M’Cheyne Bible Reading Plan

17 When David was living in his house, David said to Nathan the prophet, “Behold, I live in a cedar house, but the ark of Yahweh’s covenant is in a tent.”

² Nathan said to David, “Do all that is in your heart; for God is with you.”

³ That same night, the word of God came to Nathan, saying, ⁴ “Go and tell David my servant, ‘Yahweh says, “You shall not build me a house to dwell in; ⁵ for I have not lived in a house since the day that I brought up Israel to this day, but have gone from tent to tent, and from one tent to another. ⁶ In all places in which I have walked with all Israel, did I speak a word with any of the judges of Israel, whom I commanded to be shepherd of my people, saying, ‘Why have you not built me a house of cedar?’”’

⁷ “Now therefore, you shall tell my servant David, ‘Yahweh of Armies says, “I took you from the sheep pen, from following the sheep, to be prince over my people Israel. ⁸ I have been with you wherever you have gone, and have cut off all your enemies from before you. I will make you a name like the name of the great ones who are in the earth. ⁹ I will appoint a place for my people Israel, and will plant them, that they may dwell in their own place, and be moved no more. The children of wickedness will not waste them any more, as at the first, ¹⁰ and from the day that I commanded judges to be over my people Israel. I will subdue all your enemies. Moreover I tell you that Yahweh will build you a house. ¹¹ It will happen, when your days are fulfilled that you must go to be with your fathers, that I will set up your offspring after you, who will be of your sons; and I will establish his kingdom. ¹² He will build me a house, and I will establish his throne forever. ¹³ I will be his father, and he will be my son. I will not take my loving kindness away from him, as I took it from him who was before you; ¹⁴ but I will settle him in my house and in my kingdom forever. His throne will be established forever.”’” ¹⁵ According to all these words, and according to all this vision, so Nathan spoke to David.

¹⁶ Then David the king went in and sat before Yahweh; and he said, “Who am I, Yahweh God, and what is my house, that you have brought me this far? ¹⁷ This was a small thing in your eyes, O God, but you have spoken of your servant’s house for a great while to come, and have respected me according to the standard of a man of high degree, Yahweh God. ¹⁸ What can David say yet more to you concerning the honor which is done to your servant? For you know your servant. ¹⁹ Yahweh, for your servant’s sake, and according to your own heart, you have done all this greatness, to make known all these great things. ²⁰ Yahweh, there is no one like you, neither is there any God besides you, according to all that we have heard with our ears. ²¹ What one nation in the earth is like your people Israel, whom God went to redeem to himself for a people, to make you a name by great and awesome things, in driving out nations from before your people whom you redeemed out of Egypt? ²² For you made your people Israel your own people forever; and you, Yahweh, became their God. ²³ Now, Yahweh, let the word that you have spoken concerning your servant, and concerning his house, be established forever, and do as you have spoken. ²⁴ Let your name be established and magnified forever, saying, ‘Yahweh of Armies is the God of Israel, even a God to Israel. The house of David your servant is established before you.’ ²⁵ For you, my God, have revealed to your servant that you will build him a house. Therefore your servant has found courage to pray before you. ²⁶ Now, Yahweh, you are God, and have promised this good thing to your servant. ²⁷ Now it has pleased you to bless the house of your servant, that it may continue forever before you; for you, Yahweh, have blessed, and it is blessed forever.”

4 Where do wars and fightings among you come from? Don’t they come from your pleasures that war in your members? ² You lust, and don’t have. You murder and covet, and can’t obtain. You fight and make war. You don’t have, because you don’t ask. ³ You ask, and don’t receive, because you ask with wrong motives, so that you may spend it on your pleasures. ⁴ You adulterers and adulteresses, don’t you know that friendship with the world is hostility toward God? Whoever therefore wants to be a friend of the world makes himself an enemy of God. ⁵ Or do you think that the Scripture says in vain, “The Spirit who lives in us yearns jealously”? ⁶ But he gives more grace. Therefore it says, “God resists the proud, but gives grace to the humble.”^{(A) 7} Be subject therefore to God. Resist the devil, and he will flee from you. ⁸ Draw near to God, and he will draw near to you. Cleanse your hands, you sinners. Purify your hearts, you double-minded. ⁹ Lament, mourn, and weep. Let your laughter be turned to mourning and your joy to gloom. ¹⁰ Humble yourselves in the sight of the Lord, and he will exalt you.

