M’Cheyne Bible Reading Plan
Land on the east side of the Jordan River
32 The people in the tribes of Reuben and Gad had very many animals. They saw that the land in Jazer and Gilead was good for their animals. 2 They went to speak to Moses, Eleazar and the other leaders of the Israelites. 3 They said, ‘The land at Ataroth, Dibon, Jazer, Nimrah, Heshbon, Elealeh, Sebam, Nebo and Beon 4 is good for animals. The Lord has given all this land to us Israelites. We have very many animals, 5 so please let us have this land for our animals. Let us have this land to live on, instead of land on the other side of the Jordan River.’[a]
6 Moses said to the men of Reuben and Gad, ‘The other Israelite tribes will go across the river to fight against the people who live there. It is not fair that you should stay here! 7 If you stay here, the rest of the Israelites may not want to cross the river. Do not stop them going into the land that the Lord has given to them! 8 Your fathers did the same thing when I sent them from Kadesh-Barnea to look at the land of Canaan. 9 They went to Eshcol valley and they saw the land. But they told the Israelites that it was not a good idea to go into Canaan. So the people did not go into the land that the Lord had given to them. 10 As a result, the Lord was very angry with them. 11 He promised, “None of the men that I brought out from Egypt will go into the land. It is the land that I promised to give to Abraham, Isaac and Jacob. But they have not trusted me completely. So any man who is 20 years old or older will not go into this land. 12 Caleb, the son of Jephunneh, and Joshua the son of Nun are the only men who will go into the land. They are the only men who trusted me completely.”
13 At that time, the Lord was angry with all the Israelites. He caused them to travel in the desert for 40 years. After that, all the men who had turned against him were dead.’
14 Moses continued to say, ‘Now you are turning against God, as your fathers did. You are as bad as them! You will cause the Lord to be even more angry with the Israelites. 15 If you turn against him, he will leave them here in the desert. If all the Israelite people die, it will be because of you!’
16 The men of Reuben and Gad said to Moses, ‘Let us build strong houses here for our women and our children. We will also build places to keep our animals safe. 17 Then we will be ready to join the other tribes and we will lead them to the battle. While we are fighting, our families will be safe here. The people who live in this land will not be able to hurt them. 18 We will not return to our homes here until all the Israelite tribes receive their own part of the land. 19 We will not receive any of the land on the other side of the Jordan River. Our part of the land will be here, on the east side of the river.’
20 Moses said to the men, ‘You must really do as you have said. You must take your weapons and go to fight for the Lord. 21 Your men must cross over the Jordan River with the other tribes. You must continue to fight until we have won against all our enemies. 22 When the Lord has power over the whole land, then you can return here. You will have done everything that the Lord wants you to do. You will have helped the whole Israelite nation in the way that you should. The Lord will give to you this land on the east side of the Jordan River.
23 But if you do not do what you have promised, that will be a sin against the Lord. And be sure that God will punish you for your sin. 24 So build towns for your families, and build safe places for your animals. But then do everything that you have promised to do.’
25 The men in the tribes of Gad and Reuben said to Moses, ‘Yes sir, we will do what you have said. 26 Our women, children and our animals will stay here in Gilead's towns. 27 But all our men who are able to fight will cross over the river. We will fight on behalf of the Lord, as you have said that we should do.’
28 Moses gave this message to Eleazar the priest, to Joshua the son of Nun and to the leaders of the family clans. 29 He said to them, ‘The men in Reuben's tribe and in Gad's tribe must cross over the Jordan River to fight with you on behalf of the Lord. If they do that, you must give to them the land here in Gilead. When you have won power over the whole land, then this land will belong to them. 30 If they refuse to fight together with the other tribes, they will have no land here. They must have part of the land in Canaan, like the other tribes.’
31 The men in the tribes of Reuben and Gad said, ‘We will do what the Lord has told us to do. 32 We will take our weapons and we will cross over the Jordan River to fight on behalf of the Lord in Canaan. But then we will live in our land here on this side of the river.’
33 So Moses gave to them all the kingdom of Sihon, king of the Amorites and Og, the king of Bashan. He gave to them the land with its towns and all the land round the towns. He gave it to the descendants of Gad and of Reuben and half of the tribe of Joseph's son Manasseh.
34 The men in the tribe of Gad built up again Dibon, Ataroth and Aroer. 35 They also built up again Atroth-Shophan, Jazer, Jogbehah, 36 Beth-Nimrah and Beth-Haran. They built houses for their families and their animals. 37 The men in the tribe of Reuben built up again Heshbon, Elealeh, Kiriathaim. 38 Nebo, Baal-Meon and Sibmah. They gave new names to the cities that they built up again.
