M’Cheyne Bible Reading Plan

12 “These are the laws you must obey when you arrive in the land that Jehovah, the God of your fathers, has given you forever:

² “You must destroy all the heathen altars wherever you find them—high in the mountains, up in the hills, or under the trees. ³ Break the altars, smash the obelisks, burn the shameful images, cut down the metal idols, and leave nothing even to remind you of them!

^4-5 “You must not make sacrifices to your God just anywhere, as the heathen sacrifice to their gods. Rather, you must build a sanctuary for him at a place he himself will select as his home. ⁶ There you shall bring to the Lord your burnt offerings and other sacrifices—your tithes, your offerings presented by the gesture of waving before the altar, your offerings to fulfill your vows, your freewill offerings, and your offerings of the firstborn animals of your flocks and herds. ⁷ There you and your families shall feast before the Lord your God and shall rejoice in all he has done for you.

⁸ “You will no longer go your own way as you do now, everyone doing whatever he thinks is right; ⁹ (for these laws don’t go into effect until you arrive in the place of rest the Lord will give to you). ¹⁰ But when you cross the Jordan River and live in the Promised Land, and the Lord gives you rest and keeps you safe from all your enemies, ¹¹ then you must bring all your burnt sacrifices and other offerings to his sanctuary, the place he will choose as his home. ¹² You shall rejoice there before the Lord with your sons and daughters and servants; and remember to invite the Levites to feast with you, for they have no land of their own.

¹³ “You are not to sacrifice your burnt offerings just anywhere; ¹⁴ you may only do so in the place the Lord will choose. He will pick a place in the territory allotted to one of the tribes. Only there may you offer your sacrifices and bring your offerings. ¹⁵ However, the meat you eat may be butchered anywhere, just as you do now with gazelle and deer. Eat as much of this meat as you wish and as often as you are able to obtain it, because the Lord has prospered you. Those who are ceremonially defiled may eat it too. ¹⁶ The only restriction is that you are not to eat the blood—pour it out on the ground, like water.

¹⁷ “But none of the offerings may be eaten at home. Neither the tithe of your grain and new wine and olive oil, nor the firstborn of your flocks and herds, nor anything you have vowed to give the Lord, nor your freewill offerings, nor the offerings to be presented to the Lord by waving them before his altar. ¹⁸ All these must be brought to the central altar where you, your children, and the Levites shall eat them before the Lord your God. He will tell you where this altar must be located. Rejoice before the Lord your God in everything you do. ¹⁹ (By the way, be very careful not to forget about the Levites. Share with them.)

^20-23 “If, when the Lord enlarges your borders, the central altar is too far away from you, then your flocks and herds may be butchered on your own farms, just as you do now with gazelle and deer. And even persons who are ceremonially defiled may eat them. The only restriction is never to eat the blood, for the blood is the life, and you shall not eat the life with the meat. ^24-25 Instead, pour the blood out upon the earth. If you do, all will be well with you and your children. ^26-27 Only your gifts to the Lord, and the offerings you have promised in your vows, and your burnt offerings need be taken to the central altar. These may only be sacrificed upon the altar of the Lord your God. The blood will be poured out upon the altar, and you will eat the meat.

²⁸ “Be careful to obey all of these commandments. If you do what is right in the eyes of the Lord your God, all will go well with you and your children forever. ²⁹ When he destroys the nations in the land where you will live, ³⁰ don’t follow their example in worshiping their gods. Do not ask, ‘How do these nations worship their gods?’ and then go and worship as they do! ³¹ You must not insult the Lord your God like that! These nations have done horrible things that he hates, all in the name of their religion. They have even roasted their sons and daughters in front of their gods. ³² Obey all the commandments I give you. Do not add to or subtract from them.

97 Jehovah is King! Let all the earth rejoice! Tell the farthest islands to be glad.

² Clouds and darkness surround him. Righteousness and justice are the foundation of his throne. ³ Fire goes forth before him and burns up all his foes. ⁴ His lightning flashes out across the world. The earth sees and trembles. ⁵ The mountains melt like wax before the Lord of all the earth. ⁶ The heavens declare his perfect righteousness; every nation sees his glory.

⁷ Let those who worship idols be disgraced—all who brag about their worthless gods—for every god must bow to him! ^8-9 Jerusalem and all the cities of Judah have heard of your justice, Lord, and are glad that you reign in majesty over the entire earth and are far greater than these other gods.

¹⁰ The Lord loves those who hate evil; he protects the lives of his people and rescues them from the wicked. ¹¹ Light is sown for the godly and joy for the good. ¹² May all who are godly be happy in the Lord and crown him,^[a] our holy God.

98 Sing a new song to the Lord telling about his mighty deeds! For he has won a mighty victory by his power and holiness. ^2-3 He has announced this victory and revealed it to every nation by fulfilling his promise to be kind to Israel. The whole earth has seen God’s salvation of his people. ⁴ That is why the earth breaks out in praise to God and sings for utter joy!

⁵ Sing your praise accompanied by music from the harp. ⁶ Let the cornets and trumpets shout! Make a joyful symphony before the Lord, the King! ⁷ Let the sea in all its vastness roar with praise! Let the earth and all those living on it shout, “Glory to the Lord.”

