M’Cheyne Bible Reading Plan
David Takes a Census of Israel(A)
24 Later, God’s anger blazed forth against Israel, so he incited David to move against them by telling him, “Go take a census of Israel and Judah.”
2 So the king ordered Joab, commander of the special forces, who was with him, “Go throughout the tribes of Israel from Dan to Beer-sheba and take a census of the people so I can be made aware of the total number.”
3 But Joab replied, “May the Lord your God increase the population of the people a hundredfold while your majesty the king is still alive to see it happen! But why does your majesty the king want to do this?”
4 But the king’s order overruled Joab and the commanders of the special forces, so Joab and the commanders of the special forces left David’s presence to take a census of the people of Israel. 5 They crossed the Jordan River,[a] encamped at Aroer south of the town that is located in the river valley, proceeding through Gad and then on toward Jazer. 6 They went on to Gilead and the territory of Tahtim-hodshi, then on toward Dan. From Dan they went around to Sidon 7 and arrived at the fortified city of Tyre and all of the towns of the Hivites and Canaanites.
Eventually they proceeded to Beer-sheba in the Judean Negev.[b] 8 After they had traveled throughout the entire land, they returned to Jerusalem at the end of nine months and 20 days. 9 Joab reported the total number of men to the king. In Israel there were 800,000 men trained for war.[c] In Judah there were 500,000.
Discipline for David’s Sin(B)
10 Later, David’s conscience bothered[d] him after he had numbered the army,[e] so David told the Lord, “I have sinned greatly by what I did. But now I am asking you, please remove the guilt of your servant, since I have acted very foolishly.”
11 Before David arose the next morning, this message from the Lord came to Gad, David’s seer: 12 “Go tell David, ‘This is what the Lord says: “I’m holding three choices out for you: pick one of them for yourself, and I will do it to you.”’”
13 So Gad went to David and asked him, “Shall seven years of famine come to your land, or three months of reversals[f] while you flee from your enemies as they pursue you, or three days of pestilence in your land? Decide right now what I am to answer to the one who sent me.”
14 So David replied to Gad, “This is a very difficult choice for me to make! Let me now please fall into the hand of the Lord, since his mercy is very great, but may I never fall into human hands!”
15 That very morning, the Lord sent a pestilence to Israel until the conclusion of the time designated, and 70,000 men[g] died from Dan to Beer-sheba. 16 As the angel was stretching out his hand to destroy Jerusalem, the Lord was grieved because of the calamity, so he told the angel who was afflicting the people, “Enough! Stay your hand!” So the angel of the Lord remained near the threshing floor that belonged to Araunah[h] the Jebusite.[i]
17 When David saw the angel who had been attacking the people, he told the Lord, “Look, I’m the one who has sinned! I did the evil. These are only sheep! What did they do? Please, let your hand fall on me and on my household!”
David Buys Araunah’s Threshing Floor(C)
18 That very day, Gad approached David and told him, “Go up and build an altar to the Lord on the threshing floor that belongs to Araunah the Jebusite.” 19 So David went up, just as Gad had ordered, consistent with the Lord’s command.
20 When Araunah looked down, he saw the king and his staff approaching him. Araunah went out, bowed down before the king with his face on the ground, 21 and asked[j] him, “Why has your majesty the king come to his servant?”
David replied, “To purchase your threshing floor and to build an altar to the Lord, so the pestilence can be averted from the people.”
22 Araunah responded to David, “May your majesty the king take it and offer whatever pleases him. Here are oxen for a burnt offering, along with the threshing sledges and yokes from the oxen for wood! 23 Your majesty, Araunah gives all of this[k] to the king.” Araunah also told the king, “May the Lord your God be pleased with you!”
24 “No!” the king replied to Araunah. “I will buy them from you at full[l] price. I won’t offer to the Lord my God burnt offerings that cost me nothing.” So David bought the threshing floor and the oxen for 50 silver shekels,[m] 25 built[n] an altar to the Lord there, and presented burnt offerings and peace offerings. So the Lord answered David’s prayers for the land[o] and the pestilence on Israel was averted.
