M’Cheyne Bible Reading Plan
Abraham and Isaac
22 Some time later, God wanted to see if Abraham really trusted him. God said to him, ‘Abraham!’ Abraham replied, ‘Here I am.’ 2 God said, ‘Take your son and go to the land of Moriah. Take your only son Isaac, whom you love. You must offer him to me there as a burnt offering. I will show you the mountain where you must do this.’
3 Abraham got up early the next morning. He made his donkey ready for the journey. He took two servants with him, and also his son Isaac. First, he cut wood for the fire to make the burnt offering. Then he started on his journey to the place that God had told him. 4 On the third day of the journey, Abraham could see the place. It was not very far away. 5 He said to his servants, ‘Stay here with the donkey. I will take the boy and we will go over there. We will worship God in that place and then we will come back to you.’[a]
6 Abraham took the wood for the burnt offering. He gave it to Isaac to carry. Abraham himself carried the fire and the knife. The two of them walked on together. 7 Isaac spoke to his father, Abraham. He said, ‘Father?’ Abraham replied ‘Yes my son, what is it?’ Isaac replied, ‘I see that the fire and the wood are here. But where is the lamb so that we can make the burnt offering?’[b]
8 Abraham replied, ‘My son, God himself will bring the lamb for the burnt offering.’
The two of them continued to walk on together. 9 They came to the place that God told them. Abraham built an altar there. He put the wood on it, ready for the fire. Then he tied his son Isaac. He lifted him up and he put him on top of the wood on the altar. 10 Then Abraham took hold of the knife. He was ready to kill his son as a sacrifice.
11 But then the angel of the Lord spoke to Abraham from heaven. He said, ‘Abraham! Abraham!’ Abraham replied, ‘Here I am.’ 12 The angel said, ‘Do not hurt the boy! Do not do anything to him. Now I know that you respect God and you obey him. Isaac is your only son and you agreed to offer him to me as a sacrifice. You did not try to keep him safe.’[c]
13 Just then, Abraham looked round and he saw a male sheep behind him. Its horns were caught in some bushes. So he went and he took hold of the sheep. Abraham killed the sheep on the altar as a burnt offering to God. In that way, he killed the sheep as a sacrifice, instead of his son.[d]
14 Abraham called that place ‘The Lord will give me what I need.’[e] People still say today, ‘On the mountain of the Lord, he will give us what we need.’
15 The angel of the Lord called from heaven to Abraham again. 16 The angel said, ‘This is what the Lord says: I promise that this is what I will do for you. You did not try to keep your son safe, but you offered him to me. And he was your only son. 17 Because you have done this, I will bless you. I will make your descendants become so many that people cannot count them. They will be as many as the stars that are in the sky. They will be as many as the pieces of sand on the shore by the sea. Your descendants will win against their enemies and their enemies' cities. 18 I will bless all the nations on the earth through your descendants. I will do this because you have obeyed me.’
19 Then Abraham returned to his servants, with Isaac. Together they all left to go to Beersheba. Abraham lived there for a time.
20 Later, someone told Abraham ‘Milcah also has given birth to children. Your brother Nahor is their father.’ 21 The names of the children were: Uz, the son who was born first. Then his brother Buz. Then Kemuel, who is the father of Aram. 22 Then five more sons: Kesed, Hazo, Pildash, Jidlaph and Bethuel. 23 Bethuel later became the father of Rebekah. Those were the eight sons of Milcah and Abraham's brother, Nahor. 24 Nahor also had a slave wife. Her name was Reumah. She also gave birth to sons for Nahor. Their names were: Tebah, Gaham, Tahash and Maakah.
Jesus goes into Jerusalem
21 Jesus and his 12 disciples were coming near to Jerusalem. They came to the village called Bethphage.[a] They were on the Mount of Olives.[b] Then Jesus sent two of his disciples to go further.
2 He said to them, ‘Go into the village that is in front of you. When you arrive there, you will immediately see a donkey tied there with her young donkey. Undo the ropes and bring both the donkeys here to me. 3 Someone may ask you, “What are you doing?” Then say, “The Master needs them. He will send them back to you soon.” ’
4 A prophet had spoken a message from God about this long ago. Now it became true.
5 ‘Say to the people in Jerusalem,
“Look, your king is coming to you.
He does not come like someone who thinks that he is important.
He is riding on a donkey.
