M’Cheyne Bible Reading Plan
God's Covenant Box causes trouble for the Philistines
5 When the Philistines took God's Covenant Box, they took it from Ebenezer to the town of Ashdod.[a] 2 They carried it into the temple of Dagon, their god. They put the box next to the idol of Dagon. 3 The next morning, the people in Ashdod got up early. They saw that Dagon had fallen down in front of the Lord's Covenant Box. The idol's face was touching the ground. So they took Dagon and they put him back in his place.
4 The next morning, they got up early again. They saw that Dagon had fallen down in front of the Lord's Covenant Box again! His head and both his hands had broken off. They were lying on the step of the temple's door. Only his body remained together. 5 Because of that, even today Dagon's priests and other people never walk on the step of Dagon's temple in Ashdod.
6 The Lord punished the people who lived in Ashdod. He caused them to have a lot of pain, as well as the people in the places near Ashdod. He caused tumours to grow on their bodies.[b] 7 When the people in Ashdod saw what was happening, they said, ‘The Covenant Box of Israel's God must not stay here with us. He is punishing us and our god Dagon.’
8 So the Philistine rulers met together. Ashdod's people asked them, ‘What should we do with the Covenant Box of Israel's God?’
The rulers answered, ‘Take it away to Gath.’ So the men took it to that city.[c]
9 After they had moved the Covenant Box to Gath, the Lord punished the people in that city too. He made them all very afraid. He caused tumours to grow on them, young people as well as old people. 10 So then they took God's Covenant Box to Ekron.[d]
When God's Covenant Box arrived in Ekron, the people screamed. They said, ‘They have brought the Covenant Box of Israel's God here! They want to kill us all!’ 11 So they called the Philistine rulers to meet together. Ekron's people said to them, ‘Take away the Covenant Box of Israel's God! Send it back to its proper place. If you leave it here, it will kill us and all our families.’
All the people in the town were afraid of death. God had already started to punish them a lot. 12 Many people had already died. All the other people in the town had tumours on their bodies. So they cried loudly up to the skies for help.
The Philistines give back God's Covenant Box
6 The Philistines had the Lord's Covenant Box in their country for seven months. 2 Then they called their priests and their magicians to meet with them. The people asked them, ‘What must we do with the Lord's Covenant Box? Tell us how we should send it back to its home.’
3 The priests and magicians answered, ‘Send the Covenant Box of Israel's God back with a special offering. You must not send it back without anything. Send an offering so that their God will forgive you. Then you will get well again. You will understand why he has continued to punish you.’
4 The people asked, ‘What offering should we send to their God, so that he will forgive us?’
The priests and magicians replied, ‘You must send gold images of five tumours and five mice.[e] You must make five images of each one because the Philistines have five rulers. They have the same disease that all of you have. 5 Make images of the tumours and the mice that are destroying everything in the country. Do that to give honour to the God of Israel. Maybe then he will stop punishing you, your gods and your land. 6 Do not be like the Egyptians and Pharaoh, their king. They did not agree to obey God. So God punished them a lot until they let the Israelites leave Egypt.
7 You must make a new cart. Find two cows that have just given birth to calves. It must be the first time that those cows have pulled a cart. Tie them to the cart with ropes so that they can pull it. Then take their calves away from them. 8 Put the Lord's Covenant Box on the cart. Put another box on the cart with the gold images inside it. Those are your offerings to their God so that he will forgive you. Then send the cart away. 9 But continue to watch it carefully. The cows may pull it across our border to Beth Shemesh in Israel. If that happens, we will know that the God of Israel has punished us with this great trouble. But if the cart goes somewhere else, we will know that it was not their God who did this to us. We will know that our disease happened only by chance.’
10 So the Philistines did what the priests and magicians told them. They took two cows that had just given birth to calves. They tied the cows to a cart. They took away their calves and they kept them at home. 11 They put the Lord's Covenant Box on the cart. They put the other box beside it on the cart. That box contained the gold images of the mice and the tumours. 12 The cows pulled the cart straight along the road towards Beth Shemesh. They did not turn off the road at all, to the left side or the right side. As they went, they made a lot of noise. The Philistine rulers walked behind the cart all the way, as far as the edge of Beth Shemesh.
