M’Cheyne Bible Reading Plan

16 So they brought the Ark of God into the special tent that David had prepared for it, and the leaders of Israel sacrificed burnt offerings and peace offerings before God. ² At the conclusion of these offerings David blessed the people in the name of the Lord; ³ then he gave every person present^[a] (men and women alike) a loaf of bread, some wine, and a cake of raisins.

⁴ He appointed certain of the Levites to minister before the Ark by giving constant praise and thanks to the Lord God of Israel and by asking for his blessings upon his people. These are the names of those given this assignment: ⁵ Asaph, the leader of this detail, sounded the cymbals. His associates were Zechariah, Jeiel, Shemiramoth, Jehiel, Mattithiah, Eliab, Benaiah, Obed-edom, and Jeiel; they played the harps and zithers. ⁶ The priests Benaiah and Jahaziel played their trumpets regularly before the Ark.

⁷ At that time David began the custom of using choirs in the Tabernacle to sing thanksgiving to the Lord. Asaph was the director of this choral group of priests.

And all the people shouted “Amen!” and praised the Lord.

³⁷ David arranged for Asaph and his fellow Levites to minister regularly at the Tabernacle,^[b] doing each day whatever needed to be done. ³⁸ This group included Obed-edom (the son of Jeduthun), Hosah, and sixty-eight of their colleagues as guards.

³⁹ Meanwhile the old Tabernacle of the Lord on the hill of Gibeon continued to be active. David left Zadok the priest and his fellow priests to minister to the Lord there. ⁴⁰ They sacrificed burnt offerings to the Lord each morning and evening upon the altar set aside for that purpose, just as the Lord had commanded Israel. ⁴¹ David also appointed Heman, Jeduthun, and several others who were chosen by name to give thanks to the Lord for his constant love and mercy. ⁴² They used their trumpets and cymbals to accompany the singers with loud praises to God. And Jeduthun’s sons were appointed as guards.

⁴³ At last the celebration ended and the people returned to their homes, and David returned to bless his own household.

3 ^1-2 Dear brothers, don’t be too eager to tell others their faults,^[a] for we all make many mistakes; and when we teachers of religion, who should know better, do wrong, our punishment will be greater than it would be for others.

If anyone can control his tongue, it proves that he has perfect control over himself in every other way. ³ We can make a large horse turn around and go wherever we want by means of a small bit in his mouth. ⁴ And a tiny rudder makes a huge ship turn wherever the pilot wants it to go, even though the winds are strong.

⁵ So also the tongue is a small thing, but what enormous damage it can do. A great forest can be set on fire by one tiny spark. ⁶ And the tongue is a flame of fire. It is full of wickedness, and poisons every part of the body. And the tongue is set on fire by hell itself and can turn our whole lives into a blazing flame of destruction and disaster.

⁷ Men have trained, or can train, every kind of animal or bird that lives and every kind of reptile and fish, ⁸ but no human being can tame the tongue. It is always ready to pour out its deadly poison. ⁹ Sometimes it praises our heavenly Father, and sometimes it breaks out into curses against men who are made like God. ¹⁰ And so blessing and cursing come pouring out of the same mouth. Dear brothers, surely this is not right! ¹¹ Does a spring of water bubble out first with fresh water and then with bitter water? ¹² Can you pick olives from a fig tree, or figs from a grape vine? No, and you can’t draw fresh water from a salty pool.

¹³ If you are wise, live a life of steady goodness so that only good deeds will pour forth. And if you don’t brag about them, then you will be truly wise! ¹⁴ And by all means don’t brag about being wise and good if you are bitter and jealous and selfish; that is the worst sort of lie. ¹⁵ For jealousy and selfishness are not God’s kind of wisdom. Such things are earthly, unspiritual, inspired by the devil. ¹⁶ For wherever there is jealousy or selfish ambition, there will be disorder and every other kind of evil.

¹⁷ But the wisdom that comes from heaven is first of all pure and full of quiet gentleness. Then it is peace-loving and courteous. It allows discussion and is willing to yield to others; it is full of mercy and good deeds. It is wholehearted and straightforward and sincere. ¹⁸ And those who are peacemakers will plant seeds of peace and reap a harvest of goodness.

