M’Cheyne Bible Reading Plan

Elisha Helps a Poor Widow

4 The widow of a member of a group of prophets went to Elisha and said, “Sir, my husband has died! As you know, he was a God-fearing man, but now a man he owed money to has come to take away my two sons as slaves in payment for my husband's debt.”

² “What shall I do for you?” he asked. “Tell me, what do you have at home?”

“Nothing at all, except a small jar of olive oil,” she answered.

³ “Go to your neighbors and borrow as many empty jars as you can,” Elisha told her. ⁴ “Then you and your sons go into the house, close the door, and start pouring oil into the jars. Set each one aside as soon as it is full.”

⁵ So the woman went into her house with her sons, closed the door, took the small jar of olive oil, and poured oil into the jars as her sons brought them to her. ⁶ When they had filled all the jars, she asked if there were any more. “That was the last one,” one of her sons answered. And the olive oil stopped flowing. ⁷ She went back to Elisha, the prophet, who said to her, “Sell the olive oil and pay all your debts, and there will be enough money left over for you and your sons to live on.”

Elisha and the Rich Woman from Shunem

⁸ One day Elisha went to Shunem, where a rich woman lived. She invited him to a meal, and from then on every time he went to Shunem he would have his meals at her house. ⁹ She said to her husband, “I am sure that this man who comes here so often is a holy man. ¹⁰ Let's build a small room on the roof, put a bed, a table, a chair, and a lamp in it, and he can stay there whenever he visits us.”

¹¹ One day Elisha returned to Shunem and went up to his room to rest. ¹² He told his servant Gehazi to go and call the woman. When she came, ¹³ he said to Gehazi, “Ask her what I can do for her in return for all the trouble she has had in providing for our needs. Maybe she would like me to go to the king or the army commander and put in a good word for her.”

“I have all I need here among my own people,” she answered.

¹⁴ Elisha asked Gehazi, “What can I do for her then?”

He answered, “Well, she has no son, and her husband is an old man.”

¹⁵ “Tell her to come here,” Elisha ordered. She came and stood in the doorway, ^16 (A)and Elisha said to her, “By this time next year you will be holding a son in your arms.”

“Oh!” she exclaimed. “Please, sir, don't lie to me. You are a man of God!”

¹⁷ But, as Elisha had said, at about that time the following year she gave birth to a son.

¹⁸ Some years later, at harvest time, the boy went out one morning to join his father, who was in the field with the harvest workers. ¹⁹ Suddenly he cried out to his father, “My head hurts! My head hurts!”

“Carry the boy to his mother,” the father said to a servant. ²⁰ The servant carried the boy back to his mother, who held him in her lap until noon, at which time he died. ²¹ She carried him up to Elisha's room, put him on the bed and left, closing the door behind her. ²² Then she called her husband and said to him, “Send a servant here with a donkey. I need to go to the prophet Elisha. I'll be back as soon as I can.”

²³ “Why do you have to go today?” her husband asked. “It's neither a Sabbath nor a New Moon Festival.”^[a]

“Never mind,” she answered. ²⁴ Then she had the donkey saddled, and ordered the servant, “Make the donkey go as fast as it can, and don't slow down unless I tell you to.” ²⁵ So she set out and went to Mount Carmel, where Elisha was.

Elisha saw her coming while she was still some distance away, and he said to his servant Gehazi, “Look, there comes the woman from Shunem! ²⁶ Hurry to her and find out if everything is all right with her, her husband, and her son.”

She told Gehazi that everything was all right, ²⁷ but when she came to Elisha, she bowed down before him and took hold of his feet. Gehazi was about to push her away, but Elisha said, “Leave her alone. Can't you see she's deeply distressed? And the Lord has not told me a thing about it.”

²⁸ The woman said to him, “Sir, did I ask you for a son? Didn't I tell you not to get my hopes up?”

²⁹ Elisha turned to Gehazi and said, “Hurry! Take my walking stick and go. Don't stop to greet anyone you meet, and if anyone greets you, don't take time to answer. Go straight to the house and hold my stick over the boy.”

