M’Cheyne Bible Reading Plan
24 Balaam saw that the Lord wanted to bless Israel, so he did not try to use any magic but looked toward the desert. 2 When Balaam saw the Israelites camped in their tribes, the Spirit of God took control of him, 3 and he gave this message:
“This is the message of Balaam son of Beor,
the message of a man who sees clearly;
4 this is the message of a man who hears the words of God.
I see a vision from the Almighty,
and my eyes are open as I fall before him.
5 Your tents are beautiful, people of Jacob!
So are your homes, Israel!
6 Your tents spread out like valleys,
like gardens beside a river.
They are like spices planted by the Lord,
like cedar trees growing by the water.
7 Israel’s water buckets will always be full,
and their crops will have plenty of water.
Their king will be greater than Agag;
their kingdom will be very great.
8 God brought them out of Egypt;
they are as strong as a wild ox.
They will defeat their enemies
and break their enemies’ bones;
they will shoot them with arrows.
9 Like a lion, they lie waiting to attack;
like a lioness, no one would be brave enough to wake them.
Anyone who blesses you will be blessed,
and anyone who curses you will be cursed.”
10 Then Balak was angry with Balaam, and he pounded his fist. He said to Balaam, “I called you here to curse my enemies, but you have continued to bless them three times. 11 Now go home! I said I would pay you well, but the Lord has made you lose your reward.”
12 Balaam said to Balak, “When you sent messengers to me, I told them, 13 ‘Balak could give me his palace filled with silver and gold, but I still cannot go against the Lord’s commands. I could not do anything, good or bad, on my own, but I must say what the Lord says.’ 14 Now I am going back to my own people, but I will tell you what these people will do to your people in the future.”
Balaam’s Final Message
15 Then Balaam gave this message:
“This is the message of Balaam son of Beor,
the message of a man who sees clearly;
16 this is the message of a man who hears the words of God.
I know well the Most High God.
I see a vision from the Almighty,
and my eyes are open as I fall before him.
17 I see someone who will come someday,
someone who will come, but not soon.
A star will come from Jacob;
a ruler will rise from Israel.
He will crush the heads of the Moabites
and smash the skulls of the sons of Sheth.
18 Edom will be conquered;
his enemy Edom will be conquered,
but Israel will grow wealthy.
19 A ruler will come from the descendants of Jacob
and will destroy those left in the city.”
20 Then Balaam saw Amalek and gave this message:
“Amalek was the most important nation,
but Amalek will be destroyed at last.”
21 Then Balaam saw the Kenites and gave this message:
“Your home is safe,
like a nest on a cliff.
22 But you Kenites will be burned up;
Assyria will keep you captive.”
23 Then Balaam gave this message:
“No one can live when God does this.
24 Ships will sail from the shores of Cyprus
and defeat Assyria and Eber,
but they will also be destroyed.”
25 Then Balaam got up and returned home, and Balak also went on his way.
Praise God for What He Has Done
For the director of music. A song. A psalm.
66 Everything on earth, shout with joy to God!
2 Sing about his glory!
Make his praise glorious!
3 Say to God, “Your works are amazing!
Because your power is great,
your enemies fall before you.
4 All the earth worships you
and sings praises to you.
They sing praises to your name.” Selah
5 Come and see what God has done,
the amazing things he has done for people.
6 He turned the sea into dry land.
The people crossed the river on foot.
So let us rejoice because of what he did.
7 He rules forever with his power.
He keeps his eye on the nations,
so people should not turn against him. Selah
8 You people, praise our God;
loudly sing his praise.
9 He protects our lives
and does not let us be defeated.
10 God, you have tested us;
you have purified us like silver.
11 You let us be trapped
and put a heavy load on us.
12 You let our enemies walk on our heads.
We went through fire and flood,
but you brought us to a place with good things.
13 I will come to your Temple with burnt offerings.
I will give you what I promised,
14 things I promised when I was in trouble.
15 I will bring you offerings of fat animals,
and I will offer sheep, bulls, and goats. Selah
16 All of you who fear God, come and listen,
and I will tell you what he has done for me.