¹ In a vision the Lord God showed Obadiah the future of the land of Edom.^[a]

“A report has come from the Lord,” he said, “that God has sent an ambassador to the nations with this message: ‘Attention! You are to send your armies against Edom and destroy her!’”

² “I will cut you down to size among the nations, Edom, making you small and despised.

³ “You are proud because you live in those high, inaccessible cliffs. ‘Who can ever reach us way up here!’ you boast. Don’t fool yourselves! ⁴ Though you soar as high as eagles, and build your nest among the stars, I will bring you plummeting down,” says the Lord.

⁵ “Far better it would be for you if thieves had come at night to plunder you—for they would not take everything! Or if your vineyards were robbed of all their fruit—for at least the gleanings would be left! ⁶ Every nook and cranny will be searched and robbed, and every treasure found and taken.

⁷ “All your allies will turn against you and help to push you out of your land. They will promise peace while plotting your destruction. Your trusted friends will set traps for you, and all your counterstrategy will fail. ⁸ In that day not one wise man will be left in all of Edom!” says the Lord. “For I will fill the wise men of Edom with stupidity. ⁹ The mightiest soldiers of Teman will be confused, and helpless to prevent the slaughter.

¹⁰ “And why? Because of what you did to your brother Israel. Now your sins will be exposed for all to see; ashamed and defenseless, you will be cut off forever. ¹¹ For you deserted Israel in his time of need. You stood aloof, refusing to lift a finger to help him when invaders carried off his wealth and divided Jerusalem among them by lot; you were as one of his enemies.

¹² “You should not have done it. You should not have gloated when they took him far away to foreign lands; you should not have rejoiced in the day of his misfortune; you should not have mocked in his time of need. ¹³ You yourselves went into the land of Israel in the day of his calamity and looted him. You made yourselves rich at his expense. ¹⁴ You stood at the crossroads and killed those trying to escape; you captured the survivors and returned them to their enemies in that terrible time of his distress.

¹⁵ The Lord’s vengeance will soon fall upon all Gentile nations. As you have done to Israel, so will it be done to you. Your acts will boomerang upon your heads. ¹⁶ You drank my cup of punishment upon my holy mountain, and the nations round about will drink it too; yes, they will drink and stagger back and disappear from history, no longer nations anymore.

¹⁷ “But Jerusalem will become a refuge, a way of escape. Israel will reoccupy the land. ¹⁸ Israel will be a fire that sets the dry fields of Edom aflame. There will be no survivors,” for the Lord has spoken.

¹⁹ Then my people who live in the Negeb shall occupy the hill country of Edom; those living in Judean lowlands shall possess the Philistine plains and repossess the fields of Ephraim and Samaria. And the people of Benjamin shall possess Gilead.

²⁰ The Israeli exiles shall return and occupy the Phoenician coastal strip as far north as Zarephath. Those exiled in Asia Minor shall return to their homeland and conquer the Negeb’s outlying villages. ²¹ For deliverers will come to Jerusalem and rule all Edom. And the Lord shall be King!

5 One day as he was preaching on the shore of Lake Gennesaret, great crowds pressed in on him to listen to the Word of God. ² He noticed two empty boats standing at the water’s edge while the fishermen washed their nets. ³ Stepping into one of the boats, Jesus asked Simon, its owner, to push out a little into the water, so that he could sit in the boat and speak to the crowds from there.

⁴ When he had finished speaking, he said to Simon, “Now go out where it is deeper and let down your nets and you will catch a lot of fish!”

⁵ “Sir,” Simon replied, “we worked hard all last night and didn’t catch a thing. But if you say so, we’ll try again.”

⁶ And this time their nets were so full that they began to tear! ⁷ A shout for help brought their partners in the other boat, and soon both boats were filled with fish and on the verge of sinking.

