M’Cheyne Bible Reading Plan

David starts to bring the Covenant Box to Jerusalem

13 David spoke with the officers of his army. Some of them were the leaders of 1,000 men. Other officers were the leaders of 100 men. ² Then David said to all the Israelites who were present, ‘I think that we should send a message to our relatives in all the regions of Israel. That should include the priests and the Levites in the towns where they live. We should ask all those people to meet with us here. We will do it if you agree that it is a good idea, and if the Lord our God wants us to do it. ³ We should bring back the Covenant Box of our God. While Saul was king, we did not use it to ask God about things.’

⁴ All the people there agreed that this was a good idea. They realized that it was the right thing to do.

⁵ So David brought together all the Israelites. They came from everywhere in Israel, from the Shihor River in Egypt, and as far as Lebo-Hamath. They came to bring God's Covenant Box back from Kiriath-Jearim.^{[a] 6} David and all the Israelites went to Baalah, a town in Judah. (Baalah is also called Kiriath-Jearim.) They went to bring the Covenant Box of God from there to Jerusalem. The Israelites called it by the name of the Lord. He sits as King between the two cherubs that are on the top of the Covenant Box.

⁷ The people put God's Covenant Box on a new cart. They took it out of Abinadab's house. Uzzah and Ahio were leading the cart. ⁸ David and all the Israelites were singing and dancing with all their strength to praise God. They made music with harps, lyres, tambourines, cymbals and trumpets.

⁹ They reached the place of Kidon's threshing floor. There the oxen that were pulling the cart almost fell. So Uzzah reached out to hold the Covenant Box to stop it falling. ¹⁰ The Lord was very angry with Uzzah because he had touched the Covenant Box. He knocked Uzzah down to the ground. Uzzah died there, beside God's Covenant Box.^[b]

¹¹ David was angry because the Lord had punished Uzzah. So he called that place ‘Perez Uzzah’. That is still its name today.^[c]

¹² So David now became afraid of God. He said, ‘God's Covenant Box is too holy to take with me.’ ¹³ So he did not take the Covenant Box to the City of David to be with him there. Instead, he took it to the house of Obed-Edom, who came from Gath. ¹⁴ God's Covenant Box stayed in the home of Obed-Edom's family for three months. During that time, the Lord blessed Obed-Edom's family and everything that he had.

David becomes famous

14 Then Hiram, king of Tyre, sent some of his men to David. They brought wood from Lebanon's cedar trees. Men who could work with stone and with wood also came. They built a palace for David. ² David realized that the Lord had made him strong as king over Israel. He knew that God had made his kingdom great, to help his people, the Israelites.

³ When David lived in Jerusalem, he married more wives. He became the father of more sons and daughters. ⁴ These are the names of David's children who were born in Jerusalem: Shammua, Shobab, Nathan, Solomon, ⁵ Ibhar, Elishua, Elpelet, ⁶ Nogah, Nepheg, Japhia, ⁷ Elishama, Beeliada and Eliphelet.

David fights the Philistines

⁸ The Philistines heard the news that David had now become king over all Israel. So their whole army went to look for him to catch him. When David heard about this, he went out to attack them. ⁹ The Philistine soldiers arrived at Rephaim valley. They attacked the people there. ¹⁰ David asked God, ‘Should I go and attack the Philistines? Will you put them under my power?’

The Lord answered him, ‘Yes, go and attack the Philistines. I will help you to win against them.’

¹¹ So David and his men went to Baal Perazim. There they won the fight against the Philistines in that place. David said, ‘God has helped me to sweep away my enemy like a flood of water.’ So they called that place Baal Perazim. ¹² The Philistines did not take their idols with them when they ran away. David told his men to destroy the idols in a fire.

¹³ Once again, the Philistines attacked the people who lived in the valley. ¹⁴ So David again asked God what he should do. This time God told him, ‘Do not march straight towards them. Instead, go round behind them. Then attack them from the other side, where the poplar trees are. ¹⁵ When you hear a noise in the tops of the trees like marching men, go out to attack them. Then you will know that God has gone in front of you. He will knock down the Philistine army for you.’ ¹⁶ So David did as God had commanded him to do. His men chased the Philistine army all the way from Gibeon to Gezer.

¹⁷ So David became famous in every country. The Lord caused the people of every nation to be afraid of David.

James says ‘Hello’

1 This letter is from me, James. I am a servant of God and the Lord Jesus Christ.^[a]

I am writing to the 12 tribes of God's people who live in many different parts of the world. I say ‘hello’ to all of you.^[b]

What to do when you have troubles

² My Christian friends, remember to be happy, even when many kinds of trouble happen to you. Troubles can help you. ³ God wants to see if you really trust him. Your faith in God will become stronger as a result of these troubles. ⁴ So you should continue to trust God all the time. Then you will become stronger as a believer. You will become completely how you should be. You will not need anything more.

