M’Cheyne Bible Reading Plan

The 2½ tribes go home

22 Then Joshua called together the tribes of Reuben, Gad and the half tribe of Manasseh. ² Joshua said, ‘You have done everything that Moses, the Lord's servant, told you to do.^[a] You have also obeyed everything that I told you to do. ³ You have helped the other tribes for a long time now. You have stayed with them even until today. You have done all the work that the Lord your God gave you to do. ⁴ Now your brothers can live safely in the land, as the Lord promised them. So you can return to your homes on the other side of the Jordan River. Moses, the Lord's servant, gave that land to you. ⁵ But you must be very careful to obey the rules and the laws that Moses gave to you. You must love the Lord your God. You must obey the rules and commands that he has given to us. You must worship him and serve him with everything that you have.’

⁶ Joshua then blessed them and he sent them away to their homes. ⁷ (Moses had given land in Bashan to half the tribe of Manasseh. But Joshua had given land on the west side of the Jordan to the other half of the tribe, as he did for the other tribes.) When Joshua sent the 2½ tribes home, he blessed them. ⁸ He said, ‘Go back to your homes with the valuable things that you took from your enemies. Take many animals with you. Take silver, gold, bronze and iron things, as well as beautiful clothes. Share these things with the other people of your tribes.’

⁹ So the tribes of Reuben, Gad and half the tribe of Manasseh left the other Israelites in Shiloh, in the land of Canaan. They returned to their own land in Gilead. Moses had given this land to them, as the Lord had told him.

An altar causes trouble

¹⁰ The 2½ tribes came to Geliloth, near the Jordan River, in Canaan. They built a big altar there, beside the river. ¹¹ The other Israelites heard this news: ‘Those 2½ tribes have built an altar on the border of Canaan, at Geliloth! They have built it on the west side of the Jordan River, our side!’ ¹² So the Israelites came together at Shiloh to fight against the other 2½ tribes.

¹³ The Israelites sent Phinehas, son of Eleazar the priest, to the land of Gilead. He went to meet with the 2½ tribes, Reuben, Gad and the half tribe of Manasseh. ¹⁴ 10 Israelite leaders went with him, one man from each of their tribes. Each man was a leader of his own clan.

¹⁵ The Israelite leaders arrived in the land of Reuben, Gad and the half tribe of Manasseh, in Gilead. ¹⁶ They said, ‘You have not obeyed the Lord, Israel's God. All the people of Israel agree that you have done a bad thing. You have turned against the Lord. You should not have built this altar for yourselves.^{[b] 17} We did something very bad at Peor.^[c] Even now, we have not made it right. The Lord brought a bad disease to punish us as his people. ¹⁸ Now you are doing another bad thing. You no longer want to obey the Lord. You are turning against him today. So tomorrow the Lord may punish us all!

¹⁹ If your land here in Gilead is unclean, come back across the river to the Lord's own land. You can come and live among us, in the land where the Lord's tabernacle is. But do not turn against the Lord or against us. Do not build an altar for yourselves. The Lord our God already has his altar here. ²⁰ Remember the time when Achan, son of Zerah, took things that belonged to God for himself. He refused to obey God's command about Jericho's valuable things. Then God became angry with all the people of Israel. Achan died because of his sin, but he was not the only one.’^[d]

²¹ Reuben, Gad and the half tribe of Manasseh answered the Israelite leaders. ²² They said, ‘God, the Lord, is the great God! God, the Lord knows what is true! So all Israel must also know! Punish us today if we have turned against the Lord. We have not refused to obey him. ²³ We did not build our own altar to make burnt offerings or grain offerings or friendship offerings on it. If we have done that, the Lord himself should certainly punish us.

²⁴ No! We had a very different idea. We were afraid that in the future, your descendants might say to our descendants, “You have nothing to do with the Lord, Israel's God. ²⁵ The Lord put the Jordan River as a border between our tribes and your tribes. The tribes of Reuben and Gad cannot worship the Lord!” In that way, your descendants might stop our descendants from serving the Lord.

