M’Cheyne Bible Reading Plan
False Prophets
13 A prophet or someone who tells the future with dreams might come to you. He might say he will show you a miracle or a sign. 2 The miracle or sign might even happen. Then he might say, “Let’s serve other gods.” (These are gods you have not known.) “And let’s worship them.” 3 But you must not listen to that prophet or dreamer. The Lord your God is testing you. He is finding out if you love him with your whole being. 4 Serve only the Lord your God. Respect him. Keep his commands and obey him. Serve him and be loyal to him. 5 That prophet or dreamer must be killed. He said you should turn against the Lord your God. The Lord brought you out of Egypt. He saved you from the land where you were slaves. That prophet tried to turn you from doing what the Lord your God commanded you to do. You must get rid of the evil among you.
6 Some relative might try to lead you to serve other gods. It might be your brother, your son or daughter or the wife you love. Or it might be a close friend. He might say, “Let’s go and worship other gods.” (These are gods that neither you nor your ancestors have known. 7 They are gods of the people who live around you. Some are nearby, and some are far away. They are from one end of the land to the other.) 8 Do not give in to him. Do not listen. Do not feel sorry for him. Do not let him go free or protect him. 9 You must put him to death. You must be the first one to start to kill him. Then everyone else must join in. 10 You must throw stones at him until he dies. He tried to turn you away from the Lord your God. The Lord brought you out of the land of Egypt, where you were slaves. 11 Then everyone in Israel will hear about this. And they will be afraid. No one among you will ever do such an evil thing again.
Cities to Destroy
12 The Lord your God is giving you cities in which to live. You might hear something about one of them. Someone might say 13 that evil men have moved in among you. And they might lead the people of that city away from God. They might say, “Let’s go and worship other gods.” (These are gods you have not known.) 14 Then you must ask about it. Look into the matter and check carefully. It might be true. It may be proved that a terrible thing has happened among you. 15 If it has, then you must kill with a sword everyone who lives in that city. Destroy the city completely. Kill everyone in it, as well as the animals, with a sword. 16 Gather up everything those people owned. Put it in the middle of the city square. Then completely burn the city and everything they owned. It will be a burnt offering to the Lord your God. That city should never be rebuilt. Let it be ruined forever. 17 Don’t keep any of the things found in that city for yourselves. Then the Lord will not be angry anymore. He will give you mercy. He will feel sorry for you. And he will make your nation grow larger. He promised this to your ancestors. 18 You will have obeyed the Lord your God. You will be keeping all his commands. I am giving them to you today. And you will be doing what the Lord says is right.
God’s Special People
14 You are the children of the Lord your God. When someone dies, do not cut yourselves or shave your heads to show your sadness. 2 You are holy people. You belong to the Lord your God. He has chosen you from all the people on earth to be his very own.
3 Do not eat anything the Lord hates. 4 These are the animals you may eat: ox, sheep, goats, 5 deer, gazelle, roe deer, wild goats, ibex, antelope and mountain sheep. 6 You may eat any animal that has a split hoof and chews the cud. 7 But you may not eat camels, rabbits or rock badgers. These animals chew the cud, but their feet are not divided. So they are unclean for you. 8 Pigs are also unclean for you. They have split hooves, but they do not chew the cud. Do not eat their meat or touch their dead bodies.
9 There are many things that live in the water. You may eat anything that has fins and scales. 10 But do not eat anything that does not have fins and scales. It is unclean for you.
11 You may eat any clean bird. 12 But do not eat these birds: eagles, vultures, black vultures, 13 red kites, falcons, any kind of kite, 14 any kind of raven, 15 horned owls, screech owls, seagulls, any kind of hawk, 16 little owls, great owls, white owls, 17 desert owls, ospreys, cormorants, 18 storks, any kind of heron, the hoopoes or bats.
19 All insects with wings are unclean for you. Do not eat them. 20 Other things with wings are clean. You may eat them.
21 Do not eat anything you find that is already dead. You may give it to a foreigner living in your town. He may eat it. Or you may sell it to a foreigner. But you are holy people. You belong to the Lord your God.
Do not cook a baby goat in its mother’s milk.
Giving One-Tenth
22 Be sure to save one-tenth of all your crops each year. 23 Take it to the place the Lord your God will choose where he is to be worshiped. There you will be together with the Lord. There eat the tenth of your grain, new wine and oil. And eat the animals born first to your herds and flocks. Then you will learn to respect the Lord your God always. 24 But the place the Lord will choose to be worshiped might be too far away. And he may have blessed you so much you cannot carry a tenth. 25 If so, exchange your one-tenth for silver. Then take the silver with you to the place the Lord your God shall choose. 26 Use the silver to buy anything you wish. You may buy cattle, sheep, wine, beer or anything you wish. Then you and your family will eat and celebrate there before the Lord your God. 27 Do not forget the Levites in your town. They have no land of their own among you.
