M’Cheyne Bible Reading Plan

Chapter 4

The Widow’s Oil.^{[a] 1} Now the wife of one of the sons of the prophets cried out to Elisha, saying, “Your servant, my husband, is dead, and you know that your servant lived in fear of the Lord. His creditor is coming to take away his two sons to be his slaves.” ² Elisha said, “What can I do for you? Tell me, what do you have at home?” She answered, “Your servant has nothing at home except for a flask of oil.” ³ He said, “Go around and borrow jars from all of your neighbors. Empty jars, and not too few of them. ⁴ Then go inside, and shut the door behind you and your sons. Fill all of those jars, and when a jar is full, set it to the side.”

⁵ So she left him, and she shut the door behind her and her sons who had brought her jars, and she kept pouring. ⁶ When all of the jars were full, she said to her son, “Bring me another jar.” He said, “There are no more jars,” and then the oil stopped flowing.

⁷ She went and recounted it to the man of God, and he said, “Go and sell the oil and pay your debt. You and your children can live on what is left over.”

Elisha and the Shunammite.^{[b] 8} One day Elisha traveled to Shunem.^[c] There was an important woman there, and she insisted that he stop to eat. Whenever he passed by there, he would stop to eat.

⁹ She said to her husband, “Behold, this man who often visits us is a holy man of God. ¹⁰ We should prepare a small room on the roof, and place a bed, a table, a chair, and a lamp in it for him. Then he can stay there when he visits us.”

¹¹ One day he arrived, and he went into the room to lie down. ¹² He said to Gehazi, his servant, “Call the Shunammite.” So he called her, and she stood before him. ¹³ He said to him, “Say to her, ‘You have put yourself through all this trouble for us. What could be done for you? Should we speak to the king or the commander of the army for you?’ ” She answered, “I dwell among my own people.”

¹⁴ He said, “Then what can be done for her?” Gehazi answered, “She and her husband are old, and they have no children.” ¹⁵ Elisha said, “Summon her.” He called her and she stood in the doorway. ¹⁶ He said, “You will embrace a son around this time next year.” She said, “No, my lord, O man of God. Do not lie to your servant.”

¹⁷ The woman became pregnant, and she had a son that time the next year, just as Elisha had predicted. ¹⁸ The child grew up, and one day he went out to his father who was with the reapers. ¹⁹ He said to his father, “My head! My head!” He said to a young man, “Carry him to his mother.” ²⁰ He picked him up and brought him to his mother. He sat on her lap until noon when he died.

²¹ She went up and laid him on the bed belonging to the man of God. She closed him in the room and went out. ²² She called to her husband and said, “Please send me one of the young men and one of the donkeys so that I can hurry to the man of God and return.” ²³ He said, “Why would you go today? It is not a new moon or the Sabbath.” But she said, “It is all right.”^[d]

²⁴ She saddled the donkey and said to her servant, “Lead on, and do not slow down for me unless I tell you.” ²⁵ So she departed and came to the man of God on Mount Carmel.

When the man of God saw her from a distance, he said to Gehazi his servant, “Behold, it is the Shunammite. ²⁶ Run to her and say to her, ‘Is everything all right? Is your husband well? Is your child well?’ ” She answered, “It is all right.”

²⁷ When she reached the man of God on the mountain, she took hold of his feet. Gehazi approached to push her away, but the man of God said, “Leave her alone. Her spirit is in despair, but the Lord had hidden it from me and did not tell me.”

²⁸ She said, “Did I ask for a son from my lord? Did I not say, ‘Do not lie to me.’ ”

²⁹ Elisha said to Gehazi, “Gird up your loins, and take my staff in your hands, and go! If you meet anyone, do not greet him. And if anyone greets you, do not answer. Lay my staff upon the child’s face.”^{[e] 30} But the boy’s mother said, “As the Lord lives and as you live, I will not leave you.” So he got up and followed her.

³¹ Gehazi went on before them, and he laid the staff upon the child’s face, but there was no sound or response. He went out to meet him, and he said to him, “The child did not wake up.”

³² When Elisha arrived at the house, the child was lying dead upon his bed. ³³ He went in, and he shut the door on the two of them, and then he prayed to the Lord. ³⁴ He got up and lay upon the child, mouth to mouth, eyes to eyes, and hands to hands. He stretched himself out upon the child, and the child’s flesh grew warm. ³⁵ He turned and walked back and forth in the room, and then he went and stretched himself out again. The boy sneezed seven times, and then the boy opened his eyes.

³⁶ Elisha called for Gehazi, and he said, “Call this Shunammite.” He called her, and she came, and he said to her, “Take your son.” ³⁷ She came in and bowed down, falling to the ground at Elisha’s feet. She then took her son and left.

³⁸ Poisoned Stew. Elisha returned to Gilgal, and there was a famine in the land. The sons of the prophets were sitting in front of him, and he said to his servant, “Set up the large pot and cook some soup for the sons of the prophets.”

³⁹ One of them went out into the field to gather some herbs and he found a wild vine. He picked the wild gourds, filling his cloak. He cut them up into the pot of soup, although no one knew what they were.

⁴⁰ When they poured out the soup for the men to eat, and they began to eat the soup, they cried out, “O man of God, there is death in the pot.” And they could not eat it.

⁴¹ He said, “Bring some flour.” He threw it into the pot and said, “Pour it out for the people to eat.” And there was nothing harmful in the pot.

⁴² Multiplication of Loaves. A man came from Baal-shalishah, and he brought the man of God twenty loaves of barley bread from the firstfruits along with some heads of grain. He said, “Give it to the people so that they might eat.” ⁴³ His servant said, “What? Should I place this before one hundred men?” But he said again, “Give it to the people to eat, for thus says the Lord: They will eat, and there will be some left over.”

