M’Cheyne Bible Reading Plan

The Lord's Message to David

(2 Samuel 7.1-17)

17 Soon after David moved into his new palace, he said to Nathan the prophet, “Look around! I live in a palace made of cedar, but the sacred chest is kept in a tent.”

² Nathan replied, “The Lord is with you—do what you want.”

³ That night, the Lord told Nathan ⁴ to go to David and tell him:

David, you are my servant, so listen carefully: You are not the one to build a temple for me. ⁵ I didn't live in a temple when I brought my people out of Egypt, and I don't live in one now. A tent has always been my home wherever I have gone with them. ⁶ I chose special leaders and told them to be like shepherds for my people Israel. But did I ever say anything to even one of them about building a cedar temple for me?

⁷ David, this is what I, the Lord All-Powerful, say to you. I brought you in from the fields where you took care of sheep, and I made you the leader of my people. ⁸ Wherever you went, I helped you and destroyed your enemies right in front of your eyes. I have made you one of the most famous people in the world.

⁹ I have given my people Israel a land of their own where they can live in peace. They will no longer have to tremble with fear—evil nations won't bother them, as they did ¹⁰ when I let judges rule my people, and I will keep your enemies from attacking you.

Now I promise that like you, your descendants will be kings. ¹¹ I'll choose one of your sons to be king when you reach the end of your life and are buried beside your ancestors. I'll make him a strong ruler, ¹² and no one will be able to take his kingdom away from him. He will be the one to build a temple for me. ^13 (A) I will be like a father to him, and he will be like a son to me. I will never put an end to my agreement with him, as I put an end to my agreement with Saul, who was king before you. ¹⁴ I will make sure that your son and his descendants will rule my people and my kingdom forever.

¹⁵ Nathan told David exactly what the Lord had said.

David Gives Thanks to the Lord

(2 Samuel 7.18-29)

¹⁶ David went into the tent he had set up for the sacred chest. He sat there and prayed:

Lord God, my family and I don't deserve what you have already done for us, ¹⁷ and yet you have promised to do even more for my descendants. You are treating me as if I am a very important person.^{[a] 18} I am your servant, and you know my thoughts. What else can I say, except that you have honored me? ¹⁹ It was your choice to do these wonderful things for me and to make these promises.

²⁰ No other god is like you, Lord—you alone are God. Everything we have heard about you is true. ²¹ And there is no other nation on earth like Israel, the nation you rescued from slavery in Egypt to be your own. You became famous by using great and wonderful miracles to force other nations and their gods out of your land, so that your people could live here. ²² You have chosen Israel to be your people forever, and you have become their God.

²³ Lord God, please do what you promised me and my descendants. ²⁴ Then you will be famous forever, and everyone will say, “The Lord All-Powerful rules Israel and is their God.”

My kingdom will be strong, ²⁵ because you are my God, and you have promised that my descendants will be kings. That's why I have the courage to pray to you like this, even though I am only your servant.

²⁶ You are the Lord God, and you have made this good promise to me. ²⁷ Now please bless my descendants forever, and let them always be your chosen kings. You have already blessed my family, and I know you will bless us forever.

Friendship with the World

4 Why do you fight and argue with each other? Isn't it because you are full of selfish desires that fight to control your body? ² You want something you don't have, and you will do anything to get it. You will even kill! But you still cannot get what you want, and you won't get it by fighting and arguing. You should pray for it. ³ Yet even when you do pray, your prayers are not answered, because you pray just for selfish reasons.

⁴ You people aren't faithful to God! Don't you know if you love the world, you are God's enemies? And if you decide to be a friend of the world, you make yourself an enemy of God. ⁵ Do you doubt the Scriptures that say, “God truly cares about the Spirit he has put in us”?^{[a] 6 (A)} In fact, God treats us with even greater kindness, just as the Scriptures say,

⁷ Surrender to God! Resist the devil, and he will run from you. ⁸ Come near to God, and he will come near to you. Clean up your lives, you sinners. Purify your hearts, you people who can't make up your mind. ⁹ Be sad and sorry and weep. Stop laughing and start crying. Be gloomy instead of glad. ¹⁰ Be humble in the Lord's presence, and he will honor you.

Saying Cruel Things about Others

¹¹ My friends, don't say cruel things about others! If you do, or if you condemn others, you are condemning God's Law. And if you condemn the Law, you put yourself above the Law and refuse to obey either it ¹² or God who gave it. God is our judge, and he can save or destroy us. What right do you have to condemn anyone?

