M’Cheyne Bible Reading Plan
Balaam’s First Message
23 Balaam said to Balak, “Build me seven altars here, and prepare seven bulls and seven male sheep for me.” 2 Balak did what Balaam asked, and they offered a bull and a male sheep on each of the altars.
3 Then Balaam said to Balak, “Stay here beside your burnt offering and I will go. If the Lord comes to me, I will tell you whatever he shows me.” Then Balaam went to a higher place.
4 God came to Balaam there, and Balaam said to him, “I have prepared seven altars, and I have offered a bull and a male sheep on each altar.”
5 The Lord told Balaam what he should say. Then the Lord said, “Go back to Balak and give him this message.”
6 So Balaam went back to Balak. Balak and all the leaders of Moab were still standing beside his burnt offering 7 when Balaam gave them this message:
“Balak brought me here from Aram;
the king of Moab brought me from the eastern mountains.
Balak said, ‘Come, put a curse on the people of Jacob for me.
Come, call down evil on the people of Israel.’
8 But God has not cursed them,
so I cannot curse them.
The Lord has not called down evil on them,
so I cannot call down evil on them.
9 I see them from the top of the mountains;
I see them from the hills.
I see a people who live alone,
who think they are different from other nations.
10 No one can number the many people of Jacob,
and no one can count a fourth of Israel.
Let me die like good men,
and let me end up like them!”
11 Balak said to Balaam, “What have you done to me? I brought you here to curse my enemies, but you have only blessed them!”
12 But Balaam answered, “I must say what the Lord tells me to say.”
Balaam’s Second Message
13 Then Balak said to him, “Come with me to another place, where you can also see the people. But you can only see part of them, not all of them. Curse them for me from there.” 14 So Balak took Balaam to the field of Zophim, on top of Mount Pisgah. There Balak built seven altars and offered a bull and a male sheep on each altar.
15 So Balaam said to Balak, “Stay here by your burnt offering, and I will meet with God over there.”
16 So the Lord came to Balaam and told him what to say. Then he said, “Go back to Balak and say such and such.”
17 So Balaam went to Balak, where he and the leaders of Moab were standing beside his burnt offering. Balak asked him, “What did the Lord say?”
18 Then Balaam gave this message:
“Stand up, Balak, and listen.
Hear me, son of Zippor.
19 God is not a human being, and he will not lie.
He is not a human, and he does not change his mind.
What he says he will do, he does.
What he promises, he makes come true.
20 He told me to bless them,
so I cannot change the blessing.
21 He has found no wrong in the people of Jacob;
he saw no fault in Israel.
The Lord their God is with them,
and they praise their King.
22 God brought them out of Egypt;
they are as strong as a wild ox.
23 No tricks will work on the people of Jacob,
and no magic will work against Israel.
People now say about them,
‘Look what God has done for Israel!’
24 The people rise up like a lioness;
they get up like a lion.
Lions don’t rest until they have eaten,
until they have drunk their enemies’ blood.”
25 Then Balak said to Balaam, “You haven’t cursed these people, so at least don’t bless them!”
26 Balaam answered Balak, “I told you before that I can only do what the Lord tells me.”
Balaam’s Third Message
27 Then Balak said to Balaam, “Come, I will take you to another place. Maybe God will be pleased to let you curse them from there.” 28 So Balak took Balaam to the top of Peor, the mountain that looks over the desert.
29 Balaam told Balak, “Build me seven altars here and prepare for me seven bulls and seven male sheep.” 30 Balak did what Balaam asked, and he offered a bull and a male sheep on each altar.
A Prayer Against Enemies
For the director of music. A psalm of David.
64 God, listen to my complaint.
I am afraid of my enemies;
protect my life from them.
2 Hide me from those who plan wicked things,
from that gang who does evil.
3 They sharpen their tongues like swords
and shoot bitter words like arrows.