17 I cried out to him with my mouth
and praised him with my tongue.
18 If I had known of any sin in my heart,
the Lord would not have listened to me.
19 But God has listened;
he has heard my prayer.
20 Praise God,
who did not ignore my prayer
or hold back his love from me.
Everyone Should Praise God
For the director of music. With stringed instruments. A psalm. A song.
67 God, have mercy on us and bless us
and show us your kindness Selah
2 so the world will learn your ways,
and all nations will learn that you can save.
3 God, the people should praise you;
all people should praise you.
4 The nations should be glad and sing
because you judge people fairly.
You guide all the nations on earth. Selah
5 God, the people should praise you;
all people should praise you.
6 The land has given its crops.
God, our God, blesses us.
7 God blesses us
so people all over the earth will fear him.
Israel Will Return Home
14 The Lord will show mercy to the people of Jacob, and he will again choose the people of Israel. He will settle them in their own land. Then non-Israelite people will join the Israelites and will become a part of the family of Jacob. 2 Nations will take the Israelites back to their land. Then those men and women from the other nations will become slaves to Israel in the Lord’s land. In the past the Israelites were their slaves, but now the Israelites will defeat those nations and rule over them.
The King of Babylon Will Fall
3 The Lord will take away the Israelites’ hard work and will comfort them. They will no longer have to work hard as slaves. 4 On that day Israel will sing this song about the king of Babylon:
The cruel king who ruled us is finished;
his angry rule is finished!
5 The Lord has broken the scepter of evil rulers
and taken away their power.
6 The king of Babylon struck people in anger
again and again.
He ruled nations in anger
and continued to hurt them.
7 But now, the whole world rests and is quiet.
Now the people begin to sing.
8 Even the pine trees are happy,
and the cedar trees of Lebanon rejoice.
They say, “The king has fallen,
so no one will ever cut us down again.”
9 The place of the dead is excited
to meet you when you come.
It wakes the spirits of the dead,
the leaders of the world.
It makes kings of all nations
stand up from their thrones to greet you.
10 All these leaders will make fun of you
and will say,
“Now you are weak, as we are.
Now you are just like us.”
11 Your pride has been sent down to the place of the dead.
The music from your harps goes with it.
Flies are spread out like your bed beneath you,
and worms cover your body like a blanket.
12 King of Babylon, morning star, you have fallen from heaven,
even though you were as bright as the rising sun!
In the past all the nations on earth bowed down before you,
but now you have been cut down.
13 You told yourself,
“I will go up to heaven.
I will put my throne
above God’s stars.
I will sit on the mountain of the gods,
on the slopes of the sacred mountain.
14 I will go up above the tops of the clouds.
I will be like God Most High.”
15 But you were brought down to the grave,
to the deep places where the dead are.
16 Those who see you stare at you.
They think about what has happened to you
and say, “Is this the same man who caused great fear on earth,
who shook the kingdoms,
17 who turned the world into a desert,
who destroyed its cities,
who captured people in war
and would not let them go home?”
18 Every king of the earth has been buried with honor,
each in his own grave.
19 But you are thrown out of your grave,
like an unwanted branch.
You are covered by bodies
that died in battle,
by bodies to be buried in a rocky pit.
You are like a dead body other soldiers walk on.
20 You will not be buried with those bodies,
because you ruined your own country
and killed your own people.
The children of evil people
will never be mentioned again.
21 Prepare to kill his children,
because their father is guilty.
They will never again take control of the earth;
they will never again fill the world with their cities.
22 The Lord All-Powerful says this:
“I will fight against those people;
I will destroy Babylon and its people,
its children and their descendants,” says the Lord.
23 “I will make Babylon fit only for owls
and for swamps.
I will sweep Babylon as with a broom of destruction,”
says the Lord All-Powerful.
God Will Punish Assyria
24 The Lord All-Powerful has made this promise:
“These things will happen exactly as I planned them;
they will happen exactly as I set them up.
25 I will destroy the king of Assyria in my country;
I will trample him on my mountains.
He placed a heavy load on my people,
but that weight will be removed.