13 The people who lived in Beth Shemesh were working in their fields in the valley. They were cutting their wheat at harvest time.[f] They looked up and they saw the Lord's Covenant Box. It made them very happy. 14-15 The cows pulled the cart into a field. It belonged to Joshua, who lived in Beth Shemesh. The cows stopped next to a large rock. The Levites took the Lord's Covenant Box off the cart. They put it on the large rock. They also put the box which contained the gold images on the rock. The people from Beth Shemesh cut up the cart. They used the wood to make a fire. Then they killed the cows. They burnt them on the fire as a burnt offering to the Lord. That day the people of Beth Shemesh offered many burnt offerings and other sacrifices to the Lord. 16 The five Philistine rulers watched them as they did that. Then they returned to Ekron on the same day.
17 The Philistines had sent the gold tumours as an offering to the Lord. They wanted him to forgive them. There was one gold tumour for each of their five towns: Ashdod, Gaza, Ashkelon, Gath and Ekron. 18 The Philistines also sent five gold mice. There was one gold mouse for each of the five towns that had a ruler. Those were strong cities that had walls around them. Each town also had villages near to it. The large rock where the Levites put the Lord's Covenant Box is still there. So we remember what happened that day in Joshua's field in Beth Shemesh.
19 But some of the men from Beth Shemesh looked inside the Lord's Covenant Box. So God killed 70 of them. The people were very sad because the Lord had punished them so much. 20 The people of Beth Shemesh said, ‘The Lord is a holy God! Nobody can go near to him! We must send his Covenant Box away from us. But who can ever take care of it?’
21 So they sent people to Kiriath-Jearim with a message.[g] They said, ‘The Philistines have sent the Lord's Covenant Box back to Israel. Please come and take it from us. Take it to your town.’
God's friends
5 So we see that God has accepted us as right because we believe in him. As a result, we are friends with God, because of what our Lord Jesus Christ has done for us. 2 Also, because we trust Jesus Christ, he has caused us to know that God is very kind. That makes us strong in our lives here. We also are sure that we will live with God in heaven. So we are very happy.[a]
3 We are happy even when we have troubles and pain. That is because we know that those troubles help us to become patient and strong. 4 And when we remain strong, we show that we trust God. When we trust God like that, it causes us to hope for God's help. 5 And when we hope like that, it will not disappoint us. That is because we know that God loves us very much. God has given his Holy Spirit to be with us. The Holy Spirit causes us to know God's love very well.
6 At one time we were weak and we could not help ourselves. Then, at the right time, Christ died to save us. He died on behalf of people who have turned away from God. 7 Nobody will agree to die on behalf of another person, even if that person has done what is right. Maybe someone might be brave enough to die on behalf of a person who is very good. 8 But God has shown us how much he loves us. Even when we still did not obey God, Christ died on our behalf.
9 Because Christ died on the cross, God has accepted us as right with himself. So we certainly know that Christ will save us when God judges everyone. Because of Jesus, God will not be angry with us and punish us. 10 While we were still God's enemies, God's Son died on our behalf. As a result, we became God's friends. So, now that we are God's friends, his Son will certainly save us. Christ will save us because he is alive again. 11 But that is not everything! We are very happy now because of what God has done for us. Our Lord Jesus Christ has made this possible. It is because of him that we have now become God's friends.
Adam and Christ
12 It was because of one man, Adam, that sin came into the world.[b] Death was the result of Adam's sin. Because of that, death came to all people, because everyone failed to obey God. 13 Before God gave his Law to Moses, people did wrong things. Sin was already there in the world. But at that time, God did not say that people were guilty, because there was no law for them to obey. 14 But still death ruled all people, from the time when Adam lived until the time when Moses lived. Everyone died, even those who did not fail in the same way that Adam failed.
Adam shows us something about God's special Messiah who would come at a future time. 15 But they are not the same. Adam was the man who did not obey what God said to him. Jesus Christ is the man who brought God's free gift to people. Adam was just one person but many people died because of his sin. But God has shown in a greater way that he is very kind to people. Very many people have received God's gift because of one man, Jesus Christ. Christ has been very kind to many people!
16 Also, God's gift is different from the result of Adam's sin. Adam chose not to obey God once and punishment came as a result. But the result of God's gift is greater. People have done many wrong things, not only one wrong thing. But God accepts them as right with him. 17 One man, Adam, did not obey God, and death began to rule everyone as a result. But what the one man, Jesus Christ, did is much greater! Because of him, people can become right with God. They receive that great gift from God because he is very good and very kind. Because of what Jesus Christ has done, those people will rule like kings in their lives.
