M’Cheyne Bible Reading Plan

God makes Naaman well again

5 Naaman was the leader of the king of Syria's army. Naaman's master respected him as a great man. The Lord had used Naaman to help Syria win wars against their enemies. Naaman was a brave soldier, but he had a bad disease of his skin.^[a]

² Groups of soldiers from Syria had gone to attack places in Israel. They had caught a young girl as their prisoner. She became a servant of Naaman's wife. ³ One day, the girl said to her master's wife, ‘I would like my master Naaman to meet the prophet who is in Samaria. The prophet would take away his disease.’

⁴ So Naaman went to see his master, the king of Syria. He told him what the girl from Israel had said. ⁵ The king of Syria replied, ‘Go to meet this prophet! I will send a letter to the king of Israel.’ So Naaman went to Israel. He took with him 30,000 pieces of silver, 6,000 pieces of gold, and 10 sets of clothes. ⁶ He also took the letter for the king of Israel. The message from the king of Syria said, ‘I am sending my servant Naaman to you, with this letter. I want you to take away the disease of his skin.’

⁷ When the king of Israel read the letter, he was very upset. He tore his clothes. He said, ‘I am not God, am I? I cannot kill people or make them alive again. Why does he think that I can make this man well again? I see that he is trying to start a fight with me.’

⁸ Elisha, the man of God, heard that the king of Israel had torn his clothes. So he sent this message to him: ‘You did not have to tear your clothes. Tell the man from Syria to come to me. Then he will know that there is a true prophet in Israel.’

⁹ So Naaman went to see Elisha. He took with him his horses and his chariots. He stood outside the door of Elisha's house. ¹⁰ Elisha sent his servant with a message to Naaman. He said, ‘Go to the Jordan River. Wash yourself seven times in the river. Then your skin will be clean again. You will not have the disease.’

¹¹ But Naaman was angry and he went away. He said, ‘I thought that the prophet would come out of his house to see me. Then he would stand here with me. He would pray in the name of the Lord his God. Then he would move his hand over the bad place in my skin. After that my skin would be clean again. That is what I thought he would do. ¹² The Abana and Pharpar rivers in Damascus are better than any of the rivers in Israel. Surely, I could wash in those rivers and become clean!’ So Naaman turned around and he went away. He was very angry.

¹³ But Naaman's servants went to him. One of them said, ‘My master, the prophet might have asked you to do something very difficult. Then you surely would have done it! Now he says to you, “Wash yourself! Then you will be clean.” That is much easier for you to do.’

¹⁴ So Naaman went down to the Jordan River. He washed himself in it seven times, as the man of God had told him to do. Naaman's skin became well again. It became as clean as a young child's skin.

¹⁵ Then Naaman and all his servants went back to see Elisha, the man of God. Naaman stood in front of him and he said, ‘Now I know that there is no God in the whole world except the one in Israel. Please accept a gift from me, your servant.’ ¹⁶ But Elisha replied, ‘I serve the Lord. I promise you, as surely as he lives, I will not accept a gift from you.’ Naaman asked him many times to accept a gift but Elisha refused.

¹⁷ So Naaman said, ‘So, you will not accept my gift. But please agree to let me take home some soil from here. I will take as much soil as two mules can carry. Then I will never again make any sacrifices or burnt offerings to any other god. I will only worship the Lord. ¹⁸ But I pray that the Lord will forgive me, your servant, when I do this one thing: My master, the king of Syria, often goes into the temple of our god, Rimmon. When he bends down low to worship Rimmon, he takes hold of my arm. So I also have to bend down low with him. I ask the Lord to forgive me when I do that.’

¹⁹ Elisha said to Naaman, ‘Go home with peace in your mind.’ Then Naaman started on his way home.

