M’Cheyne Bible Reading Plan
Samuel’s Farewell Speech
12 Samuel said to all Israel, “I have done everything you wanted me to do and have put a king over you. 2 Now you have a king to lead you. I am old and gray, and my sons are here with you. I have been your leader since I was young. 3 Here I am. If I have done anything wrong, you must testify against me before the Lord and his appointed king. Did I steal anyone’s ox or donkey? Did I hurt or cheat anyone? Did I ever secretly accept money to pretend not to see something wrong? If I did any of these things, I will make it right.”
4 The Israelites answered, “You have not cheated us, or hurt us, or taken anything unfairly from anyone.”
5 Samuel said to them, “The Lord is a witness to what you have said. His appointed king is also a witness today that you did not find anything wrong in me.”
“He is our witness,” they said.
6 Then Samuel said to the people, “It is the Lord who chose Moses and Aaron and brought your ancestors out of Egypt. 7 Now, stand there, and I will remind you of all the good things the Lord did for you and your ancestors.
8 “After Jacob entered Egypt, his descendants cried to the Lord for help. So the Lord sent Moses and Aaron, who took your ancestors out of Egypt and brought them to live in this place.
9 “But they forgot the Lord their God. So he handed them over as slaves to Sisera, the commander of the army of Hazor, and as slaves to the Philistines and the king of Moab. They all fought against your ancestors. 10 Then your ancestors cried to the Lord and said, ‘We have sinned. We have left the Lord and served the Baals and the Ashtoreths. But now save us from our enemies, and we will serve you.’ 11 So the Lord sent Gideon,[a] Barak, Jephthah, and Samuel. He saved you from your enemies around you, and you lived in safety. 12 But when you saw Nahash king of the Ammonites coming against you, you said, ‘No! We want a king to rule over us!’—even though the Lord your God was your king. 13 Now here is the king you chose, the one you asked for. The Lord has put him over you. 14 You must honor the Lord and serve him. You must obey his word and not turn against his commands. Both you and the king ruling over you must follow the Lord your God. If you do, it will be well with you. 15 But if you don’t obey the Lord, and if you turn against his commands, he will be against you. He will do to you what he did to your ancestors.
16 “Now stand still and see the great thing the Lord will do before your eyes. 17 It is now the time of the wheat harvest.[b] I will pray for the Lord to send thunder and rain. Then you will know what an evil thing you did against the Lord when you asked for a king.”
18 Then Samuel prayed to the Lord, and that same day the Lord sent thunder and rain. So the people were very afraid of the Lord and Samuel. 19 They said to Samuel, “Pray to the Lord your God for us, your servants! Don’t let us die! We’ve added to all our sins the evil of asking for a king.”
20 Samuel answered, “Don’t be afraid. It’s true that you did wrong, but don’t turn away from the Lord. Serve the Lord with all your heart. 21 Idols are of no use, so don’t worship them. They can’t help you or save you. They are useless! 22 For his own sake, the Lord won’t leave his people. Instead, he was pleased to make you his own people. 23 I will surely not stop praying for you, because that would be sinning against the Lord. I will teach you what is good and right. 24 You must honor the Lord and truly serve him with all your heart. Remember the wonderful things he did for you! 25 But if you are stubborn and do evil, he will sweep you and your king away.”
10 Brothers and sisters, the thing I want most is for all the Jews to be saved. That is my prayer to God. 2 I can say this about them: They really try to follow God, but they do not know the right way. 3 Because they did not know the way that God makes people right with him, they tried to make themselves right in their own way. So they did not accept God’s way of making people right. 4 Christ ended the law so that everyone who believes in him may be right with God.
5 Moses writes about being made right by following the law. He says, “A person who obeys these things will live because of them.”[a] 6 But this is what the Scripture says about being made right through faith: “Don’t say to yourself, ‘Who will go up into heaven?’” (That means, “Who will go up to heaven and bring Christ down to earth?”) 7 “And do not say, ‘Who will go down into the world below?’” (That means, “Who will go down and bring Christ up from the dead?”) 8 This is what the Scripture says: “The word is near you; it is in your mouth and in your heart.”[b] That is the teaching of faith that we are telling. 9 If you declare with your mouth, “Jesus is Lord,” and if you believe in your heart that God raised Jesus from the dead, you will be saved. 10 We believe with our hearts, and so we are made right with God. And we declare with our mouths that we believe, and so we are saved. 11 As the Scripture says, “Anyone who trusts in him will never be disappointed.”[c] 12 That Scripture says “anyone” because there is no difference between those who are Jews and those who are not. The same Lord is the Lord of all and gives many blessings to all who trust in him, 13 as the Scripture says, “Anyone who calls on the Lord will be saved.”[d]
14 But before people can ask the Lord for help, they must believe in him; and before they can believe in him, they must hear about him; and for them to hear about the Lord, someone must tell them; 15 and before someone can go and tell them, that person must be sent. It is written, “How beautiful is the person who comes to bring good news.”[e] 16 But not all the Jews accepted the good news. Isaiah said, “Lord, who believed what we told them?”[f] 17 So faith comes from hearing the Good News, and people hear the Good News when someone tells them about Christ.
