M’Cheyne Bible Reading Plan

Joseph's Brothers Return to Egypt with Benjamin

43 The famine in Canaan got worse, ² and when the family of Jacob had eaten all the grain which had been brought from Egypt, Jacob said to his sons, “Go back and buy a little food for us.”

³ Judah said to him, “The man sternly warned us that we would not be admitted to his presence unless we had our brother with us. ⁴ If you are willing to send our brother with us, we will go and buy food for you. ⁵ If you are not willing, we will not go, because the man told us we would not be admitted to his presence unless our brother was with us.”

⁶ Jacob said, “Why did you cause me so much trouble by telling the man that you had another brother?”

⁷ They answered, “The man kept asking about us and our family, ‘Is your father still living? Do you have another brother?’ We had to answer his questions. How could we know that he would tell us to bring our brother with us?”

⁸ Judah said to his father, “Send the boy with me, and we will leave at once. Then none of us will starve to death. ⁹ I will pledge my own life, and you can hold me responsible for him. If I do not bring him back to you safe and sound, I will always bear the blame. ¹⁰ If we had not waited so long, we could have been there and back twice by now.”

¹¹ Their father said to them, “If that is how it has to be, then take the best products of the land in your packs as a present for the governor: a little resin, a little honey, spices, pistachio nuts, and almonds. ¹² Take with you also twice as much money, because you must take back the money that was returned in the top of your sacks. Maybe it was a mistake. ¹³ Take your brother and return at once. ¹⁴ May Almighty God cause the man to have pity on you, so that he will give Benjamin and your other brother back to you. As for me, if I must lose my children, I must lose them.”

¹⁵ So the brothers took the gifts and twice as much money, and set out for Egypt with Benjamin. There they presented themselves to Joseph. ¹⁶ When Joseph saw Benjamin with them, he said to the servant in charge of his house, “Take these men to my house. They are going to eat with me at noon, so kill an animal and prepare it.” ¹⁷ The servant did as he was commanded and took the brothers to Joseph's house.

¹⁸ As they were being brought to the house, they were afraid and thought, “We are being brought here because of the money that was returned in our sacks the first time. They will suddenly attack us, take our donkeys, and make us his slaves.” ¹⁹ So at the door of the house, they said to the servant in charge, ²⁰ “If you please, sir, we came here once before to buy food. ²¹ When we set up camp on the way home, we opened our sacks, and each man found his money in the top of his sack—every bit of it. We have brought it back to you. ²² We have also brought some more money with us to buy more food. We do not know who put our money back in our sacks.”

²³ The servant said, “Don't worry. Don't be afraid. Your God, the God of your father, must have put the money in your sacks for you. I received your payment.” Then he brought Simeon to them.

²⁴ The servant took the brothers into the house. He gave them water so that they could wash their feet, and he fed their donkeys. ²⁵ They got their gifts ready to present to Joseph when he arrived at noon, because they had been told that they were to eat with him. ²⁶ When Joseph got home, they took the gifts into the house to him and bowed down to the ground before him. ²⁷ He asked about their health and then said, “You told me about your old father—how is he? Is he still alive and well?”

²⁸ They answered, “Your humble servant, our father, is still alive and well.” And they knelt and bowed down before him.

²⁹ When Joseph saw his brother Benjamin, he said, “So this is your youngest brother, the one you told me about. God bless you, my son.” ³⁰ Then Joseph left suddenly, because his heart was full of tender feelings for his brother. He was about to break down, so he went to his room and cried. ³¹ After he had washed his face, he came out, and controlling himself, he ordered the meal to be served. ³² Joseph was served at one table and his brothers at another. The Egyptians who were eating there were served separately, because they considered it beneath their dignity to eat with Hebrews. ³³ The brothers had been seated at the table, facing Joseph, in the order of their age from the oldest to the youngest. When they saw how they had been seated, they looked at one another in amazement. ³⁴ Food was served to them from Joseph's table, and Benjamin was served five times as much as the rest of them. So they ate and drank with Joseph until they were drunk.

Jesus Speaks of the Destruction of the Temple^(A)

13 As Jesus was leaving the Temple, one of his disciples said, “Look, Teacher! What wonderful stones and buildings!”

² Jesus answered, “You see these great buildings? Not a single stone here will be left in its place; every one of them will be thrown down.”

Troubles and Persecutions^(B)

³ Jesus was sitting on the Mount of Olives, across from the Temple, when Peter, James, John, and Andrew came to him in private. ^4 (C)“Tell us when this will be,” they said, “and tell us what will happen to show that the time has come for all these things to take place.”

⁵ Jesus said to them, “Watch out, and don't let anyone fool you. ⁶ Many men, claiming to speak for me, will come and say, ‘I am he!’ and they will fool many people. ⁷ And don't be troubled when you hear the noise of battles close by and news of battles far away. Such things must happen, but they do not mean that the end has come. ⁸ Countries will fight each other; kingdoms will attack one another. There will be earthquakes everywhere, and there will be famines. These things are like the first pains of childbirth.