²⁶ That is why we decided to build this altar. It will not be an altar where we make sacrifices or burnt offerings. ²⁷ But it will help us all, our descendants and your descendants, to remember to obey the Lord. We will go to worship him at his tabernacle. There we will bring to him our burnt offerings, our sacrifices and our friendship offerings. Then, in future years, your descendants will not say to our descendants, “You cannot worship the Lord with us.”

²⁸ If they say that to us, we will reply, “Look at this altar that our ancestors built. It is a copy of the Lord's true altar. It is not for burnt offerings or sacrifices. They built it so that we would remember that we all belong to the Lord.” 

²⁹ We would never decide to turn against the Lord. We want to continue to obey him. We know that the only altar where we must make burnt offerings, sacrifices and friendship offerings is the true altar of the Lord our God. That altar stands in front of his tabernacle.’

³⁰ Phinehas the priest and the Israelite leaders that were with him heard this. They were happy with what the people of Reuben, Gad and Manasseh had told them. ³¹ They said to them, ‘Now we know that the Lord is with us! You have not refused to obey the Lord. So we know that he will not punish us Israelites.’

³² Then Phinehas, the son of Eleazar the priest, and the leaders left Gilead and they went back to the land of Canaan. They told the Israelites in Canaan what the people of Reuben and Gad had said. ³³ The Israelites were happy to hear their report. They thanked God. They did not think any more that they might attack the other tribes and destroy their land.

³⁴ The people of Reuben and Gad gave their altar a name, because they wanted to remember that the Lord is their God. So they called the altar ‘Remember’.

The Holy Spirit comes

2 Then the day of the Pentecost festival arrived. All the believers were meeting together in one place.^{[a] 2} Suddenly, as they were sitting together, they heard a noise. The noise came from the sky and it filled the whole house. It was like the sound of a strong wind. ³ Then they saw something that looked like many small fires. The separate fires moved and went to sit on each person there. ⁴ All the believers became full with the Holy Spirit. They began to speak in languages that they had not learned. They spoke whatever language the Holy Spirit helped them to speak.

⁵ At that time, Jews who came from many different countries in the world were staying in Jerusalem. They were Jews who carefully obeyed God's Law. ⁶ When these Jews heard the noise, a large crowd of them came together in that place. As the believers spoke, each person in the crowd could hear the message in their own language. This confused them. ⁷ They were very surprised and they said to each other, ‘These men who are speaking our languages are all from Galilee. ⁸ But each of us can hear them speak in the language of our own home country. How can this happen? ⁹ Some of us are from Parthia, Media and Elam. Some of us live in Mesopotamia, Judea, and Cappadocia. Some of us are from Pontus and Asia. ¹⁰ Some of us are from Phrygia and Pamphylia. Some of us are from Egypt. Some of us are from the country of Libya, near the town of Cyrene. Some of us have come from Rome to visit Jerusalem. ¹¹ Some of us were born as Jews. Others of us are Gentiles who now obey God as the Jews do. Some of us are from Crete and some of us are from Arabia. But we all hear these people speaking in our own languages. They are speaking about all the great things that God has done.’

¹² All the people were very surprised. They did not understand what was happening. ‘What does all this mean?’ they asked each other. ¹³ But some other people laughed at the disciples. They said, ‘These people have drunk too much wine!’

Peter speaks to the crowd

¹⁴ Peter was there with the other 11 apostles and he stood up with them. He began to speak to the crowd with a loud voice. He said, ‘You people who are Jews like us, listen carefully to me. All of you who live here in Jerusalem, you also listen to me. I will explain to you everything that is happening. ¹⁵ Some of you think that my friends here are drunk. But they are not drunk, because it is only nine o'clock in the morning.^{[b] 16} No, something different is happening here. Long ago, the prophet Joel spoke God's message about all this. This is what he said:^[c]

²² Peter then said, ‘People of Israel, listen to what I am saying! Jesus, the man from Nazareth, came with God's authority to do his work. God did many powerful and special things through him. These miracles showed you clearly that God had sent him. You know about all this. These things happened here, and you saw them. ²³ God knew that Jesus' enemies would give him to you. God had decided that this should happen. You let people who do not obey God's Law fix him to the cross. In that way you killed him. ²⁴ But after his death, God caused him to become alive again. God saved Jesus from the power of death. It was impossible for death to keep hold of him. ²⁵ A long time ago, King David spoke about the Messiah in this way:

