M’Cheyne Bible Reading Plan
4 Now Adam and Eve discovered the pleasures of lovemaking, and soon Eve conceived and gave birth to a son whom they named Cain.
Eve (excited): Look, I have created a new human, a male child, with the help of the Eternal.
One of the first things Adam and Eve do after being banished from the garden of Eden is to make a baby. Despite the pain of childbirth, Eve speaks with joy of the birth of her son. She certainly suffers and could have easily died in childbirth, but the desire to reproduce and the joy of joining with God in the creative process brings great reward. Every parent knows the risks and rewards of bringing forth the next generation.
2 Eve went on to give birth to Cain’s brother, Abel. Abel grew up to become a shepherd, and Cain grew up to become a farmer. 3 After he had learned how to produce food from the fields, Cain gave the Eternal One an offering—some of the crops he had grown from the ground. 4 For his part of the offering, Abel gave God some tender lamb meat—the choicest cuts from the firstborn of his flock. The Eternal One accepted Abel and his gift of lamb, 5 while He had no regard for Cain and what he presented. Because of this, Cain became extremely angry and his face fell.
God notices Cain’s reaction and confronts him.
Eternal One (to Cain): 6 Why are you angry? And why do you look so despondent? 7 Don’t you know that as long as you do what is right, then I accept you? But if you do not do what is right, watch out, because sin is crouching at the door, ready to pounce on you! You must master it before it masters you.
Jealousy is eating at Cain’s heart. Left unattended, it consumes him.
8 Cain spoke to his brother Abel. When they were in the field, Cain’s envy of his brother got the better of him, and he attacked and killed Abel.
Eternal One (to Cain): 9 Where’s your brother Abel?
Cain: I have no idea. Am I supposed to be responsible for where he goes and what he does?
Eternal One: 10 What have you done? Listen! I can hear the voice of your brother’s blood crying out to Me from the ground! 11 And now you are cursed, cut off from the ground—the ground that opened up and received your brother’s innocent blood, spilled by your own murderous hand! 12 From now on, when you till the ground, it will no longer yield for you its strength and nourishment. You will be a fugitive and a wanderer on the earth.
Cain: 13 My punishment is more than I can bear! 14 Today You have banned me from the soil and hidden me from Your presence! I will be a fugitive and a wanderer on the earth, and anyone who meets me will want to kill me!
Eternal One: 15 That’s not the case! Whoever kills you will suffer My vengeance and pay the penalty seven times!
Then God put a special mark on Cain, so that no one who came in contact with him would try to kill him.
16 Then Cain went away from the Eternal’s presence and settled in the land of Nod, a place for wanderers, to the east of Eden. 17 Cain made love to his wife, and she conceived and gave birth to Enoch. Cain built a city there and named it Enoch after his son. 18 And this is how their family progressed: Enoch’s son was Irad, and Irad was the father of Mehujael. Mehujael was the father of Methushael, and Methushael was the father of Lamech.
19 Now Lamech married two wives, Adah and Zillah. 20 Adah gave birth to Jabal. His descendants are those who make their homes in tents and keep livestock. 21 Jabal’s brother’s name was Jubal, and his descendants are musicians who play instruments such as the lyre and the pipe. 22 Zillah, Lamech’s other wife, gave birth to Tubal-cain. Now he was a bronze- and ironsmith, and his sister was Naamah.
23 One day, Lamech announced to his wives:
Lamech: Adah and Zillah, listen to me!
Wives of Lamech, I need to tell you something!
I killed a man who struck me.
He was a young man who wounded me first.
24 Here’s how I see it:
if Cain is avenged seven times,
then surely Lamech must be avenged seventy-seven times!
25 Meanwhile, Adam made love to his wife again, and she gave birth to another son and named him Seth.
Eve (to herself): God has given me another child to replace Abel, since Cain killed him.
26 After many years passed, Seth became the father of a son and named him Enosh. This was about the time when people began to worship and call on the name of the Eternal One.
4 The Spirit then led Jesus into the desert to be tempted by the devil. 2 Jesus fasted for 40 days and 40 nights. After this fast, He was, as you can imagine, hungry. 3 But He was also curiously stronger, when the tempter came to Jesus.
Devil: If You are the Son of God, tell these stones to become bread.
