M’Cheyne Bible Reading Plan

Three Tribes Go Home

22 Then Joshua called a meeting of all the people from the tribes of Reuben, Gad, and half the tribe of Manasseh. ² Joshua said to them, “Moses was the Lord’s servant. You obeyed everything that Moses told you to do. And you also obeyed all of my commands. ³ All this time you have supported all the other Israelites. You carefully obeyed all the commands that the Lord your God gave you. ⁴ The Lord your God promised to give the Israelites peace. And now, he has kept his promise, so now you can go home. The Lord’s servant Moses gave you the land on the east side of the Jordan River. Now you can go home to that land. ⁵ But remember—continue to obey the law that the Lord’s servant Moses gave you. You must love the Lord your God and obey his commands. You must continue to follow him and serve him the very best that you can.”

⁶ Then Joshua said goodbye to them, and they left and went home. ⁷ Moses had given the land of Bashan to half of the Manasseh tribe. Joshua gave land on the west side of the Jordan River to the other half of the Manasseh tribe. Joshua blessed them and sent them home. ⁸ He said, “You have become very rich. You have many animals. You have gold, silver, and expensive jewelry. You have many beautiful clothes. You have taken many things from your enemies. Go home and divide these things among yourselves.”

⁹ So the people from the tribes of Reuben, Gad, and Manasseh left the other Israelites at Shiloh in Canaan. They went back home to Gilead. This was their own land, the land that Moses gave them, as the Lord had commanded.

¹⁰ They went to the place called Geliloth, near the Jordan River in the land of Canaan. There they built a beautiful altar. ¹¹ But the other Israelites who were still at Shiloh heard about the altar that these three tribes built. They heard that the altar was at the border of Canaan at the place called Geliloth. It was near the Jordan River on Israel’s side. ¹² All the Israelites became very angry with these three tribes. They met together and decided to fight against them.

¹³ So the Israelites sent some men to talk to the people of Reuben, Gad, and Manasseh. The leader of these men was Phinehas, son of Eleazar the priest. ¹⁴ They also sent ten of the leaders of the tribes there. There was one man from each family group of Israel who was at Shiloh.

¹⁵ So these eleven men went to Gilead. They went to talk to the people of Reuben, Gad, and Manasseh. The eleven men said to them, ¹⁶ “All the Lord’s people sent us to ask you this: ‘Why did you do this thing against the God of Israel? Why did you stop following the Lord? Why did you build an altar for yourselves? You know that this is against the Lord’s command. ¹⁷ Remember what happened at Peor? Was the sin we committed there not bad enough? Because of that sin, the Lord punished his people with a terrible sickness. And we are still suffering from that sin. ¹⁸ And now you are doing the same thing. You are turning against the Lord. Will you refuse to follow the Lord? If you don’t stop what you are doing, he will be angry with everyone in Israel.

¹⁹ “‘If your land is not a good place to worship God, come over to the Lord’s land. This is where the Lord’s Tent is. You can have some of the land and live here. But don’t turn against the Lord or against us by building another altar. We already have the altar of the Lord our God at the Meeting Tent.

²⁰ “‘Remember how Achan son of Zerah refused to obey the command about things that must be destroyed. That one man broke God’s law, but all the Israelites were punished. Achan died because of his sin, but also many other people died.’”

²¹ The people from the tribes of Reuben, Gad, and Manasseh answered the eleven men. They said, ²² “The Lord is our God!^[a] Again we say that the Lord is our God! And God knows why we did this thing. We want you to know also. You can judge what we did. If you think we did it because we are against the Lord or refuse to obey him, you can kill us today. ²³ Do you think we built our own altar because we want to turn away from the Lord? Do you think we built another altar for burnt offerings, grain offerings, and fellowship offerings? If that is why we built this altar, we ask the Lord himself to punish us. ²⁴ But that is not why we built it. We built it because we were afraid that in the future your descendants might not accept us as part of God’s people. So your children might say to our children, ‘You people have no reason to worship the Lord, the God of Israel. ²⁵ The Lord separated you people of Reuben and Gad from us by giving you the land on the other side of the Jordan River. So you are not part of the Lord’s people.’ If your children said that, it might make our children stop worshiping the Lord.

