M’Cheyne Bible Reading Plan
Pharaoh's dreams
41 Two years later, Pharaoh had a dream. In his dream, he was standing by the River Nile. 2 Seven cows walked up out of the river. They were fat and good to look at. They ate the grass at the side of the river. 3 After those seven fat cows, Pharaoh saw seven other cows that also came up out of the river. Those cows were thin and not good to look at. They stood next to the other cows at the side of the river. 4 The thin cows ate the seven fat cows! Then Pharaoh woke up.
5 Pharaoh went to sleep again and he had another dream. He saw seven groups of grain that were growing on one branch. The grains were fat and good to look at. 6 Then he saw seven other groups of grain that grew after the first seven groups. These grains were thin, because the hot east wind had burned them. 7 Then the groups of thin grains ate the seven groups of grains that were good and fat. Then Pharaoh woke up. He realized that it was a dream.
8 In the morning, Pharaoh had trouble in his mind. So he told all the magicians and the wise men in Egypt to come to him. Pharaoh told them about his dreams. But no one could tell Pharaoh what his dreams meant.
9 Then the king's cupbearer said to Pharaoh, ‘Now I remember that I have done a wrong thing![a] 10 Two years ago, you were angry with me and with your special baker. You put us in prison, in the house of the guards' captain. 11 One night we both had a dream. Each of our dreams had its own meaning. 12 A young Hebrew man was there with us. He was a servant of the guards' captain. We told the Hebrew man about our dreams. Then he told each of us the meaning of our dream. 13 And everything happened as he had told us! You gave me my job as cupbearer again. But you hanged the baker to kill him.’
14 So Pharaoh called Joseph to come to him. They quickly brought Joseph from the prison. Joseph washed himself and he cut his beard from his face. He put on clean clothes. Then he went and he stood in front of Pharaoh. 15 Pharaoh said to Joseph, ‘I had a dream, and no one can tell me what it means. But people have told me about you. They say that you can tell the meaning of dreams.’ 16 Joseph replied to Pharaoh, ‘I cannot do this. But God will give you an answer that will make you happy.’
17 Then Pharaoh said to Joseph, ‘In my dream, I stood at the side of the River Nile. 18 I saw seven cows that came up out of the river. They were fat, and good to look at. They were eating the grass at the side of the river. 19 After them, seven more cows came up out of the river. They were thin and they were not good to look at. I have never seen cows as bad as these in Egypt before. 20 The thin cows ate the seven fat cows that came out of the river first. 21 When they had eaten them, you would not have known it! They still seemed to be as thin as they were before they ate the fat cows. Then I woke up. 22 In another dream, I also saw seven groups of grain that grew on one branch. The grains were fat and good. 23 After those, seven other groups of grain grew. Those grains were thin because the hot east wind had burned them. 24 The thin grains ate the seven groups of fat grains. I told those dreams to my wise men and magicians. But none of them could tell me the meaning of my dreams.’
25 Then Joseph said to Pharaoh, ‘Your dreams both have the same meaning. God has shown you what he will soon do. 26 The seven fat cows tell us about seven years. And the seven groups of fat grains also mean seven years. Both dreams have the same meaning. 27 The seven thin cows that came out of the river mean seven years. And the seven groups of thin grains mean seven years. Both of these tell us about seven years of famine.
28 This is what your dreams mean. As I said, God has shown Pharaoh what he will do. 29 There will be plenty of food for seven years all over the land of Egypt. 30 But then seven years of famine will follow. People will forget about the seven years when they had plenty of food. The famine will destroy the land of Egypt. 31 No one will remember the seven good years, because the famine will be so bad. 32 God gave you two dreams with the same meaning because these things will certainly happen. God will cause them to happen very soon. 33 Now Pharaoh should look for a clever man. He should look for a man who knows what is right and wrong. Tell him to rule over the land of Egypt.
34-35 This is what you should do: Choose some officers. Give them authority to store food during the good years when there is plenty. They must take a fifth part of all the food that grows everywhere in Egypt. They must store the extra food during the good years that will come soon. Give these officers authority to store and to take care of the food in the cities. 36 Then you will be ready for the seven years of famine that will happen everywhere in Egypt. The people in Egypt will have enough food, and the famine will not destroy the land.’
37 Pharaoh and his officers thought that Joseph's idea was good. 38 Pharaoh said to his officers, ‘This man has the Spirit of God in him. We will never find anyone else like him.’ 39 So Pharaoh said to Joseph, ‘God himself has helped you to know all these things. So there is no one who is as wise and clever as you are. 40 I will give you authority in my palace. All my people will do whatever you tell them to do. Only I will be greater than you, because I am the king.’
