M’Cheyne Bible Reading Plan
7 So then Jerubbaal (Gideon) and all the troops with him rose early, and they camped beside the spring of Harod. The camp of the Midianites was to their north, in the valley below the hill of Moreh.
Eternal One (to Gideon): 2 You have too many warriors for Me to allow you to defeat the Midianites. As it is now, the people of Israel would just deny Me the credit and claim they had won the victory on their own. 3 So go out and tell your army, “Any of you who are afraid and trembling are free to leave Mount Gilead.”
After this announcement, 22,000 left, so Gideon reduced his army to 10,000.
Eternal One: 4 You still have too many warriors. Take them down to the water, and I will sift them for you. When I say, “This one will fight for you,” he will go with you; but when I say, “This one will not fight for you,” then he will not go.
5 So Gideon led his army down to the water.
Eternal One: All of those who lap water the way a dog drinks, put them to one side. All of those who go down on their knees to drink, put them on the other side.
6 Three hundred of the men lapped up water by raising a hand to their mouths, and all the rest went down on their knees to drink.
Eternal One: 7 I will use these 300 who lapped from their hands to deliver Israel and to give the Midianites into your hand. Send all the rest home.
8 He kept jars and trumpets from the army and sent them back to their tents, but distributed the jars and trumpets to the 300 who stayed with him. The camp of Midian was in the valley below him.
9 That very night, the Eternal spoke to Gideon.
Eternal One: Get up and attack the camp of the Midianites because I have given you victory over them. 10 But if you should have any fear, take your servant Purah; scout out the camp, 11 and listen to what they are saying, and afterward you will find you are strong enough to attack.
So Gideon and his servant Purah approached the outposts of the army’s encampment. 12 The Midianites and the Amalekites and other people of the east were as thick as locusts in the valley, and their camels were as numberless as the sands of the seashore.
13 When Gideon arrived he overheard a man telling his neighbor about a dream he had.
Man: In my dream, a barley cake rolled into our camp. It came to the tent and hit it so hard the tent fell over. It turned over and collapsed.
Neighbor: 14 That must symbolize the sword of Gideon, son of Joash the Israelite. Their God has given him victory over Midian and all its camp!
15 When Gideon heard the dream and its interpretation, he bowed in worship. He went back to the camp of Israel and roused them.
Gideon: Get up! The Eternal has given you victory over the army of Midian! We strike now.
16 He divided the 300 men into three companies, and he gave them all trumpets and empty jars with torches placed inside of them.
Gideon: 17 Watch me. Do what I do. When we come to the outskirts of their camp, do what you see me doing. 18 When I and my company blow the trumpet, I want all of you to blow the trumpets all around the camp and to shout: “For the Eternal and for Gideon!”
19 So Gideon and the 100 men who were with him came to the outskirts of the Midianite camp just after the middle watch had been posted. There they blew their trumpets and smashed the jars they had brought. 20 All three companies of men blew their horns and shattered the jars at about the same time. They held the torches in their left hands, held the trumpets in their right, and together they shouted.
Men: A sword for the Eternal and for Gideon!
21 They encircled the entire camp and woke the Midianite force abruptly, so that the Midianites cried out and fled. 22 When the 300 trumpets sounded, the Eternal set the Midianites fighting against each other with their swords. The Midianites ran away in panic toward Beth-shittah, toward Zererah, to the border of Abel-meholah near Tabbath. 23 The men of Israel were summoned out of Naphtali and Asher and from all Manasseh, and they joined in the chase after the Midianite army.
24 Gideon sent messengers throughout all the hill country of Ephraim.
Messengers: Come down now and fight against the Midianites, and seize the watering places from them as far as Beth-barah and to the Jordan River.
So the Ephraimites gathered, and they captured the watering places as far away as Beth-barah and the Jordan. 25 They also captured the two leaders of the Midianite army, Oreb and Zeeb; they executed Oreb at the place we know today as Oreb’s Rock, and they executed Zeeb at Zeeb’s Winepress as they chased after the army of Midian. They brought the heads of Oreb and Zeeb to Gideon, who was now beyond the Jordan.
