M’Cheyne Bible Reading Plan

Samson's birth

13 The Israelites again did things that the Lord saw were evil. So he put them under the power of the Philistines for 40 years.

² There was a man who belonged to Dan's tribe. His name was Manoah and he lived in Zorah. His wife had no children and she could not give birth. ³ The Lord's angel appeared to her. He said, ‘You have not been able to give birth to any children until now. But you will become pregnant and you will give birth to a son. ⁴ You must not drink any wine or any beer. You must not eat any food that is unclean. ⁵ Yes, you will give birth to a son. You must never cut the boy's hair. He is to be a Nazirite.^[a] He will belong to God from the time that he is born. He will begin to rescue the Israelites from the power of the Philistines.’

⁶ The woman went quickly to tell her husband. She said, ‘A man of God came to me. He looked like an angel that God had sent with a message. I was afraid of him. I did not ask where he came from. He did not tell me his name. ⁷ He said to me, “You will become pregnant and you will give birth to a son. You must not drink any wine or beer. You must not eat any food that is unclean. The boy will belong to me as a Nazirite from his birth until the day that he dies!” ’

⁸ Manoah prayed to the Lord, ‘Lord, please send the man of God to come to us again. Let him teach us how we should take care of this boy who will be born.’

⁹ God did what Manoah had asked. The angel came again to visit Manoah's wife. She was resting in the fields and her husband was not with her. ¹⁰ She ran to tell her husband, ‘Come quickly! The man who came to me the other day has appeared to me again!’

¹¹ Manoah got up and he followed his wife. When he met the man, he asked him, ‘Are you the man who talked to my wife?’ The man said, ‘Yes, I am.’

¹² Then Manoah asked him, ‘When what you promised happens, how should the boy live? What kind of work will he do?’

¹³ The Lord's angel answered, ‘Your wife must be careful to do everything that I told her. ¹⁴ She must not eat anything that comes from vines.^[b] She must not drink wine or beer. She must not eat any food that is unclean. She must obey everything that I have commanded her to do.’

¹⁵ Manoah said to the Lord's angel, ‘Please stay here with us. We would like to cook a young goat for you to eat.’

¹⁶ The angel replied, ‘Even if I stay with you, I will not eat your food. But you may prepare a burnt offering as a sacrifice to the Lord.’ The angel said that because Manoah had not realized that he was the Lord's angel.

¹⁷ Then Manoah asked the Lord's angel, ‘What is your name? When what you have promised happens, we will want to give you honour.’ ¹⁸ The angel replied, ‘You should not ask what my name is. It is too great for you to understand.’

¹⁹ Then Manoah took a young goat and a grain offering. He offered them on a rock as a sacrifice to the Lord. While Manoah and his wife watched, the Lord surprised them with a miracle. ²⁰ As the flames of fire rose up from the sacrifice to the sky, the Lord's angel went up in the flames. When Manoah and his wife saw this, they fell down with their faces towards the ground.

²¹ The Lord's angel did not appear to them again. Manoah then realized that their visitor was the Lord's own angel. ²² He said to his wife, ‘We are sure to die! We have seen God!’

²³ But his wife said to him, ‘The Lord accepted our burnt offering and our grain offering. He would not have done that if he wanted to kill us. He would not have shown us all these great things. He would not have told us about what will happen to us.’

²⁴ Manoah's wife gave birth to a son. She gave him the name ‘Samson’. The child grew to become a man, and the Lord blessed him. ²⁵ The Lord's Spirit began to give Samson strength when he was living in Mahaneh Dan. That place was between Zorah and Eshtaol.

What happened in Thessalonica

17 Paul and his friends continued their journey. They went through the two towns called Amphipolis and Apollonia.^[a] Then they arrived in the city of Thessalonica. There was a Jewish meeting place there. ² Paul went to the meeting place, as he usually did on a Jewish day of rest. On three rest days, he spoke God's message to the people there. He read from the Bible and he explained what it meant. ³ He told the people what was true about God's Messiah. He used the Bible to show them clearly that the Messiah had to suffer and die. He also showed them that the Messiah had to become alive again. Paul said to them, ‘I have been telling you about Jesus. He is the Messiah that God has sent to us.’

