M’Cheyne Bible Reading Plan

God’s Chosen People

7 “The Lord your God will bring you into the land you are taking for your own. He will drive away many nations in front of you, the Hittites, the Girgashites, the Amorites, the Canaanites, the Perizzites, the Hivites, and the Jebusites, seven nations bigger and stronger than you. ² When the Lord your God gives them to you and you win the battles against them, you must destroy all of them. Make no agreement with them and show no favor to them. ³ Do not take any of them in marriage. Do not give your daughters to their sons. And do not take their daughters for your sons. ⁴ For they will turn your sons away from following Me to serve other gods. Then the anger of the Lord will burn against you. And He will be quick to destroy you. ⁵ But do this to them: Break down their altars. Crush their objects of worship. Cut down their female goddess Asherim. And burn their false gods with fire.

⁶ “For you are a holy nation to the Lord your God. The Lord your God has chosen you out of all the nations on the earth, to be His own. ⁷ The Lord did not give you His love and choose you because you were more people than any of the nations. For the number of your people was less than all nations. ⁸ But it is because the Lord loves you and is keeping the promise He made to your fathers. So the Lord brought you out by a strong hand. He set you free from the land where you were servants, and from the power of Pharaoh king of Egypt. ⁹ Know then that the Lord your God is God, the faithful God. He keeps His promise and shows His loving-kindness to those who love Him and keep His Laws, even to a thousand family groups in the future. ¹⁰ But He destroys those who hate Him. He will not show kindness to the one who hates Him, but will punish him to his face. ¹¹ So keep and obey all the Laws I am telling you today.

Good Comes to Those Who Obey

¹² “If you listen to these Laws and keep and obey them, the Lord your God will keep His agreement and loving-kindness as He promised to your fathers. ¹³ He will love you and bring good to you and make you a nation of many. He will bring good to your children and the fruit of your land, your grain, your new wine and your oil. And He will give you many cattle and young ones in your flock, in the land He promised to your fathers to give you. ¹⁴ More good will come to you than to any other nation. There will be no male or female among you or your cattle that is not able to have young ones. ¹⁵ The Lord will take all sickness from you. He will not let any bad diseases come upon you that you have known in Egypt. But He will give them to all who hate you. ¹⁶ You will destroy all the nations the Lord your God will give to you. You will not pity them or worship their gods, for that would be a trap to you.

¹⁷ “You may say in your heart, ‘These nations are stronger than I. How can I drive them out?’ ¹⁸ But you will not be afraid of them. You will remember what the Lord your God did to Pharaoh and to all Egypt. ¹⁹ You will remember the hard trials you saw, the powerful works, and the strong hand and powerful arm the Lord your God used to bring you out. The Lord your God will do the same to all the nations who make you afraid. ²⁰ And the Lord your God will send the hornet against them. Those who are left will hide themselves from you and be destroyed. ²¹ You will not be afraid of them. For the Lord your God is among you, a great and powerful God. ²² The Lord your God will drive away these nations in front of you one by one. You will not be able to destroy them in a short time, or the wild animals may become too many for you. ²³ But the Lord your God will give them to you. He will bring much trouble upon them until they are destroyed. ²⁴ He will give their kings into your hand. And you will destroy their name from under heaven. No man will be able to stand in front of you until you have destroyed them. ²⁵ You must burn with fire their objects of worship. Do not want the silver or gold that is on them, or take it for yourselves. It would be a trap to you, for it is a hated thing to the Lord your God. ²⁶ Do not bring a hated thing into your house. You would become hated also. But turn from it with fear and hate, for bad will come from it.

God Is Forever—Man’s Short Life

90 Lord, You have been the place of comfort for all people of all time. ² Before the mountains were born, before You gave birth to the earth and the world, forever and ever, You are God.

³ You change man into dust again, and say, “Return, O children of men.” ⁴ For a thousand years in Your eyes are like yesterday when it passes by, or like the hours of the night. ⁵ You carry men away as with a flood. They fall asleep. In the morning they are like the new grass that grows. ⁶ It grows well in the morning, but dries up and dies by evening.

