M’Cheyne Bible Reading Plan
Joseph's Brothers Go to Egypt to Buy Grain
42 When Jacob learned that there was grain in Egypt, he said to his sons, “Why don't you do something? 2 (A)I hear that there is grain in Egypt; go there and buy some to keep us from starving to death.” 3 So Joseph's ten half brothers went to buy grain in Egypt, 4 but Jacob did not send Joseph's full brother Benjamin with them, because he was afraid that something might happen to him.
5 The sons of Jacob came with others to buy grain, because there was famine in the land of Canaan. 6 Joseph, as governor of the land of Egypt, was selling grain to people from all over the world. So Joseph's brothers came and bowed down before him with their faces to the ground. 7 When Joseph saw his brothers, he recognized them, but he acted as if he did not know them. He asked them harshly, “Where do you come from?”
“We have come from Canaan to buy food,” they answered.
8 Although Joseph recognized his brothers, they did not recognize him. 9 (B)He remembered the dreams he had dreamed about them and said, “You are spies; you have come to find out where our country is weak.”
10 “No, sir,” they answered. “We have come as your slaves, to buy food. 11 We are all brothers. We are not spies, sir, we are honest men.”
12 Joseph said to them, “No! You have come to find out where our country is weak.”
13 They said, “We were twelve brothers in all, sir, sons of the same man in the land of Canaan. One brother is dead, and the youngest is now with our father.”
14 “It is just as I said,” Joseph answered. “You are spies. 15 This is how you will be tested: I swear by the name of the king that you will never leave unless your youngest brother comes here. 16 One of you must go and get him. The rest of you will be kept under guard until the truth of what you say can be tested. Otherwise, as sure as the king lives, you are spies.” 17 With that, he put them in prison for three days.
18 On the third day Joseph said to them, “I am a God-fearing man, and I will spare your lives on one condition. 19 To prove that you are honest, one of you will stay in the prison where you have been kept; the rest of you may go and take back to your starving families the grain that you have bought. 20 Then you must bring your youngest brother to me. This will prove that you have been telling the truth, and I will not put you to death.”
They agreed to this 21 and said to one another, “Yes, now we are suffering the consequences of what we did to our brother; we saw the great trouble he was in when he begged for help, but we would not listen. That is why we are in this trouble now.”
22 (C)Reuben said, “I told you not to harm the boy, but you wouldn't listen. And now we are being paid back for his death.” 23 Joseph understood what they said, but they did not know it, because they had been speaking to him through an interpreter. 24 Joseph left them and began to cry. When he was able to speak again, he came back, picked out Simeon, and had him tied up in front of them.
Joseph's Brothers Return to Canaan
25 Joseph gave orders to fill his brothers' packs with grain, to put each man's money back in his sack, and to give them food for the trip. This was done. 26 The brothers loaded their donkeys with the grain they had bought, and then they left. 27 At the place where they spent the night, one of them opened his sack to feed his donkey and found his money at the top of the sack. 28 “My money has been returned to me,” he called to his brothers. “Here it is in my sack!” Their hearts sank, and in fear they asked one another, “What has God done to us?”
29 When they came to their father Jacob in Canaan, they told him all that had happened to them: 30 “The governor of Egypt spoke harshly to us and accused us of spying against his country. 31 ‘We are not spies,’ we answered, ‘we are honest men. 32 We were twelve brothers in all, sons of the same father. One brother is dead, and the youngest is still in Canaan with our father.’ 33 The man answered, ‘This is how I will find out if you are honest men: One of you will stay with me; the rest will take grain for your starving families and leave. 34 Bring your youngest brother to me. Then I will know that you are not spies, but honest men; I will give your brother back to you, and you can stay here and trade.’”
35 Then when they emptied out their sacks, every one of them found his bag of money; and when they saw the money, they and their father Jacob were afraid. 36 Their father said to them, “Do you want to make me lose all my children? Joseph is gone; Simeon is gone; and now you want to take away Benjamin. I am the one who suffers!”
37 Reuben said to his father, “If I do not bring Benjamin back to you, you can kill my two sons. Put him in my care, and I will bring him back.”
38 But Jacob said, “My son cannot go with you; his brother is dead, and he is the only one left. Something might happen to him on the way. I am an old man, and the sorrow you would cause me would kill me.”
