trouble.” So they drew names, and Jonah’s name was drawn. ⁸ Then they said to him, “Now tell us! Who is to blame for this? What is your work? Where do you come from? What is your country? From what people are you?” ⁹ Jonah said to them, “I am a Hebrew, and I worship the Lord God of heaven Who made the sea and the dry land.”

¹⁰ Then the men were filled with fear and said to him, “How could you do this?” For the men knew that he was running away from the Lord, because he had told them. ¹¹ So they said to him, “What should we do to you to make the sea quiet down for us?” For the storm was getting worse. ¹² Jonah said to them, “Pick me up and throw me into the sea. Then the sea will quiet down for you. For I know that this bad storm has come upon you because of me.” ¹³ The men rowed hard to return to land, but they could not, for the wind was blowing even worse against them. ¹⁴ Then they called on the Lord and said, “We beg You, O Lord, do not let us die for what this man has done. And do not let us become guilty for killing someone who is not to blame. For You, O Lord, have done as You have pleased.”

¹⁵ So they picked up Jonah and threw him into the sea, and the storm stopped. ¹⁶ Then the men feared the Lord very much. They gave a gift in worship to the Lord and made promises to Him.

¹⁷ The Lord sent a big fish to swallow Jonah, and he was in the stomach of the fish for three days and three nights.

Jesus Teaches about the Day of Rest ^(A)

6 On the next Day of Rest Jesus was walking through the grain-fields. His followers picked grain. They rubbed it in their hands and ate it. ² Some of the proud religious law-keepers said to them, “Why are you doing what the Law says should not be done on the Day of Rest?” ³ Jesus answered them, “Have you not read what David did when he and his men were hungry? ⁴ He went into the house of God and ate the special bread used in the religious worship. He gave some to those who were with him also. The Law says only the religious leaders may eat that bread. ⁵ The Son of Man is Lord of the Day of Rest also.”

Jesus Heals on the Day of Rest ^(B)

⁶ On another Day of Rest Jesus went into the Jewish place of worship and taught. A man with a dried-up hand was there. ⁷ The teachers of the Law and the proud religious law-keepers watched to see if He would heal on the Day of Rest. They wanted to have something to say against Him. ⁸ Jesus knew what they were thinking. He said to the man with the dried-up hand, “Stand up and come here.” The man stood up and went to Jesus. ⁹ Then Jesus said to them, “I will ask you one thing. Does the Law say to do good on the Day of Rest or to do bad? To save life or to kill?” ¹⁰ Jesus looked around at them all and said to the man, “Put out your hand.” He put it out and his hand was healed. It was as good as his other hand. ¹¹ The teachers of the Law and the proud religious law-keepers were filled with anger. They talked with each other about what they might do to Jesus.

Jesus Calls His Twelve Followers ^(C)

¹² One day Jesus went up on a mountain to pray. He prayed all night to God. ¹³ In the morning He called His followers to Him. He chose twelve of them and called them. ¹⁴ There were Simon, whom He also named Peter, and his brother Andrew. There were James and John, Philip and Bartholomew, ¹⁵ Matthew and Thomas. There were James the son of Alphaeus, and Simon the Canaanite. ¹⁶ There were Judas, who was the brother of James, and Judas Iscariot who would hand Jesus over to be killed.

Jesus Heals Many People ^(D)

¹⁷ Then Jesus came down and stood on a plain with many of His followers. Many people came from the country of Judea and from Jerusalem and from the cities of Tyre and Sidon. They came to hear Him and to be healed of their diseases. ¹⁸ Those who were troubled with demons came and were healed. ¹⁹ All the people tried to put their hands on Jesus. Power came from Him and He healed them all.

Jesus Teaches on the Mountain ^(E)

²⁰ He looked at His followers and said, “Those of you who are poor are happy, because the holy nation of God is yours. ²¹ Those of you who are hungry now are happy, because you will be filled. Those of you who have sorrow now are happy, because you will laugh. ²² You are happy when men hate you and do not want you around and put shame on you because you trust in Me. ²³ Be glad in that day. Be full of joy for your reward is much in heaven. Their fathers did these things to the early preachers.

²⁴ “It is bad for you who are rich. You are receiving all that you will get. ²⁵ It is bad for you who are full. You will be hungry. It is bad for you who laugh now. You will have sorrow and you will cry. ²⁶ It is bad for you when everyone speaks well of you. In the same way, their fathers spoke well of the false teachers.

Jesus Teaches What the Law Says about Love

²⁷ “I say to you who hear Me, love those who work against you. Do good to those who hate you. ²⁸ Respect and give thanks for those who try to bring bad to you. Pray for those who make it very hard for you. ²⁹ Whoever hits you on one side of the face, turn so he can hit the other side also. Whoever takes your coat, give him your shirt also. ³⁰ Give to any person who asks you for something. If a person takes something from you, do not ask for it back. ³¹ Do for other people what you would like to have them do for you.

³² “If you love those who love you, what pay can you expect from that? Sinners also love those who love them. ³³ If you do good to those who do good to you, what pay can you expect from that? Sinners also do good to those who do good to them. ³⁴ If you let people use your things and expect to get something back, what pay can you expect from that? Even sinners let sinners use things and they expect to get something back. ³⁵ But love those who hate you. Do good to them. Let them use your things and do not expect something back. Your reward will be much. You will be the children of the Most High. He is kind to those who are not thankful and to those who are full of sin.

Jesus Teaches about Finding Bad in Others

³⁶ “You must have loving-kindness just as your Father has loving-kindness. ³⁷ Do not say what is wrong in other people’s lives. Then other people will not say what is wrong in your life. Do not say someone is guilty. Then other people will not say you are guilty. Forgive other people and other people will forgive you.

³⁸ “Give, and it will be given to you. You will have more than enough. It can be pushed down and shaken together and it will still run over as it is given to you. The way you give to others is the way you will receive in return.”

³⁹ Jesus used a picture-story as He spoke to them. He said, “Can one blind man lead another blind man? Will they not fall into the ditch together? ⁴⁰ The follower is not more important than his teacher. But everyone who learns well will be like his teacher.

Jesus Teaches about Saying What Is Wrong in Others

⁴¹ “Why do you look at the small piece of wood in your brother’s eye and do not see the big piece of wood in your own eye? ⁴² How can you say to your brother, ‘Let me take that small piece of wood out of your eye,’ when you do not see the big piece of wood in your own eye? You pretend to be someone you are not. First, take the big piece of wood out of your own eye. Then you can see better to take the small piece of wood out of your brother’s eye.

Jesus Teaches about False Teachers

⁴³ “A good tree cannot have bad fruit. A bad tree cannot have good fruit. ⁴⁴ For every tree is known by its own fruit. Men do not gather figs from thorns. They do not gather grapes from thistles. ⁴⁵ Good comes from a good man because of the riches he has in his heart. Sin comes from a sinful man because of the sin he has in his heart. The mouth speaks of what the heart is full of.

Jesus Teaches about Houses Built on Rock and Sand

⁴⁶ “And why do you call Me, ‘Lord, Lord,’ but do not do what I say? ⁴⁷ Whoever comes to Me and hears and does what I say, I will show you who he is like. ⁴⁸ He is like a man who built a house. He dug deep to put the building on rock. When the water came up and the river beat against the house, the building could not be shaken because it was built on rock. ⁴⁹ But he who hears and does not do what I say, is like a man who built a house on nothing but earth. The water beat against the house. At once it fell and was destroyed.”