M’Cheyne Bible Reading Plan
Levites carry the Covenant Box properly
15 David built houses for himself in the City of David. He put up a tent as a place where he would put God's Covenant Box. 2 Then David said, ‘Only the Levites may carry God's Covenant Box. The Lord chose them to do that. He chose them to serve him for ever.’
3 David brought all the Israelites together in Jerusalem. He said that they should bring the Lord's Covenant Box to the place that he had prepared for it. 4 Then David brought together the descendants of Aaron and the other Levites. They were:
5 From Kohath's clan, 120 people with their leader, Uriel.
6 From Merari's clan, 220 people with their leader, Asaiah.
7 From Gershon's clan, 130 people with their leader, Joel.
8 From Elizaphan's clan, 200 people with their leader, Shemaiah.
9 From Hebron's clan, 80 people with their leader, Eliel.
10 From Uzziel's clan, 112 people with their leader, Amminadab.
11 Then David told the priests Zadok and Abiathar to come to him. He also told these Levites to come: Uriel, Asaiah, Joel, Shemaiah, Eliel and Amminadab. 12 David said to them, ‘You are the leaders of the Levites' clans. You and your relatives must make yourselves holy. Then you will be able to carry the Covenant Box of the Lord, Israel's God. You must bring it to the place that I have prepared for it. 13 The first time that we tried to bring it here, you did not carry it. Because of that, the Lord our God punished us. He did that because we did not ask him about the proper way to carry it.’
14 So the priests and the other Levites made themselves holy. Then they could carry the Covenant Box of the Lord, Israel's God. 15 The Levites carried God's Covenant Box with its poles on their shoulders. That is how God had commanded Moses that they should carry it.
16 David told the leaders of the Levites to choose some of their relatives to be musicians. Some would sing songs. Some would make music with lyres, harps and cymbals. They would sing loud and happy songs.
17 The Levites chose Joel's son Heman. They also chose Berekiah's son Asaph, who was a relative of Heman. And they chose Kushaiah's son Ethan, who belonged to Merari's clan. 18 They also chose another group of Levites to help them. They were: Zechariah, Ben, Jaaziel, Shemiramoth, Jehiel, Unni, Eliab, Benaiah, Maaseiah, Mattithiah, Eliphelehu, Mikneiah, as well as two temple guards, Obed-Edom and Jeiel.
19 They chose these musicians to make music with bronze cymbals: Heman, Asaph and Ethan. 20 They chose these musicians to make music in a special way with harps: Zechariah, Aziel, Shemiramoth, Jehiel, Unni, Eliab, Maaseiah and Benaiah.
21 They chose these musicians to make music in a special way with lyres: Mattithiah, Eliphelehu, Mikneiah, Obed-Edom, Jeiel and Azaziah. 22 Kenaniah was the leader of the musicians. They chose him to do that because he had good skill in music.
23 Berekiah and Elkanah were guards to keep the Covenant Box safe.
24 The priests Shebaniah, Joshaphat, Nethanel, Amasai, Zechariah, Benaiah and Eliezer walked in front of God's Covenant Box. They made a loud noise with trumpets as they went. Obed-Edom and Jehiah were also guards for the Covenant Box.
The Covenant Box arrives in Jerusalem
25 So David, the leaders of Israel and the army officers went to fetch the Lord's Covenant Box from Obed-Edom's house. They were very happy as they took it from there to Jerusalem. 26 The Lord helped the Levites who were carrying his Covenant Box. So they offered seven bulls and seven male sheep as sacrifices to the Lord. 27 David was wearing a robe that was made of good linen. All the Levites who were carrying the Covenant Box also wore linen clothes. So did the musicians and Kenaniah, their leader. David also wore a linen ephod over his robe.[a]
28 In that way, all the Israelites brought the Lord's Covenant Box to Jerusalem. They were shouting. They were making loud music with trumpets, cymbals, lyres and harps.
29 While they where bringing the Lord's Covenant Box into the City of David, Saul's daughter Michal looked out through a window. She saw that King David was dancing because he was so happy. Michal felt ashamed of him.
Every person has equal value
2 My Christian friends, you must be kind to everyone. You trust the Lord Jesus Christ, who is great in heaven. So do not think that anyone is more valuable than any other person.
