The Robert Murray M‘Cheyne
Bible Reading Plan
December 2
Private Reading
Micah 7
The Prophet Acknowledges
1 Woe is me! For I am
Like the fruit pickers, like the grape gatherers.
There is not a cluster of grapes to eat,
Or a first-ripe fig which I crave.
2 The godly person has perished from the land,
And there is no upright person among men.
All of them lie in wait for bloodshed;
Each of them hunts the other with a net.
3 Concerning evil, both hands do it well.
The prince asks, also the judge, for a bribe,
And a great man speaks the desire of his soul;
So they weave it together.
4 The best of them is like a briar,
The most upright like a thorn hedge.
The day when you post your watchmen,
Your punishment will come.
Then their confusion will occur.
5 Do not trust in a neighbor;
Do not have confidence in a friend.
From her who lies in your bosom
Guard your lips.
6 For son treats father contemptuously,
Daughter rises up against her mother,
Daughter-in-law against her mother-in-law;
A man’s enemies are the men of his own household.
God Is the Source of Salvation and Light
7 But as for me, I will watch expectantly for the Lord;
I will wait for the God of my salvation.
My God will hear me.
8 Do not rejoice over me, O my enemy.
Though I fall I will rise;
Though I dwell in darkness, the Lord is a light for me.
9 I will bear the indignation of the Lord
Because I have sinned against Him,
Until He pleads my case and executes justice for me.
He will bring me out to the light,
And I will see His righteousness.
10 Then my enemy will see,
And shame will cover her who said to me,
“
Where is the Lord your God?”
My eyes will look on her;
At that time she will be trampled down
Like mire of the streets.
11 It will be a day for building your walls.
On that day will your boundary be extended.
12 It will be a day when they will come to you
From Assyria and the cities of Egypt,
From Egypt even to the Euphrates,
Even from sea to sea and mountain to mountain.
13 And the earth will become desolate because of her inhabitants,
On account of the fruit of their deeds.
14 Shepherd Your people with Your scepter,
The flock of Your possession
Which dwells by itself in the woodland,
In the midst of a fruitful field.
Let them feed in Bashan and Gilead
As in the days of old.
15 “As in the days when you came out from the land of Egypt,
I will show you miracles.”
16 Nations will see and be ashamed
Of all their might.
They will put their hand on their mouth,
Their ears will be deaf.
17 They will lick the dust like a serpent,
Like reptiles of the earth.
They will come trembling out of their fortresses;
To the Lord our God they will come in dread
And they will be afraid before You.
18 Who is a God like You, who pardons iniquity
And passes over the rebellious act of the remnant of His possession?
He does not retain His anger forever,
Because He delights in unchanging love.
19 He will again have compassion on us;
He will tread our iniquities under foot.
Yes, You will cast all their sins
Into the depths of the sea.
20 You will give truth to Jacob
And unchanging love to Abraham,
Which You swore to our forefathers
From the days of old.
Luke 16
The Unrighteous Steward
1 Now He was also saying to the disciples, “There was a rich man who
had
a manager, and this manager was reported to him as squandering his possessions.
2 “And he called him and said to him, ‘What is this I hear about
you? Give an accounting of your management, for you can no longer be manager.’
3 “The manager said to himself, ‘What shall I do, since my master
is taking the management away from me? I am not strong enough to dig; I am ashamed
to beg.
4 ‘I know what I shall do, so that when I am removed from the management
people will welcome me into their homes.’
5 “And he summoned each one of his master’s debtors, and he began
saying to the first, ‘How much do you owe my master?’
6 “And he said, ‘A hundred measures of oil.’ And he said to
him, ‘Take your bill, and sit down quickly and write fifty.’
7 “Then he said to another, ‘And how much do you owe?’ And
he said, ‘A hundred measures of wheat.’ He *?said to him, ‘Take
your bill, and write eighty.’
8 “And his master praised the unrighteous manager because he had acted
shrewdly; for the sons of this age are more shrewd in relation to their own kind
than the sons of light.
9 “And I say to you, make friends for yourselves by means of the wealth
of unrighteousness, so that when it fails, they will receive you into the eternal
dwellings.
10 “He who is faithful in a very little thing is faithful also in much;
and he who is unrighteous in a very little thing is unrighteous also in much.
11 “Therefore if you have not been faithful in the use of unrighteous wealth,
who will entrust the true riches to you?
12 “And if you have not been faithful in the use of that which is another’s,
who will give you that which is your own?
13 “No servant can serve two masters; for either he will hate the one and
love the other, or else he will be devoted to one and despise the other. You
cannot serve God and wealth.”
14 Now the Pharisees, who were lovers of money, were listening to all these things
and were scoffing at Him.
15 And He said to them, “You are those who justify yourselves in the sight
of men, but God knows your hearts; for that which is highly esteemed among men
is detestable in the sight of God.
16 “The Law and the Prophets were proclaimed until John; since that time
the gospel of the kingdom of God has been preached, and everyone is forcing his
way into it.
17 “But it is easier for heaven and earth to pass away than for one stroke
of a letter of the Law to fail.
18 “Everyone who divorces his wife and marries another commits adultery,
and he who marries one who is divorced from a husband commits adultery.
The Rich Man and Lazarus
19 “Now there was a rich man, and he habitually dressed in purple and fine
linen, joyously living in splendor every day.
20 “And a poor man named Lazarus was laid at his gate, covered with sores,
21 and longing to be fed with the crumbs which were falling from the rich man’s
table; besides, even the dogs were coming and licking his sores.
22 “Now the poor man died and was carried away by the angels to Abraham’s
bosom; and the rich man also died and was buried.
23 “In Hades he lifted up his eyes, being in torment, and *?saw Abraham
far away and Lazarus in his bosom.
24 “And he cried out and said, ‘Father Abraham, have mercy on me,
and send Lazarus so that he may dip the tip of his finger in water and cool off
my tongue, for I am in agony in this flame.’
25 “But Abraham said, ‘Child, remember that during your life you
received your good things, and likewise Lazarus bad things; but now he is being
comforted here, and you are in agony.
26 ‘And besides all this, between us and you there is a great chasm fixed,
so that those who wish to come over from here to you will not be able, and that
none may cross over from there to us.’
27 “And he said, ‘Then I beg you, father, that you send him to my
father’s house—
28 for I have five brothers—in order that he may warn them, so that they
will not also come to this place of torment.’
29 “But Abraham *?said, ‘They have Moses and the Prophets; let them
hear them.’
30 “But he said, ‘No, father Abraham, but if someone goes to them
from the dead, they will repent!’
31 “But he said to him, ‘If they do not listen to Moses and the Prophets,
they will not be persuaded even if someone rises from the dead.’ ”
"Scripture taken from the NEW AMERICAN STANDARD BIBLE®, © Copyright 1960, 1962, 1963, 1968, 1971, 1972, 1973, 1975, 1977, 1995 by The Lockman Foundation Used by permission." (www.Lockman.org)