The Robert Murray M‘Cheyne
Bible Reading Plan
December 24
Private Reading
Zechariah 11
The Doomed Flock
1 Open your doors, O Lebanon,
That a fire may feed on your cedars.
2 Wail, O cypress, for the cedar has fallen,
Because the glorious trees have been destroyed;
Wail, O oaks of Bashan,
For the impenetrable forest has come down.
3 There is a sound of the shepherds’ wail,
For their glory is ruined;
There is a sound of the young lions’ roar,
For the pride of the Jordan is ruined.
4 Thus says the Lord my God, “Pasture the flock doomed to slaughter.
5 “Those who buy them slay them and go unpunished, and each of those who
sell them says, ‘Blessed be the Lord, for I have become rich!’ And
their own shepherds have no pity on them.
6 “For I will no longer have pity on the inhabitants of the land,” declares
the Lord; “but behold, I will cause the men to fall, each into another’s
power and into the power of his king; and they will strike the land, and I will
not deliver them from their power.”
7 So I pastured the flock doomed to slaughter, hence the afflicted of the flock.
And I took for myself two staffs: the one I called Favor and the other I called
Union; so I pastured the flock.
8 Then I annihilated the three shepherds in one month, for my soul was impatient
with them, and their soul also was weary of me.
9 Then I said, “I will not pasture you. What is to die, let it die, and
what is to be annihilated, let it be annihilated; and let those who are left
eat one another’s flesh.”
10 I took my staff Favor and cut it in pieces, to break my covenant which I had
made with all the peoples.
11 So it was broken on that day, and thus the afflicted of the flock who were
watching me realized that it was the word of the Lord.
12 I said to them, “If it is good in your sight, give me my wages; but
if not, never mind!” So they weighed out thirty shekels of silver as my
wages.
13 Then the Lord said to me, “Throw it to the potter, that magnificent
price at which I was valued by them.” So I took the thirty shekels of silver
and threw them to the potter in the house of the Lord.
14 Then I cut in pieces my second staff Union, to break the brotherhood between
Judah and Israel.
15 The Lord said to me, “Take again for yourself the equipment of a foolish
shepherd.
16 “For behold, I am going to raise up a shepherd in the land who will
not care for the perishing, seek the scattered, heal the broken, or sustain the
one standing, but will devour the flesh of the fat sheep and tear off their hoofs.
17 “Woe to the worthless shepherd
Who leaves the flock!
A sword will be on his arm
And on his right eye!
His arm will be totally withered
And his right eye will be blind.”
John 14
Jesus Comforts His Disciples
1 “Do not let your heart be troubled; believe in God, believe also in
Me.
2 “In My Father’s house are many dwelling places; if it were not
so, I would have told you; for I go to prepare a place for you.
3 “If I go and prepare a place for you, I will come again and receive you
to Myself, that where I am, there you may be also.
4 “And you know the way where I am going.”
5 Thomas *?said to Him, “Lord, we do not know where You are going, how
do we know the way?”
6 Jesus *?said to him, “I am the way, and the truth, and the life; no one
comes to the Father but through Me.
Oneness with the Father
7 “If you had known Me, you would have known My Father also; from now on
you know Him, and have seen Him.”
8 Philip *?said to Him, “Lord, show us the Father, and it is enough for
us.”
9 Jesus *?said to him, “Have I been so long with you, and yet you have
not come to know Me, Philip? He who has seen Me has seen the Father; how can
you say, ‘Show us the Father’?
10 “Do you not believe that I am in the Father, and the Father is in Me?
The words that I say to you I do not speak on My own initiative, but the Father
abiding in Me does His works.
11 “Believe Me that I am in the Father and the Father is in Me; otherwise
believe because of the works themselves.
12 “Truly, truly, I say to you, he who believes in Me, the works that I
do, he will do also; and greater works than these he will do; because I go to
the Father.
13 “Whatever you ask in My name, that will I do, so that the Father may
be glorified in the Son.
14 “If you ask Me anything in My name, I will do it.
15 “If you love Me, you will keep My commandments.
Role of the Spirit
16 “I will ask the Father, and He will give you another Helper, that He
may be with you forever;
17 that is the Spirit of truth, whom the world cannot receive, because it does
not see Him or know Him, but you know Him because He abides with you and will
be in you.
18 “I will not leave you as orphans; I will come to you.
19 “After a little while the world will no longer see Me, but you will
see Me; because I live, you will live also.
20 “In that day you will know that I am in My Father, and you in Me, and
I in you.
21 “He who has My commandments and keeps them is the one who loves Me;
and he who loves Me will be loved by My Father, and I will love him and will
disclose Myself to him.”
22 Judas (not Iscariot) *?said to Him, “Lord, what then has happened that
You are going to disclose Yourself to us and not to the world?”
23 Jesus answered and said to him, “If anyone loves Me, he will keep My
word; and My Father will love him, and We will come to him and make Our abode
with him.
24 “He who does not love Me does not keep My words; and the word which
you hear is not Mine, but the Father’s who sent Me.
25 “These things I have spoken to you while abiding with you.
26 “But the Helper, the Holy Spirit, whom the Father will send in My name,
He will teach you all things, and bring to your remembrance all that I said to
you.
27 “Peace I leave with you; My peace I give to you; not as the world gives
do I give to you. Do not let your heart be troubled, nor let it be fearful.
28 “You heard that I said to you, ‘I go away, and I will come to
you.’ If you loved Me, you would have rejoiced because I go to the Father,
for the Father is greater than I.
29 “Now I have told you before it happens, so that when it happens, you
may believe.
30 “I will not speak much more with you, for the ruler of the world is
coming, and he has nothing in Me;
31 but so that the world may know that I love the Father, I do exactly as the
Father commanded Me. Get up, let us go from here.
"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)