M’Cheyne Bible Reading Plan
The borders of the land
34 The Lord said to Moses, 2 ‘Tell the Israelites this: These are the borders of Canaan, the land that will be yours to live in.
3 The south edge will start at the Zin desert and it will go along the border of Edom land. It will continue to the east, and it will reach the south end of the Salt Sea.[a] 4 It will go south of the place called Scorpion Hill, and it will continue to Zin. Then it will go south of Kadesh-Barnea. It will go to Hazar-Addar and then across to Azmon. 5 There the border will turn and it will go along the Stream of Egypt.[b] It will continue as far as the Mediterranean Sea.
6 The west border of your land will be the coast of the Mediterranean Sea.
7 This will be the north border: From the Mediterranean Sea draw a line to Hor mountain. 8 From Hor mountain the border will go to Lebo-Hamath. Then it will go to Zedad. 9 It will continue to Ziphron and it will finish at Hazar-Enan.
10 This will be the east border: Draw a line from Hazar-Enan to Shepham. 11 Then the border will go from Shepham to Riblah, on the east side of Ain. It will go along the east shore of Lake Galilee. 12 Then it will go along the Jordan River and it will finish at the Salt Sea.
That will be your land, with its borders.’
13 Moses said to the Israelites, ‘That is the land for the Israelites to live in. You must use lots to give part of the land to each tribe. The Lord has told you to give it to the nine and a half tribes. 14 That is because the tribes of Reuben and Gad, and half of Manasseh's tribe have their land already. 15 Their land is on the east side of the Jordan River. It is on the other side of the river from Jericho city.’
Officers
16 The Lord said to Moses, 17 ‘Joshua, the son of Nun, and Eleazar the priest will decide which parts of the land will belong to each family. 18 One leader from each tribe must help them. 19 These are the names of those leaders:
Caleb the son of Jephunneh from the tribe of Judah.
20 Shemuel the son of Ammihud from the tribe of Simeon.
21 Elidad the son of Kislon from the tribe of Benjamin.
22 Bukki the son of Jogli from the tribe of Dan.
23 These will be the two leaders from the descendants of Joseph:
Hanniel the son of Ephod from the tribe of Manasseh.
24 Kemuel the son of Shiphtan from the tribe of Ephraim.
25 Then there will be Elizaphan the son of Parnach from the tribe of Zebulun.
26 Paltiel the son of Azzan from the tribe of Issachar.
27 Ahihud the son of Shelomi from the tribe of Asher.
28 Pedahel the son of Ammihud from the tribe of Naphtali.’
29 Those were the men that the Lord chose to decide about the land for the Israelite families.
38 But God was kind to them,
and he forgave them for their sins.
He did not destroy them.
Many times he was patient,
and he did not become angry with them.
39 He remembered that they were weak and human,
like a wind that blows away and does not return.
40 When the Israelite people were in the wilderness,
they often turned against God.
That caused God to be very sad.
41 Many times they tested God, the Holy One of Israel,
so that he was very upset.
42 They forgot about his great power,
and how he rescued them from their enemies.
43 He did powerful miracles in Egypt,
in the region of Zoan.
44 He caused the Egyptians' rivers to become blood,
so that they could not drink water from them.[a]
45 He sent large numbers of flies to bite them.[b]
He sent frogs that destroyed their land.[c]
46 He caused locusts to eat their crops,
and everything that grew in their fields.[d]
47 He destroyed their vines with hail.
He destroyed their fig trees with frost.
48 He sent hail to kill their cows.
He sent lightning to kill their other animals.[e]
49 He was so angry with them,
that he sent terrible things to punish them.
Great trouble came to them,
like an army of his angels that bring death.
50 Nothing could stop his anger.
He did not save them from death.
He let bad disease kill them.
51 He killed all the firstborn sons in Egypt.
The strongest men of Ham's descendants died.[f]
52 But God led his own people safely out of Egypt.
But took them through the wilderness,
like a shepherd leads his sheep.[g]
53 They were safe with him as their guide,
and they were not afraid.
But their enemies drowned in the sea.[h]
54 He brought his people to the edge of his holy land.
It was land with the mountain
that he had taken with his power.[i]
55 He chased away the nations that were living there.
He gave to each tribe their own piece of land,
so that Israel's tribes could live there.[j]
56 But the Israelites continued to test the Most High God,
and they turned against him.
They did not obey his commands.[k]
57 They turned away from him and they deceived him,
as their ancestors had done.
They were useless,
like a bow that would not shoot straight!
58 The places where they worshipped their idols
made God very angry.
59 God heard what they were doing,
and he became very angry.
He turned against the Israelite people.
60 He went away from his home at Shiloh.
That was the tent where he lived among people.[l]
61 He let Israel's enemies take away the Covenant Box,
that showed his power and his glory.[m]
62 He was so angry with his own people,
he let their enemies kill them in battle.
63 Fire killed their young men in war.
There was nobody for the young women to marry.
64 Their priests died in battle.
Their widows had no chance to weep.
65 Then the Lord woke up,
like someone had woken him from sleep.
He shouted loudly,
like a soldier who has drunk a lot of wine.
66 He chased his enemies away.
He caused them to be ashamed for ever.
67 He chose not to live among Joseph's descendants.
He did not choose the tribe of Ephraim.
68 Instead, he chose the tribe of Judah.
He chose Mount Zion,
the place which he loves.
69 There he built a temple for himself,
to be like his home in heaven.
He made it to be strong, like the earth itself,
so that it would always be there.
70 Also, he chose his servant, David.
He took David away from the fields,
71 so that he no longer took care of his father's sheep.
He became like a shepherd,
to lead his people, Jacob's descendants.
He ruled the people that belonged to God,
the Israelite people.[n]
72 David took care of them with an honest heart.
He was wise in the way that he led them.
