M’Cheyne Bible Reading Plan
7 Eternal One (to Noah): It’s time! Go into the ark now. Take your entire household with you, because I see that you are the only one in this generation who lives right before Me. 2 Take the animals with you. Take seven pairs of all ritually acceptable animals, both the male and female; and take one pair of any animal that isn’t acceptable, both the male and female. 3 And take seven pairs of the birds of the sky, too, also male and female, so that we can keep each kind alive on the earth. 4 Seven days from now, I will send a massive rain to cover the earth. The rain will last 40 days and 40 nights, and every living thing I have made will be wiped off the face of the earth.
In distinguishing between animals that are ritually acceptable and unacceptable, God is anticipating the instructions He will give His people later regarding holiness and purity (Leviticus 11:1–47; Deuteronomy 14:4–20). Some animals are ritually acceptable for sacrifices, so they are suitable for food. Other animals are not to be offered to God or eaten. Ultimately, what enters human bodies matters to God; after all He made them.
5 Noah did everything the Eternal One asked him to do.
6 Noah was 600 years old when the flood waters swept over the earth. 7 Noah and his wife, his sons and their wives, all went into the ark in order to escape the waters of the flood. 8 Noah made sure to take along all of the animals (both ritually acceptable and unacceptable), the birds, and all the small creeping creatures 9 in pairs by males and females, just as God had told him to do. They all went into the ark with him, two by two. 10 After seven days, the rains began and waters flooded the earth.
11 On the 17th day of the 2nd month in Noah’s 600th year, all of the subterranean waters erupted from the depths of the earth and burst skyward, covering the land. The casements of the heavens cracked open, 12 dousing heavy rains over the watery earth for 40 days and 40 nights.
13 On the same day, Noah, his wife, his sons (Shem, Ham, and Japheth), and his sons’ wives went into the ark, and all were secured within it. 14 Inside the ark they had with them all sorts of wild animals, domesticated animals, small creeping creatures, and all kinds of birds, that is, every winged creature. 15 All of them went along into the ark to Noah in pairs—all flesh into which God had breathed the breath of life. 16 All those in the ark, males and females of all living flesh, went in just as God had told them to do. And the Eternal One shut them all in for the duration of the flood.
17 The deluge continued for 40 days on the earth. 18 The waters kept rising until they lifted up the ark so it floated safely over the land; 19 the torrent continued to swell and increase in momentum until the highest mountain peaks beneath the heavens were covered. 20 In fact, the waters rose and pitched so forcefully over the earth that the mountain peaks disappeared beneath 22 feet of water. 21 And all flesh that moved upon the earth died out—birds, domesticated animals, wild animals, all of the creatures that swarm over the earth, and all human beings. 22 Everything and everyone on the dry land in which God had breathed the breath of life died. 23 God wiped out every living thing from the face of the earth. Every creature He had made—humans, animals, creeping things, and birds—was wiped off the surface of the earth. Only Noah was left and those with him inside the ark. 24 And the waters raged upon the earth for 150 days.
7 Jesus: If you judge other people, then you will find that you, too, are being judged. 2 Indeed, you will be judged by the very standards to which you hold other people.
So when someone is tempted to criticize his neighbor because her house isn’t clean enough, she seems ill-tempered, or she is a bit flighty—he should remember those same standards and judgments will come back to him. No one should criticize his neighbor for being short-tempered one morning, when he is snippish and snappish and waspish all the time.
Jesus: 3 Why is it that you see the dust in your brother’s or sister’s eye, but you can’t see what is in your own eye? 4 Don’t ignore the wooden plank in your eye, while you criticize the speck of sawdust in your brother’s eyelashes. 5 That type of criticism and judgment is a sham! Remove the plank from your own eye, and then perhaps you will be able to see clearly how to help your brother flush out his sawdust.
6 Don’t give precious things to dogs. Don’t cast your pearls before swine. If you do, the pigs will trample the pearls with their little pigs’ feet, and then they will turn back and attack you.
Now Jesus returns to prayer, an important and sometimes difficult topic. Here He gives the very essence of prayer.
