M’Cheyne Bible Reading Plan
David Counts His Army
24 The Lord was angry with Israel again, and he caused David to turn against the Israelites. He said, “Go, count the people of Israel and Judah.”
2 So King David said to Joab, the commander of the army, “Go through all the tribes of Israel, from Dan to Beersheba,[a] and count the people. Then I will know how many there are.”
3 But Joab said to the king, “May the Lord your God give you a hundred times more people, and may my master the king live to see this happen. Why do you want to do this?”
4 But the king commanded Joab and the commanders of the army, so they left the king to count the Israelites.
5 After crossing the Jordan River, they camped near Aroer on the south side of the city in the ravine. They went through Gad and on to Jazer. 6 Then they went to Gilead and the land of Tahtim Hodshi and to Dan Jaan and around to Sidon. 7 They went to the strong, walled city of Tyre and to all the cities of the Hivites and Canaanites. Finally, they went to southern Judah, to Beersheba. 8 After nine months and twenty days, they had gone through all the land. Then they came back to Jerusalem.
9 Joab gave the list of the people to the king. There were eight hundred thousand men in Israel who could use the sword and five hundred thousand men in Judah.
10 David felt ashamed after he had counted the people. He said to the Lord, “I have sinned greatly by what I have done. Lord, I beg you to forgive me, your servant, because I have been very foolish.”
11 When David got up in the morning, the Lord spoke his word to Gad, who was a prophet and David’s seer. 12 The Lord told Gad, “Go and tell David, ‘This is what the Lord says: I offer you three choices. Choose one of them and I will do it to you.’”
13 So Gad went to David and said to him, “Should three years of hunger come to you and your land? Or should your enemies chase you for three months? Or should there be three days of disease in your land? Think about it. Then decide which of these things I should tell the Lord who sent me.”
14 David said to Gad, “I am in great trouble. Let the Lord punish us, because the Lord is very merciful. Don’t let my punishment come from human beings!”
15 So the Lord sent a terrible disease on Israel. It began in the morning and continued until the chosen time to stop. From Dan to Beersheba seventy thousand people died. 16 When the angel raised his arm toward Jerusalem to destroy it, the Lord felt very sorry about the terrible things that had happened. He said to the angel who was destroying the people, “That is enough! Put down your arm!” The angel of the Lord was then by the threshing floor of Araunah the Jebusite.
17 When David saw the angel that killed the people, he said to the Lord, “I am the one who sinned and did wrong. These people only followed me like sheep. They did nothing wrong. Please punish me and my family.”
18 That day Gad came to David and said, “Go and build an altar to the Lord on the threshing floor of Araunah the Jebusite.” 19 So David did what Gad told him to do, just as the Lord commanded.
20 Araunah looked and saw the king and his servants coming to him. So he went out and bowed facedown on the ground before the king. 21 He said, “Why has my master the king come to me?”
David answered, “To buy the threshing floor from you so I can build an altar to the Lord. Then the terrible disease will stop.”
22 Araunah said to David, “My master and king, you may take anything you want for a sacrifice. Here are some oxen for the whole burnt offering and the threshing boards and the yokes for the wood. 23 My king, I give everything to you.” Araunah also said to the king, “May the Lord your God be pleased with you.”
24 But the king answered Araunah, “No, I will pay you for the land. 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 one and one-fourth pounds of silver. 25 He built an altar to the Lord there and offered whole burnt offerings and fellowship offerings. Then the Lord answered his prayer for the country, and the disease in Israel stopped.
4 I want to tell you this: While those who will inherit their fathers’ property are still children, they are no different from slaves. It does not matter that the children own everything. 2 While they are children, they must obey those who are chosen to care for them. But when the children reach the age set by their fathers, they are free. 3 It is the same for us. We were once like children, slaves to the useless rules of this world. 4 But when the right time came, God sent his Son who was born of a woman and lived under the law. 5 God did this so he could buy freedom for those who were under the law and so we could become his children.
6 Since you are God’s children, God sent the Spirit of his Son into your hearts, and the Spirit cries out, “Father.”[a] 7 So now you are not a slave; you are God’s child, and God will give you the blessing he promised, because you are his child.
Paul’s Love for the Christians
8 In the past you did not know God. You were slaves to gods that were not real. 9 But now you know the true God. Really, it is God who knows you. So why do you turn back to those weak and useless rules you followed before? Do you want to be slaves to those things again? 10 You still follow teachings about special days, months, seasons, and years. 11 I am afraid for you, that my work for you has been wasted.
12 Brothers and sisters, I became like you, so I beg you to become like me. You were very good to me before. 13 You remember that it was because of an illness that I came to you the first time, preaching the Good News. 14 Though my sickness was a trouble for you, you did not hate me or make me leave. But you welcomed me as an angel from God, as if I were Jesus Christ himself! 15 You were very happy then, but where is that joy now? I am ready to testify that you would have taken out your eyes and given them to me if that were possible. 16 Now am I your enemy because I tell you the truth?
17 Those people[b] are working hard to persuade you, but this is not good for you. They want to persuade you to turn against us and follow only them. 18 It is good for people to show interest in you, but only if their purpose is good. This is always true, not just when I am with you. 19 My little children, again I feel the pain of childbirth for you until you truly become like Christ. 20 I wish I could be with you now and could change the way I am talking to you, because I do not know what to think about you.
