M’Cheyne Bible Reading Plan
Moses speaks to the people
1 These are the words that Moses spoke to all the Israelites.[a] They were together in the desert on the east side of the Jordan River. This is in the Jordan Valley near Suph. It is between the towns called Paran, Tophel, Laban, Hazeroth and Dizahab. 2 (It is a journey of 11 days from Sinai to Kadesh-Barnea, along the road past Mount Seir.)[b] 3 Moses spoke to the Israelites on the first day of the 11th month, in the 40th year of their journey. He told the Israelites the message that the Lord had commanded him to speak.[c]
4 This happened after Moses and the Israelites had won against Sihon, king of the Amorites.[d] Sihon ruled in Heshbon. They had also won against Og, the king of Bashan, who ruled in Ashtaroth. The Israelites fought against him at Edrei. 5 Moses began to speak the Lord's message on the east side of the Jordan River, in Moab's country. This is what he said:
6 The Lord our God said to us at Sinai, ‘You have stayed for a long time near this mountain. 7 Now you must continue your journey. Go to the hill country of the Amorites and to all the regions near there. Go to the Jordan Valley and the mountains and the low hills in the west. Go to the Negev in the south, and to the Mediterranean coast. Go to the land of Canaan and to Lebanon, even as far as the great Euphrates river. 8 Look! I have given you all this land. Go there and take it for yourselves. I, the Lord, promised to give this land to your ancestors, Abraham, Isaac and Jacob, and to their descendants.’
Moses chooses leaders
9 At that time I, Moses, said this to you: ‘I cannot lead you and help you by myself. It is too difficult for me to do alone. 10 The Lord your God has caused you to become very many people. You are as many as the stars in the sky! 11 I pray that the Lord, your ancestors' God, will cause you to become a thousand times as many people. That is how he has promised to bless you. 12 But I cannot help you with your troubles and arguments all by myself. 13 You must choose some wise men who understand what is right. Choose people that you know, from each of your tribes. Then I will give them authority as your leaders.’
14 You answered me, ‘That is a good idea!’
15 So I chose men that you knew were wise to be the leaders in your tribes. I gave them authority to rule over you. Some were leaders of groups of 1,000 men. Some led groups of 100 men, or 50 men, or ten men. I also chose other officers for each tribe.
16 At that time, I said to your leaders, ‘Listen to the arguments between the Israelites that you lead. Decide what is right. Do that when the argument is between two Israelites. Do the same thing when the argument is between an Israelite and a foreign person who lives among you. 17 When you judge them, do not make any difference between important people and poor people. Listen to all of them in a careful way. Do not be afraid of anyone. God is the one who decides what is right. If it is too difficult for you to decide who is right, bring it to me. I will listen and then I will decide what is right.’
18 So, at that time, I told you about everything that you should do.
Moses sends out men to explore
19 Then we left Sinai, as the Lord our God had commanded us to do. We travelled through the desert towards the hill country of the Amorites. You saw that the desert was very big and it made you very afraid. Finally, we arrived at Kadesh-Barnea. 20 Then I said to you, ‘You have reached the hill country of the Amorites. The Lord our God is giving this land to us. 21 Look at the land! It is now in front of you! The Lord your God has given it to you. Go in and take it for yourselves. The Lord, your ancestors' God, has told you to do this. So do not be afraid. Be brave!’
22 Then all of you came to me and you said, ‘Let us send some men into the land first, before we all go in. They can explore the land. Then they can bring a report to us. They can tell us the best way for us to go in there. They can tell us about the towns that we will come to.’
23 I thought that this was a good idea. I chose 12 men, one from each of your tribes. 24 They left and went up into the hill country. They came to Eshcol valley and they explored it. 25 They picked some of the fruit that they found there and they brought it back to us. They told us, ‘The land that the Lord our God is giving to us is a very good land.’
The people refuse to obey the Lord
26 But you refused to go into the land. You turned against the Lord your God.[e] 27 You complained to each other in your tents. You said, ‘The Lord hates us. That is why he brought us out of Egypt. He wanted to give us to the Amorites, so that they would kill us. 28 We do not know what will happen to us now. Our brothers who explored the land have made us afraid. They say, “Those people in Canaan are taller and stronger than we are. Their cities are big and strong. They have walls around them that reach up to the sky. We even saw some men there who are descendants of Anak.” ’
29 Then I said to you, ‘Do not be so frightened of those people. 30 The Lord your God will go in front of you. He will fight to help you, as he fought for you in Egypt. You saw him do it. 31 He was also with you in the desert. He helped you when you were weak, as a father carries his son. You saw how he helped you all the way on your journey. He brought you safely here to this place.’
32 But you did not trust the Lord your God to help you. 33 He was the one who went in front of you on your journey. He was there in a fire during the night and in a cloud during the day. He found good places for you to put up your tents. He showed you the way that you should go.
