M’Cheyne Bible Reading Plan
23 And Balaam said to Balak, “Build for me seven altars, and prepare for me seven oxen and seven rams.” 2 Balak did as Balaam had spoken, and Balak and Balaam offered on every altar a bull and a ram.
3 Balaam said to Balak, “Stand by your burnt offering, and I will go. Perhaps the Lord will come to meet me, and whatever He shows me I will tell you.” And he went to a high place.
4 God met Balaam, and he said to Him, “I have prepared seven altars, and I have offered on every altar a bull and a ram.”
5 The Lord put a word in the mouth of Balaam and said, “Return to Balak, and thus you will speak.”
6 So he returned to Balak, who was standing by his burnt offering with all the princes of Moab. 7 Then Balaam uttered his oracle, saying:
“Balak has brought me from Aram,
the king of Moab from the mountains of the east,
saying, ‘Come, curse Jacob for me,
and come, defy Israel!’
8 How will I curse
whom God has not cursed?
Or how will I defy
whom the Lord has not defied?
9 For from the top of the rocks I see him,
and from the hills I behold him;
there, the people will dwell alone
and will not be counted among the nations.
10 Who can count the dust of Jacob
and the number of the fourth part of Israel?
Let me die the death of the righteous,
and let my last end be like his!”
11 And Balak said to Balaam, “What have you done to me? I brought you to curse my enemies, but now you have certainly blessed them.”
12 He answered and said, “Must I not take heed to speak what the Lord puts in my mouth?”
Balaam’s Second Prophecy
13 And Balak said to him, “Please come with me to another place from where you may see them. You will see part of them, but will not see them all. Curse them for me from there.” 14 He brought him into the field of Zophim, to the top of Pisgah, and built seven altars and offered a bull and a ram on each altar.
15 He said to Balak, “Stand here by your burnt offerings while I meet the Lord over there.”
16 The Lord met Balaam and put a word in his mouth and said, “Go again to Balak, and thus you will speak.”
17 When he came to him, he was standing by his burnt offerings with the princes of Moab. And Balak said to him, “What has the Lord spoken?”
18 And he took up his parable and said:
“Rise up, Balak, and hear!
Listen to me, you son of Zippor!
19 God is not a man, that He should lie,
nor a son of man, that He should repent.
Has He spoken, and will He not do it?
Or has He spoken, and will He not make it good?
20 See, I have received a commandment to bless,
and He has blessed, and I cannot reverse it.
21 “He has not beheld iniquity in Jacob,
nor has He seen perverseness in Israel.
The Lord his God is with him,
and the shout of a king is among them.
22 God, who brings them out of Egypt,
has strength like a wild ox.
23 Surely there is no enchantment against Jacob,
nor is there any divination against Israel.
For this time it will be said of Jacob and of Israel,
‘See what God has done!’
24 A people rises up as a great lion,
and lifts itself up like a lion;
it shall not lie down until it eats the prey
and drinks the blood of the slain.”
25 Balak said to Balaam, “Do not curse them at all, nor bless them at all.”
26 But Balaam answered and said to Balak, “Did I not tell you, saying, ‘All that the Lord speaks, I must do’?”
Balaam’s Third Prophecy
27 And Balak said to Balaam, “Please come. I will bring you to another place. Perhaps it will please God that you may curse them for me from there.” 28 Balak brought Balaam to the top of Peor, which looks toward Jeshimon.
29 Balaam said to Balak, “Build for me seven altars, and prepare for me seven bulls and seven rams.” 30 Balak did as Balaam said and offered a bull and a ram on each altar.
Psalm 64
For the Music Director. A Psalm of David.
1 Hear my voice, O God, in my complaint;
guard my life from dread of the enemy.
2 Hide me from the secret counsel of the wicked,
from the throng of the workers of iniquity;
3 they sharpen their tongue like a sword,
and bend their bows to shoot their arrows—bitter words,
4 that they may shoot in secret at the blameless;
suddenly they shoot at him and do not fear.
5 They harden themselves in an evil matter;
they talk privately of laying snares;
they say, “Who will see them?”
6 They devise injustice,
saying “We have perfected a secret plot.”
Both the inward thought of man and the heart are deep.
7 But God will suddenly shoot them with an arrow;
they will be wounded.
8 They will bring ruin on themselves
by their own tongues;
all who see them will flee away.
9 All people will fear,
and declare the work of God;
they will wisely consider His deeds.
10 The righteous will be glad in the Lord,
and seek refuge in Him,
and all the upright in heart will glory.
Psalm 65
For the Music Director. A Psalm of David. A Song.
1 Praise awaits You, O God, in Zion;
and to You a vow will be fulfilled.
2 O You who hears prayer,
to You all flesh will come.
3 Iniquities are stronger than me;
as for our transgressions, You atone for them.
4 Blessed is the man You choose and allow to draw near;
he will dwell in Your courts.
We will be satisfied with the goodness of Your house,
even of Your holy temple.
5 In righteousness You will answer us gloriously,
O God of our salvation,
You, who are the confidence of all the ends of the earth,
and of those who are afar off on the sea;
6 who established the mountains by His strength,
being clothed with might;
7 who stills the noise of the seas,
the noise of their waves,
and the tumult of peoples.
8 Those who dwell in the uttermost parts
are in awe because of Your signs;
You make the going out of the morning and evening rejoice.
9 You visit the earth, and water it;
You enrich it
with the river of God, which is full of water;
You prepare their grain,
for thus You have established it.
10 You water its furrows abundantly;
You settle its ridges;
You soften it with showers;
You bless its sprouting.
11 You crown the year with Your goodness,
and Your paths drip abundance.
12 They drip on the pastures of the wilderness,
and the hills clothe themselves with rejoicing.