28 At the end of every third year, everyone should bring one-tenth of that year’s crop. Store it in your towns. 29 This is for the Levites so they may eat and be full. (They have no land of their own among you.) It is also for strangers, orphans and widows who live in your towns. All of them may eat and be full. Then the Lord your God will bless you and all the work you do.
God the Fair and Holy King
99 The Lord is king.
Let the nations shake with fear.
He sits between the gold creatures with wings.
Let the earth shake.
2 The Lord in Jerusalem is great.
He is supreme over all the nations.
3 Let them praise your name.
It is great, holy and to be feared.
4 The King is powerful and loves justice.
Lord, you made things fair.
You have done what is fair and right
for the people of Jacob.
5 Praise the Lord our God.
Worship at the Temple, his footstool.
He is holy.
6 Moses and Aaron were among his priests.
And Samuel was among his worshipers.
They called to the Lord,
and he answered them.
7 He spoke to them from the pillar of cloud.
They kept the rules and laws he gave them.
8 Lord our God, you answered them.
You showed them that you are a forgiving God.
But you punished them for their wrongs.
9 Praise the Lord our God.
Worship at his holy mountain.
The Lord our God is holy.
A Call to Praise God
A song of thanks.
100 Shout to the Lord, all the earth.
2 Serve the Lord with joy.
Come before him with singing.
3 Know that the Lord is God.
He made us, and we belong to him.
We are his people, the sheep he tends.
4 Come into his city with songs of thanksgiving.
Come into his courtyards with songs of praise.
Thank him, and praise his name.
5 The Lord is good. His love continues forever.
His loyalty continues from now on.
A Promise to Rule Well
A song of David.
101 I will sing of love and fairness.
Lord, I will sing praises to you.
2 I will be careful to live an innocent life.
When will you come to me?
I will live an innocent life in my house.
3 I will not look at anything wicked.
I hate those who turn against you.
They will not be found near me.
4 Let those who want to do wrong stay away from me.
I will have nothing to do with evil.
5 If anyone secretly says things against his neighbor,
I will stop him.
I will not allow people
to be proud and look down on others.
6 I will look for trustworthy people
so I can live with them in the land.
Only those who live innocent lives
will be my servants.
7 No one who is dishonest will live in my house.
No liars will stay around me.
8 Every morning I will destroy
the wicked in the land.
I will rid the Lord’s city
of people who do evil.
The Lord Will Help Israel
41 The Lord says, “Faraway countries, listen to me.
Let the nations become strong.
Come to me and speak.
We will meet together to decide who is right.
2 “Who caused the man to come from the east?
Who gives the man victories everywhere he goes?
The one who brought him gives nations over to him.
He defeats kings for him.
The man uses his sword, and the kings become like dust.
He uses his bow, and they are blown away like chaff.
3 He chases them and is never hurt.
He goes places where he has never been before.
4 Who caused this to happen?
Who has controlled history since the beginning?
I, the Lord, am the one. I was here at the beginning.
And I will be here when all things are finished.”
5 All you faraway places, look and be afraid.
All you places far away on the earth, shake with fear.
Come close and listen to me.
6 The workers help each other.
They say to each other, “Be strong!”
7 The man who carves wood encourages the man who works with gold.
The workman who smooths the metal with a hammer encourages the man who shapes the metal.
This last workman says, “This metal work is good.”
He nails the statue to a base so it can’t fall over.
Only the Lord Can Save Us
8 The Lord says, “People of Israel, you are my servants.
People of Jacob, I chose you.
You are from the family of my friend Abraham.
9 You were far away on the earth.
I called you from a faraway country.
I said, ‘You are my servants.’
I have chosen you, and I have not turned against you.
10 So don’t worry, because I am with you.
Don’t be afraid, because I am your God.
I will make you strong and will help you.
I will support you with my right hand that saves you.
11 “All those people who are angry with you
will be ashamed and disgraced.
Those who are against you
will disappear and be lost.
12 You will look for your enemies.
But you will not find them.
Those who fought against you
will vanish completely.
13 I am the Lord your God.
I am holding your right hand.
And I tell you, ‘Don’t be afraid.
I will help you.’
14 You few people of Israel who are left,
do not be afraid even though you are weak as a worm.
I myself will help you,” says the Lord.
“I am the one who saves you, the Holy One of Israel.
15 Look, I have made you like a threshing board.
You are new, with many sharp teeth.
So you will walk on mountains and crush them.
You will make the hills like chaff.
16 You will throw them into the air. And the wind will carry them away.
A windstorm will scatter them.
Then you will be happy in the Lord.
You will be proud of the Holy One of Israel.
17 “The poor and needy people look for water.