The Parable of the Tenants in the Vineyard(A)
12 (B)Then Jesus spoke to them in parables: “Once there was a man who planted a vineyard, put a fence around it, dug a hole for the wine press, and built a watchtower. Then he rented the vineyard to tenants and left home on a trip. 2 When the time came to gather the grapes, he sent a slave to the tenants to receive from them his share of the harvest. 3 The tenants grabbed the slave, beat him, and sent him back without a thing. 4 Then the owner sent another slave; the tenants beat him over the head and treated him shamefully. 5 The owner sent another slave, and they killed him; and they treated many others the same way, beating some and killing others. 6 The only one left to send was the man's own dear son. Last of all, then, he sent his son to the tenants. ‘I am sure they will respect my son,’ he said. 7 But those tenants said to one another, ‘This is the owner's son. Come on, let's kill him, and his property will be ours!’ 8 So they grabbed the son and killed him and threw his body out of the vineyard.
9 “What, then, will the owner of the vineyard do?” asked Jesus. “He will come and kill those tenants and turn the vineyard over to others. 10 (C)Surely you have read this scripture?
‘The stone which the builders rejected as worthless
turned out to be the most important of all.
11 This was done by the Lord;
what a wonderful sight it is!’”
12 The Jewish leaders tried to arrest Jesus, because they knew that he had told this parable against them. But they were afraid of the crowd, so they left him and went away.
The Question about Paying Taxes(D)
13 Some Pharisees and some members of Herod's party were sent to Jesus to trap him with questions. 14 They came to him and said, “Teacher, we know that you tell the truth, without worrying about what people think. You pay no attention to anyone's status, but teach the truth about God's will for people. Tell us, is it against our Law to pay taxes to the Roman Emperor? Should we pay them or not?”
15 But Jesus saw through their trick and answered, “Why are you trying to trap me? Bring a silver coin, and let me see it.”
16 They brought him one, and he asked, “Whose face and name are these?”
“The Emperor's,” they answered.
17 So Jesus said, “Well, then, pay to the Emperor what belongs to the Emperor, and pay to God what belongs to God.”
And they were amazed at Jesus.
The Question about Rising from Death(E)
18 (F)Then some Sadducees, who say that people will not rise from death, came to Jesus and said, 19 (G)“Teacher, Moses wrote this law for us: ‘If a man dies and leaves a wife but no children, that man's brother must marry the widow so that they can have children who will be considered the dead man's children.’ 20 Once there were seven brothers; the oldest got married and died without having children. 21 Then the second one married the woman, and he also died without having children. The same thing happened to the third brother, 22 and then to the rest: all seven brothers married the woman and died without having children. Last of all, the woman died. 23 Now, when all the dead rise to life on the day of resurrection, whose wife will she be? All seven of them had married her.”
24 Jesus answered them, “How wrong you are! And do you know why? It is because you don't know the Scriptures or God's power. 25 For when the dead rise to life, they will be like the angels in heaven and will not marry. 26 (H)Now, as for the dead being raised: haven't you ever read in the Book of Moses the passage about the burning bush? There it is written that God said to Moses, ‘I am the God of Abraham, the God of Isaac, and the God of Jacob.’ 27 He is the God of the living, not of the dead. You are completely wrong!”
The Great Commandment(I)
28 A teacher of the Law was there who heard the discussion. He saw that Jesus had given the Sadducees a good answer, so he came to him with a question: “Which commandment is the most important of all?”
29 (J)Jesus replied, “The most important one is this: ‘Listen, Israel! The Lord our God is the only Lord.[a] 30 Love the Lord your God with all your heart, with all your soul, with all your mind, and with all your strength.’ 31 (K)The second most important commandment is this: ‘Love your neighbor as you love yourself.’ There is no other commandment more important than these two.”
32 (L)The teacher of the Law said to Jesus, “Well done, Teacher! It is true, as you say, that only the Lord is God and that there is no other god but he. 33 (M)And you must love God with all your heart and with all your mind and with all your strength; and you must love your neighbor as you love yourself. It is more important to obey these two commandments than to offer on the altar animals and other sacrifices to God.”
34 (N)Jesus noticed how wise his answer was, and so he told him, “You are not far from the Kingdom of God.”
After this nobody dared to ask Jesus any more questions.
The Question about the Messiah(O)
35 As Jesus was teaching in the Temple, he asked the question, “How can the teachers of the Law say that the Messiah will be the descendant of David? 36 (P)The Holy Spirit inspired David to say:
‘The Lord said to my Lord:
Sit here at my right side
until I put your enemies under your feet.’