39 The descendants of Makir, the son of Manasseh, attacked Gilead. They sent away the people who lived there. 40 So Moses gave Gilead to the descendants of Makir who was the son of Manasseh. And they lived there. 41 Jair, who was a descendant of Manasseh, attacked some villages. He got power over them and he called them Havvoth-Jair. 42 Nobah attacked Kenath and the villages round it. He called it Nobah, like his own name.
Asaph wrote this song for the music leader, Jeduthun.
A prayer in times of trouble[a]
77 I will call out to God for help.
I will call aloud to God,
and he will listen to me.
2 When trouble came to me,
I looked for the Lord to help me.
All through the night,
I lifted my hands to him while I prayed.
But I did not feel peace in myself.
3 When I think about God,
I am sad and upset.
I do not know if he will help me.
Selah.
4 God, you do not let me close my eyes to sleep.
I am so upset that I cannot even speak.[b]
5 I think about my life long ago,
in the years that have passed.
6 At night, I remember the songs that I sang before.
I think carefully about what is happening.
7 I ask myself, ‘Will the Lord always turn against me?
Will he never be kind to me again?
8 Does he no longer have a faithful love for his people?
Will he never do what he has promised us?
9 Has God forgotten to be kind and help us?
Is he so angry that he will not be kind to us any more?’[c]
Selah.
10 Then I said, ‘This makes me very upset!
Has the Most High God stopped helping us?
11 I will remember the things that the Lord has done.
Yes, I will remember the miracles that you did long ago.
12 I will think about everything that you have done.
I will think carefully about all those great things.’
13 God, your ways are holy.
There is no god as great as our God.
14 You are the God who does miracles.
You show the nations
that you are very powerful.
15 You used your power to rescue your people.
Yes, you saved the descendants
of Jacob and Joseph.
Selah.
16 The waters of the sea saw you, God.
When they saw you,
they shook with fear!
Even the deepest seas were afraid.
17 Rain poured down from the clouds.
The noise of thunder was in the skies.
Your arrows of lightning
shot everywhere.
18 The sound of your thunder was in the storm.
Your lightning made all the world bright.
The earth shook.
19 You went through the sea.
Your path went through the deep water,
but nobody saw where your feet had gone.
20 You led your people,
as a shepherd leads his sheep.
Moses and Aaron did that for you.
The Lord will judge all people
24 Understand this! The Lord is ready to destroy the earth. It will become a desert. He will spoil the ground. He will chase away all the people who live on it.
2 It will be the same for all people:
priests as well as ordinary people,
masters as well as their servants,
rich ladies as well as their servant girls,
sellers as well as buyers,
people who lend money as well as those who borrow it,
rich people as well as poor people.
3 The whole earth will become empty. Nothing will remain. The Lord has said that this punishment will certainly happen.
4 The earth becomes dry and all the plants die. The whole world becomes weak and helpless. Its important people also become weak.
5 The people who live on the earth have caused it to become unclean.
They have not obeyed God's laws.
They have turned against his teaching.
They have not obeyed the covenant that God made with them for ever.
6 That is why a curse is destroying the land. The people who live on it are guilty and God is punishing them. They become fewer and fewer. Only a very few of them remain.
7 There is no new wine and the vines are dying. The people who were happy to drink the wine are now sad. 8 The happy sound of tambourines has stopped. The noise from parties has finished. The harps no longer make any happy music. 9 People cannot drink wine, so they do not sing. When people drink beer, it seems bitter.
10 The city has become so spoiled that it is useless. People have locked their houses so that nobody can go in. 11 They shout in the streets because they have no wine. Nobody is happy any more, anywhere on the earth.
12 The city has become a heap of stones. Its gates lie in pieces on the ground.
13 This is what will happen among all the nations on the earth. Only a few people will remain, like a few olives that remain on a tree after the harvest. After people have picked the grapes off a vine, there are only a few that remain.
14 Those people who are still alive sing aloud because they are happy. People who live in the west praise the Lord because he is great. 15 So people who live in the east should praise the Lord too. People who live on the coast of the sea will also praise the name of the Lord, Israel's God. 16 From every part of the earth, we hear songs. People sing to praise the Righteous One.
But I say, ‘I have become very weak and thin! It will be very bad for me! Evil people are turning against their friends. They deceive people more and more!’
17 People everywhere on the earth, terror is ready to catch you! You will fall into a deep hole, and a trap will catch you! 18 Anyone who runs away from the sound of the terror will fall into the deep hole. The trap will catch anyone who climbs out of the big hole. God has opened the windows of the sky. He has caused the foundations of the earth to shake.
19 The earth has become broken into many pieces. It has torn apart. It is shaking powerfully. 20 The earth is like a drunk man. It cannot walk in a straight line. It moves in all directions, like a tent in a storm. The people's sins are like a heavy weight on the earth. It cannot carry them and it will fall. It will never be able to get up again.
