M’Cheyne Bible Reading Plan
David’s Census of Israel and Judah(A)
24 Again the Lord became angry against Israel, and He incited David against them, saying, “Go and count the people of Israel and Judah.”
2 The king said to Joab the commander of the army who was with him, “Go throughout all of the tribes of Israel, from Dan to Beersheba, and muster the people so that I may know the number of the people.”
3 Joab said to the king, “May the Lord your God add to the people however many they are one hundred times over in the sight of my lord the king. But why does my lord the king so desire this thing?”
4 However, the king’s word prevailed against Joab and the commanders of the army. So Joab and the commanders of the army went out from before the king to register the people of Israel.
5 They crossed the Jordan and camped at Aroer, south of the city, in the middle of the ravine of Gad toward Jazer. 6 They went toward Gilead to the land of Tahtim Hodshi. Then they went toward Dan Jaan and around to Sidon. 7 They went to the fortress of Tyre and all of the towns of the Hivites and Canaanites. They went to the Negev and Beersheba.
8 They went throughout the entire land, and after nine months and twenty days, they came to Jerusalem.
9 Joab gave the count of the census of the people to the king. There were eight hundred thousand capable men who could draw a sword in Israel, and the men of Judah were five hundred thousand.
Judgment for David’s Sin
10 Now the heart of David struck him after he had counted the people. David said to the Lord, “I have sinned greatly by what I have done. Now may the Lord take away the iniquity of your servant, for I have behaved very foolishly.”
11 When David arose in the morning, the word of the Lord came to the prophet Gad, the seer for David, saying, 12 “Go and speak to David: Thus says the Lord: Three options I am laying before you. Choose for yourself one of them, and I will do this to you.”
13 So Gad came to David and told him. He said to him, “Shall seven years of famine come to you in your land? Or shall you flee three months before your enemies while they pursue you? Or shall there be three days of plague in your land? Now consider and advise what answer I shall return to Him who sent me.”
14 David said to Gad, “I am very distressed. Let us fall by the hand of the Lord, for His mercy is great. May I not fall by the hand of man.”
15 So the Lord sent a plague upon Israel from the morning until the appointed time. Seventy thousand men from the people died, from Dan to Beersheba. 16 When the angel stretched out his hand toward Jerusalem to destroy it, the Lord relented from the calamity. He said to the angel who was annihilating the people, “Enough! Now stay your hand.” The angel of the Lord was at the threshing floor of Araunah the Jebusite.
17 On seeing the angel who was striking down the people, David said to the Lord, “I am the one who has sinned and I am the one who has done wrong. These sheep, what have they done? Please, let your hand be against me and against the house of my father.”
David Builds an Altar(B)
18 Gad came to David that day and said to him, “Go up and erect an altar to the Lord on the threshing floor of Araunah the Jebusite.” 19 So David went up according to the word of Gad, as the Lord commanded. 20 When Araunah looked and saw the king and his servants coming toward him, he went out and bowed low to the king with his face on the ground.
21 Araunah said, “Why has my lord the king come to his servant?”
David replied, “To purchase the threshing floor from you in order to build an altar to the Lord, so that the plague may be averted from the people.”
22 Araunah said to David, “Let my lord the king take and offer up what seems good to him. Here are the oxen for the burnt offering and the threshing sledges and yokes of the oxen for wood. 23 Everything, O king, Araunah gives to the king.” Araunah also said to the king, “May the Lord your God be favorable toward you.”
24 However, the king said to Araunah, “No, for I will certainly purchase from you for a fair price. I will not offer up to the Lord burnt offerings that cost me nothing.”
So David purchased the threshing floor and the oxen for fifty shekels[a] of silver. 25 David built an altar to the Lord there and offered burnt offerings and peace offerings. Then the land pleaded with the Lord, and the plague was averted from Israel.
4 Now I say that as long as the heir is a child, he does not differ from a servant though he is lord of all. 2 But he is under tutors and governors until the time appointed by the father. 3 So when we were children, we were in bondage to the elements of the world. 4 But when the fullness of time came, God sent forth His Son, born from a woman, born under the law, 5 to redeem those who were under the law, that we might receive the adoption as sons. 6 And because you are sons, God has sent forth into our hearts the Spirit of His Son, crying, “Abba, Father!” 7 Therefore you are no longer a servant, but a son, and if a son, then an heir of God through Christ.
Paul’s Concern for the Galatians
8 Previously, when you did not know God, you served those who by nature are not gods. 9 But now, after you have known God, or rather are known by God, how do you turn again to the weak and beggarly elemental forces to which you desire again to be in bondage? 10 You observe days and months and seasons and years. 11 I am afraid for you, lest I have worked for you in vain.
12 Brothers, I ask you, become as I am, for I also have become as you are. You have done me no wrong. 13 You know that it was because of an infirmity of the flesh that I first preached the gospel to you. 14 Though my infirmity was a trial to you, you neither despised nor rejected me, but received me as an angel of God, even as Christ Jesus. 15 So where is your blessing? For I bear witness of you that, if it had been possible, you would have plucked out your own eyes and given them to me. 16 Have I therefore become your enemy because I tell you the truth?
17 They would zealously influence you, but not favorably. Yes, they would exclusively control you, so that you might consult them. 18 But it is good to be zealous in a good manner always and not only when I am present with you. 19 My little children, of whom I labor in birth again until Christ is formed in you, 20 I desire to be present with you now and to change my tone, for I am displeased with you.