34 When the Lord heard that you were complaining, he was angry. He made this serious promise: 35 ‘You people who are now alive are wicked. None of you will see the good land that I promised to give to your ancestors. 36 Only Jephunneh's son Caleb will see it. He has obeyed me faithfully. So I will give to him and to his descendants the land that he walked on.’
37 As for me, the Lord became angry with me also, because of you. He said to me, ‘You also will not go into the land.[f] 38 But your servant Joshua, the son of Nun, will go in there. You must tell him to be brave. He will lead the Israelites into the land. It will become their land. 39 You thought that enemies would catch your small children. But they are the people who will go into the land. Your children who are still too young to know the difference between good and bad will also go in there. I will give the land to them and it will become their land. 40 But now you must all turn back towards the desert. Travel along the road to the Red Sea.’
41 Then you answered me. You said, ‘Yes, we have done wrong things against the Lord. We will now go and fight those people. We will do what the Lord our God has told us to do.’ So then each one of you picked up his weapons. You thought that it would be easy to go up into the hill country.
42 But the Lord told me, ‘Do not let them go up there to fight. I will not be with you to help you. Your enemies will win against you.’
43 So I told you what the Lord had said, but you would not agree. Instead, you turned against the Lord. You were so proud that you marched up into the hill country. 44 The Amorite people who lived in those hills came out to attack you. You ran away from them, as if they were a crowd of bees. They attacked you as you ran down into the country of Edom, all the way to Hormah.
45 Then you came back to Kadesh-Barnea. You wept to show the Lord that you were very sorry. But he would not listen to your prayers. 46 So you stayed in Kadesh for a long time, until it was time to leave.
Asaph wrote this song for the music leader. Use special music.
God gives us strength[a]
81 Sing with joy to praise God!
He is the one who makes us strong!
Shout aloud to the God of Jacob.[b]
2 Start the music! Beat your tambourines!
Make beautiful music on your harps and lyres.
3 Start the New Moon Festival
with the sound of the trumpet.
Also do it on the day of the Full Moon.[c]
4 This is a rule for Israel's people.
The God of Jacob commanded us to do it.
5 When God punished the land of Egypt,
he gave this rule to Joseph's family.
I heard a voice that I did not know.
6 It said: ‘I took the heavy load off your back.
You no longer had to carry those heavy baskets.
7 When you had trouble, you called to me for help
and I made you safe.
I answered your prayers
from the middle of the dark storm.
I tested you at Meribah,
when you had no water in the wilderness.
Selah.
8 I said, “My people, listen to me!
I warn you now.
Listen carefully to me, Israel's people!
9 There must not be any strange god among you.
You must never worship a foreign god.
10 I am the Lord, your God.
I brought you out of the land of Egypt.
Open your mouth wide,
and I will fill it with many good things.”[d]
11 But my people refused to listen to me.
My people, Israel, did not obey me.
12 So I let them follow their own proud ideas.
They could do whatever they wanted to do.
13 But my people should listen to me!
Yes, Israel should obey my commands!
14 Then I would quickly win against their enemies.
I would attack them all.’
15 (Then people who hate the Lord
would fall down with fear in front of him.
They would be ashamed for ever.)
16 ‘But I would feed you, my people, with the best wheat.
I would give you plenty of honey from the rock,
for you to eat and be full.’
This is a psalm that Asaph wrote.
God and the gods[e]
82 God calls the powerful rulers to meet in heaven.
He sits on his throne to judge them.
2 He asks them, ‘How long will you continue to judge people
in a way that is not fair?
How long will you say that wicked people are right?
Selah.
3 You must help poor people and those with no family
to receive justice.
Help those who have pain and trouble
to receive the help that they need.
4 Rescue weak and helpless people,
so that evil people cannot hurt them.
5 The powerful leaders know nothing
and they understand nothing.
They walk about in a dark place.
At the same time the foundation of the earth shakes![f]
6 I said, “You are gods.
You are all sons of the Most High God.
7 But you will die, as all people die.
You will come to an end, like all other rulers.” ’[g]
8 God, now do something!
Judge all the nations of the earth.
For they all belong to you.
A sad song about Ariel
29 It will be very bad for Ariel, the city where David lived.[a] Continue to have your usual feasts every year, but trouble will come!
2 I will bring trouble to Ariel. The people there will be very sad and they will weep. Ariel will become like my altar for burnt offerings.[b]
3 I will bring an army to attack you. There will be soldiers all round the city so that nobody can leave. I will build strong towers against the city's walls. 4 Then you will fall down to the ground. While you lie there, you will speak. Your words will come quietly from deep down in the dirt. It will seem like the voice of a dead person's spirit. You will sound like a magician who is speaking magic words.
5 Your enemies will be like an army of dust. The wind will blow away that crowd of cruel men as if they are chaff. That will all happen very suddenly! 6 The Lord Almighty will come with great power. He will come with thunder, earthquake and a loud noise. There will be a great storm with strong winds and a fire that burns up everything.
