M’Cheyne Bible Reading Plan
Israel Sins Again
6 The people of Israel did what Yahweh considered evil. So Yahweh handed them over to Midian for seven years. 2 Midian’s power was too strong for Israel. The Israelites made hiding places in the mountains, caves, and mountain strongholds to protect themselves from Midian. 3 Whenever Israel planted crops, Midian, Amalek, and Kedem came and damaged the crops. 4 The enemy used to camp on the land and destroy the crops all the way to Gaza. They left nothing for Israel to live on—not one sheep, cow, or donkey. 5 Like swarms of locusts, they came with their livestock and their tents. They and their camels could not be counted. They came into the land only to ruin it. 6 So the Israelites became very poor because of Midian and cried out to Yahweh for help.
7 When the people of Israel cried out to Yahweh for help because of what the Midianites had done to them, 8 Yahweh sent a prophet to them. He said, “This is what Yahweh Elohim of Israel says:
I brought you out of Egypt.
I took you away from slavery.
9 I rescued you from the power of the Egyptians
and from the power of those who oppressed you.
I forced people out of your way.
I gave you their land.
10 I said to you, ‘I am Yahweh your Elohim.
You must never fear the gods of the Amorites
in whose land you will live.’
But you have not obeyed me.”
Gideon Is Chosen to Be a Judge
11 The Messenger of Yahweh came and sat under the oak tree in Ophrah that belonged to Joash from Abiezer’s family. Joash’s son Gideon was beating out wheat in a winepress to hide it from the Midianites. 12 The Messenger of Yahweh appeared to Gideon and said, “Yahweh is with you, brave man.”
13 Gideon responded, “Excuse me, sir! But if Yahweh is with us, why has all this happened to us? Where are all the miracles our ancestors have told us about? Didn’t they say, ‘Yahweh brought us out of Egypt?’ But now Yahweh has abandoned us and has handed us over to Midian.”
14 Yahweh turned to him and said, “You will rescue Israel from Midian with the strength you have. I am sending you.”
15 Gideon said to him, “Excuse me, sir! How can I rescue Israel? Look at my whole family. It’s the weakest one in Manasseh. And me? I’m the least important member of my family.”
16 Yahweh replied, “I will be with you. You will defeat Midian as if it were only one man.”
17 Gideon said to him, “If you find me acceptable, give me a sign that it is really you speaking to me. 18 Don’t leave until I come back. I want to bring my gift and set it in front of you.”
“I will stay until you come back,” he said.
19 Then Gideon went into his house and prepared a young goat and unleavened bread made with 18 quarts of flour. He put the meat in a basket and the broth in a pot. Then he went out and presented them to the Messenger of the Lord under the oak tree.
20 The Messenger of Yahweh told him, “Take the meat and the unleavened bread, put them on this rock, and pour the broth over them.” Gideon did so. 21 Then the Messenger of Yahweh touched the meat and the bread with the tip of the staff that was in his hand. Fire flared up from the rock and burned the meat and the bread. Then the Messenger of Yahweh disappeared. 22 That’s when Gideon realized that this had been the Messenger of Yahweh. So he said, “Adonay Yahweh! I have seen the Messenger of Yahweh face to face.”
23 Yahweh said to him, “Calm down! Don’t be afraid. You will not die.” 24 So Gideon built an altar there to Yahweh. He called it Yahweh Shalom. To this day it is still in Ophrah, which belongs to Abiezer’s family.
Gideon Destroys an Altar Dedicated to Baal
25 That same night Yahweh said to Gideon, “Take a bull from your father’s herd, a bull that is seven years old. Tear down your father’s altar dedicated to the god Baal and cut down the pole dedicated to the goddess Asherah that is next to it. 26 Then, in the proper way, build an altar to Yahweh your Elohim on top of this fortified place. Take this second bull and sacrifice it as a burnt offering on the wood from the Asherah pole that you have cut down.”
27 Gideon took ten of his servants and did what Yahweh had told him to do. However, he didn’t do anything during the day. He was too afraid of his father’s family and the men of the city, so he did it at night. 28 When the men of the city got up early in the morning, they saw that the Baal altar had been torn down. The Asherah pole next to it had also been cut down. They saw that the second bull had been sacrificed as a burnt offering on the altar that had been built. 29 They asked each other, “Who did this?” While they were investigating the matter, someone said, “Gideon, son of Joash, did this.”
30 Then the men of the city told Joash, “Bring your son out. He must die. He has torn down the Baal altar and cut down the Asherah pole that was beside it.”
