M’Cheyne Bible Reading Plan
The Temptation and the Fall
3 Now the serpent was the most cunning of all the wild animals that the Lord God had made. He said to the woman, “Did God really say, ‘You can’t eat from any tree in the garden’?”(A)
2 The woman said to the serpent, “We may eat the fruit from the trees in the garden. 3 But about the fruit of the tree in the middle of the garden, God said, ‘You must not eat it or touch it, or you will die.’”(B)
4 “No! You will not die,” the serpent said to the woman.(C) 5 “In fact, God knows that when[a] you eat it your eyes will be opened and you will be like God,[b] knowing good and evil.” 6 Then the woman saw that the tree was good for food and delightful to look at, and that it was desirable for obtaining wisdom. So she took some of its fruit and ate it; she also gave some to her husband, who was with her, and he ate it.(D) 7 Then the eyes of both of them were opened, and they knew they were naked; so they sewed fig leaves together and made loincloths for themselves.
Sin’s Consequences
8 Then the man and his wife heard the sound of the Lord God walking in the garden at the time of the evening breeze,[c] and they hid themselves from the Lord God among the trees of the garden.(E) 9 So the Lord God called out to the man and said to him, “Where are you?”
10 And he said, “I heard You[d] in the garden and I was afraid because I was naked, so I hid.”
11 Then He asked, “Who told you that you were naked? Did you eat from the tree that I commanded you not to eat from?”
12 Then the man replied,(F) “The woman You gave to be with me—she gave me some fruit from the tree, and I ate.”
13 So the Lord God asked the woman, “What is this you have done?”
And the woman said, “It was the serpent. He deceived me, and I ate.”(G)
14 Then the Lord God said to the serpent:
Because you have done this,
you are cursed more than any livestock
and more than any wild animal.
You will move on your belly
and eat dust all the days of your life.(H)
15 I will put hostility between you and the woman,
and between your seed and her seed.
He will strike your head,
and you will strike his heel.(I)
16 He said to the woman:
I will intensify your labor pains;
you will bear children in anguish.(J)
Your desire(K) will be for your husband,
yet he will rule over you.
17 And He said to Adam, “Because you listened to your wife’s voice and ate from the tree about which I commanded you, ‘Do not eat from it’:
The ground is cursed because of you.(L)
You will eat from it by means of painful labor[e]
all the days of your life.
18 It will produce thorns and thistles for you,
and you will eat the plants of the field.(M)
19 You will eat bread[f] by the sweat of your brow
until you return to the ground,(N)
since you were taken from it.
For you are dust,
and you will return to dust.”
20 Adam named his wife Eve[g] because she was the mother of all the living. 21 The Lord God made clothing out of skins for Adam and his wife, and He clothed them.
22 The Lord God said, “Since man has become like one of Us, knowing good and evil, he must not reach out, take from the tree of life, eat, and live forever.”(O) 23 So the Lord God sent him away from the garden of Eden to work the ground from which he was taken. 24 He drove man out and stationed the cherubim and the flaming, whirling sword east of the garden of Eden to guard the way to the tree of life.(P)
The Messiah’s Herald
3 In those days John the Baptist came,(A) preaching in the Wilderness of Judea(B) 2 and saying, “Repent, because the kingdom of heaven has come near!”(C) 3 For he is the one spoken of through the prophet Isaiah, who said:
A voice of one crying out in the wilderness:
Prepare the way for the Lord;
make His paths straight!(D)[a]
4 John himself had a camel-hair garment with a leather belt around his waist, and his food was locusts and wild honey. 5 Then people from Jerusalem, all Judea, and all the vicinity of the Jordan were flocking to him, 6 and they were baptized by him in the Jordan River as they confessed their sins.(E)
7 When he saw many of the Pharisees and Sadducees(F) coming to the place of his baptism,[b] he said to them, “Brood of vipers! Who warned you to flee from the coming wrath?(G) 8 Therefore produce fruit(H) consistent with[c] repentance. 9 And don’t presume to say to yourselves, ‘We have Abraham as our father.’(I) For I tell you that God is able to raise up children for Abraham from these stones! 10 Even now the ax is ready to strike the root of the trees! Therefore, every tree that doesn’t produce good fruit will be cut down and thrown into the fire.(J)
11 “I baptize you with[d] water for repentance,[e](K) but the One who is coming after me is more powerful than I. I am not worthy to remove[f] His sandals. He Himself will baptize you with[g] the Holy Spirit and fire.(L) 12 His winnowing shovel[h] is in His hand, and He will clear His threshing floor and gather His wheat into the barn. But the chaff He will burn up with fire that never goes out.”(M)
The Baptism of Jesus
13 Then Jesus came from Galilee to John at the Jordan, to be baptized by him.(N) 14 But John tried to stop Him, saying, “I need to be baptized by You, and yet You come to me?”
15 Jesus answered him, “Allow it for now, because this is the way for us to fulfill all righteousness.” Then he allowed Him to be baptized.
16 After Jesus was baptized, He went up immediately from the water. The heavens(O) suddenly opened for Him,[i] and He saw the Spirit of God descending like a dove and coming down on Him.(P) 17 And there came a voice from heaven:
This is My beloved Son.
