M’Cheyne Bible Reading Plan
Abraham and Abimelech
20 Abraham left Hebron and traveled to southern Canaan. He stayed awhile between Kadesh and Shur. Then he moved to Gerar. 2 Abraham told people that his wife Sarah was his sister. Abimelech king of Gerar heard this. So he sent some servants to take her. 3 But one night God spoke to Abimelech in a dream. God said, “You will die. That woman you took is married.”
4 But Abimelech had not slept with Sarah. So he said, “Lord, would you destroy an innocent nation? 5 Abraham himself told me, ‘This woman is my sister.’ And she also said, ‘He is my brother.’ I am innocent. I did not know I was doing anything wrong.”
6 Then God said to Abimelech in the dream, “Yes, I know that you did not realize what you were doing. So I did not allow you to sin against me. I did not allow you to sleep with her. 7 Give Abraham his wife back. He is a prophet. He will pray for you, and you will not die. But if you do not give Sarah back, you will die. And all your family will surely die.”
8 So early the next morning, Abimelech called all his officers. He told them everything that had happened in the dream. They were very much afraid. 9 Then Abimelech called Abraham to him. Abimelech said, “What have you done to us? What wrong did I do against you? Why did you bring this trouble to my kingdom? You should not have done these things to me. 10 What were you thinking that caused you to do this?”
11 Then Abraham answered, “I thought no one in this place respected God. I thought someone would kill me to get Sarah. 12 And it is true that she is my sister. She is the daughter of my father. But she is not the daughter of my mother. 13 God told me to leave my father’s house and wander in many different places. When that happened, I told Sarah, ‘You must do a special favor for me. Everywhere we go tell people I am your brother.’”
14 Then Abimelech gave Abraham some sheep, cattle and male and female slaves. Abimelech also gave Sarah, his wife, back to him. 15 And Abimelech said, “Look around you at my land. You may live anywhere you want.”
16 Abimelech said to Sarah, “I gave your brother Abraham 25 pounds of silver. I did this to make up for any wrong that people may think about you. I want everyone to know that you are innocent.”
17 Then Abraham prayed to God. And God healed Abimelech, his wife and his servant girls. Now they could have children. 18 The Lord had kept all the women in Abimelech’s house from having children. This was God’s punishment on Abimelech for taking Abraham’s wife Sarah.
Jesus Teaches About Divorce
19 After Jesus said all these things, he left Galilee. He went into the area of Judea on the other side of the Jordan River. 2 Large crowds followed Jesus, and he healed them there.
3 Some Pharisees came to Jesus and tried to trick him. They asked, “Is it right for a man to divorce his wife for any reason he chooses?”
4 Jesus answered, “Surely you have read in the Scriptures: When God made the world, ‘he made them male and female.’[a] 5 And God said, ‘So a man will leave his father and mother and be united with his wife. And the two people will become one body.’[b] 6 So the two are not two, but one. God joined the two people together. No person should separate them.”
7 The Pharisees asked, “Why then did Moses give a command for a man to divorce his wife by giving her divorce papers?”
8 Jesus answered, “Moses allowed you to divorce your wives because you refused to accept God’s teaching. But divorce was not allowed in the beginning. 9 I tell you that anyone who divorces his wife and marries another woman is guilty of adultery.[c] The only reason for a man to divorce and marry again is if his first wife has been unfaithful to him.”
10 The followers said to him, “If that is the only reason a man can divorce his wife, then it is better not to marry.”
11 Jesus answered, “Not everyone can accept this truth about marriage. But God has made some able to accept it. 12 There are different reasons why some men cannot marry. Some men were born without the ability to become fathers. Others were made that way later in life by other people. And other men have given up marriage because of the kingdom of heaven. But the person who can marry should accept this teaching about marriage.”[d]
Jesus Welcomes Children
13 Then the people brought their little children to Jesus so that he could put his hands on them[e] and pray for them. When his followers saw this, they told the people to stop bringing their children to Jesus. 14 But Jesus said, “Let the little children come to me. Don’t stop them, because the kingdom of heaven belongs to people who are like these children.” 15 After Jesus put his hands on the children, he left there.
A Rich Young Man’s Question
16 A man came to Jesus and asked, “Teacher, what good thing must I do to have life forever?”
17 Jesus answered, “Why do you ask me about what is good? Only God is good. But if you want to have life forever, obey the commands.”