2 When you are meeting together as believers, maybe two men will come to join with you. One of them is wearing beautiful clothes, and he has gold rings on his hands. The other man is poor, and he is wearing old clothes that are dirty. 3 You are kind to the man who is wearing beautiful clothes. You say to him, ‘Please sit here in this good place.’ But you say to the poor man, ‘Go and stand over there.’ Or you may say to him, ‘Sit on the floor near my feet.’ 4 If you do that, you are thinking bad thoughts. You have decided that one person among you is better than another person. You must not do that.
5 My Christian friends, listen to me. God has chosen to bless people who are poor in this world. He has helped them to trust him. So really they are rich. God will give to them a place in his kingdom. He has promised to do that for all people who love him. 6 But you have not been kind to people who are poor. You have caused them to feel ashamed. Who causes you to have troubles? It is the rich people! They are the people who want the judges to punish you. 7 It is the rich people who say bad things against the good name of Jesus Christ. And you are called Christians because you belong to him.
8 But the message of God's kingdom is this: ‘Love other people as much as you love yourself.’ That is what the Bible says. If you really do that, you do well. 9 But if you are kind to some people and you are not kind to others, then you are doing a bad thing. God's Law shows that you are wrong. 10 Even if you fail to obey only one rule in God's Law, it means that you are guilty. It is the same as if you fail to obey all God's Law. 11 For example, God has said in his Law, ‘You must not have sex with anyone who is not your husband or your wife.’ But God has also said, ‘Do not kill another person.’ Perhaps you do not have sex in a wrong way like that. But if you then murder someone, God's Law shows that you are still wrong.
12 Remember that God will judge you one day. When he does that, he will use a law which makes us free. So remember this in everything that you say and in everything that you do. 13 God will not forgive anyone who has not forgiven other people. But God is kind! He judges us, but even more than that, he forgives us!
Believe God and do good things
14 My Christian brothers, you say that you believe in God. Then you must show this in the things that you do. If not, your faith will not help you. It will not save you. 15 For example, maybe a believer does not have enough clothes to wear or enough food to eat. 16 Then one of you may say to them, ‘Go with God's peace! I pray that you will be warm. I pray that you will eat well.’ But if you do not give to them what they need, that does not help them at all. 17 How we believe in God is also like that. If our faith does not lead us to do good things, then it is not worth anything. It is dead!
18 Someone may say, ‘You believe in God, but I do good things to help people.’ Then I would say, ‘You cannot show me that you believe in God if you do not do good things. I do good things, and that shows that I really believe in God.’ 19 You believe that there is only one God. That is good! But even the demons believe that! And it makes them very afraid.
20 You fool! If someone's faith does not lead them to do good things, it is not worth anything. You should know that! 21 Think about our ancestor Abraham. He offered his son Isaac on the altar as a gift to God.[a] Because he did that good thing, God accepted him as right with himself. 22 Abraham believed in God, and he did what God asked him to do. So you can see that both of these were necessary. When he did this good thing, he showed that he believed in God completely. 23 The Bible tells us what happened. It says, ‘Abraham believed God. As a result, God accepted Abraham as right with him.’[b] God also called Abraham his friend.
24 So you see how God accepts someone as right with himself. That person must not only believe in God. He must also do good things to show that he has faith.
25 It was the same with Rahab, long ago. She was a prostitute. She helped some of God's people who came to her house. She kept them safe from their enemies and she sent them away again by a different road.[c] Because she did those good things, God accepted her as right with himself. 26 If our bodies have no spirit, they are dead. In the same way, if our faith does not lead us to do good things, it is dead.
The Lord is powerful
9 Then I saw a vision of the Lord. He was standing beside the altar in the temple. The Lord said, ‘Hit the tops of the pillars so that the whole foundation shakes! Cause the building to fall on the heads of all the people. If anyone is still alive after that, I will cause them to die in battle. Nobody will escape! 2 They might try to dig deep into the earth to save themselves. But my strong hand will pull them out of there. They might climb up into the sky. But I will pull them down from there. 3 They might try to hide on the top of Mount Carmel. But I will find them and I will take them from there. They might try to hide from me deep down in the sea. But I will command the great sea snake to bite them. 4 Even when their enemies take them away as prisoners, I will cause them to die in battle. I have decided to destroy them. I will not help them.’