11 1-2 By the time Peter and his friends from Joppa returned to Jerusalem, news about outsiders accepting God’s message had already spread to the Lord’s emissaries[a] and believers there. Some of the circumcised believers didn’t welcome Peter with joy, but with criticism.
Circumcised Believers: 3 Why did you violate divine law by associating with outsiders and sitting at the table with them for a meal? This is an outrage!
4 Peter patiently told them what had happened, laying out in detail the whole story.
Peter: 5 I was in Joppa, I was praying, and I fell into a trance. In my vision, something like a huge sheet descended from the sky as if it were being lowered by its four corners. It landed right in front of me. 6 It was full of all kinds of four-footed creatures that we would call unclean—I could identify mammals, snakes, lizards, and birds. 7 Then I heard a voice say, “Get up, Peter! Kill these creatures and eat them!” 8 Of course, I replied, “No way, Lord! Not a single bite of forbidden, nonkosher food has ever touched my lips.” 9 But then the voice spoke from heaven a second time: “If God makes something clean, you must not call it dirty or forbidden.” 10 This whole drama was repeated three times, and then it was all pulled back up into the sky.
11 At that very second, three men arrived at the house where I was staying. They had come to me from Caesarea. 12 The Holy Spirit told me I should go with them, that I shouldn’t make any distinction between them as Gentiles and us as Jews. These six brothers from Joppa came with me; and yes, we entered the man’s home even though he was an outsider.
13 The outsider told us the story of how he had seen a heavenly messenger standing in his house who said, “Send to Joppa and bring back Simon, also called Peter, 14 and he will give you a message that will rescue both you and your household.” 15 Then I began to speak; and as I did, the Holy Spirit fell upon them—it was exactly as it had been with us at the beginning. 16 Then I remembered what Jesus had said to us: “John ritually cleansed people with water through baptism,[b] but you will be washed with the Holy Spirit.”[c] 17 So, if God gave them the same gift we were given when we believed in the Lord Jesus, the Anointed One, who was I to stand in God’s way?
18 There was no argument, only silence.
Circumcised Believers: Well then, we must conclude that God has given to the outsiders the opportunity to rethink their lives, turn to God,[d] and gain a new life.
Just as the experience of the Holy Spirit transforms that small community of believers into the church at the beginning of this book, the presence of the Spirit’s work among these outsiders, the ones who were not a part of God’s covenant with Moses, demonstrates that they, too, are part of the church. This isn’t what many expected, and questions about inclusion of outsiders consume the early life of the church.
19 The believers who were scattered from Judea because of the persecution following Stephen’s stoning kept moving out, reaching Phoenicia, Cyprus, and Antioch. Until this time, they had only shared their message with Jews. 20 Then some men from Cyprus and Cyrene who had become believers came to Antioch, and they began sharing the message of the Lord Jesus with some Greek converts to Judaism. 21 The Lord was at work through them, and a large number of these Greeks became believers and turned to the Lord Jesus.
22 Word of this new development came to the church in Jerusalem, and they sent Barnabas to Antioch to investigate. 23 He arrived and saw God’s grace in action there, so he rejoiced and urged them to remain faithful to the Lord, to maintain an enduring, unshakable devotion. 24 This Barnabas truly was a good man, full of the Holy Spirit, full of faith. A very large number of people were brought to the Lord.
25 Barnabas soon was off again—now to Tarsus to look for Saul. 26 He found Saul and brought him back to Antioch. The two of them spent an entire year there, meeting with the church and teaching huge numbers of people. It was there, in Antioch, where the term “Christian” was first used to identify disciples of Jesus.
27 During that year, some prophets came north from Jerusalem to Antioch. 28 A prophet named Agabus stood in a meeting and made a prediction by the Holy Spirit: there would be an expansive, terrible famine in the whole region during the reign of Claudius. 29 In anticipation of the famine, the disciples determined to give an amount proportionate to their financial ability and create a relief fund for all the believers in Judea. 30 They sent Barnabas and Saul to carry this fund to the elders in Jerusalem.