²⁶ “So we decided to build this altar. But we did not plan to use it for burning offerings and sacrifices. ²⁷ The real reason we wanted our altar was to show our people that we worship the same God you do. This altar will be the proof to you and us and to all our future children that we worship the Lord. We give our sacrifices, grain offerings, and fellowship offerings to the Lord. We wanted your children to grow up and know that we are also Israelites like yourselves. ²⁸ In the future, if it happens that your children say that we don’t belong to Israel, then our children can say, ‘Look, our fathers who lived before us made an altar. That altar is exactly like the Lord’s altar at the Holy Tent. We don’t use this altar for sacrifices—this altar is proof that we are part of Israel.’

²⁹ “The truth is, we don’t want to be against the Lord. We don’t want to stop following him now. We know that the only true altar is the one that is in front of the Holy Tent. That altar belongs to the Lord our God.”

³⁰ Phinehas the priest and the leaders with him heard what the people from Reuben, Gad, and Manasseh said. They were satisfied that they were telling the truth. ³¹ So Phinehas the priest said, “Now we know that the Lord is with us and that you did not turn against him. We are happy that the Israelites will not be punished by the Lord.”

³² Then Phinehas and the leaders left that place and went home. They left the people of Reuben and Gad in the land of Gilead and went back to Canaan. They went back to the Israelites and told them what had happened. ³³ The Israelites were also satisfied. They were happy and thanked God. They decided not to go and fight against the people of Reuben, Gad, and Manasseh. They decided not to destroy the land where those people live.

³⁴ The people of Reuben and Gad named the altar “Proof That We Believe the Lord is God.”

The Coming of the Holy Spirit

2 When the day of Pentecost came, they were all together in one place. ² Suddenly a noise came from heaven. It sounded like a strong wind blowing. This noise filled the whole house where they were sitting. ³ They saw something that looked like flames of fire. The flames were separated and stood over each person there. ⁴ They were all filled with the Holy Spirit, and they began to speak different languages. The Holy Spirit was giving them the power to do this.

⁵ There were some godly Jews in Jerusalem at this time. They were from every country in the world. ⁶ A large crowd came together because they heard the noise. They were surprised because, as the apostles were speaking, everyone heard in their own language.

⁷ They were all amazed at this. They did not understand how the apostles could do this. They said, “Look! These men we hear speaking are all from Galilee.^{[a] 8} But we hear them in our own languages. How is this possible? We are from all these different places: ⁹ Parthia, Media, Elam, Mesopotamia, Judea, Cappadocia, Pontus, Asia, ¹⁰ Phrygia, Pamphylia, Egypt, the areas of Libya near the city of Cyrene, Rome, ¹¹ Crete, and Arabia. Some of us were born Jews, and others have changed their religion to worship God like Jews. We are from these different countries, but we can hear these men in our own languages! We can all understand the great things they are saying about God.”

¹² The people were all amazed and confused. They asked each other, “What is happening?” ¹³ But others were laughing at the apostles, saying they were drunk from too much wine.

