M’Cheyne Bible Reading Plan

Man Does Not Obey God

3 Now the snake was more able to fool others than any animal of the field which the Lord God had made. He said to the woman, “Did God say that you should not eat from any tree in the garden?” ² Then the woman said to the snake, “We may eat the fruit of the trees of the garden. ³ But from the tree which is in the center of the garden, God has said, ‘Do not eat from it or touch it, or you will die.’”

⁴ The snake said to the woman, “No, you for sure will not die! ⁵ For God knows that when you eat from it, your eyes will be opened and you will be like God, knowing good and bad.” ⁶ The woman saw that the tree was good for food, and pleasing to the eyes, and could fill the desire of making one wise. So she took of its fruit and ate. She also gave some to her husband, and he ate. ⁷ Then the eyes of both of them were opened, and they knew they were without clothes. So they sewed fig leaves together and made themselves clothing.

⁸ Then they heard the sound of the Lord God walking in the garden in the evening. The man and his wife hid themselves from the Lord God among the trees of the garden. ⁹ But the Lord God called to the man. He said to him, “Where are you?” ¹⁰ And the man said, “I heard the sound of You in the garden. I was afraid because I was without clothes. So I hid myself.” ¹¹ The Lord God said, “Who told you that you were without clothes? Have you eaten from the tree of which I told you not to eat?” ¹² The man said, “The woman whom You gave to be with me, she gave me fruit of the tree, and I ate.” ¹³ Then the Lord God said to the woman, “What is this you have done?” And the woman said, “The snake fooled me, and I ate.”

¹⁴ Then the Lord God said to the snake, “Because you have done this, you will be hated and will suffer more than all cattle, and more than every animal of the field. You will go on your stomach and you will eat dust all the days of your life. ¹⁵ And I will make you and the woman hate each other, and your seed and her seed will hate each other. He will crush your head, and you will crush his heel.”

¹⁶ To the woman He said, “I will make your pain much worse in giving birth. You will give birth to children in pain. Yet your desire will be for your husband, and he will rule over you.”

¹⁷ Then He said to Adam, “Because you have listened to the voice of your wife, and have eaten from the tree of which I told you, “Do not eat from it,” the ground is cursed because of you. By hard work you will eat food from it all the days of your life. ¹⁸ It will grow thorns and thistles for you. You will eat the plants of the field. ¹⁹ You will eat bread by the sweat of your face because of hard work, until you return to the ground, because you were taken from the ground. You are dust, and you will return to dust.”

²⁰ The man called his wife’s name Eve, because she was the mother of all living. ²¹ And the Lord God made clothes of skins for Adam and his wife, and dressed them.

²² Then the Lord God said, “See, the man has become like one of Us, knowing good and bad. Now then, he might put out his hand to take from the tree of life also, and eat and live forever.” ²³ So the Lord God sent him out from the garden of Eden, to work the ground from which he was taken. ²⁴ So He drove the man out. And He placed cherubim east of the garden of Eden with a sword of fire that turned every way. They kept watch over the path to the tree of life.

John the Baptist Makes the Way Ready for Jesus ^(A)

3 In those days John the Baptist came preaching in the desert in the country of Judea. ² He said, “Be sorry for your sins and turn from them! The holy nation of heaven is near.” ³ The early preacher Isaiah spoke of this man. He said, “Listen! His voice calls out in the desert! ‘Make the way ready for the Lord. Make the road straight for Him!’” ^(B)

⁴ John wore clothes made of hair from camels. He had a leather belt around him. His food was locusts and wild honey.

⁵ Then the people of Jerusalem and of all the country of Judea and those from near the Jordan River went to him. ⁶ Those who told of their sins were baptized by him in the Jordan River. ⁷ He saw many proud religious law-keepers and other people of the religious group who believe no one will be raised from the dead. They were coming to him to be baptized. He said to them, “You family of snakes! Who told you how to keep from God’s anger that is coming? ⁸ Do something to show me that your hearts are changed. ⁹ Do not think you can say to yourselves, ‘We have Abraham as our father.’ For I tell you, God can make children for Abraham out of these stones.

¹⁰ “Even now the ax is on the root of the trees. Every tree that does not give good fruit is cut down and thrown into the fire. ¹¹ For sure, I baptize with water those who are sorry for their sins and turn from them. The One Who comes after me will baptize you with the Holy Spirit and with fire. He is greater than I. I am not good enough to take off His shoes. ¹² He comes ready to clean the grain. He will gather the grain in and clean it all. The clean grain He will put into a building. He will burn that which is no good with a fire that cannot be put out.”

The Baptism of Jesus ^(C)

¹³ Jesus came from Galilee. He went to John at the Jordan River to be baptized by him. ¹⁴ John tried to stop Him. He said, “I need to be baptized by You. Do You come to me?” ¹⁵ Jesus said to him, “Let it be done now. We should do what is right.” John agreed and baptized Jesus. ¹⁶ When Jesus came up out of the water, the heavens opened. He saw the Spirit of God coming down and resting on Jesus like a dove. ¹⁷ A voice was heard from heaven. It said, “This is My much-loved Son. I am very happy with Him.”