5 The Lord God Almighty will do this! When he touches the earth, it shakes. Everyone who lives there weeps. The ground rises up, like the water of the Nile river in Egypt. Then it goes down again, like the river. 6 The Lord builds his palace up into heaven, with its foundation on the earth. He takes up the water from the sea, and he pours it out on the earth as rain. The Lord is his name.
7 The Lord says, ‘You Israelite people, do not think that you are more important to me than the people of Ethiopia. It is true that I led you safely out of Egypt. But I also brought the Philistines from Crete. And I brought the Aramean people from Kir. 8 I, the Lord God, am carefully watching you Israelites. I see that you are a wicked nation, so I will remove you from the earth. But I will not completely destroy all the descendants of Jacob.’ That is what the Lord says.
9 ‘Listen to me! I will cause trouble to come to Israel's family, as they live among other nations. It will be like a person who shakes a sieve to remove dirt from grain. 10 Those among my people who do bad things will die. They say, “God will not send trouble to us. Nothing bad will happen to us.” But their enemies will kill those bad people in war.’
The Israelites will be strong again
11 The Lord says, ‘When that time comes, I will make David's kingdom strong again. It has become like a broken hut, but I will repair it. I will cause it to become as good and strong as it was when king David ruled. 12 You Israelites will fight the Edomites who still remain. You will win against them and the other nations that once belonged to me.’
That is what the Lord says, and he will do it.
13 The Lord says, ‘The time will come when food will grow very well in your fields. People will need to work quickly to cut down all their crops before they plough the ground to plant again. Lots of grapes will grow on your vines. People will work quickly to make wine from the grapes before they plant new vines. So much juice will pour out of the grapes that it will run down the hills!
14 I will bring the people of Israel, my people, back to their own land. Enemies destroyed their cities, but now my people will build them again. They will live safely in them. My people will plant vines. They will drink wine from their grapes. They will eat the fruit from trees that they have planted in their gardens. 15 And I will plant my people in their own land. That is the land that I have given to them, and nobody will ever pull them out of that land.’
That is what the Lord your God says.
The Devil tries to make Jesus do wrong things
4 Then Jesus returned from the Jordan River.[a] He was full of the Holy Spirit and the Holy Spirit led him into the wilderness. 2 He stayed there for 40 days and he did not eat anything. During this time the Devil tried to cause Jesus to do wrong things.[b] At the end of 40 days, Jesus was very hungry.
3 The Devil said to Jesus, ‘If you are the Son of God, speak to this stone. Tell it to become bread.’
4 ‘No!’ Jesus replied, ‘The Bible says that food alone cannot cause people to live.’[c]
5 After that, the Devil led Jesus up to a high place. In one moment, he showed Jesus all the countries in the whole world. 6 He said to Jesus, ‘I will let you rule the whole world. I will give you power over all these things. That power all belongs to me. So I can give it to anyone that I choose. 7 You must bend down low and worship me. Then I will give you power over the whole world.’[d]
8 ‘No!’ Jesus replied, ‘The Bible says,
“Only worship your Lord God.
He is the only one that you should obey.” ’[e]
9 The Devil now took Jesus to Jerusalem. He took him to stand on the highest part of the temple. Then he said to Jesus, ‘If you are the Son of God, jump down from here to the ground. 10 You know that the Bible says:
“God will tell his angels to keep you safe.”
11 “They will hold you safely in their hands.
They will not let you hurt your foot on a stone.” ’[f]
12 ‘No!’ Jesus replied. ‘The Bible says,
“Do not test the Lord God, to see if he will save you.” ’[g]
13 In those ways, the Devil tried to make Jesus do many wrong things. When he had finished this, he left Jesus alone. He waited for another chance.
Jesus goes to Nazareth
14 Then Jesus returned to Galilee. The Holy Spirit continued to give him power. Everyone who lived near there heard the news about him. 15 He taught people in the Jewish meeting places.[h] Everyone said good things about him.
