M’Cheyne Bible Reading Plan

23 Balaam said to the king, “Build seven altars here, and prepare seven young bulls and seven rams for sacrifice.”

² Balak followed his instructions, and a young bull and a ram were sacrificed on each altar.

^3-4 Then Balaam said to the king, “Stand here by your burnt offerings and I will see if the Lord will meet me; and I will tell you what he says to me.” So he went up to a barren height, and God met him there. Balaam told the Lord, “I have prepared seven altars and have sacrificed a young bull and a ram on each.” ⁵ Then the Lord gave Balaam a message for King Balak.

⁶ When Balaam returned, the king was standing beside the burnt offerings with all the princes of Moab. ^7-10 This was Balaam’s message:

¹¹ “What have you done to me?” demanded King Balak. “I told you to curse my enemies, and now you have blessed them!”

¹² But Balaam replied, “Can I say anything except what Jehovah tells me to?”

¹³ Then Balak told him, “Come with me to another place; there you will see only a portion of the nation of Israel. Curse at least that many!”

¹⁴ So King Balak took Balaam into the fields of Zophim at the top of Mount Pisgah, and built seven altars there; and he offered up a young bull and a ram on each altar.

¹⁵ Then Balaam said to the king, “Stand here by your burnt offering while I go to meet the Lord.” ¹⁶ And the Lord met Balaam and told him what to say. ¹⁷ So he returned to where the king and the princes of Moab were standing beside their burnt offerings.

“What has Jehovah said?” the king eagerly inquired.

^18-24 And he replied,

²⁵ “If you aren’t going to curse them, at least don’t bless them!” the king exclaimed to Balaam.

²⁶ But Balaam replied, “Didn’t I tell you that I must say whatever Jehovah tells me to?”

²⁷ Then the king said to Balaam, “I will take you to yet another place. Perhaps it will please God to let you curse them from there.”

²⁸ So King Balak took Balaam to the top of Mount Peor, overlooking the desert. ²⁹ Balaam again told the king to build seven altars, and to prepare seven young bulls and seven rams for the sacrifice. ³⁰ The king did as Balaam said, and offered a young bull and ram on every altar.

64 ^1-2 Lord, listen to my complaint: Oh, preserve my life from the conspiracy of these wicked men, these gangs of criminals. ³ They cut me down with sharpened tongues; they aim their bitter words like arrows straight at my heart. ⁴ They shoot from ambush at the innocent. Suddenly the deed is done, yet they are not afraid. ⁵ They encourage each other to do evil. They meet in secret to set their traps. “He will never notice them here,” they say. ⁶ They keep a sharp lookout for opportunities of crime. They spend long hours with all their endless evil thoughts and plans.^[a]

⁷ But God himself will shoot them down. Suddenly his arrow will pierce them. ⁸ They will stagger backward, destroyed by those they spoke against. All who see it happening will scoff at them. ⁹ Then everyone shall stand in awe and confess the greatness of the miracles of God; at last they will realize what amazing things he does. ¹⁰ And the godly shall rejoice in the Lord, and trust and praise him.

65 ^1-2 O God in Zion, we wait before you in silent praise, and thus fulfill our vow. And because you answer prayer, all mankind will come to you with their requests. ³ Though sins fill our hearts, you forgive them all. ⁴ How greatly to be envied are those you have chosen to come and live with you within the holy tabernacle courts! What joys await us among all the good things there. ⁵ With dread deeds and awesome power you will defend us from our enemies,^[b] O God who saves us. You are the only hope of all mankind throughout the world and far away upon the sea.

⁶ He formed the mountains by his mighty strength. ⁷ He quiets the raging oceans and all the world’s clamor. ⁸ In the farthest corners of the earth the glorious acts of God shall startle everyone. The dawn and sunset shout for joy! ⁹ He waters the earth to make it fertile. The rivers of God will not run dry! He prepares the earth for his people and sends them rich harvests of grain. ¹⁰ He waters the furrows with abundant rain. Showers soften the earth, melting the clods and causing seeds to sprout across the land. ^11-12 Then he crowns it all with green, lush pastures in the wilderness; hillsides blossom with joy. ¹³ The pastures are filled with flocks of sheep, and the valleys are carpeted with grain. All the world shouts with joy and sings.

13 This is the vision God showed Isaiah (son of Amoz) concerning Babylon’s doom.

² See the flags waving as their enemy attacks. Shout to them, O Israel, and wave them on as they march against Babylon to destroy the palaces of the rich and mighty. ³ I, the Lord, have set apart these armies for this task; I have called those rejoicing in their strength to do this work, to satisfy my anger. ⁴ Hear the tumult on the mountains! Listen as the armies march! It is the tumult and the shout of many nations. The Lord Almighty has brought them here, ⁵ from countries far away. They are his weapons against you, O Babylon. They carry his anger with them and will destroy your whole land.

⁶ Scream in terror, for the Lord’s time has come, the time for the Almighty to crush you. ⁷ Your arms lie paralyzed with fear; the strongest hearts melt ⁸ and are afraid. Fear grips you with terrible pangs, like those of a woman in labor. You look at one another, helpless, as the flames of the burning city reflect upon your pallid faces. ⁹ For see, the day of the Lord is coming, the terrible day of his wrath and fierce anger. The land shall be destroyed and all the sinners with it. ¹⁰ The heavens will be black above them. No light will shine from stars or sun or moon.

