M’Cheyne Bible Reading Plan
5 The Philistines brought the captured covenant chest of the True God from Ebenezer to one of their capital cities called Ashdod. 2 There the Philistines took the chest of the True God into the house of their god, Dagon, and placed it in a place of honor beside the idol of Dagon. 3 When the people of the city anxiously awoke early the next morning, there was Dagon, lying on his face on the ground, as if bowing before the covenant chest of the Eternal. So they grabbed the idol and put it back in its proper place. 4 But when they awoke the next morning, only the trunk of the idol was untouched. Dagon had fallen to the ground on his face before the covenant chest of the Eternal One again, and this time his head and hands had been cut off and were lying across the threshold. 5 That is why the priests and worshipers of Dagon in the house of Dagon in Ashdod refused to step on the threshold even till this day.
6 The hand of the Eternal One came down hard with punishment on the people of Ashdod while the covenant chest rested there. He ravaged the people of Ashdod and the surrounding territory and struck them with swollen, painful growths like tumors. 7 When the people of Ashdod saw how they were cursed, they said,
People of Ashdod: We can’t let the chest of the True God of Israel remain here because their God continues to punish us and our god Dagon.
8-9 So they gathered together all the rulers of the Philistines to ask what should be done with the covenant chest of Israel’s God.
People of Gath: Send this chest of Israel’s God to us.
They did so. But after they had moved the chest of the True God of Israel to Gath, another of the capital cities, the hand of the Eternal One began to punish the people of Gath and sent them into a panic. He also struck them with swollen, painful, tumor-like growths—the young and old alike. 10 So then they sent the covenant chest of the True God of Israel on to a third capital city, Ekron; but when the people of Ekron saw that the covenant chest was coming, they protested.
People of Ekron: Have you brought this chest of the Israelite God here to kill us now?
11 So they gathered together all the rulers of the Philistines.
People of Ekron: Send away this covenant chest of the God of Israel. Send it back where it came from so that it doesn’t kill us all!
For there was great panic throughout the city. The True God’s hand rested heavily on them; 12 and those He did not kill, He struck with swollen, painful tumors. Their suffering was so intense their cries could be heard in the heavens.
6 The covenant chest of the Eternal One had been in the land of the Philistines for seven months. 2 Then the rulers of the Philistines sent for their priests and fortune-tellers.
Rulers: What should we do with this chest of the Eternal One? We need to get rid of it. What should we send with it when we return it?
Priests and Fortune-tellers: 3 Whatever you do, don’t send this covenant chest of the True God of Israel back by itself. You should certainly offer Him compensation for your guilt. If you do, you will all be healed. That’s the only way you can be certain that His hand will be lifted.
Rulers: 4 What should we send as this guilt offering to Him when we return the covenant chest?
Ancient people understand diseases and various infestations as omens of divine wrath. In order to appease the God of the Israelites, the Philistines cast metal tumors and mice to give back to the Eternal One what He gave to them.
Priests and Fortune-Tellers: Have your artisans make five gold tumors and five gold mice, one for each of the rulers of the Philistines’ capital cities, because the same plague came upon all of the Philistines and all of our rulers. 5 So you must make images of the tumors and of the mice that devastate our land and honor this God of Israel. Maybe then He will release His grip on this land, its people, and its gods. 6 Why would you be as stubborn as the Egyptians and their Pharaoh were? You’ve heard the stories, haven’t you? When this God had taught them a lesson, didn’t they release the people of Israel? Didn’t they go?
7 So do this now: have your carpenters make a new wagon, find two milk cows that have never been yoked, and yoke them to the cart. But take away their calves and pen them up. 8 Take this chest of the Eternal One and set it upon the wagon. In a box beside it, put the gold images you are presenting to this God as a guilt offering. Then turn the cows loose, and let them go on their way. 9 Watch closely. If the team pulls the wagon up to this God’s country, to Beth-shemesh, then you know that He has been the One punishing us. If they don’t, then at least we’ll know that it was not His hand that struck us, that it has just been bad luck.
10 And that is what the leaders did. They separated two milk cows from their calves. They yoked the cows to the wagon and took the calves home. 11 They set the covenant chest of the Eternal upon the wagon, and next to it, they placed the box with the gold tumors and gold mice. 12 The cows went straight along the road toward Beth-shemesh, mooing after their lost calves as they went. They went straight ahead without any hesitation, and the rulers of the Philistines followed as far as the border of Beth-shemesh.
13 The people of Beth-shemesh were in the valley harvesting their wheat at that time. When they looked up and saw the covenant chest, they ran to greet it with joy. 14 The wagon came to a halt at a large stone in the field of Joshua of Beth-shemesh. The people split up the cart for firewood and sacrificed the cattle as a burnt offering to the Eternal One on the large stone. 15 The Levites took the chest of the Eternal and the box next to it down from the wagon. They took the gold images from the box and set them upon the stone altar. Then the people of Beth-shemesh offered sacrifices and made other burnt offerings to the Eternal One.
