M’Cheyne Bible Reading Plan
Samson fights against the Philistines
15 Later, Samson went to visit his wife at the time of the wheat harvest. He took a young goat with him as a gift. He said to her father, ‘I am going into my wife's room to sleep with her.’ But her father stopped him. 2 He said, ‘I was sure that you hated my daughter. So I have given her to your special friend to be his wife. Look at her younger sister. She is more beautiful. Take her as your wife, instead.’
3 Samson said, ‘This time I will not be guilty when I punish the Philistines!’
4 So he went out and he caught 300 foxes. He tied the foxes in pairs by their tails. He tied some dry grass to each pair of tails. 5 Then he lit the grass with fire. He made the foxes run through the fields where the wheat was growing. The fire destroyed all the Philistines' crops, whether they had already cut it down or not. The fire also destroyed their vines and their olive trees.
6 The Philistines asked, ‘Who did this?’ People said to them, ‘It was Samson, the man who married the young woman in Timnah. He did it because her father gave her to Samson's special friend instead of Samson.’
So the Philistines went and burned the man and his daughter to death. 7 Samson said to them, ‘Because you have done this, I will punish you. I will not stop until your punishment is complete.’ 8 He attacked them with great strength. He killed many of them.
After that, Samson went to live in a cave in the rock of Etam.
9 The Philistine army went to attack Judah.[a] They made their camp near Lehi and they prepared to fight. 10 The men of Judah asked them, ‘Why have you come to attack us?’ The Philistines replied, ‘We have come to catch Samson and take him as our prisoner. We need to punish him in the same way that he has punished us.’
11 Then 3,000 men of Judah went to the cave where Samson was hiding. They said to him, ‘You know that the Philistines are our rulers. You are causing them to give us trouble.’
Samson said, ‘I have only done to them as they did to me.’
12 The men of Judah said to him, ‘We have come to tie you up as our prisoner. We must let the Philistines take you away.’
Samson said, ‘Promise me that you will not kill me yourselves.’
13 They said, ‘We agree. We will only tie you up and give you to them. We promise that we will not kill you.’
So they tied him up with two new ropes. They took him with them away from the cave.
14 When they arrived at Lehi, the Philistine soldiers shouted happily as they came towards him. But the Lord's Spirit gave Samson great strength. The ropes that tied his arms broke in pieces. They seemed as weak as grass that burns in a fire. They fell from his hands. 15 He saw a bone from the skull of a donkey that had just died. He picked it up and he used it to kill 1,000 Philistine soldiers.
16 Then Samson sang this song:
‘I have used a donkey's skull to kill 1,000 men.
I have made them like many heaps of dead donkeys!’
17 After that, he threw away the bone from the donkey's skull. So people called that place ‘Ramath Lehi’.[b]
18 Samson was now very thirsty. He called out to the Lord for help. He said, ‘You have helped me to win a great battle. Should I now die because I am so thirsty? Then these Philistines would do whatever they want to me.’
19 So God caused a hole to open in the ground near Lehi. Water poured out of it. Samson drank some water and he became strong again. Samson called the spring of water ‘En Hakkore’.[c] It is still there in Lehi.
20 Samson led Israel for 20 years while the Philistines continued to rule the land.
Paul speaks in Ephesus about Jesus
19 While Apollos was in Corinth, Paul travelled through the region of Asia. He arrived in Ephesus and he found some believers there. 2 Paul asked them, ‘When you believed the message about Jesus, did you receive God's Holy Spirit?’
The believers answered, ‘We did not even know that there is a Holy Spirit.’
3 So Paul asked them, ‘When someone baptized you, what kind of baptism was that?’
‘We received the baptism that John spoke about,’ they answered.
4 Then Paul said, ‘John baptized people who knew that they had done wrong things. They wanted to stop doing these things. But John also said to the people, “You must believe in the man who will come soon.” This person is Jesus.’ 5 When the believers in Ephesus understood this, Paul baptized them. This showed that they now believed in the Lord Jesus. 6 Then Paul put his hands on each believer's head. When he did this, the Holy Spirit came down on them. They spoke in different languages and they spoke messages from God. 7 There were about 12 men there.
8 For three months, Paul went to the Jewish meeting place in Ephesus on their day of rest. He was not afraid to speak to the people there. He talked strongly with them about the kingdom of God. 9 But some of them did not accept what Paul said. They refused to believe the message about Jesus. Some of them said bad things against the Way of the Lord Jesus and many people in the group heard this. So Paul stopped speaking to people in that meeting place. He left there and he took with him the other believers. Every day he talked with people in another place. It was a large room, where a man called Tyrannus usually taught people. 10 Paul taught the people there for two years. During that time, all the people who lived in Asia region heard the message about the Lord Jesus. This included Jews and Gentiles.
