M’Cheyne Bible Reading Plan

Covenant Promise to David

17 After David settled in his place, David said to Nathan the prophet, “Look! I am living in a house of cedar, while the Ark of the Covenant of Adonai is under a tent.”

² Then Nathan said to David, “Do all that is in your heart, for God is with you.”

³ But that same night the word of God came to Nathan, saying: ⁴ “Go and tell David My servant, thus says Adonai, ‘You are not to build Me a house in which to dwell. ⁵ For I have not dwelt in a house from the day I brought Israel out to this day. I have gone from tent to tent, and from one dwelling to another. ⁶ Wherever I went throughout all Israel, did I ever speak a word to any of the judges of Israel whom I commanded to shepherd My people, saying, “Why have you not built Me a house of cedar?”’

⁷ “So now, say this to My servant David, ‘Thus says Adonai Tzva’ot, I took you from the pasture and from following the sheep, to be prince over My people Israel. ⁸ I have been with you wherever you went and have cut off all your enemies from before you. I will make your name like the names of the great ones that are in the earth. ⁹ I wil establish a place for My people Israel, and plant them, so that they may dwell in their own place and shall tremble no more. Violent people will no longer wear them down, as they did formerly, ¹⁰ from the days I ordered judges to be over My people Israel. I will subdue all your enemies.’

“‘Moreover, I declare to you that Adonai will build you a house. ¹¹ It will be that when your days are fulfilled to go with your fathers, I will raise up your offspring after you, one of your own sons, and I will establish his kingdom. ¹² He will build a house for Me and I will establish his throne forever. ¹³ I will be a father to him and he will be a son to Me,^[a] I will not withdraw My lovingkindness from him, as I withdrew it from the one who ruled before you. ¹⁴ I will appoint him over My House and My kingdom forever, and his throne will be established forever.’”

¹⁵ According to all these words and according to all this vision, Nathan spoke to David.

¹⁶ Then King David went in and sat before Adonai, and said, “Who am I, Adonai Elohim, and what is my family, that You have brought me thus far? ¹⁷ And this was not enough in Your eyes, O God! You have spoken about the future of Your servant’s household. You have regarded me as the most distinquished of men, Adonai Elohim.

¹⁸ “What more can David say to You for honoring Your servant? For You know Your servant. ¹⁹ Adonai, for the sake of Your servant and according to Your own heart, You have done all these great things, to reveal all Your greatness.

²⁰ “Adonai, there is none like You and there is no other god besides You, as we have heard with our own ears. ²¹ And who is like Your people Israel—the one nation on earth whom God went out to redeem as a people for Himself and to make a Name for Yourself by great and awesome deeds, by driving out nations from before Your people, whom You redeemed from Egypt? ²² You made Your people Israel Your own people forever, and You, Adonai, became their God.

²³ “Now, Adonai, may the word that You have spoken concerning Your servant and his house be confirmed forever. Do as You have spoken ²⁴ so that it might be established and Your Name might be magnified forever, saying, ‘Adonai-Tzva’ot, the God of Israel, is Israel’s God.’ Then the house of David Your servant will be established before You.

²⁵ “You, my God, have revealed to Your servant that You will build a house for him. So Your servant has found courage to pray before You. ²⁶ Now, Adonai, You are God! You have promised this good thing to Your servant. ²⁷ Now You are willing to bless the house of Your servant, so that it may continue forever before You, for it is You, Adonai who have blessed, and it is blessed forever!”

Resist Pride and Evil

4 Where do quarrels and conflicts among you come from? Don’t they come from this, namely your passions that battle within your body parts? ² You crave and have not. You murder and you envy, yet you cannot get it. You fight and you wage war. You do not have because you do not ask. ³ You ask and do not receive, because you ask with wrong motives so you may spend it on your passions. ⁴ You adulteresses!^[a] Don’t you know that friendship with the world is enmity with God? Therefore whoever wishes to be a friend of the world makes himself an enemy of God. ⁵ Or do you think that in vain the Scripture says, “He yearns jealously over the spirit which He made to dwell in us”? ⁶ But He gives greater grace. Therefore it says,

⁷ Therefore submit to God. But resist the devil and he will flee from you. ⁸ Draw near to God, and He will draw near to you. Cleanse your hands, you sinners, and purify your hearts, you double-minded! ^{[c] 9} Lament and mourn and weep! Let your laughter be turned into mourning, and your joy into gloom. ¹⁰ Humble yourselves in the sight of Adonai, and He shall lift you up. ^{[d] 11} Do not speak evil against one another, brethren. The one who speaks against a brother or judges his brother, speaks evil against the Torah and judges the Torah. But if you judge the Torah, you are not a doer of the Torah, but a judge. ¹² There is only one lawgiver and judge^[e]—the One who is able to save and to destroy. But who are you who judges your neighbor?