7 Just ask and it will be given to you; seek after it and you will find. Continue to knock and the door will be opened for you. 8 All who ask receive. Those who seek, find what they seek. And he who knocks, will have the door opened.
9 Think of it this way: if your son asked you for bread, would you give him a stone? Of course not—you would give him a loaf of bread. 10 If your son asked for a fish, would you give him a snake? No, to be sure, you would give him a fish—the best fish you could find. 11 So if you, who are sinful, know how to give your children good gifts, how much more so does your Father in heaven, who is perfect, know how to give great gifts to His children!
12 This is what our Scriptures come to teach: in everything, in every circumstance, do to others as you would have them do to you.
13 There are two paths before you; you may take only one path. One doorway is narrow. And one door is wide. Go through the narrow door. For the wide door leads to a wide path, and the wide path is broad; the wide, broad path is easy, and the wide, broad, easy path has many, many people on it; but the wide, broad, easy, crowded path leads to death. 14 Now then that narrow door leads to a narrow road that in turn leads to life. It is hard to find that road. Not many people manage it.
15 Along the way, watch out for false prophets. They will come to you in sheep’s clothing, but underneath that quaint and innocent wool, they are hungry wolves. 16 But you will recognize them by their fruits. You don’t find sweet, delicious grapes growing on thorny bushes, do you? You don’t find delectable figs growing in the midst of prickly thistles. 17 People and their lives are like trees. Good trees bear beautiful, tasty fruit, but bad trees bear ugly, bitter fruit. 18 A good tree cannot bear ugly, bitter fruit; nor can a bad tree bear fruit that is beautiful and tasty. 19 And what happens to the rotten trees? They are cut down. They are used for firewood. 20 When a prophet comes to you and preaches this or that, look for his fruits: sweet or sour? rotten or ripe?
21 Not everyone who says to Me, “Lord, Lord,” will enter the kingdom of heaven. Simply calling Me “Lord” will not be enough. Only those who do the will of My Father who is in heaven will join Me in heaven. 22 At the end of time, on that day of judgment, many will say to Me, “Lord, Lord, did we not prophesy in Your name? Did we not drive demons out of the possessed in Your name? Did we not perform miracles in Your name?” 23 But I will say to them, “I never knew you. And now, you must get away from Me, you evildoers!”
24 Those people who are listening to Me, those people who hear what I say and live according to My teachings—you are like a wise man who built his house on a rock, on a firm foundation. 25 When storms hit, rain pounded down and waters rose, levies broke and winds beat all the walls of that house. But the house did not fall because it was built upon rock. 26 Those of you who are listening and do not hear—you are like a fool who builds a house on sand. 27 When a storm comes to his house, what will happen? The rain will fall, the waters will rise, the wind will blow, and his house will collapse with a great crash.
28 With that Jesus finished His teaching, and the crowds were amazed by all He had said. 29 But Jesus taught in His own name, on His own authority, not like the scribes.
Israel’s troubles started back in the eighth century when the Assyrians conquered the Northern Kingdom. God was furious with His people because of their sins, so He used that empire to punish them. Over the next two centuries, the Babylonians conquered the Assyrians and the Persians conquered the Babylonians. Which foreign nation led the empire was of no consequence to Him; He could use their power whenever and however He liked. But God uses kings Cyrus and Darius in a different way—He uses them to restore the Jews. They have much to celebrate!
7 More than 50 years had passed since the temple was completed by the first group of exiles, and Artaxerxes I was ruling Persia. Ezra (son of Seraiah, son of Azariah, son of Hilkiah, 2 son of Shallum, son of Zadok, son of Ahitub, 3 son of Amariah, son of Azariah, son of Meraioth, 4 son of Zerahiah, son of Uzzi, son of Bukki, 5 son of Abishua, son of Phinehas, son of Eleazar, son of Aaron the chief priest)— 6 this Ezra traveled from Babylon to make a request of the king. Ezra was a scribe, a scholar of the law of Moses that the Eternal God of Israel had given, who had the support of the Eternal God; so the king granted all his requests 7 that more Jews (including laypeople, priests, Levites, singers, gatekeepers, and temple servants) be allowed to return to Jerusalem in the seventh year of King Artaxerxes’ reign.