7 The great crowd of armies from all the nations that attack Ariel will quickly disappear. They will soon come to an end, like a dream that someone sees in the night. All the weapons that they bring to attack the city's walls will disappear!
8 A hungry man may dream that he is eating a big meal. But as soon as he wakes up, he knows that he is still hungry! A thirsty man may dream that he is drinking. But as soon as he wakes up, he knows that he is still weak and thirsty. That is what it will be like for the great armies from all the nations that have come to attack Mount Zion.
9 You are so surprised that you do not believe what I say. You have become completely blind. You are stupid, like people who are drunk, but not from wine! You fall over, but not because you have drunk too much beer!
10 It is the Lord who has caused you to be like that. He has caused you to be completely asleep. He has shut the eyes of your prophets and he has covered the heads of your seers.
11 You do not understand this vision that the Lord has given to me. It is like the words in a closed book. Give the book to someone who can read. Say to him, ‘Read this, please.’ But he will answer, ‘I cannot read it, because someone has closed it.’ 12 Give the book to someone who cannot read and tell them, ‘Read it, please.’ But he will answer, ‘I do not know how to read.’
13 The Lord God says, ‘These people open their mouths to worship me. They use their lips to say that I am great. But they are not really thinking about me. When they worship me, they use rules that people have taught them. 14 So now I will surprise these people again. I will surprise them with great miracles! Wise people will not seem wise any more. Clever people will no longer seem to be clever.’
15 It will be very bad for people who try to deceive the Lord. They try to hide their thoughts from him. They secretly decide to do evil things. They boast and they say, ‘Nobody can see us. Nobody knows what we are doing.’
16 Your minds are really confused! You think that the clay is more important than the person who uses it to make pots! A bowl cannot say to its maker, ‘You did not make me!’ A pot cannot say to the potter, ‘You do not know what you are doing!’
17 Very soon, Lebanon's forest will become a field of fruit trees. And the field of fruit trees will seem like a forest. 18 At that time, deaf people will be able to hear when someone is reading words from a book. Blind people who have been living in a dark place will be able see what is happening. 19 And the Lord will make weak people happy again. Poor people will sing with joy, because of what the Holy God of Israel has done.
20 Cruel people will disappear. Proud people who insult others will no longer be there. There will be no more people who love to do evil things.
21 It will be the same for people who tell lies in court. They deceive the judge at the city gate. They say false things against good people to make them guilty. People who are like that will have gone!
22 So this is what the Lord says to Jacob's descendants. He is the one who rescued Abraham. He says, ‘Jacob's descendants will no longer be ashamed. Their faces will show their shame no more. 23 They will see that I have blessed them so that they have many children. Then they will agree that I am great. They will praise me, the Holy God of Jacob. They will respect me, Israel's God.
24 At that time, people with minds that are confused will understand what is right. And people who like to complain will accept my teaching.’
John says ‘Hello’ to Gaius
1 This letter comes from me, the leader of the believers. I am writing to you, my friend Gaius. I love you because we believe God's true message. 2 My friend, I pray that God will help you to live well. I know that you are well in your spirit. I pray that your body will also be well. 3 I was very happy when I heard news about you. Some Christian friends came here to tell me about you. They said that you are living in a good way. That is the way that God's true message tells us to live. 4 I am happy when I hear that my children are living like that. When they obey God's true message, it makes me very happy.
Continue to help people
5 My friend, you do many things to help other believers. You help them even when they are strangers to you. This shows that you are serving God well. 6 These men have spoken to the group of believers here about your love. Please continue to help them when they visit you. Give them the things that they need to continue on their journey. That will make God happy. 7 They are travelling to different places to tell people about Jesus Christ. They do not accept any gifts from those people who are not Christians. 8 Because of that, we Christians must help them with the things that they need. In this way we will be working together with them as they tell people the true message about Christ.
Diotrephes is causing problems
9 I have already written something to the group of believers. But Diotrephes refuses to accept our authority. He really wants to be the only leader among them. 10 So, when I arrive there myself, I will speak to the believers about this. I will tell them clearly about the bad things that Diotrephes is doing. He tells other people bad things about us that are not true. Even that is not enough for him. He himself refuses to welcome the believers who are visiting. He also stops anyone else who wants to welcome those visitors.[a] Instead, he sends them away from the group of believers.
Copy what good people do
11 My friend, do not copy what bad people do. Instead, you should copy the good things that people do. The person who does good things shows that he belongs to God. But anyone who does bad things does not know God.
12 All the believers say that Demetrius is a good person. He obeys God's true message. That also shows clearly that he is a good person. We also say the same thing about him. You know very well that what we say about him is true.
John finishes his letter
13 I would like to tell you many more things. But I do not want to write them in a letter. 14 Instead, I hope to come and visit you soon. Then I can see you and we can talk together.
15 I pray that God will give you peace. All your Christian friends here say ‘hello’ to you. Say ‘hello’ for me to each of my friends there, one by one.
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