41 Pharaoh also said to Joseph, ‘I give you authority in the whole land of Egypt.’ 42 Then Pharaoh took his king's ring from his finger and he put it on Joseph's finger. He dressed Joseph in beautiful clothes made of linen. He put a gold chain round Joseph's neck. 43 Pharaoh gave Joseph a chariot to ride in. It showed that Joseph was Pharaoh's most important officer. Only Pharaoh had more authority. As Joseph travelled, his servants shouted to the people, ‘Bend your knees to respect Joseph!’
In this way Pharaoh gave Joseph authority over everything in the land of Egypt. 44 Pharaoh said to Joseph, ‘I rule Egypt as Pharaoh. But nobody who lives anywhere in Egypt will do anything, unless you tell them to.’ 45 Pharaoh gave Joseph the name Zaphenath-Paneah. He also gave Asenath to Joseph to be his wife. She was the daughter of Potiphera, who was a priest in Heliopolis.[b] Everyone knew that Joseph had authority in all the land of Egypt.
46 Joseph was 30 years old when he began to serve Pharaoh, king of Egypt. Joseph then left Pharaoh's palace and he travelled all over Egypt. 47 During the seven good years, lots of food grew in the land. 48 Joseph got all the extra food that grew in the seven good years. He stored it in Egypt's cities, near the fields where it had grown. 49 In this way, Joseph stored a lot of food. The food grains were as many as the sand by the sea! Joseph stopped counting how much food he had stored because there was too much food to measure.
50 Before the years of famine arrived, Joseph became the father of two sons. Asenath, daughter of Potiphera, a priest in Heliopolis, was their mother. 51 Joseph called his firstborn son Manasseh. Joseph said, ‘God has made me forget all the trouble that my family has given to me.’ 52 Joseph called his second son Ephraim. Joseph said, ‘God has given children to me in the land where I have received pain.’
53 The seven good years with plenty of food in Egypt, came to an end. 54 The seven years of famine began, in the same way that Joseph had said would happen. There was a famine in all the other countries too. But in Egypt, the people still had food to eat. 55 When the Egyptian people became hungry, they cried out to Pharaoh for food. When they did that, Pharaoh told all the Egyptians, ‘Go to Joseph. Do whatever he tells you to do.’
56 The famine became very bad everywhere. Joseph opened all the places where he had stored the food. He sold grain to the Egyptians because there was a bad famine in all of Egypt. 57 People from all the other countries came to Egypt to buy food from Joseph. They came because the famine was very bad all over the world.
Jesus rides into Jerusalem
11 Jesus and his disciples were coming near to Jerusalem. They were almost at the villages called Bethphage and Bethany. They were on the Mount of Olives. Then Jesus sent two of his disciples to go further.[a]
2 He said to them, ‘Go into the village that is in front of you. When you arrive there, you will immediately see a young donkey. Someone has tied it there. Nobody has ever yet ridden on it. Undo the rope and bring the donkey here to me. 3 Someone may ask you, “Why are you doing this?” Then say, “The Master needs the donkey. He will send it back here soon.” ’
4 So the two disciples went into the village. They found the young donkey in the street. Someone had tied it outside, by a door. So the disciples undid the rope. 5 Some people were standing there. They asked the two disciples, ‘What are you doing? Why are you undoing the donkey's rope?’ 6 The disciples answered them. They repeated what Jesus had told them to say. The people then let them take the donkey away. 7 The two disciples brought the young donkey to Jesus. They put their coats on its back and Jesus sat on it. 8 Many people then put their coats down on the road. Other people cut branches down from trees in the fields. They put the branches down on the road as well.[b]
9 Many people went in front of Jesus, and other people followed him. All of them were shouting,
‘We praise God!
May the Lord God bless the king who comes with his authority!
10 Great will be the kingdom of King David, our ancestor!
We praise God above!’
11 Jesus went into Jerusalem and went to the temple. He looked at everything there. It was late in the day, so he then went out of the city to Bethany. The 12 apostles went with him.
A tree without fruit
12 On the next day, they left Bethany. Jesus was hungry. 13 He saw a fig tree which was a long way away. There were leaves on it. So he went to see if it had fruit on it. When he reached it, he found nothing except leaves. That was because it was not the right season for it to have fruit. 14 So Jesus said to the tree, ‘Nobody will ever eat your fruit again.’ And his disciples heard what he said.
Jesus goes to the temple
15 When they arrived back in Jerusalem, Jesus went into the yard of the temple.[c] People were buying and selling things there. Jesus began to make them all leave that place. Some men were changing coins there for people.[d] He pushed over their tables. And he pushed over the seats of the men who sold birds.[e]
16 Jesus would not let anyone carry things through that place. 17 While he was teaching the people, Jesus said, ‘The Bible says, “God's house will be a place where people from all countries pray.” But you have changed it into a place where robbers meet.’
