M’Cheyne Bible Reading Plan

2 Now the angel of Adonai came up from Gilgal to Bokhim and said, “I brought you up out of Egypt, led you to the land I swore to your fathers and said, ‘I will never break my covenant with you; ² you, for your part, are not to make any covenant with the inhabitants of this land but must tear down their altars.’ However, you have paid no attention to what I said. What is this you have done? ³ This is why I also said, ‘I will not drive them out before you; but they will be on your flanks, and their gods will become a snare for you.’” ⁴ When the angel of Adonai spoke these words to all the people of Isra’el, they began crying and wailing at the top of their voices. ⁵ So they called the name of that place Bokhim [crying] and sacrificed there to Adonai.

⁶ When Y’hoshua had sent the people away, the people of Isra’el had gone each one to his assigned property in order to take possession of the land. ⁷ The people served Adonai throughout Y’hoshua’s life and throughout the lives of all the older men who outlived Y’hoshua and who had seen all the great work of Adonai which he had done for Isra’el. ⁸ When Y’hoshua the son of Nun, the servant of Adonai, died, he was 110 years old; ⁹ and they buried him near the boundary of his property in Timnat-Heres, in the hills of Efrayim, north of Mount Ga‘ash.

¹⁰ When that entire generation had been gathered to their ancestors, another generation arose that knew neither Adonai nor the work he had done for Isra’el. ¹¹ Then the people of Isra’el did what was evil from Adonai’s perspective and served the ba‘alim. ¹² They abandoned Adonai, the God of their fathers, who had brought them out of the land of Egypt, and followed other gods, selected from the gods of the peoples around them, and worshipped them; this made Adonai angry. ¹³ They abandoned Adonai and served Ba‘al and the ‘ashtarot. ¹⁴ The anger of Adonai blazed against Isra’el; and he handed them over to pillagers, who plundered them, and to their enemies around them; so that they could no longer resist their enemies. ¹⁵ Whenever they launched an attack, the power of Adonai was against them, so that things turned out badly — just as Adonai had said would happen and had sworn to them. They were in dire distress.

¹⁶ But then Adonai raised up judges, who rescued them from the power of those who were plundering them. ¹⁷ Yet they did not pay attention to their judges, but made whores of themselves to other gods and worshipped them; they quickly turned away from the path on which their ancestors had walked, the way of obeying Adonai’s mitzvot — they failed to do this. ¹⁸ When Adonai raised up judges for them, Adonai was with the judge and delivered them from the hands of their enemies throughout the lifetime of the judge; for Adonai was moved to pity by their groaning under those oppressing and crushing them. ¹⁹ But after the judge died, they would relapse into worse behavior than that of their ancestors, following other gods to serve and worship them; they abandoned none of their practices or stubborn ways. ²⁰ So the anger of Adonai blazed against Isra’el; he said, “Because this nation violates my covenant, which I ordered their fathers to obey; and they don’t pay attention to what I say; ²¹ in the future, I will not expel ahead of them any of the nations that Y’hoshua left when he died. ²² This is how I will test Isra’el, to see whether or not they will keep the way of Adonai, living according to it, as their ancestors did.” ²³ So Adonai allowed those nations to remain where they were, without quickly driving them out; he did not hand them over to Y’hoshua.

6 Around this time, when the number of talmidim was growing, the Greek-speaking Jews began complaining against those who spoke Hebrew that their widows were being overlooked in the daily distribution. ² So the Twelve called a general meeting of the talmidim and said, “It isn’t appropriate that we should neglect the Word of God in order to serve tables. ³ Brothers, choose seven men from among yourselves who are known to be full of the Spirit and wisdom. We will appoint them to be in charge of this important matter, ⁴ but we ourselves will give our full attention to praying and to serving the Word.”

⁵ What they said was agreeable to the whole gathering. They chose Stephen, a man full of faith and the Ruach HaKodesh, Philip, Prochoros, Nikanor, Timon, Parmenas and Nicholas, who was a proselyte from Antioch. ⁶ They presented these men to the emissaries, who prayed and laid their hands on them.

⁷ So the word of God continued to spread. The number of talmidim in Yerushalayim increased rapidly, and a large crowd of cohanim were becoming obedient to the faith.

⁸ Now Stephen, full of grace and power, performed great miracles and signs among the people. ⁹ But opposition arose from members of the Synagogue of the Freed Slaves (as it was called), composed of Cyrenians, Alexandrians and people from Cilicia and the province of Asia. They argued with Stephen, ¹⁰ but they could not stand up against his wisdom or the Spirit by which he spoke.

¹¹ So they secretly persuaded some men to allege, “We heard him speak blasphemously against Moshe and against God.” ¹² They stirred up the people, as well as the elders and the Torah-teachers; so they came and arrested him and led him before the Sanhedrin. ¹³ There they set up false witnesses who said, “This man never stops speaking against this holy place and against the Torah; ¹⁴ for we have heard him say that Yeshua from Natzeret will destroy this place and will change the customs Moshe handed down to us.”

¹⁵ Everyone sitting in the Sanhedrin stared at Stephen and saw that his face looked like the face of an angel.

