M’Cheyne Bible Reading Plan

A poor widow

4 Now there was a woman who had been married to a member of a group of prophets. She appealed to Elisha, saying, “My husband, your servant, is dead. You know how he feared the Lord. But now someone he owed money to has come to take my two children away as slaves.”

² Elisha said to her, “What can I do for you? Tell me what you still have left in the house.”

She said, “Your servant has nothing at all in the house except a small jar of oil.”

³ He said, “Go out and borrow containers from all your neighbors. Get as many empty containers as possible. ⁴ Then go in and close the door behind you and your sons. Pour oil into all those containers. Set each one aside when it’s full.”

⁵ She left Elisha and closed the door behind her and her sons. They brought her containers as she kept on pouring. ⁶ When she had filled the containers, she said to her son, “Bring me another container.”

He said to her, “There aren’t any more.” Then the oil stopped flowing, ⁷ and she reported this to the man of God.

He said, “Go! Sell the oil and pay your debts. You and your sons can live on what remains.”

A rich woman

⁸ One day Elisha went to Shunem. A rich woman lived there. She urged him to eat something, so whenever he passed by, he would stop in to eat some food. ⁹ She said to her husband, “Look, I know that he is a holy man of God and he passes by regularly. ¹⁰ Let’s make a small room on the roof. We’ll set up a bed, a table, a chair, and a lamp for him there. Then when he comes to us, he can stay there.”

¹¹ So one day Elisha came there, headed to the room on the roof, and lay down. ¹² He said to his servant Gehazi, “Call this Shunammite woman.” Gehazi called her, and she stood before him. ¹³ Elisha then said to Gehazi, “Say to her, ‘Look, you’ve gone to all this trouble for us. What can I do for you? Is there anything I can say on your behalf to the king or to the commander of the army?’”

She said, “I’m content to live at home with my own people.”

¹⁴ Elisha asked, “So what can be done for her?”

Gehazi said, “Well, she doesn’t have a son, and her husband is old.”

¹⁵ Elisha said, “Call her.” So Gehazi called her, and she stood at the door. ¹⁶ Elisha said, “About this time next year, you will be holding a son in your arms.”

But she said, “No, man of God, sir; don’t lie to your servant.”

¹⁷ But the woman conceived and gave birth to a son at about the same time the next year. This was what Elisha had promised her.

¹⁸ The child grew up. One day he ran to his father, who was with the harvest workers. ¹⁹ He said to his father, “Oh, my head! My head!”

The father said to a young man, “Carry him to his mother.” ²⁰ So he picked up the boy and brought him to his mother.

The boy sat on her lap until noon. Then he died. ²¹ She went up and laid him down on the bed for the man of God. Then she went out and closed the door. ²² She called her husband and said, “Send me one of the young men and one of the donkeys so that I can hurry to the man of God and come back.”

²³ Her husband said, “Why are you going to him today? It’s not a new moon or sabbath.”

She said, “Don’t worry about it.” ²⁴ She saddled the donkey, then said to her young servant, “Drive the donkey hard. Don’t let me slow down unless I tell you.” ²⁵ So she went off and came to the man of God at Mount Carmel.

As soon as the man of God saw her from a distance, he said to Gehazi his servant, “Look, it’s the Shunammite woman! ²⁶ Run out to meet her and ask her, ‘Are things okay with you, your husband, and your child?’”

She said, “Things are okay.”

²⁷ When she got to the man of God at the mountain, she grabbed his feet. Gehazi came up to push her away, but the man of God said, “Leave her alone! She is distraught, but the Lord has hidden the reason from me and hasn’t told me why.”

²⁸ She said, “Did I ask you for a son, sir? Didn’t I say, ‘Don’t raise my hopes’?”

²⁹ Elisha said to Gehazi, “Get ready, take my staff, and go! If you encounter anyone, don’t stop to greet them. If anyone greets you, don’t reply. Put my staff on the boy’s face.”

³⁰ But the boy’s mother said, “I swear by your life and by the Lord’s life, I won’t leave you!” So Elisha got up and followed her.