If the Lord Wills, We Will

¹³ Come now, you who say, “Today or tomorrow we will go to such and such a town and spend a year there and engage in business and make a profit.” ¹⁴ Yet you do not know what your life will be like tomorrow. What is your life? For you are a vapor that appears for a little while and then vanishes. ^{[f] 15} Instead you ought to say, “If the Lord wills, we will live and also do this or that.” ¹⁶ But now you boast in your arrogance. All such boasting is evil. ¹⁷ Therefore whoever knows the right thing to do and does not do it—for him it is sin.

Jonah Runs From His Mission

1 Now the word of Adonai came to Jonah,^[a] son of Amittai, saying: ² “Rise, go to the great city Nineveh and call out to her, for their evil has risen before me.”

³ But Jonah rose to flee to Tarshish, from the presence of Adonai. He went down to Jaffa and found a ship going to Tarshish, paid the fee and went down into it to go with them to Tarshish—away from the presence of Adonai.

⁴ Then Adonai hurled a forceful wind into the sea and there was such a mighty storm on the sea that the ship was about to shatter. ⁵ So the sailors were afraid and cried out, each man to his own god. Then they cast the cargo that was in the ship into the sea to lighten it. But Jonah had gone down into the lowest part of the ship, to lay down and fell fast asleep.

⁶ So the chief sailor came near to him and said to him, “What, are you sleeping? Get up! Call out to your god. Perhaps the gods will consider us, so we will not perish!”

⁷ Then each man said to his companion, “Come, let’s cast lots—so we may know because of whom this evil is happening to us.” So they cast lots and the lot fell on Jonah.^[b]

⁸ Then they said to him, “Tell us, now! On whose account is this evil happening to us? What is your profession and where did you come from? What is your land and from what nation are you?”

⁹ He said to them, “I am a Hebrew and I fear Adonai God of the heavens, who made the sea and the dry land.”

¹⁰ Then the men became afraid with an overwhelming fear and they said to him, “What have you done?” For the men knew that he had fled from the presence of Adonai, because he had told them. ¹¹ So they said to him, “What should we do to you so the sea will become calm for us?”—for the storm was raging on.

¹² “Pick me up and throw me into the sea,” he said to them, “then the sea will become calm for you. For I know it is because of me that this great storm is upon you.”

¹³ Nevertheless the men rowed hard to return to the land, but they could not, because the sea kept raging against them. ¹⁴ So they cried to Adonai and said, “Please, Adonai, don’t let us perish on account of the soul of this man and don’t put innocent blood on us. For you, Adonai, have done as you pleased.”

¹⁵ So they picked up Jonah and threw him into the sea—and the sea stilled from its raging. ¹⁶ Then the men became afraid with an overwhelming fear of Adonai, and they offered a sacrifice to Adonai and made vows.

Shabbat in the Grain Fields

6 Now during Shabbat, Yeshua was passing through grain fields; and His disciples were picking and eating heads of grain, rubbing them in their hands. ² But some of the Pharisees said, “Why are you doing what is not permitted on Shabbat?”

³ Then answering them, Yeshua said, “Haven’t you read what David did when he was hungry, and those with him? ⁴ How he entered into the house of God, took and ate the showbread which only the kohanim are permitted to eat, and even gave it to those with him?” ^{[a] 5} He said to them, “The Son of Man is Lord of Shabbat.”

Shabbat Controversy at the Synagogue

⁶ On a different Shabbat, Yeshua entered the synagogue and was teaching. A man was there, whose right hand was paralyzed. ⁷ But closely watching Him were the Torah scholars and Pharisees, to see if He heals on Shabbat, so that they might find grounds to accuse Him. ⁸ But He knew their opinions and said to the man with the paralyzed hand, “Get up and stand in our midst.” And getting up, the man stood.