⁴ Some of the Jews believed Paul's message. They joined the group with Paul and Silas. A large number of Greek people who now worshipped God also joined this group.^[b] Many important women in the city also believed and they joined the group.

⁵ Some other Jews in the city were jealous of Paul and Silas, because people believed their message. So they went to the city's market place and they found some bad men there. These men often caused trouble in the city. Now the Jews brought these men to come together with them in an angry crowd. This crowd made a lot of noise and trouble in the streets of the city. They went to Jason's house and they broke down his door. They wanted to find Paul and Silas. They wanted to bring them out of the house to the crowd. ⁶ But they did not find Paul and Silas there. So they took hold of Jason and some other believers. They pulled them out of the house. They made them go and stand in front of the important officers of the city. They shouted, ‘These men have caused much trouble everywhere. Now they have come to our city. ⁷ Jason has let them stay in his house. They speak against the laws that Caesar has given to us. They say that there is another king. This other king is called Jesus.’

⁸ The whole crowd of people and the important officers heard this report about Paul and Silas. They became very angry and upset. ⁹ The officers decided how much money Jason and the other believers should pay to go free. When they received it, they allowed them to go.

Many people in Berea believe Paul's message

¹⁰ As soon as it became dark, the believers in Thessalonica sent Paul and Silas away to Berea. When they arrived in that town, they went to the Jewish meeting place. ¹¹ The Jewish people in Berea were better than the people in Thessalonica. They were happy to listen carefully to Paul. Every day they also studied the Bible. They wanted to know if Paul's message was true. ¹² Many of the Jewish people in Berea believed the good news about Jesus. Many Greek men and some important Greek women also believed in Jesus.

¹³ But the Jews in Thessalonica heard news about what Paul was doing in Berea. They heard that he was telling people God's message about Jesus. So some of them went to Berea. They said bad things against Paul to the people there. As a result, a large crowd became angry with Paul. ¹⁴ Immediately, the believers in Berea sent Paul away to go to the coast. But Silas and Timothy stayed in Berea. ¹⁵ When Paul left Berea, some men went with him. They went with him as far as the city of Athens.^[c] Before these men returned to Berea, Paul gave them a message for Silas and Timothy. He said, ‘Please come quickly and meet me here in Athens.’

Paul visits Athens

¹⁶ While Paul was waiting in Athens for Silas and Timothy, he walked around. He saw that the people in the city had many idols. When Paul saw this, he became very upset. ¹⁷ So he went to the Jewish meeting place and he talked with the Jews. He also talked there with those Gentiles who now worshipped God. Every day he also went to the market place in the city and he talked with the people there. ¹⁸ There were some teachers there who liked to talk about the things that people should believe. Some of them were called Epicureans and some were called Stoics.^[d] After they talked to Paul, some of them said to each other, ‘Who is this silly man? He knows nothing and he talks too much!’ But some of these teachers said, ‘We think that he is talking about strange gods.’ They said this because Paul was telling people the good news about Jesus. He was also talking about the time when God will cause dead people to live again.

¹⁹ So these men asked Paul to go with them to Areopagus hill. They wanted him to speak to the city's important officers who met there.^{[e] 20} The officers said, ‘These strange ideas that you are teaching surprise us. Please explain to us what these ideas mean.’ ²¹ (The people of Athens liked to talk about new ideas. So did the foreign people who lived there. They all wanted to hear new things and to talk about them. They seemed to do this all the time.)

²² So Paul stood up in front of the important officers of the city. He said to them, ‘People of Athens. I see that you have many gods. ²³ I have walked in the streets of your city. I see that you have built many special places where you worship your gods. I saw one altar with a notice on it. The notice said, “To the god that we do not know.” This shows that you want to worship a god that you do not know. Now I will tell you clearly about who this God is.

