M’Cheyne Bible Reading Plan
6 People began to grow in number all over the earth. They gave birth to daughters. 2 The sons of God saw that the daughters of men were beautiful. They chose for themselves any of them that they wanted to become their wives.[a]
3 The Lord said, ‘My Spirit will not give life to humans for ever. One day they will die. I will not let them live for more than 120 years. Then they will die.’
4 The Nephilites lived on the earth at that time, and for some time after that. During that time, the sons of God were having sex with the daughters of men, who gave birth to their children. The Nephilites were famous great men and fighters.
5 The Lord saw that men and women on the earth had become very bad. They thought only of evil things all the time. 6 The Lord was sorry that he had made humans and put them on the earth. He became very upset. 7 So the Lord said, ‘I made humans, but now I will destroy them. I will completely take them off the earth. As well as human people, I will also destroy the animals, the living things that move on the ground, and the birds. I am sorry that I made them.’
8 But as for Noah, the Lord was happy about him.[b]
God saves Noah
9 This is the report about Noah and his family.
Noah was a good man. He was the only person at that time who lived in a completely right way. He stayed near to God in his life. 10 Noah became the father of Shem, Ham and Japheth.
11 God saw that everything on the earth had become spoiled. Everywhere, people were attacking each other. 12 God saw how much the earth had become spoiled. Everyone was doing bad things. 13 God said to Noah, ‘I will destroy everyone. That is what I have decided to do. Everywhere on the earth, people are attacking each other. Now I will destroy the people and also the earth. 14 So make a ship for yourself. Use wood from cypress trees to make it.[c] The ship must have rooms in it. Cover the inside and the outside of the ship with tar.[d]
15 This is how you will build the ship: It must be 150 metres long, 25 metres wide and 15 metres high.
16 Make a roof for the ship. Leave a space 45 centimetres high all round under the roof. Put a door in the side of the ship. Inside the ship, make three floors above each other.
17 I will cover the earth with deep water. I will destroy all living things, wherever they live. Everything that breathes will die. 18 But I will make a covenant with you, Noah. You will go into the ship. You will take your wife with you, and also your three sons and their wives. 19 You must also take two of every different kind of animal into the ship. One will be male and the other will be female. Then they will stay alive with you. 20 Bring two of every different kind of bird, two of every different animal and two of every different living thing that moves along the ground. All these will come to you. You will take care of them so that they will stay alive. 21 You must also take every different kind of food. That will be food for you and food for the animals.’
22 Noah obeyed God. He did everything that God had told him to do.
Jesus teaches people how to help poor people
6 Jesus then said to them, ‘You should do good things to help people. But be careful! Do not do this so that other people see you. If you want other people to praise you, your Father in heaven will not praise you.
2 When you give something to a poor person, do not tell anyone about it. The hypocrites do this in their meeting places. They also do it in the busy streets of the town. They do this so that other people will praise them. I tell you this. They have already received their gift. God will not give them anything more.[a]
3 So when you give something to a poor person, keep it a secret from other people. Do not tell anyone. Your left hand will not even know what your right hand does! 4 Nobody else will know about the good thing that you have done. But God sees the things that you do secretly. In return, he will give you good things.’
Jesus teaches people how to pray
5 ‘Also, you must not pray in the way that the hypocrites pray. They like to stand and pray in their meeting places. They like to do it on the corners of the busy streets.[b] Then many people will see them and they will praise them. I tell you this. They have already received their gift from people. God will not give them anything more.
6 But this is how you should pray. Go to a place in your house where you can be alone. You can shut the door and you can pray to God your Father. He is in that secret place. He sees what you do there. He will give you good things in return. 7 When you pray, do not say the same words many times. People who do not believe in God do that. They use many words that mean nothing. They think that when they pray like that, their gods will hear them. 8 Do not pray like they do. God your Father already knows what you need. He knows this even before you ask him.
9 So this is how you should pray:
“God, our Father who is in heaven,
we want people to give honour to you.
10 We want the day when you rule everyone to come soon.
We want everyone to obey you on earth, like everyone in heaven obeys you.
11 Please give us the food that we need today.
12 We have forgiven people who have done wrong things to us.
In the same way, please forgive us for the wrong things that we have done.
13 Do not let us agree to do wrong things.
Keep us safe from Satan.” ’
14 Then Jesus said, ‘When other people do wrong things against you, you must forgive them. Then God, your Father in heaven, will also forgive you for the wrong things that you have done. 15 But if you do not forgive other people, then your Father will not forgive you.’