18 But I ask: Didn’t people hear the Good News? Yes, they heard—as the Scripture says:
“Their message went out through all the world;
their words go everywhere on earth.” Psalm 19:4
19 Again I ask: Didn’t the people of Israel understand? Yes, they did understand. First, Moses says:
“I will use those who are not a nation to make you jealous.
I will use a nation that does not understand to make you angry.” Deuteronomy 32:21
20 Then Isaiah is bold enough to say:
“I was found by those who were not asking me for help.
I made myself known to people who were not looking for me.” Isaiah 65:1
21 But about Israel God says,
“All day long I stood ready to accept
people who disobey and are stubborn.” Isaiah 65:2
A Message to Ammon
49 This message is to the Ammonite people.
This is what the Lord says:
“Do you think that Israel has no children?
Do you think there is no one to take the land when the parents die?
If that were true, why did Molech take Gad’s land
and why did Molech’s people settle in Gad’s towns?”
2 The Lord says,
“The time will come when I will make Rabbah,
the capital city of the Ammonites, hear the battle cry.
It will become a hill covered with ruins,
and the towns around it will be burned.
Those people forced Israel out of that land,
but now Israel will force them out!” says the Lord.
3 “People in the town of Heshbon, cry sadly because the town of Ai is destroyed!
Those who live in Rabbah, cry out!
Put on your rough cloth to show your sadness, and cry loudly.
Run here and there for safety inside the walls,
because Molech will be taken captive
and his priests and officers with him.
4 You brag about your valleys
and about the fruit in your valleys.
You are like an unfaithful child
who believes his treasures will save him.
You think, ‘Who would attack me?’
5 I will soon bring terror on you
from everyone around you,”
says the Lord God All-Powerful.
“You will all be forced to run away,
and no one will be able to gather you.
6 “But the time will come
when I will make good things happen to the Ammonites again,”
says the Lord.
A Message to Edom
7 This message is to Edom. This is what the Lord All-Powerful says:
“Is there no more wisdom in the town of Teman?
Can the wise men of Edom no longer give good advice?
Have they lost their wisdom?
8 You people living in the town of Dedan,
run away and hide in deep caves,
because I will bring disaster on the people of Esau.
It is time for me to punish them.
9 If workers came and picked the grapes from your vines,
they would leave a few grapes behind.
If robbers came at night,
they would steal only enough for themselves.
10 But I will strip Edom bare.
I will find all their hiding places,
so they will not be able to hide from me.
The children, relatives, and neighbors will die,
and Edom will be no more.
11 Leave the orphans, and I will take care of them.
Your widows also can trust in me.”
12 This is what the Lord says: “Some people did not deserve to be punished, but they had to drink from the cup of suffering anyway. People of Edom, you deserve to be punished, so you will not escape punishment. You must certainly drink from the cup of suffering.” 13 The Lord says, “I swear by my own name that the city of Bozrah will become a pile of ruins! People will be shocked by what happened there. They will insult that city and speak evil of it. And all the towns around it will become ruins forever.”
14 I have heard a message from the Lord.
A messenger has been sent among the nations, saying,
“Gather your armies to attack it!
Get ready for battle!”
15 “Soon I will make you the smallest of nations,
and you will be greatly hated by everyone.
16 Edom, you frightened other nations,
but your pride has fooled you.
You live in the hollow places of the cliff
and control the high places of the hills.
Even if you build your home as high as an eagle’s nest,
I will bring you down from there,” says the Lord.
17 “Edom will be destroyed.
People who pass by will be shocked to see the destroyed cities,
and they will be amazed at all her injuries.
18 Edom will be destroyed like the cities of Sodom and Gomorrah
and the towns around them,” says the Lord.
“No one will live there!
No one will stay in Edom.
19 “Like a lion coming up from the thick bushes near the Jordan River
to attack a strong pen for sheep,
I will suddenly chase Edom from its land.
Who is the one I have chosen to do this?
There is no one like me,
no one who can take me to court.
None of their leaders can stand up against me.”
20 So listen to what the Lord has planned to do against Edom.
Listen to what he has decided to do to the people in the town of Teman.
He will surely drag away the young ones of Edom.
Their hometowns will surely be shocked at what happens to them.
21 At the sound of Edom’s fall, the earth will shake.
Their cry will be heard all the way to the Red Sea.
22 The Lord is like an eagle swooping down
and spreading its wings over the city of Bozrah.
At that time Edom’s soldiers will become very frightened,
like a woman having a baby.