The sons of Sceva tell bad spirits to leave people
11 God was helping Paul to do special miracles. 12 Because of this, people were taking pieces of cloth and clothes that Paul gave to them. Paul had used these things, and people took them to those who were ill. After they touched these cloths, the sick people would become well again. Bad spirits also left them.
13 There were some Jewish men who travelled about to different places. They caused bad spirits to leave people. Some of them wanted to use the name of the Lord Jesus when they did this. These Jews said to the bad spirits, ‘We tell you to come out of these people. We say this with the authority of Jesus, the man that Paul teaches people about.’
14 Sceva was a leader of the Jewish priests in that place. He had seven sons who were telling bad spirits to come out of people. They used the name of Jesus when they did this. 15 But one day the bad spirit in a man said to them, ‘I know who Jesus is. I also know about Paul. But I do not know who you are.’ 16 The man who had the bad spirit in him then jumped up. He fought with the seven sons and he was too strong for them. He hurt them badly and he tore their clothes off. So the sons ran away from the man's house. Their bodies were bleeding and they wore no clothes.
17 All the Jews and Gentiles who lived in Ephesus heard about this. They became very afraid. Now they respected the name of the Lord Jesus very much. They knew that he was very powerful. 18 Many of the believers agreed that they had done wicked things. They told other believers about this. 19 Some of them had used magic to do powerful things. These people brought all their special books and they burned them in a fire. Everybody saw what they did. The books had cost a lot of money. The value of all the books was 50,000 silver coins. 20 As a result of this, more and more people heard the good news about the Lord Jesus. The message was powerful and people's lives changed.
Bad troubles happen in Ephesus
21 After these things happened, Paul decided that he should go to Jerusalem. But first he wanted to visit the believers in Macedonia and Greece. He said, ‘After I have been to Jerusalem, I must also go to Rome.’ 22 At that time, Timothy and Erastus were helping Paul with his work. Paul sent them to Macedonia while he stayed longer in Asia region.
23 Soon after that, there was bad trouble in Ephesus. Some people began to speak strongly against the Way of the Lord Jesus. 24 In Ephesus there was a man called Demetrius. He used silver to make beautiful things. He made models that looked like the temple of Artemis.[a] He paid a lot of money to people who did this work for him. 25 So he told all his workers to meet with him. He also asked other workers to come, who did the same kind of work. He said to all these men, ‘Men, you know that our work has caused us to become rich. 26 Also, you can see what this man Paul is doing. You have heard his message. Many people here in Ephesus, and in nearly all the places in Asia region, believe what he says. Paul teaches people this: “Anything that men have made is not really a god.” 27 If people continue to believe Paul's message, it will be very bad for us. People will say bad things against our work. The house of our god Artemis will not be important any more. People will even think that Artemis herself is not a great god. As it is now, people in all of Asia region and everywhere else worship her. We do not want that to change.’
28 When the workers heard Demetrius, they became very angry. They all shouted, ‘Our god Artemis of Ephesus is very great!’ 29 More and more people in the whole city began to shout. There was trouble everywhere. Gaius and Aristarchus had been travelling with Paul. They had come with him from Macedonia. Some people from the crowd took hold of Gaius and Aristarchus. They pulled them quickly to the big public meeting place in the middle of the city.[b]
30 Paul himself wanted to go there. He wanted to speak to the crowd. But the other believers would not let him do that. 31 Some Roman officers in that region were Paul's friends. They also sent a message to him. They said to him, ‘Please, do not go to the meeting place.’
32 The crowd of people in the meeting place continued to shout loudly. Some people were shouting one thing and other people were shouting something different. Not many of the people even knew why they had all met together. 33 There was a Jewish man called Alexander in the crowd. The Jews pushed him to the front of the crowd. He raised his hands towards the people, so that they would be quiet. He wanted to explain to them that he and his Jewish friends had not caused the trouble. 34 But the crowd knew that Alexander was a Jew. So they continued to shout the same words for about two hours. All together they shouted, ‘Our god Artemis of Ephesus is very great!’