Yes, he is riding on a young donkey.” ’[c]
6 So the two disciples went to the village. They did everything that Jesus had told them to do. 7 They brought the donkey and the young donkey to Jesus. They put their coats on the backs of the donkeys. Then Jesus got up and sat on one of them. 8 Many people in the crowd put their coats down on the road. Other people cut branches down from trees. They put these branches down on the road.[d]
9 Many crowds of people went in front of Jesus and other people followed him. All of them were shouting,
‘We praise the Son of David!
May the Lord God bless the king who comes with his authority!
We praise God in heaven above!’[e]
10 When Jesus went into Jerusalem, everybody in the city had trouble in their minds. They were asking each other, ‘Who is this man?’
11 The people in the crowd replied, ‘This is God's prophet, Jesus. He comes from Nazareth in Galilee.’
Jesus visits the temple
12 Jesus then went into the yard of the temple.[f] People were buying and selling things there. Jesus made them all leave that place. He pushed over the tables of the men who changed coins.[g] He also pushed over the seats of the men who sold birds.
13 Jesus spoke to them all. He said, ‘The Bible says, “God's house will be a place where people come together to pray.” But you have changed it into a place where robbers meet.’[h]
14 Blind people went to meet Jesus in the yard of the temple. People who could not walk very well also went there. Jesus caused them all to become well. 15 The leaders of the priests and teachers of God's Law saw all the powerful things that Jesus did. They also saw children in the yard of the temple who were shouting, ‘Welcome! We pray that God will be good to you, Son of David!’ All these things caused the important Jews to become very angry.
16 They asked Jesus, ‘Can you hear what these children are saying?’
Jesus replied, ‘Yes, I can hear them. I am sure that you have read this in the Bible:
“Lord God, babies and children praise you.
You yourself have taught them to do that.” ’[i]
17 Then Jesus left everyone and he went out of Jerusalem. He stayed that night in Bethany, a village near the city.[j]
Jesus causes a fruit tree to die
18 On the next day, early in the morning, Jesus left Bethany to return to Jerusalem. On the way there, he was hungry. 19 He saw a fig tree near to the road. He went to see if it had fruit on it. But there were only leaves on the tree, and no fruit. Jesus said to the tree, ‘No fruit will ever grow on you again!’ Then, immediately, the tree became dry and it died.
20 The disciples saw it happen and they were very surprised. And they asked Jesus, ‘How did the tree die so quickly?’
21 Jesus said to them, ‘I tell you this: You must believe in God. You must not have other ideas in your mind. If you believe in God, then you could also do the same thing to this fig tree. You could even say to this mountain, “Move away and throw yourself into the sea!” Then it would really happen. 22 So when you pray to ask God for something, believe in him. Then God will give you whatever you ask for.’
23 Then Jesus returned to the yard of the temple. While he was teaching the people there, the leaders of the priests and important Jews went to him. They asked him, ‘What authority do you have to do these things? Tell us. Who gave you the authority to do them?’
24 Jesus replied, ‘I also will ask you one question. If you tell me the answer, then I will answer your question. I will tell you what authority I have to do these things. 25 John baptized people. Did God give him the authority to do this? Or did men tell him to do it?’ Then the Jewish leaders talked to each other about Jesus' question. They said, ‘We could say that God gave John his authority. But if we say that, Jesus will say to us, “Then you should have believed John.” 26 But we do not want to say that only men gave John his authority. All the people think that John was a prophet from God. We are afraid that the crowd might attack us.’
27 So the Jewish leaders answered Jesus: ‘We do not know who gave John his authority.’
Jesus said to them, ‘You will not answer my question. So I will not tell you what authority I have to do these things.’
Jesus tells a story about two sons
28 Jesus said to the Jewish leaders, ‘Tell me what you think about this story. A man had two sons. He went to the older son and said, “Son, go and work in my field today.”
29 The older son replied, “I do not want to go and work there today.” But after he had said that, he did go and work in the field.
30 The man went to his other son and he said the same thing to him. The second son replied, “Yes, father, I will go.” But then he did not go to work in the field.
31 Tell me, which of the man's sons did what his father wanted?’
The Jewish leaders replied, ‘The older son did what his father wanted.’
Jesus said to them, ‘I tell you this: The men who take taxes from people are going into the kingdom of God before you. It is the same with prostitutes. They also are going into the kingdom of God before you. 32 John the Baptist came to show you the right way to live. You did not believe him. But the men who take taxes did believe him. Prostitutes also believed him. Even after you saw this, you did not believe him. You did not change the way that you live.’