Warning against Bragging

^13 (B)(C) You should know better than to say, “Today or tomorrow we will go to the city. We will do business there for a year and make a lot of money!” ¹⁴ What do you know about tomorrow? How can you be so sure about your life? It is nothing more than mist that appears for only a little while before it disappears. ¹⁵ You should say, “If the Lord lets us live, we will do these things.” ¹⁶ Yet you are stupid enough to brag, and it is wrong to be so proud. ¹⁷ If you don't do what you know is right, you have sinned.

Jonah Runs from the Lord

1 ^(A) One day the Lord told Jonah, the son of Amittai, ² to go to the great city of Nineveh^[a] and say to the people, “The Lord has seen your terrible sins. You are doomed!”

³ Instead, Jonah ran from the Lord. He went to the seaport of Joppa and found a ship that was going to Spain. So he paid his fare, then got on the ship and sailed away to escape.

⁴ But the Lord made a strong wind blow, and such a bad storm came up that the ship was about to be broken to pieces. ⁵ The sailors were frightened, and they all started praying to their gods. They even threw the ship's cargo overboard to make the ship lighter.

All this time, Jonah was down below deck, sound asleep. ⁶ The ship's captain went to him and said, “How can you sleep at a time like this? Get up and pray to your God! Maybe he will have pity on us and keep us from drowning.”

⁷ Finally, the sailors got together and said, “Let's ask our gods to show us^[b] who caused all this trouble.” It turned out to be Jonah.

⁸ They started asking him, “Are you the one who brought all this trouble on us? What business are you in? Where do you come from? What is your country? Who are your people?”

⁹ Jonah answered, “I'm a Hebrew, and I worship the Lord God of heaven, who made the sea and the dry land.”

¹⁰ When the sailors heard this, they were frightened, because Jonah had already told them he was running from the Lord. Then they said, “Do you know what you have done?”

¹¹ The storm kept getting worse, until finally the sailors asked him, “What should we do with you to make the sea calm down?”

¹² Jonah told them, “Throw me into the sea, and it will calm down. I'm the cause of this terrible storm.”

¹³ The sailors tried their best to row to the shore. But they could not do it, and the storm kept getting worse every minute. ¹⁴ So they prayed to the Lord, “Please don't let us drown for taking this man's life. Don't hold us guilty for killing an innocent man. All of this happened because you wanted it to.” ¹⁵ Then they threw Jonah overboard, and the sea calmed down. ¹⁶ The sailors were so terrified that they offered a sacrifice to the Lord and made all kinds of promises.

^17 (B) The Lord sent a big fish to swallow Jonah, and Jonah was inside the fish for three days and three nights.

A Question about the Sabbath

(Matthew 12.1-8; Mark 2.23-28)

6 ^(A) One Sabbath when Jesus and his disciples were walking through some wheat fields,^[a] the disciples picked some wheat. They rubbed the husks off with their hands and started eating the grain.

² Some Pharisees said, “Why are you picking grain on the Sabbath? You're not supposed to do that!”

^3 (B) Jesus answered, “You surely have read what David did when he and his followers were hungry. ^4 (C) He went into the house of God and took the sacred loaves of bread that only priests were supposed to eat. He not only ate some himself, but even gave some to his followers.”

⁵ Jesus finished by saying, “The Son of Man is Lord over the Sabbath.”

A Man with a Paralyzed Hand

(Matthew 12.9-14; Mark 3.1-6)

⁶ On another Sabbath^[b] Jesus was teaching in a synagogue, and a man with a paralyzed right hand was there. ⁷ Some Pharisees and teachers of the Law of Moses kept watching Jesus to see if he would heal the man. They did this because they wanted to accuse Jesus of doing something wrong.

⁸ Jesus knew what they were thinking, so he told the man to stand up where everyone could see him. And the man stood up. ⁹ Then Jesus asked, “On the Sabbath should we do good deeds or evil deeds? Should we save someone's life or destroy it?”

¹⁰ After he had looked around at everyone, he told the man, “Stretch out your hand.” He did, and his bad hand became completely well.

¹¹ The teachers and the Pharisees were furious and started saying to one another, “What can we do about Jesus?”

