M’Cheyne Bible Reading Plan

47 So Joseph took five of his brothers and went to the king. He told him, “My father and my brothers have come from Canaan with their flocks, their herds, and all that they own. They are now in the region of Goshen.” ² He then presented his brothers to the king. ³ The king asked them, “What is your occupation?”

“We are shepherds, sir, just as our ancestors were,” they answered. ⁴ “We have come to live in this country, because in the land of Canaan the famine is so severe that there is no pasture for our flocks. Please give us permission to live in the region of Goshen.” ⁵ The king said to Joseph, “Now that your father and your brothers have arrived, ⁶ the land of Egypt is theirs. Let them settle in the region of Goshen, the best part of the land. And if there are any capable men among them, put them in charge of my own livestock.”

⁷ Then Joseph brought his father Jacob and presented him to the king. Jacob gave the king his blessing, ⁸ and the king asked him, “How old are you?”

⁹ Jacob answered, “My life of wandering has lasted a hundred and thirty years. Those years have been few and difficult, unlike the long years of my ancestors in their wanderings.” ¹⁰ Jacob gave the king a farewell blessing and left. ¹¹ Then Joseph settled his father and his brothers in Egypt, giving them property in the best of the land near the city of Rameses, as the king had commanded. ¹² Joseph provided food for his father, his brothers, and all the rest of his father's family, including the very youngest.

The Famine

¹³ The famine was so severe that there was no food anywhere, and the people of Egypt and Canaan became weak with hunger. ¹⁴ As they bought grain, Joseph collected all the money and took it to the palace. ¹⁵ When all the money in Egypt and Canaan was spent, the Egyptians came to Joseph and said, “Give us food! Don't let us die. Do something! Our money is all gone.”

¹⁶ Joseph answered, “Bring your livestock; I will give you food in exchange for it if your money is all gone.” ¹⁷ So they brought their livestock to Joseph, and he gave them food in exchange for their horses, sheep, goats, cattle, and donkeys. That year he supplied them with food in exchange for all their livestock.

¹⁸ The following year they came to him and said, “We will not hide the fact from you, sir, that our money is all gone and our livestock belongs to you. There is nothing left to give you except our bodies and our lands. ¹⁹ Don't let us die. Do something! Don't let our fields be deserted. Buy us and our land in exchange for food. We will be the king's slaves, and he will own our land. Give us grain to keep us alive and seed so that we can plant our fields.”

²⁰ Joseph bought all the land in Egypt for the king. Every Egyptian was forced to sell his land, because the famine was so severe; and all the land became the king's property. ²¹ Joseph made slaves of the people from one end of Egypt to the other. ²² The only land he did not buy was the land that belonged to the priests. They did not have to sell their lands, because the king gave them an allowance to live on. ²³ Joseph said to the people, “You see, I have now bought you and your lands for the king. Here is seed for you to sow in your fields. ²⁴ At the time of harvest you must give one-fifth to the king. You can use the rest for seed and for food for yourselves and your families.”

²⁵ They answered, “You have saved our lives; you have been good to us, sir, and we will be the king's slaves.” ²⁶ So Joseph made it a law for the land of Egypt that one-fifth of the harvest should belong to the king. This law still remains in force today. Only the lands of the priests did not become the king's property.

Jacob's Last Request

²⁷ The Israelites lived in Egypt in the region of Goshen, where they became rich and had many children. ²⁸ Jacob lived in Egypt seventeen years, until he was a hundred and forty-seven years old. ^29 (A)When the time drew near for him to die, he called for his son Joseph and said to him, “Place your hand between my thighs^[a] and make a solemn vow that you will not bury me in Egypt. ³⁰ I want to be buried where my fathers are; carry me out of Egypt and bury me where they are buried.”

Joseph answered, “I will do as you say.”

³¹ Jacob said, “Make a vow that you will.” Joseph made the vow, and Jacob gave thanks there on his bed.

Introduction

1 Dear Theophilus:

Many people have done their best to write a report of the things that have taken place among us. ² They wrote what we have been told by those who saw these things from the beginning and who proclaimed the message. ³ And so, Your Excellency, because I have carefully studied all these matters from their beginning, I thought it would be good to write an orderly account for you. ⁴ I do this so that you will know the full truth about everything which you have been taught.

The Birth of John the Baptist Is Announced

^5 (A)During the time when Herod was king of Judea,^[a] there was a priest named Zechariah, who belonged to the priestly order of Abijah. His wife's name was Elizabeth; she also belonged to a priestly family. ⁶ They both lived good lives in God's sight and obeyed fully all the Lord's laws and commands. ⁷ They had no children because Elizabeth could not have any, and she and Zechariah were both very old.

⁸ One day Zechariah was doing his work as a priest in the Temple, taking his turn in the daily service. ⁹ According to the custom followed by the priests, he was chosen by lot to burn incense on the altar. So he went into the Temple of the Lord, ¹⁰ while the crowd of people outside prayed during the hour when the incense was burned. ¹¹ An angel of the Lord appeared to him, standing at the right side of the altar where the incense was burned. ¹² When Zechariah saw him, he was alarmed and felt afraid. ¹³ But the angel said to him, “Don't be afraid, Zechariah! God has heard your prayer, and your wife Elizabeth will bear you a son. You are to name him John. ¹⁴ How glad and happy you will be, and how happy many others will be when he is born! ^15 (B)John will be great in the Lord's sight. He must not drink any wine or strong drink. From his very birth he will be filled with the Holy Spirit, ¹⁶ and he will bring back many of the people of Israel to the Lord their God. ^17 (C)He will go ahead of the Lord, strong and mighty like the prophet Elijah. He will bring fathers and children together again; he will turn disobedient people back to the way of thinking of the righteous; he will get the Lord's people ready for him.”

