M’Cheyne Bible Reading Plan
Joshua fights against kings in the north
11 Jabin, king of Hazor, heard what had happened. So he sent a message to Jobab, king of Madon, and to the king of Shimron and the king of Acshaph. 2 He also sent a message to the kings of the hill country in the north, in the Jordan Valley, south of Galilee.[a] He also sent a message to people in the low hills and Naphoth Dor in the west. 3 So Canaanite people came from the east and from the west. They were Amorites, Hittites, Perizzites and Jebusites who lived in the hills. They were also Hivites who lived near Hermon mountain, in the region of Mizpah. 4 All these kings came with their big armies. They had many horses and chariots. The soldiers were too many to count. 5 These kings all joined together to fight against the Israelites. They put up their tents near the water at Merom.
6 The Lord said to Joshua, ‘Do not be afraid of them. This time tomorrow they will all be dead! I will give all of them to you Israelites. You must cut the legs of their horses so that they cannot run well. You must also burn their chariots.’
7 So Joshua and his whole army went to attack them at the Waters of Merom. They quickly attacked them by surprise. 8 The Lord caused the Israelites to win against them. The Israelite soldiers chased them as far as Sidon, Misrephoth Maim and the valley of Mizpah in the east. They killed their enemies as they chased them, until they were all dead. 9 Joshua did what the Lord had commanded him to do. He cut their horses' legs and he burned their chariots.
10 At that time, Hazor was the most important city among all those kingdoms that fought against the Israelites. So Joshua turned back and attacked Hazor. He killed its king. 11 The Israelites killed everyone who lived there. Nothing in the city was left alive. They burned the city and destroyed it.
12 Joshua took all these cities and he killed all their kings. He destroyed them all, as the Lord's servant Moses had told him to do. 13 But the Israelites did not burn the cities that were built on small hills. Hazor was the only city like that which Joshua did burn. 14 The Israelites took for themselves all the animals and the valuable things from those cities. But they killed all the people. They did not let any of them live. 15 Moses had told all the Lord's commands to Joshua. Joshua obeyed all the Lord's commands. He did everything that the Lord had told Moses.
The land that Joshua took for the Israelites
16 Joshua's army won against all the people who were living in the land. He took the hill country, the Negev in the south, and the land of Goshen. He took the low hills in the west and the Jordan Valley. He took the mountains and the hills of Israel. 17 The land went from Halak mountain near Edom country, to Baal Gad in the Lebanon valley, below Hermon mountain. He caught all the kings of those regions and he killed them all. 18 Joshua was fighting against those kings for a long time. 19 None of those kingdoms agreed not to fight against the Israelites, except the Hivites who lived in Gibeon. The Israelites fought battles against all the other kingdoms and they won. 20 The Lord had caused the minds of those people to become hard. So they all decided to fight against the Israelites. The Lord wanted the Israelites to destroy those people completely, as he had commanded Moses.
21 During that time, Joshua went to fight against the Anakites, who lived in the hill country. They lived in Hebron, Debir and Anab, and among the hills of Judah and Israel. Joshua destroyed them all, and all their towns. 22 So no Anakites remained in Israel, except for a few who lived in Gaza, Gath and Ashdod.
23 In that way, Joshua took the whole land. The Lord had promised Moses that he would give the land to his people. Joshua gave a part of the land to each tribe, for them to live in.
After all that, the people did not have to fight any more.
This is a song that David wrote.
God is strong and we praise him
144 Lord, I praise you!
You are my strong Rock!
You teach me how to fight well.
You show me how to use my weapons.
2 You always love me.
You are the strong place where I am safe.
You save me from the power of my enemies.
You are like a shield for me.
I know that I am safe with you.
You give me power over nations.[a]
3 Lord, why do you even think about men and women?
Why do you take care of humans?
4 People soon pass away, just like a breath.
Their life is like a shadow that soon goes.
5 Lord, open up the heavens!
Leave your home and come down to earth!
Touch the mountains so that they burn with smoke.
6 Send bright lightning to frighten your enemies.
Shoot your arrows at them
so that they run away.[b]
7 Put your hand down from heaven,
and pick me out from the deep water.[c]
Save me from the power of foreign people.
8 Their mouths speak lies.
Even when they make a promise,
they are deceiving people.
9 I will sing to you a new song, God.
I will make music to you on my harp.[d]
10 You help kings to win against their enemies.
You also save me, your servant David, from my enemies,
when they try to kill me with their dangerous swords.
11 Keep me safe from the power of foreign people.
They speak lies.
Even when they make a promise, it is false.
12 When our sons are young,
may they grow quickly, like strong plants.
May our daughters become tall and beautiful,
like the beautiful pillars in a king's house.
