M’Cheyne Bible Reading Plan

Sarai and Hagar

16 Abram's wife, Sarai, had not given birth to any children. She had an Egyptian servant. The servant's name was Hagar. ² Sarai said to Abram, ‘The Lord has not let me have any children. Go and sleep with my servant. Then if she gives birth, her children will be my family.’ Abram agreed to do this.^[a]

³ Abram had now been living in Canaan for ten years. Sarai gave her Egyptian servant, Hagar, to him. She became like another wife for Abram.

⁴ Abram had sex with Hagar and she became pregnant. When Hagar knew that she was pregnant, she no longer respected Sarai.

⁵ Then Sarai said to Abram, ‘It is because of you that Hagar is now insulting me. I gave her to you so that you could have sex with her. Now she is pregnant and she does not respect me. The Lord will decide who is right, you or me.’

⁶ Abram said to Sarai, ‘Hagar is your servant and you have authority over her. Do to her whatever you think is right.’ Then Sarai caused trouble for Hagar. So Hagar ran away from Sarai.

⁷ The angel of the Lord found Hagar. She was by a spring of water in the desert. The spring was near the road to Shur. ⁸ The angel said, ‘Sarai's servant, Hagar, where have you come from? Where are you going?’ Hagar replied, ‘I am running away from Sarai. I am her servant.’

⁹ The angel of the Lord told Hagar, ‘Go back to Sarai. You are her servant and you must obey her.’

¹⁰ The angel also said, ‘I will make the number of your descendants become very many. They will be too many for people to count.’

¹¹ The angel of the Lord said to Hagar,

‘Now you are pregnant and you will give birth to a son.

When you cried in pain, the Lord heard you,

so you must give your son the name “Ishmael”.^[b]

¹² Like a wild donkey, nobody will be able to rule him.

He will fight against everyone, and everyone will fight against him.

He will think that everyone is his enemy.

He will keep away from his brothers.’

¹³ When Hagar heard what the angel said, she said to herself, ‘I have seen the God who sees me!’ So she called the Lord ‘The God who sees me.’ ¹⁴ That is why they called the well in that place ‘Beer Lahai Roi’.^[c] The well is between Kadesh and Bered.

¹⁵ After some time Hagar gave birth to a son. Abram was his father. Abram gave his son the name ‘Ishmael’. ¹⁶ Abram was 86 years old when Hagar gave birth to Ishmael.

Jesus tells the Pharisees and teachers of God's Law to obey God

15 After that, a group of Pharisees and teachers of God's Law came from Jerusalem to talk to Jesus. ² They said, ‘Our leaders in past times taught us the right way to do everything. But your disciples do not obey the things that our leaders taught us. They do not wash their hands in the right way before they eat a meal. Why is that?’

³ Jesus replied, ‘God tells us the right way to obey him. But you refuse. Instead, you like to keep your own ideas. ⁴ God's Law says: “You must love your father and mother and obey them.” God also said, “A person should die if he says bad things against his father or against his mother.” ⁵ But you teach that a person may say to his father or to his mother, “I would have given gifts to help you. But I cannot do that because I have given them to God instead.” ⁶ Then, you let that person give nothing to his parents. He does not have to help them. This shows that you have not obeyed what God says is right. Instead, you have obeyed your own ideas. ⁷ You are hypocrites! What God's prophet Isaiah wrote about you long ago is true:

Jesus talks about the wrong things that people do

¹⁰ Jesus asked the crowd of people to come to him. He said to them, ‘Listen to me, so that you can understand my message. ¹¹ It is not food that goes into people's mouths that makes them unclean. Instead, what comes out of people's mouths is important. It may show that what is inside them is unclean.’

¹² Then Jesus' disciples went to him, and they said, ‘The Pharisees heard what you said. They did not agree with what you said. Do you know that?’

¹³ Jesus replied, ‘Those Pharisees are like plants that my Father God did not put in the ground. Like a farmer, he will completely pull all those plants out of the ground. ¹⁴ Do not listen to what the Pharisees say. They are blind, but they try to show people which way to go. A blind person cannot lead another blind person. If he does, then both of them will fall into a deep hole.’

¹⁵ Peter said to Jesus, ‘Explain to us what you mean.’