⁷ For we are burned up by Your anger. By Your anger we are troubled and afraid. ⁸ You have set our wrong-doing before You, our secret sins in the light of Your face. ⁹ For all our days pass away in Your anger. We finish our years with a quiet cry. ¹⁰ The days of our life are seventy years, or eighty if we have the strength. Yet the best of them are only hard work and sorrow. For they are soon gone and we fly away. ¹¹ Who understands the power of Your anger? Your anger is as great as the fear that we should have for You. ¹² Teach us to understand how many days we have. Then we will have a heart of wisdom to give You.

¹³ Return, O Lord. How long will it be? Have pity upon those who work for You. ¹⁴ Fill us in the morning with Your loving-kindness. Let us sing for joy and be glad all our days. ¹⁵ Make us glad for as many days as You have made us suffer, and for the years we have seen trouble. ¹⁶ Let Your work be shown to Your servants. And let Your wonderful greatness be shown to their children. ¹⁷ Let the favor of the Lord our God be upon us. And make the work of our hands stand strong. Yes, make the work of our hands stand strong.

The Future Greatness of Zion

35 The waste-land and the dry land will be glad. The desert will be full of joy and become like a rose. ² Many flowers will grow in it, and it will be filled with joy and singing. The greatness of Lebanon will be given to it, and the beauty of Carmel and Sharon. They will see the shining-greatness of the Lord, the wonderful power of our God. ³ Give strength to weak hands and to weak knees. ⁴ Say to those whose heart is afraid, “Have strength of heart, and do not be afraid. See, your God will come ready to punish. He will come to make sinners pay for their sins, but He will save you.” ⁵ Then the eyes of the blind will be opened. And the ears of those who cannot hear will be opened. ⁶ Then those who cannot walk will jump like a deer. And the tongue of those who cannot speak will call out for joy. For waters will break out in the wilderness, and rivers in the desert. ⁷ The burning sand will become a pool. The thirsty ground will become wells of water. The resting place of the wild dog will be filled with river-grasses. ⁸ And a road will be there. It will be called the Holy Way. Those who are unclean will not travel on it. But it will be for those who walk in that way. Fools will not walk on it. ⁹ No lion will be there. No angry and hungry animal will go up on it. They will not be found there. But those whose sin has been paid for will walk there. ¹⁰ Those whom the Lord has paid for and set free will return. They will come to Zion with singing. Joy that lasts forever will crown their heads. They will be glad and full of joy. Sorrow and sad voices will be gone.

The Book in Heaven

5 I saw a book in the right hand of the One Who sat on the a throne. It had writing on the inside and on the back side. It was locked with seven locks. ² I saw a powerful angel calling with a loud voice, “Who is able to open the book and to break its locks?” ³ No one in heaven or on the earth or under the earth was able to open the book or to look in it. ⁴ Then I began to cry with loud cries. I cried because no one was good enough to open the book or to look in it.

⁵ One of the leaders said to me, “Stop crying. See! The Lion from the family group of Judah has power and has won. He can open the book and break its seven locks. He is of the family of David.”

⁶ I saw a Lamb standing in front of the twenty-four leaders. He was before the throne and in front of the four living beings. He looked as if He had been killed. He had seven horns and seven eyes. These are the seven Spirits of God. They have been sent out into all the world. ⁷ The Lamb came and took the book from the right hand of the One Who sat on the throne. ⁸ When the Lamb had taken the book, the four living beings and the twenty-four leaders got down before Him. Each one had a harp. They all had pots made of gold, full of special perfume, which are the prayers of the people who belong to God. ⁹ They sang a new song, saying, “It is right for You to take the book and break its locks. It is because You were killed. Your blood has bought men for God from every family and from every language and from every kind of people and from every nation. ¹⁰ You have made them to be a holy nation of religious leaders to work for our God. They will be the leaders on the earth.”

¹¹ I looked again. I heard the voices of many thousands of angels. They stood around the throne and around the four living beings and the leaders. ¹² They said with a loud voice, “The Lamb Who was killed has the right to receive power and riches and wisdom and strength and honor and shining-greatness and thanks.”

¹³ Then I heard every living thing in heaven and on the earth and under the earth and in the sea and all that are in them. They were saying, “Thanks and honor and shining-greatness and all power are to the One Who sits on the throne and to the Lamb forever.” ¹⁴ The four living beings kept saying, “Let it be so!” And the twenty-four leaders fell down and worshiped.