M’Cheyne Bible Reading Plan
The Temptation and Fall
3 Now the Shining One[a] was more clever than any animal of the field that the Lord God had made. He[b] asked the woman, “Did God actually say, ‘You are not to eat from any tree of the garden’?”
2 “We may eat from the trees of the garden,” the woman answered the Shining One,[c] 3 “but as for the fruit of the tree that is in the middle of the garden, God has said, ‘You are not to eat from it, nor are you to touch it, or you will die.’”
4 “You certainly will not die!” the Shining One[d] told the woman. 5 “Even God knows that on the day you eat from it, your eyes will be opened and you’ll become like God,[e] knowing good and evil.”
6 When the woman saw that the tree produced good food, was attractive in appearance,[f] and was desirable for making one wise, she took some of its fruit and ate it.[g] Then she also gave some to her husband who was with her, and he ate some, too.[h] 7 As a result, they both understood what they had done,[i] and they became aware that they were naked. So they sewed fig leaves together and made loincloths for themselves.
8 When they heard the voice of the Lord God as he was walking in the garden during the breeze of the day, the man and his wife concealed themselves from the presence of the Lord God among the trees of the garden. 9 So the Lord God called out to the man, asking him, “Where are you?”
10 “I heard your voice in the garden,” the man[j] answered, “and I was afraid because I was naked, so I hid from you.”[k]
11 “Who told you that you are naked?” God[l] asked. “Did you eat fruit[m] from the tree that I commanded you not to eat?”
12 The man answered, “The woman whom you provided for[n] me gave me fruit[o] from the tree, and I ate some of it.”[p]
13 Then the Lord God asked the woman, “What did you do?”[q]
“The Shining One[r] misled me,” the woman answered, “so I ate.”
The Penalty of Sin
14 The Lord God told the Shining One,[s]
“Because you have done this,
you are more cursed than all the livestock,
and more than all the earth’s animals,[t]
You’ll crawl on your belly
and eat dust
as long as you live.
15 “I’ll place hostility between you and the woman,
between your offspring and her offspring.
He’ll strike you on the head,
and you’ll strike him on the heel.”
16 He told the woman,
“I’ll greatly increase the pain of your labor during childbirth.
It will be painful for you to bear children,
“since your trust is turning[u] toward your husband,
and he will dominate you.”
17 He told the man,
“Because you have listened to what your wife said,[v]
and have eaten from the tree about which I commanded you,[w]
‘You are not to not eat from it,’
cursed is the ground because of you.
You’ll eat from it through pain-filled labor
for the rest of your life.
18 It will produce thorns and thistles for you,
and you’ll eat the plants from the meadows.
19 You will eat food by the sweat of your brow
until you’re buried in[x] the ground,
because you were taken from it.
You’re made from dust
and you’ll return to dust.”
20 Now Adam[y] had named his wife “Eve,”[z] because she was to become the mother of everyone who was living. 21 The Lord God fashioned garments from animal skins for Adam and his wife, and clothed them.
22 Later, the Lord God said, “Look! The man has become like one of us in knowing good and evil. Now, so he won’t reach out, also take from the tree of life, eat, and then live forever—” 23 therefore the Lord God expelled the man[aa] from the garden of Eden so he would work the ground from which he had been taken. 24 After he had expelled the man, the Lord God[ab] placed winged angels[ac] at the eastern end of the garden of Eden, along with a fiery, turning sword, to prevent access to[ad] the tree of life.
John the Baptist Prepares the Way(A)
3 About this time,[a] John the Baptist appeared, preaching in the Judean wilderness, 2 “Repent, because the kingdom from[b] heaven is near!” 3 He was the one the prophet Isaiah was referring to when he said,
“He is a voice calling out in the wilderness:
‘Prepare the way for the Lord![c]
Make his paths straight!’”[d]
4 John had clothing made of camel’s hair and wore[e] a leather belt around his waist. His diet consisted of grasshoppers[f] and wild honey.
5 Then the people of[g] Jerusalem, all Judea, and the entire region along the Jordan began flocking to him, 6 being baptized by him in the Jordan River while they confessed their sins.
7 But when John[h] saw many Pharisees and Sadducees coming to where he was baptizing,[i] he told them, “You children of serpents! Who warned you to flee from the coming wrath? 8 Produce fruit that is consistent with repentance! 9 Don’t think you can say to yourselves, ‘We have father Abraham!’ because I tell you that God can raise up descendants for Abraham from these stones! 10 The ax already lies against the roots of the trees. So every tree that isn’t producing good fruit will be cut down and thrown into the fire. 11 I am baptizing you with[j] water as evidence of repentance,[k] but the one who is coming after me is stronger than I am, and I am not worthy to carry his sandals. It is he who will baptize you with[l] the Holy Spirit and fire. 12 His winnowing fork is in his hand. He will clean up his threshing floor and gather his grain into the barn, but he will burn the chaff with inextinguishable fire.”
Jesus is Baptized(B)
13 Then Jesus came from Galilee to the Jordan to be baptized by John. 14 But John tried to stop him, saying, “I need to be baptized by you, and are you coming to me?”
15 But Jesus answered him, “Let it be this way for now, because this is the proper way for us to fulfill all righteousness.”[m]
At this, he permitted him to be baptized.[n] 16 When Jesus had been baptized, he immediately came up out of the water. Suddenly, the heavens opened up for him, and he saw the Spirit of God descending like a dove and coming to rest on him. 17 Then a voice from heaven said, “This is my Son, whom I love. I am pleased with him!”
Initial Offering Ceremonies(A)
3 Seven months after the Israelis had settled in their cities, they all gathered together in Jerusalem as a united body.[a] 2 Then Jozadak’s son Jeshua and his brothers got up, along with Shealtiel’s son Zerubbabel and his brothers. They built an altar of the God of Israel in order to offer burnt offerings, as prescribed by the Law of Moses, the man of God.