Peter Speaks to the People

¹⁴ Then Peter stood up with the other eleven apostles. He spoke loudly so that all the people could hear. He said, “My Jewish brothers and all of you who live in Jerusalem, listen to me. I will tell you something you need to know. Listen carefully. ¹⁵ These men are not drunk as you think; it’s only nine o’clock in the morning. ¹⁶ But Joel the prophet wrote about what you see happening here today. This is what he wrote:

²² “My fellow Israelites, listen to these words: Jesus from Nazareth was a very special man. God clearly showed this to you. He proved it by the miracles, wonders, and miraculous signs he did through Jesus. You all saw these things, so you know this is true. ²³ Jesus was handed over to you, and you killed him. With the help of evil men, you nailed him to a cross. But God knew all this would happen. It was his plan—a plan he made long ago. ²⁴ Jesus suffered the pain of death, but God made him free. He raised him from death. There was no way for death to hold him. ²⁵ David said this about him:

²⁹ “My brothers, I can tell you for sure about David, our great ancestor. He died, was buried, and his tomb is still here with us today. ³⁰ He was a prophet and knew something that God had said. God had promised David that someone from his own family would sit on David’s throne as king.^{[d] 31} David knew this before it happened. That is why he said this about that future king:

David was talking about the Messiah rising from death. ³² So Jesus is the one God raised from death. We are all witnesses of this. We saw him. ³³ Jesus was lifted up to heaven. Now he is with God, at God’s right side. The Father has given the Holy Spirit to him, as he promised. So Jesus has now poured out that Spirit. This is what you see and hear. ³⁴ David was not the one who was lifted up to heaven. David himself said,

³⁶ “So, all the people of Israel should know this for certain: God has made Jesus to be Lord and Messiah. He is the man you nailed to the cross!”

³⁷ When the people heard this, they felt very, very sorry. They asked Peter and the other apostles, “Brothers, what should we do?”

³⁸ Peter said to them, “Change your hearts and lives and be baptized, each one of you, in the name of Jesus Christ. Then God will forgive your sins, and you will receive the gift of the Holy Spirit. ³⁹ This promise is for you. It is also for your children and for the people who are far away. It is for everyone the Lord our God calls to himself.”

⁴⁰ Peter warned them with many other words; he begged them, “Save yourselves from the evil of the people who live now!” ⁴¹ Then those who accepted what Peter said were baptized. On that day about 3000 people were added to the group of believers.

The Believers Share

⁴² The believers spent their time listening to the teaching of the apostles. They shared everything with each other. They ate^[f] together and prayed together. ⁴³ Many wonders and miraculous signs were happening through the apostles, and everyone felt great respect for God. ⁴⁴ All the believers stayed together and shared everything. ⁴⁵ They sold their land and the things they owned. Then they divided the money and gave it to those who needed it. ⁴⁶ The believers shared a common purpose, and every day they spent much of their time together in the Temple area. They also ate together in their homes. They were happy to share their food and ate with joyful hearts. ⁴⁷ The believers praised God and were respected by all the people. More and more people were being saved every day, and the Lord was adding them to their group.

The Agreement Is Broken

11 This is the message from the Lord: ² “Jeremiah, listen to the words of this agreement and tell them to the people living in Jerusalem and the rest of Judah. ³ Tell them that this is what the Lord, the God of Israel, says: ‘Bad things will happen to anyone who does not obey this agreement. ⁴ I am talking about the agreement I made with your ancestors when I brought them out of that furnace^[a] called Egypt.’ At that time I told them, ‘Listen to me and obey all the commands I give you. Then you will be my people and I will be your God.’

⁵ “I did this to keep the promise that I had made to your ancestors. I promised to give them a very fertile land—a land flowing with milk and honey. And you are living in that country today.”

I answered, “Amen, Lord.”

⁶ The Lord said to me, “Jeremiah, tell this message in the towns of Judah and in the streets of Jerusalem: ‘Listen to the words of this agreement, and then obey these laws. ⁷ I gave a warning to your ancestors at the time I brought them out of the land of Egypt. I have warned them again and again to this day. I told them to obey me. ⁸ But your ancestors did not listen to me. They were stubborn and did what their own evil hearts wanted. The agreement says that bad things will happen to them if they don’t obey. So I made all the bad things happen to them. I commanded them to obey the agreement, but they did not.’”