Jesus Chooses His Twelve Apostles

(Matthew 10.1-4; Mark 3.13-19)

¹² About that time Jesus went off to a mountain to pray, and he spent the whole night there. ¹³ The next morning he called his disciples together and chose twelve of them to be his apostles. ¹⁴ One was Simon, and Jesus named him Peter. Another was Andrew, Peter's brother. There were also James, John, Philip, Bartholomew, ¹⁵ Matthew, Thomas, and James the son of Alphaeus. The rest of the apostles were Simon, known as the Eager One,^{[c] 16} Jude, who was the son of James, and Judas Iscariot,^[d] who later betrayed Jesus.

Jesus Teaches, Preaches, and Heals

(Matthew 4.23-25)

¹⁷ Jesus and his apostles went down from the mountain and came to some flat, level ground. Many other disciples were there to meet him. Large crowds of people from all over Judea, Jerusalem, and the coastal towns of Tyre and Sidon were there too. ¹⁸ These people had come to listen to Jesus and to be healed of their diseases. All who were troubled by evil spirits were also healed. ¹⁹ Everyone was trying to touch Jesus, because power was going out from him and healing them all.

Blessings and Troubles

(Matthew 5.1-12)

²⁰ Jesus looked at his disciples and said:

^22 (D) God will bless you when others hate you and won't have anything to do with you. God will bless you when people insult you and say cruel things about you, all because you are a follower of the Son of Man. ^23 (E) Long ago your own people did these same things to the prophets. So when this happens to you, be happy and jump for joy! You will have a great reward in heaven.

²⁶ You are in for trouble when everyone says good things about you. That is what your own people said about those prophets who told lies.

Love for Enemies

(Matthew 5.38-48; 7.12a)

²⁷ This is what I say to all who will listen to me:

Love your enemies, and be good to everyone who hates you. ²⁸ Ask God to bless anyone who curses you, and pray for everyone who is cruel to you. ²⁹ If someone slaps you on one cheek, don't stop that person from slapping you on the other cheek. If someone wants to take your coat, don't try to keep back your shirt. ³⁰ Give to everyone who asks and don't ask people to return what they have taken from you. ^31 (F) Treat others just as you want to be treated.

³² If you love only someone who loves you, will God praise you for that? Even sinners love people who love them. ³³ If you are kind only to someone who is kind to you, will God be pleased with you for that? Even sinners are kind to people who are kind to them. ³⁴ If you lend money only to someone you think will pay you back, will God be pleased with you for that? Even sinners lend to sinners because they think they will get it all back.

^35 (G) But love your enemies and be good to them. Lend without expecting to be paid back.^[e] Then you will get a great reward, and you will be the true children of God in heaven. He is good even to people who are unthankful and cruel. ³⁶ Have pity on others, just as your Father has pity on you.

Judging Others

(Matthew 7.1-5)

³⁷ Jesus said:

Don't judge others, and God won't judge you. Don't be hard on others, and God won't be hard on you. Forgive others, and God will forgive you. ³⁸ If you give to others, you will be given a full amount in return. It will be packed down, shaken together, and spilling over into your lap. The way you treat others is the way you will be treated.

^39 (H) Jesus also used some sayings as he spoke to the people. He said:

Can one blind person lead another blind person? Won't they both fall into a ditch? ^40 (I) Are students better than their teacher? But when they are fully trained, they will be like their teacher.

⁴¹ You can see the speck in your friend's eye, but you don't notice the log in your own eye. ⁴² How can you say, “My friend, let me take the speck out of your eye,” when you don't see the log in your own eye? You show-offs! First, get the log out of your own eye; then you can see how to take the speck out of your friend's eye.

A Tree and Its Fruit

(Matthew 7.17-20; 12.34b,35)

⁴³ A good tree cannot produce bad fruit, and a bad tree cannot produce good fruit. ^44 (J) You can tell what a tree is like by the fruit it produces. You cannot pick figs or grapes from thornbushes. ^45 (K) Good people do good things because of the good in their hearts, but bad people do bad things because of the evil in their hearts. Your words show what is in your heart.

Two Builders

(Matthew 7.24-27)

⁴⁶ Why do you keep on saying that I am your Lord, when you refuse to do what I say? ⁴⁷ Anyone who comes and listens to me and obeys me ⁴⁸ is like someone who dug down deep and built a house on solid rock. When a flood came and the river rushed against the house, it was built so well that it didn't even shake. ⁴⁹ But anyone who hears what I say and doesn't obey me is like someone whose house wasn't built on solid rock. As soon as the river rushed against that house, it was smashed to pieces!