M’Cheyne Bible Reading Plan

A Prophet’s Widow Asks Elisha for Help

4 A man from the group of prophets^[a] had a wife. This man died, and his wife cried out to Elisha, “My husband was like a servant to you. Now he is dead! You know he honored the Lord. But he owed money to a man. Now that man is coming to take my two boys and make them his slaves!”

² Elisha answered, “How can I help you? Tell me, what do you have in your house?”

The woman said, “I don’t have anything in the house except a jar of olive oil.”

³ Then Elisha said, “Go and borrow bowls from all your neighbors. They must be empty. Borrow plenty of bowls. ⁴ Then go to your house and close the doors. Only you and your sons will be in the house. Then pour the oil into all the bowls. Fill them, and put them in a separate place.”

⁵ So the woman left Elisha, went into her house, and shut the door. Only she and her sons were in the house. Her sons brought the bowls to her and she poured oil. ⁶ She filled many bowls. Finally, she said to her son, “Bring me another bowl.”

But all the bowls were full. One of the sons said to her, “There aren’t any more bowls.” Then the oil in the jar was finished!

⁷ When she told the man of God what had happened, Elisha said to her, “Go, sell the oil and pay your debt. You and your sons can live on the money that is left.”

A Woman in Shunem Gives Elisha a Room

⁸ One day Elisha went to Shunem, where an important woman lived. She asked Elisha to stop and eat at her house. So every time Elisha went through that place, he stopped there to eat.

⁹ The woman said to her husband, “Look, I can see that Elisha is a holy man of God. He passes by our house all the time. ¹⁰ Please, let’s make a little room on the roof^[b] for him. Let’s put a bed in this room and a table, a chair, and a lampstand. Then when he comes to our house, he can have this room for himself.”

¹¹ One day Elisha came to the woman’s house. He went to this room and rested there. ¹² Elisha said to his servant Gehazi, “Call this Shunammite woman.”

The servant called the Shunammite woman, and she stood in front of Elisha. ¹³ Elisha told his servant, “Now say to her, ‘Look, you have done your best to take care of us. What can we do for you? Do you want us to speak to the king for you, or to the captain of the army?’”

She answered, “I am fine living here among my own people.”

¹⁴ Elisha said to Gehazi, “What can we do for her?”

He answered, “I know! She does not have a son, and her husband is old.”

¹⁵ Then Elisha said, “Call her.”

So Gehazi called the woman. She came and stood at his door. ¹⁶ Elisha said, “About this time next spring, you will be holding your own baby boy in your arms.”

The woman said, “No, sir! Man of God, don’t lie to me!”

The Woman in Shunem Has a Son

¹⁷ But the woman did become pregnant and gave birth to a son that next spring, just as Elisha had said.

¹⁸ The boy grew. One day the boy went out into the fields to see his father and the men cutting the grain. ¹⁹ The boy said to his father, “Oh, my head! My head hurts!”

The father said to his servant, “Carry him to his mother!”

²⁰ The servant took the boy to his mother. The boy sat on his mother’s lap until noon. Then he died.

The Woman Goes to See Elisha

²¹ The woman laid the boy on the bed of Elisha, the man of God. Then she shut the door to that room and went outside. ²² She called to her husband and said, “Please send me one of the servants and a donkey. Then I will go quickly to get the man of God and come back.”

²³ The woman’s husband said, “Why would you want to go to the man of God today? It isn’t the New Moon or Sabbath day.”

She said, “Goodbye!”^[c]

²⁴ Then she put a saddle on a donkey and said to her servant, “Let’s go, and hurry! Go slow only when I tell you.”

²⁵ The woman went to Mount Carmel to get the man of God.

The man of God saw the Shunammite woman coming from far away and said to his servant Gehazi, “Look, there’s the Shunammite woman! ²⁶ Please run now to meet her! Say to her, ‘Are you all right? Is your husband all right? Is the child all right?’”

She answered, “Everything is all right.”^[d]

²⁷ But the Shunammite woman went up the hill to the man of God. She bowed down and touched Elisha’s feet. Gehazi came near to pull her away. But the man of God said to Gehazi, “Leave her alone! She’s very upset, and the Lord didn’t tell me about it. He hid this news from me.”

²⁸ Then she said, “Sir, I never asked for a son. I told you, ‘Don’t trick me!’”

²⁹ Then Elisha said to Gehazi, “Get ready to go. Take my walking stick and go! If you meet anyone along the way, don’t even stop to say hello to him. If anyone says hello to you, don’t answer. Put my walking stick on the child’s face.”

³⁰ But the child’s mother said, “I promise, as the Lord lives and as you live, I will not leave without you!”

So Elisha got up and followed her.