⁹ The Lord said to me, “Jeremiah, I know that the people of Judah and the people living in Jerusalem have made secret plans. ¹⁰ They are committing the same sins that their ancestors did. Their ancestors refused to listen to my message. They followed and worshiped other gods. The family of Israel and the family of Judah have broken the agreement I made with their ancestors.”

¹¹ So this is what the Lord says: “I will soon make something terrible happen to the people of Judah. They will not be able to escape. They will be sorry and cry to me for help, but I will not listen to them. ¹² The people in the towns of Judah and in the city of Jerusalem will go and pray to their idols for help. They burn incense to those idols. But their idols will not be able to help the people of Judah when that terrible disaster comes.

¹³ “People of Judah, you have many idols—there are as many idols as there are towns in Judah. You have built many altars for worshiping that disgusting god Baal—there are as many altars as there are streets in Jerusalem.

¹⁴ “As for you, Jeremiah, don’t pray for these people of Judah. Don’t beg for them. Don’t say prayers for them. I will not listen. They will suffer and then call to me for help, but I will not listen.

¹⁷ The Lord All-Powerful planted you, and he said that disaster will come to you. That is because the family of Israel and the family of Judah have done evil things. They offered sacrifices to Baal, and that made him angry!

Evil Plans Against Jeremiah

¹⁸ The Lord showed me that the men of Anathoth^[c] were making plans against me. He showed me what they were doing, so I knew they were against me. ¹⁹ Before he showed me this, I was like a gentle lamb waiting to be butchered. I did not understand that they were against me. They were saying this about me: “Let us destroy the tree and its fruit! Let us kill him! Then people will forget him.” ²⁰ So I prayed, “Lord All-Powerful, you are a fair judge. You know how to test people’s hearts and minds. I will tell you my arguments, and I will let you give them the punishment they deserve.”

²¹ The Lord said to me, “Those people from Anathoth are planning to take your life. They are telling you not to prophesy in the name of the Lord or they will kill you. This is what I have to say about them: ²² I, the Lord All-Powerful, promise that I will soon punish those people. Their young men will die in war. Their sons and daughters will die from hunger. ²³ No one from the city of Anathoth will be left. No one will survive. I will punish them and cause something bad to happen to them.”

A Story About Ten Girls

25 “At that time God’s kingdom will be like ten girls who went to wait for the bridegroom. They took their lamps with them. ² Five of the girls were foolish, and five were wise. ³ The foolish girls took their lamps with them, but they did not take extra oil for the lamps. ⁴ The wise girls took their lamps and more oil in jars. ⁵ When the bridegroom was very late, the girls could not keep their eyes open, and they all fell asleep.

⁶ “At midnight someone announced, ‘The bridegroom is coming! Come and meet him!’

⁷ “Then all the girls woke up. They made their lamps ready. ⁸ But the foolish girls said to the wise girls, ‘Give us some of your oil. The oil in our lamps is all gone.’

⁹ “The wise girls answered, ‘No! The oil we have might not be enough for all of us. But go to those who sell oil and buy some for yourselves.’

¹⁰ “So the foolish girls went to buy oil. While they were gone, the bridegroom came. The girls who were ready went in with the bridegroom to the wedding feast. Then the door was closed and locked.

¹¹ “Later, the other girls came. They said, ‘Sir, sir! Open the door to let us in.’

¹² “But the bridegroom answered, ‘Certainly not! I don’t even know you.’

¹³ “So always be ready. You don’t know the day or the time when the Son of Man will come.

A Story About Three Servants^(A)

¹⁴ “At that time God’s kingdom will also be like a man leaving home to travel to another place for a visit. Before he left, he talked with his servants. He told his servants to take care of his things while he was gone. ¹⁵ He decided how much each servant would be able to care for. The man gave one servant five bags of money.^[a] He gave another servant two bags. And he gave a third servant one bag. Then he left. ¹⁶ The servant who got five bags went quickly to invest the money. Those five bags of money earned five more. ¹⁷ It was the same with the servant who had two bags. That servant invested the money and earned two more. ¹⁸ But the servant who got one bag of money went away and dug a hole in the ground. Then he hid his master’s money in the hole.