13 The pastures are clothed with flocks;
the valleys also are covered with grain;
they shout for joy, they also sing.
A Prophecy Against Babylon
13 The burden of Babylon, which Isaiah the son of Amoz saw.
2 Lift up a banner on the high mountain,
exalt the voice to them,
shake the hand,
that they may go into the gates of the nobles.
3 I have commanded My sanctified ones,
I have also called My mighty ones for My anger,
even those who rejoice in My exaltation.
4 The noise of a multitude in the mountains,
like as of a great people!
A tumultuous noise of the kingdoms
of nations gathered together!
The Lord of Hosts musters
the army for battle.
5 They come from a far country,
from the end of heaven,
the Lord and the weapons of His indignation,
to destroy the whole land.
6 Wail, for the day of the Lord is at hand!
It shall come as destruction from the Almighty.
7 Therefore all hands shall be faint,
and every man’s heart shall melt,
8 and they shall be afraid.
Pangs and sorrows shall take hold of them;
they shall be in pain as a woman who travails;
they shall be amazed one at another;
their faces shall be as flames.
9 See, the day of the Lord comes,
cruel, both with wrath and fierce anger,
to lay the land desolate,
and He shall destroy its sinners out of it.
10 For the stars of heaven and their constellations
shall not give their light;
the sun shall be dark when it rises,
and the moon shall not cause her light to shine.
11 I will punish the world for its evil,
and the wicked for their iniquity;
and I will cause the arrogance of the proud to cease,
and will lay low the haughtiness of the ruthless.
12 I will make a man more rare than fine gold,
and mankind than the golden wedge of Ophir.
13 Therefore, I will shake the heavens,
and the earth shall be shaken out of her place
at the wrath of the Lord of Hosts
and in the day of His fierce anger.
14 It shall be as the chased roe,
and as a sheep that no man takes up;
every man shall turn to his own people
and flee every one into his own land.
15 Every one who is found shall be thrust through,
and every one who is joined to them shall fall by the sword.
16 Their children also shall be dashed to pieces before their eyes;
their houses shall be devastated and their wives ravished.
17 See, I will stir up the Medes against them,
who shall not regard silver;
and as for gold, they shall not delight in it.
18 Their bows also shall dash the young men to pieces,
and they shall have no pity on the fruit of the womb;
their eye shall not spare children.
19 Babylon, the glory of kingdoms,
the beauty of the Chaldean’s excellency,
shall be as when God overthrew
Sodom and Gomorrah.
20 It shall never be inhabited,
nor shall it be lived in from generation to generation,
nor shall the Arabian pitch a tent there,
nor shall the shepherds make their fold there.
21 But wild beasts of the desert shall lie down there,
and their houses shall be full of owls,
ostriches also shall dwell there,
and shaggy goats shall dance there.
22 The wild beasts of the islands shall cry in their desolate houses
and jackals in their pleasant palaces.
And her time is near to come,
and her days shall not be prolonged.
Salutation
1 Peter, an apostle of Jesus Christ,
To the refugees scattered throughout Pontus, Galatia, Cappadocia, Asia, and Bithynia, 2 elect according to the foreknowledge of God the Father, through sanctification by the Spirit, for obedience and sprinkling with the blood of Jesus Christ:
Grace to you and peace be multiplied.
A Living Hope
3 Blessed be the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, who according to His abundant mercy has given us a new birth into a living hope through the resurrection of Jesus Christ from the dead, 4 to an incorruptible and undefiled inheritance that does not fade away, kept in heaven for you, 5 who are protected by the power of God through faith for a salvation ready to be revealed in the last time. 6 In this you greatly rejoice, even though now, if for a little while, you have had to suffer various trials, 7 in order that the genuineness of your faith, which is more precious than gold that perishes, though it is tried by fire, may be found to result in praise, glory, and honor at the revelation of Jesus Christ, 8 whom, having not seen, you love; and in whom, though you do not see Him now, you believe and you rejoice with joy unspeakable and full of glory, 9 receiving as the result of your faith the salvation of your souls.
10 Concerning this salvation, the prophets who prophesied of the grace that should come to you have inquired and searched diligently, 11 seeking the events and time the Spirit of Christ, who was within them, signified when He foretold the sufferings of Christ and the glories to follow. 12 It was revealed to them that they were not serving themselves but you, concerning the things which are now reported to you by those who have preached the gospel to you through the Holy Spirit, who was sent from heaven—things into which the angels desire to look.
A Call to Holy Living
13 Therefore guard your minds, be sober, and hope to the end for the grace that is to be brought to you at the revelation of Jesus Christ. 14 As obedient children do not conduct yourselves according to the former lusts in your ignorance. 15 But as He who has called you is holy, so be holy in all your conduct, 16 because it is written, “Be holy, for I am holy.”[a]
17 And if you address as Father the One who impartially judges according to each one’s work, conduct yourselves in fear during the time of your sojourning. 18 For you know that you were not redeemed from your vain way of life inherited from your fathers with perishable things, like silver or gold, 19 but with the precious blood of Christ, as of a lamb without blemish and without spot. 20 He was foreordained before the creation of the world, but was revealed in these last times for you. 21 Through Him you believe in God who raised Him up from the dead and gave Him glory, so that your faith and hope might be in God.
22 Since your souls have been purified by obedience to the truth through the Spirit unto a genuine brotherly love, love one another deeply with a pure heart, 23 for you have been born again, not from perishable seed, but imperishable, through the word of God which lives and abides forever. 24 For
“All flesh is as grass,
and all the glory of man as the flower of grass.
The grass withers, and its flower falls away,
25 but the word of the Lord endures forever.”[b]
This is the word that was preached to you.
The Holy Bible, Modern English Version. Copyright © 2014 by Military Bible Association. Published and distributed by Charisma House.