Jesus tells a story about a farmer
33 Then Jesus said again to the Jewish leaders, ‘Listen to another story that I will tell you. There was a man who had his own farm. He planted vines in a garden to grow grapes there. He built a wall around the garden. He dug a hole in the ground for a winepress to make wine. He also built a tall building to watch over the garden.[k]
The man then found some farmers to work in the garden for him. Then he went away to another country. 34 When it was nearly time for the harvest, the master sent his servants to speak to the farmers. He wanted them to give him the fruit that was his. 35 But the farmers took hold of the servants. They hit one of them with sticks. They killed another one. They threw stones at another servant and killed him. 36 So the master sent other servants to go to the farmers. He sent more servants than the first time. But the farmers did the same thing to those servants too. 37 After that, the master sent his own son to the farmers. He thought, “The farmers will surely respect my son.”
38 The farmers saw the master's son coming. They said to each other, “This is the master's own son. The garden will belong to him when his father dies. So we should kill the son and then the garden will be ours.” 39 Then the farmers took hold of the son. They threw him out of the garden and they killed him.’
40 Jesus then said, ‘One day, the master will return to his garden. What do you think he will do then to those farmers?’
41 The Jewish leaders said to Jesus, ‘The master will completely destroy those bad people. Then he will give the garden to other farmers to take care of it. Those new farmers will give the master the fruit that he should have at the time of harvest.’
42 Jesus said to them, ‘I am sure that you have read this in the Bible:
“The builders refused to use a certain stone.
They thought that it had no value.
But now that stone has become the most important stone at the corner of the building.[l]
The Lord God did this.
And we can see that he did something great.”[m]
43 I tell you this: Because you do not believe in me, God will take his kingdom away from you. He will give it to people who show that they obey him.
44 When a person falls onto that stone, it will break his body into pieces. When that stone falls on top of someone, it will destroy him completely.’[n]
45 The leaders of the priests and the Pharisees heard what Jesus said in his stories. They knew that he was speaking against them. 46 They wanted to take hold of him and put him in prison. But they did not try to do it because they were afraid of the people. The people thought that Jesus was a prophet from God.
The people who lived in Jerusalem
11 The leaders of the Israelite people lived in Jerusalem. The other people threw dice to choose which other families would live there too. From every group of ten families they chose one family to live in Jerusalem, God's special city. The other families would stay in their own towns. 2 The people asked God to bless all the men who chose to live in Jerusalem.
3 These are the leaders of the region of Judah who went to live in Jerusalem. Other Israelites, priests, Levites, temple servants and descendants of King Solomon's servants lived in the other towns of Judah. Each of them lived in their own homes. 4 But some of Judah's and Benjamin's descendants went to live in Jerusalem.[a] This is who they were:
From the tribe of Judah:
Athaiah, son of Uzziah and Zechariah's grandson. His other ancestors were: Amariah, Shephatiah and Mahalalel. They were descendants of Judah's son, Perez.
5 Maaseiah, son of Baruch and Col-Hozeh's grandson. His other ancestors were: Hazaiah, Adaiah, Joiarib and Zechariah. They were descendants of Judah's son, Shelah.
6 There were 468 descendants of Perez who went to live in Jerusalem. They were all brave men.
7 From the tribe of Benjamin:
Sallu, son of Meshullam and Joed's grandson. His other ancestors were: Pedaiah, Kolaiah, Maaseiah, Ithiel and Jeshaiah. 8 Sallu's relatives, Gabbai and Sallai were also there. There were 928 men from Benjamin's tribe.
9 Zicri's son, Joel, was the officer with authority over them.
Hassenuah's son, Judah, was the next most important officer in the city.
10 From the priests:
Joiarib's son, Jedaiah, and Jakin.
11 Seraiah, son of Hilkiah and Meshullam's grandson. His other ancestors were: Zadok, Meraioth and Ahitub. Ahitub had been the most important priest in God's temple. 12 Their relatives worked with them in the temple. There were 822 men from that clan.
Adaiah, son of Jeroham and Pelaliah's grandson. His other ancestors were: Amzi, Zechariah, Pashhur and Malkijah. 13 His relatives were with him. There were 242 men from that clan who were leaders of their families.
Amashsai, son of Azarel and Ahzai's grandson. Ahzai was the son of Meshillemoth, son of Immer. 14 His friends were with him. They were 128 strong brave men from that clan.
Haggedolim's son, Zabdiel, was the officer with authority over them.
15 From the Levites:
Shemaiah, son of Hasshub and Azrikam's grandson. Azrikam was the son of Hashabiah, son of Bunni.
