M’Cheyne Bible Reading Plan
Rules about promises
30 Moses said to the leaders of the Israelite tribes: ‘The Lord commands this: 2 If a man promises to the Lord that he will do something, he must do everything that he has promised.
3 A young woman who still lives in her father's house might make a promise to the Lord. 4 If her father hears about her promise and he does not say anything, she must do everything that she has promised. 5 But her father may refuse to let her do it. Then she does not have to do what she promised to do. The Lord will understand why she does not do it.
6 But a young woman like that might make a promise to God and then marry a husband. She might have promised something when she had not thought carefully about it. 7 After she marries, if her husband hears about it but he does not stop her, she must do what she promised. 8 But her husband may say that he refuses to let her do it. He must say that on the day when he first hears about it. Then the woman does not have to do what she promised to do. The Lord will forgive her.
9 If a woman no longer has a husband, she must do whatever she has promised to the Lord. Maybe she is a widow, or she has become separate from her husband.
10 A woman who is living with her husband may make a promise to the Lord. 11 If her husband hears about it but he does not say anything, she must do everything that she has promised. 12 But her husband may say clearly that she must not do it. Then she must obey him. The Lord will understand why she does not do it.
13 The husband may let his wife do what she promised to do, or he may refuse. 14 If the husband does not say anything for many days about the promise, the woman must do what she promised. 15 The husband may wait for many days after he hears about his wife's promise. If he then refuses to let her do what she promised, he will be guilty. God will punish him instead of his wife.’
16 Those are the rules that the Lord gave to Moses. They say what must happen when husbands, wives or young women who still live at home make a promise to the Lord.
This is a special song that Asaph wrote.
A prayer for our nation[a]
74 God, have you turned against us for ever?
Why are you so angry with us?
We belong to you, so please take care of us,
like a shepherd takes care of his sheep.
2 Remember that we are your people.
Long ago you chose us for yourself.
You rescued us from being slaves,
so that we could be your special nation of people.[b]
So please think about us,
as well as your home on Mount Zion.
3 Come and look at our buildings!
Your enemies have completely destroyed them.
They have also destroyed everything that is in your temple.
4 Your enemies shout battle cries
inside your special meeting place.
They have put up their own flags there.
5 They used axes to cut the temple into pieces,
like people who cut down trees!
6 They used their hammers and axes
to break the wooden boards with pictures on them.
7 They completely burned your temple.
They knocked it down to the ground!
They caused your special place to become useless!
8 They said to themselves,
‘We will completely destroy them all.’
So they burned down every place in the land
where people meet to worship God.
9 We no longer see any signs that God is with us.
There are no more prophets among us.
Nobody can tell us how long this will continue.
10 God, how long will our enemies laugh at you?
Will they insult your name for ever?
11 Why do you do nothing to help us?
Use your power now to punish them!
12 God, you have been my king from the beginning.
You have done great things to rescue us
all over the earth.
13 You broke the sea into separate pieces,
because you are so strong.[c]
You broke the heads of the monsters
in the waters of the sea.[d]
14 You broke the heads of Leviathan.[e]
You gave his body as food
for the animals that live in the desert.
15 You caused springs and streams of water to appear.
And you made large rivers become dry![f]
16 Days and nights both belong to you.
You put the moon and the sun in their places.
17 You said where the land must be among the seas.
You made both summer and winter.[g]
18 Lord, think about your enemies.
They are always laughing at you.
Foolish people are insulting your name.
19 We, your people, are like your own special dove.
Do not let wild animals destroy us!
We are weak and poor,
so do not forget about us!
20 Remember what you have promised to do for us.
There are dark places everywhere,
where cruel people hide.
21 We are weak, and people want to hurt us.
Do not let us become ashamed.
Instead, let the poor, weak people praise your name!
22 Do something, God!
Show everyone that you are good.
Think how fools are laughing at you all the time.
23 Do not forget what your enemies are saying.
They shout things against you all the time!
A message about Jerusalem
22 This is a message about the city that is called ‘Vision Valley’.[a]
What are you doing? You have all climbed up on the roofs of your houses![b]
2 Your city is full of the noise of parties, and people are shouting. It was not war that killed the people who are lying in your streets. They did not die in a battle.
3 When the enemy came, all your leaders ran far away. The enemy caught all your people. They caught them all and they did not need to shoot any arrows!
4 So I say, ‘Leave me alone! Let me weep with many tears. The enemy has killed many of my people, so do not try to comfort me.’
5 The Lord, the Almighty Lord, has decided to bring great trouble to Vision Valley. It is a day of fear. People run here and there because they do not know what to do. The enemy knocks down the city's walls. People shout to the hills for help. 6 Elam's soldiers came with bows and arrows. They came with chariots and riders on horses. Kir's soldiers prepared their shields to fight. 7 So your beautiful valleys were full of chariots. Soldiers on horses prepared to attack your city's gates.
8 The enemy destroyed Judah's strong places where people could be safe. In that day, you looked for weapons in the House of the Forest.[c] 9 You saw that there were many holes in the walls of the City of David. You stored water in the Lower Pool. 10 You counted the houses in Jerusalem and you knocked down some of them. You used the stones to make the city's wall stronger.
