M’Cheyne Bible Reading Plan
Chapter 15
Carrying the Ark to Jerusalem. 1 After David had constructed buildings for himself in the City of David, he prepared a place for the Ark of God, pitching a tent for it.
2 David then said, “No one can carry the Ark of God except the Levites. The Lord has chosen them to carry the Ark of God and to minister to him forever.”
3 David assembled all of Israel in Jerusalem to bring the Ark of the Lord to the place that he had prepared for it. 4 David assembled the descendants of Aaron and the Levites.
5 From the descendants of Kohath, there were Uriel, their leader, and one hundred and twenty of his brethren. 6 From the descendants of Merari, there were Asaiah, their leader, and two hundred and twenty of his brethren. 7 From the descendants of Gershon, there were Joel, their leader, and one hundred and thirty of his brethren. 8 From the descendants of Elizaphan, there were Shemaiah, their leader, and two hundred of his brethren. 9 From the descendants of Hebron, there were Eliel, their leader, and eighty of his brethren. 10 From the descendants of Uzziel, there were Amminadab, their leader, and one hundred and twelve of his brethren.
11 David summoned Zadok and Abiathar, the priests, and Uriel, Asaiah, Joel, Shemaiah, Eliel, and Amminadab the Levites. 12 He said to them, “You are the leaders of the ancestral clans of the Levites. Sanctify yourselves and your brethren so that you might bring the Ark of the Lord, the God of Israel, to the place that I have prepared for it. 13 [a]It is because you did not bring it up the first time that the Lord burst forth against us, for we did not inquire of him about the proper order.”
14 The priests and the Levites sanctified themselves to bring up the Ark of the Lord, the God of Israel. 15 The descendants of the Levites carried the Ark of God by its poles on their shoulders, as Moses had commanded, according to the word of the Lord.
16 David spoke to the leaders of the Levites to appoint their brethren as singers, lifting their voices up with joy, and accompanied by music played on the lyres, harps, and cymbals. 17 So the Levites appointed Heman, the son of Joel, and one of his brethren, Asaph, the son of Berechiah, and from among the brethren of the Merarites, Ethan, the son of Kushaiah.
18 With them, there were their brethren of second rank: Zechariah, Uzziel, Shemira-moth, Jehiel, Unni, Eliab, Benaaiah, Maaseiah, Mattithiah, Eliphelehu, Mikneiah, Obed-edom, and Jeiel, the gatekeepers.
19 The musicians Heman, Asaph, and Ethan were to play upon bronze cymbals. 20 Zechariah, Uzziel, Shemiramoth, Jehiel, Unni, Eliab, Maaseiah, and Benaiah were to play the lyres according to Alamoth. 21 Matthithiah, Eliphelehu, Mikneiah, Obed-edom, Jeiel, and Azaziah were to play upon harps according to the Sheminith. 22 Chenaniah, the leader of the Levites dedicated to music, directed the music, for he was skillful at it.
23 Berechiah and Elkanah were the gatekeepers for the Ark. 24 Shebaniah, Joshaphat, Nethanel, Amasai, Zechariah, Benaiah, and Eliezer, the priests, were to blow the trumpets before the Ark of God. Obed-edom and Jeiel were also gatekeepers for the Ark.
25 The Ark Comes to Jerusalem. David, the elders of Israel, and the captains of the thousands went to bring the Ark of the Covenant of the Lord up from out of the house of Obed-edom with joy. 26 God helped the Levites carry the Ark of the Covenant of the Lord, and they sacrificed seven bulls and seven rams. 27 David was dressed in a robe made from fine linen, as were the Levites who were carrying the Ark, the singers, and Chenaniah, the director of the music. David also wore a linen ephod.[b] 28 All of Israel brought up the Ark of the Covenant of the Lord with shouting, to the sound of the horn, the trumpets, and the cymbal, and playing upon the harps and the lyres.
29 As the Ark of the Covenant of the Lord came to the City of David, Michal, the daughter of Saul, was watching out the window. She saw King David dancing and playing, and she despised him in her heart.
Chapter 2
Rich and Poor in the Christian Assembly.[a] 1 My brethren, since you are believers in our glorious Lord Jesus Christ, you must never practice favoritism. 2 Suppose a man wearing a gold ring and expensive clothes comes into your assembly as well as a poor man dressed in shabby clothes. 3 If you lavish special attention on the one wearing the expensive clothes and say, “Please sit in this good seat,” while to the poor man you say, “Stand over there,” or “Sit on the floor at my feet,” 4 have you not shown favoritism among yourselves and judged by wrongful standards?
5 Listen to me, my beloved brethren. Did not God choose those who are poor[b] in the world to be rich in faith and to be heirs of the kingdom that he promised to those who love him? 6 But you have humiliated the poor man. Furthermore, is it not the rich who oppress you? Are they not the ones who drag you into court? 7 Is it not they who blaspheme the noble name that was invoked over you?