35 After two hours, an important officer of the city caused the crowd to be quiet. He said, ‘People of Ephesus! Everybody knows about our god Artemis who has her temple here in Ephesus. People come here to worship her. Her special stone that fell from the sky is also here in Ephesus. We take care of all her things. Everybody knows that! 36 Nobody can say that this is not true. So be careful! Do not quickly do anything that is silly. 37 You have brought Gaius and Aristarchus here to the city officers' meeting place. But what bad thing have they done? They have not robbed the house of Artemis. They have not said bad things against her. 38 Perhaps Demetrius and his workers think that someone has done a bad thing to them. If they think that, they should let a judge decide. There are officers for the government who will do this. If someone has done a wrong thing, people should tell a judge.
39 So, if you want to argue about these problems any more, do it properly. Go to the place where the judges meet. 40 Today, there is a crowd of people who are shouting and fighting. The Roman rulers may hear about what has happened. They will say that we have done bad things. We could not explain to them the reason why there is all this trouble.’ 41 When the officer had said all this, he said to the crowd, ‘All of you should go home now.’
Hananiah, the false prophet
28 In the same year, the prophet Hananiah spoke to me. It happened in the fifth month of the fourth year that King Zedekiah ruled Judah. Hananiah was the son of Azzur, who came from Gibeon. He spoke to me in the Lord's temple, where the priests and all the people could hear him. 2 He said, ‘Israel's God, the Lord Almighty, says this: “I will break the yoke that the king of Babylon has put around your necks. 3 King Nebuchadnezzar took with him to Babylon many valuable things from this temple. In less than two years, I will bring all those things back here. 4 I will also bring back Jehoiakim's son, King Jeconiah of Judah. And I will bring back all the people of Judah that King Nebuchadnezzar took as prisoners to Babylon.” The Lord says, “I will break the king of Babylon's yoke.” ’[a]
5 Jeremiah replied to Hananiah, the prophet, in the Lord's temple. The priests and all the people who were standing there could hear him. 6 The prophet Jeremiah said, ‘Amen! I agree! I pray that the Lord would do that! I pray that what you have prophesied really happens. May the Lord bring back from Babylon all the valuable things that belong in his temple. May he bring back all the people that King Nebuchadnezzar took to Babylon as prisoners. 7 But listen to what I say to you, and to all the people here. 8 From long ago, there have been prophets, before you and I became prophets. They often prophesied that war, famine and disease would bring great trouble to many countries and kingdoms. 9 But it is different if a prophet says that people will live safely in peace. We would only agree that the Lord has really sent him if his message becomes true.’
10 Then the prophet Hananiah removed the yoke from the neck of the prophet Jeremiah.[b] He broke it into pieces. 11 He said in front of all the people, ‘The Lord says, “That shows how I will break the yoke of King Nebuchadnezzar of Babylon. He has put his yoke around the necks of all the nations. In less than two years I will break his yoke and I will remove it from their necks.” ’
After Hananiah said that, the prophet Jeremiah went away from the temple.
12 Soon after Hananiah had broken the yoke that was on Jeremiah's neck, the Lord spoke again to Jeremiah. 13 He said, ‘Go to Hananiah and tell him that the Lord says, “It is true that you have broken a wooden yoke. But instead of that you will get a yoke that is made from iron! 14 Yes, the Lord Almighty, Israel's God, says this: I have put an iron yoke around the necks of all those nations. They will have to serve King Nebuchadnezzar of Babylon as his slaves. Everything will be under his power, even the wild animals.” ’[c]
15 Then Jeremiah said to Hananiah, ‘Listen to me, Hananiah! The Lord has not sent you as his prophet. You have spoken lies to these people and they have believed you. 16 So the Lord says to you, “I will remove you from this earth. You have taught people to turn against me, the Lord. You will certainly die this year.” ’
17 In the seventh month of that same year, the prophet Hananiah died.
The Jewish leaders want to kill Jesus
14 It was now two days before the Passover festival. It was the time when Jews eat flat bread which has no yeast in it.[a] The leaders of the priests and the teachers of God's Law wanted to kill Jesus. But they wanted to take hold of him secretly. So they tried to decide how they could do that. 2 They said to each other, ‘We do not want to do it during the festival. If we do that, the people will be angry. Then they may fight against us.’
A woman pours special oil on Jesus' head
3 Then Jesus went to Bethany, and he visited Simon at his house. At one time, Simon had had a bad disease of the skin. While Jesus was eating a meal there, a woman came into the house. She brought a small stone jar that contained expensive oil with a very nice smell. They used nard to make it. The woman broke the jar to open it. Then she poured the oil over Jesus' head.[b]
4 But some people became angry. They said to each other, ‘This woman should not have wasted the oil. 5 She could have sold it and she could have given the money to poor people. She could have sold it for more than 300 coins. A man would have to work for a year to get that much money.’ So they spoke angrily to the woman.
