The Robert Murray M‘Cheyne
Bible Reading Plan
December 14
Private Reading
Zechariah 1
A Call to Repentance
1 In the eighth month of the second year of Darius, the word of the Lord came
to Zechariah the prophet, the son of Berechiah, the son of Iddo saying,
2 “The Lord was very angry with your fathers.
3 “Therefore say to them, ‘Thus says the Lord of hosts, “Return
to Me,” declares the Lord of hosts, “that I may return to you,” says
the Lord of hosts.
4 “Do not be like your fathers, to whom the former prophets proclaimed,
saying, ‘Thus says the Lord of hosts, “Return now from your evil
ways and from your evil deeds.” ’ But they did not listen or give
heed to Me,” declares the Lord.
5 “Your fathers, where are they? And the prophets, do they live forever?
6 “But did not My words and My statutes, which I commanded My servants
the prophets, overtake your fathers? Then they repented and said, ‘As the
Lord of hosts purposed to do to us in accordance with our ways and our deeds,
so He has dealt with us.’ ” ’ ”
Patrol of the Earth
7 On the twenty-fourth day of the eleventh month, which is the month Shebat,
in the second year of Darius, the word of the Lord came to Zechariah the prophet,
the son of Berechiah, the son of Iddo, as follows:
8 I saw at night, and behold, a man was riding on a red horse, and he was standing
among the myrtle trees which were in the ravine, with red, sorrel and white horses
behind him.
9 Then I said, “My lord, what are these?” And the angel who was speaking
with me said to me, “I will show you what these are.”
10 And the man who was standing among the myrtle trees answered and said, “These
are those whom the Lord has sent to patrol the earth.”
11 So they answered the angel of the Lord who was standing among the myrtle trees
and said, “We have patrolled the earth, and behold, all the earth is peaceful
and quiet.”
12 Then the angel of the Lord said, “O Lord of hosts, how long will You
have no compassion for Jerusalem and the cities of Judah, with which You have
been indignant these seventy years?”
13 The Lord answered the angel who was speaking with me with gracious words,
comforting words.
14 So the angel who was speaking with me said to me, “Proclaim, saying, ‘Thus
says the Lord of hosts, “I am exceedingly jealous for Jerusalem and Zion.
15 “But I am very angry with the nations who are at ease; for while I was
only a little angry, they furthered the disaster.”
16 ‘Therefore thus says the Lord, “I will return to Jerusalem with
compassion; My house will be built in it,” declares the Lord of hosts, “and
a measuring line will be stretched over Jerusalem.” ’
17 “Again, proclaim, saying, ‘Thus says the Lord of hosts, “My
cities will again overflow with prosperity, and the Lord will again comfort Zion
and again choose Jerusalem.” ’ ”
18 Then I lifted up my eyes and looked, and behold, there were four horns.
19 So I said to the angel who was speaking with me, “What are these?” And
he answered me, “These are the horns which have scattered Judah, Israel
and Jerusalem.”
20 Then the Lord showed me four craftsmen.
21 I said, “What are these coming to do?” And he said, “These
are the horns which have scattered Judah so that no man lifts up his head; but
these craftsmen have come to terrify them, to throw down the horns of the nations
who have lifted up their horns against the land of Judah in order to scatter
it.”
John 4
Jesus Goes to Galilee
1 Therefore when the Lord knew that the Pharisees had heard that Jesus was making
and baptizing more disciples than John
2 (although Jesus Himself was not baptizing, but His disciples were),
3 He left Judea and went away again into Galilee.
4 And He had to pass through Samaria.
5 So He *?came to a city of Samaria called Sychar, near the parcel of ground
that Jacob gave to his son Joseph;
6 and Jacob’s well was there. So Jesus, being wearied from His journey,
was sitting thus by the well. It was about the sixth hour.
The Woman of Samaria
7 There *?came a woman of Samaria to draw water. Jesus *?said to her, “Give
Me a drink.”
8 For His disciples had gone away into the city to buy food.
9 Therefore the Samaritan woman *?said to Him, “How is it that You, being
a Jew, ask me for a drink since I am a Samaritan woman?” (For Jews have
no dealings with Samaritans.)
10 Jesus answered and said to her, “If you knew the gift of God, and who
it is who says to you, ‘Give Me a drink,’ you would have asked Him,
and He would have given you living water.”
