M’Cheyne Bible Reading Plan

Israel Told to Go to Canaan

1 These are the words which Moses spoke to all Israel on the other side of the Jordan, in the desert, in the Arabah beside Suph, between Paran and Tophel, Laban, Hazeroth and Dizahab. ² It takes eleven days to travel from Horeb by the way of Mount Seir to Kadesh-barnea. ³ On the first day of the eleventh month in the fortieth year, Moses spoke to the children of Israel. He told them all the Lord said they must do. ⁴ This was after he had won the war against Sihon the king of the Amorites, who lived in Heshbon, and Og the king of Bashan, who lived in Ashtaroth and Edrei. ⁵ On the other side of the Jordan in the land of Moab, Moses talked to the people about this Law. He said, ⁶ “The Lord our God spoke to us at Mount Sinai, saying, ‘You have stayed long enough at this mountain. ⁷ Get ready to travel now. Go to the hill country of the Amorites, and to all their neighbors in the Arabah, in the hill country and in the valley, in the Negev and by the sea, the land of the Canaanites, and Lebanon, as far as the big river, the river Euphrates. ⁸ See, I have set the land in front of you. Go in and take for your own the land which the Lord promised to give to your fathers, Abraham, Isaac and Jacob, and to their children after them.’

Leaders of Family Groups

⁹ “At that time I said to you, ‘I am not able to take care of you alone. ¹⁰ The Lord your God has made you become many people. Now you are as many as the stars of heaven. ¹¹ May the Lord, the God of your fathers, make you 1,000 times as many as you are. May He bring good to you just as He has promised you! ¹² How can I alone carry the weight of your troubles? ¹³ Choose wise, understanding and able men from your family groups. And I will make them leaders over you.’ ¹⁴ You answered me and said, ‘The thing which you have spoken is good for us to do.’ ¹⁵ So I took the leaders of your family groups, wise and able men. I made them leaders over you, leaders of thousands, of hundreds, of fifties and of tens, and rulers of your family groups.

¹⁶ “Then I said to your judges at that time, ‘Listen to the problems between your brothers. And be right in what you decide between a man and his brother or the stranger who is with him. ¹⁷ Do not show favor as you judge. Listen to the small and the great alike. Do not be afraid of any man, because you are judging for God. Bring to me any problem that is too hard for you, and I will hear it.’ ¹⁸ I told you at that time all the things you should do.

Men Are Sent to Spy Out the Land

¹⁹ “Then we left Mount Sinai. We went through the big desert you saw which fills people with fear, on the way to the hill country of the Amorites, just as the Lord our God had told us. And we came to Kadesh-barnea. ²⁰ I said to you, ‘You have come to the hill country of the Amorites, which the Lord our God will give us. ²¹ See, the Lord your God has set the land in front of you. Go and take it for your own, as the Lord, the God of your fathers, has told you. Do not be afraid or troubled.’ ²² Then all of you came to me and said, ‘Let us send men before us, to spy out the land for us. They will return and tell us which way we should go and which cities we will come to.’ ²³ What you said pleased me. I took twelve of your men, one man for each family group. ²⁴ They went up into the hill country, came to the valley of Eshcol, and saw what was there. ²⁵ They took some of the fruit of the land in their hands and brought it down to us. And they told us that it is a good land which the Lord our God is giving us.

²⁶ “Yet you would not go up. You went against what the Lord your God told you to do. ²⁷ You complained in your tents, saying, ‘Because the Lord hates us He has brought us out of the land of Egypt to give us to the Amorites to destroy us. ²⁸ Where would we be going? Our brothers have made our hearts weak with fear, saying, ‘The people are bigger and taller than we. The cities are large, with walls as high as the heavens. And we have even seen the sons of the Anakim there.’” ²⁹ Then I said to you, ‘Do not be afraid of them. ³⁰ The Lord your God Who goes before you will Himself fight for you. He did this for you in Egypt in front of your eyes, ³¹ and in the desert. There you saw how the Lord your God carried you, as a man carries his son, in all the way you have walked until you came to this place.’ ³² But even so, you did not trust the Lord your God, ³³ Who goes before you on your way. He finds a place for you to set up your tents. He uses fire to show you the way to go during the night. During the day He uses a cloud to lead you.

