M’Cheyne Bible Reading Plan
When the Lord Fulfills His Promise
9 “Listen, Israel! Today you are about to cross the Jordan to enter and dispossess greater and mightier nations than you, who live in[a] large cities that are fortified to the sky. 2 The Anakim[b] are strong and tall, and you know them. You’ve heard it said, ‘Who can stand up against the Anakim?’[c] 3 But know today that the Lord your God is going ahead of you as a consuming fire. He will destroy and subdue them before you. He will dispossess and destroy them quickly, just as the Lord told you. 4 After the Lord has expelled them before you, you are not to say to yourselves, ‘The Lord caused me to enter and possess this land because of my righteousness.’ 5 On the contrary, it is because of the wickedness of these nations that the Lord is dispossessing them before you to confirm what the Lord promised by an oath to your ancestors Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob. 6 Know that it is not because of your righteousness that the Lord your God is giving to you this good land to inherit, since you are a stubborn people.”
Israel Broke the Covenant
7 “Remember—and don’t ever forget—how you provoked the Lord your God in the desert. From the day that you came out of the land of Egypt until you came to this place, you have been rebelling against the Lord. 8 At Horeb you continually rebelled against the Lord so that he[d] was angry enough to destroy you. 9 Then I went up to the mountain to receive the two stone Tablets of the Covenant that the Lord had established with you. I stayed on the mountain for 40 days and nights without eating food or drinking water. 10 Then the Lord gave me the two stone tablets on which God inscribed with his own finger all the words that the Lord spoke to you on the mountain from the middle of the fire that day when you were all assembled together. 11 At the end of 40 days and nights, the Lord gave to me the two stone Tablets of the Covenant.
12 “Then the Lord told me, ‘Get going! Go down from here at once! Your people whom you brought out of Egypt have become corrupt. They have turned quickly from the way that I commanded them and have cast an idol for their use.’
13 “Then the Lord told me, ‘I have examined this people, and they[e] are stubborn indeed. 14 Let me alone! I will destroy them, blot out their name from heaven, and then I’ll make you into a nation that will be mighty and more numerous than they are.’
15 “So I turned and went down from the mountain while the mountain was on fire. The two Tablets of the Covenant were in both of my hands. 16 Then I saw how you had really sinned against the Lord your God! You had made for yourselves a calf—a cast idol. You had turned aside quickly from the way that the Lord your God had commanded. 17 So I grabbed the two tablets and threw them out of my hands, breaking them before your eyes. 18 I fell down in the Lord’s presence, just as I had the first 40 days and nights. I didn’t eat food or drink water because of your sin. You had sinned by committing this evil in full view of the Lord, thereby provoking him to anger. 19 I feared the anger and wrath of the Lord against you, because he was irate enough to destroy you. But the Lord also listened to me at that time. 20 It was as had been the case with Aaron—the Lord was very angry and about to destroy him, but I prayed for Aaron at that time. 21 So when you made the calf that made you sin, I grabbed it, burned it with fire, crushed it, and ground it thoroughly until it was pulverized to powder. Then I threw the powder into the river that was flowing from the mountain.”
Moses Interceded for Israel
22 “You provoked the Lord again at Taberah, Massah, and Kibroth-hattaavah. 23 When the Lord sent you from Kadesh-barnea and told you, ‘Go possess the land that I gave you,’ instead you disobeyed what the Lord your God said. You didn’t trust him or listen to his voice. 24 You have been rebelling against the Lord since the day I knew you. 25 I fell down in the Lord’s presence for 40 days and nights, because the Lord said he was ready to destroy you. 26 So I prayed to the Lord and said, ‘Oh Lord my God, don’t destroy your people and your inheritance whom you redeemed by your power.[f] You brought them out from Egypt in a powerful way. 27 Remember your servants Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob. Don’t pay attention to the stubbornness, wickedness, and sinfulness of this people. 28 Otherwise, the people of the land from which you brought us will say, “The Lord wasn’t able to bring them into the land that he had promised them. So he brought them out to kill them in the desert because he hated them.” 29 But they are your people and inheritance, whom you brought out by your mighty strength[g] and awesome power.’”
A Psalm. A song for the Sabbath Day
Praise and Thanksgiving to God
92 It is good to give thanks to the Lord
and to sing praise to your name, Most High;
2 to proclaim your gracious love in the morning
and your faithfulness at night,
3 accompanied by a ten-stringed instrument and a lyre,
and the contemplative sound of a harp.
4 Because you made me glad
with your awesome deeds, Lord,
I will sing for joy at the works of your hands.
5 How great are your works, Lord!
Your thoughts are unfathomable.[a]
6 A stupid man doesn’t know,
and a fool can’t comprehend this:
7 Though the wicked sprout like grass;
and all who practice iniquity flourish,
it is they who will be eternally destroyed.