18 The man asked, “Which commands?”
Jesus answered, “‘You must not murder anyone. You must not be guilty of adultery. You must not steal. You must not tell lies about your neighbor in court. 19 Honor your father and mother.[f] Love your neighbor as you love yourself.’”[g]
20 The young man said, “I have obeyed all these things. What else do I need to do?”
21 Jesus answered, “If you want to be perfect, then go and sell all the things you own. Give the money to the poor. If you do this, you will have a treasure in heaven. Then come and follow me!”
22 But when the young man heard this, he became very sad because he was very rich. So he left Jesus.
23 Then Jesus said to his followers, “I tell you the truth. It will be very hard for a rich person to enter the kingdom of heaven. 24 Yes, I tell you that it is easier for a camel to go through the eye of a needle than for a rich person to enter the kingdom of God.”
25 When the followers heard this, they were very surprised. They asked, “Then who can be saved?”
26 Jesus looked at them and said, “For men this is impossible. But for God all things are possible.”
27 Peter said to Jesus, “We left everything we had and followed you. So what will we have?”
28 Jesus said to them, “I tell you the truth. When the new age comes, the Son of Man will sit on his great throne. And all of you who followed me will also sit on 12 thrones. And you will judge the 12 tribes of Israel. 29 And everyone who has left houses, brothers, sisters, father, mother,[h] children, or farms to follow me will get much more than he left. And he will have life forever. 30 Many who are first now will be last in the future. And many who are last now will be first in the future.
Israel Confesses Sins
9 It was on the twenty-fourth day of that same month. The people of Israel gathered together. They did not eat. And they put on rough cloth and put dust on their heads. This was to show their sadness. 2 Those people whose ancestors were from Israel had separated themselves from all foreigners. They stood and confessed their sins and their ancestors’ sins. 3 For a fourth of the day they stood where they were. And they read from the Book of the Teachings of the Lord their God. Then they spent another fourth of the day confessing their sins. And they worshiped the Lord their God. 4 These Levites were standing on the stairs: Jeshua, Bani, Kadmiel, Shebaniah, Bunni, Sherebiah, Bani and Kanani. They called out to the Lord their God with loud voices. 5 And these Levites spoke: Jeshua, Kadmiel, Bani, Hashabneiah, Sherebiah, Hodiah, Shebaniah and Pethahiah. They said, “Stand up and praise the Lord your God. He lives forever and ever.”
The People’s Prayer
“Blessed be your wonderful name.
It is more wonderful than all blessing and praise.
6 You are the only Lord.
You made the heavens, even the highest heavens.
You made all the stars.
You made the earth and everything that is on it.
You made the seas and everything that is in them.
You give life to everything.
The heavenly army worships you.
7 “You are the Lord God.
You chose Abram.
You brought him out of Ur of the Babylonians.
You named him Abraham.
8 You found that he was faithful to you.
So you made an agreement with him.
You promised to give his descendants the land of the Canaanites,
Hittites, Amorites,
Perizzites, Jebusites and Girgashites.
You have kept your promise.
You are fair.
9 “You saw our ancestors suffering in Egypt.
You heard them cry out at the Red Sea.
10 You did signs and miracles against the king of Egypt.
And you did them against all his officers and all the people of Egypt.
You knew how proud they were.
You made everyone know your name.
And it is still known today.
11 You divided the sea in front of our ancestors.
They walked through it on dry ground.
But you threw the people chasing them into the deep water.
They were like a stone being thrown into mighty waters.
12 You led our ancestors with a pillar of cloud in the daytime.
And you led them with a pillar of fire at night.
It lit the way
they were supposed to go.
13 You came down to Mount Sinai.
You talked to our ancestors from heaven.
You gave them fair rules and true teachings.
You gave them good orders and commands.
14 You told them about your holy Sabbath.
You gave commands, orders and teachings to them
through your servant Moses.
15 When they were hungry, you gave them bread from heaven.
When they were thirsty, you brought them water from the rock.
You told them to go into the land and take it over.
You had promised to give it to them.
16 “But our ancestors were proud and stubborn.
They did not obey your commands.
17 They refused to listen.
They forgot the miracles you did for them.
They became stubborn and turned against you.
They chose a leader to lead them back to their slavery.
But you are a forgiving God.
You are kind and full of mercy.
You do not become angry quickly. And you have great love.