A song to praise God
26 At that time, people will sing this song in Judah:
We have a strong city, where we are safe.
The Lord has made it safe,
like strong walls that protect us all round.[a]
2 Open the gates of the city,
so that the righteous nation can come in.
They are the people who continue to be faithful.
3 Lord, you keep those people safe
who continue to trust in you.
You give them peace in their minds,
because they believe in you.
4 Trust in the Lord now and for ever!
The Almighty Lord will always be our strong Rock.
5 He brings down low the proud people who live in high places.
He destroys their cities.
He knocks down their cities
so that they fall to the ground and become dust.
6 The poor people and the helpless people
will walk all over it.
Trust in the Lord
7 Righteous people walk on a path that is flat. You make their path straight, Lord.
8 Yes, Lord, as we follow the path of your justice, we wait for you to help us. We really want people to know that you are great. We want them to praise your name.
9 During the night, I think about you a lot. When morning arrives, I want to be near to you in my spirit. When you come to judge people on the earth, then people will understand your justice.
10 If you are kind to wicked people, they will never learn to do what is right. They continue to do wrong things, even in a land where people are honest. They do not see that you are great, Lord.
11 Lord, you are ready to punish them, but they do not realize that. Make them see that you love your own people. Then they will become ashamed. In your anger, punish them with fire, as your enemies deserve.
12 Lord, you will give us peace. Everything that we have done, you have done on our behalf.
13 Lord, our God, other lords have ruled over us. But you are the only one that we worship.
14 Those other lords are dead. They will not live again. Their spirits will not rise up again. You punished them and you destroyed them. Nobody remembers them any more.
15 Lord, you have made our nation larger. You have made our nation larger and you have shown how great you are. You have made all the borders of our land grow bigger.
A sad prayer
16 Lord, when your people had trouble, they came to you for help. When you punished them, they turned to you and they prayed.
17 Because of your punishment, Lord, we had much pain. We were like a woman who is giving birth and she cries out with pain. 18 Yes, it seemed like we were pregnant and ready to give birth. But we could only give birth to wind! We could not do anything to make the land safe. We have no descendants who will bring new life to the world.
19 But Lord, your people who have died will live again. Their bodies will rise up from their graves. You people who live in the ground, wake up! Shout because you are happy. You bring new life to the earth, like dew that comes in the morning. Dead people will come up from the earth and they will live again.
20 My people, go into your homes. Shut the doors and hide yourselves for a short time. Wait there until the Lord is not angry any more. 21 Look! Now the Lord is coming from the place where he lives. He is coming to punish the people who live on the earth for their sins. The earth will clearly show the blood that murderers poured out on it. Murderers will no longer be able to hide the people that they have killed.
The Holy Spirit and false spirits
4 My friends, do not believe everyone who says that they speak God's message. There are many false prophets who are travelling around everywhere. They say that they have a message from God's Spirit, but the message comes from a false spirit. So check each message carefully to see if it is really from God.
2 How do you know whether a person has God's Spirit in him? He must agree that Jesus is God's Messiah who was born as a human baby. If someone says that, then he has God's Spirit. 3 But if someone does not agree to say that about Jesus, he does not have God's Spirit. That person has a spirit that comes from the enemy of Christ. You have heard that this enemy of Christ would come among us. Now this spirit is already here in the world.
4 My little children, you belong to God. You have won against those people with a false message. You have been able to do that because God's Holy Spirit is in you. He is more powerful than the spirit that belongs to this world. 5 Those false prophets belong to this world. Their message comes from the ideas of people of this world. So the people of this world believe what they teach. 6 But we belong to God. Everyone who knows God believes our message. But anyone who does not belong to God does not believe it.
So that is how we know if someone's message comes from God's Spirit or not. God's Spirit brings us a true message, but false spirits tell lies.[a]
Love each other because God loved us
7 My friends, we should all love each other. It is God who makes us able to love other people. Everyone who loves other people has become a child of God. That person knows God. 8 Anyone who does not love other people does not know God. We know this because God's own nature is love. 9 This is how God showed that he loves us: He sent his only Son to come and live in the world. He did that so that we could have true life with God because of his Son. 10 This shows what love is: It is not that we have loved God, but that he loved us. He loved us so much that he sent his Son to save us from sin. He sent Jesus to die as a sacrifice, to take the punishment for our sins.
11 My friends, this shows how much God has loved us. So we should also love one another.
12 Nobody has ever seen God. But, if we love each other, it shows that God lives in us. As a result, we can love people completely, in the same way that God loves us. 13 God has given us his Holy Spirit to live in us. Because of this, we know that we live together with God. And we know that he lives with us. 14 God the Father sent his Son to come into the world. God sent him to save the people of the world from their sins. We apostles have seen that this is true. So now we are telling people about it.
15 If anyone says clearly that Jesus is the Son of God, God lives in that person. And that person lives together with God. 16 So we know the kind of love that God has for us. We believe that God has put that love in us. God's nature is love. So, if someone continues to love other people, he is living together with God. And God lives in him. 17 That is how we are able to love other people completely. Then, we will not be afraid on the day when God will judge all people. We can be sure that God will not punish us. We know this because we have lived in this world in the way that Jesus lived.
18 If we really love God, we will not be afraid of him. We cannot love him completely and also be afraid. We would only be afraid of God if we thought that he would punish us. So, if someone is afraid that God will punish them, it shows that they do not completely know God's love.
19 We are able to love God and other people because God loved us first. 20 Someone may say, ‘I love God.’ But if he says that and he hates another Christian, he is telling a lie. He sees other believers but he does not love them. So he surely cannot love God that he has not seen. 21 This is the command that God has given us. He has told us that anyone who loves him should love other Christians too.[b]
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