8 But you are exalted forever, Lord.
9 Look at your enemies, Lord!
Look at your enemies, for they are destroyed;
everyone who practices iniquity will be scattered.[b]
10 You’ve grown my strength[c] like the horn of a wild ox;
I was anointed with fresh oil.
11 My eyes gloated over those who lie in wait for me;[d]
when those of evil intent attack me, my ears will hear.
12 The righteous will flourish like palm trees;
they will grow like a cedar in Lebanon.
13 Planted in the Lord’s Temple,
they will flourish in the courtyard of our God.
14 They will still bear fruit even in old age;[e]
they will be luxuriant and green.
15 They will proclaim: “The Lord is upright;
my rock, in whom there is no injustice.”
God Reigns
93 The Lord reigns! He is clothed in majesty;
the Lord is clothed,
and he is girded[f] with strength.
Indeed, the world is well established,
and cannot be shaken.
2 Your throne has been established since time immemorial;
you are king from eternity.
3 The rivers have flooded, Lord;
the rivers have spoken aloud,
the rivers have lifted up their crushing waves.
4 More than the sound of surging waters—
the majestic waves of the sea—
the Lord on high is majestic.
5 Your decrees are very trustworthy,
and holiness always befits your house, Lord.
Hezekiah Seeks Isaiah’s Counsel
37 As soon as Hezekiah the king[a] heard this, he tore his clothes, dressed himself in sackcloth, and went into the Lord’s Temple. 2 Then he sent Eliakim, who was in charge of the palace, Shebna the secretary, and the senior priests, all wearing sackcloth, to Amoz’s son, the prophet Isaiah. 3 “Here is what Hezekiah says,” they told him. “This day is a day of trouble, rebuke, and disgrace, as when children come to the point of birth and there is no energy to deliver them. 4 Perhaps the Lord your God will hear the words of the field commander, whom his master, the king of Assyria, sent to mock the living God, and perhaps he will rebuke the words that the Lord your God has heard. So lift up a prayer for the remnant that still survives in this city.”[b] 5 That’s why King Hezekiah’s officials came to Isaiah.
Isaiah Responds to Hezekiah
6 “Here is what to tell your master,” Isaiah told them. “This is what the Lord says: ‘Don’t be afraid of the words you’ve heard—those words with which the underlings of the king of Assyria have insulted me. 7 Watch this! I’m going to place an attitude[c] within him,[d] so that when he hears a certain report, he’ll return to his own country. Then I’ll have him cut down by the sword in his own land.”[e]
Sennacherib Retreats
8 So the field commander returned and found the king of Assyria fighting against Libnah, since he had heard that the king of Assyria[f] had left Lachish. 9 Now King Sennacherib[g] had received this report concerning King Tirhakah of Cush: “He has marched out to fight against you.”
When he heard it, he returned and[h] sent messengers to Hezekiah: 10 “Say this to Hezekiah king of Judah: ‘Don’t let your God on whom you depend deceive you when he says, “Jerusalem will not be handed over to the king of Assyria.” 11 Surely you have heard what the kings of Assyria have done to all countries, dooming them to destruction. So do you think you will be saved? 12 Did the gods of the nations that were destroyed by my ancestors save them—the nations of Gozan, Haran, Rezeph, and the people of Eden, who were in Tel-assar? 13 Where is the king of Hamath, the king of Arpad, the king of the city of Sephar-vaim, or of Hena, or of Ivvah, or of Samaria?’”[i]
Hezekiah Prays
14 Hezekiah received the letters from the messengers, and read them.[j] Then he[k] went up to the Lord’s Temple and spread the letters[l] in front of the Lord. 15 Hezekiah prayed to the Lord:
16 “O Lord of the Heavenly Armies, God of Israel, enthroned above the cherubim, you alone are the God of all the kingdoms of the earth. You made heaven and earth. 17 Extend your ear, Lord, and listen! Open your eyes, Lord, and look! Listen to all the words Sennacherib has sent to mock the living God. 18 It is true, Lord, that Assyrian kings have devastated all these countries,[m] 19 and have thrown their gods into the fire—but they are not gods, but rather the products[n] of human hands, mere wood and stone. So the Assyrians[o] destroyed them. 20 So now, Lord our God, save us from his oppressive[p] hand, so that all kingdoms on earth may know that you alone, O Lord, are God.”[q]
God’s Answer
21 Then Amoz’s son Isaiah sent this message to Hezekiah: “This is what the Lord, the God of Israel, says, to whom you prayed[r] concerning Sennacherib king of Assyria. 22 This is the message that the Lord has spoken in opposition to him:
“‘The Virgin Daughter of Zion
despises and mocks you;
the Daughter of Jerusalem—
she tosses her head behind you as you flee.
23 Whom have you insulted and reviled?
Against whom have you raised your voice
and lifted your eyes in pride?