So you did not leave them.
18 Our ancestors even made an idol of a calf for themselves.
They said, ‘This is your god, Israel.
It brought you up out of Egypt.’
They spoke against you.
19 “You have great mercy.
So you did not leave them in the desert.
During the day the pillar of cloud guided them on their way.
And the pillar of fire led them at night.
It lit the way they were supposed to go.
20 You gave your good Spirit to teach them.
You gave them manna to eat.
And you gave them water when they were thirsty.
21 You took care of them for 40 years in the desert.
They needed nothing.
Their clothes did not wear out.
And their feet did not swell.
22 “You gave them kingdoms and nations.
You gave them more land.
They took over the country of Sihon king of Heshbon.
And they took over the country of Og king of Bashan.
23 You made their children as many as the stars in the sky.
And you brought them into the land.
This was where you had told their ancestors to enter and take over.
24 So their children went into the land and took over.
The Canaanites lived there.
But you defeated them for our ancestors.
You handed over to them the Canaanites, their kings and the people of the land.
Our ancestors could do what they wanted with them.
25 Our ancestors captured strong, walled cities and fertile land.
They took over houses full of good things.
They took over wells that were already dug.
They took vineyards, olive trees and many fruit trees.
They ate until they were full and became fat.
They enjoyed your great goodness.
26 “But they were disobedient and turned against you.
They ignored your teachings.
Your prophets warned them to come back to you.
But they killed those prophets.
And they spoke against you.
27 So you allowed their enemies to defeat them.
Their enemies treated them badly.
But in this time of trouble our ancestors cried out to you.
And you heard from heaven.
You had great mercy.
You gave them saviors who saved them from the power of their enemies.
28 But as soon as they had rest,
they again did what was evil.
So you left them to their enemies
who ruled over them.
But they cried out to you again.
And you heard from heaven.
Because of your mercy, you saved them again and again.
29 You warned them to return to obeying your teachings.
But they were proud. They did not obey your commands.
If a man obeys your laws, he will live.
But they sinned against your laws.
They were stubborn and disobedient.
They would not listen.
30 You were patient with them for many years.
You warned them by your Spirit through the prophets.
But they did not pay attention.
So you allowed them to be defeated by other countries.
31 But because your mercy is great, you did not kill them all.
You did not leave them.
You are a kind and merciful God.
32 “And so, our God, you are the great and mighty and wonderful God.
You keep your agreement of love.
Do not let all our trouble seem unimportant in your eyes.
This trouble has come to us, to our kings and to our leaders.
It has come to our priests and prophets.
It has come to our ancestors and all your people.
This trouble has come to us since the days of the kings of Assyria.
And it has lasted until today.
33 You have been fair in everything that has happened to us.
You have been loyal, but we have been wicked.
34 Our kings, leaders, priests and ancestors did not obey your teachings.
They did not pay attention to the commands and warnings you gave them.
35 Even when our ancestors were living in their kingdom,
they did not serve you.
They were enjoying all the good things you had given them.
They were enjoying the land that was fertile and full of room.
But they did not stop their evil ways.
36 “Look, we are slaves today
in the land you gave our ancestors.
They were to enjoy its fruit and its good things.
But look, we are slaves here.
37 The land’s great harvest belongs to the kings you have put over us.
This is because of our sins.
Those kings rule over us and our cattle as they please.
And we are in much trouble.
The People’s Agreement
38 “Because of all this, we are making an agreement in writing. Our leaders, Levites and priests are putting their seals on it.”
Paul in Ephesus
19 While Apollos was in Corinth, Paul was visiting some places on the way to Ephesus. There he found some followers. 2 Paul asked them, “Did you receive the Holy Spirit when you believed?”
They said, “We have never even heard of a Holy Spirit!”
3 So he asked, “What kind of baptism did you have?”
They said, “It was the baptism that John[a] taught.”
4 Paul said, “John’s baptism was a baptism of changed hearts and lives. He told people to believe in the One who would come after him. That One is Jesus.”
5 When they heard this, they were baptized in the name of the Lord Jesus. 6 Then Paul laid his hands on them,[b] and the Holy Spirit came upon them. They began speaking different languages and prophesying. 7 There were about 12 men in this group.