16 Jesus went to Nazareth, the town where he had grown up. On the Jewish day of rest, he went to their meeting place.[i] This was what he usually did. He stood up to read aloud from the Bible.[j]
17 They gave him the scroll that had the messages of God's prophet Isaiah. Jesus opened the scroll. He found the place where Isaiah wrote:
18 ‘The Spirit of the Lord God is on me.
He has chosen me to tell good news to poor people.
He has sent me to tell people who are in prison, “You can go free!”
I must say to people that cannot see, “See again!”
I must cause people that are like slaves to become free.
19 I must tell everyone, “This is the year when God will be kind to his people.” ’[k]
20 When Jesus had read this to the people, he closed the scroll. He gave it back to an officer of the meeting place. Then he sat down to teach the people. Everyone in the meeting place was looking carefully at him.
21 Jesus said to them, ‘Today this message has become true. It has happened while you were listening.’
22 Everyone was talking about Jesus. They were surprised at the good way in which he spoke. They said to each other, ‘We know that he is only Joseph's son.’
23 Jesus then said to them, ‘Now you will tell me the proverb, “Doctor, make yourself well!” You will also say, “We have heard that you did many surprising things in Capernaum. This is your home town, so do the same things here!” 24 I tell you this: People do not accept a prophet of God who comes from their own town.
25 What I tell you is true. There were many widows in the country of Israel when Elijah was alive. At that time, it did not rain for three and a half years. So people were very hungry in all the country. 26 But God did not send Elijah to help a widow in Israel. Instead, God sent Elijah to the country called Sidon. There he helped a widow in a place called Zarephath.[l]
27 Here is another example: When God's prophet Elisha was alive, there were many people in Israel with a bad disease of the skin. But God did not make any of them well. Instead, he made a man well who was from the country called Syria. That man was called Naaman.’[m]
28 The people in the meeting place heard what Jesus said.[n] They became very angry. 29 They stood up and they made him leave the town. They took him to the top of the hill outside the town. They wanted to throw him over the edge to the bottom. 30 But Jesus walked through the middle of the crowd and he went away.
Jesus causes a bad spirit to leave a man
31 Jesus went to a town in Galilee called Capernaum. On the Jewish day of rest, he taught the people there. 32 The people were very surprised at the things that Jesus taught them. He spoke with authority. 33 There was a sick man in the meeting place. He had a spirit of a bad demon that was living inside him. The spirit caused the man to shout loudly. 34 He said, ‘Jesus from Nazareth, leave us alone! Do not destroy us! I know who you are. You are God's Holy One!’
35 Jesus said to the spirit, ‘Be quiet! Come out of the man!’ Then the bad spirit caused the man to fall to the ground in front of the people. It came out of the man but it did not hurt him.
36 All the people were very surprised and they said to each other, ‘Listen to what this man says! He has power and authority. He tells bad spirits to come out of people, and they come out.’ 37 So they began to tell everyone about Jesus. Because of this, people in all the places near Capernaum heard the news about Jesus.
Jesus makes many people well
38 Jesus then left the meeting place and he went to Simon's home. The mother of Simon's wife was ill and her body was very hot. So they asked Jesus to make her well. 39 Jesus came and he stood near her. He told the illness to go away and immediately she was well again. She got up and she prepared food for her visitors.
40 When the sun was going down, people in the town brought to Jesus all those people who were ill. They had many different kinds of illness. Jesus put his hands on each ill person and they became well again.
41 Also, bad spirits came out of many people. They were shouting, ‘You are the Son of God.’ The spirits knew that Jesus was the Messiah. Because of this, Jesus stopped them. He would not let them speak.
42 Early the next morning, Jesus went to a place where he could be alone. The people went to look for him. When they found him they said, ‘Do not leave us! Please stay here with us.’ 43 Jesus replied, ‘I must go to other towns to tell everyone the good news. I will tell them how God rules in the lives of his people. That is what God sent me to do.’
44 Then he travelled to many towns in the country called Judea. He went into the Jewish meeting places and taught people there.
EasyEnglish Bible Copyright © MissionAssist 2019 - Charitable Incorporated Organisation 1162807. Used by permission. All rights reserved.