M’Cheyne Bible Reading Plan
Sarah Renewed
20 Then Abraham journeyed from there to the land of the Negev and settled between Kadesh and Shur. While he was dwelling as an outsider in Gerar, 2 Abraham said of Sarah his wife, “She is my sister.” So King Abimelech of Gerar sent for and took Sarah. 3 But God came to Abimelech in a dream at night and said to him, “Behold, you are as good as dead, because of the woman whom you have taken—since she is a married woman.”
4 Now Abimelech had not come near her. So he said, “My Lord, will You slay a nation, even though innocent? 5 Didn’t he say to me, ‘She’s my sister’? And she herself even said, ‘He’s my brother.’ I did this with integrity of my heart and guiltlessness of my hands.”
6 Then God said to him in a dream, “Yes, I myself knew that you did this with integrity of your heart, so I, yes I Myself prevented you from sinning against Me. That is why I did not allow you to touch her. 7 So now, return the man’s wife, for he is a prophet. And let him pray for you and you will live. But if you do not return her, know that you will surely die—you and all who are yours.”
8 Abimelech rose early in the morning, called all his servants and spoke all these words in their ears—and the men were very frightened. 9 Then Abimelech called to Abraham and said to him, “What have you done to us, and how have I sinned against you, that you brought great sin upon me and my kingdom? You’ve done to me things that should not be done!” 10 Abimelech also said to Abraham, “What motivated you to do this thing?”
11 Abraham said, “Because I thought, ‘There is certainly no fear of God in this place, so they’ll kill me, because of my wife.’ 12 And besides, she really is my sister. She’s my father’s daughter, though not my mother’s daughter. Then she became my wife. 13 So when God made me wander away from my father’s house, I said to her, ‘This is your loyalty that you must show me: in every place we go, say of me, ‘He is my brother.’”
14 Then Abimelech took sheep, cattle, male slaves and female slaves and gave them to Abraham, and returned his wife Sarah to him. 15 Then Abimelech said, “Look, my land is before you. Dwell wherever it pleases you.” 16 At the same time he said to Sarah, “Look, I’ve given a thousand shekels to your brother. Look, it is compensation for everything that happened—so to everyone with you, you are vindicated.”
17 Then Abraham prayed to God and God healed Abimelech, his wife and his female slaves so that they could bear children. 18 For Adonai had completely locked up every womb in Abimelech’s household because of Sarah, Abraham’s wife.
Marriage and Covenant Faithfulness
19 Now when Yeshua had finished these words, He moved on from the Galilee and entered the region of Judea beyond the Jordan. 2 Large crowds followed Him, and He healed them there. 3 Pharisees came up to Yeshua, testing Him and saying, “Is it permitted for a man to divorce his wife for any reason at all?”
4 “Haven’t you read?” He answered. “He who created them from the beginning ‘made them male and female’ [a] 5 and said, ‘For this reason a man shall leave his father and mother and be joined to his wife, and the two shall become one flesh.’ [b] 6 So they are no longer two, but one flesh. Therefore what God has joined together, let no man separate.”
7 They said to Him, “Why then did Moses command to ‘give her a certificate of divorce and put her away?’”[c]
8 Yeshua said to them, “Because of your hardness of heart Moses permitted you to divorce your wives, but from the beginning it was not so. 9 Now I tell you, whoever divorces his wife, except for sexual immorality, and marries another, commits adultery.”[d]
10 The disciples said to Him, “If that’s the case for a man and his wife, it’s better not to marry!”
11 But He said to them, “Not everyone can accept this saying—only those to whom it has been given. 12 For there are eunuchs who were born that way from their mother’s womb; and there are eunuchs who were made that way by men; and there are eunuchs who made themselves eunuchs for the sake of the kingdom of heaven. He who can accept this, let him accept it.”
Receiving the Kingdom of Heaven
13 Then little children were brought to Yeshua so that He might lay hands upon them and pray. Then the disciples rebuked those who brought them. [e] 14 But Yeshua said, “Let the little children come to Me and do not hinder them, for the kingdom of heaven belongs to such as these.” 15 After laying His hands upon them, He went on from there.
