M’Cheyne Bible Reading Plan
Jacob Sends Messages and Gifts to Esau
32 [a]As Jacob went on his way, God’s angels met him. 2 When he saw them, Jacob said, “This is God’s camp!” He named that place Mahanaim [Two Camps].
3 Jacob sent messengers ahead of him to his brother Esau in Seir, the country of Edom. 4 He commanded them to give this message to Esau, “Sir, this is what Jacob has to say, ‘I’ve been living with Laban and have stayed until now. 5 I have cattle and donkeys, sheep and goats, and male and female slaves. I’ve sent ⌞these messengers⌟ to tell you ⌞this news⌟ in order to win your favor.’ ”
6 When the messengers came back to Jacob, they said, “We went to your brother Esau. He is coming to meet you with 400 men.”
7 Jacob was terrified and distressed. So he divided the people, the sheep and goats, the cattle, and the camels into two camps. 8 He thought, “If Esau attacks the one camp, then the other camp will be able to escape.”
9 Then Jacob prayed, “God of my grandfather Abraham and God of my father Isaac! Lord, you said to me, ‘Go back to your land and to your relatives, and I will make you prosperous.’ 10 I’m not worthy of all the love and faithfulness you have shown me. I only had a shepherd’s staff when I crossed the Jordan River, but now I have two camps. 11 Please save me from my brother Esau, because I’m afraid of him. I’m afraid that he’ll come and attack me and the mothers and children too. 12 But you did say, ‘I will make sure that you are prosperous and that your descendants will be as many as the grains of sand on the seashore. No one will be able to count them because there are so many.’ ”
13 He stayed there that night. Then he prepared a gift for his brother Esau from what he had brought with him: 14 200 female goats and 20 male goats, 200 female sheep and 20 male sheep, 15 30 female camels with their young, 40 cows and 10 bulls, 20 female donkeys and 10 male donkeys.
16 He placed servants in charge of each herd. Then he said to his servants, “Go ahead of me, and keep a distance between the herds.” 17 He commanded the first servant, “When my brother Esau meets you and asks you, ‘To whom do you belong, and where are you going, and whose animals are these ahead of you?’ 18 then say, ‘Sir, they belong to your servant Jacob. This is a gift sent to you. Jacob is right behind us.’ ” 19 He also commanded the second servant, the third, and all the others who followed the herds. He said, “Say the same thing to Esau when you find him. 20 And be sure to add, ‘Jacob is right behind us, sir.’ ” He thought, “I’ll make peace with him by giving him this gift that I’m sending ahead of me. After that I will see him, and he’ll welcome me back.” 21 So Jacob sent the gift ahead of him while he stayed in the camp that night.
Jacob’s Fourth Encounter with God—He Wrestles with God
22 During that night he got up and gathered his two wives, his two slaves and his eleven children and crossed at the shallow part of the Jabbok River. 23 After he sent them across the stream, he sent everything else across. 24 So Jacob was left alone. Then a man wrestled with him until dawn. 25 When the man saw that he could not win against Jacob, he touched the socket of Jacob’s hip so that it was dislocated as they wrestled. 26 Then the man said, “Let me go; it’s almost dawn.”
But Jacob answered, “I won’t let you go until you bless me.”
27 So the man asked him, “What’s your name?”
“Jacob,” he answered.
28 The man said, “Your name will no longer be Jacob but Israel [He Struggles With God], because you have struggled with God and with men—and you have won.”
29 Jacob said, “Please tell me your name.”
The man answered, “Why do you ask for my name?” Then he blessed Jacob there. 30 So Jacob named that place Peniel [Face of God], because he said, “I have seen God face to face, but my life was saved.” 31 The sun rose as he passed Penuel.[b] He was limping because of his hip. 32 (Therefore, even today the people of Israel do not eat the muscle of the thigh attached to the hip socket because God touched the socket of Jacob’s hip at the muscle of the thigh.)
Jesus Heals on the Day of Rest—a Holy Day(A)
3 Jesus went into a synagogue again. A man who had a paralyzed hand was there. 2 The people were watching Jesus closely. They wanted to see whether he would heal the man on the day of rest—a holy day, so that they could accuse him of doing something wrong.
3 So he told the man with the paralyzed hand, “Stand in the center ⌞of the synagogue⌟.” 4 Then he asked them, “Is it right to do good or to do evil on the day of rest—a holy day, to give a person back his health or to let him die?”
But they were silent. 5 Jesus was angry as he looked around at them. He was deeply hurt because their minds were closed. Then he told the man, “Hold out your hand.” The man held it out, and his hand became normal again.