²⁴ The true God made the earth and everything that is in it. He rules everything in the earth and in heaven. He does not live in any buildings that people have made for him. ²⁵ People make things to give to God. But God does not need anything like that. It is God himself who causes everyone to live. He gives them everything that they need. ²⁶ God first made one man. From that one man he made all the different groups of people. He caused them to live in different places all over the world. He decided where each group of people should live. He also decided how long they should live in each place. ²⁷ God did all this so that people would want to know him. They would look carefully for him and perhaps they would find him. Really, God is near to each of us. ²⁸ Someone said this: “Because God gives us life, we are alive. Because of him, we can move about. Because of him we can be who we are.” One of your writers has also said, “We too are God's children.”

²⁹ So, because we are God's children, we should not think that he is a thing like an idol. Clever people use gold or silver or stone to make images of gods. But God is not like these things that people choose to make for themselves. ³⁰ In past times people did not know the true things about God. Because of this, God did not punish them. But now God tells people everywhere, “Stop doing bad things and turn to me!” ³¹ God has already chosen one special day. On that day he will judge everyone in the world in a completely right way. He has chosen a man who will do this for him. He has shown clearly to everyone who that man is. He showed it like this: People killed that man. But God caused him to live again.’

³² Paul had said, ‘God caused that man to live again.’ When the people heard this, some of them laughed at him. But other people said to Paul, ‘We want you to tell us more about this on another day.’ ³³ So then Paul left the meeting of the important officers of the city. ³⁴ Some of the people who had heard Paul's message joined his group. They believed the good news about Jesus. One of these believers was a man called Dionysius. He belonged to the group of important officers. A woman called Damaris also became a believer. Several other people also believed Paul's message about Jesus.

The people want to kill Jeremiah

26 The Lord spoke to Jeremiah at the time when Josiah's son Jehoiakim became king of Judah. ² The Lord said, ‘Go and stand in the yard of the Lord's temple. People come from all the towns in Judah to worship the Lord in his temple. Speak to them. Tell them everything that I command you to say. Do not leave out even one word. ³ Perhaps they will listen to what you say. Then they may stop living in the evil way that they do now. If they change how they live, I will not punish them for their sins, as I had promised to do. ⁴ Tell them that the Lord says this: “You must obey me. I have given you my laws that tell you how you should live. ⁵ You must listen to the messages that my servants the prophets tell you. I have sent them to speak to you many times, but you have not listened to them. ⁶ So if you do not obey me, I will destroy this temple, as I destroyed Shiloh. People of all the other nations on earth will use the name of this city as a curse.” ’^[a]

⁷ The priests, the prophets, and all the people heard Jeremiah's message in the Lord's temple. ⁸ Jeremiah said everything that the Lord had commanded him to say to all the people. Just as he finished, some of the priests, the prophets, and the people took hold of him. They shouted, ‘You deserve to die! ⁹ You should not say that you have the Lord's authority to prophesy such terrible things! You cannot say that this temple will become like Shiloh. You cannot say that this city will become a heap of stones where nobody lives!’

The whole crowd of people pushed together around Jeremiah in the yard of the temple.

¹⁰ Some of Judah's officers heard about what was happening. So they left the king's palace and they went up to the Lord's temple. They went to the gate of the temple that is called ‘The New Gate’. They sat in their places as judges near the gate.^{[b] 11} Then the priests and the prophets told the officers and all the people why they accused Jeremiah. They said, ‘This man deserves to die because he has prophesied trouble against this city. You yourselves have heard what he said!’

¹² Then Jeremiah said to all the officers and to all the people, ‘The Lord sent me to say all the things that you have heard me speak. He told me to prophesy against this temple and against this city. ¹³ Now you must change the way that you have been living. You must do what is good and right. Obey the Lord your God. Then the Lord will not punish you as he said that he would do. ¹⁴ As for me, I am under your authority. Do with me whatever you think is good and right. ¹⁵ But you should know this: If you punish me with death, you will bring great trouble on yourselves, this city, and everyone who lives here. You will be guilty of murder, because I have not done anything wrong. The Lord has sent me to speak all these words for you to hear. That is the truth!’