26 “This is what I plan to do for all the earth.
And this is the hand that I have raised over all nations.”
27 When the Lord All-Powerful makes a plan,
no one can stop it.
When the Lord raises his hand to punish people,
no one can stop it.
God’s Message to Philistia
28 This message was given in the year that King Ahaz died:
29 Country of Philistia, don’t be happy
that the king who struck you is now dead.
He is like a snake that will give birth to another dangerous snake.
The new king will be like a quick, dangerous snake to bite you.
30 Even the poorest of my people will be able to eat safely,
and people in need will be able to lie down in safety.
But I will kill your family with hunger,
and all your people who are left will die.
31 People near the city gates, cry out!
Philistines, be frightened,
because a cloud of dust comes from the north.
It is an army, full of men ready to fight.
32 What shall we tell the messengers from Philistia?
Say that the Lord has made Jerusalem strong
and that his poor people will go there for safety.
Jesus Is the Living Stone
2 So then, rid yourselves of all evil, all lying, hypocrisy, jealousy, and evil speech. 2 As newborn babies want milk, you should want the pure and simple teaching. By it you can mature in your salvation, 3 because you have already examined and seen how good the Lord is.
4 Come to the Lord Jesus, the “stone”[a] that lives. The people of the world did not want this stone, but he was the stone God chose, and he was precious. 5 You also are like living stones, so let yourselves be used to build a spiritual temple—to be holy priests who offer spiritual sacrifices to God. He will accept those sacrifices through Jesus Christ. 6 The Scripture says:
“I will put a stone in the ground in Jerusalem.
Everything will be built on this important and precious rock.
Anyone who trusts in him
will never be disappointed.” Isaiah 28:16
7 This stone is worth much to you who believe. But to the people who do not believe,
“the stone that the builders rejected
has become the cornerstone.” Psalm 118:22
8 Also, he is
“a stone that causes people to stumble,
a rock that makes them fall.” Isaiah 8:14
They stumble because they do not obey what God says, which is what God planned to happen to them.
9 But you are a chosen people, royal priests, a holy nation, a people for God’s own possession. You were chosen to tell about the wonderful acts of God, who called you out of darkness into his wonderful light. 10 At one time you were not a people, but now you are God’s people. In the past you had never received mercy, but now you have received God’s mercy.
Live for God
11 Dear friends, you are like foreigners and strangers in this world. I beg you to avoid the evil things your bodies want to do that fight against your soul. 12 People who do not believe are living all around you and might say that you are doing wrong. Live such good lives that they will see the good things you do and will give glory to God on the day when Christ comes again.
Yield to Every Human Authority
13 For the Lord’s sake, yield to the people who have authority in this world: the king, who is the highest authority, 14 and the leaders who are sent by him to punish those who do wrong and to praise those who do right. 15 It is God’s desire that by doing good you should stop foolish people from saying stupid things about you. 16 Live as free people, but do not use your freedom as an excuse to do evil. Live as servants of God. 17 Show respect for all people: Love the brothers and sisters of God’s family, respect God, honor the king.
Follow Christ’s Example
18 Slaves, yield to the authority of your masters with all respect, not only those who are good and kind, but also those who are dishonest. 19 A person might have to suffer even when it is unfair, but if he thinks of God and can stand the pain, God is pleased. 20 If you are beaten for doing wrong, there is no reason to praise you for being patient in your punishment. But if you suffer for doing good, and you are patient, then God is pleased. 21 This is what you were called to do, because Christ suffered for you and gave you an example to follow. So you should do as he did.
22 “He had never sinned,
and he had never lied.” Isaiah 53:9
23 People insulted Christ, but he did not insult them in return. Christ suffered, but he did not threaten. He let God, the One who judges rightly, take care of him. 24 Christ carried our sins in his body on the cross so we would stop living for sin and start living for what is right. And you are healed because of his wounds. 25 You were like sheep that wandered away, but now you have come back to the Shepherd and Overseer of your souls.
The Holy Bible, New Century Version®. Copyright © 2005 by Thomas Nelson, Inc.