The people take these words and actions seriously because they understand something about the power of words and actions. In other words, Jeremiah isn’t just acting out another object lesson for the people; this is God’s declaration that the time has truly come for judgment to begin. God’s words, when spoken by His prophet, create this new reality. When the clay cannot be reworked, more drastic measures are taken. Judah will now be broken.
20 When the priest Pashhur (son of Immer, chief officer of the temple guard) heard what Jeremiah was prophesying, 2 he had the prophet beaten and put in the stocks[a] at the upper Benjamin gate near the temple, a place where everyone in the city could see this painful and embarrassing spectacle. 3 The next morning, Pashhur released him from the stocks, hoping Jeremiah had learned his lesson. Instead, this is what he heard from the prophet:
Jeremiah: The Eternal no longer knows you by the name Pashhur. He has renamed you Magor-missabib, which means “terror on every side.” 4 And these are the words the Eternal has spoken of you: “Certainly I am going to make you a symbol of terror—to yourself and to all your loved ones. You will see those close to you die in battle against the enemy. I will give all of Judah over to the king of Babylon, who will make them either casualties of war or prisoners of war. 5 I will also give the wealth of Jerusalem over as plunder to this enemy. The resources and treasures of this city and Judah’s kings will be taken and carted off to Babylon. 6 And you Pashhur, along with your entire household, will be taken to Babylon and become exiles. You and your friends who have heard your lies will never see home again; you will all die in exile in Babylon and be buried there.”
7 O Eternal, You deceived me into being Your prophet,
and I went along and allowed it to happen!
Your strength is too much for me,
and so You win; I speak Your words.
Just look at what I have become: a laughingstock;
all day long people mock me.
8 The only words coming out of my mouth
are loud cries of “Violence and destruction!”
It is the Eternal’s words—Your words—
that bring me insults and jokes all day long.
9 But when I tell myself, I’ll never mention Your name
or speak for You again, it’s no use.
The word of God burns in my heart; it is like fire in my bones.
I try to hold it all in, but I cannot.
10 I hear the crowds whispering behind my back and mocking my prophecies:
“‘Terror is everywhere we turn,’ he says. Let’s report him for breaking some law.”
Even my trusted friends are waiting for me to make a mistake:
“Maybe he will be deceived,
and then we’ll win, take control, and have our revenge on him.”
11 But I am not alone. The Eternal is here with me.
He stands beside me, as a dreaded warrior.
That is why my tormentors will fail so miserably. They cannot win.
Their humiliation and permanent dishonor will be remembered for all time.
12 Eternal, Commander of heavenly armies, You test the righteous;
You see my deepest thoughts; You know my heart.
Let me see Your vengeance exacted against these people.
for I am trusting my cause, my future to You.
13 Sing to the Eternal God!
Praise the Eternal now for what He will soon do.
For a troubled soul is snatched from the hands of the wicked.
14 Cursed be the day I was born—
cursed, not blessed is the day my mother gave birth to me.
15 Cursed be the man who told my overjoyed father,
“You have a son.”
16 May he be as cursed as the towns of Sodom and Gomorrah,
which the Eternal decimated without a care.
Let him hear cries for help in the morning.
Let him recoil at the shouts of war at noon,
17 For he did not kill me before I was born
so my mother’s womb would become my grave—
my mother’s womb forever enlarged.
18 Why was I ever born? To watch such tragedy?
To feel such sorrow? To live my days in utter shame?
Jesus at last arrives at the miracle He was asked to perform: the healing of Jairus’s daughter. But He is too late—the girl is already dead. Although Jesus later raises other dead people back to life, up to this point He has not yet performed such a powerful miracle. No one has an inkling of His power over the forces of life and death. He allows only His closest disciples to see this first miracle of resurrection, and He urges everyone who sees it to keep it quiet. Nevertheless, it is this miracle that first demonstrates to those who see it that He does indeed have power over death itself.