11 You built a place between the city's walls to store water from the Old Pool. But you did not trust the One who made the city. You did not think about the One who decided to build it a long time ago.
12 At that time, the Lord Almighty told you to be very sad and weep. He told you to cut all the hair off your heads and to wear rough clothes.
13 But instead, you are happy and you dance! You kill cows and sheep for a feast! You eat lots of meat and you drink lots of wine. You say, ‘We will have a big feast today, because tomorrow we will be dead!’
14 But the Lord Almighty has told me this: ‘I will never forgive this sin of my people for as long as they live.’
That is what the Lord, the Almighty Lord has said.
15 This is what the Lord Almighty says: ‘Now go and speak to Shebna, the officer with authority in the king's palace.[d] 16 Say to him, “You should not be here in the palace. You have cut a grave in the rock here for yourself, but you do not have the authority to do that! You have made a beautiful grave high up on the hill, as if you belong with the kings.
17 But look! The Lord will catch you and he will throw you out! You are just a man. He will take hold of you with all his strength. 18 He will hold you in his hand like a ball and he will throw you far away. You will die in that large, open country. Your great chariots will be useless there with you. You have brought shame to your master's family.”
19 I will remove you from your job. You will no longer be an important officer in the palace.
20 At that time, I will call my servant Eliakim, the son of Hilkiah, to come. 21 I will put on him your special clothes. I will tie your belt round him. I will give your authority to him. Then Eliakim will become like a father to the people in Jerusalem and the people in Judah. 22 I will give the key of David's royal family to him. He will have complete authority. Any door that he opens, nobody may close it. Any door that he closes, nobody may open it.
23 I will fix him strongly in his place, like a peg in a strong wall. Because of him, people will respect and praise his father's family. 24 His children and his family will become more important because of him. They will be like bowls, cups and jars that hang on him as the strong peg.’
25 The Lord Almighty says, ‘When the time comes, the strong peg will fall out of the wall. I will cut it down and it will fall. Then all the things that hang on it will fall down as well.’
That is what the Lord has said.
The Lord Jesus will certainly come back to earth
3 My friends, this is the second letter that I have written to you. I have written both these letters to help you to understand some things. You already know these things. I want you to think about them in a good way. 2 I want you to remember the messages from God that his own prophets spoke a long time ago. Also, I want you to remember what our Lord Jesus told you to do. He is the one who saves us. He sent us, his apostles, to teach you his message.
3 The first thing that you should understand is this. In the last days of this world, some people will laugh at you because you believe in God.[a] These people will do whatever bad things they want to do. 4 They will say: ‘Christ promised that he would return to this world. But he has not returned! Our ancestors have already died, but since God made the world in the beginning, nothing has changed.’
5 These people choose to forget things that they really know. A long time ago, God spoke his word and he made the sky and the earth. He caused land to come up through water. He made the land to be separate from the water.[b] 6 Also, God used water to destroy that same world long ago. He spoke his word and he covered the land with water.[c] 7 But God has also spoken his word to say what will happen to the world in a future time. The sky and the earth that we see now will continue for a time. But God is keeping them until the day when he will destroy them with fire. On that day he will judge all people. He will destroy the people who have turned away from him.
8 My friends, here is one thing that you must remember. In the Lord God's mind, one day and 1,000 years are the same. For him, 1,000 years is like a single day. 9 The Lord is not being slow to do what he has promised to do. Some people may think that he is being slow to do it. But he is being patient with you. He does not want to destroy anyone. He wants all people to turn away from the wrong things that they do.
10 The great day of the Lord will suddenly happen. That will surprise people, like when someone comes to rob them. There will be a very loud noise in the sky. The whole sky will go away. Fire will burn the whole universe and it will destroy everything. The earth and everything that people have made will then become clear.[d]
11 Certainly, God will destroy everything in this way one day. So think about how you should live now. You should be the kind of people that God is happy about. You should show that you belong to God. 12 Yes, you should continue to obey God while you are waiting for Christ to return. God has chosen that day. Try to live in a way that will make that day come soon. On that day, fire will burn the whole sky. The sky will no longer be there. Heat will destroy the universe. 13 But God has promised to make a new sky and a new earth. That is what we are waiting for. That will be a home for everything that is good and right.[e]
Peter finishes his letter
14 So, my friends, live in a good way, because you are waiting for these things to happen. Try very much to do what makes God happy. Then, when you meet God, he will see that you are clean. He will see that there is no trouble in your minds. 15 Remember that our Lord wants to save people from their sins. That is why he is now waiting patiently for people to turn to him before he will return. Paul has also written to you about these things. He is our friend that we love like a brother. God helped him to understand these things. 16 He wrote about them in all his letters. Some things that he has written are difficult for people to understand. Some people have weak minds and they are not sure about what they believe. They explain Paul's teaching in a way that deceives people. They also explain other things in the Bible wrongly. As a result, those people will destroy themselves and God will punish them.
17 My friends, you already know about these false teachers. So be very careful that you do not believe those bad people. Do not let them lead you away from God. You know what is true, so do not leave that safe place. 18 Instead, you must grow as believers in our Lord Jesus Christ, who saves us. Continue to know him better and better. He will be kind to you and he will help you more and more. We praise him as he deserves! He is great now and he will be great for ever!
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