6 But Jesus said, ‘Do not speak to her like that! Do not cause trouble for her. She has done a good thing to me. 7 You will always have poor people with you. You can help them at any time that you want. But you will not always have me with you. 8 This woman did what she was able to do. She poured oil over my body. So now, my body will be ready for people to bury me. 9 I tell you this: Everywhere in the world, people will speak about God's good news. At the same time, they will also tell people about the good thing that this woman has done. And so they will remember her.’
Judas agrees to help the leaders of the priests
10 Then Judas Iscariot went to the leaders of the priests. He said that he would help them to catch Jesus. (Judas was one of Jesus' 12 apostles.) 11 The leaders of the priests were very happy about this. They promised to give Judas some money. Then Judas waited for the right moment to help them to take hold of Jesus.
Jesus eats his last meal with his 12 apostles
12 The first day of the festival when the Jews eat flat bread arrived. On this day, each family kills a young sheep for the Passover meal. Jesus' disciples said to him, ‘We will go to prepare the Passover meal for you. Where do you want us to do that?’
13 So Jesus sent two disciples to prepare the meal. ‘Go into the city,’ he said to them. ‘A man, who is carrying a jar of water, will meet you. Follow him. 14 He will go to a house. You must say to the master of that house, “The Teacher sends this message to you: ‘Where is the room for visitors? I will eat the Passover meal there with my disciples.’ ” 15 Then the man will show you a large room upstairs. The room will have in it all the things that you will need. You should prepare the Passover meal for us there.’
16 Then the two disciples left and they went into the city. They found everything as Jesus had told them. So they prepared the Passover meal there.
17 When it was evening, Jesus arrived with the 12 apostles. 18 While they were eating the meal, Jesus said, ‘I tell you this: One of you will help the Jewish leaders to take hold of me. It is someone who is eating this meal with me.’
19 The disciples became very sad. Each one of them said to Jesus, ‘Surely you do not mean me, do you?’
20 Jesus said to them, ‘It is one of you 12 apostles. That man is eating from the same dish as I am.[c] 21 The Son of Man must die in the way that the Bible says. But it will be very bad for the man who gives me to my enemies. It would have been better for that man if he had not been born.’
The Passover meal
22 While Jesus and his disciples were eating, he took a loaf of bread. He thanked God for it. Then he broke the bread into pieces. He gave some of it to each of his disciples. ‘Take this bread and eat it,’ he said to them. ‘This is my body.’
23 Then Jesus took a cup. He thanked God for the wine in the cup. Then he gave the cup to them and they all drank from it.
24 Jesus said to them, ‘This is my blood that shows God's promise. When I die, my blood will pour out of my body. In that way God will save many people. That is the promise that God makes because of my death. 25 I tell you this: I will not drink wine again until God rules in his kingdom. Then it will be new wine.’
26 Then Jesus and his disciples sang a song to praise God. Then they went out to the Mount of Olives.[d]
Jesus tells the disciples what will happen
27 Then Jesus said to the disciples, ‘All of you will turn away from me. It will happen as the Bible says:
God says, “I will kill the shepherd who leads the sheep.
Then the sheep will run away in different directions.” ’[e]
28 Jesus then said, ‘But after that happens, I will become alive again. Then I will go to Galilee, and you will meet me there.’
29 Peter said to Jesus, ‘Even if everyone else runs away, I will not leave you.’
30 Jesus replied, ‘I tell you this: Even tonight, you will say that you do not know me. You will say that three times before the cockerel sings for the second time in the morning.’
31 But Peter said very strongly, ‘I will die with you if I need to. But I will never say that I do not know you.’ All the other disciples said the same thing.
Jesus prays in the garden called Gethsemane
32 Then they arrived at a garden called Gethsemane. Jesus said to his disciples, ‘Sit here while I pray.’ 33 Jesus took Peter, James and John with him. He started to feel very sad and upset. 34 He said to them, ‘I am very sad. I feel as if I could die because I feel so sad. Wait here and stay awake.’
35 Jesus went a short way beyond them. He went down on the ground. He prayed that, if possible, God would save him from this time of trouble. 36 He said, ‘Abba, my Father, you can do all things. Please take this great pain away from me. But I do not ask you to do what I want. Do what you want to do.’
37 Jesus returned to his three disciples. Now they were sleeping. He said to Peter, ‘Simon, you are asleep! You could not stay awake for even one hour! 38 You must keep awake and you must pray. Then you will not want to do something wrong. You really want to do the right thing, but your body is weak.’
39 Jesus went away again and he prayed in the same words. 40 Then Jesus returned again to Peter, James and John. He saw that they were sleeping. They could not keep their eyes open. They did not know what to say to him.
