M’Cheyne Bible Reading Plan
16 Moses: During the month of Abib at the beginning of spring, celebrate Passover in honor of the Eternal, your True God. In that month, He brought you out of Egypt at night. 2 Take an animal from your herd or flock, go to the place He will choose for His name, and offer a Passover sacrifice to the Eternal your God. 3 Don’t eat any leavened bread with it. Eat unleavened bread during the seven days of this celebration because “suffering bread” is what you made when you quickly left your suffering in Egypt. If you eat it again each year, you’ll always remember the day you left Egypt. 4 For these seven days, no one in the whole country should have any yeast. And none of the meat from the sacrifice you offer on the first night of the celebration should be left over on the next day. 5 Don’t offer the Passover sacrifice in any of the other cities the Eternal your God is giving you. 6 Even if it’s some distance, make the journey to the place He will choose for His name. Offer the Passover sacrifice in that place, in the evening, at sunset—the time when you left Egypt. 7 Cook it, and eat it in the place He chooses. In the morning, you can return to your tents, 8 but you must still only eat unleavened bread for the next six days. On the seventh day, the last day of the celebration, soberly gather together to worship Him. Don’t do any work on that day.
There are a number of celebrations found in the Hebrew Scriptures, but only three great feasts are part of the Mosaic law. They retell the story of their covenant relationship with the Lord and provide occasions to share generously with those in need. They give the people the opportunity to acknowledge publicly that He is the source of their abundance, so they won’t be tempted to think they’ve prospered on their own and forget Him.
Each of the three great celebrations are reminders of the servitude in Egypt. Passover, followed by the week of unleavened bread, is a reminder of God redeeming His people from Egypt and falls within March or April each year. The Feast of Weeks, known as Pentecost to Christians, is 50 days after firstfruits or the beginning of the barley harvest and comes in May or June. They are told to remember that they were once slaves in Egypt. The last of the great celebrations, the Feast of Shelters, comes in September or October. It is a reminder of the provision of God when the nation lived in temporary shelters while wandering in the wilderness.
9-10 Another celebration the Eternal your God wants you to have is the Feast of Weeks. Hold this celebration seven weeks after you first begin to cut and harvest the barley in your fields. Each of you will choose something to contribute out of what He has blessed you with. 11 Go to the place He chooses for His name; and have a celebration there in His presence with your sons and daughters, your male and female slaves, and the Levites, foreigners, orphans, and widows who live in your city. 12 Remember you were slaves in Egypt, and obey these regulations carefully.
13 Later in the year, at the end of the harvest after you’ve finished threshing all your grain and making all your wine, celebrate the Feast of Shelters for seven days.
The Israelites are to make temporary shelters and live in them for a week to remember how they lived in temporary shelters when they left Egypt.
14 Celebrate with your sons and daughters, your male and female slaves, and the Levites, foreigners, orphans, and widows who live in your city. 15 Celebrate for seven days in honor of the Eternal your God, in the place the Eternal will choose. The Eternal your God will bless you with abundant produce; He will bless everything you do, and you’ll have a lot to celebrate! 16 Three times each year, every male Israelite must appear before Him in the place He chooses for the Feast of Unleavened Bread (Passover), for the Feast of Weeks (Pentecost), and for the Feast of Shelters (Tabernacles). Don’t come empty-handed! 17 Decide what amount you want to contribute voluntarily out of what He has blessed you with, and bring that as a gift.
This next group of laws describes the rights and responsibilities of community leaders in Israel: the judges who will settle disputes, a king who may be chosen to rule the nation, the Levites who will serve at the central sanctuary, and the prophets who will bring the Lord’s word to the people. All of these offices create a balance of power in Israel.
Moses: 18 In each of the cities the Eternal your God is giving you, appoint tribal judges and representatives who will decide cases for the people honestly and fairly.
(to these future judges) 19 Don’t bend the rules for anyone. Don’t favor the rich and powerful, and never take a bribe! A bribe makes people who would decide cases wisely overlook injustice, and it makes people who would be honest give false testimony. 20 Justice! Justice! That’s what you’re after. Then you’ll keep living in the land He is giving you.
21 When you build an altar to the Eternal your God, don’t ever put any kind of sacred wooden pole[a] next to it, 22 and don’t ever set up a monolith or stone pillar. He hates these things!
Psalm 103
A song of David.
1 O my soul, come, praise the Eternal
with all that is in me—body, emotions, mind, and will—every part of who I am—
praise His holy name.
2 O my soul, come, praise the Eternal;
sing a song from a grateful heart;
sing and never forget all the good He has done.
3 Despite all your many offenses, He forgives and releases you.
More than any doctor, He heals your diseases.
4 He reaches deep into the pit to deliver you from death.
He crowns you with unfailing love and compassion like a king.
5 When your soul is famished and withering,
He fills you with good and beautiful things, satisfying you as long as you live.
He makes you strong like an eagle, restoring your youth.
