M’Cheyne Bible Reading Plan
The Census
24 The anger of the Lord burned against Israel again, and he incited David against them so that he said, “Go count Israel and Judah.”
2 The king said to Joab, the commander of his army, “Travel through all the tribes of Israel from Dan to Beersheba and register the fighting men. Then I will know how many there are.”
3 Joab said to the king, “The Lord your God will make the people a hundred times larger, however many they may be, and the eyes of my lord the king will see it. But why does my lord the king have such a strong desire to do this?”
4 But the word of the king overruled Joab and the commanders of the army. So Joab and the commanders of the army went out from the presence of the king to register Israel. 5 They crossed the Jordan and camped in Aroer on the south side of the city that is in the middle of the canyon. Next they went to Gad and then to Jazer. 6 Then they came to Gilead and to the land of Tahtim Hodshi. After that, they came to Dan Ja’an and around to Sidon. 7 Then they came to the fortress of Tyre and all the cities of the Hivites and the Canaanites. After that they went out to the Negev of Judah at Beersheba.
8 So they went throughout all the land, and then came back to Jerusalem at the end of nine months and twenty days.
9 Joab reported the numbers from the registration of the fighting men to the king. Israel had eight hundred thousand soldiers who could draw a sword. Judah had five hundred thousand men.
10 David had a guilty conscience after he had counted the fighting men. So David said to the Lord, “I have sinned greatly in what I have done. But, Lord, please take away the guilt of your servant, because I have acted very foolishly.”
11 When David got up in the morning, the word of the Lord came to Gad the prophet, David’s seer. The Lord said, 12 “Go tell David, ‘This is what the Lord says. I am laying out three choices before you. Choose one of them for yourself, and I will carry it out against you.’”
13 So Gad went to David and told him about this. He said, “Shall seven[a] years of famine in your land come upon you, or three months of fleeing with your enemies pursuing you, or three days of plague[b] in your land? Now consider this and decide what answer I should return to the one who sent me.”
14 David said to Gad, “This puts me in a difficult position. Please! Let us fall into the hand of the Lord, for his mercy is great. But do not let me fall into the hands of man.”
15 So the Lord sent a plague against Israel from the next morning until the appointed time. Seventy thousand people from Dan to Beersheba died. 16 The angel stretched out his hand toward Jerusalem to destroy it, but the Lord relented and did not bring the disaster. He said to the angel who was carrying out the destruction among the people, “Enough. Now hold back your hand.”
The angel of the Lord was near the threshing floor of Araunah the Jebusite.
17 David said to the Lord, as he was watching the angel striking the people, “Look! I am the one who sinned. I am guilty. But these sheep—what have they done? Please! Let your hand be against me and against the house of my father.”
David Builds an Altar to the Lord
18 Gad came to David on that day and said to him, “Go up and build an altar to the Lord on the threshing floor of Araunah the Jebusite.” 19 So David went up and obeyed Gad’s instructions as the Lord had commanded.
20 Araunah looked up and saw the king and his servants coming toward him. So Araunah went out and bowed down to the king with his face to the ground, 21 and he said, “Why has my lord the king come to his servant?”
David said, “To purchase the threshing floor from you, in order to build an altar to the Lord, so the plague will be held back from the people.”
22 Araunah said to David, “My lord the king can take it and offer whatever seems good to him. Here are oxen for the burnt offering, as well as the threshing sledges and the yokes of the oxen for the wood. 23 O King, Araunah is giving all this to the king.” Araunah also said to the king, “The Lord your God will accept you.”
24 But the king said to Araunah, “No. I insist on purchasing it from you for what it is worth. I will not offer to the Lord my God burnt offerings that I did not pay for.”
So David purchased the threshing floor and the oxen for fifty shekels of silver.[c] 25 He built an altar to the Lord and offered burnt offerings and fellowship offerings there. The Lord heard the requests for the land, and the plague was held back from Israel.
God Sent His Son
4 What I am saying is this: As long as the heir is a young child, he is no different from a slave. Although he is owner of everything, 2 he is still under guardians and managers until the day set by his father. 3 So also, when we were younger children, we were enslaved under the basic principles of the world. 4 But when the set time had fully come, God sent his Son to be born of a woman, so that he would be born under the law, 5 in order to redeem those under the law, so that we would be adopted as sons. 6 And because you are sons, God sent the Spirit of his Son into our hearts to shout, “Abba, Father!” 7 So you are no longer a slave, but a son. And if you are a son, then you are also an heir of God through Christ.[a]
Paul’s Concern for the Gentiles
8 Formerly, when you did not know God, you were slaves to those who by nature are not gods. 9 But now that you know God, or rather are known by God, why are you turning back again to the basic principles that are weak and miserable? Do you want to be enslaved by them all over again? 10 You carefully observe days, months, seasons, and years. 11 I am fearful about you, that somehow my labor for you was wasted.
12 I beg you, brothers, become like me, for I also became like you. You did me no harm. 13 You know that, because of a weakness of the flesh, I preached the gospel to you the first time. 14 And you did not despise or disdain the test my flesh gave you. Instead, you welcomed me as an angel of God, as Christ Jesus.
15 So where is this blessed attitude of yours now? Yes, I can say for a fact that, if it were possible, you would have plucked out your eyes and given them to me. 16 So then, have I become your enemy by telling you the truth? 17 Those people are eager to win you over, but not in a good way. Rather, they want to alienate you, so that you will be eager for them. 18 But it is always a good thing to have someone eager in a good way—not just when I am present with you.
19 My children, I am suffering birth pains for you again until Christ is formed in you. 20 I wish I were present with you now and could change my tone, because I am perplexed about you.