From the beginning, Ezra has influence. As a descendant of Aaron, he is of the highest and most respected priestly class in the Jewish community, so his own people will follow him. Even in the Persian Empire, his status as a priest makes him a valued political figure. These qualifications make him the perfect person to revitalize the waning religious reforms started by the first Jewish exiles who have returned to Jerusalem.
8-9 On the first day of the first month of Artaxerxes’ seventh year as king, Ezra traveled from Babylon and arrived in Jerusalem on the first of the fifth month. Ezra’s exodus from this foreign empire was successful because he was supported by his True God. 10 He was a second Moses, and tenaciously studied, practiced, and taught the Eternal’s law to Israel.
11 King Artaxerxes gave this copy of the letter to Ezra, the priest, teacher, and scholar of the Eternal’s laws to Israel.
Artaxerxes’ Letter:
12 To Ezra, the priest and teacher of the law of the True God of heaven:
May you have perfect peace. I, Artaxerxes, the ruler of all kings, 13 have decreed that any of the Jewish exiles, priests, and Levites residing in my empire may go with you to Jerusalem if they want to. 14 I, the king, and my seven cabinet members are sending you to investigate how Judah and Jerusalem are following your True God’s laws, the laws which you study and teach. 15 You will take the silver and gold—which we are freely offering to the True God of Israel who lives in Jerusalem— 16 all the silver and gold in the province of Babylon, and the freewill offerings of all the people and priests for their True God’s temple in Jerusalem. 17 Use the money to buy bulls, rams, and lambs for burnt offerings and sin offerings, and offer the grain and drink offerings on the altar of your True God’s temple in Jerusalem. 18 Use any leftover money as your True God intends for you and your fellow returning exiles to use it. 19 Deliver all the new vessels, which I have given you to use in the services of your True God’s temple, to the True God in Jerusalem. 20 Whatever the True God’s temple requires, the Persian royal treasury will pay for it.
21 To the treasurers in the provinces west of the Euphrates: I, King Artaxerxes, command you to obey Ezra, the priest and teacher of the law of the True God of heaven, and give whatever he needs to support the temple sacrifices for 2 years— 22 up to 7,500 pounds of silver, 600 bushels of wheat, 600 gallons of wine, 600 gallons of oil, and salt. 23 Whatever the True God of heaven commands, do it eagerly for the True God of heaven’s temple so that He will not be angry with my empire. 24 Also do not charge taxes, tributes, or tolls to any priests, Levites, singers, gatekeepers, priests’ and Levites’ servants, or temple servants.
25 Ezra, appoint officials and judges over everyone in the province west of the Euphrates, including the Jews who follow your True God’s laws, as the wisdom of your True God motivates you, and teach those who do not know His laws. 26 Anyone who does not follow your True God’s law and my law will be judged harshly and punished by death, exile, foreclosure, or prison.
Ezra: 27 Eternal God of our ancestors, may You be blessed by the praises of Your people for motivating the king to fill and beautify the Eternal’s temple in Jerusalem. 28 You have blessed me with Your loyal love and strengthened me with Your motivation as I stood before the king and his cabinet and his princes. Because of You I was able to convince the elders of Israel to accompany me back to Jerusalem.
7 High Priest: What do you have to say for yourself? Are these accusations accurate?
Stephen: 2 Brothers, fathers, please listen to me. Our glorious God revealed Himself to our common ancestor Abraham, when he lived far away in Mesopotamia before he immigrated to Haran. 3 God gave him this command: “Leave your country. Leave your family and your inheritance. Move into unknown territory, where I will show you a new homeland.”[a] 4 First, he left Chaldea in southern Mesopotamia and settled in Haran until his father died. Then God led him still farther from his original home—until he settled here, in our land. 5 But at that point, God still hadn’t given him any of this land as his permanent possession—not even the footprint under his sandal actually belonged to him yet. But God did give Abraham a promise—a promise that yes, someday, the entire land would indeed belong to him and his descendants. Of course, this promise was all the more amazing because at that moment, Abraham had no descendants at all.