¹⁸ Zechariah said to the angel, “How shall I know if this is so? I am an old man, and my wife is old also.”

^19 (D)“I am Gabriel,” the angel answered. “I stand in the presence of God, who sent me to speak to you and tell you this good news. ²⁰ But you have not believed my message, which will come true at the right time. Because you have not believed, you will be unable to speak; you will remain silent until the day my promise to you comes true.”

²¹ In the meantime the people were waiting for Zechariah and wondering why he was spending such a long time in the Temple. ²² When he came out, he could not speak to them, and so they knew that he had seen a vision in the Temple. Unable to say a word, he made signs to them with his hands.

²³ When his period of service in the Temple was over, Zechariah went back home. ²⁴ Some time later his wife Elizabeth became pregnant and did not leave the house for five months. ²⁵ “Now at last the Lord has helped me,” she said. “He has taken away my public disgrace!”

The Birth of Jesus Is Announced

²⁶ In the sixth month of Elizabeth's pregnancy God sent the angel Gabriel to a town in Galilee named Nazareth. ^27 (E)He had a message for a young woman promised in marriage to a man named Joseph, who was a descendant of King David. Her name was Mary. ²⁸ The angel came to her and said, “Peace be with you! The Lord is with you and has greatly blessed you!”

²⁹ Mary was deeply troubled by the angel's message, and she wondered what his words meant. ³⁰ The angel said to her, “Don't be afraid, Mary; God has been gracious to you. ^31 (F)You will become pregnant and give birth to a son, and you will name him Jesus. ^32 (G)He will be great and will be called the Son of the Most High God. The Lord God will make him a king, as his ancestor David was, ³³ and he will be the king of the descendants of Jacob forever; his kingdom will never end!”

³⁴ Mary said to the angel, “I am a virgin. How, then, can this be?”

³⁵ The angel answered, “The Holy Spirit will come on you, and God's power will rest upon you. For this reason the holy child will be called the Son of God. ³⁶ Remember your relative Elizabeth. It is said that she cannot have children, but she herself is now six months pregnant, even though she is very old. ^37 (H)For there is nothing that God cannot do.”

³⁸ “I am the Lord's servant,” said Mary; “may it happen to me as you have said.” And the angel left her.

1 From Paul, who was called by the will of God to be an apostle of Christ Jesus, and from our brother Sosthenes—

^2 (A)To the church of God which is in Corinth, to all who are called to be God's holy people, who belong to him in union with Christ Jesus, together with all people everywhere who worship our Lord Jesus Christ, their Lord and ours:

³ May God our Father and the Lord Jesus Christ give you grace and peace.

Blessings in Christ

⁴ I always give thanks to my God for you because of the grace he has given you through Christ Jesus. ⁵ For in union with Christ you have become rich in all things, including all speech and all knowledge. ⁶ The message about Christ has become so firmly established in you ⁷ that you have not failed to receive a single blessing, as you wait for our Lord Jesus Christ to be revealed. ⁸ He will also keep you firm to the end, so that you will be faultless on the Day of our Lord Jesus Christ. ⁹ God is to be trusted, the God who called you to have fellowship with his Son Jesus Christ, our Lord.

Divisions in the Church

¹⁰ By the authority of our Lord Jesus Christ I appeal to all of you, my friends, to agree in what you say, so that there will be no divisions among you. Be completely united, with only one thought and one purpose. ¹¹ For some people from Chloe's family have told me quite plainly, my friends, that there are quarrels among you. ^12 (B)Let me put it this way: each one of you says something different. One says, “I follow Paul”; another, “I follow Apollos”; another, “I follow Peter”; and another, “I follow Christ.” ¹³ Christ has been divided^[a] into groups! Was it Paul who died on the cross for you? Were you baptized as Paul's disciples?

^14 (C)I thank God that I did not baptize any of you except Crispus and Gaius. ¹⁵ No one can say, then, that you were baptized as my disciples. (^16 (D)Oh yes, I also baptized Stephanas and his family; but I can't remember whether I baptized anyone else.) ¹⁷ Christ did not send me to baptize. He sent me to tell the Good News, and to tell it without using the language of human wisdom, in order to make sure that Christ's death on the cross is not robbed of its power.

Christ the Power and the Wisdom of God

¹⁸ For the message about Christ's death on the cross is nonsense to those who are being lost; but for us who are being saved it is God's power. ^19 (E)The scripture says,

^20 (F)So then, where does that leave the wise? or the scholars? or the skillful debaters of this world? God has shown that this world's wisdom is foolishness!

^21 (G)For God in his wisdom made it impossible for people to know him by means of their own wisdom. Instead, by means of the so-called “foolish” message we preach, God decided to save those who believe. ²² Jews want miracles for proof, and Greeks look for wisdom. ²³ As for us, we proclaim the crucified Christ, a message that is offensive to the Jews and nonsense to the Gentiles; ²⁴ but for those whom God has called, both Jews and Gentiles, this message is Christ, who is the power of God and the wisdom of God. ²⁵ For what seems to be God's foolishness is wiser than human wisdom, and what seems to be God's weakness is stronger than human strength.

²⁶ Now remember what you were, my friends, when God called you. From the human point of view few of you were wise or powerful or of high social standing. ²⁷ God purposely chose what the world considers nonsense in order to shame the wise, and he chose what the world considers weak in order to shame the powerful. ²⁸ He chose what the world looks down on and despises and thinks is nothing, in order to destroy what the world thinks is important. ²⁹ This means that no one can boast in God's presence. ³⁰ But God has brought you into union with Christ Jesus, and God has made Christ to be our wisdom. By him we are put right with God; we become God's holy people and are set free. ^31 (H)So then, as the scripture says, “Whoever wants to boast must boast of what the Lord has done.”