M’Cheyne Bible Reading Plan

Joshua Is the New Leader

31 Then Moses spoke these words to all Israel. ² He said to them, “I am 120 years old today. I am no longer able to come and go. And the Lord has told me, ‘You will not cross this Jordan.’ ³ The Lord your God Himself will cross before you. He will destroy these nations in front of you. And you will take their place. Joshua will cross before you also, as the Lord has said. ⁴ The Lord will do the same to them that He did to Sihon and Og, the kings of the Amorites, and to their land when He destroyed them. ⁵ The Lord will give them to you. Then you will do to them as I have told you. ⁶ Be strong and have strength of heart. Do not be afraid or shake with fear because of them. For the Lord your God is the One Who goes with you. He will be faithful to you. He will not leave you alone.”

⁷ Then Moses called Joshua and said to him in front of all Israel, “Be strong and have strength of heart. For you will go with this people into the land the Lord has promised to their fathers to give them. And you will bring them in to take it. ⁸ The Lord is the One Who goes before you. He will be with you. He will be faithful to you and will not leave you alone. Do not be afraid or troubled.”

Reading of the Law Every Seven Years

⁹ So Moses wrote this Law and gave it to the religious leaders, the sons of Levi who carried the special box of the Law of the Lord, and to all the leaders of Israel. ¹⁰ Then Moses told them, “At the end of every seven years, at the time when money owed is done away with at the Special Supper of Tents, ¹¹ when all Israel comes to stand before the Lord your God at the place He will choose, you must read this Law so all Israel will hear it. ¹² Gather together the people in your town, the men and the women, the children, and the stranger. So they may hear and learn and fear the Lord your God. Be careful to obey all the words of this Law. ¹³ Then their children, who have not known it, will hear and learn to fear the Lord your God, as long as you live in the land you are crossing the Jordan to take.”

The Lord’s Last Words to Moses

¹⁴ The Lord said to Moses, “See, the time for you to die is near. Call Joshua, and go to the meeting tent, so I may tell him what to do.” So Moses and Joshua went to the meeting tent. ¹⁵ The Lord showed Himself in a pillar of cloud which stayed at the door of the tent. ¹⁶ And the Lord said to Moses, “See, you will soon die and be with your fathers. Then these people will soon act like a woman who sells the use of her body. They will follow the strange gods of the land where they are going. They will turn away from Me and break My agreement which I have made with them. ¹⁷ Then My anger will burn against them. I will leave them alone and hide My face from them and they will be destroyed. Many hard things and big troubles will come upon them. So they will say in that day, ‘Have not these troubles come upon us because our God is not with us?’ ¹⁸ But I will hide My face in that day because of all the sinful things they will do, for they will turn to other gods. ¹⁹ So write this song for yourselves. Teach it to the people of Israel. Put it on their lips, so this song may speak for Me against all the people of Israel. ²⁰ For when I bring them into the land flowing with milk and honey, which I promised to their fathers, and they eat and are filled and have become rich, they will turn to other gods and serve them. They will turn against Me and break My agreement. ²¹ When many hard things and big troubles come upon them, this song will speak for Me against them. It will not be forgotten from the lips of their children and their children’s children. I know the plans they are making today, before I have brought them into the land I promised them.” ²² So Moses wrote this song the same day, and taught it to the people of Israel.

²³ Then the Lord said to Joshua the son of Nun, “Be strong and have strength of heart. For you will bring the people of Israel into the land I promised them. And I will be with you.”

²⁴ Moses wrote the words of this Law in a book from beginning to the end. ²⁵ Then Moses said to the Levites who carried the special box of the Law of the Lord, ²⁶ “Take this book of the Law and put it beside the special box of the Law of the Lord your God. It will be there to speak against you. ²⁷ For I know how strong your will is and that you do not want to obey. See, while I am still alive with you today, you have gone against the Lord. How much worse it will be after my death! ²⁸ Gather together and bring to me all the leaders and heads of your families. I will speak these words to them and call heaven and earth to speak against them. ²⁹ For I know that after my death you will sin and turn from the way I have told you. Much trouble will come to you in the days to come. For you will do what is sinful in the eyes of the Lord. You will make Him angry through the work of your hands.”

³⁰ Then Moses spoke all the words of this song to all the people of Israel.