¹¹ Don’t speak against one another, brothers. He who speaks against a brother and judges his brother, speaks against the law and judges the law. But if you judge the law, you are not a doer of the law but a judge. ¹² Only one is the lawgiver, who is able to save and to destroy. But who are you to judge another?

¹³ Come now, you who say, “Today or tomorrow let’s go into this city and spend a year there, trade, and make a profit.” ¹⁴ Yet you don’t know what your life will be like tomorrow. For what is your life? For you are a vapor that appears for a little time and then vanishes away. ¹⁵ For you ought to say, “If the Lord wills, we will both live, and do this or that.” ¹⁶ But now you glory in your boasting. All such boasting is evil. ¹⁷ To him therefore who knows to do good and doesn’t do it, to him it is sin.

1 Now Yahweh’s^[a] word came to Jonah the son of Amittai, saying, ² “Arise, go to Nineveh, that great city, and preach against it, for their wickedness has come up before me.”

³ But Jonah rose up to flee to Tarshish from the presence of Yahweh. He went down to Joppa, and found a ship going to Tarshish; so he paid its fare, and went down into it, to go with them to Tarshish from the presence of Yahweh.

⁴ But Yahweh sent out a great wind on the sea, and there was a mighty storm on the sea, so that the ship was likely to break up. ⁵ Then the mariners were afraid, and every man cried to his god. They threw the cargo that was in the ship into the sea to lighten the ship. But Jonah had gone down into the innermost parts of the ship and he was laying down, and was fast asleep. ⁶ So the ship master came to him, and said to him, “What do you mean, sleeper? Arise, call on your God!^[b] Maybe your God^[c] will notice us, so that we won’t perish.”

⁷ They all said to each other, “Come! Let’s cast lots, that we may know who is responsible for this evil that is on us.” So they cast lots, and the lot fell on Jonah. ⁸ Then they asked him, “Tell us, please, for whose cause this evil is on us. What is your occupation? Where do you come from? What is your country? Of what people are you?”

⁹ He said to them, “I am a Hebrew, and I fear Yahweh, the God^[d] of heaven, who has made the sea and the dry land.”

¹⁰ Then the men were exceedingly afraid, and said to him, “What have you done?” For the men knew that he was fleeing from the presence of Yahweh, because he had told them. ¹¹ Then they said to him, “What shall we do to you, that the sea may be calm to us?” For the sea grew more and more stormy.

¹² He said to them, “Take me up, and throw me into the sea. Then the sea will be calm for you; for I know that because of me this great storm is on you.”

¹³ Nevertheless the men rowed hard to get them back to the land; but they could not, for the sea grew more and more stormy against them. ¹⁴ Therefore they cried to Yahweh, and said, “We beg you, Yahweh, we beg you, don’t let us die for this man’s life, and don’t lay on us innocent blood; for you, Yahweh, have done as it pleased you.” ¹⁵ So they took up Jonah and threw him into the sea; and the sea ceased its raging. ¹⁶ Then the men feared Yahweh exceedingly; and they offered a sacrifice to Yahweh and made vows.

¹⁷ Yahweh prepared a huge fish to swallow up Jonah, and Jonah was in the belly of the fish three days and three nights.

6 Now on the second Sabbath after the first, he was going through the grain fields. His disciples plucked the heads of grain and ate, rubbing them in their hands. ² But some of the Pharisees said to them, “Why do you do that which is not lawful to do on the Sabbath day?”

³ Jesus, answering them, said, “Haven’t you read what David did when he was hungry, he and those who were with him, ⁴ how he entered into God’s house, and took and ate the show bread, and gave also to those who were with him, which is not lawful to eat except for the priests alone?” ⁵ He said to them, “The Son of Man is lord of the Sabbath.”