6 When people are crushed, wronged, enslaved, raped, murdered,
the Eternal is just;
He makes the wrongs right.
7 He showed Moses His ways;
He allowed His people Israel to see His wonders and acts of power.
8 The Eternal is compassionate and merciful.
When we cross all the lines, He is patient with us.
When we struggle against Him, He lovingly stays with us—changing, convicting, prodding;
9 He will not constantly criticize,
nor will He hold a grudge forever.
10 Thankfully, God does not punish us for our sins and depravity as we deserve.
In His mercy, He tempers justice with peace.
11 Measure how high heaven is above the earth;
God’s wide, loving, kind heart is greater for those who revere Him.
12 You see, God takes all our crimes—our seemingly inexhaustible sins—and removes them.
As far as east is from the west, He removes them from us.
13 An earthly father expresses love for his children;
it is no different with our heavenly Father;
The Eternal shows His love for those who revere Him.
14 For He knows what we are made of;
He knows our frame is frail, and He remembers we came from dust.
15 The children of Adam are like grass;
their days are few;
they flourish for a time like flowers in a meadow.
16 As the wind blows over the field and the bloom is gone,
it doesn’t take much to blow us out of the memory of that place.
17 But the unfailing love of the Eternal is always and eternal
for those who reverently run after Him.
He extends His justice on and on to future generations,
18 To those who will keep His bond of love
and remember to walk in the guidance of His commands.
19 The Eternal has established His throne up in the heavens.
He rules over every seen and unseen realm and creature.
20 Adore Him! Give Him praise, you heavenly messengers,
you powerful creatures who listen to
and act on His every word.
21 Give praise to the Eternal, all armies of heaven—
you servants who stand ready to do His will.
22 Give praise to the Eternal, all that He has made
in all corners of His creation.
O my soul, come, praise the Eternal!
43 Eternal One: Remember who created you, O Jacob?
Who shaped you, O Israel?
See, you have nothing to fear. I, who made you, will take you back.
I have chosen you, named you as My own.
2 When you face stormy seas I will be there with you with endurance and calm;
you will not be engulfed in raging rivers.
If it seems like you’re walking through fire with flames licking at your limbs,
keep going; you won’t be burned.
3 Because I, the Eternal One, am your God.
I am the Holy One of Israel, and I will save you.
I have traded in nations to win you back,
Egypt, Cush, and Seba, in exchange for your freedom.
4 Because you are special to Me and I love you,
I gladly give up other peoples in exchange for you;
They are trivial by comparison to your weighty significance.
5-6 So don’t be afraid. I am here.
I will reunite you with your children,
bringing them back from wherever in the world they are—East, West, North, or South.
No place will be able to hold you when I demand your release, when I order them,
“Bring My children—My sons and daughters—from far away.
7 Bring the ones who are called by My name;
the ones I made, shaped, and created for My profound glory.”
8 Even though they fail and seem blind and deaf (and not for lack of eyes or ears),
bring them out.
9 All the nations gather together; peoples from all over the world assemble.
Who among them could have forseen this?
Let them call their witnesses to make their case, prove they are in the right—
that it is the truth.
10 Eternal One: You are My witnesses; You are My proof.
You whom I chose for special purpose, My servant,
in order that you would know Me, trust Me, be faithful to Me,
Understand that I alone am God; no god was formed before Me,
and there will be no god after Me.
11 I, I am the Eternal;
there is no Savior except for Me,
12 I alone told that this victory would happen. Then I saved you and made it known.
No other god worked among you—You know the truth.
You can testify that it is so; as I declare, I alone am God.
13 Indeed, from day one, I am He. No one can wrest another from My hand.
I make things happen; who can turn them around?
14 The Holy One of Israel, the Eternal One who redeemed you, says,
Eternal One: For your good, I will send another against Babylon
and make all of them outcasts from their own land;
The Chaldeans will set sail and try to escape on their celebrated ships.
15 For I am the Eternal, your Holy One. I am your King,
Creator of Israel, My people.
16 This is what the Eternal One says, the One who does the impossible,
the One who makes a path through the sea, a smooth road through tumultuous waters,
17 The One who drags out chariots and horses,
armies and warriors, and drowns them in the sea—
They will go down, never to rise again;
their lives are snuffed out like a candle wick:
The prophet appeals to a powerful memory: the exodus. He reminds God’s people—all descendants of slaves in Egypt—how God liberated them from oppression, how God devastated the powerful army that pursued them in order to take them back to the whip and lash, back to servitude in Egypt. Stories of the exodus have been told time after time for many generations; they are permanent fixtures in their minds. The prophet evokes these amazing memories to comfort them and assure them that what God is about to do is like what God did do for their ancestors centuries ago.
18 Eternal One: Don’t revel only in the past,
or spend all your time recounting the victories of days gone by.
19 Watch closely: I am preparing something new; it’s happening now, even as I speak,
and you’re about to see it. I am preparing a way through the desert;
Waters will flow where there had been none.
20 Wild animals in the fields will honor Me;
the wild dogs and surly birds will join in.