21 At that time, the Lord will punish the powerful beings in the skies above. He will punish the kings who rule on the earth below. 22 He will bring them together like prisoners in a deep hole. That will be their prison. They will be there for a time, and then he will come to punish them.
23 The moon will hide its face in shame. The bright light of the sun will become dark. Yes, the Lord Almighty will become king on Mount Zion. He will rule with great power in Jerusalem. The leaders of the people will see his great glory.
God forgives our sins because of Jesus' death
2 I am writing this letter to you, my friends who are like my little children. I am writing to you because I do not want you to do wrong things. But if anyone among you does something wrong, there is someone who will speak to God on our behalf. That person is Jesus Christ, who always does only what is right. He will ask our Father God to forgive you. 2 Jesus died as a sacrifice to take the punishment for our sin. Then God could forgive us. Jesus did that not only for us. He did it for all people in the world, so that God could forgive them for their sins.
3 This is how we can be sure that we know God: If we obey God's commands, we know that we belong to him. 4 Someone may say, ‘I belong to God.’ But if he does not obey God's commands, that person is telling a lie. He is not living in the way that God's true message teaches us. 5 But anyone who obeys God's message shows that he really loves God completely. So this is how we know that we belong to God. 6 If we say that we are living in God's true way, then we must live in the way that Jesus lived.[a]
God tells us to love each other
7 My friends, I am telling you to love one another. When I write this to you, I am not giving you a new rule. It is an old rule that you have had for a long time. We gave it to you when you began to obey Christ. It is the same message that you have already heard. 8 But there is something new about it. This rule has become true in the way that Christ lived. Now it has also become true in your lives. God's true message has brought light to shine in your lives. You no longer live in the dark where you do bad things. 9 A person may say that he is living in the light. But if that person hates another believer, then he is telling a lie. He is still living in the dark. 10 Anyone who loves other believers shows that he is living in the light. There is nothing that will make him turn away from God. 11 But if someone hates other believers, he is still living in a bad way. He is like someone who is walking in the dark. He cannot see where he is going. He is like a blind person. He cannot understand God's true message.[b]
12 My little children, I am writing to you because God has forgiven your sins. He has done this because of Christ.
13 You who are older, like fathers, I am writing to you because you know Christ. He has always been there, since before the world began.
You who are young men, I am writing to you because you have won against Satan.
14 Yes, my children, I have written to you because you know God, our Father.
Fathers, I have written to you because you know Christ. He was already there before the world began.
Young men, I have written to you because you are strong. You continue to obey God's message, and you have won against Satan.
15 Do not live like people who do not know God. Do not love the wrong things that belong to this world. If anyone loves those things, it shows that they do not love God, their Father. 16 What are the wrong things that belong to this world? People want to do bad things to make themselves happy. People want to have things that they see, even bad things. People want to show other people how rich they are. These ideas do not come from God, our Father. They are the thoughts of people who belong to the world. 17 One day, those people and the things that they want will not be there any longer. But those who continue to do what God wants will live for ever.
People who are against Christ
18 My children, the world will soon end.[c] You have heard that the enemy of Christ will appear. You can see that many enemies of Christ have already appeared. This shows us that the world will end soon. 19 These people used to be in our group of believers. But they left us. They never really belonged to our group. If they had been true believers, they would have remained with us. When they left us, it showed clearly that none of them really belonged to us.
20 But Christ, the Holy One, has given you the Holy Spirit. As a result, you all know what is true. 21 That is why I am writing to you. It is not because you do not yet know God's true message. I am writing to you because you do know that true message. And you can be sure that there are no lies in it.
22 Who is the one who tells the worst lies? It is anyone who says that Jesus is not the Messiah. A person like that is the enemy of Christ. He is speaking against God, the Father, and against Jesus, his Son. 23 Anyone who says that Jesus is not God's Son does not belong to the Father. But anyone who accepts Jesus as the Son of God also belongs to the Father.[d]
24 As for you, always remember the true message that you heard at the beginning. If you continue to believe that message, you will continue to live with the Son and with the Father. 25 That is the real life that continues for ever. And that is what God has promised to give to us.
26 Some people are trying to lead you away from God's true message. I am writing these things to you so that you know about these people. 27 But Christ has given the Holy Spirit to you, and he continues to help you. So you do not need people to teach you what is true. The Holy Spirit himself teaches you everything about God's message. He helps you to know what is true. He does not tell you any lies. So you must remember what he has taught you. Continue to live together with Christ.
28 Yes, my children, continue to live with Christ. Then we will not be ashamed when he returns to this world. We will not be afraid to meet him.
29 You know that Christ only does what is right. So you should know this: Everyone who continues to do what is right has become a child of God.
EasyEnglish Bible Copyright © MissionAssist 2019 - Charitable Incorporated Organisation 1162807. Used by permission. All rights reserved.