Jesus teaches people about different things
16 Jesus then said, ‘You may decide to fast for some time.[c] But do not look sad so that people know you are doing a special thing. Hypocrites want people to see how good they are. They make their faces dirty. Then other people can see that they are fasting. I tell you this: people have praised them and that is the only gift that they will get. 17 But when you fast for some time, you should wash your face. Make your hair look nice. 18 Then other people will not know that you are doing a special thing. But God, your Father, will know. You do not see him but he sees what you do secretly. He will give you good things in return.
19 Do not want to have many valuable things here in the world. Insects or water can destroy those kinds of things. Or people may come into your house and they can rob you of those things. 20 Instead, you should want to have valuable things in heaven. Insects and water cannot destroy anything there. Men cannot rob you of your things there. 21 Then you will be thinking a lot about heaven, because that is where you keep your valuable things.[d]
22 Your eyes are like lamps and your body is like a room. Make sure that your eyes are like a clean lamp, then your whole body will have light. 23 If your eyes are not good, then your whole body will be in the dark. If the light in you has become dark, you will be living in a very dark place.’[e]
24 Jesus said, ‘Nobody can work as a slave for two masters at the same time. Maybe he will hate one of the masters, but he will love the other one. Or he will work well for one master, but he will think bad things about the other master. God and money are like different masters. You cannot work for both of them.
25 So I tell you this. You should not worry about how to stay alive. Do not worry about the food and drink that you need. Do not worry about the clothes that you need to wear. Your life is more important than the food that you eat. Your body is more important than your clothes. 26 Think about the wild birds. They do not plant seeds in the ground. They do not cut down plants to eat. They have no buildings to store food. But God, your Father in heaven, gives them food to eat. You are much more valuable than the birds. 27 Even if you always worry about your life, you cannot make it as much as one hour longer!
28 You should not worry about your clothes. Think about how the wild flowers grow. They do not work or make clothes for themselves. 29 But I tell you this. Even one wild flower is more beautiful than King Solomon was. And King Solomon wore the most beautiful clothes. 30 It is God that gives beautiful clothes even to the grass. One day the grass is growing in the field, but the next day people will cut it and burn it.[f] God will certainly take care of you, much more than he takes care of the grass. You should trust him more than you do!
31 So do not worry about these things. Do not always say, “What will we eat?”, or “What will we drink?”, or “What will we wear?” 32 People who do not know God are always trying to get these things. But as for you, your Father in heaven knows that you need them. 33 Instead, always think about the things that are important in the kingdom of heaven. Always do what God shows you is right. Then he will also give you the things that you need each day. 34 So do not have trouble in your mind about what might happen tomorrow. Tomorrow will have its own problems. It is enough for you to be thinking each day about the problems of that day.’
King Darius replies
6 King Darius told his officers to look in the books in the royal library. That was in Babylon, in the place where they stored important things. 2 But it was in the region of Media that they found a scroll about the temple in Jerusalem. It was stored in a strong building in Ecbatana. This is what the scroll said:
‘This is an important note.
3 King Cyrus gave a command about God's temple in Jerusalem, in the first year that he ruled in Babylon. He said:
“The Jews must build their temple as a place where they can offer sacrifices to their God. They must build it on its foundations. They must make it 30 metres wide and 30 metres high. 4 They must build the walls with three rows of big stones, and then a row of wooden beams. They should take money from the king's palace to pay for the work. 5 We will give back to them the silver and gold things that belong in their God's temple. King Nebuchadnezzar took them from the temple in Jerusalem and he brought them here to Babylon. Now they must return to the place where they belong, in God's house in Jerusalem.”
6 So listen to me, Tattenai, my ruler of the region on the west side of the Euphrates river. You, Shethar-Bozenai and your other officers in that region must all stay away from the temple! 7 You must not do anything to stop the work on God's temple. The Jewish ruler and their leaders must continue to build this house of God. They must build it in its proper place.
8 So I will now tell you what you must do for the Jewish leaders. You must help them to build this temple again. Use the king's money to pay for everything that they need to continue the work. Use the taxes that we receive from people in the region west of the Euphrates river. The work on the building must not stop. 9 Also give to the priests the things that they need each day for their sacrifices to the God of heaven. Give them young bulls, male sheep and lambs to use as burnt offerings. Give them grain, salt, wine and olive oil. Whenever the priests in Jerusalem ask for something, you must be sure to give it to them. 10 Then their offerings will make the God of heaven happy. They will pray for God to bless the king and his family.
11 Nobody may change what I have commanded in this letter. If anyone does not obey this command, men must remove a beam from the roof of his house. They must push the point of the beam through his body and lift him up on it. Then they must destroy his house so that it becomes a heap of stones. That is what he deserves.