6 God said that Abraham’s descendants would first live in a foreign country as resident aliens, as refugees, for 400 years. During this time, they would be enslaved and treated horribly. But that would not be the end of the story. 7 God promised, “I will judge the nation that enslaves them,”[b] and “I will bring them to this mountain to serve Me.”[c] 8 God gave him the covenant ritual of circumcision as a sign of His sacred promise. When Abraham fathered his son, Isaac, he performed this ritual of circumcision on the eighth day. Then Isaac fathered Jacob, and Jacob fathered the twelve patriarchs.
9 The patriarchs were jealous of their brother Joseph, so they sold him as a slave into Egypt. Even so, God was with him; 10 and time after time, God rescued Joseph from whatever trials befell him. God gave Joseph the favor and wisdom to overcome each adversity and eventually to win the confidence and respect of his captors, including Pharaoh, the king of Egypt himself. So Pharaoh entrusted his whole nation and his whole household to Joseph’s stewardship. 11 Some time later, a terrible famine spread through the entire region—from Canaan down to Egypt—and everyone suffered greatly. Our ancestors, living here in the region of Canaan, could find nothing to eat. 12 Jacob heard that Egypt had stores of grain; so he sent our forefathers, his sons, to procure food there. 13 Later, when they returned to Egypt a second time, Joseph revealed his true identity to them. He also told Pharaoh his family story.
14-16 Joseph then invited his father Jacob and all his clan to come and live with him in Egypt. So Jacob came, along with 75 extended family members. After their deaths, their remains were brought back to this land so they could be buried in the same tomb where Abraham had buried Sarah (he had purchased the tomb for a certain amount of silver from the family of Hamor in the town of Shechem).
17 Still God’s promise to Abraham had not yet been fulfilled, but the time for that fulfillment was drawing very near. In the meantime, our ancestors living in Egypt rapidly multiplied. 18 Eventually a new king came to power—one who had not known Joseph when he was the most powerful man in Egypt. 19 This new leader feared the growing population of our ancestors and manipulated them for his own benefit, eventually seeking to control their population by forcing them to abandon their infants so they would die. 20 Into this horrible situation our ancestor Moses was born, and he was a beautiful child in God’s eyes. He was raised for three months in his father’s home, 21 and then he was abandoned as the brutal regime required. However, Pharaoh’s daughter found, adopted, and raised him as her own son. 22 So Moses learned the culture and wisdom of the Egyptians and became a powerful man—both as an intellectual and as a leader. 23 When he reached the age of 40, his heart drew him to visit his kinfolk, our ancestors, the Israelites. 24 During his visit, he saw one of our people being wronged, and he took sides with our people by killing an Egyptian. 25 He thought his kinfolk would recognize him as their God-given liberator, but they didn’t realize who he was and what he represented.
26 The next day Moses was walking among the Israelites again when he observed a fight—but this time, it was between two Israelites. He intervened and tried to reconcile the men. “You two are brothers,” he said. “Why do you attack each other?” 27 But the aggressor pushed Moses away and responded with contempt: “Who made you our prince and judge? 28 Are you going to slay me and hide my body as you did with the Egyptian yesterday?”[d] 29 Realizing this murder had not gone unnoticed, he quickly escaped Egypt and lived as a refugee in the land of Midian. He married there and had two sons.
30 Forty more years passed. One day while Moses was in the desert near Mount Sinai, a heavenly messenger appeared to him in the flames of a burning bush. 31 The phenomenon intrigued Moses; and as he approached for a closer look, he heard a voice—the voice of the Lord: 32 “I am the God of your own fathers, the God of Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob.”[e] This terrified Moses—he began to tremble and looked away in fear. 33 The voice continued: “Take off your sandals and stand barefoot on the ground in My presence, for this ground is holy ground. 34 I have avidly watched how My people are being mistreated by the Egyptians. I have heard their groaning at the treatment of their oppressors. I am descending personally to rescue them. So get up. I’m sending you to Egypt.”[f]
35 Now remember: this was the same Moses who had been rejected by his kinfolk when they said, “Who made you our prince and judge?” This man, rejected by his own people, was the one God had truly sent and commissioned by the heavenly messenger who appeared in the bush, to be their leader and deliverer.
