M’Cheyne Bible Reading Plan
The Command to Leave Horeb
1 These are the words which Moses spoke to all Israel on the other side of the Jordan in the wilderness, in the plain opposite Suph, between Paran and Tophel and Laban and Hazeroth and Dizahab. 2 (It is an eleven-day journey from Horeb by the way of Mount Seir to Kadesh Barnea.)
3 In the fortieth year, in the eleventh month, on the first day of the month, Moses spoke to the children of Israel, according to all that the Lord had commanded him to give to them. 4 It was after he had slain Sihon the king of the Amorites, who lived in Heshbon, and Og the king of Bashan, who lived at Ashtaroth in Edrei.
5 Across the Jordan, in the land of Moab, Moses began to declare this law, saying: 6 The Lord our God spoke to us in Horeb, saying, “You have dwelt long enough at this mountain. 7 Turn, and take your journey, and go to the mountains of the Amorites, and to all their neighbors, in the plain, in the mountains and in the lowland, in the Negev and by the seacoast, to the land of the Canaanites and to Lebanon, as far as the great river, the River Euphrates. 8 See, I have set the land before you. Go in and possess the land which the Lord swore to your fathers, Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob, to give to them and to their descendants after them.”
Leaders Appointed
9 I spoke to you at that time, saying, “I am not able to bear you by myself. 10 The Lord your God has multiplied you, and surely you are this day as numerous as the stars of heaven. 11 May the Lord, the God of your fathers, make you a thousand times more numerous and bless you, just as He has promised you! 12 How can I myself bear your load and your burden and your strife? 13 Choose wise, discerning, and knowing men, among your tribes, and I will appoint them as leaders over you.”
14 You answered me, and said, “The thing which you have said is good for us to do.”
15 So I took the leaders of your tribes, wise and well-known men, and appointed them as leaders over you, leaders over thousands, and leaders over hundreds, and leaders over fifties, and leaders over tens, and officers among your tribes. 16 I charged your judges at that time, saying, “Hear the issues between your countrymen, and judge righteously between every man and his fellow countryman, and the foreigner that is with him. 17 You shall not show partiality in judgment, but you shall hear the small as well as the great. You shall not be afraid in any man’s presence, for the judgment is God’s. The case that is too hard for you, you shall bring it to me, and I will hear it.” 18 At that time, I commanded you all the things you should do.
Israel Sends Spies
19 When we departed from Horeb, we went through all that great and terrible wilderness, which you saw by the way of the mountain of the Amorites, as the Lord our God commanded us, and we came to Kadesh Barnea. 20 I said to you, “You have come to the mountains of the Amorites, which the Lord our God is giving to us. 21 See, the Lord your God has set the land before you. Go up and possess it, just as the Lord, the God of your fathers, spoke to you. Do not fear or be discouraged.”
22 So all of you came near to me and said, “Let us send men before us, so that they shall scout out the land, and bring back to us word concerning what way we should go up and into what cities we shall come.”
23 The thing pleased me, and I took twelve men from you, one out of each tribe. 24 They turned and went up into the hill country and came to the Valley of Eshkol and scouted it out. 25 They took the fruit of the land in their hands, and brought it down to us, and brought us word again, and said, “It is a good land which the Lord our God is giving us.”
Israel Rebels
26 Yet you were not willing to go up, but rebelled against the commandment of the Lord your God. 27 You murmured in your tents, and said, “Because the Lord hates us, He has brought us out of the land of Egypt to deliver us into the hand of the Amorites to destroy us. 28 Where shall we go up? Our brothers have discouraged our hearts, saying, ‘The people are greater and taller than we. The cities are great and walled up to heaven. And moreover, we have seen the sons of the Anakites there.’ ”
29 Then I said to you, “Do not be terrified, or afraid of them. 30 The Lord your God who goes before you, He shall fight for you, just as all that He did for you in Egypt before your eyes, 31 and in the wilderness, where you saw how the Lord your God carried you, as a man carries his son, in all the way that you went, until you came to this place.”
32 Yet in this thing you did not believe the Lord your God, 33 who went in the way before you, to find you a place to pitch your tents, in fire by night and in a cloud by day, to show you by what way you should go.