37 David himself called him ‘Lord’; so how can the Messiah be David's descendant?”
Jesus Warns against the Teachers of the Law(Q)
A large crowd was listening to Jesus gladly. 38 As he taught them, he said, “Watch out for the teachers of the Law, who like to walk around in their long robes and be greeted with respect in the marketplace, 39 who choose the reserved seats in the synagogues and the best places at feasts. 40 They take advantage of widows and rob them of their homes, and then make a show of saying long prayers. Their punishment will be all the worse!”
The Widow's Offering(R)
41 As Jesus sat near the Temple treasury, he watched the people as they dropped in their money. Many rich men dropped in a lot of money; 42 then a poor widow came along and dropped in two little copper coins, worth about a penny. 43 He called his disciples together and said to them, “I tell you that this poor widow put more in the offering box than all the others. 44 For the others put in what they had to spare of their riches; but she, poor as she is, put in all she had—she gave all she had to live on.”
8 1-2 Are you finally through with your windy speech?
3 God never twists justice;
he never fails to do what is right.
4 Your children must have sinned against God,
and so he punished them as they deserved.
5 But turn now and plead with Almighty God;
6 if you are so honest and pure,
then God will come and help you
and restore your household as your reward.
7 All the wealth you lost will be nothing
compared with what God will give you then.
8 (A)Look for a moment at ancient wisdom;
consider the truths our ancestors learned.
9 Our life is short, we know nothing at all;
we pass like shadows across the earth.
10 But let the ancient wise people teach you;
listen to what they had to say:
11 “Reeds can't grow where there is no water;
they are never found outside a swamp.
12 If the water dries up, they are the first to wither,
while still too small to be cut and used.
13 Godless people are like those reeds;
their hope is gone, once God is forgotten.
14 They trust a thread—a spider's web.
15 If they lean on a web, will it hold them up?
If they grab for a thread, will it help them stand?”
16 Evil people sprout like weeds in the sun,
like weeds that spread all through the garden.
17 Their roots wrap around the stones
and hold fast to[a] every rock.
18 But then pull them up—
no one will ever know they were there.
19 Yes, that's all the joy evil people have;
others now come and take their places.
20 But God will never abandon the faithful
or ever give help to evil people.
21 He will let you laugh and shout again,
22 but he will bring disgrace on those who hate you,
and the homes of the wicked will vanish.
Life in God's Service
12 So then, my friends, because of God's great mercy to us I appeal to you: Offer yourselves as a living sacrifice to God, dedicated to his service and pleasing to him. This is the true worship that you should offer. 2 Do not conform yourselves to the standards of this world, but let God transform you inwardly by a complete change of your mind. Then you will be able to know the will of God—what is good and is pleasing to him and is perfect.
3 And because of God's gracious gift to me I say to every one of you: Do not think of yourself more highly than you should. Instead, be modest in your thinking, and judge yourself according to the amount of faith that God has given you. 4 (A)We have many parts in the one body, and all these parts have different functions. 5 In the same way, though we are many, we are one body in union with Christ, and we are all joined to each other as different parts of one body. 6 (B)So we are to use our different gifts in accordance with the grace that God has given us. If our gift is to speak God's message, we should do it according to the faith that we have; 7 if it is to serve, we should serve; if it is to teach, we should teach; 8 if it is to encourage others, we should do so. Whoever shares with others should do it generously; whoever has authority should work hard; whoever shows kindness to others should do it cheerfully.
9 Love must be completely sincere. Hate what is evil, hold on to what is good. 10 Love one another warmly as Christians, and be eager to show respect for one another. 11 Work hard and do not be lazy. Serve the Lord with a heart full of devotion. 12 Let your hope keep you joyful, be patient in your troubles, and pray at all times. 13 Share your belongings with your needy fellow Christians, and open your homes to strangers.
14 (C)Ask God to bless those who persecute you—yes, ask him to bless, not to curse. 15 (D)Be happy with those who are happy, weep with those who weep. 16 (E)Have the same concern for everyone. Do not be proud, but accept humble duties.[a] Do not think of yourselves as wise.
17 If someone has done you wrong, do not repay him with a wrong. Try to do what everyone considers to be good. 18 Do everything possible on your part to live in peace with everybody. 19 (F)Never take revenge, my friends, but instead let God's anger do it. For the scripture says, “I will take revenge, I will pay back, says the Lord.” 20 (G)Instead, as the scripture says: “If your enemies are hungry, feed them; if they are thirsty, give them a drink; for by doing this you will make them burn with shame.” 21 Do not let evil defeat you; instead, conquer evil with good.
Good News Translation® (Today’s English Version, Second Edition) © 1992 American Bible Society. All rights reserved. For more information about GNT, visit www.bibles.com and www.gnt.bible.