M’Cheyne Bible Reading Plan

About Battles

20 “When you go to battle against those who hate you and see more horses and war-wagons and soldiers than you have, do not be afraid of them. For the Lord your God, Who brought you from the land of Egypt, is with you. ² When you are coming near the battle, the religious leader will come near and speak to the people. ³ He will say to them, ‘Hear, O Israel. Today you are going into battle against those who hate you. Do not let your hearts become weak. Do not be afraid and shake in fear before them. ⁴ For the Lord your God is the One Who goes with you. He will fight for you against those who hate you. And He will save you.’ ⁵ The leaders will speak to the people also, saying, ‘Is there anyone among you who has built a new house and has not given it to God? Let him go and return to his house or he might die in battle and another man will give it to God. ⁶ Is there anyone who has planted grape vines and has not begun to eat their fruit? Let him go and return to his house or he might die in the battle and another man will begin to eat the fruit. ⁷ Is there a man who is promised in marriage to a woman and has not married her? Let him go and return to his house or he might die in the battle and another man marry her.’ ⁸ Then the leaders will say to the people, ‘Is there a man here who is afraid and is weak in heart? Let him go and return to his house so he will not make his brothers’ hearts afraid like his heart.’ ⁹ When the leaders have finished speaking to the people, they will choose heads of the army to lead the people.

¹⁰ “When you come near a city to fight against it, ask the people of the city if they would rather have peace. ¹¹ If they agree to make peace with you and open their gates to you, all the people who are found there will be made to work for you and serve you. ¹² But if they do not make peace with you and fight against you, you must take the city in battle. ¹³ When the Lord your God gives the city to you, you must kill all the men in it with the sword. ¹⁴ Take for yourselves what is left, the women, the children, all the animals, and all that is in the city. Use what is left of those who fought against you, which the Lord your God has given you. ¹⁵ Do this to all the cities that are very far from you and are not of the cities of the nations that are near. ¹⁶ But in the cities of these nations that the Lord your God is giving you for your own, do not leave alive anything that breathes. ¹⁷ Destroy everything and everyone in them, the Hittite, the Amorite, the Canaanite, the Perizzite, the Hivite and the Jebusite, as the Lord your God has told you. ¹⁸ Then they will not teach you to do all the hated and sinful things they have done for their gods, and make you sin against the Lord your God.

¹⁹ “When you stay around a city a long time, to make war against it and take it, do not destroy its trees with the ax. You may eat from them but do not cut them down. For are trees of the field men that they should be killed? ²⁰ You may destroy and cut down only the trees you know are not fruit trees. Then you may build walls with the trees to help you fight against the city that makes war with you, until it falls.

God Helps Men in Trouble

107 Give thanks to the Lord for He is good! His loving-kindness lasts forever! ² Let the people who have been saved say so. He has bought them and set them free from the hand of those who hated them. ³ He gathered them from the lands, from east and west, from north and south.

⁴ Some traveled through the desert wastes. They did not find a way to a city where they could live. ⁵ They were hungry and thirsty. Their souls became weak within them. ⁶ Then they cried out to the Lord in their trouble. And He took them out of their suffering. ⁷ He led them by a straight path to a city where they could live. ⁸ Let them give thanks to the Lord for His loving-kindness and His great works to the children of men! ⁹ For He fills the thirsty soul. And He fills the hungry soul with good things.

¹⁰ Some sat in darkness and in the shadow of death. They suffered in prison in iron chains. ¹¹ Because they had turned against the Words of God. They hated what the Most High told them to do. ¹² So He loaded them down with hard work. They fell and there was no one to help. ¹³ Then they cried out to the Lord in their trouble. And He saved them from their suffering. ¹⁴ He brought them out of darkness and the shadow of death. And He broke their chains. ¹⁵ Let them give thanks to the Lord for His loving-kindness and His great works to the children of men! ¹⁶ For He has broken gates of brass and cut through walls of iron.

¹⁷ Some were fools because of their wrong-doing. They had troubles because of their sins. ¹⁸ They hated all kinds of food. And they came near the gates of death. ¹⁹ Then they cried out to the Lord in their trouble. And He saved them from their suffering. ²⁰ He sent His Word and healed them. And He saved them from the grave. ²¹ Let them give thanks to the Lord for His loving-kindness and His great works to the children of men! ²² Let them give Him gifts of thanks and tell of His works with songs of joy.

²³ Some went out to sea in ships to buy and sell on the great waters. ²⁴ They have seen what the Lord can do and His great works on the sea. ²⁵ For He spoke and raised up a storm that lifted up the waves of the sea. ²⁶ They went up to the heavens and down to the deep. Their strength of heart left them in their danger. ²⁷ They could not walk straight but went from side to side like a drunk man. They did not know what to do. ²⁸ Then they cried out to the Lord in their trouble. And He took them out of all their problems. ²⁹ He stopped the storm, and the waves of the sea became quiet. ³⁰ Then they were glad because the sea became quiet. And He led them to the safe place they wanted. ³¹ Let them give thanks to the Lord for His loving-kindness and His great works to the children of men! ³² Let them honor Him in the meeting of the people and praise Him in the meeting of the leaders.

³³ He changes rivers into a desert and wells of water into a thirsty ground. ³⁴ He changes a land of much fruit into a salt waste because of the sin of those who live in it. ³⁵ He changes a desert into a pool of water and makes water flow out of dry ground. ³⁶ And He makes the hungry go there so they may build a city to live in. ³⁷ They plant seeds in the fields and plant grape-vines and gather much fruit. ³⁸ He lets good come to them and they become many in number. And He does not let the number of their cattle become less.

