M’Cheyne Bible Reading Plan

If You Are Loyal to the Lord, He Will Bless You

Moses said to Israel:

11 The Lord is your God, so you must always love him and obey his laws and teachings. ² Remember, he corrected you and not your children. You are the ones who saw the Lord use his great power ^3 (A) when he worked miracles in Egypt, making terrible things happen to the king and all his people. ^4 (B) And when the Egyptian army chased you in their chariots, you saw the Lord drown them and their horses in the Red Sea.^[a] Egypt still suffers from that defeat!

⁵ You saw what the Lord did for you while you were in the desert, right up to the time you arrived here. ^6 (C) And you saw how the Lord made the ground open up in the middle of our camp underneath the tents of Dathan and Abiram,^[b] who were swallowed up along with their families, their animals, and their tents.

⁷ With your own eyes, you saw the Lord's mighty power do all these things.

⁸ Soon you will cross the Jordan River, and if you obey the laws and teachings I'm giving you today, you will be strong enough to conquer the land ⁹ that the Lord promised your ancestors and their descendants. It's rich with milk and honey, and you will live there and enjoy it for a long time. ¹⁰ It's better land than you had in Egypt, where you had to struggle just to water your crops.^{[c] 11} But the hills and valleys in the promised land are watered by rain from heaven,^{[d] 12} because the Lord your God keeps his eye on this land and takes care of it all year long.

^13 (D) The Lord your God commands you to love him and to serve him with all your heart and soul. If you obey him, ^14-15 he will send rain at the right seasons,^[e] so you will have more than enough food, wine, and olive oil, and there will be plenty of grass for your cattle.

¹⁶ But watch out! You will be tempted to turn your backs on the Lord. And if you worship other gods, ¹⁷ the Lord will become angry and keep the rain from falling. Nothing will grow in your fields, and you will die and disappear from the good land that the Lord is giving you.

^18 (E) Memorize these laws and think about them. Write down copies and tie them to your wrists and your foreheads to help you obey them. ¹⁹ Teach them to your children. Talk about them all the time—whether you're at home or walking along the road or going to bed at night, or getting up in the morning. ²⁰ Write them on the door frames of your homes and on your town gates. ²¹ Then you and your descendants will live a long time in the land that the Lord promised your ancestors. Your families will live there as long as the sky is above the earth.

²² Love the Lord your God faithfully and obey all the laws and teachings I'm giving you today. If you live the way the Lord wants, ²³ he will help you take the land. And even though the nations there are more powerful than you, the Lord will force them to leave when you attack. ^24 (F) You will capture the land everywhere you go, from the Southern Desert to the Lebanon Mountains, and from the Euphrates River west to the Mediterranean Sea. ²⁵ No one will be able to stand up to you. The Lord will make everyone terrified of you, just as he promised.

²⁶ You have a choice—do you want the Lord to bless you, or do you want him to put a curse on you? ²⁷ Today I am giving you his laws, and if you obey him, he will bless you. ²⁸ But if you disobey him and worship those gods that have never done anything for you, the Lord will put a curse on you.

^29 (G) After the Lord your God helps you take the land, you must have a ceremony where you announce his blessings from Mount Gerizim and his curses from Mount Ebal. ³⁰ You know that these two mountains are west of the Jordan River in land now controlled by the Canaanites living in the Jordan River valley. The mountains are west of the road near the sacred trees of Moreh on the other side of Gilgal.

³¹ Soon you will cross the Jordan River to conquer the land that the Lord your God is giving you. And when you have settled there, ³² be careful to obey his laws and teachings that I am giving you today.

Worship and Obey the Lord

Sing a New Song to the Lord

Isaiah Speaks the Lord's Message to Hezekiah

(2 Kings 20.12-19)

39 Merodach Baladan, the son of Baladan, was now king of Babylonia. And when he learned that Hezekiah was well, he sent messengers with letters and a gift for him. ² Hezekiah welcomed the messengers and showed them all the silver, the gold, the spices, and the fine oils that were in his storehouse. He even showed them where he kept his weapons. Nothing in his palace or in his entire kingdom was kept hidden from them.

³ I asked Hezekiah, “Where did these men come from? What did they want?”

“They came all the way from Babylonia,” Hezekiah answered.

⁴ “What did you show them?” I asked.

Hezekiah answered, “I showed them everything in my kingdom.”

⁵ Then I told Hezekiah:

I have a message for you from the Lord All-Powerful. ⁶ One day everything you and your ancestors have stored up will be taken to Babylonia. The Lord has promised that nothing will be left. ^7 (A) Some of your own sons will be taken to Babylonia, where they will be disgraced and made to serve in the king's palace.

⁸ Hezekiah thought, “At least our nation will be at peace for a while.” So he told me, “The message you brought from the Lord is good.”

9 When the fifth angel blew his trumpet, I saw a star^[a] fall from the sky to earth. It was given the key to the tunnel that leads down to the deep pit. ^2 (A) As it opened the tunnel, smoke poured out like the smoke of a great furnace. The sun and the air turned dark because of the smoke. ^3 (B) Locusts^[b] came out of the smoke and covered the earth. They were given the same power that scorpions have.

^4 (C) The locusts were told not to harm the grass on the earth or any plant or any tree. They were to punish only those people who did not have God's mark on their foreheads. ⁵ The locusts were allowed to make them suffer for five months, but not to kill them. The suffering they caused was like the sting of a scorpion. ^6 (D) In those days people will want to die, but they will not be able to. They will hope for death, but it will escape from them.

^7 (E) These locusts looked like horses ready for battle. On their heads they wore something like gold crowns, and they had human faces. ^8 (F) Their hair was like a woman's long hair, and their teeth were like those of a lion. ^9 (G) On their chests they wore armor made of iron. Their wings roared like an army of horse-drawn chariots rushing into battle. ¹⁰ Their tails were like a scorpion's tail with a stinger that had the power to hurt someone for five months. ¹¹ Their king was the angel in charge of the deep pit. In Hebrew his name was Abaddon, and in Greek it was Apollyon.^[c]

¹² The first horrible thing has now happened! But wait. Two more horrible things will happen soon.

^13 (H) Then the sixth angel blew his trumpet. I heard a voice speak from the four corners of the gold altar that stands in the presence of God. ¹⁴ The voice spoke to this angel and said, “Release the four angels who are tied up beside the great Euphrates River.” ¹⁵ The four angels had been prepared for this very hour and day and month and year. Now they were set free to kill a third of all people.

¹⁶ By listening, I could tell there were more than 200,000,000 war horses. ^17 (I) In my vision their riders wore fiery-red, dark-blue, and yellow armor on their chests. The heads of the horses looked like lions, with fire and smoke and sulfur coming out of their mouths. ¹⁸ One third of all people were killed by the three terrible troubles caused by the fire, the smoke, and the sulfur. ¹⁹ The horses had powerful mouths, and their tails were like poisonous snakes that bite and hurt.

^20 (J) The people who lived through these terrible troubles did not turn away from the idols they had made, and they did not stop worshiping demons. They kept on worshiping idols that were made of gold, silver, bronze, stone, and wood. Not one of these idols could see, hear, or walk. ²¹ No one stopped murdering or practicing witchcraft or being immoral or stealing.