31 But Joash said to everyone standing around him, “You’re not going to defend Baal, are you? Do you think you should save him? Whoever defends him will be put to death in the morning. If he’s a god, let him defend himself when someone tears down his altar.” 32 So that day they nicknamed Gideon “Jerubbaal” [Let Baal Defend Himself], because they said, “When someone tears down Baal’s altar, let Baal defend himself.”
Gideon Summons an Army
33 All of Midian, Amalek, and Kedem combined their armies, crossed the Jordan River, and camped in the valley of Jezreel. 34 Then the Ruach Yahweh gave Gideon strength. So Gideon blew the ram’s horn to summon Abiezer’s family to follow him. 35 He also sent messengers throughout Manasseh to summon the people to follow him. The tribes of Asher, Zebulun, and Naphtali were also summoned to follow him, and they went to meet the enemy in battle.
36 Then Gideon said to Elohim, “You said that you would rescue Israel through me. 37 I’ll place some wool on the threshing floor.[a] If there is dew on the wool while all the ground is dry, then I’ll know that you will rescue Israel through me, as you said.” 38 And that is what happened. The next morning Gideon got up early. He squeezed out a bowl full of water from the wool.
39 Then Gideon said to Elohim, “Don’t be angry with me. But let me ask one more thing. Let me make one more test with the wool. Let the wool be dry while all the ground is covered with dew.” 40 During the night, Elohim did what Gideon asked. The wool was dry, but all the ground was covered with dew.
Cornelius Has a Vision
10 A man named Cornelius lived in the city of Caesarea. He was a Roman army officer in the Italian Regiment. 2 He and everyone in his home were devout and respected God. Cornelius gave many gifts to poor Jewish people and always prayed to God.
3 One day, about three in the afternoon, he had a vision. He clearly saw an angel from God come to him and say, “Cornelius!”
4 He stared at the angel and was terrified. Cornelius asked the angel, “What do you want, sir?”
The angel answered him, “God is aware of your prayers and your gifts to the poor, and he has remembered you. 5 Send messengers now to the city of Joppa, and summon a man whose name is Simon Peter. 6 He is a guest of Simon, a leatherworker, whose house is by the sea.”
7 After saying this, the angel left. Cornelius called two of his household servants and a devout soldier, one of those who served him regularly. 8 Cornelius explained everything to them and sent them to Joppa.
Peter Has a Vision
9 Around noon the next day, while Cornelius’ men were on their way and coming close to Joppa, Peter went on the roof to pray. 10 He became hungry and wanted to eat. While the food was being prepared, he fell into a trance. 11 He saw the sky open and something like a large linen sheet being lowered by its four corners to the ground. 12 In the sheet were all kinds of four-footed animals, reptiles, and birds.
13 A voice told him, “Get up, Peter! Kill these animals, and eat them.”
14 Peter answered, “I can’t do that, Lord! I’ve never eaten anything that is impure or unclean.”[a]
15 A voice spoke to him a second time, “Don’t say that the things which God has made clean[b] are impure.”
16 This happened three times. Then the sheet was quickly taken into the sky.
17 While Peter was puzzled by the meaning of the vision, the men sent by Cornelius found Simon’s house and went to the gate. 18 They asked if Simon Peter was staying there. 19 Peter was still thinking about the vision when the Spirit said to him, “Three men are looking for you. 20 Get up, and go downstairs. Don’t hesitate to go with these men. I have sent them.”
21 So Peter went to the men. He said, “I’m the man you’re looking for. Why are you here?”
22 The men replied, “Cornelius, a Roman army officer, sent us. He’s a man who has God’s approval and who respects God. Also, the Jewish people respect him. A holy angel told him to summon you to his home to hear what you have to say.”
23 Peter asked the men to come into the house and had them stay overnight.
Peter Speaks with Cornelius
The next day Peter left with them. Some disciples from Joppa went along. 24 The following day they arrived in Caesarea. Cornelius was expecting them and had called his relatives and close friends together.
25 When Peter was about to enter Cornelius’ house, Cornelius met him, bowed down, and worshiped Peter. 26 But Peter made him get up. He told him, “Stand up! I’m only a man.”
27 As Peter talked, he entered Cornelius’ house and found that many people had gathered. 28 He said to them, “You understand how wrong it is for a Jewish man to associate or visit with anyone of another race. But God has shown me that I should no longer call anyone impure or unclean. 29 That is why I didn’t object to coming here when you sent for me. I want to know why you sent for me.”
