M’Cheyne Bible Reading Plan

Remember the Lord

8 Carefully obey every command I give you today. Then you will live and grow in number. And you will enter and own the land the Lord promised your ancestors. ² Remember how the Lord your God has led you in the desert for these 40 years. He took away your pride. He tested you. He wanted to know what was in your heart. He wanted to know if you would obey his commands. ³ He took away your pride. He let you get hungry. Then he fed you with manna. Manna was something neither you nor your ancestors had ever seen. This was to teach you that a person does not live only by eating bread. But a person lives by everything the Lord says. ⁴ During these 40 years, your clothes did not wear out. And your feet did not swell. ⁵ Know in your heart that the Lord your God corrects you. He corrects you as a father does his son.

⁶ Obey the commands of the Lord your God. Live as he has commanded you and respect him. ⁷ The Lord your God is bringing you into a good land. The land has rivers and pools of water. Springs flow in the valleys and hills. ⁸ The land has wheat and barley, vines, fig trees, pomegranates, olive oil and honey. ⁹ It is a land where you will have plenty of food. You will have everything you need there. The rocks are iron. You can dig copper out of the hills.

¹⁰ You will have all you want to eat. Then praise the Lord your God. He has given you a good land. ¹¹ Be careful not to forget the Lord your God. Do not fail to obey his commands, laws and rules. I am giving them to you today. ¹² You will eat all you want. You will build nice houses and live in them. ¹³ Your herds of cattle and flocks of sheep will grow large. Your silver and gold will grow. You will have more of everything. ¹⁴ Then your heart will become proud. You will forget the Lord your God. He brought you out of the land of Egypt, where you were slaves. ¹⁵ He led you through the large and terrible desert. It was dry and had no water. It had poisonous snakes and stinging insects. He gave you water from a solid rock. ¹⁶ He gave you manna to eat in the desert. Manna was something your ancestors had never seen. He did this to take away your pride and to test you. He did it so things would go well for you in the end. ¹⁷ You might say to yourself, “I am rich because of my own strength and power.” ¹⁸ But remember the Lord your God! It is he who gives you the power to become rich. He keeps the agreement he promised to your ancestors. So it is today.

¹⁹ Never forget the Lord your God. Do not follow other gods. Do not worship them. Do not bow down to them. If you do, I warn you today that you will be destroyed. ²⁰ The Lord destroyed the other nations for you. And you can be destroyed the same way if you do not obey the Lord your God.

Safe in the Lord

The Assyrians Invade Judah

36 During Hezekiah’s fourteenth year as king, Sennacherib king of Assyria attacked Judah. He attacked all the strong, walled cities of Judah and defeated them. ² The king of Assyria sent out his field commander. He went with a large army from Lachish to King Hezekiah in Jerusalem. When the commander came near the waterway from the upper pool, he stopped. The upper pool is on the road to the Washerman’s Field. ³ Eliakim, Shebna and Joah went out to meet him. Eliakim son of Hilkiah was the palace manager. Shebna was the royal assistant. And Joah son of Asaph was the recorder.

⁴ The field commander said to them, “Tell Hezekiah this:

“‘The great king, the king of Assyria, says: You have nothing to trust in to help you. ⁵ You say you have battle plans and power for war. But your words mean nothing. Whom are you trusting for help so that you turn against me? ⁶ Look, you are depending on Egypt to help you. Egypt is like a splintered walking stick. If you lean on it for help, it will stab you and hurt you. The king of Egypt will hurt those who depend on him. ⁷ You might say, “We are depending on the Lord our God.” But Hezekiah destroyed the Lord’s altars and the places of worship. Hezekiah told Judah and Jerusalem, “You must worship only at this one altar.”

⁸ “‘Now make an agreement with my master, the king of Assyria: I will give you 2,000 horses if you can find enough men to ride them. ⁹ You cannot defeat one of my master’s least important officers. So why do you depend on Egypt to give you chariots and horsemen? ¹⁰ I have not come to attack and destroy this country without an order from the Lord. The Lord himself told me to come to this country and destroy it.’”

¹¹ Then Eliakim, Shebna and Joah spoke to the field commander. They said, “Please speak to us in the Aramaic language. We understand it. Don’t speak to us in Hebrew because the people on the city wall can hear you.”

