M’Cheyne Bible Reading Plan
Rewards for Obeying God
26 “Don’t make idols for yourselves. Don’t set up statues or memorial stones in your land to bow down to, because I am the Lord your God!
2 “Remember my special days of rest[a] and honor my holy place. I am the Lord.
3 “Remember my laws and commands, and obey them. 4 If you do these things, I will give you rains at the time they should come. The land will grow crops and the trees of the field will grow their fruit. 5 Your threshing will continue until it is time to gather grapes. And your grape gathering will continue until it is time to plant. Then you will have plenty to eat. And you will live safely in your land. 6 I will give peace to your country. You will lie down in peace. No one will come to make you afraid. I will keep harmful animals out of your country. And armies will not come through your country.
7 “You will chase your enemies and defeat them. You will kill them with your swords. 8 Five of you will chase 100 men, and 100 of you will chase 10,000 men. You will defeat your enemies and kill them with your sword.
9 “Then I will turn to you. I will let you have many children. I will keep my agreement with you. 10 You will have enough crops to last for more than a year. You will harvest the new crops. But then you will have to throw out the old crops to make room for the new crops. 11 Also, I will place my Holy Tent among you. I will not turn away from you. 12 I will walk with you and be your God. And you will be my people. 13 I am the Lord your God. You were slaves in Egypt, but I brought you out of Egypt. You were bent low from the heavy weights you carried as slaves, but I broke the poles that were on your shoulders. I let you walk proudly again.
Punishment for Not Obeying God
14 “But if you don’t obey me and all my commands, bad things will happen to you. 15 If you refuse to obey my laws and commands, you have broken my agreement. 16 If you do that, I will cause terrible things to happen to you. I will cause you to have disease and fever. They will destroy your eyes and take away your life. You will not have success when you plant your seed. And your enemies will eat your crops. 17 I will be against you, so your enemies will defeat you. These enemies will hate you and rule over you. You will run away even when no one is chasing you.
18 “After these things, if you still don’t obey me, I will punish you seven times more for your sins. 19 And I will also destroy the great cities that make you proud. The skies will not give rain, and the earth will not produce crops.[b] 20 You will work hard, but it will not help. Your land will not give any crops, and your trees will not grow their fruit.
21 “If you still turn against me and refuse to obey me, I will beat you seven times harder! The more you sin, the more you will be punished. 22 I will send wild animals against you. They will take your children away from you. They will destroy your animals. They will kill many of your people. The roads will all be empty.
23 “If you don’t learn your lesson after all this, and if you still turn against me, 24 then I will also turn against you. I—yes, I myself—will punish you seven times for your sins. 25 You will have broken my agreement, so I will punish you. I will bring armies against you. You will go into your cities for safety, but I will cause diseases to spread among you. And your enemies will defeat you. 26 I will give you a share of the grain left in that city. But there will be very little food to eat. Ten women will be able to cook all their bread in one oven. They will measure each piece of bread. You will eat, but you will still be hungry.
27 “If you still refuse to listen to me, and if you still turn against me, 28 then I will really show my anger! I—yes, I myself—will punish you seven times for your sins. 29 You will become so hungry that you will eat the bodies of your sons and daughters. 30 I will destroy your high places. I will cut down your incense altars. I will put your dead bodies on the dead bodies of your idols. You will be disgusting to me. 31 I will destroy your cities. I will make your holy places empty. I will stop smelling your offerings. 32 I will make your land empty. And your enemies who come to live there will be shocked at it. 33 I will scatter you among the nations. I will pull out my sword and destroy you. Your land will become empty, and your cities will be destroyed.
34 “You will be taken to your enemy’s country. Your country will be empty. So your land will finally get its rest. The land will enjoy its time of rest. 35 During the time that the land is empty, it will get the time of rest that you did not give it while you lived there. 36 The survivors will lose their courage in the land of their enemies. They will be afraid of everything. They will run around like a leaf blown by the wind. They will run as if someone is chasing them with a sword. They will fall even when no one is chasing them. 37 They will run as if someone is chasing them with a sword. They will fall over each other—even when no one is chasing them.