Israel’s Punishment

³⁴ “The Lord heard your words and was angry. He swore, ³⁵ ‘Not one of these men of these sinful people will see the good land I promised to give your fathers, ³⁶ except Caleb the son of Jephunneh. He will see it. I will give the land on which he has walked to him and his children because he has always followed the Lord.’ ³⁷ The Lord was angry with me because of you. He said, ‘Not even you will go in there. ³⁸ Joshua the son of Nun, who stands in front of you, will go in there. Tell him to be strong, for he will bring Israel into their new land. ³⁹ And your little ones whom you said would be taken by strange hands, and your children who do not yet know the difference between good and bad, will go in there. I will give the land to them. It will be theirs. ⁴⁰ But as for you, turn around and go into the desert by way of the Red Sea.’

⁴¹ “Then you said to me, ‘We have sinned against the Lord. We will go up and fight, just as the Lord our God told us.’ So every man of you put on his sword and thought it an easy thing to go up into the hill country. ⁴² The Lord said to me, ‘Say to them, “Do not go up or fight. For I am not among you. You would be destroyed by those who hate you.”’ ⁴³ So I spoke to you but you would not listen. You went against what the Lord told you. In your pride you went up into the hill country. ⁴⁴ Then the Amorites who lived in that hill country came out against you. They came at you like bees, and crushed you from Seir to Hormah. ⁴⁵ And you returned and cried before the Lord but the Lord did not listen to you. ⁴⁶ So you stayed in Kadesh. Many days you stayed there.

A Song to God’s Care

81 Sing for joy to God our strength! Call out for joy to the God of Jacob! ² Sing a song, beat the timbrel. Play the sweet-sounding harps. ³ Blow the horn at the new moon, at the full moon on the day of our special supper. ⁴ For this is a Law for Israel, a Law of the God of Jacob. ⁵ He made it a Law for Joseph, when he went through the land of Egypt. I heard a language that I did not know:

⁶ “I took the load off his shoulders. His hands were set free from the basket. ⁷ You called in your trouble, and I took you out of it. I answered you in the hiding place of thunder. I tested you at the waters of Meribah. ⁸ Hear, O My people, and I will tell you what to do. O Israel, if you would listen to Me! ⁹ Let there be no strange god among you. Do not worship any false god. ¹⁰ I, the Lord, am your God. I brought you out of the land of Egypt. Open your mouth wide and I will fill it.

¹¹ “But My people did not listen to My voice. And Israel did not obey Me. ¹² So I let them follow the desires of their sinful hearts. They followed their own plans. ¹³ If only My people would listen to Me! If only Israel would follow My ways! ¹⁴ I would hurry to crush those who fight against them. I would turn My hand against those who hate them. ¹⁵ Those who hate the Lord would pretend to obey Him. And their punishment would last forever. ¹⁶ But I would feed you with the best of grain. And I would fill you with honey from the rock.”

God’s Rule

82 God takes His stand in the great meeting of His people. He judges among the rulers. ² How long will you rulers be wrong in how you judge? How long will you show favor to the sinful? ³ Do the right thing for the weak and those without a father. Stand up for the rights of those who are suffering and in need. ⁴ Save the weak and those in need. Set them free from the hand of the sinful.

⁵ They know nothing; they understand nothing. They walk around in the dark. All that the earth is built upon is shaking. ⁶ I said, “You are gods. You are all sons of the Most High. ⁷ But you will die like men, and fall like one of the princes.”

⁸ Rise up, O God! Say who is guilty or not guilty upon the earth! For all the nations belong to You.

Trouble for Jerusalem

29 It is bad for Ariel, Ariel the city where David once set up his tents! Add year to year. Keep your special suppers at the right times. ² I will bring trouble to Ariel. She will be a city of sorrow and crying. She will be like an altar covered with blood to me. ³ I will camp against you, all around you. And I will build battle walls against you, and towers from which to fight you. ⁴ Then you will be brought low. From the earth you will speak. Your words will come from the dust. Your voice will be like that of a spirit from the ground. Your quiet speaking will come from the dust.

