M’Cheyne Bible Reading Plan

22 David sang this song to the Lord after he had rescued him from Saul and from all his other enemies:

2 Then fourteen years later I went back to Jerusalem again, this time with Barnabas; and Titus came along too. ² I went there with definite orders from God to confer with the brothers there about the message I was preaching to the Gentiles. I talked privately to the leaders of the church so that they would all understand just what I had been teaching and, I hoped, agree that it was right. ³ And they did agree; they did not even demand that Titus, my companion, should be circumcised, though he was a Gentile.

⁴ Even that question wouldn’t have come up except for some so-called “Christians” there—false ones, really—who came to spy on us and see what freedom we enjoyed in Christ Jesus, as to whether we obeyed the Jewish laws or not. They tried to get us all tied up in their rules, like slaves in chains. ⁵ But we did not listen to them for a single moment, for we did not want to confuse you into thinking that salvation can be earned by being circumcised and by obeying Jewish laws.

⁶ And the great leaders of the church who were there had nothing to add to what I was preaching. (By the way, their being great leaders made no difference to me, for all are the same to God.) ^7-9 In fact, when Peter, James, and John, who were known as the pillars of the church, saw how greatly God had used me in winning the Gentiles, just as Peter had been blessed so greatly in his preaching to the Jews—for the same God gave us each our special gifts—they shook hands with Barnabas and me and encouraged us to keep right on with our preaching to the Gentiles while they continued their work with the Jews. ¹⁰ The only thing they did suggest was that we must always remember to help the poor, and I, too, was eager for that.

¹¹ But when Peter came to Antioch I had to oppose him publicly, speaking strongly against what he was doing, for it was very wrong. ¹² For when he first arrived, he ate with the Gentile Christians who don’t bother with circumcision and the many other Jewish laws.^[a] But afterwards, when some Jewish friends of James came, he wouldn’t eat with the Gentiles anymore because he was afraid of what these Jewish legalists, who insisted that circumcision was necessary for salvation, would say; ¹³ and then all the other Jewish Christians and even Barnabas became hypocrites too, following Peter’s example, though they certainly knew better. ¹⁴ When I saw what was happening and that they weren’t being honest about what they really believed and weren’t following the truth of the Gospel, I said to Peter in front of all the others, “Though you are a Jew by birth, you have long since discarded the Jewish laws; so why, all of a sudden, are you trying to make these Gentiles obey them? ¹⁵ You and I are Jews by birth, not mere Gentile sinners, ¹⁶ and yet we Jewish Christians know very well that we cannot become right with God by obeying our Jewish laws but only by faith in Jesus Christ to take away our sins. And so we, too, have trusted Jesus Christ, that we might be accepted by God because of faith—and not because we have obeyed the Jewish laws. For no one will ever be saved by obeying them.”

¹⁷ But what if we trust Christ to save us and then find that we are wrong and that we cannot be saved without being circumcised and obeying all the other Jewish laws? Wouldn’t we need to say that faith in Christ had ruined us? God forbid that anyone should dare to think such things about our Lord. ¹⁸ Rather, we are sinners if we start rebuilding the old systems I have been destroying of trying to be saved by keeping Jewish laws, ¹⁹ for it was through reading the Scripture that I came to realize that I could never find God’s favor by trying—and failing—to obey the laws. I came to realize that acceptance with God comes by believing in Christ.^[b]

²⁰ I have been crucified with Christ: and I myself no longer live, but Christ lives in me. And the real life I now have within this body is a result of my trusting in the Son of God, who loved me and gave himself for me. ²¹ I am not one of those who treats Christ’s death as meaningless. For if we could be saved by keeping Jewish laws, then there was no need for Christ to die.

29 Late in December of the tenth year (of the imprisonment of King Jehoiachin), this message came to me from the Lord:

² “Son of dust, face toward Egypt and prophesy against Pharaoh her king and all her people. ³ Tell them that the Lord God says: ‘I am your enemy, Pharaoh, king of Egypt—mighty dragon lying in the middle of your rivers. For you have said, “The Nile is mine; I have made it for myself!” ⁴ I will put hooks into your jaws and drag you out onto the land with fish sticking to your scales. ⁵ And I will leave you and all the fish stranded in the desert to die, and you won’t be buried, for I have given you as food to the wild animals and birds.

⁶ “‘Because of the way your might collapsed when Israel called on you for aid instead of trusting me,^[a] all of you shall know I am the Lord. ⁷ Israel leaned on you but, like a cracked staff, you snapped beneath her hand and wrenched her shoulder out of joint and made her stagger with the pain. ⁸ Therefore the Lord God says: I will bring an army against you, O Egypt, and destroy both men and herds. ⁹ The land of Egypt shall become a desolate wasteland, and the Egyptians will know that I, the Lord, have done it.