¹⁹ “After a long time the master came home. He asked the servants what they did with his money. ²⁰ The servant who got five bags brought that amount and five more bags of money to the master. The servant said, ‘Master, you trusted me to care for five bags of money. So I used them to earn five more.’

²¹ “The master answered, ‘You did right. You are a good servant who can be trusted. You did well with that small amount of money. So I will let you care for much greater things. Come and share my happiness with me.’

²² “Then the servant who got two bags of money came to the master. The servant said, ‘Master, you gave me two bags of money to care for. So I used your two bags to earn two more.’

²³ “The master answered, ‘You did right. You are a good servant who can be trusted. You did well with a small amount of money. So I will let you care for much greater things. Come and share my happiness with me.’

²⁴ “Then the servant who got one bag of money came to the master. The servant said, ‘Master, I knew you were a very hard man. You harvest what you did not plant. You gather crops where you did not put any seed. ²⁵ So I was afraid. I went and hid your money in the ground. Here is the one bag of money you gave me.’

²⁶ “The master answered, ‘You are a bad and lazy servant! You say you knew that I harvest what I did not plant and that I gather crops where I did not put any seed. ²⁷ So you should have put my money in the bank. Then, when I came home, I would get my money back. And I would also get the interest that my money earned.’

²⁸ “So the master told his other servants, ‘Take the one bag of money from that servant and give it to the servant who has ten bags. ²⁹ Everyone who uses what they have will get more. They will have much more than they need. But people who do not use what they have will have everything taken away from them.’ ³⁰ Then the master said, ‘Throw that useless servant outside into the darkness, where people will cry and grind their teeth with pain.’

The Son of Man Will Judge All People

³¹ “The Son of Man will come again with divine greatness, and all his angels will come with him. He will sit as king on his great and glorious throne. ³² All the people of the world will be gathered before him. Then he will separate everyone into two groups. It will be like a shepherd separating his sheep from his goats. ³³ He will put the sheep on his right and the goats on his left.

³⁴ “Then the king will say to the godly people on his right, ‘Come, my Father has great blessings for you. The kingdom he promised is now yours. It has been prepared for you since the world was made. ³⁵ It is yours because when I was hungry, you gave me food to eat. When I was thirsty, you gave me something to drink. When I had no place to stay, you welcomed me into your home. ³⁶ When I was without clothes, you gave me something to wear. When I was sick, you cared for me. When I was in prison, you came to visit me.’

³⁷ “Then the godly people will answer, ‘Lord, when did we see you hungry and give you food? When did we see you thirsty and give you something to drink? ³⁸ When did we see you with no place to stay and welcome you into our home? When did we see you without clothes and give you something to wear? ³⁹ When did we see you sick or in prison and care for you?’

⁴⁰ “Then the king will answer, ‘The truth is, anything you did for any of my people here,^[b] you also did for me.’

⁴¹ “Then the king will say to the evil people on his left, ‘Get away from me. God has already decided that you will be punished. Go into the fire that burns forever—the fire that was prepared for the devil and his angels. ⁴² You must go away because when I was hungry, you gave me nothing to eat. When I was thirsty, you gave me nothing to drink. ⁴³ When I had no place to stay, you did not welcome me into your home. When I was without clothes, you gave me nothing to wear. When I was sick and in prison, you did not care for me.’

⁴⁴ “Then those people will answer, ‘Lord, when did we see you hungry or thirsty? When did we see you without a place to stay? Or when did we see you without clothes or sick or in prison? When did we see any of this and not help you?’

⁴⁵ “The king will answer, ‘The truth is, anything you refused to do for any of my people here, you refused to do for me.’

⁴⁶ “Then these evil people will go away to be punished forever. But the godly people will go and enjoy eternal life.”