M’Cheyne Bible Reading Plan
2 “Then we turned back across the wilderness toward the Red Sea, for so the Lord had instructed me. For many years we wandered around in the area of Mount Seir. 2 Then at last the Lord said, 3 ‘You have stayed here long enough. Turn northward. 4 Inform the people that they will be passing through the country belonging to their brothers the Edomites, the descendants of Esau who live in Seir; the Edomites will be nervous, so be careful. 5 Don’t start a fight! For I have given them all the Mount Seir hill country as their permanent possession, and I will not give you even a tiny piece of their land. 6 Pay them for whatever food or water you use. 7 The Lord your God has watched over you and blessed you every step of the way for all these forty years as you have wandered around in this great wilderness; and you have lacked nothing in all that time.’
8 “So we passed through Edom where our brothers lived, crossing the Arabah Road that goes south to Elath and Ezion-geber, and traveling northward toward the wilderness of Moab.
9 “Then the Lord warned us, ‘Don’t attack the Moabites either, for I will not give you any of their land; I have given it to the descendants of Lot.’
10 “(The Emim used to live in that area, a very large tribe, tall as the giants of Anakim; 11 both the Emim and the Anakim are often referred to as the Rephaim, but the Moabites call them Emim. 12 In earlier days the Horites lived in Seir, but they were driven out and displaced by the Edomites, the descendants of Esau, just as Israel would displace the peoples of Canaan, whose land had been assigned to Israel by the Lord.)
13 “‘Now cross Zered Brook,’ the Lord said; and we did.
14-15 “So it took us thirty-eight years to finally get across Zered Brook from Kadesh! For the Lord had decreed that this could not happen until all the men, who thirty-eight years earlier were old enough to bear arms, had died. Yes, the hand of the Lord was against them until finally all were dead.
16-17 “Then at last the Lord said to me, 18 ‘Today Israel shall cross the borders of Moab at Ar, 19 into the land of the Ammonites. But do not attack them, for I will not give you any of their land. I have given it to the descendants of Lot.’
20 “(That area, too, used to be inhabited by the Rephaim, called ‘Zamzummim’ by the Ammonites. 21 They were a large and powerful tribe, as tall as the Anakim; but Jehovah destroyed them as the Ammonites came in, and the Ammonites lived there in their place. 22 The Lord had similarly helped the descendants of Esau at Mount Seir, for he destroyed the Horites who were living there before them. 23 Another similar situation occurred when the people of Caphtor invaded and destroyed the tribe of Avvim living in villages scattered across the countryside as far away as Gaza.)
24 “Then the Lord said, ‘Cross the Arnon River into the land of King Sihon the Amorite, king of Heshbon. War against him and begin to take possession of his land. 25 Beginning today I will make people throughout the whole earth tremble with fear because of you, and dread your arrival.’
26 “Then from the wilderness of Kedemoth I sent ambassadors to King Sihon of Heshbon with a proposal of peace. 27 ‘Let us pass through your land,’ we said. ‘We will stay on the main road and won’t turn off into the fields on either side. 28 We will not steal food as we go, but will purchase every bite we eat and everything we drink; all we want is permission to pass through. 29 The Edomites at Seir allowed us to go through their country, and so did the Moabites, whose capital is at Ar. We are on our way across the Jordan into the land the Lord our God has given us.’
30 “But King Sihon refused because Jehovah your God made him obstinate, so that he could destroy Sihon by the hands of Israel, as has now been done.
31 “Then the Lord said to me, ‘I have begun to give you the land of King Sihon; when you possess it, it shall belong to Israel forever.’
32 “King Sihon then declared war on us and mobilized his forces at Jahaz. 33-34 But the Lord our God crushed him, and we conquered all his cities and utterly destroyed everything, including the women and babies. We left nothing alive 35-36 except the cattle, which we took as our reward, along with the booty gained from ransacking the cities we had taken. We conquered everything from Aroer to Gilead—from the edge of the Arnon River Valley, and including all the cities in the valley. Not one city was too strong for us, for the Lord our God gave all of them to us. 37 However, we stayed away from the people of Ammon and from the Jabbok River and the hill country cities, the places Jehovah our God had forbidden us to enter.
83 O God, don’t sit idly by, silent and inactive when we pray. Answer us! Deliver us!
2 Don’t you hear the tumult and commotion of your enemies? Don’t you see what they are doing, these proud men who hate the Lord? 3 They are full of craftiness and plot against your people, laying plans to slay your precious ones. 4 “Come,” they say, “and let us wipe out Israel as a nation—we will destroy the very memory of her existence.” 5 This was their unanimous decision at their summit conference—they signed a treaty to ally themselves against Almighty God— 6 these Ishmaelites and Edomites and Moabites and Hagrites; 7 people from the lands of Gebal, Ammon, Amalek, Philistia and Tyre; 8 Assyria has joined them too, and is allied with the descendants of Lot.[a]
9 Do to them as once you did to Midian, or as you did to Sisera and Jabin at the river Kishon, 10 and as you did to your enemies at Endor, whose decaying corpses fertilized the soil. 11 Make their mighty nobles die as Oreb did, and Zeeb;[b] let all their princes die like Zebah and Zalmunna, 12 who said, “Let us seize for our own use these pasturelands of God!”