16 When the five rulers of the Philistines saw how their offering had been received that day, they returned to Ekron.
17 The five gold images of swollen tumors presented to the Eternal One by the Philistines as a guilt offering represented Ashdod, Gaza, Ashkelon, Gath, and Ekron—one for each. 18 Likewise the golden mice represented all the cities of the Philistines governed by their rulers, both the walled cities and the villages surrounding them. The large stone in the field of Joshua of Beth-shemesh where they set the chest of the Eternal remains there as a witness to these events.
19 The Eternal struck the people of Beth-shemesh because some looked into the covenant chest. God struck down 75[a] men, and the people were saddened because of the slaughter the Eternal One had brought among their people.
People of Beth-shemesh: 20 Who can stand in the presence of the Eternal One, this holy God? Who will take the covenant chest so we can be safe from Him?
21 So the people of Beth-shemesh sent messengers to the people of Kiriath-jearim to tell them that the Philistines had returned the chest of the Eternal One to Beth-shemesh and that they should come down and take it with them.
In God’s plan to restore a fallen and disfigured world, Abraham became the father of all of us, the agent of blessing to everyone. Jesus completes what God started centuries before when He established Abraham’s covenant family. Those who put faith in Jesus and call Him “Lord” become part of Abraham’s faith family. Because God is gracious, loving, and merciful, men and women from every corner of the earth are not only declared right, but ultimately are made right as well. It happens through God’s actions—not our efforts—in the death, burial, and resurrection of Jesus who was crucified for our misdeeds and raised to repair what has been wrong all along. So the promises of God made long years ago are being realized in men and women who hear the call of faith and answer “yes” to it.
5 Since we have been acquitted and made right through faith, we are able to experience true and lasting peace with God through our Lord Jesus, the Anointed One, the Liberating King. 2 Jesus leads us into a place of radical grace where we are able to celebrate the hope of experiencing God’s glory. 3 And that’s not all. We also celebrate in seasons of suffering because we know that when we suffer we develop endurance, 4 which shapes our characters. When our characters are refined, we learn what it means to hope and anticipate God’s goodness. 5 And hope will never fail to satisfy our deepest need because the Holy Spirit that was given to us has flooded our hearts with God’s love.
6 When the time was right, the Anointed One died for all of us who were far from God, powerless, and weak. 7 Now it is rare to find someone willing to die for an upright person, although it’s possible that someone may give up his life for one who is truly good. 8 But think about this: while we were wasting our lives in sin, God revealed His powerful love to us in a tangible display—the Anointed One died for us. 9 As a result, the blood of Jesus has made us right with God now, and certainly we will be rescued by Him from God’s wrath in the future. 10 If we were in the heat of combat with God when His Son reconciled us by laying down His life, then how much more will we be saved by Jesus’ resurrection life? 11 In fact, we stand now reconciled and at peace with God. That’s why we celebrate in God through our Lord Jesus, the Anointed.
12 Consider this: sin entered our world through one man, Adam; and through sin, death followed in hot pursuit. Death spread rapidly to infect all people on the earth as they engaged in sin.
God’s gift of grace and salvation is amazing. Paul struggles to find the words to describe it. He looks everywhere around him to find a metaphor, an image, a word to put into language one aspect of this awesome gift. One of those is “reconciliation.” There is hardly anything more beautiful than to see two people who have been enemies or estranged or separated coming back together. When Paul reflects on what God has done through Jesus, he thinks about reconciliation. Before we receive God’s blessing through His Son, we are enemies of God, sinners of the worst sort. But God makes the first move to restore us to a right relationship with Him.
13 Before God gave the law, sin existed, but there was no way to account for it. Outside the law, how could anyone be charged and found guilty of sin? 14 Still, death plagued all humanity from Adam to Moses, even those whose sin was of a different sort than Adam’s. You see, in God’s plan, Adam was a prototype of the One who comes to usher in a new day. 15 But the free gift of grace bears no resemblance to Adam’s crime that brings a death sentence to all of humanity; in fact, it is quite the opposite. For if the one man’s sin brings death to so many, how much more does the gift of God’s radical grace extend to humanity since Jesus the Anointed offered His generous gift. 16 His free gift is nothing like the scourge of the first man’s sin. The judgment that fell because of one false step brought condemnation, but the free gift following countless offenses results in a favorable verdict—not guilty. 17 If one man’s sin brought a reign of death—that’s Adam’s legacy—how much more will those who receive grace in abundance and the free gift of redeeming justice reign in life by means of one other man—Jesus the Anointed.
18 So here is the result: as one man’s sin brought about condemnation and punishment for all people, so one man’s act of faithfulness makes all of us right with God and brings us to new life. 19 Just as through one man’s defiant disobedience every one of us were made sinners, so through the willing obedience of the one man many of us will be made right.