Against the Holy One of Israel!
24 By your messengers[s] you have insulted the Lord,
and you have said,
“With my many chariots
I have climbed the heights of mountains,
the utmost heights of Lebanon.
I cut down its tallest cedars,
the choicest of its pines;
I reached its remotest heights,
the most verdant of its forests.
25 I myself dug wells[t]
and drank foreign[u] waters;
with the soles of my feet
I dried up all the streams of Egypt.”
26 “‘Didn’t you hear
how in the distant past I decided to do it,
how[v] I planned from days of old?
Now I’ve made it happen—
that fortified cities become devastated, besieged heaps.[w]
27 Their inhabitants are devoid of power,
and are terrified and put to shame.
They’ve become like plants in the field,
like[x] green shoots,
like grass on rooftops,
scorched by the east wind.[y]
28 “‘I know when you rise up
and[z] when you sit down,
your comings and goings—
and how you’ve become enraged at me.
29 Your insolence[aa] has reached my ears,
so I’ll put my hook in your nose
and my bit in your mouth,[ab]
and I’ll make you turn back on the road
by which you came.
30 “And this will be your sign, Hezekiah:[ac] Eat this year what grows on its own, and in the second year what springs from that. But in the third year sow, reap, plant vineyards, and eat their fruit. 31 Then the ones belonging to the house of Judah who have escaped will gather,[ad] and those who are found[ae] will take root downward and bear fruit upward. 32 For a remnant will come out of Zion,[af] and a band of survivors from Jerusalem.[ag] The zeal of the Lord of the Heavenly Armies will accomplish this.
33 “Therefore this what the Lord says concerning the king of Assyria: ‘He won’t enter this city, build up a siege ramp against it, shoot an arrow here, or threaten it with a shield.[ah] 34 By the same way that he came, he will return; he won’t enter this city,’ declares the Lord, 35 ‘because I will defend this city and deliver[ai] it, for my own sake and for the sake of my servant David!’”
Sennacherib is Defeated
36 After this, the angel of the Lord went out and put to death 185,000 men in the Assyrian camp. When Hezekiah’s army[aj] awakened in the morning—there were all the dead bodies!
37 King Sennacherib broke camp, retreated, returned home to Nineveh, and remained there. 38 Later, while he was worshiping in[ak] the house of his god Nisroch, his sons Adrammelech and Sharezer cut him down with swords and escaped to the land of Ararat. Then Sennacherib’s[al] son Esar-haddon reigned in his place.
The Vision of the Sealing of 144,000 People
7 After this, I saw four angels standing at the four corners of the earth. They were holding back the four winds of the earth so that no wind could blow on the land, on the sea, or on any tree. 2 I saw another angel coming from the east having the seal of the living God. He cried out in a loud voice to the four angels who had been permitted to harm the land and sea, 3 “Don’t harm the land, the sea, or the trees until we have marked the servants of our God with a seal on their foreheads.”
4 I heard the number of those who were sealed: 144,000. Those who were sealed were from every tribe of Israel: 5 12,000 from the tribe of Judah were sealed, 12,000 from the tribe of Reuben, 12,000 from the tribe of Gad, 6 12,000 from the tribe of Asher, 12,000 from the tribe of Naphtali, 12,000 from the tribe of Manasseh, 7 12,000 from the tribe of Simeon, 12,000 from the tribe of Levi, 12,000 from the tribe of Issachar, 8 12,000 from the tribe of Zebulun, 12,000 from the tribe of Joseph, and 12,000 from the tribe of Benjamin were sealed.
The Vision of Tribulation Saints
9 After these things, I looked, and there was a crowd so large that no one was able to count it! They were from every nation, tribe, people, and language. They were standing in front of the throne and the lamb and were wearing white robes, with palm branches in their hands. 10 They cried out in a loud voice,
“Salvation belongs to our God,
who sits on the throne,
and to the lamb!”
11 All the angels stood around the throne and around the elders and the four living creatures. They fell on their faces in front of the throne and worshipped God, 12 saying,
“Amen! Praise, glory, wisdom, thanks, honor, power, and strength
be to our God forever and ever! Amen!”
13 “Who are these people wearing white robes,” one of the elders asked me, “and where did they come from?”
14 I told him, “Sir, you know.”
Then he told me, “These are the people who are coming out of the terrible suffering.[a] They have washed their robes and made them white in the blood of the lamb. 15 That is why:
“They are in front of the throne of God
and worship[b] him night and day in his Temple.
The one who sits on the throne will shelter them.
16 They will never be hungry or thirsty again.
Neither the sun nor its heat will ever beat down on them,
17 because the lamb in the center of the throne will be their shepherd.
He will lead them to springs filled with the water of life,
and God will wipe every tear from their eyes.”[c]
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