¹⁶ Then the officers and all the people gave their answer to the priests and the prophets. They said, ‘This man does not deserve to die. The Lord our God has given him authority to say these things to us.’

¹⁷ Then some of Judah's leaders stood up to speak to all the people who were there. ¹⁸ They said, ‘Micah from Moresheth prophesied when Hezekiah was king of Judah. He gave this message to all the people of Judah:

¹⁹ When Micah said that, King Hezekiah and all Judah's people did not punish him with death. Instead, Hezekiah gave honour to the Lord. He wanted to please the Lord. So the Lord did not destroy them as he had said he would do. If we are not careful, we will bring great trouble on ourselves!’

²⁰ There was another prophet who was called Uriah. He was the son of Shemaiah, from Kiriath-Jearim. Uriah prophesied against this city and this nation, with the Lord's authority, as Jeremiah did. ²¹ When King Jehoiakim, his personal guards and all his officers heard what Uriah was saying, the king wanted to kill him. But Uriah heard about it and he was afraid. So he ran away to Egypt. ²² But King Jehoiakim sent Akbor's son Elnathan and some other men to Egypt. ²³ They brought Uriah back from there to King Jehoiakim. The king punished Uriah with death. They threw his dead body in the place where they buried poor people.^[c]

²⁴ But Shaphan's son Ahikam, spoke on Jeremiah's behalf. He stopped the people from taking hold of Jeremiah and killing him.

Jesus tells a story about a garden

12 Then Jesus began to speak again to the important Jews. He told them stories. He said, ‘There was a man who made a garden. He planted vines to grow grapes there. He built a wall around the garden. He dug a hole in the ground where he could make the grapes into wine. He also built a tall building to watch over the garden.^[a] He found some farmers who would work in the garden for him. Then he went away to another country.^[b]

² At the time for the harvest, the man sent a servant to speak to the farmers.^[c] He wanted them to give him some fruit from the garden. ³ But the farmers took hold of the servant and they hit him with sticks. They sent him away with nothing. ⁴ So the man sent another servant to the farmers. They also hit this servant on the head, and they did other bad things to him. ⁵ The man then sent another servant, but the farmers killed this servant. He sent many other servants to them. The farmers hit some of these servants with sticks and they killed other servants.

⁶ The man had only one person that he could still send. This was his own son. The man loved him very much.^[d] So, last of all, he sent his son to the farmers. He thought, “The farmers will surely respect my son.”

⁷ But those farmers said to each other, “This is the son of our master. The garden will belong to him when his father dies. We should kill the son and then the garden will be ours.” ⁸ So the farmers took the son and they killed him. Then they threw his dead body out of the garden.’^[e]

⁹ Jesus then asked, ‘What will the master of the garden do then? I tell you, he will come and he will kill those farmers. Then he will give the garden to other people to take care of it. ¹⁰ I am sure that you have read these words in the Bible:^[f]

¹² The Jewish leaders knew that Jesus had told this story about them. They were the bad farmers in the story. So they wanted to take hold of Jesus. But they were afraid of the crowd. So they left him and they went away.

The Pharisees ask about the money that Caesar demanded

¹³ Then the leaders sent some Pharisees to Jesus. They also sent some men who were friends of King Herod. They tried to use Jesus' words to cause trouble for him. ¹⁴ These men came to Jesus and they said, ‘Teacher, we know that you only say true things. It does not matter to you what other people think. If someone is important, you do not change your answers to make them happy. You really do teach us what God wants us to do. Tell us, should we pay our taxes to the Roman ruler, Caesar? Is it right to give that money to him, or not?’

¹⁵ Jesus knew that those men were not honest. So he said, ‘You just ask that question to cause trouble for me. Now, bring me a coin. I want to see it.’ ¹⁶ So they brought a coin to him. Jesus asked them, ‘Whose picture is on this coin? Whose name is on it?’

They replied, ‘It is Caesar's picture and Caesar's name.’

¹⁷ Jesus then said to them, ‘So you should give to Caesar the things that belong to him. And give to God the things that belong to God.’