³⁰ The woman said to Elisha, “I swear by my loyalty to the living Lord and to you that I will not leave you!” So the two of them started back together. ³¹ Gehazi went on ahead and held Elisha's stick over the child, but there was no sound or any other sign of life. So he went back to meet Elisha and said, “The boy didn't wake up.”

³² When Elisha arrived, he went alone into the room and saw the boy lying dead on the bed. ³³ He closed the door and prayed to the Lord. ^34 (B)Then he lay down on the boy, placing his mouth, eyes, and hands on the boy's mouth, eyes, and hands. As he lay stretched out over the boy, the boy's body started to get warm. ³⁵ Elisha got up, walked around the room, and then went back and again stretched himself over the boy. The boy sneezed seven times and then opened his eyes. ³⁶ Elisha called Gehazi and told him to call the boy's mother. When she came in, he said to her, “Here's your son.” ³⁷ She fell at Elisha's feet, with her face touching the ground; then she took her son and left.

Two More Miracles

³⁸ Once, when there was a famine throughout the land, Elisha returned to Gilgal. While he was teaching a group of prophets, he told his servant to put a big pot on the fire and make some stew for them. ³⁹ One of them went out in the fields to get some herbs. He found a wild vine and picked as many gourds as he could carry. He brought them back and sliced them up into the stew, not knowing what they were. ⁴⁰ The stew was poured out for the men to eat, but as soon as they tasted it they exclaimed to Elisha, “It's poisoned!”—and wouldn't eat it. ⁴¹ Elisha asked for some meal, threw it into the pot, and said, “Pour out some more stew for them.” And then there was nothing wrong with it.

⁴² Another time, a man came from Baal Shalishah, bringing Elisha twenty loaves of bread made from the first barley harvested that year, and some freshly-cut heads of grain. Elisha told his servant to feed the group of prophets with this, ⁴³ but he answered, “Do you think this is enough for a hundred men?”

Elisha replied, “Give it to them to eat, because the Lord says that they will eat and still have some left over.” ⁴⁴ So the servant set the food before them, and as the Lord had said, they all ate, and there was still some left over.

1 From Paul, an apostle of Christ Jesus by order of God our Savior and Christ Jesus our hope—

^2 (A)To Timothy, my true son in the faith:

May God the Father and Christ Jesus our Lord give you grace, mercy, and peace.

Warnings against False Teaching

³ I want you to stay in Ephesus, just as I urged you when I was on my way to Macedonia. Some people there are teaching false doctrines, and you must order them to stop. ⁴ Tell them to give up those legends and those long lists of ancestors, which only produce arguments; they do not serve God's plan, which is known by faith. ⁵ The purpose of this order is to arouse the love that comes from a pure heart, a clear conscience, and a genuine faith. ⁶ Some people have turned away from these and have lost their way in foolish discussions. ⁷ They want to be teachers of God's law, but they do not understand their own words or the matters about which they speak with so much confidence.

⁸ We know that the Law is good if it is used as it should be used. ⁹ It must be remembered, of course, that laws are made, not for good people, but for lawbreakers and criminals, for the godless and sinful, for those who are not religious or spiritual, for those who kill their fathers or mothers, for murderers, ¹⁰ for the immoral, for sexual perverts, for kidnappers, for those who lie and give false testimony or who do anything else contrary to sound doctrine. ¹¹ That teaching is found in the gospel that was entrusted to me to announce, the Good News from the glorious and blessed God.

Gratitude for God's Mercy

¹² I give thanks to Christ Jesus our Lord, who has given me strength for my work. I thank him for considering me worthy and appointing me to serve him, ^13 (B)even though in the past I spoke evil of him and persecuted and insulted him. But God was merciful to me because I did not yet have faith and so did not know what I was doing. ¹⁴ And our Lord poured out his abundant grace on me and gave me the faith and love which are ours in union with Christ Jesus. ¹⁵ This is a true saying, to be completely accepted and believed: Christ Jesus came into the world to save sinners. I am the worst of them, ¹⁶ but God was merciful to me in order that Christ Jesus might show his full patience in dealing with me, the worst of sinners, as an example for all those who would later believe in him and receive eternal life. ¹⁷ To the eternal King, immortal and invisible, the only God—to him be honor and glory forever and ever! Amen.

