M’Cheyne Bible Reading Plan

A Widow Asks Elisha for Help

4 The wife of a man from the groups of prophets said to Elisha, “Your servant, my husband, is dead. You know he honored the Lord. But now the man he owes money to is coming to take my two boys as his slaves!”

² Elisha answered, “How can I help you? Tell me, what do you have in your house?”

The woman said, “I don’t have anything there except a pot of oil.”

³ Then Elisha said, “Go and get empty jars from all your neighbors. Don’t ask for just a few. ⁴ Then go into your house and shut the door behind you and your sons. Pour oil into all the jars, and set the full ones aside.”

⁵ So she left Elisha and shut the door behind her and her sons. As they brought the jars to her, she poured out the oil. ⁶ When the jars were all full, she said to her son, “Bring me another jar.”

But he said, “There are no more jars.” Then the oil stopped flowing.

⁷ She went and told Elisha. And the prophet said to her, “Go, sell the oil and pay what you owe. You and your sons can live on what is left.”

The Shunammite Woman

⁸ One day Elisha went to Shunem, where an important woman lived. She begged Elisha to stay and eat. So every time Elisha passed by, he stopped there to eat. ⁹ The woman said to her husband, “I know that this is a holy man of God who passes by our house all the time. ¹⁰ Let’s make a small room on the roof^[a] and put a bed in the room for him. We can put a table, a chair, and a lampstand there. Then when he comes by, he can stay there.”

¹¹ One day Elisha came to the woman’s house. After he went to his room and rested, ¹² he said to his servant Gehazi, “Call the Shunammite woman.”

When the servant had called her, she stood in front of him. ¹³ Elisha had told his servant, “Now say to her, ‘You have gone to all this trouble for us. What can I do for you? Do you want me to speak to the king or the commander of the army for you?’”

She answered, “I live among my own people.”

¹⁴ Elisha said to Gehazi, “But what can we do for her?”

He answered, “She has no son, and her husband is old.”

¹⁵ Then Elisha said to Gehazi, “Call her.” When he called her, she stood in the doorway. ¹⁶ Then Elisha said, “About this time next year, you will hold a son in your arms.”

The woman said, “No, master, man of God, don’t lie to me, your servant!”

¹⁷ But the woman became pregnant and gave birth to a son at that time the next year, just as Elisha had told her.

¹⁸ The boy grew up and one day went out to his father, who was with the grain harvesters. ¹⁹ The boy said to his father, “My head! My head!”

The father said to his servant, “Take him to his mother!” ²⁰ The servant took him to his mother, and he lay on his mother’s lap until noon. Then he died. ²¹ So she took him up and laid him on Elisha’s bed. Then she shut the door and left.

²² She called to her husband, “Send me one of the servants and one of the donkeys. Then I can go quickly to the man of God and return.”

²³ The husband said, “Why do you want to go to him today? It isn’t the New Moon or the Sabbath day.”

She said, “It will be all right.”

²⁴ Then she saddled the donkey and said to her servant, “Lead on. Don’t slow down for me unless I tell you.” ²⁵ So she went to Elisha, the man of God, at Mount Carmel.

When he saw her coming from far away, he said to his servant Gehazi, “Look, there’s the Shunammite woman! ²⁶ Run to meet her and ask, ‘Are you all right? Is your husband all right? Is the boy all right?’”

She answered, “Everything is all right.”

²⁷ Then she came to Elisha at the hill and grabbed his feet. Gehazi came near to pull her away, but Elisha said to him, “Leave her alone. She’s very upset, and the Lord has not told me about it. He has hidden it from me.”

²⁸ She said, “Master, did I ask you for a son? Didn’t I tell you not to lie to me?”

²⁹ Then Elisha said to Gehazi, “Get ready. Take my walking stick in your hand and go quickly. If you meet anyone, don’t say hello. If anyone greets you, don’t respond. Lay my walking stick on the boy’s face.”

³⁰ The boy’s mother said, “As surely as the Lord lives and as you live, I won’t leave you!” So Elisha got up and followed her.

³¹ Gehazi went on ahead and laid the walking stick on the boy’s face, but the boy did not talk or move. Then Gehazi went back to meet Elisha. “The boy has not awakened,” he said.