¹⁶ Jesus replied, ‘I am surprised that you still do not understand what I am saying. ¹⁷ You should understand that food first goes into people's mouths. Then it goes into their stomach, and then it passes out of their body. ¹⁸ The words that people speak come from their thoughts. It is what comes out of their mouths that makes them unclean. ¹⁹ Evil thoughts come out from people's minds. As a result, they do wrong things. They murder people. They have sex with another man's wife. They have sex in other wrong ways. They rob people. They tell lies about other people. They insult people.

²⁰ It is these bad things that make people unclean. But if people eat food when they have not washed their hands in the right way, that will not make them unclean.’

Jesus makes a girl well again

²¹ Then, Jesus left that place. He went away to some places near to the cities called Tyre and Sidon.

²² A woman was living in this part of the country. She was one of the Canaanite people. She came to see Jesus. She was shouting with a loud voice, ‘Son of David, help me, sir! A bad spirit is living inside my daughter. It is giving her much pain.’

²³ Jesus did not say anything to the woman. So his disciples came to him. They said, ‘Please, send this woman away. She is following us and she is making a lot of noise.’

²⁴ Jesus replied to his disciples, ‘God has sent me to help only the people of Israel. They are like sheep that have lost their way.’

²⁵ Then the woman came to Jesus and she went down on her knees in front of him. ‘Sir, please help me,’ she said.

²⁶ Jesus did answer the woman this time. He said, ‘It is not right to take food from the children and then throw it to the dogs.’

²⁷ The woman replied to Jesus. ‘Yes sir, that is true. But even the dogs eat the small pieces of food that fall from their master's table.’

²⁸ Jesus answered her, ‘Woman, you show clearly that you believe in God. God will do what you have asked.’

At that moment the woman's daughter became well again.

²⁹ Jesus travelled on from that place and he walked along the shore of Lake Galilee. He climbed up a hill and he sat down there. ³⁰ Large crowds of people came to him and they brought sick people with them. Some of these sick people could not walk very well, and some of them were blind. Some of them could not use their arms or their legs. Some of them could not speak. There were many other sick people who had different illnesses. Their friends put the sick people in front of Jesus. And Jesus caused them all to become well again. ³¹ When the large crowd saw all this, they were very surprised. People who could not speak could now speak again. People who could not use their arms or their legs were now well again. Those people who could not walk very well could now walk again. Blind people could now see again. All the people praised God, and they said, ‘God of Israel, you are great.’

Jesus feeds 4,000 men and their families

³² Then Jesus told his disciples to come to him. ‘I feel sorry for this crowd,’ he said to them. ‘They have been here with me now for three days. They do not have any food. I do not want to send them away while they are hungry. They might fall down during their journey because they are weak.’

³³ The disciples said to Jesus, ‘This place is a long way from any houses. We cannot get enough bread here to feed so many people.’

³⁴ Jesus asked them, ‘How many loaves of bread do you have?’

They replied, ‘We have seven loaves and a few small fish.’

³⁵ Jesus told the crowd that they should sit down on the ground. ³⁶ Then he took the seven loaves and the fish in his hands and he thanked God for them. Then he broke the bread and the fish into pieces and he gave the food to his disciples. The disciples gave the food to the people. ³⁷ All the people ate and they all had enough food. After the people had eaten, there were still lots of small pieces of food. Jesus' disciples filled seven baskets with these pieces. ³⁸ There were 4,000 men who ate the bread and fish. There were also women and children who ate. ³⁹ Then Jesus sent the crowd of people away. After that, he got into the boat and sailed to the part of the country near Magadan.^[a]

Nehemiah helps poor people

5 Some men and their wives were upset, because of the things that some other Jews were doing. ² Many of them said, ‘We are big families, with many sons and daughters. We need to have food to eat so that we can stay alive.’ ³ Other people said, ‘People have to lend us money to buy food. We have to give them our fields, our vineyards and our homes until we can pay them back.’

⁴ Other people said, ‘We have to pay taxes to the king for our fields and our vineyards. People had to lend us money to pay the taxes. ⁵ Now we have to sell our sons and daughters as slaves so that we can pay back the money. But we are from the same human family as those other Jews. Our children are not different from their children. Already some of our daughters have become slaves. Our fields and vineyards now belong to other people, so we are helpless to do anything.’

⁶ When I heard what they were complaining about, I was very angry. ⁷ I thought carefully about what they had said. Then I said to the Jewish leaders and officers, ‘You are cheating your own people! You are taking back more money than you have lent to them.’