^9 (D)“You yourselves must watch out. You will be arrested and taken to court. You will be beaten in the synagogues; you will stand before rulers and kings for my sake to tell them the Good News. ¹⁰ But before the end comes, the gospel must be preached to all peoples. ¹¹ And when you are arrested and taken to court, do not worry ahead of time about what you are going to say; when the time comes, say whatever is then given to you. For the words you speak will not be yours; they will come from the Holy Spirit. ¹² Men will hand over their own brothers to be put to death, and fathers will do the same to their children. Children will turn against their parents and have them put to death. ^13 (E)Everyone will hate you because of me. But whoever holds out to the end will be saved.

The Awful Horror^(F)

^14 (G)“You will see ‘The Awful Horror’ standing in the place where he should not be.” (Note to the reader: understand what this means!) “Then those who are in Judea must run away to the hills. ^15 (H)Someone who is on the roof of a house must not lose time by going down into the house to get anything to take along. ¹⁶ Someone who is in the field must not go back to the house for a cloak. ¹⁷ How terrible it will be in those days for women who are pregnant and for mothers with little babies! ¹⁸ Pray to God that these things will not happen in the winter! ^19 (I)For the trouble of those days will be far worse than any the world has ever known from the very beginning when God created the world until the present time. Nor will there ever be anything like it again. ²⁰ But the Lord has reduced the number of those days; if he had not, nobody would survive. For the sake of his chosen people, however, he has reduced those days.

²¹ “Then, if anyone says to you, ‘Look, here is the Messiah!’ or, ‘Look, there he is!’—do not believe it. ²² For false Messiahs and false prophets will appear. They will perform miracles and wonders in order to deceive even God's chosen people, if possible. ²³ Be on your guard! I have told you everything ahead of time.

The Coming of the Son of Man^(J)

^24 (K)“In the days after that time of trouble the sun will grow dark, the moon will no longer shine, ^25 (L)the stars will fall from heaven, and the powers in space will be driven from their courses. ^26 (M)Then the Son of Man will appear, coming in the clouds with great power and glory. ²⁷ He will send the angels out to the four corners of the earth to gather God's chosen people from one end of the world to the other.

The Lesson of the Fig Tree^(N)

²⁸ “Let the fig tree teach you a lesson. When its branches become green and tender and it starts putting out leaves, you know that summer is near. ²⁹ In the same way, when you see these things happening, you will know that the time is near, ready to begin.^{[a] 30} Remember that all these things will happen before the people now living have all died. ³¹ Heaven and earth will pass away, but my words will never pass away.

No One Knows the Day or Hour^(O)

^32 (P)“No one knows, however, when that day or hour will come—neither the angels in heaven, nor the Son; only the Father knows. ³³ Be on watch, be alert, for you do not know when the time will come. ^34 (Q)It will be like a man who goes away from home on a trip and leaves his servants in charge, after giving to each one his own work to do and after telling the doorkeeper to keep watch. ³⁵ Watch, then, because you do not know when the master of the house is coming—it might be in the evening or at midnight or before dawn or at sunrise. ³⁶ If he comes suddenly, he must not find you asleep. ³⁷ What I say to you, then, I say to all: Watch!”

Duties toward State Authorities

13 ^(A)Everyone must obey state authorities, because no authority exists without God's permission, and the existing authorities have been put there by God. ² Whoever opposes the existing authority opposes what God has ordered; and anyone who does so will bring judgment on himself. ³ For rulers are not to be feared by those who do good, but by those who do evil. Would you like to be unafraid of those in authority? Then do what is good, and they will praise you, ⁴ because they are God's servants working for your own good. But if you do evil, then be afraid of them, because their power to punish is real. They are God's servants and carry out God's punishment on those who do evil. ⁵ For this reason you must obey the authorities—not just because of God's punishment, but also as a matter of conscience.

^6 (B)That is also why you pay taxes, because the authorities are working for God when they fulfill their duties. ⁷ Pay, then, what you owe them; pay them your personal and property taxes, and show respect and honor for them all.

Duties toward One Another

⁸ Be under obligation to no one—the only obligation you have is to love one another. Whoever does this has obeyed the Law. ^9 (C)The commandments, “Do not commit adultery; do not commit murder; do not steal; do not desire what belongs to someone else”—all these, and any others besides, are summed up in the one command, “Love your neighbor as you love yourself.” ¹⁰ If you love others, you will never do them wrong; to love, then, is to obey the whole Law.

¹¹ You must do this, because you know that the time has come for you to wake up from your sleep. For the moment when we will be saved is closer now than it was when we first believed. ¹² The night is nearly over, day is almost here. Let us stop doing the things that belong to the dark, and let us take up weapons for fighting in the light. ¹³ Let us conduct ourselves properly, as people who live in the light of day—no orgies or drunkenness, no immorality or indecency, no fighting or jealousy. ¹⁴ But take up the weapons of the Lord Jesus Christ, and stop paying attention to your sinful nature and satisfying its desires.