M’Cheyne Bible Reading Plan
Rewards for Obeying God
26 “‘Don’t make idols for yourselves or set up statues or memorials. Don’t put stone statues in your land to bow down to, because I am the Lord your God.
2 “‘Remember my Sabbaths, and respect my Holy Place. I am the Lord.
3 “‘If you remember my laws and commands and obey them, 4 I will give you rains at the right season; the land will produce crops, and the trees of the field will produce their fruit. 5 Your threshing will continue until the grape harvest, and your grape harvest will continue until it is time to plant. Then you will have plenty to eat and live safely in your land. 6 I will give peace to your country; you will lie down in peace, and no one will make you afraid. I will keep harmful animals out of your country, and armies will not pass through it.
7 “‘You will chase your enemies and defeat them, killing them with your sword. 8 Five of you will chase a hundred men; a hundred of you will chase ten thousand men. You will defeat your enemies and kill them with your sword.
9 “‘Then I will show kindness to you and let you have many children; I will keep my agreement with you. 10 You will have enough crops to last for more than a year. When you harvest the new crops, you will have to throw out the old ones to make room for them. 11 Also I will place my Holy Tent among you, and I will not turn away from you. 12 I will walk with you and be your God, and you will be my people. 13 I am the Lord your God, who brought you out of Egypt, where you were slaves. I broke the heavy weights that were on your shoulders and let you walk proudly again.
Punishment for Not Obeying God
14 “‘But if you do not obey me and keep all my commands, 15 and if you turn away from my rules and hate my laws, refusing to obey all my commands, you have broken our agreement. 16 As a result, I will do this to you: I will cause terrible things to happen to you. I will cause you to have disease and fever that will destroy your eyes and slowly kill you. You will not have success when you plant your seed, and your enemy will eat your crops. 17 I will be against you, and your enemies will defeat you. These people who hate you will rule over you, and you will run away even when no one is chasing you.
18 “‘If after all this you still do not obey me, I will punish you seven times more for your sins. 19 I will break your great pride, and I will make the sky like iron and the earth like bronze.[a] 20 You will work hard, but it will not help. Your land will not grow any crops, and your trees will not give their fruit.
21 “‘If you still turn against me and refuse to obey me, I will beat you seven times harder. The more you sin, the more you will be punished. 22 I will send wild animals to attack you, and they will take your children away from you and destroy your cattle. They will make you so few in number the roads will be empty.
23 “‘If you don’t learn your lesson after all these things, and if you still turn against me, 24 I will also turn against you. I will punish you seven more times for your sins. 25 You broke my agreement, and I will punish you. I will bring armies against you, and if you go into your cities for safety, I will cause diseases to spread among you so that your enemy will defeat you. 26 There will be very little bread to eat; ten women will be able to cook all your bread in one oven. They will measure each piece of bread, and you will eat, but you will still be hungry.
27 “‘If you still refuse to listen to me and still turn against me, 28 I will show my great anger; I will punish you seven more times for your sins. 29 You will eat the bodies of your sons and daughters. 30 I will destroy your places where gods are worshiped and cut down your incense altars. I will pile your dead bodies on the lifeless forms of your idols. I will hate you. 31 I will destroy your cities and make your holy places empty, and I will not smell the pleasing smell of your offerings. 32 I will make the land empty so that your enemies who come to live in it will be shocked at it. 33 I will scatter you among the nations, and I will pull out my sword and destroy you. Your land will become empty, your cities a waste. 34 When you are taken to your enemy’s country, your land will finally get its rest. It will enjoy its time of rest all the time it lies empty. 35 During the time the land is empty, it will have the rest you should have given it while you lived in it.
36 “‘Those of you who are left alive will lose their courage in the land of their enemies. They will be frightened by the sound of a leaf being blown by the wind. They will run as if someone were chasing them with a sword, and they will fall even when no one is chasing them. 37 They will fall over each other, as if someone were chasing them with a sword, even though no one is chasing them. You will not be strong enough to stand up against your enemies. 38 You will die among other nations and disappear in your enemies’ countries. 39 So those who are left alive will rot away in their enemies’ countries because of their sins. They will also rot away because of their ancestors’ sins.
There Is Always Hope
40 “‘But maybe the people will confess their sins and the sins of their ancestors; maybe they will admit they turned against me and sinned against me, 41 which made me turn against them and send them into the land of their enemies. If these disobedient people are sorry for what they did and accept punishment for their sin, 42 I will remember my agreement with Jacob, my agreement with Isaac, and my agreement with Abraham, and I will remember the land. 43 The land will be left empty by its people, and it will enjoy its time of rest as it lies bare without them. Then those who are left alive will accept the punishment for their sins. They will learn that they were punished because they hated my laws and refused to obey my rules. 44 But even though this is true, I will not turn away from them when they are in the land of their enemies. I will not hate them so much that I completely destroy them and break my agreement with them, because I am the Lord their God. 45 For their good I will remember the agreement with their ancestors, whom I brought out of the land of Egypt so I could become their God; the other nations saw these things. I am the Lord.’”
46 These are the laws, rules, and teachings the Lord made between himself and the Israelites through Moses at Mount Sinai.
Praise God Who Creates and Saves
33 Sing to the Lord, you who do what is right;
honest people should praise him.
2 Praise the Lord on the harp;
make music for him on a ten-stringed lyre.
3 Sing a new song to him;
play well and joyfully.