²⁹ Peter then said, ‘Friends, people of Israel, I must speak clearly to you about our ancestor, King David. He died and people buried his body in the ground. You can still see the place where people buried him. ³⁰ He was a prophet. He knew what God had promised to do for him. He knew that one of his descendants would be king of God's people one day. ³¹ David understood what God would do in a future time. He did not speak about himself, but he spoke about the Messiah. He said that God would cause this man to become alive again after his death. God would not let him remain in Hades, the place for dead people. Nothing would destroy his body. ³² This man that David talked about is Jesus. After his death, God caused him to become alive again. We ourselves saw this happen. All of us saw it. ³³ God took Jesus back up to heaven. He caused Jesus to sit at his right side, the place of great honour. Jesus received the Holy Spirit from his Father God, so that he could give the Spirit to us. This is what God had promised to do. God has poured his Holy Spirit on us. Now you are seeing and hearing the result of this. ³⁴ King David himself did not go up into heaven like Jesus did. But David said:

³⁶ So all you people of Israel must be sure to know this: It is this same Jesus that God has chosen to be the Messiah. God has made him to be our Lord. But you fixed him to a cross and you killed him.’

³⁷ The people heard what Peter said to them. They were very upset. So they said to Peter and the other apostles, ‘Friends, tell us what we should do.’

³⁸ Peter said to them, ‘Each of you must stop doing wrong things. You must change how you live. If you believe in Jesus Christ, then we will baptize you. God will forgive you for the wrong things that you have done. Then you will receive the Holy Spirit, who is God's gift to you. ³⁹ God has promised to do all this for you and your children. He has also promised this to people who live far away in other places. The Lord our God will do it for all the people that he has called to come to him.’

⁴⁰ Peter also told them many other things. He continued to speak strongly to them. He told them to be careful and he said, ‘People who are alive today do not do what is right. Save yourselves from the punishment that God will send on them.’

⁴¹ Many of the people who listened to Peter believed his message. So the apostles baptized those people. About three thousand people who now believed in Jesus joined the group that same day.

How the believers lived

⁴² These new believers listened carefully to what the apostles taught them. They joined with everyone else in the group. They prayed together and they ate meals together.^[f]

⁴³ The apostles did many miracles which showed that the power of God was with them. As a result, all the people were very surprised and afraid. ⁴⁴ All the believers continued to meet together often. They shared all their things with each other. ⁴⁵ They sold some of their own things. Then they gave that money to any believers who needed it. ⁴⁶ The whole group of believers met together every day in the yard of the temple. They shared their food and they ate meals together in each other's homes. They were very happy and they were honest with each other. ⁴⁷ All the time, they praised God. All the other people thought that the believers were good people. Every day, the Lord saved more people so that the group of believers grew bigger.

The people have not obeyed God's covenant with them

11 The Lord gave this message to Jeremiah: ² ‘Listen to the rules of the covenant that I made with my people. Tell them to the people who live in Jerusalem and the other towns in Judah. ³ Tell them that the Lord, Israel's God, says, “I will curse anyone who does not obey the rules of this covenant. ⁴ I gave those rules to your ancestors when I brought them safely out of Egypt. That place was like a hot oven where they were in great pain. At that time, I said to them, ‘Obey me and do everything that I command you to do. If you obey my covenant with you, you will be my people and I will be your God. ⁵ I will do what I promised to your ancestors. I promised to give to them a land where there was plenty of food and drink, enough for everyone.’ That is the land that you still live in today.” ’

I answered, ‘Amen, Lord, I would like that to happen.’

