M’Cheyne Bible Reading Plan

The Beginning of Sin

3 Now the snake was the most clever of all the wild animals the Lord God had made. One day the snake spoke to the woman. He said, “Did God really say that you must not eat fruit from any tree in the garden?”

² The woman answered the snake, “We may eat fruit from the trees in the garden. ³ But God told us, ‘You must not eat fruit from the tree that is in the middle of the garden. You must not even touch it, or you will die.’”

⁴ But the snake said to the woman, “You will not die. ⁵ God knows that if you eat the fruit from that tree, you will learn about good and evil. Then you will be like God!”

⁶ The woman saw that the tree was beautiful. She saw that its fruit was good to eat and that it would make her wise. So she took some of its fruit and ate it. She also gave some of the fruit to her husband who was with her, and he ate it.

⁷ Then, it was as if the man’s and the woman’s eyes were opened. They realized they were naked. So they sewed fig leaves together and made something to cover themselves.

⁸ Then they heard the Lord God walking in the garden. This was during the cool part of the day. And the man and his wife hid from the Lord God among the trees in the garden. ⁹ But the Lord God called to the man. The Lord said, “Where are you?”

¹⁰ The man answered, “I heard you walking in the garden. I was afraid because I was naked. So I hid.”

¹¹ God said to the man, “Who told you that you were naked? Did you eat fruit from that tree? I commanded you not to eat from that tree.”

¹² The man said, “You gave this woman to me. She gave me fruit from the tree. So I ate it.”

¹³ Then the Lord God said to the woman, “What have you done?”

She answered, “The snake tricked me. So I ate the fruit.”

¹⁴ The Lord God said to the snake,

¹⁶ Then God said to the woman,

¹⁷ Then God said to the man, “You listened to what your wife said. And you ate fruit from the tree that I commanded you not to eat from.

²⁰ The man named his wife Eve.^[a] This is because she is the mother of everyone who ever lived.

²¹ The Lord God made clothes from animal skins for the man and his wife. And so the Lord dressed them. ²² Then the Lord God said, “Look, the man has become like one of us. He knows good and evil. And now we must keep him from eating some of the fruit from the tree of life. If he does, he will live forever.” ²³ So the Lord God forced the man out of the garden of Eden. He had to work the ground he was taken from. ²⁴ God forced the man out of the garden. Then God put angels on the east side of the garden. He also put a sword of fire there. It flashed around in every direction. This kept people from getting to the tree of life.

The Work of John the Baptist

3 About that time John the Baptist came and began preaching in the desert area of Judea. ² John said, “Change your hearts and lives because the kingdom of heaven is coming soon.” ³ John the Baptist is the one Isaiah the prophet was talking about. Isaiah said:

⁴ John’s clothes were made from camel’s hair. He wore a leather belt around his waist. For food, he ate locusts and wild honey. ⁵ Many people went to hear John preach. They came from Jerusalem and all Judea and all the area around the Jordan River. ⁶ They told of the sins they had done, and John baptized them in the Jordan River.

⁷ Many of the Pharisees and Sadducees came to the place where John was baptizing people. When John saw them, he said: “You are snakes! Who warned you to run away from God’s anger that is coming? ⁸ You must do the things that show that you have really changed your hearts and lives. ⁹ And don’t think that you can say to yourselves, ‘Abraham is our father.’ I tell you that God could make children for Abraham from these rocks. ¹⁰ The ax is now ready to cut down the trees. Every tree that does not produce good fruit will be cut down and thrown into the fire.^[a]

¹¹ “I baptize you with water to show that your hearts and lives have changed. But there is one coming later who is greater than I am. I am not good enough to carry his sandals. He will baptize you with the Holy Spirit and with fire. ¹² He will come ready to clean the grain. He will separate the good grain from the chaff. He will put the good part of the grain into his barn. And he will burn the chaff with a fire that cannot be put out.”^[b]

Jesus Is Baptized by John

¹³ At that time Jesus came from Galilee to the Jordan River. He came to John and wanted John to baptize him. ¹⁴ But John tried to stop him. John said, “Why do you come to me to be baptized? I should be baptized by you!”

¹⁵ Jesus answered, “Let it be this way for now. We should do all things that are right.” So John agreed to baptize Jesus.

¹⁶ Jesus was baptized and came up out of the water. Heaven opened, and he saw God’s Spirit coming down on him like a dove. ¹⁷ And a voice spoke from heaven. The voice said, “This is my Son and I love him. I am very pleased with him.”

Rebuilding the Altar

3 By the seventh month, the Israelites were settled in their hometowns. They met together in Jerusalem. ² Then Jeshua son of Jozadak and his fellow priests joined Zerubbabel son of Shealtiel. They began to build the altar of the God of Israel. That’s where they offered burnt offerings just as it is written in the Teachings of Moses. Moses was the man of God. ³ They were afraid of the people living around them. But they still built the altar where it had been before. They offered burnt offerings on it to the Lord morning and evening. ⁴ Then, to obey what was written, they celebrated the Feast of Shelters. They offered the right number of sacrifices for each day of the festival. ⁵ After the Feast of Shelters, they had regular sacrifices every day. They had sacrifices for the New Moon and all the festivals commanded by the Lord. Also there were special offerings brought as gifts to the Lord. ⁶ On the first day of the seventh month they began to bring burnt offerings to the Lord. But the foundation of the Lord’s Temple had not yet been laid.