18 The leaders of the priests and the teachers of God's Law heard this. And they thought about how they could kill Jesus. They were afraid of him. That was because all the crowd were listening to him. And the things that he taught caused the crowd to be very surprised.
19 When it was evening, Jesus and his disciples went out of the city again.
The fig tree is dead
20 The next morning, Jesus and his disciples passed the fig tree. They saw that it was completely dead. 21 Peter remembered what Jesus had said. So he said to Jesus, ‘Teacher, look at that fig tree. You said that it should die, and it has died.’
22 So Jesus said to them, ‘You must believe in God. 23 I tell you this: A person could say to this mountain, “Move and throw yourself into the sea.” Then it will happen like he says. But he must not let other ideas come into his mind. He must really believe that those things will happen. If he does believe it, God will do those things for him. 24 So I tell you this. When you pray to ask God for anything, believe in him. Believe that you have received that thing. Then you will have whatever you have asked for. 25 But when you stand up to pray, first you must forgive other people. If anyone has done something bad against you, forgive that person. If you do forgive them, your Father in heaven will forgive you. God will forgive you for the bad things that you have done.’ 26 [f]
Jesus talks about his authority
27 Jesus and his disciples arrived again in Jerusalem. Jesus was walking about in the yard at the temple. The leaders of the priests, the teachers of God's Law and the important Jews came to him. 28 They asked him, ‘What authority do you have to do these things? Who gave you the authority to do them?’
29 Jesus replied, ‘I will ask you one question and you should answer me. If you do that, then I will answer your question. I will tell you what authority I have to do these things. 30 John baptized people. Did God give him authority to do this? Or did men tell him to do it? Now, tell me your answer.’
31 Then the Jewish leaders talked to each other. 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.” 32 But we do not want to say that only men gave John his authority.’ The Jewish leaders were afraid of the crowd. All the people thought that John really was a prophet from God.
33 So the Jewish leaders answered Jesus: ‘We do not know who gave John his authority.’
So Jesus said to them, ‘You will not answer my question. So I will not tell you what authority I have to do these things.’
Job continues to speak
7 People have to work very hard on this earth.
They have to work every day, like servants.
2 A servant waits for the end of the day so that he can rest.
A worker waits for his master to pay him.
3 But there is nothing for me to wait for.
I wait for many months and nothing happens.
Every night, I am always sad.
4 When I lie down at night to sleep,
I think, “How soon will the night end?”
But the night continues and I cannot sleep.
Finally, dawn comes.
5 There are worms all over my body.
All of my skin is painful.
There are dirty sores all over it.
6 My life is passing very fast.
Each day passes too quickly to see it!
The days of my life will finish,
and I cannot hope for anything to get better.
7 Remember, God, that my life is as short as a breath.
I know that I will never be happy again.
8 People who can see me now will not see me any more.
You will look for me, but I will not be there.
9 Clouds disappear and you never see them again.
That is like people who die and go into their graves.
They do not come back again.
10 They do not come back to live in their homes.
People forget about them.
11 So I must continue to speak.
I will tell you how upset I am.
I am angry because of what has happened to me.
So I must complain.
12 Why do you have to watch me, God, like a guard?
Do you think that I am a dangerous monster from the sea?
13 When I lie down to sleep,
I hope that my pain will be less.
14 But even then you give me dreams that frighten me.
I have visions which make me very afraid.
15 I would like someone to stop me breathing!
Death would be better than life.
16 My life is useless.
I do not want to live for ever.
My life is only a short breath.
So let me be alone.
17 Why do you think that people are important?
Why do you watch us so carefully?
18 You never leave us alone.
You test us every moment of every day.
19 You never look the other way.
You never leave me alone, even for a moment.
20 You carefully watch what people do.
Even if I have done something wrong,
it should not cause any trouble for you.
So why do you choose to punish me?
21 You should agree to forgive my sins.
You should say that I am not guilty.
I will soon die and I will go into my grave.
Then you will carefully look for me,
but I will not be there.’
Some of the Jews do trust God
11 So I ask this: ‘Has God turned away from his people?’ No, certainly, he has not done that! I myself belong to Israel's people. I am a descendant of Abraham and I belong to Benjamin's tribe. 2 God chose who would be his people from the beginning. He has not turned against them now. Remember what the Bible tells us about Elijah. He wanted God to punish Israel's people. Elijah said: 3 ‘Lord God, they have killed your prophets. They have destroyed the altars where people offered sacrifices to you. I am the only person alive who still serves you. And they are trying to kill me.’ 4 This was God's answer to Elijah: ‘There are still 7,000 men that I have kept for myself. Those men have not worshipped the false god Baal.’[a]
5 It is the same at this time too. There is a small number of Israel's people that God has chosen to trust him. He has chosen them because he is very kind. 6 This shows that God has not chosen them because of any good things that they have done. If that was true, we could not say that God was really being kind to them. It would not be his gift.