34 The Lord heard the sound of your words, and was angry, and vowed, saying, 35 “Not one of these men of this evil generation will see the good land which I swore to give to your fathers. 36 The exception will be Caleb the son of Jephunneh. He shall see it, and to him I will give the land upon which he has walked, and to his children, because he has wholly followed the Lord.”
37 Also the Lord was angry with me on your account, saying, “You also shall not go in. 38 But Joshua the son of Nun, who stands before you, he shall go in. Encourage him, for he will cause Israel to inherit it. 39 Moreover, your little ones, who you said would be a prey, and your children, who in that day had no knowledge between good and evil, they shall go in, and to them will I give it, and they shall possess it. 40 But as for you, turn around, and take your journey into the wilderness by the way of the Red Sea.”
41 Then you answered and said to me, “We have sinned against the Lord. We will go up and fight, just as the Lord our God commanded us.” So each of you girded on his weapons of war and you thought it easy to go up into the hill country.
42 Then the Lord said to me, “Tell them, ‘Do not go up nor fight, for I am not among you; lest you be defeated before your enemies.’ ”
43 So I spoke to you, but you would not listen. Instead, you rebelled against the commandment of the Lord and went presumptuously up into the hill country. 44 The Amorites, who lived in the hill country, came out against you, and chased you as bees do, and destroyed you in Seir as far as Hormah. 45 Then you returned and wept before the Lord, but the Lord would neither listen to your voice nor give ear to you. 46 So you dwelt in Kadesh many days, according to the days you dwelt there.
Psalm 81
For the Music Director. According to The Gittith. A Psalm of Asaph.
1 Sing aloud unto God our strength;
make a joyful noise unto the God of Jacob.
2 Lift up a melody, and sound the tambourine,
the pleasant lyre with the harp.
3 Blow the trumpet at the New Moon,
at the full moon on our feast day.
4 For this is a statute for Israel,
a decree of the God of Jacob.
5 This He ordained in Joseph as a decree
when He went out against the land of Egypt.
I heard a voice that I had not known:
6 “I removed his shoulder from the burden;
his hands were released from holding the basket.
7 You called in trouble, and I delivered you;
I answered you in the secret place of thunder;
I tested you at the waters of Meribah. Selah
8 Hear, O My people, and I will testify against you.
O Israel, if you would listen to me!
9 There shall be no strange god among you;
neither shall you bow down to any strange god.
10 I am the Lord your God,
who brought you out of the land of Egypt;
open your mouth wide, and I will fill it.
11 “But My people would not listen to My voice;
Israel would not submit to Me.
12 So I gave them up to their stubborn hearts,
to walk in their own counsels.
13 “Oh, that My people would listen to Me,
and Israel would follow in My ways!
14 I would soon subdue their enemies,
and turn My hand against their adversaries.
15 Let those who hate the Lord cower before Him
and their fate might last forever.
16 But I would feed them with the finest of wheat,
and with honey out of the rock I would satisfy you.”
Psalm 82
A Psalm of Asaph.
1 God stands among the divine council;
He renders judgment among the gods.
2 “How long will you all judge unjustly
and accept partiality of the wicked? Selah
3 Defend the poor and fatherless;
vindicate the afflicted and needy.
4 Grant escape to the abused and the destitute,
pluck them out of the hand of the false.
5 “They have neither knowledge nor understanding;
they walk in darkness:
all the foundations of the earth are shaken.”
6 I have said, “You are gods,
sons of the Most High, all of you,
7 but you all shall die like men,
and fall like a man, O princes.”
8 Arise, O God, judge the earth,
for You shall inherit all nations.
Woe to the City of David
29 Woe to Ariel, to Ariel,
the city where David lived!
Add year to year,
observe your feasts on schedule.
2 Yet I will distress Ariel,
and she shall be a city of lamenting and sorrow,
and she shall be as an Ariel to me.
3 I will encamp against you all around,
and will lay siege against you with a mound,
and I will raise forts against you.
4 You shall be brought down, and shall speak from the ground,
and from the dust where you are prostrate your speech shall come;
your voice shall also be as that of a ghost from the ground;
and your speech shall whisper from the dust.
5 Moreover the multitude of your enemies shall become like fine dust,
and the multitude of the ruthless ones as chaff which blows away;
and it shall happen in an instant, suddenly.