4 God’s word is true,
and everything he does is right.
5 He loves what is right and fair;
the Lord’s love fills the earth.
6 The sky was made at the Lord’s command.
By the breath from his mouth, he made all the stars.
7 He gathered the water of the sea into a heap.
He made the great ocean stay in its place.
8 All the earth should worship the Lord;
the whole world should fear him.
9 He spoke, and it happened.
He commanded, and it appeared.
10 The Lord upsets the plans of nations;
he ruins all their plans.
11 But the Lord’s plans will stand forever;
his ideas will last from now on.
12 Happy is the nation whose God is the Lord,
the people he chose for his very own.
13 The Lord looks down from heaven
and sees every person.
14 From his throne he watches
all who live on earth.
15 He made their hearts
and understands everything they do.
16 No king is saved by his great army.
No warrior escapes by his great strength.
17 Horses can’t bring victory;
they can’t save by their strength.
18 But the Lord looks after those who fear him,
those who put their hope in his love.
19 He saves them from death
and spares their lives in times of hunger.
20 So our hope is in the Lord.
He is our help, our shield to protect us.
21 We rejoice in him,
because we trust his holy name.
22 Lord, show your love to us
as we put our hope in you.
Is Death Fair?
9 I thought about all this and tried to understand it. I saw that God controls good people and wise people and what they do, but no one knows if they will experience love or hate.
2 Good and bad people end up the same—
those who are right and those who are wrong,
those who are good and those who are evil,
those who are clean and those who are unclean,
those who sacrifice and those who do not.
The same things happen to a good person
as happen to a sinner,
to a person who makes promises to God
and to one who does not.
3 This is something wrong that happens here on earth: What happens to one happens to all. So people’s minds are full of evil and foolish thoughts while they live. After that, they join the dead. 4 But anyone still alive has hope; even a live dog is better off than a dead lion!
5 The living know they will die,
but the dead know nothing.
Dead people have no more reward,
and people forget them.
6 After people are dead,
they can no longer love or hate or envy.
They will never again share
in what happens here on earth.
Enjoy Life While You Can
7 So go eat your food and enjoy it;
drink your wine and be happy,
because that is what God wants you to do.
8 Put on nice clothes
and make yourself look good.
9 Enjoy life with the wife you love. Enjoy all the useless days of this useless life God has given you here on earth, because it is all you have. So enjoy the work you do here on earth. 10 Whatever work you do, do your best, because you are going to the grave, where there is no working, no planning, no knowledge, and no wisdom.
Time and Chance
11 I also saw something else here on earth:
The fastest runner does not always win the race,
the strongest soldier does not always win the battle,
the wisest does not always have food,
the smartest does not always become wealthy,
and the talented one does not always receive praise.
Time and chance happen to everyone.
12 No one knows what will happen next.
Like a fish caught in a net,
or a bird caught in a trap,
people are trapped by evil
when it suddenly falls on them.
Wisdom Does Not Always Win
13 I also saw something wise here on earth that impressed me. 14 There was a small town with only a few people in it. A great king fought against it and put his armies all around it. 15 Now there was a poor but wise man in the town who used his wisdom to save his town. But later on, everyone forgot about him. 16 I still think wisdom is better than strength. But those people forgot about the poor man’s wisdom and stopped listening to what he said.
17 The quiet words of a wise person are better
than the shouts of a foolish ruler.
18 Wisdom is better than weapons of war,
but one sinner can destroy much good.
1 From Paul, a servant of God and an apostle of Jesus Christ. I was sent to help the faith of God’s chosen people and to help them know the truth that shows people how to serve God. 2 That faith and that knowledge come from the hope for life forever, which God promised to us before time began. And God cannot lie. 3 At the right time God let the world know about that life through preaching. He trusted me with that work, and I preached by the command of God our Savior.
4 To Titus, my true child in the faith we share:
Grace and peace from God the Father and Christ Jesus our Savior.
Titus’ Work in Crete
5 I left you in Crete so you could finish doing the things that still needed to be done and so you could appoint elders in every town, as I directed you. 6 An elder must not be guilty of doing wrong, must have only one wife, and must have believing children. They must not be known as children who are wild and do not cooperate. 7 As God’s managers, overseers must not be guilty of doing wrong, being selfish, or becoming angry quickly. They must not drink too much wine, like to fight, or try to get rich by cheating others. 8 Overseers must be ready to welcome guests, love what is good, be wise, live right, and be holy and self-controlled. 9 By holding on to the trustworthy word just as we teach it, overseers can help people by using true teaching, and they can show those who are against the true teaching that they are wrong.
10 There are many people who refuse to cooperate, who talk about worthless things and lead others into the wrong way—mainly those who insist on circumcision to be saved. 11 These people must be stopped, because they are upsetting whole families by teaching things they should not teach, which they do to get rich by cheating people. 12 Even one of their own prophets said, “Cretans are always liars, evil animals, and lazy people who do nothing but eat.” 13 The words that prophet said are true. So firmly tell those people they are wrong so they may become strong in the faith, 14 not accepting Jewish false stories and the commands of people who reject the truth. 15 To those who are pure, all things are pure, but to those who are full of sin and do not believe, nothing is pure. Both their minds and their consciences have been ruined. 16 They say they know God, but their actions show they do not accept him. They are hateful people, they refuse to obey, and they are useless for doing anything good.
The Holy Bible, New Century Version®. Copyright © 2005 by Thomas Nelson, Inc.