³¹ Gehazi went on ahead of them. He set the staff on the young boy’s face, but there was no sound or response. So he went back to meet Elisha and told him, “The boy didn’t wake up.”

³² Elisha came into the house and saw the boy lying dead on his bed. ³³ He went in and closed the door behind the two of them. Then he prayed to the Lord. ³⁴ He got up on the bed and lay down on top of the child, putting his mouth on the boy’s mouth, his eyes on the boy’s eyes, his hands on the boy’s hands. And as he bent over him, the child’s skin grew warm. ³⁵ Then Elisha got down and paced back and forth in the house. Once again he got up on the bed and bent over the boy, at which point the boy sneezed^[a] seven times and opened his eyes. ³⁶ Elisha called for Gehazi and said, “Call the Shunammite woman.” Gehazi called her, and she came to Elisha. He told her, “Pick up your son.” ³⁷ She came and fell at his feet, facedown on the ground. Then she picked up her son and left.

Miracles with food

³⁸ When Elisha returned to Gilgal, there was a famine in the land. A group of prophets was sitting before him. He said to his servant, “Put on the big pot and cook some stew for the prophets.” ³⁹ So one of them went out to the field to gather plants; he found a wild vine and gathered wild gourds from it, filling his garment. He came and cut them up into the pot of stew, but no one knew what they were.

⁴⁰ The stew was served to the men, but as they started to eat it, they cried out and said, “There is death in that pot, man of God!” They couldn’t eat it.

⁴¹ Elisha said, “Get some flour.” He threw it into the pot and said, “Serve the people so they can eat.” At that point, there was nothing bad left in the pot.

⁴² A man came from Baal-shalishah, bringing the man of God some bread from the early produce—twenty loaves of barley bread and fresh grain from his bag.^[b] Elisha said, “Give it to the people so they can eat.”

⁴³ His servant said, “How can I feed one hundred men with this?”

Elisha said, “Give it to the people so they can eat! This is what the Lord says: ‘Eat and there will be leftovers.’” ⁴⁴ So the servant gave the food to them. They ate and had leftovers, in agreement with the Lord’s word.

Greeting

1 From Paul, who is an apostle of Jesus Christ by the command of God our savior and of Christ Jesus our hope.

² To Timothy, my true child in the faith.

Grace, mercy, and peace from God the Father and from Christ Jesus our Lord.

Timothy’s purpose in Ephesus

³ When I left for Macedonia, I asked you to stay behind in Ephesus so that you could instruct certain individuals not to spread wrong teaching. ⁴ They shouldn’t pay attention to myths and endless genealogies. Their teaching only causes useless guessing games instead of faithfulness to God’s way of doing things. ⁵ The goal of instruction is love from a pure heart, a good conscience, and a sincere faith. ⁶ Because they missed this goal, some people have been distracted by talk that doesn’t mean anything. ⁷ They want to be teachers of Law without understanding either what they are saying or what they are talking about with such confidence. ⁸ Now we know that the Law is good if used appropriately. ⁹ We understand this: the Law isn’t established for a righteous person but for people who live without laws and without obeying any authority. They are the ungodly and the sinners. They are people who are not spiritual, and nothing is sacred to them. They kill their fathers and mothers, and murder others. ¹⁰ They are people who are sexually unfaithful, and people who have intercourse with the same sex. They are kidnappers,^[a] liars, individuals who give false testimonies in court, and those who do anything else that is opposed to sound teaching. ¹¹ Sound teaching agrees with the glorious gospel of the blessed God that has been trusted to me.

Thanksgiving

¹² I thank Christ Jesus our Lord, who has given me strength because he considered me faithful. So he appointed me to ministry ¹³ even though I used to speak against him, attack his people, and I was proud. But I was shown mercy because I acted in ignorance and without faith. ¹⁴ Our Lord’s favor poured all over me along with the faithfulness and love that are in Christ Jesus. ¹⁵ This saying is reliable and deserves full acceptance: “Christ Jesus came into the world to save sinners”—and I’m the biggest sinner of all. ¹⁶ But this is why I was shown mercy, so that Christ Jesus could show his endless patience to me first of all. So I’m an example for those who are going to believe in him for eternal life. ¹⁷ Now to the king of the ages, to the immortal, invisible, and only God, may honor and glory be given to him forever and always! Amen.