36 Moses indeed led our ancestors to freedom, and he performed miraculous signs and wonders in Egypt, at the Red Sea, and in the wilderness over a period of 40 years. 37 This Moses promised our ancestors, “The Eternal One your God will raise up from among your people a Prophet who will be like me.”[g] 38 This is the same one who led the people to Mount Sinai, where a heavenly messenger spoke to him and our ancestors, and who received the living message of God to give to us.
39 But our ancestors still resisted. They again pushed Moses away and refused to follow him. In their hearts, they were ready to return to their former slavery in Egypt. 40 While Moses was on the mountain communing with God, they begged Aaron to make idols to lead them. “We have no idea what happened to this fellow, Moses, who brought us from Egypt,”[h] they said. 41 So they made a calf as their new god, and they even sacrificed to it and celebrated an object they had fabricated as if it was their God.
42 And you remember what God did next: He let them go. He turned from them and let them follow their idolatrous path—worshiping sun, moon, and stars just as their unenlightened neighbors did. The prophet Amos spoke for God about this horrible betrayal:
Did you offer Me sacrifices or give Me offerings
during your 40-year wilderness journey, you Israelites?
43 No, but you have taken along your sacred tent for the worship of Moloch,
and you honored the star of Rompha, your false god.
So, if you want to worship your man-made images,
you may do so—beyond Babylon.[i]
44 Now recall that our ancestors had a sacred tent in the wilderness, the tent God directed Moses to build according to the pattern revealed to him. 45 When Joshua led our ancestors to dispossess the nations God drove out before them, our ancestors carried this sacred tent. It remained here in the land until the time of David. 46 David found favor with God and asked Him for permission to build a permanent structure (rather than a portable tent) to honor Him. 47 It was, of course, Solomon who actually built God’s house. 48 Yet we all know the Most High God doesn’t actually dwell in structures made by human hands, as the prophet Isaiah said,
49 “Since My throne is heaven
and since My footstool is earth—
What kind of structure can you build to contain Me?
What man-made space could provide Me a resting place?” asks the Eternal One.
50 “Didn’t I make all things with My own hand?”[j]
As Stephen recounts how God has worked with the Jews in spite of their faltering fidelity, his speech up to this point sounds like any good synagogue sermon. In the stories of Abraham, Joseph, and Moses, he narrates the history of God’s work of salvation among the Jewish people in the midst of their repeated struggle with unfaithfulness and idolatry. However, it is one thing for his audience to agree that idolatry was a problem in the past and another when they are charged with the accusation of the same idolatry in the present. According to Stephen, those who reject Jesus are following the same path as the people who rejected Moses to follow idols. Such a strong message strikes a nerve, and Stephen becomes the first martyr of the church because of it.
Stephen: 51 You stubborn, stiff-necked people! Sure, you are physically Jews, but you are no different from outsiders in your hearts and ears! You are just like your ancestors, constantly fighting against the Holy Spirit. 52 Didn’t your ancestors persecute the prophets? First, they killed those prophets who predicted the coming of the Just One; and now, you have betrayed and murdered the Just One Himself! 53 Yes, you received the law as given by heavenly messengers, but you haven’t kept the law which you received.
54 Upon hearing this, his audience could contain themselves no longer. They boiled in fury at Stephen; they clenched their jaws and ground their teeth. 55 But Stephen was filled with the Holy Spirit. Gazing upward into heaven, he saw something they couldn’t see: the glory of God, and Jesus standing at His right hand.
Stephen: 56 Look, I see the heavens opening! I see the Son of Man standing at the right hand of God!
57 At this, they covered their ears and started shouting. The whole crowd rushed at Stephen, converged on him, 58 dragged him out of the city, and stoned him.
They laid their coats at the feet of a young man named Saul, 59 while they were pelting Stephen with rocks.
Stephen (as rocks fell upon him): Lord Jesus, receive my spirit.
60 Then he knelt in prayer, shouting at the top of his lungs,
Stephen: Lord, do not hold this evil against them!
Those were his final words; then he fell asleep in death.
The Voice Bible Copyright © 2012 Thomas Nelson, Inc. The Voice™ translation © 2012 Ecclesia Bible Society All rights reserved.