An Illustration: Hagar and Sarah
21 Tell me, you who want to be under the law, are you really listening to the law? 22 For it is written that Abraham had two sons, one by the slave woman, and one by the free woman. 23 However, the son by the slave woman was born according to the flesh, but the son by the free woman was born through a promise. 24 These things can be used as an illustration; namely, the women are two covenants. One is from Mount Sinai, bearing children into slavery. This is Hagar. 25 You see,[b] this Hagar is Mount Sinai in Arabia, and she corresponds to present-day Jerusalem, because Jerusalem is in slavery along with her children. 26 But the Jerusalem that is above is free. She is our mother. 27 For it is written:
Rejoice, barren woman who does not give birth. Break forth and shout for joy, woman who does not suffer birth pains, because the barren woman has more children than does the woman who has a husband.[c]
28 Now you,[d] brothers, like Isaac, are children of the promise. 29 But just as back then the one who was born according to the flesh persecuted the one who was born according to the Spirit, so this is also the case now. 30 But what does the Scripture say? “Throw out the slave woman and her son, because the son of the slave woman will certainly not receive the inheritance with the son of the free woman.”[e] 31 For this same reason, brothers, we are not children of a slave woman, but of the free woman.
Like Assyria, Pharaoh Too Will Be Cut Down
31 In the eleventh year,[a] in the third month, on the first day of the month, the word of the Lord came to me.
2 Son of man, say this to Pharaoh, the king of Egypt, and to his horde.
To whom can you be compared in your greatness?
3 Consider Assyria. It was a cedar in Lebanon. It had beautiful branches, which gave shade to the woodland. It was very tall, and its top reached to the clouds.[b] 4 The waters made it grow. The deep springs made it tall, sending out rivers which flowed around the spot where it was planted, and they sent smaller ditches out to all the other trees in the countryside.[c] 5 So the cedar was taller than all the other trees in the countryside. It produced many branches, and its boughs grew long, because of the plentiful water when it sent out shoots.[d] 6 All the birds in the sky nested in its boughs. All the wild animals in the countryside gave birth under its branches, and all the mighty nations lived in its shade. 7 It was beautiful in its grandeur and in the length of its branches, because its roots reached down to plentiful water. 8 Even the cedars in the garden of God did not overshadow it. The boughs of the fir trees were not equal to its boughs, and the chestnut tree could not rival its many branches. No tree in the garden of God could equal it in beauty. 9 I made it so beautiful by the abundance of its branches that all the trees of Eden that were in the garden of God envied it.
10 Therefore, this is what the Lord God says. Because you were so tall, because the cedar stretched its top up between the clouds, and its heart became haughty because of its height, 11 I will hand it over to a chief of nations, and he will deal harshly with it. I banished it as its wickedness deserved. 12 Foreigners, the most ruthless of nations, cut it down and discarded it. Its branches fell on the mountains and in all the valleys. Its boughs lay broken in all the streambeds of the land, and all the peoples of the earth left its shade and abandoned it. 13 All the birds in the sky lodged on its fallen trunk, and all the wild animals in the countryside came to its branches. 14 All this happened so that all the well-watered trees would never again reach such heights or stretch their tops up between the clouds. Nor will the tallest of them remain standing—even though they drink in water—because they have all been handed over to death, to be below the earth, along with all mankind, with those who have descended to the pit.
15 This is what the Lord God says. When Assyria went down to the grave,[e] I caused mourning everywhere. I covered the deep because of it. I restrained the rivers of the deep, and the plentiful waters were held back. I dressed Lebanon in black because of it, and all the trees in the countryside dried up because of it. 16 I made the nations quake at the sound of its fall, when I brought it down to the grave to be with those who have descended to the pit. Below the earth, all the trees of Eden, the choicest and best of Lebanon, all those that drink up water, consoled themselves, 17 even those who served as Assyria’s arm, those who lived in its shade among the nations, even those who went down to the grave with it, those run through by the sword.
18 To whom, then, can you be compared in glory and greatness among the trees of Eden? Yet you shall be brought down below the earth, together with the trees of Eden. You shall lie among the uncircumcised, together with those run through by the sword. This is Pharaoh and all his horde, declares the Lord God.
Psalm 79
They Have Reduced Jerusalem to Rubble
Heading
A psalm by Asaph.
The Destruction and the Disgrace
1 God, the nations have invaded your possession.
They have profaned your holy temple.
They have reduced Jerusalem to a heap of ruins.
2 They have left the corpses of your servants
as food for the birds of the sky.
They have given the flesh of your favored ones to the wild animals.
3 They have poured out their blood like water all over Jerusalem,
and there is no one to bury them.
4 We are subjected to contempt by our neighbors,
to mockery and ridicule by those around us.
The Prayer for Justice
5 How long, O Lord? Will you stay angry forever?
How long will your jealous anger burn like fire?
6 Pour out your wrath on the nations that do not acknowledge you,
on the kingdoms that do not call on your name,
7 because they have devoured Jacob,
and they have destroyed his pastureland.[a]
8 Do not charge the guilt of our fathers against us.
Hurry, let your compassion come to meet us,
for we are very weak.
9 God, who saves us, help us for the glory of your name.
Deliver us and make atonement for our sins for your name’s sake.
10 Why should the nations say, “Where is their God?”
Before our very eyes, display to the nations
vengeance for the poured-out blood of your servants.
11 May the groaning of the prisoner come before you.
According to the great strength of your arm
preserve those doomed to death.
12 Pay back into the laps of our neighbors seven times as much scorn
as the scorn that they directed at you, Lord.
13 Then we your people, the flock of your pasture, will praise you forever.
From generation to generation we will recount your praise.
The Holy Bible, Evangelical Heritage Version®, EHV®, © 2019 Wartburg Project, Inc. All rights reserved.