18 So God's punishment came to all people because of that one wrong thing that Adam did. But the one thing that Christ did makes people free. God accepts all people because of that one good thing that Christ did. Those people receive true life from God. 19 One man did not obey God and, as a result, many people became guilty because of their sins. But, because one man did obey God, many people will become right with God.[c]
20 God gave his Law to Moses to show more clearly that people were doing wrong things. But when people did more and more wrong things, God continued to be kind in more and more ways. 21 We see that sin ruled people's lives and brought death to them. But God's gift makes people right with him, and that is what rules their lives. People receive that gift because God is kind. As a result, they will have life with God for ever, because of what our Lord Jesus Christ has done.
The people of Judah go to Egypt
43 Jeremiah finished telling the people the Lord's message to them. He told them everything that the Lord their God had sent him to tell them. 2 Then Hoshaiah's son Azariah and Kareah's son Johanan and some other proud men said to Jeremiah, ‘You are speaking lies! The Lord our God has not sent you to say to us, “You must not go to Egypt to live there.” 3 You are telling us what Neriah's son Baruch wants you to say. He wants to hurt us. He wants the soldiers from Babylon to kill us, or to take us as prisoners to Babylon.’
4 So Kareah's son Johanan, all the other army officers and all the other people did not obey the Lord's command. They refused to stay in Judah. 5 Instead, Johanan and all the officers led the people away. Those were the people who had returned from all the nations where their enemies had taken them as prisoners. They had returned to their homes in Judah. 6 Now the army officers led them away. They also took the men, women and children that Captain Nebuzaradan had allowed to remain with Gedaliah. They included the king's daughters. (Gedaliah was Ahikam's son and Shaphan's grandson.) They took the prophet Jeremiah and Neriah's son Baruch with them.
7 The people went to Egypt because they did not obey the Lord. They went as far as the city of Tahpanhes.
8 When they arrived in Tahpanhes, the Lord spoke to Jeremiah. 9 He said, ‘Choose some large stones and take them to Pharaoh's palace that is here in Tahpanhes. Bury the stones under the path at the entrance of the palace. Do it while the people of Judah are watching you. 10 Then say to the people, “The Lord Almighty, Israel's God, says this: I will call for my servant, King Nebuchadnezzar of Babylon, to come here. He will put his throne on the path over these stones that I have hidden. They will put up a royal tent for him to sit under. 11 He will come here and he will attack Egypt.
Those who should become ill and die will die.
Those who should go away as prisoners
will go away as prisoners.
Those who should die in war will die in war.
12 He will burn the temples of Egypt's gods with fire. He will burn their gods or he will carry them away. He will take everything that he wants from Egypt. He will return home in good health. 13 He will knock down the pillars of the temple where people worship their sun god. He will destroy all the temples of Egypt's gods.” ’
This is a song that David wrote for the music leader.
God teaches us about himself
19 The heavens show us how great God is.
The sky above shows his good work.
2 Each day speaks about God,
until the next day continues the story.
Every night tells us how great God is.
3 They do not use words to speak with.
Nobody hears their voice.
4 But their message goes round all the earth.
All the world can understand what they say.
God has made a home for the sun in the sky.
5 Each morning, the sun comes out,
like a happy man who has just married.
It comes out,
like a strong man who wants to run a race.
6 The sun rises at one end of the heavens.
It travels in a big circle to the other end.
Nothing can hide from its heat.[a]
7 The law of the Lord is perfect.
It makes us strong again.
We can trust what the Lord teaches us.
He helps ordinary people to be wise.
8 The Lord's rules are always right.
If we obey them, they make us really happy.
The Lord's commands are completely good.
They show us how to live in a good way.
9 It is right for us to respect the Lord.
That will always help us.
The laws of the Lord are true.
They are right and fair.
10 They are more valuable than gold,
even the best gold.
They are sweeter than the best honey.
11 Your laws warn us to do what is right.
If we obey them, they are a great help to us.[b]
12 Nobody realizes every time they do something wrong.
Please forgive me for the sins that I do not know about.
13 Lord, stop me doing things that I know are wrong.
Do not let those sins rule my life.
Then I will not be guilty.
I will not have turned against you in a bad way.
14 Lord, I want to make you happy.
I want my words and my thoughts to please you.
You are my strong Rock
and you are my Redeemer.[c]
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