4 Now what I am saying is this: As long as an heir is a child, he is no better off than a slave, even though he owns everything. 2 Instead, he is placed under the care of[a] guardians and servant managers until the time set by the father. 3 It was the same way with us. While we were children, we were slaves to the basic principles of the world.[b] 4 But when the appropriate time had come, God sent his Son, born by a woman, born under the Law, 5 in order to redeem those who were under the Law, and thus to adopt them as his children. 6 Now because you are his children, God has sent the Spirit of his Son into our[c] hearts to cry out, “Abba![d] Father!” 7 So you are no longer a slave but a child, and if you are a child, then you are also an heir because of what God did.
8 However, in the past, when you did not know God, you were slaves to things that are not really gods at all.[e] 9 But now that you know God, or rather have been known by God, how can you turn back again to those powerless and bankrupt basic principles?[f] Why do you want to become their slaves all over again? 10 You are observing days, months, seasons, and years. 11 I am afraid for you! I don’t want my work for you to have[g] been wasted!
Paul’s Concern for the Galatians
12 I beg you, brothers, to become like me, since I became like you. You did not do anything wrong to me. 13 You know that it was because I was ill[h] that I brought you the gospel the first time. 14 Even though my condition put you to the test, you did not despise or reject me. On the contrary, you welcomed me as if I were an angel of God, or as if I were the Messiah[i] Jesus. 15 What, then, happened to your positive attitude?[j] For I testify that if it had been possible, you would have torn out your eyes and given them to me. 16 So have I now become your enemy for telling you the truth?
17 These people who have been instructing you[k] are devoted to you, but not in a good way. They want you to avoid me so that you will be devoted to them. 18 (Now it is always good to be devoted to a good cause, even when I am not with you.) 19 My children, I am suffering birth pains for you again until the Messiah[l] is formed in you. 20 Indeed, I wish I were with you right now so that I could change the tone of my voice, because I am completely baffled by you!
You are Children of a Free Woman
21 Tell me, those of you who want to live under the Law: Are you really listening to what the Law says? 22 For it is written that Abraham had two sons, one by a slave woman and the other by a free woman. 23 Now the slave woman’s son was conceived through human means, while the free woman’s son was conceived through divine[m] promise. 24 This is being said as an allegory, for these women represent two covenants. The one woman, Hagar, is from Mount Sinai, and her children are born into slavery. 25 Now Hagar is Mount Sinai in Arabia and corresponds to present-day Jerusalem, because she is in slavery along with her children. 26 But the heavenly Jerusalem is the free woman, and she is our spiritual mother.[n] 27 For it is written,
“Rejoice, you childless woman,
who cannot give birth to any children!
Break into song and shout,
you who feel no pains of childbirth!
For the children of the deserted woman
are more numerous than the children
of the woman who has a husband.”[o]
28 So you,[p] brothers, are children of the promise, like Isaac. 29 But just as then the son who was conceived according to the flesh persecuted the son who was conceived according to the Spirit, so it is now. 30 But what does the Scripture say? “Drive out the slave woman and her son, for the son of the slave woman must never share the inheritance with the son of the free woman.”[q] 31 So then, brothers, we are not children of the slave woman but of the free woman.
Egypt Learns from Assyria’s Demise
31 On the first day of the third month of the eleventh year of our captivity,[a] this message came to me from the Lord: 2 “Son of Man, tell this to Pharaoh, king of Egypt and his gangs:
‘Who do you think you are?
What makes you so great?
3 Think about Assyria,[b]
that cedar of Lebanon,
beautiful with its branches,
like a shady forest,
with an awesome height,
its summit touches the clouds.
4 Abundant water made it great,
Subterranean rivers made it grow.