15 Then Adonai said to me, “Even if Moshe and Sh’mu’el were standing in front of me, my heart would not turn toward this people! Drive them out of my sight, get them out of here! ² And when they ask you where they should go, tell them that this is what Adonai says:

¹¹ Adonai said, “I promise to release you for good, I promise to make your enemies appeal to you when calamity and trouble come.

¹² “Can iron break iron and bronze from the north? ¹³ I will give away your wealth and your treasures as plunder, and you will not be paid for them, because of all your sins throughout your territory; ¹⁴ and I will make you pass together with your enemies into a land you do not know. For my anger has become a blazing fire, and it will flare up against you.”

1 The beginning of the Good News of Yeshua the Messiah, the Son of God:

² It is written in the prophet Yesha‘yahu,

⁴ So it was that Yochanan the Immerser appeared in the desert, proclaiming an immersion involving turning to God from sin in order to be forgiven. ⁵ People went out to him from all over Y’hudah, as did all the inhabitants of Yerushalayim. Confessing their sins, they were immersed by him in the Yarden River. ⁶ Yochanan wore clothes of camel’s hair, with a leather belt around his waist; he ate locusts and wild honey. ⁷ He proclaimed: “After me is coming someone who is more powerful than I — I’m not worthy even to bend down and untie his sandals. ⁸ I have immersed you in water, but he will immerse you in the Ruach HaKodesh.”

⁹ Shortly thereafter, Yeshua came from Natzeret in the Galil and was immersed in the Yarden by Yochanan. ¹⁰ Immediately upon coming up out of the water, he saw heaven torn open and the Spirit descending upon him like a dove; ¹¹ then a voice came from heaven, “You are my Son, whom I love; I am well pleased with you.”

¹² Immediately the Spirit drove him out into the wilderness, ¹³ and he was in the wilderness forty days being tempted by the Adversary. He was with the wild animals, and the angels took care of him.

¹⁴ After Yochanan had been arrested, Yeshua came into the Galil proclaiming the Good News from God:

¹⁶ As he walked beside Lake Kinneret, he saw Shim‘on and Andrew, Shim‘on’s brother, casting a net into the lake; for they were fishermen. ¹⁷ Yeshua said to them, “Come, follow me, and I will make you into fishers for men!” ¹⁸ At once they left their nets and followed him.

¹⁹ Going on a little farther, he saw Ya‘akov Ben-Zavdai and Yochanan, his brother, in their boat, repairing their nets. ²⁰ Immediately he called them, and they left their father Zavdai in the boat with the hired men and went after Yeshua.

²¹ They entered K’far-Nachum, and on Shabbat Yeshua went into the synagogue and began teaching. ²² They were amazed at the way he taught, for he did not instruct them like the Torah-teachers but as one who had authority himself.

²³ In their synagogue just then was a man with an unclean spirit in him, who shouted, ²⁴ “What do you want with us, Yeshua from Natzeret? Have you come to destroy us? I know who you are — the Holy One of God!” ²⁵ But Yeshua rebuked the unclean spirit, “Be quiet and come out of him!” ²⁶ Throwing the man into a convulsion, it gave a loud shriek and came out of him. ²⁷ They were all so astounded that they began asking each other, “What is this? A new teaching, one with authority behind it! He gives orders even to the unclean spirits, and they obey him!” ²⁸ And the news about him spread quickly through the whole region of the Galil.

²⁹ They left the synagogue and went with Ya‘akov and Yochanan to the home of Shim‘on and Andrew. ³⁰ Shim‘on’s mother-in-law was lying sick with a fever, and they told Yeshua about her. ³¹ He came, took her by the hand and lifted her onto her feet. The fever left her, and she began helping them.

³² That evening after sundown, they brought to Yeshua all who were ill or held in the power of demons, ³³ and the whole town came crowding around the door. ³⁴ He healed many who were ill with various diseases and expelled many demons, but he did not allow the demons to speak, because they knew who he was.

³⁵ Very early in the morning, while it was still dark, Yeshua got up, left, went away to a lonely spot and stayed there praying. ³⁶ But Shim‘on and those with him went after him; ³⁷ and when they found him, they said, “Everybody is looking for you.” ³⁸ He answered, “Let’s go somewhere else — to the other villages around here. I have to proclaim the message there too — in fact this is why I came out.” ³⁹ So he traveled all through the Galil, preaching in their synagogues and expelling demons.

⁴⁰ A man afflicted with tzara‘at came to Yeshua and begged him on his knees, “If you are willing, you can make me clean.” ⁴¹ Moved with pity, Yeshua reached out his hand, touched him and said to him, “I am willing! Be cleansed!” ⁴² Instantly the tzara‘at left him, and he was cleansed. ⁴³ Yeshua sent him away with this stern warning: ⁴⁴ “See to it that you tell no one; instead, as a testimony to the people, go and let the cohen examine you, and offer for your cleansing what Moshe commanded.” ⁴⁵ But he went out and began spreading the news, talking freely about it; so that Yeshua could no longer enter a town openly but stayed out in the country, where people continued coming to him from all around.