³² When Elisha came into the house, the boy was lying dead on his bed. ³³ Elisha entered the room and shut the door, so only he and the boy were in the room. Then he prayed to the Lord. ³⁴ He went to the bed and lay on the boy, putting his mouth on the boy’s mouth, his eyes on the boy’s eyes, and his hands on the boy’s hands. He stretched himself out on top of the boy. Soon the boy’s skin became warm. ³⁵ Elisha turned away and walked around the room. Then he went back and put himself on the boy again. The boy sneezed seven times and opened his eyes.

³⁶ Elisha called Gehazi and said, “Call the Shunammite!” So he did. When she came, Elisha said, “Pick up your son.” ³⁷ She came in and fell at Elisha’s feet, bowing facedown to the floor. Then she picked up her son and went out.

Elisha and the Stew

³⁸ When Elisha returned to Gilgal, there was a shortage of food in the land. While the groups of prophets were sitting in front of him, he said to his servant, “Put the large pot on the fire, and boil some stew for these men.”

³⁹ One of them went out into the field to gather plants. Finding a wild vine, he picked fruit from the vine and filled his robe with it. Then he came and cut up the fruit into the pot. But they didn’t know what kind of fruit it was. ⁴⁰ They poured out the stew for the others to eat. When they began to eat it, they shouted, “Man of God, there’s death in the pot!” And they could not eat it.

⁴¹ Elisha told them to bring some flour. He threw it into the pot and said, “Pour it out for the people to eat.” Then there was nothing harmful in the pot.

Elisha Feeds the People

⁴² A man from Baal Shalishah came to Elisha, bringing him twenty loaves of barley bread from the first harvest. He also brought fresh grain in his sack. Elisha said, “Give it to the people to eat.”

⁴³ Elisha’s servant asked, “How can I feed a hundred people with so little?”

“Give the bread to the people to eat,” Elisha said. “This is what the Lord says: ‘They will eat and will have food left over.’” ⁴⁴ After he gave it to them, the people ate and had food left over, as the Lord had said.

1 From Paul, an apostle of Christ Jesus, by the command of God our Savior and Christ Jesus our hope.

² To Timothy, a true child to me because you believe:

Grace, mercy, and peace from God the Father and Christ Jesus our Lord.

Warning Against False Teaching

³ I asked you to stay longer in Ephesus when I went into Macedonia so you could command some people there to stop teaching false things. ⁴ Tell them not to spend their time on stories that are not true and on long lists of names in family histories. These things only bring arguments; they do not help God’s work, which is done in faith. ⁵ The purpose of this command is for people to have love, a love that comes from a pure heart and a good conscience and a true faith. ⁶ Some people have missed these things and turned to useless talk. ⁷ They want to be teachers of the law, but they do not understand either what they are talking about or what they are sure about.

⁸ But we know that the law is good if someone uses it lawfully. ⁹ We also know that the law is not made for good people but for those who are against the law and for those who refuse to follow it. It is for people who are against God and are sinful, who are unholy and ungodly, who kill their fathers and mothers, who murder, ¹⁰ who take part in sexual sins, who have sexual relations with people of the same sex, who sell slaves, who tell lies, who speak falsely, and who do anything against the true teaching of God. ¹¹ That teaching is part of the Good News of the blessed God that he gave me to tell.

Thanks for God’s Mercy

¹² I thank Christ Jesus our Lord, who gave me strength, because he trusted me and gave me this work of serving him. ¹³ In the past I spoke against Christ and persecuted him and did all kinds of things to hurt him. But God showed me mercy, because I did not know what I was doing. I did not believe. ¹⁴ But the grace of our Lord was fully given to me, and with that grace came the faith and love that are in Christ Jesus.

¹⁵ What I say is true, and you should fully accept it: Christ Jesus came into the world to save sinners, of whom I am the worst. ¹⁶ But I was given mercy so that in me, the worst of all sinners, Christ Jesus could show that he has patience without limit. His patience with me made me an example for those who would believe in him and have life forever. ¹⁷ To the King that rules forever, who will never die, who cannot be seen, the only God, be honor and glory forever and ever. Amen.