6 Jesus went back into His own hometown where He had grown up, and His disciples followed Him there. 2 When the Sabbath came, He went into the synagogue in Nazareth and began to teach as He had done elsewhere, and many of those who heard Him were astonished.
Those in the Synagogue: Where did He gain this wisdom? And what are all these stories we’ve been hearing about the signs and healings He’s performed? Where did He get that kind of power? 3 Isn’t this Jesus, the little boy we used to see in Joseph’s carpenter shop? Didn’t He grow up to be a carpenter just like His father? Isn’t He the son of Mary over there and the brother of James, Joses, Judas, Simon, and their sisters? Who does He think He is?
And when they had thought about it that way, they became indignant and closed themselves to His message.
Jesus (seeing this): 4 A prophet can find honor anywhere except in his hometown, among his own people, and in his own household.
5 He could not do any of His great works among them except with a few of the sick, whom He healed by laying His hands upon them. 6 He was amazed by the stubbornness of their unbelief.
Jesus went out among the villages teaching, 7 and He called the twelve to Him and began to send them out in pairs. He gave them authority over unclean spirits 8 and instructed them to take nothing with them but a staff: no money, no bread, no bag, 9 nothing but the sandals on their feet and the coat[a] on their back.
Jesus: 10 When you go into a house, stay there until it is time for you to leave that town. 11 And if someone will not accept you and your message, when you leave, shake off the dust of that place from your feet as a judgment against it. [On the day of judgment, that city will wish for the punishment of Sodom and Gomorrah.][b]
12 And so His disciples went out into the countryside, preaching the changed life[c] as Jesus had taught them, 13 casting out unclean spirits and anointing the sick with oil to heal them.
14 Jesus had become so well known that King Herod received reports of all that Jesus was doing. Some were saying[d] that John the Baptist[e] had been raised from the dead and that these mighty works were the fruits of his resurrection.
Others (disagreeing): 15 No, this Jesus is Elijah, returned to work on the earth.
And still others said He was another of the prophets.
Herod (to himself): 16 No, it is John, the prophet I beheaded, risen from the dead.
For the blood of John was on his hands. 17-18 Herod had imprisoned John in the days before Jesus began His teaching. John had preached to Herod that he should not have married his own brother’s wife, Herodias, for so it is written in the Hebrew Scriptures: “It is not lawful for one to marry his brother’s wife.”[f]
19 Herodias held a grudge against John and would have had him killed, but she couldn’t. 20 Herod feared John as a holy and righteous man and did what he could to protect him. John taught hard truths,[g] and yet Herod found he usually liked hearing them.
So Herod had put John in prison instead of executing him; 21-22 and there John sat until Herod’s birthday, when the governor held a great state dinner. That night, Herod’s stepdaughter danced beautifully for the state officials; and the king proclaimed a solemn vow in the presence of his honored guests, military officers, and some of the leading men of Galilee.
Herod: Ask me whatever you wish, and I will grant it. 23 Whatever you want, I will give you—up to half my province.
24 She went out and consulted with her mother, Herodias, who had only one great desire and told her daughter what she must say.
Herod’s Stepdaughter (immediately, in response to Herod): 25 I want the head of John the Baptist[h]—right now—delivered to me on a platter.
26 Herod was horrified, but he had sworn an oath and could not break his word in front of his invited guests. 27 So immediately he sent an executioner to the prison to behead John and bring them the head. 28 It was brought to the girl upon a platter, and she took it to her mother.
29 When John’s disciples were told of this, they came for his body and gave it a proper burial.
30 Now the twelve returned from their travels and told Him what they had done, whom they had seen, and how they had spread the news of God’s kingdom.
Jesus (to the disciples): 31 Let us go out into the wilderness for a while and rest ourselves.
The crowds gathered as always, and Jesus and the twelve couldn’t eat because so many people came and went. 32 They could get no peace until they boarded a boat and sailed toward a deserted place.