The Example of Hagar and Sarah
21 Some of you still want to be under the law. Tell me, do you know what the law says? 22 The Scriptures say that Abraham had two sons. The mother of one son was a slave woman, and the mother of the other son was a free woman. 23 Abraham’s son from the slave woman was born in the normal human way. But the son from the free woman was born because of the promise God made to Abraham.
24 This story teaches something else: The two women are like the two agreements between God and his people. One agreement is the law that God made on Mount Sinai,[c] and the people who are under this agreement are like slaves. The mother named Hagar is like that agreement. 25 She is like Mount Sinai in Arabia and is a picture of the earthly city of Jerusalem. This city and its people are slaves to the law. 26 But the heavenly Jerusalem, which is above, is like the free woman. She is our mother. 27 It is written in the Scriptures:
“Be happy, Jerusalem.
You are like a woman who never gave birth to children.
Start singing and shout for joy.
You never felt the pain of giving birth,
but you will have more children
than the woman who has a husband.” Isaiah 54:1
28 My brothers and sisters, you are God’s children because of his promise, as Isaac was then. 29 The son who was born in the normal way treated the other son badly. It is the same today. 30 But what does the Scripture say? “Throw out the slave woman and her son. The son of the slave woman should not inherit anything. The son of the free woman should receive it all.”[d] 31 So, my brothers and sisters, we are not children of the slave woman, but of the free woman.
A Cedar Tree
31 It was in the eleventh year of our captivity, in the third month, on the first day of the month. The Lord spoke his word to me, saying: 2 “Human, say to the king of Egypt and his people:
‘No one is like you in your greatness.
3 Assyria was once like a cedar tree in Lebanon
with beautiful branches that shaded the forest.
It was very tall;
its top was among the clouds.
4 Much water made the tree grow;
the deep springs made it tall.
Rivers flowed
around the bottom of the tree
and sent their streams
to all other trees in the countryside.
5 So the tree was taller
than all the other trees in the countryside.
Its limbs became long and big
because of so much water.
6 All the birds of the sky
made their nests in the tree’s limbs.
And all the wild animals
gave birth under its branches.
All great nations
lived in the tree’s shade.
7 So the tree was great and beautiful,
with its long branches,
because its roots reached down to much water.
8 The cedar trees in the garden of God
were not as great as it was.
The pine trees
did not have such great limbs.
The plane trees
did not have such branches.
No tree in the garden of God
was as beautiful as this tree.
9 I made it beautiful
with many branches,
and all the trees of Eden in the garden of God
wanted to be like it.
10 “‘So this is what the Lord God says: The tree grew tall. Its top reached the clouds, and it became proud of its height. 11 So I handed it over to a mighty ruler of the nations for him to punish it. Because it was evil, I got rid of it. 12 The cruelest foreign nation cut it down and left it. The tree’s branches fell on the mountains and in all the valleys, and its broken limbs were in all the ravines of the land. All the nations of the earth left the shade of that tree. 13 The birds of the sky live on the fallen tree. The wild animals live among the tree’s fallen branches. 14 So the trees that grow by the water will not be proud to be tall; they will not put their tops among the clouds. None of the trees that are watered well will grow that tall, because they all are meant to die and go under the ground. They will be with people who have died and have gone down to the place of the dead.
15 “‘This is what the Lord God says: On the day when the tree went down to the place of the dead, I made the deep springs cry loudly. I covered them and held back their rivers, and the great waters stopped flowing. I dressed Lebanon in black to show her sadness about the great tree, and all the trees in the countryside were sad about it. 16 I made the nations shake with fear at the sound of the tree falling when I brought it down to the place of the dead. It went to join those who have gone down to the grave. Then all the trees of Eden and the best trees of Lebanon, all the well-watered trees, were comforted in the place of the dead below the earth. 17 These trees had also gone down with the great tree to the place of the dead. They joined those who were killed in war and those among the nations who had lived under the great tree’s shade.
18 “‘So no tree in Eden is equal to you, Egypt, in greatness and honor, but you will go down to join the trees of Eden in the place below the earth. You will lie among unclean people, with those who were killed in war.
“‘This is about the king of Egypt and all his people, says the Lord God.’”
The Nation Cries for Jerusalem
A psalm of Asaph.
79 God, nations have come against your chosen people.
They have ruined your holy Temple.
They have turned Jerusalem into ruins.
2 They have given the bodies of your servants as food to the wild birds.
They have given the bodies of those who worship you to the wild animals.
3 They have spilled blood like water all around Jerusalem.
No one was left to bury the dead.
4 We are a joke to the other nations;
they laugh and make fun of us.
5 Lord, how long will this last?
Will you be angry forever?
How long will your jealousy burn like a fire?
6 Be angry with the nations that do not know you
and with the kingdoms that do not honor you.
7 They have gobbled up the people of Jacob
and destroyed their land.
8 Don’t punish us for our past sins.
Show your mercy to us soon,
because we are helpless!
9 God our Savior, help us
so people will praise you.
Save us and forgive our sins
so people will honor you.
10 Why should the nations say,
“Where is their God?”
Tell the other nations in our presence
that you punish those who kill your servants.
11 Hear the moans of the prisoners.
Use your great power
to save those sentenced to die.
12 Repay those around us seven times over
for their insults to you, Lord.
13 We are your people, the sheep of your flock.
We will thank you always;
forever and ever we will praise you.
The Holy Bible, New Century Version®. Copyright © 2005 by Thomas Nelson, Inc.