30 Cornelius answered, “Four days ago I was praying at home. It was at this same time, three o’clock in the afternoon. Suddenly, a man dressed in radiant clothes stood in front of me. 31 He said to me, ‘Cornelius, God has heard your prayer and has remembered your gifts to the poor. 32 So send messengers to Joppa, and summon a man whose name is Simon Peter. He’s a guest in the home of Simon, a leatherworker who lives by the sea.’ 33 So I sent for you immediately. Thank you for coming. All of us are here now in the presence of God to listen to everything the Lord has ordered you to say.”
34 Then Peter said, “Now I understand that God doesn’t play favorites. 35 Rather, whoever respects God and does what is right is acceptable to him in any nation. 36 God sent his word to the people of Israel and brought them the Good News of peace through Yeshua Christ. This Yeshua Christ is everyone’s Lord. 37 You know what happened throughout Judea. Everything began in Galilee after John spread the news about baptism. 38 You know that God anointed Yeshua from Nazareth with the Holy Spirit and with power. Yeshua went everywhere and did good things, such as healing everyone who was under the devil’s power. Yeshua did these things because God was with him. 39 We can testify to everything Yeshua did in the land of the Jews and in Jerusalem. People hung him on a cross and killed him, 40 but God brought him back to life on the third day. God didn’t show him 41 to all the people. He showed Yeshua to witnesses, apostles he had already chosen. We apostles are those men who ate and drank with Yeshua after he came back to life. 42 He ordered us to warn the people, ‘God has appointed Yeshua to judge the living and the dead.’ 43 In addition, all the prophets testify that people who believe in the one named Yeshua receive forgiveness for their sins through him.”
44 While Peter was still speaking, the Holy Spirit came to everyone who heard his message. 45 All the believers who were circumcised and who had come with Peter were amazed that the gift of the Holy Spirit had been poured on people who were not Jewish. 46 They heard these non-Jewish people speaking in other languages and praising God.
Then Peter said, 47 “No one can refuse to baptize these people with water. They have received the Holy Spirit in the same way that we did.” 48 So Peter ordered that they should be baptized in the name of Yeshua Christ.
Then they asked Peter to stay with them for several days.
Israel Will Be Smashed Like a Clay Jar
19 This is what Yahweh says: Go and buy a clay jar from a potter. Take along some of the leaders of the people and some of the leaders of the priests. 2 Go to the valley of Ben Hinnom at the entrance to Potsherd Gate. Announce there the things I plan to do. 3 Say, “Listen to the word of Yahweh, you kings of Judah and those who live in Jerusalem. This is what Yahweh Tsebaoth, the Elohim of Israel, says: I’m going to bring such a disaster on this place that the ears of everyone who hears about it will ring.
4 “The people, their ancestors, and the kings of Judah have abandoned me. They have made this place unrecognizable by burning incense as an offering to other gods that they hadn’t heard of. They have filled this place with the blood of innocent people. 5 They have built worship sites to burn their children as sacrifices to Baal. I didn’t ask them or command them to do this. It never entered my mind.
6 “That is why the days are coming, declares Yahweh, when this place will no longer be called Topheth or the valley of Ben Hinnom. Instead, it will be called Slaughter Valley. 7 I will smash the plans of Judah and Jerusalem in this place. I will cut them down with swords in front of their enemies and with the hands of those who want to kill them. I will give their bodies as food to birds and to animals. 8 I will devastate this city. It will become something to hiss at. Everyone who goes by it will be stunned and hiss with contempt at all the disasters that happen to it. 9 I will make the people eat the flesh of their sons and daughters. They will eat each other’s flesh during blockades and hardships that their enemies impose on them when they want to kill them.”
10 The Lord says, “Then smash the jar in front of the men who went with you. 11 Say to them, ‘This is what Yahweh Tsebaoth says: I will smash these people and this city as this potter’s jar was smashed beyond repair. They will bury the dead in Topheth until there’s no other place to bury them. 12 That’s what I will do to this place and to those who live in it, declares Yahweh. I will make this city like Topheth. 13 The houses in Jerusalem, the houses of the kings of Judah, and all the rooftops of the houses will be unclean[a] like this city Topheth. This is because people burned incense to the entire army of heaven and poured out wine offerings to other gods.’”
14 Then Jeremiah left Topheth, where Yahweh had sent him to prophesy. He stood in the courtyard of Yahweh’s temple and said to all the people, 15 “This is what Yahweh Tsebaoth, the Elohim of Israel, says: I’m going to bring on this city and on all its towns the disasters that I threatened. They’ve become impossible to deal with, and they refuse to obey me.”