16 Shabbethai and Jozabad were leaders of the Levites who had authority over work on the outside of God's temple.
17 Mattaniah, son of Mica and Zabdi's grandson. Zabdi was Asaph's son. Mattaniah led the people when they prayed and they thanked God.
Bakbukiah helped Mattaniah, as well as Shammua's son, Abda. Shammua was the son of Galal, the son of Jeduthun.
18 284 Levites lived in the holy city, Jerusalem.
19 The temple guards were:
Akkub, Talmon and their relatives. There were 172 guards who watched the gates.
20 The other Israelite people, priests and Levites lived in the other towns of Judah. They lived in the homes that belonged to their families.
21 The temple servants lived on Ophel Hill. Ziha and Gishpa had authority over them.
22 Uzzi was the leader of the Levites in Jerusalem. He was the son of Bani and grandson of Hashabiah. His other ancestors were Mattaniah and Mica. Uzzi was one of Asaph's descendants. Asaph's family were the singers who had authority for the music in the temple. 23 The king commanded the singers what they must do each day.
24 Meshezabel's son, Pethahiah, was one of the king's advisors. He helped the king of Persia to know how to rule the Israelite people. Pethahiah was a descendant of Judah's son, Zerah.
25 Many people of Judah lived in villages with their farms near them. Some of them lived in Kiriath Arba, Dibon and Jekabzeel, and in the villages near those towns. 26 Other people lived in Jeshua, Moladah, Beth Pelet 27 and Hazar-Shual, as well as in Beersheba and the villages near it. 28 Other people lived in Ziklag and Meconah and the villages near it. 29 Some people lived in En Rimmon, Zorah, Jarmuth, 30 Zanoah and Adullam and the villages near to those towns. Other people lived in Lachish and its fields, and in Azekah and its villages. The people were living everywhere from Beersheba to the Hinnom Valley.[b]
31 Some of Benjamin's descendants lived in Geba, Michmash, Aija, Bethel and its villages. 32 Some of them lived in Anathoth, Nob, Ananiah, 33 Hazor, Ramah and Gittaim. 34 They also lived in Hadid, Zeboim Neballat, 35 Lod, Ono and Ge-Harashim. 36 Some of the Levites' clans who belonged with Judah went to live in Benjamin's land.
Paul goes to Jerusalem
21 We said ‘goodbye’ to the leaders of the believers from Ephesus. Then we went on a ship straight across the sea, and we arrived at Cos. The next day, we continued on our journey to Rhodes. From there we went to the town of Patara.[a]
2 At Patara, we found a ship that was going to Phoenicia. So we got onto the ship and we sailed across the sea.
3 After travelling for some time, we could see the island called Cyprus. We went south of Cyprus, and we continued as far as Syria. We arrived on the coast at the city of Tyre and we got off the ship. The ship would remain in Tyre for some days, because people had to remove the things off the ship. 4 We found some believers in the city. So we stayed with them for a week. The Holy Spirit showed these believers that trouble would come to Paul in Jerusalem. So they said to him, ‘Paul, you should not to go to Jerusalem.’
5 After a week with the believers in Tyre, it was time for us to leave them. All the believers, together with their wives and their children, went with us out of the city. At the beach, we all went down on our knees and we prayed together. 6 Then we said ‘goodbye’ to each other and the believers returned to their homes in the city. We went and we got on the ship again, together with Paul.
7 We continued our journey across the sea. We sailed from Tyre to Ptolemais. There, we met some believers and we stayed with them for one day. 8 The next day, we left Ptolemais and we sailed to Caesarea. We stayed there with Philip. He was someone who taught people the good news about Jesus. He was one of the seven men that the believers had chosen in Jerusalem.[b] 9 He had four daughters who were not married. They spoke messages from God.
10 We stayed with Philip in Caesarea for a few days. Then a man called Agabus arrived in the city from Judea. He was a prophet and he spoke messages from God. 11 Agabus came to where we were. He took Paul's belt and he tied it around his own feet and hands. He said, ‘Listen to this message from the Holy Spirit. “The Jewish leaders in Jerusalem will take hold of the man who has this belt. They will tie his hands and his feet. Then they will give him to the Gentiles to be their prisoner.” ’
12 When we heard Agabus's message, we all said many times to Paul, ‘Please do not go to Jerusalem.’ 13 But Paul answered, ‘Stop crying like this! You are making me very sad! I am ready for men in Jerusalem to take hold of me. They may tie me up, and I may even die there. I am ready for all this because I believe in the Lord Jesus.’
14 We could not cause Paul to think in a different way. So we stopped saying to him, ‘You should not go to Jerusalem.’ Instead we said to him, ‘We want the Lord God to do what he wants.’