I told the Jews to come together for a big meeting. ⁸ I said to them all, ‘When our own Jewish people have become slaves of foreign people, we have tried hard to buy them back. But now you are making your own people sell their children to you. And you want us to pay you to buy them back again!’ The Jewish leaders kept quiet. They had nothing to say.

⁹ Then I said to them, ‘You are doing something that is completely wrong. Instead, you should obey God and live in a good way. Then the foreign people who are our enemies will not have a chance to insult us. ¹⁰ I myself have agreed to lend poor people money and food. My family and my friends have done the same thing. But we must not make those poor people pay back more to us. ¹¹ Now you must give back to them their fields, their vineyards, their gardens of olive trees and their houses. Do not make them pay any extra money for the money, food, wine or olive oil that you lent to them.’

¹² The leaders replied, ‘We will give everything back to them. We will not make them pay back their debts to us. We will do everything that you have said.’

I told the priests to come to our meeting. While they were with us, I made the Jewish leaders and officers make a strong promise. They agreed to do what they had promised to do. ¹³ I shook my coat so that everything fell out of its pockets. I said, ‘You must all do what you have promised to do. If not, I pray that God will shake you out like that! He will take away your homes and all your things. You will be left with nothing!’ Everyone at the meeting said, ‘Amen, we agree!’ They praised the Lord.

All the people did what they had promised to do.

¹⁴ All the time that I ruled the land of Judah, I did not eat the government officer's special food. I was the ruler from the 20th year of King Artaxerxes until his 32nd year as king. For all those 12 years, I and my relatives refused to eat the special food. ¹⁵ The officers who ruled there before I came made much trouble for the people. They took food and wine from the people, as well as 40 silver coins every day. Their servants also gave the people much trouble. But I did not live like them, because I wanted to please God. ¹⁶ I worked hard to help the work on the city's walls. I did not take any land for myself. All my servants also had to join with me in the work.

¹⁷ 150 Jews and their officers ate meals with me. There were also people who came to visit from countries that were near to us. ¹⁸ Every day, my servants cooked one ox, six good sheep and some birds for us to eat. Every ten days they bought for me many different kinds of wine. But I did not ask to receive the extra food that the ruler usually receives. The people were working hard on the wall and I did not want to give them more trouble.

¹⁹ My God, please remember the many things that I have done to help my people. Please bless me.

Paul and Barnabas go to Jerusalem

15 Some men arrived in Antioch from Judea.^[a] They began to teach the believers there who were not Jews. They said to them, ‘God cannot save you unless someone circumcises you. This is in the Law that God gave to Moses.’

² Paul and Barnabas did not agree with these men. They argued strongly against them. As a result, the believers in Antioch decided what to do. They chose Paul, Barnabas and some of the other believers to go to Jerusalem. They should go to meet with the apostles and the other leaders of the believers. The leaders should decide who was right in this quarrel. ³ The group of believers at Antioch sent Paul, Barnabas and the other men on their way. They travelled through Phoenicia and Samaria. They spoke to the believers in those places. They told them, ‘Gentiles are also turning to God and they are believing in Jesus.’ The believers were all very happy to hear this news. ⁴ When Paul, Barnabas and the other men arrived in Jerusalem, they met with the believers there. The apostles, the other leaders and the whole group of believers were happy to see them. Paul and Barnabas told them about everything that God had helped them to do.

⁵ Some Jewish believers were there who also belonged to the Pharisees' group. They stood up and they said, ‘We must circumcise Gentiles when they become believers. We must tell them to obey all the Law that God gave to Moses.’

⁶ So the apostles and the other leaders of the believers met to talk about this problem. ⁷ After they had all talked about this problem for a long time, Peter stood up to speak.^[b] He said, ‘My friends, you know that, a long time ago, God chose me from among all you leaders. He wanted me to teach Gentiles the good news about Jesus. God wanted them to hear his message and to believe in Jesus. ⁸ God knows what people truly believe. He showed clearly that he accepts Gentile believers as his people. He gave his Holy Spirit to them in the same way that he did for us. ⁹ He made no difference between them and us. When they believed in Jesus, he saved them. He made them clean inside.

¹⁰ So do not say that God has done a wrong thing. God has shown us that he accepts Gentiles when they believe in Jesus. If you make the Gentile believers obey the Law of Moses, that is like a heavy weight on their necks. Even we Jews and our ancestors could not carry that heavy weight. ¹¹ God saves us who are Jews when we believe in Jesus. It is not because we obey the Law of Moses. It is because the Lord Jesus is kind to us. God saves Gentiles in the same way, when they believe in Jesus.’