4 From their hiding places they shoot at innocent people;
they shoot suddenly and are not afraid.
5 They encourage each other to do wrong.
They talk about setting traps,
thinking no one will see them.
6 They plan wicked things and say,
“We have a perfect plan.”
The mind of human beings is hard to understand.
7 But God will shoot them with arrows;
they will suddenly be struck down.
8 Their own words will be used against them.
All who see them will shake their heads.
9 Then everyone will fear God.
They will tell what God has done,
and they will learn from what he has done.
10 Good people will be happy in the Lord
and will find protection in him.
Let everyone who is honest praise the Lord.
A Hymn of Thanksgiving
For the director of music. A psalm of David. A song.
65 God, you will be praised in Jerusalem.
We will keep our promises to you.
2 You hear our prayers.
All people will come to you.
3 Our guilt overwhelms us,
but you forgive our sins.
4 Happy are the people you choose
and invite to stay in your court.
We are filled with good things in your house,
your holy Temple.
5 You answer us in amazing ways,
God our Savior.
People everywhere on the earth
and beyond the sea trust you.
6 You made the mountains by your strength;
you are dressed in power.
7 You stopped the roaring seas,
the roaring waves,
and the uproar of the nations.
8 Even those people at the ends of the earth fear your miracles.
You are praised from where the sun rises to where it sets.
9 You take care of the land and water it;
you make it very fertile.
The rivers of God are full of water.
Grain grows because you make it grow.
10 You send rain to the plowed fields;
you fill the rows with water.
You soften the ground with rain,
and then you bless it with crops.
11 You give the year a good harvest,
and you load the wagons with many crops.
12 The desert is covered with grass
and the hills with happiness.
13 The pastures are full of flocks,
and the valleys are covered with grain.
Everything shouts and sings for joy.
God’s Message to Babylon
13 God showed Isaiah son of Amoz this message about Babylon:
2 Raise a flag on the bare mountain.
Call out to the men.
Raise your hand to signal them
to enter through the gates for important people.
3 I myself have commanded those people
whom I have separated as mine.
I have called those warriors to carry out my anger.
They rejoice and are glad to do my will.
4 Listen to the loud noise in the mountains,
the sound of many people.
Listen to the noise among the kingdoms,
the sound of nations gathering together.
The Lord All-Powerful is calling
his army together for battle.
5 This army is coming from a faraway land,
from the edge of the horizon.
In anger the Lord is using this army like a weapon
to destroy the whole country.
6 Cry, because the Lord’s day of judging is near;
the Almighty is sending destruction.
7 People will be weak with fear,
and their courage will melt away.
8 Everyone will be afraid.
Pain and hurt will grab them;
they will hurt like a woman giving birth to a baby.
They will look at each other in fear,
with their faces red like fire.
God’s Judgment Against Babylon
9 Look, the Lord’s day of judging is coming—
a terrible day, a day of God’s anger.
He will destroy the land
and the sinners who live in it.
10 The stars will not show their light;
the skies will be dark.
The sun will grow dark as it rises,
and the moon will not give its light.
11 The Lord says, “I will punish the world for its evil
and wicked people for their sins.
I will cause proud people to lose their pride,
and I will destroy the pride of those who are cruel to others.
12 People will be harder to find than pure gold;
there will be fewer people than there is fine gold in Ophir.
13 I will make the sky shake,
and the earth will be moved from its place
by the anger of the Lord All-Powerful
at the time of his burning anger.
14 “Then the people from Babylon will run away like hunted deer
or like sheep who have no shepherd.
Everyone will turn back to his own people;
each will run back to his own land.
15 Everyone who is captured will be killed;
everyone who is caught will be killed with a sword.
16 Their little children will be beaten to death in front of them.
Their houses will be robbed
and their wives raped.
17 “Look, I will cause the armies of Media to attack Babylon.
They do not care about silver
or delight in gold.