²⁰ Elisha's servant, Gehazi, thought, ‘My master did not accept the gifts that Naaman offered to him. He made it too easy for that Syrian man. As surely as the Lord lives, I will run after him. I will accept a gift from him.’ ²¹ So Gehazi ran quickly after Naaman before he had gone very far. Naaman saw that a man was running after him. So he got down from his chariot to meet him. Naaman asked Gehazi, ‘Is everything well?’ ²² Gehazi answered, ‘Everything is well. My master sent me with this message: “Two young men from the group of prophets have just arrived at my house. They have come from the hill country of Ephraim. Please give them 3,000 pieces of silver and two sets of clothes.” ’

²³ Naaman said, ‘Yes, I will. But please agree to take 6,000 pieces of silver.’ He asked Gehazi to accept them. He put the 6,000 pieces of silver into two bags, as well as two sets of clothes. He gave them to two of his servants and they carried them in front of Gehazi. ²⁴ When Gehazi reached a hill near Elisha's house, he took the things from the servants. He put them in his own room. He told the servants to go back to Naaman.

²⁵ Gehazi went in and he stood in front of his master. Elisha asked Gehazi, ‘Where have you been?’ Gehazi answered, ‘I have not been anywhere, sir.’ ²⁶ But Elisha said to him, ‘My spirit was with you when you went out. It was there when the man came down from his chariot to meet you. This is not the proper time to accept gifts of money, clothes, olive trees, vineyards, sheep, cows or servants. ²⁷ Now you will have the same disease in your skin that Naaman had! It will always be with you and your descendants.’

Then Gehazi went away from Elisha. His skin had already become white like snow because of the disease.

Christians should pray for all people

2 So then, this is what I want to ask you first. Please pray for all people. Ask God to supply what they need. Ask God to help them. Thank God for what he does for everyone. ² Pray in that way for kings and for all rulers and people who have authority. Pray for God to help them, so that we may live our lives without trouble or danger. Then we can live in a good way that respects God and other people. ³ It is good that we should pray like that. It makes God, our Saviour, happy. ⁴ He wants to save all people. He wants everyone to know his message about what is true.

⁵ There is only one God. There is also only one person who brings God and people together. That person is Christ Jesus, who became a man himself. ⁶ He died as a sacrifice on behalf of all people, to pay the debt of their sins. He died at the proper time for God to show his purpose clearly. ⁷ God chose me as his apostle, to tell this same message to people. I am telling you what is true. I am not telling lies! Yes, he sent me to teach his true message to the Gentiles, so that they would believe in him.

⁸ So then, in every place where you meet together, I want the men to pray. The men who lift up their hands and pray must be those who live good lives. They must not be people who are angry or who quarrel with others.

Christian women should also live in a good way

⁹ I also want the women to dress themselves properly in a way that is right. They should not bring shame on themselves. What makes a woman beautiful? It is not the special way that she prepares her hair. It is not the gold things or jewels that she wears. It is not her expensive clothes. ¹⁰ Christian women should not dress themselves like that. Instead, their lives should show that they do good things. They say that they want to please God, so that is the proper way for them to live.

¹¹ When you meet together, a woman should learn quietly. She must respect the leaders who teach in the church. ¹² I do not let a woman teach men. I do not let a woman have authority over men. Instead, she should listen quietly. ¹³ I say this because God made Adam first.^[a] Then he made Eve. ¹⁴ It was Eve, not Adam, who believed the lies that Satan told her. Because she believed Satan completely, she did what God had said was wrong.^[b]

¹⁵ But even as women give birth to children, God will save them. They must continue to trust God and to love other people. They must live in a way that shows they belong to God. They must think carefully about how they live. Then God will save them.

Daniel prays for the people

9 This is what happened in the first year that Darius ruled Babylonia. He was the son of Xerxes, a descendant of the Medes.^[a] He became the king of Babylonia. ² In the first year that Darius was king, I, Daniel, was reading God's book. I read the message that the Lord had given to his prophet, Jeremiah. He told Jeremiah that Jerusalem would continue to be a heap of stones for 70 years.^[b]

³ So I turned to my Lord God, to ask him for help. I prayed to him and I ate no food. I wore clothes of rough sackcloth. I put ashes on myself to show that I was upset. ⁴ I prayed to the Lord my God. I agreed that we were guilty and I prayed this prayer:

‘Our Lord, you are a great God and we give you honour. In your covenant, you have promised to love your people. You continue to be faithful to those people who love you and obey your commands. ⁵ We have done bad things that are wicked and evil. We have turned against you. We have not obeyed your laws and your teaching. ⁶ We did not listen to your servants, the prophets. They spoke your message to our kings, to our rulers and to our ancestors. They spoke to all the people of our nation.