I take delight in Him!(Q)
Sacrifice Restored
3 By the seventh month,(A) the Israelites had settled in their towns, and the people gathered together in Jerusalem.(B) 2 Jeshua son of Jozadak and his brothers the priests along with Zerubbabel son of Shealtiel(C) and his brothers began to build the altar of Israel’s God in order to offer burnt offerings on it, as it is written in the law of Moses, the man of God.(D) 3 They set up the altar on its foundation and offered burnt offerings for the morning and evening on it to the Lord even though they feared the surrounding peoples.(E) 4 They celebrated the Festival of Booths as prescribed, and offered burnt offerings each day, based on the number specified by ordinance for each festival day.(F) 5 After that, they offered the regular burnt offering and the offerings for the beginning of each month[a](G) and for all the Lord’s appointed holy occasions, as well as the freewill offerings brought to[b] the Lord.
6 On the first day of the seventh month they began to offer burnt offerings to the Lord,(H) even though the foundation of the Lord’s temple had not yet been laid. 7 They gave money to the stonecutters and artisans, and gave food, drink, and oil to the people of Sidon and Tyre, so they could bring cedar wood from Lebanon to Joppa by sea,(I) according to the authorization given them by King Cyrus of Persia.(J)
Rebuilding the Temple
8 In the second month of the second year after they arrived at God’s house in Jerusalem, Zerubbabel son of Shealtiel, Jeshua son of Jozadak,(K) and the rest of their brothers, including the priests, the Levites, and all who had returned to Jerusalem from the captivity, began to build. They appointed the Levites who were 20 years old or more to supervise the work on the Lord’s house.(L) 9 Jeshua with his sons and brothers, Kadmiel with his sons, and the sons of Judah[c] and of Henadad, with their sons and brothers, the Levites,(M) joined together to supervise those working on the house of God.
Temple Foundation Completed
10 When the builders had laid the foundation of the Lord’s temple, the priests, dressed in their robes and holding trumpets, and the Levites descended from Asaph,(N) holding cymbals, took their positions to praise the Lord, as King David of Israel had instructed.(O) 11 They sang with praise and thanksgiving to the Lord: “For He is good; His faithful love to Israel endures forever.”(P) Then all the people gave a great shout of praise to the Lord because the foundation of the Lord’s house had been laid.(Q)
12 But many of the older priests, Levites, and family leaders, who had seen the first temple, wept loudly when they saw the foundation of this house,(R) but many others shouted joyfully. 13 The people could not distinguish the sound of the joyful shouting from that of the[d] weeping,(S) because the people were shouting so loudly. And the sound was heard far away.
Healing of a Lame Man
3 Now Peter and John were going up together to the temple complex at the hour of prayer(A) at three in the afternoon.[a] 2 And a man who was lame from birth was carried there and placed every day at the temple gate called Beautiful, so he could beg from those entering the temple complex.(B) 3 When he saw Peter and John about to enter the temple complex, he asked for help. 4 Peter, along with John, looked at him intently and said, “Look at us.” 5 So he turned to them,[b] expecting to get something from them. 6 But Peter said, “I don’t have silver or gold, but what I have, I give you: In the name of Jesus Christ the Nazarene, get up and walk!”(C) 7 Then, taking him by the right hand he raised him up, and at once his feet and ankles became strong. 8 So he jumped up, stood, and started to walk, and he entered the temple complex with them—walking, leaping, and praising God.(D) 9 All the people saw him walking and praising God, 10 and they recognized that he was the one who used to sit and beg at the Beautiful Gate of the temple complex. So they were filled with awe and astonishment at what had happened to him.(E)
Preaching in Solomon’s Colonnade
11 While he[c] was holding on to Peter and John, all the people, greatly amazed, ran toward them in what is called Solomon’s Colonnade.(F) 12 When Peter saw this, he addressed the people: “Men of Israel, why are you amazed at this? Or why do you stare at us, as though we had made him walk by our own power or godliness? 13 The God of Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob, the God of our fathers,(G) has glorified His Servant Jesus, whom you handed over and denied in the presence of Pilate,(H) when he had decided to release Him. 14 But you denied the Holy and Righteous One(I) and asked to have a murderer given to you.(J) 15 You killed the source[d] of life, whom God raised from the dead; we are witnesses of this.(K) 16 By faith in His name, His name has made this man strong, whom you see and know. So the faith that comes through Him has given him this perfect health in front of all of you.
17 “And now, brothers, I know that you did it in ignorance, just as your leaders also did.(L) 18 But what God predicted through the mouth of all the prophets—that His Messiah would suffer—He has fulfilled(M) in this way. 19 Therefore repent(N) and turn back, so that your sins may be wiped out,(O) that seasons of refreshing may come from the presence of the Lord,[e] 20 and that He may send Jesus, who has been appointed(P) for you as the Messiah. 21 Heaven must welcome[f] Him until the times of the restoration of all things, which God spoke about by the mouth of His holy prophets from the beginning.(Q) 22 Moses said:[g]
The Lord your God will raise up for you a Prophet like me from among your brothers. You must listen to Him in everything He will say to you. 23 And everyone who will not listen to that Prophet will be completely cut off from the people.(R)[h]
24 “In addition, all the prophets who have spoken, from Samuel and those after him, have also announced these days. 25 You are the sons of the prophets and of the covenant that God made with your ancestors, saying to Abraham, And all the families of the earth will be blessed through your offspring.(S)[i] 26 God raised up His Servant[j] and sent Him first to you to bless you by turning each of you from your evil ways.”(T)
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