6 You shall be punished from the Lord of Hosts
with thunder and earthquake and loud noise,
with storm and tempest, and the flame of a devouring fire.
7 The multitude of all the nations who fight against Ariel,
even all who fight against her and her stronghold, and who distress her,
shall be as a dream
of a night vision.
8 It shall even be as when a hungry man dreams, and he eats;
but when he awakens, his hunger is not satisfied;
or as when a thirsty man dreams, and he is drinking;
but when he awakens, he is faint, and his thirst is not quenched;
so shall the multitude of all the nations be
who fight against Mount Zion.
9 Be delayed and wait,
blind yourselves and be blind.
They are drunk, but not with wine.
They stagger, but not with strong drink.
10 For the Lord has poured out on you the spirit of deep sleep
and has closed your eyes, the prophets;
and He has covered your heads, the seers.
11 The whole vision will be to you as the words of a book that is sealed, which when they deliver it to one who is learned, saying, “Read this, please,” he shall say, “I cannot, for it is sealed.” 12 Then the book shall be delivered to him who is not learned, saying, “Read this, please.” And he shall say, “I cannot read.”
13 Therefore, the Lord said:
Because this people draw near with their mouths
and honor Me with their lips,
but have removed their hearts far from Me,
and their fear toward Me
is tradition by the precept of men,
14 therefore I will once again do a marvelous work among this people,
even a marvelous work and a wonder;
for the wisdom of their wise men shall perish,
and the understanding of their prudent men shall be hidden.
15 Woe to those who deeply
hide their counsel from the Lord
and whose works are done in the dark, and they say,
“Who sees us?” and “Who knows us?”
16 Surely you turn things upside down!
Shall the potter be esteemed as the potter’s clay?
Shall what is made say to its maker,
“He did not make me”?
Or shall the thing formed say to him who formed it,
“He has no understanding”?
17 Is it not yet a very little while before Lebanon shall be turned into a fruitful field,
and the fruitful field shall be counted as a forest?
18 And on that day the deaf shall hear the words of a book,
and the eyes of the blind shall see
out of obscurity and darkness.
19 The meek also shall increase their joy in the Lord,
and the poor among men shall rejoice in the Holy One of Israel.
20 For the ruthless shall come to nothing,
and the scorner will be consumed,
and all who are intent on doing iniquity shall be cut off—
21 those who cause a man to be indicted by a word,
and lay a snare for him who reproves in the gate,
and turn aside the righteous with meaningless arguments.
22 Therefore thus says the Lord, who redeemed Abraham, concerning the house of Jacob:
Jacob shall not now be ashamed,
nor shall his face now turn pale;
23 but when he sees his children,
the work of My hands, in his midst,
they shall sanctify My name
and sanctify the Holy One of Jacob,
and fear the God of Israel.
24 Those also who err in spirit shall know the truth,
and those who murmured shall accept instruction.
Salutation
The elder,
To the beloved Gaius, whom I love in the truth:
2 Beloved, I pray that all may go well with you and that you may be in good health, even as your soul is well. 3 For I greatly rejoiced when brothers came and testified of the truth that is in you, just as you walk in the truth. 4 I have no greater joy than to hear that my children walk in truth.
Working Together
5 Beloved, you are faithful in all you do for the brothers and for strangers, 6 who have testified of your love before the church. You will do well to send them along on their journey in a manner worthy of God. 7 For His name’s sake they went out, receiving no help from the Gentiles. 8 Therefore we ought to receive such men, that we might be fellow workers for the truth.
9 I wrote to the church, but Diotrephes, who loves to put himself first among them, did not accept us. 10 Because of this, if I come, I will bring up what kinds of works he does: ranting against us with malicious words. Not content with that, he does not accept the brothers, and stops those who want to, and throws them out of the church.
11 Beloved, do not imitate that which is evil, but that which is good. Whoever does good is from God, but whoever does evil has not seen God. 12 Demetrius receives good reports from everyone and from the truth itself. Yes, and we also testify, and you know that our testimony is true.
Final Greetings
13 I had many things to write, but I would rather not write to you with pen and ink. 14 Instead, I hope to see you soon, and we shall speak face to face.
Peace be to you. The friends greet you. Greet the friends by name.
The Holy Bible, Modern English Version. Copyright © 2014 by Military Bible Association. Published and distributed by Charisma House.