³⁹ When the number of people becomes less and they are put to shame under a bad power and trouble and sorrow, ⁴⁰ He pours anger on rulers. He makes them walk in the waste places where there is no path. ⁴¹ But He lifts those in need out of their troubles. He makes their families grow like flocks. ⁴² Those who are right see it and are glad. But all the sinful shut their mouths. ⁴³ Let the wise man think about these things. And may he think about the loving-kindness of the Lord.

Babylon Is Punished

47 “Come down and sit in the dust, O pure daughter of Babylon. Sit on the ground without a throne, O people of the Babylonians. For you will no longer be called soft and gentle. ² Take the heavy stones and grind grain. Take off your face-covering and your clothing. Take the covering off your legs, and cross the rivers. ³ Your body will not be covered, and your shame will be seen. I will punish, and will not show pity to any man.” ⁴ The One Who bought us and saves us, the Lord of All is His name, the Holy One of Israel. ⁵ “Sit and be quiet, and go into darkness, O people of the Babylonians. For you will no more be called the queen of nations. ⁶ I was angry with My people. I made My chosen nation unclean, and gave them into your hand. You did not show loving-kindness to them. On the older people you made your load very heavy. ⁷ You said, ‘I will be a queen forever.’ So you did not think about these things, or remember what might happen.

⁸ “So now hear this, you who love the desires of the body, who live without fear of danger. You say in your heart, ‘I am, and there is no one besides me. I will not sit as a woman whose husband has died, and I will not lose my children.’ ⁹ But these two things will come upon you all at once in one day. You will lose your children and your husband. All this trouble will come to you, even with all your witchcraft and the strong power of your sinful secret ways. ¹⁰ You trusted in your sin and said, ‘No one sees me.’ Your wisdom and learning have led you the wrong way, for you have said in your heart, ‘I am, and there is no one besides me.’ ¹¹ Much trouble will come upon you, and you will not know how to get away from it. Trouble will fall on you, and there will be no way for you to pay that it might go away. You will not know it but all at once you will be destroyed.

¹² “Keep on with your sinful secret ways and all your witchcraft that you have used since you were young. It might be that you will get something from it. Maybe you can cause fear. ¹³ You are tired with your many wise men. Now call the star watchers, those who tell by the stars what will happen in the future, those who tell the future by the new moons. Have them stand up and save you from what will come upon you. ¹⁴ See, they have become like dry grass. Fire burns them. They cannot take themselves away from the power of the fire. This is no fire for making one warm, or fire to sit by! ¹⁵ This is how those are to you, with whom you have worked since you were young. Each one has gone on in his own wrong way. There is no one who can save you.

The Sinful Woman

17 Then one of the seven angels who had the seven jars came to me. He said, “Come! I will show you how the powerful woman who sells the use of her body will be punished. She sits on the many waters of the world. ² The kings of the earth have done sex sins with her. People of the world have been made drunk with the wine of her sex sins.”

³ I was carried away in the Spirit by the angel to a desert. I saw a woman sitting on a red wild animal. It had seven heads and ten horns. All over the red wild animal was written bad names which spoke against God. ⁴ The woman was wearing purple and red clothes. She was wearing gold and pearls and stones worth much money. She had in her hand a gold cup full of sinful things from her sex sins. ⁵ There was a name written on her forehead which had a secret meaning. It said, “The big and powerful Babylon, mother of all women who sell the use of their bodies and mother of everything sinful of the earth.” ⁶ I looked at the woman. She was drunk with the blood of God’s people and those who had been killed for telling about Jesus. When I saw her, I wondered very much.

⁷ The angel asked me, “Why do you wonder? I will tell you the secret about this woman and the red wild animal that carries her. It is the red wild animal with seven heads and ten horns. ⁸ The red wild animal you saw was alive but is now dead. He will come up from the hole without a bottom and be destroyed. The people of the earth, whose names have not been written in the book of life from the beginning of the world, will be surprised as they look at the red wild animal. He was alive, but not now, but will yet come.

⁹ “Here is where we need wisdom. The seven heads of the animal are mountains where the woman sits. ¹⁰ They are seven kings also. Five of them are no longer kings. The sixth one is now king. The seventh one will be king, but only for a little while. ¹¹ The red wild animal that died is the eighth king. He belongs to the first seven kings, but he will be destroyed also.

¹² “The ten horns of the red wild animal which you saw are ten kings. They have not become leaders yet. But they will be given the right and the power to lead their nations for one hour with the red wild animal. ¹³ They agree to give the right and the power to the red wild animal. ¹⁴ These kings will fight and make war with the Lamb. But the Lamb will win the war because He is Lord of lords and King of kings. His people are the called and chosen and faithful ones.”

¹⁵ Then the angel said to me, “You saw the waters where the woman who sold the use of her body is sitting. The waters are people and large groups of people and nations and languages. ¹⁶ The ten horns you saw and the red wild animal will hate the woman who sold the use of her body. They will take everything from her and even her clothes. They will eat her flesh and burn her with fire. ¹⁷ God put in their minds a plan that would carry out His desire. They will agree to give their nation to the red wild animal until the words of God have been completed. ¹⁸ The woman you saw is the big and powerful city that has power over the kings of the earth.”