⁹⁷ O, how I love Your Law! It is what I think about all through the day. ⁹⁸ Your Word makes me wiser than those who hate me, for it is always with me. ⁹⁹ I have better understanding than all my teachers because I think about Your Law. ¹⁰⁰ I have a better understanding than those who are old because I obey Your Word. ¹⁰¹ I have kept my feet from every sinful way so that I may keep Your Word. ¹⁰² I have not turned away from Your Law, for You Yourself have taught me. ¹⁰³ How sweet is Your Word to my taste! It is sweeter than honey to my mouth! ¹⁰⁴ I get understanding from Your Law and so I hate every false way.

¹⁰⁵ Your Word is a lamp to my feet and a light to my path. ¹⁰⁶ I have promised that I will keep Your Law. And I will add strength to this promise. ¹⁰⁷ I am in much suffering. O Lord, give me life again by Your Word. ¹⁰⁸ Take my willing gift of thanks, O Lord, and teach me Your Law. ¹⁰⁹ My life is always in my hand, yet I do not forget Your Law. ¹¹⁰ The sinful have set a trap for me, yet I have not turned from Your Law. ¹¹¹ I have been given Your Law forever. It is the joy of my heart. ¹¹² I have set my heart on obeying Your Law forever, even to the end.

¹¹³ I hate those who have two ways of thinking, but I love Your Law. ¹¹⁴ You are my hiding place and my battle-covering. I put my hope in Your Word. ¹¹⁵ Go away from me, you who do wrong, so I may keep the Word of my God. ¹¹⁶ Hold me up by Your Word and I will live. Do not let me be ashamed of my hope. ¹¹⁷ Hold me up so I will be safe, and I will always have respect for Your Law. ¹¹⁸ You turn away from all those who turn from Your Law. They fool themselves with their own lying. ¹¹⁹ You put away like waste all the sinful of the earth, so I love Your Law. ¹²⁰ My flesh shakes in fear of You, and I am afraid of how You may punish.

Going without Food Pleases God

58 “Cry with a loud voice. Do not hold back. Raise your voice like a horn, and show My people their wrong-doing and the family of Jacob their sins. ² Yet they look for Me day by day, and are happy to know My ways, as a nation that has done what is right and good, and has not turned away from the Law of their God. They ask Me to be fair in what I decide, and they are happy to come near to God. ³ They say, ‘Why have we gone without food, and You do not see it? Why have we put away our pride, and You do not know it?’ See, on the day you do not eat, you do what you want to do, and make it hard for all your workers. ⁴ See, while you go without food you argue and fight and hit with a sinful hand. Going without food as you do today will not help your voice to be heard on high. ⁵ Is it a time without eating like this that I choose, a day for a man to put away his pride? Is it for bowing his head like a piece of grass, and to spread ashes and cloth made from hair for his bed? Will you call this time without eating a day that pleases the Lord? ⁶ Is not the time without eating which I choose, a time to take off the chains of sin, and to take the heavy load of sin off the neck? Is it not a time to let those who suffer under a sinful power go free, and to break every load from their neck? ⁷ Is it not a time to share your food with the hungry, and bring the poor man into your house who has no home of his own? Is it not a time to give clothes to the person you see who has no clothes, and a time not to hide yourself from your own family? ⁸ Then your light will break out like the early morning, and you will soon be healed. Your right and good works will go before you. And the shining-greatness of the Lord will keep watch behind you. ⁹ Then you will call, and the Lord will answer. You will cry, and He will say, ‘Here I am.’ If you take the weight of sin away, and stop putting the blame on others and stop speaking sinful things, ¹⁰ and if you give what you have to the hungry, and fill the needs of those who suffer, then your light will rise in the darkness, and your darkness will be like the brightest time of day. ¹¹ The Lord will always lead you. He will meet the needs of your soul in the dry times and give strength to your body. You will be like a garden that has enough water, like a well of water that never dries up. ¹² And your cities which were destroyed long ago will be built again. You will set up the stones of the bases of the old buildings. You will be called the one who builds again the broken walls, and who makes the streets on which people live like new.