13 O my God, blow them away like dust; like chaff before the wind— 14 as a forest fire that roars across a mountain. 15 Chase them with your fiery storms, tempests, and tornados. 16 Utterly disgrace them until they recognize your power and name, O Lord. 17 Make them failures in everything they do; let them be ashamed and terrified 18 until they learn that you alone, Jehovah, are the God above all gods in supreme charge of all the earth.
84 How lovely is your Temple, O Lord of the armies of heaven.
2 I long, yes, faint with longing to be able to enter your courtyard and come near to the Living God. 3 Even the sparrows and swallows are welcome to come and nest among your altars and there have their young, O Lord of heaven’s armies, my King and my God! 4 How happy are those who can live in your Temple, singing your praises.
5 Happy are those who are strong in the Lord, who want above all else to follow your steps. 6 When they walk through the Valley of Weeping, it will become a place of springs where pools of blessing and refreshment collect after rains! 7 They will grow constantly in strength, and each of them is invited to meet with the Lord in Zion.
8 O Jehovah, God of the heavenly armies, hear my prayer! Listen, God of Israel. 9 O God, our Defender and our Shield, have mercy on the one you have anointed as your king.[c]
10 A single day spent in your Temple is better than a thousand anywhere else! I would rather be a doorman of the Temple of my God than live in palaces[d] of wickedness. 11 For Jehovah God is our Light and our Protector. He gives us grace and glory. No good thing will he withhold from those who walk along his paths.[e]
12 O Lord of the armies of heaven, blessed are those who trust in you.
30 Woe to my rebellious children, says the Lord; you ask advice from everyone but me and decide to do what I don’t want you to do. You yoke yourselves with unbelievers, thus piling up your sins. 2 For without consulting me you have gone down to Egypt to find aid and have put your trust in Pharaoh for his protection.[a] 3 But in trusting Pharaoh, you will be disappointed, humiliated and disgraced, for he can’t deliver on his promises to save you. 4 For though his power extends to Zoan and Hanes, 5 yet it will all turn out to your shame—he won’t help one little bit!
6 See them moving slowly across the terrible desert to Egypt—donkeys and camels laden down with treasure to pay for Egypt’s aid. On through the badlands they go, where lions and swift venomous snakes live—and Egypt will give you nothing in return! 7 For Egypt’s promises are worthless! “The Reluctant Dragon,”[b] I call her!
8 Now go and write down this word of mine concerning Egypt, so that it will stand until the end of time, forever and forever, as an indictment of Israel’s unbelief. 9 For if you don’t write it, they will claim I never warned them. “Oh no,” they’ll say, “you never told us that!”
For they are stubborn rebels. 10-11 They tell my prophets, “Shut up—we don’t want any more of your reports!” Or they say, “Don’t tell us the truth; tell us nice things; tell us lies. Forget all this gloom; we’ve heard more than enough about your ‘Holy One of Israel’ and all he says.”
12 This is the reply of the Holy One of Israel:
Because you despise what I tell you and trust instead in frauds and lies and won’t repent, 13 therefore calamity will come upon you suddenly, as upon a bulging wall that bursts and falls; in one moment it comes crashing down. 14 God will smash you like a broken dish; he will not act sparingly. Not a piece will be left large enough to use for carrying coals from the hearth, or a little water from the well. 15 For the Lord God, the Holy One of Israel, says: Only in returning to me and waiting for me will you be saved; in quietness and confidence is your strength; but you’ll have none of this.
16 “No,” you say. “We will get our help from Egypt; they will give us swift horses for riding to battle.” But the only swiftness you are going to see is the swiftness of your enemies chasing you! 17 One of them will chase a thousand of you! Five of them will scatter you until not two of you are left together. You will be like lonely trees on the distant mountaintops. 18 Yet the Lord still waits for you to come to him so he can show you his love; he will conquer you to bless you, just as he said. For the Lord is faithful to his promises. Blessed are all those who wait for him to help them.
19 O my people in Jerusalem, you shall weep no more, for he will surely be gracious to you at the sound of your cry. He will answer you. 20 Though he give you the bread of adversity and water of affliction, yet he will be with you to teach you—with your own eyes you will see your Teacher. 21 And if you leave God’s paths and go astray, you will hear a voice behind you say, “No, this is the way; walk here.” 22 And you will destroy all your silver idols and gold images and cast them out like filthy things you hate to touch. “Ugh!” you’ll say to them. “Be gone!”
23 Then God will bless you with rain at planting time and with wonderful harvests and with ample pastures for your cows. 24 The oxen and young donkeys that till the ground will eat grain, its chaff blown away by the wind. 25 In that day when God steps in to destroy your enemies, he will give you streams of water flowing down each mountain and every hill. 26 The moon will be as bright as the sun, and the sunlight brighter than seven days! So it will be when the Lord begins to heal his people and to cure the wounds he gave them.
