M’Cheyne Bible Reading Plan

Good Comes to Those Who Obey

26 ‘Do not make gods for yourselves. Do not set up for yourselves something to look like a god or a holy object. Do not set up something cut from stone in your land to bow down to. For I am the Lord your God. ² Keep My Days of Rest and honor My holy place. I am the Lord. ³ If you live by My Laws and do what I say, ⁴ I will give you rain at the right time. So the land will give its food and the trees will give their fruit. ⁵ The crushing of your grain will last until the grapes are gathered. The grape gathering will last until the seeds are planted. You will eat your food until you are full, and be safe living in your land. ⁶ I will give peace in the land. You will lie down and no one will make you afraid. I will make the land free from the danger of wild animals. And no sword will move through your land. ⁷ You will go after those who hate you, and they will fall in front of you by the sword. ⁸ Five of you will go after a hundred. A hundred of you will go after ten thousand. And those who hate you will fall in front of you by the sword. ⁹ I will care for you and give you many children. I will keep My agreement with you. ¹⁰ You will eat last year’s food, and use it all because you will have new. ¹¹ I will make My home among you. My soul will not turn away from you. ¹² I will walk among you and be your God. And you will be My people. ¹³ I am the Lord your God Who brought you out of the land of Egypt so you would not be their servants. I have broken loose the heavy load from your back and made you walk straight.

Punishment to Those Who Do Not Obey

¹⁴ ‘But if you do not obey Me and do not do all I say, ¹⁵ if you turn away from My Laws and do not want to do what I tell you to do, and do not do it, and so break My agreement, ¹⁶ I will do this to you: I will bring upon you much fear, disease that destroys, and sickness that will waste away the eyes and make the body weak. You will plant your seeds for nothing, for those who hate you will eat it. ¹⁷ I will turn against you so you will fall in front of those who fight you. Those who hate you will rule over you. You will run away when no one is coming after you. ¹⁸ If after all of these things you still do not obey Me, I will punish you seven times more for your sins. ¹⁹ I will break the pride you have of your power. I will make your sky like iron and your earth like brass. ²⁰ You will use your strength for nothing. For your land will not give food, and the trees of the land will not give fruit.

²¹ ‘If you act against Me and will not obey Me, I will bring you seven times more trouble than your sins. ²² I will let the wild animals loose among you. They will rob you of your children and destroy your cattle. They will make you few in number, so that your roads will be empty.

²³ ‘If after these things you do not turn to Me, but still go against Me, ²⁴ then I will go against you. I Myself will punish you seven times for your sins. ²⁵ I will bring a sword upon you that will punish you for breaking the agreement. I will send disease among you when you gather together in your cities. So you will be given into the hands of those who hate you. ²⁶ When I take away your bread of life, ten women will make your bread in one stove. They will give out your bread by weight. And you will eat it and not be filled.

²⁷ ‘If you still do not obey Me after all this, but go against Me, ²⁸ then I will go against you with anger. I Myself will punish you seven times for your sins. ²⁹ You will eat the flesh of your sons and daughters. ³⁰ I will destroy your high places and cut down your altars of special perfume. I will throw your dead bodies on what is left of your gods. My soul will hate you. ³¹ I will destroy your cities also, and your holy places. I will not smell your pleasing smells. ³² I will destroy the land, so those living in it who hate you will be filled with fear because of it. ³³ I will divide you among the nations and send the sword after you. Your land will be destroyed and your cities a waste.

³⁴ ‘Then the land will be like new because of its Days of Rest while it lies waste and you are in the land of those who hate you. Then the land will rest and have new life because of the Days of Rest. ³⁵ As long as it lies waste it will have the rest it did not have on your Days of Rest, while you were living in it. ³⁶ Of those of you who are left in the lands of those who hate you, I will make their hearts weak. The sound of a leaf blown by the wind will make them run away even when no one is going after them. They will run away as if it were a sword, and they will fall. ³⁷ They will fall over each other as if running from the sword, when no one is going after them. You will have no strength to stand up in front of those who hate you. ³⁸ You will die among the nations. The land of those who hate you will eat you up. ³⁹ So those of you who are left will waste away in the lands of those who hate you, because of their sins. Also because of the sins of their fathers, they will waste away with them.

⁴⁰ ‘If they tell their sins and the sins of their fathers which they did when they were not faithful to Me and were against Me with anger, ⁴¹ (I also was angry with them and brought them into the land of those who hate them) if their sinful heart loses its pride and they are willing to turn away from their sin, ⁴² I will remember My agreement with Jacob, My agreement with Isaac, and My agreement with Abraham. And I will remember the land. ⁴³ But the land will be left behind them and become better with its Days of Rest while it lies empty without them. During this time they will turn away from their sin because they had not done what I told them to do and their soul hated My Laws. ⁴⁴ Yet even when they are in the land of those who hate them, I will not turn away from them. I will not hate them enough to destroy them and break My agreement with them. For I am the Lord their God. ⁴⁵ But because of them I will remember the agreement with their fathers, whom I brought out of the land of Egypt in the eyes of the nations, to be their God. I am the Lord.’”

⁴⁶ These are the Laws which the Lord made between Himself and the people of Israel through Moses at Mount Sinai.

Song of Praise

33 Sing for joy in the Lord, you who are right with Him. It is right for the pure in heart to praise Him. ² Give thanks to the Lord with harps. Sing praises to Him with a harp of ten strings. ³ Sing to Him a new song. Play well with loud sounds of joy. ⁴ For the Word of the Lord is right. He is faithful in all He does. ⁵ He loves what is right and good and what is fair. The earth is full of the loving-kindness of the Lord.