Jesus Cures a Demon-Possessed Man(A)
5 They arrived in the territory of the Gerasenes on the other side of the Sea of Galilee. 2 As Yeshua stepped out of the boat, a man came out of the tombs and met him. The man was controlled by an evil spirit 3 and lived among the tombs. No one could restrain him any longer, not even with a chain. 4 He had often been chained hand and foot. However, he snapped the chains off his hands and broke the chains from his feet. No one could control him. 5 Night and day he was among the tombs and on the mountainsides screaming and cutting himself with stones.
6 The man saw Yeshua at a distance. So he ran to Yeshua, bowed down in front of him, 7 and shouted, “Why are you bothering me now, Yeshua, Son of the Most High God? Swear to God that you won’t torture me.” 8 He shouted this because Yeshua said, “You evil spirit, come out of the man.”
9 Yeshua asked him, “What is your name?”
He told Yeshua, “My name is Legion [Six Thousand], because there are many of us.” 10 He begged Yeshua not to send them out of the territory.
11 A large herd of pigs was feeding on a mountainside nearby. 12 The demons begged him, “Send us into the pigs! Let us enter them!”
13 Yeshua let them do this. The evil spirits came out of the man and went into the pigs. The herd of about two thousand pigs rushed down the cliff into the sea and drowned.
14 Those who took care of the pigs ran away. In the city and countryside they reported everything that had happened. So the people came to see what had happened. 15 They came to Yeshua and saw the man who had been possessed by the legion of demons. The man was sitting there dressed and in his right mind. The people were frightened. 16 Those who saw this told what had happened to the demon-possessed man and the pigs. 17 Then the people began to beg Yeshua to leave their territory.
18 As Yeshua stepped into the boat, the man who had been demon-possessed begged him, “Let me stay with you.” 19 But Yeshua would not allow it. Instead, he told the man, “Go home to your family, and tell them how much the Lord has done for you and how merciful he has been to you.”
20 So the man left. He began to tell how much Yeshua had done for him in the Ten Cities.[a] Everyone was amazed.
Jairus’ Daughter and a Woman with Chronic Bleeding(B)
21 Yeshua again crossed to the other side of the Sea of Galilee in a boat. A large crowd gathered around him by the seashore.
22 A synagogue leader named Jairus also arrived. When he saw Yeshua, he quickly bowed down in front of him. 23 He begged Yeshua, “My little daughter is dying. Come, lay your hands on her so that she may get well and live.”
24 Yeshua went with the man. A huge crowd followed Yeshua and pressed him on every side.
25 In the crowd was a woman who had been suffering from chronic bleeding for twelve years. 26 Although she had been under the care of many doctors and had spent all her money, she had not been helped at all. Actually, she had become worse. 27 Since she had heard about Yeshua, she came from behind in the crowd and touched his clothes. 28 She said, “If I can just touch his clothes, I’ll get well.” 29 Her bleeding stopped immediately. She felt cured from her illness.
30 At that moment Yeshua felt power had gone out of him. He turned around in the crowd and asked, “Who touched my clothes?”
31 His disciples said to him, “How can you ask, ‘Who touched me,’ when you see the crowd pressing you on all sides?”
32 But he kept looking around to see the woman who had done this. 33 The woman trembled with fear. She knew what had happened to her. So she quickly bowed in front of him and told him the whole truth.
34 Yeshua told her, “Daughter, your faith has made you well. Go in peace! Be cured from your illness.”
35 While Yeshua was still speaking to her, some people came from the synagogue leader’s home. They told the synagogue leader, “Your daughter has died. Why bother the teacher anymore?”
36 When Yeshua overheard what they said, he told the synagogue leader, “Don’t be afraid! Just believe.”
37 Yeshua allowed no one to go with him except Peter and the two brothers James and John. 38 When they came to the home of the synagogue leader, Yeshua saw a noisy crowd there. People were crying and sobbing loudly. 39 When he came into the house, he asked them, “Why are you making so much noise and crying? The child isn’t dead. She’s just sleeping.”
40 They laughed at him. So he made all of them go outside. Then he took the child’s father, mother, and his three disciples and went to the child. 41 Yeshua took the child’s hand and said to her, “Talitha, koum!” which means, “Little girl, I’m telling you to get up!”
42 The girl got up at once and started to walk. (She was twelve years old.) They were astonished.
43 Yeshua ordered them not to let anyone know about this. He also told them to give the little girl something to eat.
The Names of God Bible (without notes) © 2011 by Baker Publishing Group.