⁴⁴ He set it before them, and they ate, and there was some left over, just as the Lord had predicted.

Chapter 1

Salutation^[a]

Address. ¹ Paul, an apostle of Christ Jesus by command of God our Savior^[b] and Christ Jesus our hope, ² to Timothy, my loyal child in the faith: grace, mercy, and peace to you from God the Father and Christ Jesus our Lord.

Timothy, Champion of the Truth^[c]

⁵ The aim of this instruction is love that derives from a pure heart, a good conscience, and a sincere faith. ⁶ Some people have departed from these and turned to empty speculation, ⁷ desiring to be teachers of the Law; but they understand neither the words they are using nor the matters about which they make such confident assertions.

Purpose of the Law. ⁸ We are well aware that the Law is good, provided that one uses it properly, ⁹ recognizing that laws are not designed for the upright. They are for the lawless and insubordinate, for the godless and sinful, for the unholy and irreligious; they are for those who slay their fathers and mothers, for murderers, ¹⁰ for those who are fornicators, sodomites,^[e] slave traders, liars, perjurers, and for whatever else is contrary to the sound teaching ¹¹ that conforms to the glorious gospel of the blessed God, which has been entrusted to me.

¹² Called To Preach the Gospel. I am grateful to Christ Jesus our Lord who has given me strength, because he judged me trustworthy and appointed me to his service, ¹³ even though in the past I was a blasphemer, a persecutor, and an insolent man. However, I have been treated with mercy because I had acted out of ignorance and unbelief. ¹⁴ As a result, the grace of our Lord overflowed for me with the faith and the love that are in Christ Jesus.

¹⁵ This saying can be trusted and merits complete acceptance:^[f] Christ Jesus came into the world to save sinners. I myself am the greatest of these. ¹⁶ But for that very reason I was treated mercifully, so that in me Jesus Christ might exhibit his inexhaustible patience, making me an example for those who would come to believe in him for eternal life. ¹⁷ To the King of the ages, immortal, invisible, the only God,^[g] be honor and glory forever and ever. Amen.

¹⁸ Never Falsify the Gospel. To you, Timothy, my child, I am giving these instructions in accordance with those prophecies once made about you,^[h] so that by following them you may fight the good fight ¹⁹ with faith and a good conscience. Some people have spurned their conscience and destroyed their faith. ²⁰ Among them are Hymenaeus^[i] and Alexander whom I have handed over to Satan so that they may learn not to blaspheme.

Daniel’s Vision of a Ram and a Goat^[a]

Chapter 8

Vision of the Ram and He-Goat. ¹ In the third year of the reign of King Belshazzar, I, Daniel, had another vision subsequent to the first vision that I had previously experienced. ² In my vision I saw myself in the citadel of Susa^[b] in the province of Elam, standing by the Ulai canal.

³ When I looked up, I saw a ram standing beside the river. It had two horns. Both of the horns were tall, but one was taller than the other, although the other had appeared first. ⁴ I observed the ram butting toward the west, the north, and the south. No beast could withstand it or escape from its power. It did as it pleased and became very strong.

⁵ As I was pondering this, a he-goat appeared from the west, skimming over the entire surface of the world without touching the ground, and between its eyes it had one prominent horn. ⁶ It approached the two-horned ram, which I had seen standing by the river, and charged it with savage fury.

⁷ I saw it charge the ram in a fit of rage and attack it with the full force of its fury, breaking both of its horns and leaving the ram powerless to withstand the attack. Having thrown the ram to the ground, it trampled it underfoot, and there was no one there to rescue the ram. ⁸ The he-goat then grew even more powerful but at the height of its strength the great horn shattered, and in its place there came forth four majestic horns pointing toward the four winds of heaven.

⁹ Out of one of these horns sprang forth a small horn which grew ever larger and poured forth its strength toward the south and the east and toward the beautiful land. ¹⁰ It grew until it reached the host of heaven, after which it flung down to the earth some of the host as well as some of the stars and trampled on them.

¹¹ It even challenged arrogantly the power of the prince of the host. It abolished his right to offer the daily sacrifice and destroyed his sanctuary. ¹² The army, too, was abolished, while the daily sacrifice was replaced by sin. It cast truth to the ground and succeeded in everything it did.

¹³ Then I heard a holy one speaking, and another holy one said to the speaker, “How long will it be before this vision is fulfilled—the vision of sacrifice, the desolation of transgressions, and daily trampling of the sanctuary and the host?” ¹⁴ The first one replied, “Until two thousand three hundred evenings and mornings have passed. Then the sanctuary will be purified.”

¹⁵ Interpretation of the Vision. While I, Daniel, tried to understand the vision that I had seen, I saw someone standing before me who had the appearance of a man. ¹⁶ Then I heard a human voice from the Ulai cry out, “Gabriel, explain to him the meaning of the vision.” ¹⁷ As he then approached the place where I was standing, I fell prostrate in terror. However, he said to me, “Understand this, son of man. The vision refers to the end time.”

¹⁸ As he spoke to me, I fell to the ground in a trance, face downward. However, he touched me and raised me to my feet. ¹⁹ “I will show you,” he said, “what will take place later in the period of wrath, for at the appointed time there will be an end.

²⁰ “The two-horned ram that you saw represents the kings of Media and Persia. ²¹ The male goat is the king of Greece, and the large horn between its eyes represents the first king. ²² As for the horn that was broken and replaced by four other horns, four kingdoms shall rise from his nation but be lacking his power.

²⁷ Then I, Daniel, was overcome by exhaustion, and I lay sick for several days. After that I arose and attended to the king’s business. But I was perplexed by the vision, which I was unable to understand.

Psalm 116^[a]

Thanksgiving to God for Help Received