Worship Begins

3 When the seventh month came, and the sons of Israel were in the cities, the people gathered together as one man in Jerusalem. ² Then Jozadak’s son Jeshua and his brothers the religious leaders, and Shealtiel’s son Zerubbabel and his brothers, built the altar of the God of Israel, to give burnt gifts on it. They did this as it is written in the Law of Moses, the man of God. ³ So they set up the altar in its place, for they were afraid because of the peoples of the lands. On it they gave burnt gifts in worship to the Lord morning and evening. ⁴ They kept the Special Supper of Tents, as it is written. They gave the right number of burnt gifts every day by the Law, as was needed for each day. ⁵ After that they gave the gifts to be burned day and night and for the new moons, and for all the special times of the Lord, and the gifts from every one who brought a free-will gift to the Lord. ⁶ From the first day of the seventh month they began to give burnt gifts to the Lord. But the house of the Lord had not begun to be built. ⁷ So they gave money to the men who worked with stone and wood. They gave food, drink and oil to the Sidonians and Tyrians so the cedar wood could be brought from Lebanon to the sea at Joppa, as King Cyrus of Persia had allowed them.

Work on the House of God Begins

⁸ In the second month of the second year of their coming to the house of God at Jerusalem, Zerubbabel the son of Shealtiel, Jeshua the son of Jozadak, and the rest of their brothers the religious leaders and Levites, and all who returned from Babylon to Jerusalem, began the work. And they chose the Levites from twenty years old and older to watch over the work of the Lord’s house. ⁹ Then Jeshua with his sons and brothers, Kadmiel and his sons, the sons of Judah, and the sons of Henadad with their sons and brothers the Levites, together watched over the workmen in the house of God. ¹⁰ When the builders had begun building the house of the Lord, the religious leaders stood in their religious clothing blowing horns. The Levites, the sons of Asaph, stood with brass noise-makers. And they praised the Lord, as they had been told by King David of Israel. ¹¹ They sang, praising and giving thanks to the Lord, saying, “For He is good, for His loving-kindness is upon Israel forever.” All the people called out with a loud voice when they praised the Lord because the work on the house of the Lord had begun. ¹² But many of the religious leaders and Levites and heads of the family groups were old men who had seen the first house of the Lord. And they cried with a loud voice when the work of this house was begun in front of their eyes. But many called out for joy in a loud voice. ¹³ The people could not tell the difference between the sound of joy and the sound of crying. For the people called out with a loud voice, and the sound was heard far away.

Peter and John Heal a Man at the Gate of the House of God

3 Peter and John were going to the house of God about three o’clock. It was the time for prayer. ² Each day a certain man was carried to the Beautiful Gate of the house of God. This man had never been able to walk. He was there begging for money from those who were going in. ³ He asked Peter and John for money when he saw them going in. ⁴ Peter and John looked at him. Then Peter said, “Look at us!” ⁵ The man who could not walk looked at them. He thought he would get something from them. ⁶ Peter said, “I have no money, but what I have I will give you! In the name of Jesus Christ of Nazareth, get up and walk!” ⁷ Peter took the man by the right hand and lifted him up. At once his feet and the bones in his legs became strong. ⁸ He jumped up on his feet and walked. Then he went into the house of God with them. He gave thanks to God as he walked.

⁹ All the people saw him walking and giving thanks to God. ¹⁰ They knew it was the man who had been sitting and begging at the Beautiful Gate. They were surprised he was walking. ¹¹ The man who was healed held on to Peter and John. All the people who were surprised gathered together around them in a place called Solomon’s Porch.

Peter Preaches the Second Time

¹² When Peter saw this, he said to them, “Jewish men, why are you surprised at this? Why do you look at us as if we had made this man walk by our own power or holy lives? ¹³ The God of our fathers, the God of Abraham and Isaac and Jacob, has done this. He has honored His Son Jesus. He is the One you handed over to Pilate. You turned your backs on Him after Pilate had decided to let Him go free. ¹⁴ But you turned your backs against the Holy and Right One. Then you asked for a man who had killed someone to go free. ¹⁵ You killed the very One Who made all life. But God raised Him from the dead. We saw Him alive. ¹⁶ You see and know this man here. He has been made strong through faith in Jesus’ name. Yes, it is faith in Christ that has made this man well and strong. This man is standing here in front of you all.

¹⁷ “Brothers, I know you and your leaders did this without knowing what you were doing. ¹⁸ In this way, God did what He said He would do through all the early preachers. He said that Christ must suffer many hard things. ¹⁹ But you must be sorry for your sins and turn from them. You must turn to God and have your sins taken away. Then many times your soul will receive new strength from the Lord. ²⁰ He will send Jesus back to the world. He is the Christ Who long ago was chosen for you. ²¹ But for awhile He must stay in heaven until the time when all things are made right. God said these things would happen through His holy early preachers.

²² “Moses said, ‘The Lord God will raise up from among your brothers One Who speaks for God, as He raised me. You must listen to everything He says. ²³ Everyone among the people who will not listen to that One Who speaks for God will be put to death.’ ^{(A) 24} All the early preachers who have spoken from Samuel until now have told of these days. ²⁵ You are of the family of the early preachers and of the promise that God made with our early fathers. He said to Abraham, ‘All the families of the earth will receive God’s favor through your children.’ ²⁶ God has raised up His Son Jesus and has sent Him to you first to give God’s favor to each of you who will turn away from his sinful ways.”