“You will not be strong enough to stand up against your enemies. 38 You will be lost in other nations. You will disappear in the land of your enemies. 39 So the survivors will rot away in their sin in their enemies’ countries. They will rot away in their sins just as their ancestors did.
There Is Always Hope
40 “But maybe the people will confess their sins. And maybe they will confess the sins of their ancestors. Maybe they will admit that they turned against me. Maybe they will admit that they sinned against me. 41 Maybe they will admit that I turned against them and brought them into the land of their enemies. These people will be like strangers to me. But maybe they will become humble[c] and accept the punishment for their sin. 42 If they do, I will remember my agreement with Jacob. I will remember my agreement with Isaac. I will remember my agreement with Abraham, and I will remember the land.
43 “The land will be empty. The land will enjoy its time of rest. Then the survivors will accept the punishment for their sins. They will learn that they were punished because they hated my laws and refused to obey my rules. 44 They have sinned. But if they come to me for help, I will not turn away from them. I will listen to them, even if they are in the land of their enemies. I will not completely destroy them. I will not break my agreement with them, because I am the Lord their God. 45 For them, I will remember the agreement with their ancestors. I brought their ancestors out of the land of Egypt so that I could become their God. The other nations saw these things. I am the Lord.”
46 These are the laws, rules, and teachings that the Lord gave to the Israelites. These laws are the agreement between the Lord and the Israelites. The Lord gave these laws to Moses at Mount Sinai.
33 Rejoice in the Lord, good people!
It is only right for good people to praise him.
2 Play the lyre and praise the Lord.
Play the ten-stringed harp for him.
3 Sing a new song[a] to him.
Play it well and sing it loud!
4 The Lord’s word is true,
and he is faithful in everything he does.
5 He loves goodness and justice.
The Lord’s faithful love fills the earth.
6 The Lord spoke the command, and the world was made.
The breath from his mouth created everything in the heavens.
7 He gathered together the water of the sea.
He put the ocean in its place.
8 Everyone on earth should fear and respect the Lord.
All the people in the world should fear him,
9 because when he speaks, things happen.
And if he says, “Stop!”—then it stops.[b]
10 The Lord can ruin every decision the nations make.
He can spoil all their plans.
11 But the Lord’s decisions are good forever.
His plans are good for generation after generation.
12 Great blessings belong to those who have the Lord as their God!
He chose them to be his own special people.
13 The Lord looked down from heaven
and saw all the people.
14 From his high throne he looked down
at all the people living on earth.
15 He created every person’s mind,
and he knows what each one is doing.
16 A king is not saved by the power of his army.
A soldier does not survive by his own great strength.
17 Horses don’t really bring victory in war.
Their strength cannot help you escape.
18 The Lord watches over his followers,
those who wait for him to show his faithful love.
19 He saves them from death.
He gives them strength when they are hungry.
20 So we will wait for the Lord.
He helps us and protects us.
21 He makes us happy.
We trust his holy name.
22 Lord, we worship you,
so show your great love for us.
Is Death Fair?
9 I thought about all this very carefully. I saw that God controls what happens to the good and wise people and what they do. People don’t know if they will be loved or hated, and they don’t know what will happen in the future.
2 But, there is one thing that happens to everyone—we all die! Death comes to good people and bad people. Death comes to those who are pure and to those who are not pure. Death comes to those who give sacrifices and to those who don’t give sacrifices. Good people will die just as sinners do. Those who make promises to God will die just as those who are afraid to make those promises.
3 Of all the things that happen in this life, the worst thing is that all people end life the same way. But it is also very bad that people always think evil and foolish thoughts. And those thoughts lead to death. 4 There is hope for those who are still alive—it does not matter who they are. But this saying is true:
A living dog is better than a dead lion.
5 The living know that they will die, but the dead don’t know anything. They have no more reward. People will soon forget them. 6 After people are dead, their love, hate, and jealousy are all gone. And they will never again share in what happens on earth.