27 See, the Lord comes from afar, aflame with wrath, surrounded by thick rising smoke. His lips are filled with fury; his words consume like fire. 28 His wrath pours out like floods upon them all, to sweep them all away. He will sift out the proud nations and bridle them and lead them off to their doom.
29 But the people of God will sing a song of solemn joy, like songs in the night when holy feasts are held; his people will have gladness of heart, as when a flutist leads a pilgrim band to Jerusalem to the mountain of the Lord, the Rock of Israel. 30 And the Lord shall cause his majestic voice to be heard and shall crush down his mighty arm upon his enemies with angry indignation and devouring flames, with tornados, terrible storms, and huge hailstones. 31 The voice of the Lord shall punish the Assyrians, who had been his rod of punishment. 32 And when the Lord smites them, his people will rejoice with music and song. 33 The funeral pyre has long been ready, prepared for Molech, the Assyrian god; it is piled high with wood. The breath of the Lord, like fire from a volcano, will set it all on fire.
1 From: Jude, a servant of Jesus Christ, and a brother of James.
To: Christians everywhere—beloved of God and chosen by him. 2 May you be given more and more of God’s kindness, peace, and love.
3 Dearly loved friends, I had been planning to write you some thoughts about the salvation God has given us, but now I find I must write of something else instead, urging you to stoutly defend the truth that God gave once for all to his people to keep without change through the years. 4 I say this because some godless teachers have wormed their way in among you, saying that after we become Christians we can do just as we like without fear of God’s punishment. The fate of such people was written long ago, for they have turned against our only Master and Lord, Jesus Christ.
5 My answer to them is: Remember this fact—which you know already—that the Lord saved a whole nation of people out of the land of Egypt and then killed every one of them who did not trust and obey him. 6 And I remind you of those angels who were once pure and holy but turned to a life of sin.[a] Now God has them chained up in prisons of darkness, waiting for the judgment day. 7 And don’t forget the cities of Sodom and Gomorrah and their neighboring towns, all full of lust of every kind, including lust of men for other men. Those cities were destroyed by fire and continue to be a warning to us that there is a hell in which sinners are punished.
8 Yet these false teachers carelessly go right on living their evil, immoral lives, degrading their bodies and laughing at those in authority over them, even scoffing at the Glorious Ones. 9 Yet Michael, one of the mightiest of the angels, when he was arguing with Satan about Moses’ body, did not dare to accuse even Satan, or jeer at him, but simply said, “The Lord rebuke you.” 10 But these men mock and curse at anything they do not understand, and like animals, they do whatever they feel like, thereby ruining their souls.
11 Woe upon them! For they follow the example of Cain who killed his brother; and like Balaam, they will do anything for money; and like Korah, they have disobeyed God and will die under his curse.
12 When these men join you at the love feasts of the church, they are evil smears among you, laughing and carrying on, gorging and stuffing themselves without a thought for others. They are like clouds blowing over dry land without giving rain, promising much, but producing nothing. They are like fruit trees without any fruit at picking time. They are not only dead, but doubly dead, for they have been pulled out, roots and all, to be burned.
13 All they leave behind them is shame and disgrace like the dirty foam left along the beach by the wild waves. They wander around looking as bright as stars, but ahead of them is the everlasting gloom and darkness that God has prepared for them.
14 Enoch, who lived seven generations after Adam, knew about these men and said this about them: “See, the Lord is coming with millions of his holy ones. 15 He will bring the people of the world before him in judgment, to receive just punishment and to prove the terrible things they have done in rebellion against God, revealing all they have said against him.” 16 These men are constant gripers, never satisfied, doing whatever evil they feel like; they are loudmouthed “show-offs,” and when they show respect for others, it is only to get something from them in return.
17 Dear friends, remember what the apostles of our Lord Jesus Christ told you, 18 that in the last times there would come these scoffers whose whole purpose in life is to enjoy themselves in every evil way imaginable. 19 They stir up arguments; they love the evil things of the world; they do not have the Holy Spirit living in them.
20 But you, dear friends, must build up your lives ever more strongly upon the foundation of our holy faith, learning to pray in the power and strength of the Holy Spirit.
21 Stay always within the boundaries where God’s love can reach and bless you. Wait patiently for the eternal life that our Lord Jesus Christ in his mercy is going to give you. 22 Try to help those who argue against you. Be merciful to those who doubt. 23 Save some by snatching them as from the very flames of hell itself. And as for others, help them to find the Lord by being kind to them, but be careful that you yourselves aren’t pulled along into their sins. Hate every trace of their sin while being merciful to them as sinners.
24-25 And now—all glory to him who alone is God, who saves us through Jesus Christ our Lord; yes, splendor and majesty, all power and authority are his from the beginning; his they are and his they evermore shall be. And he is able to keep you from slipping and falling away, and to bring you, sinless and perfect, into his glorious presence with mighty shouts of everlasting joy. Amen.
Jude
The Living Bible copyright © 1971 by Tyndale House Foundation. Used by permission of Tyndale House Publishers Inc., Carol Stream, Illinois 60188. All rights reserved.