20 When the law came into the picture, sin grew and grew; but wherever sin grew and spread, God’s grace was there in fuller, greater measure. No matter how much sin crept in, there was always more grace. 21 In the same way that sin reigned in the sphere of death, now grace reigns through God’s restorative justice, eclipsing death and leading to eternal life through the Anointed One, Jesus our Lord, the Liberating King.
43 When Jeremiah finished giving the people this answer from the Eternal their God—and he did tell them everything that is recorded here, just as he promised— 2 Azariah (son of Hoshaiah) and Johanan (son of Kareah) and all the other overconfident men in that group spoke.
Leaders (to Jeremiah): These words are lies! The Eternal our God didn’t tell you to say, “Do not go to Egypt and settle there.” These are not His words at all. 3 They are the words of Baruch (son of Neriah), your secretary. He is trying to turn you against us so we will be handed over to the Chaldeans, when they come back. If we listen to his counsel, we will be killed or taken into exile in Babylon.
4 So Johanan (son of Kareah), all the other army leaders, and all the people refused to obey the Eternal’s command to remain in Judah. 5 So Johanan (son of Kareah) and the other army officers gathered up all the Judeans who had survived and returned to Judah from the countries they fled to. 6 This vast company of refugees included the men, women, children, and daughters of the royal family and everyone else who Nebuzaradan, captain of the imperial guard, had left in the care of Gedaliah (son of Ahikam and grandson of Shaphan). Jeremiah the prophet and Baruch (son of Neriah) were also forced to join the company leaving Judah for Egypt. 7 And so it was that this vast company of Judeans entered the land of Egypt in disobedience to the voice of the Eternal. They traveled as far as the northern city of Tahpanhes.
Egypt is not where Jeremiah or Baruch want to be, especially since God clearly tells these Judeans—survivors of the Babylonian attack on their land—not to go there. After all these years, Jeremiah again delivers a difficult message to an unreceptive people, this time in Egypt. And once again, he is instructed to act this message so that all can see and clearly understand. Many years have passed since Jeremiah told God he was too young to be His prophet; but here he is, an old man, still performing strange and difficult feats to make His point.
8 While they were in Tahpanhes, the message of the Eternal came to Jeremiah.
Eternal One: 9 While everyone from Judah is watching, pick up some large rocks and then bury them in the clay of the brick pavement at the entrance of Pharaoh’s palace in Tahpanhes. 10 Once you’ve done this, give the people this message from the Eternal, Commander of heavenly armies and God of Israel: “I am sending My servant Nebuchadnezzar, king of Babylon, to Egypt. I will set his throne over the exact spot where I’ve hidden these stones, and he will spread his royal canopy over this exact spot. 11 He is coming to attack Egypt, and he will bring death to those destined to die, captivity to those destined to be captive, and war to those destined to die in battle. 12 I will start a fire, and then he will burn the temples of Egypt’s so-called gods. He will take these idols back to Babylon. He will pick through the land of Egypt as easily as a shepherd picks clean his robe. And once he’s finished, he will return home unharmed. 13 He will tear down the obelisks of Egypt in the temple of the sun. Yes, he will burn down the temples of Egypt’s gods.
Psalm 19
For the worship leader. A song of David.
1 The celestial realms announce God’s glory;
the skies testify of His hands’ great work.
2 Each day pours out more of their sayings;
each night, more to hear and more to learn.
3 Inaudible words are their manner of speech,
and silence, their means to convey.
4 Yet from here to the ends of the earth, their voices[a] have gone out;
the whole world can hear what they say.[b]
God stretched out in these heavens a tent for the sun,
5 And the sun is like a groom
who, after leaving his room, arrives at the wedding in splendor;
He is the strong runner
who, favored to win in his race, is eager to face his challenge.
6 He rises at one end of the skies
and runs in an arc overhead;
nothing can hide from his heat, from the swelter of his daily tread.
7 The Eternal’s law is perfect,
turning lives around.
His words are reliable and true,
instilling wisdom to open minds.
8 The Eternal’s directions are correct,
giving satisfaction to the heart.
God’s commandments are clear,
lending clarity to the eyes.
9 The awe of the Eternal is clean,
sustaining for all of eternity.
The Eternal’s decisions are sound;
they are right through and through.
10 They are worth more than gold—
even more than abundant, pure gold.
They are sweeter to the tongue than honey
or the drippings of the honeycomb.
11 In addition to all that has been said,
Your servant will find, hidden in Your commandments, both a strong warning
and a great reward for keeping them.
12 Who could possibly know all that he has done wrong?
Forgive my hidden and unknown faults.
13 As I am Your servant, protect me from my bent toward pride,
and keep sin from ruling my life.
If You do this, I will be without blame,
innocent of the great breach.
14 May the words that come out of my mouth and the musings of my heart
meet with Your gracious approval,
O Eternal, my Rock,
O Eternal, my Redeemer.
The Voice Bible Copyright © 2012 Thomas Nelson, Inc. The Voice™ translation © 2012 Ecclesia Bible Society All rights reserved.