¹¹ And I will punish the world for its evil, the wicked for their sin; I will crush the arrogance of the proud man and the haughtiness of the rich. ¹² Few will live when I have finished up my work.

Men will be as scarce as gold—of greater value than the gold of Ophir. ¹³ For I will shake the heavens in my wrath and fierce anger, and the earth will move from its place in the skies.

¹⁴ The armies of Babylon will run until exhausted, fleeing back to their own land like deer chased by dogs, wandering like sheep deserted by their shepherd. ¹⁵ Those who don’t run will be butchered. ¹⁶ Their little children will be dashed to death against the pavement right before their eyes; their homes will be sacked and their wives raped by the attacking hordes. ¹⁷ For I will stir up the Medes against Babylon, and no amount of silver or gold will buy them off. ¹⁸ The attacking armies will have no mercy on the young people of Babylon or the babies or the children.

¹⁹ And so Babylon, the most glorious of kingdoms, the flower of Chaldean culture, will be as utterly destroyed as Sodom and Gomorrah were when God sent fire from heaven; ²⁰ Babylon will never rise again. Generation after generation will come and go, but the land will never again be lived in.^[a] The nomads will not even camp there. The shepherds won’t let their sheep stay overnight. ²¹ The wild animals of the desert will make it their home. The houses will be haunted by howling creatures. Ostriches will live there, and the demons will come there to dance. ²² Hyenas and jackals will den within the palaces. Babylon’s days are numbered; her time of doom will soon be here.

1 From: Peter, Jesus Christ’s missionary.

To: The Jewish Christians driven out of Jerusalem and scattered throughout Pontus, Galatia, Cappadocia, Asia Minor, and Bithynia.

² Dear friends, God the Father chose you long ago and knew you would become his children. And the Holy Spirit has been at work in your hearts, cleansing you with the blood of Jesus Christ and making you to please him. May God bless you richly and grant you increasing freedom from all anxiety and fear.

³ All honor to God, the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ; for it is his boundless mercy that has given us the privilege of being born again so that we are now members of God’s own family. Now we live in the hope of eternal life because Christ rose again from the dead. ⁴ And God has reserved for his children the priceless gift of eternal life; it is kept in heaven for you, pure and undefiled, beyond the reach of change and decay. ⁵ And God, in his mighty power, will make sure that you get there safely to receive it because you are trusting him. It will be yours in that coming last day for all to see. ⁶ So be truly glad! There is wonderful joy ahead, even though the going is rough for a while down here.

⁷ These trials are only to test your faith, to see whether or not it is strong and pure. It is being tested as fire tests gold and purifies it—and your faith is far more precious to God than mere gold; so if your faith remains strong after being tried in the test tube of fiery trials, it will bring you much praise and glory and honor on the day of his return.

⁸ You love him even though you have never seen him; though not seeing him, you trust him; and even now you are happy with the inexpressible joy that comes from heaven itself. ⁹ And your further reward for trusting him will be the salvation of your souls.

¹⁰ This salvation was something the prophets did not fully understand. Though they wrote about it, they had many questions as to what it all could mean. ¹¹ They wondered what the Spirit of Christ within them was talking about, for he told them to write down the events which, since then, have happened to Christ: his suffering, and his great glory afterwards. And they wondered when and to whom all this would happen.

¹² They were finally told that these things would not occur during their lifetime, but long years later, during yours. And now at last this Good News has been plainly announced to all of us. It was preached to us in the power of the same heaven-sent Holy Spirit who spoke to them; and it is all so strange and wonderful that even the angels in heaven would give a great deal to know more about it.

¹³ So now you can look forward soberly and intelligently to more of God’s kindness to you when Jesus Christ returns.

¹⁴ Obey God because you are his children; don’t slip back into your old ways—doing evil because you knew no better. ¹⁵ But be holy now in everything you do, just as the Lord is holy, who invited you to be his child. ¹⁶ He himself has said, “You must be holy, for I am holy.”

¹⁷ And remember that your heavenly Father to whom you pray has no favorites when he judges. He will judge you with perfect justice for everything you do; so act in reverent fear of him from now on until you get to heaven. ¹⁸ God paid a ransom to save you from the impossible road to heaven which your fathers tried to take, and the ransom he paid was not mere gold or silver as you very well know. ¹⁹ But he paid for you with the precious lifeblood of Christ, the sinless, spotless Lamb of God. ²⁰ God chose him for this purpose long before the world began, but only recently was he brought into public view, in these last days, as a blessing to you.

²¹ Because of this, your trust can be in God who raised Christ from the dead and gave him great glory. Now your faith and hope can rest in him alone. ²² Now you can have real love for everyone because your souls have been cleansed from selfishness and hatred when you trusted Christ to save you; so see to it that you really do love each other warmly, with all your hearts.

²³ For you have a new life. It was not passed on to you from your parents, for the life they gave you will fade away. This new one will last forever, for it comes from Christ, God’s ever-living Message to men. ²⁴ Yes, our natural lives will fade as grass does when it becomes all brown and dry. All our greatness is like a flower that droops and falls; ²⁵ but the Word of the Lord will last forever. And his message is the Good News that was preached to you.