3 Even though they feared the people in neighboring regions, they rebuilt the altar where it had stood before.[b] They offered burnt offerings on it to the Lord—burnt offerings both in the morning and in the evening. 4 They also observed the Festival of Tents[c] as has been prescribed, offering a specific number of daily burnt offerings in accordance with the ordinance of each day. 5 After that, they offered[d] all of the continual burnt offerings and the New Moon sacrifices[e] for all of the designated festivals of the Lord that were being consecrated, along with all the voluntary offerings that were dedicated to the Lord. 6 They began to offer burnt offerings to the Lord from the first day of the seventh month, even though the foundation of the Temple of the Lord had not yet been laid.
Construction Begins on the Temple
7 They paid masons and carpenters in cash.[f] They paid[g] the residents of Sidon and Tyre with food, drink, and oil, for them to bring cedar trees by sea from Lebanon to Joppa in accordance with the order they had obtained from Cyrus, king of Persia.
8 Two years and two months after arriving at the site of the Temple of God in Jerusalem, Shealtiel’s son Zerubbabel, Jozadak’s son Jeshua, the relatives of the priests and descendants of Levi, and everyone else who had left the Babylonian[h] captivity for Jerusalem appointed descendants of Levi who were 20 years old and older to oversee the work of the Lord’s Temple.
9 At this time Jeshua, along with his children and relatives, and Kadmiel, with his children and the descendants of Judah, joined the family of Henadad with his children and relatives, and the descendants of Levi in overseeing the work on the Temple of God.
The Temple Foundation is Laid
10 After the builders laid the foundation for the Lord’s Temple, the priests stood in their ministerial robes with trumpets and the descendants of Levi (who were also descendants of Asaph) with cymbals to praise the Lord, according to instructions prepared by[i] David, king of Israel. 11 And they sang in unison[j] to one another, giving thanks to the Lord:
“He is good,
and his gracious love to Israel endures forever.”
And all the people shouted out loudly in praise to the Lord when the foundation of the Lord’s Temple was laid.
Remembering the Former Temple
12 Now a number of the priests, the Levities, and the leading officials of the elders—who were very[k] elderly—had seen the former Temple with their own eyes. When they observed the foundation of the Temple being laid, they wept with a loud voice, while the rest of them shouted for joy. 13 As a result, the people couldn’t distinguish between the noise coming from the shouts of joy and the noise coming from the weeping people, because everyone[l] was shouting loudly and could be heard a long way off.
A Crippled Man is Healed
3 One afternoon, Peter and John were on their way to the Temple for the three o’clock prayer time.[a] 2 Now a man who had been crippled from birth was being carried in. Every day people[b] would lay him at what was called the Beautiful Gate so that he could beg from those who were going into the Temple. 3 When he saw that Peter and John were about to go into the Temple, he asked them to give him something.
4 Peter, along with John, looked him straight in the eye and said, “Look at us!” 5 So the man[c] watched them closely, expecting to get something from them. 6 However, Peter said, “I don’t have any silver or gold, but I’ll give you what I do have. In the name of Jesus the Messiah[d] from Nazareth, walk!”[e] 7 Then Peter[f] took hold of his right hand and began to help him up. Immediately his feet and ankles became strong, 8 and he sprang to his feet, stood up, and began to walk. Then he went with them into the Temple, walking, jumping, and praising God.
9 When all the people saw him walking and praising God, 10 they knew that he was the man who used to sit and beg at the Beautiful Gate of the Temple, and they were filled with wonder and amazement at what had happened to him.
Peter Speaks to the Onlookers
11 While he was holding on to Peter and John, all the people came running to them in what was called “Solomon’s Colonnade”. They were dumbfounded. 12 When Peter saw this, he told the people: “Fellow Israelis, why are you wondering about this, and why are you staring at us as if by our own power or godliness we made him walk? 13 The God of Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob—the God of our ancestors—has glorified his servant Jesus, whom you betrayed and rejected in the presence of Pilate, even though he had decided to let him go. 14 You rejected the Holy and Righteous One and asked to have a murderer released to you, 15 and you killed the source of life, whom God raised from the dead. We are witnesses to that. 16 It is his name—that is, by faith in his name—that has healed this man whom you see and know. Yes, the faith that comes through Jesus[g] has given him this perfect health in the presence of all of you.
17 “And now, brothers, I know that you acted in ignorance like your leaders. 18 This is how God fulfilled what he had predicted through the voice of all the prophets—that his Messiah[h] would suffer. 19 Therefore, repent and turn to him to have your sins blotted out, 20 so that times of refreshing may come from the presence of the Lord and so that he may send you Jesus, whom he appointed long ago to be the Messiah.[i] 21 He must remain in heaven until the time of universal restitution, which God announced long ago through the voice of his holy prophets. 22 In fact, Moses said,
‘The Lord[j] your God will raise up for you a prophet like me from among your brothers. You must listen to everything he tells you.[k] 23 Any person who will not listen to that prophet will be utterly destroyed from among the people.’[l]
24 “Indeed, all the prophets who have spoken, from Samuel and those who followed him, also announced these days. 25 You are the descendants of the prophets and the heirs[m] of the covenant that God made with your[n] ancestors when he told Abraham, ‘Through your descendant[o] all the families of the earth will be blessed.’[p] 26 When God raised up his servant, he sent him first to you to bless you by turning every one of you from your evil ways.”
Copyright © 1995-2014 by ISV Foundation. ALL RIGHTS RESERVED INTERNATIONALLY. Used by permission of Davidson Press, LLC.