There will be water enough for My chosen people,
trickling springs and clear streams running through the desert.
21 My people, the ones whom I chose and created for My own,
will sing My praise.
22 In truth, you never really called upon me, did you, Jacob, My people?
So how then could you be tired of Me, Israel, My own?
23 You didn’t present Me with sheep for burnt offerings
or acknowledge Me in sacrifices.
I didn’t tire you by demanding so many gifts of offerings and incense.
24 No sweet cane, no money or glorious excess have you given to Me.
You didn’t even try to satisfy Me with the fat of your sacrifices.
Instead, you tired Me with your sins—bloodshed and lies, crimes and offenses;
you wore Me down with all your belligerence and faults.
25 So let’s get this clear: it’s for My own sake that I save you.
I am He who wipes the slate clean and erases your wrongdoing.
I will not call to mind your sins anymore.
26 Now help Me remember. Let’s get this settled.
State your case, and prove to Me that you are in the right.
27 From the very beginning your founding father sinned,
then your leaders defied My laws and instructions.
28 So I brought disgrace on the princes of your sanctuary, your priests.
I turned them over to barbarian assault,
Leaving Jacob to the batterers, Israel to humiliation.
13 I saw a beast with ten horns and seven heads rising out of the blackness of the sea. On its horns hung ten crowns, and on its heads were inscribed blasphemous names. 2 This beast was like a leopard, its feet were like the claws of a bear, and its mouth was like the jaws of a lion. The dragon bestowed it with his power and his throne and his great authority. 3 One of the beast’s heads appeared to have suffered a fatal blow, but its mortal wound had somehow been healed. Amazed at the miracle and its power, all the earth followed the beast. 4 People worshiped the dragon because he had given his authority to the beast, and they worshiped the beast because of its power.
Earth: Who can match the beast? Who can fight against it?
The beast emerges from the murky waters resembling the dragon; but it has other features, too, that resemble the four beasts as described in Daniel 7. Daniel, in his visions, learns that the beasts represent the empires that terrorized Israel and the rest of the world: the Babylonians, Persians, Medes, and Greeks. Prophetic images are difficult to identify. The beast in John’s vision could be none other than the Roman Empire or another empire to come later. Rome has its own beastly authority, the Caesar, who demands worship. “Caesar is Lord,” they dare to claim. But John knows better. In every generation, powerful people and institutions arise—political predators that demand loyalty, sometimes even worship.
5 And the beast was given a mouth that bellowed arrogant boasts and uttered great blasphemies, and it was permitted to do what it willed for 42 months. 6 Its mouth opened with a stream of insults against God, blaspheming His name, cursing His dwelling and those who live in heaven. 7 Also it received permission to declare war against the saints and conquer them. Not a single nation, people, language, or ethnicity could escape its dominion. 8 The inhabitants of the earth will worship it, that is, all those whose names have not been recorded before the foundation of the world in the book of life of the Lamb who was slaughtered.
9 Let the person who is able to hear, listen carefully.
10 If someone is destined for captivity,
a captive he will be.
If someone is destined [to die][a] by the sword,
by the sword he will die.
The endurance and faithfulness of the saints will be tested here.
11 As I watched, I saw a second beast, this one rising up from the earth. It had two horns like a lamb, but it was speaking with the voice of a dragon.
The second beast, which later becomes “the false prophet,” has horns like the lamb; but its true nature is revealed in its dragon-like voice. Many pretenders and posers exist in the spiritual world. This new beast wants the world to believe it represents the True God, the only King worthy of worship. But it’s a deceiver, a counterfeit of the true King; it steals devotion away from the one true God, producing signs to dazzle the inhabitants of the earth.
12 This earth-beast exercises all of the authority given to it by the first beast, and it forces the earth and all its inhabitants to bow down and worship the first beast, whose mortal wound had been healed. 13 And the earth-beast performs fantastic miracles. Like Elijah on Mount Carmel, it even causes fire to blaze down from heaven to earth for all to see. 14 Since it is allowed to perform these miracles in the presence of the first beast, the earth-beast deceives the inhabitants of the earth, commanding them to make an image of the first beast that had survived the mortal wound inflicted by the sword. 15 And the earth-beast was granted permission to breathe into the image and to animate it so that it could even speak. It decreed that those who refuse to worship the image of the first beast must be killed, 16 and the earth-beast mandates that all humans must carry a mark on their right hands or foreheads: both great and small, both rich and poor, both free and slave.
The beast demands worship and requires all to carry its mark. Those who don’t face severe punishment.
17 Those who do not carry this mark, that is, those who do not have the name of the first beast or the number representing its name inscribed on them, are not allowed to sell their wares or buy in the market.
18 Here is divine wisdom: let anyone who understands these mysteries figure out the number of the beast because it is the number of a person. Its number is 666.[b]
The Voice Bible Copyright © 2012 Thomas Nelson, Inc. The Voice™ translation © 2012 Ecclesia Bible Society All rights reserved.