¹⁰ “‘Because you said: “The Nile is mine! I made it!” therefore I am against you and your river, and I will utterly destroy the land of Egypt, from Migdol to Syene, as far south as the border of Ethiopia. ¹¹ For forty years not a soul will pass that way, neither men nor animals. It will be completely uninhabited. ¹² I will make Egypt desolate, surrounded by desolate nations, and her cities will lie as wastelands for forty years. I will exile the Egyptians to other lands.

¹³ “‘But the Lord God says that at the end of the forty years he will bring the Egyptians home again from the nations to which they will be banished. ¹⁴ And I will restore the fortunes of Egypt and bring her people back to the land of Pathros in southern Egypt where they were born, but she will be an unimportant, minor kingdom. ¹⁵ She will be the lowliest of all the nations; never again will she raise herself above the other nations; never again will Egypt be great enough for that.

¹⁶ “‘Israel will no longer expect any help from Egypt. Whenever she thinks of asking for it, then she will remember her sin in seeking it before. Then Israel will know that I alone am God.’”

¹⁷ In the twenty-seventh year of King Jehoiachin’s captivity,^[b] around the middle of March, this message came to me from the Lord:

¹⁸ “Son of dust, the army of King Nebuchadnezzar of Babylon fought hard against Tyre. The soldiers’ heads were bald from carrying heavy basketfuls of earth; their shoulders were raw and blistered from burdens of stones for the siege. And Nebuchadnezzar received no compensation and could not pay the army for all this work.”^{[c] 19} Therefore, the Lord God says, “I will give the land of Egypt to Nebuchadnezzar, king of Babylon, and he will carry off her wealth, plundering everything she has, for his army. ²⁰ Yes, I have given him the land of Egypt for his salary because he was working for me during those thirteen years at Tyre,” says the Lord. ²¹ “And the day will come when I will cause the ancient glory of Israel to revive, and then at last her words will be respected, and Egypt shall know I am the Lord.”

78 O my people, listen to my teaching. Open your ears to what I am saying. ^2-3 For I will show you lessons from our history, stories handed down to us from former generations. ⁴ I will reveal these truths to you so that you can describe these glorious deeds of Jehovah to your children and tell them about the mighty miracles he did. ⁵ For he gave his laws to Israel and commanded our fathers to teach them to their children, ⁶ so that they in turn could teach their children too. Thus his laws pass down from generation to generation. ⁷ In this way each generation has been able to obey his laws and to set its hope anew on God and not forget his glorious miracles. ⁸ Thus they did not need to be as their fathers were—stubborn, rebellious, unfaithful, refusing to give their hearts to God.

⁹ The people of Ephraim, though fully armed, turned their backs and fled when the day of battle came ¹⁰ because they didn’t obey his laws. They refused to follow his ways. ^11-12 And they forgot about the wonderful miracles God had done for them and for their fathers in Egypt. ¹³ For he divided the sea before them and led them through! The water stood banked up along both sides of them! ¹⁴ In the daytime he led them by a cloud, and at night by a pillar of fire. ¹⁵ He split open the rocks in the wilderness to give them plenty of water, as though gushing from a spring. ¹⁶ Streams poured from the rock, flowing like a river!

¹⁷ Yet they kept on with their rebellion, sinning against the God who is above all gods. ¹⁸ They murmured and complained, demanding other food than God was giving them. ^19-20 They even spoke against God himself. “Why can’t he give us decent food as well as water?” they grumbled. ²¹ Jehovah heard them and was angry; the fire of his wrath burned against Israel ²² because they didn’t believe in God or trust in him to care for them, ²³ even though he commanded the skies to open—he opened the windows of heaven— ²⁴ and rained down manna for their food. He gave them bread from heaven! ²⁵ They ate angels’ food! He gave them all they could hold.

²⁶ And he led forth the east wind and guided the south wind by his mighty power. ²⁷ He rained down birds as thick as dust, clouds of them like sands along the shore! ²⁸ He caused the birds to fall to the ground among the tents. ²⁹ The people ate their fill. He gave them what they asked for. ³⁰ But they had hardly finished eating, and the meat was yet in their mouths, ³¹ when the anger of the Lord rose against them and killed the finest of Israel’s young men. ³² Yet even so the people kept on sinning and refused to believe in miracles. ³³ So he cut their lives short and gave them years of terror and disaster.

³⁴ Then at last, when he had ruined them, they walked awhile behind him; how earnestly they turned around and followed him! ³⁵ Then they remembered that God was their Rock—that their Savior was the God above all gods. ³⁶ But it was only with their words that they followed him, not with their hearts; ³⁷ their hearts were far away. They did not keep their promises.