13 May our homes have plenty of different kinds of food.
May our sheep have thousands of lambs,
so that there is no space in our fields.
14 May our cows become fat.[e]
I pray that our enemies will never knock down our city's walls.
I pray that none of us will become their prisoners.
I pray that nobody will cry in our city's streets because they are afraid.
15 When God does that for a nation,
he has surely blessed those people!
If people know that the Lord is their God,
then God has blessed them!
Punishment for Judah's people
5 The Lord said,
‘Run along all the streets of Jerusalem.
Look carefully all around you.
Look in all the public places of the city.
Try to find one person who is honest.
Try to find one person who wants to know the truth.
If you find one person like that,
I will forgive all the people in the city.
2 They make promises and they say,
“I will do it, as surely as the Lord lives.”
But what they say is all lies.’
3 Lord, you want people to be honest and true.
You have punished your people,
but they did not feel any pain.
You nearly destroyed them,
but they still refuse to change.
Their minds have become as hard as rock.
They refuse to turn back to you.
4 I thought, ‘These are poor, foolish people.
They do not understand what the Lord wants them to do.
They do not know his commands.
5 So I will go to speak to the leaders.
They will surely understand what the Lord wants.
They will know his commands.’
But all of them have turned against the Lord too.
They refuse to obey his authority.
6 So lions will come out of the forest to attack them.
Wolves will come from the desert to destroy them.
Leopards will wait outside their cities.
They will kill anyone who goes outside.[a]
That will happen because the people have turned against the Lord.
They have done many bad things.
7 The Lord said,
‘Jerusalem, I have to punish you.
Your people have turned away from me.
They have served gods that are not true gods.
I gave them everything that they needed.
But they left me, like a wife who leaves her husband.
The men hurry to the houses of prostitutes.
8 They are like strong male horses.
They cannot wait to have sex with another man's wife.’
9 The Lord says this:
‘I must punish them for what they have done.
I will pay back this wicked nation for their sins.’
10 The Lord says this to Judah's enemies:
‘March through the vineyards of Israel and Judah,
and destroy the vines.
But do not destroy them completely.
Pull the branches from the trees.
Do this, because these people do not belong to the Lord.[b]
11 The people of Israel and Judah have turned against me.
12 They have told lies about the Lord.
They have said, “He will not punish us!
No trouble will come to us.
There will be no war. There will be no famine.
13 The prophets speak empty words.
They do not speak the Lord's messages.
The troubles that they talk about should happen to them, not us!” ’
14 Because of that, the Lord God Almighty said to me,
‘That is what the people are saying.
So I will give you a strong message to speak to them.
It will be like fire that comes out of your mouth.
And the people will burn like wood in that fire.’
15 The Lord says this:
‘Listen to me, you people of Israel.
I will bring an army to attack you.
They will come from a nation that is far away.
It is a strong nation that started long ago.
You do not know their language.
You cannot understand what they say.
16 They are all brave soldiers.
They shoot arrows that will kill you.
17 They will eat all the crops in your fields
and the food that you have stored.
They will take your sons and your daughters for themselves.
They will kill your sheep and your cows for food.
They will eat all your grapes and your figs.
They will attack your strong cities
where you thought you would be safe.
Their soldiers will knock down the walls.’
18 But the Lord says this: ‘Even at that time, I will not destroy you completely. 19 So, Jeremiah, the people may ask you, “Why has the Lord our God done this to us?” Then tell them, “It is because you have turned away from me. You have chosen to serve foreign gods in your own land. So now you will have to serve foreign people and their gods in a land that is not your own land.”
20 Tell this message to the descendants of Jacob.
Shout it everywhere in Judah.
21 Tell them, “Hear this message,
you foolish and stupid people.
You have eyes, but you do not see properly.
You have ears, but you do not hear properly.” ’
22 The Lord says, ‘You should respect me and obey me.
You should shake with fear when you come to me.
I made the sand as an edge for the sea.
It is like a wall that the sea cannot cross.
The sea's waves may attack the shore,
but it cannot go further than that edge.
23 But these people do not obey me, as the waves do.
They have turned away from me.
They have chosen to go their own way.
24 They do not say to themselves,
“We should respect the Lord our God.
He sends rain for us in the autumn and in the spring.
He makes sure that we have a harvest from our crops.”
25 But instead, your sins have stopped these good things.
You have not received God's blessing.
26 There are wicked men among my people.
They like to catch people and rob them.
They hide like someone who wants to catch a bird.
They put out their traps to kill what they want.
27 Their houses are full of valuable things,
like a trap that is full of beautiful birds.
They have cheated people
and they have robbed them.
That is how they have become rich and powerful.
28 They are very fat and healthy.
They will never stop doing evil things.
They do not help poor people or children who have no family.
They do not try to get justice for them.’