7 So we can say this: Israel's people did not all find what they were looking for. Only those people that God had chosen received it. But the other people of Israel became unable to understand God's message. 8 It says this in the Bible:
‘God caused them to be like people who are sleeping.
Even until this day, their eyes cannot really see,
and their ears cannot really hear.’[b]
9 King David says this:
‘They enjoy eating lots of good food together.
I pray that God will catch them while they are eating!
I want those good things to lead them into trouble.
I want God to punish them because of what they have done.
10 I want their eyes to become dark so that they cannot see.
I want their bodies always to be in pain, like slaves.’[c]
11 So now I ask this: ‘When Israel's people failed to accept Jesus as God's Messiah, did they make themselves separate from God for ever?’ No, certainly that is not true! Because of their mistake, God is now saving Gentiles. God is doing that so that Israel's people would become jealous. 12 Because of their mistake, God has done good things for everyone in the world. Israel's people failed to receive what God wanted to give them. As a result, the Gentiles have received very many good things from God. That was the good result when Israel's people failed. So, when the complete number of Israel's people do turn to God, the result will be even better!
Paul speaks to the Gentiles
13 Now I am speaking to you who are Gentiles. God has sent me to be his apostle to the Gentiles. I thank him that he has given this important work to me. 14 I hope that my work among you Gentiles will cause my own people to be jealous. As a result, some of them may turn to God, so that he saves them. 15 When God turned away from Israel's people, he then accepted other people in the world as his friends. So, when God does accept Israel's people, the result will be even better! It will be like dead people who have become alive again!
16 If you offer the first piece of bread to God, then all the bread will belong to God. If the roots of a tree belong to God, then the branches will also be his.
17 Israel's people are like an olive tree that a farmer has planted. But God has broken off some of that tree's branches. Then he has taken a branch from a wild olive tree. He has put that wild branch into the farmer's tree, to become part of that tree. You Gentiles are like the wild branch. Now you receive food from the root of the farmer's tree, to make you strong. 18 Israel's people are like the branches that God broke off. But you must not think that you are better than those branches. Remember that you are still only a branch. You do not make the root strong. No, it is the root that holds you up and makes you strong.
19 You might say, ‘God broke off the branches so that I could become part of the tree.’ 20 That is true. God broke them off because they did not believe in Christ. God has accepted you as part of the tree because you do believe in Christ. So do not become proud. Instead, be afraid. 21 God broke off the proper branches and he did not let them stay in the tree. So, if you no longer trust him, he will not let you stay either.
22 So you should think about what God is like. He is kind, but he also punishes people. He has punished Israel's people, because they turned away from him. He has been kind to you. But you must continue to accept his kind gift. If you do not do that, he will break you off from his tree as well.
23 God is able to accept Israel's people back again. If they come to believe in Christ, God will put them back as part of the tree. He is able to make them become branches of the tree again. 24 God cut you like branches from a wild olive tree. Then he put you into the farmer's olive tree so that you became part of it. He could do that even though that was not your own tree before. So God will be able to do that for Israel's people. He can easily put them back into their own tree, that they were part of before.[d]
God will save the Jews
25 My Christian friends, I want to help you to understand about Israel's people. It is a secret that God has shown to us. If you really understand it, you will not be proud that you are so clever. Many of Israel's people have refused to believe in Christ. They will continue to refuse him until the complete number of Gentiles have believed. 26 When that has happened, God will save all Israel's people. This is written in the Bible:
‘The one who rescues will come from Zion.
He will turn Jacob's people away from their sins.[e]
27 And I will make this agreement with them.
I will forgive them for their sins.’[f]
28 Israel's people have become God's enemies, because they have refused to believe the good news about Christ. This has happened to help you Gentiles. But God still loves Israel's people, because he has chosen them as his own people. That is what he promised to their ancestors. 29 God's thoughts about his people cannot change. He has blessed them with gifts and he has chosen them to belong to him.
30 In past times, you Gentiles did not obey God. But now God has been very kind to you, because Israel's people refused to obey him. 31 They do not obey God now. As a result God has been very kind to you. That has happened so that God may now be very kind to them too. 32 God says that everyone is guilty because they do not obey him. He says that so that he can be kind and he can forgive everyone.
33 Yes! God is very great! He has everything! He knows and he understands all things! Nobody can completely understand the things that he decides. Nobody can explain the ways in which he works. 34 The Bible says this:
‘Nobody knows the thoughts of the Lord God.
Nobody is able to tell him what he should do.’[g]
35 ‘Nobody has ever given anything to God,
so that God had a debt to pay back to them.’[h]
36 It is God who made all things. He also causes all things to continue. And all things are there to show how great he is.
We praise him! He is great for ever! Amen. This is true!
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