18 Their soldiers will shoot the young men with arrows;
they will show no mercy on children,
nor will they feel sorry for little ones.
19 Babylon is the most beautiful of all kingdoms,
and the Babylonians are very proud of it.
But God will destroy it
like Sodom and Gomorrah.
20 No one will ever live there
or settle there again.
No Arab will put a tent there;
no shepherd will bring sheep there.
21 Only desert animals will live there,
and their houses will be full of wild dogs.
Owls will live there,
and wild goats will leap about in the houses.
22 Wolves will howl within the strong walls,
and wild dogs will bark in the beautiful buildings.
The end of Babylon is near;
its time is almost over.”
1 From Peter, an apostle of Jesus Christ.
To God’s chosen people who are away from their homes and are scattered all around Pontus, Galatia, Cappadocia, Asia, and Bithynia. 2 God planned long ago to choose you by making you his holy people, which is the Spirit’s work. God wanted you to obey him and to be made clean by the blood of the death of Jesus Christ.
Grace and peace be yours more and more.
We Have a Living Hope
3 Praise be to the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ. In God’s great mercy he has caused us to be born again into a living hope, because Jesus Christ rose from the dead. 4 Now we hope for the blessings God has for his children. These blessings, which cannot be destroyed or be spoiled or lose their beauty, are kept in heaven for you. 5 God’s power protects you through your faith until salvation is shown to you at the end of time. 6 This makes you very happy, even though now for a short time different kinds of troubles may make you sad. 7 These troubles come to prove that your faith is pure. This purity of faith is worth more than gold, which can be proved to be pure by fire but will ruin. But the purity of your faith will bring you praise and glory and honor when Jesus Christ is shown to you. 8 You have not seen Christ, but still you love him. You cannot see him now, but you believe in him. So you are filled with a joy that cannot be explained, a joy full of glory. 9 And you are receiving the goal of your faith—the salvation of your souls.
10 The prophets searched carefully and tried to learn about this salvation. They prophesied about the grace that was coming to you. 11 The Spirit of Christ was in the prophets, telling in advance about the sufferings of Christ and about the glory that would follow those sufferings. The prophets tried to learn about what the Spirit was showing them, when those things would happen, and what the world would be like at that time. 12 It was shown them that their service was not for themselves but for you, when they told about the truths you have now heard. Those who preached the Good News to you told you those things with the help of the Holy Spirit who was sent from heaven—things into which angels desire to look.
A Call to Holy Living
13 So prepare your minds for service and have self-control. All your hope should be for the gift of grace that will be yours when Jesus Christ is shown to you. 14 Now that you are obedient children of God do not live as you did in the past. You did not understand, so you did the evil things you wanted. 15 But be holy in all you do, just as God, the One who called you, is holy. 16 It is written in the Scriptures: “You must be holy, because I am holy.”[a]
17 You pray to God and call him Father, and he judges each person’s work equally. So while you are here on earth, you should live with respect for God. 18 You know that in the past you were living in a worthless way, a way passed down from the people who lived before you. But you were saved from that useless life. You were bought, not with something that ruins like gold or silver, 19 but with the precious blood of Christ, who was like a pure and perfect lamb. 20 Christ was chosen before the world was made, but he was shown to the world in these last times for your sake. 21 Through Christ you believe in God, who raised Christ from the dead and gave him glory. So your faith and your hope are in God.
22 Now that your obedience to the truth has purified your souls, you can have true love for your Christian brothers and sisters. So love each other deeply with all your heart.[b] 23 You have been born again, and this new life did not come from something that dies, but from something that cannot die. You were born again through God’s living message that continues forever. 24 The Scripture says,
“All people are like the grass,
and all their glory is like the flowers of the field.
The grass dies and the flowers fall,
25 but the word of the Lord will live forever.” Isaiah 40:6–8
And this is the word that was preached to you.
The Holy Bible, New Century Version®. Copyright © 2005 by Thomas Nelson, Inc.