¹⁸ Timothy, my child, I am giving you a command that agrees with the prophecies that were given about you in the past. I tell you this so you can follow them and fight the good fight. ¹⁹ Continue to have faith and do what you know is right. Some people have rejected this, and their faith has been shipwrecked. ²⁰ Hymenaeus and Alexander have done that, and I have given them to Satan so they will learn not to speak against God.

Daniel’s Vision

8 During the third year of King Belshazzar’s rule, I, Daniel, saw another vision, which was like the first one. ² In this vision I saw myself in the capital city of Susa, in the area of Elam. I was standing by the Ulai Canal ³ when I looked up and saw a male sheep standing beside the canal. It had two long horns, but one horn was longer and newer than the other. ⁴ I watched the sheep charge to the west, the north, and the south. No animal could stand before him, and none could save another animal from his power. He did whatever he wanted and became very powerful.

⁵ While I was watching this, I saw a male goat come from the west. This goat had one large horn between his eyes that was easy to see. He crossed over the whole earth so fast that his feet hardly touched the ground.

⁶ In his anger the goat charged the sheep with the two horns that I had seen standing by the canal. ⁷ I watched the angry goat attack the sheep and break the sheep’s two horns. The sheep was not strong enough to stop it. The goat knocked the sheep to the ground and then walked all over him. No one was able to save the sheep from the goat, ⁸ so the male goat became very great. But when he was strong, his big horn broke off and four horns grew in place of the one big horn. Those four horns pointed in four different directions and were easy to see.

⁹ Then a little horn grew from one of those four horns, and it became very big. It grew to the south, the east, and toward the beautiful land of Judah. ¹⁰ That little horn grew until it reached to the sky. It even threw some of the army of heaven to the ground and walked on them! ¹¹ That little horn set itself up as equal to God, the Commander of heaven’s armies. It stopped the daily sacrifices that were offered to him, and the Temple, the place where people worshiped him, was pulled down. ¹² Because there was a turning away from God, the people stopped the daily sacrifices. Truth was thrown down to the ground, and the horn was successful in everything it did.

¹³ Then I heard a holy angel speaking. Another holy angel asked the first one, “How long will the things in this vision last—the daily sacrifices, the turning away from God that brings destruction, the Temple being pulled down, and the army of heaven being walked on?”

¹⁴ The angel said to me, “This will happen for twenty-three hundred evenings and mornings. Then the holy place will be repaired.”

¹⁵ I, Daniel, saw this vision and tried to understand what it meant. In it I saw someone who looked like a man standing near me. ¹⁶ And I heard a man’s voice calling from the Ulai Canal: “Gabriel, explain the vision to this man.”

¹⁷ Gabriel came to where I was standing. When he came close to me, I was very afraid and bowed facedown on the ground. But Gabriel said to me, “Human being, understand that this vision is about the time of the end.”

¹⁸ While Gabriel was speaking, I fell into a deep sleep with my face on the ground. Then he touched me and lifted me to my feet. ¹⁹ He said, “Now, I will explain to you what will happen in the time of God’s anger. Your vision was about the set time of the end.

²⁰ “You saw a male sheep with two horns, which are the kings of Media and Persia. ²¹ The male goat is the king of Greece, and the big horn between its eyes is the first king. ²² The four horns that grew in the place of the broken horn are four kingdoms. Those four kingdoms will come from the nation of the first king, but they will not be as strong as the first king.

²³ “When the end comes near for those kingdoms, a bold and cruel king who tells lies will come. This will happen when many people have turned against God. ²⁴ This king will be very powerful, but his power will not come from himself. He will cause terrible destruction and will be successful in everything he does. He will destroy powerful people and even God’s holy people. ²⁵ This king will succeed by using lies and force. He will think that he is very important. He will destroy many people without warning; he will try to fight even the Prince of princes! But that cruel king will be destroyed, and not by human power.

²⁶ “The vision that has been shown to you about these evenings and mornings is true. But seal up the vision, because those things won’t happen for a long time.”

²⁷ I, Daniel, became very weak and was sick for several days after that vision. Then I got up and went back to work for the king, but I was very upset about the vision. I didn’t understand what it meant.

Thanksgiving for Escaping Death