16 Now behold, one came to Him and said, “Teacher, what good shall I do to have eternal life?”
17 “Why do you ask Me about what is good?” Yeshua said to him. “There is only One who is good; but if you want to enter into life, keep the commandments.”
18 “Which ones?” he said.
Yeshua said, “‘Do not murder, do not commit adultery, do not steal, do not give false testimony, 19 honor your father and mother,’ and ‘love your neighbor as yourself.’”[f]
20 “All these I’ve kept,” the young man said to Him. “What do I still lack?”
21 Yeshua said to him, “If you wish to be perfect, go, sell what you own, and give to the poor; and you will have treasure in heaven. Then come, follow Me.” 22 But when the young man heard this statement, he went away grieving, for he had much property.
23 Then Yeshua said to His disciples, “Amen, I tell you, it is hard for a rich man to enter the kingdom of heaven. 24 Again I tell you, it is easier for a camel to go through the eye of a needle, than for a rich man to enter the kingdom of God.”
25 When the disciples heard this, they were utterly astonished and said, “Then who can be saved?”
26 And looking, Yeshua said to them, “With men this is impossible, but with God all things are possible.”[g]
27 Then Peter said to Him, “Look, we’ve left everything to follow You! So what will we have?”
28 And Yeshua said to them, “Amen, I tell you, when the Son of Man sits on His glorious throne in the new world,[h] you who have followed Me shall also sit on twelve thrones, judging the twelve tribes of Israel. 29 And everyone who has left houses or brothers or sisters or father or mother or children or property, for My name’s sake, will receive a hundred times as much, and will inherit eternal life. 30 But many who are first will be last, and the last first.”
Levites Tell Israel’s Story
9 Now on the twenty-fourth day of this same month, Bnei-Yisrael gathered together, fasting and wearing sackcloth and putting dust on their heads. 2 The offspring of Israel separated themselves from all foreigners, standing and confessing their sins and the iniquities of their fathers. 3 They stood in their place and read in the scroll of the Torah of Adonai their God for a quarter of the day; and for another quarter they were confessing and prostrating themselves before Adonai their God.
4 Then the Levites—Jeshua, Bani, Kadmiel, Shebaniah, Bunni, Sherebiah, Bani, and Chenani—stood on the platform and cried out with a loud voice to Adonai their God. 5 The Levites—Jeshua, Kadmiel, Bani, Hashabneiah, Sherebiah, Hodiah, Shebaniah, and Pethahiah—said: “Stand up! Bless Adonai your God, from everlasting to everlasting! May Your glorious Name be blessed; may it be exalted above all blessing and praise. 6 You alone are Adonai. You made the heavens, even the highest heaven with all its array,[a] the earth and everything on it, the seas and everything in them. You give life to them all, and the multitudes of heaven worship You.
7 “You are Adonai, the God who chose Abram, brought him from Ur of the Chaldeans and gave him the name Abraham. 8 You found his heart faithful before You and made the covenant with him to give the land of the Canaanite, Hittite, Amorite, Perizzite, Jebusite and the Girgashite to his seed. You have fulfilled Your words, for You are righteous.
9 “You saw the affliction of our fathers in Egypt and heard their cry by the Sea of Reeds. 10 You gave signs and wonders against Pharaoh, all his servants, and all the people of his land, for You knew how insolently they treated them. You made a name for Yourself which remains to this day. 11 You divided the sea before them, so that they passed through the midst of the sea on dry land! But their pursuers You threw into the depths like a stone into mighty waters. 12 You led them with a pillar of cloud by day and with a pillar of fire by night to illuminate for them the way they were to go.
13 “You descended on Mount Sinai and spoke with them from heaven. You gave them just judgments, reliable laws, and good statutes and mitzvot. 14 You made known to them Your holy Shabbat and ordained for them mitzvot, statutes and Torah by the hand of Your servant Moses. 15 You gave them bread from heaven for their hunger, and brought them water from the rock for their thirst. You told them to go in to possess the land that You had sworn to give them.[b]
16 “But they, our ancestors, became arrogant. They stiffened their neck and did not obey Your mitzvot. 17 They refused to obey and did not remember Your wonders that You did among them. Instead, they became stiff-necked and in their rebellion, appointed a leader in order to return to their bondage. But You are a God of forgiveness, merciful and compassionate, slow to anger, and abounding in love. Therefore You did not abandon them, 18 even when they made a cast image of a calf for themselves and said, ‘This is your god who brought you up from Egypt!’ or when they committed great blasphemies.