The Allegory of Hagar and Sarah
21 Tell me, you who desire to be under the law, do you not hear the law? 22 For it is written that Abraham had two sons, the one by a slave woman, the other by a free woman. 23 But he who was of the slave woman was born according to the flesh, but he of the free woman through the promise.
24 These things are an allegory, for these are the two covenants. The one is from Mount Sinai, which gives birth to bondage; she is Hagar. 25 Now this Hagar is Mount Sinai in Arabia, and represents the present Jerusalem, and is in bondage with her children. 26 But the Jerusalem which is above is free, which is our mother. 27 For it is written:
“Rejoice, barren woman
who does not bear;
break forth and shout,
you who have no labor pains!
For the desolate has many more children
than she who has a husband.”[a]
28 Now we, brothers, like Isaac, are the children of promise. 29 But as it was then, he who was born after the flesh persecuted him who was born after the Spirit, so it is now also. 30 Nevertheless what does the Scripture say? “Cast out the slave woman and her son, for the son of the slave woman shall not be heir with the son of the free woman.”[b] 31 So then, brothers, we are not children of the slave woman, but of the free woman.
Pharaoh to Be Slain
31 In the eleventh year, in the third month, on the first day of the month, the word of the Lord came to me, saying: 2 Son of man, speak to Pharaoh king of Egypt, and to his multitude:
Whom are you like in your greatness?
3 Assyria was a cedar in Lebanon,
with fair branches and shade for a forest,
and high stature;
and its top was among the clouds.
4 The waters made it great;
the deep set it up on high.
With its rivers it continually ran
all around its plants,
and sent out its little rivers
to all the trees of the field.
5 Therefore its height was exalted
above all the trees of the field,
and its boughs were multiplied,
and its branches became long
because of the abundance of water, as it spread them out.
6 All the fowl of heaven
made their nests in its boughs;
and under its branches
all the beasts of the field gave birth;
and under its shadow
all great nations lived.
7 Thus it was fair in its greatness,
in the length of its branches,
for its roots were
by many waters.
8 The cedars in the garden of God
could not match it;
the fir trees
were not like its boughs,
and the chestnut trees
were not like its branches;
nor was any tree in the garden of God
like it in its beauty.
9 I made it beautiful with an abundance of branches,
so that all the trees of Eden envied it,
that were in the garden of God.
10 Therefore, thus says the Lord God: Because it is lifted up in height and has shot up its top among the clouds, and its heart is arrogant in its height, 11 I therefore will deliver it into the hand of the mighty one of the nations. He shall surely deal with it. I have driven it out for its wickedness. 12 Aliens, the tyrants of the nations have cut it off and left it. Upon the mountains and in all the valleys its branches have fallen, and its boughs have been broken by all the rivers of the land. And all the peoples of the earth have gone down from its shadow and have left it. 13 Upon its ruin all the fowl of the heavens shall remain, and all the beasts of the field shall be upon its fallen branches 14 to the end that none of all the trees by the waters exalt themselves for their height, or shoot up their tops among the clouds, or their well-watered trees stand up in their height. For they all have been delivered to death, to the nether parts of the earth in the midst of the sons of men, with those who go down to the pit.
15 Thus says the Lord God: On the day when it went down to Sheol I caused mourning. I covered the deep over it and restrained its rivers, and its many waters were stayed. And I caused Lebanon to mourn for it, and all the trees of the field fainted for it. 16 I made the nations to shake at the sound of its fall when I cast him down to Sheol with those who descend into the pit. And all the well-watered trees of Eden, the choice and best of Lebanon, were comforted in the nether parts of the earth. 17 They also went down into Sheol with it to those who were slain with the sword. And those who were its power lived under its shadow in the midst of the nations.
18 To whom are you thus like in glory and in greatness among the trees of Eden? Yet you shall be brought down with the trees of Eden to the nether parts of the earth. You shall lie in the midst of the uncircumcised with those who were slain by the sword.
This is Pharaoh and all his multitude, says the Lord God.
Psalm 79
A Psalm of Asaph.
1 O God, the nations have come into Your inheritance;
Your holy temple they have defiled;
they have laid Jerusalem in ruins.
2 The dead bodies of Your servants
they have given to the birds of the sky for food
and the flesh of Your faithful to the animals of the land.
3 Their blood they have poured out like water
all around Jerusalem,
and there was no one to bury them.
4 We have become a reproach to our neighbors,
a scorn and derision to those who are around us.
5 How long, O Lord? Will You be angry forever?
Will Your jealousy burn like fire?
6 Pour out Your wrath
upon the nations who do not know You,
and upon the kingdoms
who have not called upon Your name.
7 For they have devoured Jacob,
and laid waste his dwelling place.
8 Do not choose to remember our former iniquities;
let Your tender mercies come swiftly to us,
for we are brought very low.
9 Help us, O God of our salvation,
for the glory of Your name;
deliver us, and purge away our sins,
for Your name’s sake.
10 Why should the nations say,
“Where is their God?”
May the avenging of the shed blood of Your servants
be known among the nations before our eyes.
11 Let the groans of the prisoners come before You;
according to the greatness of Your power
preserve those who are appointed to die.
12 And render unto our neighbors sevenfold into their lap
the reproach that they have reproached You, O Lord.
13 But we are Your people, the sheep of Your pasture,
and will give You thanks forever;
we will declare Your praise
to all generations.
The Holy Bible, Modern English Version. Copyright © 2014 by Military Bible Association. Published and distributed by Charisma House.