⁶ It also happened on another Sabbath that he entered into the synagogue and taught. There was a man there, and his right hand was withered. ⁷ The scribes and the Pharisees watched him, to see whether he would heal on the Sabbath, that they might find an accusation against him. ⁸ But he knew their thoughts; and he said to the man who had the withered hand, “Rise up and stand in the middle.” He arose and stood. ⁹ Then Jesus said to them, “I will ask you something: Is it lawful on the Sabbath to do good, or to do harm? To save a life, or to kill?” ¹⁰ He looked around at them all, and said to the man, “Stretch out your hand.” He did, and his hand was restored as sound as the other. ¹¹ But they were filled with rage, and talked with one another about what they might do to Jesus.

¹² In these days, he went out to the mountain to pray, and he continued all night in prayer to God. ¹³ When it was day, he called his disciples, and from them he chose twelve, whom he also named apostles: ¹⁴ Simon, whom he also named Peter; Andrew, his brother; James; John; Philip; Bartholomew; ¹⁵ Matthew; Thomas; James the son of Alphaeus; Simon who was called the Zealot; ¹⁶ Judas the son of James; and Judas Iscariot, who also became a traitor.

¹⁷ He came down with them and stood on a level place, with a crowd of his disciples and a great number of the people from all Judea and Jerusalem and the sea coast of Tyre and Sidon, who came to hear him and to be healed of their diseases, ¹⁸ as well as those who were troubled by unclean spirits; and they were being healed. ¹⁹ All the multitude sought to touch him, for power came out of him and healed them all.

²⁰ He lifted up his eyes to his disciples, and said:

²⁷ “But I tell you who hear: love your enemies, do good to those who hate you, ²⁸ bless those who curse you, and pray for those who mistreat you. ²⁹ To him who strikes you on the cheek, offer also the other; and from him who takes away your cloak, don’t withhold your coat also. ³⁰ Give to everyone who asks you, and don’t ask him who takes away your goods to give them back again.

³¹ “As you would like people to do to you, do exactly so to them.

³² “If you love those who love you, what credit is that to you? For even sinners love those who love them. ³³ If you do good to those who do good to you, what credit is that to you? For even sinners do the same. ³⁴ If you lend to those from whom you hope to receive, what credit is that to you? Even sinners lend to sinners, to receive back as much. ³⁵ But love your enemies, and do good, and lend, expecting nothing back; and your reward will be great, and you will be children of the Most High; for he is kind toward the unthankful and evil.

³⁸ “Give, and it will be given to you: good measure, pressed down, shaken together, and running over, will be given to you.^[c] For with the same measure you measure it will be measured back to you.”

³⁹ He spoke a parable to them. “Can the blind guide the blind? Won’t they both fall into a pit? ⁴⁰ A disciple is not above his teacher, but everyone when he is fully trained will be like his teacher. ⁴¹ Why do you see the speck of chaff that is in your brother’s eye, but don’t consider the beam that is in your own eye? ⁴² Or how can you tell your brother, ‘Brother, let me remove the speck of chaff that is in your eye,’ when you yourself don’t see the beam that is in your own eye? You hypocrite! First remove the beam from your own eye, and then you can see clearly to remove the speck of chaff that is in your brother’s eye.

⁴³ “For there is no good tree that produces rotten fruit, nor again a rotten tree that produces good fruit. ⁴⁴ For each tree is known by its own fruit. For people don’t gather figs from thorns, nor do they gather grapes from a bramble bush. ⁴⁵ The good man out of the good treasure of his heart brings out that which is good, and the evil man out of the evil treasure of his heart brings out that which is evil, for out of the abundance of the heart, his mouth speaks.

⁴⁶ “Why do you call me, ‘Lord, Lord,’ and don’t do the things which I say? ⁴⁷ Everyone who comes to me, and hears my words and does them, I will show you who he is like. ⁴⁸ He is like a man building a house, who dug and went deep and laid a foundation on the rock. When a flood arose, the stream broke against that house, and could not shake it, because it was founded on the rock. ⁴⁹ But he who hears and doesn’t do, is like a man who built a house on the earth without a foundation, against which the stream broke, and immediately it fell; and the ruin of that house was great.”