But they can’t find any.
Their tongues are dry with thirst.
But I, the Lord, will answer their prayers.
I, the God of Israel, will not leave them to die.
18 I will make rivers flow on the dry hills.
I will make springs of water flow through the valleys.
I will change the desert into a lake of water.
I will change the dry land into springs of water.
19 I will make trees grow in the desert.
There will be cedars, acacia, myrtle and olive trees.
I will put pine, fir and cypress trees
growing together in the desert.
20 People will see these things and understand.
Together they will think carefully about these things.
They will know that the Lord’s power did this.
They will know that the Holy One of Israel made these things.”
The Lord Challenges False Gods
21 The Lord says, “Present your case.”
The Lord, the King of Jacob, says, “Tell me your arguments.
22 Bring in your idols to tell us
what is going to happen.
Have them tell us what happened in the beginning.
Then we will think about these things.
Then we will know how they will turn out.
Tell us what will happen in the future.
23 Tell us what is coming next.
Then we will believe that you are gods.
Do something, whether it is good or bad.
Make us afraid of you.
24 You false gods are less than nothing.
You can’t do anything.
Those who worship you should be hated.”
25 “I have brought someone to come out of the north.[a]
I have called by name a man from the east, and he knows me.
He walks on kings as if they were mud.
He walks on them as a potter walks on the clay.
26 Who told us about this before it happened?
Who told us ahead of time so we could say, ‘He was right’?
None of you told us anything.
None of you told us before it happened.
No one heard you tell about it.
27 I, the Lord, was the first one to tell Jerusalem that the people were coming home.
I sent a messenger to Jerusalem with the good news.
28 I look at the idols, but there is not one that can answer.
None of them can give advice.
None of them can answer my questions.
29 Look, all these idols are false gods.
They cannot do anything.
They are worth nothing.
The Two Witnesses
11 Then I was given a measuring stick like a rod. I was told, “Go and measure the temple[a] of God and the altar, and count the number of people worshiping there. 2 But do not measure the yard outside the temple. Leave it alone. It has been given to the people who are not Jews. They will walk on the holy city for 42 months. 3 And I will give power to my two witnesses to prophesy for 1,260 days. They will be dressed in rough cloth to show how sad they are.”
4 These two witnesses are the two olive trees and the two lampstands that stand before the Lord of the earth. 5 If anyone tries to hurt the witnesses, fire comes from their mouths and kills their enemies. Anyone who tries to hurt them will die like this. 6 These witnesses have the power to stop the sky from raining during the time they are prophesying. They have power to make the waters become blood. They have power to send every kind of trouble to the earth. They can do this as many times as they want.
7 When the two witnesses have finished telling their message, the beast will fight against them. This is the beast that comes up from the bottomless pit. He will defeat them and kill them. 8 The bodies of the two witnesses will lie in the street of the great city. This city is named Sodom[b] and Egypt. These names for the city have a special meaning. It is the city where the Lord was killed. 9 Men from every race of people, tribe, language, and nation will look at the bodies of the two witnesses for three and a half days. They will refuse to bury them. 10 People who live on the earth will be happy because these two are dead. They will have parties and send each other gifts. They will do these things because these two prophets brought much suffering to those who live on the earth.
11 But after three and a half days, God put the breath of life into the two prophets again. They stood on their feet. Everyone who saw them was filled with fear. 12 Then the two prophets heard a loud voice from heaven say, “Come up here!” And they went up into heaven in a cloud. Their enemies watched them go.
13 At that same time there was a great earthquake. A tenth of the city was destroyed. And 7,000 people were killed in the earthquake. Those who did not die were very afraid. They gave glory to the God of heaven.
14 The second great trouble is finished. The third great trouble is coming soon.
The Seventh Trumpet
15 Then the seventh angel blew his trumpet. And there were loud voices in heaven. The voices said:
“The power to rule the world
now belongs to our Lord and his Christ.
And he will rule forever and ever.”
16 Then the 24 elders[c] bowed down on their faces and worshiped God. These are the elders who sit on their thrones before God. 17 They said:
“We give thanks to you, Lord God All-Powerful.
You are the One who is and who was.
We thank you because you have used your great power
and have begun to rule!
18 The people of the world were angry;
but now is the time for your anger.
Now is the time for the dead to be judged.
It is time to reward your servants the prophets
and to reward your holy people,
all who respect you, great and small.
It is time to destroy those who destroy the earth!”
19 Then God’s temple[d] in heaven was opened. The Ark of the Covenant that holds the agreement that God gave to his people could be seen in his temple. Then there were flashes of lightning, noises, thunder, an earthquake, and a great hailstorm.
The Holy Bible, International Children’s Bible® Copyright© 1986, 1988, 1999, 2015 by Thomas Nelson. Used by permission.