⁵ But the many who hate you will become like fine dust. The many who show no pity will be like the part of the grain that is of no worth and blows away. It will happen all at once. ⁶ You will be visited by the Lord of All, with thunder and earth-shaking and loud noise, and with wind and storm and a destroying fire. ⁷ And the many nations that fight against Ariel, all who fight against her and her strong-place and bring trouble to her, will be like a dream. They will be like a special dream of the night. ⁸ It will be as when a hungry man dreams he is eating, but when he wakes up, he is not filled. It will be as when a thirsty man dreams he is drinking, but when he wakes up, he is weak and still thirsty. This is how the many nations will be that fight against Mount Zion.

The Locked Book

⁹ Stop and wait. Blind yourselves and be blind. They are drunk, but not with wine. They walk from side to side, but not because of strong drink. ¹⁰ For the Lord has given you a deep sleep. He has shut your eyes, you who speak for God. He has covered your heads, men of God. ¹¹ And the special dream of all this will be to you like the words of a locked book. When they give it to one who can read, saying, “Read this,” he says, “I cannot, for it is locked.” ¹² Then they will give the book to one who cannot read, saying, “Read this.” And he will say, “I cannot read.”

¹³ The Lord said, “These people show respect to Me with their mouth, and honor Me with their lips, but their heart is far from Me. Their worship of Me is worth nothing. They teach rules that men have made. ¹⁴ So see, I will once again do great things with these people, great and wonderful things. And the wisdom of their wise men will be gone. The understanding of their wise men will be hidden.”

Hope for the Future

¹⁵ It is bad for those who try to hide their plans from the Lord, and whose works are done in a dark place. They say, “Who sees us?” or, “Who knows us?” ¹⁶ You turn things up-side-down! Is the pot-maker the same as the clay? Should what is made say to its maker, “He did not make me”? Should what is made say to him who made it, “He has no understanding”?

¹⁷ Is it not yet a very little while before Lebanon will be turned into a rich good field? The rich good field will be thought of as being full of many trees. ¹⁸ In that day those who cannot hear will hear the words of a book. And the eyes of the blind will see out of the darkness. ¹⁹ Those who have suffered will be happier in the Lord. Those who are in need will have joy in the Holy One of Israel. ²⁰ For those who show no pity will come to an end. And those who laugh at the truth will be stopped. All who want to be sinful will be cut off. ²¹ Those who say something to make a man seem to be in the wrong, and who trap the one who acts as a judge at the gate, and who tell lies to cause a good man to be punished, will be cut off.

²² So this is what the Lord, Who made Abraham free, said about the family of Jacob: “Jacob will not be ashamed. No more will their faces become white with fear. ²³ But when they see their children with them, the work of My hands, they will keep My Name holy, and will give honor to the Holy One of Jacob. They will stand in wonder of the God of Israel. ²⁴ Those who do wrong in spirit will understand the truth. And those who complain will receive teaching.”

¹ The church leader writes to the much-loved Gaius. I love you because of the truth. ² Dear friend, I pray that you are doing well in every way. I pray that your body is strong and well even as your soul is. ³ I was very happy when some Christians came and told me about how you are following the truth. ⁴ I can have no greater joy than to hear that my children are following the truth.

⁵ Dear friend, you are doing a good work by being kind to the Christians, and for sure, to the strangers. ⁶ They have told the church about your love. It will be good for you to help them on their way as God would have you. ⁷ These people are working for the Lord. They are taking nothing from the people who do not know God. ⁸ So we should help such people. That way we will be working with them as they teach the truth.

⁹ I wrote a letter to the church. But Diotrephes wants to be the leader and put himself first. He will have nothing to do with us. ¹⁰ So if I come, I will show what he is doing by the bad things he is saying about us. Not only that, he will not take the Christian brothers into his home. He keeps others from doing it also. When they do, he puts them out of the church. ¹¹ Dear friend, do not follow what is sinful, but follow what is good. The person who does what is good belongs to God. The person who does what is sinful has not seen God. ¹² Everyone speaks good things about Demetrius. The truth itself speaks for him. We say the same thing also and you know we are speaking the truth. ¹³ I have much to write about but I do not want to write it in this letter. ¹⁴ I hope to see you soon and then we can talk together. May you have peace. The friends here greet you. Greet each friend there by name.