29 The Lord says,
‘I will certainly punish them for what they have done.
I will pay back this wicked nation for their sins.
30 A terrible thing is happening in the land of Judah.
31 The prophets speak messages that are not true.
The priests make their own rules for people to obey.
And my people love to live like this!
But when all this comes to an end,
my people will be helpless!’
Jesus teaches about when a man sends his own wife away
19 When Jesus had finished saying all these things, he went away from Galilee. He went to the part of Judea that is on the other side of the Jordan River. 2 Large crowds followed Jesus there. He made the sick people well again.
3 Some Pharisees came to talk to Jesus. They wanted to see how he would answer their question. They asked, ‘Can a man send his wife away so that she is no longer his wife? Is it right for him to do that for any reason he chooses?’
4 Jesus replied, ‘You surely have read about this in the Bible. At the start, when God created the world, he made people male and female.[a] 5 Because of this, a man leaves his father and his mother. God joins him and his wife together. The man and the woman become like one body. 6 They are not two separate people any longer. They have come together as one person. God has put them together to be husband and wife. So nobody should make them separate.’
7 Then the Pharisees said to Jesus, ‘Moses said that a man could write a letter to say that he and his wife are no longer married. Then the man can send the woman away. Why did Moses say this?’
8 Jesus answered them, ‘Moses said this because you people did not want to obey God. All these things were different at the start, when God made the world. 9 But now I say to you: A man must not send his wife away and marry another woman. If he does that, it is the same as if he had sex with another man's wife. A man may only send his wife away if she has had sex with another man.’
10 Jesus' disciples said to him, ‘You say that this is what it is like for a man and his wife. Then maybe it is better if people do not marry.’
11 Jesus replied, ‘Not everyone can agree with this idea. But God has helped some people to agree with it. 12 There are several different reasons why a person may not marry. Some men cannot have sex. They were born like that. Some other people cannot have sex because people did something to them. Some people choose not to have sex. They do not marry because then they can work better for God and his kingdom. Anyone who can agree with this idea should do it.’
Jesus wants children to come to him
13 Then some people brought their little children to Jesus. They wanted him to put his hands on each child's head. They wanted him to pray for them. But the disciples told the people that they should not do that.
14 Jesus said to them, ‘Do not stop the children. Let them come to me. People must become like these children so that God can rule their lives. That is what the kingdom of heaven is like.’ 15 So Jesus put his hands on each of the children's heads and he prayed for them. After that, he went away from that place.
Jesus meets a rich man
16 One day a man came to Jesus. ‘Teacher,’ he asked. ‘What good thing must I do so that I can live with God for ever?’
17 Jesus replied, ‘Why do you ask me about a good thing? Only God is good. Nobody else. If you want to have real life, then you must obey God's laws.’
18 The man asked Jesus, ‘Which laws must I obey?’
So Jesus replied, ‘Do not kill anyone. Do not have sex with anyone who is not your wife. Do not rob anyone. Do not say things that are not true about people. 19 Love your father and your mother and obey them. Love other people as much as you love yourself.’
20 ‘I have always obeyed these laws,’ the young man replied. ‘What else must I do?’
21 Jesus said to him, ‘If you want to be completely good, then you must do this: You must sell everything that you have. Then give the money to poor people. If you do that, you will have many valuable things in heaven. Then come back and be my disciple.’
22 When the young man heard this, he went away. He was not happy. He was feeling sad because he was a very rich man.
23 Then Jesus said to his disciples, ‘What I say is true. It is very difficult for rich people to let God rule in their lives. 24 The hole in a needle is very small. A camel cannot go through it! But I tell you, it is even more difficult than that for a rich person to let God rule in their life.’
25 When the disciples heard this, they were even more surprised. They said, ‘So perhaps God will not save anyone!’
26 Jesus looked at them and he replied, ‘For people, it really is impossible. But God can do it. God can do everything.’
27 Peter said to Jesus, ‘Look! We have left everything that we had. Now we are your disciples. What will we receive because we have done this?’
28 Jesus said to his disciples, ‘I tell you this: One day God will cause all things to become new. I, the Son of Man, will sit on my great throne as King and I will rule that new world. You who are my disciples will also sit like kings on thrones. You will judge the people of the 12 tribes of Israel. 29 Some people have left their homes. Or they may have left their brothers or sisters. Or they may have left their mother or their father. Or they may have left their wife or their children or their fields. They have done that because of me. God will give those people many more things than they have left behind, even 100 times more! And after they die, they will live for ever with God. 30 But many people who are very important now will become the least important. And many people who are not important now will become very important then.’
EasyEnglish Bible Copyright © MissionAssist 2019 - Charitable Incorporated Organisation 1162807. Used by permission. All rights reserved.