Jesus (quoting Deuteronomy): 4 It is written, “Man does not live by bread alone. Rather, he lives on every word that comes from the mouth of the Eternal One.”[a]
The point, of course, is not that Jesus couldn’t have turned these stones to bread. A little later in the story He can make food appear when He needs to. But Jesus doesn’t work miracles out of the blue, for no reason, for show or proof or spectacle. He works them in intimate, close places; He works them to meet people’s needs and to show them the way to the Kingdom.
5 Then the devil took Jesus to the holy city, Jerusalem, and he had Jesus stand at the very highest point in the holy temple.
Devil: 6 If You are the Son of God, jump! And then we will see if You fulfill the Scripture that says,
He will command His heavenly messengers concerning You,
and the messengers will buoy You in their hands
So that You will not crash, or fall, or even graze Your foot on a stone.[b]
Jesus: 7 That is not the only thing Scripture says. It also says, “Do not put the Eternal One, your God, to the test.”[c]
8 And still the devil subjected Jesus to a third test. He took Jesus to the top of a very high mountain, and he showed Jesus all the kingdoms of the world in all their splendor and glory, their power and pomp.
Devil: 9 If You bow down and worship me, I will give You all these kingdoms.
Jesus: 10 Get away from Me, Satan. I will not serve you. I will instead follow Scripture, which tells us to “worship the Eternal One, your God, and serve only Him.”[d]
11 Then the devil left Jesus. And heavenly messengers came and ministered to Him.
12 It was not long until powerful people put John in prison. When Jesus learned this, He went back to Galilee. 13 He moved from Nazareth to Capernaum, a town by the sea in the regions of Zebulun and Naphtali. 14 He did this to fulfill one of the prophecies of Isaiah:
15 In the land of Zebulun and the land of Naphtali,
the road to the sea along the Jordan in Galilee, the land of the outsiders—
16 In these places, the people who had been living in darkness
saw a great light.
The light of life will overtake those who dwelt in the shadowy darkness of death.[e]
17 From that time on, preaching was part of Jesus’ work.
Jesus: Repent, for the kingdom of heaven is at hand.
By now Jesus desires a community around Him, friends and followers who help Him carry this urgent, precious message to people. His message is not dissimilar to John’s: Turn away from sin; turn toward God. And so He calls a community to join Him. These first beloved followers are called “disciples,” which means “apprentices.” The first disciples are two brothers, Simon and Andrew. They are fishermen.
18 One day Jesus was walking along the Sea of Galilee when He saw Simon (also called Peter) and Andrew throwing their nets into the water. They were, of course, fishermen.
Jesus: 19 Come, follow Me, and I will make you fishers of men.
20 Immediately Peter and Andrew left their fishnets and followed Jesus.
21 Going on from there, Jesus saw two more brothers, James the son of Zebedee and his brother John. They, too, were fishermen. They were in a boat with their father Zebedee getting their nets ready to fish. Jesus summoned them, just as He had called to Peter and Andrew, 22 and immediately they left their boat and their father to follow Jesus.
23 And so Jesus went throughout Galilee. He taught in the synagogues. He preached the good news of the Kingdom, and He healed people, ridding their bodies of sickness and disease. 24 Word spread all over Syria, as more and more sick people came to Him. The innumerable ill who came before Him had all sorts of diseases, they were in crippling pain; they were possessed by demons; they had seizures; they were paralyzed. But Jesus healed them all. 25 Large crowds from Galilee, from Jerusalem, from the ten cities called the Decapolis, from Judea, and from the region across the Jordan followed him.
4 When the residents of the former Northern Kingdom, who were enemies of the Southern Kingdom tribes of Judah and Benjamin, heard that the exiled Jews had returned to build the Eternal God of Israel’s temple, 2 they asked Zerubbabel and the tribal leaders if they could help.
Northern Enemies: Let us help you build this temple to the True God, whom we both follow. You see, our families began sacrificing to Him when King Esarhaddon of Assyria sent us to colonize the Northern Kingdom after he conquered it.
Zerubbabel, Jeshua, and the Tribal Leaders: 3 You have nothing in common with us! You are not heirs to the Lord’s promise to Abraham. King Cyrus of Persia has commanded us to build the Eternal God of Israel’s temple, so we will do it by ourselves.