⁸ When Simon Peter realized what had happened, he fell to his knees before Jesus and said, “Oh, sir, please leave us—I’m too much of a sinner for you to have around.” ⁹ For he was awestruck by the size of their catch, as were the others with him, ¹⁰ and his partners too—James and John, the sons of Zebedee. Jesus replied, “Don’t be afraid! From now on you’ll be fishing for the souls of men!”

¹¹ And as soon as they landed, they left everything and went with him.

¹² One day in a certain village he was visiting, there was a man with an advanced case of leprosy. When he saw Jesus, he fell to the ground before him, face downward in the dust, begging to be healed.

“Sir,” he said, “if you only will, you can clear me of every trace of my disease.”

¹³ Jesus reached out and touched the man and said, “Of course I will. Be healed.” And the leprosy left him instantly! ¹⁴ Then Jesus instructed him to go at once without telling anyone what had happened and be examined by the Jewish priest. “Offer the sacrifice Moses’ law requires for lepers who are healed,” he said. “This will prove to everyone that you are well.” ¹⁵ Now the report of his power spread even faster and vast crowds came to hear him preach and to be healed of their diseases. ¹⁶ But he often withdrew to the wilderness for prayer.

¹⁷ One day while he was teaching, some Jewish religious leaders^[a] and teachers of the Law were sitting nearby. (It seemed that these men showed up from every village in all Galilee and Judea, as well as from Jerusalem.) And the Lord’s healing power was upon him.

^18-19 Then—look! Some men came carrying a paralyzed man on a sleeping mat. They tried to push through the crowd to Jesus but couldn’t reach him. So they went up on the roof above him, took off some tiles, and lowered the sick man down into the crowd, still on his sleeping mat, right in front of Jesus.

²⁰ Seeing their faith, Jesus said to the man, “My friend, your sins are forgiven!”

²¹ “Who does this fellow think he is?” the Pharisees and teachers of the Law exclaimed among themselves. “This is blasphemy! Who but God can forgive sins?”

²² Jesus knew what they were thinking, and he replied, “Why is it blasphemy? ^23-24 I, the Messiah,^[b] have the authority on earth to forgive sins. But talk is cheap—anybody could say that. So I’ll prove it to you by healing this man.” Then, turning to the paralyzed man, he commanded, “Pick up your stretcher and go on home, for you are healed!”

²⁵ And immediately, as everyone watched, the man jumped to his feet, picked up his mat and went home praising God! ²⁶ Everyone present was gripped with awe and fear. And they praised God, remarking over and over again, “We have seen strange things today.”

²⁷ Later on as Jesus left the town he saw a tax collector—with the usual reputation for cheating—sitting at a tax collection booth. The man’s name was Levi. Jesus said to him, “Come and be one of my disciples!” ²⁸ So Levi left everything, sprang up, and went with him.

²⁹ Soon Levi held a reception in his home with Jesus as the guest of honor. Many of Levi’s fellow tax collectors and other guests were there.

³⁰ But the Pharisees and teachers of the Law complained bitterly to Jesus’ disciples about his eating with such notorious sinners.

³¹ Jesus answered them, “It is the sick who need a doctor, not those in good health. ³² My purpose is to invite sinners to turn from their sins, not to spend my time with those who think themselves already good enough.”

³³ Their next complaint was that Jesus’ disciples were feasting instead of fasting. “John the Baptist’s disciples are constantly going without food and praying,” they declared, “and so do the disciples of the Pharisees. Why are yours wining and dining?”

³⁴ Jesus asked, “Do happy men fast? Do wedding guests go hungry while celebrating with the groom? ³⁵ But the time will come when the bridegroom will be killed;^[c] then they won’t want to eat.”

³⁶ Then Jesus used this illustration: “No one tears off a piece of a new garment to make a patch for an old one. Not only will the new garment be ruined, but the old garment will look worse with a new patch on it! ³⁷ And no one puts new wine into old wineskins, for the new wine bursts the old skins, ruining the skins and spilling the wine. ³⁸ New wine must be put into new wineskins. ³⁹ But no one after drinking the old wine seems to want the fresh and the new. ‘The old ways are best,’ they say.”