Importance of faith and a good conscience

¹⁸ Timothy, my child, I’m giving you these instructions based on the prophecies that were once made about you. So if you follow them, you can wage a good war ¹⁹ because you have faith and a good conscience. Some people have ruined their faith because they refused to listen to their conscience, ²⁰ such as Hymenaeus and Alexander. I’ve handed them over to Satan so that they can be taught not to speak against God.

Vision of a ram and a goat

8 In the third year of King Belshazzar’s rule, a vision came to me, Daniel, some time after the earlier vision I had. ² I saw this vision, and as I experienced it I was in the walled city of Susa in the province of Elam,^[a] by the Ulai canal. ³ When I lifted my eyes, I suddenly saw a ram with two horns standing in front of the canal. Both horns were high, but one was higher than the other. The higher one came up after the other one. ⁴ I saw the ram goring west, north, and south. No animal could resist the ram, and no one could stop it, rescuing others from its power. The ram did whatever it pleased. It became powerful.

⁵ I was trying to understand this when suddenly a he-goat came from the west, crossing the entire earth but not touching the ground. Between this goat’s eyes was a horn that was a sight to see. ⁶ The he-goat came to the ram that had two horns, the one I’d seen standing in front of the canal. The he-goat charged the ram in powerful anger. ⁷ I saw the he-goat approach the ram. It was enraged at the ram and attacked it, shattering the ram’s two horns. The ram couldn’t resist the he-goat. The he-goat threw the ram on the ground and trampled on it. No one could rescue the ram from the he-goat’s power.

⁸ The he-goat became even greater, but at the height of its power, its large horn snapped. In its place, four horns, each a sight to see, came up toward the four winds of heaven. ⁹ A single, very small horn came out of one of the four horns. It grew bigger and bigger, stretching toward the south, the east, and the beautiful country. ¹⁰ It grew as high as the heavenly forces, until it finally threw some of them and some of the stars down to the earth. Then it trampled on them. ¹¹ It grew as high as the very leader of those forces, taking the daily sacrifice away from him^[b] and overturning his holy place. ¹² In an act of rebellion, another force will take control of the daily sacrifice. It will throw truth to the ground and will succeed in everything it does.^[c]

How long?

¹³ I then heard a certain holy one speaking. A second holy one said to the first one: “How long will this vision last—the one concerning the daily sacrifice, the desolating rebellion, and the handing over of the sanctuary and its forces to be trampled?”

¹⁴ He said to me, “For two thousand three hundred evenings and mornings. Then the sanctuary will be restored.”

Vision interpreted

¹⁵ Now I, Daniel, needed help understanding the vision I saw. Suddenly standing in front of me was someone who looked like a man. ¹⁶ I then heard a human voice coming out of the center of the Ulai canal. It called out: “Gabriel, help this person understand what he has seen.”

¹⁷ Gabriel approached me, and I was terrified when he came. I fell with my face to the ground. Gabriel said to me, “Know this, human one: the vision is for the end time.” ¹⁸ As soon as he said this to me, I fell into a trance. My face was still on the ground. Then Gabriel touched me and set me up on my feet.

¹⁹ He said, “Now, I am going to tell you what will happen during the time of doom that is coming, because at the appointed time there will be an end. ²⁰ The two-horned ram you saw represents the kings of Media and Persia. ²¹ The long-haired he-goat is the king of Greece, and the big horn between its eyes is the first king. ²² The horn that snapped so that four came up in its place means that four kingdoms will come from one nation, but these four won’t have the strength of the first one.

²⁶ Now this vision of evening and morning, which has been announced, is true. But you must seal it up, because it is for days far in the future.”

²⁷ Then I, Daniel, was overwhelmed and felt sick for days. When I finally got up and went about the king’s business, I remained troubled by the vision and couldn’t understand it.

Psalm 116