A Message to Damascus
23 This message is to the city of Damascus:
“The towns of Hamath and Arpad are put to shame,
because they have heard bad news.
They are discouraged.
They are troubled like the tossing sea.
24 The city of Damascus has become weak.
The people want to run away;
they are ready to panic.
The people feel pain and suffering,
like a woman giving birth to a baby.
25 Damascus was a city of my joy.
Why have the people not left that famous city yet?
26 Surely the young men will die in the city squares,
and all her soldiers will be killed at that time,” says the Lord All-Powerful.
27 “I will set fire to the walls of Damascus,
and it will completely burn the strong cities of King Ben-Hadad.”
A Message to Kedar and Hazor
28 This message is to the tribe of Kedar and the kingdoms of Hazor, which Nebuchadnezzar king of Babylon defeated. This is what the Lord says:
“Go and attack the people of Kedar,
and destroy the people of the East.
29 Their tents and flocks will be taken away.
Their belongings will be carried off—
their tents, all their goods, and their camels.
Men will shout to them,
‘Terror on every side!’
30 “Run away quickly!
People in Hazor, find a good place to hide!” says the Lord.
“Nebuchadnezzar king of Babylon has made plans against you
and wants to defeat you.
31 “Get up! Attack the nation that is comfortable,
that is sure no one will defeat it,” says the Lord.
“It does not have gates or fences to protect it.
Its people live alone.
32 The enemy will steal their camels
and their large herds of cattle as war prizes.
I will scatter the people who cut their hair short to every part of the earth,
and I will bring disaster on them from everywhere,” says the Lord.
33 “The city of Hazor will become a home for wild dogs;
it will be an empty desert forever.
No one will live there,
and no one will stay in it.”
A Message to Elam
34 Soon after Zedekiah became king of Judah, the Lord spoke this word to Jeremiah the prophet. This message is to the nation of Elam.
35 This is what the Lord All-Powerful says:
“I will soon break Elam’s bow,
its greatest strength.
36 I will bring the four winds against Elam
from the four corners of the skies.
I will scatter its people everywhere the four winds blow;
its captives will go to every nation.
37 I will terrify Elam in front of their enemies,
who want to destroy them.
I will bring disaster to Elam
and show them how angry I am!” says the Lord.
“I will send a sword to chase Elam
until I have killed them all.
38 I will set up my throne in Elam to show that I am king,
and I will destroy its king and its officers!” says the Lord.
39 “But I will make good things happen to Elam again
in the future,” says the Lord.
The Prayer of an Innocent Believer
Of David.
26 Lord, defend me because I have lived an innocent life.
I have trusted the Lord and never doubted.
2 Lord, try me and test me;
look closely into my heart and mind.
3 I see your love,
and I live by your truth.
4 I do not spend time with liars,
nor do I make friends with those who hide their sin.
5 I hate the company of evil people,
and I won’t sit with the wicked.
6 I wash my hands to show I am innocent,
and I come to your altar, Lord.
7 I raise my voice in praise
and tell of all the miracles you have done.
8 Lord, I love the Temple where you live,
where your glory is.
9 Do not kill me with those sinners
or take my life with those murderers.
10 Evil is in their hands,
and they do wrong for money.
11 But I have lived an innocent life,
so save me and have mercy on me.
12 I stand in a safe place.
Lord, I praise you in the great meeting.
A Song of Trust in God
Of David.
27 The Lord is my light and the one who saves me.
So why should I fear anyone?
The Lord protects my life.
So why should I be afraid?
2 Evil people may try to destroy my body.
My enemies and those who hate me attack me,
but they are overwhelmed and defeated.
3 If an army surrounds me,
I will not be afraid.
If war breaks out,
I will trust the Lord.
4 I ask only one thing from the Lord.
This is what I want:
Let me live in the Lord’s house
all my life.
Let me see the Lord’s beauty
and look with my own eyes at his Temple.
5 During danger he will keep me safe in his shelter.
He will hide me in his Holy Tent,
or he will keep me safe on a high mountain.
6 My head is higher than my enemies around me.
I will offer joyful sacrifices in his Holy Tent.
I will sing and praise the Lord.
7 Lord, hear me when I call;
have mercy and answer me.
8 My heart said of you, “Go, worship him.”
So I come to worship you, Lord.
9 Do not turn away from me.
Do not turn your servant away in anger;
you have helped me.
Do not push me away or leave me alone,
God, my Savior.
10 If my father and mother leave me,
the Lord will take me in.
11 Lord, teach me your ways,
and guide me to do what is right
because I have enemies.
12 Do not hand me over to my enemies,
because they tell lies about me
and say they will hurt me.
13 I truly believe
I will live to see the Lord’s goodness.
14 Wait for the Lord’s help.
Be strong and brave,
and wait for the Lord’s help.
The Holy Bible, New Century Version®. Copyright © 2005 by Thomas Nelson, Inc.