They were very surprised at his answer.

The Sadducees ask Jesus a question

¹⁸ Also, some Sadducees came to Jesus. Sadducees do not believe that anyone becomes alive again after they die.^[h] They wanted to ask Jesus a question.

¹⁹ ‘Teacher,’ they said to him, ‘Moses wrote these things for us in the Bible: If a man dies without children, his brother must marry the man's wife. Then their children will be called the children of the brother who died. ²⁰ But once there were seven brothers. The oldest brother married a woman. But he died before they had any children. ²¹ So the second brother married her. He also died without children. Then the third brother married this woman. ²² And the same thing happened to all seven brothers. They all died but they had no children. After all this, the woman also died. ²³ You teach that at some time dead people will become alive again. On that day, whose wife will that woman be? She had married all seven of those brothers.’

²⁴ Jesus said to the Sadducees, ‘You are very wrong. This is because you do not know the Bible. And you do not know how powerful God is. ²⁵ All people who have died will become alive again one day. But then men and women will not marry. They will not have husbands or wives. Instead, they will be like the angels in heaven. ²⁶ But God does make dead people alive again! You have read what Moses wrote about the bush in the wilderness. There, God said to Moses, “I am the God of Abraham. I am the God of Isaac. And I am the God of Jacob.”^{[i] 27} God is not the God of people who are dead. He is the God of people who are alive. So you see, you are very wrong.’

Jesus teaches people about the most important rule

²⁸ One of the teachers of God's Law came near to the group of people. He heard Jesus speaking with the leaders. The teacher knew that Jesus had answered them well. So then the teacher asked Jesus, ‘Which rule is the most important among God's Laws?’

²⁹ Jesus replied, ‘This rule is the most important rule: “Listen, Israel's people! The Lord alone is our God. There is no other Lord. ³⁰ Love the Lord, your God completely. Love him with all your mind and with all your strength. Love him in everything that you think and you do.”^{[j] 31} The second most important rule is this: “You should love other people as much as you love yourself.” No other rules are as important as these two.’

³² The teacher of God's Law said to Jesus, ‘Teacher, you have answered well. You are right to say that the Lord is the only God. And there is no other God except him. ³³ We must love him completely, with all our mind and with all our strength. We must also love other people as much as we love ourselves. This is more important than all the gifts or animals that we could offer to God.’

³⁴ Jesus heard that the man had answered well. So Jesus said to him, ‘You are almost ready for God to rule in your life.’ After that, everybody was afraid to ask Jesus any more questions.

Jesus teaches the people about the Messiah

³⁵ Jesus was teaching people in the yard at the temple. He said, ‘The teachers of God's Law say that the Messiah is King David's son.^[k] What do you think about that? ³⁶ The Holy Spirit helped David himself to say:^[l]

³⁷ In these words, David himself calls the Messiah his Lord. So can you really say that the Messiah is David's son?’^[n]

The large crowd liked to listen to the things that Jesus was saying. It made them happy.

³⁸ As Jesus was teaching the people, he said, ‘Be careful not to do the same as the teachers of God's Law. They want people to think that they are important. So they walk about in beautiful long clothes. They like people to praise them in the market place. ³⁹ They want to sit in the best seats in the meeting places. They choose the most important places at special meals. ⁴⁰ But these men take things away from women after their husbands have died, even their houses. Then they pray for a long time so that other people will praise them. Because they do these things, God will punish those men much more than other people.’

Jesus talks about people who give to God

⁴¹ Many people were giving their gifts for the temple. There was a box for money there. People threw their coins into it. Jesus sat near the box and he watched them. Many rich people put a lot of money into the box. ⁴² But then a woman came there. Her husband had died and she was very poor. She put two small coins that had only a little value into the box.

⁴³ Jesus asked his disciples to come to him. He said to them, ‘I tell you this: This poor woman has put a better gift into the box than all the other people have put in there. ⁴⁴ All those rich people have plenty of money. They only put a small part of that into the box. But this woman has almost nothing. She put in all the money that she had. That was all the money that she needed to live.’