M’Cheyne Bible Reading Plan

The Lord takes care of his people

8 Be careful to obey all the commands that I am giving to you today. If you do that, you will continue to live, and you will have many children. You will go into the land that the Lord your God promised to your ancestors. It will become your home. ² Remember how the Lord your God led you all the way across the desert. He took care of you for 40 years. He caused many troubles to come and to test you. He did that to see if you would trust him. He wanted to know whether you would continue to obey his commands. ³ He caused you to become hungry and then he fed you with manna.^[a] Neither you nor your ancestors had ever seen this food before. In this way, he taught you that food alone cannot cause people to live. They need to hear every word that the Lord speaks. That is what gives them true life.

⁴ During those 40 years in the desert, your clothes did not spoil. Your feet did not become big with pain. ⁵ You should realize that the Lord your God wants you to learn what is right. When he punishes you, he is warning you. That is what a parent does to teach his child. ⁶ So obey the Lord's commands. Live in a way that pleases him. Respect him with fear.

⁷ Remember that the Lord your God is bringing you into a good land. It is a land that has many streams, pools and springs of water. There is water that runs in the valleys and in the hills. ^8-9 It is a land where you will have plenty of food to eat. There is wheat, barley, grapes, figs, pomegranates, olives and honey. You will have everything that you need. The rocks have iron in them. You can dig copper out of the hills. ¹⁰ You can eat all the food that you want. Then remember to thank the Lord your God for the good land that he has given to you.

Remember that God has blessed you

¹¹ Be careful that you do not forget the Lord your God. Always remember to obey his commands, rules and laws that I am telling you today. ¹² When you are living in the land, you will have plenty of food to eat. You will build beautiful houses to live in. ¹³ You will have many cows, sheep and goats. You will have plenty of gold and silver. You will have many more things than you have now. ¹⁴ Then be careful! Do not become proud. Never forget the Lord your God who brought you out of Egypt. He rescued you from the place where you were slaves. ¹⁵ He led you through the large and terrible desert where there were dangerous snakes and scorpions. It was very hot and dry. There was no water there for you to drink. But the Lord made water pour out of a hard rock for you. ¹⁶ In the desert, he gave you manna to eat. That was food that your ancestors had never seen. He tested you, to see if you would trust him. He did that to help you enjoy good things in the end.

¹⁷ You must never say to yourself, ‘I have got all these valuable things because I am strong and clever!’ ¹⁸ Instead, you must always remember the Lord your God. He is the one who gives you the strength to get good things. He does that to show that his covenant still has authority today. That is the covenant that he promised to your ancestors. ¹⁹ But if you forget the Lord your God, he will destroy you. If you turn to other gods and you worship them, I warn you now: God will certainly destroy you! ²⁰ The Lord will do the same thing to you as he does to your enemies. Like those nations, he will completely destroy you if you do not obey him.

God is a safe place^[a]

Assyria's army attacks Judah

36 When King Hezekiah had ruled Judah for 14 years, King Sennacherib of Assyria attacked Judah with his army. He took all the strong cities in Judah for himself.^{[a] 2} Then the king of Assyria sent his army officer from Lachish to Jerusalem, to speak to King Hezekiah. The officer took a large army with him. He stopped at the stream of water that came from the higher pool. It was on the road to the field where people washed clothes.

³ These people came out to meet him:

⁴ The Assyrian army officer said to them, ‘Tell Hezekiah that the great king, the king of Assyria, says this to him:

“Why are you so sure that someone will rescue you from our power? ⁵ You say that you have good plans. You say that your army is strong. But those are only useless words! You have turned against me, so who are you trusting to save you? ⁶ Yes, you think that Egypt is strong enough to help you. But you should not trust Pharaoh, the king of Egypt. He is like a weak stick. If you use it to walk with, it will break! A broken piece of stick will make a hole through your hand and give you much pain! That is the trouble that the king of Egypt brings to everyone who trusts him to help them. ⁷ Maybe you will say to me, ‘We are trusting the Lord our God to help us.’ But it was your king, Hezekiah, who removed the altars and the special places where you worship your God. He told the people of Judah and Jerusalem, ‘You must worship God only at the altar here in Jerusalem.’ ”

⁸ So you should make an agreement with my master, the king of Assyria. I will give you 2,000 horses, if you have enough riders to put on them. ⁹ You cannot refuse what I offer to you! And I am only an unimportant officer who serves my master. You are hoping that Egypt will give you chariots and men to ride on horses. But you will never be strong enough to win a battle against us. ¹⁰ You should also understand this: It was the Lord himself who commanded me to bring my army here and attack Jerusalem. He said to me, “Attack this country and destroy it!” ’

¹¹ Then Eliakim, Shebna and Joah said to the leader of the Assyrian army, ‘Please sir, speak to us in the Aramaic language. We can understand it. Do not speak to us in the Hebrew language, because all the people who are on the wall of the city will understand it.’