Rivers surrounded the area where it had been planted,
and water channels nourished all the trees in the fields.
5 That’s why it grew taller than any of the trees in the fields.
Its boughs flourished.
Its branches grew luxurious
because all the water made it spread out well.
6 The birds in the sky made nests in its boughs;
all the beasts of the field gave birth under its branches.
All the great nations rested in its shade.
7 ‘Beautiful because it was so great,
with its long branches,
it was rooted in many bodies of water.[c]
8 The cedars in God’s garden could not compare to it;
Fir trees could not match its boughs.
The plane tree[d] never grew branches like it,
and no tree in God’s garden compares to its beauty.
9 I made it beautiful,
including all of its branches;
all the trees in God’s garden of Eden envied it!’”
Assyria’s Fall Due to Arrogance
10 “Therefore this is what the Lord God says: ‘Because of its towering height, with its summit reaching into the clouds, and because it was haughty in its position,[e] 11 I turned it over to the leader of those[f] nations, who dealt with it thoroughly. I have driven it away because of its wickedness. 12 Foreign dictators have trimmed it down to size and abandoned it. Its branches have fallen off on mountains and in all the valleys. Its boughs have broken off in all the ravines of the land. All the nations of the earth have moved out of its shade and abandoned it. 13 All the birds in the sky will live among its ruins, and the wild animals[g] will forage among its branches. 14 As a result, none of its watered trees will grow tall, their tops will never reach to the clouds, and they’ll never grow so high again, because all of them have been appointed[h] to death in the world beneath where human beings go, that is, down to the Pit.’”[i]
Fear at Assyria’s Fall
15 “This is what the Lord God says: ‘On the day that it descended into Sheol,[j] I shut down its water supplies, covered over its deep water, and shut down its rivers. As a result its abundant water sources dried up, and I caused Lebanon to mourn for it. All the trees of the field wilted because of it. 16 I made the nations tremble when they heard that Assyria[k] was falling, descending into Sheol[l] to join those who go down into the Pit.[m] Then all of the trees of Eden in the world below were comforted, including the choicest and best of Lebanon, all of whom were well-watered. 17 They also went down with it into Sheol,[n] to those who had been killed violently[o] and to those who had trusted in its strength by living in its shadow among the nations. 18 So tell me now, which of the trees of Eden compares to you in glory or greatness? Nevertheless, you’ll be brought down, along with those trees of Eden, to the earth below. You’ll lie in the middle of the uncircumcised, with those who have been killed in war.[p] Pharaoh and all his gang will be just like this!’ declares the Lord God.”
A Psalm of Asaph
A Prayer for Jerusalem
79 God, nations have invaded your land[a]
to desecrate your holy Temple,
to destroy Jerusalem,
2 to give the corpses of your servants
as food for the birds of the skies
and the flesh of your godly ones
to the beasts of the earth;
3 to make their blood flow like water around Jerusalem,
with no one being buried.
4 We have become a reproach to our neighbors,
a mockery and a derision to those around us.
5 How long, Lord, will you be angry? Forever?
Will your jealousy burn like fire?
6 Pour out your wrath upon the nations
that do not acknowledge you,
and over the kingdoms
that do not call on your name.
7 For they consumed Jacob,
making his dwelling place desolate.
8 Don’t charge[b] us for previous iniquity,
but let your compassion come quickly to us,
for we have been brought very low.
9 Help us, God, our deliverer,
on account of your glorious name,
deliver us and forgive[c] our sins
on account of your name.
10 Why should the nations say, “Where is their God?”
Let vengeance for the blood of your servants be meted[d] out
before our eyes and among the nations.
11 Let the cries of the prisoners reach you.
With the strength of your power,
release those condemned to death.[e]
12 Pay back our neighbors seven times[f]
the reproach with which they reproached you, Lord.
13 Then we, your people, the sheep of your pasture,
will praise you always, from generation to generation.
We will declare your praise.
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