M’Cheyne Bible Reading Plan

Cain and Abel

4 Adam had relations with his wife Eve, and she conceived, gave birth to Cain and said, “I have gotten a man with the help of the Lord.” ² Then she gave birth again to his brother Abel.

And Abel was a keeper of flocks, but Cain was a tiller of the ground. ³ In the course of time Cain brought an offering to the Lord of the fruit of the ground. ⁴ Abel also brought the firstborn of his flock and of their fat portions. And the Lord had respect for Abel and for his offering, ⁵ but for Cain and for his offering, He did not have respect. And Cain was very angry and his countenance fell.

⁶ The Lord said to Cain, “Why are you angry? Why is your countenance fallen? ⁷ If you do well, shall you not be accepted?^[a] But if you do not do well, sin is crouching at the door. It desires to dominate you, but you must rule over it.”

⁸ Cain told Abel his brother. And it came about, when they were in the field, that Cain rose up against his brother Abel and killed him.

⁹ The Lord said to Cain, “Where is Abel your brother?”

He said, “I do not know. Am I my brother’s keeper?”

¹⁰ And then He said, “What have you done? The voice of your brother’s blood is crying out to Me from the ground. ¹¹ Now you are cursed from the ground which opened its mouth to receive your brother’s blood from your hand. ¹² From now on when you till the ground, it will not yield for you its best. You will be a fugitive and a wanderer on the earth.”

¹³ Then Cain said to the Lord, “My punishment is more than I can bear. ¹⁴ You have driven me out this day from the face of the earth, and from your face will I be hidden; and I will be a fugitive and a vagabond in the earth, and it will happen that anyone who finds me will kill me.”

¹⁵ So the Lord said to him, “Therefore whoever kills Cain, vengeance will be taken on him sevenfold.” Then the Lord put a mark upon Cain, so that no one finding him would kill him. ¹⁶ Then Cain went out from the presence of the Lord and settled in the land of Nod, east of Eden.

¹⁷ Cain had relations with his wife, and she conceived and gave birth to Enoch. He built a city and called the name of the city after the name of his son, Enoch. ¹⁸ To Enoch was born Irad, and Irad was the father of Mehujael, and Mehujael was the father of Methushael, and Methushael was the father of Lamech.

¹⁹ Lamech took two wives. The name of one was Adah, and the name of the other Zillah. ²⁰ Adah gave birth to Jabal. He was the father of those who dwell in tents and have livestock. ²¹ His brother’s name was Jubal. He was the father of all those who play the harp and flute. ²² Zillah gave birth to Tubal-Cain, a forger of every tool of bronze and iron. The sister of Tubal-Cain was Naamah.

²³ Lamech said to his wives:

²⁵ Adam had relations with his wife again, and she had another son and called his name Seth, for she said, “God has granted me another offspring instead of Abel because Cain killed him.” ²⁶ To Seth also was born a son, and he called his name Enosh.

At that time men began to call on the name of the Lord.

The Temptation of Jesus^(A)

4 Then Jesus was led up into the wilderness by the Spirit to be tempted by the devil. ² And He had fasted for forty days and forty nights, and then He was hungry. ³ And the tempter came to Him and said, “If You are the Son of God, command that these stones be turned into bread.”

⁴ But He answered, “It is written, ‘Man shall not live by bread alone, but by every word that proceeds out of the mouth of God.’^[a]”

⁵ Then the devil took Him up into the holy city, and set Him on the highest point of the temple, ⁶ and said to Him, “If You are the Son of God, throw Yourself down. For it is written,

and

⁷ Jesus said to him, “It is also written, ‘You shall not tempt the Lord your God.’^[d]”

⁸ Again, the devil took Him up on a very high mountain and showed Him all the kingdoms of the world and their grandeur, ⁹ and said to Him, “All these things I will give You if You will fall down and worship me. ”

¹⁰ Then Jesus said to him, “Get away from here, Satan! For it is written, ‘You shall worship the Lord your God, and Him only shall you serve.’^[e] ”

¹¹ Then the devil left Him, and immediately angels came and ministered to Him.

The Beginning of the Galilean Ministry^(B)

¹² Now when Jesus heard that John was put in prison, He left for Galilee. ¹³ And leaving Nazareth, He came and lived in Capernaum, which is by the sea, in the regions of Zebulun and Naphtali, ¹⁴ that what was spoken by Isaiah the prophet might be fulfilled, saying:

¹⁷ From that time Jesus began to preach, saying, “Repent! For the kingdom of heaven is at hand.”