⁶ The Lord said to me, ‘Speak all these words in the towns of Judah and in the streets of Jerusalem: “Listen to the rules of my covenant with you. Obey them! ⁷ I clearly warned your ancestors that they must obey me. I warned them many times since I brought them safely out of Egypt. I have continued to do that, even until today. ⁸ But they did not listen to me. They did not agree to obey my covenant. Instead, they continued to do all the wicked things that they wanted to do. They would not change how they lived. So I punished them in the way that the covenant said they deserved. I had commanded them to obey the rules of the covenant, and they did not do that.” ’

⁹ The Lord said to me, ‘The people of Judah and those who live in Jerusalem have decided to turn against me. ¹⁰ They are doing the same evil things that their ancestors did. Their ancestors refused to obey my commands. These people do that, and they also serve and worship other gods. I made a covenant with their ancestors. But the nations of Judah and Israel have refused to obey that covenant. ¹¹ So now, I, the Lord, say this: “I will bring great trouble to these people. They will not be able to escape. When they call out to me for help, I will not listen to them. ¹² The people who live in Jerusalem and in the other towns of Judah will ask their false gods to help them. Those are the gods that they offer sacrifices to. But when this terrible trouble comes, those gods will never be able to rescue them. ¹³ You people of Judah have as many gods as you have towns! You have built many altars to offer sacrifices to that disgusting god, Baal. You have built as many of those altars as there are streets in Jerusalem!”

¹⁴ So, Jeremiah, do not pray for these people. Do not ask me to do anything to help them. Do not ask me to save them. When trouble comes and they ask me for help, I will not listen to them.

The men in Anathoth want to kill Jeremiah

¹⁸ The Lord showed me what the people were doing.^[a] He helped me to understood what was really happening. ¹⁹ Before that, I did not know about their plans to kill me. I was like a lamb that men were taking away to kill it. I did not know that they were saying, ‘We should cut down this tree and destroy its fruit!^[b] Jeremiah must not continue to live in this world. Then people will forget all about him.’

²⁰ So I said, ‘Lord Almighty, you judge people in a fair way. You know what people are thinking. You understand how they feel. I trust you to show that I have not done anything that is wrong. So please punish these people. Pay them back for their sins.’

²¹ The Lord told me that some men in Anathoth wanted to kill me. They said to me, ‘Stop telling us messages from the Lord! If you do not stop, we will kill you.’ ²² So the Lord Almighty said, ‘Yes, I will certainly punish them! Their young men will die as they fight in war. Their children will be so hungry that they die. ²³ All those men in Anathoth who wanted to kill you will die. At the right time, I will punish them with great trouble.’

Jesus tells a story about ten young women

25 Jesus said, ‘I will tell you another story to show what the kingdom of heaven is like. There were ten young women who were going to a marriage party. They took their lamps with them and they went to meet the man who was marrying a wife. ² Five of these young women were silly. The other five young women were wise. ³ The silly women took their lamps with them, but they did not take any extra oil with them. ⁴ The five wise women took jars of oil with their lamps. ⁵ The man who was marrying a wife did not come for a long time. So all the young women became tired, and they went to sleep.

⁶ In the middle of the night, someone shouted out, “The man is coming! Come out to meet him!”

⁷ The ten young women woke up. Then they prepared their lamps to make them work well. ⁸ The five silly young women said to the other five young women, “Give us some of your oil, because our lamps are not giving much light.” ⁹ The wise women replied, “If we did that, then there would not be enough oil for all of us. You must go instead to the people who sell oil. You must buy some oil for yourselves.”

¹⁰ So these five women went to buy some oil. While they were away, the man arrived for the marriage party. The five wise women were ready. They went with him into the house for the party. Then the servants shut the door.

¹¹ Later, the five silly women also came to the house. They said, “Sir, Sir, please open the door for us.” ¹² But he replied, “I tell you, I do not know you.” ’

¹³ Then Jesus said to the people, ‘So you must watch carefully. You do not know on what day or at what time I will return.’^[a]

Jesus tells a story about three servants

¹⁴ Jesus said, ‘The kingdom of heaven is also like a man who began a journey. Before the master went away, he told his servants to come to him. He said to them, “Take care of all my money and all my things for me.” ¹⁵ The master gave one servant 5,000 gold coins. He gave another servant 2,000 gold coins, and to another servant he gave 1,000 gold coins. The master gave to each servant what he would be able to use well.^[b] Then he went away on his journey.

¹⁶ The servant who had received 5,000 gold coins went out immediately. He bought and sold things with the money. When he did this, he got 5,000 more gold coins. ¹⁷ The servant who had received 2,000 gold coins did the same thing. This servant got 2,000 more gold coins. ¹⁸ But the servant who had received only 1,000 gold coins did something different. He went outside and he dug a hole in the ground. He buried the money that his master had given him.