⁹ Yeshua said to them, “I ask you, is it permitted on Shabbat to do good or to do evil, to save or to destroy a life?” ¹⁰ Then looking around at everyone, He said to the man, “Stretch out your hand.” The man did, and his hand was restored. ¹¹ But they were filled with fury and discussed among themselves what they might do to Yeshua.

Appointing the Twelve

¹² And it was during these days that Yeshua went out to the mountain to pray, and He spent all night in prayer to God. ¹³ When day came, He called His disciples, choosing from among them twelve whom He also named emissaries— ¹⁴ Simon, whom He also named Peter, and Andrew his brother; and Jacob and John; and Philip and Bartholomew; ¹⁵ and Matthew and Thomas; Jacob the son of Alphaeus; Simon who was called the Zealot; ¹⁶ Judah the son of Jacob; and Judah from Kriot, who became a traitor.

The Sermon on the Plain

¹⁷ Then Yeshua came down with them and stood on a level place. A large crowd of His disciples and a multitude of people, from all Judea, Jerusalem, and the coastal region of Tyre and Sidon, ¹⁸ had come to hear Him and to be healed of their diseases. Even those disturbed by defiling spirits were being healed. ¹⁹ Everyone in the crowd was trying to touch Him, because power flowed from Him and He was healing them all.

²⁰ And looking up at His disciples, He said,

²³ Rejoice in that day and jump for joy! For behold, your reward is great in heaven! For their fathers used to treat the prophets the same way.”^[b]

²⁷ “But I say to you who are listening: Love your enemies, do good to those who hate you, ²⁸ bless those who curse you, pray for the ones who mistreat you. ²⁹ To the one who strikes you on the cheek, offer the other also. And from the one who takes your cloak, do not hold back your shirt. ³⁰ Give to every one who asks you; and whoever takes something of yours, make no demands upon him.

³¹ “Do to others as you would have them do to you. ³² If you love those who love you, what credit is that to you? For even sinners love those who love them. ³³ And if you do good to those who are doing good to you, what credit is that to you? Even sinners do this. ³⁴ And if you lend to those from whom you expect to take, what credit is that to you? Even sinners lend to sinners in order to receive back the same.

³⁵ “But love your enemies, and do good, and lend, expecting nothing in return.^[d] Then your reward will be great and you will be sons of Elyon, for He is kind to the ungrateful and evil ones. ³⁶ Be compassionate, just as your Father is compassionate to you.”

³⁷ Do not judge, and you will not be judged. Do not condemn, and you will not be condemned. Pardon, and you will be pardoned. ³⁸ Give, and it will be given to you—a good measure, pressed down, shaken together, overflowing, will be given into your lap. For whatever measure you measure out will be measured back to you.”

³⁹ He also spoke this parable to them: “The blind cannot show the way to the blind, can he? Won’t they both fall into a pit? ⁴⁰ A disciple is not above his teacher, but everyone who is fully trained will be like his teacher.

⁴¹ “Why do you look at the speck in your brother’s eye, but do not notice the beam in your own eye? ⁴² How can you say to your brother, ‘Brother, let me take out the speck in your eye,’ when you yourself do not see the beam in your own eye? You hypocrite! First take the beam out of your own eye, and then you will see clearly the speck in your brother’s eye, to take it out.”

⁴³ “For there is no good tree that produces rotten fruit, nor again does a rotten tree produce good fruit. ⁴⁴ Each tree comes to be known by its own fruit. For figs are not gleaned out of briars; neither are bunches of grapes gathered from thorn bushes.

⁴⁵ “Out of the good treasure of his heart the good man brings forth good, and out of evil the evil man brings forth evil. For from the overflow of the heart his mouth speaks.”

⁴⁶ “Why do you call Me ‘Master, Master’ and do not do what I say? ⁴⁷ Everyone who comes to Me and hears My words and does them, I will show you what he is like. ⁴⁸ He is like a man building a house, who dug deep and laid a foundation on the rock. And when a flood came, the torrent burst against that house but could not shake it, because it had been well built.

⁴⁹ “But the one who hears yet does not do is like a man who built a house upon land without a foundation. When the torrent burst against it, immediately it collapsed—and the destruction of that house was great!”