Rebuilding the Temple

⁷ Then they gave money to the stoneworkers and carpenters. They also gave food, wine and oil to the cities of Sidon and Tyre. This was so they would float cedar logs from Lebanon to the seacoast town of Joppa. Cyrus king of Persia had given permission for this.

⁸ It was in the second year after their arrival at the Temple of God in Jerusalem. In the second month Zerubbabel and Jeshua began the work. So did the rest of their fellow priests and Levites. And all who had returned from captivity to Jerusalem began to work. They chose Levites 20 years old and older to be in charge of the building of the Temple of the Lord. ⁹ These men were in charge of the work of building the Temple of God: Jeshua and his sons and brothers; Kadmiel and his sons who were the descendants of Hodaviah; and the sons of Henadad and their sons and brothers. They were all Levites.

¹⁰ The builders finished laying the foundation of the Temple of the Lord. Then the priests, dressed in their robes, got trumpets. And the Levites, the sons of Asaph, had cymbals. They all took their places. They praised the Lord just as David king of Israel had said to do. ¹¹ With praise and thanksgiving, they sang to the Lord:

And then all the people shouted loudly, “Praise the Lord! The foundation of his Temple has been laid.” ¹² But many of the older priests, Levites and family leaders cried aloud. They had seen the first Temple. Now they saw the foundation of this Temple. But most of the other people were shouting with joy. ¹³ The people made so much noise no one could tell the difference between the joyful shouting and the sad crying. It could be heard far away.

Peter Heals a Crippled Man

3 One day Peter and John went to the Temple. It was three o’clock in the afternoon. This was the time for the daily prayer service. ² There, at the Temple gate called Beautiful Gate, was a man who had been crippled all his life. Every day he was carried to this gate to beg. He would ask for money from the people going into the Temple. ³ The man saw Peter and John going into the Temple and asked them for money. ⁴ Peter and John looked straight at him and said, “Look at us!” ⁵ The man looked at them; he thought they were going to give him some money. ⁶ But Peter said, “I don’t have any silver or gold, but I do have something else I can give you: By the power of Jesus Christ from Nazareth—stand up and walk!” ⁷ Then Peter took the man’s right hand and lifted him up. Immediately the man’s feet and ankles became strong. ⁸ He jumped up, stood on his feet, and began to walk. He went into the Temple with them, walking and jumping, and praising God. ^9-10 All the people recognized him. They knew he was the crippled man who always sat by the Beautiful Gate begging for money. Now they saw this same man walking and praising God. The people were amazed. They could not understand how this could happen.

Peter Speaks to the People

¹¹ The man was holding on to Peter and John. All the people were amazed and ran to Peter and John at Solomon’s Porch. ¹² When Peter saw this, he said to them, “Men of Israel, why are you surprised? You are looking at us as if it were our own power that made this man walk. Do you think this happened because we are good? No! ¹³ The God of Abraham, Isaac and Jacob, the God of our ancestors, gave glory to Jesus, his servant. But you gave him up to be killed. Pilate decided to let him go free. But you told Pilate you did not want Jesus. ¹⁴ He was pure and good, but you said you did not want him. You told Pilate to give you a murderer^[a] instead of Jesus. ¹⁵ And so you killed the One who gives life! But God raised him from death. We are witnesses to this. ¹⁶ It was the power of Jesus that made this crippled man well. This happened because we trusted in the power of Jesus. You can see this man, and you know him. He was made completely well because of trust in Jesus. You all saw it happen!

¹⁷ “Brothers, I know you did those things to Jesus because you did not understand what you were doing. Your leaders did not understand either. ¹⁸ God said this would happen. He said through the prophets that his Christ would suffer and die. And now God has made these things come true in this way. ¹⁹ So you must change your hearts and lives! Come back to God, and he will forgive your sins. ²⁰ Then the Lord will give you times of spiritual rest. He will give you Jesus, the One he chose to be the Christ. ²¹ But Jesus must stay in heaven until the time comes when all things will be made right again. God told about this time long ago when he spoke through his holy prophets. ²² Moses said, ‘The Lord your God will give you a prophet like me. He will be one of your own people. You must obey everything he tells you. ²³ Anyone who does not obey him will die, separated from God’s people.’^{[b] 24} Samuel, and all the other prophets who spoke for God after Samuel, told about this time now. ²⁵ You have received what the prophets talked about. You have received the agreement God made with your ancestors. He said to your father Abraham, ‘Through your descendants all the nations on the earth will be blessed.’^{[c] 26} God has raised up his servant and sent him to you first. He sent Jesus to bless you by turning each of you away from doing evil things.”