³¹ Gehazi arrived at the house before Elisha and the Shunammite woman. Gehazi laid the walking stick on the child’s face, but the child did not talk or show any sign that he heard anything. Then Gehazi came back to meet Elisha and said, “The child will not wake up!”

The Woman’s Son Comes Back to Life

³² Elisha went into the house, and there was the child, lying dead on his bed. ³³ Elisha went into the room and shut the door. He and the child were alone in the room now. Then he prayed to the Lord. ³⁴ Elisha went to the bed and lay on the child. He put his eyes on the child’s eyes, his mouth on the child’s mouth, and his hands on the child’s hands. He lay there on top of the child until the child’s body became warm.

³⁵ Then Elisha turned away and walked around the room. He went back and lay on the child until the child sneezed seven times and opened his eyes.

³⁶ Elisha called Gehazi and said, “Call the Shunammite woman!”

Gehazi called her, and she came to Elisha. Elisha said, “Pick up your son.”

³⁷ Then the Shunammite woman went into the room and bowed down at Elisha’s feet. Then she picked up her son and went out.

Elisha and the Poisoned Soup

³⁸ Elisha went to Gilgal again. There was a famine in the land. The group of prophets was sitting in front of Elisha. Elisha said to his servant, “Put the large pot on the fire, and make some soup for the group of prophets.”

³⁹ One man went out into the field to gather herbs. He found a wild vine and picked the fruit from it. He put that fruit in his robe and brought it back. He cut up the wild fruit and put it into the pot. But the group of prophets did not know what kind of fruit it was.

⁴⁰ Then they poured some of the soup for the men to eat. But when they began to eat the soup, they shouted out, “Man of God! There’s poison in the pot!” The food tasted like poison, so they could not eat that food.

⁴¹ But Elisha said, “Bring some flour.” He threw the flour into the pot. Then he said, “Pour the soup for the people so that they can eat.”

And there was nothing wrong with the soup.

Elisha Feeds the Group of Prophets

⁴² A man from Baal Shalishah came and brought bread from the first harvest to the man of God. This man brought 20 loaves of barley bread and fresh grain in his sack. Then Elisha said, “Give this food to the people, so that they can eat.”

⁴³ Elisha’s servant said, “What? There are 100 men here. How can I give this food to all those men?”

But Elisha said, “Give the food to the people to eat. The Lord says, ‘They will eat and there will still be food left over.’”

⁴⁴ Then Elisha’s servant put the food in front of the group of prophets. The group of prophets had enough to eat, and they even had food left over. This happened just as the Lord had said.

1 Greetings from Paul, an apostle of Christ Jesus. I am an apostle by the command of God our Savior and Christ Jesus our hope.

² To Timothy, a true son to me in the faith we share.

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

Warnings Against False Teachings

³ When I went to Macedonia, I asked you to stay in Ephesus. Some people there are teaching things that are not true, and I want you to tell them to stop. ⁴ Tell them not to give their time to meaningless stories and to long lists of names to prove their family histories. Such things only cause arguments. They don’t help God’s work, which is done only by faith. ⁵ My purpose in telling you to do this is to promote love—the kind of love shown by those whose thoughts are pure, who do what they know is right, and whose faith in God is real. ⁶ But some have missed this key point in their teaching and have gone off in another direction. Now they talk about things that help no one. ⁷ They want to be teachers of the law,^[a] but they don’t know what they are talking about. They don’t even understand the things they say they are sure of.

⁸ We know that the law is good if someone uses it right. ⁹ We also know that the law is not made for those who do what is right. It is made for those who are against the law and refuse to follow it. The law is for sinners who are against God and all that is pleasing to him. It is for those who have no interest in spiritual things and for those who kill their fathers or mothers or anyone else. ¹⁰ It is for those who commit sexual sins, homosexuals, those who sell slaves, those who tell lies, those who don’t tell the truth under oath, and those who are against the true teaching of God. ¹¹ That teaching is part of the Good News that our blessed God gave me to tell. In it we see his glory.

Thanks for God’s Mercy

¹² I thank Christ Jesus our Lord because he trusted me and gave me this work of serving him. He gives me strength. ¹³ In the past I insulted Christ. As a proud and violent man, I persecuted his people. But God gave me mercy because I did not know what I was doing. I did that before I became a believer. ¹⁴ But our Lord gave me a full measure of his grace. And with that grace came the faith and love that are in Christ Jesus.

¹⁵ Here is a true statement that should be accepted without question: Christ Jesus came into the world to save sinners, and I am the worst of them. ¹⁶ But I was given mercy so that in me Christ Jesus could show that he has patience without limit. Christ showed his patience with me, the worst of all sinners. He wanted me to be an example for those who would believe in him and have eternal life. ¹⁷ Honor and glory to the King who rules forever. He cannot be destroyed and cannot be seen. Honor and glory forever and ever to the only God. Amen.