19 “Yet in Your great compassion You did not abandon them in the wilderness. The pillar of cloud by day did not depart from above them, guiding them in the way, nor the pillar of fire by night, illuminating the way they should go. 20 You also gave Your good Ruach to teach them. You did not withhold Your manna from their mouth and You gave them water for their thirst. 21 For forty years You sustained them in the desert: they lacked nothing, their garments did not wear out and their feet did not swell.
22 “You gave them kingdoms and peoples and You allotted them their boundaries of the land. They possessed the land of Sihon king of Heshbon and the country of Og king of Bashan. 23 You multiplied their descendants like the stars of heaven, and You brought them into the land that You told their ancestors to enter and inherit. 24 So the children went in and possessed the land. You subdued before them the Canaanites who were the inhabitants of the land. You delivered them into their hands, along with their kings and the peoples of the land to deal with them as they pleased. 25 They captured fortified cities and fertile land. They took possession of houses full of every good thing—hewn cisterns, vineyards, olive groves, and an abundance of fruit trees. They ate and were satisfied, and grew fat. They enjoyed Your great goodness.
26 “Nonetheless they became contentious and rebelled against You. They cast Your Torah behind their back. They killed Your prophets who warned them[c] to return to You; they committed appalling blasphemies. 27 Therefore You delivered them into the hand of their enemies who oppressed them. But in the time of their distress, they cried out to You and You heard from heaven. According to Your great compassion, You gave them deliverers, who rescued them out of the hand of their enemies.
28 “But as soon as they were at rest, they returned to doing evil before You. Therefore You abandoned them into the hand of their enemies who ruled over them. When they repented and cried out to You, You heard from heaven, and according to Your compassion You delivered them many times.
29 “You warned them in order to turn them back to Your Torah, but they became insolent and disobeyed Your mitzvot. They sinned against Your ordinances—those by which if a man does them he will live. They turned a stubborn shoulder and stiffened their neck, and would not listen. 30 You bore with them for many years and admonished them by Your Ruach through the hand of Your prophets. Yet they would not listen, so You handed them over to the peoples of the lands. 31 Nevertheless, in Your great compassion, You did not put an end to them or abandon them, for You are a gracious and compassionate God.
32 “So now, our God—the great, mighty and awesome God, who keeps covenant and mercy—do not let all the hardship that has befallen us seem insignificant to you—our kings, our leaders, our kohanim, our prophets, our ancestors and all Your people, from the time of the kings of Assyria to this day. 33 You are righteous in all that has come upon us. For You have acted faithfully while we have done wickedly. 34 Our kings, our leaders, our kohanim, and our ancestors have not kept Your Torah or paid attention to Your mitzvot or Your testimonies by which you have admonished them.
35 “Even in their own kingdom with the abundance of Your good things that You gave them, or with the spacious and fertile land that You set before them, they did not serve You or turn back from their evil deeds.
36 “But see, even today we are slaves! Slaves in the land that You gave to our ancestors to eat of its fruit and its bounty. We are slaves in it. 37 Its abundant produce goes to the kings You have set over us due to our sins. They rule over our bodies and over our livestock as they please. We are in great distress!
19 While Apollos was at Corinth, Paul traveled through the upper region and came to Ephesus. He found some disciples 2 and said to them, “Did you receive the Ruach ha-Kodesh when you believed?”
They replied to him, “No, we’ve never even heard that there is a Ruach ha-Kodesh.
3 He said, “Into what were you immersed?”
They said, “Into John’s immersion.”
4 Paul said, “John immersed with an immersion of repentance, telling the people that they should believe in the One coming after him—that is, in Yeshua.”