6 The Pharisees left, and with Herod’s followers they immediately plotted to kill Jesus.
Many People Are Cured(B)
7 Jesus left with his disciples for the Sea of Galilee. A large crowd from Galilee, Judea, 8 Jerusalem, Idumea, and from across the Jordan River, and from around Tyre and Sidon followed him. They came to him because they had heard about everything he was doing. 9 Jesus told his disciples to have a boat ready so that the crowd would not crush him. 10 He had cured so many that everyone with a disease rushed up to him in order to touch him. 11 Whenever people with evil spirits saw him, they would fall down in front of him and shout, “You are the Son of God!” 12 He gave them orders not to tell people who he was.
Jesus Appoints Twelve Apostles(C)
13 Jesus went up a mountain, called those whom he wanted, and they came to him. 14 He appointed twelve whom he called apostles.[a] They were to accompany him and to be sent out by him to spread ⌞the Good News⌟. 15 They also had the authority to force demons out of people.
16 He appointed these twelve: Simon (whom Jesus named Peter), 17 James and his brother John (Zebedee’s sons whom Jesus named Boanerges, which means “Thunderbolts”), 18 Andrew, Philip, Bartholomew, Matthew, Thomas, James (son of Alphaeus), Thaddaeus, Simon the Zealot, 19 and Judas Iscariot (who later betrayed Jesus).
Jesus Is Accused of Working with Beelzebul(D)
20 Then Jesus went home. Another crowd gathered so that Jesus and his disciples could not even eat. 21 When his family heard about it, they went to get him. They said, “He’s out of his mind!”
22 The experts in Moses’ Teachings who had come from Jerusalem said, “Beelzebul is in him,” and “He forces demons out of people with the help of the ruler of demons.”
23 Jesus called them together and used this illustration: “How can Satan force out Satan? 24 If a kingdom is divided against itself, that kingdom cannot last. 25 And if a household is divided against itself, that household will not last. 26 So if Satan rebels against himself and is divided, he cannot last. That will be the end of him.
27 “No one can go into a strong man’s house and steal his property. First he must tie up the strong man. Then he can go through the strong man’s house and steal his property.
28 “I can guarantee this truth: People will be forgiven for any sin or curse. 29 But whoever curses the Holy Spirit will never be forgiven. He is guilty of an everlasting sin.” 30 Jesus said this because the experts in Moses’ Teachings had said that he had an evil spirit.
The True Family of Jesus(E)
31 Then his mother and his brothers arrived. They stood outside and sent someone to ask him to come out. 32 The crowd sitting around Jesus told him, “Your mother and your brothers are outside looking for you.”
33 He replied to them, “Who is my mother, and who are my brothers?” 34 Then looking at those who sat in a circle around him, he said, “Look, here are my mother and my brothers. 35 Whoever does what God wants is my brother and sister and mother.”
8 On that same day King Xerxes gave the property of Haman, the enemy of the Jews, to Queen Esther. Also, Mordecai came to the king because Esther had told him how Mordecai was related to her. 2 Then the king took off his signet ring, which he had taken from Haman, and gave it to Mordecai. And Esther put Mordecai in charge of Haman’s property.
Esther Brings Her Request to the King
3 Esther spoke again to the king. She fell down at his feet crying and begged him to have mercy and to undo the evil plot of Haman, who was from Agag, and his conspiracy against the Jews. 4 The king held out his golden scepter to Esther, and Esther got up and stood in front of the king. 5 She said, “Your Majesty, if it pleases you, and if I have found favor with you, if you consider my cause to be reasonable and if I am pleasing to you, cancel the official orders ⌞concerning⌟ the plot of Haman (who was the son of Hammedatha and was from Agag). He signed ⌞the order⌟ to destroy the Jews in all your provinces, Your Majesty. 6 I cannot bear to see my people suffer such evil. And I simply cannot bear to see the destruction of my relatives.”
7 King Xerxes said to Queen Esther and Mordecai the Jew, “I have given Haman’s property to Esther, and Haman’s ⌞dead body⌟ was hung on the pole because he tried to kill the Jews. 8 You write what you think is best for the Jews in the king’s name. Seal it also with the king’s signet ring, because whatever is written in the king’s name and sealed with the king’s signet ring cannot be canceled.”