8 Paul went into the synagogue and spoke out boldly for three months. He talked with the Jews and persuaded them to accept the things he said about the kingdom of God. 9 But some of the Jews became stubborn and refused to believe. These Jews said evil things about the Way of Jesus. All the people heard these things. So Paul left them and took the followers with him. He went to a place where a man named Tyrannus had a school. There Paul talked with people every day 10 for two years. Because of his work, every Jew and Greek in Asia heard the word of the Lord.
The Sons of Sceva
11 God used Paul to do some very special miracles. 12 Some people took handkerchiefs and clothes that Paul had used and put them on the sick. When they did this, the sick were healed and evil spirits left them.
13-14 But some Jews also were traveling around and making evil spirits go out of people. The seven sons of Sceva were doing this. (Sceva was a leading Jewish priest.) These Jews tried to use the name of the Lord Jesus to force the evil spirits out. They would say, “By the same Jesus that Paul talks about, I order you to come out!”
15 But one time an evil spirit said to these Jews, “I know Jesus, and I know about Paul, but who are you?”
16 Then the man, who had the evil spirit in him, jumped on these Jews. He was much stronger than all of them. He beat them and tore their clothes off, so they ran away from the house. 17 All the people in Ephesus, Jews and Greeks, learned about this. They were filled with fear. And the people gave great honor to the Lord Jesus. 18 Many of the believers began to confess openly and tell all the evil things they had done. 19 Some of them had used magic. These believers brought their magic books and burned them before everyone. Those books were worth about 50,000 silver coins.[c]
20 So in a powerful way the word of the Lord kept spreading and growing.
Paul Plans a Trip
21 After these things, Paul made plans to go to Jerusalem. He planned to go through the countries of Macedonia and Southern Greece, and then on to Jerusalem. He said, “After I have been to Jerusalem, I must also visit Rome.” 22 Paul sent Timothy and Erastus, two of his helpers, ahead to Macedonia. He himself stayed in Asia for a while.
Trouble in Ephesus
23 But during that time, there was some serious trouble in Ephesus about the Way of Jesus. 24 There was a man named Demetrius, who worked with silver. He made little silver models that looked like the temple of the goddess Artemis.[d] The men who did this work made much money. 25 Demetrius had a meeting with these men and some others who did the same kind of work. He told them, “Men, you know that we make a lot of money from our business. 26 But look at what this man Paul is doing! He has convinced and turned away many people in Ephesus and in almost all of Asia! He says the gods that men make are not real. 27 There is a danger that our business will lose its good name. But there is also another danger: People will begin to think that the temple of the great goddess Artemis is not important! Her greatness will be destroyed. And Artemis is the goddess that everyone in Asia and the whole world worships.”
28 When the men heard this, they became very angry. They shouted, “Great is Artemis of the Ephesians!” 29 The whole city became confused. The people grabbed Gaius and Aristarchus. (These two men were from Macedonia and were traveling with Paul.) Then all the people ran to the theater. 30 Paul wanted to go in and talk to the crowd, but the followers did not let him. 31 Also, some leaders of Asia were friends of Paul. They sent him a message, begging him not to go into the theater. 32 Some people were shouting one thing, and some were shouting another. The meeting was completely confused. Most of the people did not know why they had come together. 33 The Jews put a man named Alexander in front of the people. Some of them had told him what to do. Alexander waved his hand because he wanted to explain things to the people. 34 But when they saw that Alexander was a Jew, they all began shouting the same thing. They continued shouting for two hours: “Great is Artemis of the Ephesians!”
35 Then the city clerk made the crowd be quiet. He said, “Men of Ephesus, everyone knows that Ephesus is the city that keeps the temple of the great goddess Artemis. All people know that we also keep her holy stone[e] that fell from heaven. 36 No one can say that this is not true. So you should be quiet. You must stop and think before you do anything. 37 You brought these men here, but they have not said anything evil against our goddess. They have not stolen anything from her temple. 38 We have courts of law, and there are judges. Do Demetrius and the men who work with him have a charge against anyone? They should go to the courts! That is where they can argue with each other! 39 Is there something else you want to talk about? It can be decided at the regular town meeting of the people. 40 I say this because some people might see this trouble today and say that we are rioting. We could not explain this because there is no real reason for this meeting.” 41 After the city clerk said these things, he told the people to go home.
The Holy Bible, International Children’s Bible® Copyright© 1986, 1988, 1999, 2015 by Thomas Nelson. Used by permission.