⁵ But maybe you need to know how to be wise. Then ask God to help you. He is ready to give everyone what they need. And he never says that it is wrong to ask. So God will help you to be wise. ⁶ But when you ask God for something, you must trust him completely. Do not have other ideas in your mind. People who are not sure that God will help them are like the waves in the sea. The wind blows the water one way and then it blows the water another way. ^7-8 A person who is like that never knows what to do. He has many ideas in his mind. He should not think that he will receive anything from the Lord.

⁹ The believers in your group who are poor should be happy. Why? Because God says that they are valuable to him. ¹⁰ And the believers who are rich should also be happy. Why? Because God has shown them that they are not so great. Rich people should remember that they will die, like a wild flower quickly dies. ¹¹ When the sun rises, its heat causes plants to become dry. Their flowers fall to the ground. They are no longer beautiful. In the same way, rich people will die when they are busy in their work. Then they will have nothing.

¹² Some people continue to trust God even when troubles happen. God will bless those people, if they show that they really trust him. He will give them the gift which is life with him. He has promised to give this gift to all people who love him.

¹³ When troubles happen to you, you may want to do something bad. But do not say, ‘God is causing me to do wrong things.’ Nothing can make God do anything bad. And God does not try to make anyone do a wrong thing. ¹⁴ It is our own thoughts that make us do bad things. When we want to do something wrong, our thoughts lead us in a bad way. ¹⁵ We may agree to do what our bad thoughts tell us to do. When we do that, it becomes a sin. Then, we may not stop doing those bad things. If we continue to live like that, the result of our sins is death.^[c]

¹⁶ My Christian friends, do not make a mistake. ¹⁷ Remember that every good gift comes to us from God. He only does what will help us. He is our Father in heaven. He made everything in the sky that gives us light. Those things do not give us the same light all the time. They change, but God does not change. ¹⁸ He chose to make us his children. He used his true message to do that. Because of that, we are like the first special gift that belongs to him from among everything that he has made.

Listen and do what God wants

¹⁹ Understand this, my Christian friends: We must all be careful to listen. We should not be too quick to speak. We should not get angry quickly. ²⁰ God wants us to do what is right. But when someone is angry, they do not do those right things. ²¹ So stop doing disgusting things. Stay away from the wicked things that are all around you. God has put his message deep inside you, and it can save you. So be careful to accept that message.

²² But be careful to do what God says in his message. Do not only listen to it. Do not make that mistake! ²³ You must obey God's message. Do not be like a man who quickly looks at his face in a mirror. ²⁴ That man looks at himself, but then he goes away. He immediately forgets what he is really like. ²⁵ So do not just listen to God's message and then forget it. It is a completely good message that makes people free. Look at it carefully and keep it in your mind. Do what it tells you to do. God will bless anyone who lives in that way.

²⁶ Maybe some of you think that you are serving God well. But if you also say bad things about people, you do not serve God well at all. You are doing something bad even when you think you are doing good things. ²⁷ If you want to serve God in a completely good way, do things like this: Help children who have no parents and women who are widows. Help them in their troubles. If you serve God our Father like that, he will be pleased with you. Do not let the bad people in this world make you bad too.

Fruit that is ready to eat

8 Then the Lord God showed another vision to me. I saw a basket with summer fruit in it. ² He asked me, ‘Amos, what do you see?’ I answered him, ‘I see a basket of summer fruit.’ Then the Lord said to me, ‘The time has now come to punish my people. I will not forgive them any longer.

³ On the day that I come to punish them, people will not sing in the temple. Instead they will weep loudly. There will be dead bodies everywhere. Be quiet now!’ That is what the Lord God says.

Trouble will come to Israel's people

⁴ So listen to me, you who are cruel to helpless people. You try to destroy people who are poor and weak. ⁵ You say to yourselves, ‘We want the new moon festival to finish so that we can sell food again. We want our Sabbath day of rest to finish so that we can sell grain.’ But when you sell things, you cheat the people who buy from you. You deceive them with false weights, and you make the price too high. ⁶ When poor people cannot pay their debts, you buy them as your slaves. You pay a silver coin to buy them, which would not even buy a pair of shoes. You also mix dust with the grain that you sell.

⁷ The Lord has promised this: ‘You proud descendants of Jacob, I will never forget the wrong things that you have done. ⁸ The whole country will shake because of your sins. Everyone who lives there will weep. The ground will rise up, like the floods of the Nile river in Egypt. Then it will go down again, like the water of the Nile.’