5 When they heard this, they were immersed in the name of the Lord Yeshua. 6 And when Paul laid hands upon them, the Ruach ha-Kodesh came upon them, and they began speaking in tongues and prophesying. 7 In all, there were about twelve men.
God’s Power Displayed in Ephesus
8 Paul went into the synagogue and for three months spoke boldly, debating and persuading them about the kingdom of God. 9 But when they were hardening and refusing to believe, speaking evil of the Way before the whole group, he withdrew from them, taking the disciples with him, debating daily in the hall of Tyrannus. 10 This continued for two years, so that all the residents of Asia[a] heard the word of the Lord—Jewish as well as Greek people.
11 God was doing extraordinary miracles by Paul’s hands, 12 so that even handkerchiefs and aprons that touched his skin were brought to the sick, and the diseases left them and the evil spirits went out of them.
13 But some traveling Jewish exorcists also tried to invoke the name of the Lord Yeshua, saying, “I charge you by the Yeshua whom Paul preaches.” 14 Seven sons of a Jewish ruling kohen named Sceva were doing this. 15 But the evil spirit answered them, “I know Yeshua and I know about Paul, but who are you?”
16 Then the man with the evil spirit sprang at them, subduing and overpowering all of them, so that they fled out of that house naked and wounded. 17 This became known to all who lived in Ephesus, both Jewish and Greek people. Fear fell upon them all, and the name of the Lord Yeshua was being magnified.
18 Many also of those who had believed came confessing and recounting their practices. 19 And many of those who practiced magic arts brought their books together in a heap, burning them before everyone. They totaled the value of the books and found it to be about fifty thousand pieces of silver. 20 So the word of the Lord was growing in power and prevailing.
Idol-Makers Start a Riot
21 Now after these things were accomplished, Paul resolved in the Ruach to go to Jerusalem after passing through Macedonia and Achaia, saying, “After I have been there, I must also see Rome.” 22 So after sending two who were assisting him, Timothy and Erastus, he himself stayed in Asia for a while.
23 Around that time, there arose no small uproar concerning the Way. 24 For a man named Demetrius—a silversmith, a maker of silver shrines of Artemis—was providing no small amount of business to the craftsmen. 25 He gathered these together, along with those of related occupations, and he said, “Men, you know that our wealth is from this business. 26 You see and hear that not only in Ephesus but also throughout all Asia, Paul has persuaded and perverted a considerable crowd, saying that handmade gods are not gods at all. [b] 27 Not only is there a danger that this trade of ours might come into disrepute, but also that the temple of the great goddess Artemis might be considered as nothing. She whom all Asia and the world worships might even be thrown down from her majesty.”
28 When they heard, they were filled with fury and began shouting, “Great is Artemis of the Ephesians!” 29 The city was filled with confusion. They rushed into the theater, dragging with them Gaius and Aristarchus, Macedonians who were travel companions of Paul. 30 Paul was wishing to enter among the crowd, but the disciples would not let him. 31 Some of the chiefs of Asia,[c] being his friends, sent to him and begged him not to surrender himself in the theater.
32 Now some cried out one thing, some another, for the assembly was in confusion. Most did not know why they had come together. 33 Some of the crowd solicited Alexander, whom the Jewish people put forward. Alexander motioned with his hand. He wished to offer a defense to the crowd. 34 But recognizing that he was Jewish, for about two hours they all with one voice cried out, “Great is Artemis of the Ephesians!”
35 After the town clerk quieted the crowd, he said, “Men of Ephesus, what man is there who doesn’t know that the city of the Ephesians is temple keeper of the great Artemis and of her image fallen from heaven? 36 Since these things are undeniable, you must be calm and do nothing reckless. 37 For you have brought these men here who are neither sacrilegious nor revilers of our goddess. 38 If Demetrius and the craftsmen with him have a complaint against anyone, the courts are open and there are proconsuls. Let them accuse them. 39 But if you seek anything further, it will be settled in the lawful assembly. 40 For we are in danger of being charged with rioting today, there being no reason which we are able to give to justify this mob.” Upon saying this, he dismissed the assembly.
Tree of Life (TLV) Translation of the Bible. Copyright © 2015 by The Messianic Jewish Family Bible Society.