4 To intimidate the returning Jews from building, the people of the land made the returning exiles afraid to build 5 and bribed counselors to hinder the Jews’ efforts throughout the reigns of Cyrus and Darius, the kings of Persia.
The elders recognize that the Assyrian colonists have impure motives. They don’t want to help the Jews; they want to inhibit the reconstruction of the nation. But foreigners aren’t the only ones interested in hindering the progress. Those people who remained in the Southern Kingdom while the Jews were exiled try many times to disrupt Israel’s tender alliance with the Persian emperors. The Jews have to fight to rebuild the temple during the reigns of Cyrus and Darius, and decades later they will fight to rebuild Jerusalem.
6 When Ahasuerus (also known as Xerxes I) ascended to the Persian throne in 485 b.c., they wrote a letter to him accusing the Jews in Judah and Jerusalem of crimes. 7 They did it again during Artaxerxes’ reign; Bishlam, Mithredath, Tabeel, and their coconspirators wrote a letter to the Persian king in Aramaic, which was later translated into Hebrew. 8-10 A third time, they wrote a letter to the Persians. This time, Rehum the commander, Shimshai his scribe, and their associates (the judges, the lieutenant governors, the officials, the secretaries, the Babylonians, the Elamites of Susa, the residents of Erech, and the other colonists who were relocated by the great Assyrian King Osnappar in Samaria and beyond the Euphrates) drafted a letter to King Artaxerxes I slandering Jerusalem.
Northern Enemies’ Letter:
11 King Artaxerxes,
We, your servants who live beyond the Euphrates River, are compelled to report to you the treasonous actions of the Jews.
12 The Jews whom your predecessors sent to Jerusalem are busy rebuilding the city, its fortifications, and its foundations with the intention of rebelling against you. 13 If they succeed, dear king, they will stop paying your required tribute, customs, and tolls, and your revenue will suffer.
14 Since we are your servants and the government’s representatives to these foreigners, we are offended by any actions taken against you and are informing you of these actions. 15 We suggest that if you read your predecessors’ court documents and learn about the history of the Jews of Jerusalem, you will find that they are notoriously rebellious, harming kings and provinces and instigating revolts. Their actions caused your ancestors to destroy Jerusalem and exile its inhabitants.
16 We recommend that you, our king, act quickly. If those fortifications are completed, then you will lose your provinces west of the Euphrates to a Jerusalem-led rebellion.
Artaxerxes’ Reply (to Rehum the commander, Shimshai the scribe, and the associates):
17 Loyal ones in Samaria,
Greetings. 18 Your letter was carefully read and translated in my court, and I have addressed your concerns.
19 I issued a decree that my servants investigate the history of Jerusalem. They discovered that your fears are not unfounded. In the past Jerusalem has indeed rebelled and revolted against kings— 20 mighty kings who ruled Jerusalem, governed provinces west of the Euphrates, and required tributes, customs, and tolls from their subjects.
21 Now you must issue a decree of your own. Order the Jews to stop building in Jerusalem until I tell them otherwise. 22 Do not be indifferent in your handling of this matter. This threat cannot be allowed to harm the empire.
23 As soon as they heard King Artaxerxes’ letter, Rehum, Shimshai the scribe, and their associates rushed to Jerusalem and stopped the Jews’ work with the threat of violence.
24 The continual efforts of our neighbors to thwart the temple building were rewarded. The Jerusalem temple site lay deserted and unfinished until the second year of King Darius of Persia’s reign.
4 The conversation continued for a few hours there in Solomon’s porch. Suddenly, the head of the temple police and some members of the Sadducean party interrupted Peter and John. 2 They were annoyed because Peter and John were enthusiastically teaching that in Jesus, resurrection of the dead is possible—an idea the Sadducees completely rejected. 3 So they arrested Peter, John, and the man who was healed and kept them in jail overnight. 4 But during these few afternoon hours between the man’s miraculous healing and their arrest, Peter and John already had convinced about 5,000 more people to believe their message about Jesus!
5 The next morning, the Jewish leaders—their officials, elders, and scholars—called a meeting in Jerusalem 6 presided over by Annas (the patriarch of the ruling priestly clan), along with Caiaphas (his son-in-law), John, Alexander, and other members of their clan. 7 They made their prisoners stand in the middle of the assembly and questioned them.
Jewish Leaders: Who gave you the authority to create that spectacle in the temple yesterday?