41 Then Jesus returned a third time to the disciples. He said to them, ‘You should not still be sleeping and resting. That is enough! The moment has arrived. Look! Someone will now give me, the Son of Man, to my enemies. 42 Stand up, we will go now. Look! The man who will give me to my enemies is here.’
Judas leads the men who will take Jesus away
43 Jesus was still speaking when, immediately, Judas arrived. He was one of Jesus' 12 apostles. A crowd came with him. They were carrying swords and heavy sticks. The leaders of the priests, the teachers of God's Law and the important Jews had sent these men.
44 Before this, Judas had told these men, ‘I will kiss one of the men. You must take hold of that man. Lead him away and do not let him go.’ 45 When they arrived, Judas went immediately to Jesus. ‘Teacher,’ he said to Jesus. Then he kissed Jesus in a friendly way. 46 So the men took hold of Jesus to lead him away. 47 But a certain man who was standing there took hold of his sword. He hit the servant of the leader of the priests with it and he cut off the servant's ear.
48 Then Jesus spoke to the crowd. He said, ‘You have come out here with swords and heavy sticks to take hold of me. Do you really think that I am leading people to fight against our country's rulers? 49 No! I was with you every day when I was teaching people in the yard of the temple. You did not try to take hold of me then. But this must happen in the way that the Bible says it would happen.’ 50 Then all Jesus' disciples left him and they ran away.
51 A certain young man was following Jesus.[f] He was wearing only one piece of linen cloth to cover himself. The men tried to take hold of this young man. 52 But the young man left the piece of cloth behind and he ran away. So when he ran away, he was not wearing anything.
The most important priest asks Jesus questions
53 The men took Jesus to the house of the most important priest. All the leaders of the priests met together there with the important Jews and with the teachers of God's Law.[g]
54 Peter followed Jesus into the yard of Caiaphas's house. But he did not go near Jesus. He sat down in the yard with the guards and he made himself warm by the fire.
55 The leaders of the priests and all the Jewish leaders wanted to punish Jesus with death. So they tried to find some people who would say things against Jesus. But they did not find anyone who could help them. 56 Many people said things against Jesus that were not true. But they did not agree with each other in what they said.[h]
57 Then some men stood up and they said something false against Jesus. 58 They said, ‘We heard Jesus say, “I will destroy the temple, which men have built. In three days I will build another House for God. It will not be people who build this new house.” ’ 59 Even then, these people who were speaking against Jesus did not say the same thing.
60 Then Caiaphas stood up in front of everyone. He said to Jesus, ‘You must reply now to what these men have said against you. Are the things that they are saying true?’ 61 But Jesus did not reply. He did not say anything.
So again, Caiaphas asked Jesus, ‘Are you the Messiah? Are you the Son of God?’
62 ‘I am,’ Jesus replied. ‘And you will all see the Son of Man. He will be sitting in the most important place at the right side of the Most Powerful God. You will see him coming to earth. He will be riding on the clouds in the sky.’
63 Then Caiaphas tore his clothes to show that he was angry.[i] ‘We do not need anyone else to speak against Jesus,’ he said. 64 ‘You have heard the bad words that he has spoken against God. Do you think that he is guilty?’
Everyone agreed that Jesus deserved to die.
65 Then some of the men began to spit on Jesus. They covered his eyes with a cloth and they hit him many times with their fists. They said, ‘Show us that you are a prophet! Tell us who hit you!’ Then the guards took hold of Jesus and they beat him.
Peter says three times that he does not know Jesus
66 Peter was still sitting outside in the yard. One of the young women who was a servant of the most important priest came there. 67 She saw Peter, who was making himself warm by the fire.
She looked at him and she said, ‘You also were a friend of Jesus, the man from Nazareth.’
68 Peter replied, ‘That is not true! I do not even know what you are talking about!’ Then Peter went out to the gate of the yard. At that moment a cockerel sang.
69 The young woman watched him, and again she said to the other people there, ‘He is one of the men who were friends of Jesus.’ 70 But Peter again said that it was not true.
After a little time, the other people who were standing there said to Peter, ‘We know you are from Galilee.[j] So we are sure that you are one of those men.’
71 Then Peter began to speak very strongly to them. He said, ‘I do not know this man that you are talking about. God will surely punish me if this is not true!’ 72 Immediately a cockerel sang loudly for a second time. Then Peter remembered what Jesus had said to him: ‘You will say three times that you do not know me. You will do it before the cockerel sings for the second time.’
When Peter thought about this, he wept very much.
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