12 No king or nation should try to change my command. They must never destroy God's temple in Jerusalem. That is the place that he has chosen for people to worship him. I pray that he will remove anyone who tries to attack that place.
I, Darius, have made this command. Everyone must obey it completely.’
They finish the temple
13 Tattenai, ruler of the region west of the Euphrates river, Shethar-Bozenai and their friends carefully obeyed King Darius's command. 14 So the leaders of the Jews continued to build the temple. The work went very well. They listened to the messages from God that the prophet Haggai and Iddo's grandson, Zechariah, were teaching them. They finished building the temple. Israel's God had commanded them to do that. Cyrus, Darius and Artaxerxes, the kings of Persia, had also commanded them to do it. 15 They finished building the temple on the third day of Adar month. King Darius had then been king for six years.
16 Then the Israelite people offered the temple to God, so that he would bless it. The priests, the Levites and the other people who had returned from Babylon were all very happy. 17 They offered 100 bulls, 200 male sheep and 400 lambs. Then they sacrificed 12 male goats as a sin offering for all Israel. There was one goat for each of the 12 tribes of Israel. 18 They decided how each group of priests and Levites should work in God's temple in Jerusalem. Moses had written in his book how they should do this.
The Passover feast
19 On the 14th day of the first month, the people ate the Passover feast.[a] 20 The priests and Levites had all made themselves clean for their special work. The Levites killed the lambs for the Passover sacrifice. They did that on behalf of all the people, the priests and themselves. 21 So all the people who had returned from Babylon ate the feast. Other Israelites in Jerusalem had turned away from the bad things that other nations who lived there did. They had decided to worship the Lord, Israel's God. So they also ate the feast. 22 Then they ate the Feast of Flat Bread for seven days.[b] The Lord had caused them to be very happy, because the king of Assyria had helped them. The Lord had made the king think in a different way about the Jews in Jerusalem. He had decided to help them to build the God of Israel's temple.
The believers choose seven men
6 At that time, more and more people became disciples of Jesus. Among the believers, some were Jews who spoke the Greek language. Others were Jews who spoke the Aramaic language. The Jews who spoke Greek had a problem with the other Jews. They said, ‘The widows in our group do not receive the right help. Each day, when you give out the food and money, our widows receive less than they should get.’[a]
2 The 12 apostles heard about the problem. They told all the believers to meet together with them. The apostles said, ‘Our work is to teach people God's message about Jesus. We do not have time to give out the food and money to people as well. 3 So, friends, please choose seven men from among you. You must know that each of them is full of the Holy Spirit. They must also be very wise. We will ask these seven men to do this work for us. 4 Then we will have more time to pray. We will also have more time to teach people God's message.’
5 The whole group of believers was happy with the apostles' words. So first they chose a man called Stephen. Stephen believed strongly in God and he was full of the Holy Spirit. The believers also chose six other men: Philip, Prochorus, Nicanor, Timon, Parmenas and Nicolas. Nicolas was from Antioch. He was not born as a Jew, but he had joined the Jews later. 6 The group of believers put these seven men in front of the apostles. The apostles prayed for each man and they put their hands on them. They gave them authority to do this special work.
7 So more and more people heard the message from God. The number of people in Jerusalem who believed in Jesus grew more and more. Many of the Jewish priests also believed the message about Jesus.[b]
The important Jews take hold of Stephen
8 God helped Stephen in many special ways. God's power was with him. He did many miracles among the people which showed that God was with him. 9 But some men spoke against Stephen. They did not agree with what he taught people. These men were from one of the Jewish meeting places in Jerusalem. People called them, ‘The Group of Free Men’. These men were Jews from the cities called Cyrene and Alexandria. Some of them were from towns in Cilicia and Asia. They began to argue with Stephen. 10 But the Holy Spirit helped Stephen to be very wise when he spoke. So these men could not say that he was wrong.
11 Then those men secretly gave money to some bad men. They told them to say to the Jewish leaders, ‘We heard this man, Stephen, say bad things against Moses and against God.’
12 This made the people become angry against Stephen. The important Jews and the teachers of God's Law also became very angry. So they took hold of Stephen. They took him to stand in front of the group of Jewish leaders. 13 Then they brought in some men to say bad things about Stephen. The things that these men said were not true. They said about Stephen, ‘This man is always saying bad things about the temple. He says bad things against God's Law. 14 We also heard him talk about Jesus, the man who comes from Nazareth. He said that Jesus will destroy this place. He also said that Jesus will change the way that Moses taught us to live.’
15 All the Jewish leaders who sat there in the meeting looked carefully at Stephen. They saw that his face was very bright, like the face of an angel.
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