Mordecai Uses His Position to Save the Jews
9 At that time on the twenty-third day of Sivan, the third month, the king’s scribes were summoned. What Mordecai had ordered was written to the Jews and to the satraps, governors, and officers of the 127 provinces from India to Sudan. It was written to each province in its own script, to each people in their own language, and to the Jews in their own script and their own language.
10 Mordecai wrote in King Xerxes’ name and sealed the official documents with the king’s signet ring. Then he sent them by messengers who rode special horses bred for speed. ⌞He wrote⌟ 11 that the king had given permission for the Jews in every city to assemble, to defend themselves, to wipe out, to kill, and to destroy every armed force of the people and province that is hostile to them, even women and children, and to seize their goods. 12 ⌞This was permitted⌟ on one day in all the provinces of King Xerxes, on the thirteenth day of Adar, the twelfth month. 13 The copy of the document was made public in a decree to every province for all people. On that day the Jews were to be ready to take revenge on their enemies.
14 The messengers rode the king’s fastest horses. They left quickly, in keeping with the king’s command. The decree was issued also in the fortress of Susa.
15 Mordecai went out from the presence of the king wearing the royal violet and white robe, a large gold crown, and a purple outer robe of fine linen. And the city of Susa cheered and rejoiced.
16 So the Jews were cheerful, happy, joyful, and successful. 17 In every province and every city where the king’s message and decree arrived, the Jews were happy and joyful, feasting and enjoying a holiday. Then many common people pretended to be Jews because they were terrified of the Jews.
Everyone Is a Sinner
3 Is there any advantage, then, in being a Jew? Or is there any value in being circumcised? 2 There are all kinds of advantages. First of all, God entrusted them with his word.
3 What if some of them were unfaithful? Can their unfaithfulness cancel God’s faithfulness? 4 That would be unthinkable! God is honest, and everyone else is a liar, as Scripture says,
“So you hand down justice when you speak,
and you win your case in court.”
5 But if what we do wrong shows that God is fair, what should we say? Is God unfair when he vents his anger on us? (I’m arguing the way humans would.) 6 That’s unthinkable! Otherwise, how would God be able to judge the world? 7 If my lie increases the glory that God receives by showing that God is truthful, why am I still judged as a sinner? 8 Or can we say, “Let’s do evil so that good will come from it”? Some slander us and claim that this is what we say. They are condemned, and that’s what they deserve.
9 What, then, is the situation? Do we have any advantage? Not at all. We have already accused everyone (both Jews and Greeks) of being under the power of sin, 10 as Scripture says,
“Not one person has God’s approval.
11 No one understands.
No one searches for God.
12 Everyone has turned away.
Together they have become rotten to the core.
No one does anything good,
not even one person.
13 Their throats are open graves.
Their tongues practice deception.
Their lips hide the venom of poisonous snakes.
14 Their mouths are full of curses and bitter resentment.
15 They run quickly to murder people.
16 There is ruin and suffering wherever they go.
17 They have not learned to live in peace.
18 They are not terrified of God.”
19 We know that whatever the Scriptures say applies to everyone under their influence, and no one can say a thing. The whole world is brought under the judgment of God. 20 Not one person can have God’s approval by any effort to follow the laws in the Scriptures. These laws show what sin is.
God Gives Us His Approval as a Gift
21 Now, the way to receive God’s approval has been made plain in a way other than the laws in the Scriptures. Moses’ Teachings and the Prophets tell us this. 22 Everyone who believes has God’s approval through faith in Jesus Christ.
There is no difference between people. 23 Because all people have sinned, they have fallen short of God’s glory. 24 They receive God’s approval freely by an act of his kindness [a] through the price Christ Jesus paid to set us free ⌞from sin⌟. 25 God showed that Christ is the throne of mercy where God’s approval is given through faith in Christ’s blood. In his patience God waited to deal with sins committed in the past. 26 He waited so that he could display his approval at the present time. This shows that he is a God of justice, a God who approves of people who believe in Jesus.
27 So, do we have anything to brag about? Bragging has been eliminated. On what basis was it eliminated? On the basis of our own efforts? No, indeed! Rather, it is eliminated on the basis of faith. 28 We conclude that a person has God’s approval by faith, not by his own efforts.
29 Is God only the God of the Jews? Isn’t he also the God of people who are not Jewish? Certainly, he is, 30 since it is the same God who approves circumcised people by faith and uncircumcised people through this same faith.
31 Are we abolishing the laws in the Scriptures by this faith? That’s unthinkable! Rather, we are supporting these laws.
Copyright © 1995, 2003, 2013, 2014, 2019, 2020 by God’s Word to the Nations Mission Society. All rights reserved.