Enjoy Life While You Can
7 So go and eat your food now and enjoy it. Drink your wine and be happy. It is all right with God if you do these things. 8 Wear nice clothes and make yourself look good. 9 Enjoy life with the wife you love. Enjoy every day of your short life. God has given you this short life on earth—and it is all you have. So enjoy the work you have to do in this life. 10 Every time you find work to do, do it the best you can. In the grave there is no work. There is no thinking, no knowledge, and there is no wisdom. And we are all going to the place of death.
Life Is Not Fair
11 I also saw other things in this life that were not fair. The fastest runner does not always win the race; the strongest soldier does not always win the battle; wise people don’t always get the food; smart people don’t always get the wealth; educated people don’t always get the praise they deserve. When the time comes, bad things can happen to anyone!
12 You never know when hard times will come. Like fish in a net or birds in a snare, people are often trapped by some disaster that suddenly falls on them.
The Power of Wisdom
13 I also saw a person doing a wise thing in this life, and it seemed very important to me. 14 There was a small town with a few people in it. A great king fought against that town and put his armies all around it. 15 But there was a wise man in that town. He was poor, but he used his wisdom to save his town. After everything was finished, the people forgot about the poor man. 16 But I still say that wisdom is better than strength. They forgot about the poor man’s wisdom, and the people stopped listening to what he said. But I still believe that wisdom is better.
17 Words spoken by the wise are heard more clearly
than those shouted by a leader among fools.
18 Wisdom is better than weapons of war,
but one fool[a] can destroy much good.
1 Greetings from Paul, a servant of God and an apostle of Jesus Christ. I was sent to help God’s chosen people have faith and understand the truth that produces a life of devotion to God. 2 This faith and knowledge make us sure that we have eternal life. God promised that life to us before time began—and God does not lie. 3 At the right time, God let the world know about that life. He did this through the telling of the Good News message, and he trusted me with that work. I told people that message because God our Savior commanded me to.
4 To Titus, a true son to me in the faith we share together.
Grace and peace to you from God the Father and Christ Jesus our Savior.
Titus’ Work in Crete
5 I left you in Crete so that you could finish doing what still needed to be done. And I also left you there so that you could choose men to be elders in every town. 6 To be an elder, a man must not be guilty of living in a wrong way. He must be faithful to his wife,[a] and his children must be faithful to God.[b] They must not be known as children who are wild or don’t obey. 7 An elder[c] has the job of taking care of God’s work. So people should not be able to say that he lives in a wrong way. He must not be someone who is proud and selfish or who gets angry quickly. He must not drink too much, and he must not be someone who likes to fight. He must not be a man who will do almost anything for money. 8 An elder must be ready to help people by welcoming them into his home. He must love what is good. He must be wise. He must live right. He must be devoted to God and pleasing to him. And he must be able to control himself. 9 An elder must be faithful to the same true message we teach. Then he will be able to encourage others with teaching that is true and right. And he will be able to show those who are against this teaching that they are wrong.
10 This is important, because there are many people who refuse to obey—people who talk about worthless things and mislead others. I am talking especially about those who say that men who are not Jews must be circumcised to please God. 11 These people must be stopped, because they are destroying whole families by teaching what they should not teach. They teach only to cheat people and make money. 12 Even one of their own prophets said, “Cretans are always liars. They are evil animals and lazy people who do nothing but eat.” 13 The words that prophet said are true. So tell those people that they are wrong. You must be strict with them. Then they will become strong in the faith, 14 and they will stop paying attention to the stories told by those Jews. They will stop following the commands of those who have turned away from the truth.
15 To people who are pure, everything is pure. But to those who are full of sin and don’t believe, nothing is pure. Really, their thinking has become evil and their consciences have been ruined. 16 They say they know God, but the evil things they do show that they don’t accept him. They are disgusting. They refuse to obey God and are not capable of doing anything good.
Copyright © 2006 by Bible League International