8 You will be doing well if you truly observe the sovereign law enjoined in Scripture, “You shall love your neighbor as yourself.” 9 However, if you show partiality, you are committing a sin and stand convicted by the law as lawbreakers. 10 For whoever observes the whole Law but trips up on a single point is held guilty of breaking all of it.
11 The one who said, “You shall not commit adultery,” also said, “You shall not kill.” Now if you do not commit adultery but you do kill, you have become a lawbreaker. 12 Therefore, always speak and act as those who will be judged by the law of freedom. 13 For judgment will be without mercy to the one who has not shown mercy, but mercy triumphs over judgment.
14 True Faith Is Proved by Works.[c] What good is it, my brethren, if someone claims to have faith but does not have good works? Can such faith save him? 15 [d]Suppose a brother or sister is naked and lacks his or her daily food. 16 If one of you says to such a person, “Go in peace; keep warm and eat well,” but does not take care of that person’s physical needs, what is the good of that? 17 In the same way, faith by itself is dead if it does not have works.
18 But perhaps someone will say, “You have faith and I have works.” Show me your faith without works, and by works I will show you my faith. 19 You believe that there is one God. You do well to assert that. But even the demons believe and tremble.
20 You fool! Do you want proof that faith without works is futile? 21 Was not Abraham our father justified by works when he offered his son Isaac on the altar? 22 Thus, you can see that his faith and his works were active together; his faith was brought to completion by works.
23 Thus, the words of Scripture were fulfilled that say, “Abraham believed God, and it was credited to him as righteousness,” and he was called the friend of God. 24 You can see, then, that a man is justified by works and not by faith alone.
25 Likewise, Rahab the prostitute,[e] was she not also justified by works when she welcomed the messengers and sent them away by a different road? 26 For just as the body is dead without a spirit, so faith without works is also dead.
Chapter 9
The Vision of the Destroyed Sanctuary. 1 I saw the Lord standing beside the altar, and he said:
Strike the tops of the pillars until the thresholds shake,
and bring them down on the heads of all the people.
Should any survive,
I will slay them with the sword.
Not one will be able to flee;
not one will escape.
2 Even should they dig down to the netherworld,
from there my hand will take them.
Even though they climb up to heaven,
I will bring them down.
3 Should they hide themselves on the summit of Carmel,
there I will track them down and take them.
Should they hide from my sight at the bottom of the sea,
I will command the serpent there to bite them.
4 If they are led by their enemies into captivity,
there I shall command the sword to slay them.
I will fix my eyes on them
for evil, and not for good.
Psalm of Praise
5 The Lord, the God of hosts,
touches the earth and it melts
so that all who live on it mourn,
while the entire earth rises up like the Nile[a]
and then subsides like the River of Egypt.
6 He builds his upper chambers in the heavens
and establishes his vault of the sky over the earth—
the Lord is his name.
7 The Lord says:
Are you not like the Ethiopians to me,
O people of Israel?
Did I not bring Israel up from the land of Egypt,
and the Philistines from Caphtor,
and the Arameans from Kir?
8 Behold, I, the Lord God,
have my eyes upon this sinful kingdom,
and I will destroy it from the face of the earth.
The Time of Renewal
I Will Raise Up the Hut of David
However, I will not completely destroy the house of Jacob,
says the Lord.
9 For I will give the command
and shake out the house of Israel
from among all the nations,
as one sifts with a sieve
without one pebble falling to the ground.
10 All the sinners among my people shall die by the sword,
those who say, “Evil will not approach or overtake us.”
11 On that day I shall raise up
the fallen hut of David.
I will repair the gaps in its walls,
restore its ruins,
and rebuild it as in the days of old,
12 so that Israel may possess the remnant of Edom
and of all the nations that bear my name;
I, the Lord, will accomplish this.
I Will Reestablish My People Israel
13 The days are surely coming,
says the Lord,
when the plowman shall overtake
the one who reaps,
and the treader of grapes will overtake
the one who sows the seed.
New wine will drip from the mountains,
and every hill will flow with it.
14 I will restore the fortunes of my people Israel;
they will rebuild the ruined cities and inhabit them.
They will plant vineyards and drink their wine,
cultivate gardens and eat their fruit.
15 I will plant them in their own soil,
and they shall never again be uprooted
from the land I have given them.
This is the word of the Lord, your God.
Chapter 4
Jesus Is Tempted by the Devil.[a] 1 Filled with the Holy Spirit, Jesus returned from the Jordan and was led by the Spirit into the desert 2 for forty days, where he was tempted by the devil. During that time he ate nothing, and at the end of it he was famished.