¹² After Peter said this everybody in the group was quiet. Then Barnabas and Paul spoke to them. They said, ‘God helped us to do great miracles among the Gentiles. These showed that God was with us.’

¹³ When they had finished their report, James spoke to the group. He said, ‘Listen to me, my friends. ¹⁴ Simon Peter has just described to us what happened first with the Gentile believers. He explained how God chose some of them to belong to him as his own people.

¹⁵ The message of God's prophets agrees completely with this. They wrote long ago:

¹⁶ The Lord God said,

¹⁹ James then said, ‘So this is what I have decided about this problem. Many Gentiles are now turning to God as believers. We should not make it difficult for them. ²⁰ Instead of that, we should write a letter to tell them how to live as believers. We should say to them, “Do not eat any food which people have given to their idols. That food has become unclean. Do not have sex with anyone that you are not married to. If people have strangled an animal to kill it, do not eat its meat. Do not eat anything that still has blood in it.”^{[e] 21} These rules are important, because people have known the Law of Moses for a very long time. On every Jewish day of rest, someone teaches us about the Law in our Jewish meeting places in every city.’

The leaders in Jerusalem write a letter to the Gentile believers

²² The whole group of believers agreed with what James said. So the apostles and the other leaders decided to choose some men from among the group of believers. These men would go to Antioch with Paul and Barnabas. They chose Silas and Judas, who was also called Barsabbas. The believers all respected these men as leaders.

²³ This is the letter that they sent with those men:

‘We, the apostles and leaders of the believers here say “hello” to you, our friends who also believe in Jesus. We say “hello” to all of you Gentile believers who live in Antioch, Syria and Cilicia.^[f]

²⁴ We have heard that some men from our group have confused your thoughts. These men came to you and they taught you without our authority. The things that they said were not right and they have upset you. ²⁵ So now we have all met together. We have agreed what to do about this problem. We have chosen some men to bring this message to you. They will travel with our good friends, Barnabas and Paul. ²⁶ These two men have worked as servants of the Lord Jesus Christ. Because of that, they have almost lost their lives. ²⁷ So we are also sending Judas and Silas to you. They will tell you the same things that we have written in this letter. ²⁸ The Holy Spirit has shown us what we should do. We also think that this is the right thing to do. We do not want to put a heavy weight on you. So these are the only rules that we want you to obey: ²⁹ Do not eat any food that people have given to their idols. Do not eat anything that still has blood in it. If people have strangled an animal to kill it, do not eat its meat. Do not have sex with anyone that you are not married to. If you obey these rules, you will do well. Goodbye.’

³⁰ So the believers in Jerusalem sent these four men to go to Antioch. When they arrived there, they told the group of believers to meet together. When they all met, Silas and Judas gave them the letter. ³¹ When the believers in Antioch read the letter, they were very happy. They said, ‘This message will help us very much.’ ³² Judas and Silas were both prophets. They spoke a message from God to the believers there. They spoke for a long time to help the believers and to make them strong. ³³ Judas and Silas remained in Antioch for some time. Then the group of believers sent them back to Jerusalem. The believers prayed that God would help them and take care of them. ^34 [g] [But Silas decided to stay there.]

³⁵ Paul and Barnabas remained in Antioch for a longer time. Together with many other believers, they taught the people, and they spoke the message about the Lord Jesus.

³⁶ After some time, Paul said to Barnabas, ‘We should go back to the towns where we already spoke the message about the Lord Jesus. Then we can visit the believers in all those places. We can see if they are doing well.’

³⁷ Barnabas agreed and he wanted to take John Mark with them. ³⁸ But Paul did not think that this was right. He said to Barnabas, ‘John Mark did not remain with us until we had finished our work. He left us when we were in Pamphylia.’

³⁹ Paul and Barnabas argued strongly about this. They could not agree, so they went in different directions. Barnabas took John Mark with him and they sailed to Cyprus. ⁴⁰ Paul chose Silas to go with him. The believers in Antioch asked the Lord God to take care of Paul and Silas. ⁴¹ They travelled through Syria and Cilicia. Paul taught the believers in those regions. He helped them to be strong and to trust Jesus.