¹⁸ Timothy, you are like a son to me. What I am telling you to do agrees with the prophecies^[b] that were told about you in the past. I want you to remember those prophecies and fight the good fight of faith. ¹⁹ Continue to trust in God and do what you know is right. Some people have not done this, and their faith is now in ruins. ²⁰ Hymenaeus and Alexander are men like that. I have given them to Satan so that they will learn not to speak against God.

Daniel’s Vision of a Ram and a Goat

8 After that vision,^[a] I, Daniel, saw another vision during the third year that Belshazzar^[b] was king. ² In the vision I saw that I was in the city of Susa.^[c] Susa was the capital city in the province of Elam. I was standing by the Ulai River. ³ I looked up and saw a ram standing at the side of the river. The ram had two long horns. The horns were both long, but one horn was longer than the other horn. The long horn was farther back than the other horn. ⁴ I watched the ram run into things with its horns. I watched the ram run to the west, to the north, and to the south. No animal could stop the ram, and no one could save the other animals. That ram did whatever it wanted, and it became very powerful.

⁵ I thought about the ram. While I was watching, I saw a male goat come from the west. It had one large horn that was easy to see. It ran so fast its feet barely touched the ground.

⁶ The goat came to the ram with the two horns. (This was the ram I had seen standing by the Ulai River.) The goat was very angry and ran at the ram. ⁷ As I watched, the goat ran at the ram and broke both of the ram’s horns. The ram could not stop the goat. The goat knocked it to the ground and walked all over it. There was no one to save the ram from the goat.

⁸ So the goat became very powerful. But after he became strong, his big horn broke off. Then four horns grew in place of the one big horn. Those four horns were easy to see. They pointed in four different directions.

⁹ Then a little horn grew from one of those four horns. It grew and became very big. It grew toward the southeast, toward the Beautiful Land. ¹⁰ The little horn became very big. It grew until it reached the sky. It even threw some of heaven’s army^[d] to the ground and trampled them. ¹¹ That little horn became very strong, and it turned against God, the Ruler of heaven’s army. It stopped the daily sacrifices that were offered to the Ruler. And the holy place where people worshiped the Ruler was pulled down. ¹² Because of this sin, the daily sacrifices were stopped. Truth was thrown down to the ground. The little horn did these things and was very successful.

¹³ Then I heard two holy ones^[e] talking with each other. One of them asked the other one, who had been speaking, “How long will the things in this vision last—the stopping of the daily sacrifices, the sin that destroys, and the trampling down of the holy place and heaven’s army?”

¹⁴ The other holy one said, “This will last for 2300 days. Then the holy place will be repaired.”

The Vision Is Explained to Daniel

¹⁵ I, Daniel, saw this vision and tried to understand what it meant. While I was thinking about the vision, someone who looked like a man suddenly stood in front of me. ¹⁶ Then I heard a man’s voice. This voice came from above the Ulai River. The voice called out, “Gabriel, explain the vision to this man.”

¹⁷ So Gabriel, the angel who looked like a man, came to me. I was very afraid and fell down to the ground. But Gabriel said to me, “Human,^[f] understand that this vision is about the time of the end.”

¹⁸ While Gabriel was speaking, I fell to the ground and went to sleep. It was a very deep sleep. Then Gabriel touched me and lifted me to my feet. ¹⁹ He said, “Now, I will explain the vision to you. I will tell you what will happen in the future. Your vision was about the end times.

²⁰ “You saw a ram with two horns. The horns are the countries of Media and Persia. ²¹ The goat is the king of Greece. The big horn between its eyes is the first king. ²² That horn broke off and four horns grew in its place. The four horns are four kingdoms. Those four kingdoms will come from the nation of the first king, but they will not be as strong as the first king.

²³ “When the end is near for those kingdoms, there will be a very bold and cruel king who will be very tricky. This will happen when many people have turned against God. ²⁴ This king will be very powerful, but his power does not come from himself.^[g] This king will cause terrible destruction. He will be successful in everything he does. He will destroy powerful people—even God’s holy people.

²⁵ “This king will be very smart and tricky. He will use his wisdom and lies to be successful. He will think that he is very important. He will destroy many people, when they least expect it. He will try to fight even the Prince of Princes. But that cruel king’s power will be destroyed, and it will not be a human hand that destroys him.

²⁶ “What I said and the vision about those times are true. But seal up the vision, because those things will not happen for a long, long time.”

²⁷ I, Daniel, became very weak. I was sick for several days after that vision. Then I got up and went back to work for the king, but I was very upset about the vision. I did not understand what it meant.