3 The devil said to him, “If you are the Son of God, command this stone to be transformed into bread.” 4 Jesus answered him: “As it states in Scripture:
‘Man does not live by bread alone.’ ”
5 Then the devil led him up and showed him in a single instant all the kingdoms of the world, 6 saying to him, “To you will I give all this dominion with its accompanying glory, for it has been delivered into my power, and I can bestow it on whomever I choose. 7 All this will be yours if you worship me.” 8 Jesus answered him: “Scripture says:
‘You shall worship the Lord your God,
and him alone shall you serve.’ ”
9 Next the devil led him to Jerusalem and had him stand on the summit of the temple. Then he said to him, “If you are the Son of God, throw yourself down from here, 10 for according to Scripture:
‘He will command his angels concerning you,
to protect you,’
11 and:
‘With their hands they will raise you up
lest you dash your foot against a stone.’ ”
12 Jesus answered him, “Scripture says:
‘You shall not put the Lord your God to the test.’ ”
13 When the devil had ended all his tempting, he departed from him until an opportune time.
The Ministry of Jesus in Galilee[b]
14 Jesus Is Accepted throughout Galilee. Then Jesus, filled with the power of the Spirit, returned to Galilee, and reports about him began to spread throughout the surrounding region. 15 He taught in their synagogues and was praised by everyone.
16 Jesus at Nazareth.[c]When he came to Nazareth, where he had been brought up, he went to the synagogue on the Sabbath day, as was his custom. He stood up to read, 17 and they handed him the scroll of the prophet Isaiah. Unrolling the scroll, he found the passage where it is written:
18 “The Spirit of the Lord is upon me,
because he has anointed me
to bring the good news to the poor.
He has sent me to proclaim release to prisoners
and recovery of sight to the blind,
to let the oppressed go free,
19 and to proclaim the year of the Lord’s favor.”
20 Then he rolled up the scroll, returned it to the attendant, and sat down. The eyes of all in the synagogue were fixed intently on him.
21 Then he began by saying to them, “Today this Scripture has been fulfilled in your hearing.” 22 All present spoke highly of him and were amazed at the gracious words that flowed from his lips. They also asked, “Is this not the son of Joseph?”
23 He said to them, “Undoubtedly you will quote to me the proverb: ‘Physician, heal yourself,’ and say: ‘Do here in your hometown[d] the deeds we have heard that you performed in Capernaum.’ 24 Amen, I say to you,” he went on, “no prophet is accepted in his own country.
25 [e]“I tell you in truth, there were many widows in Israel in the days of Elijah when the skies remained closed for three and a half years and there was a severe famine throughout the land. 26 Yet it was to none of them that Elijah was sent, but to a widow at Zarephath in the land of Sidon. 27 There were also many people with leprosy in Israel in the time of the prophet Elisha, but not one of these was cleansed except for Naaman the Syrian.”
28 When they heard these words, all the people in the synagogue were roused to fury.[f] 29 They leapt up, drove him out of the town, and led him to the top of the hill upon which their town was built, intending to hurl him off the cliff. 30 However, he passed through the midst of the crowd and went on his way.
31 Jesus Heals a Man with a Demon.[g]Jesus then went to Capernaum, a town in Galilee, and began to teach the people on the Sabbath. 32 They were astounded at his teaching because his message had authority.
33 In the synagogue there was a man possessed by the spirit of an unclean demon, and he shrieked loudly, 34 “Leave us alone! What do you want with us, Jesus of Nazareth? Have you come to destroy us? I know who you are—the Holy One of God.”[h] 35 But Jesus rebuked him, saying, “Be silent and come out of him!”
Then the demon threw the man down in front of them and emerged from him without doing him any harm. 36 The people were all amazed, and they said to one another: “What is this teaching? For with authority and power he gives commands to unclean spirits, and they come forth.” 37 And reports about him began to spread throughout the entire region.
38 Jesus Heals Peter’s Mother-in-Law. On leaving the synagogue, he entered Simon’s house. Simon’s mother-in-law was suffering from a high fever, and they begged him to help her. 39 Jesus stood over her and rebuked the fever, and it left her. She got up immediately and began to serve them.
40 Jesus Ministers throughout Galilee. At sunset they brought to him all those who were sick with various diseases. He laid his hands on each of them and healed them. 41 Demons also emerged from many people, shouting, “You are the Son of God!” But he rebuked them and would not allow them to speak because they knew that he was the Christ.
42 Jesus Is the Envoy of God for All Israel.[i] At daybreak he departed and made his way to a secluded place. But the crowds went forth in search of him, and when they located him, they tried to prevent him from leaving there. 43 However, he said to them, “I must preach the kingdom of God to the other towns as well, because this was the purpose for which I was sent.” 44 Thus, he continued to preach in the synagogues of Judea.
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