⁷ Our Lord, you always do what is right. Today we are very ashamed. The people of Judah, Jerusalem and all Israel have not been faithful to you. You have sent our people away to many countries. Some are near and some are far away. We are all ashamed because we have turned away from you. ⁸ Our kings, our leaders and our ancestors have turned away from you, Lord. So we are very ashamed. ⁹ Our Lord God, we have turned against you. But you are kind and you forgive people. ¹⁰ We have not obeyed the Lord our God. You sent your servants, the prophets, to give us your laws. But we have not lived in the way that your laws taught us.

¹¹ All the people of Israel have turned away from your laws. We have refused to obey you. Your servant Moses gave us your laws. He warned us about your punishments. Now you have punished us in the way that he said. We have turned away from you. ¹² So you have done what you promised to do to us and to our rulers. You have caused us to have terrible trouble. You have punished Jerusalem with more trouble than has ever happened to any other city. ¹³ All this trouble has come to us in the way that Moses wrote in the book of your laws. But we have still not tried to please you, the Lord our God. We have not turned away from our sins. We have not learned your true teaching. ¹⁴ So you were ready to punish us with this trouble. You are always right in everything that you do. You are right to punish us because we have not obeyed you.

¹⁵ Our Lord God, you used your great power to bring your people safely out of Egypt. You are still famous today because of what you did then. We know that we have done things that are wrong and wicked. ¹⁶ Our Lord, please stop being angry with us. Stop punishing your own city, Jerusalem, your holy mountain. Because of our sins and the evil things that our ancestors did, other people insult us. All the people who live near us laugh at Jerusalem and your people. So please do what is right, as you always do.

¹⁷ Our God, please accept my prayer. Please do what I have asked for. Your temple is now a heap of stones. Please bless it again, so that people will know that you are great. ¹⁸ Listen to us, my God. Our towns have become heaps of stones. See what has happened to the city that belongs to you. We do not ask you to do this because we are righteous people. We ask you because you are very kind. ¹⁹ Lord, please listen! Lord, please forgive us. Lord, please do what we have asked you to do. My God, please do it quickly, so that people give you honour. Help your city and your people who belong to you.’

Gabriel speaks to Daniel

²⁰ I continued to pray and tell God about our sins. I agreed that I had done wrong things, and that my people, the Israelites, had also done wrong things. I asked the Lord my God to help Jerusalem, his holy mountain. ²¹ While I was praying, Gabriel came towards me. He was the same man that I had seen in the first vision. He flew quickly to me at the time of the evening sacrifice. ²² He said to me, ‘Daniel, I have come to teach you, so that you can understand these things. ²³ As soon as you started to pray, God sent his message. I have come to tell you the message, because you are very important to God. Listen carefully, so that you understand the meaning of your vision.

²⁴ God has decided the time of punishment for your people and your holy city. It will continue for 70 weeks.^[c] That will finish the punishment for their sins. The people will no longer turn against God. They will have paid the price for their sins. God will cause them to live for ever in a way that is right. God will show that the visions and messages of the prophets are true. The Most Holy Place will belong to God again.

²⁵ I want you, Daniel, to understand this properly. There will be a command to build Jerusalem again. Then 7 weeks will pass, and 62 weeks will also pass. After that, a ruler that God has chosen will arrive.^[d] People will build the city of Jerusalem again. It will have streets and a strong wall around it. But there will be a lot of trouble at that time. ²⁶ After the 62 weeks have passed, people will kill the ruler that God had chosen. He will have nothing. Then a foreign ruler and his army will attack the city and the temple. He will destroy them quickly, like a flood of water. War and terrible trouble will continue until the end that God has decided.

²⁷ The foreign ruler will make an agreement with many people. That agreement will continue for one week. In the middle of that week, he will stop the sacrifices and offerings in the temple. Instead, he will put a disgusting thing there that causes trouble. It will remain there until God finally destroys the ruler who destroys. His end will happen at the time that God has decided.’

Praise the Lord!^[a]

God is good, so thank him^[b]