15 We stayed in Caesarea for a few days. Then we prepared ourselves to travel across land. We left there to go to Jerusalem. 16 Some of the believers from Caesarea also went with us. They took us to the house of a man called Mnason. We had decided to stay with him. His home town was on the island called Cyprus. He had been a believer for a long time.
Paul visits James in Jerusalem
17 When we arrived in Jerusalem, the believers there were very happy to welcome us. 18 The next day, we went with Paul to see James. The leaders of the believers were also there. 19 Paul said, ‘hello’ to them and then he told them everything about his work. God had helped him to do many good things for the Gentiles.
20 After the leaders had listened to Paul, they praised God. Then they said, ‘Brother Paul, you can see the problem. There are now many thousands of Jews who have believed in Jesus. But they also really want to obey the Law of Moses.[c] 21 These Jews here have heard about what you teach Jewish people in other countries. They think that you say to them, “You do not need to obey the Law of Moses any longer. You do not need to circumcise your children. You do not need to live in the way that Jewish people usually live.”
22 We need to do something about this problem. These Jewish believers will certainly hear that you are in Jerusalem. 23 We will tell you what you must do. There are four Jewish men in our group who have made a promise to God. 24 You must go with these men to the temple. There, they will wash to make themselves clean in front of God. Join with them when they do that. Then pay the priest the money for their sacrifices. After that, the men can cut the hair off their heads. When you do that, everyone will understand about you. They will see what you have done. They will know that you yourself obey the Law of Moses. They will know that what they have heard about you is not true. 25 But it is different for the Gentiles who believe in Jesus. We have already sent a letter to them. We wrote, “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.” ’
26 So the next day, Paul went with the four men. He joined with them when they washed to make themselves clean in front of God. Then he went into the yard of the temple. He told the priest there when the four men would finish their promise to God. This would be after seven days. After that, each man would give an animal as a sacrifice to God.[d]
27 At the end of those seven days, some Jews from Asia region saw Paul in the temple. They said some bad things against Paul to the crowd. So the people became angry and they took hold of Paul. 28 The Jews from Asia shouted, ‘People of Israel, come and help us! This is the man who goes everywhere and he teaches everyone bad things. He speaks against us, the people of Israel. He also speaks against the Law of Moses and against this temple. Now he has even brought some Gentiles into this temple. So now this special place is not clean in front of God any longer.’
29 (These men had earlier seen Paul in the city with a man called Trophimus. Trophimus was a Gentile who came from Ephesus. They thought that Paul had brought Trophimus into the temple. That is why they shouted bad things against Paul.)[e]
30 Many other people in the city heard about the trouble and they also became angry. They all ran from their homes to the temple and they took hold of Paul. Then they pulled him out of the temple and they closed the doors immediately.[f]
31 The angry crowd was trying to kill Paul. But someone sent a message to the leader of the Roman soldiers. The message was, ‘People are fighting everywhere in the city.’
32 So the soldiers' leader quickly took some other officers and a large group of soldiers and they ran down to the crowd. The angry crowd of people saw the leader with his soldiers. So then they stopped hitting Paul.
33 The Roman soldiers' leader went to Paul and he took hold of him. He said to his men, ‘Tie two chains round the arms of this man.’ Then he asked the people in the crowd, ‘Who is this man and what has he done?’
34 Some people in the crowd shouted one thing and other people shouted something different. There was so much noise that the leader of the soldiers was not sure about the true facts. He did not know what had really happened. So he said to his soldiers, ‘Take this man up into our strong building!’ 35 The soldiers then led Paul as far as the steps of their building. Then they had to carry him because the crowd was so angry. 36 The crowd followed behind Paul and the soldiers. They were shouting, ‘Kill him!’
37 While the soldiers were leading Paul into their building, he asked their leader, ‘Please may I say something to you?’
The soldiers' leader replied, ‘Oh! Do you speak the Greek language? 38 I thought that you must be that bad man who came from Egypt. He was the one who fought against our Roman government. Some time ago, he led 4,000 of his own men out into the wilderness, with their weapons.’
39 Paul answered, ‘I am a Jew and I was born in Tarsus in the region called Cilicia. So you see, I am a man from an important city. Please, let me speak to this crowd.’
40 The leader of the soldiers said to Paul, ‘Yes, you may speak to the people.’ So Paul stood still on the steps of the soldiers' building. He raised his hands towards them so that the people became quiet. Then he spoke to them in Aramaic, the Jewish people's own language.
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