¹² But the commander said, “No. My master did not send me to tell these things only to you and your king. My master sent me to tell them also to those people sitting on the wall. They will have to eat their own dung and drink their own urine like you.”

¹³ Then the commander stood and shouted loudly in the Hebrew language. He said, “Listen to the words from the great king, the king of Assyria! ¹⁴ The king says you should not let Hezekiah fool you. Hezekiah can’t save you. ¹⁵ Don’t let Hezekiah talk you into trusting the Lord. Hezekiah says, ‘The Lord will surely save us. This city won’t be given over to the king of Assyria.’

¹⁶ “Don’t listen to Hezekiah. The king of Assyria says, ‘Make peace with me. Come out of the city to me. Then everyone will be free to eat the fruit from his own grapevine and fig tree. Everyone will be free to drink water from his own well. ¹⁷ Then I will come and take you to a land like your own. It is a land with grain and new wine. It has bread and vineyards.’

¹⁸ “Don’t let Hezekiah fool you. He says, ‘The Lord will save us.’ The god of any other nation has not saved his people from the power of the king of Assyria. ¹⁹ Where are the gods of Hamath and Arpad? Where are the gods of Sepharvaim? They did not save Samaria from my power. ²⁰ Not one of all the gods of these countries has saved his people from me. Then the Lord cannot save Jerusalem from my power.”

²¹ The people were silent. They didn’t answer the commander at all. This was because King Hezekiah had ordered, “Don’t answer him.”

²² Then Eliakim, Shebna and Joah tore their clothes to show how upset they were. (Eliakim son of Hilkiah was the palace manager. Shebna was the royal assistant. And Joah son of Asaph was the recorder.) The three men went to Hezekiah and told him what the field commander had said.

6 Then I watched while the Lamb opened the first of the seven seals. I heard one of the four living things speak with a voice like thunder. It said, “Come!” ² I looked and there before me was a white horse. The rider on the horse held a bow, and he was given a crown. And he rode out, defeating the enemy. He rode out to win the victory.

³ The Lamb opened the second seal. Then I heard the second living thing say, “Come!” ⁴ Then another horse came out. This was a red horse. Its rider was given power to take away peace from the earth. He was given power to make people kill each other. And he was given a big sword.

⁵ The Lamb opened the third seal. Then I heard the third living thing say, “Come!” I looked, and there before me was a black horse. Its rider held a pair of scales in his hand. ⁶ Then I heard something that sounded like a voice. It came from where the four living things were. The voice said, “A quart of wheat for a day’s pay. And three quarts of barley for a day’s pay. And do not damage the olive oil and wine!”

⁷ The Lamb opened the fourth seal. Then I heard the voice of the fourth living thing say, “Come!” ⁸ I looked, and there before me was a pale horse. Its rider was named death. Hades^[a] was following close behind him. They were given power over a fourth of the earth. They were given power to kill people by war, by starving them, by disease, and by the wild animals of the earth.

⁹ The Lamb opened the fifth seal. Then I saw some souls under the altar. They were the souls of those who had been killed because they were faithful to God’s message and to the truth they had received. ¹⁰ These souls shouted in a loud voice, “Holy and true Lord, how long until you judge the people of the earth and punish them for killing us?” ¹¹ Then each one of these souls was given a white robe. They were told to wait a short time longer. There were still some of their brothers in the service of Christ who must be killed as they were. They were told to wait until all of this killing was finished.

¹² Then I watched while the Lamb opened the sixth seal. There was a great earthquake. The sun became black like rough black cloth. The full moon became red like blood. ¹³ The stars in the sky fell to the earth like figs falling from a fig tree when the wind blows. ¹⁴ The sky disappeared. It was rolled up like a scroll. And every mountain and island was moved from its place.

¹⁵ Then all people hid in caves and behind the rocks on the mountains. There were the kings of the earth, the rulers, the generals, the rich people and the powerful people. Everyone, slave and free, hid himself. ¹⁶ They called to the mountains and the rocks, “Fall on us. Hide us from the face of the One who sits on the throne. Hide us from the anger of the Lamb! ¹⁷ The great day for their anger has come. Who can stand against it?”