The Calling of the First Disciples^(C)

¹⁸ As Jesus walked beside the Sea of Galilee, He saw two brothers, Simon called Peter, and Andrew his brother, throwing a net into the sea, for they were fishermen. ¹⁹ And He said to them, “Follow Me, and I will make you fishers of men.” ²⁰ They immediately left their nets and followed Him.

²¹ And going on from there, He saw two other brothers, James the son of Zebedee and John his brother, in a boat with Zebedee their father, mending their nets, and He called them. ²² They immediately left the boat and their father and followed Him.

Ministering to Great Crowds^(D)

²³ Jesus went throughout all Galilee teaching in their synagogues, preaching the gospel of the kingdom, and healing all kinds of sickness and all sorts of diseases among the people. ²⁴ His fame went throughout all Syria. And they brought to Him all sick people who were taken with various diseases and tormented with pain, those who were possessed with demons, those who had seizures, and those who had paralysis, and He healed them. ²⁵ Great crowds followed Him from Galilee, the Decapolis, Jerusalem, Judea, and from beyond the Jordan.

Resistance to Rebuilding

4 Now when the adversaries of Judah and Benjamin heard that the descendants of the captivity built the temple unto the Lord God of Israel, ² they came to Zerubbabel, and to the chiefs of the fathers’ households, and said to them, “Let us build with you, for, like you, we seek your God and have been sacrificing to Him since the days of Esarhaddon king of Assyria, who brought us here.”

³ But Zerubbabel, and Joshua, and the rest of the chiefs of the fathers’ households of Israel said to them, “This is not for you! It is for us to build the temple of our God, so we ourselves together will build unto the Lord God of Israel, as Cyrus the king of Persia has commanded us.”

⁴ Then the people of the land demoralized the people of Judah and terrified them while building, ⁵ and hired counselors against them to frustrate their purpose, all the days of Cyrus king of Persia, even until the reign of Darius king of Persia.

⁶ In the reign of Ahasuerus, in the beginning of his reign, they wrote an accusation against the inhabitants of Judah and Jerusalem.

The Letter to Artaxerxes

⁷ In the days of Artaxerxes, Bishlam, Mithredath, Tabeel, and the rest of their companions wrote to Artaxerxes king of Persia, and the writing of the letter was written in Aramaic, and interpreted in Aramaic.

⁸ Rehum the commander and Shimshai the scribe wrote a letter against Jerusalem to Artaxerxes the king in this manner:

⁹ (Rehum the commander, Shimshai the scribe, and the rest of their colleagues, the judges, the officials, the officers, the Persians, the men of Uruk, and of Babylon, and of Susa—that is, the Elamites— ¹⁰ and the rest of the nations whom the great and noble Ashurbanipal deported and settled in the city of Samaria and in the rest of the province Beyond the River—and now ¹¹ this is the copy of the letter that they sent to him)—

“To Artaxerxes the king:

“Your servants the men of the province Beyond the River, and so forth.

¹² “May it be known to the king, that the Jews who came from you have come near to us at Jerusalem and that they are building the rebellious and evil city, restoring its walls, and repairing the foundations.

¹³ “Be it known now to the king, that, if this city is rebuilt and the walls set up again, then they will not pay toll, tribute, and custom, and the revenue of the kings will be impacted. ¹⁴ Now because we are under obligation to the king’s palace, and it was not appropriate for us to see the king’s dishonor, therefore we have sent and notified the king, ¹⁵ so that a search may be made in the book of the records of your fathers. There you will find in the book of the records and realize that this city is a rebellious city, and hurtful to kings and provinces, and that they have incited revolt within it in former times—for which cause this city was destroyed. ¹⁶ We notify the king that if this city is rebuilt and the walls repaired by this means the portion Beyond the River will no longer be yours.”

¹⁷ The king sent an answer:

“To Rehum the commander, to Shimshai the scribe, to the rest of their companions that dwell in Samaria, and to the remainder Beyond the River:

“Peace, and so forth.