11 She *?said to Him, “Sir, You have nothing to draw with and the well
is deep; where then do You get that living water?
12 “You are not greater than our father Jacob, are You, who gave us the
well, and drank of it himself and his sons and his cattle?”
13 Jesus answered and said to her, “Everyone who drinks of this water will
thirst again;
14 but whoever drinks of the water that I will give him shall never thirst; but
the water that I will give him will become in him a well of water springing up
to eternal life.”
15 The woman *?said to Him, “Sir, give me this water, so I will not be
thirsty nor come all the way here to draw.”
16 He *?said to her, “Go, call your husband and come here.”
17 The woman answered and said, “I have no husband.” Jesus *?said
to her, “You have correctly said, ‘I have no husband’;
18 for you have had five husbands, and the one whom you now have is not your
husband; this you have said truly.”
19 The woman *?said to Him, “Sir, I perceive that You are a prophet.
20 “Our fathers worshiped in this mountain, and you people say that in
Jerusalem is the place where men ought to worship.”
21 Jesus *?said to her, “Woman, believe Me, an hour is coming when neither
in this mountain nor in Jerusalem will you worship the Father.
22 “You worship what you do not know; we worship what we know, for salvation
is from the Jews.
23 “But an hour is coming, and now is, when the true worshipers will worship
the Father in spirit and truth; for such people the Father seeks to be His worshipers.
24 “God is spirit, and those who worship Him must worship in spirit and
truth.”
25 The woman *?said to Him, “I know that Messiah is coming (He who is called
Christ); when that One comes, He will declare all things to us.”
26 Jesus *?said to her, “I who speak to you am He.”
27 At this point His disciples came, and they were amazed that He had been speaking
with a woman, yet no one said, “What do You seek?” or, “Why
do You speak with her?”
28 So the woman left her waterpot, and went into the city and *?said to the men,
29 “Come, see a man who told me all the things that I have done; this is
not the Christ, is it?”
30 They went out of the city, and were coming to Him.
31 Meanwhile the disciples were urging Him, saying, “Rabbi, eat.”
32 But He said to them, “I have food to eat that you do not know about.”
33 So the disciples were saying to one another, “No one brought Him anything
to eat, did he?”
34 Jesus *?said to them, “My food is to do the will of Him who sent Me
and to accomplish His work.
35 “Do you not say, ‘There are yet four months, and then comes the
harvest’? Behold, I say to you, lift up your eyes and look on the fields,
that they are white for harvest.
36 “Already he who reaps is receiving wages and is gathering fruit for
life eternal; so that he who sows and he who reaps may rejoice together.
37 “For in this case the saying is true, ‘One sows and another reaps.’
38 “I sent you to reap that for which you have not labored; others have
labored and you have entered into their labor.”
The Samaritans
39 From that city many of the Samaritans believed in Him because of the word
of the woman who testified, “He told me all the things that I have done.”
40 So when the Samaritans came to Jesus, they were asking Him to stay with them;
and He stayed there two days.
41 Many more believed because of His word;
42 and they were saying to the woman, “It is no longer because of what
you said that we believe, for we have heard for ourselves and know that this
One is indeed the Savior of the world.”
43 After the two days He went forth from there into Galilee.
44 For Jesus Himself testified that a prophet has no honor in his own country.
45 So when He came to Galilee, the Galileans received Him, having seen all the
things that He did in Jerusalem at the feast; for they themselves also went to
the feast.
Healing a Nobleman’s Son
46 Therefore He came again to Cana of Galilee where He had made the water wine.
And there was a royal official whose son was sick at Capernaum.
47 When he heard that Jesus had come out of Judea into Galilee, he went to Him
and was imploring Him to come down and heal his son; for he was at the point
of death.
48 So Jesus said to him, “Unless you people see signs and wonders, you
simply will not believe.”
49 The royal official *?said to Him, “Sir, come down before my child dies.”
50 Jesus *?said to him, “Go; your son lives.” The man believed the
word that Jesus spoke to him and started off.
51 As he was now going down, his slaves met him, saying that his son was living.
52 So he inquired of them the hour when he began to get better. Then they said
to him, “Yesterday at the seventh hour the fever left him.”
53 So the father knew that it was at that hour in which Jesus said to him, “Your
son lives”; and he himself believed and his whole household.
54 This is again a second sign that Jesus performed when He had come out of Judea
into Galilee.
"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)