⁶ The heavens were made by the Word of the Lord. All the stars were made by the breath of His mouth. ⁷ He gathers the waters of the sea together as in a bag. He places the waters in store-houses. ⁸ Let all the earth fear the Lord. Let all the people of the world honor Him. ⁹ For He spoke, and it was done. He spoke with strong words, and it stood strong. ¹⁰ The Lord brings the plans of nations to nothing. He wrecks the plans of the people. ¹¹ The plans of the Lord stand forever. The plans of His heart stand through the future of all people. ¹² Happy is the nation whose God is the Lord. Happy are the people He has chosen for His own.

¹³ The Lord looks from heaven. He sees all the sons of men. ¹⁴ From where He sits He looks upon all who live on the earth. ¹⁵ He made the hearts of them all. And He understands whatever they do. ¹⁶ No king is saved by the power of his strong army. A soldier is not saved by great strength. ¹⁷ A horse cannot be trusted to win a battle. Its great strength cannot save anyone.

¹⁸ See, the eye of the Lord is on those who fear Him, and on those who hope for His loving-kindness, ¹⁹ to save their soul from death, and to keep them alive when there is nothing to eat. ²⁰ Our soul waits for the Lord. He is our help and our safe cover. ²¹ For our heart is full of joy in Him, because we trust in His holy name. ²² O Lord, let Your loving-kindness be upon us as we put our hope in You.

9 For I have thought of all this, how good and wise men and their works are in the hand of God. Man does not know if love or hate is waiting for them.

² It is the same for all. The same thing will happen to both the man who is good and the man who is sinful. The same thing will happen to the clean and the unclean, and to the man who gives a gift on the altar and to the man who does not. As the good man is, so is the sinner. As the man who swears is, so is the one who is afraid to swear. ³ This is a bad thing in all that is done under the sun, that the same thing happens to all men. Also the hearts of men are sinful and crazy all their lives. Then they join the dead. ⁴ But there is hope for the one who is among the living. For sure a live dog is better off than a dead lion. ⁵ For the living know they will die. But the dead know nothing, and they will receive nothing further, for they are forgotten. ⁶ Their love and hate and desire have already died. They will no longer have a part in what is done under the sun.

⁷ Go and eat your bread in happiness. Drink your wine with a happy heart. For God has already been pleased with your works. ⁸ Let your clothes be white all the time. And let there always be oil on your head. ⁹ Enjoy life with the woman you love all the days of your life that will soon be over. God has given you these days under the sun. This is the good you will get in life and in your work which you have done under the sun.

¹⁰ Whatever your hand finds to do, do it with all your strength. For there is no work or planning or learning or wisdom in the place of the dead where you are going. ¹¹ Again I saw under the sun that the race is not to the fast and the battle to the men of war. Bread is not to the wise and riches are not to the men of understanding. Favor is not to able workers. Time comes and goes and things happen for no reason to them all. ¹² Man does not know his time. Like fish caught in a bad net, and birds caught in a trap, so men are trapped at a bad time when trouble comes upon them when they do not expect it.

Wisdom Is Better Than Being Foolish

¹³ I have also seen this as wisdom under the sun, and it made me think. ¹⁴ There was a small city with few men in it, and a great king came to it. His army gathered around it and built a large wall to help them in battle against it. ¹⁵ But a poor wise man was found in the city, and he brought the city out of its trouble by his wisdom. Yet no one remembered that poor man. ¹⁶ So I said, “Wisdom is better than strength.” But the wisdom of the poor man is hated and his words are not carried out. ¹⁷ The words of the wise heard in quiet are better than the loud words of a ruler among fools. ¹⁸ Wisdom is better than objects used in war, but one sinner destroys much good.

1 This letter is from Paul, a servant owned by God, and a missionary of Jesus Christ. I have been sent to those God has chosen for Himself. I am to teach them the truth that leads to God-like living. ² This truth also gives hope of life that lasts forever. God promised this before the world began. He cannot lie. ³ He made this known at the right time through His Word. God, the One Who saves, told me I should preach it. ⁴ I am writing to you, Titus. You are my true son in the faith which we both have. May you have loving-favor and peace from God the Father and Jesus Christ, the One Who saves.

What a Church Leader Must Be Like

⁵ I left you on the island of Crete so you could do some things that needed to be done. I asked you to choose church leaders in every city. ⁶ Their lives must be so that no one can talk against them. They must have only one wife. Their children must be Christians and known to be good. They must obey their parents. They must not be wild. ⁷ A church leader is God’s servant. His life must be so that no one can say anything against him. He should not try to please himself and not be quick to get angry over little things. He must not get drunk or want to fight. He must not always want more money for himself. ⁸ He must like to take people into his home. He must love what is good. He must be able to think well and do all things in the right way. He must live a holy life and be the boss over his own desires. ⁹ He must hold to the words of truth which he was taught. He must be able to teach the truth and show those who are against the truth that they are wrong.

False Teachers

¹⁰ There are many men who will not listen or will not obey the truth. Their teaching is foolish and they lead people to believe a lie. Some Jews believe their lies. ¹¹ This must be stopped. It turns whole families from the truth. They teach these things to make money. ¹² One of their own teachers said, “People of the island of Crete always lie. They are like wild animals. They are lazy. All they want to do is eat.” ¹³ This is true of them. Speak sharp words to them because it is true. Lead them in the right way so they will have strong faith. ¹⁴ Do not let them listen to Jewish stories made up by men. Do not let them listen to man-made rules which lead them away from the truth. ¹⁵ All things are pure to the man with a pure heart. But to sinful people nothing is pure. Both their minds and their hearts are bad. ¹⁶ They say they know God, but by the way they act, they show that they do not. They are sinful people. They will not obey and are of no use for any good work.