¹⁸ “The letter which you sent to us has been translated and read before me. ¹⁹ I commanded, and a search has been made, and it is found that this city has in the past made insurrection against kings, and that rebellion and revolt have occurred there. ²⁰ There have also been mighty kings over Jerusalem, who have ruled over the whole province Beyond the River, and toll, tribute, and custom was paid to them. ²¹ Command these men to cease now, so that this city is not built unless I give the command. ²² Take heed now that you do not fail to do this. Why should damage increase to the hurt of the king?”

²³ Now when the copy of the letter by King Artaxerxes was read before Rehum, and Shimshai the scribe, and their companions, they went up in haste to Jerusalem to the Jews and made them cease by force and power.

²⁴ Then the work of the house of God in Jerusalem ceased. So it ceased until the second year of the reign of Darius king of Persia.

Peter and John Before the Sanhedrin

4 As they spoke to the people, the priests, the captain of the temple, and the Sadducees came upon them, ² being greatly troubled because they taught the people and preached through Jesus the resurrection from the dead. ³ And they seized them and put them in custody until the next day, for it was already evening. ⁴ But many of those who heard the word believed, and the number of the men grew to about five thousand.

⁵ On the next day their rulers and elders and scribes ⁶ were assembled at Jerusalem with Annas the high priest, and Caiaphas, and John and Alexander, and all who were of the family of the high priest. ⁷ When they had stood them in the midst, they asked, “By what power or by what name have you done this?”

⁸ Then Peter, filled with the Holy Spirit, said to them, “Rulers of the people and elders of Israel: ⁹ If we today are being examined concerning a good deed done to a crippled man, how this man has been healed, ¹⁰ be it known to you all, and to all the people of Israel, that by the name of Jesus Christ of Nazareth, whom you crucified, whom God raised from the dead, by Him this man stands before you whole. ¹¹ He is

¹² There is no salvation in any other, for there is no other name under heaven given among men by which we must be saved.”

¹³ When they saw the boldness of Peter and John and perceived that they were illiterate and uneducated men, they marveled. And they recognized that they had been with Jesus. ¹⁴ But seeing the man who was healed standing with them, they had nothing to say against it. ¹⁵ So when they had commanded them to go outside of the Sanhedrin, they conferred among themselves, ¹⁶ saying, “What shall we do to these men? For, indeed, that an acknowledged miracle has been done through them is revealed to all who dwell in Jerusalem, and we cannot deny it. ¹⁷ But lest it spread further among the people, let us threaten them that they no longer speak to anyone in this name.”

¹⁸ Then they called them and commanded them not to speak or teach at all in the name of Jesus. ¹⁹ But Peter and John answered them, “Whether it is right in the sight of God to listen to you more than to God, you judge. ²⁰ For we cannot help but declare what we have seen and heard.”

²¹ When they had further threatened them, they let them go, finding no way to punish them, because of the people. For all glorified God for what was done, ²² for the man on whom this miracle of healing was performed was over forty years old.

The Believers Pray for Boldness

²³ On being released, they went to their own people and reported what the chief priests and elders had said to them. ²⁴ When they heard this, they lifted their voices in unity to God and prayed, “Lord, You are God, who has made the heaven and the earth and the sea and everything in them, ²⁵ and who by the mouth of Your servant David said:

²⁷ Indeed, both Herod and Pontius Pilate, with the Gentiles and the people of Israel, were assembled together against Your holy Son Jesus whom You have anointed, ²⁸ to do what Your hand and Your counsel had foreordained to be done. ²⁹ Now, Lord, look on their threats and grant that Your servants may speak Your word with great boldness, ³⁰ by stretching out Your hand to heal and that signs and wonders may be performed in the name of Your holy Son Jesus.”

³¹ When they had prayed, the place where they were assembled together was shaken. And they were all filled with the Holy Spirit and spoke the word of God with boldness.

All Things in Common

³² All the believers were of one heart and one soul, and no one said that what he possessed was his own. But to them all things were in common. ³³ With great power the apostles testified to the resurrection of the Lord Jesus, and great grace was on them all. ³⁴ There was no one among them who lacked, for all those who were owners of land or houses sold them, and brought the income from what was sold, ³⁵ and placed it at the apostles’ feet. And it was distributed to each according to his need.

³⁶ Joseph, whom the apostles called Barnabas (which means, Son of Encouragement), a Levite from the land of Cyprus, ³⁷ sold a field he owned, and brought the money and placed it at the apostles’ feet.