^8-9 Let the waves clap their hands in glee and the hills sing out their songs of joy before the Lord, for he is coming to judge the world with perfect justice.

40 “Comfort, yes, comfort my people,” says your God. ² “Speak tenderly to Jerusalem and tell her that her sad days are gone. Her sins are pardoned, and I have punished her in full for all her sins.”

³ Listen! I hear the voice of someone shouting, “Make a road for the Lord through the wilderness; make him a straight, smooth road through the desert. ⁴ Fill the valleys; level the hills; straighten out the crooked paths, and smooth off the rough spots in the road. ⁵ The glory of the Lord will be seen by all mankind together.” The Lord has spoken—it shall be.

⁶ The voice says, “Shout!”

“What shall I shout?” I asked.

“Shout that man is like the grass that dies away, and all his beauty fades like dying flowers. ⁷ The grass withers, the flower fades beneath the breath of God. And so it is with fragile man. ⁸ The grass withers, the flowers fade, but the word of our God shall stand forever.”

⁹ O crier of good news, shout to Jerusalem from the mountaintops! Shout louder—don’t be afraid—tell the cities of Judah, “Your God is coming!” ¹⁰ Yes, the Lord God is coming with mighty power; he will rule with awesome strength. See, his reward is with him, to each as he has done. ¹¹ He will feed his flock like a shepherd; he will carry the lambs in his arms and gently lead the ewes with young.

¹² Who else has held the oceans in his hands and measured off the heavens with his ruler? Who else knows the weight of all the earth and weighs the mountains and the hills? ¹³ Who can advise the Spirit of the Lord or be his teacher or give him counsel? ¹⁴ Has he ever needed anyone’s advice? Did he need instruction as to what is right and best? ¹⁵ No, for all the peoples of the world are nothing in comparison with him—they are but a drop in the bucket, dust on the scales. He picks up the islands as though they had no weight at all. ¹⁶ All of Lebanon’s forests do not contain sufficient fuel to consume a sacrifice large enough to honor him, nor are all its animals enough to offer to our God. ¹⁷ All the nations are as nothing to him; in his eyes they are less than nothing—mere emptiness and froth.

¹⁸ How can we describe God? With what can we compare him? ¹⁹ With an idol? An idol made from a mold, overlaid with gold, and with silver chains around its neck? ²⁰ The man too poor to buy expensive gods like that will find a tree free from rot and hire a man to carve a face on it, and that’s his god—a god that cannot even move!

²¹ Are you so ignorant? Are you so deaf to the words of God—the words he gave before the world began? Have you never heard nor understood? ²² It is God who sits above the circle of the earth. (The people below must seem to him like grasshoppers!) He is the one who stretches out the heavens like a curtain and makes his tent from them. ²³ He dooms the great men of the world and brings them all to naught. ²⁴ They hardly get started, barely take root, when he blows on them and their work withers, and the wind carries them off like straw.

²⁵ “With whom will you compare me? Who is my equal?” asks the Holy One.

²⁶ Look up into the heavens! Who created all these stars? As a shepherd leads his sheep,^[a] calling each by its pet name, and counts them to see that none are lost or strayed, so God does with stars and planets!

²⁷ O Jacob, O Israel, how can you say that the Lord doesn’t see your troubles and isn’t being fair? ²⁸ Don’t you yet understand? Don’t you know by now that the everlasting God, the Creator of the farthest parts of the earth, never grows faint or weary? No one can fathom the depths of his understanding. ²⁹ He gives power to the tired and worn out, and strength to the weak. ³⁰ Even the youths shall be exhausted, and the young men will all give up. ³¹ But they that wait upon the Lord shall renew their strength. They shall mount up with wings like eagles; they shall run and not be weary; they shall walk and not faint.

10 Then I saw another mighty angel coming down from heaven, surrounded by a cloud, with a rainbow over his head; his face shone like the sun and his feet flashed with fire. ² And he held open in his hand a small scroll. He set his right foot on the sea and his left foot on the earth ³ and gave a great shout—it was like the roar of a lion—and the seven thunders crashed their reply.

⁴ I was about to write what the thunders said when a voice from heaven called to me, “Don’t do it. Their words are not to be revealed.”

⁵ Then the mighty angel standing on the sea and land lifted his right hand to heaven ⁶ and swore by him who lives forever and ever, who created heaven and everything in it and the earth and all that it contains and the sea and its inhabitants, that there should be no more delay, ⁷ but that when the seventh angel blew his trumpet, then God’s veiled plan—mysterious through the ages ever since it was announced by his servants the prophets—would be fulfilled.

⁸ Then the voice from heaven spoke to me again, “Go and get the unrolled scroll from the mighty angel standing there upon the sea and land.”

⁹ So I approached him and asked him to give me the scroll. “Yes, take it and eat it,” he said. “At first it will taste like honey, but when you swallow it, it will make your stomach sour!” ¹⁰ So I took it from his hand, and ate it! And just as he had said, it was sweet in my mouth, but it gave me a stomachache when I swallowed it.

¹¹ Then he told me, “You must prophesy further about many peoples, nations, tribes, and kings.”