¹² But the Assyrian army leader replied, ‘My master did not send me here to give this message only to your king and to you. The men who are sitting on the city wall also need to hear my master's message. Like you, they will soon have to eat their own dung and drink their own urine.’

¹³ Then the Assyrian army leader stood there and he shouted in the Hebrew language, ‘Listen to this message from the great king, the king of Assyria! ¹⁴ This is what the king says to you:

“Do not let Hezekiah deceive you. He cannot save you from my power. ¹⁵ Do not believe Hezekiah when he tells you that you can trust the Lord to help you. He says, ‘The Lord will surely rescue us. He will not let the king of Assyria take this city for himself.’ ¹⁶ Do not believe what Hezekiah says!”

This is what the king of Assyria says to you: “Show me that you accept my offer of peace and come out of your city. Then you will all live safely in your homes. You will eat the fruit from your own vines and fig trees. You will drink the water from your own wells. ¹⁷ Later, I will come to Jerusalem. I will take you away to a country that is like your own land here. There will be plenty of grain and new wine for you in that country. There will be bread and there will be vineyards. ¹⁸ Do not let Hezekiah deceive you when he says, ‘The Lord will rescue us.’ No god of any nation has ever saved his country from the king of Assyria's power.

¹⁹ The gods of Hamath and Arpad could not help their people. The gods of Sepharvaim could not help their people either. No god was able to rescue Samaria from my power. ²⁰ No god among all the gods of those countries could save their people from my power. So do not think that the Lord can save Jerusalem from my power.” ’

²¹ When the people who were sitting on the wall heard this, they were quiet. They did not reply, because King Hezekiah had said, ‘Do not answer him.’

²² Then King Hezekiah's three officers, Eliakim, Shebna and Joah, went back to Hezekiah. They had torn their clothes because they were very upset. They told the king what the Assyrian officer had said.

The Lamb opens the seals

6 Then I watched while the Lamb opened one of the seven seals on the book. I heard one of the four beings say, ‘Come!’ It spoke very loudly with a voice like thunder. ² I looked, and I saw a white horse. The person who was riding the horse held a bow. Someone gave him a crown. He had fought against many people and he had won. Now he rode out on his horse to win against many more people.

³ Then the Lamb opened the second seal. I heard another of the beings say, ‘Come!’ ⁴ Then another horse came out. This horse was bright red, like fire. The person who was riding the horse had authority. He could take peace away from the earth, so that people killed each other. Someone gave him a large sword.

⁵ Then the Lamb opened the third seal. I heard the next being say, ‘Come!’ I looked, and I saw a black horse. The person who was riding the horse held something in his hand. He used it to weigh things. ⁶ Then I heard a sound like somebody speaking among the four beings. The voice said, ‘A litre of wheat is worth one day's work. And three litres of barley is also worth one day's work. But do not destroy the olive oil and the wine.’^[a]

⁷ Then the Lamb opened the fourth seal. I heard the last being say, ‘Come!’ ⁸ I looked, and I saw a grey horse.^[b] The name of the person who was riding the horse was Death. The place for dead people, called Hades, was following near to him. They had authority to kill people in a quarter of the earth. They could kill people in different ways. They could kill them in wars. They could cause people to die because there was no food. They could cause people to become very ill so that they died. They could also cause wild animals to kill people.

⁹ Then the Lamb opened the fifth seal. I saw an altar where people offered gifts to God. I saw the souls of some of God's people under the altar. These people had died because they had believed God's message. They had continued to speak the true message about Jesus Christ. That is why people had killed them. ¹⁰ These believers called out loudly, ‘Lord, you have all authority. You are completely good. You always do what is right. When will you decide to judge the people who live on the earth? Do not wait! You should quickly punish the people who killed us!’

¹¹ Then each believer received white clothes. God told them to wait for a short time more. They must wait until other believers on earth also died. These believers are also servants of God. God will wait until people kill those believers too. Then the number of them will be complete.

¹² I watched again. I saw the Lamb open the sixth seal. Then the ground shook with a great earthquake. The sun became black like thick black cloth. The whole moon became red like blood. ¹³ The stars in the sky fell to the earth. They fell like fruits fall from a tree when a strong wind blows. ¹⁴ The sky divided into two parts. It rolled up like a piece of paper. Every mountain and every island moved away from its place.

¹⁵ Then everyone on the earth hid themselves. They went to the mountains and they hid among the rocks and in holes in the rocks. Everyone tried to hide, even the kings and the rulers. The soldiers' leaders, the rich people and other powerful people all went to hide. Everyone hid, whether they were slaves or free people. ¹⁶ They shouted to the mountains and to the rocks, ‘Fall on us and cover us. Hide us, so that the one who sits on the throne cannot see us. Also hide us from the Lamb who is very angry with us. ¹⁷ Their great day has come. They will punish us because they are so angry. Nobody will be able to escape.’