⁹ The Lord God says, ‘At that time, I will make the sun go down at noon. I will make the earth become dark in the daytime. ¹⁰ Your parties will become funerals. You will not sing happy songs but you will weep. You will wear rough clothes and you will cut off all your hair. You will be as sad as if your only son had died. That will be a very bad day for you.’

¹¹ The Lord God says, ‘Listen to me! At that time, I will cause you to be very hungry. It will not be because you need food and water. Instead, everyone in the land will want to hear a message from me. ¹² People will travel everywhere in the country, north and south, east and west. They will want to hear a message from the Lord, but there will be nothing for them to hear.

¹³ At that time, your beautiful young women and your young men will become very thirsty. They will be weak and tired. ¹⁴ They worship Samaria's idols. They use the names of those false gods to make promises. They say, “In the name of the god of Dan,” or “In the name of the god of Beersheba.” Those people will fall down and they will never get up again.’

John the Baptist prepares people to meet Jesus

3 This report is about John, the son of Zechariah. It happened when Tiberius Caesar had been the Roman ruler for 15 years.^[a] Pontius Pilate was the Roman ruler of Judea. Herod had authority over the region of Galilee. Herod's brother Philip had authority over Iturea and Trachonitis. Lysanias had authority over Abilene.^{[b] 2} At this time, the leaders of the priests were Annas and Caiaphas. John was living in the wilderness. While he was there, God spoke to him.

³ John went to many places near the Jordan River and spoke a message from God. ‘You have done many wrong things,’ he taught everybody. ‘You must turn away from them and change how you live. Then God will forgive you and I will baptize you.’

⁴ The prophet Isaiah wrote this message from God in his book:

⁵ Fill in every valley and make every mountain and hill flat.

⁶ Then everyone will see how God can save them.” ’^[c]

⁷ Crowds of people were going out into the wilderness. They wanted John to baptize them. He told them, ‘You are like dangerous snakes! God is angry. You are trying to run away from him. But he will soon punish people like you. ⁸ You have to show that you are sorry. Change how you live. Stop doing things that God does not like. Do not begin to say to yourselves, “We are in the family of Abraham. God will surely not punish us.”^[d] Listen! God can take these stones and make children for Abraham out of them!^{[e] 9} You are like trees that have bad fruit. God has an axe ready to use. He will cut down every tree that does not make good fruit. He will throw those trees into the fire.’

¹⁰ ‘So what should we do?’ the crowd asked.

¹¹ John answered, ‘If you have two shirts, give one away. Give it to someone who does not have even one shirt. If you have some food, give some of it away. Give some to someone who has no food.’

¹² In the crowd, there were men who took taxes from people. These men also wanted John to baptize them. They asked him, ‘Teacher, what should we do?’ ¹³ John told them, ‘You must take the right amount of money from people. You must not take more money than the rules say you should take.’

¹⁴ Then some soldiers asked John, ‘What about us? What should we do?’

John replied, ‘Do not rob people of their money. Do not say that a person is guilty if he has not done anything wrong. You must not take money for yourself in that way. You should be happy with the money that you receive for your work.’^[f]

¹⁵ At this time people were thinking, ‘Is John the Messiah that God has promised?’ They were all hoping that he might be. ¹⁶ John knew what they were thinking. He said to them, ‘I baptize you with water. But someone else is coming soon. He is much greater than I am. I am not good enough even to undo his shoes for him. This other person will baptize you with the Holy Spirit and with fire. ¹⁷ He is like a farmer that brings the wheat home from his field. He uses a special tool to throw the wheat up in the air. He does this to make the wheat seeds separate from what remains. Then he cleans his yard. He carefully stores all the seeds to keep them safe. But he burns everything else in a great fire that nobody can put out.’

¹⁸ John said many more things to the people. He was telling them the good news about how God could change their lives. ¹⁹ One day John told Herod, the ruler, that it was wrong for him to marry Herodias. Before that, she had been the wife of Herod's brother.^[g] John also told Herod that he had done many other bad things. ²⁰ So then Herod did an even worse thing; he locked John up in prison.

John baptizes Jesus

²¹ While John was still baptizing all the people, he also baptized Jesus. While Jesus was praying, the sky opened. ²² The Holy Spirit came down onto Jesus. When he came down like that, he looked like a dove. Then a voice spoke from heaven, ‘You are my Son and I love you. You make me very happy.’^[h]

The ancestors of Jesus

²³ Jesus was about 30 years old when he began his work. People thought that he was the son of Joseph.