¹⁸ Timothy, my child, I entrust to you this command, which is in accordance with the words of prophecy spoken in the past about you. Use those words as weapons in order to fight well, ¹⁹ and keep your faith and a clear conscience. Some people have not listened to their conscience and have made a ruin of their faith. ²⁰ Among them are Hymenaeus and Alexander, whom I have punished by handing them over to the power of Satan; this will teach them to stop their blasphemy.

Daniel's Vision of a Ram and a Goat

8 In the third year that Belshazzar was king, I saw a second vision.^{[a] 2} In the vision I suddenly found myself in the walled city of Susa in the province of Elam. I was standing by the Ulai River, ³ and there beside the river I saw a ram that had two long horns, one of which was longer and newer than the other. ⁴ I watched the ram butting with his horns to the west, the north, and the south. No animal could stop him or escape his power. He did as he pleased and grew arrogant.

⁵ While I was wondering what this meant, a goat came rushing out of the west, moving so fast that his feet didn't touch the ground. He had one prominent horn between his eyes. ⁶ He came toward the ram, which I had seen standing beside the river, and rushed at him with all his force. ⁷ I watched him attack the ram. He was so angry that he smashed into him and broke the two horns. The ram had no strength to resist. He was thrown to the ground and trampled on, and there was no one who could save him.

⁸ The goat grew more and more arrogant, but at the height of his power his horn was broken. In its place four prominent horns came up, each pointing in a different direction. ⁹ Out of one of these four horns grew a little horn, whose power extended toward the south and the east and toward the Promised Land. ^10 (A)It grew strong enough to attack the army of heaven, the stars themselves, and it threw some of them to the ground and trampled on them. ¹¹ It even defied the Prince of the heavenly army, stopped the daily sacrifices offered to him, and ruined the Temple. ¹² People sinned there instead of offering the proper daily sacrifices,^[b] and true religion was thrown to the ground. The horn was successful in everything it did.

¹³ Then I heard one angel ask another, “How long will these things that were seen in the vision continue? How long will an awful sin replace the daily sacrifices? How long will the army of heaven and the Temple be trampled on?”

¹⁴ I heard the other angel answer, “It will continue for 2,300 evenings and mornings, during which sacrifices will not be offered. Then the Temple will be restored.”

The Angel Gabriel Explains the Vision

¹⁵ I was trying to understand what the vision meant, when suddenly someone was standing in front of me. ^16 (B)I heard a voice call out over the Ulai River, “Gabriel, explain to him the meaning of what he saw.” ¹⁷ Gabriel came and stood beside me, and I was so terrified that I fell to the ground.

He said to me, “Mortal man, understand the meaning. The vision has to do with the end of the world.” ¹⁸ While he was talking, I fell to the ground unconscious. But he took hold of me, raised me to my feet, ¹⁹ and said, “I am showing you what the result of God's anger will be. The vision refers to the time of the end.

²⁰ “The ram you saw that had two horns represents the kingdoms of Media and Persia. ²¹ The goat represents the kingdom of Greece, and the prominent horn between his eyes is the first king. ²² The four horns that came up when the first horn was broken represent the four kingdoms into which that nation will be divided and which will not be as strong as the first kingdom.

²³ “When the end of those kingdoms is near and they have become so wicked that they must be punished, there will be a stubborn, vicious, and deceitful king. ²⁴ He will grow strong—but not by his own power. He will cause terrible destruction and be successful in everything he does. He will bring destruction on powerful men and on God's own people. ²⁵ Because he is cunning, he will succeed in his deceitful ways. He will be proud of himself and destroy many people without warning. He will even defy the greatest King of all, but he will be destroyed without the use of any human power. ²⁶ This vision about the evening and morning sacrifices which has been explained to you will come true. But keep it secret now, because it will be a long time before it does come true.”

²⁷ I was depressed and ill for several days. Then I got up and went back to the work that the king had assigned to me, but I was puzzled by the vision and could not understand it.

Someone Saved from Death Praises God