¹⁹ After a long time, the master came home.^[c] He asked the servants to come to him. He wanted to know how much money they had now. ²⁰ The servant who had received 5,000 gold coins came to his master. The servant said, “Master, you gave me 5,000 gold coins. Now I have an extra 5,000 gold coins.”

²¹ The master said to this servant, “You are a good servant and you have done really well. You were careful with a small amount of money. Now I will give you authority over many more things. I am really happy about this and I want you to be happy with me.”

²² The servant who had received 2,000 gold coins also came to his master. The servant said, “Master, you gave me 2,000 gold coins. Now I have an extra 2,000 gold coins.”

²³ The master said to this servant, “You are a good servant and you have done really well. You were careful with a small amount of money. Now I will give you authority over many more things. I am really happy about this and I want you to be happy with me.”

²⁴ The servant who had received 1,000 gold coins then came to his master. The servant said, “Master, I know what you are like. You tell people what they should do all the time. You take food from fields where you did not put any seed in the ground. You get fruit from trees that you did not plant. ²⁵ So I was afraid of you. I went and I buried your gold coins in the ground. Look! Here they are. You can have your money back again.”

²⁶ The master said to him, “You are a bad and lazy servant. You know what I am like, do you? I get food from fields where I did not put any seeds. I get fruit from trees that I did not plant. You knew all that. ²⁷ So you should have put the money into a bank. Then, when I came home, I could have received my money back from the bank, with extra money.”

²⁸ Then the master said to his other servants, “Take the 1,000 gold coins from this bad servant. Give them to the man who now has 10,000 coins. ²⁹ Some people have received good things. They will all receive even more and have lots of good things. Some other people have nothing. Those people will lose even the little bit that they do have. ³⁰ This servant cannot work for me any longer. Take him outside and throw him into a dark place. There, people will cry and they will bite their teeth together.” ’^[d]

God judges everybody

³¹ Jesus said, ‘I, the Son of Man, will return one day. Then people will see that I am great and powerful. All God's angels will come with me. I will sit on my great seat as king. ³² People from all the countries in the world will come together in front of me. I will put them into two groups. I will do it in the same way that a shepherd puts his sheep and goats into two groups. ³³ He puts the sheep on his right side and the goats on his left side.^[e]

³⁴ The king will say to those people who are on his right side, “Come here. My Father has been good to you. He has prepared a place for you in his kingdom. That kingdom has been ready for you since the time that God made the world. ³⁵ I was hungry and you gave me some food to eat. I was thirsty and you gave me some water to drink. I was visiting your town and you asked me to stay in your home. ³⁶ I did not have enough clothes and you gave me some clothes to wear. I was ill and you took care of me. I was in prison and you came to visit me there.”

³⁷ Then the people on the right side will say to the king, “Master, when did we see that you were hungry and give you some food? When did we see that you were thirsty and we gave you some water to drink? ³⁸ When did we ask you to stay in our home because you were alone? When did we give you some clothes to wear? ³⁹ When did we take care of you because you were ill? When did we come to visit you in prison?”

⁴⁰ The king will answer them, “I tell you this: You did all these things to help other people. They were not important people, but they were my friends. When you helped them, then you also helped me.”

⁴¹ Then the king will say to those people who are at his left side, “Go away from me. God has decided to punish you. He has prepared a fire that will burn for ever. He has prepared it for Satan and his servants. You will also go into that fire. ⁴² I was hungry but you did not give me any food to eat. I was thirsty but you did not give me anything to drink. ⁴³ I visited your town but you did not ask me to stay in your home. I did not have enough clothes but you did not give me anything to wear. I was ill but you did not take care of me. I was in prison but you did not come to visit me.”

⁴⁴ Then these other people will say, “Master, when did we see you and you were hungry, or you were thirsty? When did we see you alone or without clothes? When did we see you and you were ill, or in prison? When did you need our help and we did not help you?”

⁴⁵ Then the king will reply, “I tell you this: You did not help people who are my friends. They were not important people. But when you did not help them, you also did not help me.”

⁴⁶ Then those people on the king's left side will go away to the place where God will punish them for ever. But the good people on the king's right side will live for ever with God.’