¹³ “If you keep from doing what pleases you on the Day of Rest, on My holy day and call the Day of Rest a happy time, and respect the holy day of the Lord, and if you honor it by turning from your own ways, and from following your own desire and by not talking in a foolish way, ¹⁴ then you will have joy in the Lord. I will cause you to ride on the high places of the earth. And I will feed you with the best from the land given to your father Jacob. The mouth of the Lord has spoken.”

Jesus Teaches on the Mountain about Helping Others

6 “Be sure you do not do good things in front of others just to be seen by them. If you do, you have no reward from your Father in heaven. ² When you give to the poor, do not be as those who pretend to be someone they are not. They blow a horn in the places of worship and in the streets so people may respect them. For sure, I tell you, they have all the reward they are going to get. ³ When you give, do not let your left hand know what your right hand gives. ⁴ Your giving should be in secret. Then your Father Who sees in secret will reward you.

Jesus Teaches about Prayer

⁵ “When you pray, do not be as those who pretend to be someone they are not. They love to stand and pray in the places of worship or in the streets so people can see them. For sure, I tell you, they have all the reward they are going to get. ⁶ When you pray, go into a room by yourself. After you have shut the door, pray to your Father Who is in secret. Then your Father Who sees in secret will reward you. ⁷ When you pray, do not say the same thing over and over again making long prayers like the people who do not know God. They think they are heard because their prayers are long. ⁸ Do not be like them. Your Father knows what you need before you ask Him.

⁹ “Pray like this: ‘Our Father in heaven, Your name is holy. ¹⁰ May Your holy nation come. What You want done, may it be done on earth as it is in heaven. ¹¹ Give us the bread we need today. ¹² Forgive us our sins as we forgive those who sin against us.

¹³ ‘Do not let us be tempted, but keep us from sin. *Your nation is holy. You have power and shining-greatness forever. Let it be so.’

Jesus Teaches about Forgiveness

¹⁴ “If you forgive people their sins, your Father in heaven will forgive your sins also. ¹⁵ If you do not forgive people their sins, your Father will not forgive your sins.

Jesus Teaches about Not Eating So You Can Pray Better

¹⁶ “When you go without food so you can pray better, do not be as those who pretend to be someone they are not. They make themselves look sad so people will see they are going with out food. For sure, I tell you, they have all the reward they are going to get. ¹⁷ When you go without food so you can pray better, put oil on your head and wash your face. ¹⁸ Then nobody knows you are going without food. Then your Father Who sees in secret will reward you.

Jesus Teaches about Having Riches

¹⁹ “Do not gather together for yourself riches of this earth. They will be eaten by bugs and become rusted. Men can break in and steal them. ²⁰ Gather together riches in heaven where they will not be eaten by bugs or become rusted. Men cannot break in and steal them. ²¹ For wherever your riches are, your heart will be there also. ²² The eye is the light of the body. If your eye is good, your whole body will be full of light. ²³ If your eye is bad, your whole body will be dark. If the light in you is dark, how dark it will be! ²⁴ No one can have two bosses. He will hate the one and love the other. Or he will listen to the one and work against the other. You cannot have both God and riches as your boss at the same time.

Jesus Teaches about Cares of Life

²⁵ “I tell you this: Do not worry about your life. Do not worry about what you are going to eat and drink. Do not worry about what you are going to wear. Is not life more important than food? Is not the body more important than clothes? ²⁶ Look at the birds in the sky. They do not plant seeds. They do not gather grain. They do not put grain into a building to keep. Yet your Father in heaven feeds them! Are you not more important than the birds? ²⁷ Which of you can make himself a little taller by worrying? ²⁸ Why should you worry about clothes? Think how the flowers grow. They do not work or make cloth. ²⁹ But I tell you that Solomon in all his greatness was not dressed as well as one of these flowers. ³⁰ God clothes the grass of the field. It lives today and is burned in the stove tomorrow. How much more will He give you clothes? You have so little faith! ³¹ Do not worry. Do not keep saying, ‘What will we eat?’ or, ‘What will we drink?’ or, ‘What will we wear?’ ³² The people who do not know God are looking for all these things. Your Father in heaven knows you need all these things. ³³ First of all, look for the holy nation of God. Be right with Him. All these other things will be given to you also. ³⁴ Do not worry about tomorrow. Tomorrow will have its own worries. The troubles we have in a day are enough for one day.