33 But the people would not be put off so easily. Those along the shore who recognized Jesus followed along the coast. People pushed out of all the cities and gathered ahead of Him 34 so that when Jesus came ashore and saw this crowd of people waiting for Him in a place that should have been relatively deserted, He was moved with compassion. They were like sheep without a shepherd.
He began to teach them many things 35 as the day passed; at last the disciples came to Jesus.
Disciples: It is getting late, and there is nothing around for miles. 36 Send these people to the surrounding villages so they can buy something to eat.
Jesus: 37 Why don’t you give them something to eat?
Disciples (looking at Him): What? It would cost a fortune[i] to buy bread for these people!
Jesus: 38 Does anyone have any bread? Go and see.
Disciples (returning from the crowd): There are five pieces of flatbread and two fish, if that makes any difference.
Jesus: 39-40 Listen, tell them to gather in smaller groups and sit on that green patch of grass.
And so the disciples gathered the people in groups of 100 or of 50, and they sat down.
41 Jesus took the five pieces of flatbread and the two fish, looked up to heaven, thanked God for the food, and broke it. He gave the pieces to the disciples to distribute, 42 and all of the people ate until no one was hungry. 43 Then they gathered twelve baskets full of leftovers.
44 That day, 5,000 men ate their fill of the bread when Jesus fed the hungry crowd.
The disciples pull Jesus aside to point out the obvious: everyone needs to go and eat something.
But Jesus, as usual, isn’t about to be distracted by the obvious. His answer must irritate them even further: “Why don’t you give them something to eat?” Jesus is seeing a much bigger reality. He is deliberately creating a turning point in His ministry: He wants to make them a part of His miracles. From recorders and observers, they will become participants. And so the disciples, not Jesus, tell the people to sit down, pass out the food, and collect the leftovers after everyone has eaten until they are stuffed. The disciples must feel pretty sheepish as they experience how Jesus is making them a part of the miracle—despite their mundane concerns and their frustrations with Him.
45 Not long after, He sent His disciples out onto their boat to sail to Bethsaida on the other shore, and He sent the crowd away. 46 After everyone had gone, He slipped away to pray on a mountain overlooking the sea.
47 When evening came, the boat was out on the sea and He was alone on the land. 48 He saw that the disciples were making little progress because they were rowing against a stiff wind. Before daylight He came near them, walking on the water, and would have passed by them. 49 Some of them saw Him walking on the surface of the water, thought He was a ghost, and cried out. 50 When they all saw Him, they were terrified.
Jesus (immediately calling out): Don’t be frightened. Do you see? It is I.
51 He walked across the water to the boat; and as soon as He stepped aboard, the contrary wind ceased its blowing. They were greatly astonished; 52 although they had just witnessed the miracle of Jesus feeding 5,000 with bread and fish, and other signs besides, they didn’t understand what it all meant and their hearts remained hard.
How can the disciples still be in doubt about Jesus after having been part of so many miracles? Like the Israelites in the Old Testament, the disciples are discovering the truth that miracles don’t produce faith. As Jesus so often points out, the process works the other way around: it’s faith that produces miracles. Miracles are only signs—evidence of truth that you have to know before the miracle. As long as the disciples are still in doubt about who Jesus is, they find their faith constantly challenged and frequently wavering. It will not be until after the resurrection, the greatest miracle of all, that they will come to recognize and believe in Jesus for who He is; and then their hearts will at last open.
53 When they finished their journey, they landed the boat in Gennesaret. 54 People at once recognized Jesus as the Healer. 55 Immediately they hurried to collect the sick and infirm—bringing them to Him in beds if they had to— 56 laying them out in the markets of any village, city, or field where He might pass.
Gennesarites: Just let us touch the fringe of Your robe.
Even the people who touched only it were made whole again.
The Voice Bible Copyright © 2012 Thomas Nelson, Inc. The Voice™ translation © 2012 Ecclesia Bible Society All rights reserved.