Peter (filled with the Spirit): 8 Rulers and elders of the people, 9 yesterday a good deed was done. Someone who was sick was healed. If you’re asking us how this happened, 10 I want all of you and all of the people of Israel to know this man standing in front of you—obviously in good health—was healed by the authority of Jesus of Nazareth, the Anointed One. This is the same Jesus whom you crucified and whom God raised from the dead. 11 He is “the stone that you builders rejected who has become the very stone that holds together the entire foundation”[a] on which a new temple is being built. 12 There is no one else who can rescue us, and there is no other name under heaven given to any human by whom we may be rescued.
13 Now the leaders were surprised and confused. They looked at Peter and John and realized they were typical peasants—uneducated, utterly ordinary fellows—with extraordinary confidence. The leaders recognized them as companions of Jesus, 14 then they turned their attention to the third man standing beside them—recently lame, now standing tall and healthy. What could they say in response to all this?
15 Because they were at a loss about what to do, they excused the prisoners so the council could deliberate in private.
Jewish Leaders: 16 What do we do with these fellows? Anyone who lives in Jerusalem will know an unexplainable sign has been performed through these two preachers. We can’t deny their story. 17 The best we can do is try to keep it from spreading. So let’s warn them to stop speaking to anybody in this name.
18 The leaders brought the prisoners back in and prohibited them from doing any more speaking or teaching in the name of Jesus. 19 Peter and John listened quietly and then replied,
Peter and John: You are the judges here, so we’ll leave it up to you to judge whether it is right in the sight of God to obey your commands or God’s. 20 But one thing we can tell you: we cannot possibly restrain ourselves from speaking about what we have seen and heard with our own eyes and ears.
21-22 The council threatened them again, but finally let them go because public opinion strongly supported Peter and John and this man who had received this miraculous sign. He was over 40 years old, so his situation was known to many people, and they couldn’t help but glorify God for his healing.
23 Peter and John, upon their release, went right to their friends and told the story—including the warning from the council. 24 The whole community responded with this prayer to God:
Community of Believers: God, our King, You made the heaven and the earth and the sea and everything they contain.[b] 25 You are the One who, by the Holy Spirit, spoke through our ancestor David, Your servant, with these words:
Why did the nations rage?
Why did they imagine useless things?
26 The kings of the earth took their stand;
their rulers assembled in opposition
against the Eternal One and His Anointed King.[c]
27 This is exactly what has happened among us, here in this city. The foreign ruler Pontius Pilate and the Jewish ruler Herod, along with their respective peoples, have assembled in opposition to Your holy servant Jesus, the One You chose. 28 They have done whatever Your hand and plan predetermined should happen. 29 And now, Lord, take note of their intimidations intended to silence us. Grant us, Your servants, the courageous confidence we need to go ahead and proclaim Your message 30 while You reach out Your hand to heal people, enabling us to perform signs and wonders through the name of Your holy servant Jesus.
31 They finished their prayer, and immediately the whole place where they had gathered began to shake. All the disciples were filled with the Holy Spirit, and they began speaking God’s message with courageous confidence.
The Holy Spirit changes everyone and everything. If there is any doubt about the power of the Spirit, just take a look at Peter. When Jesus was captured, Peter cowered in fear that he might be identified as a man who loved Jesus. Now this same man is preaching, healing, and pointing his finger in the face of Jewish officials who have captured him and John. With a boldness that is not his own, he blames them for the death of Jesus and does not cower at their show of violence.
32 During those days, the entire community of believers was deeply united in heart and soul to such an extent that they stopped claiming private ownership of their possessions. Instead, they held everything in common. 33 The apostles with great power gave their eyewitness reports of the resurrection of the Lord Jesus. Everyone was surrounded by an extraordinary grace. 34 Not a single person in the community was in need because those who had been affluent sold their houses or lands and brought the proceeds 35 to the emissaries[d] of the Lord. They then distributed the funds to individuals according to their needs. 36-37 One fellow, a Cyprian Levite named Joseph, earned a nickname because of his generosity in selling a field and bringing the money to the apostles in this way. From that time on, they called him Barnabas, which means “son of encouragement.”
The Voice Bible Copyright © 2012 Thomas Nelson, Inc. The Voice™ translation © 2012 Ecclesia Bible Society All rights reserved.